chapter 21. Genesis chapter 21. We'll begin our reading in verse 14. And Abraham rose up early in
the morning, took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar,
putting it on her shoulders, and the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered
in the wilderness of Beersheba. And the water was spent in the
bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went and sat down over
against him a good way off, as it were a bow shot. For she said,
let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against
him and lift up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice
of the lad. And the angel of God called to
Hagar out of heaven and said to her, What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard
the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and
hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation. And
God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. And she went
and filled the bottle with water and gave the lad drink. And God
was with the lad and he grew and dwelt in the wilderness and
became an archer. He dwelt in the wilderness of
Paran and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt. The title of the message this
morning is God Who Hears and a Whale Revealed. the God who
hears, and a well revealed. Now, in our text of Scripture,
we have come to the history of the birth of Isaac, who was promised
of God to be the heir of God's covenant. Remember that God promised
Abraham a seed, a seed of his own bowels, a seed from the womb
of Sarah. God promised him a seed. and
that this seed should be heir of the covenant of God. Go to Genesis 17 and look at
verse 10. See, God's promised Abraham, this is my covenant which you
shall keep between me and you. and thy seed after thee every
man child among you shall be circumcised which literally was
for the seed of the Jewish race we know this circumcision was
for the seed of the Jewish race but spiritually spiritually this
was a type and picture of Christ His salvation of the church. That's what this covenant was. It was a picture of the covenant
of God's grace and how that God should come and cut off the flesh
and should give us a new heart and a new spirit. And in verse
19 of that same chapter, Genesis 17, the Scripture says, And God
said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son. Indeed. And thou
shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant
with him, for an everlasting covenant with his seed after
him. Now, this matter of seed, this
is important. In the Scripture, this matter
of seed, the Apostle Paul in Galatians reveals the meaning
of this. He said, it is not seeds. Did you notice that? It said
seeds, singular. He said, I will establish my
covenant with your seed. Not seeds, not many. but one,
and that is Christ. This is a prophecy of Christ. This is the one promised seed
of Abraham through the son of Isaac, in whom all the families
of the earth, the scripture said, shall be blessed. Through who? Thy seed, Christ, who was to
come and redeem His people. But you remember Sarah, and she
did not believe the promises of God concerning this seed.
She did not believe in the covenant promise, but rather she convinced
Abraham to take the handmaiden and to conceive a son by her. She schemed. How many times do
we read this of God's people? How they scheme, hear God's promises,
and then they scheme to fulfill them. How many times has that
ever worked out? Never. It always ends up poorly
for the person who schemes trying to fulfill God's purpose. So
we are not to scheme to fulfill God's purpose. Matter of fact,
we are to trust God to fulfill His purpose. And this is true
concerning the church. We don't scheme to get people
in. We don't scheme to try to fulfill
God's covenant. A promise is that as many as
the Lord our God shall call, that's whom He saves. So we don't
try to hurry that along. We don't try to press that along.
We just trust God. Continue to obey God and follow
His Word. But Sarah, you remember, she
convinced her husband. Do you suppose that took much
convincing? I don't suppose it took much convincing for him. So he married Hagar and bared
that son Ishmael. which was not God's chosen one. He was not the son of promise. Not the son of the bondwoman
was chosen, but rather the son of the free woman. And God, by
the miracle of grace and fulfillment of His promise, Sarah conceived. So that's where we come in our
text here. Sarah conceived. by Abraham in her old age, even
the son of promise, Isaac, by whom Christ should come into
the world in the flesh to save his people. Now, the apostle
further reveals to us in Galatians chapter 4, if you want to go
over there, Galatians chapter 4, so that we may see the point
and the reason why these two women are given to us. In Galatians chapter 4 in verse
21. Tell me, you that desire to be
under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by the bondmaid and the other
by the free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, But he that is of the free woman
was by promise. Which things, listen, were an
allegory. For these are two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage, which is
Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage
with her children, But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which
is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou
barren that bearest not, break forth and cry, thou that travailest
not. For the desolate hath many more
children than she that hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as
Isaac was, are the children of promise. Hagar, who conceived
naturally. Now, there was no miracle in
that, was it? When Hagar and Abraham came together as husband
and wife, she was young, she was fertile, and it was no real
miracle for her. This was common. Her giving birth
to Ishmael was common. And therefore, Hagar is to us
a picture of Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage. Now, Hagar
was a slave. She was a slave. She was forced
to marry Abraham. She had no choice in this matter.
