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But Psalm chapter 30 in verse number 9, let's have a look at that, Psalm 30 in verse number 9. I could have taken this Psalm a few ways, there is something I do want to focus on though. But in verse number 9 it says, What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? I decided to call the sermon tonight, Shall the dust praise thee? Okay, so this is definitely about, you know, dying, going to the grave as it is here. And we know that when we perish, we will become dust. We came from dust, we were created from dust, and to dust we will be returned. So let's start there in verse number 1, Psalm 30 in verse number 1, which says, I will extol thee, O Lord. What does it mean to extol? What do you think? Well to extol is basically to lift up. So the psalmist, and this is King David of course, once again, one of his psalms again. He's saying to the Lord that he will extol or he will lift up the Lord. Okay, and you know as Christians that is our duty, that is our job, to lift up the Lord, to lift him high, to praise him, and to worship him, and tell him that he is a great and mighty and powerful God. But I love the next words, he says, I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my folds to rejoice over me. And so we learn a wonderful truth about the Lord. We are commanded, we are required to lift up the Lord, but we do it, for thou hast lifted me up. You know the Lord has lifted each one of us up. You know one thing about the Lord that, you know, it's quite interesting, another passage that is similar to this is in 1 John 4.19, which says, we love him because he first loved us. What a wonderful truth. You know, I know many of you can say to me, Pastor, I love the Lord, I love Jesus Christ, I love the fact that he gave his life for me, and I appreciate that, I know I'm not going to hell, I know my family's not going to hell, I know that one day I'm going to meet my loved ones in heaven once again, those that are saved, and I love the Lord, I love his blessings, I love that he has his eyes upon me. And you can say that about him though, because he first loved us. What a wonderful thing, that God loved us, and because he has loved us, we can love him in return. Well, something similarly has been said here in this psalm, is that we can lift up the Lord, because he has first lifted us up. And once again, you can apply this to salvation. You know, salvation to the point where, you know, we are on our way to hell, we are on our way to death, we have died spiritually, and if we had died physically, before being born again, we certainly would have not just died, but would have spent an eternity in hell. And so when we humble ourselves, when we realise that we cannot be saved by our own merits, by our own good works, we lower ourselves, the Lord is the one that will lift us up, he lifts us from the miry clay, he lifts us from the jaws of death, he gives us everlasting life, and he's lifted us up in salvation, and so we are also required then to lift him up, to extol the Lord. And of course the Lord has lifted us up in many ways, not just in salvation, not just lifting us from the future of hell or of death. No, he has also lifted us many times, when we have gone through hardships and problems, and the Lord has been able to see us through, he has lifted us up. And we're to remind ourselves, and this is another reminder from the Psalm, that every time we see the Lord help us through some trials, some difficulty, where he lifts us up, we need to remember to thank him, and we need to remember to lift him up, to extol the Lord. You know, we are creatures of worship. You know, the Lord wants us to spend time with him, to lift him, to love him, to appreciate him, and why wouldn't we, when he has done so much for us? When he has given his son for us. Look at verse number 2. O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. Alright, so, not only, sorry, one thing that I forgot to mention in verse number 1. It says, and it has not made my foes to rejoice over me. So we know that this Psalm, that David, or the Psalmist here, has some personal enemies. You know, one thing that I've always considered, you know, I've had personal enemies, and if you've gone to school, sometimes you may experience bullying, or just people that are just, you know, just kids, you know, teenagers. Sometimes, that's just how it is, alright? And sometimes they're not necessarily just wicked people, it's just something kids do. But you know, I think we've all experienced some point where people are trying to make us feel bad, or discouraged, and you know, every time someone has done something, something that I learnt, I never wanted to give satisfaction to my enemies. Like, if they did something to me, they made fun of me, mocked me, you know, tried to hurt me, I always tried to just brush it off. Even though internally, I'm really bothered, right? Even though internally I'm sad, and I feel like I'm tearing up, and I, because one thing, I did not want my enemies to be satisfied, that they're going to get that response out of me. I'm like, yeah, whatever, you know? To them, yeah, whatever, you know? And I move on, and then like afterwards, I'm sad, you know? I'm cut up, I'm hurt about it. But I never wanted to see them have victory over me, right? And I like it, because the psalmist is saying the same thing, that has not made my foes to rejoice over me. So the Lord has actually stepped in for the psalmist, and not given the enemies, his foes, any joy, any satisfaction, in seeing the damage, the hurt that they've caused the psalmist. So the Lord can step in in that regard, you know, not give our enemies satisfaction in seeing us hurt. But then he says in verse number two, Oh Lord, my God, I have cried unto thee, for thou has healed me. So you can see that this, so verse number one, it's a time when he has personal enemies. This is another time, it could be a similar time, but now he's speaking about some physical infirmities, right? He said, the Lord has healed me through some sicknesses, through some ailments. Now this could be, and we don't exactly know when this psalm was set, even though we do have an introduction to it. You know, it's kind of a little bit unclear exactly at what point this psalm was written. But