Resurrection

Well, praise the Lord. Let's turn to John again, chapter number 5. For those of you who are visiting, we are teaching through the book of John. And we are now in John chapter number 5. And I'm going to read down from verse 25 down to verse number 29.

I know I touched on some of these verses last week, but I think we could spend some time, a lot of time, on the subject of the resurrections that are coming. And so I'd like to talk about those resurrections. I have an introduction here in a minute, but I'd like to read from John 5 verse 25 down through verse 29.

All the words of God are true. You'll come to find out that everything God says in His Word is true. And so as you read down, as we read these and study them today, remember that this is going to come to pass.

Verse 25, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself. And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.

Marvel not at this! For the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. One preacher once said, That'll be a day for the rag man, won't it? When all the grave clothes are cast off, He will come up from the grave all over the world.

Every soul will come up from the grave. Well, we want to talk about these verses here this morning, but before I do, I want to share with you something that occasionally comes to me as I go through the Bible, and did again this week, so I want to throw this out to you by way of introduction. Much of the Bible, and you'll see this, you've been seeing it in the book of John, is about theology.

Much of the Bible is about the person of God, studying God's person, His character, His nature, His purposes, His will, the things He wants to accomplish. And as I've gone through the Bible for many years teaching it, I've come to realize that probably, I'll just guess, probably 80% of the Bible is not practical, it is theological, it is teaching us about who God is. I remember the first time this came to my attention was when I was teaching through the book of Ephesians, and I was going probably six months through the first three chapters, and it dawned on me after six months of teaching these individuals that were in the church then, that I had not told them anything practical to do in their life.

There was no commandments giving, and you can read through Ephesians 1, 2, and 3, and you'll not find a single commandment that God gives to His people. But He takes those three chapters just to talk about Him and what He has done and His purposes and His desires for His church. And then it comes to chapter 4, and you get three chapters of real practical, Brother Elson's teaching through some of it now, real practical living.

But much of the Bible is theology. It's the study of God, the study of His nature and of His purposes. John 17, verse 3, and much of the verses I'm going to use today are right here in the book of John.

It says this, that this is life eternal. Think about this. This is life eternal that they might know Thee.

That they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, knowing God. In other words, God's heart is, I want you to know me. I want you to know who I am, and I want you to know who my Son is.

And this is what life eternal is, is we talk about it often, having a relationship with God and with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And something I think that oftentimes we get backwards is this, knowing Him leads to doing. Knowing Him leads to doing.

Jesus said it this way, if you love me, keep my commandments. It's that loving me that bears out the keeping of His commandments. And so it is vitally important that we know Him.

I'm going to give you an illustration here. Some of you ladies will understand this. Ladies, let's say you get married.

Some of you are. Some of you are not. Let's say you get married.

You have your husband there on your first day in your wedding, on your honeymoon. Your husband sits you down and says, OK, now here's all the things that I want you to do. And he starts listing.

You're going to do this. You're going to do the wash. I got a schedule for you.

And for the first couple of days, he's talking to you about what you're going to do for him. Some of you would think, well, what did I get myself into here? You ladies know what that would be like. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

He'd say, well, I'm just being practical with you, honey. You know, and all these do's. And most of you ladies would probably say, why did I get into this marriage? What is this man doing? But you know, if your husband took you on the honeymoon there, you know, your first day, and he began to say to you, honey, I'd like to just share with you what's on my heart.

I'd like you to get to know me. I'd like you to understand my purposes for our marriage and our family. I'd like you to know my will and my desires.

How many of you would like to marry someone like that? You can show your hands. Yes, you know, because we, and by the way, you wives are the picture of the church. And we husbands are the picture of Christ.

And so men don't be that way. Don't be do oriented. You need to be know me oriented.

Amen. And if there is a relationship of know me, then out of that relationship will come a willing obedience. And so the husband, the Lord Jesus, oftentimes wants to talk to us about his heart, about his purposes, about his will and what, what he would like to do on the earth.

