When God Opens The Curtain For You – Part 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

There is no government program, no insurance policy, and no medical procedure that can keep anyone from dying. For most of us, life seems too relentless to spend much time thinking about death. But coming to grips with our own mortality is a sobering thing we all need to do. Today, more about facing the end the way Jesus did.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today we come to the end of your series on One Minute After You Die. You and I are getting older every day and soon we'll be taking our place at the gates of eternity.

How does this make you feel? Well Dave, of course it makes me feel anticipation but also some fear, wondering how I will do at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, but at the same time reminding me that the suffering of this present world is not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. I've written a book entitled One Minute After You Die and today is the last day we're making this resource available to our listeners. We're doing this because we believe it will help you, it'll encourage you, it'll also warn those who have never come to trust Christ as Savior.

Some of the chapters have to do with the descent into gloom, the ascent into glory, welcome, you've arrived, the new Jerusalem, when Hades is thrown into hell. For a gift of any amount, we're making it available. Here's what you do, go to RTWOffer.com.

That's RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. There is no question as important as the question of where you will be one minute after you die. But at the end of the day, I want you to know that if you walk in the Spirit, there is no combination of demons or men who can possibly gang up on you. There's no one who can shoot you if God still believes that you have work that He wants you to accomplish and if your work is not yet done. It is really true to say that man is immortal until his work is done. Believers die within the context of God's providence and God's care. Look at Jesus, He was crucified by evil men and yet it says He was delivered by the predetermined counsel of God and it says that the Lord was pleased to bruise Him.

Are you comfortable living with the juxtaposition of those two theological facts? That on the one hand it is evil men who killed Jesus Christ and on the other hand it is the Father who bruised Him and it is the Father who killed Him and it is Jesus who said, I lay down my life and I take it again. It is I who lay it down.

No man takes it from me. I want you to know that what is true of Him is true of us. We can die with a right attitude and we will die if we walk with God, we will die at the right time, the right time. Let me give you a third assurance that Jesus had and that is that He died in the right way.

He died in the right way. Could Jesus have been stoned to death? No, no, because it says in the Old Testament, cursed is He who hangs upon a tree and Jesus had to die on a tree, He had to die on a cross to bear our sin, therefore even the means of death was actually ordained. He couldn't have died of a disease obviously because He was not sick as the Son of God, but He could not have been stoned, He could not have been shoved off the brow of a hill, He could not have died that way.

God ordained the way He was going to die. You say, is that true of believers too? Well, remember John 21? Jesus is speaking to Peter and He said, you know, Peter, the day is going to come when you are going to be taken where you don't want to go and another is going to carry you and your arms are going to be outstretched. And then the text says, this He said signifying by which death He would glorify God. And tradition tells us, you know, that Peter was crucified upside down because he did not believe that he was worthy to be crucified as Jesus Christ was crucified.

But here's Peter dying not only at the time that has been specified by Jesus Christ, but even the very manner by which He was to die was foreordained and planned. So God knows what chariot He is going to send for us when it is our time to go. He knows it.

He plans it. It is within His will and providence. You know, those of us who believe in the sovereignty of God and we've emphasized that and we sang a chorus today emphasizing God's sovereign plan. We believe that our lives are actually in God's hands. And it is sometimes been said, somewhat perhaps tongue in cheek, but nonetheless it is true that if from God's standpoint you are to be hung, you'll never drown.

You'll never drown because you're going to go as it is appointed for you. Jesus said, the things that concern me have a divine end and you look at the way in which he died and everything was a part of the divine will. It all fit in perfectly fulfilling the scriptures and the prophecies that had been made. So he died in the right way. He also died with the right commitment. The last words of Jesus, if you still have your Bibles open to Luke chapter 22, you may turn now to 23 and notice what the text says in verse 46. And Jesus crying out with a loud voice said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, breathed his last.

What a way to go. By the way, do you believe that Jesus Christ descended into hell? You know the Apostles' Creed says that he ascended, descended I should say, into hell.

That's what the creed says. It did not originally contain those words and no one knows the exact origin of the Apostles' Creed though it was around early. In about the 6th century that was added he descended into hell. That teaching came about because it says in Psalm chapter 16 verse 10, thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol, and in an earlier message when I talked about the descent into gloom we talked about Sheol, but it says thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol, neither shalt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption. And that is quoted in Acts chapter 2 where Peter is giving a sermon and he is proving the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and saying that it is a fulfillment of prophecy and he quotes that text. And so many people have said Jesus descended into Sheol, he descended into hell.

And then they've gone on from there and they've added a little bit of heresy to it. It's not heresy to believe that Jesus descended into Hades, but I think that does need some interpretation. But the heresy comes in where people have said he descended into hell and he suffered there for us and he took our hell when he died and then he came back on the third day.

