I decided to change up the portion
of Scripture that I'll be using tonight instead of Psalm 35. That's where we would have been
and that's what I was looking at, but there was something else
on my mind. I had talked to another believer,
I don't know, a week or two ago, And we were talking about all
the different ones whom the Lord has taken home. And we were talking
about those who preach the gospel. And we started naming them, and
we were surprised how many over the last few years of those whom
the Lord has taken home, that we, and I believe all of you
have known them too, Henry, and Scott, and Rupert, and Maurice,
and we just kept Cody, and it was going on and on, different
ones. And this Scripture I came across, and I'm going to take
you to it in a minute, but not yet. And it kind of went along
with our conversation. And the title of the lesson or
the message is How to View the Death of the Righteous. How to
view, how to look at it. The Death of the Righteous. Now
over in Romans chapter 5, I'm going to go different places
here, and we're going to end up in Isaiah 57 verses 1-2. That's the springboard I want
to use. But in getting there, it is written
in Romans 5.12, has by one man sin entered into
the world." That's how sin came into this world. And death by
sin. We do not die of natural causes,
we die because of sin. You hear someone say, well, he
died because of natural causes. Sin is not a natural thing. Sin
entered this world by Adam and death by sin, and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. All have sinned in Adam,
he's the father of us all, of this flesh, and all have sinned
individually. We have sinned individually.
We have sinned willfully, just like Adam did. It says over in Ezekiel 18, let
me get over there, I marked it down. Over in Ezekiel 18, in
verse 20, "...the soul that sinneth, it shall die." It shall die. And we can take God at His Word,
can't we? The son shall not bear the iniquity
of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity
of the son. The righteousness of the righteous
shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.
Every man, every person, will bear their own sin before God."
That's what he said. Over in Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews 9, it says this, verse
27, And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this
judgment. Death is an appointment. We do not know one. No one just
dies. It's an appointment. It's an
appointment that God has appointed and God keeps His appointments.
Every one of them. Right down to the second. Down
to the second. But I thank God it doesn't end
like this. It doesn't have to end in death. Turn over now to Isaiah 57. And Lord willing, we'll end up
in 1 Corinthians 15 at the end of it. In Isaiah 57, the righteous perisheth, and
no man layeth it to heart. And merciful men are taken away,
that is, men of kindness, over my margin it says, men of kindness
or godliness. are taken away, none considering
that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come, or that
which is evil. He shall enter into peace, they
shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." The righteous perisheth." Now,
that does not mean that he perishes like the ungodly perishes. When
it says here, the righteous perisheth, it's talking about as far as
this world is concerned, the righteous man or woman, when
they die, they are not coming back this way again. As far as
this world is concerned, they're gone. They're gone. We're not
coming back here. This is it. It's only one time
around. And when God takes the righteous, He's taking them away
from something. He's taking them away from the
evil to come. Look over in 2 Kings chapter
22. I'm going to take my time getting through this because
this was worked on today, And I need to just think as I go. 2 Kings chapter 22, look in verse
15. And she said unto them, Thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to
me. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place,
and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book
which the king of Judah hath read, because they have forsaken
me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke
me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my
wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be
quenched. But But to the king of Judah,
which sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say
to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, as touching the words
which thou hast heard, because thine heart was tender, and thou
hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what
I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof,
that they should become a desolation and a curse, and has rent thy
clothes and wept before me, I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.
Behold, therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou
shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace, and thine eye shall
not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place." And they
brought the king word again. He said, I'm going to bring a
lot of evil on this place, a lot of destruction, but you're not
going to see it. you're not going to have to deal
with it. And God says to the righteous, I'm going to take
you out of this place before I deal with it in wrath and in
anger, and I'm going to take you away from the evil that is
to come, and you're not going to have to deal with it. You're
not going to have to deal with it. Now the righteous here are
those who have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. They are the ones who believe
the gospel. They are the ones who are born
of God. They are the ones, as it says in 2 Corinthians 5.21,
concerning Christ, it says, He knew no sin. Let's turn over
there in 2 Corinthians 5.21. 2 Corinthians 5.21, For He hath
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God, in Him. These are the ones He's
talking about. The ones for whom Jesus Christ
died for, the ones whom the Lord has saved, and they are the ones
who are made the righteousness of God in Christ. They are the
ones taken away from the evil to come. They are the ones who
have the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, and the righteousness
of Christ imparted to them. And this being so, This being
so, seeing they are born of God, they are called righteous. And
in verse 2 of Isaiah 57, he says, "...he shall enter into peace,
they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." The walk of the believer is after
godliness. It's after godliness. It's after
righteousness. There was a time, that's the
last thing on this earth I wanted to walk after. That sounded about
as boring to me as watching paint dry. Righteousness. That just meant
nothing to me. Godliness. Walking after godliness
meant nothing to me. And it meant nothing to you.
