All right, if you would open
your Bibles now to Genesis chapter 25. Genesis chapter 25. We'll begin reading in verse
seven. And these are the days of the
years of Abraham's life, which he lived, and hundred, three
score, and 15 years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost
and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years and
was gathered to his people. And his sons, Isaac and Ishmael
buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron, the son
of Zohar, the Hittite, which is before Mamre, the field which
Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth. There was Abraham buried
and Sarah, his wife. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow before our Lord together. Our God and our Father, we do
bow in worship before you. We bow before your throne of
grace, so thankful that we can come before a throne of grace. And Father, we come daring only,
pleading the obedience, the righteousness, and the blood of your Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ. His righteousness is the only
righteousness we have and how thankful we are to be accepted
in it. His blood is the only way our sin can be forgiven.
How thankful we are to be washed in his precious blood. Father,
we thank you. And Father, we've gathered here
together this evening to attempt to worship your matchless name.
And I pray you would condescend in the person of your spirit
to meet with us And Father, enable us to worship. Enable us to worship
in spirit and in truth, to not just go through the motions of
religion, but to hear word from thee, to hear the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and to from the heart worship in awe and
wonder and thanksgiving to worship you. Father, speak to us and
take your word and apply it to each heart here tonight, I pray.
Enable us to believe on. rest in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And while we pray for ourselves here this evening, Father, we
pray for all of your people, wherever they may be, that you
bless your word where it's preached. To your glory, Father, in this
dark and difficult day, would you reveal to this world your
redemptive glory through the preaching of Christ our Savior.
Continue to call out your sheep, feed and comfort and edify your
sheep. Father, we're thankful for the many blessings of this
life you've given to us to enjoy today, how rich you've made us,
richly you've blessed us. And Father, we're thankful. We
know everything we have has come from thy hand and thy goodness,
not because we deserve it. And we're thankful. Father, we're
thankful for these little ones that you've given to us. And
Father, we continue to pray for them. Lord, would you bless them,
protect them, cause them to grow well and strong, to get a good
education and be able to go out into the world, be able to stand
on their own two feet, Father, be with them and protect them.
And above all, Father, how we pray mercy for their souls. Oh,
would you be merciful. Cause us to be faithful to them,
to faithfully teach them the scriptures. Father, we pray that
you would do what only you can do and open the word, open your
word to their hearts. Father, for those that you brought
in the time of trial and trouble, we pray for them. Again, we're
thankful, thankful to know these things have come from thy hand,
not an accident. Father, we pray you'd be with
your people to comfort and lead and guide and direct and deliver
according to thy will. And all these things we ask in
that name which is above every name, in the name of Christ our
Savior, amen. I've titled the message this
evening, The Death of a Believer, Our text is an account of the
death and the burial of Abraham. Now we've spent some time looking
through the life of Abraham. And you'd have to say Abraham
is a great man of faith, wasn't he? But this great man of faith,
you know he's going to die the same way all of us are going
to die. For the same reason all of us are going to die. Because
of sin. Each one of us here tonight will
go through this experience of death the same way Abraham did.
unless the Lord returns first. And as I told you Sunday morning,
there's no comfort for our hearts in the death of an unbeliever. The death of an unbeliever is
just, it's so sad to think about, because now there's no hope left
for that person. We had hope for them as long
as they were still alive, didn't we? Maybe they'd hear. Maybe
the Lord would be pleased to reveal Himself to them. Maybe
the Lord would be pleased to call them Give them faith to
believe the gospel. We had that hope for them while
they lived. Maybe. Maybe. The Lord's able. We know that. But now after they're
dead, there's no hope. But we still have a funeral,
don't we? We have a funeral for that person. You know, that person's
family can get together and they can enjoy talking about, reminiscing
about things, how we do. They can remember good times
they had with their loved one. They can remember something touching
their loved one did. Something funny they did. And
that's helpful for the family. We ought to do that. It's just
a way to say goodbye, morning, and that's helpful. But at that
time, there's no real comfort for the soul, is there? We can
have fond memories of the past, but there's no comfort for the
soul. And speaking as a preacher, I can tell you that preaching
the funeral of an unbeliever is the hardest preaching I've
ever done. It's hard because there's no hope. But the death
of a believer, and that's what we're looking at tonight, is
a very different story. Those of us who are left behind,
now we're sad. We grieve the loss of our loved
one. We can't be with them anymore,
enjoy time together with them anymore. But when a believer
dies, now there's sorrow, isn't there? We mourn. But there's
also comfort. And truthfully, there's even
joy, isn't there? There's even joy in the Lord
because of what the Lord's done for them. And that's such a comforting
thing to our souls, to be able to know. And that's what I want
us to look at tonight in the death of Abraham. See this picture
of the death of a believer. Every person here who believes
on Christ is gonna die just like Abraham did in these four ways.
