What happens when we die

Heaven is a beautiful place.

Amen.

Come on, you can do better than that.

How many of you believe heaven is a beautiful place this morning?

Amen.

And then we want to welcome you to CCW Live right here in what?

Little Westover.

So what somebody said, Westover?

You mean there's a church in Westover?

I said, not only a church, it's a light set on a hill that can't be hid in the things that God, we're beginning to be the talk of the town.

Everybody's beginning to come and start checking the building out.

So it's uh exciting.

I keep praying that hopefully we're we're trying everything we can to be in by Easter.

So you be praying with us, and uh but uh God's timing.

But uh I don't know about you, but listen, I've we've had some very special birthdays in the last few days.

And so one of those being my sweet wife, she told me she turned 35, and that's as old as she's gonna get.

She didn't say that.

I didn't I said that.

Actually, I've been telling her, come on, honey, catch up with me.

We gotta get in the 60s.

Because, see, when we're playing pickleball as a couple and we do that and enjoy doing that, I always have to go down to the 50s, and that makes me work harder.

So I'm trying to tell her, hurry up and get in the 60s so we can whoop them all.

Amen.

But uh also Miss Christy Wilson had a birthday.

I think Michelle, is Michelle here?

She's working with the kids.

I think that, yes, she had a big birthday party.

David, I tell you what, everybody's had a birthday, or your wife, stand up.

Come on, everybody stand up.

And David, sorry, we missed Michelle's party last.

Wait a minute, keep standing, we're gonna sing.

Hey, sorry, we missed.

I was in Tennessee having a birthday party with Susan with our kids.

So, uh, but we've got some special people, and Deedra, uh our mission's director, she's speaking somewhere.

Uh she's she uh yeah, I guess she is speaking somewhere, Brazil.

But uh we were back at their house last weekend with uh another missionary couple.

So but anyway, let's sing happy birthday.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, bless you, happy birthday to you, all right.

All right, amen.

Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Luke chapter 16.

Luke 16 · chapter mention

And for you that are watching online, I'm telling you what, I'm getting so excited about our ministry online that it's unbelievable.

I'm uh I've got students, uh, in fact, I had a student yesterday after my five-minute little video, uh Facebook uh devotion.

How many of you have been watching that on Saturday morning?

Coffee with the Preacher.

Well, you got, or watch it later during the week, because by the end of the week we're having over 500 watched that have watched it.

But um I I had a student that undoubtedly he just befriended me and and uh he watched it yesterday, and then he called when he texts me and said, uh, I'm about to to the point now, text like a call.

Because now more people are texting you than calling you, which I kind of like that, to be honest with you.

But I don't get to talk as much when I'm texting, but that's okay.

But and some of you said, Amen, right?

But but anyway, so he called me and said, Pastor Danny, I've been trying to find you.

He said, God woke me up last night and said to whatever Dr.

Lovett's involved in, you need to get involved.

And then he said, I went back to sleep.

So no, no, no, no.

I hadn't seen him in 25 years, 30 years.

So woke him up again.

He said, it's got to do with some kind of evangelistic work, whatever that.

Now, if anybody knows me, anything I'm involved in is evangelistic work.

So, long story short, he texts me, I texted back what we're doing with the building, the soccer fields and ice cream truck.

And so he texted me back and he said, I want to give a donation of$300 toward what you're doing, Pastor.

So isn't that precious?

Isn't that precious?

But that just goes to show you, and he's in uh Montana, and uh, just all over how we're watching right now, and every Saturday morning, I always encourage people.

In fact, uh the word for the week yesterday was, and you're gonna hear some of that this morning, let not your heart be troubled.

And so today we're starting our new series last week, and today we're looking at what happens when people die.

Now, a lot of people believe that what happens, and by the way, does everybody have an outline?

And okay, good.

Everybody's got one, and you got notes on the back, because I usually give you a lot more than just those little blanks to fill in.

And online, you can go online, right?

The you that are online right now, and you too can uh fill in those blanks and get ready.

