1 to 22 this morning. The title of the message is A
Precious Death. A Precious Death. The scripture says, By faith
Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he was
a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning
upon the top of his staff. By faith, Joseph, when he died,
made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and
gave commandment concerning his bones." We have, by the grace
of God, a wonderful chapter here. A chapter concerning faith. The faith of God. Saving faith. If anybody desires to know what
true saving faith is, and how it acts, then this is the chapter
to go to. The chapter of faith. And here
we are going to see this faith of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph
concerning death. Dying faith. Dying faith. Here the Holy Spirit, by the
hand of the Apostle, writes concerning these three men at a certain
particular time in their life, and that was the point of their
death. It wasn't until Isaac was dying
that he blessed his children. It wasn't until Jacob, Joseph,
Jacob was dying that he blessed Joseph's children. And it wasn't
until Joseph died that he, by faith, told them, when you leave,
take my bones with you. Because he believed God's Word
that this wouldn't be their abiding place. That they would have a
new land. So these men died in faith. And
that's what it says in verse 13. These all died in faith. Let me ask you this. What good
is a faith that exists all a person's life and then in the end is forsaken? What good is it? No good. The
Scripture says, He that endureth to the end, the same shall be
saved. You see, saving faith not only
begins in this life. endures this life, but it also
endures until it is lost in sight. Faith continues until the last
breath through saving faith. Now, all men have faith. I was talking to a man the other
day about Rick, and he had asked about him, and I said, well,
the Lord blessed. spared him. And he said, well,
he was lucky. You see, he had faith in luck.
He has a lot of faith in luck. And I said, would you find me
the history and the book of luck, please? I have 5,000 years more
of history and prophecy concerning God's providence, God's guidance,
God's rulership, but I don't know anything about luck. Because
my faith is not in luck, it's not in chance. So every man has
something they're believing in. Most of all, they're believing
in themselves. They believe themselves to be
God. You remember that Pharisee, what did he say? The Lord said,
he prayed thus with himself. He prayed to his God. He prayed
to himself. He was his God. Many believe
in their works. or some persuasion of men. They're confident in some man. We can see this. It's clear that
when God raises up a man like He did Charles Spurgeon, a great
man who was heard by many, many people, and yet when he died,
where did they go? That church died. That church
flipped over to a false gospel after his death. You see, they
were following a man. If they left, they were leaving
because they followed a man and not Christ. You see, what good
was their faith all the time Spurgeon was there? But when
Spurgeon left, then their faith disappeared because they were
trusting in men. If I persuade you by smooth and
religious words, then somebody else is going to come along and
persuade you of something else. That's just all there is to it.
If you're persuaded by smooth talk and smooth reasoning, earthly
wisdom, then somebody's going to come along and persuade you
otherwise. But if any of us will have faith
that is a gift of God, that faith will endure all things. That
faith will continue because that He hath begun a good work in
you, shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And the
Scripture says that Jesus is the author, and the what? The finisher of our faith. If our faith is a gift of the
grace of God, He will finish it. He will finish it. And yet, God gives us so great
a word, and yet no man has any desire to seek God. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter
8. Proverbs chapter 8. Hear the graciousness of this.
And this is more gracious than I have ever thought to be. These
words. are very gracious. They're the
words of wisdom. They're the words of Christ. And look at verse 17. I love them that love Me, and
those that seek Me early shall find Me. Is that not a definite thing?
Is that not true? Those that seek the Lord early,
those who seek Him, will find Him. That is a promise. That
is a promise. Everyone who seeks the Lord will
find Him. In Isaiah 55, he says, Seek the
Lord while He may be found, and call upon Him while He is near. And yet, even such gracious promises
as this. I mean, that's a gracious promise,
isn't it? Because I seek the Lord. I seek to worship Him in
spirit and truth. I seek to see Him in the Scriptures. And I seek to see Him in heaven. I desire to see Him in heaven,
in His glorified state, to worship before His throne. That's what
I'm seeking. I'm seeking a country that's
not here. I'm seeking a country that is
yet to come. He has promised me. I have an
inheritance that I've not yet fully seen. And yet, even these
gracious words are met with bitterness and rejection by natural men. This is because of the depravity
of man's hearts and minds and will, and how they're set in
hatred against God. Hatred against God. If by the
grace of God you desire to seek Him this morning. If by the grace
of God this morning you have a feel of your need for Him. Do you have a need of Him? I have a great need of Him and
every morning I realize I have a greater need of Him. Every
morning. If you feel a need for Him, then
seek Him and you will find Him. If you have a need of this, then
seek Him by faith in Christ, who is the express image of the
Father. You can't know God unless you
know Him through Christ. And you can't know Christ unless
you have faith by God's grace that you have faith in Christ
alone. That's how you know Him. And whosoever will find Him,
whosoever will seek Him will find Him. Jesus said, those that
the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. And Him that cometh to
Me I will in no wise cast out. Is that not the most gracious
thing? And yet men would hate it. Everyone who is made aware of
their needs, And I'll tell you what, there are four things,
four words. And if these words will not move
you to seek God, nothing will. Death. Judgment. Guilt. And eternity. If these things do not move us
in godly fear and reverence to seek Christ, nothing will. The
certainty of death. Every one of us is going to die.