And so if someone asks you, tell me about your husband, tell me about your husband. And you say, I don't know much about him, but I can tell you all the things he wants me to do. Someone will look at you like, boy, I don't know if that relationship is very good.

But, you know, we ought to know him and understand him. That's one of the things I think we ought to just think about this for a minute. How many of you know the Lord Jesus Christ? How many of you know that he's deity? We talked about that last week.

Someone says to you, take your Bible and show me who Jesus is. Is he God? And you say, I don't know where I would go. You know, sometimes we know where to go on practical things, but do we know where to go with regards to who he is? Who is our husband? And what about his nature? He has a wonderful day coming.

It's called the second coming of Christ. And it's spoken of much in the Bible. As a matter of fact, there's whole books written about it.

And yet, how much do we know about it? What his purposes and plans are in the earth? And so when I think of preaching through the Bible, I oftentimes think about, you know, here again is some more theology. And it's hard to bring out some practical things here, but we're going to talk about the resurrection here this morning. These are things that are out in the future.

And you may say, you know, I'm not really concerned about that. But I want you to know something. The Lord is.

And the Lord is your husband, and he wants you to know what he has in his heart and his purposes and plans for this world. And so I think of it this way. Three out of every four Sundays, the Lord is going to come here in our congregation, and we're going to open up the Word of God, and he's going to say, sit down and let me share with you something about my will, my plans, and my purposes on the earth and in heaven.

Let me open up my heart to you. So I don't want you to sit out there and say, oh, there's another theological sermon. I want some practical things.

Well, I think there are needs for practical things. But much of the Bible that God has given to us, the revelation of his heart, is telling you about who he is, that you might know him and have eternal life. So when we read down through verse 25 and 29 again, these are his plans.

He is sharing with us some of his plans for the future. So let's go down and let's read some of those plans and talk about them, starting in verse number 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and that's a future tense, and now is, that's present tense, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.

For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. Now, we talked about this last week, that the Father has given to the Son his attributes, his power, his authority, and that includes the power to raise from the dead and to judge humanity. Verse 27 says, he has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man.

Now, I'll give you a test. Why did God give all those things to his Son? I talked about it last week. Who can tell me? Raise your hand.

I'm going to feel awful bad if you don't know. What's that? That's right. Brother David says, so that men would honor the Son even as they honor the Father.

And that's there in verse number 22 and in verse number 23. And so the Father has given all his attributes unto the Son. Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, has the ability not only to raise you up from the dead, but he's also got the authority and power to judge you.

And therefore, you're to honor the Son in the very same way that you honor the Father. Verse 26 says this, for as the Father has life in himself, so has he given to the Son to have life in himself. And so the Father has given to his Son the ability to raise people from the dead.

God is the source of all life. I don't know if you know that or not, but God is the source of every living thing. One day, God made Adam in the garden, and it says he breathed into Adam.

And when he breathed into Adam and imparted unto him some of his nature with his breath, the scripture says that Adam became a living soul. Adam was given life. God imparted life unto Adam.

He is the source of all living things. The Bible says that we live by him. We exist by him.

God has given us all life, and all life comes out of him. The Bible uses the term immortality, and I'd like to just share a little bit about immortality. The Bible tells us that God only has immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.

God has immortality. He is the only one that has immortality. The word immortality means eternal life.

That life which is not touched by death. Immortal. Immortal is the opposite of being mortal.

Mortal is someone who is touched by death. I was up in Milbank, South Dakota, teaching on immortality, and I learned some things as I was going through the Bible. You know, we oftentimes think that the soul is immortal, that people who go to hell, their souls are immortal, and they go on forever and ever and ever.

I believe that. But immortality does not mean that a soul goes on forever and ever. Immortality means that the soul is not touched by death.

The word immortality means not touched or not harmed by death. And so we as Christians are immortal, in a sense, because we have everlasting life. But those who go to hell are not immortal.

Those who go to hell are swallowed up by death. And even though their soul continues on forever, they are not truly immortal. I hope you understand what I'm saying there.

Even though we've been born again and have eternal life, we are still mortal, in a sense. You know why? Because death's going to touch us. Death's going to touch us.

