He Has Put Eternity In Their Hearts

Well, thank you again, Mr. Spira. Thank you, Mr. Graham. And once again, Happy Sabbath to all of you. Well, it's for obvious reasons that the subject of death and the afterlife have been on my mind a lot recently. At the feast this year, I had the opportunity to discuss the second great resurrection on the eighth day, the afternoon sermon there in Steamboat Springs, and sadly came home that day, our travel day, the very next day, to arrive in Ohio and go home and freshen up very quickly and run to the hospital to be able to say goodbye to my sister-in-law Sue, who died the next day. The subject of death and the afterlife is as old as human beings have been on this earth since creation.

I think it's natural for all of us to ponder in our quiet moments and wonder about life and death and the afterlife. And if there's life after death, that has been, I think, a common thought and occurrence within human beings since God created Adam and Eve. Let's go to Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17 and see what God said about this physical existence that we all share together.

Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17, this is after the sin of Adam and Eve, and he had just spoken to Eve, and now he had some statements he wanted to make to Adam regarding that first sin, that act of disobedience against what God had asked them not to do. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 17, to Adam he said, And because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake, and in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles, that shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.

So God said life is going to get a lot harder. Your kind of existence is going to get a lot harder from here on out because everything's going to change. God created a beautiful garden for you to live in. You didn't appreciate it. You didn't respect what I created for you. It was perfect. It was beautiful. You disobeyed what I asked you to do and what not to do. So because of that, things are just going to get really hard for you now.

You're going to have weeds growing in the garden. You're going to have to work hard your entire physical life. And he continues here, he says, verse 19, in the sweat of your face. So hard labor is what human beings have been doing ever since their time. Hard labor in order to grow enough food to eat. Hard labor in order to pay our bills. Just hard labor has been the lot of humanity since this period of time in comparison to the way it could have been.

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are. And the dust you shall return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she became the mother of all living. I'm going to read verse 19 from the translation, the New Century version. You will sweat and work hard for your food. Later you will return to the ground because you were taken from it. You are dust. And when you die, you will return to the dust. And of course we know, it says in chapter 5, verse 5, so all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died.

So exactly what God said came true. You can't visit Adam's tombstone today. You cannot visit Adam's remains today because Adam turned to dust. And ultimately, the reality is that unless there's some kind of preservation process, that's exactly what happens to all of us. You can go to ancient Egypt. By the way, they've discovered that the reason there were so many mummies in ancient Egypt isn't because of this secret recipe sauce.

Do they smear it over the mummies? No, it was that the dry desert environment is the reason there were so many mummies and they lasted so long. In ancient Egypt, you used the same preservation process and put them in a rainforest and those bodies would have rotted and decomposed within a matter of years. So unless there's a preservation process, what happens to all of us as enough time goes on is that we turn back into dust.

Since this declaration by God, generations of men and women have been born and they lived out their lives and they died and they were replaced by another generation who grew old and died. This is the cycle that mankind has experienced since the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden. There's a reason that Paul referred to the sting of death. That's an interesting word that he used there in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 55.

I had the pleasure of having bee stings in my life and wasp stings. The part that they sting becomes numb. I can't explain how you feel, but I'll tell you how I feel when I lose loved one. I'm kind of numb. I'm going through the motions and I look like I'm functioning, but there's a hurt on the inside. I'm just kind of numb all over until enough time goes by that I can process the loss and things that are going on. But just like a sting, a bee sting, when there's someone whom we love and deeply respect and admire and they die, it truly is the sting of death, as Paul emphasized.

It hurts and it is numbing and we miss the loved ones that we have when they depart from us. It's interesting that in the Western world we make great efforts to sanitize death. We don't even like to use that word. We prefer to say they are departed. They passed away. They passed on. We create all of these words, not to have to say the word dead or died.

