Bible starting over to Matthew chapter number 22 tonight. Matthew chapter number 22 as we continue on in this series of answering questions, of taking what we've learned through our proven experiment of studying and rightly dividing God's Word and using it to answer questions that are often sometimes or sometimes viewed as difficult. And maybe you know the answer to some of these questions already, you just don't really know how to how to explain it, but these are questions that we can answer with a confident answer from God's Word, not so we can necessarily make someone feel less smarter than us or less spiritual than us, but rather that we can answer their question confidently in the Scriptures and use it as a way to witness and a way to encourage them and let them see that we believe God's Word and that we stand firmly upon it and it does have the answers for these difficult questions. But look with me at Matthew chapter 22, go down to verse number 23 tonight. and read this portion of Scripture. The Bible said, verse number 23, the same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, saying, Master, Moses said, if a man die having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren, and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. Likewise, the second also, and the third unto the seventh." Now listen, had you been number seven, I'd say, hold on a second. All six of my other brothers died when they married you. I feel like the Lord is calling me not to marry you. understand different cultures, different times. I'm glad that that's not how we operate nowadays. Amen. That would be some awkward family reunions. But look at verse number 27, last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven for they all had her. Which is interesting here comes a group that don't even believe in the resurrection and they thought man we've got them. We've got them cornered. He's not going to be able to answer this. Jesus answered and said to them, you do err. Well, that's a correct statement. They were wrong. Not knowing the scriptures. That's another statement that is true. Nor the power of God. You cannot deny the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the Lord and expect to have the power of God. You're denying the gospel. And that's, that's the power that we have denied. nor the power of God. Then he goes in verse number 30, from the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Ain't that a true statement or not? When God saved you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. But the moment he saved you, he became, and you are alive. And he's the God of the living tonight. We thank the Lord for that. But let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this evening. We thank you for being so good to us. We thank you for the song service. Thank you, Lord, for the word of God that serves as a reminder. Lord, we can turn to it. Lord, we'll be reminded that you're faithful. We can turn to it, Lord. We'll be reminded that you're gracious. Lord, when we turn to it, we're reminded that your love your compassion, your concern, your care, your wisdom. Lord, what a wonderful reminder it is. We spend our days reminding ourselves what is in the Word of God. I do pray, Lord, you'd hide me behind the cross of Calvary tonight, Lord, in and out of myself. Fill me. with your spirit, Lord, help me to preach and teach, God, as you designed it to be done tonight, Lord. And I just want to thank you again for the awesome privilege, Lord, of what you allow me and what you've called me to do. God, it's such a blessing, and I'm thankful for it. And, Lord, I'm thankful that I don't have to rely on myself and my abilities. God, I can simply trust you and do as you've commanded me to do, Lord, and you'll bless it and use it for your glory. Lord, I love you, and I thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. We come here tonight, Matthew chapter number 22, And you would think, well, there's a lot of different avenues that we could go down. But really there's one portion of scripture tonight. And we remind ourselves when we go through this proven experiment, there's certain rules that we have to interpret the Bible by. There's certain rules that we have to study the Word of God by to rightly divide it tonight. But have you ever been to a funeral, or normally this is where the statement's made, or a memorial service in that sense, and someone stands up and maybe someone says, well God took back one of his angels today. Or something along the lines that they're up flying with their new, they got their wings today. Right now they are angels, they got their halo today. And here's the thing, when it comes to this idea and this thought that we're gonna look at tonight, most people who say this or believe this, or carry this ideology wouldn't be described as doctrinally sound or sometimes not even doctrinally concerned people at all. A lot of times that phrase is simply something they've either heard before or picked up somewhere else, and so they're just repeating it, right? They're just saying what they've already heard or something that they've already heard once in their life. And if you brought up any kind of doctrinal issue, they probably couldn't give you any kind of substantial answer. Well, why do you believe that? I don't know, that's just what you say at funerals. That's just what you're supposed to say. And so this is where discernment comes in because there's some people, if you were to deal with them on this and you were to talk to them, I will give you discernment that it's probably not best for you to stand up in the middle of a funeral and deal with it there. And something I've had to learn in my Christian life, especially in the role of pastoring and not just