Are You Ready to Die?

The Unavoidable Reality of Death and Inevitable Judgment

0:00 Spent a number of hours in preparing the second in the series, brief series of messages on the subject of biblical baptism from the 28th chapter of Matthew, but because my mind and spirit have been so much filled with far more weighty issues, as once again I and many of us have been forced to face the inescapable reality of death, I feel constrained to speak to you along lines far more fitting with my own present state of mind, and God willing I shall bring the second exposition on the biblical doctrine of baptism as found in Matthew 28 at our service next Lord's Day morning. I wish to direct to your conscience a very simple and very pointed question tonight. The question is simply this. Are you ready?

0:58 Are you ready to die? Are you ready to die? And I address that question to your conscience because our Lord Jesus clearly taught in the parable of Luke 12, 13 to 21, that the man who lives, no matter what other preparations he makes for life, if in life he makes no solid preparation to die, God calls him a fool. For you'll remember in that parable, which has as its major thrust a lesson against the sin of covetousness, our Lord brings before us this statement speaking of the rich man who pulled down his bonds to build others in order to enjoy himself. Thou foolish one, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. And so tonight every one of you in this building is categorized a wise man, a wise boy.

2:04 A wise woman, a wise girl, not in terms of your IQ, not in terms of your educational background or opportunities, not in terms of any knowledge you've been able to acquire in any of the broad fields of human learning. God says you are wise if you, sitting here tonight, are prepared to die, and God calls you a fool if you sit here unprepared. And so I'm addressing myself very personally and pointedly to this great issue. Are you ready to die?

2:42 Or we could state the question, are you a fool or are you wise? And as we would introduce some of the materials from the word of God that I wish to share with you, I want to remind you of certain very unavoidable realities with reference to the matter of death. Well, you look at the familiar text. In the context, the writer to the Hebrews is elaborating on the finality of the death of Christ, showing that by that one death he has secured eternal redemption for the people of God.

3:22 And as he looks for an illustration to show this inseparable relationship between a once-for-all act and an inevitable consequence, Christ's death, once-for-all, the inevitable consequence, completed salvation, he draws upon this inescapable, once-for-all fact and the inevitable consequence as his illustration. In other words, the statement about death and judgment in this passage is an illustration of a certain facet of the doctrine of salvation. You see the parallel? Christ was once offered, verse 28, having...

4:03 Once been offered for sin, the inevitable consequence is he shall appear a second time to them that wait for him unto salvation. Now, what does he use for his illustration of something that happens once-for-all and always, without exception, has an inevitable consequence? He uses the reality of death and of judgment for his illustration. Hence, verse 27.

4:31 And inasmuch as it is... As it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment, so Christ also, having once been offered, shall come.

4:45 Now, you see, when a doctrinal truth is so fundamental, so much accepted as a first principle that a man can use it to illustrate another truth, it's all the more powerful. He is not arguing to defend the fact and the inevitability of death. He is not arguing to defend that inescapable sequel to death called judgment. He assumes that any man who has not seared his conscience and utterly turned his back upon the revelation of God in nature or in the word of God will assume these as first principles.

5:23 Isn't it a shame that in our day they must be established once again? And from this text I lay before you these basic principles, first of all, the absolute certainty and unavoidableness of death. As it is appointed, and you will notice in your marginal reading in the A.S.V., laid up for. It is precisely the word used in Luke chapter 19 and verse 20, where the steward says, I took thy pound and I wrapped it and I laid it up. It speaks of putting something in a place of safety, in a place of safety, in a place of safety, in a place of safety, in a place of safe keeping. Something is stored up.

6:06 Something is laid up on our behalf. Colossians 1.5 speaks of the inheritance, which is laid up, which is the inevitable result of God's work of salvation in his people. Paul uses it in 2 Timothy 4.8.

6:23 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. It is my inevitable inheritance. My friend, there is something that God has laid up for everyone. It is the experience of death as it is laid up for men once to die.

6:44 And so death is the great leveler of all human beings. And one of the most sobering thoughts that comes to me, and I'm not a killjoy in this, I hope I'm a biblical realist, when I go to visit the young mothers in the hospital, and I'm taken to view their child for the first time through the gospel, and I'm taken to view their child for the first time through the gospel, and I'm taken to view their child for the first time through the gospel, by looking out at the glass of the nursery window, often I think as I look into the little bundle of life that has brought such joy to mom and dad, particularly when it's a firstborn, and I say, What will life hold for you? And I'm drawn back again and again to this simple fact. The only thing I and the mom and dad know for certain about that baby is that it shall die. That's all. That is all. We can't say, that it will be intelligent. We can't say that it will grow to maturity. We can't say

7:39 whether life will hold bliss or war. But one thing we can say, it is laid up for that little bundle of life to die. And it's all but what the scripture calls a brief sigh between the joyous news of the birth of a child and the sad news of the death of that same individual. Oh, you say, trying to... No, my friend, these are hard, cold, unavoidable, inescapable facts.

