I, too, enjoyed playing a little
golf with David years back. I don't play much, haven't played
in and out in a long time. Didn't play much then, but I
was just taking up the game a little bit when we first moved to Danville. I had the privilege of being
Dave's pastor for 39 years. In the article in the brochure,
I put 38 years, and my wife reminded me, we just finished 39. And
I dearly loved that man, and he loved his pastor. We would
meet to play golf, and I always liked playing golf with Dave
because he would tell folks, today we play by pastor's rules.
That means any bad shot he makes, we don't count it. And he can't
go out of bounds, and if we need to move the ball, we'll limit
it to boxcar length. so I enjoyed playing golf with
David. Oh, I love that man and he loved
me. I'm reading from the book of
Revelation chapter 14 verses 12 and 13. Here is the patience
of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the
Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the spirit that they
may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. As soon as Dave's daughter Amy
called me Saturday morning to tell me the Lord had taken her
dad with himself into heaven, this passage of scripture came
to my mind. And I said to Amy Saturday morning,
I can't tell you how happy I am for him. And I didn't say much
else. It's either Sunday morning or
Sunday evening. She said to me, she said, no, Brother Don, that
statement in scripture, blessed are the dead that die in the
Lord, has been on my mind ever since Dad went to heaven. And
I want to try tonight to tell you what the scriptures teach
us about this blessedness. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. How often all of us have stood
by the bed of a dying friend, a relative, someone we loved,
and our hearts ache as we anticipate losing one that's dear to us. Mother or father, son or daughter,
husband or wife. We ache because we know we're
going to miss the love and companionship and the aid of that faithful
one who is passing out of this world into eternity. And yet
as we watch our friends leave this world of sin and sorrow,
knowing that they're entering into heaven's everlasting glory,
knowing that they are falling asleep in the arms of the Savior,
with broken heart and weeping eyes, we say with John, Oh, blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord. Notice at the outset, please
notice this. The Word of God does not say,
blessed are the dead. It does not say that. Many years
ago, a young lady, we took to camp for nine years as a little
girl growing up, stood beside her father's casket. Her father
was a rebel. ungodly man, had no interest in things of God.
And she stood there and while folks were visiting, they'd come
by and take her by the hand. And everybody said, well, he's
better off now. His sufferings are over. He's better off now.
His sufferings are over. And finally, about after an hour
of that, she had heard all she could hear of it. And she spoke
loudly enough to the next one who said it so that everybody
in the building could hear her. She said, he's in hell. You call
that better off? The Scripture does not say, blessed
are the dead. For many of you, if you were
to die this hour, there'd be nothing blessed about it. Oh, God make you hear me. But
only everlasting torment. What the Word of God does say
is this, The blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. That's another thing. That's
another thing altogether. In fact, that's something that
God calls precious. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. That's what the psalmist said.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Those who die in the Lord, have entered into a state of eternal
blessedness. The death of the believer is
precious to God and blessed to him. So that it does not matter
when I die, or where I die, or by what means I die. It only
means if I die in the Lord, nothing but blessedness henceforth awaits
me. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord, and their death is precious to God because they're
His. He chose them, He bought them,
He called them, He saved them, and their death is precious to
Him. Very, very soon, you and I also must leave this world. Is there not an appointed time
to man upon the earth? Indeed, there is. Are not his
days also like the days of an hireling? Indeed they are. And at your appointed time, I
mean precisely at the time God ordained before ever you came
into this world, you will leave this world according to God's
purpose. Every man lives only an appointed
time in this world and he leaves this world for eternity. We would
be wise to take our minds off the cares and troubles of this
world. We will be wise to take our minds
off the riches and the pleasures and the delights of this world
and look across the brief sea of time to eternity. Looking not at things which are
seen, but things which are unseen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. The things which are seen are
temporal. You amass all you can amass,
get all you can get, and this is how long it lasts. It's gone. It's gone. The things which are seen are
temporal. Every earthly relationship is
just temporal, very brief. The things which are not seen
are eternal. We are about to enter a world
of eternity. Either eternal torment, eternal
death, eternal destruction, eternal woe that no man has ever imagined,
or eternal bliss, eternal glory, eternal life that no man has
ever imagined. One of the two. Looking at things
from the believer's perspective, We say with John, blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord. All those who die in the Lord,
John says, are from henceforth blessed. From henceforth blessed. That is here on this earth. I'm almost 69 years old. We'll
be in just a few days. God saved me. just before I was
17 years old. And I have had a blessed life.
