Are You Afraid to Die?

Introduction: Are You Afraid to Die?

0:07 Now let's turn, please, to Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2, and I shall read in your hearing verses 14 and 15.

0:20 Hebrews 2 at verse 14. Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood. He, that is Jesus, also himself in like manner partook of the same. In order that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

0:54 Now I want to lead into our study in the word of God by asking each one of you a very simple, pointed, but sobering question. I want the youngest of you children to think as I ask the question. I want you teenagers to think. I know that's a terrible thing to ask you to think, especially when you're not in school.

1:23 But I want you to think earnestly. I want you to think. You post-teen, young adults, married or unmarried, you young parents, you middle-aged men and women, those of you that would be considered of riper years, you have your Medicare card, and you're retired. I want each of you to think on this very simple, pointed, yet sobering question.

1:57 And here's my question.

2:00 Are you afraid to die?

2:08 Are you afraid to die? Are you afraid to die? I see one young lady already nodding her head this way. First time I ask the question.

2:21 Thank God for her honesty.

2:23 Is your head nodding inwardly?

2:29 Or are you going this way?

2:32 Dear folks, this is not a technique of a sermonizer. I'm dead serious. I want you to reflect on that simple question. Are you afraid to die?

2:48 Are you, right now? Are you afraid to die? I'm not asking you, do you fear the experience of death?

3:01 Most people do fear the experience of death or the experience of dying. But I'm asking you, do you fear death? Are you afraid to die in terms of being fearful? What will happen to me when I die?

3:19 Where will I go when I die? Or maybe if you're answering inwardly, yes, if I'm honest with you, Pastor, I am afraid to die. Not because I don't know where I'd go, but because I know where I'd go. I'd breathe my last and wake up in outer darkness.

The Fear of Death is Natural and Legitimate

3:49 Are you afraid to die? Well, as we consider that pressing, serious, sober question, I want us to see from the passage read in our hearing, some of the things that God says addressing that very concern. And the first thing I want you to notice from the passage read in your hearing is that the fear of death is a natural and a legitimate fear. When the writer to the Hebrews is describing the condition of those to whom he is referring, he is referring to the people who are in the world.

4:30 When the writer to the Hebrews is describing the condition of those to whom he is writing, and sinners in general, who can be delivered by the gracious saving work of Jesus, he describes such people in this way, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Who through fear of death. And the way in which he uses that phrase, it is assumed, that this was both a common and a legitimate fear. And so my first heading is that the fear of death is a natural and a legitimate fear. Now some fears are irrational and without any foundation in substance. You've heard of people afraid to walk under a ladder that is leaning against a house. They're fearful to do it.

5:30 They wouldn't do it. You wouldn't do it if you paid them a hundred dollars. Why? They're afraid.

5:34 And what's the basis of their fear? An irrational, unsubstantiated superstition. The fear is real, but it has no basis in reality. Other people are walking down the street.

5:48 A black cat goes across in front of them. They cross the street, walk over on the other side. Why? They're really scared that a black cat passing in front of them will bring bad luck.

6:01 The fear is real, but it's irrational. It has no substantial basis. Spring training is open. You baseball fans know it.

6:12 That's the sign of spring. And there are grown men who know how to negotiate for millions of dollars to play a kid's game, who would never think of stepping on the foul line between the pitcher's mound and the dugout. You watch them when they come off the field. Grown men.

6:33 Rude fear. But irrational. Groundless, baseless fear. And some would say, well, the fear of death is like the fear of the ball player stepping over the foul line.

6:46 The fear of the person who walks the other side of the street when a black cat has walked in front of them. But no, my friends. According to this passage and the overall teaching of the Word of God, the fear of death described here is a natural and a legitimate fear for men, women, and children. The fear of death described here is a natural and a legitimate fear for men, women, and children.

7:05 The fear of death described here is a natural and a legitimate fear for men, women, boys, and girls in this present condition. And why? Why is the fear of death a natural and a legitimate fear for every one of us who does not stuff down the consciousness of that fear? More of that later.

7:26 Let me give you three very simple reasons why the fear of death is a natural and a legitimate fear. Why? The writer to the Hebrews could assume when he wrote that...