it could be that King David may have had some battle wounds. We know that King David was a man of war. We know that many times he went out to battle against the enemies of Israel. And it could be that the healing here might be battle wounds, where he's gone out and faced those enemies of Israel, and he's come and the Lord has healed him. The Lord has given him full health. And so, you know, as we go through this psalm, this just gives you a reminder of things you ought to be praying for. If you have those personal enemies, you know, then you need to pray about that. If you do have some physical ailments, some sicknesses, and you need some healing, you ought to be praying about that, okay? Verse number three, O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. So you can see that David here is, I guess, at a knee-death experience, right? Whether it's his physical ailments or whether the enemies have done something to him. And when he mentions here the pit in verse number three, that I should not go down to the pit, I know when we looked at Psalm 28, the pit was mentioned there, and I had brought to your attention that that was a reference to hell. But when we look at the word pit here, you can see that it's been compared to the grave. Look at verse number three, Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, that I should not go down to the pit. And so you can see verse number three there comparing the pit to the grave here. It's a knee-death experience. He's speaking, and we're looking at some other passages here, but he's speaking about his physical body here, okay? Now, he's basically saying that the Lord has kept him alive. The Lord has kept him alive. And once again, when we look at this passage, I want you to consider, there's nothing wrong with applying salvation from hell in this area, if you want, because hell is sometimes referred to as the pit. There's nothing wrong with applying that, but I do believe the first application, the primary application in this psalm, is about the grave. So he's experiencing this knee-death experience, and the Lord has delivered him. You know, he did not die in the grave. Look at verse number four. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. So this is, you know, a good example once again for us, when we go to the Lord to pray, when he answers our prayers, when he lifts our soul from the grave, when he heals us, when he gives us victory over our enemies, or he does not give satisfaction to our enemies, we need to remember that we ought to be people, when we see God's answered prayers, that we sing unto the Lord, right? O ye saints of his. So saints is plural. You know, it's great to sing alone, but it's also wonderful to sing together as a church. And let me remind you that, you know, you need to get into the habit, brethren. I don't know what your worship, I don't know what your spiritual life of the Lord is like exactly. I know you're in church tonight, I know we're singing together as a congregation, but how often do you sing alone? How often do you just lift up the Lord alone? You know, and not just read the Bible alone, but how often do you pull out in maybe a psalm, or maybe pull out your hymn book, and just sing alone to the Lord? Just a one-on-one song that's coming from you. Brethren, you know, the Lord will love to hear that from you. You know, church is a great place to come and worship God, but you ought to be worshipping and singing praises to God every day. You should be spending time with the Lord every day. And yeah, sometimes we do it for the Bible reading, that's great, but we need to remember to be praying to the Lord every day, we need to remember to sing some songs unto the Lord every day. Please try to build that into your daily routine if you don't do that already. Look at verse number five. I love verse number five, because we're dealing with enemies, right? The psalmist has some enemies that he's dealing with. He's going to the Lord about those enemies. Now, what I like about the psalmist, and again, this is King David, and we know he had a lot of enemies, and we know he's a man after God's own heart. Okay, so he's a great man. King David was a great man, all right? But when he goes through trials, what I love about David, because this is not the first time he does it in his psalms. It's not the first time. Yes, he's going through turmoil, but he's never seeking to just blame the devil, or something like that, right? When we go through some turmoil and persecution and suffering, it's tempting to say, well, I'm suffering from the Lord. I'm suffering for the Lord, right? I've got these enemies. The devil's against me. I'm living a righteous and godly life, and there's a devil coming along to take me down. That happens sometimes, and it's a great thing to suffer for the Lord. But one thing that you need to also understand, if you are going through trials, if you are going through difficulties, it may very well be the chastisement of the Lord, okay? Sometimes you may have some personal enemies come up against you, and yeah, you run to the Lord for help, but it may very well be that the Lord has allowed those enemies to come to you. The Lord may very well allow some physical ailments to fall upon you as a chastisement from the Lord, and that requires a lot of humility, right? I mean, it's easy to say when you're going through difficulties, it's some other external aspect, right? It's those bad people out there, it's the devil, it's the wicked world, you know? That's easy to kind of blame, and many times it is those things. But it requires a lot of humility to say, well, actually, I'm the problem. And we can see the psalmist actually acknowledges in this psalm, he goes, I'm the problem. I was actually experiencing the chastisement of the Lord. And you see this in verse number five, because he says, For his anger, that's God's anger, endureth but a moment. In his favour is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. So what is he saying? He says, look, the Lord was angry at me, you know? His anger endured for a moment. Now, that's something you need to remember. You know, if we don't live a righteous and holy life, we're saved, nothing's going to stop that. We had a great sermon on Sunday about the eternal security of the believer, okay? Our position