What Is Real Life?

Everyone has life. That's a given. Or you do not exist. But everyone has life. Some appreciate it more than others. But attempts to enrich this life are everywhere. They fill the spectrum. From the little can of pop that has the advertisement, open happiness, to a can of pop that once said something about this is life. The people who want to enrich their life through things that they do or things that they have, the pleasures that they can be engaged in. Most desire to extend life and have some sort of a medical plan or some sort of a medical option to extend life or a health option or the way they eat or the way they live. They're thinking, hmm, I want this to go on. We like life. There's a film that came out a number of years ago. It was a comedy sort of film. But it begins with a man who went into his doctor for the test results that he had taken a few days before. And the doctor had some surprising news for him. The man looked pretty good, felt pretty good, but he was told he had terminal cancer.

And his life would end probably within a week. This really upset the man. And he just didn't know what to do about it. He became very despondent. And he decided he didn't want to go through what the doctor said he was going to be going through in the next couple of weeks. So he drove out to the ocean. He threw himself in the ocean. And then he swam two miles out to sea. And he blew out all his air and swam as low as he could to the bottom and just waited for the inevitable. Now, while he was waiting, he thought about this for a minute. Wait a minute. All of a sudden, you see him struggling back to the surface, gasping in air. And he makes the profound statement, I want to live! I want to live! And it so typifies what humans desire, and that is life. We would like a good life, and we would like to live it for a very, very long time. Life is an interesting thing or an interesting state. It's kind of like fire. Ever look at the flames of fire and try to identify exactly what fire is? Sort of take it for granted? Ever look at water and try to really, you know, decide what is this water? It's sort of a plasma. It's kind of liquid. We find out that it's hydrogen and oxygen and some sort of a combination. It's odd. It's weird. We like it. We take it for granted, but it's a very unique substance. Well, life is like that. And though people try to define it, and I always think the scientific explanations of fire are kind of humorous because they can't quite define it even though they think they really have. Life is like that. We know life because we are alive, and yet what is life exactly? We read in Genesis 2 and verse 7 that God breathed life into Adam, but what is that exactly? Adam became a living flesh. But what is that life, you see? Was it in the breath? Another place in the Bible said life is in the blood. Is that where you get life? You oxygenate blood, and then, you know, this thing you've made out of metal and steel comes to life?

Life is something that's very precious. Life is, according to a definition of biogenesis, something that can only come from life.

A human can stop breathing and a heart stop beating for about ten minutes and still be alive.

So life isn't necessarily in breathing or in a heart pumping. A person can be resuscitated. But life somehow is a miracle. It's a blessing. It's a gift. It's something that only can come from a life giver. Just as a mother and a father give life to a little child and that that life came from them and there's a continuation of life, there always has to be a beginning of this miracle of the state of life. Life is a blessing. Life is a gift. Everybody wants it. Everybody desires to maintain it. Now, when we talk about life, we think of ourselves as alive, but God thinks of humanity more in the terms of being dead while they yet live. Because what you and I consider to be an exciting life, God doesn't think is worth very much. And the works of the flesh tend to lead in a direction that are death as you live them and ultimately go nowhere. That's not really living.

What is life? What is real life? Today I want to look at the paradox of what life is compared to real life, abundant life, what God considers to be life. Let's ask, what is life? How can I maximize the experience that I'm having now and how can I make it endure and stretch out?

The title of the sermon today is The Light of Life.

Human life, as I said, is a wonderful gift, and yet it's a temporary experience.

That temporary experience gives us a rather brief lifetime of opportunities to enjoy things, to have endeavors, to have achievements. And as we progress in our life, we like to note life. We like to have a record of it. Maybe a ribbon, I did this in life. Maybe a carved plaque, he or she did this in life. Maybe at the end of our life, you know, some presentation, some watch, something that tells us that we were here and that our life had meaning and value.

Yet it's very temporary. If we go to Ecclesiastes chapter 3, we'll read verses 10 through 14.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3, beginning in verse 10. Solomon says, I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. We actually are here to have endeavors, to have various tasks, to have achievements. This is a part of our life. It's God's purpose for us. Verse 11, He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts.

See, for you and me, it's not just good enough to come alive, enjoy life, and say, oh, that was nice. Now I think I'll just go back to dust. No, every human wants that life to go on. We don't want it to end.