Oh, oh, what a blessed life. I've been preaching the gospel
of God's free grace since I was 17 years old. I've had a blessed
life, a blessed life. But the most blessed life in
this world is a life full of pain and sorrow and trial and
sickness and temptation and difficulty. This world is a world of woe. But from henceforth, as soon
as I draw my last breath, nothing but blessedness. Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord. Who are these blessed ones of
whom John speaks? Of whom are these words spoken?
The voice which John heard from heaven declared, blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord. Who are they? I want to be one
of them. Verse 12 tells us who they are.
Here is the patience of the saints. They're saints, they're patient. Here are they which keep the
commandments of God They keep the commandments of God. They
keep God's law. Every one of them. They perfectly keep God's
law. And they keep the faith of Jesus.
All of them do. All right, who are these? They
are saints. Saints. I'm looking at some folks
here who are saints. I know some of you. Saints. Do
you know what a saint is? A saint is a holy one. A holy
one. Now, I'm not talking about holy
like you talk about people being holy. I'm not talking about holy
like the world commonly talks about people being holy. Most
people have the idea that if a fella is just a little different
from other folks, and especially if he wears a funny looking costume
and a collar around his neck, then he's holy. No, I'm not talking
about that foolishness. I'm talking holy. I'm talking
holy as God is holy. Holy. Saints are holy ones, but
we're just sinners. Vile from the inside out. Corrupt at heart. Corrupt in
mind. Corrupt in word. Corrupt in deep. In us and out of us is nothing
but corruption. Nothing else. Nothing else. All
the facade we put up comes from a heart of corruption. There's
nothing in you but sin. Nothing done by you but sin. Nothing in you, nothing done
by you that God in his holiness can ever accept, he won't do
it. He won't do it. No matter how
you try, no matter what decisions you make, God will not have you
as you are by nature. Well, how on earth can a sinner,
a sinner, I'm talking about a sinner, be made holy, a saint before
God? How? Takes three things. It takes God's sovereign choice,
God's election, God's predestination. This thing of salvation begins
with somebody's choice, but not yours. It begins with God's choice.
This thing of salvation is by God's purpose, not your purpose.
It's by God's will, not your will. Listen to the scriptures.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him. Ooh. God chose us, he predestinated
us, his elect, every sinner saved by his grace. This man whose
body lives here in this casket, who's now with Christ in glory,
he is holy and unblameable before God. And he was made that before
he left here. He was made that before he left
here because God chose him. in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins. What does it take? It takes God's
sovereign election to make us saints. But it takes more than
that. It takes blood atonement. It
takes an effectual redemption. It takes the doing and dying
of the Son of God as the sinner's substitute. Jesus Christ, God's
Son, before the world was, Before time began, before ever
there was a star in the heavens, before ever an angel sang God's
praise, Jesus Christ stood forth in covenant mercy as the surety
of his people, and he stood forth as the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He said, I'll go, I'll redeem
them. And he redeemed us at Calvary
with his precious blood. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
assumed total responsibility for his people before the world
was. He lived in this world in obedience
to God as our representative. And he went to Calvary as our
substitute. And he was made sin as our surety. And when he was made sin for
us, our sacrifice, God Almighty drew forth the sword of his justice
and slaughtered his son in the fury of his holy wrath. until justice was satisfied. And God said, that's enough.
God said, that's enough. Justice requires no more. Holiness
requires no more. Righteousness requires no more.