8:13 It is laid up for you to die. Face it, my friend. Your body, upon which so much time and money is spent, will one day be eaten by the worms. Oh, but I'm going to have... Yes, oh yes. So you're going to put yourself in a very expensive vault. It may delay the process. It will be eaten by the worms. Dust thou into dust thou shalt return. And the spiritual return to God who gave it is the teaching of the word of God. It is appointed the absolute certainty and unavoidableness of death. And my friend, the sooner we stop looking away from it and face it squarely, the better off we'll be. We don't talk about dying. We talk about passing on, passing away,

9:11 deceased. We die. It's appointed on the men once to die. We fix up our death so that they look better than they did in life. They're dead upon a silken cloth. Dead. The essence of living flowers will not change it. Dead. Dead. Dead. It is appointed on the men once to die. The absolute unavoidableness of the experience of death. And then there is in this text, the inevitable sequel to death. Look at it. As it is appointed on the men once to die, that rending of soul from body which constitutes death. And after this cometh judgment. Just as

10:12 certainly as Christ's death for sinners has its inevitable sequel of the salvation of those sinners for whom he died. See the parallel. So death has its inevitable sequel. Judgment. As it is appointed to die, so it is appointed to stand in judgment. We read that graphic depiction of judgment as John had the vision, seeing the sea giving up its dead in the graves opening and all of humanity standing in the presence of the great God of heaven and earth. Judgment is the inevitable sequel to death. That awesome day, when we shall stand in the presence of him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, who searches the innermost recesses of the heart, who knows us through and through. And the scripture makes very clear that as death leaves you,

11:17 the judgment will find you. And as the judgment finds you, eternity will hold you. And that's what makes it sobering, my friends. Let me give you a little bit of this.

11:30 Let me give it to you again. As death leaves you, the judgment finds you. And there's no influence of the burning of candles and the incantations of police that changes the state of the soul from death to judgment. Not a one. As you die, you stand in judgment. As death leaves you, the judgment will find you. And as the judgment finds you, eternity will hold you.

12:02 This is everything. This day was a time when wij Nos, the Lord of the angels, cannot filler, is not clear in reality Nobody will hold you. Nobody will hold you. That's enough to take the most giddy person in this building and shock him into sobriety, this is everything.

Ill-Founded Confidence: Unscriptural View of Man's Nature

12:12 nobody will hold you. If he but thinks upon it for a moment, it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment. Now, in the light of the absolute certainty and unavoidableness of death, the inevitable sequel to death judgment You see why I press the question the question of this judgment on your conscience and this judgment upon his woes你的 humб dt演 principle Evidence before you die conscience tonight. Are you scripturally prepared to die, or are you a fool? I'm not asking do you hope that you're ready to die. Do you think that perhaps you may be? I'm asking can you face what death is in the light of the scriptures, and what it means to be prepared to die in the light of the scriptures and say, blessed be God, I am prepared to die. My friend, that's a very practical question. For you see, the only man who lives this day

13:07 as he ought to live is the man who is prepared to die this day. Now, to think out some lines of biblical truth, I have two heads to our study tonight. There is on the one hand an ill-founded and deceptive confidence about death. Some of you may think you're prepared to die, but it is an ill-founded and deceptive confidence.

13:35 And we want to examine it. And then secondly, there is a well-founded and scriptural confidence in the face of death, and we want to examine what it is. All right? First of all, then, an ill-founded and deceptive confidence as to one's preparedness for death usually rests upon several things. First of all, many people have an unscriptural view of the nature of man. And hence they think. They think they are ready to die. When they read in Ecclesiastes that man is like the beast who dies, and they see this description, take for instance the Jehovah's Witnesses, they say that means exactly what it says. When the dog dies, that's the end of him. When

14:20 you die, that's the end of you. Ah, but you see, that is not treating the subject of whether or not man is an immortal creature, whether or not man has a never-dying soul. It's speaking of man in his external experience. And in so many ways, he is like the beast. He comes and performs his task, and he dies, and he is gone. But is that the whole story? No, no, my friend. For Jesus said in Matthew 10 and verse 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, in the lake of fire.