She was forced, as a servant, to marry and conceive a son. And listen, even so, the law
demands the obedience of man. It demands it. It demands that
God be to us as a husband. It demands that man conceive
and produce righteousness by natural obedience. That's what
the law demands of us. But listen, even as it was impossible
for Hagar to give birth to Isaac, Even so, the offspring of man's
works, it is not possible for us to inherit the blessings of
God naturally. But rather we are cast out. The law, the law only can cast
us out. As Hagar here in our picture
here, she is cast out. And Abraham, that's why he gives
her the bread and the water, she has been cast out. And that's
what the law does. It can only cast us out. It can only demand of us what
we cannot provide. But we who are born again of
the Holy Spirit, we are pictured by Isaac, the son of the free
woman. You see, his birth was miraculous. And so our birth is miraculous. As He was the result of the promise
and power of God, even so is everyone that is born again of
the Spirit of God. We are a direct result of the
promise of God. God promised to save His people
through Jesus Christ from the beginning. And now, by grace,
He has sent Christ. And now, by grace, we have believed
Christ. This is the evidence of His grace
and power, is that we are born again. We're not born again of
law, for we are barren of any righteousness. We were dead as
the womb of Sarah. Yet God before promised a seed,
that Christ should come and by the seed of the woman destroy
the works of the devil, And because Christ has been victorious,
because He has died and satisfied the justice of God, now has God
raised Him up for this purpose, to give life and faith. To give life and faith to all
those He has redeemed. He said, All that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me. Why is this? Because he did not
fail in his mission. He did not fail in his work of
redemption. And he said, of those that the
Father gave me, I should lose nothing. I should lose none of
them. Therefore, believers, see that
Isaac is a picture of us. For we who believe on Christ
are sons and heirs of promise. And our spiritual birth was that
of grace. not of nature therefore Christ
came to redeem us he came to obtain for us by his own faith
the righteousness of God and suffer suffer under the just penalty
of our sins And listen, the only hope that
we have is this, that He who suffered for our sins was also
raised again for our justification. I don't know if you noticed this
in the book of Acts, we'll study it in a little bit this morning,
but do you realize what emphasis the apostles placed on His resurrection? They place great emphasis on
His resurrection because it is proof of His victory in His crucifixion,
is the resurrection. And He has been raised and given
all power to do what? To give life to the dead. To raise the dead to life. That's what Christ is doing on
the throne. And so then we who are children
of promise, is this not our experience of grace? We have been raised
from the dead. We have been given life. Therefore,
Paul says to us, children of promise, loved, chosen, redeemed,
and saved by the grace of God. He says to us in that same passage,
he tells us of this allegory, he says this, since we're not
of the law, since we were born of grace and promise, he says,
stand fast in that liberty. You stand fast in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free. and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage." As I told you, these two are an allegory,
a picture. Hagar and Sarah, law and grace. And you know what the apostle
says? He says, you stand fast in grace.