7:35 The writer to the Hebrews could assume when he wrote that... wrote that when he put these words down on parchment, who through fear of death, he wouldn't have a bunch of people scratching their heads saying, what in the world are you talking about fear of death?

7:47 I don't know anything about fear of death. They would know immediately what he was referring to. Why? Reason number one, because death is a tragically unnatural experience.

Three Reasons for the Legitimate Fear of Death

7:59 Death is a tragically unnatural experience. When you open up your Bible to Genesis 1 and have the account of creation, and then in chapter 2 you have the zoom lens expanded account of the creation of man's immediate environment, of the man himself and then the woman, and then God's clear command that man may eat of all the trees in the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden. He should not eat of it. Lest he die.

8:37 Death was no part of the original created design of God.

8:45 Chapter 3 in Genesis tells us that the woman gave to the man and he ate, and they died spiritually immediately. And then in chapter 5 we have the tragic account, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died. And the experience of death, that radical, violent, unnatural, wrenching loose of the two component parts of what we are as men and women made in God's image, soul and body, a spiritual and a material dimension to what we are. God never intended that those should be separated. After God breathed into Adam the breath of life and man became living soul, God's intention was that as a body, soul, entity, the man and the woman would glorify him, serve him, fulfill all their stewardships, but that soul and body would never be violently wrenched apart. And that experience of death is fearful.

10:04 Well, because it is a tragically unnatural experience, that's why it is called in 1 Corinthians 15, 26, the last enemy.

10:20 The last enemy. Death is an enemy, a vicious, relentless, cruel, grotesque enemy. And that's why we fear it. But we fear.

10:37 We fear death, secondly, because death launches us irreversibly into a hitherto unexperienced world of reality.

10:51 Death launches us into a hitherto unexperienced world of reality. We speak of the fear of the unknown, and rightly so. Well, there are a lot of things that we may fear. We may fear because they are unpleasant.

11:11 But if we've been there before, that fear does not paralyze us and terrorize us. For example, you've been to the dentist, and if you had your wisdom teeth pulled on one side, and you know you've got to have them pulled on the other, you know what's going to happen. He's going to sit you in the chair, he's going to stick that needle in there, and you're going to feel a little twinge, and then you're going to go all numb and funny, and then he's going to yank that thing out, and then you're going to have a sore jaw for a few days. It's unpleasant.

11:43 And I never saw anyone, I never met a person, I said, what's your week hold for you? Oh, wait, I'm going to the dentist on Tuesday to get my next set of wisdom teeth. No, nobody, something's wrong with you in the four days. It's unpleasant.

11:55 And what is unpleasant is dreadful to us. But you see, that's worlds apart from the fear associated with death. Well, that fear is rooted in the awareness. Well, that fear is rooted in the awareness.

12:08 Well, that fear is rooted in the awareness. Well, that fear is rooted in the awareness. Well, that fear is rooted in the awareness. Well, that fear is rooted in the awareness that death launches us into an irreversible and hitherto unknown world of reality, according to the Bible.

12:24 And listen carefully. According to the Bible, there were a few people in the Old Testament miraculously raised from the dead by the power of God, and a few people in the New Testament. But apart from those people, and the other unique resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, people don't come back from the dead, and furthermore, they don't go to the realm of the dead to experiment and see what it's like and come back in order to make sure they do it right the second time.

13:00 Death is fearful because it launches us irreversibly into a hitherto unknown world of reality. Death is fearful because it launches us irreversibly into a hitherto unknown world of reality. And no matter what evolutionary thinking says, and no matter what mechanistic, atheistic scientists try to say that we are nothing but the combination of our chemical components, you know, and the Bible affirms what you know. That you have a part of you that is never dying, and that when you breathe your last, that part of you is going to die. And that part of you is going to die. And that part of you is going to be somewhere. And the Bible leaves no question as to where you will go.

13:55 Jesus in Luke chapter 16 said, The rich man died, and in hell he lifted up his eyes. Lazarus died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

14:14 Your dog has personality, children. You can read in your dog's eyes excitement. Fear. And I think they even have something, whether it's the fear that looks like guilt.

14:26 But I'm convinced the last dog we had knew what it was to feel guilty. They could have that one. But you say the dog has something. I don't know what to call it, but it's something like personality.

14:40 You have dogs that are more somber and sedate and almost majestic. And other dogs that are like silly little giggly girls.