And even in our funeral ceremonies, people are dressed up and they look like they're just sleeping, like they're just taking a nap, right? And we do everything we can to sanitize that sting of death that Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 55. There are two main beliefs about the afterlife. One view is that there is no afterlife. And this may be more common than you realize, people who just believe there is no afterlife.

I've had a number of conversations with non-religious individuals who frankly told me they don't believe in an afterlife. They believe this life is all there is. And we're here by chance. We're here by evolution. There is no divine power. There is no grand plan. There is no purpose. There is no planning. And this life is all you got. This is all there is. You might be surprised how many people really believe that.

So that's one philosophy. And again, perhaps this is the byproduct of evolutionary theory and agnosticism that comes along with believing in evolution. The other main belief is that there is some kind of afterlife. But first I'd like to spend a little bit of time talking about the first view.

That is the view that there is no afterlife. This was actually the belief of the Sadducees. Jesus confronted people who had this first view that there is no afterlife in his own ministry. They were a sect of the Jews who were active in Judea during the time of the Second Temple. That was the temple that Jesus visited. And starting about 200 years before he was born, through the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, they were very prominent. Jesus himself had a number of discussions with them.

Josephus identified them as the upper social and economic class of Judean society. They were very influential. They were socially influential, politically influential. They had religious roles and titles. They actually maintained the temple. They controlled the temple services and the things that went on in the temple. But here was what was unique about them. They saw the written Torah as the only source of divine authority to them.

Now, Torah can mean different things, so I'll explain what they believed by Torah. That's only the first five books of Moses. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They believed that those were the only authentic scriptures. They did not believe the writings, like Psalms, were authentic scriptures. They didn't believe the minor prophets, major prophets were authentic scriptures. All they believed in was the Torah. Therefore, they believed that the soul is not immortal. There is no afterlife. They believed there are no rewards or penalties after death.

I remember years ago hearing a little rhyme, and it said, I had a dog. His name was Rover, and when he died, he died all over. So they believed that human beings are mortal. There's no afterlife. There's no punishment. There's no reward. This physical life is all there is. And then, for eternity, there's nothing. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They believed in the traditional Jewish concept of the Hebrew word sheol. For those who had died, sheol was the earthly location, the grave, where both the righteous and the unrighteous dwelled after death.

It was a place of stillness and darkness, cut off from life, cut off from God, where one was unconscious. That's what they believed. And Jesus had discussions with these folks. I'd like to read you a paragraph from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, so that you can understand that if you're only going to believe in the Torah that Moses wrote, how you could exactly come to this conclusion.

This is again from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia under the article of death, volume 2, page 812. And here's what it says, quote, It's true that the Torah does not explicitly promise a resurrection from the dead. So if that's all you have to go on, if you don't understand the prophets and the writings, and most importantly, if you don't understand the New Testament and the message of the Gospel, then you really don't have a lot of hope. Again, it's true that Torah does not explicitly promise a resurrection from the dead. But what does the Scriptures teach us?

That's what I would like to focus on today for the rest of this sermon. Let's go to Matthew 22 and verse 23 and see here where Jesus himself had a discussion with the Sadducees about the afterlife. Matthew 22 and verse 23. They actually thought here that they were being clever with Jesus Christ by bringing this situation. But here's the disconnect. People who believed in the resurrection at that time believed that the resurrection would be physical.

And that's what they had in their minds. There's a disconnect here. Jesus is talking about a resurrection that's spiritual. When you're in the kingdom of God and you're part of the family of God, you are a spiritual being. And they can't seem to grasp that. They keep thinking of a physical resurrection. When I was a teenager and studying religious materials, there was a very prominent religious organization that I was studying their material. And they had a lot of things right. They understood the kingdom of God. They understood that you don't have an immortal soul.

They understood a lot of things, but part of their theology said that only 144,000 would live forever. And all the rest of humanity who lived throughout history would be physical, would be resurrected and lived physical for eternity. And I just couldn't quite grasp that. That didn't even make sense to me. But that was part of their theology.