Many of us are going to die and be laid in a grave. And so we are not immortal because death is going to touch each one of us if we don't see the Lord Jesus Christ before our death. And so in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 54, listen to this.

So when this corruptible, meaning this body, shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? That's 1 Corinthians 15, which describes the resurrection. And so even now, I'm immortal.

I am not immortal. My spirit and soul have been made alive, and my spirit and soul are immortal. But my physical body is still mortal.

I'm still going to be touched and harmed by death. But in 1 Corinthians 15, when the resurrection comes, then we put on immortality. Then my whole being, body, soul, and spirit has become immortal.

And it will never again, and we'll see this in a little bit, it'll never again be touched by death. And so the word immortality means that which cannot be touched by death. It will go on and live forever.

When God breathed into Adam, Adam became an immortal being. Death was not to touch him forever and ever and ever. But because Adam and Eve sinned, sin entered into the world and men became mortal beings because sin was touching them.

And so one day when the Lord Jesus returns and the resurrection occurs, then you and I will become completely immortal, not touched by death. And so God, who has immortality, and the only one who has it, gave to his Son this life, this immortality. Look at verse number 26 again.

For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And so here is Jesus. Where does he get this power? Lazarus, come forth! How did he do that? Well, his Father had given him the authority to call people forth from the dead.

And so Jesus would go about and he would raise the dead. And so God has given him that authority. Jump down to chapter 5 here in verse 39.

Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me, and you will not come to me that you might have life. You must come to the Son for eternal life. Remember we talked about this last Sunday.

Someone says, I believe in God, but I don't believe in Jesus. Is that okay? No, it's not. God has given Jesus life.

He has given him authority to judge. He has given him authority to raise the dead. If you're going to come and get life, you must come through Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the what? Life. If any man come to the Father, he must come through me. And so God has given life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you're going to have eternal life, you must come to Him. You must come to the Father by Him. Acts chapter 3, let me give you another verse.

Speaking to the Jewish people who rejected Jesus, it says here, But you denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. This is Peter preaching in Acts chapter 3. And you killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. Jesus here is called the Prince of life.

So if you want life, if you want eternal life, if you want immortality, you must come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God the Father has handed Him life and immortality. Verse 25, let's go back here and look.

Verse 25 says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming. And that's the future. We'll talk about that in a minute.

But it also says, And now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. And so now is. Jesus was raising people from the dead.

I think that's a possible way to interpret that. Jesus raised Jerry's daughter from the dead. And Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

And I'm sure there are many others that He raised from the dead. But I also understand that to mean that the voice of the Son of God today is able to raise people who are dead in trespasses and sin. They are lost.

They are dead to God. And the voice of the Son of God is able even today, now to raise people from the dead. So if you're sitting here today and you're lost and you're dead in your sins and in your trespasses, the voice of the Son of God can raise you from the dead.

That's why the Bible says, Today, if you'll hear His voice, harden not your hearts. And so God is speaking. How is He speaking? He's speaking through His Word.

This is the Word of God. And as you hear the Word of God and you receive it and believe it and put faith in the Word of God, He can raise you from the dead. So there's no excuse for you to be here this morning and be dead in your trespasses and sin, because the Lord wants to raise you from the dead.

But He says here in verse 25, The hour is coming. That's in the future, that all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. And I'd like to spend the rest of our time here looking at this resurrection that is coming.

And I'd like you to jump down there to verse 28 and verse 29. It describes the resurrections that are coming. Verse 28 says, Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Well, the hour is coming. The time is coming. That's what that word hour means.

The time is coming when everyone, all that are in the graves, lost and saved, are going to hear the voice of the Son of God. I like how it puts it there in verse 29, and shall come forth. One of the two words that God told, or excuse me, Jesus told Lazarus, come forth.

And what happened to Lazarus? That's amazing. He got up out of that thing and walked outside in his grave clothes. Just the authority that is in the Lord Jesus Christ, His ability that God had given Him as His Son to raise the dead, Jesus Christ spoke, come forth, and Lazarus came forth.