I'm so excited about this new series because I'm gonna try to answer in the next six weeks as about a the most common questions asked about heaven.

Now, there was, and I love this, I found a cute little story.

There was an this happened in the Indian cemetery, and it has a tombstone more than 100 years old with the following epithet on it.

Listen what it says.

Paul's stranger, when you pass me by.

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so you will be.

Prepare for death and follow me.

Some wise person came along and added this thought beneath the poem.

To follow you, I'm not content until I know which way you went.

Is that not true?

And then I got to thinking about it, and I was as I was researching and studying, I found this too.

Can you believe this?

There is an organization called Afterlife Telegrams.

Yeah, Afterlife Telegrams that for a charge they will deliver your message to a deceased person.

Now, how do they do that?

They do this by hiring a terminally ill patient to promise to deliver the message when they get to the other side.

Now, wait, it gets better.

However, you always have to read the fine print, folks.

However, in the fine print on their agreement, they say delivery is not guaranteed.

Because no one actually knows what happened when someone dies.

Well, whoever wrote that undoubtedly doesn't know the truth of the word of God.

Because the Bible very clearly tells us what happens when someone dies.

In fact, everyone wants to know what happens to people when they die.

In fact, they hear what they say.

Where?

Where are they?

How are they?

But that's not just a common day question.

Even back in Paul's day, in 1 Thessalonians 4.13, which is one of the scriptures I put up on the I put on your outline, listen to what Paul said.

Paul wrote to the Thessalonian Christians, and here's what he said, that you and I would not be ignorant.

In other words, don't think that there's no heaven.

Don't think that there's no hell.

He says, don't be ignorant concerning those who have fallen asleep.

Now, that word means death.

And the same word, falling asleep, Jesus used to describe Lazarus in John 11, 11.

Dr.

Luke, who we're going to be looking at the story that he tells us about this morning, describes Stephen's death as falling asleep in Acts 7, verse 60.

Acts 7:60

And then Paul describes the death of David in the Old Testament the same way in Acts 13, verse 36, when he's talking about David and how David, a man after God's own heart, has fulfilled the will of God, and then he fell asleep.

Acts 13:36

When people ask, where is my loved ones now?

Following the death of that loved one, they are not asking where the body that they've just put in the grave is.

They're talking about their soul, their spirit.

Where are they?

Where do they go?

They're asking about the soul, the true being.

So the Bible has the answer, and it's illustrated clearly in a story that Dr.

Luke writes about, and this story is a powerful story.

In fact, the story takes place before the resurrection and the ascension of Christ.

So basically, you could kind of categorize it before the death and resurrection of Christ, or as we're going to look at where people go, death of people prior to the resurrection and ascension of Christ.

And a lot of you thought, well, what happened to the Christians in the Old Testament?

What happened to those that were lost in the Old Testament when they died?

Where did they go?

Well, we're going to look at that.

We're going to see that.

So, first of all, in your outline, the first thing we want to look at this morning is two people.

In Luke 16, we have Jesus' story of two men, a rich man and a poor man.

And boy, is this not really good.

Hang on.

Starting at verse 19.

And look at what it says.

And by the way, a lot of people, let me go ahead and clarify that.

A lot of people believe this is nothing more than a parable.

Out of all the parables that Jesus, which I don't believe it was a parable, I believe it's a story.

I believe the people that are involved are real.

And the reason I believe that it's not a parable, because in all the parables Jesus wrote, he never used people's names.

Or, hey, actions of people.

But in this one, he tells us exactly who the people are, and exactly how they lived, and exactly what happened to them after they died.

So we pick up the story.

Verse 19.

There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.

Now, in other words, lived each day in luxury.

Can you imagine?

Now listen to me.

Listen to me, folks.

It literally means that this man had any and everything he wanted every day of his life.

Now some of them say, woohoo! Hey, count me in.

That's the life I want.

Well, hang on.

Hear the whole story and then decide.

And then verse 20.

But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his at his gate.

Whose gate?

The rich man.

The rich man.

Now that's important because the rich man every day had an opportunity to be a blessing to Lazarus.