The four words of comfort that I see in our text in the death
of a believer. And the first point is this. Abraham died. at the time appointed by God.
Verse seven of Genesis 25 says, and these are the days of the
years of Abraham's life, which he lived in 103 score and 15
years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost
and died in a good old age, an old man full of years and was
gathered to his people. Now I want you to notice how
the scripture says this. These are the days of the years
of Abraham's life. Abraham lived 175 years. Those years went by so quickly.
They're described as days. The days of the years of his
life. Jacob said the same thing. Remember when Joseph was down
there in Egypt and he brought his family down there and he
wanted to introduce his father to Pharaoh. He took Jacob in
there to meet Pharaoh. And the writers say Pharaoh was
very impressed. They said this is probably the oldest person
he'd ever seen. And he asked Jacob, how old are you? And Jacob
said the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years.
Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. He described
those years in days. And I point that out because
we would do well, you and me, to remember this life is going
to pass so quickly. Scripture full of references
of that. David said Psalm 90 verse 12, teach us to number
our days, our years. number our days for this reason,
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. These years pass so
quickly. I hope God give us wisdom, give
us some grace to use those years to apply our hearts to seeking
wisdom, seeking Christ who is the wisdom of God. Abraham lived
175 years. And that word years is used there.
That word means a measure of time or a lifetime. The Lord
gave an exact measure of time to be the lifetime for Abraham
and Abraham lived that time. Exactly. He lived that appointed
time. Exactly. Not one second more and not one
second less. Verse eight says that Abraham
died full of years. He died full of the years that
God gave him. He didn't miss one of them, but
you know, that's true of every person, not just Abraham. I just
believe that's true of every person. We all live the exact
measure of time that the Lord gives us. Now, it's my advice
to you. You know, take care of your health.
Have some sense about this thing. Exercise, eat right. Or maybe
we should start doing yoga. I don't know. Do something, you
know. Do it so you'll feel better as long as you're here. It's
not going to add any years. It's not going to add a minute
to your life. But you feel better as long as you're here. That
makes it worth doing. But it's just, we're gonna live
this appointed time God's given us. As I was studying for this
message, I read, I don't remember who it was, some old writer.
I'm glad I forgot his name so I won't hold this against him.
He wrote this in his commentary. He said, every preacher is immortal
until God's time for them is finished. And I thought, what
an arrogant thing to say about preachers. I read that, and later
on that afternoon, I told my son Clark, I said, I read this
this afternoon, what do you think about this? I told him what this
man said. Every preacher's immortal until God's pleased to bring
him home, until God's time then is finished. And Clark thought
about that for a second, and he said, well that's true, but
it's not the truth. That is an excellent way to put
that. Because this is true of every human being. Every human
being. Believer and unbeliever alike.
We're immortal until God's time for us is finished. We're all
going to live this exact allotted amount of time. And then we'll
die. But now remember, I'm talking
specifically now about the death of a believer. The Lord's given
us an appointed measure of time to be our lifetime. And we would
do well to use that time wisely, to redeem the time. In Ephesians
5, verse 16, Paul said, redeeming the time because the days are
evil. We live in evil days, don't we?
Now redeem the time. Let's do our best to use our
time wisely, to seek the Lord, to worship the Lord, to be a
help and encouragement to people, to be a help and encouragement
to the spread of the gospel. We've got an exact amount of
time. I'd sure hate to waste it, don't you? I hate to waste
time. In verse eight, it says that
Abraham died in a good old age. And that means at a good time.
That's what the literal translation is. Abraham died at a good time. God's appointed time for Abraham
to die was a good time. It was the best time for this
to happen, for Abraham to die. And the same thing's true of
you and me. It'll be at a good time. It may be inconvenient
for our families, but it'll be the best time. And I thought
about having that time somewhere out there in the future appointed
for me to die. And I'm glad I don't know when
it is. I really am glad I don't know when it will be. And since
I don't know when that appointed time for my death will be, I
hope I seek to make the most out of today. Because we're not
promised tomorrow. Tomorrow may not come for us.