And so the Lord Jesus not only has the power to cast out devils, He not only has the power to speak and calm the seas, He not only has the power to heal, but He has the power and authority to call people out of the grave. Come forth. And by the way, everyone here is going to hear those two words someday.

Come forth. To some of you, it'll be a wonderful day. And we'll describe it here in just a little bit.

We'll read about it. But for some, maybe sitting here today, it's going to be a terrifying day. Can you imagine waking up and standing before God and being cast into hell? But everyone, there is not a single soul that says all that are in the graves shall hear His voice.

People are going to be sleeping in those graves, rotted bodies, and all of a sudden the Lord is going to say, come forth. And literally, people are going to, their bodies are going to come back together. They're going to rise out of those graves.

You say, how is that going to happen? People are going to come up through the dirt? Yeah, the graves are going to open and they're going to come out. Matter of fact, when Jesus was resurrected, the Bible says many of the graves of the saints were opened and people came out and walked amongst Jerusalem. So the Lord Jesus is going to speak and all are coming out of the graves.

And you notice here in verse 29, there's two different resurrections. One is for those who have done good. Now let me ask you this.

How many of you have done good? I know we don't want to put our hand up there for that one, do we? All of you who have done good under the resurrection of life and all of you who have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Some are resurrected to immortality and eternal life and some are resurrected to damnation or to judgment. So that's going to happen.

And we need to be on the right side of things when the Lord says to come forth. It's a fascinating subject and we're going to go back and read in Revelation chapter 20 how that the dead give up their dead and the sea gives up the dead and hell and Hades give up the dead and they all stand before God. And so all that are in the graves, whether they want to or not, are going to come forth.

I told you last week about the man, the king, who wanted to avoid the resurrection and they actually took a large river and they channeled it. They had many, many hundreds of people working to channel the river in a different direction so that they could bury this king. He requested that in the bed of this river and then they turned the river back to go over this king.

The purpose was so that he would not be raised up in the resurrection. He wanted to somehow hide from God. And all those who were workers didn't know this, but all those who did all this work to rechannel the river to bury this king were killed on their way back so that no one knew where the body was.

A desire to hide from the resurrection. I read a story just last night of a Methodist missionary who went to Japan and he came across a large mass grave of 11,000 Christians who were buried there back in the 1600s. I guess in Japan in the 1600s, they had a decree to kill all Christians and there was a mass killing of Christians in Japan.

But one of the things that's interesting in the story is that when they opened up this mass grave, they saw all these skeletons, but everyone was missing heads. There was no heads on these skeletons. And they come to realize that the heads were buried at a far different place.

And they look back into it and they come to find out that these Christians were teaching and preaching on the resurrection. And so the enemies who killed them and buried them didn't want their bodies to be resurrected. And so they separated their bodies from their heads, thinking that they would not be able to be resurrected when their heads are in a different location.

But, you know, it doesn't matter whether you're eating of worms or you die in the sea or you're burned at the stake, God is able to bring the body back together. If he is able to speak the world into existence, he's able to bring the body back together, lost and saved. And all of them are coming up out of the grave.

Well, the first one here I'd like to look at is a resurrection into life. And this is where most of us, I trust, will be. The scripture says, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life.

Now, immediately, and you've probably thought about this, wait a minute, Romans 3 says, there is none that doeth good. There is none that doeth good. No, not one.

Does that mean that none of us are going to make it? Because it's for those who do good. Remember, the rich young ruler came to Jesus. He said, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, why do you call me good? There is none good but one, right? That is God.

So they that have done good. What does that mean? Well, turn over to John chapter 6. And John explains this, I believe. What does it mean to do good? John chapter 6 and verse number 28.

John 6 verse 28. Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? May I say it this way? What shall we do that we might do good works? And Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. Isn't that the work of God there? You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. This is a good work. This is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent.

