Unavoidable Appointment with Death

Scripture Reading and Introduction to the Passage

0:00 Attention, please, to the reading of the Word of God.

0:06 I trust you have your own Bible. If you're not in the habit of bringing a Bible, I would urge you to do so, for you are often reminded in this place, believe nothing unless you see it with your own eyes in the Scriptures. I would encourage you to follow as I read from the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 9. Again, and I shall begin reading in a rather awkward place, but I trust the rationale for this will become evident as we move into the study of the Word.

0:42 Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 24 through the fourth verse of chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 9, beginning with verse 24.

0:56 For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in patterns, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Else must he, that is Christ, often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, hath he been manifested to put, away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

1:36 And in his much, or as it is appointed unto men, once to die and after this judgment. So Christ also, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time apart from sin to them that wait for him unto salvation. For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the thing, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually make perfect them that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins.

The Argument of Hebrews 9: One Sacrifice, Complete Salvation

2:21 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. The great overarching theme, of this epistle to the Hebrews, is the superiority of Christ and the blessings of the new covenant, in comparison with everything under the old covenant. In Christ there is a better sacrifice, there is a better priesthood, and all of these better things are given to those, who come under the canopy of the blessings of the new covenant. Now in this particular section, from which I just read in your hearing, the superiority of Christ's sacrifice, in comparison to all the Old Testament sacrifices, is underscored in terms of its finality, and its non-repeatable nature. You remember up in the earlier verses, verses 25, nor yet that he should offer himself often, the high priest was continually making sacrifices. Telling us what? Why that his sacrifices were not adequate for the problem of sin.

3:43 But we know that Christ's sacrifice is adequate for the problem of sin, for it is a sacrifice made once for all. Unrepeated and unrepeatable sacrifice. Then in verse 28, the writer states, that Christ having once for all offered a sacrifice on behalf of many, will return, but not to die again, but to confer upon all for whom he died, the full measure of the salvation that he purchased for them. Look at the language.

4:25 So Christ, having been once offered to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time. But unlike the high priest, who was continually appearing to offer up more sacrifices for sins, when he appears, it's not to offer up a second sacrifice. No, no. Having appeared once to offer a sacrifice, he will appear the second time, conferring all of the final blessings of the sacrifice, of the blessings purchased by his sacrifice.

4:57 He will appear in the language of the text, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation. So the thrust of the writer's thought is this. There has been one offering for sin, issuing in a completed salvation. One offering, the result, complete salvation.

5:25 Now he desires to enforce that truth with an illustration, with an analogy, a likeness. He wants to find a parallel of something in human experience where you have a once-for-all event followed by a consequence, and the two will never be separated. Because the once-for-all sacrifice cannot be separated from the accomplishment of full salvation for all for whom the sacrifice was made. And in looking for that analogy, in looking for that likeness, in looking for that illustration, the writer uses what we have in the language of verse 27. And inasmuch, or just as, or in accord with the way that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this judgment, so Christ once offered shall come the second time with complete salvation. In other words, verse 27 is brought into the thread of the writer's thought and argument as an illustration, as a parallel of this inseparable relationship between one act of God

6:50 and a certain consequence or a sequel act of God. Now it is the illustration that forms our text this morning. My purpose is not to open up the major thread of argument in the passage which would have to do with the superiority of Christ's sacrifice over the Old Testament sacrifices. But it is to focus upon verse 27.

Pastoral Context: Two Sudden Deaths Prompt the Sermon

7:19 This analogy, this illustration, this enforcement of the major argument inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die and after this, after this judgment. Now why have I chosen to speak on this text? Well I'm sure the reason is obvious to many of you. During this past week our minds and our spirits have been made sober by the great realities of death and of the judgment.