It may be the end of our appointed time, I think we'd be wise to
use the time God's given us well, don't you? Well, here's the second
thing. Abraham did not die until he
had done everything that the Lord had given him to do. Now
you think about this. Abraham was 75 years old and
he didn't know God. First time God ever spoke to
Abraham, Abraham was 75 years old. That's already an old man.
He's already an old man. Lord said, now come out of your
father's house Go to a place I'll show you. You know, Abraham's
an old man now, but he lived long enough to go to that land
and spend some time sojourning there, because that's what the
Lord had for him to do. Abraham was already an old, childless
man. He's unable to produce children.
His wife is unable to produce children. And Lord promised him,
you're going to have a son, Abraham. You're going to have a son by
Sarah, not just any son, a son by Sarah. And the whole world
is going to be blessed in that son. Because the Savior of sinners
has come through that son. Now Abraham was an old man. He
couldn't have children anymore. Sarah couldn't have children
anymore. She had already gone through menopause. But Abraham lived long enough
to see that child, didn't he? And other children and grandchildren,
he lived long enough because that's what God had given for
him to do. Abraham spent 75 years being
an idolater. You know he was steeped in that.
He was steeped in this thing of whatever idolatrous religion
he was in. But Abraham couldn't die that
way, could he? He couldn't die in that idolatry. You know why?
God had chosen Abraham unto salvation. He's got to meet God. He's got
to be given faith in God. And Abraham lived long enough
that that happened, didn't he? God introduced himself to Abraham.
Gave Abraham faith in God. He became a friend of God. That'll
happen to you and me too, God's chosen us to salvation. Abraham lived long enough to
see, I mean to understand, he saw this by faith. How is it
that Almighty God is going to bless every nation of the earth
through his son, through his son Isaac? God promised him that
and Abraham lived long enough to see how it's going to happen.
He saw a picture of it. Remember he took his son Isaac
up to that mountain, the place God had shown him, Mount Moriah.
And Abraham got ready to sacrifice his son, just like God told him
to do, but God told him to stop. And Abraham turned, and behind
him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham took
that ram, and he offered him up in the stead of his son Isaac.
They watched that ram die, his blood drain out, his body die,
and his body be burned to ash on that fire in the stead of
Isaac, in the place of Isaac. Isaac lived because that ram
died at his substitute. And at that moment, By faith,
Abraham saw. He saw God's redemption for sinners. It's going to be accomplished
through the sacrifice of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God is going to die
as a sacrifice for His people. His death is going to satisfy
God's justice and God's mercy. Enable God and His justice to
be satisfied. Enable Him to be merciful to
sinners and give them life and faith in Christ. Abraham saw
how this is going to happen and oh, he was glad. Oh, he was glad
Isaac was still alive too, wasn't he? But he fully expected to
come down from that mountain with Isaac. He told his servants,
you men stay here by the mules and I and the latter are going
to go yonder and worship and come again. He expected Isaac
to be coming down from that mountain. I'll tell you the tree that Abraham
got up there. He saw my day and was glad, the
Savior said. He saw by faith how God's going
to save sinners. And the same thing's true about
the life of every believer. You're going to do what God's
given you to do. You think, I can't do that. I don't see how I'm
going to do it. God will enable you. You're going to do it. We'll
do everything that the Lord's purpose for us to do. Hopefully
I would, you know, in serving his kingdom, but whatever it
is, the days of the years of our lives, we're going to do
what God's given us to do. And when the time comes at the
end, you know, we may be planning to do something. We may want
to do something. that we won't be able to do it
because our last day has come, the Lord calls us home. But that's
all right. That's all right. We weren't
meant to do it anyway. It's something I wanted to do,
but I was not meant to do it because the Lord took me home.
I read sometime, I don't remember, about somebody famous. I don't
know if it was Albert Einstein or who it was. Somebody smart,
industrious, When this man died, they went and looked at his desk.