15:06 Jesus Christ taught that there is an entity of human personal existence called the soul, conscious, thinking, willing, feeling soul. And there is an entity called the body. And he says, don't fear them who can destroy the physical organism, the body, but they cannot touch this other reality, the soul. But fear him who can destroy both soul and body, and body in Gehenna.

15:41 The Lord Jesus clearly taught that all men who go into the graves shall come out of the graves and stand in judgment. Listen to his words in the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John, verses 28 and 29. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good will be saved, and they who have done good will be saved.

16:07 The Lord Jesus clearly taught that all men who go into the graves shall come out of the graves and stand in judgment. What a tragedy that the combined influence of evolution and of humanism and of rationalism has well-nigh destroyed from the fabric of our present generation this living awareness that this life is not the end of it all. Man does not die like the beast and is done. No, no.

16:40 You and I shall path on from this world to stand in the presence of God in that world to enter either that world of woe that we read from Revelation or that world of bliss likewise described so graphically. My friend, listen to me. Do you have, as it were, a sense of preparedness to die because you think death is just one long night of sleep that will never end?

17:11 What will your excuse be when you stand before God in judgment? You say, I didn't know that there was such a thing as judgment. The judge of the earth says, did you not sit in a chapel there in Essex fells and hear my word? The hour is coming in which all will come forth.

17:29 Ah, yes, God, but I thought that was the mere... I spoke to you from my word.

17:33 You are without excuse. Dear boys, girls, men and women, listen. Listen, if you have a sense of well-being in the face of death, if it's founded upon an unscriptural view of what you are, I declare to you now, God has endowed you with a soul that shall live forever and that soul shall be joined to a body that shall be forever in the presence of God or in banishment from His presence in the lake of fire. But on the other hand, there are others.

Ill-Founded Confidence: Unscriptural View of God's Nature

18:09 Who have a very settled confidence as they face death and they do believe that man has a soul, that man is an immortal creature, but they are confident as they face death because they have an unscriptural view of the nature of God. Their problem is not an unscriptural view of the nature of man. They say, oh yes, man is a creature made in the image of God and part of that image is that he is endowed with endless existence. But they have an unscriptural view.

18:39 They have an unscriptural view of the nature of God. Their thinking goes something like this. Oh yes, I have an immortal soul and I'm not perfect. I haven't done all that I should.

18:48 But God is good. God is gracious. And God has made all His creatures and God loves all His creatures sufficiently that in the end, love will prevail and all will ultimately look upon His face with bliss. As I heard even this past week after seeking faithfully to preach the biblical doctrine of death and hell and judgment and redemption.

19:14 And as someone expressed concern about these things to hear another relative say, oh well, we need not worry. There is all kinds of forgiveness with God.

19:26 My friend, listen to me. If you have a view of God that says, since I'm His creature, He loves me too much to do anything other than make sure I'll be in a state of bliss at last. Listen to me, my friend. You're full of an ignorance that will damn you.

19:43 For that God who loves His creatures with an infinite and indescribable love is the God of whom the Bible speaks when it says, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1.6 Hebrews 3.12.31 says, this God is a consuming fire. He's the God who has created hell for the devil and his angels. He's created a place and a state in which to place and banish all those who would defy His government.

20:19 And He takes human sins so seriously that He sent His Son all the way from the indescribable bliss and majesty of His presence to come to the confines of a virgin's womb to live amongst a sinful humanity and then to go to a cross and feel the billows and waves and His anger break upon His holy head. Why? Because that God of love is a God of light and a God of inflexible justice who takes human sin very seriously.

20:54 You may sit here tonight saying, oh, I'm prepared to die because I am resting in the lap of God's gentle benevolence and love and I have nothing to fear. My friend, you have everything to fear. But the Scripture says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of this living God for He is a consuming fire. What have you, to protect you from the consuming fire of God's anger against sin?

21:23 What have you, to insulate you against that fire? My friend, there is nothing to insulate but the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And unless and until you have fled in repentance and faith to be clothed with that righteousness and covered with that blood, you're exposed to the fiery wrath and anger of a holy God and you see, hell is not the creation of a new attitude in God. Hell is simply the manifestation of His present attitude to impenitent sinners.

22:01 Think of it, my friend. God doesn't have to scurry around to create and conjure up a new attitude in the day of judgment, a new state. No, no. Hell is but the final manifestation of the anger of God that burns to impenitence.

22:18 You say you're ready to die? Is that preparedness rooted in an unscriptural view of the nature of God? If so, I pray that the Holy Ghost will take the scriptures I've been quoting tonight and burn them into your heart and constrain you to say, where, oh, where do I stand in the presence of such a holy God? Then in the third place, there are people who have great confidence as they face death, but it's an illusion.

