If you're on the church's email, received an email during the course of the week, Thursday, Friday, I believe, that I intended to try to preach four sermons, a series of four sermons on the subject of individual eschatology now through the fourth Sunday in October. Eschatology is derived from two words, eschatos, which means last or end, and the word logos, which means word. So we have the last word, eschatology. So eschatology is the study or the word about the last things or end times in the light of scripture, the word of God. It's customary to divide the study of eschatology into two major parts. There is the future of the individual, which is called individual eschatology, and that covers topics like death, immortality, the intermediate state, and some other topics. And the other part of eschatology, sometimes referred to as general eschatology or cosmic eschatology, covers such topics as Christ's return, the part that's usually the most sensationalized, the millennium, the final judgment, and then the final state. If you look at our confession of faith, the 1689 Baptist Confession, you notice chapters 31 and chapter 32. Chapters 31 and 32, you will notice it follows generally this order that I just mentioned of personal or individual and cosmic eschatology and its general headings. Now, this twofold division in eschatology as you study it. It's generally laid out this way in most systematic theologies, in most studies of theology. This twofold division of eschatology may seem somewhat artificial, and it may be somewhat imposed as you think about it and as you engage in the study. And it's certainly somewhat overlapping as you get into the study, but it's useful and it's pastoral. It's useful and it's pastoral in that it focuses one's attention on eternity and on eternal matters. And it addresses sincere questions that are often raised by believers, questions that you find asked and answered in various Pauline epistles and other places in the Bible for that matter. I recently noted, it's been, I don't know, a while back, and it changes daily, I think, but I recently noted 17 sermons that were listed on the front page of Sermon Audio. And according to the titles, and I'm only going by the titles, I didn't listen to the messages, but according to the titles of those 17 sermons, two were about eternity. So that would be 12% of those sermons on the front page. 15 were about other issues. That would be 88% of them. Titles like duty, honor Christ. That was a title of a sermon. Or what is man? That was a title. When do we get the Holy Spirit or God's church manual? Those were titles. Now, I'm not suggesting that these other sermons were not needed, nor am I suggesting they were unbiblical. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just simply saying, by title at least, they were not about eternal issues. And I will state that many, if not most sermons, are how-to or you-need-to sermons. Like, how-to or you-need-to improve your marriage. or how to or you need to live debt-free, or how to or you need to control your temper or your fear or your timidity or whatever it may be, or how to or you need to live like a Christian. That's the general tenor of many, if not most sermons. Now, again, such sermons surely are important, not negating. such topics and such sermons. But when the preponderance of sermons are on that type of subject, it certainly lends itself to viewing Christianity as a self-help religion will be the outcome. And that's really where Christianity is often viewed, particularly when Christianity and is at its very core and its very nature about eternal matters. And in fact, as I was recently and already begun studying and thinking about this a little while back, and I was in the shop one day and I had a ref net on and R.C. Sproul was preaching and he asked a question. He said, when was the last time you heard a sermon on heaven? And I thought, that just fits right into what I'm thinking, saying, working on. He says, you never hear sermons on that. And we should. I was going, amen, brother. We should. Because again, when the preponderance of sermons, 88%, 90% more, are on other issues, it lends It lends the thinking to a bootstrap type of religion, bootstrap yourself up rather than grace. And when that is the majority, I would say that pastorally, we fail congregations. We fail congregations in that we fail to focus minds and hearts on Christ and eternity. Colossians 3, verses 2 and 3, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Set your mind on things above. And we also fail by not comforting as we should and answering important questions. We most often hear read at funerals and graves, 1 Thessalonians 4.18, therefore encourage one another with these words. Well, Paul has just written those words after explaining about the resurrection. But we don't really often explain those words. enough. Let me offer a couple of helpful principles. I think pastors, and I say this to myself, I say this to Pastor John, I say this to the intern, I say this to other men who may be thinking in those