Every day.

You know what I thought when I thought about that thought?

You know what I thought when I thought about that thought?

That's pretty good.

Here's what I thought.

Every day, how many times do we pass by and have an opportunity to be a blessing to people and we walk right by?

I don't know about you, that's convicting to me.

He was full of sores, who was laid at the gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.

Now, now listen to me.

One thing I want you to get in your mind.

Don't think because he's poor, he was blessed.

That's not really the context here.

The context is that God, Lazarus, was a godly man.

He had fallen on unfortunate things, undoubtedly, no doubt about it.

He had no family, he had no place to go.

I mean, he was homeless.

But listen, there's a point you gotta understand here, folks.

Just because, and by the way, back in Jesus' time, they really believed somebody like Lazarus wasn't even a Christian.

They had done something.

They must be committed some major sin or done something majorly wrong against Jehovah.

So they're poor and they're homeless and all that.

But I see, thank God though this story, because that's not the case.

Listen, in fact, Jesus said, the poor you'll have with you always.

And that's why I think he so vehemently said that we're to we that are blessed ought to take care of those that are poor.

And by the way, guess what?

If the church did its job, we wouldn't need welfare.

Can I get an amen?

But here we see the setting.

You got a very wealthy man that does not know Christ.

You got a poor man that does know Christ.

And he, but the here's it's not being poor and rich, that's not it.

It's whether or not you know Jesus Christ.

That's the issue.

And we see the contrast.

The rich man was covered in purple and fine linen, and the poor man, Lazarus, was covered with sores.

The rich man had anything he wanted, Lazarus was begging.

The rich man looked fared sumptuously while Lazarus, hey, lived on crumbs.

The rich man had many servants, and Lazarus had only the dogs to lick his sores.

So that was their contrast in life.

Now let's look at another contrast.

Look at the contrast in death that we just read about in verse 22.

From the story we gathered, look at it.

Lazarus dies first as a poor man.

His body was perhaps buried either in one or two places, maybe in the potter's field, which we know in Matthew 27, 7, talks about the potter's field was for people to be buried that nobody knew who they were, or it could have been in the valley and most likely in the valley of Gehenna.

Outside there was a huge valley, a big dump.

Huge.

And it was a place where they threw all the dead animals, all the dead carcasses.

They threw all the just any and every rotten thing, the animals and even bodies of people or babies.

So when you came even within what, a mile of that place, or maybe even more, if the wind's blowing, it was this horrible stitch.

Or he was buried in less hope, maybe buried in the potter's field.

I think it would have been a little more decent than just going over there and grabbing a body and just throwing them in.

And then the rich man dies, and there's no doubt he probably had a funeral unbelievable.

Back then, listen.

If even if they weren't even liked, most of the time they would pay what they call criers to go to the funerals.

All the leading Roman leaders always did it because they knew nobody was going to be crying on their own.

Hello.

It was the best of the best, had his own tomb to be placed in.

Thousands of dollars.

Thousands.

And notice, here's what I wanted you to see.

The dump outside the city of Jerusalem possibly was where Lazarus went, his body, but his person, now look at verse 22.

Woohoo! Was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom.

Folks, let me encourage you right now.

When you die, your soul is not by itself.

When you die, hey, God's angels come and take you to paradise, to heaven.

Is this not comforting?

In fact, I love this.

I love the point.

And Psalms 48.14 says, God is, listen, our God forever and ever.

Psalms 48.14, you want to make sure you have that down.

Hey, he is our guide even through death.

Is that not good?

You don't have to be afraid of death.

Why?

God's gonna guide you.

God's gonna have his angels to take you home.

Can I get a good amen?

And that's good, folks.

That's why, out of 40 years of ministry, I've been by the bedside of those that died with the Lord and without.

And there's no comparison.

I when I'm with those that are are, should I say, have an unbelievable relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, there's such a peaceful dying.

But when I'm with the lost, everybody's just they're just hysterical.

You know why?

They have no peace.

They don't have that peace that passes all understanding.

They don't know.

