All right, now if you would open
your Bibles with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We'll read the first 11 verses. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God. and house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven.
If so be that being clothed, we should not be found naked.
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing as God, who also
hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are
always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the
body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not
by sight. We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with
the Lord. Wherefore we labor, that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone
may receive the things done in his body. According to that,
he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the
terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest
unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
and merciful Heavenly Father, Lord, we come into your courts
this evening with thanksgiving. How thankful we are for the salvation
that you so freely provided your people in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for your mercy,
your grace, your forgiveness of sin, Every undeserved blessing,
undeserved on our part, but freely given to us because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Father, we're thankful. And
it is our heartfelt desire that this evening we be enabled by
thy spirit to worship you in spirit and in truth. Father,
I pray you'd set aside all the cares and worries and thoughts
of this life Father, for just this hour, enable us to set our
affection on things above. Enable us to hear a word from
Thee, to truly hear it with an ear and a heart of faith. Enable
us to lay hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ and find our confidence,
our hope, our peace in Him, in Him and Him alone. Father, how
we thank you for your many blessings to this congregation. richly
that you blessed us. And Father, we know that everything
we have has come from your hand and it's not been because of
anything we've done good or right. It's all because of your mercy
and grace. And Father, we're thankful. And Father, we come before you
this evening also seeking a blessing for your people that you brought
into the time of trouble and trial. For those who are heartbroken,
suffering loss, those who are in deep, deep waters. Here and
in other places, Father, we pray for them. We pray a special blessing
for our brother Cecil and for his whole family, Father, that
you'd comfort their hearts with your presence and you'd be with
them in a mighty and special way. It's only you, King. Father, give us the grace and
the faith to leave all these cares at thy feet knowing you're
the one that's gonna take care of them, you're the one that's
responsible for them. Enable us to leave these things
at thy feet, knowing and trusting that you do all things well.
And Father, it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for
his sake and his glory we pray, amen. All right, now if you would,
turn back to Genesis chapter 35. I chose to wait till The
beginning of the message to read my text this evening is just
three verses. And I've titled the message this
evening, Plum Satisfied. That's a good southern term,
Plum Satisfied. Our text begins in verse 27 of
Genesis chapter 35. And Jacob came unto Isaac his
father, unto Mamre, unto the city of Ereba, which is Hebron,
where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the days of Isaac were 104
score years, and Isaac gave up the ghost and died. He was gathered
unto his people, being old and full of days. And his sons he
saw, and Jacob buried him. Now the word full there in verse
29, Isaac died full of days, that word means satisfy. Isaac
died after 180 years, satisfied. Scripture says the same thing
about Isaac's father, Abraham, and about David, who many years
later would descend from Isaac, that they died satisfied. Scripture
also says, after everything Job suffered, that Job died satisfied. I told you Sunday morning that
someday when I get a call that one of you is on your deathbed, you don't know how desperately
I want to know that I've told you the truth about Christ so
that you know how to die. I want to know that I was faithful
by God's grace to preach Christ to you so that you are prepared
to die. I want you and me both to know
Christ. To trust Christ. Don't ever forget
this. We're preaching the gospel. We're
preaching Christ. We're preaching so people will
believe. Brother Henry said, I expect you to believe. Why
wouldn't you believe? This is the truth. We're not
just Talking about the glory of Christ in some academic sense,
and you go home and now you know something about Him maybe you
didn't know before. We're preaching the glory of Christ so that you
trust Him. So that you know Him. So that you believe on Him. And
if that, by God's grace, will be the case, we'll die like our
brother Isaac died. Satisfied. And our text gives
me a good opportunity to preach on this subject tonight. That
knowing Christ, is what enables us to die satisfied. I thought a lot about preaching
the gospel. You know, our gospel should give
us joy and happiness when we hear it preached, shouldn't it?
The gospel should encourage our hearts. It should strengthen
us to continue this journey here below. This is a tough place
to live. The gospel ought to encourage us and feed us and
strengthen us to be able to continue. We should be able to truly enjoy
fellowship with our brethren around the gospel. I mean truly
enjoy it. But don't ever forget this. With the joy and happiness that
I want us to have in hearing the gospel, don't ever forget.