pastoring but in conducting funerals, that there's a lot of stuff that you're gonna just have to kind of sit through knowing that once it's done, God has given me an opportunity to open up the word of God and preach the gospel. And to realize that just because what I believe and the standards that I have, they don't carry those same standards and I'm not there to change their standards, I'm not there to fix them. God has just given me the opportunity to open up the word of God and preach the gospel unto them. And sometimes I've had to sit through some interesting funeral services. I've had to preach after knock, knock, knock on heaven's door was played by Guns N' Roses. Preacher, did you dance to it? I don't know. But I remember sitting there like, my goodness, this is interesting. And I've had to preach behind some very awkward songs, some very discouraging and even depressing songs and different things that have been said and people speaking well and knowing good and well that that's not what we believe, that's not what I stand for. But God didn't call me to change their standards in that moment. God has given me the opportunity with death fresh on their minds to remind them that that's an appointment that every person's gonna have. And so you hear some crazy things, but understanding that in the moment, it's my opportunity to preach the gospel. However, these are sometimes questions that are asked. These are sometimes things that are posed to us. Well, you know, my grandma, she's an angel. When she passed away, she became an angel. And this word, discernment, some people just don't know. They've just said that. I mean, that's what I was told, that's what was taught to me in that sense, that's what people said, and okay, everybody's coming an angel, right? And some people aren't gonna change their mind. You can take them to the word of God tonight and say, here's what the Bible says, they'll say, I don't care, my grandma's an angel. Right, and they're not gonna budge off of it. And when you come to that, that's where discernment comes in. You'll say, well, you know what? I'm gonna give you the gospel, I'm gonna tell you that Jesus Christ died for you, he rose again, he's coming again, and he'll save you if you'll repent of your sins and put your faith and trust in him. Right, that's one of those where obviously I'm just giving the seed. Right, I'm praying that someone comes by on waters and then eventually God gives the increase. Now, some people just don't know, but they're willing to learn and be corrected. Right, and this is where discernment comes in. And so, and maybe they know a little bit, but doesn't the Bible say that we'll be like as angels? Or we'll be as angels when we get to heaven? Well, look with me at verse number 30 tonight. The Bible says, but are as the angels of God in heaven. Someone made a statement, and I'm gonna try my best to say it the right way. They'll say that you can make the Bible say anything you want it to say. You just gotta take it out of context. Remember those rules that we talked about when it came to studying the Word of God? First of all, you have to interpret Scripture with what? Scripture. Also, you have to take the verse in this context. The reality is tonight when these Sadducees came to Christ, they weren't talking about becoming angels. They were trying their best to disprove the resurrection. However, what Jesus is literally teaching them here is that when we get to heaven, as believers, when we get to heaven, we won't be given to marriage, right? There's no other marriages outside the marriage of the Lamb that's gonna take place in heaven tonight. And so when we get there, we're not gonna be given to marriage, which the angels, there are no married angels. is what Christ was saying here, but then he goes on, he's also speaking of their eternality. Right, when we get to heaven, we're there, amen? Well, that's gonna be a wonderful day. Knowing I don't ever have to leave. I don't have to separate. He's the best, you ever been in a church, there's a man, I hope, I hope it don't end. Well, they've all come to an end. Right, how do you know? Well, because this is not the same service we were in this morning. But the reality is, when we come here tonight, we look at this, we have to remember the value of looking at a text in context. And in the context, we're not dealing with this idea, this theology that when someone dies, they become an angel. These Sadducees were trying to trick Jesus on a question about the resurrection, which they themselves didn't even believe in. It's one of those things, if you didn't believe in it, why is it such a big problem? They were talking about women who end up marrying seven brothers, all who die being married to her, and they wanted to know, who would she be married to in heaven? Jesus said, no one. or none of them in that sense. And so verse number 29 and 30, Jesus answers their question, the resurrection of the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like the angels in that regard as there are no married angels. So where does this idea come from? That when someone dies, they become an angel. Where does this idea come from? When someone dies, they become an angel. Now, There's a lot of different sources. There's a lot of different that you could say it's this person, that person. One of the more well-known ones, one of the ones that through study came across was a man by the name of Emanuel Swedenborg. That name sounds official. Immanuel Swedenborg, he was late 1700s, mid 1700s, late 1700s, but he believed that people became angels after death. According to his teachings, angels are not separate creations but are good people who have passed from the earthly world and now reside in a spiritual state. Swedenborg taught that