And when I got to that point, then I moved on. I realized that didn't even make sense to me. But again, that was their theology. And the Sadducees were kind of similar. They were thinking only exclusively of the resurrection, restoring your physical life to perhaps your best life now, as Mr. Vader would have said. Jesus is talking about spiritual resurrection. They're talking about a different type of resurrection. Let's read it. The same day the Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to him and asked him, saying, Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up offspring for his brother.

So they're going to give him a story. They think they're going to trap him. They think they're going to really be clever here. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to his brother. Likewise, the second also, and the third, even to the seventh. Last of all, the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be?

For they all had her. They all had her as a wife. Jesus answered and said to them, You are mistaken. Your thinking of the resurrection in wrong terms is what Jesus is saying. You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven. Jesus said, You don't seem to understand that there's a spiritual realm.

And when they are resurrected, they will have a love and an affection for themselves in a spiritual realm that is far deeper than is even possible in human physical relationships. They will think differently. They will be composed differently. They'll be composed of spirit. And to them, the idea of physical marriage will even be to them as childishness.

Because the profound love that they will have being connected in God's family will be so strong and so powerful that it will minimize the kind of relationships that they had when they were mere human beings.

That doesn't mean they won't love each other. That doesn't mean they can't spend a tremendous amount of time with each other. But it's a different plane. It's a different level of existence is what Jesus is telling them. Then he goes on here in verse 31. He says, But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, I am, notice present tense, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? Jesus is quoting Exodus chapter 3 and verse 6, and also chapter 3 verses 15 and 16. That same phrase is used again.

He says, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitudes heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. The Sadducees were stuck on thinking the resurrection was only a physical thing, restoring one to physical existence again, perhaps even living forever as a physical being. But here's the point Jesus is making. When God introduced himself to Moses, he was still, he used the present tense, he was still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since the patriarchs had died hundreds of years earlier, they were already dead, and they were still in the grave, there must be a resurrection to life promised for them in the future.

That's the only way that God could use their existence in the present tense. He didn't say, I was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I am, meaning from my perspective, they will live again. So that's very important. That's the main point that Jesus was emphasizing to them.

The next concept is that there is some kind of afterlife. We've already taken a look at the Sadducees and what they believe. Let's now go to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 10. Aside from many who may not believe in an afterlife, like the Sadducees, or many people that I've known, I had an individual that I worked with in my last corporate job that I knew very well. His wife is not a believer. He wasn't a believer. He died. She had him cremated. There was no memorial service, no memorial stone.

There's nothing to represent that he ever existed. Neither the family nor anyone got together to remember him, to talk about him. She has obliterated proof of his existence on this earth because she doesn't believe that there is an afterlife. But most people do, as we'll see here in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 10. I've seen the God-given task, which the sons of men are to be occupied.

He's made everything beautiful in its time. There's a time in life when we are youthful and vigorous and we have our lives ahead of us and the world. And sometimes we think we're invincible when we're young, and everything is beautiful. Continuing, he says, Also, he has put eternity into their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning to the end. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, to do good, and that also every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor.

It is the gift of God. I'm going to read this, verse 11, from the translation of God's Word for today. It says, So what the author of Ecclesiastes is telling us here is that deep down the majority of people really want to live forever.

Yes, there are some who reject that idea, but most people, deep down in their heart of hearts, would like to go on living, would like to think that their life has meaning and purpose. And God has put a sense of eternity in the hearts of most people. To hope for something beyond the mere physical existence. Because of this desire for eternity, or what we might call the afterlife, a number of human philosophies have been created. The most prominent, the one that we're familiar with, philosophical idea or religious idea is the belief in the immortal soul. And this philosophy is in both Eastern cultures, often times more about reincarnation in Eastern cultures, and it's also deeply embedded in our Western cultures.

