Life is short, and the days of our lives are
appointed of God. Your last breath was ordained
of God before you took your first, and you will take your last breath
exactly at God's appointment. Not a second before, not a second
later. Life is short. Death is certain. It is appointed to man once to
die. At God's appointed hour, I will
breathe my last breath on this earth and you too. And eternity is long. How little we comprehend of eternity. Whatever eternal hell is, and hell is eternal, everlasting
torment, whatever it is, it's real. It's tormenting beyond expression,
and it's forever. And heaven, with all its bliss
and glory with Christ, is real. Blessed beyond expression. Heaven is life. just the consummation of that
everlasting life. God's given us by his grace if
we're his. Life in Christ and with Christ. It's real and it's everlasting. Listen to these words found in
Revelation chapter 20. God set them in your heart. Revelation 20 verse 11. I saw a great white throne. And him that sat on it. He who
sits on the great white throne is Jesus Christ, the great eternal
God, the God, man, our Savior. He sits on the throne of grace
that is a throne of universal monarchy and the throne of absolute
pure judgment, him that sat on it, from whose face the earth
and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for
them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and another book was opened.
which is called the book of life and the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works and the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death
and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were
judged every man according to their works, and death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. This is the death that awaits
you if you perish without Christ. This is the death that awaits
you after you have left this body of clay. And whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake
of fire. This is a message for my grandson,
Will. I hope you'll listen in. I hope
it's a message for you. But I acknowledge it was specifically
prepared with Will in mind. I called Will last Wednesday
before we left to go to Florida. As you know, he's just 13 years
old. And the boy has seen a lot of
sickness and death in his short life. One of his classmates a
few years ago was shot to death. Seen others. get sick and die. Well, Christmas Day, his golf
coach got to feeling bad, just feeling real bad. On Sunday,
he went to the clinic. They immediately sent him to
the hospital and almost immediately admitted him and induced him
a coma. He had severe form of pneumonia
and he never got better. He died Thursday before we got
to Florida. But I called Will to talk to
him about that. I wanted to talk to him. I felt strongly inclined
to do so. I said these things to him. I said, Will, in your
short life, you've seen a lot of sickness and a lot of death,
more than most people your age. I want you to understand that
all sickness and all death is the result of sin. Now let that sink in. All sickness
and all death is caused by sin. The greatest evidence in the
world outside the word of God of universal depravity is the
fact that newborn babies get sick. The fact that everybody
around gets sniffles and sooner or later the sniffles wind up
in death. Sickness and death is the result
of sin. If there were no sin, there would
be no sickness, there'd be no death. And all sickness and death,
I said to my grandson, and I want you to hear, all sickness and
all death is brought to pass by the hand of our God on purpose. No accident. That's not because
you didn't use enough hand cleaner. All sickness and death is brought
to pass by the hand of our God purpose exactly according to
his decree exactly according to his will exactly according
to his providence all sickness and death you can look to all
kinds of secondary reasons we have several medical folks here
doctors and nurses and folks involved in medical industry
and you have all kinds of secondary things all kinds of every one
of them Part of that purpose. Part of that decree. Part of
that will. Every one of them. All sickness
and death must be traced to the hand of God. When you get sick,
God made you sick. If you rise from your sick bed,
God rose you from your sick bed. If you don't, God killed you. Now that's just fact. Those are
facts from which you cannot escape. Those facts are certain. And
then I said to my grandson. God speaks to us by these things. We would be wise to hear it.
I heard by the mayhem say once years ago, I was, I guess, 19
years old. First time I heard him say this,
he said, God's written three books. We would be wise to hear
his voice in all three. Creation, providence and the
scriptures. God speaks by creation and declares
his wisdom, his power in creation. Every time you hear the light
or see the lightning and hear the thunder, listen to the voice
of God. God speaks by creation and God
speaks by his providence. He speaks with sickness and death
to tell us how frail we are. David expressed it well. There
is but a step between me and death. Just a breath. Just a breath. That's all. Just a breath. No more. How frail
we are. God speaks in these things to
teach us the vanity of everything in this world. We've all known Rex Bartley back
here for a long time. You worked hard for The position
you have, the job you have, the property you have. Tell me what
part you wouldn't give up to keep that boy from going into
surgery tonight, Friday. Oh, well, in the light of that,
these things are nothing. That's what God says. Did you
hear it? All the stuff we clamor for. All the stuff we fight over.