Ill-Founded Confidence: Unscriptural View of Sin's Nature

22:52 People found it in deceptive confidence because they have an unscriptural view of the nature of sin. Their problem is not an unscriptural view of the nature of man. No, they see that man is made to be a never-dying being. Nor is it primarily an unscriptural view of the nature of God.

23:11 They believe that God is holy and that God must punish sin, but they have an unscriptural view of the nature of sin. In other words, they reason like this. Oh, yes, God is light. The passage you read to us, Mr. Martin says, they that have done evil will come forth to the resurrection of damnation, but they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they say, I'm one of the good ones. They have a defective view of the nature of sin. They are like the Pharisee who thinks that sin is to be found exclusively in external acts. And as long as the Pharisee was externally clean and moral, he could stand, as we read in Luke chapter 18, and look up to heaven, and say, I frankly am not like the rest of men.

23:57 Extortioners, adulterers, murderers, thieves, and these publicans. You see what his problem was? He was confident that he was ready to die, but his confidence was ill-founded because he had a defective and unscriptural view of the nature of sin. The truth is, my friend, that God measures sin not only in external deeds, but He measures sin by any deflecting, by any action from His holy law, starting with the first springs of attitude and motive and thought, and then extending to the activities of the hands, the feet, the eyes, the ears, and all the members of the body.

24:41 You say, where do you find that? Listen to the words of Jesus. Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not kill, but I say unto thee, Whosoever is angry with his brother, is in danger of the judgment. You see what Jesus said?

25:00 The commandment, Thou shalt do no murder, does not touch merely the pulling of a trigger or the plunging of a knife into the heaving breath of a living human being. No, no. The attitude of anger, of viciousness, Jesus said, is a breach of that commandment. Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt do no or commit no adultery, but I say unto you, Whoso looketh with an evil eye, with an intent to lust, hath committed adultery already in his heart.

25:33 You see why you think you're prepared to die? You think that your external deeds, more of them are good than evil, and that may be true if you view the deed in itself, and you're confident you're ready to die because you say, my good will outweigh my bad. And my friend, that's rooted in an unscriptural view of the nature of sin. Let's take your so-called good things.

25:55 Are they really good? Yes, I pay my bills. Why? Well, because I was brought up that it's the right thing to do, yes.

26:04 But you see, your motive rises no higher than yourself, and your very good deeds are sin, because the scripture says, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Whatsoever is not done to the glory of God is sin. Anything that begins with you and terminates upon you is of the essence of sin. The essence of sin is living to yourself.

26:28 Now you may live a good moral life, but if the moral you've been viewing is simply yourself, your good deeds are wickedness. That's why the prophet Isaiah could say, We do all faith as a leaf, and all our righteousnesses, our good things, are as filthy rags. Isaiah 64. Oh, my friend, if you sit here tonight confident that you're prepared to die, could it be that your confidence is rooted in an unscriptural view of the nature of sin?

27:02 If it is, may God strip it away. May the scriptures quoted even now come like rapiers and cut through the folds of your self-righteous heart and lay bare that seething cauldron of putrid uncleanness that God sees and God knows is there. And I begin to see that the standard of holiness is God himself. Be ye holy as I am holy.

27:31 Then I see that amidst my best endeavors is the taint of sin. And I realize, unless something happens to me and something is done for me that touches the deepest springs of my being, I'm not prepared to die and stand before God in judgment. But then in the fourth place, there are people who have an ill-founded and deceptive confidence that they are ready to die because they have an unscriptural view of the nature of salvation. They may be quite straight on the nature of man.

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

28:05 Quite straight on the nature of what sin is. Quite straight, as we've already considered, on what the nature of God is, that he is holy and there must be forgiveness and cleansing. But their problem is they have an unscriptural view of the nature of salvation. They think themselves saved when they are not.

28:31 They will lose the term saved. They will use the terms forgiven. I've tried to reduce them to the ones that would be possibly most prevalent here tonight. May I suggest what they are?

28:43 The first one is the era of universalism. Oh yes, men are all sinners. Men are sinners in thought, word, and deed. But the Bible says, as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive.

28:58 It's the era of universalism. That salvation by God will be as extensive as the creation of God. And if he's created billions of human beings, he will save billions down to the last one. Oh my friend, there is no greater lie than this.

29:18 It is a flat contradiction of the explicit statements of Holy Scripture at point after point. You remember what we read from the book of the Revelation? John is describing with rapture the state of the redeemed. God shall wipe away tears from their eyes, no more death, no more sorrow, but without are the whoremongers, the sorcerers, the idolaters.