7:51 Without warning, without the usual forerunners of serious and prolonged illness, the gradual deterioration of advanced age or the destructive influence of a serious accident with none of these forerunners which usually announce the coming of death, in a very real sense, death ambushed us this week. Without warning, without any forerunners, death intruded in taking our brother Sam to the presence of his Savior, and in snatching Mr. Carrillo out of this life. Now if we lived in the midst of a plague where people were dying continually and in great numbers, if we lived in the midst of an epidemic or war or famine, perhaps there would be little need to take a text of Scripture which sets out what is very obvious in such times as I've just mentioned. But we are a relatively young congregation, and most of the social events which call us together are marriages, not funerals. Most of the announcements that touch life touch the inception of life or at least life outside of the womb,

9:17 as week by week we have the joy of announcing births. And weeks and months pass in this assembly when death is as though it does not exist. And so it is my concern to seize upon this strange providence of God that has brought death as it were out of the realm of something that's there but not real and stood it before us as it were in all of its naked ugliness and reality that we might think soberly concerning these issues. And I direct your attention then to verse 27 in which there is set before us in the language of this text what I am calling first of all the unavoidable appointment. Look at the text. And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die. Now the word appointed literally means to lay up or to reserve.

The Unavoidable Appointment - What Is Appointed: Death Defined

10:22 It's the word used of the Christian's hope in Colossians 1.5. The hope which is laid up for you in the heavens. The hope which is reserved for the people of God in the heavens.

10:36 It's the word the apostle uses with regard to the reward of righteousness in 2 Timothy 4 and verse 8. Henceforth there is laid up same word, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. So you see the sense of the word is that of something that is laid up something that is reserved. It is reserved.

10:59 It is laid up. It is appointed unto men once to die. And I want you to consider with me the unavoidable appointment in some of its particulars. First of all what is reserved or laid up?

11:19 The text says it is appointed or laid up unto men once to die. It is the experience of death which is reserved or laid up for each one of us. A death we shall experience only once. It is appointed unto men once to die.

11:49 Now when the writer used the word to die to what was he referring? What is the biblical meaning of the words to die? Well let me say negatively he was not referring to some notion of the cessation of man's being. There are those who hold the opinion that when your life functions cease and you are clinically and medically dead that's the end of you.

12:22 Well when the Bible speaks of death it is not anywhere suggesting the cessation of being nor is it referring to some notion of the absorption into some universal force as though at death we lose our individuality and become part of some life force of the universe that goes on forever and ever. And certainly it does not speak of entrance into a state that some have called the sleep of the soul. No, no. The Bible describes what this verse says.

12:58 He calls to die as that abnormal that radical separation of the soul and the body in which the soul enters a realm fitting to its condition at that separation. Death in the Bible is the separation of the body from the soul. The material part of me is separated from the non-material and as the material part of me is buried or cremated or goes to dust in whatever form it goes to dust the non-material part of that which constitutes me, me will enter a realm of consciousness and continued existence commensurate with the state of that non-material part of me. This is clearly taught by our Lord in such passages as Luke 16. For we read that the beggar died and he is found conscious. He is found communicating in Abraham's bosom.

14:12 The rich man dies and in hell he is found conscious. He is found communicating. He is found as an intelligent being. And so this unavoidable appointment is an appointment with death.

The Unavoidable Appointment - For Whom: All Mankind as Sinners

14:30 That is, you and I have an appointment with that experience in which there will be this abnormal this radical wrenching apart of the soul and the body the soul entering a state and a condition a realm fitting to its spiritual state. But now in the second place under the particulars of this appointment notice what the text says concerning those for whom this experience is appointed. What is reserved? To die and to die but once.

15:12 For whom is this appointment? The text says it is appointed unto men. And the word used here is the word used when the biblical writers want to describe man mankind in general. The word can be used of a specific man that is a male person but many times it is used as a synonym for humanity.

15:39 And so our text says that this appointment is made with all mankind. Men, women, boys, girls of every single racial and ethnic background in every sociological and cultural context. It matters not. For whom is this appointed?

16:01 Look at the text. It is appointed unto men once to die. Sure, the beasts die but they do not die in the biblical sense. For they have no soul.

16:12 They do not have stamped upon them the image of God in the sense that part of that image bearing capacity is the never dying soul. No, no. It is appointed unto men once to die. That is to pass through this experience of the radical rending of soul and body.