life on earth is in preparation of this angelic life, that everyone has the potential to become an angel. So what you have to realize is this man is around during if not the precursor to the second great awakening. And we think about the second Great Awakening, we think of Jonathan Edwards, we think of George Whitefield, we think about these men who preached the gospel, who preached the Bible, souls were saved, continents were shook, but we have to realize also when it comes, there's always what God's doing in those kind of times, but then there's also what Satan begins to do in those same kind of times. Did you know what was also birthed out of the Great Awakening? Mormonism. Joseph Smith was from an area of New York that was called the burned over region where there was great revivals. But there was a change somewhere in there where the idea was no longer what does the Bible say but what is my experience? They were wanting people who experienced the spiritual things. who experienced the moving of God. And that took precedence over what the word of God said. And this fellow tonight, Emanuel Swedenborg, falls in that category because it was no longer about the word of God says, but he began to say, I have direct revelations that God is telling me these things that are outside of the scriptures that he wants me to do. And those are the angels or former humans. Swedenborg taught that all angels were once people who lived on earth. Then he goes on to say, heavenly life is a continuation of early life. He saw death as a transition, not an end, where the soul continues to learn and grow in a spiritual state. And then he goes on to say, life prepares one for heaven. Swedenborg believed that the purpose of earthly life is to shape unto us into angels. And those who lived a good and loving life continue to grow in love and goodness after death, and they get their wings, and they get their halo after they die. This all comes from an experience where he began to have dreams and visions. 1741 he experienced and he wrote this spiritual awakening that he had which he received a revelation that Jesus had appointed him to write the heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. And so his idea was I'm gonna fix Christianity. I'm gonna fix everything that's wrong with it. There is nothing wrong with the biblical Christianity. Christianity that is based on the Word of God, a literal interpretation of God's Word, rightly divided, there is nothing wrong with that. What we see as wrong is when men have grabbed our hands onto and formed and molded into what we think is best instead of going what God says best. And so he has this idea, he writes this book that the Lord had opened his eyes, spiritual eyes, so that then he could freely visit Heaven and Hell to converse with angels and demons and other spirits and that the Last Judgment already occurred in 1757. Here's how we would categorize him, crazy. Right? I mean, if someone came to you and said, hey, I talk to demons. Where's the door? I ain't trying to hang around you. I don't wanna know what they say. I mean, no sir. Right, but he said, I can talk with him in this idea. And he said, listen, here's what they told me. They told me that everybody, every human being is just, or every angel is someone who is once a human being, but when they die, they did enough good, and so therefore, they gotta be an angel, right? Obviously, tonight, there was an inaccurate, incorrect interpretation of Scripture. Matter of fact, there probably wasn't an interpretation. It was just what he thought, just what he came up with. But where does it come in our culture, right? Because up until tonight, you've probably never heard the name Immanuel Swedenborg. I've never heard anybody say, that's the doctrine of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Right, but I have heard, hey, that's not right. But I've also heard my whole life, well, they're an angel now. They're up in heaven flying around. They got their wings. Well, where does this idea come from? Some of it, number one, comes from the influence of art and literature. influence of Art and Literature during the Renaissance it was a very popular thing to paint people as angelic beings. Maybe you've seen pictures of them. They've got the little, sometimes they have wings but more often than not they've got that little golden thing around their head. Right? It looks like a halo. It's a kind of circular thing that comes out of the Renaissance. Heavily influenced by the Catholic Church. Matter of fact if you go to most Catholic churches that have some kind of imagery on their stained glass whether it's a saint or whether it's you know, someone like Peter or Paul or or Stephen or Christ and you know, even like the the the the nativity scene you look at Christ he has this golden thing around his his head and and that's where this idea of a halo comes from right heavily influenced right through the the Catholic Church or not they do it for those they consider saints and holy which is interesting because at the same time They they'll claim they vehemently stand against this idea that people become angels, but you can become a saint Well, it's not the same thing, but it's still works-based salvation is what it is. It borrows from this idea of mythology that we somehow can evolve into something greater in the next life, which is a tenet of Eastern religion mythology or mysticism, not karma, right? Now you do good in this life, that way in the next life, you have a better life. This life, you gotta be a human being, you better do good, because you don't wanna become a dung beetle. Matter of fact, if you do real good, you can become a cow. which is sacred in their culture, right? And in their religion. But it's all formulated. There's