Gooding, David: 7 - The First Resurrection

We consider this evening the momentous subject of the first resurrection. I ask your indulgence, therefore, if you will allow me to read no less than four scriptures as a springboard for the remarks I shall subsequently have to make. The first, uh, quotation comes from the gospel by John and chapter five. for you who care for the reference. John's Gospel, chapter five. The verses I wish to quote are verses twenty eight and twenty nine. Marvel not at this, for the hour cometh in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done ill unto the resurrection of judgment. And then a similarly short excerpt from a speech made by the Apostle Paul, uh, in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter twenty four. Acts of the Apostles, chapter twenty four, verses fourteen and fifteen. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call a sect, so serve I the God of our fathers, believing all things which are according to the law and which are written in the prophets, having hope toward God, which they also themselves look for, that there shall be a resurrection, both of the just and of the unjust. Then a somewhat longer quotation from the first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter fifteen. First Corinthians, chapter fifteen and verse fifty: Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then my fourth quotation is, uh, in the book of the Revelation. The book of the Revelation in chapter twenty, the verses four to six. And I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as worshiped not the beast, neither his image, and received not the mark of their f- uh, upon their forehead and upon their hand, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first. Over these the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. In our study of redemption last evening, we found that an integral part of redemption is our deliverance from death. We made the point that, for the moment, God's purpose to redeem us from death is in abeyance, or at least it is awaiting his foreordained time. It is not God's plan at the moment to deliver from dying every man and woman who receives the Savior. What God does do at the present moment is to deliver his people from the fear of dying, or rather, should I say, from the fear of death. Death and dying are not quite the same things. I remember once a good Christian woman, of whose personal salvation there could not be any doubt, coming to me in great distress of mind. She said, I think I'm not a Christian after all. I said, how was that? Well, she said, I was listening to a preacher preach a sermon on Sunday, and he said that true believers in Christ do not fear death. And she said, I must admit the truth, I do fear death. Therefore, if it be true that true believers do not fear death, then I can't be a true believer. The good woman was confusing two different things, death and dying. Now, the Bible does not necessarily promise as far as I am aware, that we shall be delivered from the fear of dying. There is an automatic system built into us that makes, gives us a natural fear of death. If you are walking down your high street tomorrow and you suddenly look round and see a double-decker bus within an inch of your heels, pause a moment and think how it makes you feel. What is that curious sensation that runs up and down your spine and propels you onto the pavement as hard as you can go? That is a natural inbuilt system of preservation that makes us recoil from the thought of Of dying. dying. What the Bible does promise to deliver us from is the fear of death and its consequences. The sting of death, says the Bible, is sin. It is what lays be- lies beyond that ought to trouble the conscience. The sting of death is not the nasty process that we go through dying. The sting of death is what lies beyond, that beyond death there is a judgment. And we have sinned. And it's a most horrible and hurtful sting when people pass into death without any personal certainty that their sins have been forgiven. In fact, the Savior warned his contemporaries that if they did not believe in him, they would die in their sins. And if they died in their sins, where he was, they could never come. That's the real sting in death. And the apostle observes further that the strength of sin is the law. He means by that, that, uh, when we contemplate this business of sin and ask ourselves how serious is it after all, then we are not allowed to try and make the best of it and alleviate the situation and pretend it isn't so serious after all. For if we try to, then God's law comes along with its irreversible and irresistible pronouncements. The strength of sin is the law, utterly unbending. Wages of sin. Eternal death. Now from that sting, that awful thing, that sting that death holds, Christ most certainly delivers all who trust him. For the simple reason that he takes away that sting. Everybody who trusts the Savior may know it on God's own authority that the guilt of their sin has been removed forever. God's law has been abundantly satisfied. The whole thing has been done honestly and justly and righteously. So that the believer in our Lord Jesus may face God's law without a flicker of doubt or dismay, and pass into death unafraid. In fact, our