16:34 It is appointed unto men. Now we must qualify. This appointment was not made with man because he is man the creature. There was no death appointed in the original creation.

16:49 Death was only a warning from the lips of God to man the creature. In Genesis 1 and 2 we have the record of God's creation. And there is no death envisioned except in the warning of God. And God says in the day that thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt die.

17:12 No, this appointment with death was not made with man because he is man the creature but because he is man the sinner. And this is why the apostle can say in Romans 5 in verse 12 a pivotal text for any biblical understanding of this phenomena of death. Therefore as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin. And so death passed upon all men for that all sinned.

17:57 And here the apostle shows that death in its universal embracing scope is the monumental testimony to the universality of man's involvement in sin. So then death is a penal experience upon the human race. And even for the believer for whom death is no longer a penal experience death is still appointed. It is a fatherly discipline.

The Unavoidable Appointment - By Whom: The Sovereign God

18:27 It is appointed unto men. Once to die. And then the third particular we need to note about this unavoidable appointment is by whom is the experience of death appointed? Well the text does not explicitly state but the Bible is clear in answer to that question.

18:48 It is the living holy righteous God of the universe that makes this appointment. The God who said in the day thou eatest thou shalt die. It is that God who is Lord over death. There is that graphic picture in Revelation 1.

19:04 You remember John saw this representation of the exalted Christ and he jangles as it were a key chain or a key ring before John and says I have the keys of hell and of death. He is Lord over death. And my friends it is because the appointment is made by the sovereign living eternal God of the universe that you and I need to face two very simple simple facts. Number one the unavoidable unavoidable certainty of our death and the unpredictable time of our death.

19:45 The unavoidable certainty of our death. It is God who has made this appointment for each of the members of mankind. It is appointed once to die. And my friend what God appoints man cannot frustrate.

20:07 And I laugh at the silly things proud blind men are saying. We will yet be able to unlock certain secrets that will conquer the problem of old age and atrophy and man will usher in his own eternal life. No he won't. It is appointed once to die.

20:29 And it is almighty God who has made that appointment and that appointment that you and I have with death can no more be scrubbed from that which will come to us than God can be shoved from his throne. And because it is God who makes the appointment death is not only an unavoidable certainty it is an unpredictable thing as to its timing. You see the appointment book is in God's hands. And he inscribes our name and the time and the circumstances of our death without consulting us.

God's Unilateral Appointment Book: Certainty and Unpredictability

21:10 When you want to make your doctor's appointment it is a bilateral agreement. You call in the nurse looks at the appointment book and she says well Dr. Jones has time such and such and such and such and you look at your schedule and it is a bilateral arrangement. He has a slot you have a slot there is common agreement we make an appointment.

21:32 Furthermore the doctor is free to call up and the nurse says you know I am terribly sorry the doctor had an emergency bit of surgery or a baby came a week early and he is going to have to break the appointment. Or you can call up and say I am so sorry but such and such has come up. You see it is a bilateral arrangement. You agree as to when it is mutually convenient to visit the physician.

21:53 Either one is free to break it. It is a form of contractual arrangement. But when this text says it is appointed unto men once to die it is a unilateral appointment. God holds the appointment book writes the time and the circumstances and names of those whom death shall seize and none can open that book or alter what he has written.

22:21 Now the Psalmist said in Psalm 90 generally speaking God allots three score and ten that seventy years. But my friends this week God has reminded us he is not under obligation to give any man his three score and ten. The two taken from us were almost a full score short of three score and ten. But God reserves the right to keep the appointments that he himself has dictated.

23:02 But someone says Pastor Martin you are just using the scare tactics of preachers. I have been around it. My friend I refuse that allegation. I challenge you to undermine the validity of what I have said.

23:18 The time of your death is determined of God and will be executed infallibly by God and there is nothing you can do either to discover it or to change it. Now challenge that on fact. Is that a scare tactic to confront you with the fact that you do not know where your name is inscribed in God's appointment book with death? Is that a scare tactic children?