nothing new under the sun. Satan don't have anything new. He just repackages it at different societies, different things. And what does that look like? Oftentimes in America, that's what it looks like. Well, granny was a good person, right? She paid her taxes. She gave up smoking, right? She was a good person. She's an angel. She's an angel. She's in heaven now. She's an angel. It's the same idea just repackaged and refurbished to meet and really the flow into our culture. And the reality is a lot of that's influenced because when you look at this painting at a church, well that person looks like an angel. Well, yeah, you know, they were really good. They got a halo. I've always heard that something along the lines of that if your kid's got a halo, it's because their horns are holding up. I don't know all about that tonight, but the reality is, you know, we have Christmas plays and pads and patches, all that kind of stuff. And, you know, it is cute and it's like, that's not biblical. That's not biblical, uh, biblically accurate, but it comes from an influence of art and literature. I remember working with a man when I was at Sonic and, uh, He knew I was in Bible college. We didn't go to the same high school. We were in high school at the same time and same age, all that kind of stuff. He was working the kitchen. At this time, I was working up front. I was working the front part of the store. And so it was just me and him in the store. And we got to talking. He said, yeah, Tate, I get all my theology. I get all my beliefs from the show Supernatural. I said, oh yeah? He goes, yeah, let me tell you. He said, I believe that Jesus and Satan were brothers. And he just went down this thing and I was just like, great day, that is crazy. But if you're getting your doctrine from a television show, it's gonna be crazy, right? Especially a show that's called Supernatural. And so when you're getting your ideas, when you're getting your theology from something that is outside of the word of God, right, it's going to be weird. And so when you look at those religions that we'd call them tonight, that derive their doctrine, even the eternity side of it, what we're looking for, right? You start to read out here, I mean, this is crazy, why? They didn't get it from the word of God, right? They got it from somewhere else. But we see this influence in art and literature. You see those paintings and, oh, that man, that person's an angel. They must have done really good. Notice number two, we also sometimes get it out of cultural comfort. of cultural comfort, what do you mean by that? In order to comfort somebody during a difficult time, we say not necessarily what they need to hear or what is truth, we say what we think is gonna help them, to help them feel better. Because it does sound comforting, right? To walk up to somebody and say, man, your grandma was so wonderful. Right, we know she's an angel now. Well, that sounds comforting. That sounds like a blessing. Well, I'm glad. Glad Granny is an angel now. But the issue with that is, one, it's not the truth. And so we can't comfort people and say things to people just so we can comfort them and not realizing the damage that it can cause or the doubt that it can cause. You know how old I was? When I finally came to the understanding and the realization that if I swallowed a watermelon seed, it was not going to grow in my stomach. But I was told that growing up, you swallow that thing and you're going to get a watermelon in your stomach. Now listen, I don't know what it is. When I grew up, watermelon still had seeds. I don't know what happened to all the watermelon seeds. Genetically modified. If there ain't no seeds, how do they keep growing them? Right? And I thought for the longest, you know, I was maybe late middle school, early high school. And I realized the sun can't get in there. How's water get in there? And I realized that the stomach acid in the human being can dissolve metal. Yeah, I don't think a watermelon is growing in there. Now, would I advise you eat a whole lot of watermelon seeds? Well, no, they can do damage to your intestines because of their shape and all that kind of stuff. But you can go to bed tonight and not worry about a watermelon growing out of your belly. And if something does start to grow, it's not a watermelon. Go see a doctor. Right, but there's this cultural comfort, right? We're going to tell you this because we just want you to feel better. Even though it's not true, I mean, yes, it's not the truth, preacher, but what am I supposed to tell them? Here's a crazy thought, the truth. Why? What does John 8, 32 say? And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Right, so make, now listen, when it comes, I understand they're not gonna grasp everything. They're not gonna understand everything. But when you give them the truth, you don't have to worry about them finding out something else later on. And yes, they may, you gotta realize, whatever untruth you tell them, that when it comes time for them to learn, they're gonna have to unlearn that. But if you just give them the truth as they grow up and as they age, God will take that truth that they already know, build upon it, give them a clear understanding of what it is and help them understand the reality that no, we don't live so we can become an angel. We live and we serve God because he's holy and he's just and he's righteous and we all need a savior. We all need to put our faith in. That's the only way to go to heaven. You don't go to heaven because you do enough good works. You go to heaven because you trusted Christ for salvation and build upon that. The danger is what if they don't turn away from that? What if they hold on to that for their whole life? No one's that crazy. I sat