Lord said that he that keepeth his word should not even see death. He did not mean that people would not physically die, for many believers have died. He did not mean that all believers would be taken home to heaven in a split second, so they hadn't time to feel or experience the process. The majority of believers, I suppose, do feel the process, and with some of them it's a long process. They see the dying. But no believer in our Lord Jesus Christ ever sees death. Death in its ultimate. Death, the being separated from God permanently, with that great gulf of separation eternally and irremovably fixed. No believer ever experiences that. The moment the process of dying is complete, the Bible tells us that the believer is with his Lord. He does not see death. For him and for his sake, we are told the Lord tasted death. Not merely he tasted dying, that was a grueling experience, but he tasted death, what it means to be separated from God. On the question of sin. He tasted death for everyone. And God's good news is that if we will come to his son and to our savior and receive him. His work upon the cross, his bearing of our sins, his tasting death will remove from us forever the sting and fear of death. So I would say to anyone here that is a Christian, and you have been fearing death in this sense, you have no need. The way to have that fear stopped is to open your eyes and look at the facts. My little nephew, the other year, heard his mother for the first time, I suppose, to his recollection, put on the Hoover, and he shouted the house down. His little imagination thought there was something terrible here. His mother wisely got the lad and comforted him, and then by degrees persuaded him to come over right near this horrible machine that was making this hideous din. At length he was persuaded to put his hand on the thing, and when it didn't bite or hurt, and presently he grew bold, and the thing has lost its fear for him completely. Let us face death right squarely. Let us see the worst it can do. It can shatter this outward tabernacle, the Bible says. But if that is dissolved, we have a house, a permanent habitation, a building not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. But more important still, not even death itself can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Death may come upon us and find us with a free, purged, clear conscience, ready to meet God, certain that our eternal destiny is well. And so, for the moment, that is what God offers us, in fact, freedom from the fear of death. But that is by no means all. Tonight we move on to the even more glorious thing. It is an essential part of the Christian hope that one day even the process of dying will be finished and never be experienced again. It is the Christian hope, put in the words of scripture that we have read, that we shall not all sleep. There will be some Christians who shall not even die physically. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise. Then we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall be changed and be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. In a word, we look for the first resurrection. Let me then just state the fact at this stage that there is to be a resurrection, and that resurrection will involve the changing and removal to heaven bodily of Christian people that are alive on earth when the resurrection takes place. Let us notice that the New Testament affirms that there shall be a resurrection, both of the just and of the unjust. Whether saved or unsaved, if we have died, we shall be raised. Our Lord Jesus himself told us so clearly. Marvel not at this, he said, the hour is coming in which they that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. There shall be a resurrection, and the Bible makes a distinction between the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust. That is, it makes a distinction between those that shall be raised under those two headings, just, unjust. Then the Bible also makes a distinction as to the timing of those resurrections. We read that there is to be a first resurrection, and simply put for the moment, the first resurrection distinguishes between those people that are raised then and the rest of the dead who do not, uh, rise until some subsequent period. And it will be upon those vital distinctions that I wish to concentrate our attention this evening. But first, as to this matter of resurrection, let us deal with some of the objections that have been raised to the thing. It is a curious thing, witness to the perversity and wickedness of the human heart, that in the face of such a glorious prospect, openly given to us by God, there have men and women been found to do their very hardest to prove that the resurrection shall not be. It is a curious thing. For let us consider the alternative. Utter annihilation. Blank darkness and nothingness. A few years pitiably few, almost senselessly few, how quickly they speed. Those years not untroubled, and for many people bringing their load of sickness and unhappiness and sorrow, and for a multitude of humanity, even in this modern age, and particularly in other parts of the world, utterly helpless plight. He is a cruel man who would willingly, willfully want to prove that the Christian hope is