Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Visiting the Real Twilight Zone Msg 1722 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Visiting the Real Twilight Zone Msg 1722 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: The crisp voice of Rod Serling is familiar to most
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  Speaker 1: of us. Those well-enunciated words, that amazing ability with such
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  Speaker 1: a fine script to carry us from the world of
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  Speaker 1: the seen to the unseen, out of the realm of
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  Speaker 1: the now into the realm of Tomorrow, another dimension called
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  Speaker 1: the Twilight Zone. Oh, I've had more fun with that
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  Speaker 1: this week than you'll ever believe. I stuck it in
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  Speaker 1: my pocket and I was in a department store looking
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  Speaker 1: for ties and I turned it on. Dear guy next
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  Speaker 1: to me thought I'd moved into the realm of tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: He looked at me and said, is that you? And
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  Speaker 1: I said, it's not me. Doesn't it make you want
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  Speaker 1: to just curl up with your teddy bear in the
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  Speaker 1: fetal position and kind of suck your life away in
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  Speaker 1: some corner? There's something amazing about those haunting four notes.
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  Speaker 1: There's something so familiar and yet so strange. So strange.
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  Speaker 1: Strange and perhaps a little bit fearful because that zone
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  Speaker 1: has a way of. Pushing at us. And telling us
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  Speaker 1: in a number of different ways that this could happen.
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  Speaker 1: This may not be seen, but it may be real.
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  Speaker 1: Thanatologist Edwin Schneidman found that the first time he taught
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  Speaker 1: a course on death at Harvard, 200 undergraduates from Harvard
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  Speaker 1: and Radcliffe showed up in a classroom that could seat
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  Speaker 1: only 20. Since then, colleges everywhere have been offering courses
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  Speaker 1: on death and dying. There seems to be a renewed
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  Speaker 1: interest in the out-of-body experiences and the afterlife visions that
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  Speaker 1: even the medical profession is having to sit up and
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  Speaker 1: take notice. J. Kirby Anderson, an associate with Probe Ministries
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  Speaker 1: and a lecturer on college campuses, has said in his book, Life, Death,
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  Speaker 1: and Beyond, students are signing up in order to try
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  Speaker 1: to register for my course later in the year. There's
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  Speaker 1: a growing interest in the real twilight zone. That part
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  Speaker 1: of us that wants to run yet finds ourselves strangely
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  Speaker 1: drawn back to reality. That part of us that will
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  Speaker 1: allow a 30 minutes or an hour's entertainment on the
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  Speaker 1: television tube to hold us and yet when we shut
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  Speaker 1: it off we want to run from it. But we
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  Speaker 1: cannot run because it is real. We are going to die.
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  Speaker 1: I am going to die. Sounds ghoulish, but I want
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  Speaker 1: you to say that with me. Here we go. I
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  Speaker 1: am going to die. You know, for some people, that's
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  Speaker 1: the first time in years they've let those words pass
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  Speaker 1: their lips. Who hasn't chuckled about the comment regarding the
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  Speaker 1: inevitability of taxes and death? You can't get away from it.
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  Speaker 1: I like the way one wag put it. Maybe death
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  Speaker 1: and taxes are inevitable, but death doesn't get worse every
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  Speaker 1: time Congress meets. Good comment. Arnold Toynbee, the philosopher and historian,
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  Speaker 1: has said, man alone has foreknowledge of his coming death
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  Speaker 1: and possesses And possessing this foreknowledge, he has a chance,
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  Speaker 1: if he chooses to take it, of pondering over the
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  Speaker 1: strangeness of his destiny. He has at least a possibility
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  Speaker 1: of coping with it, since he is endowed with the
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  Speaker 1: capacity to think about it, to face it, and to
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  Speaker 1: deal with it in some way that is worthy of
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  Speaker 1: human dignity. For the next few minutes, I want you
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  Speaker 1: to do those things that Toynbee suggests. I want you
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  Speaker 1: to think about it in advance. I want you to
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  Speaker 1: face it. I want you to stop denying it. I
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  Speaker 1: want you to deal with it. You are going to die.
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  Speaker 1: And just because you will no longer be seen on
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  Speaker 1: earth is no reason to believe that you will stop existing.