14:49 And you've got some that are like promiscuous. And you've got some that are like bumbling, bumbling teenage boys. They have something more than corpuscles and blood and fingernails. But they have nothing that exists beyond the breathing of their last.

15:07 When the dog dies, that's the end of the whole of the dog. And when your little pet parakeet dies, that's the end of everything that your little pet parakeet is. But not so with you and me. When we die, that immaterial part of us, the spirit, the soul, is launched into a realm of reality hitherto unexperienced.

15:35 No wonder we naturally fear death. It is a tragically unnatural experience. Secondly, because death launches us irreversibly into a hitherto unexperienced world of reality. But thirdly, we fear death because death is the one-way door.

15:58 Door to judgment.

16:01 Death is the one-way door to judgment. Its hinges swing only one way. Hebrews 9, 27. And as it is appointed unto men once to die.

16:18 And after this comes judgment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and shall appear the second time without sin to salvation. You see the analogy? As surely as Christ died but once and will certainly appear a second time not to deal with sin as a suffering Savior but to utterly crush it and usher in the new heavens in the earth.

16:46 So when once we die, just as surely after that comes judgment. Death's door has one-way hinges. And as death leaves you, the judgment will find you. And as the judgment finds you, God help us as I say the words.

17:12 Eternity will hold you. Think of it. As death leaves you, no change after death, the judgment will find you. And as the judgment finds you, Find you eternity, forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever will hold you.

Don't Believe Demonic Propaganda About Death

17:42 Who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The fear of death is a natural and a legitimate fear. Before we move on to our second head, I want to make a couple of very vital applications of that principle. The first is this.

18:11 Don't believe the current propaganda that death is a natural part of life. There is abroad in American society now, in serious literature, in popular magazines such as Family Circle, Woman's Day, and a host of others, that there is no such thing as death. There is no such thing as death. There is a glut of wretched, soul-damning propaganda that says it's time we grew up and stop being hush-hush about death and dying.

18:47 Death is a part of life. Just like nursing and snuggling up to a bottle is a part of infancy, and cutting teeth is a part of infant development. And learning how to toddle and walk and have your first case of zits and have your first date and have your first baby and have your first person look at you and say, do you belong to ARP? Welcome to the real world when someone asks you that.

19:24 Well, as those are the stages of life, so death is just a part of life. Now, let's grow up and be mature about it. Let's not be afraid. Let's not dread death.

19:37 It's inevitable. It's a part of life. It is not an ugly, horrible, unwelcome intruder. My friend, that is a denial of the teaching of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

19:55 Don't believe it. Those who've bought into that nonsense and soul-destructive propaganda and have pretty well convinced themselves that death is a part of life, have convinced themselves and others that they have no fear of death and are looked upon as noble souls are to be pitied beyond any others on the face of the earth. Don't you join them. Don't join them.

20:23 Secondly, by way of application, don't believe the current propaganda that you need not fear death because of the testimony of those who've had a near-death experience. That's propaganda glutting. That's propaganda glutting everywhere. Books are written, magazine articles, and they all talk about this tunnel opening up and this warm, inviting light that drew them and enveloped them.

20:52 Oh, my, my, to a drug-oriented generation. This is a combination of coke and heroin and everything in between, and it didn't cost a nickel. It's the ultimate high. And they've come back to tell us, and they say, now, not only do I not fear death, I have to fight longing to die.

21:17 I want that experience of being enveloped in warmth and light and love. I can't wait to have it. My friends, don't laugh at that stuff. It's serious, demonic propaganda.

21:35 And to me, it's significant that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, for no marvel, Satan. Satan himself transforms himself into a what? An angel of light. Who is there deceiving these people that have had near-death experiences?

21:58 It is the devil himself who wants to kill in them any fear of death. It would leave them open to the question, how can I deal with this fear of death and face death? With confidence. He doesn't want them to have the answer to that question from the Bible.

22:25 So he makes sure that they get a pseudo-answer from Red Book and Women's Day and popular television programs and interviews and talk shows. Don't believe the current propaganda that death is a natural part of life. Don't believe the current propaganda that you need not fear death because of the testimony of near-death experiences. Or according to the passage before us, if you've not been delivered from the fear of death God's way,

23:03 and yet you don't fear death, you are in a frightening position.