in jury duty a few years ago, and we made it into the courtroom. As a matter of fact, I ended up getting picked to be on the jury. But they were calling us in there. They began striking the process of the jury. That's where the two lawyers try to pick the best jurors that they can get for the case. by what they know about you, and some questions that you answer. But I remember we were sitting there, and the guy next to me, and they asked the question, does anybody have any objections to being part of this? And the guy raised his hand. You know what? We all did. None of us. I'm trying to do my civic duty. There's much other things I'd much rather be doing. They said, does anybody have any objections? The guy raised his hand next to me. He said, I did this. What's your objection? My daddy told me I'm not allowed to judge nobody. said, sir, well, if you were presented with facts and evidence, do you think you could make a, you know, a choice on whether someone's guilty or not? I ain't supposed to judge nobody. And they let him go. I thought, man, I wish my dad would have told me that. I was taught not to be judgmental and not to have prejudice, but I was also told that, hey, listen, you got to learn how to make decisions and that requires judgment. But we see it or not that a lot of this idea of, well, I don't know why grandpa, I guess grandpas just don't become angels. But grandmas do. And so when you're talking to a young child, well, you know, grandma, she's up in heaven flying around. She got her angel wings. And so a lot of it comes from cultural comfort. A lot of it comes from the influence of art and literature. And number three this evening, a lot of it comes from movies and media. Movies and media. right? We're, we're, we're one month away. I know some of y'all set your Christmas tree up back in July, right? We are a normally after Thanksgiving, but there's that time and man, December 1st, all the way up to Christmas. I mean, you can watch any Christmas movie you want to. I prefer the original Rudolph. right? Yukon Cornelius, nothing. The abominable, right? But there's a movie out there called, It's a Wonderful Life. Can I be real honest with you? I've never seen it all the way through. We started at one time, I fell asleep. But the whole plot of the story is that, I can't even think of the guy's name, George, I think. George Bailey. Yep. Right, he's on that bridge, he's about to take his life, and he ends up running into, I can't remember the angel's name, but he was... Amen. I'm gonna work on a sermon against this one. But no, it's, you know, he's trying to, what, earn his wings. He's angel second class. That's not in the Bible, but... I guess the Abominable Snowman's not in the Bible either, touche. But he's trying to earn his wings. And there was a big movement, a big pickup from that of people who said, man, angels gotta earn their wings. Now when I was growing up, I never watched It's a Wonderful Life, but I did watch Angels in the Outfield. To this day, when I see that little sliver of the moon, that's God's thumbnail. If you've never seen the movie, you have no idea what I'm talking about. And when it's full, he needs to cut them things. But this idea that angels will come in and help you win the World Series is absolutely ludicrous. Or you do enough good, you become an angel, and then you can help influence the next World Series. But this idea is turning in young people's minds, and if they're not in a place where they know the truth, and can say, well, this is fictional, right? It's a preacher, every kid knows that. No, you gotta realize, there was a point in time where some of my children thought Power Rangers were real. They were afraid of putties showing up. And so we gotta realize that movies and media play a lot in this. And we can't build our worldview on things that we found in movies. In the media tonight, we must build our worldview and our view of eternity on the Bible tonight. And the Bible draws a clear difference between men and angels and never is there a transition from one to the other. To give you some quick things about, the Bible tells that angels and men are not equal. Psalms 8, 4, and 5, what is man, David wrote, that thou art mindful of him. In the Son of Man, thou visitest him, for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. In essence, he would have said, you know what, I'm here now, but one day I won't be there. No, David said, no, there's a difference between man and angels. Men are a little bit lower in that sense, in their dwelling place and all of that. Luke 20, which is another account of what we just read in Matthew this morning, or this evening, it reminds us and tells us that angels don't die. Luke 20 verses 34-36, Jesus answered and said to them, the children of this world marry and are given in marriage, but they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, speaking of what is to come in the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die anymore for they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection. And so that day that we're looking forward to, we will never die anymore, angels tonight have never experienced death. And so there's a difference there. And so if an angel's never experienced death, how can someone die and then become an angel? And so we see that angels and men are not equal. Angels don't die. Angels serve humans, not the other way around. Angels serve humans, not other way around. Hebrews 1, 13 through 14. But to the witch of the angels said he at any time said to my right hand, until I make the enemies my footstool, are not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? God has sent angels to minister unto us. We see that in the Old Testament. Many times, the angel of the Lord would come and dealt with Abraham and dealt with, in the book of Judges, with what's-his-face's parents, Samson's parents, and all that kind of stuff. Now, we see that over and over again, that they came and ministered, they came and helped, they came and be a blessing. And we understand the Bible does teach that we entertain angels unaware who are ministering to us or God's using to be a blessing to us. But never do we find where men are to serve angels. And so we see there's a difference there tonight. And then finally tonight, I wrote this down, that in order for you to become an angel, you'd have to forget your salvation. In order to become an angel, you have to forget your salvation. 