Man's my soul, my life, my all. That may well be the greatest
hymn in our book. Completely about our Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. In light of His death, voluntary. Completely voluntary. Willful. For us. Unworthy. As we are. And really ungrateful. To a large degree. For him to
choose to die in the manner that he did. Ought to make us So very
thankful and relieve our fears of any death. We will probably
not be called upon to go through a death like he died. The death sentence. Look at verse 8 and 9 of 2 Corinthians
1. I've been wanting to deal with
this for some time now. We would not, brethren, have
you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia. We were pressed
out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even
of life. We just knew we were going to
die. That's what he said. We knew this was it. This is
it. We're dying. We're going to die. But, and I want to try to preach
this message with a smile on my face. But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God, which raised up the dead. Oh God, verse 10, who delivered
us from so great a death, and doth deliver us, and we trust
that He will yet deliver us. When the people read this, you
know, they smiled. They're okay. God delivered them. Oh, that these saiyans would
sink down deep in our ears. We would have such peace, such
joy, such contentment, such happiness, some freedom from fear and worry
and doubt. Our problem is our hearing. It's our problem. We have ears
to hear, we just don't hear very well and we're dull of hearing
and we listen to too many other people. And they turn away our ears from
the truth. We were eating supper with two
other couples from this church last night in a restaurant, and
the big screen TV was on, and you know, all that was on there.
All that was on there the whole time. Look at that. One thing
was on there. Do you sit around and watch that? Why don't you turn it off? Open
your Bible. I'm serious. Do you have peace? Do you worry? Do you have doubt? Do you have
fear? Do you worry about dying? Why? Why? Why? Paul said, it's over. But he said, I'm ready. With
death sentence, I've already written a death sentence on the
set. That's what this is about. Couldn't be more needful. Have the sentence of death. And
we do too. We just don't realize it like
we all do. Paul said, we trust God. We trust
God. Don't trust in ourselves. Have
no confidence in the flesh. None. We trust God. Did he? He sure did. Paul, Silas, Timothy,
all of them were in this thing together. That's the title, that's
the subject, the death sentence. We would call it the death sentence.
Paul called it the sentence of death. What if someone told you,
what if someone told you, you have a short time to live and
you soon will die? What if someone told you that? Someone has. God has. He's telling us over and over
again, hasn't He? The time is short. And 80 years
over. It's over. We need this death sentence,
don't we? And this trust to not fear. God has. He's told us the time is short,
hasn't He? Over and over again, the time is short. Days of our
years, 70. He keeps telling us that. I urge
you, as I urge myself, to read Psalm 90 and Psalm 91 almost
weekly. Daily. Days of our years are 70. That's
it. Can't count on any more. Maybe 80. If you do, it's borrowed
time. Yet, he said, in all those years,
there's going to be strength, labor, strong labor, hard labor,
sorrow. Oh, how much sorrow. You've been
through it, haven't you? Went through it. Would you like
for it to end? Huh? Huh? Would you like for it to
be no more sorrow ever again? That's what death's going to
bring. No more sorrow. No more tears. No more fear. No more pain. You been through
any pain? This is what death for the believer is. No more
pain. Never again. Preacher's getting excited. It's
something to get excited about. When John was on the Isle of
Patmos, he said, I was carried away in the Spirit to see the
church of God. Oh, Lord, carry us away. Carry
us away in the Spirit that we might see things as they are.