I cannot require more. Justice is satisfied for them. And those sinners redeemed by
Christ's precious blood, those sinners for whom atonement has
been made, Those sinners for whom wrath has been put away,
for whom justice has been satisfied at God's appointed time are regenerated,
born again, called from death to life by the power of God the
Holy Ghost in what's called the new birth. Yes, if you would
be holy, you must be born again. It's not enough. that you have
a righteous record. It's not enough that your sin
be put away. It's not enough that you have
a record of righteousness in obedience. You've got to have
a holy nature. You got to be born of God. You
got to be created new. And only God can do that. Only
God can do that. You can get baptized so often
every tadpole in the pond knows you by first name. It won't do
you any good. You make decisions and walk the
aisle and say, I believe in Jesus and say the sinner's prayer.
It ain't gonna do you any good. Most of you have been through
that time and time again, and you know full well it hasn't
done you any good. You can't birth yourself into the kingdom
of God. This preacher can't birth you
into the kingdom of God. His church can't birth you into
the kingdom of God. You must be born of God. and that which is born of God
is that holy thing which cannot sin. It is Christ in you, a new
man created in righteousness and in true holiness, a new creature
in Jesus Christ the Lord. A new creature, a new creature. 50, three years ago, God Almighty made me a new creature
in Christ. Everything started all over.
It's called new life, new life. I've had a new life for 53 years,
David, a new life. And the first 17 years, I messed
everything up. I messed everything, I mean everything.
Everything I touched, I corrupted, everything. But God gave me a
new life, made me a new creature, and I can't mess that up. I can't undo Christ's righteousness.
I can't undo his grace, no matter what goes on inside me or by
me in this world. You mean preacher, God won't
punish you for sin, no. Oh, my soul, no. He punished
my sin in his Son. You understand what I'm saying?
God's forgiveness is full, free forgiveness. He makes sinners
new in Christ, old things are passed away. All those things I wish I could
forget, God forgot. All those things I can't forget,
God can't remember. You understand what I'm saying?
He forgives sin fully. It takes election, redemption,
and effectual calling, the new birth for a sinner to be made
a saint. Who are these who enter into
God's kingdom in heavenly glory and are forever blessed? They
are saints, and they're patient, patient. Tribulation worketh
patience. God's people are patient. The
word means endurance. They persevere. They endure. They're patiently running their
race in faithfulness, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher
of their faith. They patiently endure adversity
in patience, possessing their souls. They patiently wait for
Christ in faithfulness, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life. And then John says, they keep
the commandments. They keep the commandments. Now,
many of you are as old as I am or getting close and you remember
the days when we used to have 10 commandments posted on school
board, school room walls and on courthouses and everywhere
you'd have 10 commandments and most churches had 10 commandments
posted up somewhere and people pretend to live by the 10 commandments.
But the 10 commandments are not suggestions, they're commandments. God said you either do this or
die. Anybody in here kept them? Anybody kept them? Anybody here trust Christ? Raise
your hand. That's how many's kept them. That's how many's
kept them. Christ kept them. He kept them
for us. Once and for all with finality.
He kept them perfectly. He loved God with all his heart,
soul, mind, and spirit. and he loves his neighbor as
himself. And he did that as our representative. He didn't do
it for himself, he did it for his people. And now believers
keep his commandments by keeping the one commandment of the gospel.