29:40 He shows that there will always be the separation of the righteous and the unrighteous. Jesus in that great description of the day of judgment in Matthew 25, under the figure of sheep and goats, says these shall go away into everlasting life. Ioneon zoe. These shall go away into everlasting punishment.

30:04 Ioneon conisos. Eternal punishment. Eternal life. Strict parallels.

30:12 As long as the unending life of the saints goes on in glory, the unending existence of the wicked shall go on with dread and with horror. You've got some wishful thinking that God will ultimately save all his creatures. Then you make a liar of the Son of God for he said of certain people it were better for them they had never been born. Then that they shall go to that state of ultimate and fixed eternal woe. If any man should pass through a billion years of suffering, if he shall ultimately enter glory and be in glory for eternity, it would be good for him that he were born. The fact that Jesus said it is good that he had never been born is an eloquent testimony to the fact that universalism is a lie. But then there is a more subtle error and it comes perhaps closer to home. It's the error of sacramentalism. There are people

31:15 who are confident they are ready to die. Why? Because they've had the right things done to them at the right time by the right person in the right place. You say, what are you talking about?

31:27 Alright, let me illustrate. I have gone as a babe in the arms of my parents to the priest who in the right way, at the right time, in the right place, did the right thing to me and because I was baptized I was christened, my original sin was taken away and now I continue to go to the right place at the right time and do the right things and I say penance and I say my rosaries and I do this and do that and my ecclesiastical system says all's well. My friend, that's sacramentalism and it's a damning delusion. There's evangelical sacramentalism as well.

32:10 Perhaps there's been no group that has made or maintained the doctrine of justification by faith with greater clarity than Lutheranism but what an abominable sacramental leaven is in their teaching that God has conveyed grace through the water. That the waters of baptism actually convey grace so that when a good Lutheran dies, no matter how impenitent he was, it is perfectly proper to take the rubric of funeral services and say that so and so was made a member of the kingdom of heaven through baptism and pull out his baptismal record and read the date and comfort everyone that he's now in heaven when he may be in hell. Sacramentalism. Oh, am I talking to someone tonight who feels all is well because you had the right thing done to you in the right way by the right person at the right time. Ah, listen to me, my friend. Listen to the teaching of the word of God. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us. Except a man

33:14 be born of the spirit there must be living contact with the living God by the life giving spirit. Not contact with the right hands in the right building at the right time in the right place. But then there is perhaps even the more subtle form of delusion on the matter of salvation. It's what I'm calling decisionism. Oh, I don't believe all that stuff. Not saved by your baptism. Not saved by your church membership. Not saved by this. But I have made my decision for Christ. I did it. And the moment I did it that fixed me up for eternity. I have no fears of death ever since.

33:53 Why? Because I did it. Oh, how many times as a pastor my heart has bled as I've talked with loved ones who perhaps are people, Christian people who had a loved one who was coming near that inevitable experience of death and as I've sought wisely to draw forth whether there was any grounds to console them with Christian consolation I said you have reason to believe that he or she is a true believer. That he or she is in Christ.

34:19 Now I've heard these words that made me shudder. Oh yes, she did that years ago. Oh yes, he did that years ago. He did that.

34:30 You see what they're saying? They went through some motions of a decision, a profession. I'm not asking if they did something years ago. My question is, is it evidence that God did something and joined them to his Son?

34:44 Has there been evidence of divine life in the soul? The curse of decisionism is that it causes people to rest upon an act performed in the past instead of upon a relationship that is vibrant and limp in the present. I remember one man, full-time Christian worker, we got talking about matters of this nature and he said, well for me, I know whenever I have doubts about my salvation, when I don't see the evidences of grace in my life, I go back to the time when at twelve, I accepted the Lord. I go back to the time when I accepted the Lord. What a frightening thing. What's the difference between that and the Roman Catholic who says, I go back and take out my baptismal and my confirmation record? And the person who holds a wrong view of the nature of the baptismal act in a covenantal framework and who goes back to his baptismal register. What's the difference,

35:49 friends? There's no difference. It's resting upon a human act performed. And if you have confidence that you're ready to die because of the error of universalism or sacramentalism or decisionism, my friend, you have an ill-founded hope.

