Any One Not Prepared to Die is a Fool

The Folly of Unpreparedness for Death: An Introduction to Luke 12:13-21

0:01 Will you follow in your Bible, please, as I read from Luke's Gospel, chapter 12, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 12, verses 13 through 21. Luke's Gospel, chapter 12, verses 13 through 21. And one out of the multitude said unto him, Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me. But he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

0:42 And he said unto them, Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he reasoned within himself, saying, What shall I do? Because I have not where to bestow my fruits.

1:10 And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods, laid up for many years. Take thine ease. Have an early retirement.

1:32 Eat, drink, be merry.

1:36 And God saith to him, Thou fool. This night is thou soul required of thee, and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And then our Lord goes on immediately to warn his disciples that against the curse of materialism and lay upon them, necessity of confidence that as they seek first the kingdom of god all necessary material things will be added unto them now it should be obvious to everyone who listened as i read and who noted something of the general drift of thought that the main purpose of this portion of the word of god is to issue a warning against materialism against covetousness verse 14 take heed and keep yourselves from covetousness then the parable is given to enforce that exhortation and then the conclusion of the paragraph verse 21 so is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich

2:52 toward god so the main teaching of the passage is that of an exhortation against covetousness however in the midst of this teaching our lord gives us that which will be the focus of our conversation this morning a statement which indicates as a secondary teaching of the passage a principle embodied in the passage and it is this any man any woman any boy any girl regardless of his external circumstances any such person who is not prepared to die is a fool any man any woman any boy any girl regardless of his external circumstances any such person who is not prepared to die is a fool verse 20 but god said unto him thou fool and why was he a fool not because he was a poor businessman not because he acted the clown in social company he was a fool for one reason and one reason alone he was not prepared to die

Three Indisputable Realities of Death

4:12 and taking the principle from this text i want to speak very personally and pointedly to every man every woman every boy every girl in this place today by pressing this question upon your conscience are you scripturally prepared to die you say pastor martin a beautiful summer day some of us here on vacation many of us enjoying god's handiwork our minds filled with the beauty of the creation and the release of vacation and here you want us to think about death yes that's precisely what i want you to do are you prepared to die if not god says you're a fool and as we introduce the subject i want to underscore three things by way of introduction you with this man know the absolute certainty of death the man in this parable could not avoid the reality and the ultimate certainty of his own death not only does the scripture say hebrews 9 27 it is appointed unto men once to die

5:33 this is a truth that is lying right on the surface for all to observe no doubt this man had seen his grandfather die perhaps at this stage in his life he had seen his own father die there was stamped on every observed the absolute certainty of death if god nowhere in his words said that death was a certainty for all the sons and daughters of adam all you need to do is open your eyes and you would know that truth with the same degree of certainty with which a man knows it by reading the word of god and there's not a man woman boy or girl here who will not confess that this is a truth that is absolutely indisputable the certainty of death for all of us you are going to die in fact it always strikes me when i make a birth announcement that the only thing we can say for sure about little matthew james we don't know a thing about what life will hold for him but we can say on the day we announce his birth one thing for certain barring his being present when christ comes again little matthew will die every mother

6:57 holds in her arms not only a bundle of life, she holds in her arms a bundle that is marked for death. You and I will die. I don't, I didn't ask you if you like to think about it. It's obvious this man didn't like to think about it. All he thought about was life with an ever-growing capital L. Life, eat, drink, be merry, thou fool. The absolute certainty of death. Secondly, every one of us like him was aware of the possible suddenness of death. Sometimes death sends messengers in the form of prolonged serious illnesses, which

7:44 at least are a messenger saying in the ears of someone who must ultimately die, your time is drawing near. But often death sends no herald before it. This is why James says, in James 4, 13 and following, boast not thyself. Say not today and tomorrow we will go into such a city and do this and do that, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. This man with us was aware not only of the absolute certainty of death, but of the possible suddenness of death. But he was a fool because he lived as though he didn't know this. If we could have sat this man down the day before his soul was dead, we would have been able to beные pueden ohne undujinテ, but if we could set the soul at going scrap in the ashes of his death. Click here to subscribe to our channel.