This is very temporary. We're dying creatures. and believing
the gospel of Christ, believing on Christ is the only way we
could ever die satisfied, like Isaac did, of being satisfied. There's no way any of us could
ever be satisfied with what we've done. I already know this. If I'm conscious while I'm lying
on my deathbed, I know I'm gonna have a lot of regrets. I already
wish I could do it all over again. I do so many things different.
But even though I know that's true, I have a lot of regrets. I wish I could do everything
over again. Even though that's true. The scriptures tell me
I can die satisfied. I'm not satisfied with anything
that I've done. Because everything I've done
is full of sin. I'm not satisfied with my faith.
I'm not satisfied with my repentance. I'm not satisfied with my prayers.
I am not satisfied with my preaching. I'm not satisfied with my knowledge.
And if you trust Christ, you know exactly what I'm talking
about. You say the same thing. We're not satisfied with anything
about us, are we? Anything. But even though that's
true, the scriptures tell us that we can die satisfied. And you already know the only
thing that will ever satisfy our hearts and our souls is Christ
himself. I'm fully satisfied with Christ. Aren't you? I'm so satisfied
with him. I am so satisfied to have Christ
be all my salvation. I wouldn't want it any other
way. I'm completely and utterly satisfied to have Christ as all
of my righteousness. I'm fully satisfied to have Christ
do all of the saving for me without any help from me, without any
help from my works. I'm satisfied that he did it
all. And I'm satisfied to receive
salvation as a free gift of God's grace. By God-given faith, faith
in Christ, I'm satisfied to receive salvation by faith and not my
works. I'm so satisfied with that. I
love that. And I am fully satisfied to leave
the governing of my body and my soul to Christ. I'm fully satisfied to leave
it to him because he's the only ones trustworthy. And you know,
we ought to be satisfied with Christ. The father is satisfied
with Christ. He said so audibly from heaven
and wrote a book to tell us about it. This is my beloved son in
whom I'm well pleased. And Christ himself, he's satisfied
with his work of redemption. That work is finished, it's done,
and he's satisfied with it. Isaiah said he shall see the
travail of his soul. And he should be satisfied. He's
satisfied. The Holy Spirit is so satisfied
with Christ that the only thing the Holy Spirit reveals to God's
people is Christ. Because Christ is all we need
to know, all we need to believe, all we need to have. It's Christ. If you see Christ, you see it
all. You have repentance, you have
faith, you have perseverance. The Holy Spirit is so pleased
with Christ, that's all he reveals to God's people. And believers
are satisfied with Christ. You know why? Because the only
thing that will satisfy the new man who's been born of God, the
same things that satisfy God Himself. God Himself, the triune
God, is only satisfied with Christ. And by God's grace, I can say
I am in there. I'm satisfied with Christ. And if you trust Him, You are
too. You're satisfied to trust him,
aren't you? Now tonight I want to show you four things that
the scriptures say satisfy every believer. These four things will
enable every one of us here tonight, if we believe them, will enable
us to die satisfied. Now first look at Psalm 22. Here's
the first thing. Every believer is satisfied with
the sacrifice of Christ. Psalm 22, verse 26. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek him. Your heart shall live forever. The meek shall eat and
be satisfied. Now, what is it that the believer
eats? We have to remember to look at
this in context. Psalm 22 is the psalm of the
cross. This is the psalm that they say
that the Savior himself, he quoted this psalm from the cross and
you read it clearly. It's telling about the sacrifice
of Christ on the cross. This is the psalm of Christ crucified
and that's what the believer eats. That's what the believer
feasts on and gives them life and sustains our life. It's eating
Christ and him crucified. In John chapter six, verse 54,
that's what the Savior told us. He said, whoso eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. And I'll raise him up at
the last day. Now the Savior talked about eating
his flesh and drinking his blood. He's not talking about being
a cannibal. I mean, if that were what he was talking about, none
of us could have eternal life because we don't have the bodily
presence of Christ. What the Savior meant there is believing
on him. Eating Christ is believing him
so he becomes part of you. The Savior is also talking about
salvation coming through union with him. Just two verses later
in John, he said, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood
dwelleth in me and I in him. That's union with Christ. Eating
Christ is union with him. and that salvation being joined
to Christ. God's elect are saved. They're accepted. They're made
righteous all by union with Christ being part of his body. Union
with Christ means that God's elect did everything that Christ
our representative did during his earthly ministry. We did
them when he did them because we were in him when he did them.
