The sermon by Eric Bechler on the state of man after death and resurrection explores the process and outcome for both the righteous and the wicked following death. It begins by discussing the unnatural nature of death from a Christian viewpoint, emphasizing that death entered the world through sin. The sermon outlines that after death, the bodies return to dust while the souls immediately return to God. The souls of the righteous are made perfect in holiness and enter paradise to be with Christ, awaiting the resurrection of their bodies. Conversely, the souls of the wicked are cast into hell, remaining in torment until judgment. The sermon refutes the concept of soul sleep and purgatory, asserting that scripture only acknowledges paradise and hell as destinations for souls. It concludes with the call for repentance and faith in Christ, highlighting the urgency of redemption in this life.

Our reading from the Second London Baptist confession today comes from Chapter 31 of the state of man after death and of the resurrection of the dead. Paragraph one. The bodies of men after death return to dust and see corruption, but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous being then made perfect in holiness are received into paradise where they are with Christ and behold the face of God in light and glory waiting for the full redemption of their bodies and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the scripture acknowledges none." Today we arrive at the last two chapters of our confession, which focus on the state of man after death and the last judgment.

There are a lot of questions that come to mind when we think of the end times. Some we will address over the next six weeks and some we won't. And some we cannot know the answer with certainty until we get there. We will start with death. Is it natural?

It seems normal. Almost everyone seems to die, there being only two exceptions. It seems to be a natural part of life, but is it? If you stood on philosophy, you might say yes. But from a Christian worldview or from scripture, death is the most unnatural thing.

It was not part of God's design at the creation. Remember there was no death in the world at creation. It was only when sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, thus death spread to all men because all sinned. Romans 5 12. From the moment the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was eaten, death entered the world.

Genesis 2, 17. Solomon tells us, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die. Ecclesiastes 3, 1 and 2. God has ordained when we will be born and when we will die. The psalmist states, your eyes saw my unformed body.

All my days were written in your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be." Psalm 139, 16. We cannot live one day longer than what God has ordained, not even one second. Job makes this point. His days are determined. The number of his months is with you.

You have appointed his limits so that he cannot pass, Job 14.5. So death is certain. No matter what pills we take, no matter what new fads we start, we will die and we'll die exactly at God's appointed time. Again, the psalmist declares what man can live and not see death. Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave?

Psalm 89, 48. Death occurs to believers as well as unbelievers. It occurs to all people. The idea of death provokes many different emotions. Many are terrified.

Some look at it as an end to their sufferings, and some are indifferent. What about Christians? Paul shares with us his thoughts about death in his letter to the Philippians in Philippians 1, 21 through 26. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor.

Yet what I shall choose I cannot tell. For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you, all for your progress and joy of faith. That you that you're rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.

To die is gain, yet what shall I choose? To depart and be with Christ is far better. These thoughts that he has, these are not the words of a man terrified of death, and nor should we be. We should be about God's business until he calls us home. But what happens when we die?

Our confession states the bodies of man after death return to dust and see corruption. We read in Genesis 319, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, For dust you are, and to dust you shall return." And Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 12-7, then the dust will return to the earth as it was. We return to dust, to the basic elements or constituencies of which we were comprised. When we die, our bodies begin to decay. They break down.

They see corruption. Although we don't see what happens to an actual person's body in the casket, we definitely observe on a regular basis, the corruption and decay of animals along the side of the road. This corruption is indicated by Martha when Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead in John 11 39, Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead for days. So when we die, our bodies begin to decay.

But what else happens? Our confession states, but their souls which neither die nor sleep, having immortal subsistence, immediately returned to God who gave them. We read this from Ecclesiastes 12, seven. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it. From Genesis 2, 7, we understand that we are made up of a body and a soul.

And the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Although the body can be seen as having a material element and a soul and immaterial element, the Bible teaches us to view the nature of man as a unity, not a duality wherein these two elements move along parallel lines, never uniting as a single organism. Genesis 2 7 deals with man. God formed man. Man became a living soul.