8:49 Some say that he believes his future shouldn't come to nothing, even if he опытably did. Can you imagine those people on your internet? I just went for my yearly checkup and the doctors said my ticker is like that of a teenager, my whole history of longevity . . . all my parents lived to be into their eighties. . . . bi8. . . . . I mean, it's just, oh yeah. It's up to our love to be born andфU �.Fu some chance, but no way, man, I'm going to be here for quite a while to come. Though he would rationally and intellectually acknowledge the possible suddenness of death, he was a fool because he didn't live in the light of that possibility. And thirdly, this man with us was not only aware of the absolute certainty of death, the possible suddenness of death, but the inevitable sequel to death. And what is that sequel to death?

9:35 It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this cometh judgment.

9:41 God has stamped upon the heart of every one of his creatures the knowledge that after death comes judgment.

9:50 Though this truth is set forth in bold relief in the revealed will of God in Scripture, Romans chapter 1 makes plain that stamped upon the heart and conscience of every man, even though he's never seen nor heard any of the peculiar truths of Scripture, is the knowledge that the sequel to death is judgment. For we read in Romans 1.32, Who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practice them? What is the accusation of conscience in the unconverted man but a preview of the coming judgment, in which he knows he shall stand before God, and the deeds of this life shall meet him in the presence of that God? Now, in the light...

The Gravity of Unpreparedness: Death, Judgment, and Eternity

10:41 In the light of these three things, the absolute certainty of death, the possible suddenness of death, the inevitable sequel to death, my friend, are you wise or are you a fool?

10:57 Well, you say, why be so concerned? Well, for the simple reason that as death leaves you, the judgment will find you, and as the judgment finds you, eternity will hold you.

11:12 Have you got that?

11:14 As death leaves you, the judgment will find you, and as the judgment finds you, eternity, penity, the unending ages of the timeless future, eternity will hold you. Now, do you see why the Lord says, whoever is not prepared for death, is a fool? For not being prepared for death, he's not prepared for judgment, and not prepared for judgment, he's not prepared for death, he's not prepared for death, he's not prepared for death, he's not prepared for eternity. Therefore, it is well for us from time to time to meditate upon this great question, which has respect to the ultimate experience of all of us, the experience of death. Now, how are we going to answer the question? The question is, am I scripturally prepared to die? Am I truly prepared to die?

Ill-Founded Confidence: Unscriptural Views of Man

12:17 Well, you see, there are many who feel they are ready to die, but they have no well-grounded knowledge of being ready to die. It's like the person who says, oh, yeah, sure, I'm sucking in my three packs a day, and I know that in some people that causes cancer, but I just feel it won't be so with me. Well, you see, there's absolutely no foundation, it's just wishful thinking. Now, there are people who are confident that they shall die well.

12:48 Some perhaps sitting here this morning, when I asked the question, are you prepared to die? You say in your heart, yes, I am. I don't have any real fear of death. But the problem is, it is an ill-founded confidence.

13:01 What I propose to do this morning is to take apart the ill-founded confidence in the face of death, and then to describe a well-grounded confidence in the face of death. First of all, that ill-founded and deceptive confidence. People who sit here this morning and say, yes, I am ready to die. But that readiness is not founded in truth.

13:26 It is ill-founded and deceptive. And it's rooted probably in at least one, or maybe two, or three, or all four of these things. Number one, you have a confidence in the face of death because you have an unscriptural view of the nature of man. I had the unhappy experience of living with someone who believed that man was like the beasts.

13:57 When man dies, it's just as though a dog dies. That's the end of it. Therefore, this individual could face death with no apparent dread whatsoever. Why?