That's not found anywhere in the scriptures. Jesus Christ took our hell but he did it on the cross. He did not do it when he died and his spirit went to the Father. I believe personally that Jesus Christ went directly to the Father even if you think that it necessitates that he descended into Hades, into the bad region of Hades. Remember also there is a good region of Hades. And we learned this from Luke chapter 16 where there was one man who was looking over and Lazarus was talking to the man who was suffering, the rich man who was in Hades. And it seems to me that Jesus possibly went directly to the Father if he did make a stop in the evil part of Hades. It was very brief because he said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.

And we do have to remember that the word shield oftentimes just does mean the grave. But there's room there for theological difference as long as we understand that Jesus Christ paid our penalty on the cross. And you've heard me say that when he said to the thief, today you shall be with me in paradise. Keep in mind that so far as the thief was concerned, he lived a little longer than Jesus because the soldiers were so surprised that Jesus Christ died sooner than they expected.

And that means that Christ was already in paradise. And when the thief died, Jesus was there to meet him. And what faith the thief had, what faith he had, because he was looking upon someone who was in the same predicament as he was, someone who was in the same agony, the same state of helplessness. And yet he believed and said, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He believed in Christ. And you know, William Cowper captured the faith of the thief when he said, the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day.

And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. As we think about death, let me give you some concluding lessons. I've already stressed it, but let me emphasize, first of all, that your life as a believer is ultimately in the hands of God, not the hands of fate and happenstance and accidents. We call them accidents.

From God's standpoint, they indeed might be a divine occurrence. Always remember that. Some of you live in areas of the city where there is shooting, where there is a lot of gang warfare and you may fear for your life.

And we understand that. And yet I need to comfort you with the words of Jesus who said, do not fear those who are able to kill the body and then after that, there's nothing they can do, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell or in Hades. Fear him, but don't fear the person who can only kill you. But I want you to know that those of you who may live in areas where there is all kinds of gang warfare, your life is not any less in God's hands than those of us who may live somewhere else because the believer ultimately is in the hands of God. Remember that. You say, well, what if I get shot?

Well, any one of us could have that happen no matter where we are. And if it is true that evil men crucifying Jesus Christ, doing this despicable deed, nonetheless had Jesus Christ die at the time that the Father appointed, might it not be that even if we did lose our lives, that that would happen within the will and the providential care of God? Remember Jim Elliott, one of the martyred missionaries who died young? You know, he said, God is peopling heaven.

Why should he limit himself to old people? And so sometimes God does take young people. But surely we must agree that Jim Elliott and those other four men who were with him, they died within God's providential care and guidance, even though they were killed by those Auca Indians, who since, incidentally, have come to know Christ as Savior. You know, there is a woman by the name of Lena Sandbel Berg. I know that the hymnals sometimes call her Carolina, but I think her name is Lena Sandbel Berg. One day this young lady was in Switzerland crossing Lake Vatern. Those of you who are Swedish, you will know.

I did say Switzerland, but I meant to say Sweden. If you are Swedish, you may know where that lake is. And she and her father were on this boat, and as they were going along, the boat suddenly lurched because of a huge wave that came. And her dad fell overboard, a man whom she dearly loved, and she watched him drown. And there was nothing that they could do. He could not be rescued. There was no way they could get into the water. And there she was, a distraught young woman, with the realization that she would never see her father again.

She would never even recover his body again. As a result of that searingly difficult incident, she wrote a song that many of us like to sing, and we'll be singing it in just a few moments. It's entitled Day by Day and With Each Passing Moment. Strength, I find, to meet my trials here.

But I want you to notice some line. It's actually in the second stanza that we oftentimes overlook. It talks about the protection of his child and treasure was a charge which on himself he laid. The protection of his child and treasure? Where was God when the boat lurched and her father fell?

Lena understood something. Her father was not the victim of a random wave or a gust of wind. He died as a believer within the providential care of God. The protection of his child and treasure is a charge which on himself he laid, as thy days shall be in measure, is a charge which to me he has made.

This young woman had some good theology. So let me remind you that we die within God's providential government and his care. Our lives are in God's hands. Secondly, it is through our death that we glorify God. Remember the words that I quoted from John chapter 21 where Jesus said to Peter, this is the way in which you're going to die and this will be the way in which then you will glorify God. This spake he's signifying by what death he would bring glory to God. The death of a believer brings glory to God. It may come through martyrdom.

Probably for most of us it won't, but maybe for some. It may come through an accident. It may come through heart failure, through disease. It may come as a result of a hundred different ways. Death is so creative it comes in so many different packages. But when it comes, would you be reminded of the fact that the intention is to get you to God if you're a believer and as a result of getting you to God, it is the means by which God has chosen to glorify himself and once again to prove his promises and his mighty work that he has done in our lives. It is indeed the way to heaven, the way to heaven. Our death is intended to glorify God.

