Before we begin, I begin reading
in verse 14. The Lord is my strength and song. He is my song. And he has become
my salvation. There was a time we didn't know
him as our salvation. He has become our salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation
is in the tabernacles of the righteous. Oh, I hope we can
sing from our hearts with some understanding and that the Lord
will enable us to worship him in the power of his spirit. The
right hand of the Lord, that's Christ, doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. He got the victory. And we're
here to praise and worship him for his accomplished work of
redemption on behalf of his people. Let's stand together. Tom's going
to lead us in number 35 in your hardback hymn, number 35. Praise my soul, the King of heaven,
to his feet thy tributes bring. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
evermore his praises sing. Alleluia, praise the everlasting
King. Alleluia, praise the everlasting
King. Father-like, he tends and spares
us, well our feeble frame he knows. In his hands he gently
bears us, rescues us from all our foes. ? Hallelujah, widely
at his mercy flows ? ? Hallelujah, widely at his mercy flows ? Angels
in the height adore Him, ye behold Him face to face. Sun and moon bow down before
Him, dwellers all in time and space. Alleluia, praise with
us the God of grace. Alleluia, praise with us the
God of grace. Please be seated. Morning. For our scripture reading
this morning, our call to worship, let's turn to Isaiah chapter
42. Isaiah chapter 42, and read the
first eight verses. Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break. The smoking flax shall he not
quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he has set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait
for his law. Thus saith God the Lord, he that
created the heavens and stretched them out, he that spread forth
the earth and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth breath
unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. I, the Lord, have called thee
in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee,
and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of
the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoner
from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house. I am the Lord, that is my name,
and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise
to graven images. Let's go before the Lord. O Lord, our God, we praise Thee,
O Lord, that we are able to come before Thee. Father, considering
that we are sinners, We thank Thee for the access that we have
to Thee through the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on Calvary's
cross. Father, we pray that as we gather
together this morning, that our prayers and our worship might
be acceptable unto Thee. Father, we come before Thee,
praising Thee for who You are and what You have done for us.
Father, we pray that you would be with Greg this morning as
he opens the word of God and points us to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, that you might give us
eyes to see and ears to hear that we might be pointed to Christ. Father, we pray that you'd be
with each and every one of us here. Father, we pray for those
that need your hand of healing. Father, we thank Thee for the
new birth that we have seen. We pray that Your hand upon her. These things we ask in Christ's
precious name, O Lord. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn on the back of the bulletin. Hymn on the
back of the bulletin. Blessed are the poor in spirit
who their sinful nature see. They are taught they have no
merit. To the Savior they all flee. Self-renouncing, grace-admiring,
made unto salvation wise, sovereign love their hearts rejoicing,
from His cross their hopes arise. Those who find themselves polluted
feel their hearts so prone to sin. They shall have by God imputed
righteousness so pure and clean. At his throne, their hearts confessing,
praise our God of sovereign grace. Weeping, loving, praising, blessing,
on his head the crown they place. Please be seated. I want to try to bring a message
from Psalm 116, a verse of scripture that I think we would, most all
of us, be very familiar with. And I've titled this message,
The Death of God's Saints. The Death of God's Saints. Before I do, I want to thank
Hugo and Robert and Caleb for faithfully preaching Christ in
my absence. I told the man this morning that
if you know anybody that wants to know what we believe, just
send them a link to Caleb's messages last Sunday. But I could say
that about Hugo and Robert as well. And I'm just so very grateful
that these men are faithful to stand and preach Christ and You're
a great encouragement to me. I know they are to you as well. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 116, verse 15. Precious, and that word means
of infinite value, of infinite value. of great, great worth. Precious in the eyes of the Lord. God is telling us what is valuable
to him. What a person values tells you
a lot about that person. And if you love someone, You
want to know what's important to them, what they value, what
they consider to be precious, so that you can value the same
things that they value. That's why the Lord tells us
that we're not to be, and I speak to young people particularly,
tells us not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. That'd be a hard life for a believer
and an unbeliever and the different values that they have, those
things that they count precious to be able to live together under
the same roof. And the Lord said, what does
light have to do with darkness? We have completely different
values. Trish and I celebrated our 50th
wedding anniversary this past week. And when we got to the
resort where we were staying, the man asked us, he said, well,
what's the secret of 50 years? And I said, well, for her, I
said, it's low expectations. And he laughed and I said, no,
seriously, the secret to the success of our marriage is that
we both love someone more than we love each other. and his eyes
lit up. He wanted to hear that story.
