BIBLE REFERENCE:
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28
WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT:
From the day that we are born, the one thing that we are all certain of is death. Unless you are around when Jesus Christ comes for the born-again believers, your body will eventually wear out and you will meet death face to face. This is one certainty that all who have lived since the beginning of mankind have had in common. Nobody yet, with the exception of a couple of Old Testament Saints, Enoch for example, and Elijah have died and have passed on to their eternal fate. We read this short simple verse in Genesis 5:24; “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” For those of you who want to deny the catching up of the church (The Rapture) to meet the Lord in the clouds, and say it isn’t biblical, this is the first incident where the rapture took place. When you do a complete study of the events that took place during this time, you will come away with the understanding the Enoch is symbolic of the rapture of the true born-again believers.
If you are a true born-again believer, you need not fear the first death. It is written in John 11:26; “And everyone who lives and believes in me (Jesus) shall never die. Do you believe this?” This does not mean that your earthy body will not die, what it means is this, If you are in Christ, the last breath that you breath here on earth will be followed up with your next breath in the presence of Jesus Christ. You will not know death as the unbelievers will. If you die outside of Gods will, you will be immediately in Hades where you will wait for the day of judgement (White Throne Judgement) where all unbelievers will have their day in court, and they will stand trial and make an account of every sin that they ever sinned. If you read the story about the rich man and Lazarus, you will get a good understanding of what I am saying. You can find that in Luke 16:19-31. We also find this truth to be evident as we read in Luke 23:43; “And He (Jesus) said to him (the thief on the cross next to Him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Note: Jesus did not say that he would be with Him after he spend centuries in the grave, He said, and I repeat, “I say to you, (today) you will be with me in Paradise.” How much plainer can it be? Here is a very interesting verse to ponder when considering what happens with the fleshly body that we leave behind. Ecclesiastes 12:7; “And the dust (remains of the flesh) returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” Our earthly bodies will eventually turn to dust from which we came, but God gave every one of us a spirit or soul that is eternal and will live on forever in one of two places.
This brings up another form of death, the death of the spirit. The death of the spirit is to the one that gives his spirit over to Satan and rejects the gift of salvation provided by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The spirit of death is a demon, a very powerful being that is bent upon our destruction to provoke premature death in our physical bodies. It works with a team of demons such as a spirit of fear, a spirit of infirmity, and others too. God has given every human being a spirit and soul. The spirit or soul will live on for all eternity, where, is up to you? Here is what we read in 2 Thessalonians 1:9; “These (those that have decided not to follow Jesus Christ) will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,” Here is a way it has been explained to me by an excellent teacher of the Bible. The spirit is likened to computer software. It has no mass or comeliness that we would desire, but yet we know it exists. You can weigh a CD, add all kinds of data to it and yet the CD will weigh the same as it did before you added all the data. It has no mass in the same way our spirit has no mass. Our spirit is eternal, and you decide where you choose to spend it. The flesh will parish, but the spirit will live on forever. Spiritual death is when a person is alive physically, but dead spiritually. All of us are born spiritually dead, separated from God. The Lord said to Adam. But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die as we read in Genesis 2:17; “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.” When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, at that moment they died spiritually, and we have inherited sin from that day on. However, they still lived on for hundreds of years more, but dead to the spirit.
Now, the last and most fearful death is what the Bible refers to as the second death. We read in Revelation 20:6; “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the (second death) has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” The second death is for those that have died rejecting the only propitiation made for sin. If you do not accept Jesus Christ and His gift of Grace, which is free to all who call on the Lord, you will be sent to Hades upon death to wait for the final judgement, at which time you will be judged and sentenced for every sin that you ever committed. Everyone who stands before Jesus at the (White Throne Judgement) will be sent to the “lake of burning fire” for all eternity, because they were never born-again into the Holy Spirit. I feel I need to share this Bible verse once again for those that just do not get it. John 3:3; “Jesus answered and said to him (Nicodemus), “Most assuredly, I (Jesus) say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Get it!) These are not my words; these are the Words from the creator of the Universe. Are you going to just blow them off as insignificant in your life? There will be no excuse when you stand before Jesus Christ where you will face the second death. We also read in Revelation 2:11; “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by “the second death.” This is in the letter that Jesus wrote to the church of Smyrna. Now, you may say that I am just trying to scare you into heaven. If I could I would, because I would rather scare you into heaven than silence you into hell. I will make sure that I will not be held accountable for anyone that I know for not knowing the truth of salvation. This is what the Holy Spirit has called me to do. The last act of Jesus Christ is written in Revelation 20:14; “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” After this, there will never be anymore death, those that have received Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and have become born-again, will share eternity with Him in a place that cannot even be described by man. Even the apostle Paul could not describe heaven even after seeing it. Here is what he says, 2 Corinthians 12:3-4; “And I know such a man,) Paul) whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows, how he (Paul) was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.” Here is a promised to the born-again believers from Jesus Himself, John 14:1-2; “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Imagine this if you will, Jesus created the earth and all that is in it in six days, just think what your eternal home will look like. He has had two thousand years to build your heavenly home. Another verse that I need to share is found in 1 Corinthians 2:9; “But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” How can anyone ignore the promises of God as if they are not true? As it declares in the scriptures, and as sad as it is, very few will actually believe and find the way to eternal salvation. If you are one of those that believe everybody will eventually go to heaven, let me remind you of this final verse that I will share with you today, Matthew 7:14; “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” This is a very sobering truth that today’s churches neglect to share with their congregations. They will be held accountable for not sharing the truth with you, but more sadly, you will also be held accountable for not doing your own research to find the truth.
ACTION POINT:
I have shared in so many of my blogs the importance of doing your own research and not putting your faith in any one man or religion. If you are being taught false doctrine, and you believe what you are being taught, you will be judged in the same manner as those that did not teach the scriptures the way they were meant to be understood. I can only pray that those that I love will take this seriously and repent of their sins and turn to Jesus Christ before it is too late. Jesus said that He would not strive with man forever, which means the day will come when time in this life will be no more and only those that have received true salvation through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross will be saved. The rest will suffer in “the lake of burning fire” for all eternity just because they rejected the only propitiation made for their sins. “How sad!” Please turn to Jesus today and join the millions that have already given their life to Jesus Christ. There is a joy to those that are saved that cannot be explained, but once you get there, you will wonder how you ever did without Jesus! “Written To the glory of God and Inspired by the Holy Spirit!” Amen!
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