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"Hence they will not be present IN PERSON at the tribunal
when their records are examined and their cases decided."
Are you following me?
Can you separate the doctrine of the judgment from the doctrine of the state of the dead?
You can not.
Can you separate it from the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus?
Absolutely not.
You see because the dead are rewarded when Jesus comes. The apostle Paul says this very clearly that
"For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God
and the dead in Christ shall rise first
then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the AIR.
And so shall we ever be with the Lord."
So where are the dead?
According to that the dead are sleeping
the dead are dead, until the moment of what?
Until the moment of the resurrection.
Now, I want to talk to you a little bit about the spirit.
You know, generally when you talk to somebody about the spirit you say: well you know when a person dies
their body and their brain goes to the dust and their spirit returns to God.
You know, a question that comes up frquently is
well you know, what does God do with that spirit? Does He save it up there?
Does God save everybodys breath, up there..?
You see the problem is that the spirit is more than the breath.
Along with the spirit
when God will give the spirit back to His people He is giving the spirit or the breath of life back with that persons self-identity
In other words what returns to God continuously, and ends returning to God at the moment of death is the record of our lives.
And God saves that in His heavenly books. Our self-identity
And we are going to notice that when He comes back to resurrect us from the dead
He is going to resurrect us and He is not only going to give us the breath of life.
He is going to give us the breath of life WITH our self-identity which is contained in the books.
Now, let us notice several texts from scripture and then I want to read you a couple of statements from the Spirit of Prophecy.
Luke 8 52-56. You remember this little girl who had died
and Jesus came and resurrected her?
Something very important in this passage.
It says now: "And all wept, and bewailed her
but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
And he put them all out
and took her by the hand, and called, saying
Maid, arise."
And now I hope that you are paying attention
because, you know sometimes those who watch on 3ABN notice sometimes I will read wrong.
You know I need to put my glasses on.
And then the spirit returned....
It is not what it says. It says then what?
"And HER spirit came again..."
Let me ask you: is the spirit of Steve Bohr different from Adam Ramden?
Sure it is. Does he have a different record in heaven? A different self-identity than I do?
Yeah. So what would it be like when Jesus came He gave me Adam's self-identity?
Or he gave him my self-identity?
It would be a big mistake.
But you see when Jesus comes He is going to return to us the breath of life with who we were while we were alive.
So it says: "And HER spirit came again
and she arose straightway and He commanded to give her meat."
Let me ask you: did that little girl remember her parents?
Evidently when she died she was hungry because they gave her food first thing
She was hungry when she died and she was hungry when she woke up.
She started where she left off.
Because the breath was returned with her own self-identity.
Notice the death of Stephen in Acts 7:57 to verse 60.
Acts 7:57 to 60
"Then they cried out with a loud voice
and stopped their ears
and ran upon him with one accord.
And cast him out of the city, and *** him.
and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
And they *** Stephen, calling upon God, and saying Lord Jesus, receive... the spirit?
Thank you. It is a possesive pronoun, folks.
It is not any old spirit, it is HIS.
Lord Jesus recieve my spirit... what he is saying is preserve my self-identity.
Keep me in your records
because I have the hope of the resurrection.
Lord Jesus recieve MY spirit.
"And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice: 'Lord, lay not this sin to their charge'.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
love that way of expressing death he fell asleep.
Are you afraid of going to sleep?
I tell you I tried to go to sleep last night and I couldn't.
Because my mind is on different time-schedules.
But.. I am not afraid of going to sleep.
It says that Stephen simply, when they had *** him, he went to sleep.
Notice Luke 23 verse 46, speaking about Jesus
Luke 23 verse 46
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said:
Father, into thy hands I commend .... the spirit?
There is the possive pronoun again
it says...into thy hands I commend MY spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
In these cases the personal pronoun, posessive personal pronoun is used.
What these idividuals are saying, Jesus and Stephen is
preserve in your heavenly records our self-identity.
Because when you are going to resurrect us you are going to return to us who we were while were alive.
Now, alow me to read you a statement a couple of statements actually... Well I have only one here
a little later on we will read another...
From the Spirit of Prophecy, Seventh-day Adventist Bible commentary volume 6 page 1093.
This is a profound statement, see, Ellen white had this straight
"Our personal identity is preserved in the resurrection
though not the same particles of matter or material substance as went into the grave."
God does not preserve every particle of matter we have in this life.
Then she says this
"The wondrous works of God are a mystery to man.
The spirit, the character of man
is returned to God
there to be preserved."
What is it that is preserved?
The character. That is who I am, folks.
"In the resurrection..." Now, notice why God preserves it:
"In the resurrection every man will have his own ... what? Character.
God in His own time will call forth the dead, giving again the breath of life, and bidding the dry bones live.
The same form will come forth, but it will be free from disease and every defect.
It lives again bearing the same individuality of features, so that friend will recognize friend.
There is no law of God in nature which shows that God gives back the same identical particles of matter
which composed the body before death. God shall give the righteous dead a body that will please Him."
So what is the spirit according to the Spirit of Prophecy?
It is the character. It is who we are.
The record of our lives, inside and out, that is writtten in the books.
Now, once I understood this I was able to understand Job 19:25 to 27 a little bit better
and I am reading from the New International Version:
You know, I used to think Job was kind of selfish here. He says only he is going to see Jesus and nobody else is going to see Him.
But in the light of what we are studying it makes sense. Notice what he says:
"For I know that my redeemer liveth
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God
Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
So there is only one person that is going to see Jesus when He comes?
Job?
What is Job saying?
He i saying; when I resurrect it is going to be what?
It is going to be me. Job.
With all of the record of my life as found written in the books.
Allow me to illustrate what I mean. How many of you have seen that little clip
of the assassination of John F. Kennedy?