Stand fast in liberty and be not entangled. Why do you suppose
he gave us such an exhortation? Did he not give it because that's
the natural tendency of the flesh? is to go back to law. That is
the natural tendency of us all. It is the desire and temptation
of the old man to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
To the believer in Christ, we must ever be aware and vigilant of the old man's desire to lean
on the flesh. of our desire of the old man
to look to works and ceremony and religion as evidence. I want
you to be, you should be honest with yourself. How many times
a day must you refuse to lean on your arm of flesh? How many
times are we drawn to lean and look to evidences in the flesh
for confidence of our salvation? We daily are trying to always
having to turn from that. And every time we lean on it,
it collapses under the weight. It always falls. We're always
leaning on something and looking at something we've done or are
doing for confidence. It always fails. And so that's why Paul says for
us to be vigilant not to lean on it, but rather stand fast
in the liberty that Christ has made us free. Now, believers,
we are exhorted truly to do good works, but good works are never
to be leaned on. God has exhorted us to good works. Matter of fact, He's created
us and given us a new heart too. good works, which he ordained. But we are never to lean on them, but rather always to keep in
view this, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
So as Hagar was cast out, I tell you this, we should cast out
all hopes of being justified by the law or leaning on flesh.
We should continually cast away the works of the flesh, continually
turn from them and turn to faith in Christ. But now we see Hagar cast out.
And so we pick up our text. We know these two are an allegory.
But now I want you to see that God uses this instance of Hagar
as a picture. As a picture to us of the experience
of grace of every believer in Christ. He uses this woman who
has been cast out as a picture. as a picture to us of all who
are saved by the grace of God. Now, I've talked to several people
about this and I've read several things about it. You know, I
don't know much about Hagar's salvation. I don't know if she
was a true believer or not. I tend to believe that she was.
I tend to believe that God spoke to her out of heaven. God told
her the gospel. He revealed many things to her. So I don't know. It's just speculation. But regardless, God uses everyone
in this scripture to point us to Christ, does he not? The whole
volume of the book is written about Christ. And so as she was
used as an allegory of the law, even before the law was given,
I tell you, she can also be used here as a type, a picture of
believers in Christ. And I see this in our text. Now, this woman Hagar, So long
as she was able to dwell with Abraham under his roof, she was
protected, sheltered, and had all the provisions that she needed. But now she has been cast out.
She has been cast out, and I'll tell you why she was cast out.
If you'll look at verse 9, you'll see the reason. Why was she cast
out? What was the purpose of her being
cast out from the house of Abraham. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar,
the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham, mocking. They had made a feast for Isaac.
They had made a feast for the Chosen One, but yet here is the
son of the bondwoman, and he is older, and he is mocking Isaac. He's mocking Isaac. Wherefore, she said unto Abraham,
Cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. So what is the
reason Hagar was cast out? Well, because her son mocked
the heir. Listen, is that not a picture
of all of us by nature? Why then were we cast out from
the presence of God? Is it not because our Father
mocked the air? Because our Father, by nature,
robbed God of His glory? When Adam sinned, I tell you
this, he mocked God and His commands. He said, I will have my own way. I will do what I will. I will
not have this man to rule over me. This is what Ishmael was
saying about Isaac. I will not have this babe rule
over me. What a picture that is of us
by nature. For we, by the carnal mind, is
enmity against God. By nature, we are at enmity against
God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be, so that they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. We by nature were cast out from
the presence and worship of God in Adam. And I'll tell you, there
was a time that Adam did enjoy The presence of God. As Hagar
enjoyed the presence of her husband, Abraham, and all of his benefits. But now she is cast out. Why?
Because the fruit of her womb mocked the air. And I tell you,
the fruit of our womb is our rejection, our natural works. The Scripture says that from
the heart proceedeth evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
thefts. You see, it was the conception
of our own hearts, the fruit of our own hearts that mocked
the Son of God. But now we are cast out. And
where are we cast out? Notice where she was cast out.
Verse 14, into the wilderness. The wilderness. And so like Hagar, Our... We've been cast out into the
wilderness, and like Hagar, our provisions, our rations are small
and soon wasted. Notice that. Abraham rose up
early, took bread and a bottle of water, and he gave it to Hagar.
And she went out into the wilderness, but notice verse 15, and the
water was spent. She was given small provisions. Listen, when a soul is convicted
of sin, what does he start to do? He starts to eat the bread
of his own works and drink the water of his own self-righteousness.