They don't have a clue where they're going, and then if they think about it much, they say, well, if what little bit I've heard, he's not saved, he's in hell, so they just lose it.

So two men died, one disposed of as human debris, while the other was buried with a grand funeral.

They were different in life, they were different in death.

Now, watch this.

And now we see the most important difference of all.

Their difference in eternity.

Now, watch this.

Verses 22 through 31, the rest of the chapter.

This is so good.

Before the ascension of Christ into heaven, now just follow me.

This is gonna be good.

Following his resurrection from the dead, there was a place where the souls of the departed went at death.

That's including the Old Testament saints as well as the old the Old Testament righteous people and the old testament unrighteous people.

And in this place, they call it, some people call it a compartment in the lower parts of the earth.

Some even try to take the word Hades, which it's used here, and and say Hades was the compartment where they had two places, and in between it was the guff fix that we're about to read about, okay?

That that could not cross over.

And let me go ahead and I'm gonna end up and I'll finish it with let me go ahead and throw that out because I want everybody listening to be thinking about this.

There is no purgatory, it's not a biblical term, it's not in the Bible.

There's no way that you can intercede for somebody that's already dead, supposedly in a safe place or in this place, and pray them out of Hades into paradise.

It cannot be done.

Here it is, right here.

But I wanted to go ahead and deal with that, and I'll finish, I'll explain a little bit more about that toward the end.

But right here, look at it.

There were three divisions in this place, or compartments.

Some call it a compartment in the earth.

Abraham's bosom, the great gush fix between Abraham's bosom, and also Abraham's bosom was known as paradise, and Hades, the place of torment.

Now, Lazarus, following his death, look at it, went to a place, Abraham's bosom, of comfort, love, and companionship.

And we're going to prove that here in a minute.

The place of torment was also called Hades, and it was the abode of the unrighteous dead, verse 23.

And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off in Lazarus in his bosom.

The place of torment was for the unrighteous dead.

This is where the rich man went in Jesus' story.

And the word Hades is high.

Well, it's almost like Hades.

Hades is a Greek word.

It means the grave.

It means hell.

It means a dark, dismal place in the depths of the earth.

That's the meaning of Hades.

So we see Lazarus in eternity, verses 20, at verse 22, when he first says, hey, the angels just took him into heaven.

The angels carried him to Abraham's bosom.

Again, this is another term for paradise, the place where the souls and the spirits of the Old Testament saints went when they died.

Remember, this is an Old Testament story.

This is good.

That precedes the death, the resurrection, and ascension of Christ.

So the Lazarus went to paradise, the place of comfort, love, and companionship.

Now I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me.

Hello?

Love, companionship, joy, happiness.

Sign me up.

But now notice the rich man in eternity.

This is gonna get us.

The rich man did not fare so well.

The place to which he went was a place of misery.

23.

And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

Verse 24, then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.

Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I'm tormented in these flames.

Oh my goodness.

Verse 25, but Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted.

And you are tormented.

Man, that's the word torment three times in four verses.

And you, the word tormented there means unbearable pain.

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gut fix, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.

Who in the world wants to come from paradise to hell anyway?

Hello, you okay out there?

That was hmm.

So, watch this.

Look at it.

Verses 23 and 24.

We just read them.

Look, here is a place of misery.

Fill it in in your blank.

It's a place of misery, folks.

Oh, this is one of the clear scriptures in the Bible that the abode of the unrighteous dead is, hey, in a place of flames.

Verse 24.

The rich man, look, begs, Father Abraham, please send Lazarus and he can go and just dip his tip of, hey, his finger in the tip of water and just give me just a tip.

Just a little finger so that I could taste it.

Unbelievable, folks.

Lazarus and the rich man I see here have exchanged places of death.

The rich man in life has become now.

Are you ready for this?

This is this is not good, but it is good.

They've swapped places.

Now the rich man becomes the beggar.

In this earth, he was the rich man.

In eternity, he's the beggar.

In the earth and in the world, are you ready for this?

You're ready for this?

Lazarus was the beggar, but now in eternity, he's the rich man.