I don't know what he was thinking. I can only imagine. And so then
I told him who that person was and he quickly brought that conversation
to an end and wanted to move on to something else. But that's our value. Christ
is precious to us. And And the Lord is telling us
here what is precious to Him. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, verse
3, that the promises of God by which we are partakers of the
divine nature are precious. They're precious to us. The Word
of God is precious to us. His promises are precious to
us. We value them greatly because
by them we are partakers of the divine nature. If we didn't have
a word from God, we would have no hope. And then in 1 Peter chapter 2,
he goes on to say, unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. He is of great value. He is the
one that you esteem more highly than anyone else. He is the pearl
of great price for which all is spent in order to have. And then he goes on to say, your
faith, which is much more precious than gold. Oh, of what value
do we have on faith? Lord, if you didn't, this faith
is of divine origin. It's a miracle of grace. How
much do you value the faith that God has given you to be able
to look to Christ and rest in Christ? What would you do without
it? you'd be like everybody else. You'd be finding all the hopes
and comforts of your life in the vanity of this world or in
the emptiness of your own will and works. But precious is our
faith. He goes on to say that we are
not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold,
but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot
and without blemish. How precious is his blood. When
the Lord Jesus Christ took his precious blood, that blood of
great value and placed it on the mercy seat of God. And God
saw his blood and passed by. God said, I'm satisfied. I've
seen the travail of his soul. In another place, the Lord Jesus
himself is called a tried stone. He was tried. and tempted and tested by everything
in this world under the scrutiny of the law of God. And he was
found not like us, wanting, but he was found acceptable to God. Precious stone, a precious cornerstone,
he goes on to say. This is the stone on which the
church is built. He is the stone on which we stand
and have our life. How precious is Christ to the
hearts of God's people. Costly, prized, highly valued,
what is? What is to God? It's a good question
for each of us to ask ourselves. What's valuable to you? What's
most precious to you? What is it that you've got to
have? Everything else is negotiable compared to that one thing that
you must have. Is it the Lord Jesus Christ? God's telling us what's precious
to Him. What does He say? It is precious in the eyes of
the Lord, the death of His saints. Now, before we consider the death
of God's saints, Let us define from scripture. the word saints
because most people believe that saints are some particular individuals
recognized by a religious group because they had an exceptional
piety or power or life that stood head and shoulders above the
others. In other words, you've got these elite Christians who
are called saints. Is that what the Bible says?
No, it's not. The Bible uses the word saints,
synonymous with believers. The word saint means to be set
apart. And God has set apart in the
covenant of grace before the foundation of the world, all
of his saints, all of his elect, he has set apart. He has imputed
to them the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and set
them apart in Christ and reckoned them to be holy, which is what
the word saint means. To say that a saint is an individual
with some sort of outstanding religious accomplishments, or
a saint is only one who died as a martyr for the gospel is
a denial of the gospel. Hebrews chapter 13, Paul concludes
the book of Hebrews by saying, salute all the saints, all the
believers, all the people of God, salute them. In Colossians
1, verse 26, the mystery of the gospel which was hid has now
been made manifest to all the saints. So when God says precious
in the eyes of the Lord, of great value in God's eyes is the death
of his saints, he's talking about the death of his people. Paul addresses one of his letters
to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ. In Philippians
chapter four, all the saints salute you. In Ephesians chapter
one, verse one, he addresses this letter to the saints, which
are at Ephesus. to the saints, which are scattered
about throughout all the world. According as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy or that we should be made saints." He didn't say he
chose us so that we could learn how to live a holy life. He chose
us to set us apart, to be made holy and blameless. The only way that we're gonna
be blameless without any charge, the only way that we can stand
in the presence of a holy God without the law of God condemning
us is to be found in Christ. And to be in Christ is to be
a saint, is to be set apart. And so when God says precious,
of great value, of infinite worth, in my eyes is the death of all
my saints, If you need one final proof of
this, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. Look with me at verse 2. Unto the church of God. And that
word means called out ones. Separated from the world. unto
the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified,
made holy in Christ Jesus, called, and notice that verb to be is
in italics. He's not saying that we're called
to be saints, he's saying we're called saints. That's pretty
clear, isn't it? That's pretty clear. called saints
with all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours. So all of God's people,
God calls saints. So we've defined the word precious
and we've defined the word saints. Now, When do God's saints die? Wednesday before last, I was
asked to preach a funeral at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. I guess Arlington's in Virginia.