But now it means everything, doesn't it? You hunger and thirst
after righteousness, the Scripture says. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. There was a time when we hungered
and thirsted after the lust of this flesh to fulfill the desires
of the mind and of the flesh. But now we hunger and thirst
after righteousness. That is the work of God. Only
God can produce that in a fallen son of Adam. Only God can produce
that. And those that are made righteous,
they walk after godliness, they do not want to walk after the
lust of the flesh anymore, they don't want to walk in idolatry.
God has saved them and their desire, I mean, it's a desire
to walk in godliness. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11.
I'll read it to you. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. But thank God Almighty for verse
11. And such were some of you. Such were some of you. But you
are washed. But you are sanctified. You are
justified. How? In the name of the Lord
Jesus. It doesn't say you're justified
because you quit and changed and turned around and you don't
do it no more. No, you're justified in the name of Jesus Christ who
died to put away your sins and who kept the law on your behalf.
That's good news. And by the Spirit of our God,
These are the righteous ones that are taken away from the
evil to come." Now, no doubt when Isaiah wrote this, he was
writing to the godly who had been taken away before they went
into captivity, and no one was considering it. You know, it's
just like a young believer, you know, like, I was thinking of
Cody, Cody Groover. He just finished 50s, and the
Lord took him. He took him from the evil to come, just like He
takes everyone else, all the other believers, from the evil
to come. And I'm no doubt at this time, there were some whom
the Lord was taking, and they were not considering what was
going on and what was happening. The godly, the salt of the earth,
the light of the world was being taken out, and nobody was considering
it. Well, did you hear that so-and-so
died? Well, there's a reason why. There's a purpose in it. And the Lord says here, He's
taken away from the evil to come. But it's also this, too. When
the Lord takes away a believer, He's taken away that righteous
person from this evil life. This evil life. For whatever reason that it may
appear to us that the Lord takes a believer, We have right here,
one of the main reasons is this, He's taken him from this evil
life. No one just dies. And He not only takes him from
the evil to come, but He takes him to a place. A place. Not purgatory. No, no, no, we're
not hanging out there in purgatory hoping somebody will either come
up with them ching-ching, or pray amen, or do something. They're
like, get me out of here. Isn't that the dumbest thing
we come up with in religion by nature? No, here's what it is. Listen. In Revelations 14, 13,
I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Never look at the death of a
believer, the passing of a believer. And I know we have sorrow, that's
fine. But let us never ever look at
it as a sad situation for that person. It's glory. It's glory. Listen, blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth. From now on. This is the way
you look at it. The most blessed thing that ever
happened to us right now is to go and be with the Lord. That's
so. Listen, "...Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labors." They may rest. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. It says this in 2 Corinthians.
Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 5.8. We are confident, I say,
and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present
with the Lord. Immediately. Immediately. Now, as I said, as far as this
world's concerned, those who die, to them, they look at it
as perish. They see death as the end. They
see it as a tragedy. It is not a tragedy for believers.
It's not. It's a great... It's homecoming. It's homecoming. To this world, though, in a sense,
they're perishing. But to us, we know what it is. And they would not. There's not
one soul, not one believer who's ever left this life, not one
of them would ever come back here. They don't miss this place. We miss them. They don't miss
us. They don't miss us. The scripture
says the former things will not even come into mind. This is to be viewed as a great
blessing, to be taken from the evil to come. What if someone
was going to break into my house tonight and do me great harm,
and you knew about it, and you came over to my house and said,
come on, you come with me. You come with me. You stay with
me tonight. And I go with you. And they come.