And this is God's commandment that you should believe on his
son, Jesus Christ. And believe in him, we fulfill
the law by faith in him. God requires perfection. God
requires righteousness. God requires satisfaction for
sins, for having broken the law. And I come to God. Let me tell
you what I bring Him. All the time. Let me tell you
what I bring Him. I bring God perfect obedience and complete
satisfaction. the very righteousness and holiness
and justice and truth and satisfaction that God demands in the person
of his Son. And God accepts me with that
sacrifice, Jesus Christ the Lord. That's what it is to keep his
commandments. Who are these who are blessed
of God? They are those men and women that keep the faith of
Jesus. God promises salvation to those
who keep the faith of Jesus. That is, those who keep the doctrine
of faith, the gospel. Those who cherish the gospel
of Christ, who hold on to the gospel, who are not moved away
from the hope of the gospel. Specifically, the phrase, keep
the faith of Jesus, refers to the faithful obedience of Christ. We are justified, Paul tells
us in Romans 3.22, by the faith of Christ. Not by faith in Christ, by the
faith of Christ. It is not our belief in Christ
that justifies us, it is Christ's obedience unto God in faithfulness
that justified us and we receive it by faith in Him. We hold the
faith of Jesus. We hold to Him and Him alone
as our only righteousness. our only atonement, our only
satisfaction, our only holiness, our only acceptance with God,
and we will not be moved from this hope. Blessed are those
who with all the assaults of Satan temptations of the world,
with all the heresy that floods the world, will not be moved
from Jesus Christ crucified. And they are in the Lord, in
the Lord, in Christ. Of Him are ye in Christ, who
of God has made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption. So that as it is written, he
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. He is our only wisdom. He alone is the wisdom of God,
and he alone gives us wisdom. He alone represents His own wisely
in covenant mercy, and represents His own wisely in His heavenly
glory, and He alone is our righteousness. We boast in Him. We trust in
Him. We glory in Him alone as righteousness. He alone is our sanctification,
our holiness. He alone is our redemption, and
we boast in Him as such. Not in our works, not in our
experience, Not even in our faith, but in Him who is made of God
and to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. We're in Him. In Him by God's
sovereign eternal purpose of grace. We have an eternal union
with Christ. In Him from everlasting so that I can't explain it because I
don't understand it. I can't begin to talk much about
it, but God's elect are one with God's Son. One with Christ. In Him, our head. In Him, as
members in the body. In Him, by the grace of God,
born again, made to live in Him and He in us. Salvation, one
of the old writers put it this way, is nothing less than the
life of God in the soul of a man. This is how God makes sinners
saints. We are in Christ. We live in
Christ and once in Christ, in Christ forever. But what is the
blessedness of believers at death. Obviously, I can't begin to tell
you that which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and the
heart of man has never imagined, which God has prepared for them
that love him. The blessedness of heavenly glory is infinitely
greater than our feeble minds have ever imagined. I try to think about dying and
about heaven all the time. I try to think about it all the
time. I want Christ crucified on my mind all the time. And
I want Christ's glory in heaven on my mind all the time. And
I don't have a clue what awaits us. I know the fact of the blessedness,
but oh, the glory, the joy, the blessedness. What David has entered
into now these last few days. Oh, the blessedness, the blessedness. Robert Hawker said, he's got
out of the gunshot of the enemy. What blessedness. No foe can
harm him now. None can touch him. None can
afflict him. None can hurt him. The believer
is blessed in his dying. David said as he was dying, the
Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant in all things insure. This is all my salvation. This
is all my hope, all my joy. though he make it not to grow. Job said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. I know that at the last day he's
gonna stand on this earth and I'm gonna see him with these
eyes. I'm gonna see him for myself and not another. Though my skin
worms destroy this flesh, I will see my Redeemer. The Apostle
Paul, as he was preparing to die, he said, I know whom I have
believed. Now I am persuaded that he's
able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that
day. Stephen said, behold, I see the
heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand
of God. I've recently been reading good
bits from the old writers about dying in heaven. One of them
said recently, There's no way to state it with any concrete
firmness, but I believe that at the appointed time, when believers
are passing from this world into eternity, the Lord Jesus makes
himself known in marvelous ways that words can't express. Oh,
the blessedness, the blessedness. God's saints are immediately
and forever blessed after they die. The Apostle Paul, writing
about this, made a statement. He that hath wrought us for the
selfsame thing is God. We want to read it like this.