It was quite impressive, and I was very honored to be able
to be there. John Hoskins, who used to come
up to Sarasota when we went down there, he would drive up with
his wife Shirley from Fort Myers and had good conversations
with John over the years. John flew the last bombing raid
over Cambodia in 1974, and they gave him a full military honor
funeral. But they only gave me 20 minutes
to speak. Everything was to military precision. I mean, it was pretty incredible. I'd never seen anything like
it. Told the men this morning, made me want to reenlist. Sure
made me proud to be an American. But I only had 20 minutes to
speak, and I tried to preach this message in 20 minutes. And
I guess in my introduction, I've already taken too much time,
but I wanna try to preach this to you this morning without the
time restraints that those full-dressed soldiers put me under at Arlington. And I have five points to this
message. When do God's saints die? He's already told us it's
of great value in his eyes when they do die. But when do they
die? And I have five times that God's
saints die. Number one, they died in Christ,
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And that was precious
in God's sight. When the Lord Jesus Christ entered
into a covenant relationship with his father, he became the
surety of his people, their representative. And all that God saw in him died
in him. He agreed to lay down his life
for his sheep. And what happened in time later
had already been accomplished in the purpose of God in eternity. Matter of fact, we can say that
about everything. Everything that happens in time has already
happened in eternity. Our God has ordained it all.
He's purposed it all, all for his glory and all for the salvation
of his people. And so it was precious in the
eyes of the Lord. when the Lord Jesus Christ, if I can say this,
respectfully struck hands with his heavenly father and agreed
to be their surety. And I know I'm using language
of time to speak of something that happened in eternity, but
I don't know any other way to express it because there was
never a time when God's people were not seen by our heavenly
father as being in Christ and being slain in him. So before
our birth, before the birth of Adam, before God even fashioned
the earth, we died in Christ. loved with an everlasting love. The church has always been the
body of Christ. Even before he was given a body
that was in the fashion of sinful flesh, in the likeness of sinful
flesh, the scripture says, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ
has always been in his body. He's always been the head of
his people. When was God pleased to place
great value on the death of his saints in the covenant of grace
before time ever began, when Christ, as our surety, is called
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus
Christ, is our seminal head. And what does that mean? Well,
the Bible says that when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek, that
Levi, to whom tithes are paid, okay, who would not be born for
several generations, that Levi was in the loins of Abraham and
that Levi was credited for paying tithes unto Abraham. I mean,
unto Melchizedek. So what Abraham did as a seminal
head, Levi was seen in Abraham paying those same tithes. There we are. What the Lord Jesus
Christ did he did as our seminal head and everything that he did,
we did. And so when he agreed to be our
surety and when he agreed to be slain as a lamb, when Christ
and the covenant of grace entered into that relationship with his
father, laid down his life, shedding his precious blood, atoning for
the sins of his people, It was precious in the eyes of the Lord
because God saw His people in Him doing what He did. Isn't that glorious? What do you have to do with that?
What do I have to do with that? Nothing, nothing. It's called grace. We made no contribution to that.
We didn't participate in that. We were placed in Christ, Ephesians
chapter one, before the foundation of the world, and God reckoned
his death to be precious in our sight. Why was it precious to
him? Because it resulted in our eternal
justification. Justification isn't something
that happens when we decide, Well, speaking of the free will
gospel, when men think they decide to believe, they think they're
justified, it doesn't even happen at the new birth. It happened
in Christ. Isaiah chapter 45, verse 22 says,
look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I
am God and there is none else. I have sworn by myself and the
word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness." Now, what's
the Lord Jesus? He said, look to me, I made a
promise to my father. I swore to my father and the
word has gone out of my mouth. Surely one shall say the Lord. is my righteousness and is my
strength. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel look." That's what Seminole Head is. We are the
seed of Christ. In his loins, if you will. So
that all that he did, we did in him. Now, we're also the seed
of Adam. You say, you see, that's why
God was able legally to charge us with what Adam did in the
garden, because we were in Adam. He's not just our federal head,
our representative head, he's our seminal head. We were there,
all the human race came from Adam. And we were there in him,
so that when he fell, we fell in him. In Adam all died, the
scripture says. The father, listen to Ephesians
chapter one, verse 11, that we should be to the praise of the
glory of his grace who first trusted in Christ. Who first
trusted in Christ? Who? the father. When the Lord
Jesus Christ agreed to be our surety, when he became the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world in the covenant of
grace before time ever began, the father heard the word that
proceeded out of his mouth and believed him and trusted him. That's why it is precious in
the eyes of the Lord the death of his saints. Second, when was
the second time that God's saints died? Well, you know when it
was, we died at Calvary's cross. Did not Paul say in Galatians
chapter two, verse 20, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. The life
that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me. I was crucified with him. I died
when he died. Turn with me to Romans chapter
six. Romans chapter six. God Almighty has always seen
his elect in Christ. We've always been there, always
been His seed. So when He died in the covenant
of grace, we died. When he died on Calvary's cross,
we died. Everything that he did. Look
at chapter six of Romans, verse one. What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Oh, Caleb, I think you shared
this passage last Sunday when the Lord told the sons of Zebedee,
are you able to be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with?