Now, if I have a choice, I think, I don't think.

I know.

I'd rather be the poor man on earth than the rich man in heaven.

Hello.

Amen.

And if that doesn't help you to understand the fight and the tug-of-war that goes on, are you ready?

Listen, oh, this is so good.

Hey, here, listen, that's why Satan wants us to fall into the trap of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and for us to chase, as I told you last week, to chase the wine, hey, the women and the well.

Because he knows, listen, he knows if he can do that, he's gonna keep you from radically selling out to the Lord Jesus Christ and separating yourself from worldliness, and he knows if he can do that, he's got you.

Just like he had the rich man.

You say, Well, how do you know which one you are?

Let me tell you what God gave me.

The rich man had every day had the opportunity to be a blessing to Lazarus, and he chose not to.

When we choose not to be a blessing, and to love Christ and love people, the great two commandments, and on both of those you can hang all the rest.

Love the Lord thy God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength.

And then the second is like unto those love your brother as yourself.

That's our verses, that's our four.

Hey, that's the foundation of this church.

That's our proposition.

When we walk by those opportunities, and all you do is live for the world, folks.

I'm gonna tell you, you may have said a prayer, you may have even been baptized, but I've got news for you.

You cannot claim to be a Christian if you don't walk in the likeness and compassion and the love of Christ.

That's hard preaching, I know it is.

But I'm telling you, we're living in hard times right now.

And it's time somebody tell you the truth.

But now watch.

Not only is it a place of misery, number two, it's a place of memory.

This is, let me tell you the worst torment.

And I I'm not gonna go into uh the worms, the maggots.

I've got a message on hell.

Rick's got a message.

I may let Rick preach that message on hell.

But I've got a I've got a message on hell that I used to would tell people in my revivals.

I'm not gonna, I'm pre-warning you.

On Wednesday night I'd close out revivals, I'm preaching the message on hell.

Is hell real?

And I'd go to this story.

And I'd say, I don't want you to come here.

Hey, I don't want you to be here and think that I'm pre-warning you this is gonna be, you know, they you say, hell and fire, hell and fire, brimstone preaching.

Well, guess what?

Wednesday night, gonna be hell fire, brimstone preaching.

So don't even come.

Or let me challenge you that don't believe in hell, come.

You're listening to a story of a man, a rich man that died and went to hell, and a poor man that died and went to heaven.

This, hey, heaven's real.

Hell is real.

Now watch.

This is unreal.

What's gonna be all the flames, the high, the cotton mouth, all those characteristics, and God let me go to an emergency room where a woman had almost been burned to death.

And and the preacher, when I told him, he said, You're preaching on hail Wednesday night, let me take you, I want you to visit a lady that said she went to hell and came back.

And I visited that lady in the hospital.

She had and and the nurse, he said, You need to talk to Sarah, the nurse that was there with her in the emergency room that night.

And she said, While I was trying to, you know, calm her down, giving her mess and so, I mean, she was third third-degree burns all over her body.

She had uh fallen into a big fire pit, really.

It was terrible.

But but the long story short, she said we were there, and as we were trying to help her all of a sudden, she just sit, she she she sat straight up and said, Ah, I don't want to go to hell! I don't want to go to hell, I don't want to go to hell, and then she passed out.

I walked out of there.

I was scared.

So when I met with her, she said, Pastor, I saw the flames and I saw the torment.

Needless to say, she got saved.

If I could open the chasm of hell and let you get one glimpse, that's all it would take.

How do you know?

That's what the rich man did once he got saved.

I mean, once he went to hell, he said, ah, please, Lazarus ghost tell my brothers.

So that they don't have to come to this horrible place.

It's a place of memory.

Look at verse 25.

Oh, folks, here's the most, here's the worst torment of hell, I'm convinced.

I mean, all the others, maggots eating at your body and all that, and it's pitch dark, the flames are burning you.

But now, watch this.

Look at verse 25.

Look at verse 25.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received the good things.

Likewise, Lazarus, evil things, but now he is comforted, and you are tormented.

Look at it.