before God is always going to be seen through the veil of Jesus Christ and his righteousness. Nothing changes that. But in our personal walk with the Lord, we can get far from the Lord, okay? In our personal walk, we may become very prideful in ourselves, think more of ourselves, higher than we ought to, or not consider the Lord, not worship the Lord the way we ought to. And when we start finding ourselves getting a little bit distant from the Lord, you can expect, you should expect God's hand of chastisement fall upon you. I mean, that ought to be one thing that just causes you to just continually be with the Lord, okay? Is remind yourself, if I get far from the Lord, he'll become angry, and his chastisement's not going to be too far away, okay? But remember this, God's anger endured for a moment, okay? God's not going to stay angry with you forever. It says weeping may endure for a night, okay? So it says, look, during the night, during darkness, during times of difficulties, I may very well weep in this time of trials. But the thing about the night, the sun's going to rise. There's going to be morning, there's going to be a change in the environment, okay? And then it says, but joy cometh in the morning. So he knows that even if God is angry at him, there's come a period of time when he can rejoice at the chastisement of the Lord, that he can rejoice that God got angry at him, and has corrected him, and he can become a better person. Brethren, every trial and difficulty you go through, every single one that you go through, whatever it is, whatever it looks like, I want you to say, this is good for me. You know, whether it's coming from the hands of your enemies, whether it's some physical problem, some health issues, you know, whether you identify it as God's chastisement or not, you know, sometimes you don't know whether it is or not. You have to know that God has allowed this to happen in your life. And the best place to be when you're going through difficulties, even if you're sad and sorrow and weep in the night, you say, well, Lord, what can I learn from this? Lord, how are you perfecting me? How are you improving me? How can I be a better Christian through this experience? It's the best place to be, you know, to continue to grow. You know, we only have limited time on this earth. I'm turning 40. What is it they say? Is it the 11th? The 12th. My birthday's on the 17th, if anyone wants to buy me a gift. No, no, I'm just joking. I don't want any gifts. I'm going to be 40. All right? I mean, that's like potentially half my life gone. What was that, brother? Walking stick. Walking stick. Yeah, get me a walking stick. It's like a chastisement. I'm just kidding. You know? But look, you know, time is running short. You know, every day that we live is a day that we don't have on this earth, that's disappeared, that's gone. You know, we want to make sure that the days we live are profitable. We want to make sure that every day, every week, every month, every year that goes by, we're just a little better for the Lord. We're a bit more righteous. We're a bit more godly. We're a bit more like Jesus Christ. We're walking closer with the Lord. And sometimes God will allow these difficulties to come in our life just to teach us a lesson so we can become better people. You know, I look back in my life and I can see that the periods of time where I've grown in maturity, where I've grown in wisdom have had to come out of times of difficulties. If those difficulties were not there, I'd probably still be acting like a teenager or something, right? I mean, I'm sure you've seen adults, you know, like literally act like teenagers, dress like teenagers, talk like teenagers. They've not learnt a thing. They've not matured at all. They've not used the experiences of their life to learn something and develop and become something greater for the Lord. Before I read verse number 6, I'll just read to you Hebrews chapter 12 verse 11. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So the Lord is seeking to bring forth the fruit of righteousness in our lives when he puts his hand of chastisement upon us, when he chastens us, right? But, like it says in the psalm, no chastening of the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. You know, if you want to continue to grow, mature, gain wisdom, you're going to have to go through times of difficulties. You're going to have to experience it. You know, it's no use asking God, God, just keep me from any trials. Keep me from any problems. That's not how God works. God will allow these things in your life so you can become better. Okay, so you can become better. Please look at verse number 6, because you'll see in verse number 6 and verse number 7, the psalmist identifies where he was wrong and why he's receiving the chastisement of the Lord, why the Lord was angry at him. Verse number 6, he says, And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. So he says, look, I'm prosperous, he's a king, he's got great riches, he's got great power, he thinks of his prosperity, I shall not be moved. There's a little bit of pride that creeped into the life of David. Look at verse number 7, it says, Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled. So if you look at verse number 6 and 7 together, you see what happened. The Lord hid his face from David. The Lord hid his face from the psalmist. And the psalmist was troubled and I was troubled. The Lord hid his face from David. Why? Again, verse number 6, he got a little prideful. He looked at his prosperity, he looked at his victories, he looked at his kingdom and thought, yeah, I'm not going to be moved. This is on me, look what I've achieved, look what great king I am for Israel, look how godly I am potentially. A little bit like the Pharisee that compared himself to the publican, right? And then he remembers, he remembers in verse number 7, Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. He had to come to realise this was the lesson that the Lord had to teach him in. And this is not the only lesson, we've seen lessons like this to King Nebuchadnezzar on a serious scale. I mean the Lord many times has to humble those in power, those in authority and King David had to remind himself, the only reason I'm such a great king, the only reason I have a great