And that house is empty. They find it empty. I'm not there. They can do me no harm. Listen to this. In the Song of
Solomon, let's go over and read it. I
have a habit of writing all these things down, and I do it to save
time, but you need to read it. You may want to go back home
and look at it again. The Song of Solomon. I'll give you the chapter as
soon as I get there. In chapter 2, look in verse 10. My beloved
spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and
come away." Doesn't that sound beautiful? Rise up, my love,
my fair one. You take a believer who's been
lying on a sick bed for some time, and the Lord says to that
sick believer who's been laying there suffering, and the Lord
says to them, rise up now. Rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away for lo... Listen now. The winter is past. The rain's over and gone. That's
what this life... This life is like one great big
long winter. It's like one long... I know
we have our little springs and falls in it, but it's just like
it's winter and just trouble after trouble. Oh, winter's past. You know that
in glory, there'll not be no more winter. There'll be no more
freezes. There'll not be any more cold.
The winter's past. Listen, the flowers appear on
the earth. That is that new earth. Can you
imagine that new heaven? That new earth? Flowers that
never die. He says here that man is like
grass. The grass withers and the flower fades. Every spring,
we have these beautiful flowers, and in just a little bit of time,
the petals start to fall one by one. The next thing you know,
they're gone. They're gone. And that ought
to remind us of this life. But listen, in that life to come,
the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of the
birds is come. And really it says here, the
time of the singing is come. And the voice of the turtle is
heard in our land. And then he says in chapter 6,
listen, look over in chapter 6, My Beloved has gone down into
His garden, that's the church, to the beds of spices, to feed
in His gardens. The Lord is among us. Where two
or three are gathered together, is He not among us? He's come
down to feed among us, and to feed us, and to fellowship with
us right now. Right now. Now listen. And to gather lilies. You get a phone call. Someone's
passed. A believer has passed. The Lord
has taken a believer. What has He done? He's gathered
one of His lilies. That's what He's done. He's come
into His garden and gathered one of His... It's His garden.
He doesn't have to ask me or you if He can take one of them.
He's going to. He's going to. I am my Beloved's and my Beloved
is mine. He feedeth among the lilies." That's so beautiful. Death to
the believer is a sweet ride home. It's a sweet ride home. The Lord has taken that which
was fearful, devastating, and He's turned it into a chariot
to take us home. I cannot explain to you what
the believer sees when he or she arrives in glory. As Paul
wrote in 1 Corinthians 2, 9 and 10, As it is written, I hath
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.
If this world is this beautiful with sin in it, what must it
be like where there is no sin? But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. But even though the Spirit
hath revealed these things to us, we still see darkly, don't
we, as through a glass. We still only know in part and
preach in part. But one day when that is gone, When that veil
is gone, then the Scripture says we'll know even as we are known,
we will see Him face to face. I can't even imagine what it'd
be like to see God, to look into the face of Jesus Christ, and
to speak and to sit down and talk with all the believers who've
gone on before us. Sit down and fellowship with
them around our Lord. But we see here also, and I've
already mentioned this, but we see the character of those that
are taken away. It says they are righteous and
merciful. That word merciful means kind. It means godly. God's made them that way. They are the righteous. This
describes the believer. You know, there's a radical change
when God saves a sinner. Like Paul, you know, Paul was
going to destroy the church. He was making havoc of the church.
He was trying his best to stamp it out. Stamp out that name,
Jesus Christ. He hated Jesus Christ with a
passion. And he became a flaming witness
after the Lord saved him. He became a flaming witness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, he said, I have suffered
the loss of all things that I might know Him. At one time, he had
his name, he had his reputation, he had his riches. He had it,
man. I mean, he had it. And he says,
I've lost it all. For the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, I have suffered the loss of all things.
And he said this, and I do count them as dung. That's a pretty
strong word for him to use back then. Dung. That's what my achievements
are, he said. All my personal achievements
are as dung. He said, there's only one thing I desire, that
I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship
of His sufferings. He said, another place for me
to live is Christ, to die as gain. Now listen, there is no
more noble life to be lived on this earth than a life lived
for Christ's sake. None. A life lived for self will
end in disaster. Now he says here that when the
righteous are taken away, the merciful are taken away, no man
lays it to heart. No man considers what just happened. People have become so used to
death that it has little or no effect on them. Just listen to
the news. So-and-so died today. Well, next
we have the weather. I mean, it is so calloused and
it's just so nonchalant. You get a two second, you know,
mention on the news that you died. And then you get everybody,
and everybody's interested, more interested in the weather than
they are who died. We've become so callous to it.
