The coming of the sons of God to maturity means that the city, the tabernacle, and the wall have all been perfected in them (in the sons). The rule of God has been developed in them; the Father and the Son through the Spirit are dwelling in them; and they have the ability to distinguish good and evil and the strength through Christ to choose the good and reject the evil.

Release can come to the "sea" only through those who are the city, the tabernacle, and the wall.

We have mentioned previously that every human being abides in Zion or in Jerusalem or in the sea or in death or in Hell. It is of the utmost importance that every believer understand that physical death of itself does not change the state in which the Christian is living. One of the greatest confusions in current thinking is that worldly believers will become saints when they die because they have made the "correct" verbal profession concerning salvation. The state in which we are abiding in the world is the state in which we pass into the spirit realm. What we are, we are!

We can change from one state to another during our lifetime on the earth depending on how we respond to the knowledge of God that has been given to us.

Thus far we have discussed the inhabitants of Zion, of Jerusalem, and of the sea.

To abide in death is to have destroyed one's spiritual life by involvement in the things and pleasures of the present world, or by rejecting or ignoring the light that God has entrusted to us.

But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. (I Timothy 5:6)

Whoever lives in the flesh, indulging his bodily appetites, will slay his spiritual life. His thoughts, his time, his strength, his emotions, his motives, his desires, his speech, are wrapped up in the pleasures and things of the world. There is no light of God in such an individual whether or not he claims to be a Christian. He is dead spiritually.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

Those who have slain their spiritual life by their involvement in the things of the world are dead. They cannot see or feel God. They will not be any more dead when they die physically. Instead of passing into the place of rest where the members of the sea await the Day of Judgment, the dead will dwell in darkness—just as they do today. They will wander about aimlessly, their life on the earth having prepared them only for worldly pleasures and experiences.

The Christians who have spent their days in the pursuit of material riches will be distraught when they die. They will discover they have killed the part of their personality that would have made it possible for them to rest in the spirit realm until the Day of Judgment.

To be continued.