Well-Founded Confidence: Dying 'In the Lord'

36:05 Now let me turn to the positive. What is a well-grounded scriptural confidence that you're prepared to die? And it's only the person who has this who has any right to think of death with anything other than dread and horror. Well, we could look at many passages, but I want to look at one little phrase that to me says everything. Turn, please, to Revelation 14, 13. Revelation 14 and verse 13. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, write blessed that is perfectly happy. You can't describe this word blessed. It takes

36:52 into it happiness, but it's more than happiness. Tranquility, but it's more than tranquility. Fulfillment, but it's more than that. It's all of those things thrown into one plus more.

37:02 It describes man's capacity fully realized by the grace of God. That's blessedness. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. That's it.

37:19 That's it. Blessed are they who die in the Lord. You see what it's doing? It's not pointing to an act performed.

37:31 It's pointing to a relationship established. Blessed are they who die in the Lord. They are the ones who are truly prepared to die, who when death comes, it finds them in the Lord, vitally joined to Jesus Christ the Lord in a union which death cannot sever, but to which death itself has become subservient. Can I give you that again? A union which death cannot sever, but to which death itself has become subservient. Now who are these people that are in Christ, and how did they get that way? Blessed are those who die in the Lord. Not those who die knowing something about him. Not those

38:34 who believe things about him, who've made some decision with reference to him, who love his church, who love his ordinances, who admire his ethics. No, no. Blessed are those who die in the Lord. Now how did they come to that state?

38:46 Well, the first thing we must establish is they weren't in that state by nature. The Bible says by nature we are in Adam. We're in a state of death, a state of alienation, the carnal mind of enmity against God, and no man was ever brought to the state of being in the Lord, till God first of all awakened him to the fact that he was out of the Lord. For Jesus said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The first work of the Spirit of God in testifying of Christ, when he has come, he'll reprove the world of sin. He brings us to the realization inwardly and experientially that we are out of Christ, out of life, alienated from God in a state of guilt and depravity, of bondage and of death. And no man was in Christ simply because he woke up one morning and the sun looked nice and he imagined himself a believer. Though the Spirit of God works sovereignly the ways of the Spirit are like the wind, he works by means of the truth and he deals with us as rational creatures made in the image of God.

39:53 And his first work is to awaken us to see our need of Christ. Now the measure, the depth, the extent, the manifestation of that awakening will differ with every individual. In a little child he may be awakened to his sense of need by something so mundane as his fear of the dark. He senses, well I know God's everywhere, but I'm afraid of the dark. Why am I afraid of the dark? Because I don't know the God who is everywhere. And God can use a little thing like that in a child to begin to turn him to seek the Lord. And in a child many times the first evidence that they've come into experimental acquaintance with Christ is they're no longer afraid of the dark. They say

40:39 I know Jesus is with me. Very simple. Ah, but you see the principle is there. Awaken to the sense of need of this one who alone is light and power and grace and forgiveness.

40:53 It may be that God will use some human tragedy. God may use a thousand and one things but the scripture makes clear that Christ has come to save sinners and until we see ourselves the sinners that we are we are never brought into Christ. And the second thing that God does is he illuminates us as to God's way of accepting sinners. Not only does he show us we're not in Christ and we need to be. He shows us how we can be found in Christ. The work of the gospel then is the work of proclaiming the facts of Christ who he is. What he's done. The preaching of the cross. Preaching Christ crucified and the spirit then illuminates the mind which before saw no beauty in Christ. We see now that in Christ crucified risen pleading at the right hand of the Father is all our hope and all our desire. Then thirdly he enables us to embrace Christ in repentance and faith. Repentance, the analogy of marriage came home to me so forcefully a week ago Saturday.

42:03 Repentance is the forsaking of all others leaving father and mother the existing sphere of government for the young man and woman in which they've lived from birth. God says a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. Come under a new sphere of relationship and government and delight. So it is in embracing the Savior.

42:27 There must be the leaving that sphere of government in which we existed from birth. In which my will, my plans, my desires were central. Living to myself there must be a leaving of it. Repentance toward God and the cleaving to the Lord Jesus. To be my Savior.

42:45 To be my sovereign. To be my life. To be my all. To be his and you to be mine and that forever. That's how one is joined to the Lord. One is espoused to Christ in the vows of repentance and faith. Now my friend, those who die in the Lord, that's how they got into that state. God awakened them to their need. He showed them His glory in the face of Christ crucified and enabled them to repent and to believe and they received new life from Christ if any man be in Christ in the Lord. He is a new creation. You see, heaven is the new creation and God's making new creations to fit the new creation. What is heaven without the redeemed people of God? So He is making all

43:35 things new and fitting a new people for a new heavens and a new earth. Blessed are they who die in the Lord. I ask you tonight are you in the Lord? I like that phrase. Are you in the Lord by a living faith? By a true repentance? Are you in the Lord? If so, my friend, you are blessed of all peoples of the earth for you are ready to die and because you are ready to die, you are prepared to live tomorrow like no one else can live who is not in the Lord.