And what it basically means is that souls already have eternal life because they inherently have an everlasting spirit that cannot die. And this is a very prominent, dominant religious philosophy because it's attractive. It's attractive because it provides instant gratification. A person can say, well, my loved one is now in a better world, meaning their loved one's in heaven. It's instant gratification. There's no waiting. There's no judgment involved. There's no time lag.

You get to feel and believe that instantly your loved one is receiving their reward. But you have to be a little careful of that. I have a close friend who went to a Baptist funeral once of someone he knew, and the preacher said that the person in the casket was burning in hellfire.

So you've got to be careful whom you ask to do your sermons. That's the lesson behind that. But the idea of having an immortal soul is that there's no waiting.

There's no judgment. You get instant reward, instant gratification. And this brings us to another religious sect that Jesus often encountered, and that was the Pharisees. So we'll talk about them for a few minutes. The Pharisees were at times a religious movement.

Their influence kind of evolved a little bit. They were also a social movement. And kind of like Protestantism, there wasn't just one type of Pharisee. They had schools of thought. And they existed also during the time of the Second Temple in Judaism. And what most people don't know about the Pharisees is after the destruction of the temple, their beliefs became the foundation for modern, rabbitic Judaism.

So they were the ones who were influential in the type of Judaism that we have today. But unlike the Sadducees, who rejected any existence after death, the Pharisees did believe in the afterlife. But their focus, too, was far too much on a physical resurrection. According to the New Testament, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead.

But the Pharisees had different schools of thought. They had different doctrinal differences like Protestantism does today. And according to Josephus, once again, who thankfully we have his writings, who was a Pharisee himself, the Pharisees held the soul was immortal and the souls of good people would be reincarnated and, quote, pass into other bodies. While, quote, the souls of the wicked will suffer eternal punishment. So many of the Pharisees actually believed in the immortal soul. Contrary to what we read earlier, the statement from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, and contrary to what we know about Sheol, many of the Pharisees believed in the immortal soul.

Now, where would they have gotten this idea from? Well, they got the idea from Greek philosophy and the Hellenization of the Jews. It began about 200 years before Jesus Christ was born. The idea of the immortal soul in the Western culture began with a philosopher named Plato, and it was advanced by Alexander the Great as he marched through the then known world, including the area of Palestine.

He pushed Hellenization. He pushed Greek philosophy. Greek religious ideas. And that is how the Pharisees, some of the Pharisees anyway, came to believe in the immortality of the soul. They had been Hellenized. They were thinking like Greeks and had been influenced by Greek philosophers. Jesus himself encountered these ideas when he preached on earth. Let's take a look at an example in John chapter 3 and verse 1. John chapter 3 and verse 1, we'll see that one particular Pharisee was attracted in the teaching of Jesus, but he didn't want to be outed. He didn't want to come out of the closet, so he came to talk to Jesus at nighttime, hoping no one would see him.

No one would know about this conversation that occurred. John chapter 3 and verse 1, Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. So he was very influential, very powerful, and he certainly didn't want anyone to know that he was about to have this conversation with Jesus. It would have caused him a lot of grief. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God. Again, that's something he couldn't have said in front of his fellow Pharisees. They would have had an uproar and denied it and would have caused him a lot of problems, but he's being open and frank with Jesus because he's there, there, one on one, at nighttime, alone.

For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So again, Jesus is going to be talking on a spiritual plane. Nicodemus continues to struggle, thinking on a physical, mere, physical level. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Again, he's thinking physical. How can someone, 5'6", go back into the human womb and be born again? There's a disconnect here between the level that Nicodemus is thinking about and what Jesus Christ is trying to teach him. How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now let me ask you this question. What connection do you have with water and the spirit?

I'll tell you what connection that is, because Jesus said, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Water and spirit is related to your baptism. You're repentant of your sins. You followed the direct example of Jesus Christ, who himself was baptized by John the Baptist, and you went into that water, and you died in a watery grave, and you came out of that water to be a new creation, and hands were laid on you, and you received God's Holy Spirit, which set you apart and made you different.

