We've been talking about faith.
Faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And that faith cometh by hearing. You, today, that think that salvation
for you is impossible, could happen today. God could give
you faith today. You could go down to your house
justified today in the sight of God. You could leave here
knowing there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Hebrews 11. Let's look at verses
13 and 14. These all died in faith. These
all died in faith. This is the great chapter of
faith. And all of these folks that are
mentioned in this chapter, the apostle says they died in faith,
not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off. You know, Old Testament folks,
We're saved the same way you're saved today. By grace through
faith. Trusting in a coming Savior. One who would walk the Judean
acres without sin and go up on Calvary and die in the room stead
in place. They believed. They saw that
afar off. Isn't that something? We look
back. They look forward. And they were persuaded of them.
these promises and embrace them and confess that they were strangers
and pilgrims on this earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. That's me. This world is not my home. And I'm so very glad. I'm just
a passing through. All these died in faith. I want to talk to you about the
inscription on the mausoleum of the children
of God. This is what is written. These
all died in faith. Believers constitute a class
by themselves among the nations. You see, the wording here is,
it would be something like this, we've heard this, those people. But here it says these, it's
talking about these people, a particular group of people. Many times,
oh, you go over there where those people go to church? They must be talking about believers.
They're not talking about crack addicts or heroin addicts. Although
we have had a few here, like I say. See, believers are in a different
class. They really are. We're those people. Many distinctions
in the world which God takes no notice of. There's neither
Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free in God's sight. But there is
a distinction, which men think little of, which is greatly observed
by our God. And that distinction is between
the believer and the unbeliever. Somebody say amen. There is a distinction. You see,
faith puts you across the border from death to life. from dominion
of Satan into the kingdom of God's dear Son. It is the most
important thing under heaven that we should know that we believe
God. I said, believe God. Because
here's what God said. This is My boy. Trust Him. This is My Son. Believe on Him. I believe God. And I believe
on His Son. The Holy Spirit puts believers
by themselves and says of them, these. Believers are a class
by themselves even when they die. I'm going to dissect a bit this
verse this morning. Believers have this distinction. These all died in faith. When I was a kid growing up,
I always said, I would go to church with my grandmother, which
was kind of the Clark Church, the Clark pedigree. We had some of the original members
there. And churches in Kentucky, for the most part, and I think
all over the country, would have their own cemeteries. My great-great-grandfather
is buried in an old Zorb Baptist Church cemetery. My grandmother,
my grandfather, on both sides. Buried in the old church. I had
to grin. I was thinking about that last
night, how that maybe we tried to make a distinction then. We
buried believers with believers. We had our own little cemetery.
But the truth is, God's already taken care of that. He's already
made a distinction. There is some truth to that folly
because we all die in faith. So there is a distinction. There's
a separation, even in death, between the righteous and the
wicked. I hope you'll think about it this morning. The Lord seems
to erect a mausoleum in which lie asleep the bodies of His
people, and He writes this epitaph across the front, these all died
in faith. As for those who died without
faith, they died in deed. They died indeed. It's a sad
thing when an unbeliever dies. As for God's people, these who
died in faith, they are awaiting a glorious resurrection. We're
about to celebrate Easter here, a religious holiday. I celebrate
that and I hope you do too. the fact that Christ arose. I
celebrate that every day. Every day. But since the world
is drawing attention, we draw attention too. We say, I serve
a risen Savior. He's in the world today. I know
He's living. Whatever men may say, He walks
with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. You ask me
how I know He lives? He lives within my heart. Do
you have some of your friends today who died believers? They're
in this mausoleum. died in faith. They're not like
the unbeliever who truly dies. They're awaiting the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people and characteristics
are peculiar to themselves. They are all alike in this. They
all lived and they all died in faith. Now, they were not equal
believers. What I mean by that is this.
Some are strong in faith. It's true that some are strong
in faith. Many of us pray, Lord, I believe,
help my unbelief. You have moments when you're
not so strong. Don't act like you don't. But whether you're weak in faith
or strong in faith, you still have this distinction. You have
faith. That's a good thing. And that faith, weak or strong,
will continue to the end. It is the gift of God. You're
not going to run out of gas when it comes to faith. You're going
to keep on keeping on. These all died in faith. Sometimes I just don't know.
Sometimes I doubt. I understand all that. Believe
me, I understand all that. But we can still write on your
epithet These died in faith. Dying faith. It says they died
in faith. When it's time for you to die,
it'd be a right good thing to have faith. And the Bible says
that all God's children do. Some of you in here are worried
about death. I don't know. I just don't know.
I kind of have this fear. Are you dying right now? Well,
if you're not dying right now, you don't need extra grace to
die. Just remember this. All God's
kids can sing this song. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. Jesus died all my sins to atone. When the darkness I see, He'll
be waiting for me. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. They died in faith. You know, I know somebody's probably
thinking this too. Pastor, what about deathbed repentance?
If I were you, I wouldn't wait. You see, where we know little,
my rule is say little. So, I don't know much about deathbed
repentance. I don't know much about it. I
know people always say this to me when they're talking about
death, bad rivers. Well, the thief on the cross. I just wouldn't wait if I were
you. I'll tell you why I wouldn't wait. Do you know the pains of
dying and stress of knowing you are dying will be enough to occupy your
thoughts? Oh, yeah. And many times the brain is disordered
by disease. It's hard to think. That's why
I wouldn't put it off. Say, well, you know, just before
I leave here, I've got to sow my wild oats. But before I leave
here, I'm going to give Jesus a shot. I wouldn't do that if I were
you. I've seen dying men and women,
barely conscious. when they were leaving this world.