Look over to verse number 40. And this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day. And so the good work here is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

To believe that God sent his son to be the savior of the world. And that is what I believe the Lord is talking about when he says, they that do good unto the resurrection of life and they that do evil unto the resurrection of damnation. I don't want to minimize the fact that Brother Cleat shared here this morning that if you're truly born again and you're saved, you're going to start doing good.

Amen. Your life is going to be changed. And the people that knew you before, they're not going to know who you are now because you're moved from darkness to light.

Titus 2.14 says that Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. And that's those who do good. And yes, it is a good work to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

But I also believe that it also could refer to the fact that your life has changed. You're no longer living in sin. You're pursuing a life of holiness.

Those that do good unto the resurrection of life. Let's turn back to John's writings in 1 John and look at what John says about this in verse John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3 verse 23. He mentions this a number of different places.

And here in 1 John chapter 3 verse 23, he says this, And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment. Again, one of the greatest commandments that you have as a child of God is to believe on his Son. To believe on his Son.

This is the work that God has called you to do. To believe on his Son. And that just doesn't mean to believe the gospel, but to believe his words.

To believe what he has spoken. To trust his words. To believe on his Son.

1 John chapter 4. Let's keep reading. Verse 7. It says not only to believe on his Son, but also to love one another. Chapter 4 verse 7 says, Beloved, let us love one another.

For love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. Did you know that? You know one of the greatest marks of a Christian is that he loves his brother. He loves God's people.

He loves the church. Verse 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. So believe on my Son and love your brother.

1 John chapter 3. Jump back there. Verse 14. There's a lot in this epistle about this.

1 John 3.14. We know. Here's one of the ways you know that you're a child of God. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.

He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hated his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

So when you think of a good work, well, first of all, John says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a good work. And not only that, love your brother.

And that's one of the hallmarks of Christianity is loving my brother. As a matter of fact, and we won't go back and read it for the sake of time, but in Matthew chapter 25 when Jesus comes, and you know the story, He separates the sheep from the goats in the final judgment. Some go to a resurrection of life.

Some go to a resurrection of damnation. And the element that the Lord brings out, the distinguishing characteristic between those who go to eternal life and those who go to eternal damnation, He says is this. I was hungry, and you gave me no meat.

I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was in prison, and you visited me not. I was naked, and you clothed me.

And then the Lord says this, and you know, I read these verses many times, but I never caught this one word when He said, inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these, what? My brethren, you have done it unto me. He's talking here about, do you love your brother? When your brother is hungry, do you feed him? When your brother is naked, do you clothe him? When your brother is in prison, do you visit him? And that's a mark of true Christianity. You know, young people, you've been converted recently, you can tell whether or not you're a child of God by this.

John says, if you have love for the brotherhood. And that should be something that should be in your heart. The Bible says, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit that is given unto us, having love one for another.

And so a life, a life of obedience, a life of loving one another. And so those who do good are those who believe on His Son and show fruits of genuine Christianity by loving one another. They that do good unto the resurrection of life.

So let me ask you this, have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? And is there evidence? Because you love your brothers. You love the brothers. When you see your brother have need, you don't shut up your bowels of compassion from him.

How dwelleth the love of God in you, right? You love your brother. You forgive your brother. Well, the resurrection unto life, and we get said a lot of times in 1 Corinthians 15, if you want to read about the resurrection, what kind of body you're going to get and all the things it has to do with the resurrection, you can go there and read.

But I would like to look over at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and just read a little bit here about the resurrection. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, starting in verse number 13, I trust that most of us here are going to be partakers in this one. This is a resurrection unto life.

It's described here in verse 13 of 1 Thessalonians 4. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. This idea of sleeping, it describes the condition of those who are dead and who are waiting for this time of resurrection.

It describes both the saved and the lost. I didn't realize this, but Daniel chapter 12, verse 2 says, many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And so when they lay that lost person down in the grave and they lay that saved person down in the grave, they're both laid to sleep.

And one day they're going to be raised. And that's why the Lord uses this idea of sleep. Remember when he came to heal Jairus' daughter? The child was dead and the Lord said, she is not dead, she sleeps.