Going on, except that no one, on his or her own, can find out the work that God does from the beginning to the end. And I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. This is the gift of God. When we look at life from that human plane, from an enriched standpoint of fulfilling what we as humans can be and can do on Earth, it's a profitable, enjoyable course, and yet it is finite. It ends.

Here's an example. My father, Jack Elliott, has succumbed to really poor health with cancer throughout his body. You're aware of that. He is currently in a hospice facility where he is resting peacefully. The doctor feels that he is in an end-of-life situation, and thankfully he is without pain, he is without discomfort. He is just in a very restful situation, and he is entirely in God's hands, and God's will be done. Now, when we look back at a man who is 88 and a half years old, and we look at his life and the accomplishments that he did, we find exactly what Solomon's talking about here in Ecclesiastes, these God-given tasks that people can do. I want to show you my father's life's work.

There it is. Now, I think, well, there's a photograph. This is actually an interesting photograph.

I was there the day this photo was taken. It was shot from a helicopter that Ambassador College rented, hired, to take a photographer up to make this shot. I tried to get on the helicopter. All I could get on was my video camera. So the photographer used it flying up and over the campus, because I was doing a video update for the churches in South Dakota at the time. This is back in the 1980s. But when you look at this photograph from the helicopter standpoint, it took off and landed from this little circle, which is an athletic field track in the center of Ambassador College in Pasadena. My father came there with my mother in 1949. I was later born right there, and I'm a California guy, even though they're Texans. I'm all California West Coast.

But when you start looking at this photo, you see, things look different in 1949. And one of Dad's main jobs was to redevelop what was there as a college campus and then begin to build the buildings that would eventually make this a campus that won the most beautiful campus in the United States award year after year after year. And of course, living there, you can go back and we can say, oh, I remember this used to be that and was torn down and it was built as that. And this was built up, and this happened in that year, and that happened in that year, and eventually the auditorium was built. 1974, that was opened, etc. What's curious about this photo is, about the time it was taken, my wife and I visited this campus, actually at the time it was taken, and I had opportunity to walk the campus with my dad. What was interesting was, this was not Ambassador College at that time. Ambassador College Pasadena had closed, and they had moved it to Texas. And so the buildings there were largely empty. In fact, a lot of them were mothballed, and they were beginning to crack. And as we toured the entire campus and all the streets, my father and I walking around, spending a lot of time talking about the various things that had happened there, events in his life, and overseeing the construction and the maintenance of that property. Finally, it seemed a little depressing to me, and I said to dad, I said, you know, dad, here's your life, and it's mothballed, and nobody's using it, and they're talking about selling it, and getting rid of it. This must be very depressing to you. My father's response to me is, depressing? You've got to be kidding. My life's not about this. My life isn't about a bunch of buildings. My life is about the kingdom of God. I'm not worried about this. This is meaningless to me. And so life should have another component to it, shouldn't it? One beyond just the physical things that we get involved in, one that actually focuses on timeless goals and spiritual growth. Continuing on, in verse 14, it says, I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Now, that's what you and I, and Anne Elliot and Jack Elliot focus on. Even now, that's what our focus is about. We're not here as family, all depressed and worried and discouraged and, you know, crying and wondering what's going to happen. No, we're actually here celebrating a life. Death is the last enemy that will be destroyed. It's a bad thing. It's a negative thing. But at the same time, we're here to celebrate an example of character that has been in our lives since we were little, and that hopefully we will follow in a very real way.

Human accomplishments are temporary and futile, but God's work in us is intended to endure forever. Jesus made the statement, I am come that they who are alive, you and me and others, that they may have life.

We're already alive. But He came that we may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. That comes from John 10 and verse 10. What's He saying there? He's saying this life that you and I have isn't it. He came so that we could have the real life and a life that is really, really abundant.

That's what you and I need to be focused on. That's what the daily prayers we pray should be about. Our Father in Heaven, your kingdom come. Your will be done. That is where we need to be focused.

Humans crave for life to continue. Satan, remember, told Eve, you won't die. Ah, because humans want to live. And humans would like a shortcut. And humans would like to do what humans do and still get to live on. And so there's this deception out there. It doesn't matter really what you do as long as you do something good in your life.

Or say, I love Jesus. Or, praise the Lord. Or something. You'll get to live forever.