It's like sitting in a concert, you're enjoying the performance and there's a tap on the shoulder and somebody says you're wanted in the lobby. And you say to yourself, well, I want to stay until the end of the concert, but the tap on your shoulder is very pronounced and soon you discover that you are in the lobby, you're taken out of the concert, but you are taken home to heaven to be there forever. I want to end today's message by stressing the fact that if you want to get to heaven, you must know the Father just as Christ knew the Father. Jesus was able to die and say, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And in the very same way, we should be able to say the same words as we die, going directly from this life without a break in consciousness, directly from this life to the life to come with the assurance that we will be with God forever and ever. But you need to trust Christ. We have a friend in our neighborhood who has not always been very open to the gospel, a woman whose husband passed away a couple of years ago.

This past week we discovered that she has two tumors, three actually, and two spots on her lung and some problems with cancer that also may be in her kidney. When we learned it last week, I said to Rebecca and to my daughter Lynn, I said, you know, you really ought to go over there and help this lady to understand how she can prepare to meet God. That was really nice. I'm the pastor of Moody Church, but you know, Rebecca and Lynn, you know the gospel just as well as I do, so why don't you do it? Today for reasons I will not go into, I felt greatly convicted. I thought, well, you know, I am the pastor. I visited her and I said to her, if you were to die after some preliminaries you understand, that was not the first thing that I said. But after we had talked and we agreed about the fact that all of us were going to die sometime, whether it's of cancer or anything else, I said, if you were to die and God were to say to you, why should I let you into heaven?

What would you say? And she said, well, I guess I just have to say that I've always assumed that that's where I'm going. So I questioned a little further and discovered that she had really no basis upon which she could believe that God would accept her. And after explaining the good news, how that we get into heaven on the basis of Christ's merit, I invited her to pray to accept Christ as savior. And she did that.

She did that. I trust that the Holy Spirit of God will confirm that decision to her heart and that the Spirit of God will bring the assurance that indeed she exercised the faith onto salvation. There is such a thing, you know, as praying a prayer and not understanding what you're praying and not making that transfer of trust. And that's always why I'm afraid when people pray, not in a bad sense, but I worry a little bit and say, I trust that the Holy Spirit of God did the work because Jesus said on one occasion that he said, every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. But my dear friend today, I want you to know something that when we get to heaven, when we get to heaven, it shall be totally, completely on the basis of Christ's merit.

And that's why those who believe in Christ can say, even as he did, Father, into thy hands, I commit my spirit. Remember Shakespeare, to be or not to be, that is the question. Hamlet is questioning whether or not he should commit suicide.

But as I mentioned earlier in that sleep of death, what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil? You're not sure whether death is going to be better than life? Contrast that with the Apostle Paul. Paul says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And you'll recall, he says, to live in the flesh is more needful. He said, I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. He says, if it were up to me, I would die. But I'm here as long as God wants me to be, even though I'm itching for glory because I will be with Christ.

What a difference. Hamlet said, live or die, I lose. Paul says, live or die, I win. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And it is Jesus Christ who makes all the difference.

He makes all the difference. If you will, let us pray. Our Father, we do ask in the name of Christ that you shall help us to understand that when you take us on the other side of the parted curtain, you will be there. We pray today, Father, for those who grieve, grieving for those who have already gone on. We pray, Lord, that they shall be healed from their grief as they contemplate the glories and the wonders of heaven. We pray today, Father, for those who have never trusted Christ as Savior, who think that they'll go to heaven because that's where they always assume they're going to go. We pray that you will help them to understand that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Also, that unless we are born again of the Spirit, we will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, Father, do your work, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'd like to just have a personal word with you. You know, those of us who are authors, we have certain memories regarding books we have written. And I'll never forget after writing a chapter on the doctrine of hell in the book One Minute After You Die, I walked out of the house and the neighbor next door was mowing his lawn. And I went over there and began to talk to him about the gospel and his need to repent. I was so burdened when I began to understand the terrors of hell.

But also, of course, in writing this book, greatly encouraged by the glories of heaven. We're making this resource available for you. And I have to emphasize that today is the last day, your last opportunity. And here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com. Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the book One Minute After You Die, it discusses the descent into gloom, welcome you have arrived, the ascent into glory, living in the new Jerusalem, when Hades is thrown into hell, when the curtain opens for you.

All of these things are very, very important and I can assure you of this. You are an eternal being, a being that will live forever in glory or live forever in torment. For a gift of any amount we'd like to make available for you, a book One Minute After You Die, here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.

Perhaps I said that too quickly. You go to RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. It's a book that will encourage you about the future if you know Christ.

It's also a book that will warn you if you don't know Christ. RTWOffer.com. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago to help you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time on Running to Win, a series about a time not unlike our own. Join us for We've Been Down This Road Before, a study in the Book of Judges. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.