kingdom, the only reason I have great victories is because the Lord has made my mountain to stand strong. Let that be a reminder to each of us, you know, as we go through life and we acquire more prosperity, we acquire more wealth, you know, it's going to cause your heart, I don't care who you are, it's going to happen, okay, to some extent, to some measure, you know, you're going to look at yourself and think, look what I've done, look what I've achieved, I was so smart, you know, I outsmarted everybody else, I put my funds into this investment and look at me now. You know, praise God if you prosper, praise God if you gain riches, praise God if you gain all those things, okay, when you stop praising God and you start praising yourself, the guarantee is that the Lord will hide his face from you, okay, and then you'll be troubled, you're going to face the chastisement of the Lord. The Lord will pull back his blessings, pull back his protection to some extent and then you might go for some difficulties, go for some trials. You know, in Proverbs 11 verse number 28, Proverbs 11, 28, it says, he that trusteth in his riches shall fall, he that trusteth in his riches shall fall. Guaranteed, okay, so again, we live in Australia, we're all very prosperous people, you know, again, we may not compare ourselves to our fellow Australians and feel prosperous, but when we compare ourselves to the rest of this world, we are very rich people, very prosperous people and it's very easy then and this is why our nation is not receptive, this is why the Sunshine Coast is not very receptive, this is why we're going for a period of drought, you know, in seeing souls saved here is because they're looking at their prosperity, right, and they're saying, I shall never be moved, okay, that's the feedback that's coming from our fellow man, so if your trust, if your confidence is on anything else beside God, he will hide his face from you and you will be troubled, you will go for a period of chastening of the Lord, okay. Verse number 8, now this is the purpose of going for chastening, why would God allow such a thing, verse number 8, he says, I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication. So why does the Lord hide his face, why does he chastise? To draw us back to him, to draw us back to needing the Lord, that's ultimately the reason you will go through some difficulties, the Lord wants you to be close to him, the Lord wants you to learn a lesson and to bring forth that fruit of righteousness into your life, okay. So it serves its purpose, please don't be afraid of the chastening of the Lord, or maybe fear it to some extent, right, because we don't want to go through more chastening than we need to, ideally we want to learn the lessons quicker than we need to, okay, but understand if you're going through some difficulty, some trial, it may vary well, the Psalmist was willing to admit, I'm the one that did wrong, this is why I was facing the enemies, this is why I was at a point close to death, this is why I had a physical ailment in my body and he was able to identify his own personal sin, his own personal pride against the Lord. And then we get to verse number 9, which is where we get the title for the sermon from. What prophet is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? Okay. So what prophet is there in my blood? Now, I'm going to explain what this is about soon, but the first thing I want to tackle is, the first time this verse was really brought to my attention, I believe it was by a JW, a Jehovah Witness. Why would a Jehovah Witness want to bring this verse to my attention, do you think? Does anyone know why that might be? Yes Matthew? Yeah, they don't believe in the resurrection, a physical resurrection of Jesus, but there's something else, yeah brother? Because they believe in soul sleep, okay. What is soul sleep? JW's, Seventh-day Adventists and the Christadelphians, they all believe that when we die, our soul remains in our dead body, asleep. The soul is asleep, okay. And it stays, it doesn't go to heaven, it doesn't go to hell, okay. And then at some point in time, when God's judgment comes, we will all stand before God, and then God will decide whether it's hell or heaven, okay. And so that's the idea of soul sleep. They don't believe that we go to be with the Lord. And when you look at verse number 9, it kind of sounds like that. What prophet is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? We know that was referring to the grave. Shall the dust, shall my dead body praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? So it says, look, you know, when we go, when we die, how can you believe, they say, that we go to a place like heaven where we can praise God, where we can worship Him? The Psalmist is indicating here that that cannot happen, there is no prophet in death, that when we die, we cannot praise Him. I mean, this is not really complicated, okay, because again, verse number 9 says, Shall the dust praise thee, dust? Number 1. What prophet is there in my blood? Blood and dust. Dust referring to your body, blood, okay. So I'll tell you exactly what the Psalmist is saying. That if I were to perish, if I were to die, and my body were to go to the grave, that I can no longer praise and worship God in this body and with this blood that I have, okay. That doesn't mean you can't praise God in your soul and spirit when you go to be with the Lord, okay. But, you know, what the Psalmist is saying is that this would be the end of our earthly life and in our physical bodies, we will no longer, there will be no prophet in us being able to worship God. It's impossible because the body is dead. This is not teaching a soul sleep, okay. But if you're in Psalms, so I do want to talk about this topic of soul sleep and address it. So if you can please keep your finger there in Psalms and go to Psalm 115. Psalm 115 please. 115 and verse number 17. Psalm 115 and look at verse number 17. I just want to show you some other passages that they use to teach on soul sleep. Psalm 115 verse 17. The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. Can you please go to Psalm 146 now. Psalm 146 and verse number 4. Psalm 146 and verse number 4. 