His desk was full of projects he was working on, things he
was thinking of. He had him a to-do list sitting in the middle of
his desk. He never got to do his to-do list, did he? But he
died active, he died, but he didn't get to do it, and that's
alright. That's alright. His appointed time came. And
you and I, You know, I hope I still got a to-do list. I hope I'm
not just sitting around, you know, doing nothing. I hope I
still got a to-do list. And if we don't do it, that's
all right. We'll have done everything God gave us to do. Not one thing
will be left undone. Thirdly, Abraham died satisfied. In verse eight, you'll see it
says Abraham at the end, he died full of years. Well, those words
of years were added by the translators. What Moses actually wrote was
Abraham died full. He died full. And that word full
means satisfied. Abraham died satisfied. It also
in verse eight says he died an old man and that just doesn't
mean he was had a lot of years on him. It means he was one of
the respected elders. Abraham lived long enough. to
earn respect from the people that knew him. Respect from the
people that lived around him. He earned their respect. He was
a respected man. But Abraham wasn't satisfied
with himself. Abraham was not satisfied with
what he'd done. He wasn't satisfied with himself
and how he handled so many different situations. He got towards the
end. He probably knew that the end
was relatively close. He looked back over his life.
And he thought, my goodness, oh, I've made lots of mistakes.
I've made lots of mistakes. Abraham thought about how he's
disappointed in himself. He's not satisfied in himself.
He thought about when he went down there to that heathen country
and he told Sarah, now you tell them you're my sister so they
don't kill me so they can marry you. Not once, but twice. And Abraham just, I'm so ashamed.
I'm so disappointed in myself that I did that. He thought about
how after God promised him a child, 10 years later, he had no child.
And he listened to Sarah. Sarah said, God must want us
to do our part. You marry my handmaid, and I'll have a son
by her. And Abraham listened to her, and he did. And boy,
he was disappointed. He disappointed in himself. Now,
you know Abraham loved Ishmael. He loved him. That's his son.
But he was disappointed. He didn't trust the Lord better
than that, and wait on the Lord to send a child. like he promised
him. He was disappointed. Abraham was disappointed in himself.
He had to look back and think, oh, I have caused Hagar and Ishmael
so much pain. I had to send them away. Just
put what little they care on their back and send them into
the wilderness. I had to do that to my son. I
know that caused him pain. Now he knew Sarah was right.
The son of the bond woman cannot be heir of the son of the free
woman. He hated that. He was so disappointed in himself
that he caused this situation, sending him out in the wilderness
like that. Abraham may never have seen him again. Scripture
doesn't give an account of it at any rate. He had to be disappointed
in that. Abraham was a great man of faith,
but when he looked at what he'd done, he couldn't see one thing
that he'd done that he couldn't have done better. It was mixed
with sin. That's why he's dying, because
everything he'd done mixed with sin. I thought of Henry one time. He said, I look back over my
life, and he said, I'd do everything. If I had to do everything, I'd
do everything different. There sat Doris. He said, well,
except Doris, I'd marry her again. But then we'd do everything all
different, wouldn't we? We're just not satisfied with
what we've done. Yet Abraham died satisfied, the
scripture says. Not with himself. He died satisfied
with Christ. And if you're a believer, that's
the way you're going to die too. You're going to look back and
say, oh, oh, the mistakes I made. I hope they don't tell that story
sitting around at the visitation of my funeral. I'm so ashamed
of that. I wish nobody would remember
that. I'm so disappointed in the way I did that. I made lots
of mistakes. But I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied
with Christ. I'm satisfied with the righteousness
of Christ. I'm satisfied to trust my soul
to Christ alone. It's in his hands and do with
what he will. And I'm satisfied that it's there
because he has the power to save and I don't. I'm satisfied with
the righteousness of Christ. His is the only righteousness
that I want. Oh, to be able to stand accepted in Christ's righteousness,
his perfect obedience. I'm satisfied with that. I'm
not satisfied with my obedience, my law keeping, or my decision
making. I've made so many mistakes. I've
done just everything wrong. But I'm satisfied with the righteousness
of Christ. I'm fully satisfied with the
sacrifice of Christ. I'm not satisfied with my sin
at all. I hate my sin. I wish I didn't
do it. I wish I hadn't done what I'd
done in the past. But I'm not afraid to face God in judgment.
Because I'm satisfied that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses me from all my sin. His blood's so precious.
His blood can pay my sin. I can't. So I'm satisfied with
His sacrifice. And I'm fully satisfied with
how the Lord has led me through this life. There's been lots
of ups and downs. And if we live very much longer,
there's going to be lots more ups and downs. A lot more. But I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied
the Lord has done all things well. Every step I've taken,
He took first. Remember there in John 10, the
Lord comes, He talks about the good shepherd. He calls His sheep
from the sheepfold and He leads them out. Every step those sheep
take, they're following the Savior. He's been with me every step
of the way. His grace has been sufficient for every valley and
every mountaintop too. I'm fully satisfied with Christ.