Paul said in this same book, he said, the things that are
seen are temporary. Scripture says, God keeps telling
us The days of our years are 70, maybe 80, and as strong labor,
sorrow is soon cut off. Soon cut off, and we fly away. Soon. So teach us to number our
what? Days. You have a few days left. That's what God keeps telling
us. You have a few days left. A few days. So, here's what Job
said. Seeing our days are determined, and the number of our months
are with the Lord, that He has appointed, He has appointed our
bounds. We cannot pass. Who appoints
this? It's appointed and the man wants it done. Who made this
appointment? God did. When? Before the world
began. Can you stop it? No. What's the
mean? We don't know. But it's the Lord. Now, if all of your happiness
and your hope is in this life only, this is a morbid, miserable
subject. If you don't know, if you really
don't know and believe God and believe Christ, if you really
don't, that's eternal life. It's life. This is a miserable
subject, but it's still true. And it's life or death. Young
and old, I would not try to scare young people or make people miserable
or whatever, but this is the truth. Young people die, same
as old, don't they? Sure do. Look at chapter 2, 2
Corinthians 2, verse 14. He said, All thanks be unto God,
which always causes us to triumph in Christ, maketh manifest the
savour of His knowledge by us in every place. We are unto God
a sweet savour of Christ, and them that are saved, and them
that perish. To one we are the savour of death unto death. Someone
that doesn't know God, this is a morbid, miserable, what's the
word, melancholy, Let's not talk about this. Right? It's death. I don't want to talk
about death. I want to avoid this. Believers
have no reason to avoid this. We ought to anticipate, ought
to look forward to, ought to want to talk about it so much
more as we see the day approaching. We ought to be conversant with
it. This ought to be our language all the time. Going to be with
the Lord. I'll meet Him tomorrow. Isn't that wonderful? We're a saver of life to life.
Have you ever thought about that scripture in that light? That
those that are dead, I don't want to talk about dying. We've
been watching this show on TV and this young girl said what
most people believe. She said, I don't want to talk
about another life, I want to talk about this one. I have all
my hope, all my peace, all my joy right here in this life.
I don't want to talk about another life. That's what she said. And
that's what most people believe. God's people are not of this
world. This is not our life. This is not life. If this is
life, it's a pretty sorry existence, isn't it? Turn to Job 14. Job 14. It's
the oldest book in the Bible, and that by design. And as we've
seen so many times, and heard, that the Lord took away Let me start over again. The
Lord sent things, people, to take away everything Job had
in this world. One right there. Why? To show us several things. Job,
this is not your portion. These things are not your life.
Your family is not your life. Your wealth, your possessions
are not your life. Job, I am your life. I'm your
joy, I'm your happiness, I am life, true life. To show us that
it's God that gives and it's God that takes away. It's God
that kills, it's God that makes alive. To show us that don't
put your trust in anybody or anything, put your trust in the
Lord, because He's the one that's doing all of this. Don't fear. Fear God. You have nothing else
to fear. Whatever He does. And here's another thing. It's
good. When it was all over, James wrote of it. Have you heard of
the patience of Job? James wrote it. The end of the
Lord. The Lord is very pitiful. Very kind. Job received double. All that he lost, he got back
double. So much joy that he forgot the
pain. Job 14. Now look at this. Most people think this is Fatalism. No, it's God's work.
Verse 5, I quoted it. Seeing His days are determined,
the number of His months are with thee. Thou hast appointed
His bounds that it cannot pass. Turn from Him that He may rest,
till He shall accomplish His, as a hireling His days. Hope
of a tree, if it be cut down, is sprout again. But man, verse
10, man dieth and wastes away. Man gives up the ghost. Where
is he? Verse 12, man lieth down and riseth not. When someone we love, we lay
their body in the grave, it's the saddest day in our life,
isn't it? It's the saddest day ever for
us that love them. But now if they knew the Lord, and if we really love them, We'd
be so happy for them. We'd be sad for ourselves. But so happy with them. Now here's
what he answers. Verse 14, If a man die, shall
he live again? Job said, All the days of my
appointed time I'm going to wait. What are you waiting on, Job? The Lord. To change me. My vile body. For this corruption
to put on incorruption. For this mortality to put on
immortality. Job is saying, I have a desire
to depart. Look at chapter 19. Why did Job have that desire?
Because the root of the matter is in it. What's the root? Christ. The root of David. Look at Job 19. This is wonderful.
Verse 20. And boy, did Job go through troubles.