14:12 Because there was an unscriptural view of the nature of man. The Word of God says in Matthew 10, 28, Fear not them which kill the body, and after this have no more, that they can do but fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. And one of the great curses of the evolutionary view of life that has absolutely captured not just the scientific world, but the whole intellectual climate of our nation for the past 100 years is that men have been told so long that you're nothing but an animal, you are basically an animal, highly developed but an animal still, is that that consciousness that I have and am a never-dying soul is well nigh been gone from the general consciousness of our society. There was a time when men would joke about hell and the world to come, at least hell and the world to come were in their thinking and in their language. And their joking was almost an effort to try to chuck themselves under the chin and be brave against the fears of their own conscience. But you find that well nigh gone.

15:37 Am I speaking to someone who says, Sure, I'm ready to die because when I die, that's it. When the dirt is kicked over me, that's the end of me. No, it isn't, my friend. You have a never-dying soul.

15:50 And Jesus said, Fear the God who can cast that soul into hell. Think what will happen to every person who goes to judgment, thinking that the grave and his funeral service was the end of him, when he stands before the living God and conscience that he seared and the word of God that he heard and the entreaties of others that came into his ears will all rise up and leave him without excuse. There may be some who have confidence in the face of death not so much because of an unscriptural view of the nature of man but because of an unscriptural view of the nature of God. You may say, Yes, I have an immortal soul. A fool, a fool would deny that. Man is above and beyond the beast. But you see, excuse me, God is love.

Ill-Founded Confidence: Unscriptural Views of God

16:44 And if I'm his creature, his love will conquer all on behalf of his creatures. And may I speak very pointedly to some of the current fadism in the area of life after death. Moody's book, Kubler-Ross's book, some of you have read the condensation of this in Reader's Digest, the common denominator in all these so-called death experiences that are making people very confident about death. In these case histories it is said that not one of these people now who supposedly passed through death and came back to life again, not one of them has any dread of death anymore.

17:27 But it's interesting. They speak of seeing this bright light that draws near to them and though it acknowledges some of their faults, there is never any condemnation. And they're sent back to learn and be better. No dread anymore.

17:43 What a master stroke of deception from the wicked one to confuse people as to the nature of God. Maybe you have no dread of death and feel you're ready to die because you say since God is love, His love will conquer anything that would be a barrier to my entering an eternal life of bliss. My friend, listen. The Word of God says God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

18:10 1 John 1.6 Hebrews 12.31 says our God is a consuming fire. My Bible says God is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity and will by no means clear the guilty.

18:26 And when people say they see a being of light and in His presence they feel nothing but comfort and warmth, if anything apart from that it's just a gentle indulgent rebuke. That is not God. It is a lying spirit from hell. The Scripture says who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?

18:49 And that's not a description of hell. The prophet Isaiah is talking about God. And he says who among us who are sinners can dwell with everlasting burnings? Who have confidence in the face of death because of an unscriptural view of God that His love will conquer all and He is naught but love?

19:12 My friend, if that's true, why did He create a hell for the devil and his angels? Why did He put out Lucifer? Why has He put fallen angels in chains awaiting the day of judgment, the book of Jude? Why did He permit what we read about Mark 15?

19:33 Why did He decree to send His Son and submit Him to the foul treatment of men? And then as we shall read, God willing, next Lord's Day, if He spares us to come together again, why does He shroud the heavens in blackness? Why does He cause His own Son to cry, my God, my God, how forsaken me? My friend, there's no answer to those questions if God is nothing but love, pure, conquering, love, and nothing more.

Ill-Founded Confidence: Unscriptural Views of Sin

20:07 Or perhaps I am speaking to some who say, yes, I'm not afraid to die. I believe I'm prepared to die. Not because you have an unscriptural view of the nature of man or an unscriptural view of the nature of God, but you have an unscriptural view of the nature of sin. You may say God is light, yes, but I'm not so bad as to deserve something less than heaven.

20:32 You're like the Pharisee in Luke 18. I am not as other men. I do this and I do that. Oh, my friend, listen, listen.