All the stuff that men cherish is nothing. That's all. That's all. God teach me that. God teach
me that. Utter vanity. All the fame, all
the fortune, all the power, all the influence, all the riches,
all the property, all the possessions, all the status. It's gone. Disbanded. In all these things, the Lord
God teaches us the certainty of death, the certainty of judgment,
the certainty of eternity. And by his word, God speaks to
us of life and salvation, everlasting life, everlasting salvation in
his darling son. That being the case, there's
nothing on this earth right now more important than that we hear
what God says in his word. Will you listen? If God enables me, I want to
talk to you again about death and the fear of it. I know people try not to think
about this. I try to think about it a lot.
I encourage you to. I deliberately try to think about
death every day, throughout the day. I meditate on it a great
deal. Death is something you ought
to think about relentlessly because soon you will die. Soon you will die. I've had the privilege Pleasant and painful, the privilege
of watching a lot of people die. I've preached funerals for infants
and I've preached funerals for folks nearly 100 years old and
almost everything in between. Believers and infidels, some
who died with hope, some who died with a false hope, and some
who died with no hope. I've seen some die in utter terror
and others in terrible brazen blasphemy. I've seen some die
with great comfort and great peace and others die in utter
defiance of God. How will it be for you? I've told you this before, but
I'll give you the illustration again because it's so vivid in
my mind. When I was 21 years old, went
to pastor at Lookout West Virginia. Shortly after becoming pastor
there, Brother Harold Martin, faithful deacon, he was, oh,
Harold was probably 65 years old when I met him. And his brother,
his older brother, was in the hospital down in Montgomery,
West Virginia. And he asked me if I'd go see
him. I said, I'd be happy to, if you don't mind me telling
him you sent me. He said, oh, no, please do. So I drove down to
see him. I was 21 years old. You know,
I had the world by the tail on a downhill pull, and nothing
much bothered me. I walked in to visit that man.
As I walked in, he looked at me, and I said, Mr. Martin, my
name's Don Fortner. Your brother Harold is one of
the members of our church. He asked me to come see you.
And that man glared at me like I've never seen another man glare
at another. I've seen fellas look at me with
anger. I've seen fire in men's eyes many times. That man glared
at me with more venom and hatred than I've ever seen anywhere.
He said, if you come to talk to me about God and salvation,
you can just go back where you came from. I've lived like hell
and I'll die like hell. And I was shocked. I just shocked. One of the few
times in my life I had absolutely nothing to say. I was just utterly
silent. Stood there for a minute, turned
around, walked out, and I said, okay. Okay. And he did. About seven and a
half or eight years later, I spent the last day that his brother,
Brother Harold Martin, had on this earth when he was conscious
I spent the day with him in the hospital at Washington, D.C. And these were his last words
to me. The last words he spoke on this earth. Preacher. It's good to come here. And know
that everything is under the blood. What a difference. Good to come here and know that
everything is under the blood. I know a lot of folks prefer
not to think about this. I know folks who just can't bear
to go visit a rest home or a funeral home or even a hospital because
they don't want to talk about death. They don't want to think
about it. They don't want to deal with it. Let me ask you something. If sickness and death torment
you now, then how shall it be with you in the swelling of Jordan? Are you afraid? Afraid of dying? Afraid of meeting God? Afraid
of eternity? I'll tell you this, if you're
without Christ, you have reason to be. If you're here without Christ,
you have reason to be horrified at the thought of death. You
have reason to be horrified at the thought of death. You're
in school. And I know, I don't know, I presume
you will be taught or have been taught to harden yourself with
these things. Is that correct? You're taught
you can't let this get to you. Let this get to you. Let this get to you. If you're
without Christ, you have reason to be horrified at the thought
of death. To die without Christ is to die
without hope and to meet God in judgment in all your sin. You won't die like a dog. Not
going to happen. Some years ago, we came home
one night late, and Shelby's cat that Myrtle McCormick gave
her years ago, the cat was getting kindly old. And cats are pests
anyway. The best of them are. They're
just pests. I'm sorry. If you like them, they're just
pests. They get around your feet and trip you up, and they scratch
stuff and tear stuff up. But she loved that cat. That
was Shelby's cat. I shouldn't say she loved it.