Well, that's really not the case. Because this carnal humanity that we have is bound on a course towards death. That's the ultimate goal of carnal human nature. And the life that carnal human nature lives in the process isn't really worth living. It just isn't. And so God is not really concerned about maintaining the lives of everyone everywhere, whose lives really aren't living in the first place. His focus is more on giving them a real fulfilling life, someday, in His kingdom, physically and ultimately spiritually.

Jesus made the statement, follow me and let the dead bury their dead. Let the dead... How can dead bury dead? Well, those are people who are alive, but you see, they're not really living.

You and I have an opportunity now, during this lifetime, to be really living and to receive life and have it more abundantly in the future. That's the beauty of being in God's church. The beauty of loving with our heart, soul and might, loving our neighbor as ourself, keeping all the commandments of God, having a wonderful relationship with God and with each other, and stitching ourselves together as the family of God. That is abundant life. That is love that has fulfillment. And you look at the fruits of God's Spirit of love and joy and peace. Peace meaning to stitch together.

That's a fulfilling life now, but even that has an emptiness and an incompleteness that we look forward to having a change of.

Now, the Bible seems to illuminate four different levels of life. Let's take a look at four different levels of life that are mentioned in Scripture. The first one is being alive.

Now, there are individuals who are alive right now, perhaps including my father, who are not cognitive. People who are in comas, like my father slipped into a coma this last Tuesday night, early Wednesday morning. He's been in and out of consciousness. When you're unconscious, you're alive, but it's not really a cognitive life, is it? There are those who have dementia in an advanced state, and you wouldn't really say that they have a full reasoning capability. So that first level of life we might just call alive. In Daniel 4, in verse 33, we see an example of this. I don't know that this happens to very many people, but here is an example of being alive and yet not being cognitive. This went on for seven years. Daniel 4, verses 33-36.

That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles' feathers and his nails like bird claws. There are, sometimes in the human experience, there are individuals whose brain chemistry doesn't work out, and you can end up in a very tragic situation, but you're still alive. Nebuchadnezzar went through this and experienced this, and I mention this because it's important for you and I to appreciate the gift of the second level of life, which is a miracle that takes place, I believe, every moment that you and I draw breath. And the second is reasoning. Reasoning. Continue on in verse 34.

Verse 36. At the very same time, my reason returned to me. There is an ability to reason that is a gift. God took that away. God gave it back. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11, we come to understand this particular miracle, and we should really appreciate it, because sometimes humans will think, oh, I don't know if there is a God, but even in the thought process, they're using a miracle of God to even think and reason, and yet not give God the credit for it. 1 Corinthians 2, 11 says, For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? So there is a spirit God gives us to where that fleshly body with a brain could do what Nebuchadnezzar could do for seven years, and yet what the spirit in man can now reason through a miracle. Verse 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So there is another level yet, but we're talking about the human rationale reasoning through the spirit in man, as Paul just teaches us here. The book of Proverbs I personally feel is given to us at this level to where we can have a better life, a more fulfilled life, by following principles of God's wisdom that would make a life go better on the human reasoning level, following the directives of God. But that would take, say, the nation of Israel, carnal Israel, up to a place or an unconverted person, up to a point in life. We then come to the third level of life the Bible talks about, and that is the spiritually enlightened, I would term it as, spiritually enlightened. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 11, continuing, Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, the Holy Spirit, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but by which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So in that third plane, you and I should dwell if you have been baptized. And if you haven't been baptized yet, that Spirit is already working with you to help you understand some of these things up to a certain point. And it's a wonderful thing to make it to this level, to have this spiritual enlightenment, to be able to compare spiritual with spiritual, and understand really who God is, what His plan is, and what His will is, His expectations for you and me.

But actually, even that state doesn't take us where we need to be. There is a fourth state. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and beginning in verse 19, 1 Corinthians 15 verses 19 through 23, Paul says, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. If that's all we have, is this spiritual enlightenment and a hope, a desire, this craving for eternity, we are of all men most pitiable, because this life ends. It's only so long.

Verse 20, But now Christ has risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. And we all get tremendous encouragement and trust and hope and excitement about the coming resurrection of the dead, for all who have sinned, and especially those, as Jesus said, who have done good to the resurrection of life.

