The Dead Go To A Better Place – Lies of the Enemy #38 – Purity 1050

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's painting of a view of the heavens and a flock of migrating geese flying through a multicolored sky comes to us from Catherine J. Wayman, who shared her work on social media yesterday, explaining that she tried her hand at reproducing a photo that she had seen online. Although I guess that makes her painting a reproduction of sorts, I consider her work an original and have decided to take the liberty of naming her Van Gogh-like view of twilight time "Toward Heaven" because that view and those colors indicate that there is more to life than what we can see. Well, it's Tuesday, and as I prepare the finishing touches of my own reproduction of Celebrate Recovery's lesson on hope, for what will be a group presentation of this week's lesson at the Wednesday night meeting of the Celebrate Freedom growth group. I know that even our smallest contributions can make a difference, and even though we are just repeating things many of us may have heard before, or that are drawn directly from the truth of God's word, when we add our own thoughts, experience, words, or work to something it becomes something new and it becomes our own. I'm drawing from the Leader's Guide for the material, of course, but as I reviewed my old Word documents of the lesson, I, I realized that I had added my own words and my own heart to some of the pages. In preparing the lesson for teaching so many years ago, I had felt moved to share a few of my own thoughts to encourage those I would teach. So last night I had mixed feelings of whether, uh, whether or not I should let my ad-libbed comments and encouragement stand, or if I should remove them altogether. Many of the references I had made in the lesson were a little dated, um, and/or didn't apply to this new growth group. Part of, part of me was ready to remove them all together, um, to just present— and to just present the, uh, to just present the original content from the Celebrate Recovery material. But in the end, I decided to just edit, uh, edit and keep most of my comments, um, that I had made way back when. When I taught the lesson on hope at my old church. The comments and encouragements that I offered were gleaned from my experience, and the things they, they taught were the result of much searching, trial, error, and struggling to know how to walk out of the darkness of a life of addiction and to begin living a surrendered Christian life of walking in the Spirit. Took me a lot to understand the things I shared, and if they can help someone else to get there a little quicker, or to just encourage someone to, to know, encourage someone that they can get there, to give them hope, I know the additional time it will take to speak these truths will be more than worth it. I can't walk the people in this discipleship/recovery growth group into freedom, but I can certainly do my best to point them into the right direction. Uh, as I have walked further into my life of faith, I realize just how ignorant we can be in regards to spiritual matters and how common knowledge is generally common ignorance, because every quote-unquote everyone knows the same false beliefs or lies of the enemy. And we need to know the truth about what matters in life and in death. Uh, and that brings us to our current series, The Lies of the Enemy, which is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily whispered into our minds as first-person statements, that the enemy tells us to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. And so today's big lie is lie number 38: The dead go to a better place. The subject of today's lie is borrowed from my pastor Roscoe Lilly's sermon from this past weekend. In his opening remarks, Roscoe confessed that in some ways he preferred to minister at funerals rather than weddings because, although weddings are a joyous occasion, he got the impression that few people cared about what the officiant says at a wedding because they are waiting to go to the good times at the wedding reception. Whereas people at a funeral may be more attentive to what the minister says because they are, they may be hurting, looking for answers, or hoping to hear something to give them peace about their departed loved ones. However, as Christians, as a Christian who seeks to only teach the truth drawn from the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, Roscoe admitted that it can be difficult to minister at times because some Sometimes the deceased had little evidence of faith in their lives, and everyone gathered, gathered at a loved one's funeral wants to know that their loved one is in a better place. Although many treat the idea of the dead going and being in a better place as a foregone conclusion based on the quote-unquote common knowledge of an all-loving God, Jesus didn't teach that. While we should be kind and compassionate to the grieving, as Christians, we need to follow the teachings of Jesus and encourage the living to put their faith in him. For Jesus said in John 13:16-18, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world though, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe— and believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The