It's kindly hard to love something that can't love you back, but
she thought a lot of that cat. A lot of it. And the cat would
wait on us out here on the back porch every night to go home.
She'd get, shove this cat, the blimmin' thing, walk between
my legs and trip me up going home. And we'd go home. The cat would just always follow
us home. Loyal, loyal pet. One night,
we drove in about one or two o'clock in the morning from a
meeting somewhere, and the cat was sitting on the office porch.
And she took off like she always did over to the house to meet
us at the back porch as I drove up. And I started to back into
the driveway. And bless her heart, that cat
just wasn't as fast as she used to be. And I ran over the cat. And I knew when I saw I broke
her back. One or two o'clock in the morning. Now, I didn't
want to have to kill the cat with Shelby watching, but She
can be a little stubborn. I couldn't get her to go inside.
And the only thing about me shooting that cat in between the eyes
that bothered me was the fact the shovel was watching. It was
just a cat. It was just a cat. The death
of an animal is no more than the death of a tree, but not the death of you. Oh no. As soon as you die, you're
going to meet God in judgment. And receive just that you're
due. Exactly that which is due to
you. The wages of sin is death. Everlasting death. Death of the
body. And death of the soul. Not annihilation,
but what the scriptures call the second death. Everlasting
separation from God. Everlasting separation from good. Everlasting separation from light. Everlasting separation from peace. everlasting separation from satisfaction,
everlasting torment in your conscience with guilt, everlasting torment
in your soul with sin, everlasting isolation from everything and
everybody in darkness and damnation in whatever the fires of hell
are. People want to debate and fuss
about literal fire in hell, whatever the torments of hell are, whatever the torments of hell
are, they are indescribably, indescribably more painful in
body and in soul. than any fire you've ever imagined. I've been burned pretty severely.
A slight burn hurts a lot. A real bad burn doesn't hurt
so bad once it's over. Not so with the torments of the
damned. I saw a great white throne, and
him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of
life, and the dead were judged Out of those things which are
written in the books according to their works This is the second
death For believers things are far
different if you got your Bibles open at Revelation 20 still look
at verse 6 Blessed and holy blessed of God with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ before the world was,
blessed of God with the forgiveness of sin in Christ now, and holy,
holy, sanctified, righteous, pure, perfect is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. You know what the first resurrection
is? Don, that's the new birth. That's
the first resurrection. The hour is coming now is when
the dead hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear
live. Jesus Christ comes in saving
power to chosen redeemed sinners and raises them from the dead,
raises them from the dead. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection on such the second day. the terror of it, the judgment
of it, the opening of the books at the bar of God. On such, it is wonderful. On such, the
second death hath no power. No power, no authority, no dominion,
no ability, no power. But they, these who are blessed
and holy, these who are raised from the dead by the power of
God's grace, they shall be priests of God and of Christ. Priests, men and women of the
priestly family lived about the holy things. The high priest,
goes into the Holy of Holies in the presence of God once a
year with the blood of the Paschal Lamb, finding favor with God,
having the glory of God manifest in the acceptance of the sacrifice.