ways, pastors are teachers in the future. Pastors are obligated to provide biblical answers to difficult questions. We're obligated. Questions like, what happens at death? Does the soul sleep? What will heaven be like? Will we know one another in heaven? Because the Bible responds to questions like that. And let me offer another helpful principle. Pastors primarily counsel from here, the pulpit. Our primary point of counseling is here, corporate worship, Lord's Day. Right now, in these venues, In other words, if a person, a part of the congregation goes, I don't know, I haven't heard, it might be because they haven't availed themselves of the opportunity of the teaching. It's this venue, Bible study Pastor John mentioned, these times that we do our primary counseling. You know, we talk about Calvin, we talk about Sproul, we talk about some of the, you go to look on my library shelves, I have some of the great works of some of the great men in the history of the church. You know where most of those works were done? Their sermons. Their sermons. They didn't do that on the side somewhere else, their sermons. And we've gotten out of that somehow in our culture. That's where our primary work, our primary counseling is done is now, here, in this format. So those listening somewhere else in some other time, or you share it with them, this is where we do our primary teaching. Well, in our recent past at EBC, death has been a frequent unwelcome visitor. I think Pastor John mentioned recently in 2021, there's been like five deaths in our church family. I look back since our inception, there's been many, many deaths among us here. I think of other Reformed Baptist churches that we know, excuse me, here in Georgia, and we just were gagged at one time. And there were brothers that they were having their first funeral. I'm going, what? Gracious. Yeah, let me show you something. I have volumes of sermons I've preached, funeral sermons I've preached. And they're like, this is my first or my second. Of course, we're an older congregation. And as one grows older, death becomes more familiar and becomes more imminent. And it does so through increasing deaths of friends and family. And as this happens, it's normal to think more about it, to think about eternity. And so there's a lot of things that sort of lead my mind to a series of messages. So over the next four weeks, what I want to do is following that basic division that I've given you on eschatology. of individual and cosmic eschatology, a very sweeping series. It has to be. There's going to be a lot of things left unsaid. I'd like for us to think about one, death, two, the intermediate state, three, the resurrection, judgment, and four, heaven and eternity. And so in light of that, thinking about that, I've had this book for quite a while. I think Steve Martin gave Gil and me this book. It's called Nearing Home. And it's a Comforts and Councils for the Aged. Tells what Steve thinks of us. But it is, of course, it has some poems in it, but it's a book with a lot of great writers in it. Horatio Bonar. Let me see, I said that. James Alexander, if you're familiar with him. It has, of course, it has some poetry in it. Archibald Alexander. I'm looking for some other names you might know, John Newton, James Montgomery, Isaac Watts. These are named, I think, Horatio, I've already said Horatio Barnard, Philip Doddridge. Anyhow, it has both some poetry, but then it also has articles in it. And so in anticipation, of this, that's my copy there. You can't have that one. But I ordered four of these. They're paperback, hardbacks were ridiculous. But I ordered four of those if you want to copy them. They're about, I think, $20 a copy. The cost of it was like $18 a piece, something like that, to get them here. So I have four of them up here. If we run out, I can get some more. So today our subject is deaf. That's not a popular subject, is it? Wow. But I want to look at what is death, what are the calls or causes of death, and why do Christians die? If my sins have been forgiven and there is no condemnation now, if I am justified now, why do I die? Those are my three questions I want us to entertain. With that in mind, please open your Bible to Genesis chapter two. And we read verses 15 through 17. And you can just keep your Bibles open to Genesis 2. I'll go ahead and read some other passages here in Genesis. Genesis chapter 2, verse 15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. And look over to chapter three, verse 17. Well, let's just go on down to verse 19. Genesis 3, 19, where God is now pronouncing the sentence By the sweat or the indictment, perhaps we would say by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust. And to dust you shall return. And then we go to Genesis five and we read verse five. Thus, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. Let's pray. Father, we do pray for your mercy, your blessings, your enlightenment, your guidance, your help, your presence, as we consider what your word says about this Great subject that we often shun and steer away