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  Speaker 1: On the contrary, that which is invisible may be just
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  Speaker 1: as real as that which is seen and heard. You see,
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  Speaker 1: that's the part that haunts us. Sometimes death is sudden.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it is long and drawn out. Sometimes it's beautiful
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  Speaker 1: and sweet and comforting. Other times it is wrenching and
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  Speaker 1: hideous and bloody and ugly. Sometimes it comes early. We
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  Speaker 1: call that premature. Sometime in our doubting moments we call
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  Speaker 1: it unfair. On other occasions death comes, it seems, too late.
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  Speaker 1: And some dear soul endures until the 90s and on
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  Speaker 1: beyond the 100 mark in pain and sadness and loss
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  Speaker 1: of memory and even loss of mind. But it comes.
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  Speaker 1: It's coming. There's no getting around it. Without turning to
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  Speaker 1: these verses, listen to them from various versions of the scriptures.
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  Speaker 1: Just sit and listen. Genesis 3. You will have to
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  Speaker 1: work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything
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  Speaker 1: until you go back to the soil from which you
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  Speaker 1: were formed again. You were made from soil and you
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  Speaker 1: will become soil again. Psalm 89, who can live and
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  Speaker 1: never die? How can man keep himself from the grave?
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  Speaker 1: Psalm 90, 70 years are given us and some may
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  Speaker 1: even live to 80. But even the best of these
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  Speaker 1: years are often emptiness and pain. Soon they disappear and
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  Speaker 1: we are gone. Ecclesiastes 3, there is a right time
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  Speaker 1: for everything, a time to be born, a time to die.
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  Speaker 1: Ezekiel 18, the person who sins will die. Romans 5,
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  Speaker 1: sin came into the world through one man, and his
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  Speaker 1: sin brought death with it. As a result, death has
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  Speaker 1: spread to the whole human race. 1 Corinthians 15 says,
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  Speaker 1: All people die because of their union with Adam. Hebrews 9,
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  Speaker 1: everyone must die once and after that be judged by God.
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  Speaker 1: James 4, yet you do not know what your life
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  Speaker 1: will be like tomorrow. You are like a puff of smoke,
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  Speaker 1: visible for a little while and then dissolving into thin air.
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  Speaker 1: Revelation 20, I saw a great white throne and the
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  Speaker 1: one who sat upon it from whose face earth and
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  Speaker 1: sky fled away and they found no place to hide.
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  Speaker 1: I saw the dead, great and small, standing before God.
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  Speaker 1: From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is interwoven with reminders
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  Speaker 1: that we must die. Euripides, the poet, is right. Death
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  Speaker 1: is the debt we all must pay. In fact, if
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  Speaker 1: it helps, you have an appointment with death. You just
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  Speaker 1: haven't kept it yet. You have an appointment. Peter Marshall
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  Speaker 1: loved to tell the story that emerged as a legend
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  Speaker 1: out of Baghdad. Seems as though there was a servant
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  Speaker 1: who came to his master hurriedly one morning, Trembling and
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  Speaker 1: in great agitation, he said, down in the marketplace, I
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  Speaker 1: was jostled by a woman in the crowd. And when
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  Speaker 1: I turned around, I saw it was death who jostled me.
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  Speaker 1: She looked at me frowned and made a threatening gesture. Master,
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  Speaker 1: please lend me your horse, for I must hasten away
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  Speaker 1: to avoid.
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  Speaker 2: Her.
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  Speaker 1: I will ride to Samara and there I will hide
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  Speaker 1: and death will not find me. The master consented and
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  Speaker 1: gave him his horse and the servant galloped away into
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  Speaker 1: the distance. Later, the merchant himself went down to the
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  Speaker 1: marketplace and saw death standing in the crowd. He went
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  Speaker 1: over to her and asked her, Why did you frighten
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  Speaker 1: my servant this morning? And why did you make that
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  Speaker 1: threatening gesture? That was not a threatening gesture, death replied.
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  Speaker 1: It was only a surprise. I was astonished to see
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  Speaker 1: him here in Baghdad, for I have an appointment with
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  Speaker 1: him tonight in Samarra. Yeah. All of us have an
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  Speaker 1: appointment with him in Samarra. All of us. But what happens?
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  Speaker 1: What happens when we keep the appointment? What happens to
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  Speaker 1: me when my body is placed in a grave and
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  Speaker 1: my dear wife's body is placed in a grave? What
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  Speaker 1: happens to your loved one when you say goodbye for
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  Speaker 1: the last time? What happens to some individual whose death
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  Speaker 1: was destructive and dismembering and perhaps died in fire? And
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  Speaker 1: even the remains couldn't be found. What happens? What effect
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  Speaker 1: does death have on one's being? Again, we have the
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  Speaker 1: scriptures to thank for assistance here. And I want you
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  Speaker 1: to move from the imaginary to the real, though unseen.