These, the blessed ones, the holy ones raised from the dead
by the power of God's grace, they shall live forever in the
glorious presence of the God of glory constantly accepted
of God through the Paschal Lamb, Christ Jesus the Lord. And, and
shall reign with him a thousand years. The words a thousand years are
words used giving a statement about time in specific numbers
to refer to that which cannot be calculated in numbers. In
fact, thousand is never found in the word of God in the singular. The word is thousands. They shall
reign with Christ thousands of years. John Newton didn't write
the last verse that we sing of amazing grace, but it's a good
verse. When we've been there 10,000 years, Bright shining as the sun. We've
no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Thousands of years is forever
and ever. These, the priests of God, shall
be restored to perfect manhood. Manhood as man was made to be
in the garden. Restored to manhood perfect manhood
being given dominion over all God's creation Reign with Christ
the Redeemer over all his creation in the new heavens and new earth
forever and forever You see our Lord Jesus. We're told in Hebrews
2 turn back there if you will Hebrews chapter 2 One purpose for our Savior's
incarnation was that he might destroy Satan and deliver his
elect from the fear of death. Hebrews 2.14, for as much then
as children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. You and I who are washed in the
blood of Christ, robed in his righteousness, born of God, made
saints of God, we who believe on the Son of God have no reason
to fear death. You who are without faith in
Christ, without God, without hope, without Christ, lost, dead
in trespasses and in sins, you have great reason to be terrified. Terrified with every breath. I urge you, look to Christ. Believe on the Son of God and
live forever. Trust Jesus Christ and be saved
from everlasting destruction. Saved from sin. Saved from death. Saved from hell. Saved by God's
almighty grace. How does the Lord Jesus destroy
the power of death? He did it by dying. Dying in
the room instead of his people. Bearing our sins in his own body
on the tree the Lord Jesus Satisfied divine justice and when he rose
from the dead He broke the power of cancelled sin and set us free
Free from all terror of death so that for the believer for
the believer. There's really no such thing
as death For the believer, there's no such thing as death. These
souls must be separated from these bodies, but only this body
will die. Our Savior said he that liveth
and believeth on me shall never die. When our Savior died, he
took away our sin, the cause for the fear of death. Blessed
and holy. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. Holy? Me? You? Oh, yes. Holy before God. Without sin
before God. Christ put away the sins of his
people. Every sinner who trusts the Son
of God has this word from God given to him. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now that's happy. That's blessed. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will never charge sin. How could that be? He charged
our sins on his son. He'll never charge them to us
again. We've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
from the curse of the law so that now the law of God itself
speaks as loudly and as clearly as the grace of God for the salvation
of God's elect. Justice demands that every sinner
who trusts God's Son be set free from the bondage of sin and the
curse of the law. For Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. So that now we who
believe How do you know that's given to everybody who believes?
Because those who believe, David, are said to be the seed of Abraham.
The seed of Abraham, for whom God made the promise. And he
said the blessing of Abraham would come on us because Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law. Our Savior delivers us from the fear of
death in another way. He's transformed death that men
dread into a blessing men cherish. He's transformed death from something
that men have reason to dread into something men have reason
to cherish. John Trapp wrote this, I thought
it was outstanding. To those that are in Christ,
death is but a daybreak of eternal brightness. Not the punishment
of sin, but the period of sin, the end
of sin. It is but a sturdy porter opening the door of eternity,
a rough passage to eternal pleasure. Why should Israel be afraid to
cross the swelling Jordan under the land of promise with the
Ark of God going before them. Why should we, who are gods,
fear Jordan's chilly waters when Christ, the Ark of God, has gone
before us? Death brings the child of God
into immediate glory. Immediate glory. To be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord. The rich man we read about earlier
was immediately in hell, tormented. Lazarus was immediately carried
by the angels of God into the paradise of God. The dying thief
cried, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And
the Lord said to that dying thief. Today. Shalt thou be with me
in paradise? As soon as we close our eyes
in death. We rise to glory unknown with
Christ the Lord in the presence of the Lord. Now would you tell
me what there is about that to dread? Would you tell me what there
is about that of which we should be afraid? Oh, no. To die is gain. To die is gain. Let us then live in the blessed
prospect of this. Back when Audre Grace was about
five or six years old, Will was three years younger, We used
to have an old boxwood elder tree, some of you will remember
it, right behind the patio. And one spring, Robin had built
a nest, and they always did, but this particular spring, the
kids noticed it. And they could see that Robin's
nest from the bench of the patio. They could look right down on
it. And they saw those little blue eggs in there. And they
just thought that was something else. They just thought that
was something else. And then one week, they came over, And
Audrey Grace went right over to look out over the patio into
that robin's nest. And the egg shells were broke.