I've stood around bed where we have said, can he hear us? Do
you think she hears us? I would not wait. These all died
in faith. And you know, I've squeezed the
hand of dying friends and got no response. And no recognition. And I've spoken to dying friends
who seem to recognize my voice. It seemed to have penetrated
into the dark recesses of their minds where they had retired. Have
you seen people who, in the deep recesses, they're kind of retired. They're about to die. And they're
semi-conscious, I guess we would say. It's wonderful to hold the
hand of somebody that I know went out of here trusting Christ. And no, even at that time I've
had people, I've said to people things like, if you're trusting
Christ, squeeze my hand. They couldn't speak, but they
squeezed my hand. And it brought a smile to my
face. But I don't want to be visiting
you. and you're almost gone and try to get you to trust Christ.
I have very little, actually very little confidence in those
sorts of things because I think the fear of death is a natural
thing. And I really believe that when you're helpless and laying
there on your bed and your mind takes over and fear begins to
grip your soul, I'll tell you a story. I visited a man in the
hospital. His wife was a member of our
church. And he was just an atheist. He
didn't want anything to do with God. And a big strong guy. And I went in to visit him in
the hospital. Susie saw me and said, for God's
sake, preacher, leave me alone. And I said to him, for God's
sake, I will. I said, it's a good sunshiny
day outside. He wanted me to leave him alone.
And I did. I saw him about three months
later when cancer had eaten him up. And I went into his room. I don't think he recognized me,
but he was going like this. They've come for me. Don't you see them? Don't you
see them? They've come for me!" And I tried to do my best to
calm him down by saying, I don't think he recognized me, by saying
something like this, I don't see anyone. Which only made it
worse. They're here! They're here! You're not going to be nearly
as brave when it's time for you to die. Get somewhere we've never been.
And I thought as I studied and prepared for this message, and
I did a lot of smiling actually, thinking about, I'm going to
ride the river with this, that God invaded history to die on
the cross for my sins, was buried in a rose again, and I'm going
home to see my Savior. I don't want holy water sprinkled
on my face. I'm going home. I'm trusting
Christ. Nothing in religion. I'm trusting
Christ alone. Dying faith. Another thing is
you may be here 18, 19, 20 years old. You know, this congregation will
never meet like this again. Somebody will be missing next
Sunday that was here. I've seen some of you 20-year-olds
one day and you were dead the next. I've seen it for 27 years. I've gone to the cemetery and
buried people that I saw in good health four or five days before. These all died in faith. And
all of you who are fooling with drugs, all of you who are messing around
with these drugs, You're just on the verge. Listen to me, Christians. We don't talk about dying much,
and it is kind of a drab thing. Unless, unless when you die,
you're just in the bud stage of endless joy and happiness. You see, when we Christians die,
it gets gooder. And gooder and gooder. Absent from the body, present
with the Lord. Paul said, I have a desire to
depart. But it wouldn't be good for you,
Paul said. I need to stay here and minister to you a little
while longer. But I myself, he said, I have a desire to go home. You see, God doesn't give you
faith so you won't die. He gives you faith so when you
are dying. That's right. When you do die, you can die
peaceably. It's true. Believers do die. We're going to, with time, we're
all going to go through that dark stream of death unless the
Lord comes back. Faith is not given so you can
escape death. You know, quite frankly, I prayed for people and they
died. I prayed for people to get well
and they died. And many of the people that I
prayed for died in faith, which is comforting to me. They died
in faith. I don't blame mothers and fathers
When their children die, I don't blame mothers and fathers because
they had so little faith. If they had faith, their child
wouldn't have died. I don't know where that kind
of talk comes from. I think it's heathen. You didn't have enough faith. It's an atrocious and cruel thing. The Bible says that the elect
of God die in faith. So even some of you who are worrying
right now about your little faith, know this. If it's time for you
to die and God calls you home, you're going to die in faith.
And we're going to put that on your tombstone. We confess Him
now. We say, I believe. I believe
now. These all died in faith. So saints
do die as well as sinners. David dies as well as Saul. John
as well as Judas. It is appointed, and the man
wants to die. But these all died in faith." In other words, what
this is saying is they persevered to the end. You say, well, I've
become a Christian, but I don't know whether I could keep on
keeping on. Yes, you do. In your own power,
you don't keep on keeping on. But in the power of the Holy
Spirit in you, And God says this about us Christians. I began
the work. I'm going to finish it. He who
has begun a good work in you will accomplish it. He will finish
it. John 10 says, I give unto my
sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. I thought about this. I thought
about just kind of walking down here and kind of getting real
personal with you. So you're going to die, right?
What's your feelings going to be when you're dying? How are
you going to feel about that? What are your thoughts? All you
folks back here in the back are trying to hide from this. What are your thoughts about
that? When you're all by yourself,
and the doctor goes like this, and you can hear, and you hear
the doctor say, it won't be long now. You know, sometimes doctors have
said to me when I visit dying people, come outside, I don't
want them to hear. If you hear that, know something's
about to happen. Die this way. I have eternal
life. I'll never perish. Jesus said,
the Father that gave them to me is greater than all. No man
can pluck them out of my Father's hand. These all died in faith. Grace lived to the last and triumphed
at the close. When I walk away from the hospital
room and that dear one has drawn their last breath and their body
immediately begins to freeze. I walk away saying this, they're
not here. They've gone to be with the Lord. Waiting resurrection day. Waiting
a new body. These all died in faith. Now
listen, this is an important point. I got a star by this one.
These all died in faith. They never got beyond faith. You say, well, what do you mean
by that? I mean, I've heard some folks, I don't know whether they're
here today, talk about, well, you know, I've got beyond. I've got the
second blessing. Well, if that's all you've got,
you don't have much. I've got the second, third, fourth, fifth,
sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth. I live in blessings. Don't get me on faith in Christ.
Well, I have the special gift of prophecy. Well, how do you
do? You know what I have? Faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I am.