from. Give us understanding. And may the word of God be clear to us. And may it not just be information. May we not just go away saying, gee, I learned something I never thought of before. But may that information be transforming as we think and live and have our being. And may it cause us to think about you and to look upward and to think about eternal matters. I ask in Christ's holy name, amen. So we begin with the first question, what is death? I can answer that, give you the medical and legal answer from the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association. And their answer is the permanent cessation of all vital bodily functions. Bodily, that's both the medical and the American Bar. And the bodily functions are defined as a absence of spontaneous respiratory and cardiac functions. So that is their definition. The ethical answer is a little different. It's an irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brainstem. Now, these answers are useful, certainly, but they lack, they are lacking And I found it interesting, and given an answer to this, I went back to the 18th century Baptist theologian John Gill. And in reading John Gill, I could read a lot, and he had a lot to say in his systematic, but just this little thought, he says, but what it is, what death is, is chiefly to be known from the scriptures. So I don't need to go to the American Bar or the American Medical. That's good. Those definitions are helpful. But I want to go to the scriptures to see what it is and how it's defined. So I want to define it objectively. And I do that, when I say objectively, I mean, I want to define it here again in a legal sense, but not in the American bar, but in God's legal sense in scripture, legal sense. And death is stated to be punishment for breaking God's specific commandment. Go back to Genesis where we were. In Genesis 2, verses 8 through 17 is a record of the Garden of Eden, of the fact of its origin, of its placement, and of man's placement in it and his labor in it. Verse eight, God plants a garden and he puts man in the garden. He planted the garden in Eden in the east. And that's interesting even in our closing hymn today. A day is dying in the east, but there's something coming up, excuse me, in the west and something coming up in the east. The tabernacle, which way did it face? The temple, which way did it face? You didn't know all these things. But here it's the East, and that's something, a theme that's followed throughout the scripture. You get into the metanarratives, well, here's one. It starts right here in Genesis 2, verse 8. And there he put man who informed, and out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that's pleasant, and so on. And it gives us the definition, excuse me, the location of where the garden was. In verse 15, Lord God took the man, He put him in the garden to work it and to keep it. And some get into the idea that that means that there must be some protection of it because we find out in three, there is a serpent that comes here. So whatever that may mean, but man is there to work it and to keep it. Work proceeds to fall. God then gives man Verse 15, he gives man a general order to work and keep the garden. In verse 17, the Lord God gives man a specific commandment, and that specific commandment is that he shall not eat of the fruit of one given tree. And also with that specific commandment comes a very specific punishment if he does. If you eat it, And the day that you eat it, you will surely die. So this commandment and this punishment are known. Chapter two, verse 16, God commands Adam and he states the commandment and he states the punishment. Chapter three, verse one, the serpent is more crafty than any other beast. When he speaks to Eve, he perverts the commandment, but he knows it. He perverted it, but he knows it. Eve, in chapter 3, verse 3, repeats the commandment. Perhaps she embellishes it. Maybe Adam did that when he's telling her, you can't eat this tree. Maybe he goes so far and says, well, you don't even touch it. I don't know. But she adds to it a little bit. You can't even touch it. But she knows the commandment, and she knows the punishment if she breaks the commandment. So it's not something hidden. It's not something they do not know. And then in chapter three, verse 19, we have the pronouncement, the indictment pronounced again, after they have eaten, after they have broken the specific commandment, God pronounces the indictment, by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread to the ground, you return to the ground for your dust and you'll return to the dust. And then of course, in chapter five, verse five, the sentence is executed. Adam lived these many years and then he died. Now you read all this and it's, I read this and it reminds me of going, when you're traveling, I just came off of a long trip, a lot of several thousands of miles and we saw this over and over. So you're traveling somewhere and you see these, they're working on the highways. And before you get to the actual construction site, there'll be