1 Peter 1.12, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us that as they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. Do you realize tonight that God created angels as beings to worship him. They've cried holy, holy, holy around the throne of God since their creation, but you and I were created in the image of God. And so we know there's even difference in our creation tonight, but we understand tonight in order for you to become an angel, you'd have to somehow forget and no longer understand the reality that you were saved by grace. Why? Angels don't understand salvation. They've never been redeemed. Christ never died for them. They've never once bowed their heads and bowed their heart and said, God, I'm a sinner, I deserve hell, I'm the worst, I'm falling apart, would you please save me? The Bible says they look into it, but you and I don't look into it, we've experienced it, we know what it's like to be at that place, to be at that place of desperation, having no hope and having no help, and calling out to Jesus to save our soul, and for him to come in to dwell inside of us, and we get up in the morning, we're reminded that he lives inside of us, and we long for that, and we can sing a song they cannot sing. They've cried, holy, holy, holy, but they never cried, I'm saved, I'm saved, I'm saved, and one of these days, we're gonna walk in, then they're gonna have to be quiet as you and I step back and sing that we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, amen? But in order for you to become an angel, because you can't comprehend it? Do I comprehend the depths of salvation? Absolutely not. I don't know everything and all things, but I do know that I'm saved. And I don't ever want to forget that. I don't ever want to forget April 3rd, 2015, when God saved my soul and changed my life and changed my eternity. But the Bible says that angels have no understanding of that. They look into it. They're curious about it. What's all that about? We don't know what that is. And so in order to become an angel, you'd have to forget all that. And that's not worth forgetting. I may not get no wings. And listen, there probably ain't a halo big enough for this head. But I'm not looking for that either. I'm looking for a body that's incorruptible. I'm looking for a mansion. But I'm also looking for a throne. They've been there since their creation. And they've cried, holy, holy, holy. And when I look in his eyes, they've seen him before. Boy, when I look in them, and I see the face of the one that died for me. Oh, they know him as God, they know him as eternal, they know him as holy and thrice holy. But I know him as redeemer and savior and friend. Listen, you can keep your wings, you can keep your halo. I don't want to be an angel. And I'm not trying to put down any of God's creation or not. But I'd much rather be a sinner saved by grace than an angel. Because I can sing redemption song and know what I'm singing about. And they'll never know that. And so when someone comes to you and you're standing at a funeral or you're sitting there and someone stands up and says, well, old grandma, She's an angel now, she's flying above us. A lot of times they have no idea what they're talking about. They're just trying to say something that they probably heard someone else say. They probably sit on the back of someone's car, got their wings. They're just trying to be a help and trying to be a blessing. But you can sit down and say, you know, you said your grandma's an angel, but I was there and I heard her share her testimony. She was saved by the grace of God. And she knew Christ as her Redeemer. And right now she's not an angel. I'm not trying to be rude with you. But she's with the Lord. She's in a body incorruptible. She don't have pain anymore. Matter of fact, I'd probably say she's in a better spot, in a better place than being an angel. Because she's with the one who died for her. And she knows that. Grandpa, keep praying for him. People don't become angels. And when you can give an answer confidently, oh no, no, no, people don't become angels. But when a saint does die, they are present with the Lord and they'll be with him for eternity. I mean, that's a blessing where you can answer that question and say, what about you? Have you realized that you're not good enough to become an angel? You can't do enough good works. But you can go to heaven by putting your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you done that? Have you asked Jesus Christ to save you and you just instantly open the door there without having to point your finger in their face and call them a heretic? Oh no, that's not what the Bible teaches. Here's what the Bible says. It always opens up the door to that. So men don't become angels. Obviously not because I never used a man in the illustrations or not. But grandmas don't become angels either. Grandmas who are saved by the grace of God go to heaven and spend eternity with Christ. They just don't get no wings. They don't get no halos. But what they do get, they're very pleased with. Let's pray tonight.