And, you know, whenever these men, you know, like Scott, and
Henry, and Rupert, and Cody, and I can go on and name them. These men preached the gospel. These men preached the gospel.
And you let some nobody, just, I mean, I'm trying to be careful here,
but you just let somebody die, then they just splatter them
all over television sometimes and make a saint out of them,
and then a man of God dies, and hardly anybody notices it. Hardly anybody notices it. They don't consider that God
took them out of the way from the evil to come. Just like He's
going to do me one day, He's going to do you one day, you
who believe. God's going to take you away from the evil to come.
And when it happens, when it happens, that ought to be one
of our first thoughts. One of my first thoughts, especially
if I'm going to do your funeral, if mine's not before yours, is
you were taken away from the evil to come. What a blessing! What a blessing! You and I consider it, when the
Lord takes a gospel preacher away, a godly person away. You
know, when God takes away a righteous man or woman, but especially
if He takes one away that's been standing and preaching the gospel,
But if He takes away anyone here who believes, if He takes you
away, you know what He's taking away? He's taking away, first
of all, your influence. You're the salt of the earth. He's taking away your influence
on your community and on your family. The second thing He's
taking away is your testimony. Your testimony before men, before
your family, before this community. You are the light of the world.
You're the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And
God has removed you. He's taken you away from the
evil to come. But listen here in Ecclesiastes
7, 2. It is better to go to the house
of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, going to a
party. When I was young and growing up, that's all I wanted to do.
I wanted to go where a party was at. But now that God has
saved me, I realize that is the house that blinds you. It absolutely blinds you. Listen,
listen, listen to this. It's better to go to the house
of mourning, the funeral home. That's exactly what he's talking
about. He's talking about the funeral home. Than to go to the
house of feasting, for that's the end of all men. and the living will lay it to
his heart. Those who have been made alive
in Christ will always, always consider what just happened. Every time I hear of someone
passing, whether it's a believer or unbeliever, my first thought
is this, they have met God. The believer is standing before
Him with joy, the unbeliever, He's met Jesus Christ. And he's
finding out that He's real. Now it says here, they're removed
from the evil. They're not removed to evil,
but from evil. You know, death to the believer,
the way we look at it in this life, is an act of God's mercy. It's literally an act of mercy. But here, listen, the removed
from evil, removed from the evil of sin, removed from the evil
of Satan, removed from the evil of their own sinful nature, removed
from the evil of false religion, removed from the evil to come,
like Noah was put in the ark, he was removed from the wrath
of God that was coming. When Lot was taken out of Sodom,
They didn't consider that he was being removed from that place
because God was going to burn it down. They didn't consider
that at all until it was too late. They were removed from the evil
to come. And notice here it says he's
taken away. Taken. I'm not going to just die. I
know that. I know I'm not going to just die one day. The Lord
is going to come and take me away. The believer's death is according
to the purpose of God. It's by the command of God. It's by God's design, how and
when. How and when. It is by God's
providence to the time, the place, and the instrument. by which
I will be taken." I'm so glad he's got all that
control over all that. Now, where does God take him?