And that's the life that is the real life. And yes, it's sad sometimes when our physical lives terminate, but the real life is yet even to be experienced. For since by man came death by Jesus Christ also came the resurrection of the dead. For since by man came death, this process of going in a physical, limited life ends at some point of and by yourself. You see, life is a miracle, remember? And once your heart and your brain and your lungs stop for a few minutes, you reach a state called death, and there is nothing that can bring you life at that point. This life we took for granted came from life, and once your life ends, nothing can give that miracle of life back. It just, it's gone. It's gone. So in verse 22, Whereas in Adam all die, and that's it. But in Christ all shall be made alive into spirit beings. So there is another miracle, even a greater miracle, where life once again begets life. In verse 23, but each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, and afterwards those who are Christ at his coming. Now, in order for us to be given eternal life, it is important that we die. It is given unto men once to die, but after this the resurrection. It is important that we die. It's not just bad news that we die. It's not just an oops. It's important that we die. Notice the next phrase in verse 44, beginning in verse 44. It is sown a natural body, as if you put seed in the ground once again. You know, the seed once made a plant, the plant grew spiritually, it produced fruit for the harvest, but you know that wet wheat isn't harvested wet. It has to die. It has to stand out there and eventually shrivel up in the heat and go through what it goes through, and it shuts down life, and it fully, fully dies and dries out to where it's dead. And then, once again, it is harvested by Jesus Christ and God the Father as the firstfruits, and then it is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body in this analogy here. This road to eternal life is a process that God created. It's intended to be this way. The Holy Days reveal it to the Church. The Holy Days are an agricultural agrarian system where we can understand life and death, and death and life. The seed germinates. It matures. It becomes a valuable crop. It's harvested. And then verse 44, it's sown a natural body. And that process essentially begins over again. In 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 22, we read of this process described.

1 Peter chapter 1 verses 22 and 23.

Since you have purified your lives in obeying the truth, and here's what you and I have been working at, purifying our lives, obeying the truth of God through the Spirit, the Holy Spirit with its fruits, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. That's what we're to be about. Having been, it says born again, that's the Greek, genaioanothan, means engendered from above. There's another life here, there's another seed, there's another influence that begins. Engendered from above, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever. You and I have life, but then we have a spiritual, eternal dimension, a promise of eternal life, a Holy Spirit, a part of a living God that lives forever, that comes in and binds with us. And we are then engendered to begin again a new life, on top of this physical life, a spiritual life. Verse 24, because all flesh is His grass, and all the glory of man, as the flower of the grass, the grass withers and its flower falls away. But the Word, or the Logos of God, endures forever. You and I are in a process of seeking and growing towards life eternal. In 1 John 3, verse 9, it says that those who are born of God, or engendered from God of this other seed, they don't habitually sin. They don't go into a life of sin. They cannot habitually sin. It's a different life. It's a different way of life. The seed is in us as producing different fruits. When we look at the Holy Days of God, we see, first of all, the perfect example of the Passover. The perfect life, the perfect gift, the perfect example for us to follow, to then take up our cross, or take up our sacrifice and our love, and follow the Master. And so the Days of Unleavened Bread, we say, you know, I'm not like the Master. I need to put sin out of my life, and I need to put His righteousness in. And for six days, we really work at that. The seventh day is another Holy Day. Then there's 49 days, seven times seven, between when Christ was harvested, when He, when the wave sheath, that first little harvest, Him being represented by the first of the first fruits, 49 days until the Festival of Harvest is the first name that was given to the Feast of Pentecost. And that typifies you and my life. We have this period of time on earth, and we are to grow. We are to produce fruit. Jesus said, it's my Father's will that you produce fruit, and that your fruit remain. I'm the vine, you're the branches. Produce some fruit. Great, we're going to trim it a little. So that you produce more fruit. It's my Father's will that you produce much fruit. It's all about this character, this godly mentality that can be harvested. What happens before it's harvested? We die. We die. We need to live again. We need to be a crop that is going to be brought in and harvested, that is sown in corruption, as it were, is put in the grave, but it's brought out in eternal life as the children of God. In John 12 and verse 24, Jesus shows us the importance of dying, something that we all hate, because we don't want to let go of that which we know, which is life. We don't know of anything else. We've heard of other things, but how much do we really trust?

In John 12 and verse 24, he says, Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. He was about to give his life for us. His was an example of humility and love and sacrifice and a resurrection to life. That was his example. And he sets that for us to follow his humility, his sacrifice, his love, and our resurrection to life, which he will bring to us. So we need a couple of deaths, actually. We need, first of all, to die to our old man, to our old human nature. Romans 6 talks about that, the death of the old man. In Colossians 3. But a second death has to take place as well, and that is, our physical body is intended to return to the dust and the spirit to return to God, where he will keep it.

