I ask you this question, and it's a serious question. Are you prepared to die? Are you prepared to die? In the
last several months, I have buried, preached the funerals of three
of my relatives an aunt, an uncle, and a first cousin. And none
of them, to my knowledge, had anything to do with the gospel
at all. And I reflect upon that, and I thought about this as it
is a poor man who wants to die after this judgment. I thought I would bring this
message. Are you prepared to die? People spend more time on retirement
than they do on dying. Statistics prove that one out
of one person dies. They die. We all die. Someone
said we don't know how to live until we know how to die. We
don't know how to live. I'm going to correct that. We
don't know how to live until we know Christ. And we don't
know how to die until we know Christ. I watched an interview with a
man who was on death row for murder. This has been about a
couple of months ago. Then I saw where they executed
him. They asked him if he was afraid,
and he said he really was not afraid because it had not happened
yet. They kept putting it off, and
years had gone by. He said, well, I'm not really
afraid. He said, you know, it hasn't
happened yet. But it did happen here not too
long ago. This world now is on death row. They're not afraid because it
hasn't happened yet, but this world's on death row. And we see all the time, people
go about their lives, they live, They do, they get, they gain,
they work, and then the doctor says, one day you have a terminal
illness. Then they get serious. They get
serious. Well, why don't we learn that
before? Before any doctor says anything.
Because I tell you what, I have far greater reliance on what
God says. God said, you're going to die.
It doesn't matter what the doctor said, God said it. God said so. I watched a person one time.
One time I had the displeasure of watching a lady, and she was
lost. And I watched her die. And she
was begging me to pray for her. begging me to. And I watched
her go out screaming. He was screaming. This was several
years ago. Are you prepared to die? You say, man, this is going to
be morbid. If you know Christ, it's not. If you know Christ,
death is not morbid. Facing death and dying is not
morbid. Let me ask you, does this sound
morbid to you in Revelation 21? And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. We're going to enter and walk
on a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth will pass away, I asked my wife. I said to her the other
day, I said, can you imagine this earth exploding and actually
not existing anymore? She said, it's hard to imagine,
isn't it? Faith is a gift of God. You can't
believe that. What we believe is God has to give us faith to
believe it. One day this earth is not going
to exist. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. It says,
And the first earth was 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," now you tell me if
this sounds morbid. 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 unto me, Write for
these words." Here's a message. I was sitting there reading this
over. I thought, I'm going to have to preach on this. These
words are true and faithful. John, you write this down, this
is going to happen. These words are true and faithful. There's going to be a new heaven,
a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. There's going to be no more sorrow,
no more sin, no more sadness. Now, does that sound morbid?
Oh, well. I remember when Paul Sackler
passed away, and I lived at the give site, and my pastor Henry
said to me as we were living, I will be glad when we quit dying. Well, here it is. A new heaven,
new earth, and we'll never die again. Never die again. We'll never think about it. Never
deal with it. Let it part. Now you tell me
if that's morbid. See, it depends on your relationship
with Christ whether it's morbid or not. That's what it depends
on. Death is the most certain thing
in life. It's a planet of God, and God
keeps His appointments. It's appointed of God for everyone
to die once. This kills reincarnation, doesn't
it? It just kills reincarnation.
All right, let's look at the cause of death. Every time someone
dies, they're put in the paper, in the obituaries, they're given
their age, and they were given the cause of death. I have never,
ever seen in the paper the true cause of death. Have you ever
seen what's the true cause of death? John died because of sin. Not because of a heart attack,
not because of cancer, not because of old age, but because of sin. That's what we have to deal with.
Sin. That's what God dealt with at
Calvary. Sin. It says here, Now once in the
end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Now if God has put away my sin,
he has taken the sting out of death, and death is nothing more
than a transport from here into his presence. That's all it is.
That's all it is for the believer. For the believer. But the cause of death is sin. When sin entered, it brought
forth death, it says. Death. When sin is conceived,
it brings forth death. And there's no cure for sin.
We keep coming up with these drugs. We're the most drugged
up country in the world. But we keep coming up with these
drugs for this and that. And I'm glad we do. I'm glad
we do have these drugs for all these diseases. But when you
kill one, another crops up. You kill another, another crops
up. It's like weeds in a garden. You pull one out, there's another
one. You get it out, and there's another one. Then what do you
do? You go get poison and put it on the weeds, and then you
mess up everything. You know, every time you take
a drug for a problem, it gives you all these side effects. I've
never taken anything that didn't have side effects on it. And sometimes the side effects
are worse than what they're trying to cure. Sin. Let's call it what it is. Let's deal with it as God deals
with it. Sin. Sin. Then keep trying to live longer. You still have to die. Then we
need Genesis. They lived 900 years, and then
after that went what? They died. Then another one,
900 years, and they died. We live what? Average is only
about 72, 73 years. And then what? You die. If they
give us 400, you die. You die. The reality of it is all die. No one is still alive on this
earth since the beginning. No one. All died. The newspaper is always full
of deaths. Go to a cemetery. You see the
year the person was born, and you see the year the person died. And right between those two dates,
you have a little dash. You know what that dash is? That's
your life. That's your life. My life is
nothing but a dash, a vapor, swifter than a Weaver shuttle.