signs, construction work ahead. Speeding fines doubled. And there'll be signs. And then there'll be flashing lights. And then there'll be cones. And as you get closer, a lot of times they'll have vehicles parked. with flashing lights, nobody in them that sometimes there should be vehicles sitting there with flashing lights. And they'll have all kinds of warning lights, all kinds of signs, all kinds of indicators that there is construction ahead. And this will go on for a long ways before you get to the actual construction. Sometimes you'll wonder, where are the workers? But finally, you'll get there. And then you'll come out and you have a sign. And if you went through that construction site, just zipping through there and you got pulled over for speeding, and you go, well, I didn't know. You couldn't plead ignorance. Because I mean, it has warning after warning after warning after warning. So you read this and you go, well, God told them. It's posted. He said it. They knew it. It's repeated, I mean, it's very clear. And so you find this repetition, it's not that God's repeating it so much, but you find this repetition as you read in Genesis 2, Genesis 3. Here it goes, it's warning flashing all the way through this. Adam knows it, Eve knows it, serpent knows it, it's known. Don't do this. The point here. And it is an essential biblical truth, and that is that death is a penal evil. It's a curse. It is a curse. It is a punishment for the violation of a specific commandment. Adam deliberately disobeyed God. God imposed on him the death sentence for his deliberate disobedience. Now, there may be many instrumental causes we think of today for death. Sin is the... We merit death because of sin, we can say that, but God is the immediate cause. Death is the penalty imposed by God for disobedience, for sin. Adam is the federal head of humanity. And the guilt, the judicial obligation to satisfy justice, the guilt of Adam's sin has been imputed, it's been placed upon all of humanity, and that leads to death. Romans 5, 12 says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. And you read on through Romans 5, and that's one of the most classic passages that talk about how Adam is our federal head and the result of Adam's sin is death upon all humanity. 1 Corinthians 15 makes the same point, verses 21 and 22. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Adam sinned, and the result of Adam's sin was his death, and that death then is imposed upon all of humanity. Have you ever wondered why infants die? I have, of course, I've had to deal with that. I have a brother that was an infant when he died, but also as a pastor, I've had to deal with it. Perhaps you've dealt with that. Why? They're not guilty of personal sin in the sense that they've committed actual sin. No, they're not. Why? Is God unjust? Is God unjust? If the penalty of sin is death, then how can an infant die? How's that come about? When you go back to this and you understand total depravity, and you understand that we are the children of Adam, and sin is the result of sin is death. And Adam is our federal head of all humanity. And his sin has been imputed to all humanity. And because of one man's sin, death reigns. God would not be just to execute penalty upon the innocent. They don't have their own actual sin, but they have Adam's guilt. And that's why we say it's not just enough to have the active obedience. We must have the passive obedience of Christ. Christ both kept the law. He kept the law. He kept every jot and tittle of the law, and he died on the cross. He did both. We must have both the active obedience of Christ and the passive obedience. He is the spotless lamb of God. And he kept the law of God. The point here is that death is not the result of natural law. And there have been theologians that have said that, by the way, and that is the and that's part of the thinking that always is part of the life cycle. It's not. Death is an obscene, grotesque contradiction of life. It is a mortal enemy. I like to take the Psalms of imprecation and put death in the Psalms of imprecation. Let me give you an example I'll talk about. Psalm 69, verse 24 and following. If you don't know what a psalm of imprecation is, it's a psalm of curse. It's cursing one's enemy. Because death, it's an enemy. It's not part of the natural order. So here's what I do. I've done this. I have faced this enemy at times. Psalm 69, pour out your indignation upon, speaking to the Lord, pour out your indignation upon death and let your burning anger overtake it. May it can't be desolation. May it have no acquittal from you. Let death be blotted out of the book of the living. Let it not be enrolled among the righteous. Or Psalm 56, Oh God, break death's teeth in its mouth. Tear out its fangs. Oh Lord, let it vanquish like water that runs away when he aims his arrows. Let them be blunted. Let death be like the snail that dissolves into slime. Death is an expression and a result of divine anger. Psalm 90 verse 7, for we are brought to an end by your anger. It's judgment, Romans 1 