23:11 Is it sanity and rationality for someone to stand, arms crossed, looking up at the blue sky, whistling one's favorite tune in the middle of railroad tracks, at 4-0-3, when the commuter train comes roaring around the corner at 4-0-5, and you know it? Is that rationality? Is that nobility? I ask you to answer in the depths of your own heart, what is it for someone, arms crossed, whistling, humming his favorite tune, knowing that a locomotive will come crashing him in two minutes?

23:52 You say that's insanity.

23:55 Well, my dear, boys and girls, young people, men and women of any age, for you to know that it is appointed unto you once to die, and to do anything other than tremble at that thought, to fit the description of this passage, who through fear of death is spiritual and a form of even mental insanity.

24:24 Perhaps the most encouraging thing that could happen to some of you sitting here, tonight, is to leave this place trembling like a leaf, with a baptism of rational fear of death. It might be the first indication that you're in the way of salvation. These who had come to know the salvation of Jesus are described by the writer to the Hebrews as those who at one time knew the fear of death, who had come to know the salvation of Jesus, are described by the writer to the Hebrews as those who at one time knew the fear of death, who had come to know the salvation of Jesus, who through fear of death, who through fear of death. Listen again to one of the old writers, writing more than 300 years ago, to show there's no new thing under the sun. John Owen commenting on this passage, and on the fact that by nature men do have a fear of death, but they can, through the deception of the evil one, greatly lessen and neutralize that fear. But sinners, in their nature, fear death as it is a penalty for sin, as an issue of the curse, and as under the power of Satan, and as a dreadful entrance into eternal ruin.

25:45 Sinners, in their natural state, he says the fear of death is natural. They know death is not something God intended. It is the result of sin. He says there are indeed a thousand ways whereby this fear is for a season stifled in the minds of men.

26:06 Some live in brutish ignorance, never receiving any full conviction of sin, judgment, or eternity. Some put off the thoughts of their present and future estate, resolving to shut their eyes and rush into death, when as they no longer can avoid it. Fear presents itself unto them as the forerunner of death, but they avoid the encounter, and leave themselves over to the power of death itself. And then he goes on to enlarge on that.

The Fear of Death is a Terribly Enslaving Fear

26:37 No different then. The lies floated by the devil may be different, but it's still the same issue. And so I urge you to consider what is clearly reflected in this passage, that the writer assumes that the fear of death was a natural and legitimate fear. But now notice, secondly, and far more briefly, that the fear of death is a terribly enslaving fear.

27:06 The fear of death is a terribly enslaving fear. Look at the language of the passage. Since the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he, Jesus, took part of the same, that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime, subject to bondage. A more literal rendering of the original would be this.

27:39 Who in fear of death, through all of life, were held in slavery. What graphic language. Who through fear of death, through all of life, were held in slavery. The picture is someone enslaved against his will.

28:03 It is not the picture of someone voluntarily giving himself to servitude. Romans 6 says, when you were the slaves of sin, you voluntarily presented your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But here's the picture of people held in a position of slavery. And the writer to the Hebrews says that the fear of death is a terribly enslaving fear.

28:31 A miserable slavery in which we are taken captive. While I'm not prepared to even begin to suggest all the ramifications of this imagery, I know something of it in my own experience from the dawning of my consciousness as far back as I can remember anything. That's why I say the dawning of consciousness, how old I was, I do not know. But I had the awareness that I was more than my dog who had honorable discharge papers from the Second World War. It was a female German Shepherd. And we gave Lady to the military to become a trained K-9 dog to serve the country. We were at war gathering our little balls of tinfoil and everyone involved in the war effort.

29:32 And we gave up our dog. And I loved that dog. One of my sisters recently retrieved a picture of me as a little boy with my arm around that dog. And oh, how my mind leaped back over the years.

29:45 Well, way back then and even a little bit before then, as long as I have consciousness, I knew I was something more than my dog Lady. I knew that God had made me. And I knew if I'd died, I'd stand in judgment before God. And how real was that slavery.

30:05 I could have no delightful thoughts of God. I could have no happy thoughts of God. I could have no thought of approaching God as my father. All my thoughts of God were I've sinned against Him.