20:42 You need to understand that God deals with men on the basis of strict, inflexible, perfect law. The only basis upon which anyone could be admitted into His presence would be on the basis of absolute conformity to His law in thought, word, deed, and motive for every moment of every day of every day of every day of every day of every week of every year of His life. If you have some idea that sin is just the bad things that certain people do that land them in prison, you have a defective view of sin. Do you know what sin is?

21:23 Any lack of conformity to or transgression of the law of God. Every day in which you've not loved Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, you've been guilty of high treason against the God of heaven. Every situation in which you've thought of yourself before another and not loved your neighbor as yourself, you have provoked the God of heaven. You may be like the rich young ruler who outwardly is very moral and religious, but he was basically two things, an idolater and a hater of men.

21:56 For Jesus said, Get rid of your riches, make me your God, and then give your riches for the benefit of others. He showed Himself to be a hater of men and an idolater with respect to God because He would not comply with the demands of the Savior. Do you begin to see the high demands of the law when it touches motive and actions and thoughts and desires? When you do, regardless of how your outward life has been hedged up from the kinds of things that society calls sin, you, like Isaiah, will fall upon your face and cry out, Woe is me, I'm undone.

22:34 I'm undone. And if God does not deal with me on some other basis than my performance, I've had it. Am I speaking to someone who feels pretty comfortable in the face of death because you have an unscriptural view of the nature of sin? Or could it be in the fourth place that you have an unscriptural view of the nature of salvation?

Ill-Founded Confidence: Unscriptural Views of Salvation (Universalism, Sacramentalism, Decisionism)

22:58 You say, Yes, I know I have a soul. Yes, I know that God is light and in Him is no darkness. I know that man is sinner, but I also know that God is a saving God and I have confidence that all is well and I shall die in peace because God is a saving God. But my friend, listen, could it be that you have unscriptural notions about His salvation?

23:26 There are three great undoing notions about salvation that give men false confidence in the face of death. The first is universalism, the second is sacramentalism, and the third is decisionism. Universalism, that's the teaching that God will ultimately save all of His creatures. They need to be saved in themselves.

23:48 They are lost and damned and filthy and vile and undone. But doesn't the Scripture say, If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to Me? Yes, the Scripture does say that. Doesn't the Scripture say, He hath reconciled all things to Himself?

24:06 Yes, the Scriptures do say that. Doesn't the Word of God say, As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive? That's right. The Scripture does say that.

24:17 But now, what do those Scriptures mean? Whatever they mean, they cannot have a meaning that contradicts such statements as these. Matthew 25, Then shall He say unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Then shall He say to them on the right hand, Enter with Me into the kingdom prepared from the foundation, of the world.

24:48 These shall go away into everlasting punishment. These shall go away into everlasting life. And Jesus Christ has drawn the cleavage. Everlast punishment and the twain shall never meet.

25:10 In the parable or the story of the rich man in Lazarus in Luke 16, you remember the words of our Lord, Between this one and that one, a great gulf, not temporarily suspended, but apparently weighty and formidable universalism of the theologians called Barthians. Whether it's the subtle universalism of those who play with the words Ionios and Ionion and go back to an ancient heresy from the third century, it matters not. The words of Jesus stand as a barrier to every form of universalism that says all men will ultimately somewhere in the future be saved. These shall go away into punishment. These shall go away into eternal life.

26:21 And one is as eternal as the other. Oh, my friend, listen. Though it's a horrible doctrine, so horrible that it's been no fewer than probably five or six years since I've preached an explicit, pointed sermon on it. After that series of eight or ten messages on the doctrine of hell, I've shied from preaching on it.

26:49 It's a frightening doctrine. It's a doctrine when one meditates upon it that causes the mind and the spirit to reel. And if the soul is not in a state of present health, doubts can be cast upon the justice and the goodness of God and all of those things. But if the word of God is to be believed, and we heard in our adult class this morning, the mark of a Christian is he receives the words of Christ.