32, though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die. It's condemnation, Romans 5 16, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. It's a curse. Galatians 313 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. What's the curse of the law? Death. It cannot be avoided. It cannot be cured by man's devices. It is not natural. It's not in the DNA. It's not genetic. It can't be fixed. It cannot be avoided. It's not natural. It's penal. And we do not look to medicine, we do not look to the law, we do not look to doctors, we do not look to science, we do not look to cryogenics. These do not hold the answers. Because that is not its origin. Because it is the result of a direct disobedience of man to a direct commandment of God. It's penal. Therefore, only God is the answer. And then, by the way, my friends, talk about worldviews. Pastor John mentioned in Bible study, there is a worldview clash right there. Biblical worldview versus a non-biblical worldview. A Christian worldview versus many, many other religions worldview. Bam, right here. We go on. Subjectively, personally, death is a separation, it's a rending, it's a dissolution. Genesis 217, we want to consider the statement, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. In the day. Now, this is the first reference in the Bible to death. The verb die in the Hebrew is muth. Anthony Hokema writes, the obvious and primary meaning is to die a physical death. In Vine's Dictionary, Expository Dictionary of the Old and New Testament, we read this verb occurs in all Semitic languages, including biblical Aramaic from the earliest times and in Egyptian. The verb occurs about 850 times in biblical Hebrew and in all periods. Essentially, the verb means to lose one's life. The word is used a physical death with reference to both man and beast. Genesis 5.5 records that Adam lived 930 years and he died. Jacob explains to Esau that were his livestock to be driven too hard, too fast, The young among them would die, Genesis 33, 13, and on and on, the verb is so used. Now, Genesis 3, 19, the penalty is pronounced. And so if we have a question about, is it being physical here? Look at the penalty that's pronounced in Genesis 3, 19. He says, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Now, that's physical. That's what's being used. Then in chapter five, verse five, we see that Adam lived 930 years and he died. And so does everyone else in this chapter. This is the descendants of Adam. This is the book of mankind and it's true of all of us. Now, What's the explanation? We've got this conflict, it seems like. He says, God said, in the day that you meet, you will die. Let me give you a couple of possibles. Herman Bovink, a Dutch theologian, says that Adam's death was postponed because of God's common grace. Common grace means that grace that God has on all of humanity, the rain, and the sun come on the just and the unjust, that's common grace. So he says that because of God's common grace, he postponed his death 930 years. Johannes Vos, a Dutch American, not a Dutch, says that in the day is a Hebrew idiom that means as surely as you eat of it. And he cites 1 Kings 2.37, where Solomon says to Shimei, for on the day that you go out and cross the book Kidron, know for certain that you shall die. And he also cites Exodus 10.28, where Pharaoh says to Moses, on the day you see my face, you shall die. And there's other passages that are used this way. So, Vos is saying that it's an idiom that means, as surely as. that as surely as you eat this, you will die. Like we would say, he's as good as his word, you can take it to the bank, those are idioms. So in the day that you do this, it means as surely as you do this. Others say that it means spiritual death. Well, I'm not gonna say it doesn't, but that overlooks 319. In 319 is where God said, you're dust. And this is where he is pronouncing the indictment. And if you're gonna say it's spiritual, then why does he say you're dust? And you're going back to dust. That's to overlook that passage. So it's more than just spiritual. It includes physical. Now, Anthony Hokema, I've already quoted him, another good Dutch theologian, says, excuse me, in the light of the rest of scripture, and this is where you begin to look at all of scripture. You don't just take one thing and begin to look at all of it. In the rest of scripture, however, death is here threatened, must be understood as meaning more than just physical death. And I think all of these that I've just quoted, Bob Akevoss and Huckam would all come here. It means more than just physical death. Man is a totality. With a spiritual side to his being as well as a physical. So when we answer the question, what is death? The Bible would say the Bible responds. There's three times. There's three kinds of death. There's physical death. Romans 623. For the wages of sin is death, and that is a mortal enemy that we all must face. It is the last enemy that Christ will vanquish. Their spiritual death. Ephesians 2, 1, and you were dead in the trespasses of your sins. And that is those who are separated from Christ and do not have God as their father are dead in their transgressions and their sins. And everybody born into this world is born in that state. And then there is the second or eternal death, Revelation 20, verses 14 and 15. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. The Lake of Fire, and if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire. This is the final eternal portion of the ungodly. But in all of these. Death is a separation. Tearing apart. A dissolution. Physical death is a dissolution of the body and soul. It tears apart body and soul. It's a disintegration of the body. You are dust, and to dust, you're going back. It's a disassociation. It's a dividing of relationships from people that you know, from family and friends. Spiritual death is a division of fellowship with God. Adam, out of the garden. You can't come back. God is not your father. You're separated away. It's a disillusion of the image of God's image in a person. We are image bearers of God, but that image is perverted. We don't bear that image rightly. So it's being dissolved. We're not true image bearers of God anymore because of the spiritual death and eternal death is a disconnection. It's a final separation. And it's a disintegration of any and all hope, of all love and all light, totally gone forever. But the good news is Christ has conquered death, physical death, spiritual death, eternal death. By the grace of God, sola gratia, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, solus Christus, and by faith, sola fide, sinners are reconciled to God, we're given spiritual life. We attain resurrection over physical death. We overcome it and we inherit eternal life. That's victory over eternal death. And lastly, I answer the question, what is death spiritually? And this answers the question, why do Christians have to die? As a believer, are you justified? Yeah, of course you are. Is there now no condemnation to those who are in Christ? If Christ has died for your sins and the penalty of sin is death, then why must you die? Are your sins forgiven? Are you justified? Well, then why must I die? This last question then, this last point goes to that. Why? Spiritually, religiously, death is the last earthly discipline for the believer. In a couple of weeks, you'll be on question, we'll be on question 40 of the catechism. And the question, you'll know it when you get there in a couple of weeks, the question 40 is, What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? The answer is, the souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass in the glory. The Heidelberg Catechism, Dutch, question 42, asks, since then Christ died for us, Why must we also die? That's my question. The answer they give is, our death is not a satisfaction for our sin, but only a dying to sin and an entering into eternal life. A believer's death is not and cannot be a payment or satisfaction for the righteous judgment of God. That payment's made. I heard a statement, I think it was this morning, might have been yesterday, could have been last night, I don't know, I heard a statement about a man that was dying and a preacher came to him and said, you need to get right with God. He said, I can't do that, Christ did that. Christ got me right. And I thought, man, what an answer. What a wonderful answer. That's the work of Christ. I can't make payment. I can't make satisfaction. Christ does that. Christ alone satisfies the righteous judgment of God. That's Christ. And so my death in no way is an act of justification, but it is a part of sanctification. It is a final step for the believer in our conformity to Christ, and it's an entrance into glorification. Not the resurrection yet, but it's an entrance, it's a way, it's a step in that direction. In this life, as long as I live, and as long as you live, and as long as you draw breath, you will struggle with sin. You ever get tired of it? How many times you have a besetting sin? I know you do, because you're a human being, even though you're a believer. And how many times have you sinned and got, repent it, and sin again. And then you're just ashamed to even ask God to forgive you. But you have to remind yourself, if Christ told me to forgive my brother that sins against me, the numbers really don't matter. The point is you just keep forgiving. How many times does God forgive me? He's faithful and just to forgive us. So I have to remind myself, even though I'm ashamed to ask forgiveness, because I've asked so many times, and I've failed so many times, and I'm tired of failing, and sometimes you just get sick of it. Well, when are you gonna win the victory? That's not to say that you don't win small victories along the way. I'm not going to try to say you can't ever win a victory. But I am going to say you're never going to totally win the victory. Not in this life. Sorry, I wish I could tell you you could. But you're not. Ever. But when will you? When will your spirit be completely sanctified, or your soul, if you prefer? What is the point of discipline? I want you