Here it says that he, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man.
Jesus Christ tasted death for us.
And that's why he said, "If a man keep my saying,
"he shall not see death."
You know, he died for us so that we don't have to die.
You know, keep your finger there
and flip back to John chapter eight,
just to get that verse I just quoted.
I believe it's in John eight.
Go back to John chapter eight.
The Bible says in John eight, verse 51,
"Verily, verily I say unto you,
"If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death."
Folks, if you are saved, you will never see death.
Think about that.
That's what he's, I mean, that's what Jesus is promising.
That's what it means to have eternal life.
I'm never gonna die.
I will never see death.
I will never experience death.
I'm never gonna know what that's like to be dead.
What's it like to die?
I don't know and I'll never know.
Because Jesus said, "If a man keep my saying,
"he shall never see death."
Verse 52, "Then said the Jews unto him,
"Now we know that thou hast a devil.
"Abraham's dead and the prophets and thou sayest,
"If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death."
And of course Jesus goes on to explain
that Abraham's not dead.
He says in verse 56, "Your father Abraham rejoiced
"to see my day and was glad."
So he's explaining here that Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob aren't dead.
God's not the God of the dead but of the living.
So the death of the physical body is not death.
That's why typically the Bible talks about Christians
as being asleep in Jesus.
They're asleep.
That's why we often talk about people passing away
and we use the term that they died
and it's accurate to say that they died
because of the fact that their body died.
But the physical death of the body,
if you go back to Hebrews chapter two,
the physical death of the body is not truly death at all.
It's really just a departure.
When Paul said for me to live as Christ and to die as gain,
he said I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ.
He said the time of my departure is at hand.
In second Timothy four when he was foreshadowing
his physical death, death is a departure.
Death is just when we will shed this physical body,
this shell will be left behind
and we will go to be with the Lord in heaven.
Our soul will go straight to heaven
and we will never experience death.
We will never be in a state of being called death.
If someone said Stephen Anderson is dead,
it wouldn't be true.
Now, the body is dead, but is that really me?
Is that, you know, this husk that's left behind?
No, truly, Stephen Anderson will still be alive
even after this body is dead.
I will still be alive.
That's what the Bible teaches, okay.
Now, Jesus tasted death for every man.
Now, some people will try to downplay this like,
well, that's just his spirit leaving his body.
Here's the problem with that.
The problem with that is this,
if my spirit leaving my body isn't truly death,
then if Jesus' spirit just left his body,
that wouldn't truly be death either, would it?
It would only be just a physical death,
but that's not even really death.
But here's what Jesus said.
Jesus said, "I'm he that liveth and was dead,
"and behold, I'm alive forevermore
"and have the keys of hell and of death."
You know, it says Jesus descended
into the lower parts of the earth.
It says that Jesus Christ was three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth,
and if you know anything about
the basics of how our earth is made up,
you know that it's a sphere
and that the heart of that
would not be six feet under on the surface.
That's not the heart.
The heart would be the center.
You know, think of an artichoke heart.
It's not one of those little leaves
that people dip in mayonnaise.
It's the part on the inside,
so when it talks about him being
in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights,
this is the same as Jesus descending
into the lower parts of the earth in Ephesians chapter four,
and this is the same as when he said,
"Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
"neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one
"to seek corruption."
See, hell is a place of death.
The people that are there are dead.
People that are in heaven are alive.
Now, when I say they're dead, don't misunderstand me.
I'm not saying that they're unconscious.
I'm not saying that they have ceased to exist.
Okay, they are considered dead, though.
Okay, they're conscious.
You know, think of it however you want,
but I'm just gonna believe the Bible.
See, and a lot of people,
it's like they try to debunk the Bible or something.
Just like they try to debunk Jesus dying for everybody.
It's like, why don't you just go with it?
Jesus died for everybody.
It's what it says, just believe it.
Well, here's what the Bible says.
The Bible says that someday the dead
are gonna come out of hell and stand before God.