23:51 Does any of you have direct revelation from God that you will see your tenth birthday or your fifteenth or your twentieth or your thirtieth or your fortieth or your fiftieth? Do you? If you claim to that sheer fanaticism for God reserves absolute right to the secrecy of his own appointment book. It is in the best interest of every man, woman, boy and girl in this place in the light of this unavoidable appointment to say to himself this morning I must die. I do not know when I shall die. Now do you tell yourself that and tell yourself that regularly and frequently? You see the only thing certain from the moment that little one breathes its first outside its mother's womb is that it will breathe its last.

25:07 There is nothing, nothing that can be predicted with absolute certainty but that. That little one that breathes its first shall breathe its last. I must die. And furthermore I do not know when I shall die.

25:31 Have we not often heard of people who say how in the world are they alive? Doctors gave them up, medical science gave them up and they are still alive. Others in the flush of youth one of the young men who came to the has come to the academy spoke of a relative athletic beautiful young man beautiful young woman healthy eighteen years of age snatched away with a stroke. Eighteen year olds don't have strokes.

25:58 That's for crotchety old people who are unknown. Now my friend it is appointed unto men once to die. And in God's name what will it take to bring some of you to look yourself in the mirror even today and say to yourself by name John Jones you must die. And John Jones you don't know when you shall die.

Transition: Introducing the Inescapable Sequel to Death

26:29 Our text says it is appointed unto men once to die. But in the second place notice what our text says concerning the inescapable sequel to that appointment. It's sobering enough to face the unavoidable appointment itself. It's appointed once to die.

26:52 But oh consider the inescapable sequel to that appointment. It is appointed unto men once to die and then the text says and after this and you'll notice if you have an authorized version of the 1901 the word the verb cometh is in italics. There is no verb in the original. If we were to give a more literal rendering it would be like this.

27:16 As it is appointed and stored up for man to die once. And after this experience judgment. The inescapable sequel to the appointment with death is judgment. When death occurs once for all there is no coming back for another chance.

The Intermediate State: Conscious Existence Between Death and Judgment

27:43 There is no entrance upon a period of further probation. The whole notion of purgatory is sheer medieval nonsense. After death judgment. Granted I'm fully aware that the Bible teaches what's called the intermediate state.

28:01 The state between death and the general resurrection. When the spirits the souls of believers are with Christ consciously enjoying communion with Christ consciously enjoying all the delights of having their souls purged from the last remnants of sin. They are called in Hebrews the spirits of just men made perfect. Yes there is the intermediate state when the soul of the believer is with Christ while the body rests in the earth.

28:34 And when the soul of the unbeliever is in hell. Not that which the scripture calls Gehenna but the place of the departed wicked. And is already in a state of conscious torment feeling as it were the preview of what it shall know with intensified agony when it's reunited to its body. And as unpopular as the teaching may be we either throw out our Bibles and become sheer rationalists or acknowledge that that's the teaching of the word of God.

29:10 But it is not the intermediate state upon which the Bible focuses. For that very reason it's just the intermediate state. And though it may last for thousands of years for some like Abraham and Moses compared with the eternal state towards which everything in the Bible moves the great eschaton the great culmination the great climax of all the Bible as it were passes over with just a few illusions and clear statements here and there enough to give us confidence as we could have as we gathered on Thursday and contemplate absent from the body present with the Lord. But you see that which everything points to is judgment and so our text brings into close proximity death and judgment. Now the word used in our text is the general word used to describe that great and awesome day. It's the word used frequently by our Lord in such passages as Matthew 10 and verse 15 and I simply read without comment the words of our Lord. Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of death.

Judgment Element 1: God's Public Dealing with the Whole Man

30:26 In the day of judgment. The same language is used in 11.22. He says it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment.

30:41 The Apostle Paul in Acts 17.31 says God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. This is the inescapable sequel to that appointment with death. As it is appointed once to die and after this judgment as surely as the death of Christ is non-repeatable as surely as his death will issue in a completed salvation for all those for whom he died.

31:15 So here's the analogy that he's using to buttress that inescapable relationship as all shall die all shall come to judgment. Now what are the major elements of the biblical doctrine of judgment? And I give them to you in the broadest outlines this morning. It will first of all involve God's public dealing with the whole man.