to think of Hebrews 12 and think of it the way you think about it now, but I also want you to think about it in a little different way, too. Hebrews 12, it talks about the Lord disciplined every child He receives. And if you don't receive discipline, you're not a child of God. And the end result of discipline is godliness, holiness, and it's not pleasant, but the end result of it is godliness. And go to Hebrews. He says that it's for discipline that you have to endure. It's verse 7. God is treating you as a son. For what son? Is there whom his father does not discipline? And you read on that section about discipline, but it starts off with Christ and Jesus. Now, he wasn't disciplined for sin, obviously, but just talking about how Jesus was looking upward as he dealt with the offense of sinners against him. And he said, no, you need to do the same thing. You need to keep looking upward, heavenward, Christward. He says, that's what you need to do. Fix your eyes on things above. Christ did that even as he endured contradiction of sinners against himself. As he went to the cross, he was fixed upon things above. Now you're dealing with your own sin. You need to do the same thing. And then he gets down to verse 18, and he talks about the kingdom that we've come to. In verse 22, he says, but you've come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an enumerable angels and festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. Jesus, the mediator of the covenant to sprinkle blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Do you see that? To the assembly of the firstborn who are rolled in heaven and to the God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, made perfect. That's the continued context of discipline. This is our kingdom. In this life, we struggle with sin and we shall until we die. But at our death, our sanctification is completed. And our soul will at last be purged of every vestige of sin. No more the image of the first man, of the dust, Adam. But of the second man, Christ, the heavenly. The dust, that will be consumed. It will be overcome with the heavenly, and even in the glorification and the resurrection of the body, that will be totally done away with in the sense that it will be likened to Christ. Well, so much more on this could be said, and I know I've left a lot of things unsaid, I want you to think of this. Here's what I'm trying to communicate to you today. Death is not my friend. It is not part of a natural order. It is an enemy. It is painless punishment. It's my enemy. It's a moral enemy. It's not my buddy. It's not my pal. It's an enemy. It's punishment God declared because of direct disobedience, and it was brought upon mankind because of the sin of Adam, because of his disobedience. It has both physical, spiritual, and eternal consequences. Therefore, there is no solution to be found in humanity, none. The answer is not medical, not science. It's not legal. The answers are not there. It's not something to be toyed with. It's not something to be flippant with. It is an eternal consequence. And I implore when I hear it being toyed with, and sentimentalized. It's not. It is an enemy. It is a punishment. And the answers and these people today run around and finding the cure. They're going to live forever. Fools. Because it is a sentence. Pronounced by God. And the answer is found in Christ and Christ alone. But Christ is the answer to physical, spiritual, and eternal. Now for the believer, it's still an enemy. It is an awful enemy. It's a terrible enemy. But its fangs have been plucked through Christ. And now in Christ, even though it's an enemy and its fangs are plucked, it's awful. It now becomes part of my sanctification, my completed progressive sanctification of my spirit. That's when it finally sinned and no longer has anything to do with me because of Christ. And it's then and then only that my soul or my spirit will be made perfect. And that's why sometimes we start longing longing for that, not because it's a friend. No, it's still an enemy. It still leaves a horrible wake. But for the believer, it becomes a means of perfection to sinlessness through Christ. And so I want to end with a quote by Lorraine Bettner. And with this, I hope that we can set our minds on things that are above and not on things of the earth. We know but very little about what transpires on the other side of the grave. But of this much we may be sure. And suddenly, at the moment of death, all things appear in new perspectives. The one who is called exchanges comparative darkness and limited knowledge for new light, knowledge commiserate with his new estate. For now we see in a mirror darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even fully even as I also was fully known. The things that the person thought important, his business affairs, the season's crops, tomorrow's task, his success, and pleasing those around him, all of these no longer matter at all. All of Earth's cares and problems suddenly are left behind. And in their place, the things to which he perhaps had given but