My, my, my. He says in verse 23 of chapter
19, Oh, that my words were now written. Oh, that they were printed
in a book. There was no book when he was
saying it. He had no Bible. Do you realize how blessed you
are? Job couldn't read the last chapter. We can. We know how it all turns out
with Job. We know how it all turns out with us. We do. Job had none of that. Nobody. What did he do? Trusted God. He said, Oh, that they were graven
with an iron pin and lead in the rock forever. Job, buddy,
friend, they are. Christ is that rock. It's His
Word. I know, he said, I know this though, verse 25, my Redeemer
liveth. He shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I
shall see for myself. Mine eyes shall behold not another,
though my reins be consumed within me. The root of the matter is
in me. Alright, go back to our text
here. There's two kinds of death, like
life. Two kinds of life. True life
and spiritual life. Two kinds of death. There's physical
death and spiritual death. Alright, I want to talk about
these things just a little while. I won't keep you too long. God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, God is the author
and the finisher of not only the faith, but of life. He said,
I take away, I kill, I make a life. He's the author, he decides when
we live. And he decides when we die. Now,
I want you to smile now, because he said, your death, for a believer,
is better than your birth. Better than birth. When our first child was born,
our only child, well, we've got two more. Was that one of the
happiest days of our lives? No, it wasn't. You know what
the happiest day was? When that girl was born again. Our worries are really over. Some of you, the Lord has taken
your children. Taken your children. Did they
know the Lord? If they did, Best thing ever must have happened
to him. You see why this is so important.
This is what we do here. Physical life, spiritual life,
physical death, spiritual death. God the Father, He's the author,
finisher. God the Son, the Holy Spirit. God created life. God's
the giver of life, physical and spiritual. He's the taker. He's
the taker. Are you hearing me? Things don't
take our life, God does. People aren't going to kill us.
God is. The Sabeans didn't kill Job's
children, although they did. God did. Is that right? That's
what he said. God said, my hand. My hand touched
him. Did it? Who do we fear? Who do we trust? Who are we looking
to? Who are we listening to? Are
we going to listen to science Leaders and all that who don't,
who say there is no God. Are we going to listen to them?
Are you? Who are you going to trust? Who are you going to put
your hope in to save your life? God or man? We can't add one cubit to our
statute. We don't know what the next minute
holds. Why not trust Him who has ordered
every minute of the next day? Why not? There's so much to do. He's the author and the taker,
the finisher of it. There's great comfort, great
consolation so needful, so relevant now, more than ever, because
the whole world is afraid for one reason, death. Bottom line is, I'm going to
get this plague, and I'm going to die. Right? Right? If I get this plague, and I'm
out, and I die, have a virgin. Really? Preacher, I don't make... No,
it doesn't make a bit of sense. physical sense, but it does make
spiritual sense, doesn't it? Paul said, I have a sentence
of death in myself. He said, I'm ready to die. He
said, I have a desire to part and be with the Lord. Look at
chapter 4 of here, 2 Corinthians. Chapter 5. Look at chapter 5,
2 Corinthians. Look at this. He said, in chapter
4, verse 18, we look at things that are unseen. They're eternal.
Chapter 5, verse 1, We know if our earthly house of this tabernacle,
that is, this body, were dissolved, we have a building of God and
a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven, and we
groan earnestly desiring it. Paul said, that's what I want. This old body full of sin, oh,
don't you desire to lay this body of sin down, this body of
death? Now what's wrong with that? Romans
8 says, Brother John, who shall deliver me, 7, from this body
of death? When you die, you have no more
sin. Verse 2, In this we groan earnestly
desiring. Verse 3, If so that being clothed
we shall not be found naked. In this tabernacle we groan being
burdened. But that we would be unclothed
and clothed upon. That mortality might be swallowed
up of life. And down in verse 8, he says,
we are confident, I would say willing rather, to be absent
from the body and be present with the Lord. Willing. Desirous. Paul said, And in this letter,
he told the church, he said, we thought we were going to die.
We just knew we were going to die. We thought this is it. They
said, we're OK with that. We had the sentence of death.
We thought, well, this is it. The Lord sent this and we're
going to die. We're going to go be with the Lord. Hallelujah. That's
what he said. Paul, Silas, and Timothy, all
three of them, are in this together. They all had the same hope, same
comfort, hope, peace in death, like Mother Walter. You don't
have much time. That's good. That's good. Won't
that be good? Good. Paul and Silas and Timothy, they
knew that in Him we live and move and have our being, the
God in whose hands our breath is in all our ways. The Lord
is determined, predestined all things. This God is our God forever
and ever. He'll be our guide even unto
death. And though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
Paul said, we fear no evil. God's with us. If we die, it's
time. That's not fatalism, that's faith.
