Good morning. Turn with me, if you would, to
Genesis 37. I started teaching a Sunday school
class this morning, and we looked at this chapter and Joseph as
a picture of Christ. We'll just read the first 11
verses here. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father
was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations
of Jacob, Joseph being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with
his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and
with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought
unto his father their evil report. Now, Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children, because he was the son of his old age,
and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren
saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they
hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph
dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated
him yet the more. And he said unto them, here,
I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we
were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also
stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood
round about and made obeisance to my sheave. And his brethren
said to him, shalt thou indeed reign over us, or shalt thou
indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream.
and told it his brethren and said, behold, I have dreamed
a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon
and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his
father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the saying. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Holy Father in heaven, Lord,
we are grateful that you've brought us here this morning to hear
your word. We're grateful that what you
have promised that you will also deliver. Lord, we ask that you
would count us among your sheep. Lord, we ask that you would,
through your word and according to your will, call more of your
sheep unto yourself as you have always done. Lord, we ask that
you would be with Deanna and comfort her
in this difficult time. Lord, we thank you for R.G. and the encouragement that he's
been to our congregation here. We ask that you would enable
us in this time to be an encouragement to Deanna. Lord, bend our ears
this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray,
amen. Number nine in the spiral hymn
book, let's all stand together, number nine. Is not that I did choose thee,
O Lord, that could not be? This heart would still refuse
thee, Hast thou not chosen me? Thou from the sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. Of old Thou hast ordained me
that I should live to Thee. ? Your love had no beginning
? No cause in me was found ? That you should choose to save me
? A sinner strongly bound But grace not earned or sought for,
but purpose for my soul. For me salvation wrought, for
Christ paid the dreadful toll. was sovereign mercy called me
and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none before thee,
for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. Please be seated. The Lord led Robert Deanna to
come here ten years ago and I was texting with someone last
night and told them what a huge hole would be left in our church
at Robert's passing and I'm already feeling that. But I also thought
You know, maybe if every one of us could just be a little
more faithful in prayer, in encouragement to one another, and we might
be able to, all of us together, might be able to cover a little
bit of what this dear, dear brother has meant to us. Jeff, thank you for that message. I want to quote a verse, not
in any way to add to what Jeff said, but to try to make a transition
between his message and the message that the Lord's put on my heart
this morning. You remember in John chapter
18, when Pilate was trying to interrogate our Lord, And he
kept asking him, are you a king? Are you a king? And the Lord
Jesus said, for this cause was I born. And for this reason came
I into the world to bear witness to the truth. And then he said,
they that are of the truth hear my voice and they follow me. No man ever spake like he spake. And that's still true. No man
can speak now like he speaks. And our hope is that he will
speak truth and hope and peace and grace and mercy, salvation
to our hearts, because only he can do it. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12, we've been
several weeks now looking at David and his sin with Bathsheba
and the mercy that the Lord showed him by sending the prophet Nathan
to him to confront him about that sin. And David said to Nathan,
In verse 13, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto
David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. God puts something
away, it's put away. And that sin that David was so
guilty of had already been atoned for. been paid for by the shed
blood of the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the
world. And in time, the Lord Jesus came into this world and
by the sacrifice of himself, he put that sin away and all
the sins of all of God's people. And then Nathan said this to
David, and thou shall not die. and thou shalt not die. I've been looking at this passage
of scripture for several weeks now and I've been looking forward
to getting to this portion of it. This wonderful word from
God to sinners, to his children, thou shalt not die. And as I've been thinking about
this, knowing that our dear brother Robert would probably be the
one leaving us sooner than anyone else, I was looking forward to
preaching this message to him. All any preacher can do is declare
what God has said. John the Baptist called himself
the voice of one crying in the wilderness. All we can do is
put an audible sound to what God has said. Only the Holy Spirit can make
the Word of God effectual to our hearts. And oh, how I hope
and pray that he will do that for each of us this morning.