Look at it.

Look at the memory there.

Lazarus is comforted, he is tormented.

Now, here's what I believe.

I believe that this rich man definitely remembered the opportunities he had to be blessed by Lazarus and to come to know Christ as Lord and Savior.

You say, oh, oh, oh, oh, wait a minute, I preach.

God is too just to send anybody to hell.

I agree.

I agree with that.

I agree totally, absolutely, a hundred percent.

God is too just to send anybody to hell.

And by the way, let me help you first.

He doesn't send anyone to hell.

You make that choice, and he is just every day.

This rich man had an opportunity to get saved and to be a blessing to Lazarus.

How many times do you think he walked by Lazarus?

Every day.

Is that not a just God?

Hello.

But the tragedy is he's gonna give you ample opportunity, time and time again.

Even if you happen to be a thief on the cross about to die, he gives you an opportunity before you die.

Don't you ever tell me God's not a just God, he's a merciful God.

So here we see, listen.

He cries out, oh, he's remembering all that.

And he's, hey, go send Lazarus.

Why do you think he sent Lazarus?

Let me ask something.

This is good.

Why do you think he said send Lazarus?

Because I believed Lazarus told him about Jesus every time he saw him.

I think he told him well about God, Jehovah.

I really believe that.

But now watch.

Memory.

Memory.

But number three, it's a place of mourning.

Look at verses 27 through 31.

It's a place of mourning.

Misery, memory, mourning.

The rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus to the rich man's family.

Hey, hey, he begs him.

The rich man begs him to send to.

But Abraham says, now watch what he says.

In verses 27 through 30, he said, uh-uh.

He won't listen.

He won't even listen to somebody that returns from the dead.

And then here's what he says.

Don't you miss this?

This is powerful.

And here's in verses 16 that the end of the chapter, listen to what he says.

And Abraham said unto them, they had Moses, verse 29, the prophets, let them hear them.

And he said, Nay, Father Abraham, but if one goes from the dead, they will surely repent.

He said, Uh-uh.

If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded that one rose from the dead.

In other words, he said, There's nothing more powerful than the preaching of the Word of God.

What you're hearing right now is truth that will pierce your heart and save your soul.

The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any to a sword piercing even to the dividing of the soul and the spirit and of the joints and of the mirror.

And it's in this is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4, 16.

Wow.

So, watch this.

Two people.

The contrast of two people.

The contrast in life and death and eternity.

Now we want to look at two places.

We've talked about the two people.

Now let's look at the two places where they went.

An immediate hell, Hades.

Hades is not the ultimate eternal hell, though, where unbelievers will reside, but is an intermediate hell and the time, hey, until the time of the great white throne judgment.

Revelation says that death and Hades are delivered up.

They deliver up the dead who were in them, and they were judged.

So when a person dies today without knowing Christ, that person's body goes into the grave, and his soul and spirit goes to Hades.

After the judgment of the great white throne judgment, then we see they are all cast into the lake of fire forever, which is the word there, Gehenna.

Well, that's a synonym for it.

So people ask me all the time if I believe hell is forever.

Because there's some denominations that believe in a thing that people go to hell, but they are in hell.

Okay?

And they're in torment until they pay for all their sins, and then they're able to be released and go to paradise.

That's not true.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

It says once you're in Hades, you cannot cross over, folks, and then hell's no more for them.

Well, I got news for you.

Just like heaven is forever, hell is forever.

You gotta understand that, folks.

You gotta understand that.

So, hell is what the Bible says.

Hey, it is, and that's what it is forever.

So, what about an intermediate heaven?

Paradise.

Just as there is an intermediate hell, is there an immediate heaven?

Well, the safe place, they call it, before the resurrection of Christ.

And let me say that.

Every believer who died, I wrote this out so I make sure I got it right, because this can be very confusing.

Every believer who died before Christ ascended to heaven, before Christ ascended to heaven, went to paradise.

But when Jesus ascended to the Father, Acts 1.9, things changed in the eternal destiny of the righteous dead.

Now watch this.