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  Speaker 1: Out of the creative twilight zone that rested on some
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  Speaker 1: script writer, I'd like you to turn to the real
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  Speaker 1: twilight zone and see your future. 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
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  Speaker 1: You owe it to yourself to turn. You have an
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  Speaker 1: appointment with this someday. You need to see how it's
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  Speaker 1: going to turn out. First, let me talk to you
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  Speaker 1: who are Christians. I want to talk to you who
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  Speaker 1: know that you have eternal life with Jesus Christ forever.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to think in terms of categories. Categories.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to think about that which is seen
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  Speaker 1: as your body and that which is unseen, which is
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  Speaker 1: your inner person, your inner man, your soul and your spirit.
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  Speaker 1: Think in those categories as we read this analogy of
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  Speaker 1: the house, which has been torn down. It's a picture
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  Speaker 1: of the body when it dies. Second Corinthians five. We
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  Speaker 1: know that if the earthly tent, which is our house
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  Speaker 1: is torn down, we have a building from God, a
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  Speaker 1: house torn, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
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  Speaker 1: Now for a moment, study verse 1. God promises us
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  Speaker 1: that there will be some kind of bodily existence, some
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  Speaker 1: kind of eternal house, not made with hands, that will
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  Speaker 1: fit us for eternity. And the point of this passage is,
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  Speaker 1: as long as we are living in this earthly body,
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  Speaker 1: He postpones the building of this eternal house. Verse 2.
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  Speaker 1: For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be
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  Speaker 1: clothed with our dwelling from heaven. Just before speaking this hour,
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  Speaker 1: I spoke with a friend of mine who told me
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  Speaker 1: of his daughter, who, though not old in years, is
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  Speaker 1: now marked by a disease that you and I would
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  Speaker 1: call tragic. I spoke with another friend just before speaking now,
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  Speaker 1: and I heard her tell of her sister who has
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  Speaker 1: been on the mission field for 45 years, and she's
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  Speaker 1: recently returned to the United States, and they have found
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  Speaker 1: in her abdomen cancer. They'll find out tomorrow if it's
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  Speaker 1: the end or not. Our body's grown. You discover through
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  Speaker 1: the frown of your physician that the x-ray doesn't look good.
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  Speaker 1: You find that the prognosis is bleak. And you're surprised
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  Speaker 1: because you didn't expect to be carrying on your body
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  Speaker 1: the marks of disease and death. But you do and
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  Speaker 1: you are. And the body awaits being changed. And as
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  Speaker 1: long as we are present in this groaning body, we
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  Speaker 1: are absent from our Lord. That's the point of verse 6.
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  Speaker 1: Verse 8. Look at chapter 5, verse 6. Therefore, being
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  Speaker 1: always of good courage and knowing that while we are
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  Speaker 1: at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't this interesting? I just thought of this. He refers
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  Speaker 1: to us in the plural pronoun we as being absent.
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  Speaker 1: a part of this body. But the we doesn't change
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  Speaker 1: when death comes. The part of us that makes us
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  Speaker 1: who we are still is very much in existence. And
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  Speaker 1: as long as we are in this earthly body, groaning
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  Speaker 1: and hurting and diseased and dying, we are absent from
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  Speaker 1: the presence of the Lord. So in order for there
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  Speaker 1: to be a present time with the Lord, we must
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  Speaker 1: leave this body. That's what happens at death. When death occurs,
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  Speaker 1: the inner part of us is separated from the body.
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  Speaker 1: The soul and spirit are removed instantaneously from the physical
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  Speaker 1: body which has died. The part of us that pumps
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  Speaker 1: blood and breathes. The part of us that has muscle
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  Speaker 1: and bone and tendons and organs. That part of us dies.
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  Speaker 1: But instantaneously, the inner part of us, the personality, the
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  Speaker 1: people we really are, the real, though invisible part of us,
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  Speaker 1: is taken to the presence of the Lord. Look at
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  Speaker 1: how he puts it. Verse 8. We are of good courage,
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  Speaker 1: I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the
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  Speaker 1: body and to be at home with the Lord now
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  Speaker 1: this is good news this is a wonderful message you
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  Speaker 1: and I who know the Lord Jesus carry about within
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  Speaker 1: ourselves a soul and a spirit and our spirit has
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  Speaker 1: responded to the Lord Jesus and we have invited him
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  Speaker 1: into our lives and he has taken up residence there
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  Speaker 1: he has given us a new nature he has become
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  Speaker 1: a part of our inner being And though the outer
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  Speaker 1: being hurts and groans and is dying, the inner being
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  Speaker 1: is maturing and growing up and awaiting its home with
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. In fact, look up in chapter 4, verse 16.