He's going to take me, He's going to come, He's going to get me,
He's going to take me. Where is He going to take me? It says here in verse 2,
He shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, each
one, each one. walking in His uprightness. He's going to be taken to eternal
peace. In thinking about this, and when
me and this gentleman was talking about this, I was thinking of
how glad I am. And I was thinking of my Pastor
Henry. I was thinking how glad I am. He doesn't see what is
going on. He doesn't have to deal with
this no more. He is not one ounce concerned who's going to be re-elected
in November or elected or re-elected or what. He's not the least bit
concerned. It's over. It's over. Would to God we could start living
some of that now. Eternal peace away from all this
turmoil. This person is living in a world
of rest and peace. He's taken from a world of unrest
to a world of peace. There'll never be any rest in
this life. There would never be any lasting peace in this
life. It can't be because this is where sin is. Where there's
sin, there is no rest. It can't be. That's false hope. God, the Lord gives us some peace
in this life just so you and I can live in it. We couldn't
live here if He didn't do that. The Scripture says in the Psalms,
He maketh wars to cease until the ends of the earth. If He
didn't make a war to cease, it would never stop. The first one
is still going on. It wouldn't stop. The Hatfield
and McCoys would still be shooting each other. It wouldn't stop. if he did not make wars to cease. If he didn't make wars to cease
in our hearts against him, they wouldn't stop either. To be taken to a place where
there's no more wars and no more rumors of wars, no more backbiting,
no more rumors of anything, peace. This is one of the great blessings
of it. When God takes the believer home,
that believer will leave all inward conflict and they'll have
perfect peace of heart and perfect peace of conscience. Your conscience
won't bother you no more. and they shall rest in their
beds. Each one shall have their place of rest." You know, growing
up, there was nine people in the house. We did not have nine
bedrooms, nor did we have nine beds. My older brother and my younger
brother, they had to sleep in the same bed. I was sleeping
on a cot. For most of my life, I grew up sleeping on a cot,
but I was by myself. But here, he's saying this, each
one will have their place of rest. Our Lord said in John 14,
in my father's house are many mansions, and that means many
dwelling places. There's plenty of room. It's
not overcrowded, and there's not an empty room in the place. And each one walking in His uprightness,
walking in the righteousness of Christ, and yet He calls it
here His uprightness. You know why? First of all, the
Lord gave it to Him, and if He gives you something, it's yours. And secondly, that new man that's
created in Christ Jesus is created in righteousness and true holiness.
That's the only way that new man can walk. He can't walk in
sin. It's not possible. And then each one walking in
his uprightness, he's walking in immortality. You and I can't
imagine, we keep looking forward to this thing of dying, don't
we? It's out there. I mean, it's out there. Paul
said, you know, we're either going to be changed as a twinkling
of an eye, if not, we're all going to die. We're all going
to leave this life. It's out there. But there's coming
a time when this mortal, Well, it's over in 1 Corinthians 15.
Instead of turn over, I don't have time. "...when this mortal
shall put on immortality." Well, turn over there. Turn over there. What's time? I honestly think I worry more
about it than anybody else. 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says in
verse 51, "...Behold, I show you a mystery, In 1 Corinthians
15 verse 51, "'We shall not all sleep,' that is, we shall not
all die, because there will be some sheep alive when the Lord
comes back, but we shall all be changed.'"
Do you want to go to glory in the body you've got right now?
In that sinful, painful, old, Mine's getting old. Body, you
don't want that. I don't want that. We shall all
be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last
trump. For the trump shall sound, and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on corruption, 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. That death that came in by sin
through one man is now swallowed up in victory." We used to sing
a song, I don't know how all the words go, I don't know if
we... It was years ago. Victory in Jesus. There's a song,
I haven't been so long, I don't know how the words go, but I
remember that. Victory in Jesus. Death, swallow up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? What do I have to be afraid of?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is law. And Jesus Christ has taken care
of both of them. He put away sin and He obeyed the law. But
thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. What a day is coming. And then
we walk in His presence. And walking denotes life, it
denotes freedom. And I want to close by reading
Revelation chapter 21 and 22, but not all of it. The first
five verses of each chapter of Revelation. I'm going to read
you the future. Chapter 21. John says, And I saw a new heaven
and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the
holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And He
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new,
And He said to me, Write, you write this down, for these words
are true and faithful. Now look in chapter 22. And He
showed me a pure river of water of life. That's the reason why
there's no more sea. We don't need it. Christ is the water
of life. You see, all the water runs into
the sea and then all that vapor comes up and comes over and waters
the land. We don't need it no more. Christ is the water of
life. We don't need that water. And
he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Remember
that rock that Moses struck? What come out of it? Water. Water. And that rock, it says, was Christ.
And now listen. And here is a pure river of water,
clear as crystal, proceeding out of what? Out of the throne
of God and out of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of
it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of
life, which bared twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne
of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall
serve Him, and they shall see His face. God said over in the
Old Testament, No man shall see My face and live. But now, in
Jesus Christ, we shall see His face, and His name shall be in
their foreheads. And there shall be no night there,
and they need no candle, neither the light of the sun, for the
Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and
ever. And he said in verse 6, and he
said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true. It's going
to happen.