31:41 God's public dealing with the whole man. That's why the judgment follows the resurrection. You remember what we read from John 5 this morning? Jesus said don't marvel at this the hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear my voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

32:10 It will be God's public dealing with the whole man. You see it is not as though the soul that departs the body in death is in question as to what its eternal state will be until the day of judgment. Any such teaching is sheer nonsense. The moment the rich man died in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment.

32:34 There was no doubt that his state consciously broke in upon him and he knew what that state was. But you see the day of judgment will involve God's dealing with the whole man. Therefore according to Revelation 20 the sea will give up the dead that are in it and death and the grave. Give up the dead that are in them.

32:58 And it will be the whole man united body and soul that will stand before God in the day of judgment. May I put it as plainly and crassly as I know how. Look at the body with which you are now sitting in this building. Look at your hands.

33:14 Look down at your feet. It is in that body that you will go to judgment. That body raised from the dead. That body resurrected.

33:26 That body in which you now live and think and carry out all that constitutes life for you. The judgment will involve God's public dealing with the whole man. Secondly, it will be an activity of public declaration regarding the state of your soul at death. You see the state of the soul at death is unchanged in the intermediate state.

Judgment Element 2: Public Declaration of the Soul's State at Death

33:53 It's appointed unto men once to die. The state of the soul is fixed. What will the judgment do? It will be a public declaration of what that state was at death.

34:04 That's why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 4, 5, Judge nothing before the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of men's hearts. Then shall every man have his praise from God. He says in that day what I really am will come to light. What I am as a man now in life, what I will be when I die will be publicly declared in the day of judgment.

34:38 It will be an activity of public declaration regarding the true state of the soul at death. Thirdly, it will be an act of public demonstration of the righteousness of the sentence. For the scripture teaches that the judgment will be based on works. The passage in John 5, they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation, they that have done good and every passage that speaks of judgment says will be judged according to our works.

Judgment Element 3: Public Demonstration of the Righteousness of the Sentence

35:11 2 Corinthians 5, 10, Revelation 20, Matthew 12, 36, by thy words thou shall be justified, by thy words thou shall be condemned. Now why? Since the Bible everywhere teaches we are not saved by our works. If you have the idea that in the judgment God is going to pile up all the goodies you did, and then all the baddies you did, and then if one outweighs the other, then he's going, no, no, my friend, no, no, no, no, no, no, you've missed it completely.

35:39 Listen, the Bible teaches that the judgment according to works is not a judgment in which God is weighing our good against our bad to see whether or not we've earned heaven or earned hell. No, no, my friend, that's not the teaching of the Bible at all. But the teaching of the Bible is this, that a man's true character is reflected in his deeds. Therefore, if a man is a true Christian, he begins to be one when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.

36:18 He is born of the Spirit of God, given a new heart, he repents and believes the Gospel, and now he begins to manifest his new life by living in conformity to God's holy law and the commandments of his Savior. You see, the outward then reflects the inward. Likewise, with the unconverted man, out of the abundance of the heart, Jesus said, proceed, and his deeds are simply the echo and the manifestation of what is in his heart. So what is the day of judgment then?

36:53 It will be a public demonstration of the righteousness of the Declaration. Remember Matthew 25? Come ye blessed of my Father, you are my true people. Well, how do we know they are?

37:08 Then the Lord begins to give the evidences that they were indeed the righteous. Now the basis of their acceptance with God was not that they visited the sick and went to jails. No, no, no, no, no, no. That would contradict everything the Bible teaches.

37:24 It makes the death of Christ sheer nonsense. Why should he then die and bear the wrath of God? If our works and deeds could somehow earn us eternal life. Yet we cannot escape the fact that the judgment is according to works.

37:41 Why? Because the Bible nowhere recognizes a salvation by faith that does not transform a man in the totality of his life. Though men cannot see the heart, our Lord will openly vindicate the judgment made on the basis of the true condition of the heart. This is why in the vision of Revelation 20 you have the Lamb's Book of Life and then you have the other books in which are recorded the deeds of men.