We can say, and thou shalt not die. But to hear that from a man really
provides no real hope, no real comfort, no real peace. But when
God speaks it to the heart, then we can rest. shall not die." Obviously, as Jeff brought out
in the first hour, the Lord's not speaking of a physical death. David died. He's going to die
in 2 Samuel. Towards the very end, we have
David's last words that he spoke. He's talking about spiritual
death. Talking about eternal separation from God. That's the
death that we need God to say to us, thou
shalt not die. David heard that message and
the Lord did make it effectual to his heart. And David wrote
Psalm 32 in response to how God had so comforted him with that
truth, thou shalt not die. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Blessed, this is a Psalm of David
that he wrote in response to this glorious, comforting word
of hope that the prophet Nathan had spoken to him, thou shalt
not die. And David wrote, blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silent, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day. For day and night,
thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my
transgression unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. Selah. For this, shall everyone
that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be
found. Surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding
place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. And then David wrote in 2 Samuel
chapter 23, and these be David's last words. When David, like
our dear brother Robert, was on his deathbed, David said,
although my house be not so with God. And like all of our families,
David had not been the the father and the husband he should have
been. And he had a lot of trouble in his family. But more than
that, I'm certain that David was speaking of the tabernacle
of his own flesh. When he said, although my house
be not so with God, it's not as it ought to be, it's not as
I wished it was. Yet, here's my hope, he has made
with me an everlasting covenant. Now everlasting means that it
didn't have a beginning and it doesn't have an end. And so this
covenant of grace, this promise of salvation began with God and
ends with God and God himself is eternal and the work of his
salvation is eternal. It doesn't start when we make
a decision. It started with God, he's the
Alpha and it finishes with God, he is the Omega, the beginning
and the end. He does it all and he does it
all by himself. And that was David's hope on
his deathbed. He said, although my house be
not as it ought to be with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting
covenant and that covenant is ordered It's ordered in all things
and it's sure. Everything that God required
for that covenant of grace to be completed for me, God provided. And he provided everything that
was required in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what surety means. When
the scripture speaks of our Lord as our surety, a surety is one
that meets all the requirements of a covenant. And the Lord Jesus
is that for his people. He satisfied the demands of God's
justice. He fulfilled God's law. He shed
his precious blood as a covering for our sins. And that's why
Nathan could say to David, and thou shalt not die. shall not
die." And David went on to say in those last words, this is
all my salvation. I've got no place else to go.
This is all my desire. I've got no one else to look
to. This is the confession of every believer departing this
world Their hope is not to avoid physical death. Physical death
is not what we need to worry about. The Lord Jesus said, fear
not them who can kill the body. Now he was talking to believers
that were being persecuted unto death, but old age kills the
body, disease kills the body, accidents kill the body. Fear
not them that can kill the body. but rather fear Him who has power
to cast both body and soul into hell. The fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom. And here's our hope. When God says, thou shalt not
die, our greatest fear, our greatest fear, and if God delivers you
from your greatest fear, then you have no reason to fear anything
lesser. You have no reason to fear anything
at all. God delivers you from your greatest fear. And that's
my hope this morning, that the Spirit of God will speak effectually
to our hearts and say to us, what I cannot say to you, thou
shalt not die. Thou shalt not ever fear standing
in the presence of a holy God and having both body and soul
cast into hell. Thou shalt not die. That's the worst thing that can
happen. To have to answer God for myself? To stand in the presence of a
holy God without an advocate, without a sin bearer, without
a savior, without a substitute to stand in my stead and speak
on my behalf and present to the Father a righteousness that I
cannot, that I don't have. To be on the receiving end of
God's wrath and God's holy justice ought to be our greatest fear. And when God speaks in His gospel
of free and sovereign grace to the hearts of His children, here's
what He says, Thou shalt not die. Thou shalt not die. Spirit of fear is not of God. Perfect love. Perfect love casteth
out fear. It wasn't a single time I preached
that Robert didn't make a beeline to me and speak words of encouragement
and thanksgiving. He had no fear of that. The Bible speaks, turn with me
to Revelation chapter 20, Revelation 20. Verse 6, blessed of God and holy
before God is he that hath part in the first resurrection. The first resurrection is the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn among many
brethren. Paul said that I might know him
and the power of his resurrection. In other words, when Christ conquered
death, O death, where is thy sting, O grave, where is thy
victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, through Christ
Jesus we are free. He fulfilled the law, he opened
the grave, he conquered death, that's the first resurrection.