146 verse 4 which reads, His breath goeth forth. That's when you no longer breathe. He returneth to his earth. In that very day his thoughts perish. See, when you perish, when you die, you cannot even think anymore. Your thoughts have perished. These are the verses that they like to use. And another one I want you to turn there is Ecclesiastes 9 10 which says, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest. So they say see, if you go to the grave, you cannot work, you cannot serve the Lord, you cannot worship the Lord. It's all over. Therefore the soul must be asleep in the body. Now again, these verses are so easy to explain. Once again, this is referencing that we cannot worship the God, we cannot sing praises. And of course we cannot work in these physical bodies because they're in the grave. There's no more profit in this physical body when it dies. That's all it's teaching. This material body, this material brain will no longer think anymore. It's off, it's switched off. It's not functioning anymore. It's going to degrade, it's going to corrupt, it's going to the grave. And so this is not teaching about the soul, it's not teaching about the spirit of man, but it's teaching about the physical body perishing. And of course once that body's in the grave, it's not going to serve the Lord as a dead body. At that state, at that point in time. But I want you to turn to Genesis 35 for me please. Genesis 35. And so how do we address this teaching that there is this soul sleep? That the soul does not go to be with the Lord. It does not go to heaven or hell until some future judgment to come. Well you turn to Genesis 35 and I'm going to read to you from James chapter 2 verse number 26. James chapter 2 and verse number 26 which says, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. So the Bible gives us a definition of what death is. The body without the spirit is dead. So when someone passes away, when someone dies, his spirit departs the body. Now I don't know exactly what the JW's and etcetera will say about that passage. But you might say, well yeah the spirit departs the body but not the soul. Because it's soul sleep what they believe. Well if you look at Genesis chapter 35 where you're at, verse number 18. Genesis 35 verse number 18. This is about Rachel, her first born son was Joseph. And this is the story of her giving birth to her second son in Genesis 35 verse 18 which reads, And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, for she died. That she called his name Benonai, but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephra which is Bethlehem. So what do we learn here? That when Rachel died, her soul was in departing. Her soul was departing. So we learn two great truths with James and Genesis together. When the body dies, the soul departs and the spirit departs. So there is no soul sleep. The soul is not in the body. If the soul was in the body, it would still be alive. The soul does not sleep. But there is an element of believers that when we do pass on, when we do perish, that we are asleep. We'll have a look at that soon. But you can see very clearly in the Bible here, when Rachel passed away, that her soul was in departing. Now there are other passages. I'll just read them out to you. Passages that you're all very familiar with. But you've got Philippians chapter 1 verse number 23. Paul says, For I am a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart. Depart where? Where are you departing? He says, a desire to depart and to be with Christ. Which is far better. So Paul says, man, I've got this desire to depart. I know brother Jason preached not long ago, right? Willing to stay. What was it again? Ready to go, willing to stay. I mean, listen, when we pass on, brethren, it's going to be far better. It's going to be awesome. We're going to be, what did he say? With Christ. But that means we have to depart. How can Paul say that it is so much better to pass on, to die, if your soul's just in the body doing nothing? I mean, if your soul's in the body doing nothing, it's actually better to live. At least you can actually be productive alive. The fact that he calls it far better means that his soul has departed and that it is being with the Lord. It is together with Christ. We also have 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse number 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse number 8, which says, We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So what's it say here? We should be willing to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So again, when we pass on, what happens? The Bible teaches us that our spirit and soul departs that body, but then we're going to be present with the Lord. We also have John chapter 8 verse number 56. This is when Christ was debating or arguing with some Jews that would not believe upon him. And he says in John 8 56, Your father Abraham is asleep in the grave. No, he says, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. So what's he saying? When Christ came to this earth, Abraham saw it? Does that sound like sleeping? When you're sleeping, are you seeing things? I guess if you're dreaming, right? But you're not seeing anything with your eyes. Abraham was able to look upon Christ coming onto this earth. Not only was he not asleep, he was rejoicing. There's a party going on in heaven, yes! Jesus Christ has come to this earth. The saints rejoicing. So there's no sleeping. It sounds like they're having a party. The complete opposite, right? To sleep in. And of course there's another passage in Hebrews chapter 12 verse number 1. We know that Hebrews chapter 11 is the hall of faith. Some great men and women brought up and the Lord looks upon their faith and talks about how they would accomplish great things because of their faith. But then in Hebrews chapter 12 in verse number 1 it says, We're foreseen, we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. So all the believers that have gone before us brethren, guess what? They are witnesses of our life. Again, are they asleep? How can you witness if you're asleep? I mean this soul sleep thing is just stupid. I don't even know really why they believe this. What profit is there to believe such nonsense? But of course those that are not saved will believe any kind of false doctrine. When the Bible is so clear about such things, I'll just finish that passage. We're