groundless and that there is no resurrection. Surely, if there were an a- an occasion where wishful thinking could justify itself, here we might well be allowed to indulge. Would you not hope it to be true? I fancy that upon among some men, the reason for hoping that there will be no resurrection, the real basic reason in their hearts for hoping there shall not be a resurrection, is that in the human mind, the resurrection is inseparably fixed with the question of meeting God, of being faced with his judgment. And there are people who would prefer that they didn't have to meet God, who would prefer to die like a dog. And whose argumentation is motivated by the secret knowledge in their own hearts that if there is a resurrection, then they are not ready. And for them, it would spell disaster. Rather than face God, they would prefer oblivion. At least if I speak to any here this evening of that temper of mind, doubtless you will cover your thinking and your arguments by all sorts of scientific reasons and logical proofs, but may I be so bold as to challenge you as to what is the motive behind your reasonings? If it possibly were this thing that you would be afraid of a resurrection because of the question of sin and the question of meeting God, then let me point out to you that you needn't be afraid. There is a salvation that could remove that fear and cause you to rejoice in the glad prospect of meeting God. But it has not been merely enemies of God's word that have felt objections. There have at all times been people who, with the Bible in their hands, have stoutly maintained that there is to be no resurrection. The Sadducees are a case in point. Learned men, many of them very learned men in the Bible, and yet they stoutly maintained that there is no resurrection. They were men that believed in God. They attended publicly to his worship, and yet in spite of that, they solemnly declared that there was no resurrection. When a man dies, he's done for like a dog. They brought up their arguments. I shall deal with them in a moment. You will say, oh well, they were Jews. Yes, so they were. But then in a Christian church in Corinth, we read that there were people who likewise said there was no resurrection. They said that, um, they did believe in Christ, but there was no resurrection. Their hope was in this life only. It is curious what things can be swallowed, and yet today, it is the opinion of some, even Christian theologians, that it is possible for a man to be a Christian and yet not believe in the literal resurrection. And therefore I take the time to deal with some of these objections. Let's take, first of all, that curious and simple little objection. As one man put it, he said, you know, there cannot possibly be a resurrection. Do you not know that we are composed in our bodies of this, that, and the other chemical, and among them phosphorus? And when you consider the vast number of men and women that have ever lived, and the huge quantity that are living at the moment, and you add up the total, and then you demand that every one of those is going to be literally raised. Why, my good man, they say, there wouldn't be enough phosphorus to go round, and therefore there can't be a resurrection. How stupidly shallow that thinking is. As our Lord himself replied to the Pharisees, you know neither the scripture nor the power of God. Ought it not to be evident to us all, if we believe in an almighty God, that God's intentions are never limited by a world shortage of phosphorus or any other commodity. Who made the present phosphorus? Why, it is such a childish objection that we may leave it and all of its kindred kind. If the mighty God of heaven and earth decides he will raise men again. He who could raise up children to Abraham out of very stones will raise men up by his own unlimited power. We need not stop to inquire how he shall do it. And incidentally, allow me to observe that if there is on occasions in some people's mind a thought that if only they have their bodies cremated and their ashes scattered to the wind, it will be impossible for God to raise them again. That too is an utterly childish and absurd hope. Put a man's body in the ground and give it two thousand years, and it will have disintegrated completely. That is no difficulty to Almighty God when he chooses to reconstitute the same. He made us all out of nothing. He created the whole universe out of nothing. Made man out of the dust of the ground. To suggest any physical difficulties against resurrection is to expose one's folly. But then some have argued that there are other considerations that make resurrection unlikely. What body will they come in? I suppose behind that objection is just this thought that our present bodies, constituted as they are for life on this world, would seem to be wholly unsuitable things for us to inhabit in the world to come. Are they the same bodies that are going to be raised? What, me with my crooked nose and my malfunctioning body? And a body that needs food to sustain it? And must rid itself of its waste? And some people have said, you know, that's an impossible thought. They grant you that perhaps character might survive, but the thought of actually raising the body, they say, now that's an impossible thought, surely. And yet