What Death Can and Cannot Do to the Believer

44:10 I want to close by bearing down on this very practical matter for the believer. Do you know precisely what death can and cannot do to you? Well, let me introduce some closing thoughts by reading three statements of the Lord Jesus with reference to death and they are all from the Gospel of John. John chapter 5 is the first and then we will look at one in John 8 and one in John 11.

44:37 In John 5 and verse 24 we read Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath eternal life and cometh not into judgment but hath passed out of death into life. In this verse Jesus says that union with him by faith takes us totally out of the realm of death and into the realm of life. Death has no more to do with us. Ah, but you say, wait, hold off.

45:14 I know what your question is but hold off on it. Now look at the second text in John chapter 8 and verse 51. John 8, 51 I am the living bread which came down out of heaven if any man eat of this bread. See the matter of relationship eating a present activity.

45:34 Not if anyone had a snack twenty years ago. If anyone eats of this bread, those in Christ feed upon Christ. He shall live forever. Yea, and the bread which I give is my flesh for the life of the world. He says he'll live forever. He's entered into and ushered upon eternal life. Death is no longer in his realm. Now look at 11 of John verses 25 and 26.

46:08 John 11, 25, 26 on the occasion of the resurrection of Lazarus or the raising him from the dead. Verse 25, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though he die yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Now doesn't there seem to be a contradiction? Jesus says that living relationship with him in faith negates the power of death. Well this is what you must understand. Death in the Bible is spoken of as the judgment of God upon man's sin. In the day that thou

46:53 eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Now involved in that death of course is incipient death. The sickness of the body, physical death, the separation of soul from body, eternal death, the lake of fire, but all aspects in their judicial judgmental sense God the judge meeting the sentence of death upon man the sinner. Now when Jesus said he that believes in me shall never die, he's saying that death as a judicial act of God will never be meted out upon the believer. Why?

47:31 Because judicially Jesus Christ tasted death for every man. That is every son whom he is bringing to glory in the context of Ephesians of Hebrews chapter 2. You see what he's saying? Death as a judicial punishment for sin which means the present afflictions the separation of soul from body as an act of judgment preparatory to the final casting into the lake of fire Jesus Christ has taken all of that sting of death on our behalf for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is in the law and Christ has satisfied the law. So what are our afflictions now? They're the chastisements of a loving father not the strokes of an angry judge. We fear no future punishment why Christ bore our hell but now get this believer and even death's mission in the separation of the soul and the body is no longer a judgmental act of God. Death has

48:40 been brought to be his subject to loose us to look upon his face with bliss. That's why he could say he that believes in me shall never die. If all death can do is loose you to look upon the face of Jesus and to love him without sin, that's no judicial act is it? That's an act of mercy. That's an act of blessing. To loose me in the words of Pauline thinking from this body of humiliation to loose me from this earthly tabernacle in this we do wrong is the word of the apostle so that I may face death with a totally new perspective. Get the imagery. Prior to being in Christ when I saw death if I saw him biblically I saw him armed to the teeth with the weapons of my destruction.

49:31 In one hand was the saber of God's holy law which I had broken and death could come and run me through. In his mouth was the dagger of divine indignation against my pollution and my rebellion and with it he could slay me. I look upon death in the words of Hebrews 2 all my lifetime afraid of death afraid that I may turn the corner and death may be there armed to the teeth to rinse my soul and body and fix me in a state where I should experience terrible death. God help you if you're out of Christ and you don't fear death. He may be there behind that corner. He may be sitting in the pew next to you and he unleashes his weapons not at your will but at the will of the God who has appointed unto men once to die. Someone conveyed the news tonight of the death of a grandfather who would have been a hundred and one at his next birthday in the very place where I had to preach this Tuesday they had to lay to rest a six-year-old girl death marks no vector of persons when God says save the sinner

50:56 and he's never been denied his prey now I look at death as he comes to me from the summons of God and what do I see? I don't see an enemy armed to the teeth with weapons to destroy me. I see him coming with a packet under his arms, sealed orders and those orders say release this saint who is joined to my son that he may look upon the face of his savior with joy and I can look death right in the eye and say you've got no dagger to pierce me through the father took the dagger from your hand and pierced his son and threw it away. You've got no lance with which to pierce me all you can do is release me to look upon the face of my savior for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord Oh Christian what a prospect we can have of death the actual experience of death sure there's an element of the frightening nature we've never been down that road but we have the promise that he shall be with us and that death has been made subject to him through death he destroyed him that had the power of death