So Jesus says, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So he's trying to tell Nicodemus, you're on one plane here, physical, thinking everything in a limited physical way, and I'm telling you that you have to be born, you have to become a new creature by the divine power of the Holy Spirit entering you and you becoming spiritual.

And that encourages growth, and you continue to grow, until someday you'll eventually be totally spirit. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. And it gives him an analogy that anyone can understand. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it goes.

We just see what the wind does, right? The wind blows a curtain and the curtain moves. We didn't see the wind, but we see the curtain moving. And so Jesus is trying to explain to him in an elementary way what spirit is like.

So it is, everyone who was born of the spirit, in verse 9, Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be?

Even though he's well-respected and it says he's a ruler of the Jews, he's really having trouble grasping spiritual concepts here.

Jesus is telling him that God's spiritual essence enters a converted person upon their baptism.

Aside from the physical flesh, apart from that, a new spiritual creation occurs when the Holy Spirit enters the human mind. Nicodemus has trouble grasping this understanding. And perhaps it's because, like some other Pharisees, he believed in an immortal soul, and he wasn't able to make the connection. Let's pick it up here in verse 10. Jesus answered and said to him, are you a teacher of Israel and do not know these things? So it's a little bit challenge, Jesus says, you're obviously not getting it, and you're not getting it. You're obviously not getting it. And you're a teacher? Most assuredly, I say unto you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen. In other words, we have authority to testify, to say these things. He says, and you do not receive our witness. What's Nicodemus' problem? He's blinded, because he won't accept the witness of Jesus Christ. He won't humble himself. He's too afraid of what other people will think. He'll come and talk to Jesus during nighttime, but he won't boldly accept Jesus for who and what he is as the Son of God. He continues to be blinded. He remains in blindness. He doesn't get it. Just like so many people in the world today. Verse 12, he says, if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Verse 13, no one has a sense of the truth. He was blinded to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven. I'm going to read verse 13 from the New International Version. No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, the Son of Man. So Jesus here, he makes his comment, and if Nicodemus was like Josephus and believed in an immortal soul and believed at death that you received this instant reward in heaven, Jesus is contradicting that. Jesus is saying that neither individuals like Enoch or Abraham or Moses, Elijah, David, or any of the prophets reside in heaven. They're all sleeping in their graves, awaiting a resurrection from the dead. So that's what Jesus had to say about the issue. Let's see if Peter agreed with his Lord by what he said in his sermon on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. Let's go to Acts 2 and verse 22. See if Peter affirms what Jesus said here about the resurrection and about no one ascending to heaven or being rewarded in heaven at that time.

Acts 2 and verse 22. Peter's famous sermon, Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, and you yourselves know him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God you have taken by lawless hands and crucified and put to death.

Pretty strong words from Peter here. But then he flips the conversation to verse 24. He says, In other words, whom God resurrected, having loosed the pains of death because it is not possible that he should be held by it. Verse 25, For David says concerning him. Now he's going to read a psalm. This is Psalm chapter 16 and verse 10. He says, Here's what David said about Jesus Christ.

For David says concerning him. This is Christ. I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Hades. Jesus Christ knew that when he died that he would be resurrected in three days and three nights. You will not leave my soul in Hades. You will not allow your holy one to see corruption. Again, he knew that he would not be dead so long to the point where his body literally would become corrupt.

Verse 28, You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence. Again, this is Peter who's quoting David, who wrote this psalm, Psalm 16, and speaking of the hope of the resurrection. The fleshly remains of Jesus rested in hope for three days and three nights. His body was not left in the grave. The body of Jesus never rotted. It never saw corruption. So exactly what David said is what occurred here.

Let's pick it up now in verse 29. He says, Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. He's saying, David is awaiting the resurrection. He's not in heaven. He didn't receive a reward.

He's dead. His tomb is still here. We know where it is. So he's not residing somewhere else. He's dead, he's in the earth, and he's awaiting a resurrection. Verse 30, therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on the throne.