foreseen, we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. So as we run in our spiritual race, we have the witnesses of those that have gone before us cheering us on. They're in the stadium as you will. In the spiritual stadium cheering us on, hoping that we will just live lives that are righteous and pleasing for the Lord, that we will run that race with patience. So brethren, especially those that are saved and that have passed on in the physical body, they're not asleep. They're very much alive. They're very much rejoicing. They're very much praising the Lord. They're very much hopeful and desirous to see us live a life and to run the race that is set before us. But let me just show you some other passages that they use, or even independent Baptists may use. I want you to turn to John chapter 3 please. Go to John chapter 3. So again the JW's etcetera, they will use these passages to say that there is a soul sleep. But we also have our independent Baptists that will also use this verse to say that the Old Testament saints never went to heaven. So we can kind of kill two birds with one stone here. John chapter 3 verse number 13. John chapter 3 and verse number 13. These are the words of Jesus. He says, And no man hath ascended up to heaven. Oh, wow. There it is. But he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Alright, so setting aside what Christ is saying about himself, I want you to notice once again, no man hath ascended up to heaven. And so independent Baptists, my brethren, many of them, will say, see the Old Testament saints did not go to heaven when they passed on. Because when Christ is saying these words, that time period is still under the Old Testament, right? The New Testament did not begin until Christ died for us. And so let's say, see, no man has ascended up to heaven. And I can see, when you look at that passage, it seems to strongly suggest that nobody went to heaven. You know, the independent Baptists mostly believe, not all of them, but mostly believe that when, they don't believe in soul sleep, but they believe that when the Old Testament saints died, they actually went to a good side of hell, like a paradise of hell. Right, like this golf club thing, like it's just this fantastic resort, right? Like there are people, there are billions of people burning on fire, but, you know, they've got this great resort, this great hole they have, you know. And, you know, usually when you're staying in hotels around here, they like to have hotels so you can see the seaside, you can see the beaches, you can have a great view. Well, these saints, they had the view of hell. Like, they're just seeing all these people just burn, you know, being tormented day and night. Now, how do we answer this? Well, the answer is actually in Acts chapter 2. Let's go to Acts chapter 2, please. Acts chapter 2 and verse number 29. Acts chapter 2 and verse number 29. Why am I deviating so much from the psalm? Like I told you, because these are the passages that JWs, et cetera, use. So, hopefully, if you ever come across one of these people, you can, you know, explain to them, or, you know, at least you won't be deceived, or you won't be, you know, tossed to and fro, at least you'll know what the Bible teaches. But in Acts chapter 2, please, and verse number 29, let's look at this. Acts chapter 2 and verse number 29. It says, Well, that's one of David's psalms that we're reading about, so it's about King David. So, where is David? He's still dead and buried. His body was still in the ground. All right? Drop down to verse number 34 now. Verse number 34. It says, Oh, well, that's consistent with what Christ said, that no man has ascended up to heaven. Isn't that, that's consistent, right? Yeah. So, what is this teaching? Does that mean nobody went to heaven? Well, again, our independent Baptists would claim that no Old Testament saints went to heaven, and they would use that passage that I read to you from John chapter 3. But then, in Acts chapter 2, at this point, they want people to go to heaven. Like, because they know that this is after Christ came, after Christ sacrificed himself, he was resurrected from the dead. In fact, they believe that Christ went to that paradise in hell, okay, and took all the believers with him and went to heaven. But then they would have a problem with Acts chapter 2, because even David still has not ascended up to heaven. So, when Christ and when King David here, or, you know, the disciples here referring to King David, what ascension are they talking about? What could they be referring to? I mean, it's very consistent. And I don't believe you should break that consistency. It's 100% correct, okay? Well, like anything, what we just read was Acts 2.29. We also read Acts 2.34. Well, don't you think the answer will be somewhere in the middle there? Okay, so let's read it all. Let's read it all in context, okay? Acts chapter 2 and verse number 29, Acts 2.29, which reads, Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God hath sworn an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, and notice the next words, according to the flesh, that's important, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. Now, when Christ was risen, was it a fleshly resurrection, or was it just some invisible spiritual resurrection? No, it was a resurrection of the flesh, wasn't it? This psalm that we're about to look at is about the flesh. It's about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look at verse number 31. He's seen this before, this is David, Spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. So again, the flesh is being referenced here, the resurrection is being referenced here. Look at verse number 32. This Jesus hath God raised up, isn't the context so simple here? A physical, fleshly resurrection, Christ raised from the dead, this Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. So they saw this, they saw the physical resurrection, they saw Christ resurrected from the dead. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear, for David is not ascended into the heavens. So who was it that ascended up to heaven in these passages? Jesus. How was he ascended up into heaven? In the new resurrected body. But David has not ascended into heaven with that resurrected body. So when we read these passages about no man ascending up to heaven, it doesn't mean that the soul and spirit is not in heaven with the Lord, it means that they have not physically resurrected and their physical body is not in heaven. Verse number 34 again. For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand. So what this is teaching us is currently in 2021, there is only one who has resurrected from the dead and has physically entered into heaven in that new resurrected body, and that is Jesus Christ. So when you pass on, brethren, when I pass on and our body's in the grave, our soul and spirit is with the Lord. It's not asleep in the body, but there's a promise, there's a future to come where our physical body will be ascended to the heavens. I'll quickly read to you, actually can you please turn to 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4 for me please. 1 Thessalonians 4. We're going to turn to the rapture passage, but I want to just quickly read to you in 1 Corinthians 15. Now 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 are the most famous passages on the resurrection, on the rapture. Now when I read to you 1 Corinthians 15 verse 20, it says, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. So there's the sleeping part. So the Bible does teach about people when they die that they do go to sleep. But again, is it the soul that's asleep? What is asleep for the believer? It says in verse number 21, for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. We know that resurrection is a fleshly resurrection. It's a bodily resurrection. So when we talk about that which is asleep, it's the body that's asleep. It's not the soul that's asleep in the body. The body is asleep. Okay? For believers. For believers. Okay? It's asleep. And then it says, verse number 22, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. What's that? The body being made alive. Verse number 23, but every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruit, so Christ has ascended physically bodily into heaven, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. So when Christ comes back and the rapture takes place, that's when every believer, everyone, everybody that has passed on that is asleep, bodily asleep, they're going to receive the new resurrected body and it will ascend to heaven. It will ascend to heaven. Okay? So brethren, the body is asleep, not the soul. You're in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse number 13. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse number 13. The rapture passage which reads, but I would not have you ignorant brethren, concerning them which are asleep. Oh, there are people that are asleep. That you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again. Again, the physical bodily resurrection. Even so them which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. So once again, what are we learning here? That which is asleep is the physical body and just like Jesus Christ died and rose again, so too will the believers, all believers that have passed on, they too will rise again physically. Now this passage also confirms for us that their soul and their spirit is with the Lord God. Because it says, even so them which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. So where are these souls, where are these spirits that are reunited with their bodies when they're raised from the dead? They are with him. They are with God. God will bring them with him. So these souls that pass on, guess where they go? They go be with the Lord. And when the Lord says, alright guys it's time for the resurrection. It's time for your bodies to wake up from their sleep. God's going to bring them with him. Reunited with a new body, a better body, a resurrected body, and then all believers will ascend to God in heaven. Okay. Verse number 15. For 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. So brethren, I hope that answers some of those maybe questions that you may have had. What does Jesus mean that no man has ascended up to heaven? And again our independent Baptist brethren, many of them because they're dispensationalists, conclude, well see that's because they went to paradise. But then they'll have a contradiction in Acts chapter 2 which says David has still not ascended up to heaven. Okay. And you can say well no, these passages are talking about a physical resurrection. Nobody except Jesus Christ has physically bodily gone to heaven, you know, in that new resurrected body. Now let's go back to Psalm please. Psalm 30 and verse number 10. Psalm 30 and verse number 10. Psalm 30 and verse number 10 which reads, Hear O Lord and have mercy upon me, Lord be thou my helper. And brethren when you are helped in a time of difficulty, please remind yourself it's the Lord that has helped you through that. Now the Lord may use other people. I'm sure there's been times when you've gone through difficulty and someone has come in and helped you and supported you. But even though it's somebody else, the help came from the Lord. The Lord is the one that sent that person there to help you in that difficulty. Okay. Verse number 11. Thou hast turned for me my morning into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. I wish I knew how they danced back then. Because then I kind of want to dance like they danced. Alright. But a lot of the dancing you see these days, you know, it's sensual and worldly and evil. Alright. So, anyway, I guess there's nothing wrong with rejoicing, lifting up your hands, jumping up and down when the Lord has delivered you through some difficulty. Verse number 12. Verse number 12, I really want you to think about this. It says, To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee. So what's the end result? We know David's gone through difficulties. He realises, man, I messed up. God's chastised me. What's the end result? That my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent, O Lord my God. I will give thanks unto thee forever. Notice that. Forever. That means even when he passes on in the physical body, he's still going to be praising God. Because soul and spirit are going to be with the Lord God in heaven, praising him forever. Okay. And he realises this, that one day, yeah, one day this body will become silent. One day this body will sleep. Okay. And