We'll read the Ten Commandments as they come to us from Exodus, Chapter 20. We notice that the Ten Commandments are preceded by the announcement of the fact that the Lord has brought his people out of Egypt. It is like a spiritual resurrection of the Israelites coming out of Egypt, and therefore they are called upon to live as new covenant people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. to show that the resurrection of the body was confessed also by Old Testament believers. Psalm 16. Psalm 16, the Psalm of David. Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. O my soul, You have said to the Lord, You are my God. My goodness is nothing apart from You. As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lists. O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life in your presence's fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Let us turn also to our Heidelberg Catechism, to Lord's Day 22, question and answer 57. Lord's Day 22, question 57. It's on page 51 at the back of our psalter. What comfort does the resurrection of the body afford you, that not only my soul, after this life, shall immediately be taken up to Christ its head, but also that this my body, being raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul, and made like unto the glorious body of Christ? The congregation, one of the most intriguing subjects, and also at the same time a fearful subject, that we can consider is death. There's one thing about death, and that is it is unavoidable. The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment No matter who you are, there's a certain intriguing character to death. And yet, the irony of it is that, being the most unavoidable fact of life, we avoid it the most. Though it's the most unavoidable fact of life, we avoid it the most. and all kinds of methods are used to try to make death seem not so ominous, not so fearful. I was reading in our sister denomination's magazine, the Vekker, an article of a review of a book, and the book was written about near-death experiences of various people The book was trying to show that death actually is not so fearful, because many people have come back from near-death experiences, and describing going down some tunnel and seeing some marvelous light, and the experience made such an impact on people that they found death to be less fearful for them. But there's a deceptive character to such books, and they often The reviewer of the book pointed that out, and that is that the only way that death can lose its fear rightly is if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then death has no more sting, and then the grave has no more victory. But without faith, you cannot confess the reality of death without fear. But faith confesses, I believe, in the resurrection of the body." Let us look at this subject, the resurrection of the body, and we'll look at the soul's separation, our body's restoration, and then faith's comfort. The first subject that comes to mind in connection with death is what happens between death and the resurrection, what happens to the human soul. it is called the matter of the intermediate state, meaning the state between our death and the resurrection, because we know that the general resurrection will come when Jesus comes again, in the last day. So what happens to those people's souls? Now there are those And among them we have the cults on the one side, and on the other side you have the secularists who claim that, well, nothing happens to the soul after that, because there is the commitment to the teaching of annihilationism. And annihilationism teaches that just as the body deteriorates in the graves, so the soul just dissipates. It just disappears. it just gets annihilated and no longer exists. And so there is this idea of the temporality of the human self-consciousness, just as the body is temporal, so our, quote, soul is. But people are becoming much more spiritual, let us say, in the quotation marks with a small s, and in the sense that they're more conscious of the fact that people have this hungering for the divine. And there is this spirituality that is much more in vogue now, and so we are importing another explanation for what happens to the human soul, and that is those who still want to deny Christianity are welcoming the idea of the Oriental teaching of reincarnation. Reincarnation teaches that if you generate enough good karma, karma being the Oriental term for merit, if you're good, then you develop good karma. You develop enough good karma, then you may come back as a higher creature, like an elephant. If you develop bad karma, and you live a bad life, the Oriental, the Hindu idea is that you might come back as a lower creature like a rat. And it is amazing that people are even claiming that they are Christians and believe in reincarnation. How confused people are. Now, in the Christian camp, those are ideas that we just mentioned that are outside of the Christian camp. Anyone who's committed to those ideas cannot really claim in any credible sense that they believe the Bible. But within the camp of those who subscribe to Christianity in a credible way, there are those who have yet a third explanation, that is the idea of soul sleep. And they say, based on texts of the Bible also that speak of death as sleeping, and sleeping in the Lord, etc., They claim that what happens is that the soul just goes to sleep, and then when Jesus comes again, the soul wakes up and unites with the body. That's not a satisfactory explanation, we believe, however, because there are too many passages of scripture that speak of the consciousness of the soul after death