Are you able to drink of the cup that I'm gonna drink from?
Oh yes, Lord, we're able. They didn't know what they were
saying, did they? But our Lord, I'm so glad, say, you shall. You shall. He was talking about
his death on Calvary's cross. He was talking about what he
was going to do in drinking dry damnation. The cup, the bitter
dregs of sin he was going to drink. That's the cup that he
prayed the father would spare him in the garden. He was talking about the baptism
of death on Calvary's cross. And he said to those sons of
Zebedee, and you shall. You shall. When I die, you're
going to die. Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death
of his saints. You see, the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ was precious in the eyes of the Lord because
it satisfied God's divine justice. He didn't just keep the law through
his obedient living. The scripture says that he was
obedient unto the law, even unto death, yea, even the death of
the cross. Not only did he had to actively
keep the law in perfect obedience in both heart, mind, thought,
actions, but he had to keep the law passively when he became
the sacrifice of our sins. And the wrath of God was poured
out on him. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
saved God's people. It actually saved them. He wasn't
making himself an offering to us. He was offering himself to
his father. He cried, it is finished. It's finished. And it was precious
in the eyes of God. When God saw the death of His
Son and all that were in Him, it sat in order, all things. God was satisfied. Men of this world are looking
for the purpose of all things. The cross is the purpose of all
things. What the Lord Jesus Christ did
on Calvary's cross when he bore the sins of his people and suffered
the wrath of God's justice and satisfied God's holy law. That's the purpose of everything
in this world. Everything points back to that.
He established everlasting righteousness. And God saw the death of the
saints. And God said, now that is precious in my sight. Thirdly,
it is precious in the sight of God when God the Holy Spirit
is pleased to take the message of the gospel, which we're trying
to preach right now, and make it effectual to the hearts of
God's people. God's elect, when they are, particularly
when they're born again, when they hear the gospel for the
first time as the gospel. This is precious in the sight
of the Lord. When he calls us out of darkness
into his marvelous light, he makes us to become alive in Christ. It is precious in his sight. Paul said, oh, all the things
that I valued, what was Paul, we're talking about things that
are precious. What was precious to Paul? His
heritage, his works, his decisions. That's what he said. He said,
these things were a great gain to me. I valued them highly.
But now I know what's precious in God's sight, and what's precious
in God's sight is the death of his saints, and God the Holy
Spirit killed me. I was alive once, Paul said,
without the law. But when the commandment came,
when the law came in power, and God showed me for the first time
what he required from the law, sin revived, and I died. I died. That's precious in the
sight of God. When he brings his people to
die, die to their righteousness, die to any other hope of their
salvation other than the accomplished work and glorious person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's a precious thing in God's
sight. And it's precious in the sight of God's people. It's precious
in our sight. We rejoice in that day when God
opened the eyes of our understanding and brought us from death to
life. To get us from death to life,
he had to show us that we were dead. God's got to kill you before
he can make you alive. And that's a precious thing.