little attention stand out as all important. his attitude toward Christ, his Christian witness to those about him, his prayer life, the motives which underlay his public and private actions. He will then see that the important thing was not how much he did or how much he gave, but with what motives or with what purpose he acted. He will wonder, not how much of his money he should have given to the Lord, but why he withheld so much of the Lord's money for himself. He will see that no material possessions really belong to him, that all the money and lands and other possessions really belong to the Lord, and that he was only a steward to whom their management was entrusted temporarily. Five minutes after he's in heaven, he will be overwhelmed by truths that he had known all along, but somehow had never fully grasped. He will wish with all his heart now, I know there's no sadness, and so understand the way he's writing this, okay? He will understand, he will wish with all his heart that he could recall just 100th part of the time that he let slip through his fingers, that he could recall the lost opportunities that presented themselves for the Lord's service and for the better living. And from the fields that were widened to harvest, He had led many more souls to salvation. He will wish that he had gained a much fuller knowledge of divine truth as it is set forth in the Bible. So that is the knowledge that he will then live by. And he will wish that in his Bible study, he had made much fuller acquaintance with the Old Testament and New Testament saints. In his company, he will find himself. Many will be saved, no doubt, so as through fire, saved, but entering heaven practically bankrupt, their lives work like wood, a stubble, having been burned. They will loom up before him the endless possibilities of the heavenly life, and they will blossom forth with his own being, which was created in the image of God, a thousand new talents and powers, all unsuspected, these to develop and grow and to be his possession forever and ever. I don't know. But I think that whatever there is, it will be sinless. It will be the spirits of just people, men, women made perfect. And all the sorrows, troubles and disappointments, difficulties, sadnesses of this life will be gone in a moment. There'll be no more tears, no more sorrows, no more regrets. And with that, set your mind on things that are above, not on things on the earth. Let's pray. Father, we read in Genesis of this awful curse, this awful judgment, and realize it is our judgment. It is our curse. For we too have sinned against you willingly. We have known your commandments. We know them now, and we yet transgress them. We break them willingly. We do it like we drink water. We do it moment by moment. We do it day by day. We cannot say that we do not know. We cannot say that we're not guilty. We are guilty. And we stand rightly judged and rightly condemned. And we know that the wages of sin is death, and we know that that is our judgment. And we're grateful. Grateful is not even a strong enough word. How can we express ourselves? What can we say? We who are condemned, we who have the sentence over our heads, waiting to be executed at any moment, we know not when. It could be this day, it could be tomorrow, it could be 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, who knows? The sentence is there. And it's justly ours. By your grace and your mercy through Christ our Lord. That which is our condemnation, our ruin, our end. Through our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has the keys of death and hell has reigned. He has broken the teeth of death. He's crushed the head of Satan. He's risen from the dead. And we through him live. We in him live. We by him live. And even though our bodies to the dust shall return, yet one day we know they shall be resurrected in his power, in his glory, in his likeness. And even though at death this body and the spirit shall be torn apart, even then we know our spirit shall once be transported into your presence and sin, our acquaintance that we've known for many, many years shall no more have any say, desire, praise, presence in our being, that it shall forever be banned shall be forever removed from our very essence and being, from our desire, from our knowledge, from our power to commit. Thank you, Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the great salvation that is ours. Not only that you have provided, but that you have secured upon the cross, and that you have applied to us, Holy Spirit, through your powerful work, that you have sealed us into that day of redemption. Cause your people to rejoice, even though we've looked at the dark subject. May we not spend our time in the catacombs, but in the halls of glory themselves. The more there are those present that know not Christ, There is unrepented sin in their life. Yes, Lord. And may this be the time that their eyes look to Christ and their hearts call out. Oh, Lord, our God. May your name be praised now and forever through Jesus Christ, our Lord, I pray. Amen.