He that hath wrought for us the selfsame thing is God. But that's
not what he said. He hath wrought us for the selfsame
thing. God, by His work of grace in
us, has made us fit for heaven in
Christ the Lord. He has wrought us for heavenly
glory. And the work is consummated when
He brings us to glory. Once we've left this world, we
shall have forever left behind us every remnant and evil consequence
of sin. In glory land, there shall be
no more weeping, no more sorrow, and no more pain, because there
shall be no more sin. Heaven is a place of unending
service But there we shall rest, rest from our labors. That is,
we will rest from the woe of labor. Everything we do here,
the best we do here in the service of our Redeemer, in the service
of one another, in the service of our God and His cause, in
the service of men's souls. The best we do here has some
woe attached to it. But in heaven's glory, there'll
be no ignorant ones to teach, no erring ones to rebuke, no
despondency to comfort, no weakness to strengthen, no error to oppose,
no needy ones to help. No enemies to engage. No fences
to mend. No strife to heal. No sick ones
to visit. No bereaved ones to console. No straying ones to correct.
No sinners to convert. No tears to dry. We shall rest
from our labors. And then, John says, their works
do follow them. What? Their works do follow them? What on earth do our works have
to do with our eternal blessedness? We know that our inheritance
in heaven is the free gift of God's grace to which we've been
predestinated. that which Christ purchased for
us with his blood, earned for us with his righteousness, and
claimed for us as our representative. We who believe are heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ. All the glory, all the blessedness
that Christ possesses in heaven today, as the God-man, our mediator,
he possesses as our surety, as our forerunner. And that glory
he gives to us. Not a few crayons and stars in
our crayons that... No, no, no, no, no, no. No, we're
talking about blessedness. We're talking about blessedness.
Blessedness earned by Christ and given by Christ. And yet
the text says their works do follow them. They don't go before
us to prepare the way for us. They don't come alongside with
us to give us confidence as we enter into heaven's glory. Well,
what does it mean? Their works shall follow them.
It simply means the fruits of their works follow them. Their works in the earth, the
fruit of it follows them to glory. Look over here. That's David's
daughter. That's David's daughter. I had
the privilege of baptizing both of them. And soon, his work's
gonna fall into glory. Soon. God's people, as they serve the
Savior in this world, multitudes of them, never know how they
have influenced another for good. How they've touched the life
of another. How they've been instruments by which God has
used them to turn one from darkness to light. From rebellion to surrender. From hating God to bowing to
Christ and loving him. From rebellion to faith. Their
works do follow them. And in that day, when all are
gathered together, The Lord God our Savior will make us forever
blessed in ever increasing, ever joyous blessedness in the knowledge
of our Savior in all that he has done for us. And as strange as it seems to
us now, And if you know God, what I'm about to say seems strange
to you. Heaven's glory will be indescribably
blessed for all the trial of faith. you endure in the patience
of Christ. And heaven's glory will be forever
increasingly blessed and joyous as we learn from God's saints
how the Lord used us. You don't remember this, but
you remember, let me tell you what I heard you say. And I couldn't forget it. Let
me tell you a line I read from you in a letter you wrote. And
I couldn't get off my mind. And the reason I'm here is because
of your work. And it's fathered you to glory. I told someone earlier today
what I told our congregation many times. There was an old
saint who knew she was dying and she called her young pastor.
She wanted to make arrangements for a funeral. And she had him
write down the scriptures she wanted read, subjects she'd like
for him to preach on if he could, and the hymns she wanted sung
at her funeral. And after it was all over, they
went over the whole program. And she said, one more thing.
She said, be sure they put my fork in my hand before they bury
me. And he said to her, he said,
sister, I understand these other requests, but I've got to ask
you. Why do you want to put the fork in your hand? She said,
well, Pastor, when I was growing up, we didn't often have dessert. But when Mama cleared the table
and she said to us children, keep your forks, we all knew
something better was coming. When you leave here tonight,
And you think of this dear friend the Lord has taken from us for
a little while. Try to get your fork in your
hand. Something better is coming for you and me too who are in
Christ Jesus by God's almighty grace. Amen.