Just like we were in Adam when Adam sinned, God's elect are
in Christ when He obeyed God's law. God's elect are righteous
because if you trust Christ, you have obeyed God's law. You
obeyed it in Christ. God's elect are justified because
you've already died to sin and to the law. You died in Christ. When Christ died, you died in
Him. And if I know Christ, I am fully satisfied to trust Christ
and Him crucified and nothing else. I'm so satisfied with that,
that's the only message I ever want to hear preached. Christ
and Him crucified. Tell me what He accomplished
when He suffered and died for His people. Christ and Him crucified. It's the only message that saves
God's people. It's the only message that comforts them. It's the
only message that feeds them. It's the only message that sustains
them. It's Christ crucified. If I know Christ, I'm fully satisfied
with this. That he did all the work that's
necessary to save my sorry soul. If I know him, I know he did
it perfectly. I trust him. And I'm fully satisfied
to die. And after that, face God at the
judgment seat of Christ. I'm fully satisfied because I
trust Christ has already made me perfect in God's eyes. The
father will accept me the same way he accepts his son, because
I'm in him. And of all the things I wish
I could do over again while I'm on my deathbed, trusting Christ
won't be one of them. It won't be one of them. All
right, now look at Psalm 36. Here's the second thing. Every
believer is satisfied with the blessings of God. Psalm 36, verse
eight. They shall be abundantly satisfied,
not dissatisfied, abundantly satisfied with the fatness of
thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy
pleasures. Now that word fatness that David
uses there means the blessing. It's the blessing. Now the fatness,
that's what makes the meat taste good. I mean, it might not be
the most heart healthy thing in this world, but it's what
makes the food taste good. Well, what's the fatness? What
is the blessing of God's house that makes the gospel taste good?
What are these blessings of God's house that David's talking about?
Well, he tells us up in the previous verses. The first one is God's
mercy. Verse five, he said, thy mercy,
O Lord, is in the heavens. Now remember, mercy is God not
giving us what we do deserve. Now the question is, how can
God do that? I mean, people that don't know God just pass over
this and just assume, well, God's merciful and He just overlooks
my sin. But wait a minute. God's holy. God must punish sin. He must,
that's His character. So how can God not give you and
me what we deserve? If He must punish sin, how can
He possibly be merciful to us? Well, the only way a holy God
can be merciful to the likes of you and me is if he gave Christ
the punishment that our sin deserves. Now you think about that, in
order to be merciful to you and me, the father had to make his
son sin for us and then punish him fully for it. Now can you imagine for a moment
that that mercy, what it costs God to have mercy on sinners,
can you imagine for a moment that mercy will fail to save
even one object of God's mercy. Can you imagine that it's even
possible? Of course not. God's mercy saves sinners. Absolutely, fully, and eternally
saves sinners. See, since God's holy, he's not
gonna punish his son for somebody's sin and then damn that person
too. That would be unholy and unjust, and God will never do
that. Never, he can't. So I can die
fully satisfied, trusting in the mercy of God. The mercy that
Christ bought for me at Calvary, because God's mercy can't fail
to save me. It's done in justice. The next
blessing of God's house, the fatness of the gospel, is God's
faithfulness. Verse five says, thy mercy, O
Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reaches under
the clouds. God's faithfulness just stacks
way up into the clouds. Bob way up there where he used
to fly. God's mercy just extends all the way from him. It's so
high, it's so mighty. God is faithful. God is faithful
to do everything he promised that he would do. And this book
is full of such promises. There's so many promises. There
are promises of justice, aren't there? Promises of judgment.
And there are promises of mercy. promises of grace, promises of
God's keeping power. But the great promise of God
is the promise he made in the covenant of grace. When God promised,
he would save his people through the obedience and through the
sacrifice of his son. God promised to save his people,
the people that he chose to save because Christ saved them, fully
and completely. That's God's promise, and I want
to tell you what, you can hang your eternal soul on that. And
you know why? Because God's faithful. He's
going to keep his promise. And I love that. You talk about
this is the fatness that makes the gospel taste good. I love
to hear that salvation does not depend on our faithfulness. I
love to hear that. Because There's no point in trying
to fool one another here, put on some false religious veneer.