Ephesians 4, 8 and 10 says, this is after, actually, this is during the resurrection.

Before he ascended, okay?

He went, he descended.

He went into this safe place, this paradise.

Notice what it says.

Therefore he says, when he ascended on high, in other words, after he had descended and he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.

Now, he ascended.

What does it mean?

But that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth.

He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.

Here it is.

When Jesus ascended to heaven after his resurrection, he went to paradise, gathered all those believers who were there, and took them with him to paradise, to the third heaven, 2 Corinthians 12, 2 through 4, which we saw last week.

That's what he did.

When Jesus was on the cross, he told the thief who believed in him, Asurely I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

Paul equates paradise with the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12, 2 through 4.

Therefore, paradise today is the third heaven where Jesus Christ is in the presence of God.

Now watch this, and we saw that.

The north section somewhere up there.

So we have established that when believers died, their bodies go to the grave where they await the resurrection of the body at the rapture, and they are raised to meet Christ in the air, 1 Thessalonians 4, 6 through 17.

But then here's the question.

Ha ha! This is a tough one.

But what form do they take in the interim?

If we're gonna get a body, a new body at the resurrection, the question is, those that are in heaven now, what do they look like?

Or do they even have a body?

Okay?

Let me give you my research.

Let me tell you what I think.

First of all, I do think they have some kind of body.

Now I'm not sure it's the new body.

Or maybe it could be.

Now, this is one of those things we don't know.

I can't I can't think.

Well, listen, you and I can't think like God.

Well, we do in the new resurrection body.

But wait a minute.

I know.

Let me get there.

I'm going.

Just hang on.

But I do know what I just said.

I'm not sure it's the new body.

Now, for me, I kind of think it might already be the new body.

But then people argue with me because what is it about the resurrection?

1 Thessalonians 4, 17 through 18.

Now don't start thinking about that yet.

Just listen to what I'm saying.

Then you can think about it.

So I know there's some kind of form there.

Whether it's a new body or an immediate body, then we get the real body.

I don't know.

God, you say, that's too deep for me.

But I do know that they know each other.

Why?

Watch.

The rich man knew Lazarus.

Amen.

He knew Lazarus.

And my wife's a lot smarter than I.

She said, well, it could have been the spirits know each other.

See, that gets way into my.

I can't think that way.

But they could.

I don't know.

God can do anything he wants to.

All I know is the rich man knew who Lazarus was.

Can I get an amen?

Okay?

And I got more proof.

Are you ready?

Got more proof.

Matthew 22, 31 through 32, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were alive and existing as individuals by their names.

Hello?

You okay out there?

Matthew 17, Peter, James, and John recognize Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration.

All I'm saying is, folks, is that heaven and hell is a place of memory.

Hey, and not only is it a place of memory, we have the knowledge of people.

We are able to talk, not to those people, but we're able to talk to Father Abraham.

Where I mean it just blows my mind.

But here's the point.

You're gonna know.

That you're in the presence of Jesus.

That's all that matters.

Can I get an amen?

You're gonna know that.

You're gonna know as you're known.

That's exciting.

But here's the sad thing.

If you go to hell, you're gonna know that you had the opportunity.

I had one theologian tell me, he said, what's gonna be the torment of hell is when they're able to look up into paradise and to heaven and see all the loved ones in heaven and they're in hell.

Now I don't know if that's gonna be able to do that or not.

I don't know that.

To me, that would literally be hell.

I don't know.

But what I do know, there is a hell.

And what I do know, when you die, you either go to heaven or you go to hell.

And once you go, it's decided you can't pray your way out of hell.

There is no purgatory.

So that leads me to the two principles.

To go with the two people in the two places we've discussed there only, there's two principles that help to simplify what seems like a complex scenario that I just said.

One, the priority of the presence of Jesus.

Oh, Lazarus.

Hey, he was with Jesus, and that's what he meant.

Oh, and I really believe this with all my heart.

Paul said, and how do we know when we die we're there?

Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Can I get an amen?

2 Corinthians 5, 8.

And remember what Paul said in Philippians 1, 23, 24.