And then we trust that there will be more life after that. Now, eternal life can be defined in those terms, as it were, produce fruit, get a harvest. Great. But that's harder to do than it sounds like. A lot of people make that to be an easy thing or a given. When many of you, the Stewart family and others, when you began attending the church, remember how big the church was? Remember how many people it got to be in the 60s and 70s? Close to 200,000 you could count?

You know, in the church today, of those who believe, as we originally did in the early 1950s, when I came alive, there are less than 10% who continue to believe that way. That's a huge loss. The point is to say that it's not just a given that even those in the church have a cakewalk into the kingdom. You know, the many parables that Jesus gave talked about those who would and those who wouldn't, those who would be surprised, those who would be sheep or goats or weed or tares, foolish or wise virgins.

This is a challenge that is something you and I need to be aware of and to realize it's a fight that we have to fight, a daily fight that you and I have to wage against our carnal human nature. Carnal human nature does not produce fruit for the harvest. It produces what is on a sign on the street where we live. Dead end. Every time we go home, I think, wow, who invented that term for the end of a street? Dead end. They could say end of street.

Dead end. We see it every time we go home. Dead end. You know, it's a good reminder, too. I don't want a dead end. You don't want a dead end. But in order not to have a dead end, we have to fight. We have to wrestle. In order to succeed, this takes a lot of work.

Back in that film where the man pops up out of the water and says, I want to live! You know, it's a typical carnal exposé about humans trying to work out some way of staying alive.

He looks around. He sees the shore is two miles away. He's already exhausted. He's out of breath. He's thinking, there's no way. I'm cooked. I'm not going to make it. So he prays to God. He says, God, you've got to help me. If you're there, God, I can't do this alone. So he says, make a deal. You give me back to shore. I will attend church every week, and I'll give you 10% of all the money I earn. And he starts a swimming.

And he swims, and he swims, and he swims. A little later, he looks up. He's one mile from the shore. Now, God, I'm going to be there at church as often as I can, and I'm going to be given regularly. And he swims for all he's worth. Eventually, he drags himself up through the sandy shore, lies gasping on the beach, and says, Thank you, Lord. I'm going to try to make it to church and be a good person, if I can't. You know, we play these end games, but we have to actually be converting into something that's genuine. Human nature wants the end result.

It wants life. That's why you believe so easily in heaven. Or anything that you can possibly come up with that allows you to be carnal, carnally-minded, and yet still get the reward. We want the reward, but we want to cling to our old human nature. This is true in the church. This is true in you. This is true in me. And this is the old man we have to constantly fight and wrestle against.

Our hope for eternal life is Jesus Christ. Not just him doing it for us, which is the case, but us becoming Jesus-like. That's what Christian means, Christ-like. We have to put on the mind of Christ. You can read Philippians 2 about how he humbled himself, he came, he gave himself, he died for us. Put on this mind, which is in Jesus Christ. You and I need to put on Christ.

It says in John 1 and verse 4, In him was life, and the life was the light of men. That's where the title of the sermon comes from. The light of life is Jesus Christ, but you and me becoming like him, becoming godly, becoming children, pushing our nature to become like that.

The road to eternal life is putting on the mindset, the deeds, the nature, and struggling to develop that with every ounce of energy that we have. To love and become love with all of our heart, soul, and mind.

And in doing so, that pleases God. A good example of this is Paul. He said in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 6 through 8 that he was fighting this fight in a daily basis. He said very clearly in Philippians that he had not accomplished perfection.

He was still fighting it. He would always fight it. He said in another place he wasn't perfect. In fact, he said, oh, wretched man, that I am because I'm still finding sin. But here in 2 Timothy chapter 4, beginning in verse 6, he says, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure, my death, is at hand.

He was going to die. He knew it.