And all those for whom he came and lived and died, he rose for. And Paul said that I might know
him and the power of his resurrection. that I might be able to believe that when Christ
raised from the dead, I raised from the dead. And they that have part in the
first resurrection on, look at the rest of this verse, on such
the second death hath no power. Now when Nathan said to David,
thou shalt not die, he's talking about the second death, not the
first death. We're all gonna go through the
first death that the Lord tarries. We're all gonna follow in our
brother's footsteps and we're all gonna experience the dying
of this body of flesh. Don't worry about that. Lord, I need for you to speak
peace and hope and comfort to my heart that I'll have no part
in the second death. But they shall be priests of
God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. Biblical
language speaking of eternity. Look at verse 14 and 15 in the
same chapter. 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. You see, here's the glorious
truth of the gospel. By virtue of being in union with
Christ, his works become our works. Jeff, you brought this
out in your message. I have no sin before God. All of my works are perfectly
righteous in the sight of God. We're either gonna be judged
by what we've done or we'll be judged by what Christ did. And
faith is looking to Christ for all of my righteousness before
God. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Here's Here's what Nathan's saying
to David, and here's what I so desperately need for the Spirit
of God to say to me. And I so hope and pray that he
will speak this word of comfort and truth to you. Thou shall
not die. If I have peace there, then what can man do unto me? If God be for me, who or what
can be against me? No, the first death, the physical
death of our body, for those who have no fear of the second
death, will be a blessing like we, it'd be the best day ever. Well, here's what God says in
the Proverbs. I think it's Proverbs 17. The
day of death is better than the day of birth. Now we mourn when a loved one
passes and we miss that person. And we will with our brother
Robert. But for him, it's going to be the best day
of his life. You know, we celebrate when a
baby's born, and we rightly should. We're happy for the family. But
is there not a part of us, too, that looks at that little child,
especially as we get older, and we think, oh, you have no idea
what you have ahead of you. I'm so thankful that I'm not
in your place. I'm so thankful that I've got
that behind me. The day of death is better than
the day of birth. Paul said for me to live is Christ
and to die is gain, is gain. Revelation chapter 14 verse 13
says, blessed are they who die in the Lord. And the Lord said,
precious in my eyes is the death of my saints. Now all of those
verses have to do with our physical death. And what I want to say clearly
as I possibly can, is that that's not the death to be concerned
about. I looked up this word die in
our text in 2 Samuel chapter 12. There's actually eight words
in the Hebrew language for die. And this particular word means
the execution of a criminal. It means to be executed. It means
to be judged guilty and to be condemned to death. And I thought,
you know, if I was a criminal that had
been found guilty of a capital crime, I'd be happy. if they took the death penalty
off the table. And yet, there's so much more
to it than that. Because the Lord tells us that
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. God didn't just take the death
penalty off the table, he gave us eternal and abundant life
in the person of his dear son. Yes, no fear of judgment. Yes, we are guilty of a capital
crime. In the day in which you eat of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely
die. You shall surely die. God only
has one penalty for sin and that's death. The soul that sinneth
shall surely die. Proverbs chapter 8 verse 36 says,
he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul and all that hate
me love death. And that's the same word. The
execution of a criminal is to be found guilty in a court of
law and to be sentenced with the sentence of death. It's not
just talking about Romans chapter 5 verse 12 says,
for by one man, speaking of Adam, sin entered into the world and
all died. So when Adam died, when Adam
received the just penalty for his sin, we all died, separated from God
spiritually. We're born into this world, we
draw the breath of life, we live our lives physically in this
world, but we are by nature spiritually dead. And only when God breathes
life into our souls can we hear those comforting words, thou
shalt not die. For by one man sinnered into
the world and death by sin, And so death passed upon all men
for that all have sinned. James chapter one, verse 15 says,
sin, when it is finished, bring it forth, death. Death, separation. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come into this world to make us an offer of salvation. That's one of those lying lips. God loves you. Christ died for
you. God wants you to be saved. Won't
you let him have his way? Won't you do your part so that
he can save you? He's in the heavens wringing
his hands wishing that everybody would believe on him but, you
know, men don't. Now, that is not why the Lord
Jesus came into the world and that puts man on the throne of
God. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world for one reason, to lay down His life for His sheep,
to suffer separation from His Father, to satisfy the penalty
of sin so that we could hear those words of comfort and hope
and truth. Thou shalt not die. You see,
the judge didn't just take the death penalty off the table.