We're just not as faithful as we ought to be, are we? Very,
very often, we do not trust Christ like we should. If that weren't
so, we wouldn't have such a struggle with self-righteousness, wanting
to trust ourselves. If we trusted Christ always like
we should trust him, we never want to trust our own works. We can't trust our faith and
our faithfulness in the least. Now we should be faithful, we
should be, but our comfort when we're not as faithful as we ought
to be is this, God abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. He can't deny his promise. He
can't deny himself, which means he can't deny his people because
they're his body. He cannot deny himself. And I
can die fully satisfied, trusting that God is faithful to do what
he promised to do. Earlier we read to be absent
from the body, to be present with the Lord. I can die trusting
that promise, that God's faithful. He's going to do what he said
he'd do. The next blessing of God's house
is Christ's righteousness, verse six. Thy righteousness is like
the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deed.
O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. Now, what is righteousness? David here talks about righteousness.
What is righteousness? Well, it's obedience. It's perfect
obedience to God's law. So the only righteousness that
there is is the obedience of Christ. He's the only one that
ever earned a perfect righteousness. That's why David says, thy righteousness
is like the great mountains. Thy righteousness. Christ is
the only one who has a righteousness, who earned a righteousness. You
and I are sinners. We're the opposite of righteous.
We're unrighteous because we don't obey any of God's law.
All right. Is there a way? God can make
a sinner righteous. Now that's what I gotta find
out. Is there a way God can make me righteous? Yes, there is. That's the message of the gospel.
Sinners are made righteous, not by our works of the law, not
by us starting to do better. Sinners are made righteous by
the perfect obedience of Christ. His obedience is our representative. That's our obedience. That's
our righteousness. Christ is our righteousness. Now really, it's beyond human
comprehension to think that sinful men and women like we are, are
righteous. I mean, it's beyond our comprehension.
How can that be? It can only be by the gift of
God. It's the only way it can be.
Now what a blessing to think about this. Almighty God would
stoop so low as to come where we are to make sinners like us
righteous by His obedience and by His sacrifice. And our disobedience
can't mess it up because God sees His people in Christ, not
in ourselves. Oh, I love His righteousness. You know, I bet you're like me.
I bet you didn't wake up this morning determined to sin and
thinking, I'm going to find new ways to sin today. If you trust
Christ, you woke up thinking, I'm not going to sin today. I
don't want to sin today. And then before we got out of
bed, we did. I can't be satisfied with my obedience to God's law.
You can't either. We can't. But I sure am satisfied
with the righteousness of Christ, because his obedience is perfect. And I am completely satisfied
to be saved by Christ's obedience alone, without me helping him
out in the least. You know why? Because the father
already said he's well-pleased with his sons. And I want to
be in him. If the father's well-pleased
in trusting him, I am too. I can die fully satisfied that
when I die, I'll face God as long as I know I'm coming to
him in Christ's righteousness, not mine. I'm fully satisfied. The next blessing of God's house
is God's love for his people. Now this is the fact that makes
the gospel taste so good. Almighty God loves his people.
Verse seven, David says, thy loving-kindness, O God. Therefore
the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy
wings." God's loving-kindness is precious. It's precious. That's what the word excellent
means. It's precious. God's love is precious because
only God has the capacity to love sinners. God's holy Harmless, separate
from sinners. Yet he has the capacity to love
sinners. You and I are sinners. We rub
elbows with them all the time. And we don't love sinners. No,
we don't. But God does. Now that's amazing. All of our sin is against God.
It's an open rebellion against God. And he has the capacity
to love sinners. And the father proved his love.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, he proved his love for his people
when he sent his son to be the propitiation for their sin. He sent his son to suffer and
die as the sacrifice for the sin of God's people that he chose
to love. That's what David means here.
He says, therefore, because of God's love for his people, the
children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. David's talking about the mercy
seat there. Those wings of the cherubim that covered the mercy
seat caused that shadow. What was sprinkled in that shadow
under those wings? The blood, the blood of the sacrifice. This is God's proof. He loves
sinners. He sent his son to be the propitiation for their sins. Now I am fully satisfied to die
trusting God's love for his people. I don't want to trust my fickle
love for God, do you? But I'm satisfied trusting his
love for his people. If God ever loved me, ever, he'll
love me eternally and he'll never condemn me. See, if God loves
me, he'll never condemn me because he already sent his son to be
the propitiation for my sin. Aren't you fully satisfied to
die trusting his love for his people? Now look over Psalm 103,
David, I wanna show you a few more of these blessings. He goes
on talking about these blessings in Psalm 103. Verse five. Who satisfy thy mouth with good
things. This is the gospel, the fatness
of the gospel, makes it taste good. It satisfies thy mouth
with good things. So that thy youth is renewed
like the eagles. Now, what are these good things
that satisfy the mouth of God's people? Because it's the fact
of the gospel that satisfies their mouth. Well, the first
one's back up in verse three, it's forgiveness. Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities? Who healeth all thy diseases?