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.
Well, how could dead people stand up?
Well, they just do.
I don't know how dead people can talk.
Well, I don't care what you understand.
People in hell are considered dead.
They're in conscious torment.
They're in conscious eternal torment
throughout eternity burning in hell.
But that's considered a place of death.
That's not considered life or being alive.
It's a state of death.
It's eternal damnation, and it's death.
So to have this-- and one of these lying, phony preachers--
you remember all these lying, phony preachers
that attached themselves to me like some kind of a fungus
or a parasite and just used me and then discarded me
when they were done?
And now they routinely lie and teach all kinds of weird garbage.
One of these bozos claimed recently that we believe
that Jesus ceased to exist for three days and three nights.
Really?
That's insane.
Of course, Jesus Christ did not cease to exist.
But all we're saying is that Jesus was actually dead
for three days and three nights.
And that Jesus actually tasted death for every man.
Now riddle me this.
If Jesus Christ was not dead for three days and three nights,
or if Jesus Christ only died physically,
you know, it was just a physical,
that's just his soul leaving his body,
he wasn't actually spiritually dead
for three days and three nights,
like actually in the place of the dead,
in hell for three days and three nights,
then riddle me this.
How can Jesus Christ taste of death for every man,
and then turn around and say that if we are saved,
we won't taste of death?
So just stop and think about this.
Sometimes you just get flabbergasted with this.
The Bible says that we're not gonna taste of death.
Does everybody understand that?
Does that mean we're not gonna die physically
when it says we're not gonna taste of death?
Or is it saying we're not gonna experience
the state of being dead, like being in the place of death,
being in hell, and being in a dead condition?
We're just gonna, because for us,
death is just, it's just a departure,
and you don't even taste it.
You don't even see it.
You don't even taste it.
It's just like, oh, I'm gone.
So what was it like to be dead?
I don't know.
It just, it was just a departure for me.
So we don't, does everybody see the difference there?
Okay, so if that's what it means,
when Jesus says, you'll not taste of death,
for you, death is just a departure.
Oh, death, where is thy sting?
Oh, grave, where is thy victory?
But then when Jesus tasted death, it's like,
oh, that's just a physical death.
Would that mean me and Jesus are doing the same stuff?
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
'Cause I'm gonna give up the ghost,
and my ghost is gonna be doing great.
If Jesus gave up the ghost, and his ghost was doing great,
then we both did the same thing,
and that means either he didn't taste death or I tasted it too.
But what does the Bible say?
It says he did it so I don't have to.
So whatever Jesus did, it's something I don't have to do.
And it's something bad that I don't have to do.
It's something I don't want to do.
It's something I don't want to taste.
It's something I don't want to see.
Thank God he did it for me.
See, the difference between that kind of logic
and their logic is that my logic is actually
looking at the text of scripture and saying,
this is what it says.
I believe it.
I believe both.
Makes sense.
That's the right kind of logic.
Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Comparing John 8 with Hebrews 2.
Not just philosophizing.
Well, what can a dead man do?
If I had a nickel for every Calvinist who said to me,
what can a dead man do?
But I can list a lot of things that a dead man can do.
A dead man can stand before God and be judged.
A dead man can burn in hell.
A dead man can talk to Abraham.
And you know, all of us, before we were saved,
were spiritually dead in our trespassing sins.
What can a dead man do?
I don't know.
Eat, sleep, marry, give in marriage.
I mean, you name it.
So we gotta go by what the Bible says, folks.
That was a little bit of a rabbit trail,
but I have no regrets about it.
Verse number 10, "For it became him for whom are all things,
and by whom are all things,
and bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through suffering."
So we find out that Jesus, again, by him are all things,
for him are all things,
and that he's the captain of our salvation.
Because remember the context here is,
is showing the greatness of Jesus,
how he's superior to other angels, prophets,
other beings besides God the Father, of course,
he is superior to these others that he's being compared to.