But the next time you look at a tombstone, you look at that
little dash. That's your life. You're just a little dash. That's how quick life is. That's
how fast it is. We are so aware that we, believers,
as well as everyone else, have to die. I mean, as far as this
life is concerned, we have to lay this body in the grave. We
must also recognize that it's an appointment made of God. God
keeps his appointments, and he's the one who made this appointment.
The soul that sinneth shall surely die. Have you sinned? Well, guess
what? You've got to die. The soul that
sinneth shall surely die. When Adam fell, sin entered,
death entered, and God said, you're going to die. It's a reality. Men in general, people in general,
don't like to deal with what's real, do they? I think that's
one of the reasons we've got such a drugged up country. We are the most depressed country
on this earth. More people take medication for
depression in this country, the most successful country on earth,
than any other place. We can't deal with reality. We
just don't want to deal with it. One drug addict that I talked
to, he said, I've just got to get rid of the pain. I said,
but you're causing more pain. And that only lasts for what?
Just a little while. Now, I understand something about
getting rid of pain. I went to the hospital. Over
here in Austin, months ago, I had a hernia and it really gave me
a problem and I couldn't even stand up. And that doctor, I
was on the floor and he had to check me when I was on my knees
on the floor. And he gave me a shot and I told
him, I said, now I know why they do drugs. I did. I said, now I know why they do
drugs. That pain went away like that. It went away. I understand. I understand how
people do drugs. I understand how people snap.
I understand how people commit suicide. I understand it. And I understand that we all
have to die. And we've got to deal with it. You just can't
take something and try to forget about it. You can't do it. God says, after this judgment,
we don't die like animals. We do not die like animals. You
know, animals die and that's it. It's over. We don't die like
animals. We exist forever. And we have
God. We have God to deal with. We
have God to deal with. Our sins are eternal. We will
either be with Christ in paradise or in torment after this judgment. Nobody should be surprised when
they die that they enter into judgment because God said so.
God said so. And Christ, who is God, is the
judge. He's the judge of the quick and
the terrible. He's the judge. And his judgments
are right. God's judgments are just. He's
a just God. He's not mean. He's not a tyrant.
He's just. Now, if you're lost and you hate
God, then you're going to think He's a tyrant. But He's not.
He's a just God. He's only doing what's right.
Don't you want Him to do what's right? He never gives anyone more than
they deserve. He gives us exactly what we deserve. And this judges Christ and his
judgments are right. It says over here in Daniel,
let me see, I've got it written down over here. Over here in
Daniel, let me see here, Daniel 14, let me read this. Therefore,
hath the Lord watched upon the evil? and brought it upon us,
for the Lord our God is righteous. He is righteous in all His works
which He doeth." He's righteous. You can't charge God with folly. He's righteous in all His works.
His judgments are right. The judge of the earth will do
right. What did God do with my aunt?
What did he do with my uncle? What did he do with my first
cousin? I'll tell you what he did. Whatever's right. The judge
of the earth will do right. He'll do no wrong. He'll give
every man and every woman what they deserve. I have guys that
work for me. They say, give me what I deserve. You know, you and I dealing with
each other, I guess we can do that. But God, if God gives us what
we deserve, torment, torment. And God cannot be bribed. He
cannot be made to feel sorry. He gives everyone what is right, no more, no less. Now, it's a point of when the
man wants to die. We've got to do that. That's
a reality. We need to deal with it. And the believer does deal with
it. Let's see if I can find this
over in Ecclesiastes. I've been looking for something,
writing it down, but it's over Ecclesiastes, and I'll find it,
I think. Ecclesiastes 7, listen. It's
better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house
of feasting. For that is the end of all men,
and the living will lay it to heart. Now, he's talking about the living,
those who are made alive in Christ. When you go to the house, that
place, you lay it to heart. You lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter. Isn't this the opposite of the
way we believe in this world? Sorrow is better than laughter.
For by the sadness of the council, the hearts make better. Now, I thank God, I thank God
that verse 27 does not end with a period. Verse 28. So Christ, so Christ
was once offered. to bear the sins of many, and
unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation." We find in verse 28 the hope, the hope
of deliverance. Substitution. Substitution. This is our hope. Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many. Oh, what a hope! What a hope
we have in Christ that he bore my sins and took them away. For all who believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, their judgment is passed. If you believe on Christ, your
judgment passed upon Him. It passed upon Him. When he hung on that cross, he
endured my judgment. It says in 2 Corinthians 5 that
we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and that
we'll receive the things done in the body. And you know what?