Now, in order for the holy God to forgive the sin of his elect,
the father had to make his son to be that sin, the sin of his
people, and then he had to punish his son. fully for that sin as
our substitute. Once Christ suffered for the
sin of God's people, the Father justly forgives their sin. What sin's left to charge them
with? The blood of Christ put it away. Now that makes me satisfied
with God's forgiveness. You know, one of us may wrong
the other, I apologize to you. You say, I forgive you. But it's hard to get it out of
the back of your mind, isn't it? It's hard to get it out of the
back of your mind. This guy, he did me wrong before.
He might do it again. I said I forgive him, but I'm
going to watch him. I'm going to watch him. Well, I guess technically that's
not forgiveness, is it? If Almighty God has forgiven
your sin, He's forgotten it. You know why he's forgotten it?
There's nothing left to remember. The blood of Christ put it away. Now I'm satisfied to die trusting
God's forgiveness of sin. I can trust it because the blood
of Christ put that sin away. I can die fully confident, fully
satisfied knowing, trusting that the blood of Christ's sacrifice
has put away my sin, so God forgives me and he'll accept me. Then
there's God's redemption, verse four. Who redeemeth thy life
from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and
tender mercies. Christ came in the flesh and
he paid the redemption price. He paid it in full for the sin
of his people. Now we didn't deserve that, but
you know why God did it? in his loving kindness, because
he loves his people, and in his tender, his tender, his kind,
his sweet, tender mercies for his people. I am fully satisfied being redeemed
by the blood of the lamb. Aren't you? You know why I'm
fully satisfied? His blood's able. There's power
in His blood. He's able to redeem. I'm fully
satisfied trusting the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. And I'm
fully satisfied to die trusting God's redemption. That He's redeemed
me in Christ alone. That He's my only plea and my
only hope. I'm fully satisfied to die trusting
Christ that way. Now here's the third thing. Look
back at Psalm 37. Every believer is satisfied with
the word of God. Every time I preach here and
the men I invite to preach here, the men from here preach very
careful to always take our text from God's word. Go verse by
verse through God's word. And here's the reason, I mean,
it's the word of God, so of course that's what we're gonna preach.
The word of God is the children's bread. Every believer is satisfied
with the word of God. Psalm 37 verse 19. They shall not be ashamed in
the evil time, and in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied. Now, what is David talking about
there? Well, he's not talking about a physical famine, a food. He's talking about a spiritual
famine. And in that time where there's
a spiritual famine in the land, David says God will satisfy his
people with his word. Even though there's a spiritual
famine across the whole world, God will satisfy his people with
his word. Amos told us something else about
that in Amos 8 verse 11. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord God, that I'll send a famine in the land. Not a famine
of bread or thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the
Lord. That's the famine David's talking
about. It's a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Lord God
said he's gonna send it. I believe he sent it, don't you?
I believe he sent it in our day. And God's promise is, even in
this time of great spiritual famine, he'll satisfy his people
with his word. And I'm sure, I mean this could,
refer to many different times over the course of human history.
But Amos has to be talking about our day, 2023. And the amazing thing is this, we
live in a time of the great famine of God's word, even though the
printed word is more available now than it's ever been in human
history. There were times that only the
Priest in the Catholic Church had access to the Word of God.
It was written in Latin. Nobody could read it if they
got their hands on it anyways. You can buy a Bible at the dollar
store. You can download a Bible, a King
James Version Bible on your phone for free. You can have it for
free. And there's more false religion
today than has ever been before. Because people take the word
and they twist it. And just create more false religion,
more false hope than has ever been in God's creation before. Now that bothers me. It bothers
me. It bothers me to think about.