He gave his son to die in our stead. He satisfied justice. He fulfilled the law. And he didn't just stop there. He took those who were themselves
worthy of death and made them his children, adopted them into
his family. And all the blessings and all the mercies and life belongs
to them. The Lord Jesus came into this
world not to show us the way of salvation, not to just give
us an example on how we ought to live. He came into this world
to make of himself an offering to his father for the sins of
his people. And the father looking down from
heaven saw the travail of his soul. And the father said, I'm
satisfied. He bore, turn with me to Isaiah
53, Isaiah 53. Look with me at verse four, Isaiah
53. They that are of the truth hear my
voice. All I can do is read these verses.
All I can do is try to tell you what they mean. Oh, my God, the Holy Spirit, make
them truth to our souls. Give us life. Faith comes by
hearing. Here he comes by the word of
God. Look at verse four. Surely he, the Lord Jesus has
borne our grief and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has gone into our
own way. But God has laid on him the iniquity
of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He went as a lamb to the slaughter. No man took his life from him.
He laid his life down willingly for his sheep. He didn't open his mouth. Two
reasons why the Lord Jesus did not object. Number one, he was
doing it willingly out of love. For God so loved that he gave
his only begotten Son. And herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and gave his Son as a propitiation
for our sins. Greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends. The Lord Jesus
went to the cross out of love for his people. And number two,
because God made him who knew no sin, sin for us. that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. The Lord Jesus bore
in His body all the shame and all the guilt and all the sin
and all the penalty for all of His people so that that Psalm
we read in Psalm 32, that could be spoken of Christ. Matter of
fact, it's understood most clearly of the Lord Jesus. God heard his cry and forgave
him. He said, my sin has overwhelmed
me. He took our sin as his own and
so he had no defense, he was guilty. And he opened out his
mouth. Verse eight, he was taken from
prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Here's that covenant of grace.
God chose a particular people before time ever was. The Lord
Jesus died for them. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord,
he pleased the father. When God Almighty saw sin on
his son, the father had no choice but to exercise his justice against
his darling son and pull out his sword of wrath and sheathe
it into the heart of his own son and bruise him and put him
to death. And if God did that to his own
son, what's he gonna do to me and you? Blessed is the man in
whom the Lord impute not iniquity. If all my sin was imputed to
him, then I need not fear that God would judge me for my sin. His judgment has been satisfied."
Look what he says. He hath put him to grief. When
thou, the father, shall make his soul, the son, an offering
for sin, He, the father shall see his seed and shall prolong
his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. What was the pleasure of God? To give eternal life to
those for whom Christ died. To raise his son from the dead. He, the father, verse 11, shall
see the travail of his soul, of the son's soul. The Lord Jesus
who cried, my God, my God, whilst thou forsaken me, the father
forsook him because his eyes are too pure to look upon sin.
