Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, years ago when Mrs. Finessen and I started to talk about going for a week to Manitoba where Joan and Derek were living, we were thinking about driving. And then I said, let's not tell Joan and Derek that we're coming. And then suddenly we'll be at their door. Now won't that be a surprise? But Mrs. Van Essen saw it differently. And she said, then you rob them of all the joy of looking forward to your hour coming. Well, I couldn't argue with that. For it can really help if you have something that you can specially look forward to. It can make a dreary, dull day bright. Instead of being down, You walk with a bounce, and we adults are not all that ready to admit this perhaps, but then look at the children when they have something exciting to look forward to. Then they count how many nights they still have to sleep before the exciting day is here, whether it's their birthday or vacation or Christmas or whatever. Well, if that's the case with our children, how much ought this to be the case with God's children? And therefore, it should not surprise us that the catechism asks, what comfort does the resurrection of the body offer you? And what comfort do you receive from the article about the life everlasting? For both the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting are tremendously glorious and wonderful events in the life of a believer. They sum up the future of every child of God. When we confess the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, we are saying that no matter what may happen to us here and now, There will come a time when everything will change for a perfect, glorious, and never-ending life in a new and perfect creation. And that's why the title of this sermon is Living Out of the Future. For that's exactly what this teaching of God's Word enables us to do. God's children do not have to be ignorant about their future. Oh sure, they don't know what's going to happen tonight, or tomorrow, or next week. We are told what's going to happen to all believers when this life comes to a close. And when you look at what the Lord God has promised to all his children, after this life, then it is impossible for believers not to receive strength and comfort, yes, joy from God's promises about their future. And thus the theme of this message is God's children receive comfort and joy in this life from the promises of God for the future. God's children receive comfort and joy in this life from the promises of God for the future. We first look at immediately joining to Christ, and secondly at the resurrection of the body, and thirdly at the life everlasting. What happens when a human being dies? Well, the opinions of this question vary greatly today. Some people hold that when you're dead, You're dead. In other words, when the body stops functioning, there is nothing that survives. No spirit or soul continues to exist. This life is all you've got. So, enjoy it to the fullest. There is nothing hereafter. And when you can no longer enjoy it, well, then you might as well put an end to it. because there is nothing to look forward to anymore. And that's where euthanasia and suicide enter the picture. Others hold that there is a soul and a spirit which eventually will return in another body. And that's called reincarnation. It depends on your present life. how you will return in a better body or life or in a worse one. And then there are all the other religious beliefs by Buddhists and native people and Shintoists and so on and so on. But among the white people of the Western world there are still many people who have some vague Christian idea of a hereafter of peace and rest for everybody. There's still some notion that there is a heaven to which just about everybody is thought to go. But that's where the scripture disagrees. The catechism already summed this question or the answer to this question up in Lord's Day 7. Are all men then saved by Christ just as they perished through Adam? No. Only those are saved who by a true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits. But that raises a further question. If people need to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, what do they need to be saved from? The Catechism sums also this scriptural teaching up for us in Lord's Day 5, where we're told that according to God's righteous judgment, we deserve temporal and eternal punishment. And why this? Because everybody has been disobedient to God and has fallen away from Him so that nobody by nature any longer loves God with all his heart, soul, and mind and his neighbor as himself. Instead, we are inclined by nature to hate God and our neighbor. And therefore the Lord God is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as our actual sins and therefore he will punish them by a just judgment both now and eternally. Well this then is the teaching of scripture. That everybody, each and every human being will suffer eternal punishment unless he is saved by being engrafted in Christ by a true faith. And this is what the Lord Jesus himself teaches in the story of the rich man and poor Lazarus. The Lord tells us that when Lazarus died, he was carried by angels to Abram's bosom. That's a Jewish expression for heaven. Abram's bosom. But the rich man died, and he was buried. Now notice the difference in direction. When the angels carry Lazarus to Abram's bosom, our thought automatically is that they carry Lazarus up to heaven. The angels are above us. And when the Lord says that a rich man was buried, our thought automatically is that this man went down to the grave. Now surely, Lazarus' body was also disposed of on earth. But Lazarus himself went to be with the Lord. However, when the rich man himself was buried, he went down to a place which