We must be careful not to interpret this as a mechanical process where God formed the body and then later breathed life into it. When God formed the body, he formed it so that By the breath of his spirit, man at once became a living soul. And though we can distinguish between body and soul, we cannot separate them. What we do affects the other. Dr.

Sproul comments further, the soul is as much a creation as is the body. That the soul survives the grave is not a testimony to its indestructibility or of its intrinsic immortality. The soul as a created entity is mortal. It survives the grave only because it is sustained and preserved by the power of God. It is preserved for eternal felicity, for the redeemed.

It is preserved for eternal punishment, for the damned. Our souls are not a type of God, not by themselves maintained and they are not intrinsically eternal. The important point here is that our souls are sustained and preserved by the power of God. And before moving on I'd like to clarify some of the terms the confession uses here. First, the soul neither dies nor sleeps.

We already read when we die the body returns to dust and the soul returns to God who gave it. Why do they mention sleep? This was perhaps included to address the teaching or the readings that we see that our soul sleeps until the resurrection, perhaps coming from the Old Testament phraseology where when one dies he is said to sleep with his fathers. First King 1143 and Solomon slept with his fathers. Dr.

Sproul explains, there are those who have been influenced by a cultic view called psycho panachea, more famously known as soul sleep. The idea is that at death the soul goes into a state of suspended animation. It remains in slumber in an unconscious state until it is awakened at the time of the great resurrection. The soul is still alive, but it is unconscious so that there is no consciousness of the passing of time. I think this conclusion is drawn improperly from the euphemistic way in which the New Testament speaks about people in death being asleep.

The common Jewish expression that they are asleep means they are enjoying the reposed peaceful tranquility of those who have passed beyond the struggles of this world and into the presence of God. Present-day advocates of the doctrine of soul sleep include the Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Christadelphians, maybe some others. When we die, our soul returns to God immediately. We don't fall asleep. We're not unconscious in the presence of God.

Rather, we have peace and joy in His glory and in His presence while waiting for the judgment day. The other term we should look at is having an immortal subsistence. Immortal, of course, is never ending, never dying. What it doesn't mean is that our souls are eternal and have always been. God Himself has no beginning and no end.

Our souls were created by God. They have a beginning. Subsistence means to continue in existence or to maintain life. So together this means that our created soul does not die when our bodies die. Our souls which God created continue to exist.

They continue to live on. The point here is that our souls don't die when our bodies die. Although they separate from their body, they continue to live. Paul tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Second Corinthians 5, 8.

The final point here to make is the phrase immediately. When we die, we are present with the Lord. There is not delay for our souls. There is a delay before we receive our resurrected bodies when Christ returns, but there is not a delay for our souls. What did Christ say to the thief on the cross?

Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Luke 23 43. Not tomorrow, not at the judgment day, but today, this day. Yet believers as well as unbelievers, for believers and as well as unbelievers, the body returns to dust, to its basic chemical and material constituents, and the soul returns to God. The soul does not die, it does not sleep or hibernate, it continues to exist to live.

Our soul returns immediately to God upon our death. And this brings us to the remaining points of our paragraph. What happens to the souls of believers of the righteous? What happens to the souls of unbelievers, the wicked? And are there any other places where souls might go?

Robert Shaw comments, there is indeed a vast difference between the death of the righteous and that of the wicked. To the latter, death is the effect of the law curse and the harbinger of everlasting destruction. But to the former, death is not the proper punishment of sin, but determination of all sin and sorrow and an entrance into eternal life. To them, death is divested of its sting and rendered powerless to do them any real injury. Not only is it disarmed of its power to hurt them, it is compelled to perform a friendly part to them.

It is their release from warfare, their deliverance from the woe, their departure to be with Christ. But although death is no real loss, but rather great gain to the righteous, yet as it consists in the dissolution of the union between the soul and the body, It is an event from which they are not exempted. Our paragraph first addresses the souls of the righteous. There are three points here to touch on. First, the souls of the righteous are then made perfect in holiness.