This is a certainty. This is not a question. It's
a certainty. Unless the Lord God come back
and we are transformed, yet we must be transformed either way. But we will die. Most likely we will die. It's not against faith to understand
we are going to die. I know the Lord's coming back,
and if He comes back, wonderful. If He doesn't, wonderful. It's
the same. It doesn't matter to us. Because death is certain. We
must realize this if we're ever going to have faith. Death is
certain. And after this, what? The judgment. If we know anything of the judgment
of God, the justice of God, it would move us to seek mercy. Guilt. Who here is guilty? Who has transgressed the law
of God? Every single one of us. And think
of the span of eternity. Can you? We can't fathom it. It's impossible for us to fathom
the great distance and length of eternity that whosoever is
just, let him be just still. And whosoever is filthy, let
him be filthy still. That man, that rich man in hell
2,000 years ago, is still just as tortured as he was then. Tell you what, even here on earth,
God gives some reprieve to trouble. If you are in trouble, sometimes
we are able to adapt to troubles, aren't we? Sometimes we just
have so many, this thing happens to us and everyone considers
it bad, but we think it's normal. We've adapted to it. There's no adaptation in hell. You don't adapt to it. It doesn't
get easier to take. Hell is forever. If these things are of no concern
to you, then the message of Christ will be of no value to you. And you will not seek mercy.
But everyone who is taught of God, everyone who is stirred
up by the Spirit of God will see the certainty of these things
and run to Christ. Therefore, we preach, we preach, and we don't come
with enticing words of man's wisdom. I'm not here to teach
you how to live, I'm here to show you how to die. We preach the Word of God because
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Paul
said in Corinthians, he said, I came not with excellency of
speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and fear and much trembling, and my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should stand not in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. For any of us to believe the
testimony of God, it will not be by the power of my persuasion
or the smoothness of my voice. None of these things will ring
true to your heart unless the Spirit of God moves in power.
There's nothing I can do. There is nothing. I'm just as helpless to help
you as you are to help you. I am. I can't make these things
real. The Spirit of God makes these
things real. It is the power of the Spirit that quickens the
dead sinner to life and faith in Christ. This is how salvation begins
for every elect child of God. We realize we're born in captivity,
in need of mercy, guilty before God. We know that the judgment
of God is coming. We know that God must punish
all sin. He must. And every elect child will seek
and continually seek mercy at the foot of the cross. If we ever want to know how God
feels about our little sins, what we call little sins, then
you go to the cross and look what He did to His Son and see
how how much hatred God has for sin. We are aware of our sin and we're
convicted by the holiness of God. You know, it's always in
a direct proportion. We see the holiness of God, however
we see the holiness of God, is in direct proportion as to how
we see how sinful we are. The more we know of the holiness
of God, the more we know of our sin and need of mercy. You remember that Pharisee and
the woman that came to Jesus weeping and washing His feet
with her tears. Jesus said, He that is forgiven
much, loveth much. How much have you been forgiven? You who have been guilty of breaking
God's law, how much has God forgiven you? Because that's a direct
proportion as to how you will serve Him. What you think concerning
His holiness. What you know concerning His
holiness. The more we know of His holiness,
the more we know of the exceeding sinfulness of our sin. So holy is God that He will by
no means clear the guilty. He must and will punish all sin
with an eternal vengeance and no sin. I'll tell you what, I
know that I have sinned without knowing I've sinned. I know that. I know I've done things that
I can't even remember. How many sins I've committed
even just today, I couldn't count them. They're innumerable because
they were mixed with all I did this morning, all I'm doing right
now. But yet God knows and make sure
that we all understand this, not one sin escapes judgment,
not one sin. How then can sinners be saved? Only one place. There's only
one place where mercy and truth meet together. Where righteousness
and peace kiss each other. And that is in the person of
Jesus Christ. You see, my sin didn't escape
God. My sin was punished by a divine
and just and holy God. Where? In Christ. He died. So that when I die, there's nothing
for me to pay for. There is no more justice. Justice
is satisfied. Justice is satisfied and righteousness
has been imputed and imparted to me so that when I die, I may
die in faith, I may rest in hope knowing that He will raise this