30:22 And I have no forgiveness for my sins. And I'd lie in my bed as a boy night after night afraid to go to sleep because the words forever and ever forever and ever and ever and ever would run over in my mind like a broken record. And I can remember saying, but oh God, somewhere, at some point, you'd let me out of hell. And the words would come back forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

31:01 Was I being psychologically tortured by bogeymen? No, my friends. God, in mercy, was keeping my boy mind in touch with reality. Had I died in that state, I would have gone to slavery.

31:31 I was held in the slavery of the fear of death, the frustration. My last prayer almost every night, oh God, forgive my sins of the day and I promise not to do them tomorrow. The knowledge that there was no real work of repentance, no real casting of myself upon Christ, all their lifetime subject to bondage. Well, the form of that bondage may be different for you, but the writer to the Hebrews assumes that where this legitimate, rational fear of death is present, it is an enslaving fear. And if some of you sitting here tonight, you know the form that that slavery takes for you. Oh, how, and it's a form of slavery to rip into nonexistence your consciousness that you're a creature accountable to God and your way to judgment. And oh, how you try to take all of reality and so arrange it that it would give your spirit some relief from the fear of death.

32:58 But you can't do it. And we are all beings who through all their lifetime were subject to bondage. It puts a worm in the gourd of every pleasure, puts a bitter taste in the sweetest taste of life's pleasure. It casts a dark and ominous shadow

33:35 And I believe there's some of you children who are right where I was.

33:41 And the slave is real, kids. It's real.

33:46 And it has grounds to be real. Thank God He hasn't given you up to self-deception and the lies of the devil and a hard heart. I can remember my shame. Half praying, God, why can't I allow my sins like my buddies?

34:06 I don't like it that I can't sin with abandonment. Because the fear of death gnawed at my soul.

34:17 How I bless God for it now.

The Fear of Death is a Conquerable Fear

34:21 And I thank Him for that pressure upon my spirit. But now I come to what to me is the wonderful part of this passage. Look at it with me. We've seen that the fear of death is a natural and legitimate fear in three basic reasons.

34:37 Why? We've seen that the fear of death is a problem. It's a terrible, enslaving fear. But now here's the good news.

34:44 The fear of death. Hear me, children. Children, ask God to grow 10-inch ears on your soul over the next 15 minutes.

34:57 Our text tells us the fear of death is a conquerable fear. It is a conquerable fear. Listen to what it says. Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood.

35:11 He, Jesus, Himself, took in like manner, partook of the same, that through death He might bring to naught, that He might destroy, strip of power, Him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and listen, and might deliver all them. Might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their life, time, subject to bondage. Oh, what a gospel to proclaim that the fear of death is a conquerable fear. Now look at the context of this statement.

35:55 Here in the first two chapters of Hebrews, the writer to the Hebrews has begun to set forth the glory of Jesus in contrast to all of God's previous revelations and all of God's other creatures, whether angels or great creatures in redemptive history, Moses and Aaron and the priesthood, etc. So in chapter 1 he says Jesus is greater than the angels. In chapter 2 he says Jesus became a little lower than the angels that He might be our Savior. And it's in that setting that we have our text.

36:38 Since then the children are sharers in, in flesh and blood, that is, real human nature. He Himself in like manner partook of the same in order that through death. In other words, angels can't experience death. He who is greater than the angels, the Creator of the angels, for a time becomes lower than the angels, that He might do what angels couldn't do for us.

37:10 That is, to die, and if you read to the end of the chapter, enter into the human experience in so many ways that He may also succor weak, frail human beings. So He who is higher than the angels becomes lower than the angels to do what angels cannot do to save us, namely, to die and to succor us. That's Hebrews 1 and 2. That's your Savior.

Who and How Jesus Conquers the Fear of Death

37:41 Now that's the context. Now let's look at the specifics of two questions related to our theme. The fear of death is a conquerable fear. Two questions from our passage now, having looked at the larger context.

37:57 Who is the conqueror of the fear of death?

38:02 And secondly, how does He conquer the fear of death? Now that's not complicated, kids, is it? Who does the conquering and how does He do it? You got it?

38:14 Who and how?

38:16 One syllable, three words each. Who and how? Who is the conqueror of the fear of death? Well, it's not you and it's not me.