27:20 Not only the words that say, come unto me and I'll give you rest, but the words in which he taught a great gulf is fixed. If you have peace thinking of death because of the unscriptural view of salvation called universalism, may God help you to abandon it. And I pray if any of you men who presently hold the biblical truth that there is an eternal conscious state of torment called hell, if down the line you begin to shrink from that, I pray that God will shut your mouth, send a stroke and make your tongue a stammering, slobbering instrument in your mouth, rather than have you stand and pour into the hearts of men this false delusive hope that all will ultimately be saved. Then there is the false view of salvation called sacramentalism. Oh yes, I'm a sinner. Oh yes, I need to be saved.

28:25 Oh yes, I have a soul. No defective views about the nature of man. No defective views about the nature of God. He's holy. Sin must be dealt with.

28:34 I'm a sinner. No defective views there. But a defective view as to how the mercy and forgiveness of God actually gets to the sinner. And sacramentalism is nothing but the teaching that says, all this mercy and forgiveness and grace gets to me by doing the right things or being in the right place or in relationship to the right organization.

28:59 The sacramentalist says, if I've got the water upon me and the hands of the bishop upon me or the reverend or the priest or the rabbi, all is well. This person substitutes ceremony for experience. The sacraments are substituted for the Savior. My friend, listen.

29:22 Anything that stands between you and the naked, armed embrace of the Son of God in the plentitude of His saving mercy, that has become an occasion of sacramentalism to you. For in the gospel, the sinner and the Savior are brought into direct contact with nothing in between. And the sacramentalist would say, no, the Savior's grace and mercy and forgiveness come through some channel. The water, the hands of the clergyman, being in the right institution, whatever it is, it is something placed between the Savior and the needy sinner. And the genius of the gospel of the grace of God is that the sinner and the Savior are brought into the most direct contact by the grace of God. But then there is this third, and I tremble to speak on it, but I must. There is this third unscriptural view of the nature of salvation, which I fear has put some of you in a far more dangerous position than universalism, than sacramentalism.

30:37 It's that cursed danger of decisionism. What is that? Well, it goes like this. Yes, I have a soul that is immortal and will never die.

30:50 Yes, I am a sinner, my conscience tells me and the Bible tells me. I know that salvation is in Christ. It's not in the church. It's not in the sacraments.

30:59 But I get that salvation when I do something called deciding for Christ, which means I pray a little prayer. Or if I'm in circles where it means you walk down the front or raise a hand, whatever it is, I do something that, as it were, unlocks the storehouses of grace. And having done it, those storehouses are mine regardless of what's there. It just follows my specific act.

31:31 For instance, I remember talking with someone who was a, quote, full-time Christian worker. And his conscience began to trouble him as to whether or not he was truly a Christian. But he told me, Pastor Martin, whenever I have any doubts, I go back to the time when at 12 years of age I made a decision. Now notice he didn't say, when I have doubts, I go afresh to the Savior.

31:57 When I have doubts, I apply anew to the Son of God. He did not say, when I have questions, I go back again to the cross and say, Lord, if I've never embraced your mercy in Christ, I now embrace it afresh. He said, I go back to the time when I was 12 and made a decision. What's he done?

32:21 He's made a sacrament of his coming down an aisle. He's made a sacrament of his raising his hand. And that's not playing with words, dear people. When I was in evangelistic work for some five years going all over this country and up in Canada, and I spent hours in the homes of Christians with quotation marks, Christians who had no desire to talk about my Lord, who had no obvious hunger for his word, whose shelves were full of secular literature, not Christian literature, whose conversation was full of home and car and business and friends, but not naturally and spontaneously of Christ.

33:02 And when I could finally steer the conversation around in a judicious way to speak of the things most precious to my heart, and I would ask, tell me, how did you become a Christian? Time after time they would say, when I was at such and such a place, I did such and such. And time after time there was nothing of God showing them sin, God shutting them up to Christ, God revealing Christ, God revealing Christ to their hearts. There was nothing of God, nothing of His law, nothing of Christ's death.