And everybody laughed into scorn. And then he raised her from the dead. He knew he was going to raise her up for the dead.

He said, she's sleeping. Every person who dies is biblically asleep because God is going to raise every one of them up from the dead. And they're all coming forth.

Verse 14, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. When the Lord Jesus comes back, the next time he is bringing those departed souls with him, our brother Clete's father will come with him. All those who have been converted and departed, who have gone to sleep in Jesus will come with him and God will unite their bodies with their souls.

So I don't believe in soul sleep. I don't believe the soul stays there by the body, where the body is buried. I believe Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

And so when you die as a Christian, your soul goes to be with the Lord and your body is laid in the grave. When the Lord comes back, your soul comes with him. So it says God will bring them with him and your soul and body will be reunited and you'll be raised up a incorruptible, redeemed individual.

Verse 15, For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain in the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. When the Lord comes, there'll be people still alive, walking about, God's people. Verse 16, For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a, there it is, shout.

And what's he going to say? Anybody know? Two words. Come forth. Oh, and the whole earth's going to shake, you know, and all the graves are going to open.

The children of God are coming out with a shout, with the voice of the archangel. Why the voice of the archangel? Because the archangel is responsible to reap the harvest. Matthew chapter 13 says the angels are the reapers and the archangel is going to send the angels and you're going to come up out of the grave like Lazarus.

And all of a sudden the Bible says you're going to be caught up to meet him in the air. Who's going to take you on that journey? Some of you probably thought, I'm just going to fly, you know, up to meet the Lord in the air. No, the angels are going to carry you up there.

That's going to be an interesting trip. The Bible says the angels will come and they'll reap the harvest. And so Michael, the archangel, is involved in this great resurrection.

And it also says, and with the trump of God, Matthew 24 says that the Lord is coming. He will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet. And those angels will gather together his saints.

So if you're a Christian today, there's an incredible day coming for you. Someday you're going to be laying in a grave if you're not alive when the Lord comes. And you're going to hear him say, come forth.

I think you'll recognize his voice, by the way. You'll be in that grave. I don't know what it's going to be, how he's going to do it.

It's going to open up. The ground is going to open. You're going to come up and you're going to stand and you're going to look at your body.

And you're going to say, it's perfect. I've got a new body, a redeemed body. And all of a sudden, an angel is going to take you and pick you up and snatch you up and take you to meet the Lord in the air.

It says that we're going to meet the Lord in the air. Verse 16, the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with a trump of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first.

I think they've been down there for a long time. The Lord says, you guys are coming up first. Then we which are alive will be caught up to meet him in the air.

So shall we ever be with the Lord. I don't know how high we're going to go. It says to meet him in the clouds.

Verse 17, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. And that's a comforting thing.

Verse 18, wherefore comfort one another with these words. You know, if you have a relative or any friend that's gone, has been passed away, someday they're going to come up and you're going to go with them. And all these people in Thessalonica who had passed away, all is comforting them.

Because there is coming a day of resurrection. Now, why does the Lord do that? Just briefly, why does the Lord take us out? Those who are alive, those who are dead, why does he take us off the earth and catch us up to meet him in the air? Well, the same reason that he took Noah and put him in a boat, the same reason he took Lot out of Sodom before he judges this world, he is going to remove his people from it. Jesus said, as it was in the days of Lot, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be as it was in the days of Noah.

So shall the coming of the Son of Man be. And so God got Noah out of the way before judgment came. He got Lot out of the city of Sodom before judgment came.

And so God is going to remove us before judgment comes. If you jump down to chapter 5 and verse number 9, it says, God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. So that's coming.

That's theology. That will motivate your life, it should, if you know his purposes and know his plans. And there's a lot we could talk about there.

We don't have time to do it. But I want to just briefly look at the other resurrection, the resurrection unto damnation. And that is found back in the book of Revelation.

So let's turn back there and read Revelation chapter 20. This is the resurrection you don't want to be resurrected to. I don't have time this morning to read all of these verses, but I want to look at Revelation chapter 20 here.