But you shouldn't be foolish. Paul said, we're fools for Christ's
sake. Don't go there, they'll kill
you. That's what they said to the
Lord. Don't go to Jerusalem, you'll die there. For this cause I came. Paul, don't go to Jerusalem,
they'll kill you. I know that, the Lord told me.
I'm ready. That's where I'm going. That's
where we're all headed. You know that? That's where we're
all headed from the womb. That's where we're headed. That's
our destination. The grave. But not if you know
Christ. Then it's the right hand of the
majesty on high. And I can't rightly speak of
that because I haven't been there. Although we walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, Paul said, look at verse 10 in
our text. Now, I'll just wrap this up with a few thoughts here.
He said, we trust, verse 9, we trust not in ourselves, not in
flesh, not in anybody, not in our ability to keep ourselves,
not in what we do, not what we use, not what we eat or drink,
or not what others tell us to do. We trust in God, which raiseth
the dead. If we die, we're just going to
be raised. If we don't die, He's going to
keep us. Verse 10, He delivered us from
so great a death, and death deliver us, and we trust He will yet
deliver us. Now this is threefold. First of all, physically. Physical
death. You and I just don't know the
dangers that we have faced all of our lives up to this point.
We just don't know. We just don't know. But if we
could see, we might see a robber, a thief, a murderer right behind
us with a gun pointed at our head. And it didn't happen. Wow. God. Angel of the Lord. Cars hurtling down. How many
times? Brother Joseph there, the truck
driver, and oh, I feel for him riding in that in that truck
and getting sleepy. Have you ever gotten sleepy in
the car driving along? There have been many a time that
I've fallen asleep at the wheel. Have you? It's scary, isn't it?
And you wake up, your family, wife there, children in the back
seat, and you... Right, Wesley? You're on a vacation,
and you think, oh, I could have. I could have. Yes, you could
have. Why didn't you? Because the Lord said, wait a
minute, boys. It's not time. Is that right? He hath delivered
us. He doth deliver us. Right now. He doth deliver us. What's delivering
us? He is. Who's our salvation? He is. What kind of salvation? Just our soul? Is all Christ
is the Savior of our soul? He's the Savior of every hair
on your head. Scripture says these are shields.
God's a sun and a shield. What's a shield? A covering. It's a covering. It's a covering. So you ought
to be covered. I am. Right? God's our shield. He said
this over and over and over and over and over. God is a sun and
a shield. Sun is life, light, understanding,
warmth, comfort, joy, peace, shield. What's that? Protection. Savior. That's His name. God
our Savior. Paul said He hath, He doth right
now, and we trust whatever we go through, He'll yet deliver
us. This is spiritually speaking more than anything else. And
I want you to turn to Ephesians 2, and I close. I really do close
with this. Ephesians 2. Spiritually speaking. Ephesians chapter 2, alright?
We trust, we believe, we know that God hath delivered us, doth
deliver us, and shall yet deliver us from so great a death. Paul
said, so great a death. What's that? Eternal death. Spiritual
death. Death because of sin. You know,
it's appointed unto man once to die, and after that, the judgment. And it's the second death. It's
when all unbelievers and sinners are cast into the lake of fire.
That's the second death. Because in Adam, all die. We're
dying creatures. Do you know what's the second
part of that verse? In Christ, made alive. But spiritual death. Alright,
look at this. Paul said we had the sentence
of death in ourselves. So do I. So do you, believer.
So do you. You know, in Christ we died.
God sentenced us to death in Jesus Christ. He laid down the
sentence. The soul that sins will surely
die. Well, John Davis, you trust and believe Christ. If Christ
died for you, you died that day. He delivered you, Christ delivered
you, He's the deliverer, delivered you from so great a death by
dying the death that you deserve. God laid on Him the iniquity
of you. God made His soul, the soul that
sinneth must surely die, made His soul to be an offering for
your sin. When Christ died on Calvary's
tree, John David, Mack Thomas, Charles Hudson, whoever believes,
you died, and now you can never die. Come what may, you cannot die.