the Bible insists that it is not merely a survival of our character. Now that isn't resurrection at all. But it is literally a resurrection, and the very term implies a resurrection of the body. But then the Bible answers his objectors in detail. It says, thou fool, if you ask in what body shall they come, and illustrates what the process will be by the simple illustration of the s- But then the Bible answers his objectors in detail. It says, thou fool, if you ask in what body shall they come, and illustrates what the process will be by the simple illustration of the sowing of a corn of wheat and the subsequent harvest that is reaped. You sow a bare grain, it may be of wheat or of some other thing, a bare grain. It goes into the ground and eventually disintegrates. Is it the same thing that comes up? No, you say, suddenly it isn't. That bare grain eventually disintegrates, and what I get back is not a bare grain, I get back a stalk, a green thing, and then a blade on that stalk, and then a beautiful ear full of many clusters of green kernels. Utterly unlike that bare golden grain that went down, that half shriveled looking thing. So shall it be with the resurrection of the body. So in weakness, in dishonor, it shall be raised a thing of glory and beauty. Oh, how different from our bodies as constituted now. The Bible tells us that there is a soulish body, such as we inhabit at the moment, the life of whose flesh is in the blood. But flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and therefore the bodies that shall be, shall be different. They shall be what the Bible calls spiritual bodies. That doesn't mean imaginative nothings, real things, but spiritual bodies. And we may care to remember that when our Lord arose, he said to his disciples, handle me and see, I am not a disembodied spirit. Handle me and see that I'm not just a spirit. A spirit hath not flesh and bone, as ye see me have. He said not, a spirit hath not flesh and blood. For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. There is a very marked and fundamental difference between the body of a Christian that is put into the grave and the body that shall rise when the Lord comes. And yet, come back to our corn of wheat, goes into the ground. You say it's a different thing that comes out. Will you let me argue that there's no connection between the two? If there were no connection between the two, then you farmers needn't sow any barley or corn or or or or wheat next year. How would that do? Or would you say no? You must sow the corn to get the, um, result. So there is a vital connection. Even so, scripture maintains that there shall be a resurrection of the body, and in that sense, with a very vital link between the body that goes in and the body that shall be. Obviously, our bodies then shall not have the same needs as now. They shall be fitted to that spiritual realm for which God designs i- i- his redeemed to inhabit. But then some have thought even further, and I remark again how curious it is that men should have troubled themselves to think up all sorts of possible objections to this matter. This time I recur to the difficulty the Sadducees had. They said, you know, the idea of a literal resurrection is absolutely fantastic. So, Lord, they said to Jesus of Nazareth, tell us now, for instance, this is a hypothetical case, maybe. It's only an exaggerated statement of what easily could have happened. There was a woman once, and she married, of course, and then her husband died. Well, then another man took fancy to her, and he married her, and he died, and the good woman in all went through seven husbands before she herself died. Now, Lord, they said, whose wife shall she be in the resurrection? Their argument just this, you know, Lord, teaching a physical, literal resurrection is absurd because of all the tangle of human relations that would be involved. Imagine getting to heaven and finding you had seven wives all at once. Our Lord's reply was curt and stern. You do err greatly, he said, not knowing the scriptures and the power of God. In the resurrection, human relationships will be different. They neither marry nor are given in marriage. We do well to bear that in mind. I have known some believers terribly anguished at the thought of relatives that have died unsaved. And the horror of spending eternity in knowing that loved ones are lost seems to them such a frightful prospect as would mar heaven completely. But then the Bible shows that these relationships will change. They neither marry nor are given in marriage. There will be no tangle of human relationships. That is not to say that we shall all be colorless, unknown identi- identities in that coming day. On that Mount of Transfiguration that gave to the apostles a glimpse of what eternity shall be. We are informed that the apostles readily recognized Moses and Elijah. The people that on earth were Moses and Elijah, in eternity are still Moses and Elijah. And in the resurrection, not only shall there be that close link between the body that was and the body that shall be, but more and supremely important, there shall be that unchangeable identity of personality. So that our Lord comforted Mary and Martha with words with which doubtless we may comfort ourselves. Thy brother shall rise