Calvin comments on Hebrews 12, 23, where it's written that the spirits of just men made perfect. He says, and they are said to be made perfect because they're freed from guilt, sin, and every pollution, having washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Benson's commentary also suggests, namely, the spirits of the saints in paradise. These are said to be made perfect because being justified before God and fully sanctified in their natures, they are completely holy, and being freed from all the infirmities of the body, are perfected in a much higher sense than any who are still on earth. The souls of the righteous are also received in the paradise where they are with Christ, and behold the face of God in light and glory.

Paradise is usually used synonymously with heaven. Paradise is a place of blessing where the souls of the righteous go after dying. First, what evidence do we have Jesus is in heaven? Many verses of course support this in the story of Stephen the martyr we read But he Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus Standing at the right hand of God and said look I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God and said, look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Acts 7, 55 and 56.

Furthermore, we find Jesus' own words recorded in Luke to the thief on the cross. Again, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." Both Jesus and thief would be in paradise that day with Christ being exalted to God's right hand. In 2nd Corinthians 5-8, Paul tells us also that to be absent from the body is to be, is to the believer to be present with the Lord, meaning once we die, we believers will be in paradise or heaven with the Lord. Paul also tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5, 10, whether we are awake or asleep, meaning alive or dead, we will live together with him. We also see this confirmed in in the Revelation of John and Revelation 6 9, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God.

And in Revelation 7, 9, I looked and behold a great multitude which none could number of all nations, tribes, and peoples, and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. We likewise behold the face of God in light and glory, no longer afraid or trembling at His sight or in fear of our lives because of his glory. Scripture tells us if we see God in our bodies, we will die. When Moses asked God to show me your glory, Exodus 33, 18, God responded, you cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live." Exodus 33, 20. But being made perfect in holiness, without sin or corruption, we may behold the face of God in light and glory.

Paul writes, for now, while we are alive, we see in a mirror dimly, but then after death, face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 1 Corinthians 13-12. John Gill comments here, in heaven we will behold the beatific vision which will have no manner of interruption and obscurity in it, but then face to face There will be no intervening mediums of vision not the glass of the word or ordinances, there will be no need of them. God and Christ will be seen as they are.

How wonderful it will be to behold the face of God in all his glory. Now to the last point of our paragraph with respect to the souls of the righteous. They're waiting for the full redemption of their bodies. When we die again, our bodies decompose. They return to dust.

The souls of the righteous will go to heaven, But for a time our souls have no physical presence, no bodies. When Christ returns, our souls will be given new bodies. Paul writes, for the Lord himself will 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." First Thessalonians 416. Jesus himself teaches that all who are in the grave will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

John 5 28 through 29. When he descends they will hear his voice and be resurrected. This is Christ's second coming. Paul in his letter to the Philippians writes, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there. The Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.

Philippians 3, 20 and 21. John Gill again comments here, His glorious body, or the body of His glory, as it is now in heaven, and of which his transfiguration on the mount was an emblem and a pledge. For glory, power, incorruption, and immortality the bodies of the Saints in the resurrection shall be like to Christ though not equal to it and shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. So will it be with this resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable.

It is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.

It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15, 42 through 44. Next we look at what happens with the souls of the wicked.

Our confession states, the souls of the wicked are cast into hell where they remain in torment and utter darkness reserved to the judgment of that great day. Peter tells us the Lord knows how to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. 2nd Peter 2 9. We read in Jude 5 through 7, but I want to remind you that the Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who do not believe and the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal life, eternal fire.

There is a specific example in scripture of Judas we read in Acts 1 25. Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place. His own place here can be understood as going to hell. We also are given example in the gospel of Luke which involves a rich man in Lazarus in Luke 16 22 through 26. So it was that a beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom or paradise.

The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, He lifted up his eye and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. It's in Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, For I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that your lifetime, in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus' evil things.