Verse number 5 says, but the rest of the dead live not again. The first four verses talk about God's children being raised up to meet the Lord and to live and reign with him a thousand years. But verse 5 says, but the rest of the dead, that's the lost.

That's those who are resurrected to damnation. The rest of the dead live not again until a thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power. That'd be a great thing.

You know, you're caught up to meet the Lord in the air. You don't have to worry any more about death and hell and suffering and judgment. The second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Verse 7, when the thousand years are expired, it talks about Satan being loosed out of his prison. But jump down to verse 11 because here is the resurrection of the damned or the resurrection unto judgment. Verse 11, and I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it.

From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was no, found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. Can you imagine the little Ethiopian teenage boy who had nothing, who lived in poverty, standing beside a Donald Trump? Standing beside some famous movie star, you know, small and the great, standing before God.

And the books were open. And another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books.

You know, most people want to be judged that way. You go and you knock on doors and you ask people, are you ready to meet the Lord? Are you ready to face judgment? And they say, well, I think I've done a pretty good job. I try to do the best I can.

I try to keep the commandments. Well, someday they're going to find out whether they did a good job or not. And they're going to be judged according to their works.

I used to believe, and I think Merlin shared a little bit about this this morning. I used to believe that as a young man, that someday you'd die and God would take your good works and put them on this side of the scale and your sins and your bad works on this side of the scale. And whichever one weighed the most, that's where you'd go, heaven or hell.

That was my understanding. And that's most people's understanding. Well, I'm not that bad of a person.

I'm not like that murderer. I'm not like that adulterer. I'm not like that homosexual.

I'm a pretty good person. I think my scales will probably fall to the good side. Well, they're going to be judged, it says, according to their works.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be judged according to my works. Anybody want to take that on? Probably not. You don't want to be judged according to your works.

Only one sin separated Adam from God. Only one drop of cyanide in water, if you drink it, would kill you. There is none righteous, no, not one.

You don't want to be judged according to your works. Verse 13 says, And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works.

I think it's amazing. That's amazing to me that people like the rich man in hell. You know, those who die, if you're a Christian right now, if you die today, your soul would go into the presence of God and you would be with him until he returns.

But the soul of the lost person descends into Hades. Hades is a compartment where the rich man was. Jesus talked about him in Luke 16.

And one day those people who are suffering in Hades are going to be resurrected. They're going to come up. Can you imagine the rich man coming up like, Oh, I'm out of there.

And then he's going to stand before God. And it says that Hades is going to raise the dead. And they're all going to stand before God.

What an amazing day that will be. And then they're going to be judged. You say, why doesn't God judge people when they die and just deal with them then? Here's why.

When you commit sin, maybe you're a father and you do something evil. Or maybe you're a rapist. Or maybe you're some evil person and you do evil.

We have foster children. We understand a lot of these things that parents do evil to their children. And maybe that parent dies and goes to Hades and is suffering.

The problem is that child still has to go on with that life. And the sin of those parents doesn't stop when that parent dies. The payment for that sin continues on because the ramifications of those sins continue.

So those people who the Kennedys, for example, who made money making liquor and selling liquor and putting people in bondage and the families that were ruined and that continues on to this day. Some of those sins and some of those wicked things that are done don't just end when a person dies. They continue on.

And so the Lord is going to wait till it's all over. To bring people into judgment. Here's what your sin caused.

Even after your death, your sin continued to cause problems. And so God waits until everything is over for the sins of the world to be judged completely and thoroughly. And so you see that here in this passage.

Let's keep reading. Verse 14, it says, And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now, I understand that there'll be no one there. No one there who's a child of God.

Everyone, they'll search the book of life to see if their name is there. And there will be no one there who will be found in the book of life. And they will be cast into the lake of fire.

This is the resurrection unto damnation. The resurrection unto judgment. It is called the second death.

It is the final separation. Death is separation. It is the final separation from God.

Cast them into outer darkness where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so we have two resurrections Jesus mentioned. Everybody's coming out of the grave.

One is a resurrection unto life. The other is a resurrection unto damnation. Which makes me ask this question.

