When I heard that Miss Eloise had passed, this
scripture came to me. In Job chapter 5, verse 26-27,
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like a shock of
corn cometh in his season. Lo, this we have searched it,
It is so, or so it is, it's true. That's why he's saying it's true.
Hear it. Absorb it. Take it in. Digest it. Hear it and know thou
it for thy good. For thy good. Now, there's about
six or seven things here I want to, as briefly as I can, give
you on the death of a believer. First of all, the death of the
believer is inevitable. It is inevitable. It says, Thou
shalt come to thy grave. Because of Adam's sin, death
has passed upon all men, all men and women, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. We all sinned in Adam as
our representative. And we've all sinned on our own,
willingly. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The scripture says, a soul that
sinneth shall surely die. Another scripture says, it is
appointed unto men once to die. And after this judgment. All
must die and all must be carried to the cemetery. All. Believers
and unbelievers must be taken to the cemetery. We all have
a grave waiting on us. You say, boy, this sounds real
morbid. That depends on your relationship
to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is good news to the believer.
This is good news. We all have a grave waiting for
us. Thou shalt come to, now listen, thy grave. Thy grave. It's yours. There's one. There's
one waiting for me. It may be out here in this one.
Yeah, I hope it is. I hope to end my life right here.
But there's a, there's a what, a ten foot, a six foot or something
plot of ground. Right now, I don't own anything.
And there's something in here you may have never owned a piece
of land. But I can tell you one thing you and I are going to
own for a while at that plot of ground that they put us in.
We're going to own it. Thou shalt come to thy grave. Death, the death of a believer
is inevitable. Secondly, the death of the believer
is very acceptable. It's very acceptable. Thou shalt
come to thy grave. This shows here, listen, this
shows a willingness to die. He said she was willing to die.
It was right out there in the middle of the garden. Willing.
willing to go and be with the Lord. We choose to be absent
from the body and to be present with the Lord. That's a glorious
thought to the believer. That is a glorious thought to
the believer. To leave this life of sorrow
and suffering and tears and go be with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Listen, Paul didn't say to be absent from the body to be present
in heaven. This is not about going to heaven.
This is about being with the Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord and
my God. It's about being with my Savior.
It's not about a place, it's about a person, Jesus Christ. The death of a believer is very
acceptable. But now the unbeliever is not. The unbeliever doesn't
want to die. We, the medical world, the science
world, they spend so much money and time and energy in trying
to find medication to help us to do what? Live longer. Well, go over to Genesis, whenever
you have time, and read in the first part of Genesis where they
live 900 years, and you know what it says at the end of that?
Every one of them. And they died. And they died. If you live to be 70, 80, 100,
the end result is this, and they die. The elect of God, listen, when
it comes time for them to die, they are not dragged to the grave. I've seen a person screaming
and hollering not to die. It's not a pretty sight. But
the believer is ready. Ready. Willing, willing. The believer is willing to come
to him in death as they are to come to him in faith. They are
just as willing. You know, when the Lord saves
a sinner, He makes that sinner willing, and that sinner willingly
comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, and when it comes to die, we
willingly come to the grave. Now, what makes the death of
a believer acceptable? What makes it acceptable? Well,
I can sum that up very quickly. Here's what makes it acceptable.
Jesus Christ. His person, he is God incarnate. That's who that man is. That
man is the creator of heaven and earth. That man is almighty
God who came into this world, his person, that's his person,
and his work, his work of redemption. He came to redeem. You know that
Jesus Christ did not come into this world to make salvation
a possibility. You know that? He came into this
world to save. came into this world to make
it an absolute certainty. Sinners are going to be saved
because he died for sinners and those sinners are going to be saved. He lives to enforce
that. He lives to enforce it. His righteousness
is the righteousness of everyone who believes on him. Miss Eloise, her righteousness
is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's either that or we
don't have any. Self-righteousness is no righteousness,
just another form of sin. His righteousness is our righteousness. His death is, listen, His death
is my death. His death is the death of death.
Death has no claim on the believer. Death has no claim here. I'll
get to that in a minute. Death, listen, death is my master's
servant. You know that? Death is my master's
servant. Our Lord said, if I go and prepare
a place for you, I'll come again, receive you to myself that where
I am there, you may be also. But in order for us to be there,
this body has to go back to dust. And my spirit goes to be with
the Lord. And then thirdly, the death of
the believer is timely. Timely. Thou shalt come to thy
grave, listen, in a full age. Did you catch something there? It doesn't say thou shalt come
to thy grave in an old age. It has nothing to do with age.
