DEATH?--OR DAWN!         22/10/76         GP 714

         1. JESUS HAD TO DIE NOT ONLY PHYSICALLY, BUT IN THE SPIRIT ALSO. His spiritual suffering for our sins. Now your body can partly suffer for your sins, but the greatest suffering that sinners will ever do is not just death to the body--It is death to the spirit!

         2. The worst death of the lost is a spiritual death, a spiritual suffering in which their spirits will suffer after this life in the world to come. Jesus in His death suffered not only physically but also spiritually such as the sinner suffers in the afterlife for his sins. Otherwise He could not have suffered for your sins. But He did suffer for your sins.

         3. God's Word says He spent three days and nights in the heart of the Earth! And you know what the heart of the Earth is? It's a ball of fire!--Hell! And it says that there He preached to the spirits in prison--He preached to some others who were there in that ball of fire and gave them the Gospel, told them the Truth! (See 1Pet.3:18-20.)

         4. If there was no possibility for them to be saved, why did He take the trouble to preach to them? But they were people who had evidently never heard the truth, people who had never heard the Gospel. So Jesus Himself went there and was suffering just like they were suffering while He preached to them that they might be saved.

         5. Think of what Jesus suffered for us!--Three days and three nights in Hell in the fiery heart of the Earth! He suffered then for all the sins of all mankind! Isn't that amazing?--Such love! He died that you might be saved!

         6. SO IF YOU ARE BORN TWICE YOU ONLY DIE ONCE!--BUT IF YOU'RE ONLY BORN ONCE YOU'LL DIE TWICE! The first birth is a birth of water!--"Born of water"! (John 3:5)

         7. The next birth is a spiritual rebirth or when you are "born again." (John 3:3)--It's a spiritual rebirth, a rebirth of the inner man, your personality, the real you, the one that lives on the inside of that physical shell there and is looking out at me!
         8. So if you are born twice--first time physically, second time spiritually--you will only die once! Because you will only die the physical death once and your spirit will never die, because Jesus died in that torment so your spirit would not have to die.

         9. But He says for the sinner, the one who does not receive Jesus and his sins are not forgiven, that in the end of the world they are going to be raised from the dead at the Last Judgment and judged according to their works, some in the Lake of Fire and some are going to be living outside the Heavenly City. (Rev.20 & 22)

         10. "And this is the second death!" (Rev.20:14) Why? Because they were only born once and they never got saved, they never received Jesus, they were never born again. When you receive Jesus this is a new birth for your spirit, you're a new inner man.

         11. SO DEATH IS MARVELOUS! IT'S FREEDOM FOR THE CHRISTIAN! IT'S A WONDERFUL LIBERATION! For the believer in Christ it is being set free from this old body that gives us so much trouble.

         12. One of these days you're going to be free!--Isn't that wonderful? You're going to be able to leave that old body behind!

         13. It's much easier to die than live! Thank God for death, our graduation, our release! Praise God! God bless you with a good death! Happy flyaway!--I'll see you there!

         14. So long until tomorrow!--Like the old song:
         "When morning dawns, farewell to Earthly sorrow!
         Farewell to all the troubles of Today!
         There'll be no pain, no death in God's Tomorrow!--
         When Morning dawns and shadows flee away!"

(Prophecy:) "Such are the words of love and comfort that I have given to thy Father." Amen! We'll love forever!


Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family