To the believer. You know what we're going to
receive? Everything Christ did in his body when he walked on
this earth. 2 Corinthians 5 says, We must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone
may receive the things done in his body according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad. Brethren, we have no fear in
judgment, do we? We have no fear. Because our judgment passed on
Christ. And everything that he did, everything
he did, by his life, by his death, belongs to us. And he did all
things well. Scripture says he did all things
well. All things. Oh, my soul. When we stand before
Him, you know what He's going to say? Enter in. Enter into the kingdom. Prepare for you by my Father
before the foundation of the world. Enter in. Oh, what our
Lord endured for us. He bore the sins of a multitude
of sinners that no man can number. And who are these sinners? Who
are these sinners? Are you interested in that? Are
you interested in who Christ died for? John said, I saw ten thousand
and thousand and thousand. Are you interested if you're
in that number that he saw? It tells us right here who they
are. And unto them that look for him,
are you looking for him? Are you looking for the Lord
Jesus Christ? Really. Be honest. Be honest. Unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin, In two salvations, does
this description describe me? Are you looking for him to appear?
Then he died for you. I can say that. If you're truly
looking for him to appear, he died for you. He died for you. He took your judgment. Look in
Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2, just back a
few pages. He says in verse 11, For the
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching
us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
This is what the grace of God teaches us. And then look, verse
13, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Are you looking
for Him? Are you looking for Him to appear? This world's not going on just
like it is in the days of Noah. But are you looking for the Lord
Jesus Christ? The good news of the gospel is
that Jesus Christ died for sinners, rose again the third day, seated
at God's right hand for sinners, and making intercession for sinners.
And these sinners are looking for him. They're looking for
him to appear. They look for him to appear.
You believe it. I tell you, you believe that. You believe he's
going to appear. Is it today? Will it be today? Will you come
today? It says back over here in Hebrews,
look, back over here in Hebrews 9, He also has suffered since the foundation
of the world, but now was in the end of the world. This is the end of the world.
When's the end of the world coming? We're in it. Are you looking for Him to appear? Then He died for you. Are you
looking for Him to appear? Now I ask you, in closing, I
ask you, are you prepared to die? Do you look forward to it? Do
you look forward to it? Is Christ your Lord and Savior? Is He your sin bearer? Is He your high priest? Your mediator? Your all in all? Is He the parents glorious to
you? I mean, you say, oh, what a glorious
day that will be. What a day that will be! What a day that will be when
I look upon Him and I see Him face to face. To see Him. And to see our loved
ones. You know, I'm interested in seeing
them too. I'm interested in seeing them
too. To see all those that we've been
with and the ones we've read about. To see the Lord and to
see them with Him. to enjoy that new heaven and
new earth. I do find myself thinking about
that more and more and more. I find myself sitting on the
back porch, on the deck, and I look at the trees, and I look
at the earth, and I look at the ground, and I look at all that,
and I think, one day, one day, by God's grace, So that man,
Jesus Christ, I'm going to walk on a new earth. And I'm not going
to deal with sin, sorrow, and sadness no more. I'm going to
worship God. Here's to me the most important
one. I'm going to worship God as He
ought to be worshipped. We're going to give Him the grace
to do His name as we ought to do. And we better know Him as we
ought to know Him. We can know Him a lot better
now. More for our dullness and sin and getting so interested
in all these little toys. My, my, my. If we could just do everything
in the light of appointed unto men was to die. You say, I don't
want to live like that. I do. I do. I pray God will give
me enough sense to live like that. Give me enough sense to
live like that. O, see me and say, well, tell
them Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2, and I'll wind
this down. Let's move from verse 25, Luke
chapter 2. And behold, there was a man of
Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost
was upon him. And it was revealed unto him
by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And when the parents brought
in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law,
then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord,
now let thy servant depart in peace." When is it a good day
to die? When is it a good day to die?
I'll tell you when. When you seek Christ by faith.
Any day after that is a good day to die. Any day after that
is a good day to die. Lord, now let thy servant depart
in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. That's a good day to die. Samuel said, no, Lord, let me
die. I've seen your salvation." Oh, my, my. Scott Richardson
said one time, I heard him say it in a message, Why will you die when the water
is so close by? Oh, sinner, why will you die
when the water is so close by? Let thy servant depart in peace. I have seen thy salvation." And
it's the man, Christ Jesus. He was looking into the face
of a child, that baby, that man, that God of heaven and earth. Are you looking for him to appear?
If you're looking for him to appear, you are prepared to die. You are. Okay.