So today we come to chapter 31 in our confession. Chapter 31 is of the state of man after death and of the resurrection of the dead. What happens after death? It's a question that many people wrestle with, struggle with. In some cases, people just seek to avoid it altogether. But the reality of death is before us every day. In the news accounts we hear of it, whether it's a natural disaster, whether it's a war, whether it might be terrorist attacks, whether it might be the result of crime, or we hear of someone suffering some type of illness or sickness. Death is a reality. And sooner or later, death comes into all of our lives. Death is something we have to face. It may be a friend, it may be a co-worker, it may be a loved one. And then we really, really are confronted with this question. What happens? What happens after death? If you listen to the world, they have many, many opinions. Many ideas, many answers to what happens after death. But as we will read and see in chapter 31 of our confession, God's Word gives us the answer. As we look at the confession, we will see that the outline of the paragraphs are, first of all, they deal with the intermediate state. This is in paragraph 1. And as we look at it today, we will look at the distinction between the body and the soul in the intermediate state. And then secondly, we will look at the distinction between the righteous and the wicked in the intermediate state. The remainder of the chapter, in paragraphs two and three, addresses the final change There is the fact of the final change, the character of the final change, the permanence of the final change, the time of the final change, and then the contrast in the final change. But today we will just be looking at the intermediate state. So I was reading a number of books and commentators on this topic of the intermediate state and I found this this quote from a book by Hokema on it. And I thought it might be helpful to give us some historical context as to what the church has viewed as far as the intermediate state. It's rather long, so I thought I would put it up here as opposed to just reading it to you. But if you can follow along, we can see that since the time of Augustine, Christian theologians have taught that between death and resurrection, the souls of men enjoy rest or suffer affliction while waiting for the completion of their salvation or the consummation of their damnation. In the Middle Ages, this view continued to be taught and the doctrine of purgatory was developed. But the reformers rejected the doctrine of purgatory and they continued to hold to an intermediate state. Calvin was more inclined to think of this state as a conscious existence He had a book that he was answering to Anabaptists of his day who taught simply that souls sleep between death and resurrection. Calvin, however, taught that for believers the intermediate state was a state of both blessedness and expectation. The blessedness was provisional, but it was yet incomplete. And since that time, the doctrine of the intermediate state has been taught by the Reformed theologians, and it's reflected in our confession. So that's just a bit of the historical context. So as we look at our confession, we'll look again at the intermediate state in terms of two distinctions. Let's read the paragraph. Again, a lengthy one. So I know at the beginning here, there's lots of reading here. Stay with me here. It says, the bodies of men after death return to dust and see corruption. But their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ and behold the face of God in light and glory waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. And the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the scriptures acknowledge none." So let's first look at the distinction between the body and the soul in the intermediate state. The body, again the confession says that the bodies of men after death return to dust and see corruption. Well, first in terms of death, we know that death is the penal consequence of sin. In Genesis 2, 17, God had told Adam, 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. Adam was given a commandment. And that if he failed to obey, the consequence for Adam's disobedience would be what? It would be death. So there was a consequence, the penal consequence for his sin. Well, how does that apply to us? That's Adam. Well, what about us? Well, the reality is that all men sin. And as a result of sin, all men die. In Romans 5, 12, it says that just as sin came into the world through one man, being Adam, and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all men sinned. Death has come to all men. All men die. And we've only read of two exceptions. Enoch and Elijah. But the reality for all men, all men sin, and all men then will die. So then, what happens? What happens to the body then, first of all? Well, for Adam, God said in His judgment against Adam, He said in Genesis 19, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. So as you're living, there's going to be consequences. There is the curse. And you will continue as that until you return to the ground. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return. We recall that when God created man, he created man from the dust, from the earth. And he is telling Adam here that as a consequence of his sin, part of the judgment is that his body, his body that is made of dust, will then return to the ground, will return to the dust. For it is of dust. Okay, so that's Adam. Well, what about for us? Well, we see in Ecclesiastes 12 that just as Adam And his body returns to dust. So our bodies will likewise return to dust. In this chapter in Ecclesiastes 12, it talks about aging. And ultimately it gets to that point about the silver cord being broken, death. And then at death, then we see that the dust returns to the earth as it was. Our bodies return to dust. There is an ongoing decay. It's a reality. It's a terrible reality. Our bodies will decompose. They will return to dust. In Acts 13.36, it talks about it as though it were seeing corruption. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep. He died. He was laid with his fathers. He was buried. And he saw corruption. His body, it saw corruption. Corruption being a deterioration. wearing away or wasting away of his body. So I think everybody agrees and can understand this. We see that part of the question. What happens after death? Well, with regard to the body, the body returns to dust. Most people understand it. They can accept that. We see it. I mean, it's obvious. But the more complex question, I think, that people struggle with is what happens to the soul? What happens to the soul? Our confession says, but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. Again, let's first set the stage. Our souls. Our souls are given by God. We see that God formed man of the dust, His body came from dust, but he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God is the giver of life. He breathes in a living life and gives man a living soul. And we see the soul that at death is separated from the body. In James 2 it says, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from the works is dead. The normal condition, God created man with a body and a soul. That's our normal condition. However, at death it becomes an abnormal condition. There's a tearing apart of what God had put together. There's a tearing apart. The soul is torn apart from the body. It's separated, but it continues to exist. So the soul continues to exist, but then what? Well, we read in Ecclesiastes, again, we've seen earlier what happens to the body, but then we see the spirit or the soul. What happens? It returns to God. The spirit, the soul, continues to exist and immediately returns to God, to the God who gave it. So the answer to the question, what happens to the soul at death, We see that the soul continues to exist, and we see that the soul returns to God. And this is what's described as the intermediate state. Now I'm going to take a couple of minutes, because our confession deals with these topics, to talk about some other views. One of those views is annihilationism. The thought that the soul is extinct, Well, the confession says, there are souls which neither die. It says here, just in Matthew 10, 28, just to keep in mind that our soul cannot be killed by man. We have no reason to fear. Man may be able to kill the body. Don't fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. The soul continues to exist. Even though our bodies may die, So there's not an annihilationism. It just isn't like we die, somebody kills us, and then we're extinct. It's gone. Everything. Jesus stresses that we don't need to fear man. There's something about us, it's our soul, that man cannot touch. Our soul will continue to exist even after death. But also, some of the views of annihilationism, as I've read, and again, I'm not an expert in this, but from what I've read, they suggest that there's really, you know, they might acknowledge, okay, there's There's not an immediate non-existence, but there's no state between death and the resurrection. It teaches that until the resurrection, the believer, including his soul, ceases to exist. It's kind of an odd concept here, where they're saying, I think what they're saying is that, in a sense that, okay, we die, and our bodies are gone, they stop existing, our souls stop existing, but then at the time of the resurrection, there will be almost like a recreation of the person, where the body and soul are recreated and they're joined again together. But that's not what the Bible teaches. It teaches again that the soul continues to exist. In Philippians 1.23, Paul says, I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Paul is speaking here of his death, to depart. We've seen that at death the body decays. So then what must he be talking about? It must be his soul. It's his soul that continues to exist. It's his soul that will then be separated from his body and it's his soul then that will be with Christ. This is his desire. And it's a far better condition. It's not annihilationism. How can that be a better condition? It's a continued existence to be with Christ. So that's annihilationism. But then there's also another concept called soul sleep. Some have taught that. Some have taught that, essentially, advocates of soul sleep reject the doctrine of the intermediate state or the teaching that believers or even unbelievers experience any conscious existence after death and before the resurrection. They liken it to being asleep. It's an unconscious state with no experience. And they point to a number of Bible texts that talk about death as falling asleep. Now, while there are a number of Bible passages that do talk about death as falling asleep, in no case do they speak of it as the whole person who sleeps. I'm sorry, excuse me, let me say this again. In no case do they speak of it as the soul that sleeps, but rather it's the whole person that sleeps. So they don't just talk about, well, your soul is sleeping. It's usually the whole person. It's an imagery of sleeping to describe death. The death of the believer is to convey the sense of rest, is what they