and before the resurrection. In Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 7, we read of the soul, just as the body returns to the dust, that the spirit shall return unto the Lord who gave it, unto God who gave it. The Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 8, speaks in this way, "'We are confident,' I say, "'willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.'" So, the Apostle Paul is confessing that when his self-consciousness, his soul, is absent from his body, he's going to be with the Lord. In Luke 15, Jesus speaks of Lazarus and the rich man, and in that account or parable of Lazarus and the rich man, he speaks of the soul of Lazarus being taken up and being in fellowship with Abraham and the saints. In Luke 24, verse 34, we read of Jesus' words to the thief on the cross, and what does Jesus say to the thief on the cross? He says to him, "'Verily I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.' Now we know that there is the explanation that says that the comma should be moved and that Jesus is saying, barely, barely, I thank you today, comma. You will eventually be with me in paradise, implying when I come back. But no, you don't have to use the word today when you're talking to someone. You know I'm preaching to you today. And I don't have to tell you that. That's wasting my breath. And Jesus would not be wasting his breath on the cross when it's very hard to get any breath. Until the man, verily, verily, I'm telling you this today. No, the comfort in response to his question, Lord, remember me when you come back in your kingdom. The comfort that was given by Jesus is, I'm telling you, you don't have to wait till I come back. Because this very day, this day when you are going to die, you will be with me in blessed consciousness in the fellowship of my father in paradise. In fact, Jesus himself did he not say just a little while later in verse 46 of Luke 24, father into thy hands I commend my spirit. So, there you have a list of some passages that speak of the consciousness of the soul, the blessed consciousness of the believer's soul, immediately after death, and therefore the believer confesses rightly in the Heidelberg Catechism that he believes that his soul, my soul, after this life shall immediately be taken unto Christ its head. And so, that is what we do as Reformed believers, believe and confess when we say, I believe in the resurrection of the body. We believe that, in the meantime, the soul of the believer is in fellowship with the Lord. What about the restoration of the body? Secondly, the restoration of the body is described in this way, that this my body being raised by the power of Christ shall be reunited with my soul, reunited with my soul, there is a time of separation of soul and body, there will be a reunion of soul and body. Upon death, the believer's glorification is not complete. The believer's soul is experiencing the bliss of fellowship with the Lord, but it is, we could say this way, a disembodied soul. and there is something not complete about that. We sense that incompleteness in the longing of the saints under the altar, described in the book of Revelation. We see that incompleteness also described in Romans 8, in verse 22 and 23 of Romans 8, the Apostle Paul having spoken in chapter 7 of the struggle between the old man and the new man, the old nature, new nature. he is speaking here of a certain groaning. I mean, he's talking about the global groaning that's taking place in the sense that the whole creation is under the curse of against him, and it's looking forward to the restoration of the whole new earth. But the soul, we ourselves, our spirit experiences a certain incompleteness. We desire good, and so the apostle says, but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit. If you have the first fruit of the Spirit working in you, you also experience this groaning within yourself, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. Our soul may be knowing the joy of the blessedness of forgiveness. Our soul may be knowing the joy of being born again, but the body is still waiting for the time when it will be born again, recreated, resurrected. Whether we look forward to it or not, it is a fact. It will happen. Is anything too hard for the Lord? There are those who defy Christianity and the biblical faith by having their body cremated, and in that spirit of defiance, they defy God to ever bring their body back together. And that certainly would be a wrong motivation for doing something like that. But is anything too hard for the Lord? How did the Lord make the body in the first place? Didn't he take dust out of the ground, and didn't he form man's body? Didn't he breathe into him the breath of life? The Lord Jesus says that even as the Father has life in himself, he has given to the Son to have life in himself and to give life to whosoever he will. That's John 5, when Jesus speaks of that power that he has. He goes on to speak about the resurrection of the body. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Can he not then also gather the dust of our body and renew our body? So, the believer compresses, this my body, this very body, this body, even if it has been stoned in martyrdom, or beheaded or burned or mutilated for the cause of Christ, the believer still dies in the hope of the resurrection. When will that happen? When Jesus comes again. I love the passage in John 5, and we'll be turning to that if you want to look it up. We'll be turning to John chapter 5 and verse See, the believer here in the Catechism confesses, this my body will be raised by the power of Christ. And there is a reason why the Catechism confesses. It's not just the power of the Almighty God. Yes, God the Father will be involved. God the Holy Spirit will be involved. But the center of the comfort of the believer is by the power of Christ. How did your soul begin to live? Was it not because you heard with power the voice of Jesus Christ? Well, that's what Jesus is talking about in an earlier part of John chapter 5. In verse 25, the Lord Jesus is saying, this is what's happening now. While I am preaching, while I am showing my signs, while I'm going around the countryside in Galilee and Judea and preaching the gospel, most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming. It's going to be happening in the future, but it now already is happening. The dead are hearing the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear live. Souls are being resurrected. from the imprisonment of spiritual death. And you think this is marvelous, Jesus goes on to say in verse 28, do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming. He doesn't this time say now. This is definitely future, because then comes again, the second time, in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice. Jesus Christ is coming again upon the clouds of heaven, and he is going to speak, and through his speech all bodies will come up out of the grave. But notice the next verse tells us there is a twofold resurrection of the body. There are two kinds of resurrection of the body. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. There are two kinds of the resurrection of the body. There's the resurrection of the body of those who believe, and they will have a blessed resurrection. Their resurrection will be a resurrection unto righteousness and glory and bliss and praise, and their bodies will be equipped to serve God most perfectly. but there will also be the resurrection of the unjust. And so we understand why Paul, when he is preaching to Felix, the governor, that we read in Acts 24, verse 15, that Felix trembled. And Paul testifies to Felix, I have hope towards God. that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust." And Felix hears the word of God and trembles, and he puts Paul off. He says, come back some other time. When I have a more convenient season, then maybe I'll listen to this preaching, but I'm not ready to listen to it right now. And that's the reaction of unbelief, isn't it, to the truth of the resurrection. Unbelief does not see any comfort in the truth of the resurrection. Unbelief says, well, don't talk about the resurrection now. You're having a good time here, and don't mess with my party. Don't be a spoiler of my fun. But the time will come, whether you like it or not. whether you think it's a convenient season to hear about it now or not, but the resurrection of the body will come. And, actually, while you're still alive, this is the best time to hear about the certainty of the resurrection, because it is appointed, as Hebrews tells us, it is appointed unto man once to die. Once. You only die once. Reincarnation is the figment of man's vain imagination, that he gets all kinds of opportunities to come back again and again and again. You just try it over again. You know, maybe you get some better karma next time around. There's only one time around. Just once. One life to live, one death to die, and then the judgment. What will it be then? You see, the resurrection of the body is a fact, and an awesome fact, if we don't believe. This body with which you are sinning, this body with which you are blaspheming the name of Christ, this body with which you are devoting your time in the service of sin, this very body will stand up again. and it will be renewed. You say, what renewal? It will be equipped to withstand the eternity of condemnation, because the very chapter, John 3, that speaks to us of the blessedness of those who believe that they will live forever, says also, whoever believes not is condemned already. And there will be rays from the grave equipped with a body that will never be annihilated, will never be disintegrated, but will stand up to the eternity of torment in the presence of the demons, everlastingly regretting what they did with that very body that is being raised. What a horrible thing. What an awesome thing. But faith answers clearly against the horror of that. I believe in the resurrection of the body. And that is why it is called a blessed resurrection, because it's so different. Not that the body itself would be so different in this way that the body will be equipped to live eternally. In 1 Corinthians 15, there is the distinction between this body we have now and the body we shall receive. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption, it is sown in indignity, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it's raised in power. It's a spiritual body sometimes described, or a heavenly body. but it's a body that will enable us to enjoy and endure the glories of heaven. the glories of the presence of God. We now look through a glass darkly, the Apostle says. Now we're looking through some kind of filtered refraction of the glory light of God, because we cannot stand, nor will we even be able to withstand, with these eyes and with this body, the presence of the glory of God in Jesus Christ. But then we shall see him face to face. Philippians chapter 4 teaches us, or chapter 3 verse 21 teaches us that we will be renewed, our body will be renewed, like unto the glorious body of Jesus Christ. You think of Jesus' body being renewed in his resurrection. And while yet there is proof that it was the same body, because the print of the nails