With God, age is nothing. Age is absolutely nothing. He
said you shall come to your grave in a full age. It says in Ecclesiastes 3, 2,
there's a time to be born. There's a time to be born into
this world. And if God's going to save a sinner, there's a time
to be born again. And there's a time to die. I
mean, there's a time, there's a time that we come into this
world and God has that time down to the second. And when we leave
this world, that is down to the second. I mean to the second. Do you realize, do you realize,
especially you older ones, do you realize how many things could
have killed you by now? Do you realize how many ways
you could have died? Thousands of ways. Every day,
thousands of ways you could die. You know why you have it? It's
not your time. Don't ever say, whoa, man, I
was lucky. Ooh, we missed that wreck. I was lucky. No, you're not lucky.
Your life, whether you believe the gospel or not, your life
is in His hands. It's not in your hands. It's
in His hands. You can eat healthy. You can exercise. But you're
still going to die. You're still going to die. You
know, you might die in an accident, but it won't be an accident that
you died. It was your time, right to the second. David said this
in Psalm 31 15, my times are in thy hand. Can you think of
any better hands for your time to be in than his? I thank God
my times are in his hand, right down to the second. I don't know
when I'm going to die. I don't want to know when I'm
going to die. I don't care. He does. He knows when. He purposed it before creation.
He purposed it. God is a God of purpose. He doesn't
do things willy-nilly. He's a God of purpose. Before
he ever created this earth, he had already determined my time
on it and the time I'd come into it and the time I'd leave it.
My times and your times are in his hands. And no believer dies before or
beyond the Lord's appointed time. No, you're going to come to a
full age. But I know someone who died when they were 25 years
old. I know a believer that died when
they were 25. That's their full age. That's
the age God gave them. Whatever age God takes his children
home at, it's their full age. Does all fruit in the summertime,
you know, you'll plant a garden in the spring, does all fruit
come ripe at the same time? Some of it comes in early, doesn't
it? Some of it comes in early, some of it comes in late. But
it all comes in according to God's purpose. God takes some
home early. Was it Brainerd that died at
29? He was a missionary to the Indians, 29 years old, powerful,
powerful preacher, 29 years old, God took him home. Did he die
early? He lived a full life. He lived
the full life that God gave him and God took him home. Our sister here didn't die of
old age. She lived a full life. She lived the time that God gave
her in this life. And then he took her home. And
then the death of the believer, fourthly, the death of the believer
is with victory. O death, where's thy sting? O grave, where's thy victory?
The Lord took the sting out of death at Calvary's cross. He
took the victory away from the grave when he came out of it.
And he rose to on high and he's seated at God's right hand. He
got the victory. My victory is in a person. My victory is in God. My victory
is in Jesus Christ. He says here, like a shock of
corn cometh in his season, it's harvest time. I don't know who
the Lord's going to take next out of this congregation. He
does. He knows when the harvest is.
When it's time to harvest, He'll come and take that one. I don't
know. It could be me, one of you. I
don't know. But I assure you again, I assure
you, we will do this again. We'll do this again. It's harvest time. Now our Lord,
listen, our Lord is infinitely wise, is He not? He knows when
the fruit is ripe. Not you, not we don't know that.
He does. It's His garden. He knows when
the fruit is ripe. If you pick the corn before it's
ripe, it's no good. If you leave it in there too
long, it's no good. Our Lord takes it right at the
perfect time. Right at the perfect time. He has done all things well. All things will. So when the
Lord's purpose, now listen, listen to me. When the Lord's purpose
for me, I'm talking here to believers, and this applies to the whole
human race, but this especially applies to believers. When his
purpose for us on this earth And in his church, his body,
when this purpose has been fulfilled, when it's been served, that's
when he's going to pick the fruit and take it home. You know, it says concerning
David, it says he served his generation. Now, when I have
actually served my generation according to the purpose of God,
then he'll take me home. He'll take us to His presence,
to that place prepared. You know what that place is?
It's a place of acceptance. He takes us to the... He said,
I go away and prepare a place for you. A place of what? A place
of acceptance. We lost that place in Adam. He's not preparing a
log cabin or something like that. He's preparing a place of acceptance. He has made us, it says in Ephesians
1, He has made us accepted in the Beloved. You see, the religion
of our day has got this flipped. Why don't you accept Jesus as
your personal Savior? You know what? Salvation is not
me accepting Him. Now listen to me. It's Him accepting
me. That's what the Word of God says.