say. Note that these passages, and I'm not going to go through them all, but just to summarize, they do not convey the idea of a loss of consciousness or the absence of being in the presence of the Lord. And I think that's the key point. There is still a consciousness. The soul is conscious. In Revelation 6-9, we read that, when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altars the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete. who were to be killed as they themselves had been. Here we have a picture of souls that are conscious. They're crying out to God. And they're crying out to God, waiting for the final judgment. They're clearly not completely asleep, and they're not unconscious. And they recognize that there are still those that dwell on the earth, those that are awaiting judgment. And also that there are still yet their fellow servants and brothers that are on the earth who are yet to be killed. So this can't be a picture of the final eternal heavens because there are still people on earth. And we see that there are souls that are conscious and crying out to God. And it's interesting also They're told to rest a little while longer. So this concept of rest doesn't mean that they're completely asleep and there's a lack of consciousness. No, it's a rest from our earthly labors. It's a rest from our battles here on Earth. But we are aware. Our souls will be aware and conscious at that time. And Philippians... I'm sorry. I'll just read this, and in Philippians 1.21-23 it says, For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Venema states it this way the comfort of every believer who falls asleep in Jesus according to the scriptures is that they go to be with the Lord They enter upon death into a new phase of unbroken and conscious fellowship with Christ and his people and It's this not annihilationism not soul sleep. It's this that is the future prospect of believers in the intermediate state and So we have seen the distinction between the body and the soul. The body, it dies and decays and returns to dust. The soul, however, it continues to exist and it will return to God. Now with the time remaining, we'll take a look at the distinction between the righteous and the wicked in the intermediate state. We read that the souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. So again, as from earlier in the paragraph, we saw that the souls immediately return to God. So we see then there's the immediate entrance into this condition. The souls of the righteous immediately will enter into this condition. In Luke chapter 23, 43, Jesus said to the thief on the cross, the penitent thief, truly I say to you today, today, you will be with me in paradise. Upon his death, he will immediately be with Christ. But also we see in Philippians 1, 21 through 23, as I read, it says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So there's the two options. To live, and for him it's Christ. Living in the flesh means fruitful labor. But then there's also to die. So we're either living or dying. And for Paul, it's to die is gain. And he's hard-pressed between these two. His desire is to depart and be with Christ immediately. To depart and then to be with Christ. Paul is saying the moment that he departs or dies, that very same moment, he will be with Christ. So we see the immediate entrance into the condition of the righteous. at death. Okay, then we'll see that the souls of the righteous are then made perfect. So we'll see their perfect holiness in this condition. In Hebrews 12, 23, it says, To the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits, the souls, of the righteous made perfect. So at death, The righteous, the souls, are made perfect. Sam Walden says it this way. First mentioned among the blessings which the intermediate state brings to believers is their being made perfectly holy. This is to say, as to their moral and ethical condition, believers become absolutely sinless. Their souls are exactly conformed to the righteousness of God. So at death, Our souls are made perfect. We become sinless. So that's one of the conditions of the righteous. Another condition is that we are received into Paradise. It's a delightful circumstance upon this condition. In Luke 23, 43, we see Jesus again saying to the thief, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. Paradise. Paradise is a word that It's connected to the concept of a garden or a beautiful park. And it's reminiscent of the Garden of Eden. It might bring to mind that concept that there's a return to that state where man had fellowship with God and perfect righteousness and happiness. This is paradise. It's that fellowship and communion with God and Christ. That's what's so delightful about this condition. It says in 2 Corinthians 12, 24, then we see the parallel between both paradise and heaven. And here Paul is talking about a man in Christ who 14 years ago, who was caught up to the third heaven, whether in body or out of the body, I do not know God. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise. So you see, there's a parallel between the two. So when we see the word paradise and heaven, there's a parallel between the two. And then in Isaiah, We see, where is God? God here is looking down from heaven and He sees. How is heaven described? It's a place. It's a place that's described as His holy and beautiful habitation. So, paradise. It's holy. Holy is separate. Holy is sinless. There is no sin there. It's a beautiful, beautiful place. It is a place, though. A place of rest for the believer. A place of comfort and joy. That is our delightful circumstance upon death. But I think here is the most important point to me. We are with Christ at death The blessed companion in this condition, again in Philippians 1.23, we talk about my desires to depart and to be with Christ. That is far better. At death we go to be with Christ. That's what makes paradise paradise. That's what makes heaven heaven. And while we have fellowship and communion with Christ here on earth, Yet it's not perfect. We still battle with sin here. We still get distracted with the cares of the world, but when we die, we go to be with Christ. And it will be far better. Yes, we have a relationship now, but it will be far better. In 2 Corinthians 5, 6, For the sake of time, just at the end it says that Paul, he would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. He would rather die and be with the Lord. That is his desire. At that time we will no longer need to walk by faith, but we will behold him. and the radiance of His glory, and we will worship Him. We will be with Christ. I think of it, you know, I was trying to, you know, okay, so some of us travel. And we're away. So I'm away from my wife. I still have fellowship and communion with her via text, phone, right, email. So there's still a connection there. That love isn't broken by our separation, just like at death. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. I mean, Christ loves us now. At our death, that love continues. Right now we have fellowship with Christ, yes. We can pray to Him. We can read His words so we have contact with Him. But yet, any of us would say, how far better it is to be home. When I come home, it's not like an email. She's there. And how much more will it be when we behold our Savior? That, to me, has to be the most important blessing of this condition. We're not going to be going to annihilation, non-existence, sleeping. We will behold our Savior. and be with Him. And we will behold the face of God in light and glory. This is a long passage, but if you bear with me, we can see that we will be with a multitude, a multitude who will be standing before the throne and before the Lamb. We will be worshipping, we will be praising God. We will behold Him. In this passage from Revelation, it's not a picture of the final heavens. For it says here, it says, the question he asks, John says, who are these? Who are these that are worshipping? Who are these that are beholding God in His glory? Well, it's the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. So ones that have been coming out, that have been dying. So there's still those yet to be, that are coming. There's this ongoing process. They're coming out of the Great Tribulation. And they are before the throne of God and they serve Him day and night. One of the commentators says this concept of day and night. When we see the concept of the final heavens, there's no night there. So the commentators suggest this is a picture of the intermediate state. the time when we will be able to be before our Savior and worship Him. But yet, as blessed as it is, we are still waiting. We're waiting for the full redemption of our bodies. There's a sense of an incompleteness. In 2 Corinthians 5, 1 through 8, Paul's saying that we know that if this tent that the tent is our earthly home if it's destroyed. So if our bodies are destroyed, yet we have a building from God eternal in the heavens. He's longing to put that on. There's a longing to one day, eventually, be able to be reunited with our souls. And that will only happen when Christ returns. The blessedness during the intermediate state is incomplete, and that the just have not yet received the redemption of our bodies. We are yet waiting. So that's the condition of the just. But much more quickly, as time is moving on, we'll look quickly at the condition of the wicked. The souls of the wicked are cast into hell where they remain in torment and utter darkness reserved to the day of judgment. So there's several things we can see here about the condition of the wicked in the intermediate state. First we'll look at their location, then their circumstance, and then their expectation. So where are they at? Where does the wicked go? Well, this is the parable from Luke. I think we're familiar with this. But again, we see it's the parable of the poor man, Lazarus, and the rich man. And it says, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried and in Hades. Being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus and like man are bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us. So we note here that at death, where does the rich man go? He died, he was buried, and he's in Hades. It's a separate place from the place where Lazarus is taken. Lazarus goes to a separate place called Abraham's side. It's distinct, and it's a separate location. The place where Lazarus goes is described later as a place where he is comforted. So he is comforted in that place, but for the rich man he is in anguish. The rich man died and is in Hades. That's where he is, that's the place. And these next realities are terrifying. He's in a place. It's a place of torment. Being in torment. In Hades, he is in torment. The level of torment is described here is that he desires just that Lazarus would dip the end of his finger in water and cool his tongue. It's a conscious torment. There's no annihilationism. He's aware of what's happening. He senses it. He experiences it. He understands and feels these torments. But it's also an inescapable torment. There's a great chasm. None may cross. The location of Hades is inescapable for the wicked. None may cross. Thus