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  Speaker 1: He says, we do not lose heart. But though our
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  Speaker 1: outer man is decaying, it's another reference to the body,
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  Speaker 1: yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
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  Speaker 1: for momentary light affliction, which is producing for us an
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  Speaker 1: eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we
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  Speaker 1: look not at the things which are seen, and we
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  Speaker 1: are so tempted to do that, so preoccupied with the seen,
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  Speaker 1: we are to look rather at the things which are
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  Speaker 1: not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal,
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  Speaker 1: may I add, dying and groaning and hurting and full
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  Speaker 1: of pain. But the things which are not seen are eternal.
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  Speaker 1: What am I saying? I'm saying at the time death occurs,
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  Speaker 1: there is a separation. Death always means separation. There is
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  Speaker 1: a separation of the soul and spirit from the body.
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  Speaker 1: The body, whether cremated or embalmed and placed in a
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  Speaker 1: casket or a crypt, wherever we may place the body,
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  Speaker 1: even if it is placed, it is left on this
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  Speaker 1: earth And the soul and spirit are taken immediately, directly
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  Speaker 1: to be with the Lord. Job, that venerable old saint, said,
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  Speaker 1: I know that my Redeemer lives. And that he shall
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  Speaker 1: stand at the latter day upon this earth. And though
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  Speaker 1: after my skin worms destroy this body, in my flesh
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  Speaker 1: will I see God. In fact, he goes on to say,
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  Speaker 1: my eyes will see him. We will be in face-to-face
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  Speaker 1: touch with each other. What did Job have in mind? Well,
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  Speaker 1: he had in mind the next phase of this process,
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection of the decaying body. Go back a page
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  Speaker 1: and look at chapter 4, verse 14. Same book, chapter 4,
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  Speaker 1: verse 14. Look at the promise. Then I'll talk about
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  Speaker 1: the procedure. Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus
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  Speaker 1: will raise us also with Jesus and will present us
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  Speaker 1: with you. Now Paul looks to the future. He says
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  Speaker 1: there's going to come a time when we will all
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  Speaker 1: be raised. We looked at this last time. The Lord
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  Speaker 1: Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout. This is
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  Speaker 1: the procedure. He will descend from heaven with a shout,
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  Speaker 1: with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of
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  Speaker 1: God and the dead in Christ. Christ shall rise first.
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  Speaker 1: Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught
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  Speaker 1: up together with them, whom? The dead. We will be
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  Speaker 1: caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
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  Speaker 1: the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever
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  Speaker 1: be with the Lord. Well, I'm so excited I'm getting
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  Speaker 1: ahead of myself. Here's the way it works. When death occurs,
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  Speaker 1: the soul and spirit go immediately into the presence of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. There is no soul sleep. There is no reincarnation.
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  Speaker 1: There is no re-entry. It is appointed unto man once
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  Speaker 1: to die. Once to die. We will go instantly into
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  Speaker 1: the presence of the Lord and there we will await
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection of the body whenever that occurs. When it
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  Speaker 1: does occur, the soul and spirit will be joined to
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  Speaker 1: a glorified body, which will no longer groan, no longer age,
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  Speaker 1: no longer be marked by the limitations of this earth.
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  Speaker 1: It will be fitted for eternity. And in this, what
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  Speaker 1: is called glorified state, we will spend eternity with our God.
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  Speaker 1: We will be, 1 Thessalonians 4 tells us, we will
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  Speaker 1: always be with our Lord. Now that is good news.
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  Speaker 1: you will have no more tears, no more death, no
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  Speaker 1: more sadness, no more crying, no more enemy, no more Satan,
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  Speaker 1: no more oppression. The old things are all passed away
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  Speaker 1: and an eternity will dawn in which you will physically
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  Speaker 1: and personally enjoy the presence of God forever. I think
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  Speaker 1: about that sometime when sorrow seems to sort of crush
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  Speaker 1: in on me. I never fail to think of it
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  Speaker 1: when I bury a saint. Precious in the sight of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord is the death of his godly ones. Every
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  Speaker 1: saint who goes home to be with the Lord has
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  Speaker 1: this wonderful future in front of him or her. Every
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  Speaker 1: burial is a reminder that this is a temporary abode
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  Speaker 1: for this body and this body will be raised and
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  Speaker 1: will be changed. That's good news. there was also bad news. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if I wrote my script, I wouldn't include this. Okay.