I'm fully satisfied with the gospel of Christ. I tell you,
this gospel that we preach, the gospel of God's sovereign saving
grace, it's the only gospel that tells the truth about me. Any
other so-called gospel that gives me things to do in order to be
saved, that gospel is lying. It's not telling the truth. It's
not telling the truth about me. Because I can't do anything well
enough to please God. I can't. I can't obey God's law.
This gospel that we preach, the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace, if a sinner's going to be saved, it's got to be by grace.
That gospel tells the truth about me. Because I'm a sinner who's
undone, ruined in Adam, incapable of doing anything righteous.
And where's that leaving me? Totally dependent on God to save
me by His grace. He's got to do all the saving
for me. Now that gospel tells the truth. And that truth satisfies
a guilty sin. That's why I'm satisfied with
this gospel. This gospel that we preach, it's also the only
gospel that tells the truth about God. Any other so-called gospel
that says, now you do better, you start doing better, and God
will accept you. You just do the best that you
can. As long as you're sincere, God will accept you. Anybody
preaching that message is not telling the truth about God.
Not according to this book, either or not. This book says God's
holy. This book says God can't even
look on sin. So to say God's going to accept
the best that I can do, even though it's polluted with sin?
Well, that's a lie. That's a lie. But the gospel
that God's given us to preach and believe says God is holy. We boldly declare this, God cannot
look on sin. He cannot. But God's also gracious. God's also merciful. So God did
what only God can do. He took the sin of his people
away from them. He took it away from them and
he made that sin belong to his son. And then he killed his son
as a sacrifice for that sin. And that sacrifice, the sacrifice
of God's darling son who came into flesh, put all that sin
away. So it's gone. There's no sin
left to be charged to God's people. Christ took it away. It's gone. Now God can be just, can't he? No sin to charge, no sin to punish. It's already been punished. And
that lets God show mercy to sinners. But that salvation, the salvation
of a holy God has to be through a sacrifice that pays for sin
and injustice, doesn't it? This gospel that we preach is
the only gospel that declares that. The only one. And that
gospel satisfies a sinner. That's the salvation a sinner
like me needs. Because our gospel declares a
salvation that cannot be lost. I think it was last Sunday's
bulletin, there was an article by Bruce Crabtree, I Can't Mess
It Up. That's the salvation I need. One I cannot mess up. Any so-called gospel that says
salvation depends on me accepting Jesus and letting him into my
heart so he can be my personal savior. That message is a lie. Because that message makes God
dependent on me. That message means God's not
sovereign. Must mean I am. It's up to me. It's up to me.
Well, according to this book, now that's a lie. I'll tell you
one thing's obvious. You don't have to read past the
first one or two verses of this book to find out God's sovereign. God said, let there be light,
and there's light. God's sovereign. He always does His will. Whatever it is God purposed to
do, He's gonna do it. He's not frustrated. But the
gospel we preach, the gospel of God's grace says that the
father chose a people to save and those people shall be saved. I know they will cause God's
going to see to it. The sovereign God's going to make sure it happens.
The son of God came to save him. He came to establish righteousness. The son of God came to establish
righteousness for his people. Then that righteousness is established. You know how I know that? The
Son of God did it. He couldn't fail, could He? Of
course He did what He came to do. He established righteousness
for His people. By His sacrifice, He put their
sin away. And God the Holy Spirit comes
and He gives those people faith. He gives them faith so they believe
Christ and love Christ. He gives them life in the new
birth. And those people can never die. They can't. Because God's the one that gave
them life. They could never die. They could never be lost. See,
I'm fully satisfied with that gospel. The gospel of God's grace. Because that gospel is the only
gospel that lets a sinner like me rest my soul. I'm resting
it on what God has done. And what God has promised. Not
on what I've... I cannot have any rest on what
I've done. When I start looking at what
I've done, all I look back and see is mistakes. Isn't it you?
I can rest on what God's done. But what He does is perfect. And there's one more thing about
being satisfied. I know this. I'm fully satisfied with Christ. With His gospel, I'm fully satisfied
with it. Now, I'm not satisfied with myself.
I'm satisfied with Him. I know this. This is another
reason I'm so satisfied with this gospel, with this Savior.