the torment and the punishment in Hades is inescapable. And if you really think about that, the permanence, it's a frightening, frightening thing. That is where the souls of the wicked are. That is where they are at, where they suffer torment. And they're there until the day of judgment. That is all they have to look forward to. That is their expectation. In 2 Peter 2.9 it says, Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. In 2 Peter, verses 4-9, God is talking about judgment here. How He did not spare the angels, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. The sense of being kept until judgment. Just like for the angels, so too is it for the unrighteous. They are being kept. No escape. And you see, consistent with that parable, they are under punishment. This is the expectation of the unjust, to be kept until judgment. It's certain and inescapable. And it's a terrifying concept. It's a terrifying truth. In terms of alternatives, Our Confession says there are no alternatives besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies. The Scripture acknowledges none. There's no purgatory. There's no discussion of purgatory at all. So, in summary, in the last moments, just to remind us. So for the believer, for us, what happens at death? Well, I think we can have some... there's comfort for us. We can read the Bible and seek comfort. We go to be with the Lord. What a glorious desire. I mean, we come to church each Lord's Day so that we might worship Him. It's just a taste of it. But when we die, we will be with Him. We will see Him. There will be no longer this need to battle with our sin because we will then be made holy. How often would you not long to be able to worship God with a sinless heart? But that is your comfort. At death you will be able to. And then we will also enter rest. Life is a battle. We fight and labor day in and day out with everything around us, battling remaining sin, battling temptations for sin, battling just the realities of life. But then there will be rest. What a comfort that is. But for the unbeliever, there's warnings here. There's torment. I was listening to sports talk radio And they were commenting on the death of Burt Reynolds, who happened to be a football player, which I didn't know. But they happened to talk about Burt Reynolds. And I don't know Burt Reynolds. Heart condition. I don't know. I don't know whether he is a Christian or not, but this commentator said oh Yeah, I don't remember Burt Reynolds He was in these really great movies back in the 70s called Smokey and the Bandit and if you haven't seen him Don't worry, but just understand this Smokey and the Bandit, you know, it's just and then he goes on to say yeah, I was so neat He's driving around his trans am being chased by Jackie Gleason who is the police officer and it's just such a great movie and I am sure that Burt Reynolds is now in heaven. And if I can imagine it, he's driving that Trans Am and being chased by Jackie Gleason and just everything is great. And I'm listening to this and my head is almost exploding. Because the reality is this. If Burt Reynolds was not a Christian, he is not driving a Trans Am. They're not partying up there. There's nothing like that happening. They are in torment. Constant, conscious, inescapable torment. There's no escape. Or if he is a believer, then he doesn't care about a transam, he's in the presence of the Lord. I mean, the concept that the world has of what happens at death is just so bizarre. But this is what our Bible teaches. When you go to be with the Lord, we are made holy, we enter rest. And for the believer, there is torment and there is no escape. And finally, death is decisive in terms of your destiny. The Bible does not teach that after death there is another possibility for the salvation for loss. There is no purgatory. So how much more important is it that we make sure of a calling and election? And how much more should we strive to share the gospel with those who we meet? There's no second chances for them. And for those that are apart from Christ, their destiny is terrifying. And I have to admit, at times I hesitate to speak the truth and share the gospel because I don't want to offend somebody. But wouldn't it be better to be offended now and be told the truth that God would save than go through eternity and judgment and torment? But this is the intermediate state. Next week we take up the resurrection. I look forward to it. I look forward to that day. I so look forward to that day. I hope you do as well. Well, let's pray. Our dear God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you give us guidance and direction to understand so many complex questions that we face in life. And this question of death, it's so fearful and it's just so uncertain, and yet we can find things from your word that are words that bring us comfort. We know that we can have confidence that we will be with you, and we just look forward to that day. And we pray, Lord, that you would help us to be faithful while we are yet here. And being faithful, we pray that you would help us to understand the future destiny of those that are apart from Christ and give us a heart for them that we would be bold to share the gospel. Help us to be ready to warn them of that inescapable torment. that they face apart from Christ. We just pray for your mercy. We pray for this day now. We pray that your name would be glorified. We pray that we would experience even a taste of heaven and that we would rejoice and be able to praise and worship you this day. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.