Verse 7, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. You know, those of you who know Jack Elliott, and he's not to be put up any higher than anyone else, but he did set a good example of being very stubborn against succumbing to politics, or succumbing to self-promotion, or to changing what his views of God's laws were. And he set us a good example of a personal fight of faith, and one that hopefully we can all succeed at. In the last few months, when I was here in May, he was unable to form thoughts well. And I said, Dad, what can I do to help? He said, pray, ask God to help me be able to think clearly, to be able to put my thoughts together, to be able to please him, and do what I need to do. And he was just so frustrated. He couldn't even finish a sentence. He couldn't read a verse, and it was a very frustrating situation. So I wrote our friends in the ministry, and I asked them to pray for Dad so that he would be able to have that clarity. And we consider a miracle took place for the last three months. Dad's clarity came back. He came back to church here starting on Pentecost, and for several weeks he was at church here last Sabbath. We talked on the phone. He was out working this week even in the yard. Dad was back studying, praying, fasting, trying to find ways that God would correct him so that he could have a more godly heart. He really wanted to focus and study diligently on how to spiritually grow into that which God wanted him to be. Every day he sang the hymn that's the 51st song. He sang it about three times. The one about, creating me a clean heart, you know, cleanse me, and that helped him focus on that. And he studied the Bible. He mined it. He discovered several flaws along the way. He worked on those flaws with a passion. He was glad to find them. He's glad to see them, kind of like Paul. This morning I was in his office preparing the sermon, and I found his Bible and the notes. He's been writing sticky notes as he's been doing his Bible study. And these are some of the notes, the things that he's been studying. And here's what they are titled. The Lists for Godliness. He calls it Great Lists for Godliness and Righteousness.

And got the Scriptures, Romans 12, Behaving Like Christ, Galatians 5, James 3, Romans 12, Romans 13, 1 Timothy 3, 2 Samuel 22, Matthew 5, 2 page James 1, James 3, 1 Peter 1, Hebrews, a whole bunch of passages in Hebrews. He's working on the Great Lists for Godliness and Righteousness. The second list is interesting, and that is lists of fleshliness and evilness. Galatians 5, James 4, 2 Timothy 3, 4, James 4, James 3, James 4, and the various things that are there. And he makes notes on those. And then another list, Character, Trustworthiness, Testing.

This is the Jack Elliot we know. This is the member sitting beside you we know. This is what we are pursuing as Christ-like children of God. And his Bible is open to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, the Faithful chapter, those who are faithful.

In verse 8 here in 2 Timothy 4, Paul says, Finally, there is laid up for me the crown, that's of the victory wreath at the Greek Olympics back in his day, the one who won the race, the crown, this victory wreath of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me, but also those who have loved his appearing. That's what we are to be about. And then comes real life. That's the real life. Born of God, into the family of God, through the resurrection, into the kingdom of God, into a spiritual body that God doesn't even try to describe to you and me, something we couldn't even grasp. His thoughts are so high above our thoughts, his ideas, his mind, he doesn't even try to tell you what the systems or the buttons or the abilities of a God being are. That's just going to be a wonderful thing at the resurrection to come to understand. But he says in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 49, as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall bear the image of the heavenly man. In 1 John chapter 3 and the first two verses, he says, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of Eloam, children of the God family. Verse 2, Beloved, now we are children of God, and that's a good thing. You and I are called the sons and daughters of God. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. God does not tell us what we're going to be like in a spirit being.

However, we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him. When you read in Ezekiel and other places a description of what God is like and his throne is like, and those wheels within wheels and those powers, we know that we will be like him. And you read in Revelation 2, about him coming back, and he said he will give us the power to rule the nation with a rod of iron. And if you read in Revelation 19, when he comes in on the white horse, he's got an army of others in the righteous linen clothing with him on white horses. And we, it says, will have his name and the Father's name, a new Jerusalem written on us. That, now that, is life. In conclusion, we have life and death and life. This is really pictured for us every week as we go through six days of the week. Just like the six days of creation, we go about our earthly quest here on earth, and then we come to the Sabbath. And the Sabbath pictures the Kingdom of God. And that Kingdom has various phases and stages and future eras that are to come. But the very first thing that happens in the Kingdom of God era is the resurrection of the first fruits. The resurrection of the saints when the seventh trumpet blows. Every Sabbath speaks of life for you and for me and for the faithful. God has put the seed of his Spirit, his Holy Spirit, into you. It's the prospect of life, life eternal. It's the promise of life, if you'll fulfill the criteria. His seed in you needs to grow. It needs to be nourished by daily bread, the bread of life. God living in us with the water of the Holy Spirit. The seed needs to be purified by the blood of Christ through daily forgiveness. And for now, death will be your enemy and mine and Jack Elliott's. But soon, Jesus Christ will replace it with real life because he is the light of life.