again, it's for the believers. And the idea of being asleep is the thought that, well, one day it's going to wake up. One day God's going to come back, take those bodies, make it a new resurrected body, make it powerful, incorruptible, a body that cannot sin, and will continue to praise God for all eternity. Alright, I want you to turn to the book of Ecclesiastes, just in conclusion. Please turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. So the title for the sermon was Shall the Dust Praise Thee? What about your dust, brethren? You know your bodies are dust. They're going to perish. We're not going to live forever. I know that sounds a bit sad and gloomy to say, but it's a reality. And actually, when you think about that, it really makes you want to enjoy every day that God has given you. And so I realise that when my body turns to dust, when it returns back to dust, that I'm not going to be able to serve God anymore in this physical body, you know, until I get that new resurrected body. You know, I won't be able to accomplish more for the Lord on this earth when this body passes on. So I want you to think about your dust right now, the frame, the body that you currently have. What do you want to use it for? Do you want to use it to glorify the Lord, to sing praises to the Lord, or just to gratify the flesh? You know, what's your desire, brethren? Well, you know, I'll quickly read to you in Genesis 3.19. You're in Ecclesiastes 3, but Genesis 3.19, when God curses Adam, he says to Adam, Till thou return unto the ground, for out of it what's thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. We are all going to return to the dust. You know, if the Lord does not come back in our lifetime, we are all headed to the grave. All of us. Okay? Now you're in Ecclesiastes 3. Look at verse number 20. Ecclesiastes 3, verse number 20. It says, All go unto one place, all are of the dust, and to all turn to dust again. So we see here, this is referring to all people. Believers, unbelievers, you know, great people, extremely wicked people, reprobates, whatever. Every single person will return back to the dust. Please go to chapter 12 now. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, and verse number 7. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, and verse number 7. This is another great passage that teaches against soul sleep. Ecclesiastes 12.7, it says, Then shall the dust return to the earth, as it was. So we know that already. Then it says, And the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Interesting. So when his body goes to dust, the Spirit goes to be with the Lord. Okay? Who gave it? The Lord gave that Spirit. Now drop down to verse number 13. Let's end on this one, and this is of course the conclusion of the book of Ecclesiastes. I'm looking forward one day to preach Ecclesiastes, but verse number 13 says, Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Reverend, what are you going to do with this frail dust, these frail bodies that you have? Well, we know very clearly what our duty is. What does God require from us? Yes, to be saved. We've got that locked in. Praise God for him. What now? What do we do with our lives? Well, we're commanded here to fear God, keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man. Reverend, I want your dust to continually praise God. I want your body to continually praise God. Reverend, there's no satisfaction in this world. You know, this world just throws entertainment at us, whether it's sports, whether it's TV, whether it's movies, whether it's your Netflix subscriptions or your Disney Plus subscription or your Stan subscription. Come on, guys. What else is there? Who's got subscriptions? Whether it's your YouTube subscription, whether it's your big YouTube subscription. Listen, the world, the devil is trying to keep us distracted from fearing God and keeping his commandments. The devil would want nothing more for us to do anything else with our bodies than to serve God and to praise him and to worship him. You know, your duty, your duty, your duty is to worship God, to fear God, keep his commandments, live for the Lord, live for the Lord. Because I don't want you to be chastised unnecessarily. You know, I don't want you to be far from the Lord and the Lord hides his face from you and then he's got to bring that heavy hand of correction upon you. You know, I like the idea of God chastising me because he helps me grow, helps me learn, but I don't want to experience it if it's unnecessary, if it's things that I should already know, you know, things that I'm just, I'm making the same mistakes again. I'm just not living for the Lord anymore. You know, I'm thankful that I can be a pastor because it kind of forces me, right? I know this church, I've got to preach and then I've got to come up here and I've got to serve the Lord and again, when I preach, I've got to keep myself, my heart clean and pure and walk in the Lord. You know, one of the great things about being a pastor is just because you're kind of forced to, you know, stay close to the Lord. You know, you're forced to continue drawing from his strength. But that shouldn't be just for the pastor. You know, even if you may never serve the Lord in full-time ministry in any way, your life is full-time ministry. You have a full-time life, okay? Whatever that capacity is, whether it's in your homes or in your workplace, your hobbies, your activities that you do. Brethren, I just want to remind you just lastly, once again, the conclusion, just serve the Lord. Put him first. Prioritise the Lord. You know, walk with the Lord. You know, please don't become prideful. Don't turn away from the Lord or once again, you will face chastisement that you otherwise would not have. So once again, brethren, shall the dust praise thee? Well, we have only limited time. You know, I hope you use the time. I hope you consider to number your days. You know, in Sydney, we've recently had a funeral. You know, and in such a short time, a short life, you know, 24 hours this little baby lived. You know, we don't know how long we have. We don't know if we have tomorrow. We don't know if we're going to wake up. You know, the Lord may very well allow our bodies to fall asleep and one day experience that great resurrection. All right, let's pray.