again. I say human affection will not be the same then as now, yet it shall be our eternal gratification that men and women we knew on earth shall be present in heaven. But there is another difficulty that some have raised. And you will observe that as I raise these difficulties, I am not erecting Aunt Sallys for the fun of knocking them down. I am merely expounding to you the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, that long chapter that manfully faces these difficulties. The other difficulty that the chapter mentions is the difficulty of timing. Some people that call themselves Christians said that there wasn't any more resurrection. And the apostle answers them in this, that the resurrection of the Christian is bound up with the resurrection of Christ. If you hold that there is not to be a resurrection in the future, you must hold that Christ himself is not raised from the dead. And if you hold that Christ is not raised from the dead, you have ruined the whole of Christianity. If Christ is not raised from the dead, we are still in our sins. If Christ is not raised from the dead, the apostles are liars, for they said he was raised from the dead. And Christianity is founded on deceit, deliberate and knowing deceit. If Christ be not raised from the dead, and still in our sins, we have hope only for this life, and beyond that there's nothing. I would say somebody, I, I accept that Christ is raised, but then why aren't all who trust him raised? If God has raised Christ from the dead, why doesn't he immediately transform those whom you say have trusted the Savior? And the answer is that God of deliberate pers- purpose has timed this thing. That it should happen each in its own order. Christ, the first fruits, and afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. And then after that, the end, when death shall finally be done away with. And I want very specially here this evening to underline this matter of time. Failure to perceive the timing of the resurrection is a fruitful cause of much misunderstanding. Let us observe the fact then, it is planned to happen in stages. First of all, the resurrection of Christ, the first fruits, linked, of course, inseparably linked with the great harvest that shall follow, as any first fruits are linked with the subsequent harvest. Christ, the first fruits. Afterwards, they that are Christ's at his coming. And then subsequently after that, the end when death shall eventually be destroyed. For death and hell, we read, are to be cast into the lake of fire. It doesn't happen all at once. But now let me further, uh, uh, uh, analyze the affair. It is not merely that Christ is already risen, and other people shall subsequently rise. It is not merely that subsequently the just shall rise, and then the unjust shall rise. But the scripture indicates that the just shall be raised at one resurrection, and the unjust shall be raised at another resurrection. And if to you I appear to be speaking outlandish things, let me, if you will, argue it with you from the words of Holy Writ themselves. Let me take a detailed description of what shall happen at our Lord's coming. We remember the basic proposition, Christ the firstfruits is raised, afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. What is it exactly that's going to happen at our Lord's coming? I read you the words of one Thessalonians four. For this we say unto you by the words of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise. First. Then, we that are alive that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Now there is a significant omission from those verses. They describe the people that shall rise when our Lord returns. They are classified under two heads, the dead in Christ. And that very description immediately divides all those that have passed by way of death. It does not say the dead, just and unjust, shall rise, or simply the dead shall rise, but specifically it points out that the dead in Christ shall rise. And then, we which are alive and remain shall be caught up. Who is the we? We must be fair with our Bible. Paul, a Christian man, was writing not to all the citizens in Thessalonica, but only such people in Thessalonica that had had a conversion, that had been regenerate, that had had a personal experience of Christ and his salvation. We, says the Apostle Paul, shall be changed. I say the omission is exceedingly significant. That agrees now in detail with that former scripture, one Corinthians fifteen. They that are Christ's at his coming. Now let me ask you to face an honest question. They that are Christ's at his coming. Who shall rise when the Lord comes? Are all living people on the earth at this moment, are they Christs? Why, obviously not. Obviously not. Millions would rise up and repudiate the thought if you tried to suggest it. They don't want Christ. They are not Christ. Let me ask, uh, you again. If tonight the Lord came, and they that are Christs in Armagh were raised and changed. Would that mean everybody in Armagh? Or perhaps we could afford for the moment to leave external people out of it, and ask ourselves, we who sit in this lecture hall, if Christ came tonight, and from the people in this lecture hall, they that are Christ's were raised to be with him. Would that include us