The Open Door Church

How are we doing for 2018?

# of New Believers

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# of Baptisms

What's Coming...

Worship Center Expansion

     During our Sunday Worship Service, the Worship Center is now consistently more than 80% full.  In order to accommodate the continued growth of the ODC, we will enlarge the Worship Center by adding a 40' expansion to the back of the building.  Construction will begin as soon as enough funds are available to pour the concrete.  We will then complete this debt-free project as the Lord provides the funds.  Please give generously toward this project!

Freedom House Directors' Apartment

     The Lord has provided approzimately 50% of the money and materials to construct a 40' x 40' addition to the M*Pact Kidz ministry building to be used as living quarters for the directors of Freedom House.  When this project is completed, the Freedom House staff will be able to house and minister to an additional 12 residents.  Construction will begin soon!

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2018-04-22

What Happens When a Baby Dies?

Listen Here

(Jeremiah 19:4b-5a, NIV)

“They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons

in the fire as offerings to Baal.”

I.  Introduction

     In keeping with our 2018 preaching theme, we spent the last two sermons answering two questions:  “What happens when a believer dies?” and “What happens when an unbeliever dies?”  In this lesson we will attempt to answer a third question:  “What happens when a baby dies?”  In order to do so, we will begin by examining a serious warning of judgment God issued to the inhabitants of the ancient city of Jerusalem.

     Jeremiah recorded God’s warning when he wrote, “Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle’” (Jeremiah 19:3, NIV).  I don’t know about how that sounds to you, but it sounds like a serious threat of judgment to me! 

     God then explained why He planned to bring judgment on the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  He said, “They have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent” (Jeremiah 19:4, NIV).  It was bad enough that the inhabitants of Jerusalem had made their city “a place of foreign gods,” but they had also offered their children as human sacrifices to those gods!  God said, “They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent” (Jeremiah 19:4b, NIV).

II.  A Third Category of People

     This verse brings us to a third category of people who die—“the innocent.”  They are not believers.  They are not unbelievers.  They are “innocent.”  The question we must answer is, “Who are ‘the innocent?’”  God answered this question when he said, “They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal” (Jeremiah 19:5a, NIV).  The Hebrew word translated “sons” in this verse literally refers to children from infancy to adolescence.

     This category of “innocent” people actually includes anyone who does not possess sufficient reasoning skills to understand “The Jesus Story”—so it includes not only babies and young children, but also mentally handicapped adults.  The Bible clearly indicates that a certain level of reasoning skill is required for cleansing from sin.  Isaiah wrote, “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool’” (Isaiah 1:18, NIV).

     Unless a person possesses sufficient reasoning skills that God’s “truth” is made “plain” to him, then God’s “wrath” is not directed toward him.  God’s “wrath” is directed only toward people who understand the “plain” truth and refuse to believe it.  Paul explained this fact when he wrote, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them…so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-19…20b, NIV).  Until a person develops sufficient reasoning skills that “The Jesus Story” is “plain” to him, he is not subject to God’s “wrath.”  If he is not subject to God’s “wrath,” he is “safe.”  He is not “saved,” but he is “safe.”  He is “safe,” because God views him as “innocent,” which means “not guilty!”

III.  What Happens to the Innocent When They Die?

     Since “the innocent” have not developed sufficient reasoning skills to be guilty of the sin of unbelief, they are not held responsible for that sin.  Therefore they are not “condemned.”  Jesus indicated that a person must be mentally capable of unbelief in order to be “condemned.”  He said, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son” (John 3:18, NIV).  If a person is not mentally capable of either believing or not believing, he is “innocent,” and is therefore “safe.”  He is “safe,” because He is not subject to God’s “wrath” and is not “condemned.”   He is not under God’s eternal “death penalty” and will go to heaven when he dies.

     Let’s examine a couple of passages of Scripture that indicate that “the innocent” go to heaven when they die.  The first one is in the Book of Job.  Obviously, Job was in deep despair, lamenting the face that he had been born, when he wrote, “After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth…Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?  For now I would be lying down [his body] in peace [his spirit]; I would be asleep [his body] and at rest [his spirit]” (Job 3:1…11-13, NIV).  Obviously, Job believed that the body of an infant who died remained in the grave “lying down” or “asleep,” but the spirit went to a place of “peace” and “rest.”

     King David also believed that when an infant died he went to heaven.  After King David had sinned against the Lord by committing adultery with Bathsheba and then arranging the death of her husband on the battle field in order to hide his sin, he was confronted by Nathan the prophet.  God’s judgment and David’s response were recorded when Samuel wrote, “The son born to you will die’… David pleaded with God for the child.  He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground…On the seventh day the child died…David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead…‘Is the child dead?’ he asked.  ‘Yes,’ they replied, ‘he is dead.’  Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped.  Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.  His servants asked him, ‘Why are you acting this way?  While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!’  He answered, ‘While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.  But now that he is dead, why should I fast?  Can I bring him back again?  I will go to him, but he will not return to me’" (II Samuel 12:14b…16…18a…19--23, NIV).

     When David said, “I will go to him” (II Samuel 12:23b, NIV), he was saying that he believed the child’s spirit was in heaven, because he believed he was going to heaven when he died.  At the end of Psalm 32 he wrote, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6, NIV).

III.  Conclusion

     What should we do with this information about the death of “the innocent?” We should use it to “encourage” grieving parents whose child has died.  After all, if they are believers, there will ultimately be an eternal reunion with their child.  David said about his deceased son, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me’” (II Samuel 12:23b, NIV).

     I will close this lesson by reading Matthew’s record of an incident from the life of our Lord, and then making a bold statement.  Matthew wrote, “Little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.  But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.  Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’  When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there” (Matthew 19:13-15, NIV).

     The Lord Jesus who said, “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14b, NIV), daily receives into His loving arms those “little children” who die before they are able to comprehend “The Jesus Story!”

Next Steps:

• Believe in Jesus to receive the gift of eternal life.  He said, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).

• Ask God to show you how to comfort grieving parents who have experienced the death of a baby.  Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14b, NIV).

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 Sunday service starts at 10am

1/2 mile south of Holcomb on Hwy 25.

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