He could only pour out his wrath on his son. Here's the only reason
why God can say to a sinner like you and me, thou shalt not die. I've delivered you from death. I died in your stead. I bore
the full penalty of your sin, and I satisfied the justice of
God. And the father shall see the
travail of his soul, and the father shall be satisfied. Oh, aren't you thankful? God
almighty, the one to whom you and I must do, we will stand
before him. But we need not fear, standing
in the presence of a holy God, bearing our sin. Not if we're in Christ, not if
we're looking to him, not if we have the Lord Jesus as our
advocate. In Christ, God Almighty says,
to sinners who are worthy of hell, We're worthy of the wrath of
God. And he says to us, thou shall not die. In John chapter 12, the Lord
Jesus said, there were times that they tried to take him But
he just walked away from them and they didn't know where he
went. He blinded them to his presence. And the scripture says
on those occasions, my hour has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. What
is his hour? It's the hour of death. And he said in John chapter 12,
the hour has come that the Son of Man shall be glorified. And then he says to his disciples,
now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour? But for this cause came I. unto this hour. The whole reason
I came into the world is to go to Calvary's tree and to die in the stead of my
people so that they could hear those words that David heard, thou shalt not die. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but only, only lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground will sink the
soul into an eternal death. But, oh, in Christ, I am the
way. He didn't say, I'll show you
the way. He said, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the
life. In me you shall not die. In John
chapter 11, when Lazarus was in the tomb and the Lord comes
to Bethany, and Martha's grieving over the loss of her brother,
and she says, she said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died. And the Lord said to Martha,
your brother shall rise again. And Martha said, oh Lord, I know,
I know he's gonna rise again in the resurrection, but that's
not really helping me right now. And the Lord Jesus looked at
Martha and said, Martha, Martha, I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he die, yet shall he live. and he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die." Never die. And Nathan said to David, and
you shall not die. And the Lord Jesus said to Martha,
Martha, believest thou this? Do you believe what I just told
you? about who I am and what I came to do. And she said, yea,
Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of God that
should come into the world. Lord, I've got no place else
to go. Thou David said this in Psalm 56,
thou hast delivered my soul from death, from death. Thou shalt not die. I introduced this message by
saying that if I have no fear, if I have no fear of the absolute
worst thing that could ever happen to me, then I have no reason
to fear anything lesser. I have no reason to fear anything
at all. And if God speaks those words
to our hearts, thou shalt not die. I died for you. Perfect love, perfect love casteth out fear. One last verse, Revelation chapter
two. of the seven churches that the
Lord spoke of in these early chapters of the book of Revelation,
only two of them were not rebuked. And that's the reason why Smyrna
and Philadelphia are the only two cities that we would dare
call one of our cities after. No one would ever call a city
Thyatira or any of the other Ephesus. We wouldn't call our
cities that. But Smyrna, some of you live
in New Smyrna. And here's what the Lord Jesus
said concerning the church at Smyrna. Verse 10 of Revelation
chapter three. Because thou hast kept the word
of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation,
which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell
upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. He that overcometh,
I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Did I tell you to turn to chapter
two? Am I reading the wrong passage? Chapter two, verse 10. Forgive
me. Fear none of those things which
thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast
some of you into prison that ye may be tried and you shall
have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And
he that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death. Redeeming love has been my theme
and shall be till I die. To overcome, to overcome means
to believe to the end. Saving faith does that. It does
that. God gives you faith. You're not
gonna be able to not believe. Just keep coming, don't we? Keep
coming to Christ. That we might hear those words
of comfort. Thou shall not die. Tom. Yes, what is the number? 222.
Let's stand together. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
blood lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains And sinners plunge beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I go vile as He
Wash all my sins away Wash all my sins away Wash all my sins
away And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying lamp, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. All the ransomed, Church of God,
be ye saved to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream, The high flowing moon supply. Redeeming love has been
my theme, And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. Then this poor listening, stammering
tongue Lies silent in the grave. Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. And in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save.