It's a precious thing to be put to death. What a wonderful day
that is. God shows you that you're a sinner
if you have no righteousness whatsoever. When it pleased God,
Paul said, who separated me from my mother's womb, it was God
that ordained the day of my physical birth. When it pleased Him to
reveal Christ in me. That day of a new birth. You know, that's why it's so
difficult for us to share the gospel. It's more difficult for
us to share the gospel with the self-righteous religious than
it is with the person who's irreligious. And you know why? Because the
self-righteous religionist is holding precious to them their
works and their deeds. And it's hard for men to be put
to death. Now what the children of Israel
said, we'd be the children of Abraham. We've never been in
bondage to anyone. You see, it's precious in the
eyes of the Lord when he causes one of his saints who died on
Calvary's cross, who died in the covenant of grace to come
to see that they are in bondage to their sin. They can't do anything
about it. They can't. break away from it,
they can't satisfy God's justice, they can't establish any righteousness,
and God kills them. And it makes them alive in Christ. Thirdly, fourthly, I'm sorry,
believers die daily. See the, the Pharisee that is
within, The old man that we carry about with us, who's always trying
to find life and hope and comfort and salvation and in something
other than Christ. He's gotta be put to death every
day, doesn't he? We don't look to reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed under sin, but alive under God through Jesus
Christ. Child of God has been brought
to death every day, every day. Our sinful nature has to be mortified. It has to be reckoned for what
it is. Otherwise, we'll take comfort
in it. We'll boast in it. We'll boast in what we're doing
or what we've done, and we'll try to impress men. and compete
with men and God has to just mortify our flesh. He has to
put it to death. He has to cause us to, and I
pray he's doing that right now for each one of us. No time he
does this more, brings his people to death more than when they
realize my only life is in Christ. I have no life outside of Christ.
Christ doesn't just show me the way of life. He is my life. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians.
2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7. But we have this treasure. He's
talking about that precious anointing oil, that pearl of great price. He's talking about the gospel
and talking about Christ. We have this precious ointment
in a earthen vessel that the excellency of the power may be
of God and not of us. We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken.
Cast down, but not destroyed. Is this your life, child of God?
Is this your experience? This idea that you're going to
live some sort of victorious Christian life, walking in the
clouds above sin and, you know, living... It's just not, it's
not true. These are men lying to themselves. This is our experience. We're
in this, we've got this precious oil in an earthen vessel. persecuted
but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live
are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then,
death worketh in us. but life in you. Death bring forth life. You see
this dying that is precious in the eyes of the Lord is the believers
everyday experience. To die to the flesh, to die to
his righteousness, to die to anything. How did you, what was the third
point of this message? When God the Holy Spirit regenerated
us, brought us from death to life, the third death of the
saint, and the scripture says, as you received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him. So this dying is precious in
the eyes of the Lord, because it's a work of grace that the
Spirit of God does every day. As we walk after Christ, realizing
that my only life is in him. You know, when the last death
is that I'm going to deal with. We died in the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. We died in Christ on Calvary's
cross. We died when God called us out
of darkness into his marvelous light. We died daily. And one
day, one day, one glorious day, God's gonna send his angels.
He's gonna cause us to draw our last breath, and we're gonna
die physically. You see, the Bible says that
Flesh cannot inherit eternal life, kingdom of God. The mortal
has to be made immortal. The corruptible has to be made
incorruptible. Now this last death is hard. It's hard on everybody. It's
hard on those who die, and it's hard on those who are left behind. But at the same time, it's the
greatest day in the believer's life. The greatest day in a believer's
life. We mourn, but we don't mourn like other men. Not without hope. We have a hope. The Lord said, I have gone and
prepared a place for you. I will come again and I will
receive you unto myself so that where I am, there you may be
also. Let not your heart be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. My father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you. Here's the believer's hope. It is appointed unto man once
to die. And that death was appointed
in all five senses. And there is a day of death appointed
for each one of us. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. This body's got to be put back
to where it came from. And we've got to be given a new
body, a resurrected body. And how precious in God's sight
that will be when we see him as he is and we're made like
him. Psalm 23, yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, And that's the valley that we'll
all experience at the end of this life, but it's the valley
that we're walking through now. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me, thy rod and thy staff that comfort me. Surely, surely, certainly, I'm
absolutely sure of this. that goodness and mercy will
follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the
house of God forever. How precious will that day be?
Of great value is the death of his saints in
the eyes of God. Revelation chapter 20, verse
six speaks of one more death. It's called the second death.
The second death. The Bible speaks of the second
death in Revelation chapter 20, verse six. And that is the lake
of fire where all outside of Christ will be cast for all eternity. And here's the good news. Blessed
and holy. Blessed and holy. Holy is the
same word as saint. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection, for on him the second death hath
no power. When was the first resurrection? When Christ Jesus the Lord is
our seminal head rose victorious from the grave, proving once
and for all that what he did at Calvary's cross was precious
in the eyes of God and secured the life of his people. The second death hath no power. Our merciful heavenly father, We ask that you would make it
precious to us what's precious to thee. Give us the mind of
Christ, like value. Forgive us for our sin, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Number 509, let's stand together.