Death as a Servant to the Believer

52:23 and delivered us who prefer death we're not in our lifetime subject to bondage we have in our record collection at home a record given to us by a dear missionary to South America and it's the collection of a series of poems by a black poet who lived from 1871 to 1938 James Weldon Johnson and these are poetic sermons and with Fred Waring's choral group doing the background music and choral work they have two excellent readers and one of the sermons that has profoundly influenced me and has etched its way into the channels of my mind is the one on death and I wish I could I even toyed with the idea but it would have for some who were visiting think we were given to sensationalism so I didn't do it I was thinking I'd love to put it on tape and just play it for you but in this particular part of the sermon Mr. Johnson pictures death in a very graphic and imaginary way death is summoned to the great white throne of God and given a summons to go down to Yamacroy Georgia to fetch Sister Caroline and God says to death she's born the heat of the day and she's toiled and now she's weary and it's time to bring her home and then it speaks of death leaving the presence of God and jumping upon his white charger and as he rides out of the courts of heaven his stripes sparks and they look like

53:52 meteors in the sky and down down down he comes and he finds Sister Caroline and he takes Sister Caroline and then Mr. Johnson goes on to describe he lays her gently upon his arm and death goes up beyond the morning star up beyond the evening star out into that glittering light of glory and then death laid Sister Caroline upon the loving breast of Jesus and then he depicts how Jesus says take your rest now take your rest now and that little phrase death laid Sister Caroline upon the loving breast of Jesus my friend the summons gonna go from the throne of God for this preacher someday and death is gonna come not to wrench my soul and body as a judicial act of judgment because of my sin not to wrench soul from body to await the day of judgment and final consignment to hell but hallelujah death can only take me up beyond the morning star up beyond the evening star and out into that glittering light of glory and lay me on the loving breast of Jesus blessed are they who die in the Lord oh my friend are you ready to die

Call to Repentance and Faith, and Responsibility for Believers

55:21 are you ready to die are you ready to die I'm asking you are you ready to die you say I believe so well then my second question is is it an ill founded deceptive confidence or is it a well grounded biblical confidence which is it I don't want to think I know you don't want to think about it but I love you enough and you're polite enough to sit here and not get angry and storm out of here and while I have you for the moment may be the spirit of God my friend God grant that you will flee to Christ who bore the sins of an innumerable many that they might be prepared to die flee to him cry to him for mercy believe on him repent and believe the gospel and I say to you who are in Christ oh what a responsibility we have to our loved ones to our neighbors if I'm speaking to any in the Christian ministry God have mercy on you if you don't speak plainly about death

56:40 God help you if you dally in pious little nuttons that have a gathering of the gospel we're dying men living in the midst of death preaching against the backdrop of death and God help us if we go to the judgment read with the blood of the souls of men are you ready to die in Christ you are out of Christ you aren't where are you let us pray oh God our heavenly father how grateful we are for the scriptures this king of terror as he is so often called would hold nothing but terror for us did we not know who he was and what he could do in the light of the word of God and oh father with all our hearts we plead tonight for children men and women in this building who are not prepared to die because they are not in Christ oh God disturb them give them no rest give them no peace Lord in mercy track them down until they see themselves and see your

58:07 glory in the face of Christ and repent and believe the gospel and oh father those of us who are in Christ who once knew those terrible terrors at the thought of death how we thank you we can face him squarely in the eye tonight and though he may bluff and though he may snarl Lord we thank you we know what he can and cannot do to us oh we ask that as your people we may make it evident to the world that we have this hope that they know nothing of that we may be faithful in conveying it in so living that they may see the reality of our union with Christ destroy the errors that we've exposed tonight by the power of your word for you've said it's a hammer that breaks the rock Lord we cry to you may this word not fall to the ground oh may we meet in that day of great gathering those who mark this night as the night when they began in earnest to prepare to die hear us oh God our heavenly father and be pleased to answer us for the sake and for the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ

59:34 Amen before we are dismissed I do want to make it evident particularly for those visiting amongst us our own people know this when one lives amongst the people for 11 years at least a few things come through my concern is not simply to preach sermons and if God has arrested you tonight and you tremble even to leave those doors until you know that all is right between you and your God you'll not be imposing on us at all to say Mr. Martin could I talk with you about these issues I need further light from the word of God I need help it would be our privilege to open up the scriptures to you and if God has given you light my friend you don't need human aid you call upon the Lord right there where you sit in calling he will save you even as he has promised