Christ said this, Christ said, no man taketh my life from me.
As he is, so are we. If we died in Christ, there is no
death for believers. Christ said, he that liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this? That was at Lazarus' tomb. Everybody
was weeping. so terribly sad because of Lazarus. Our Lord wept because He had
to bring him back. Had to bring him back. Do you know how miserable our loved
ones would be if they had to come back to this place? Alright, look at this. Verse
1 of chapter 2. You hath He quickened who were
dead. In time past, you walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince, the power of the air, the spirit
that now works in the children of the disobedient. That's the
God of this world. Back in the garden, it all started. All this misery, all this pain,
all this suffering, all this darkness, all this dimness, all
this anguish of spirit, all this fear, all this death started
in the garden. The God of this world. It started
it all, and the first thing, the man and the woman, the first
sign of this sin was they were scared to death. They were scared
for the first time in their life. They were scared of what? Dying. Dying. Both gone. Came walking in the garden. What
have you done? It's sin, isn't it? And He slew
that Lamb before their eyes. Jesus Christ is who that was.
And showed them that the substitutes come to cover you with skin,
His own righteousness, dying the death you deserve. And you
know how long Adam and Eve lived after that? 930 years. Boy, that's a lifetime. 930 years. I believe we went
right on and lived forever. And because Christ died, We live
forever. God, rich in mercy, has quickened
us. He hath delivered us. He doth
deliver. We have been saved by Christ. This gospel right now is saving
us, causing us to look to Him. Doth deliver. And we trust He
will yet deliver us. Oh, but preacher, I'm afraid
I'm such a sinner. Are you? I know that. God knows that. I'm so afraid, though. I'm afraid
my sins are going to be my undoing. Oh, really? You don't trust Christ? What's
your hope of eternal life? Oh, no, I have no hope for myself. I'm just a sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my hope. All or nothing. Really?
You have nothing to worry about. He will yet deliver you. He will
usher you in when the time comes. You'd stand at heaven's gate
if that happened. He's going to say, enter thou,
beloved of the Lord, to the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation
of the world. But Lord, I didn't do it. No,
you didn't. But my son did it for you. What do we worry about? It's because we trust people
and things too much. We worry about what is going
to be the best thing that ever happened to us. We're too attached
to this world. We don't believe our Lord enough.
We don't listen to His Word enough. We listen to people too much.
We look at things that are seen. We listen to people who are ignorant
fools and idiots and don't know anything, don't even believe
God. And it tears us all to pieces. And leaves us without hope, without
peace. without joy, scared to death, afraid of dying, when
we ought to be so looking forward to it, and living a life of peace
and joy. Am I telling you the truth from
God's Word? What's wrong with us? When are we going to believe
the Lord? When are we going to believe the Lord? Have the sentence of death in
yourself. Have the sentence of death in yourself. That God has
determined my number, my month, that with the Lord the days are
set, the bounds I cannot pass them, And when the time comes,
whatever it is, the Lord sends it, I can't, I can't, this is
not fatalism, not foolishness, this is faith. And you're going
to die the death of a believer and you're going to say, this
has been good, this has been great, I'm so glad. God hath,
God doth, and shall ye, and I enter into the presence of the Lord
forever. It's over. Hallelujah. Okay. Let's sing a closing hymn. Turn to number 3, 5th and 28,
328. Have my everlasting portion,
more than friend or life to me. All along my pilgrim journey,
Savior let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee,
close to Thee, close to Thee. All along my pilgrim journey,
Savior let me walk with Thee. Not for ease or worldly pleasure,
not for fame my prayer shall be. Gladly will I go in supper,
only let me walk with Thee. Close to Thee, close to Thee,
close to Thee, close to Thee. Gladly will I go in supper, only
let me walk with Thee. Lead me through the veil of shadow,
bear me o'er like pitfall sea. Then the gate of life eternal,
may I enter, Lord, within. Close to Thee, close to Thee,
close to Thee, close to Thee, In the gate of life eternal,
may I enter, Lord, with Thee. a a a a a Good morning, Mother.