The Word of God in Ephesians chapter 1 says, He has made us
accepted in the Beloved. He did it. He did it. And then
in the day of His power, when He gives us life, He gives us
a willingness to receive Him, to as many as received Him. Religion has it flipped. They got Him wringing His hands
waiting for us to do something. Oh, He ain't waiting for us to
do something. I tell you what, when I heard the gospel, when
I heard it, the very thing I learned was this. I learned that my God
is sovereign and I'm at His mercy. Every last one of us is at the
mercy of God. Every last one of us. And then
fifthly, and I'm going to close here real quick. The death of
the believer is for his or her good. You know, the Lord's done a lot
of good things for me. I'm 66 years old. The Lord's
been good to me. But the last good thing he's
going to do for me is when I die. It's when I die. And he calls
me out of this sin-cursed world to his presence. Eliphas said this, I have searched
and studied these things and they are true. They're true.
I exhort you to hear it and know it, that is, take it to heart
as it belongs to you, to every believer. Embrace this. Embrace this. I don't know what's going to
happen down the road to me. There's a lot of things that
could happen. I could get sick. There's a lot of things that could happen.
But I do know one thing's going to happen. Unless the Lord comes back and
puts an end to all this, I'm going to die. And you know what? I believe I can, by His grace,
say I'm looking forward to it. There's an excitement about it.
I get a new body. I get away from the presence
of sin. You see, right now, I have been saved, I am being saved,
and then one day he's going to take me home and I'm saved. I'm saved from the very presence
of sin. It's gone. It's gone. I'm saved from the power of it,
the condemning power of it right now, but not the presence of
it. I still have to deal with it.
I still have to deal with it. But when that day comes, it's
gone. When I lay this body in the ground, that's the last time
I'll ever have to deal with sin. And then last of all, the death
of a believer is not death. He that believeth in me, the
Lord said, shall never die. Our sister didn't die. She literally
changed places. She literally changed places. I'm not going to die. I'm going
to take this corrupt body and it's going to be laid in the
cemetery. I'm not going to die. I'm going to transfer. I'm going
to transfer from this world to that world and that world is
just as real as this world. That unseen world is just as
real as this one. The scriptures speak of it when
it comes to a believer as sleep. as falling asleep. There's nothing
better than just falling asleep. I mean, we've got so many sleep
aids now. I mean, we have to take so many sleep aids to try
to get to sleep because this body doesn't want to let us sleep.
The troubles of our hearts don't want to let us sleep. Our minds
won't stop. And boy, when you fall asleep
and you've had a, there's nothing, as far as this flesh is concerned,
there is absolutely nothing, especially as I get older. I
never thought I'd like going to bed like I do. The best time
of my day is when it's time to go to bed. It really is, when
it's time to go to bed. You young people, I know you
think, oh boy, that's bad. It ain't bad, I'm telling you,
nothing like a good night's rest. That's what it is just to fall
asleep in Christ and wake up in his presence. And then he's gonna raise that
body out of the grave and it's gonna be a new body, it's gonna
be a powerful body like his. I can't even put that into words.
Perfect mind, we'll have the mind of Christ. No sin, I can't
imagine that, all I've ever known is sin. I mean, you can't even
sit in a service and hear the gospel without your mind wandering,
and some, like, how'd that get in the house? Like, who opened that door? It
just comes right in, that thought, and you just have to chase it
out. All right. Here's the last thing,
and I'm going to read it to you. It ends in honor. It ends in
honor. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, let me read it, read this to you. This is good, I gotta
read it to you. It's better to let the word of
God speak, isn't it? Because he promised to bless
his word, not all my comments on it. Listen here. in chapter 15 in
verse 51. Behold, I show you a mystery,
Paul writing here, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed. For
this corruptible, that's what you're looking at. You're looking
at a corruptible body. It's dying, it's aging. I see
white hair that used to be black. It's corruptible. Sin is eat
us up from head to toe. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption. And this mortal, this mortal
must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, this mortal
has got to put on immortality. This corruptible has to put on
incorruption because flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom
of heaven. You know what? If you and I, if we died as we
are born into this world, in this flesh of corruption, in
this mind, we're naturally born sinners. That's what we are.
We don't become sinners at a certain age. We're born sinners, and
that's why we do what we do as we get older. You know, if they
put you in heaven like that, you'd be about as miserable as
you would be in hell. Because you can't fulfill the
lust of your flesh there. You can't do it. That's why this
corruption must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.
And God has given us that victory through Jesus Christ. It's not me cooperating with
Christ. It's Christ living, dying for
me and saving my soul and giving me life. given me a new life,
a life to love him, to believe him, to follow him. Until that
happens, you're not going to do it. It's just not going to
happen. The death of the believer ends
in honor. Let's pray.