He foreseen this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. So he's doing a recap after quoting exactly what David said in Psalm 16.

Verse 32, this Jesus whom God has raised up, by the way, just like David had prophesied, of which we are all witnesses, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this, the Holy Spirit that they all witnessed on that day of Pentecost, he poured out this, which you now see in here.

Verse 34, for David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool. So what's Peter saying here? He's saying that Jesus Christ was the first to be resurrected from the dead as prophesied, as promised. But David is still waiting for his day. His tomb is still there. He's dead and buried. His remains are still in the earth, is what Peter said. He's still waiting for his special time.

He is not in heaven enjoying a reward, but is dead, buried, and waiting in hope. Why would Peter have said this in this sermon? He very well may have been directly aimed at some Pharisees who believed in the immortal soul. Could be the very reason that he brought this out in this way. So what did Jesus himself teach about the afterlife? I'd just like to read a few scriptures from Jesus himself, rather than going to Paul, and our traditional funeral service has some wonderful statements by Paul. I thought I would just basically stick with Jesus, a few scriptures here in John, before we close the sermon today.

So let's go to John 5 and verse 24, if you'll turn there with me. Let's see what Jesus himself taught about the afterlife, about the resurrection. Jesus had the ability sometimes to talk about the first resurrection, or to talk about the second resurrection. He certainly understood the difference between the two, and by context we oftentimes can easily figure out which he meant. But he was all about teaching the resurrection. John 5 and verse 24, he said, Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word.

That just doesn't mean the biological ability to hear. When it says, he who hears my word means, he who responds to my message, the person who hears the good news and responds to it, Yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll repent of my sins. Yes, I want to be a disciple of this Messiah. He who hears my word and believes in him who sent me, meaning has faith in God and the shed blood of his son, has everlasting life.

And he shall not come into judgment. Why? Because he has a Savior who shed blood, paid for that person's sins. They don't need to come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. When you receive God's Spirit, when God puts his Spirit within you with the laying on of hands, you are sealed for salvation. All you have to do is stay the course.

All you have to do is stay part of the body of Jesus Christ. Continue your journey of discipleship. You have passed from death into life. Verse 25, most assuredly, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he is granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man. Verse 28, do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming, in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth.

Those who have done good, meaning those who responded in faith and have a Savior, and whose sins have been forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, those who don't have a Savior, that means you remain in condemnation, we've sinned, and the penalty of sin is death. And if we don't have a Savior, we're evil. We're under condemnation. And those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

So the resurrection of life, or what we know of as the first resurrection, includes all believers at the return of Jesus Christ, who in the twinkling of an eye will be changed, and mortal will become immortal, and we will be changed corrupt to incorruptible. What a beautiful time we can look forward to. The resurrection of judgment will involve unbelievers at the end of the millennium who reject their first opportunity for salvation. Let's go another chapter now, John 6, verse 37. John 6, verse 37.

He says, the Father's will isn't that anyone who calls and responds becomes lost. I want everyone to be there, everyone to be my brother and sister, everyone to enjoy eternity with me. That's my Father's will. That's my will. Verse 40. And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him, meaning responds with repentance, and responds with change of attitude and heart and mind that God wants us to have, and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

So the Father sent Jesus on a special mission to fulfill the Father's will. That will is to provide salvation to those who were called and to resurrect them from the dead when the time is right. And some are being called now in this lifetime, and they'll be part of that beautiful first resurrection known in Hebrews as the better resurrection.

And others, God has chosen not to call in this lifetime, and they'll have an opportunity at the Great White Throne judgment. John, chapter 11, verse 21. Let's see something else that Jesus said here. I think this is a remarkable example for us from Martha, her faith, the faith that she had in Jesus Christ, even resurrect her own brother, who by now had been dead for four days.