That's what a man convicted of sin does. He starts to look for
something good within himself. And it may provide for just a
short period of time. A man may change his habits.
He may straighten out his life. He may get religious. He may eat of his own works,
yet the desert of sin and the heat of God's justice cause him
to thirst for righteousness. And I'll tell you, the bottle
of his own righteousness just don't last long under that heat.
It just won't last long. Not if a man's truly convicted
of sin. But like Hagar, we are found,
who are found with not enough provisions to
sustain us. Hagar didn't have enough bread
and she didn't have enough water and listen, neither do we have
enough righteousness to satisfy the justice of God. You don't
have enough. The bed is shorter than a man
can stretch himself on and the cover narrower that he can cover
himself with. You just don't have enough. And even so does God convict
the sinner and find that we find that our provisions of self-righteousness
and works religion soon run out and we do not have enough to
live before a thrice holy God. Oh, how the convicted sinner
then tries to drown out the cry of his conscience. You know,
Hagar had carried that boy. Now, he was a big boy. The Scripture,
the way it is says in the original, she had carried him. She was
carrying him. And then she got to the point
where he just basically went limp. And she laid the boy down
and kind of left him there because she could do nothing. And she
walked off as a bow shot from Him. And she just said, I cannot
bear to watch Him die. Isn't this what happens when
a soul is convicted? We find our soul limp and dead
in our arms. We'd carried it just as far as
we could. But when we come to our wit's
end, we have nothing left, no strength to carry it any further. And we say to God, Oh, let me
not see my soul die. We cry out for mercy, we cry
out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? We begin to cry out and try to
cast away the guilt of our sin. We don't want to hear it. We
cry out to God, let me not see the death of my soul. And it is my prayer that God
open the heart of every person here to see that. Listen, if
you've never been cast out, if you've never found your own soul
to be dead, then listen, you've never had life. This is where God gives life.
God gives life to the dead. Only the dead need life. Only
the blind need sight. Only the lame need strength. And this is where God brings
every sinner into the wilderness of his own sin and makes him
limp. He causes him to drain himself
of all his resources. He brings him low. May the Holy Spirit open your
eyes to see your need. Of all that God requires, you
can never fill. You see, it's only here at the
end of yourself where you ever cry to God. Go over to Psalm
chapter 107. No less than three times does
God give illustrations of how He delivers His people. Psalm
107 and verse 4. It says, for they wandered in
the wilderness in a solitary way, they found no city to dwell
in, hungry and thirsty, their souls fainting with it. Is that
not the picture that we just saw? Then they cried unto the Lord. When? After they had hungered
and thirst, after they had been cast out in the wilderness. Then
they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them.
Look at verse 10. such as a sit in darkness, in the shadow of
death, being bound in affliction and ironed, because they rebelled
against the word of the Lord and contempted the counsel of
the Most High. Therefore He brought down their
heart with labor. They fell down and there was
none to help." You see the condition? What's the result when God brings
a man into such a condition? Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble. and He saved them out of their
distresses. Go to verse 26. They mound up. He's talking about those that
go down to sea and do business in great waters. And verse 25,
where He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind and lifted up
the waves thereof. They mound up to the heavens,
they go down to the depths, their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro and staggered
like a drunken man and are at their wits' end. Then they cried. Do you see the pattern? Do you
see the picture? It's only there you're going
to cry. It's only when you've come to
your wit's end will you cry. And that's what God gives us
in this picture of Hagar. She's come to her wit's end.
She has no hope. She cries. She cries unto God. Listen, do you need righteousness? I don't mean what men call righteousness. I don't mean a new habits, new
attitude. That's a big thing today, being
a priest. You don't realize it, but it
is. Attitude is everything. Man, just have a positive attitude
about everything and it's all right. No, that's not righteousness. See, I need righteousness. I
don't need a righteousness that I can make and I don't need a
righteousness that you can make. I need a righteousness that only
God can give. You need that righteousness?
