Does It End With The Grave?

The message was brought by Bro. Jack Sprinkle on Thursday night.

Does it end with the grave?  We know that it doesn’t.  I’m thankful we’re not here forever.  After this life, there are only two places to go, heaven or hell.

John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Why did Jesus come?  He knew we would leave this world one day.  He wanted us to be ready. He knew on our own we’d never break away and prepare for eternity.  None of us were saved without the wooing of the Holy Spirit.  He got us in the position to be saved.  When we accept Jesus’ payment for sin, we are saved.  The Bible says the “wages of sin is death.” We could die and go to hell and never get our debt paid.  God realized this.  The Lord went through a lot to make us ready for heaven.  He wants us there more than we want to be there.  We’re not home yet.  We’ve still got a battle to fight.  When we accepted Jesus as Savior and allow him to direct us, we put him in the position of Lord.  Our position is that of being his servant.  We’re not our own.  We’re his to serve.  He came so that we can be ready when he calls.

Why did he go away?  We cannot approach the Father without going through Jesus.  He is “the way, the truth, and the life.” We can’t get to God any other way. When Jesus went away, he went to the right hand of the Father.  He’s there to intercede for us.  Our access to God is by prayer through Jesus.  God wants to hear from us.  Not only is he interceding for us, he is preparing a place for us to go.  I believe he can’t wait to get us there.

Without the Holy Spirit we would have never known we were lost.  We wouldn’t have known we needed to be saved to get to heaven.  The Bible says the Holy Spirit leads us into all truths.  Jesus went away, and the Holy Spirit came.

Jesus went away.  It’s not a matter of IF he’s coming back, it’s WHEN.  We have to be ready.  Church membership, water baptism, or being good won’t get anyone to heaven.  The only ones who go to heaven are the saved.   He’s coming back to get us out of the grave.  Death couldn’t hold the Lord, and it won’t hold us when Jesus calls.

I Thessalonians 4:13 “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶For 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: ¹⁷Then we which 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.”

I Corinthians 15:51 “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²In 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.”

Our loved ones who have died in the Lord are at rest in the Lord.  They have ceased from their labors.  When Jesus comes, he’ll bring them out of the grave.  They’ll rise from the grave, and if we’re ready we’ll meet them and the Lord “and so shall we ever be with” him.  Wherever he is, we’ll be with him!  Be ready.