were still in his hand, and the wound was still in his side, and he assured his people that it was that same body, yet it was a glorious body, a body not limited by physical barriers, a body that was at the same time in fellowship with his Heavenly Father and the thief on the cross, and yet in fellowship with the disciples as he appeared to them. A glorious body. Are we looking forward? Is faith in our heart saying, I believe? Is it saying that with anticipation, with longing, with comfort, I believe in the resurrection of the body." You say, well, I believe in the resurrection, but I'm talking about a different dimension of faith. I'm not saying simply, do you believe the fact of the resurrection? Because the demons of hell believe that there will be a resurrection. Satan believes that there will be a resurrection. Ashley Phelous, while he was trembling, and the reason why he was trembling, when Paul the Apostle was preaching the resurrection to him, believed that there would be a resurrection, and that's why he put off the sermon. He said, Paul, I've had enough of the sermon today. Just, you know, come back some other time. Because he believed the fact of the resurrection. But he did not believe in Jesus Christ, who said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whosoever believeth in me shall not perish. Whosoever believeth in me, even though he were dead, that shall he live. In John 11, Jesus gives that comfort to Mary and Martha in the face of the death of their brother Lazarus. They spoke of Lazarus' death as sleep because the believer may have this comfort that when they rest in sleep, they are slipping into the arms of their Heavenly Father. They are like falling asleep only to awake in the presence of God. just to clarify to his disciples, since they were confused, well, if he's sleeping, then he'll do all right, because sleep is good for people. Jesus made it very clear Lazarus is dead. He had spoken about the death of Lazarus, so Paul picks up on it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, speaking about the sleep of death in the case of believers, because for them, when they die, they do not have to fear. The young lady who had died and her father had spent for Jesus, she was raised by Jesus with the words, Talitha cummi, he said to her. And what was he saying to her? He was raising her from the dead in such a comforting way as though Daddy had come to her bedside and said, my little girl, wake up. And so she rose from that death with the comfort of the Savior's voice. And so also the believer will experience death to be but the sleep will arise in the presence of Christ at his voice. Congregation, this is comfort for believers. Faith says, I believe in the resurrection of the body. Faith confesses it with joy. The hour is coming, Jesus says, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Because if you do not believe in Jesus Christ, and if you have not fled to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, if you do not trust in his death for the payment of your sin, if you do not trust in his perfect obedience for the righteousness you need. Then when he comes again, his voice will call your body out of the grave, but you will stand before him as your judge. And he will say to you, how often wouldn't I have gathered you How often haven't I invited you as the Savior and said to you, all you who are laboring and heavy laden under the burden of your sin, come to me and I will give you rest. And you would not listen to my voice. And now as your body listens to my voice and comes out of the grave, you will hear my voice as a word of judgment. But when the believer sees Jesus coming, when the believer experiences the return of Christ, he will hear the voice of the very same Savior who raised his soul, her soul, out of the deadness of sin and will hear the voice of Jesus. Sometimes I wonder what Lazarus experienced, the brother of Mary and Martha, and he was in the grave, and Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth! He heard the voice of Jesus, and he who was dead came forth out of the grave. He heard a voice that he loved to listen to. Lazarus and Mary and Martha would love to hear Jesus as he visited Speaking of the things of the Kingdom of God, do you love to hear His voice? Does His voice awaken your soul? Does His voice revive your heart? Does His voice give you new perspective for life? Can you say also, for me to live is Jesus Christ? I love to hear His voice. And one day, He will come again. And you will hear his voice saying to you, come forth and enter into the bliss that I have prepared for you. And you will appear before him standing in a body, and as you compare your body to his body, you will say, I'm just like him. His body and my body are glorious. And what a glorious thing it will be then to praise God in a body that will praise God with such ability that sin never hinders. O grave, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? He has given us the victory through Jesus Christ. Believe in him, and death's fear will go, and the day of resurrection will be something that you look forward to. As we read in the Old Testament scriptures, I know—and who said that? I know that my Redeemer liveth, the man who suffered most in his body, who suffered so much in this life that every comfort was taken from him, and in the midst of the absence of all that comfort, he had this comfort. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth, and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh, this my body, I shall see him. I shall see God. Do you look forward to that day? That's the comfort of faith. Amen.