But now he's comforted and you are tormented. Besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us." Matthew Henry comments on this passage, It is often the lot of some of the dearest of God's saints and servants to be greatly afflicted in this world. We're not told that the rich man did him any harm, but we do not find that he had any care for him. Here is the different condition of this godly poor man and this wicked rich man at and after death. The rich man in hell lifted up his eyes being in torment.

It is not probable that there are discourses between glorified saints and damned sinners, but this dialogue shows the hopeless misery and fruitless desire to which condemned spirits are brought. There is a day coming when those who now hate and despise the people of God would gladly receive kindness from them, but the damned in hell shall not have the least abatement of their torment." And finally the last point of our paragraph today emphasizes that besides these two places for souls separated from their bodies, the scripture acknowledges none. This passage here is included This passage here is included to review the Catholic Church's position, I believe, on purgatory. Protestants find no basis for purgatory in Scripture. Dr.

Sproul gives some background for it though. The Roman Catholic Church depended upon the Latin fathers who understood the doctrine of justification against the background of the Latin word justificari. It is this word from which we get our English word justify, literally, to make righteous. However, the actual Greek term that is used in the New Testament means to declare righteous. What then is the difference?

In the Protestant understanding of the New Testament, justification occurs when God declares that a person is just. That declaration takes place the moment a person puts his or her faith in Christ. Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. Sanctification is the process that follows justification by which those who have been declared just by God are actually conformed to the image of Christ. What was the anathema to Rome about Martin Luther's teaching?

Among other things was his famous formula defining justification as bringing sinners into a state whereby we are simulu justus et peccator, at the same time just and sinner. We are just by the virtue of God declaring us just in Christ, but we still struggle with abiding sin. The Catholics argued in the 16th century and have continued to argue as recently as the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1994 that God will declare a person just only when that person has achieved inherent righteousness, which means there is no sin in us. True that righteousness cannot be gained apart from grace, apart from faith, or apart from Christ, but with the help of these means of grace, the Catholic argues that righteousness may and must be attained before God will make His declaration that a person is just. This is why according to Rome, if a person dies with imperfections or impurities still present in his soul before he can go to heaven, he must first go to purgatory where his abiding imperfections are purged away.

That time in purgatory could last days or millions of years in order for the cleansing necessary to bring about total purity. Of course there's no way for me to go through the argumentation of both sides of this issue. It would take too long to do it justice. Suffice it to say that Dr. Sproul gets to the heart of the issue, imputed versus inherent righteousness, and alien righteousness versus our own righteousness.

As far as I understand, there is no way for anyone to be sinless while they are still alive. Our sin nature remains within us. So from the Catholic perspective, no one should die justified. Only after going to purgatory to purge away all remaining sin will they be declared just. This position demands a third place for souls to go after death and that is purgatory.

From the Catholic perspective the basis for purgatory relies on a number of passages. 1st Corinthians 13 10 through 15, 1st Corinthians 15 50 through 55, Matthew 12 32 and 2nd Maccabees 1246. From the Protestant perspective, we don't consider the Apocrypha part of canon, so that removes 2nd Maccabees. And we would disagree strongly with their interpretation with those passages I mentioned, especially with their exegesis or lack of it. I've not been able to find any scriptural examples to support their additional places.

I've only found two places souls go. In the paradise where they are with Christ and behold the face of God and cast into hell where they remain in torment and under darkness. We see in Daniel 12 too and many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt. We also see this in John's gospel from John 5, 28 and 29. Do not marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in the grave will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

Which camp will you fall in? Which destination is reserved for you? Once you die, this will not change. It cannot change. It will be fixed.

Your only chance for redemption in this life is now. Jesus says, I am the resurrection in the life. Whoever believes in me will live even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?

1 John, excuse me, John 11, 25 and 26. This is not something to put off. This is something to deal with. Repent. Cry out to God that he would save you if you have questions, that he would give you a new heart, that he would give you faith in Christ.

Scripture tells us that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10, 9. Amen.