body and it will be incorruptible the next time it comes out of
the ground. Incorruptible. It is by the substitute Jesus
Christ who obtained our righteousness and our substitute who by his
death was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He bore our guilt in his own
body on the tree. God testified by his resurrection
that he was satisfied. What then do we have to fear
concerning death? My Savior is the firstfruits. He has already risen from the
dead. Will He not raise me? You bet
He will. So then, we that have faith,
may die in faith. We may rest in our death. We who believe God's testimony
that every sin has been done away with and we are the righteousness
of God in Him. We are accepted of God in Christ. Everyone that believes shall
live a life of faith. All these died in faith, must
have lived a life of faith. Isn't that true? How many people
today are so deceived as to think they can live a life of sin constantly,
have no fear of death or judgment or any of the things of God,
any interest in those things, and then at the moment of their
death they say, oh now I believe! Now I seek You! I guarantee you
there are very few deathbed conversions. Very few. There are very few
in Scripture. Actually, there's only one I
can think of, and that was the thief on the cross. But he lasted
three more hours. He had three more hours of testimony
to give, didn't he? Before they came out and broke
the legs of those two men. He believed in the man that was
already dead on the cross next to him. He had a testimony. I'll tell you what, I'm not hopeful
for anybody who doesn't have a life of faith. And then in
the end, all of a sudden, gets an epiphany. I don't have much
hope for them. I know people say, well, you
don't know. Well, that's right, I don't. But I don't have anything
in Scripture that tells me of many that did. Matter of fact, some men, they
got so scared they ran to the horns of the altar and grabbed
ahold of them as though that would save them. And they were
slaughtered. Listen to what God says. He said, "...turn you at
My reproof. Behold, I will pour out My Spirit." He is in Proverbs
1. He said, "...I will make known My words unto you. Because I
have called and you refused, I have stretched out My hand
and no man regard it. But ye have said it not all My
counsel and would have none of My reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh
as a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come
upon you, then shall you call upon Me, but I will not answer. They shall seek Me early, but
they shall not find Me. For that they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of
my counsel, they despised my reproof. Therefore they shall
eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own
devices. For the turning of way of the simple shall slay them,
and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." All men's life
they will not believe. They will hate God. And then
at the end they expect, they presume upon God's grace. And
friends, they will find that there is none. What a sad condition,
isn't it? Isn't that a sad condition, to
presume upon God that at your dying moment you will somehow
believe? What a foolish thought that is. But we who believe, We have the
same testimony as Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Because we believe,
we believe now. We trust now. Don't look back
at what you trusted in, what you thought you trusted in. Don't
look back at a certain time. Do you believe now? Because now
is really only the part that matters. And then when we die,
it will only matter, do we believe now? Faith is a present thing. We must live in faith. And friends,
we must die in faith. Death to this world is not a
pleasant subject, is it? Death is not pleasant because
death is part of the curse. Death is part of the curse because
of sin we die. This body will die. And it is
a fearful thing, I know. God must give us dying grace
when it's our time to die. But listen to the gracious words
of our Father. He said, A good name is better
than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of
one's birth. Is that not sweet? Psalm 116, verse 15, precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Do you see how God estimates
our death? As a precious thing. Why? Because
the moment of our death is the beginning of our real life. We will actually begin to live
the moment we die. But if you will not believe, you will eat of your own works. You will receive exactly what
you have earned. Hell. Eternal death. Why should anyone refuse the
counsel of God and believe on Christ? It is a foolish thing,
isn't it? It is a foolish thing. But we
know this, that we are all taught of God, and if any one of us
believes like these men unto death, our death will be precious. Believer in Christ, believe. in Christ. When now? And at the moment of
death, we'll still continue to believe if it's true faith. I
pray that God would bless this to us and give us hearts of thanksgiving
for his grace, thanksgiving for his word. We're all going to
die. That's good that God has taken that into account and given
us a precious word concerning our death. I pray that God will
bless this.