38:26 It's not our minds persuading us, oh, death's a part of life. It is not, for some of you into modern philosophy, it is not convincing yourself that the way you authenticate your identity is boldly, courageously face death and walk into it without, without flinching modern existentialism. Put the gun to your head with a smile on your face and tell the world, I'm no simpering, whimpering coward. I'm an authentic person and I come to life's ultimate experience like a man.

39:02 That isn't how you conquer the fear of death. In answer to the question, who is the conqueror of the fear of death? It is Jesus. For the subject of this whole passage is identified, in verse 9, but we behold Him who has been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus.

39:30 And everything else in the passage is about Jesus. So when it says, in verse 14, since the children are shares in flesh and blood, He partook of the same, that's Jesus. That through death, He, that's Jesus. Verse 15, and might deliver, that's Jesus.

39:52 So in answer to the question, who is the conqueror of the fear of death? Our passage is clear. It is Jesus. Only Jesus.

40:02 Jesus in all the perfection of who He is and what He's done. Don't think of conquering death in any other reference point. But Jesus. That's the message of our passage.

Jesus' Conquest Through Incarnation

40:17 It says, second question, how does He conquer the fear of death? And if you look at the passage, we get three strands to the answer. First, by undergoing a real incarnation.

40:34 He overcomes the fear of death by undertaking, by undergoing, by entering into a real incarnation. Notice again our text. It says, since the children are sharers in flesh and blood, that's you and me, we have real human existence. He Himself partook of the same.

41:01 He who is the eternal Word, dwelling in a non-bodily existence from all eternity with the Father. John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1.14 is the Joannine, the Joannine, the statement of the same truth. The Word became flesh. The Word, the eternal Son of God, takes to Himself something He had never had before while continuing to be what He had always been. Essentially, eternally, eternally, undilutedly God, He takes to Himself what?

41:42 Flesh and blood. My friend, it took the mystery, of the implantation of true humanity in Mary's womb for the fear of death to be conquered. Nothing less than real incarnation. Look at verse 17.

42:04 It behooved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren. Think of it. He sees us wallowing, floundering in this horrible morass of the fear of death. And He says there's no way to deliver them but by My becoming one of them sin-accepted.

42:27 And all that is essential to our humanity He took to Himself. Think of it. Think of it. He knew the dark confines of Mary's womb.

42:41 May I say it reverently, He knew that it was to be a zygote. And divide, and divide, and divide. And develop His little flippers. And then His individuality.

42:54 His individual characteristics. Think of it. Why? Why?

42:59 Because that's the only way the fear of death could be truly conquered. Someone had to come into our condition. And the writer to Hebrews says He delivers from the fear of death. How?

43:13 By a real incarnation. Secondly, by a real substitutionary death. Look at the passage. Since the children are shares in flesh and blood, He Himself, both in like manner, partook of the same.

Jesus' Conquest Through Substitutionary Death

43:27 Why? For you Greek students, a clause of purpose in order that through death He might destroy him that has the power of death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Let me put it this way. The focal point of intention in the incarnation was the crucifixion.

43:52 He partakes of flesh and blood that He might die. Angels have no flesh and blood. Angels cannot die. He becomes lower than the angels.

44:03 He partakes of flesh and blood that in that humanity He might not only live the life we should live, but die the death we deserve to die. It's called later on in this passage, look at it, verse 17, it's called propitiation. He might be a faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, but propitiation, what does that big word mean? It means nothing less than to appease the wrath of God by a sacrifice.

44:35 That's what it means. And how are we delivered from the fear of death? Now think closely with me children. What brought death into the world?

44:44 Sin. Romans 5.12 Through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin. For that all sin, the wages of sin is death.

44:54 No sin, no death. Sin, death. As the punishment of a righteous holy God upon sin, man just comes. And what does he do?

45:09 He goes into the court of heaven while hanging upon the cross. He takes all of the wrath for the sins of everyone called in this passage the children. Those who come unto God by Him and He's so exalted, the wrath of God in His person that God could pass over that wrath righteously. You want to be delivered from the fear of death?

45:39 Not only must you understand you've got to have dealings with Jesus Himself, but Jesus, who secures it by a real incarnation, who secures it by a real substitutionary sacrifice. And then an emphasis in this passage and it's found elsewhere in the third part of the answer. How does He do it? Look at the passage.