in Greek also is called Hades. Now what does that mean, Hades? Well, even in In our translation it is left untranslated. That's because scholars have differences of opinion about what this word Hades really means. Properly translated it means the place of the dead. But our Lord also says that this rich man was immediately in torment. And so the King James Version and the Dutch King James translate Hades with hell. Hades then is basically the place where unbelievers go when they die and where they stay until the last judgment. And there they have already a foretaste of eternal suffering. And so the scripture passage clearly teaches that people when they die go into one of two directions. They're either carried by the angels to be with their Savior or they go down to the lobby of hell. Now please note that our Lord teaches that Lazarus was taken up by the angels as soon as he died. There was no soul sleep until the day of the resurrection. And this is what the Catechism also teaches. The soul of the believer, it says, shall, after this life, immediately be taken up to Christ. And therefore, we need to have no doubt whatsoever as to what happens the moment we die. When we, by true faith, are engrafted into Christ, our souls will be taken up immediately to Christ our head when we die. If we are not engrafted into Christ, then upon our death we will immediately go to the portal of hell. One more thing we must notice. The Catechism teaches that it is our soul which is taken up to Christ. And this is clear for after death those who survive us are always able to view the body also of believers. Death means separation. I myself become separated from my body. Am I still who I am without a body? No. I'm only partially myself. To be truthful, I cannot imagine myself without a body. And yet there are stories going around by people who claim to have had the experience of being outside their bodies. Well, be that as it may, the scripture teaches us that all people, when they die, become temporarily separated from the bodies. The unbeliever is also separated from his body and goes without a body. to the portal of hell. The bodies of both believers and unbelievers will turn to dust in the grave. But the words of the Lord Jesus make it very clear that both Lazarus in Abram's bosom and the rich man in the portal of hell are alive. Clearly the rich man after his death is conscious And he can feel pain, he can feel thirst, even without a body. And he can think, he can reason. And so when people die, they all continue to exist as conscious living beings. Some will be with the Lord and all the others. in the portal of hell. Now this should be a great comfort to every believer. More than that, a matter of great joy. For what is there greater than to know that you're going to see the Lord? What is there greater than to know that you will fully enter into His kingdom? We see people die. We sometimes watch their suffering, even for years. We see people mentally disabled for years. And we wonder what awaits us sooner or later. And that can all be very, very depressing. And it is no longer that there are people who want to avoid all that suffering and therefore demand the right to be assisted to commit suicide. When you know that immediately after this life your soul shall be taken up to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, to be in glory, and then the knowledge of this joy will support you in whatever you have to go through. And besides that, it is not only immediately after death that the Lord and his angels will be with the believer, the Lord is always with us. And he will carry us through, through whatever is before us. Even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. At the same time, when I'm an unbeliever, then I must know that immediately after death I will find myself at the portal of hell. I can say these words easily from the pulpit. Can you picture them? What that means? I'm thinking of this young hockey player that was dropped off the team. I forget his name, but you young guys, you all know who I mean, and who was found dead in his pickup. I don't know where he stood as far as the Lord is concerned, but if I'm an unbeliever, and I know that Upon death I will find myself immediately at the portals of hell. Should that not make me think twice before I die in unbelief, let alone commit suicide? And that brings us secondly to the resurrection of the body. We all know how man was created. The Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth and then blew into man's nostrils and man became a living being. And so, from the very beginning, man was body and soul together. We were not created to be only bodies, nor were we created to be spirits without bodies. And thus, the complete human is body and soul. Our bodies are part of us. Who we are is often as much determined by our bodies as by our inner selves. And all this is confirmed by the teaching of God's word that people will have a body for eternity. Even though at death there be a temporary separation of body and soul, this separation is exactly what it is, temporary. And this not only for the believers. When scripture speaks of the resurrection of the body, then this holds also true for unbelievers. At the resurrection of the dead, both Lazarus and the rich man will each be reunited with the flesh. The bodies of unbelievers will also be raised imperishable. Their bodies will also be indestructible, also indestructible by fire and by worms. Their bodies will also be such that they need no food nor drink, but their bodies will not be raised to glory, but to everlasting contempt and shame, says Daniel 12. The resurrection of unbelievers will cause them to be in a worse condition than anyone on earth can ever imagine. If some of you remember Sue Rodriguez