He's going to be satisfied. because he cannot fail to save
his people from their sin. He's going to be satisfied. He
shall see the travail of his soul and be what? Satisfied. He's satisfied that I will be
too. Because he's not going to lose
one that he came to save. And a believer, however the experience
of death goes, will die fully satisfied with Christ. And once
we pass through that veil of death, you know what? Oh boy. Then we'll be satisfied,
won't we? Isn't that what David said in
Psalm 17? As for me, I'll behold thy face
in righteousness. I'll be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. Oh, we're gonna die satisfied
and then we're gonna be satisfied like we can't imagine. Satisfied. Here's the fourth thing. Abraham
is now resting in Christ. He's resting with Christ and
in Christ. Same thing's true of every believer
when we die. Verse nine says that his sons, Isaac and Ishmael
came back and buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field
of Ephron, the son of Zohar, the Hittite, which is before
Mamre. The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth,
there was Abraham buried and Sarah, his wife. I think it's
interesting. I don't know if Abraham ever
saw Ishmael again, but scripture does say Ishmael came back to
bury his father, to help Isaac bury his father, even though
Abraham cast him out. Now, I've known people with family
difficulties, and those hurt feelings run deep, don't they?
They run deep, they're hard to get over. Maybe this says something
about Abraham's character. Even though he cast Ishmael out,
Ishmael still loved him, and he wouldn't miss his funeral.
He came back to the funeral, and he came back to do the work
of burying him. And they buried him in that cave,
Machpelah. You remember we studied that
cave, Machpelah. It's the only piece of land in
that land God promised Abraham's descendants Abraham ever owned.
It's filled with a cave in it to be used as a burial tomb.
And that word makpila means double and portion. All of God's people
are going to die with a double portion. Christ has put our sin
away by his precious blood. And he's given us a new nature
that can never sin. That nature can't mar. We've
got a new nature that can't mar the salvation Christ accomplished
for us. It's the double portion. And when a believer dies, our
flesh is going to be buried. and it's going to decay back
to the dust from whence it was made. The dust of Abraham's body
is still here somewhere in that cave, or maybe the wind blew
it around. I don't know, but the dust of his flesh is here
somewhere. But Abraham's with the Lord.
Abraham's with the Lord. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. See, for a believer, as soon
as the body dies, this flesh stays here. It's just dead flesh. It's got to be buried out of
sight. But that new man, born of God, immediately leaves this
clay shell and goes to be with the Lord. He's fit to enter straight
into the presence of the thrice holy God because he's got a holy,
righteous nature. That new man is able to leave
this body and immediately open his eyes in glory and be satisfied
because he sees the Lord face to face. Been made just like
him. And there he'll be forever. There
he'll be forever. And until then, the body rests
in the grave. Abraham's body resting beside
Sarah's body. They're resting. All they're
doing is just waiting there for the resurrection. Remember, that's
what this cave of Machpelah was all about. It was a resting place,
a place for the bodies of God's people to rest. And it was the
only land in Canaan Abraham ever owned, a cemetery. But that place
was a place of rest that God had given for the bodies of his
people. And they'll rest until the resurrection, when those
bodies will be raised incorruptible, body and soul joined back together.
And Paul said, so shall we ever be with the Lord. Same thing's
true of every believer. That doesn't make death so bad,
does it? Doesn't make death so bad, does it? I don't know what to say about
that. Maybe we quit fearing it so much. Start treating it a little more
seriously, with a little more open eyes about what this thing
is. This thing of death is coming. It's coming. But for the believer,
there's no reason to fear it. I don't know why we're just doing
everything we can do to hang on to these bodies. Take care of them as long as
you got them. It's the only one you're ever going to have in this life.
But it's not going to be a bad thing laid down, is it? It just
won't be a bad thing laid down. All right. Well, I hope that'll
be a blessing and help to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for these comforting words concerning
the death of your dear children. A believer, a child of God. Father,
cause these things to to comfort our hearts and to teach us how
to number our days and apply our hearts to wisdom in these
days that you've given us, that we might be a help and encouragement
to other people, to point folks to Christ, to be a help and encouragement
to each other. Don't let us be a stumbling block
to one another, but cause us to be a help and encouragement
one to another as we continue through shoulder to shoulder
on this journey through this world below. you're pleased to
call us home. Father, get glory to your name
through this message, we pray. It's in Christ's name, for his
sake we pray.