Jesus' Conquest Through Victory Over the Devil

46:06 By a real conquest of the devil. Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood. He like manner took part of the same, partook of the same, that through death, now notice, He might bring to naught Him, that's a person, that had the power of death. Who is that?

46:29 He tells us. That is, the devil. And as a consequence of that, might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. You see, as long as sin is your master and mine, our sins unforgiven, the Bible says we are the servants, the sons of the devil.

46:59 John 8.44 You are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father it is your will to do. In 1 John, John says, in this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil. There's no middle family, folks.

47:16 Everyone here is in the family of God or the family of the devil. And as long as sin is unforgiven in your heart and the dominion of sin is unbroken in your life, you are the servant of the devil. And in a very real sense, as long as there's no just basis to forgive your sin and there is no framework within which the power of sin can be broken, then the devil's got you and there's no deliverance from the fear of death. But Jesus, the mighty conqueror, came forth and according to this passage, he delivers from the fear of death by a real conquest of the devil. And this is emphasized in other passages. You remember in John 12 when Jesus is speaking of his death, he says that, now, now, the prince of this world shall be cast out. And Colossians 2.15 speaks of Christ

48:20 in his death upon the cross, spoiling principalities and powers in that death. While there are mysteries I do not understand, this much is clear to me. And this much is clear from this passage. Behind that fear of death that is miserable slavery is the vicious slave master, the devil himself.

48:42 And when Christ went to the cross, he engaged him directly. This is your hour, he said, and the power of darkness. And in ways that eternity alone will probably exegete to some degree to us, he engaged the devil. And there upon the cross, he crushed his head, stripped him of his power, so that all who by faith are in Christ are in the conqueror.

Death for the Believer: Never See Death

49:14 And therefore in Christ we can be delivered from the fear of death and the devil who traffics in that fear. This is why, as we bring this message to a conclusion, we come to passages such as John 11, 25, and I hope we understand them with fresh understanding. Jesus in the setting of raising Lazarus from the dead said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he were dead, that is, dead spiritually, yet shall he live spiritually, and then listen to this, and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Shall never die! Does he mean that if we believe in him, we will never pass through the experience that we call death? Well, if that's what he meant, then he doesn't speak the truth.

50:15 Because Stephen died, and Paul died, and Peter died, and the saints of God and untold millions have died, what did Jesus mean? Whoso lives and believes in me shall never die! And look at John 8 and verse 51, a marvelous text. Jesus said, If a man keep my word, he shall never see death.

50:47 Jesus speaks the truth. He says, You keep his word, you treasure up his word, in faith, in love, in obedience, you're never going to see death. What in the world does he mean? Let me add to your confusion.

51:06 In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul says, All things are yours, whether life, or death. You are Christ, and Christ is God's. I thought I'd never see death, and now you say death is mine. What kind of double talk is that?

51:21 Oh, my friends, it's not double talk. There is a blessed synthesis of reality. Hear me. Oh, hear me.

51:27 Dear unconverted child, man, woman, boy, girl, dear brother, sister in Christ, listen, listen. When Jesus said, If a man keep my word, he shall never see death, what he's saying is this. You'll never meet death. If a man keep my word, he shall never see death.

51:43 What he's saying is this. You'll never meet death. As that conquering, terrifying, horrible intruder, whose presence brings slavish fear. You know that Christ, by a real incarnation, by a real substitutionary death, and by a mighty conquest over the devil, has stripped death of its power as the wages of sin.

52:10 And all death now is, is a little glitchy dissonance to take you home to heaven. That's all. It's a little glitchy discipline to take you home to heaven. Well, your body goes in the grave and you wait for the resurrection.

52:29 And you know what God calls that time in the grave? He calls it a good nap. Then that sleep in Jesus. That doesn't refer to the soul.

52:38 It refers to the body. And God says, you go to bed when you're put in your grave, and you wake up in the morning when Jesus comes.

52:48 That's what Jesus meant when he said, he that keeps my word shall never see death. Death as that armed, vicious, horrible intruder who takes the soul and carries it into the presence of demons and the devil. You'll never see death. One dear man of God said in ministering that text to a saint in an old folk's home, and his heart was expanded as he said to her, my dear sister, as you lay dying soon, she was close to dying.