implications of Christ's words are that eternal life is found by those who believe in him, and those Uh, who don't believe are condemned to perish. As for other ways to eternal life in God's kingdom, uh, Jesus spoke plainly that he is the only way in. John— in John 14:6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. As for the idea of reincarnation, the word of God tells us in Hebrews 9:27, and as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment. We die once and then are judged, not many times to be born again as another life form, or, and over and over again until we quote unquote get it right. Reincarnation and karma are logically hopeless, as all men sin. No men would have a higher birth. If this system were true, all men would become bugs. But I don't like the— to entertain a discuss— I don't like to even entertain discussing such ludicrous ideas when Jesus proved that the authenticity of his teachings and, and of his divinity by his death and resurrection. To believe in reincarnation or any system that deviates from what Jesus taught denies Christ. And thus leads to condemnation and perishing. If you don't know Jesus, and more importantly, if he doesn't know you as one of his followers, you are not going to a better place. Matthew 25:31-46 really breaks down how we must believe in and follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. And if we don't, Jesus tells us in verse 46, "And these will go away into everlasting punishment." but the righteous into everlasting life. The evil will be judged and punished in hell, but those who seek God's forgiveness, repent, and surrender to the Lordship of Christ will be saved. So don't believe the lie that the dead go to a better place, because only those who put their faith in Jesus will be declared righteous and will receive eternal life in God's kingdom. If you are in that number of the, of the saints that will go marching in, be kind and loving to those who are grieving, but speak the truth in love and share the gospel of Jesus Christ to show others that God loves them, and in Christ he made a way for them to be forgiven, righteous, saved, and free. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Matthew 5:16, where Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Today's verse encourages us to do good works and let others know that is only because of our faith in Jesus and because we represent the kingdom of God that our lights shine so brightly. Again, Christ encourages authentic faith in his disciples by doing good and giving glory to God in heaven. Um, here he assures us that his disciples have a place in God's heavenly kingdom and that we are to represent the King by the way we live our lives. So do something to show people you are a Christian, but make sure they know that it's only because of God's grace you are able to give. God the glory. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Holy Spirit, and today we continue sharing from, um, well, we begin sharing from chapter 3, The Deity of the Holy Spirit. And, um, A.W. Pink addressed the question: is he deity or not deity? Well, so if you want to answer his— A.W. Pink's answer to that question, uh, go to mt4christ.org and you'll find that resource at the end of today's blog post. Well, it is Tuesday and we have another day of work. And just to give anyone who listens, I'm giving a heads up that the Lies of the Enemy series is drawing to a close as, uh, we move into Memorial Day weekend. I've decided to, uh to make, to make, to make, uh, the lies of the enemy a 40-day devotional. And, and so we're on day 38. There will be 2 more lies of the enemy, um, which a lot of them have been derivative of one another. Um, the enemy isn't too original. Um, you know, he has lots of different lies, um, but they basically say the same thing, that you don't have to believe in Jesus and that you don't have to do certain things, or, you know, all the things you don't have to do, um, to be saved, um, that deny Jesus and deny the teachings of Jesus. And, uh, you know, frankly, I'm, I'm getting tired of the lies. Um, so we're, we're gonna, we're gonna try to think of 2 more lies that the enemy tells us, uh, over the next couple days and finish it up. And, uh, you know, basically this weekend I'm going dark into— not into darkness, but, uh, for Friday and Saturday, um, well, for Saturday and Sunday I should say. So I guess there'll only be one day I don't podcast, um, or do a Bible study. Um, this weekend I'm going away camping in a cabin where there's no electricity, and, uh, instead of running out of the woods to to get the message up and uploaded. I'm just going to take a break, um, you know, from the 24/7 pace for a couple days anyway, um, and just try to be quiet, enjoy the wilderness, enjoy the company of those with me, and, uh, you know, keep it simple because that's it. I never want anyone to think that our faith is complicated. Um, you know, we have to believe in Jesus and, and try to do what's right according to God's word and to tell people the truth, even though it can cause great, uh, great offense, uh, as people don't want to, don't want to believe. Um, they just want to believe that there's no consequences for their actions and that everyone will be in