all? It is sentiment, sheer sentiment, for us in this exceedingly important matter to indulge vain and vague and empty hopes. The Bible says the dead in Christ shall be raised. And they and the living who are changed are together described as people that are Christ's. They shall be changed. It is imperative for us, surely, to find out what it means to be Christ's. And then imperative that we ask ourselves, each one, am I in this sense Christ's? Why do I ask? Why do I make all the fuss? For all men shall be raised at some time. The Bible itself gives us to see the importance of the distinction. Those who are raised at the Lord's coming, these take part, says the Bible, in the first resurrection. The rest of the dead are not raised, they live not again until a period of a thousand years be fulfilled. Then they shall be raised. And you say, well, then I suppose it would be a second resurrection that they join in. Well, if you care so to phrase your yourself, all right. In a certain way, yes, I suppose it is a second resurrection. But the Bible doesn't call it a second resurrection. Though resurrection it shall be. They shall rise. And because they are not Christ's, their resurrection will be, as Christ himself forewarned us, unto judgment. A judgment so permanent, so terrible, that instead of calling the whole process a second resurrection, the Bible describes it as a second death. That's why the distinction is so important. And therefore, if we ask ourselves nothing more as a result of this lecture this evening, we must challenge ourselves just here, as calmly as we can and as honestly as we can. In view of that first resurrection, when they that are Christ's shall be raised. Am I Christ's? Am I in Christ? Some people seem to have the idea that resurrection is going to be a resurrection of all and sundry, that we shall be herded before God's throne, and then it will be decided who are the good and who are the bad, and then and only then will a decision be made as to who shall go to heaven and who shall go to perdition. But that is not so. The Bible is explicit. They that are Christ's and are raised to glory, they become Christ's in this life, and they know it in this life. Taking part in that resurrection is a thing for which we qualify here on earth. It is not a difficult thing. It is open for us all to qualify. If we come as bankrupt sinners to Christ, on those same simple terms by which he forgives us, does he make us one of his own, and we become Christ's. By God's great work of salvation, we are placed in Christ, just as when a master gardener takes a branch that has hitherto been on another tree, and he grafts it over onto a different tree, and that new branch becomes part and parcel of the other tree. So does God take a man or woman who trusts his son and puts them into Christ by a join that is the joinings of life commonly shared. Writing to believers, Paul describes their conversion in these terms. By God's doing, says he, you are now in Christ. Of God are you in Christ Jesus? He put you there. Only whereas in human grafting, we take a good bough off a good tree, and we put it on an evil root, in the great matter of salvation, the process is reversed. He takes us good for nothing characters, and he grafts us into Christ. May I emphasize that? You see, being saved is not merely believing the creed, which says our Lord suffered under Pontius Pilate, was raised again, and there shall be a resurrection of just and unjust. It is not assent to certain doctrines. It is being livingly joined to a person. So that his life, now and forevermore, streams through me. That's why we may be certain here on earth that we take part in that first resurrection, certain that is if we are in Christ. For the Apostle Paul, writing to other Christians, was able to tell them that the great power that one day shall transform their mortal bodies and raise them to life everlasting, incorruptible, that great power that shall do that thing is already resident in those bodies. For if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in your mortal bodies, subject as they are now to death, then God one day shall raise up those bodies with immortal life. How? By that very spirit that already dwells in you, says Paul. It is the glorious fact that every believer in the Lord Jesus who has been united to him and grafted into his person, has already within them the colossal vital power that one day shall perform the change and give them new bodies when the Lord comes. But if a man or woman, however good, is not joined already thus to Christ. He is not sharing in that life of Christ. He is not Christ's. And when the Lord comes, he will not be raised. He shall wait until that other event to be summoned, yes, in a resurrection body, before God's throne, his name absent from the book of life. He himself shall be cast in the lake of fire, not to be annihilated, to exist. But for a man to exist apart from Christ, you can't call that life. That is death. The second. Of that and all its solemnities, we must think tomorrow. But tonight, let us stress the joyful side. It is still open for anyone that wills, for anyone that at this moment is uncertain. It is open for them this very night to come and to let God graft them into Christ. The grafting will be eternal.