33:35 I made a decision. Now granted, let's say that in 25% of the cases they were just inaccurately describing their experience. Let's be very kind and gracious. Say in another 25% of the case they were just poorly taught.

33:56 But my friends, being as kind as I can be, there are multitudes and I would be surprised if some of them were not here this morning who say, I'm ready to die. I've made my peace with God. And what you mean is, you made your decision a year, two, ten, twenty years ago. But of a living, vital relationship to Jesus Christ that is marked by the things Mr. Fisher gave us in the class this morning, loving His person, embracing His words, obeying His words, you know nothing. You're no more ready to die than the person who denies the existence of the soul. My friend, if all you have is the memory of something you've done, you're as far from the living God as that poor pagan who's never heard the gospel. In fact, there may be more hope for him than for you because you've got all the terminology without the reality.

Well-Grounded Confidence: Dying 'In the Lord'

35:05 Well then, I hasten quickly now. What constitutes a well-grounded scriptural confidence? If you and I are not to be called by our Lord fools, ill-prepared for death, what constitutes a well-grounded scriptural confidence? Well, the best description I know is given in Revelation 14, 13, in which we read, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

35:38 There it is. A well-grounded scriptural confidence in the face of death is a confidence rooted in the significance of this little phrase, they die in the Lord. That is, they have been brought into vital union with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When death comes and finds them, it finds them not alone.

36:08 It finds them not sentimentally attached to Jesus, not sacramentally, attached to Jesus, not decisionally attached to Jesus. It finds them spiritually, experimentally, vitally joined to the Son of God. They! And they only are truly prepared to die.

36:30 And thank God when death comes and finds them joined to Jesus. Death can do nothing. But in the language that is engraved on the tombstone of that old covenanting group, death can do nothing but chase them up to heaven. That's all.

36:49 Or in the language of that great anthem, for through its portals we enter into the presence of the living God. They know something more than a few facts about Him. They have something more than an external decision with respect to Him. They are found somewhere else other than merely in the church.

How One Gets 'In the Lord': The Work of the Holy Spirit

37:13 They are in the Lord. The Lord! Well, how did they get that way? Well, they didn't get that way by natural birth.

37:22 They didn't get that way because mom and pop were in the Lord. For the scriptures tell us who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You heard it said, I repeat it, God has no grandchildren. God has no grandchildren, only children.

37:44 How do they get in Christ? Not covenantally. And I'd like to find the person that first imported that into gospel concepts. Covenant children.

37:56 What are covenant children? Are they in Adam or in Christ? Now tell me. Are they in Adam or in Christ?

38:02 Well, come on now. Are they in Adam or in Christ? Covenant children. What are covenant children?

38:14 Well, they're in the covenant. All right, what covenant? Covenant of works? Covenant of grace?

38:18 Well, I don't know. I've just been told they're in the covenant. Well, man, I'm asking you. Tell me.

38:24 What covenant? Are they in the orbit of the covenant of works? If so, they're lost. In Adam, all die.

38:30 Well, no. They're in the covenant of grace. If so, then they must be in Christ, because He is the sum and substance of the covenant. Well, no.

38:39 I don't want to say they're in Christ, but there's something. Well, where are they? Are they in a no man's land? I'm not trying to be unkind to my dear pedo-baptist friends.

38:49 I want you to think through that little parroting phrase, children of the covenant. They are children of Adam. They're lost and undone until they're in Christ. And they don't get in Christ because they're born of you.

39:04 They'll get in Christ if they're born of God. John 1.13 Yes, but I don't care what you've been told. You go to the Word of God and find one Biblical concept to talk about your children in a spiritual sense as children of the covenant.

39:21 It simply is not there. No, no. They didn't get in that way by inheritance. They didn't get in that way by association.

39:31 Oh, I wish it were so. If I get around people that are in Christ long enough, somehow it'll just slip into me by osmosis. No, you don't get in Christ by association. You don't get in Christ by human generation.