Most of them laying down on the ground what was left. And she
was disturbed. And I said to her, honey, that's
nothing to be disturbed about. Those broken shells simply mean
those babies have hatched out and they've flown away. They're
full of life. And when I drop this shell, there's
no need to mourn or weep or cry over me. That means I had just
flown away to glory. That's all. That's all. And then
the day is coming when we shall rise again. Turn to 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians 2. I'm sorry first that's the only
chapter for Look at this verse 13 I Would not have you to be ignorant
brethren Concerning them which are asleep that you sorrow not
even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him. When I was younger, I used to
hear folks talk a lot about, you know, we want to live until
the Lord comes because it will be something special for the
rapture. I don't mean to disillusion folks. I know a lot of folks
going to hear this, just going to be shocked by it. What folks
call the rapture is just a rupture of men's thinking. The scriptures
don't teach anything about that nonsense. So, oh, when the Lord
comes, we're going to be raptured up into the sky. The scriptures
don't speak about that. No, no. In fact, if there is
any preference in the resurrection, any preference at all, it's given
to those who have died in the Lord. It's given to those who
already are with the Redeemer. Look at what the Scripture says
here now. For this we say, verse 15, by the word of the Lord,
that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord
shall not prevent, we shall not go before them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, the jubilee
trumpet shall sound. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. Way back in the book of Job.
God's servant, Job, made this confession. I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself. And mine eyes
shall behold, and not another, though my reins be consumed within
me. I repeat to you. If you would
be free from the fear of death, look to Christ. Believe on the
son of God. Look to Christ dying as your
substitute. Look to Christ rising as your
representative. Look to Christ living as your
mediator. Look to Christ coming as your
king. Think about death, my brother,
my sister. Meditate on it often. Death will bring us into the
presence of many friends. Many whom we love dearly. Who
the Lord has already called to glory, we will join at the throne
of our God. I'm often asked by people, do
you think we'll know each other in heaven? I know you now. Well, the disciples Peter, James,
and John had never seen a picture of Moses and Elijah, but as soon
as they appear on Mount of Transfiguration, they knew who they were. Our
Lord says, we're going to sit down in his kingdom with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. Oh yes, we'll know one another.
We'll know one another. And know one another as we ought
only to know one another now. In the perfection of Christ. in relationship to Christ. And
then that day, at last, at last, at last, we will know no more
sin, and no more pain, and no more
strife, and no more suffering, and no more heartache, and no
more sickness, and no more death, and no more darkness, but only
the perfection of light and life in and with Christ Jesus. I know I'm a dying man, but I don't fear death. Rather, I anticipate it. I hope before this day is done,
you can as well. Looking to Christ Jesus, the
Lord. Let us, children of God, live every day as if we were
certain it was our last. And press as much in every day
as we possibly can for the good of our brethren, for the saving
of God's elect, for the glory of his son in the interest of
his kingdom. Don't ever children of God, don't
ever start to think to yourself, well, I'm getting old and now
I'll leave things to the younger folks. Oh, no, no, no, no, no,
no. Seek to serve and worship God
in your old age. with all the vigor with which
Caleb did when he said to Joshua, give me this mount. I'll take
it. Give me this map today. I'm 80 years old and I can still
do what I did when I was 40. Give me this map. Give me this
map. God, give us grace to serve him
with the vigor of faith and consecration and devotion to Christ our Savior. unto our last breath. And I say
again to you who are without Christ, to you and to that dear boy so
much on my mind this week, believe on the Son of God and life eternal
is yours. Amen.