38:12 And all who by grace have been inscribed in the Lamb's Book of Life will have it manifested by their deeds that they were truly the people of God. And then finally it will be an act of public assignment to the eternal state of the soul and body. The passages in the Bible are legion. I give you only two.

Judgment Element 4: Public Assignment to the Eternal State

38:36 Matthew 25, 46. The conclusion of the judgment is this. These shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. This is one of the most offensive texts in all of the Bible.

38:53 Men whose native disposition has no appreciation for the burning holiness of God have wished that they could scrub this text from the Bible because it places in the strictest parallel relationship eternal punishment, eternal life, unending bliss, unending torment. For the last verse of the judgment seen in Revelation 20 and whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. So when the writer to the Hebrews says, as it is appointed unto men once to die and after this cometh judgment, what is that judgment to which he makes reference? It will be what I've described in these simple statements. It will be God's public dealing with you as a whole person, body and soul. It will be a public declaration of what the true state of your soul was at death.

40:01 It will be an act of public demonstration of the righteousness of the sentence to be given. And it will be an act of public assignment to your eternal state. My friend, will you listen? Will you listen?

40:15 As death leaves you, the judgment will find you. And as the judgment finds you, eternity will hold you. That's the teaching of the Scriptures. As death leaves you, judgment finds you.

40:37 There is no purgatory. There is no way that by the paying of money and by the solicitation of the incantations of priest and of preacher and of rabbi or any amount of clerics that the state of the soul can be altered the moment it is separated from the body. Its condition and its destiny is sealed, my friend. And as death leaves you, judgment will find you.

41:13 And as judgment finds you, eternity will open its arms and hold you and never, never release you. If you have but a particle of the knowledge of sin and of the holiness of God, you ought to be terrified if you sit here this morning out of Christ, having opened up the text very briefly. Let me now just press two questions upon every conscience as we conclude this morning. Two simple questions. But my friend, I'm seeking to press the question not upon your mind alone. I said upon your conscience, that part of you which summons you to stand before God as an accountable creature made in His image.

First Closing Question: Are You Prepared for Death and Judgment?

42:20 And here are my two questions. Are you prepared for your inescapable appointment with death and judgment? Are you? Are you prepared for your inescapable appointment with death and judgment?

42:41 Now my question is not, do you hope to be prepared someday? But are you prepared right now? Can you face death without fear? And the judgment with boldness in the language of 1 John 4, 17?

43:01 When you say, Pastor Martin, how in the world can any man, woman, boy or girl who's a sinner face death with confidence and judgment with boldness? I tell you the answer's right here in this text. As it is appointed once to die, then cometh judgment. Look at the language of verse 28.

43:22 So Christ was one who once offered to bear the sins of many. He shall appear a second time apart from sin. That is, apart from any more dealings with sin in a way of expiation, in a way of bearing sin away by atonement. Once for all He died.

43:49 And when He returns, He will for all that wait for Him. And that's just another way of describing all who truly believe upon Him. He will come with His completed salvation. Romans 8, 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are aware in Christ Jesus.

44:13 Oh, my friend, face the question. Are you prepared for your appointment with death and judgment? That preparation is to be found only in one source. It's to be found in the One who underwent death on behalf of the many.

44:30 The One who tasted death in the language of Hebrews 2. The One who felt the pangs of abandonment. The One who felt something of the horrors of hell itself in His soul when He hung upon that cross. In the language of Isaiah 53, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

44:53 When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin. Oh, my friend, do you know that your sins are pardoned and judgment no longer is a terrifying thought because Christ has borne that judgment. And Christian, listen, even though you must die and the experience of dying is a frightening thing, you need not fear death. For all the penal element of death is taken away for the Christian.

45:23 Christ bore it. And He's changed death from a penalty for sin into a fatherly discipline that lands you safe in His presence. There's a wonderful anthem I heard many, many years ago. And I don't know who the author was, but these words indelibly stamped themselves upon my mind.