39:47 There's only one way to get in Christ. That's by the mighty work of the Holy Ghost who alone can put you in Christ. There's only one person who can put you in Christ. That's the Holy Spirit.

39:58 By one Spirit, baptized into the Holy Spirit. Baptized into one body. Well, how does the Holy Spirit put us into Christ? By means of the truth.

40:07 You see, He doesn't do it magically and mystically. He does it by means of the truth. The truth of the Gospel that shows us our need of the Savior. That then shows us the sufficiency of Christ to meet that need.

40:21 And then enables us to come with the two feet of repentance and faith. The only way any sinner comes to Christ. Repentance and faith. Repentance and faith.

The Blessings of Dying 'In the Lord': Conquering Death and Receiving Perfect Righteousness

40:32 And then by that same Spirit He's incorporated into union with Jesus Christ so that 2 Corinthians 5, 17 becomes true of Him. If any man be in Christ. He's a new creation. You say, what in the world does that have to do with fixing me up for death?

40:48 It has everything to do with that. Why? For you see, death is the ultimate expression of the wages of sin. The wages of sin is death.

40:58 And physical death is part of the wages of sin. And is the preview of that eternal separation of the soul from God. But if I'm in Christ, I'm in one who bore the pangs of God with respect to eternal death. Death is no longer a judicial judgment upon a believer.

41:19 It is a fatherly discipline by which He gets us out of this state into a more glorious one. So you see the child of God though he's afraid of the act of dying. I'm afraid of the experience of dying because I've never had it before. The first time I went in an airplane.

41:39 You know, I felt the board make sure it's going to hold me. I was afraid. It was a new experience. Well, I have fears of the actual experience of dying.

41:52 What will it be like to sense that the only condition I've known from the dawning of consciousness, a body-soul entity, a psychosomatic fusion, what will it be like to have that violently wrenched apart? I don't know and I don't look forward to that. I don't. I have wholesome fears of the experience of dying.

42:14 But I don't fear death because I know when that experience is all over, I shall look upon the face of my Savior. Why? Because the Scripture tells me in Hebrews 2, He has destroyed him that hath died in the power of death and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. I know that though He will allow death as a fatherly discipline through which I shall pass in my perfected spirit into His presence, I shall not face Him as an angry God because I shall die in Christ. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord and if I'm in Christ, I shall face Him not laden down with all of my many and numerous sins, but I shall face Him clothed in the perfect righteousness of His own dear Son. Oh, what a wonderful thing to stand in the presence of God with a righteousness so perfect that the omniscient burning eye of God can scrutinize every thread in that robe and not find one flaw. Not one flaw.

43:37 A perfect righteousness. A righteousness that is mine in Christ. And wonder of wonders because He was raised from the dead, the Scripture says, His bodily resurrection is the first fruits. In other words, God says there's a harvest coming.

43:55 Christ is that first bundle. Been 2,000 years waiting for the rest of the harvest, but one day is with the Lord is 1,000 years and 1,000 years is one day. And what a wonderful thing to preach today and to know that this body that feels the drain of a week of intense ministry will someday be a body that will be able to serve Him with a heart. Think of it.

44:19 Mr. Fisher outlined some of this for us a few weeks ago. And some of us almost jumped out of our seats at the thought of it. Imagine having a heart that not only has the seeds of desire to love God with all its being, but will actually do it.

44:33 A heart that will have no contrary principle. Every time there's an impulse to praise, there'll be no hindrance to the impulse. There'll be a spirit wholly taken up with praise and worship and love and obedience. Well, if God gave us that for even an hour now, it would kill this body.

44:51 It would. There are times in preaching when those truths become so real that one feels so much current is going through the frail humanity that it can't take it. Imagine what it would be like for God to give you a perfected spirit for one hour while you still had this old carcass. It would kill you.