53:21 Death may come armed to the teeth and all of his ominous, ugly visage. But Jesus said just at the time when he would stand before you, you're never going to see him. Jesus is going to come and take you home. And he kept quoting that verse, he that keeps my word shall never see.

53:44 Death, experience dying, yes, but never see death.

53:51 That's what Paul meant when he said all things are yours. Death is now mine in union with Christ, not as a horrible enemy to be dreaded and put me in bondage. That kinky little discipline by which I'm absent from the body, present with the Lord, and put to sleep, waiting resurrection and burning. Oh, my unconverted friend.

54:19 Boy, girl, wouldn't you want to know that that's all death could do to you? Then get into Jesus. That's where you've got to go. You've got to get into Christ.

54:31 You've got to take a direct route to Christ. The incarnate, the dying, resurrected Christ. The conquering Christ. And in Christ, death is yours.

54:44 Death is yours. The wonder we read in Revelation 14, 12. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Die in the Lord is to be blessed.

Conclusion: Embrace Christ and Conquer Death

54:58 You can say, well, pastor, I've seen you get worked up before. That's all interesting and nice. But I just soon go on out a slave still.

55:07 Don't do that. Why go on from the miserable slavery of the fear of death? You could till your head tonight and not simply pray. Now I lay me down to sleep.

55:23 I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep. And should I? Before I die, before I wake, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take. No.

55:34 Go to bed tonight saying, now I lay me down to sleep. I know, dear Lord, my youth.

56:01 Jesus.

56:06 And the world can be scared to death when you can say that. May I give you one other illustration as I close?

56:15 The deer legged up to toes. I don't know if some of you knew to us. This was a man who was recognized to be one of the most unusual servants of God.

56:25 Half a generation behind some of us had he lived. He was born right at the turn of the century. He'd be 99 now. But he told the instance of a time when he heard of a dear old saint, an old Methodist saint.

56:40 And she was hovering between two worlds, about to pass out of this world into the presence of her Lord. And the minister was a young minister, not very experienced in many things. Let alone helping people to die. So he was fumbling for the right words with this seasoned old saint.

56:58 Just trying to say everything just right. And she sensed his frustration and his ineptitude. And she said, now, son, stop troubling yourself trying to find the right words. She said, in a few minutes, I'm going to cross the river.

57:13 And my father owns the land on both sides. That's it. She said, I'm just crossing the river. My father owns the land on this side.

57:24 The world, earth, and the world, and life. But on the other side is to be with Christ. And in a few minutes, I'm going to cross the river. My friend, can you face death that way?

57:38 My father owns the land on both sides. And in Christ, death is but the river by which he takes me from one part of his land to another.

57:52 The fear of death is a legitimate and natural fear. The fear of death is a legitimate and natural fear. The fear of death is an enslaving fear. But the fear of death is a conquerable fear.

58:04 And when you ask, who conquers? It's Jesus. And how does he conquer? By incarnation.

58:12 By substitutionary death. Followed, of course, by resurrection. And by his conquest of the devil. May God grant that we who are his people, who in the providence of God will face more and more the reality of death, and of dying.

58:30 May God help us to think biblically. To feed upon our blessed Lord. That as we approach death, we may be able to say, death is mine in Christ. My Jesus has said to me, I will never see death.

58:53 Let us pray.

58:58 Our Father, how we thank you for your word. And with all of our hearts, we beg of you. We pray. We pray.

59:06 We pray. We pray. We pray. We pray.

59:06 We pray. We pray. We pray. We pray with you.

59:07 Oh God, may it not be preached in vain this night. May some who have sat here, trembling in their own souls, leave rejoicing in Christ Jesus. May your people be established and rooted and grounded in a well-instructed trust in the Lord Jesus. We pray that you'd have mercy upon our fellow countrymen buying by the carload, these demonic lies that death is just a part of life death is an entrance into the big warm light oh God awaken them from their stupor use us to be light and salt to them we pray help us now as we go forth into our week we pray that you would enable us to live in your fear and so to walk that others may be compelled to ask a reason of the hope that is within us hear our prayers, forgive and pardon all of our sins and receive our thanks for this day in your courts we pray in Jesus name, Amen