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  Speaker 1: But I am simply a messenger boy for one who
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  Speaker 1: has given me the script and I am to deliver
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  Speaker 1: the message that we are all to hear. Now we
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  Speaker 1: must think in another category. We've considered the believer who
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  Speaker 1: dies and The body is placed in the grave awaiting
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  Speaker 1: the resurrection when it will be joined with its spirit
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  Speaker 1: and that wonderful union will be in a glorified state
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  Speaker 1: forever with the Lord. What about the non-believer? Let's look
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  Speaker 1: at several passages. Matthew chapter 25. Matthew 25 verse talks
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  Speaker 1: about the destiny of the unbeliever. By the way, did
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  Speaker 1: you know the Bible says much more about hell than
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  Speaker 1: it does about heaven? Did you know that we know
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  Speaker 1: many more things about the eternal abode and even the
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  Speaker 1: temporary abode of the lost than we do about the
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  Speaker 1: temporary and eternal abode of the saved? We can develop
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  Speaker 1: a rather clear theology of hell, though when we come
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  Speaker 1: to the subject of heaven, much of it is left
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  Speaker 1: to one's imagination. and interpretive creative thought. But there's no
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  Speaker 1: guesswork when it comes to the destiny of the damned.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew chapter 25, verse 31, Jesus is speaking. When the
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  Speaker 1: Son of Man comes in his glory and all the
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  Speaker 1: angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious
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  Speaker 1: throne and all the nations will be gathered before him
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  Speaker 1: and he will separate them from one another as the
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  Speaker 1: shepherds separates the sheep from the goats. Verse 41, then
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  Speaker 1: he will say to those on his left, depart from me,
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  Speaker 1: accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared
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  Speaker 1: for the devil and his angels. That is a most
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  Speaker 1: interesting statement. Tragic but interesting. You will observe the reference
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  Speaker 1: to eternal fire means just what it says. Even the
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  Speaker 1: universalist John Robinson had to admit it is futile to
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  Speaker 1: attempt to prove Christ taught no belief in heaven or
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  Speaker 1: eternal punishment. Robinson wrote a book called But That I
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  Speaker 1: Can't Believe. And in it, he included that statement. It's
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  Speaker 1: futile to attempt to prove Christ taught no belief in
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  Speaker 1: hell or eternal punishment. When the unbelieving person dies, again,
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  Speaker 1: the body, as with the believer, begins to decay. It
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  Speaker 1: is either cremated or it's placed in a grave. Or
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  Speaker 1: perhaps in death it was blown apart. Whatever, the condition
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  Speaker 1: of the body is the same. As with the believer,
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  Speaker 1: it begins to deteriorate and decompose. However, the soul and
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: spirit of the unsaved, rather than going into paradise, the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: place of the presence of God, called in Luke 16,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Abraham's bosom, the spirit of the unsaved goes to Gehenna,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: called Hades in the New Testament, or often hell. It
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: is a place of temporary conscious pain. I say temporary
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: because it too awaits final resurrection of the body. Now,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: before I go any further, let me say that many
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: who hear such a thing respond quickly by saying, I
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: need to get more religious. I need to go to
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: church more. I need to carry a Bible. I need
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to have my good works outweigh my bad. I've got
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: to deal with this guilt that I'm living with. So
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: maybe if I get religion, I'll find an answer to
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: this eternity that I'm afraid of. If you go back
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: a couple of chapters to chapter 23, you'll meet the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: most religious people who ever lived called scribes and Pharisees.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Matthew 23, verse 33. And you'll read some surprising words
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: if you think religion is going to help you. To
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: these religious people who were living in hypocrisy and only
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: words about their faith, no real faith, Jesus said, you serpents,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: of hell? Religion doesn't relieve you from the future of hell.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Going to church, studying the Bible, being baptized, being christened,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: paying your bills, living a good life, obeying the law
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: will in no way ingratiate you before an eternal God
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: who requires of us righteousness, not human goodness. In fact,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: he demands perfect righteousness. And not even religious people can
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: provide that kind of righteousness. Righteousness for eternal life comes
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ and only there. Christ spoke of another
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: excuse in Mark chapter 9, verse 43. You'll turn from