45:43 Speaking of Christ's work in taking away the penal element of death, the anthem goes like this. Thou hast made death glorious, and triumphant, for through its portals we enter into the presence of the living God. For through its portals you see all the king of terrors can do is land me safely on the bosom of Jesus. And that's the confidence with which the child of God can face the certainty of death.

46:20 He can look himself in the mirror and say, man, you're going to die. You're going to die. You don't know when you're going to die. But you can face those two realities, the certainty of death, the uncertainty of the time of death, and live confidently.

46:36 Why? Because you believe that when He cried, my God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me? When He cried, it is finished, He bore the sin of man and all who trust Him. He will come back again, not to die as though His first death left something unfinished.

47:04 Not to die again upon Roman altars. No, no. Having shed His blood and cried in triumph, it is finished. He will come again.

47:17 And in His coming, He will bring a completed salvation for all who trust Him. Ah, but you say, Pastor Martin, I'm so unworthy. Well, who said you weren't? He didn't come to save worthy sinners.

47:31 He came to save the unworthy. God commended His love to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ died for the ungodly. He justifies the ungodly.

47:48 Oh, but you say that's so presumptuous to think that He would save me. My friend, that's not presumptuous. It's wicked of you not to believe the testimony He's made about His Son. God has said concerning His Son, believe Him.

48:05 This is the work of God that you believe on Him whom He has sent. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Oh, my friend, don't hide behind a false humility that is the essence of wicked unbelief and pride.

48:29 Come in the nakedness of your sin and say, Oh, God, if Jesus died for sinners who could do nothing for themselves, if He bore the curse for those who deserve to bear it but cannot bear it, for whom eternity will not be adequate fully to exhaust the measure of deserved wrath, if He came for such, Oh, God, such am I. Have mercy upon me, the sinner. My friend, there's no way you'll be prepared for your appointment with death and judgment but to be in Christ. And there's no way to be in Christ but to throw yourself upon Christ in faith.

Second Closing Question: If Not Prepared, What Will You Do Today?

49:10 And then my second question is this. If you're not prepared for your death and for your judgment, what do you purpose to do today about your precarious condition? If you're not prepared, what do you propose to do today concerning your precarious condition? I'm asking you, do you have some wispy notion that somewhere out there, somehow, sometime, my friend, no, somewhere, somehow, sometime out there, would to God that I knew at least come to some of you and say, Man, God's revealed. You've got three months. He's let me peek into His appointment book, but He hasn't let me peek. Will any preacher upon his deathbed ever chide himself that he was too much in earnest?

50:17 No, no, my friend. If I'm given the privilege of a lingering death and a deathbed, I know my conscience will chide me for many things, and one of them will be I was not earnest enough. I did not warn enough. I did not preach enough.

50:34 And so these realities were the great realities that face every man. What do you propose to do today? Well, you say, I'm going to come back to church tonight. Who says you'll be here tonight?

50:49 The Lord may say, Thou fool, this day thy soul is required of thee. Oh, I urge you to do what Bunyan has his pilgrim doing. You remember that well-known incident under the allegory of the man who leaves his family in the city of destruction. Bunyan says this, Now I saw upon a time when he was walking in the fields that he was wont, as he was wont, or as he was accustomed, reading in his book and greatly distressed in his mind, and as he read, he burst out as he had done before, crying, What shall I do to be saved?

51:33 I saw that he looked this way and that way as if he would run, yet he stood still, because I perceived he could not tell which way to go. I looked then and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him, who asked, Wherefore dost thou cry? He answered, Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgment, I find I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second. He took the book seriously.

52:10 I have an appointment with death and I do not want to die, and I have got to go from death to judgment, and I am not prepared. What shall I do? And my friend Evangelist did not say, Sit down and do nothing. It is all of God.

52:23 Just hope He will come and do something for you. No, no. Evangelist said, Why not willing to die? This life has got so many evils.

52:32 And he said, Because I feel this burden upon my back will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into hell. And, sir, if I be not fit to go to prison, I am not fit, I am sure, to go to judgment and thence to execution. And the thought of these things makes me cry. And then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, Oh, get the question, Why standest thou still?