If that be the case, and it is, what manner of persons ought we to be? In all holiness, in godliness. What manner of person? You say, Brother Jerry, that's just theology. I want something practical.

Well, if you get this theology in your heart, your practical life will change dramatically. Amen? If you really understand and believe that there is a resurrection coming. Of both the saved and the lost.

And I just want to read one verse in closing. Daniel talks about the resurrection. But he mentions something that I would encourage all of you in.

And this is the word of God, so you can trust it. Listen to what he says. Speaking of the resurrection, he says, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.

Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.

Hey, you want to give your life to something? Here's something good to give your life to. Turning many to righteousness. Turning many to righteousness.

It says that in the resurrection, they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever. Give a songbook there I can, here it is. If I would encourage any young person in what they can do with their life.

I would say, just look at that right there. Wise be wise, the wise will shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.

You believe that? Merlin, you don't want to know what to do with your life? There's a good one right there. Turn many to righteousness. Let's close here this morning with a Psalm 236.

I thought of this song in Daniel's words. Must I go and empty-handed? How many of you know this song? Let's close here with this song. Must I go and empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him.

Must I empty-handed go? Can you imagine standing before God without any souls? Turn to righteousness. That's what the songwriter is talking about here. Going to judgment empty-handed.

Let's sing 236. Must I go? No, that's not how it starts out. That's the chorus.

Let's go down to the chorus and then we'll come back up to the first verse. Must I go and empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him. Must I empty-handed go? Must I go and empty-handed? Thus, my dear Redeemer, me.

Not one day of service give Him. Lay no trophies at His feet. Must I go and empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him.

Must I empty-handed go? Verse number three. Oh, the years in sinning wasted. Could I but recall them now.

I would give them to my Savior. To His will I'm gladly bound. Must I go and empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him.

Must I empty-handed go? Oh, ye saints of wrath, be earnest, stop, and work while yet is day. E'er the night of death, fortake thee, strive for souls whilst still you may. Must I go and empty-handed? Must I meet my Savior so? Not one soul with which to greet Him.

Must I empty-handed go? Well, the Word of God says there's going to be a resurrection, both of the just and the unjust, and all that are in the grace are going to hear His voice. And so every one of us are going to face that, aren't we? Are you ready to hear those words come forth? And with that in mind, you know, with eternity before us, it ought to affect the way we live our day-to-day life with a broken and a contrite heart and spirit and a concern for people who are heading for destruction. And are heading for a resurrection that is not good.

So we can give our life for great purposes, greater causes than just existing and paying the bills. Does anyone want to share anything here or any before we close? Talking about the grave, it says, But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me. He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.

Oh, I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. Oh, death, I will be thy plague.

Oh, grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Art the perfect man, and behold, the upright, for the end of that man is peace.

So when we have peace with God, we can be assured that sure after, we will have peace. I had to think of the verse today where Jesus says, If we are ashamed of Him and His word in this sinful and adulterous generation, He will be ashamed to confess us before our Heavenly Father and the angels. You know, why is He bringing the angels? I believe, you know, like we heard today, because the angels are going to be the first to confess us.

reapers you know if we're ashamed of Jesus and his word he's also gonna be ashamed to confess my name before the angels when the angels come to get us you know and so let's be you know let's like we heard be wise and turn many to righteousness and not be ashamed of his word because if we are Jesus will not confess your name before the angels when they return the resurrection is a wonderful subject first printed 15 talks about it very much in detail and the last verse is one of my favorite in first Corinthians 15 does anybody know that one by heart first Corinthians 15 58 there therefore my beloved brethren is steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord that comes at the end of the resurrection passage labor turn people to righteousness before the judgment comes anybody else I just something that I was thinking about a lot as far as water salvation is you know and said that the works of God is to believe in Jesus and that is so true for salvation and so what is that salvation and and so we fell from God and we sinned and Adam's in the first place and so that salvation is to to get us back into the relationship with God and in walking in in righteousness so if we have that desire that's I believe how a brother came to