who sought to escape here on earth, her bad condition, She tried to escape on earth what is inescapable for unbelievers after the resurrection from the dead. Then there will be no possibility to escape suffering, not even by committing suicide. Then they shall call upon the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? And they will call on the rocks and the mountains, but no rocks will fall, and no mountains will cover the resurrected unbelievers." Suffering. in their resurrected and everlasting body will be eternal. It's indeed horrible to think about, but it is what God's word reveals to us as the wages of sin. Thus, when the Last Judgment comes, all people that ever lived will stand before the Judgment Throne with their resurrected bodies. That includes all aborted people. That includes all those who performed the abortion, who hadn't performed And those who are still alive when the Lord returns will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, so that their bodies shall be like the resurrected ones. And therefore, at the resurrection of the body, the suffering of unbelievers will increase, but the joy of the believers will abound. For then, as believers, we will be complete fully restored to what God originally created us to be in Adam and more. For we shall be, says the text, like the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we say that, we must remember that the Lord Jesus Christ was also fully human, sin accepted. We must remember that through his resurrection, he was glorified also in his human nature. And then we must realize what we will be like we will be like He is now. And thus we shall enter into a full and glorious life, free from all tears and hunger and thirst and exhaustion and pain and agony, and we shall serve Him with joy forever. Then there shall be no darkness anymore, and we shall no longer have to struggle with the foul fountain of original sin in us, And we shall have been completely cleansed. We shall be holy. We shall be pure. And then we shall truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind. And we shall truly love our neighbor as ourselves. And then we shall serve him in his new creation. And it shall please us to know and to do that. Indeed, then our joy shall be full. And we shall do that in our own bodies. For we do not receive a new body. That would be reincarnation. We will receive back our former body, but now transformed. For that's what the word resurrection means. It means that the body which is laid in the grave is resurrected. It's put on its feet again. It's restored. It's brought back to life. It's true that this has caused many people to wonder. Some people have drowned in the ocean, been eaten by sharks so that their bodies became part of a fish. And others have been burned to ashes, have never been found again. But we must not look at what for us seem impossibilities. God's Word says that our bodies will be resurrected. By His power, the Lord Jesus Christ shall do this. Just as the Lord Jesus called Lazarus forth from the grave, crying, Lazarus, come out, so the last trumpet shall sound, and then the dust shall come together into bodies, and these bodies of all the dead will come to life again, and it will be our own bodies that will be resurrected. That's what the scripture says, that the earth and the sea shall give up their dead Also, if that Flight 370 is in the depths of the southern Indian Ocean, the sea shall give up their dead. And at the same time, God's Word tells us that the body of believers shall be like His glorious body. And thus, the weakness and the illness and the imperfectness of our bodies as believers shall be removed and our bodies shall be raised in glory. Sure, there remain many questions, as for instance, whether infants will still be infants in body. But the point which God's word makes is that we do receive our own bodies back in whatever shape or form. And so, as believers, we will once again be who we were on earth, but different. And therefore today, as believers, we may already rejoice, for as we are now, we shall be accepted. Then we shall be totally glorified and serve the Lord with joy and praise and perfect happiness. But also for the unbelievers, it is true that at the resurrection As they are now, they shall then be, except that they will be resurrected in contempt and shame and suffer without end. Well, this then, apart from the horrendous thing about the unbelievers, it is of tremendous comfort for all those who have embraced the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. But all this, therefore, should greatly disturb all those who are not by faith engrafted in Christ. By saying nothing and allowing people to think that there is no eternal suffering after death, we really fail as watchmen, warning people of the judgment to come. It may seem unbelievable to us, but that is what God's Word teaches. It should urge us all the more to call those who disregard the Lord God to repentance, to lift them up in prayer before the Lord that their hearts may be softened. And nevertheless, when that day comes, we shall rejoice. Already now we will be comforted when we think of that time coming. For this world cannot come up with any joy or pleasure which can compare with the glory and the joy which is to come. That brings us thirdly to life everlasting. Now it may seem that we have already spoken about life everlasting, but there is one thing that still needs to be presented. And that is that the comfort believers receive from confessing the life everlasting is found in the fact that as a believer I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy about the perfect blessedness which no eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man conceived. And this is understandable. For