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Matthew to the next book. You'll see Jesus' words. Many
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: people will excuse themselves by saying, I'm only human. I've
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: got these eyes that lust. I've got these hands that
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: commit wrong. I have these feet that move me to
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: places that are ungodly. I walk in darkness, not in light,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: but I'm a victim of my own humanity. And being
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: a person of this kind of condition, I can't help myself.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Look at Jesus' words in Mark 9, verse 43. If
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: is better for you to enter life crippled than having
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: your two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Verse 45. If your foot causes you to stumble, cut
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: it off. It is better for you to enter life
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: lame than having your two feet to be cast into hell.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Verse 47 doesn't get any better. If your eye causes
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: than having two eyes to be cast into hell. Now
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: there are some times you take the Bible literally. There
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: are some times you understand its symbolism. Jesus isn't saying that.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: we're to enter life with no hands, no feet, and
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: no eyes. The point is symbolism. Don't misunderstand. He's saying
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: for you to hide behind a hand or an eye
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: or a foot that disobeys is foolish. You prepare yourself
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: by preparing your heart. You prepare yourself by placing your
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: whole self at the disposal of Jesus Christ, who cleanses hands, eyes, heart, feet, lives.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: But it's worth noting that he refers once, twice, three
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: times in a row to hell. Verse 48, where the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Look again at John chapter 5. Please turn. John 5
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: verse 25. Jesus again is speaking. Truly, truly, I say
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to you, an hour is coming and now is when
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: God and those who hear And just as the father
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: has life in himself, even so he gave to the
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: son also to have life in himself. And the father
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: gave the son authority to execute judgment because he is
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the son of man. Do not marvel at this, says Jesus.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: An hour is coming in which all who are in
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: referring to the life of faith, those who did the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. Now, there
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: is no getting around it. Unless you wish to do
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: an enormous amount of semantic footwork, unless you have a
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: wonderful way of cutting out of Scripture things Certain verses
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: that have the same kind of reliability as those you
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: would prefer to leave in. You're left with facts that
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: you have to come to terms with. And I would
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: suggest that we not joke about hell. It isn't a
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: laughing matter. I wrestled a little with using this illustration,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: but I'm going to do so. These are not my words.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: I'm reading from a book. Whatever Happened to Hell by
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: John Braun. Just listen. It is not unlikely that within
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the last 24 hours you have heard someone say, what
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: the hell are you doing? Or, I sure as hell will. Or,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: who in the hell do you think you are? That
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: word hell has become a conversational byword in our day.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: Good friends dare to say playfully to one another, oh,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: go to hell. They surely don't mean go to the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: place of punishment for the wicked after death, though that
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: is how the dictionary defines the word hell. But why
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: use the word hell? He has a good point. Keep listening.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Why use the word hell? Why not instead, what the
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: jail are you doing? or I sure as school will.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: And why not say, oh, go to Chicago? Simply because,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: now listen, simply because jail, school, and Chicago, even for
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the enemies of each, have no real sting. They have
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: only the flavor of vanilla at a time when chocolate
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: or peppermint is needed. When it comes right down to it,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: in the English language, hell, is the strongest expletive available
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: that carries the idea of ultimate deprivation, fear, torment, punishment, suffering,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: and loss. Whether or not the user of the term
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: hell believes in it as an actual literal place is
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: of little or no consequence. There is an inbuilt, inarticulated,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: yet understood bite in the very word itself So if
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: hell really is the place for eternal punishment of the
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: wicked after death, how come it's used so lightly millions
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: and millions of times each day? Why is there such
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: an apparent lack of seriousness about the word? Why do
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: people pretend the place doesn't exist? He concludes, when is
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: the last time you heard a serious sermon on the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: subject or read an article of note dealing with judgment issues?
