Sophia your catechism question this week is children's catechism number 140 What becomes of men at death and the answer is the body returns to dust and the soul goes into the world of spirits Now originally when Adam was created in knowledge righteousness and holiness. He was not designed for his body to return to dust this world and his body which was made from this world and for use in this world, were designed to continue forever. However, when Adam sinned, not only was the ground cursed on account of his sin, but he was cursed with the punishment, dust you are and to dust you shall return. And so this happens to Everyone who dies, not everyone will die. The apostle writes to the Thessalonians to tell you the truth, not all will sleep, but all will be changed. And Elijah was translated directly into glory, and Enoch was translated directly into glory, and we presume that they were given resurrection bodies at the time. We're not sure what sort of body Moses appeared with at the moment of transfiguration because he did die and he did return to dust. But everyone who dies, their body returns to dust. Now for the unbeliever, this is a very dreadful thing. because when his body returns to dust, his body becomes unclothed, or his spirit, rather, becomes unclothed with the body. Even the Apostle Paul, when he is talking about death and desiring it and it being better, he says he doesn't desire death so that his spirit would be unclothed with the body, but so that it would be further clothed with the presence of Christ, the bodily presence of Christ. Where Jesus is in what scripture calls the third heaven and would ordinarily, I think, be considered part of what our catechism answer sloppily calls the world of spirits. When your spirit goes to be in the presence of Christ, it's better for your soul, to be near the bodily presence of Christ than it was even for your soul to be clothed with your earthly body. And so that's not frightening for the believer when his body returns to dust. And that does mean his soul is not gonna be clothed with his body for a while, but his soul is clothed with the presence of Christ, even the bodily presence of Christ in the third heaven in glory. But his body returns to dust. It's dreadful for the unbeliever. Because for the unbeliever, when his body returns to dust, his soul is unbodied and not in the presence of Christ as further clothing for his soul. And so his soul is made naked and he is dehumanized to a great extent. And in the world of spirits, to which the soul of the unbeliever goes, it can only go to a place of torment. It cannot go to a place where God is known favorably and his favorable presence is communicated, like the third heaven for believers. And we see in scripture the souls of believers under the altar in Revelation chapter 6 and the fifth seal, and we see the souls of believers that come to life and reign later in the book of Revelation, and we see the souls of the just made perfect who are participating in the worship and glory of Hebrews chapter 12. So there's lots of comfort about where the souls of believers are and what the souls of believers are doing, but the souls of unbelievers, the souls of those who die without Christ, they do not have a place in any of those comfortable places, and they do not have a part in any of those comfortable and blessed and happy activities. Rather, they go to a place of torment and begin already to experience the enmity of God. And the scripture just does not tell us enough. It may, in fact, be that they already experience the unmitigated glory of God, the undiluted glory of God upon them as enemies, in which case it would be perfectly appropriate to say that the soul of the unbeliever goes to hell already before the resurrection. There's going to be a bodily resurrection. There's going to be the casting of body and soul into hell. Those who die without Christ are going to experience not just upon their soul, but physically They will experience the enmity of God and the brilliance of God's glory forever, which is, I could say, the most grievous thing you can think of, but in one sense, you can't actually think of or imagine what that is going to be like. But the body returns to dust for a time, because the bodies of the just and the bodies of the unjust, the bodies of those who are made righteous with God in Christ, and so they are just or justified, and the bodies of the unjust, those who remain in themselves and are not right with God and have God an enemy because they are outside of Christ. They're not justified. Both bodies return to dust and both the bodies of both return to dust and the bodies of both will be resurrected in the last day. So the body returns to dust and the soul goes into the world of spirits and the world of spirits is actually a more real and more vast and more significant than the physical or material world. Physical material world was created for us, created for good, as good gifts for us, created as a domain in which we being also created to have physical bodies could image God in a way and could serve God and enjoy his goodness. And yet, the spiritual world is actually more real and more substantial. It's difficult for us to think that way because we tend to test what is real by what we can see, touch, taste, smell, hear by our senses, which is completely foolish because it makes us the standard or the basis of what is real of reality. But the spiritual world is actually more real and all you have to remember in order to overrule that natural reflex of thinking that what is invisible is less real is to remember that God is invisible. Is God less real or more real than we are? Or that the spiritual world is more real, all you have to do is remember God is spirit and has not a body like men. And remembering those things should help us remember that the spirit world is actually more real, not less real. that the reason the physical world has reality is actually derived from God, who is spirit, and who is invisible, and the reality of the physical world, then, is dependent upon him, just as the reality of the spiritual world is dependent upon him as well. He has existence in himself, but even in the spiritual world, which is more real than the material world, all the creatures, the spiritual creatures, are continuously upheld by the word of his power. They are contingent beings. They are dependent beings. So it's helpful for us to think about what becomes of men at death so that we'll be cured of our obsessive focus on the material over against the spiritual. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? But those who think little of their souls and spiritual things spend their lives running after gaining the whole world and they profit themselves nothing. So this is a good question and answer for you to think about and remember. Praise God, the body returning to dust, even for the believer, is called in scripture, falling asleep. We already quoted from what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed. Even the believers who were taking the Lord's Supper in the wrong way and They died as a way of disciplining them so that they wouldn't bring themselves under more judgment. 1 Corinthians 11 are said to have fallen asleep. What happens to the bodies of believers at death in scripture is described as falling asleep. Your soul does not fall asleep. Your soul still prays to God and rules with Christ, participates in the worship and glory. It is, in a way, even more active and conscious than it ever was during your time in this world. So when it talks about falling asleep, do not think it means becoming unconscious or less active. Rather, when it talks about believers falling asleep, it's referring to what happens to the body of a believer. That that decay and corruption that are terrifying to the natural man, for the believer, are a time of resting and refreshment. Although that resting and refreshment does come with a decomposition of your body, and perhaps the spreading of its particles if you happen to be buried at sea or some other way, and yet, It is a sleep because when your body rises up out of that bed, quote unquote, it will be restored to a resurrection body, not restored, created new to be a resurrected body that corresponds to Jesus's resurrected body. And so while we get very tired by the end of the day and our bodies need to sleep, not just our minds, our bodies need to sleep to be restored. You have never had such a sleep score as you would get on the morning of the resurrection to find out the level of physical rejuvenation that you get in the resurrection. You don't get any REM, though, in the grave because your soul does not sleep. There are people who talk about something called soul sleep, but it's a lie. It's an error that they teach. The soul does not sleep at death. the soul is made more awake at death than it has ever been before. And so you very, very much want to belong to the Lord Jesus so that your body rests in the grave when it returns to dust. And so that your soul will immediately pass into glory and enjoy the Lord Jesus being more awake than it ever has been. So the question is, what becomes of men at death? And the answer is the body returns to dust and the soul goes into the world of spirits.