If you do, you realize this, you're in trouble. You're in
trouble. You can't provide it. I need
something I cannot provide for myself. I need a righteousness
only God can provide. Then cry out to God. Do you need a righteousness that
you cannot provide by works or law? Listen, this is the sole purpose
of the law. Law has one purpose. Expose your guilt. That's it. By the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. So then you should weep and cry.
You should sue God for absolute mercy. And all who repent from
self and sin, all who cry to God for mercy, look what happens.
This is what Hagar did and look what happened. Verse 17, And
God heard the voice of the lad. God heard the voice of the lad. And the angel of God called to
Hagar out of heaven and said to her, What aileth thee, Hagar? What aileth thee? You know, God
never asks for information. He only asks so to stir up your
own thoughts as to your true condition and problem. You know,
when he asked that man who was laid out there at that pool of
Bethesda for 38 years, he, Lord, comes up and said, well, what
do you want me to do to you? What kind of question is that? Lord,
you know what I need. I need you. He had to confess
it. He confessed that he was lame
and he had no hope of ever getting into that pool. And that's what
God does. He brings you to the end of yourself
so you should confess there's no hope in you. And so Hagar,
what aileth thee? What's the problem? Well, the
Lord knew her problem and He knows yours. Pleading sinner. Pleading sinner. Listen, this
is the hope that you should get from this. God heard. God heard. And I know this according to
the Word of God and by the experience of grace in my own heart, a broken
and a contrite heart God will not despise. Isn't that good
news? It is. And see who it is that speaks
to her. It's not just any voice from heaven. It's not just any
angel. It says, the angel of God, the
angel of God spoke to her out of heaven. Now friends, this is only Jesus
Christ. If there's ever going to be any
comfort spoken to a wilderness wanderer, it will be this, that
Jesus Christ should speak to you. That's it. If God hears your cries for mercy,
He will only speak to you through His Son. God has a hundred times
in divers manners spake in time past that the prophets hath now
spoken to us by His Son. You see, there's a reason for
this. Because He is the only mediator between God and men.
the man, Christ Jesus. There's only one mediator. Therefore, there's only one who
would speak to you out of heaven with words of kindness and mercy. It is only Jesus Christ. He is
the only one that can intercede between God and man. He is the
only one that can touch both God and man and reconcile us
to God. There's no other one. No other
one. You can search all the earth.
You can run to this man or that man, this demon or that angel,
this beast or that false god. No one can intercede for you
except Christ. There's only one. There's only
one. You can go to some priest or
the pope, but I tell you there's only one that can intercede and
reveal God to you, Christ, Jesus, the Lord. In Matthew 11, 27, Jesus said,
No man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man
the Father, save the Son, and to whomsoever the Son shall reveal
Him. And here's the revelation of
God to Hagar and all who cry for mercy. Here it is. Here's
the words of Christ. Fear not. That's good. That's good. Oh,
that's good. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Fear not. For God hath heard the voice
of the lad where he is. You who weep for your sin and
long for righteousness and acceptance with God, God hath heard the
cry of your soul. hath heard the cry of your soul.
Matter of fact, Hagar was not unfamiliar with this term. Matter of fact, this word, God
hath heard, is El Shama. You remember that she had heard
this before. She had heard this before when
she wept concerning when she had conceived and Sarah was punishing
her and she went out and wept and God said, the scripture says,
Jehovah Shammah. The Lord hath heard. The Lord hath heard. Before we came to Christ, how
many times have we heard of Christ. How many times have we heard, but only when God convicted us
in the wilderness did we really hear that God hears. I've heard that all my life.
God hears. God hears prayer. God answers the prayers of sinners
in need. Go to Christ. I've heard all
my life. But it wasn't until God brought me to the end of
myself that I knew it, that I experienced it for myself. I'll tell you
this, you can know it in your head, but truly only those who
have ever experienced it in their hearts are saved. Thy conviction cannot be cured
by man or works, therefore cry unto God who alone can hear."