And we're not going to read the entire passage here. Obviously, for those of us who were Bible students, we know that Jesus did resurrect Lazarus to physical life, that he did bring him out of that tomb. But let's take a look at this conversation beginning in verse 21, John 11. Then Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. What an incredible statement of faith on her part. I know if you'd have gotten here earlier, that you could have healed my brother and he wouldn't have died. But even now, I know you can do something. Verse 23, Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again. And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. What incredible, encouraging words from Jesus Christ to Martha at this time when she's grieving that she's struggling. He says, Do you believe this? And she said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world. Martha expresses her knowledge and faith in the resurrection from the dead. And again, Jesus did resurrect Lazarus, the physical life, as an example of the power and majesty of God in that generation.

Let's take a look at a couple of final scriptures. If you'll turn with me, we'll take a look at two scriptures in the book of Job, Job 14. Our final scriptures in the sermon today. Job was struggling with doubts. He was going through a very difficult trial, and he didn't understand why God was allowing a severe trial on him.

At times, his attitude was tested. He felt that his friends were very critical of him. They weren't offering very much help. He was confused. He had doubts. He was struggling with the suffering that he was going through. But in spite of all of those things, he made a profound statement about his hope for the future. We'll take a look at two areas where he made a couple of profound statements. First is Job 14 and verse 13. Again, this is from someone who's struggling, who's in a lot of physical pain, who's struggling with a lot of doubts. Trying to figure things out.

Why everything has gone wrong in his life. Struggling with that. Sometimes like we do in life. Oh, that you would hide me in the grave. That you would conceal me until your wrath is passed. Because he thought maybe God is punishing him for some great evil that he had. That you would appoint me a set time, meaning in the future, that you would allow me to die. That you would hide me in the grave. That you would appoint me a set time. And then, later on, remember me. If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service, I will wait. Yes, I'll be in the grave. I'll be dead.

I'll be unconscious. But I'm going to wait. Till my change comes. You shall call. We just read where Jesus said there's going to come a time when he's going to call all individuals out of their graves. You shall call and I will answer you. You shall desire the work of your hands. For now you number my steps, but do not watch over my sin.

My transgression is sealed up in a bag and you cover my iniquity. Job had a profound understanding of a future resurrection. That's what his hope was. Even during these difficult times when he couldn't figure out what's going on in his life. This was his hope. He knew that God loved him. He said, you shall desire the work of your hands. You desire it. You want to make your children part of your family.

Again, he knew that God loves his creation and he would provide a Savior. A Savior who could seal up his transgressions in a bag. Who could cover his iniquity with his shed blood.

Very beautiful and profound scripture by Job. One more. Job chapter 19 and verse 25. Another powerful statement similar to what he just said. Only a little bit differently. He says in Job chapter 19 and verse 25, for I know that my Redeemer lives. The Hebrew word can also be translated. The Hebrew word Redeemer can be translated Vindicator or Deliverer. I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. I know that someday my Redeemer is returning to this earth and he's coming back.

And of course we know that's Jesus Christ. This I know. That in my flesh, actually the Hebrew phrase can be translated outside of my flesh. So he could have been referring here actually to the first resurrection. That in my flesh, or again it could be outside my flesh, I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another how my heart yearns within me.

He's saying my heart yearns because of that hope. That in spite of what I'm going through now, in spite of the pain, in spite of friends who aren't giving me very good advice, in spite of a wife who may be encouraging me in the wrong things Job says, in spite of everything happening in my life, everything I worked for taken away from me. I feel miserable. I'm not getting the encouragement that I need, but you know what?

Here is my hope. I know my Redeemer lives. He will stand on this earth and that I will see him in a resurrection. For those of us in God's Church, he's given us a sure promise of a resurrection and eternal life in his family. So these are, for a number of us, in particular the Horton and Thomas family, a very sad time at the death of Sue.

We hopefully can be comforted by the knowledge of God's Word, that God's promises are sure, and we can all look forward to a time in the future when we will see Sue once again. Thank you, and have a wonderful Sabbath day.