45:10 But the wonder is that in Christ we have not only a perfected spirit grounded on a perfect righteousness, but we'll have a perfect body. And that perfect body and that perfect spirit shall render perfect service for all eternity. This past week, one evening, when I was able to get away from people long enough to do it, my wife and I took a walk down to the pier at Harvey Cedars. And we just stretched back on that pier and looked up into the starry vault above us.

45:41 And my wife said, Honey, why did God put them all out there? And we were talking about this and I said, I've got some secret theories about what we're going to do in the world to come. What's it all out there for? Well, for now, Genesis says there are to be lights to the earth.

46:01 But I don't think that's all. And I wouldn't preach on it, but all I know is when I get all that energy of a renewed body, driven by all the holy motives of a perfect soul, God's going to have a lot of work for me to do in which to bring glory to Him. Oh, my friend, are you ready to die? Do you like to put the thought of death out of your mind?

A Final Exhortation: Are You Prepared to Die?

46:28 Don't do it. That's not wholesome. Some of us can remember when our great grandparents lived and there were three ranks between us and death. We saw them go.

46:38 Then our grandparents stood. There were two ranks. Grandparents, parents and us. We've seen the grandparents go.

46:44 Now our parents are the first ranks facing death. My dad had his 70th birthday and it's made it very real to me. It won't be long before I'll take his place and I'll be in the front ranks and the news will go out. Pastor Martin's gone.

47:02 My friend, don't push death out of your mind. You're going to die. You're going to die. You kids, you're going to die.

47:11 Death is certain. Death is often sudden. The sequel to death is judgment. Are you ready to die?

47:19 If the Lord Jesus were to start right here this morning and go right up this side and down here through the whole center section and the right section, would He look each one of you in the eye, knowing your heart as only He knows, and would He say to you, thou fool? Or would He say, thou wise man, thou wise woman, thou wise boy, thou wise girl, you're ready to die. What would Jesus call you? Would Jesus call you a fool or a wise man, a wise boy, a wise girl?

47:49 What would Jesus call you? If you're not prepared to die, He'd say, thou fool, thou fool. Oh, my friend, don't just say, well, I feel I'm ready to die. I ask you, what's the foundation of that confidence?

48:07 Is it ill-founded, unscriptural, wrong views of God, of man, of sin, of salvation, or is it a well-grounded scriptural confidence that you are in Christ and when you die, you will die in the Lord? You've been brought to see your need of Him. You've abandoned all confidence in yourself. You've repented and believed the Gospel.

48:33 And this very day, you cling to, you adhere to, the Lord Jesus Christ. You came this morning expecting something profound. You're disappointed. But my friend, I have a greater task than to tickle ears with profound truth.

48:52 I'm on my way to judgment and I want no one's blood on my hands. You and I are going to die. May God grant that we shall be prepared by being in Christ. And in Christ, though death will still be our portion, its vicious sting is gone.

49:13 Dread is gone. And we shall merely be chased up to heaven to join the spirits of just men made perfect to await that glorious day when our Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise. And we that are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.

49:37 And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Let us pray. Our Father, we can never begin to thank You for the Holy Scriptures which have opened up the great mystery of death. That mystery that has caused philosophers and thinkers through the ages to ponder, to theorize, only to admit when they were done that they had no certain knowledge. Oh, how we thank You that that ultimate experience through which all of us shall indeed pass has been stripped of its depth into a deadening mystery, its crippling mystery. We thank You that in the Lord Jesus and in the Gospel You have made life and immortality to come to light clearly. We thank You for Him who has died and been raised from the dead and that everyone who is in Him can know that they shall be raised with Him at the last day.

50:59 Father, speak to boys and girls and men and women sitting in this place today whom Your Word calls fools because they are not prepared to die. Oh God, whatever would keep them from a well-grounded biblical preparation for death, be it some darling sin, be it some false notion of You or of sin or of salvation, Oh God, correct it by the Word and the Spirit. For we do yearn that each one in this place will be able to face death in the confidence that they shall merely be chased up to heaven to stand before the Son of God. Hear our prayer and seal the Word of God to our hearts, we pray, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.