a better place in the end. But those who are evil, should they be in the better place in the end? Well, the word of God tells us no, that they'll be held accountable for their godless and lawless lives. Um, so we have to let people know that it does matter, that there is a God who loves us and cares about us and doesn't want us to live a life of sin. And so we have to share the word. Now, I would probably, you know, choose to remain silent during some of the moments of someone's deep grieving. But if we're asked the truth, I'll give the truth. But I'm not making an opinion on anyone's salvation. That's the one thing I would say is, yeah, oh yeah, they had seemingly had no life of faith, but I don't know what happens in the hearts of men. I don't know what happens in the last moments of someone's life. Um, you know, it's, it's probably too easy to tell, you know, declare someone going to hell, but we don't know. Um, I know in several instances that, um, of people I know or know of, uh, that, that, that were facing death, they died alone. And they had, you know, they had, they had exposure to Christian teaching, they had exposure to, um, membership in a liturgical church church. And I don't know what happened in those last moments. Um, you know, the thief on the cross was, was saved at the last minute, so anyone could be saved at the last minute. Um, you know, is it likely? I don't know. You know, God's grace is amazing, and so we'll, we'll stand on that. Um, but some, some people I know who died had conscious moments knowing they were in trouble and that they were most likely, you know, that the writing was on the wall, that they're dying. You know, they're having massive pains in their chest, or they were in an accident, you know, and they had moments of life to realize that they were perishing, they were dying. And Whether or not their hearts turn to God in those moments, I'll never know. But I would never declare anyone lost. Um, I'll leave that to God. And, uh, but I mean, honestly, if they've never, never professed faith in Jesus Christ, you know, belong to a false religion, um, it's that much more doubtful that they're in a state of grace. So we need to share the gospel, um, of Jesus Christ to save those who would be lost. And trust me, this is near and dear to my heart because I was in a false religion. I was an atheist, um, through different periods of my life. And if I had died in those moments, you know, I'm not sure if my liturgical church background would have made a difference. Um, in 2010, I gave my life to the Lord and I've been trying to follow him ever since. And as I've done that, I've discovered there's peace to this eternal life thing right here on earth when we decide to simply follow the Lord's, you know, righteous living has its own rewards, but the assurance of heaven sure helps a lot. And conscious contact with the Lord, manifest presence of the Lord's reality in your life you know, takes away all your doubts. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, these things are available to you if you seek the Lord. And that's why we do the podcast, to encourage people to seek the Lord, to study his word, to, to ask God to reveal himself to you. And if you don't know what that's like, or what freedom in Christ is like, we offer our teachings on our podcast and our YouTube channel for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ, you know. And we offer those so you can get saved. And it's not only get saved, you know, it's not about a ticket to heaven, even though that's really, really nice. Um, it's about living a life of peace, uh, and living out your purpose that God has for your life. And, um, so we encourage people to do that, and we'll do that wherever we can until the Lord calls us home. As lovingly as we can, but we don't want to compromise the truth. You know, some people are living in a life of sin, and the, the, the Word of God indicates that even though you profess to believe, you're— you'll be known by your fruits. And so, you know, we're— so we believe in Jesus, but we are also to look at what we're doing in our lives and, and to, and to repent and and change and to follow the teachings of scripture, to, you know, to be free of the darkness of our sin. So we encourage that because as hard as it was to do, we came to that realization. The Lord showed it to us, and we tried our best to walk into it. I'm not claiming perfection at all, but increasing peace, I can definitely claim that. And, uh, a life of forgiveness. Oh yes, practicing that continually. And freedom and joy. Yeah, I can claim those things too. Um, not perfectly, mind you, but, but the Lord gives, uh, to us when we, when we seek him. So keep going. Anyway, um, that's everything. Uh, I, I have to pray and run out the door. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for anyone who's listening to this message or reading, reading our message on the blog. Lord, we pray for you to come alongside them and their prayer request and guide them into everything you have for them. And Lord, of course, we pray for ourselves. Uh, we ask you to guide us into what you want us to do today and to help us by showing us the things you want us to see. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.