as long as I'm not sure that what awaits me at the other side of the resurrection is eternal life in the blessed presence of God, so long I will have no comfort. As long as I'm not sure that I have passed my exam, I will have no comfort that soon I will receive my diploma. I can't help but think About a moment, if I may, in my own life, having gone through six-year high school, we had a final exam and they could ask anything that you had learned those six years, not just the last course, anything in the last six years. And so that exam lasted, I think, about four weeks, written, oral. Our class was about nine. And we were told to come at a certain time and hear the results. And here we were standing, nine of us. And some of us were rather loose because they felt they had done tremendously on the exam. But some of us, including myself, were on pins and needles. We were not sure at all. The principal appeared and he called out two names to come in. We all knew what that meant. They didn't make it. But my name wasn't there. I cannot tell you the joy, the relief. It was tremendous. Man, I made it. Well, if you're living like that, not knowing whether you're going to make it, I know a little what you're going through. You know, then you'll dread the thought of death as long as you're not sure that upon death you will be taken up immediately to Christ your head. Then you shall dread the thought of death as long as you're not sure that upon the resurrection your body shall be made like Christ's glorious body. As long as I'm not sure, I shall try to stretch my life as long as I can. For as long as I do not have the assurance of salvation, I have nothing to look forward to. Now this is extremely important for our life here and now. For when Right now, I do have assurance of salvation. Well then, the future after death is bright and joyful. And then I can put up with a lot. Yes, I can really bear everything because I know what's going to come, what follows. People who are future-oriented are able to put up with a lot of hard work, with very poor living conditions. with very little immediate success. When immigrants come to this country, and some of us remember it well, most of them are very future-oriented, and they're willing to grin and bear it because they expect one day to have success. And if not they, then for sure their children. Well, the same is now true for those who have assurance of salvation. They already are able to look forward to what is to come after death. They think about how wonderful it will be to be carried by the angels to the Lord Jesus Christ. They think upon how glorious it will be to have a completely restored and glorified body. They think upon how peaceful it will be to be away from this world full of murder, AIDS, wards, and other troubles, and to live joyfully for the glory of God in a perfect creation, where everybody loves God totally, and where there is no more backbiting and gossip and anger and hatred and abuse and so on and so on. And those who have assurance of salvation, they look forward to what is to come after death, and they already rejoice in that. And by thinking and meditating upon all the glorious things which will take place after death, they already feel in their hearts the beginning of eternal joy. And so it is clear what must happen. If we are to have already now in this life the comfort of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, we must have assurance of salvation. And how may a person obtain that? by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. John writes in his first letter, 513, These things I have written unto you, that who believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. These things have I written unto you, who believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that you have eternal life. The assurance of salvation is not first of all a feeling within us, but it is the assurance out of God's word that when we believe and obey his word that we can be sure that God will do what his word says. And so the Lord Jesus declares in John 5, 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. Assurance of faith is trusting in God's word by believing and obeying it. That's the first thing we must work on. That's why the Apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter 1 10, Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. The second thing which we must do to have the comfort of this Lord's Day is to think upon the blessings which await the believer. Even when we have assurance of salvation, we so often spend so little time at all meditating on the life after death, unless we know or fear that we have a terminal illness. We must do that much more, beloved. Meditate on it. Remember the words of the Apostle Paul, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us. And so, when we meditate on the glory that is to be revealed to us and on the perfect blessedness which shall be ours as we serve and worship the Lord our God with our whole being, then the difficult things in this life will shrink to their proper size and become less and less important. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. And what this means is that by thinking upon heaven, we're enabled to live our life on earth as we ought to. By thinking upon heaven, we will gladly serve the Lord here on earth. By thinking upon heaven, we will gladly suffer for our Lord here on earth. And thinking upon everlasting life in the resurrection body will give us the strength to live on earth in the obedience of faith. Oh wonder, as we then live here in the obedience of our faith, we rejoice and that we may serve him also here on earth through the glory of his name. This is the way, beloved, that the believer lives today out of the joy of the future. Amen.