52:58 Oh, my friend, If this be thy condition, You are not prepared to die. Your sins are not washed. Your nature has not been renewed. You are not justified and accepted in the Beloved.

53:13 My question is, Why standest thou still? Why standest thou still? Why is your prayer, your bedroom not witness to earnest prayers, crying to God for mercy? Why standest thou still?

53:38 What do you expect God to do? Will it take hell to strip the lie from your hands that passivity is damning? Oh, but you see, I come to hear you preach, Pastor, Pastor Martin, my friend. I'm going to preach some of you straight into hell.

54:04 Because coming to hear me preach doesn't make you a Christian. You've got to have dealings with Christ. You've got to be in earnest. My second question, I press on your conscience.

54:20 If you're not prepared for death in judgment, what are you doing to get prepared? Oh, seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He's near. Lay hold of the offered mercy.

54:37 That when death finds you and the judgment reveals the state in which you died, you with the multitude of the redeemed may be the occasion of marvel and wonder to the entire intelligent universe when you stand perfected in body and spirit all to the praise of the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne. It is appointed unto men once to die. My friend, that's an unavoidable appointment. As I meditated and prayed this morning, I said, Lord, think of it.

Closing Appeal, Pastoral Reflection, and Prayer

55:19 If we build that new building and you give me a few years to preach in it, 50 years from now, think of it. Some of you kids, you youngsters, if you're still in the area, you'll be old. Some of you girls, think of it. You'll be old, gray-haired grandmothers.

55:35 And you know what you'll say when you gather in each other's homes? Say, yeah, I remember. I was there when Pastor Martin was alive and preached. And I remember Pastor Clark.

55:46 And there'll be others who'll say, well, I've heard the names, but I never met them. We're going to be gone, friend, 50 years. And the great majority of us are gone. Now, is that some preacher's device to scare you or is that a fact?

56:05 It's appointed to die. Now, man, how long before you take it seriously? Oh, may God grant that today will mark the day when you were prepared, not through any doings of your own, but as you found an interest in the doings of another and embrace the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. And, oh, my fellow believers, what a joy it is amidst the pain and the agony to preach at the funeral of one who's in Christ, to look through one's tear-filled eyes into the tear-filled eyes of the bereaved and to say, this I say to you by the word of the Lord, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and to speak of the great realities of resurrection, union with Christ forever. I tell you, my friend, there are few things more joyous, and I mean this seriously, than the triumphs of a Christian funeral, to face that grim reality of death with the triumphs of the gospel. But there are few tasks I hate more

57:32 than when I'm summoned to bury those whom we have no reason to believe are in Christ. And if I were called upon to bury any number of you this coming week, your funeral and your burial would be the breaking of this heart. But my hands are closed, clean of your blood. And if you sink into hell unwashed in the blood of Jesus, it will not be because you were not told that that was the only refuge for sinners.

58:11 It will not be because you were not warned. It will not be because you were not entreated. It will not be, it will not be because you were not urged and exhorted and admonished. It will be because you will not come to the Savior.

58:30 And may God grant that you shall not be amongst that number, but among those who shall shine as the stars in the firmament forever. Let us pray. O our Father, these sobering, awesome realities bear down upon our own frail humanity. And what can we say in your presence?

59:14 What can we ask of you but that you'd show mercy upon those who are so blinded by the God of this world, that they'll walk with their eyes wide open into hell? O God, O God, since they have no care for their own souls, we cry to you that in mercy you would arrest them. Whatever lies hinder men and women, boys and girls from fleeing the wrath to come and laying hold of the offered Savior, strip away those lies, and may they know the joy of sins forgiven through him who once for all bore away sin by his death upon the cross. We thank you for the triumphs of the gospel, that even this week, amidst tears of grief, we've known the shout of joy and the triumphs of Christ's victory. O God, grant that some this day may lay hold of the Savior and face death and judgment with that sure and certain confidence of being in Christ.

60:42 Hear our prayer and seal the word to each of our hearts. We plead through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.