Let's also look at Acts chapter 2, because we're going to get the exact quotes from Psalm
16, our chapter.
It's in this passage.
Look at verse number 25, for David speaketh concerning him.
So who wrote Psalm 16?
David.
All right?
It says, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand that I
should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest
in hope because that will not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy holy
one to see corruption.
So he's like, hey, the hope that I have is I won't be left in hell.
He didn't want to go to hell.
The only hope that he had is that he wouldn't be left there.
He's not saying it's a party down here.
Oh, we're on the good side of hell.
You know, just having a good old time and, you know, eventually I'll get out or whatever.
No, it was suffering.
It was pain.
It was affliction.
You say, how do you know it was pain and affliction?
Because the only thing down in hell is fire.
Okay?
It's torment.
It's anguish.
It's suffering.
He cried from his affliction in Jonah chapter number two.
And, you know, every single sacrifice in the Old Testament was a burnt sacrifice, meaning
what?
That they literally burnt it.
It literally was consumed with fire.
But the difference between the Lord Jesus Christ, he wasn't destroyed in hell.
The Bible says he tasted it.
Go to Hebrews chapter two for a second.
Go to Hebrews chapter number two.
Look at verse number nine.
The Bible says this, but we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for
the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should
taste death for every man.
Now here's the thing.
What does it mean to taste something?
It means that it's a little in quantity, right?
If I just say, hey, I tasted a little bit of this, it's like I didn't really consume
all of it.
I didn't enjoy all of it.
I didn't get all of what was there.
But I did get a sampling of it, right?
If I said, hey, can I taste your food?
It's not like hand me the whole plate, you know, right?
It's just cut off a little by a little slice and then you give it to me.
So if Jesus Christ tasted death, let's think about this in two ways.
Somebody would say, well, that could be carnal or that could be spiritual, right?
Well, let's take the carnal picture.
Did Jesus Christ only kind of die on the cross?
He only like sampled dying physically.
Like only part, like he just lost part of his arm or something, right?
Just the part of his finger got cut off and that died.
Just the part of his whole of his hand, that died.
No, he fully died physically.
It wasn't a tasting.
It was a full experience of death, okay?
But you know what he only tasted?
Hell.
He only went to hell for three days and three nights.
Now how long has hell lasted?
Forever.
That was a lot more than he could have had there, right?
So he only tasted it.
He only sampled death.
What is death?
Death is a state of being.
Hell is the location.
If someone's dead, they're in hell because the Bible says us which alive and remain shall
be caught up with the Lord.
The Bible says whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, shall never die.
Why?
Because God's not the God of the dead.
He's the God of the living.
And so as soon as a Christian dies, they're asleep in Jesus and we understand a physical
death for their body.
But here's the thing.
You didn't die.
You just go to be in heaven.
The only way to be dead is to be in hell.
If you're not in hell, you're not dead.
Hey, you're either on this earth or you're in heaven, but you're not dead yet.
You're dead once you're in hell.
Now how do you know it's painful, Pastor Shelley?
Well look at what it says in the verse that I'm going to have you look at.
Acts chapter two, verse 22, you men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did buy him in
the midst of you as he yourselves also know him being delivered by the determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God you have taken and by wicked hands of crucified and slain whom
God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death.
So he's saying, hey, I stopped the pain of death for Jesus.
By doing what?
By him resurrecting.
Notice that the pain of death did not cease when he went to hell.
The pain of death ceased when he was resurrected.
And let me tell you what, you know what the pain of death is?
It's hell.
It's not the pains of death when you're still alive on this earth.
That was the crucifixion of being slain.
The pains of death is what hell is like, and he had that pain.
He tasted it, but you know when it stopped?
When Jesus Christ was resurrected by God the Father.
Case closed, okay?
The Bible's crystal clear.
Now I wanted you to go to another place here.
Go if you would to Revelation chapter one, Revelation chapter number one.
This is an important point to realize that Jesus Christ went to hell and he suffered
in hell.
He took affliction for us.
He took our place that we've earned and we deserve to go for our sins and he took that
punishment.
You know, we've earned a punishment and he took that punishment for us.
So he paid the debt.
He paid what we owed.
He paid what we deserve, what we've earned, okay?
Now it says in Revelation chapter one, verse number 18, it says this, I am he that liveth
and was dead.
And behold, I am alive forevermore.
I am in, and I have the keys of hell and of death.
Now here's the thing.
Let's say that Jesus Christ was in hell but not suffering.
Is he dead?
No.
Because look at Revelation 14, verse 10.
Is he not there with all those being tormented?
Aren't they in the presence of the lamb?
Are you going to say that he's dead then?
No, because he's not experiencing the suffering of hell.
If you're not experiencing the suffering of hell, then you're not dead.
But he says I was dead.
What does it mean to be dead?
To be in hell.
So the only way for that to be true is if he went to hell and he was suffering in hell
because he's going to be in hell and not suffering because the Bible says, can I dig down to
hell?
Behold, thou art there.
Is God dead there?
No.
But for some miracle, by some, you know, it happens since God was manifest in the flesh.
By some miracle, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh died.
And by some miracle, he went to hell for us and experienced the affliction and the pains
of hell.
But he wasn't, he didn't stay there.
He was loosed from that pain.
And God the Father raised him from the dead and he took the full sacrifice for us.
Ephesians chapter 4, look at verse 8.
When he saith he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.
Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts
of the earth?
He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill
all things.
Now let's think about this.
Before he ascended, he did something else.
He descended first.
Meaning what?
Before he could go to heaven, before he was alive, he was dead.
He descended into hell.
That had to happen first.
Now it's saying something.
It's saying that he led captivity captive.
Okay?
When?
When he ascended.
But what happened before that?
He descended.
Okay?
So when did he leave them captive?
When he ascended.
Do you know what that would prove?
When he descended, he was captive.
In order to lead something captive, you have to be captivated by it.
Hey, he led captivity captive.
Meaning what?
He was in captivity but then he took captive of that captivity by rising again from the
dead.
You know what you can't do?
You can't take your captor by captivity if you're not a captor.
Now there's a lot.
There's a tongue twister.
All right?
What does this mean?
It means that I cannot imprison someone that's put me in prison if I've never been in prison.
Okay?
Look, if I go to hell, I can't imprison hell back.
I can't take revenge back on them if I never went there.
That doesn't even make sense.
How can I do something that I've never even experienced?
No, he was captive of hell.
But you know when he led captivity captive?
Whenever he ascended.
Whenever he rose again proving that he was a captive in hell.
Proving that he was left in hell.
But you know what?
Jesus Christ was not left there forever.
Jesus Christ was risen again.