And what does he do when he heard? Now, he didn't bring Hagar here
to kill her, did he? He didn't bring Ishmael out there
to kill him. Rather, he did it for a purpose. And we're explaining that that's
the gospel. He did it for that purpose. But
he didn't go out to kill. He could have killed them and
not said a word to them. but he didn't do that he brought
them here to save them to deliver them to prove that he hears and
he proves it in verse 19 and God opened her eyes and she
saw a well of water A well of water. She went and filled the
bottle with water and gave the lad to drink. What is it that
God brings every sinner that cries to Him to see? The well
of living water. The well of living water, which
is Jesus Christ. Now just a couple things about
the well. First of all, this well's existence. this well's
existence. Now this well was there long
before Hagar ever saw it or needed it. Am I right? This well was there a long time
before she ever saw it or needed it. It was dug a long time ago, but it was only seen when God
opened her eyes. It was only tasted when she had
need of it. And so it is with Christ. Christ
was purposed of God to be our salvation before the world began. It was Him God first trusted
to save all of His elect people. Therefore, He is this gospel
river. The water of life that flows
from the throne of God. So this well, our well, the Lord
Jesus Christ, was dug long before we ever needed it. It supplied
millions of believers long before we ever tasted it. And long after
we're gone, it'll supply millions more. This well has been there
forever. It will be there forever. And therefore, I want us to see
also the well's nearness. Sinner, the well of water is
nigh thee. You know salvation is near today. If God will just open your eyes
to see it, it's right there. The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. The Word is nigh. The well is
here. Here it is. Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him risen again.
This is the well. Come, drink if you are thirsty.
Come and drink of the water of life. How? Freely, without cause,
without merit. Come in now and drink now. The
well is near. The well is near. And all who drink from this well
are saved. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood shall be saved. That's simple,
isn't it? What does that mean? Just believe
on Christ. Trust in Christ. That's what it is to drink of
Him. And notice the sufficiency of this well. She filled the
bottle and gave to her and the lad. This well of Christ is sufficient. She filled the bottle to the
brim. And listen, His righteousness
fills us to the brim. His righteousness fills us to
the brim. Let's see if I can find this
text of scripture. I believe it's in Isaiah of Psalm
45. Yeah, verse 9. Psalm 45 in verse
9. Listen to this. Well, I'll go
back up. It says in verse 7, Thou lovest
righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. That's
speaking of Christ. All thy garments smell of myrrh
and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have
made thee glad. That's Christ, His garment. He
has sewed together with His own works and His own righteousness.
It's glorious. Now then, here's you. King's
daughters are among the honorable women. Upon thy right hand did
stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider,
and incline thine ear, and forget not thine own people's house. And look at verse 13, the king's
daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is wrought of gold. That's the righteousness of Christ. Within us, within us you are
altogether glorious. Altogether righteous. Filled
to the brim full of righteousness. You see, we're not adding to
this righteousness at all. Our clothing is wrought of gold. Now I'll tell you what, what
would you add to gold clothes? If the thread of your garments
were gold, should you stitch cloth into it? Should you stitch
wool or any other metal? No, it's precious. And so it
is the righteousness of Christ. It's filled to the brim. And
listen, it's sufficient. His blood and righteousness are
sufficient to satisfy God. Why would they not satisfy us? How many times are we unsatisfied
with His righteousness and blood? How foolish is that? How foolish
is that? And so this well is super sufficient. And notice the result of this.
They drank and the lad grew. What happens when those who believe
in Christ, what happens to them? They grow. They grow. Grow in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is to drink from
this well. Now is this not the experience
of every believer? Cast out. Wandering in the wilderness
of sin. God causes us to cry out to Him
and He hears us. And what does He do when He hears
us? He reveals Christ to us. And we by faith drink of Him
and we grow and don't die. Isn't that the gospel message?
May God bless this to your heart. I pray He will.