And remember he's the one that was taken to the third heavens.

He was taken to where Jesus is, the paradise, that third heaven.

Remember what he said to the Philippians?

Here's what he said.

Hey, when Paul wrote to the Philippians, he didn't say he was hard-pressed between wanting to be with the Philippians or going to heaven.

He said he was hard-pressed between being with the Philippians and being with Jesus.

The priority is not being in heaven, it's being with Christ.

Can I get an amen?

Wherever heaven is, and as long as Christ is there, I'm in.

It wasn't heaven that saves us, it's Jesus.

It isn't heaven that's coming again to get us, it's Jesus.

The Lord Himself should descend from heaven.

And in thy presence there's fullness of joy.

Can I get an amen?

I love what Jesus said in the first Thessalonians part in the end of 17.

He says, it's fine to know that what, when, where, why, and even how, but the most important to know is who Jesus is.

Listen to what Baxter said.

Richard Baxter, a theologian, said it this way.

My knowledge of the life of that life, talking about afterlife, my knowledge of that life is small.

The eye of faith is dim, but is enough that Christ knows all, and I shall be with him.

Is that not good?

Wow.

Jesus said, if you listen to the word for the weekend, here's the two things you got to know.

Now don't miss this.

Here's the two things you got to know.

Romans 14.

In my Father's.

But say we usually start there.

It's kind of like Romans 8.28.

You've got to say the whole verse.

What does Jesus say at the very beginning?

Let not your heart be troubled.

Okay?

The word for the week is let not your heart be troubled.

Say it with me, church.

Let not my heart be troubled.

Say it again.

Let not my heart be troubled.

Why?

For in my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am you may be also.

Now you've got to realize the context there.

One, Judas had just betrayed him or was going to betray him.

Two, Peter was going to deny him three times.

And three, he had just told him that he had to go to Jerusalem, and there he was going to be beaten, hey, and then crucified and died.

And Thomas blew a gasket.

He said, Oh no, you can't do it.

That's not what we thought.

No, no, no.

He said, Where are you really going?

He said, Thomas, Thomas.

Where I'm going, you already know where I'm going.

And then he said, I am the way, the truth, the life.

If any man comes unto the Father, he has to come through me.

And you are.

So, Thomas, let me tell you why I'm going away.

I'm preparing a place for you.

Folks, let me tell you why you don't have to worry about dying.

If you're saved and you know Christ, He is preparing a place for you.

And remember what we said last week.

It's kind of like a you check in a big hotel and all your friends.

He's preparing a place for you.

And here's the second perspective.

Not only is he preparing a place, you'll be with him in person.

I, me, the Lord, shall descend.

He shall take you home.

You have a place and you have the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that you'll be with for eternity.

Now, that also tells me why I know heaven's not going to be boring.

Because any life lived for Jesus is not boring.

You say, Well, I don't know about that.

No, uh-uh.

If you are saved and you and you're not living a fulfilled, powerful, exciting life, and I'm going to tell you something.

You're a carnal Christian.

Or you're not a Christian.

Because spirit-filled people, whether they're rich or whether they're poor, hey, they're living a fulfilled life.

Amen.

Is that not good, folks?

Is that not good?

Well, the last thing, and I'm through.

The permanence of a personal decision.

Look at verse 26.

Here it is.

There it is.

And besides all this, between us and you, there is a gul fix.

So that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.

A guth, great guff fix.

The decision we make about eternity has to be made in this life.

There will be no crossing from one side to the other after death.

There's no such place as purgatory where we can earn our way into heaven.

The Bible says, and it is appointed unto man, listen, wants to die, and after this, what?

The judgment.

Hebrews 9 27.

And Paul put it this way.

2 Corinthians 6.2.

Behold, now's the time.

Behold, now's the day of salvation.

Right now.

Hey, look at it.

Look at me.

Right now, folks.

Teenagers, look at me.

Right now.

Right now.

When you take that final breath, it's too late.

It's over.

Now.

Behold, now is the time.

Every head bow, every eye.