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: and eternal punishment. Even the evangelical crowd has by and
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: large avoided the topic, opting for a more positive approach.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: Hell has come on hard times. You realize I would
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: not be a true servant of the Father as an
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: ambassador of His and a spokesman for the Lord if
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: I failed to tell you as much about hell as
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I tell you about heaven. You realize that you would
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: be ill-informed regarding your future if you picked and chose
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: only those passages regarding heaven and forgiveness and security and
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: hope and a definition and life with Christ forever. For
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: it isn't for everyone. It isn't even for most. As
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: a matter of fact, those who will spend eternity in
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: hell have always been in the majority. And if you
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: will allow me to be almost cranky for a moment,
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: I suggest we stop using the term lightly. I suggest
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: you reserve the word hell for its singular purpose. It
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: is the destiny of of the lost. And it is
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: the most hideous scene the mind can imagine, and it
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: isn't imaginary. The ultimate scene is in Revelation chapter 20,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the last five verses. Again, you owe it to yourself
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: to look. You may not like what you see, but
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: you will read the truth when you read Revelation 20,
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: 11 to 15. Let's understand where we are before we
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: read this awful scene. When the believer dies, the body
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: goes into the grave, the soul goes immediately to be
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: with the Lord Jesus awaiting resurrection when they're joined and
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: forever with the Lord. A lot of other details in
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: the scriptures, but they're not pertinent to this subject at
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: this moment. When the unbeliever dies, the body goes to
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: the grave, and the soul, the spirit of that body,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: goes into Hades, or hell, where it is kept in
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: conscious torment, as we shall see in my next message.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: It's kept in constant torment, awaiting its resurrection. That is,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: the resurrection of its body. The body and spirit will
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: be resurrected at this last judgment. And we're going to
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: read about it now. It's the judgment for the lost.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Revelation 2011. I saw a great white throne and him
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: fled away. And no place was found for them. We're
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: looking at a scene that is in the spaces. There
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: is no longer any earth. It's been burned up. There
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: is no longer the atmospheric heavens as we know it,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: as we know of them. In space is this incredible scene,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: yet future. Not twilight zone imagination, but reality. The ultimate
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: real twilight zone. Verse 12, I saw the dead. This
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: is the lost, the great and the small standing before
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: the throne. Books were opened. Another book was opened, which
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: is the book of life. And the dead were judged
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: from the things which were written in the books according
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: to their deeds. No one was missed. The sea gave
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: up the dead which were in it. Death and Hades,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: remember I said that was the temporary location of the
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: spirits of the lost. gave up the dead which were
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: in them. So both bodies and spirits are given up
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: to this judgment. And they were judged, every one of them,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: according to their deeds. Death and Hades were thrown into
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: the lake of fire. This is the second death, the
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: lake of fire. It really is not technically true to
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: say the eternal abode of the lost is hell. The
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: eternal abode of the lost is the lake of fire,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: prepared originally for the devil and his angels. If anyone's
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: name was not found written in the book of life,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: he was thrown into into the lake of fire. Two
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: very important facts that you must face. The first is
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: the only time to prepare for then is now. Second,
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: there is no chance of change after death. I've not
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: been speaking of some playful, imaginary, fun kind of entertaining scene.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: I've been talking about truth and reality. I do not
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: care how you were raised. I do not care what
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: you have been taught. I do not care how I
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: have been raised or what I have been taught. But
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: according to an intelligent and careful study of the passages
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: of scriptures, I tell you on the authority of the
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: word of God, this is the truth. And it's gotten
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: hold of me. It's pushing at me. It causes me
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: an increasing sense of uneasiness when I am with those
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: without Christ. An urgency. A drive. I hope not maddening
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: or insane, but a growing sense of intensity to tell them,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: even if it takes a a little recording in my pocket,
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: or even if it takes a few casual moments with
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: a neighbor. I am responsible to tell the lost of
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: how to be saved. The worst thing for you is
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: to sit in a place where the gospel is preached
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: faithfully and to think that sitting and hearing means you're safe.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Sitting and hearing simply means you're responsible. And you have
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: no possible chance of deciding once you have died. What
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: is the issue? I turn finally to 1 John chapter
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: 5 verses 10 to 13. Some of my favorite verses
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: on the good news of Jesus Christ. Let's look at
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: them and we're through. 1 John 5. Verse 10. This
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: is so simple. It is so easy to grasp if
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: you will only believe it. The one who believes in
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: the Son of God has the witness in himself. The
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: one who does not believe God has made him a
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: liar because he has not believed in the witness that
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: God has borne concerning his son. Now the witness is this.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: that God has given us eternal life, and this life
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: is in his Son. I love this. He who has
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: the Son has the life. He who does not have
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: the Son of God does not have the life. These