Flipping through the channels at night and you come across
some false preacher, it's so obvious he's a used car salesman
and a bad one at that. And it breaks my heart to think,
I mean, it's almost laughable what he's doing or she's doing.
But it breaks your heart, people are swallowing it hook, line
and sinker. And it's so troubling. But here's God's promise. That
fellow's not going to deceive one of God's people. God's going
to feed His people with the Word of God. He's going to reserve
Himself a place somewhere where His Word's preached. God will
not leave Himself without a witness. I can't guarantee you it'll always
be here, but it's going to be somewhere. It's going to be somewhere
till Christ returns. And I am fully satisfied with
the message of this book, to trust the message of this book. Even when it doesn't seem to
match my experience, I'm fully satisfied to trust it and believe
it. And I can die fully satisfied
trusting this word, trusting this book, trusting Christ, who's
the incarnate word that all this Bible speaks of. Nothing else
will satisfy me. Nothing else will satisfy your
heart to save you now. Nothing will reveal Christ to
you now but the preaching of this word. If you know Christ,
nothing will comfort you, nothing will strengthen you, nothing
will edify you, nothing will feed your soul but the word of
God. Absolutely nothing. And of all
God's precious promises, here's the fourth one. Look back at
Psalm 17. Now I get back to my title, Every
believer is gonna end up plumb satisfied. Psalm 17, verse 15. As for me, I will behold thy
face in righteousness. There's no doubt about it, David
said. I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. And like I said a little
bit ago, I'm fully satisfied with the gospel of Christ now.
I'm fully satisfied. I'm not looking for another message.
I'm not looking for any more religious experience. I'm fully
satisfied with the gospel. I'm fully satisfied to rest in
Christ, because everything he's done is perfect. I'm fully satisfied
to rest in the righteousness of Christ. I'm fully satisfied
to rest in the holiness of Christ. I'm fully satisfied to rest being
forgiven in Christ. I am fully satisfied to see Christ
by faith and believe Him, be saved in Him. I'm fully satisfied
with that. But we haven't experienced seeing
Christ face to face yet, have we? I'm satisfied trusting Christ
by faith, but I'm not fully satisfied yet.
I long for the day. I don't see Him with that glass
between, dimly. I haven't experienced holiness
and righteousness, body and soul yet. Not yet. But if I'm a believer,
one day I will. Like David says here, I will
behold thy face in righteousness. I'm going to experience it someday.
But listen, I'm going to have to die to do it. Once this body is dead, I'll
go be with the Lord. We looked at that last week.
Rachel, as she died, her soul departed. When this body dies,
we'll depart and go be with the Lord. That's what scripture says.
I'll close my eyes in this life and open them in the next. And
you know the first thing that I'm going to see? The smiling
face of Christ the Savior. I'll see Christ face to face. The joy of that and the magnitude
of that can't be understood in this life. I think we just explode. It can't be contained. That's
what Job was looking forward to. He said, my Redeemer lives. One day, he's gonna walk on this
earth, and with these eyes, I'm gonna see him, and I'll be satisfied. Well, Job is satisfied now. I'm
waiting my turn, aren't you? I'm waiting my turn. You think
what it means to see Christ face to face? It means we'll be like
him, made just like him, for we'll see him as he is. Now,
I can die fully satisfied, Knowing that the death of this body is
going to make me far, far, far better off than I am now. That's how we can die. Fully
satisfied. Just like Isaac was, knowing
there's a better day coming. And it's going to be received
the moment life leaves this body. Isn't that a blessing? That's
how we can die fully satisfied. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for this instruction
in your word to look to Christ, to trust him. How thankful we
are that by your mercy, by your grace, you've made Christ to
be all to us. And trusting him, we're fully
satisfied. And that'll enable us to die
However it is that the body, you're pleased to cause this
body to die, we can leave it fully satisfied, trusting Christ
our Savior. Father, I pray you'd cause your
word to take root in the hearts of your people, to enable us
to see the glory of Christ, to comfort our hearts, and prepare
us for that moment when you call us home. Christ, in the precious
name of Christ our Savior, for his sake and his glory, we pray,
amen. All right, now after we sing
a closing hymn, if a couple of you men would set those, our
three tables up in the vestibule, we'll prepare, have that ready
for our birthday celebration on Sunday. All right, if you
would, this is a good hymn for our closing hymn after that message.
Page 446, stand and sing satisfied.