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: things I have written to you who believe in the
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: name of the Son of God in order that you
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: may hope, think, desire, K-N-O-W, in order that you may
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: know that you have eternal life. Isn't that great? Everybody
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: has eternal life. You have a soul and it's eternal.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: Every person you meet is eternal. What's concerning you is
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: not eternal life, it's where you're spending it. If the
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: most exciting moment of your life is behind you, you're lost.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: If the most exciting moment is in front of you,
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: you're saved. Three men, close friends, who loved to fish
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: and hunt together most of their lives, had reached the
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: epical moment of their hunting experience. They were in northern India,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: about to be involved in a great hunt, and They
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: were huddled around a fire as it was smoldering early
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: in the morning. Not known by two of the three,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: the older of the three, the oldest gentleman, had just
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: come to know Christ and had just become aware of
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: eternal life with God. He lived now every moment awaiting
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus' return and his departure from this earth
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: and his joining Christ with other believers to be forever
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: with the Lord. And the subject came up. What was
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: your most exciting adventure? He sat very still and listened.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: One told of a tiger hunt where with one shell
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: left in the chamber, this cat was jumping toward him
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: and he shot and picked him off and he dropped
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: at his feet. Boy, that must have been exciting. The
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: second one told of a brown bear hunt in Alaska.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: A similar story had two rounds left and it took
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: both of them but right at his feet he fell
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: and he showed a picture of this bear that's not
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: the bear but the rug has been made out of
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: the bear that now fills his den back home. The
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: older gentleman sat quiet. They looked at him. How about you?
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: He said me. My most adventurous and exciting moment will
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: happen just seconds after I die. If your most exciting
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: moment is behind you, you're lost. If your most adventurous
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: and exciting moment is yet to happen, we're going up together.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: The crisp voice of Rod Serling is no longer heard.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: He's dead.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: And every time I hear the haunting melody of the
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Twilight Zone, I think, wonder where Rod Serling is today.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: I wonder. I wonder. I'd like us to bow in
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: a moment of silence, please. You have given me the
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: courtesy of a few moments to listen. I need to
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: give you the courtesy of a few moments to think.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: Now you think. He who believes in the Son has
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: everlasting life. He who does not believe in Christ does
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: not have the life. These are written that you may
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: know that you have eternal life. Forgiveness.
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: Hope.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: And heaven. Wouldn't you like to come to know Christ
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: at this moment? Wouldn't you like to firm up that decision?
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Doesn't that make sense? Then do it. If I could
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: make you do it, I'd go up and down these
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: aisles and up and down the pews and walk among
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: the cars and walk among the street and throw switches
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: and push buttons and make people believe. But I can't
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: do that. But at this moment, if you will turn
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: your life over to Jesus Christ, you decide you're moving
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: toward Him and not from Him. You decide at this
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: moment in your life, He's becoming your Savior because of
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: His finished work on the cross and His resurrection from
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: the dead. You believe now. Would you lift your hand up?
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: You've just come to know Christ. Today you want to
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: make it known. Yes, I see that. God bless you.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Anyone else? Yes. Anyone else? This is the day I'm
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior. Yes. Anyone else? Yes.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: I see. If today has struck a note of interest
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: and decision in your life, I invite you to meet
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: with our counselors in the prayer room where folk will
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: talk intelligently and graciously with you. They'll pray with you,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: give you some materials. And spend time answering your questions.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: You will stay only as long as you wish. No
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: one will manipulate you or force you to sign something.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: This is simply between you and the Lord Jesus. And today,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: you want to have it make sense. Maybe you'd like
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: to have someone just to pray with you. You may
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: have a lost friend that you need help in knowing
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: how to reach. Take time now to do that. Father,
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: there is a great comfort in knowing that we have
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: told the truth and we have heard the truth. Not
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: that we can explain it all, not that we can
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: answer even our own questions about it, but simply that
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: we have let your word speak for itself. The truth
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: has been declared. Now our need is to respond to
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: it correctly. Thank you for these moments when we have
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: been able to give our attention to something as important
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: as this. For the believer, it has represented tremendous encouragement
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: and hope for ourselves as well as our loved ones
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: in Christ who died as believers. Give us a sense
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: of urgency and intensity as we represent your son on
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: this earth for the brief time we have left. How
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: we look forward to that glorious coming and that reunion
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: with him who loved us And gave himself for us.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: It is in his strong name. That we pray. And
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: all God's people said. Amen.
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: The preceding message. Visiting the real Twilight Zone. Was copyrighted
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: in 1985. 1987. 2005. 2011. And 2022. And the sound
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: recording was copyrighted in 2022 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited.