Revelation chapter 14. The title
of the message this morning is, Blessed are the dead in Christ. I took the title from verse 13.
John says, I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, right.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. I hope all of us
will pay very close attention to the message this morning.
Because all of us are going to die. This is something we're
all going to face. Unless the Lord returns first,
all of us are going to die. The end of all flesh is death. Our life is but a vapor. So it's going to end soon. This
is something we'll face soon. And all of us will die in one
of two ways. We'll either die in eternal glory
or eternal torment. One of the two. And as the pastor
here It's my job to, you know, we don't like to talk about death
all that much. We'd rather talk about life and
the things that we see as so glorious. But it's the pastor's
job to prepare us to die. We must be prepared to die. God
says here, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. This is
just yet another example that men by nature have got everything
backwards. What do we say? We say blessed
are the rich. You know, they don't have any
worries. They can afford anything they need. But God says blessed
are the poor. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We say blessed are those that laugh and have joy all the time.
Oh, I'd like to be that person that just always laughing and
smiling and everything's, you know. But what does God say? God says blessed are those that
mourn. They should be comforted. We say blessed are the strong
and the powerful, those that can always have influence over
the situation, always get their way. But what does God say? God says blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth. We say blessed are the fools
who are in want of nothing. God says blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they're the ones that should
be filled. We say blessed is the man that everybody loves.
Blessed is the man that just, he doesn't have any enemies.
He's got lots of friends. Blessed is the man that just
gets along with everybody. But God says blessed are, you're
blessed when men revile you and persecute you for my namesake.
And then we rejoice when a baby's born. I mean, just, it's so exciting.
We're waiting on the birth of a new baby now. Waiting on Maggie
any day to give birth to a baby. And we ought to be excited about
that. We ought to be thankful for that children are blessed
from the Lord. I want you to look in Ecclesiastes chapter
7. What does God say? I don't think the Lord's saying
we shouldn't be excited when a baby's born. But we got things
backwards. We got things backwards. God
says we should mourn the day of our birth and celebrate the
day of our death. That's what God says. Ecclesiastes
chapter 7, verse 1. A good name is better than precious
ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth.
That's what God says. And look on here, verse two,
we've got everything backwards. It's better to go to the house
of mourning than to the house of feasting. For that is the
end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow
is better than laughter. For by the sadness of the countenance,
the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the
house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It's better to hear the rebuke
of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. We've
got everything backwards, don't we? Those are all the things
that we think are the blessed thing. So we're all going to
die. And the Lord says it's a blessing.
He said it's a blessing. Now, I know that there's some
concern about death, but the believer has no reason to fear
death. sense of concern that we get
from that just comes from the fact that we've never died. We
don't know what the experience is like. We don't know what's
on the other side of that. But God, who full well knows
what's on the other side, says it's a blessing to die in the
Lord. And even when these bodies fight
death, don't think that means that death is not a blessing
to the believer, to the believer now. I tell you why these bodies
fight death. Because God created these bodies
to live. God didn't create these bodies to die. He created them
to live. But sin's messed everything up. Sin's brought in death, and
with it, sin's brought in fear. But the believer has no reason
to fear death. And you think of the way we've
got things backwards. I'm talking about the whole wide
world. I'm talking to believers. Those
who know and love Christ. We still do everything we can
to take care of this flesh to stop this blessing of death,
don't we? We do. Now, listen, I'm not saying
we should go out there and kill ourselves. I'm not saying that
we should just say, I'm not going to take care of this body. No,
God gave you that body. You take care of it. God gave
you a body and a mind to take care of it. Use it. Just use
some good common sense that God gave you. Take care of your body
so you can serve the Lord, so you can help people. When Lord
calls you home, you'll be happy to leave. Blessed are those who
die in the Lord, who die in faith. But now notice this, and we've
got to see this. He doesn't say blessed is everybody
who dies, does he? He didn't say that. only those
who die in the Lord, only those who die believing Christ. Anyone
who dies without faith in Christ is not better off. I mean, we
can't say everybody who dies. Well, you know, they're they're
out of pain and they're happy now. Not if they don't know the
Lord, they're not. No, they're eternally cursed.
But those who die in the Lord are blessed, they've got they've
received the blessing that they patiently waited for. Look at
verse 12. Revelation 14. Here is the patience
of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. They have patiently waited
for this. We looked last week at the destruction
of their enemies, the enemies of Christ, the destruction of
false religion. They patiently waited for that.
Most of them died, never have seen it, but they're all going
to see it. They're going to have what they patiently waited for.
The destruction, the elimination of every enemy of Christ, of
every false religion. They patiently waited for the
fulfillment of God's promise, the redemption of both body and
soul. Now they have it. That's the blessing. And they
patiently endured. They kept the faith. Our text
says they kept the faith of Christ. They kept faith in Christ who
is faithful to complete the whole work of redemption for them so
that they didn't have to add anything to it. They didn't have
to do anything to make it effectual. They just trusted Christ. He
finished the work. And they kept the faith. All
the way, just like our brothers and sisters in Hebrews chapter
11, they kept the faith until they died in the faith. And then
they were truly blessed. Blessed like we can't even describe
because we don't know it. But that's what the Apostle Paul
told Timothy. He said, Timothy, I'm near the
end and I've kept the faith. And because of that, I'm ready
to be offered. I'm ready to depart and be with Christ, which is
far better. So keep this in mind when believers
die. I know that sometimes we say
things without thinking. But we need to think about this,
this matter of death, the death of a believer. Don't go to the
funeral home and get talking with folks and say, well, at
least I'm better off than old John Doe there lying in the casket. You're not better off than old
John Doe if he knew the Lord. No, you're not. If old John knew
the Lord, let me tell you what, he's not dead. He's living. We're the ones who are dead.
He's living like we can't imagine. Our Lord told us that. Whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. And don't stand at
that casket and weep for old John Doe. Now weep. Weep for his family. Weep with
his family. Weep for the loss of our friend,
our loved one. But don't weep for old John.
Not if he knew the Lord. Really, if old John took time
to think about you and me, he'd be the one weeping. Oh, look
how they're suffering. Look where they're at. It wouldn't
be the other way around. But you know what? He's not thinking
about you and me. You and I know that. If he's
thinking about us, he'd be the one crying and there are no tears
in heaven. He's living. He is taken up with
seeing and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're not better
off than him are. Not if he died in the Lord, we're
not. Now that's kind of a long introduction, but let me give
you four points from verse 13 about the blessing of dying in
the Lord. Verse 13, John says, and I heard
a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, sayeth the spirit that they
may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. And
here's my first point. We know dying in the Lord is
a real blessing because of who said it. The voice that John
heard speak from heaven is the same voice he's been hearing
speak these last couple of chapters. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
who rules in heaven, speaking to John. It's the same one who
appeared to John in chapter one and told him, now write, write
the things that you've seen and heard. And here again, he's telling
him, now, John, write this down. Christ himself said it's a blessing
to die in the Lord. Then it must be because of who
said it. He can't be in error, he can't make a mistake. Dying
in the Lord is such a great blessing because Christ himself said it.
And he gets amen in this matter. Dying in the Lord is a real blessing
because the Holy Spirit said so. Christ said so and the Holy
Spirit said amen to what Christ said. When you hear it says,
Yea, saith the Spirit, that's the Spirit saying, Amen. Christ
said, John, you write this down. It's a blessing to die in the
Lord. And that statement was such a blessing to the Holy Spirit.
He said, Amen. Some of you men do that sometimes.
Something that says such a blessing, you say, Amen. The Holy Spirit
did that. It was such a blessing to him
to hear this truth. He said, Amen. then it must be
a blessing to die in the Lord because of who said so. And we
would all do well to remember this truth and take it to heart.
It's a blessing to die in the Lord. And the Lord helped us
with that. He told John, John, you write
this down, right? Just like I said, it's a blessing
to die in the Lord. Now, Lord didn't tell John, write
that down in your diary, write that down in your memoir. Somebody
may or may not see later. He told John to write this down
in the book of God, in God's word. Now, men wrote the Bible. They took their quill and a man
wrote every word of this book. But every word was inspired by
the Holy Spirit. It was dictated to them. These
men wrote down what was dictated to them by God. And God put this
truth in His Word so we can go back and read it again and again
and again. You know, when something's put
down in writing, it's a whole lot harder to go back and modify
it and change it and go back on it if it's in writing, isn't
it? If somebody makes you a promise, you think, man, that's too good
to be true. And what do we say? Can I have
that in writing? God gave us this promise that
the natural man cannot understand and cannot believe. It's a blessing
to die in the Lord. And his people say, can I have
that in writing? And he says, yes, you can. He told John, put
this in writing so my people can go back and be reminded to
find comfort and encouragement in this and to prepare themselves
for this moment. It's a blessing to die in the
Lord. Now that encourages God's people. They continued, verse
12 said, they continued in the faith. They're patient. That
enables us to continue in the faith, to continue following
Christ and to stop us from thinking like this world and start thinking
like what God's word says. It's a blessing to die in the
Lord. We know it's true because of who said it, where he wrote
it down. It's in the word of God. All right, second, the blessing,
I hinted on this a minute ago. The blessing is to die in the
Lord. It's not talking about everybody
who dies, it's those who die in the Lord. Now, what is it
to be in the Lord? Well, it's to die, it's to be
in union with Christ, it's to be joined to Christ by faith.
To be in the Lord is to be owned by the Lord. It's to belong to
Christ. Well, how do we get there? How
do we get in the Lord? Well, the believers in the Lord by
covenant mercies, by God's electing love, putting us in Christ. That's how we got in the Lord.
The believers in the Lord by the purchase of Christ's blood.
The church is the church which Christ purchased with his own
blood. That's how we belong to him. He bought us with his blood.
Believers in the Lord by regeneration were born. into Christ immediately. Part of the family, a full fledged
member of the family. In a few days, Maggie's going
to have that baby. They're not going to take a vote on whether
or not they're going to accept the baby in the family. She's born into
the family. That's how that's how the believer
is. We're in Christ by regeneration, born into him. A believer's in
the Lord by faith in Christ. Paul said in Ephesians 3 verse
17, Christ dwells in your heart by faith. We're in Him by faith. And then the believers in the
Lord by Christ dwelling in us. Christ in you. That's your hope
of glory. That's the reason that this death
can be such a blessing. Christ in you. That's your hope
of glory. But to die outside of Christ.
It's all a curse. It's to die without any hope
of life. It's to die in the flesh to go
to the second death. I don't even like to think about
that. What a horrible, horrible thing. And I preach Christ so
earnestly. I'm just, I'm so intense about
this because more than anything, I want you and me to know Christ,
to be found, to win Christ and be found in Him. You think of
the consequences of missing Christ. You think of the consequences
of missing faith in Christ. It's just, it's all a curse.
Oh, but if we know Him, if God gives us faith in Him, then we
are blessed. Blessed so much that even death
is a blessing. All right, thirdly, it is a blessing
to die in the Lord because of what the believer gains when
we leave this body of flesh behind. Our text says they will rest
from their labors. Now, it doesn't say they're on
a permanent vacation. It doesn't say they're floating
around on a cloud playing a harp, does it? No, it says they'll
rest from their labors. We will still work in heaven.
I mean, God created Adam and put him in the garden. And he
gave Adam work to do, didn't he? He said, you keep this garden,
you dress it, you take care of it. But there's a big difference
between work and labor. Big difference. Work is good
for us. It's good for us to be productive.
And that's still going to be true in heaven. But here's the
difference. In heaven, work will not be labor.
What makes work labor? Sin. Sin brings forth thorns
and thistles. But in heaven, there's not gonna
be any sin. So our work will always be productive. There's not gonna be thorns and
thistles to hinder us and mess everything up and make work so
hard, make it so difficult to get anything done, because sin's
gonna be gone. Our work will be a joy. In glory,
the believer, I tell you what makes work labor in this life. We, every single step we take,
we've got to drag this dead flesh around with us. We've got to
drag this old dead man around with us. But in glory, we're
not going to have him no more. We don't have him. Everywhere
we go, we're going to be rid of that dead weight and we're
going to feel like we just skip along because that dead weight's
gone. Here, and if this doesn't tell
you what this flesh is, We're told, the believers told, you
rest in Christ. Isn't that glorious, to rest
in Christ? And there are times we're unable
to do it, aren't there? Isn't that such a blessing? But let's
be honest with each other. You've got to labor to do it,
don't you? The writer of the Hebrews told
us, labor to enter into that rest. There we're not going to
have to do that anymore. Because we'll have that perfect
rest. That sin nature is going to be gone. Here we labor to
continue in the faith. Aren't you thankful for faith
in Christ? It's a gift of God. Let's be
honest. We've got to labor to do it,
don't we? I mean, Brother Fortner said one time to someone asking,
do you ever try not to believe? He said every day, every day.
It's a labor to continue in the faith because of this old flesh
that will never believe, that will never submit, that will
never look to Christ. We have to labor to continue
in the faith. There, we won't. There, there won't even be faith.
We'll see Christ face to face. Here we have to labor, and we're
told to do it. Labor, strive to press toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. There, there are going to be
no more striving and no more labor. We'll have Him. And for the believer, because
of that, for the believer, because when this body dies, I went to
Brother Henry one time, We sat down to talk, and I said, before
we go on, let me ask you a question. In case I've been asleep almost
all of my life, would you mind telling me what you had taught
from God's word, what you believe God's word says about regeneration
and rebirth? He said, I'd be glad to. He said,
I was born in this world flesh, because that's all my daddy had
to pass on. I was born flesh. He said, somewhere
along the way, God revealed himself to me. He saved me, caused me
to be born again. And from that time till now,
I've lived with that nature of flesh and that nature of spirit.
And he said, this has been a while ago, but he said, one day real
soon, you're going to have a funeral for me. And when you do, you're
going to put the flesh in the ground, but at that that when
I die, when I take my last breath and close my eyes in death, that
new man that God caused to be born in me, that's the one that's
going to go be with the Lord, and you're going to put this
flesh in the ground. When that happens, everything
is game for the believer. There's been no loss whatsoever.
Not at all. For me to live is Christ. But
to die is game. It's all game. In death, the
believer trades worrying. You imagine nothing left to worry
about. The believer trades crying for no more tears. We trade sickness
for health. We trade weakness for strength.
We trade faith for sight. We trade seeing through a glass
darkly for perfect vision. We trade sin for perfection. Where's the loss in that? Lord
hasten the day. That blessing will be so great
We're not going to be able to begin to comprehend it in this
life. And that blessing is going to
be immediate, immediate. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. I can't even think about, I mean,
I just can't comprehend the blessing of being with the Lord. It's
a blessing now, isn't it? When the Lord comes and meets
with us in the worship service. Oh, what a blessing. It doesn't
compare to what's going to be back there. Face to face imperfection
and being with him makes everything in glory a blessing. We trade
everything in this earth that's cursed for everything that's
a blessing in glory. All right, fourth one. It's a
blessing to die in the Lord. Our text says, their works will
follow them there. My preacher wouldn't do that.
Their works will follow them. Here's another example that works
is not always a dirty word. Not when they're in their proper
place. Now look what he says. He said, their works will follow
them. Their works aren't going to go
before them, are they? Now, they're not going to enter
into glory because of their works. Their works aren't going before
them to prepare them a bigger mansion than somebody else. Don't
ever fall for this business. Well, you got to do all your
works, you know, down here. So you're sending materials up
the glory so you can build you a house there. No, no, a thousand times no. What did our Lord say? I go to
prepare a place for you. That's the work of the Lord.
He doesn't need us to help him in any way. And their works will
not follow them there. So they get rewards in heaven.
You know, they tell you here, you know, do more work. So you
get more crowns in glory. No, I tell you the only thing,
there's just one thing and only one thing that those in glory
care about is Christ. He is our exceeding great reward. And in heaven, everybody wears
the same crown. But it's not a golden crown sits
on top of the head. It's a whole lot better than
that. That crown is a covering. It's a covering of righteousness
being made completely righteous. And our works don't have anything
to do with that, do they? No, that's what Christ did for us.
That's what he made us. Then what are these works that
do follow them? Well, their works follow them
for this reason. To give praise to God who enabled
them to do the works. Now what are good works? I've
told you this many times. We have one example where our
Lord called something a good work. It was a good work that
woman did on his body to anoint him for burial. So good works
are works that are done to help God's people, to help the body
of Christ, to serve him in love and faith. But you know, and
believers are full of good works. But our Lord tells us that those
in heaven don't even know they did one. They're not saying,
look at my good work. They don't even know they did
them. What did they tell the Lord? Lord, when did we see you
hungry and feed you? When did we see you naked and
clothed you? When did we see you sick and in prison and came
visit you? I didn't do that. And our Lord will answer them
when you did it to the least of my brethren. You did it to
me. A good work is a work on his
body, on his people. Now the believer is to be zealous
of good works. You know what the scripture says?
Our Lord said, let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works. But the sentence doesn't end
there. Why do you do that? And glorify your father, which
is in heaven. That's the point of these good
works. And that's the works that follow the believer. It's that
those works will glorify our savior. Those works really are
the work of Christ in us. And those works will go up and
praise the Lord forever. Now that's the blessing, to be
able to praise the Lord perfectly forever, not have our hearts
and minds wander, but to worship him perfectly. It is a blessing
to die in the Lord. In closing, I want to give you
three scriptures. We won't turn to them. I'll just
read them to you and you can, if you want to, write them down
and look at them later. But this is part of us understanding
the blessing of the death of a believer and to be prepared
for dying. You know, there's a, I don't
know who, where it came from, but it always grips my heart
about the, I don't know if it was Spurgeon or who it was, but
the man, lay on his deathbed. Everybody knew he was dying.
He knew he was dying. His family knew he was dying. Everybody
knew he was dying. And the pastor came, sat down with him, visiting
him. And he asked him, he said, Brother, is it well with your
soul? Are you prepared to die? And
he said, I am if you told me the truth. I am if you told me
the truth. Well, let's have the truth about
this matter. The death of the believer, dying
in the Lord, it's a blessing. Don't look at it as something
to be afraid of. Don't look at it as a curse, it's a blessing.
Psalm 37, verse 37. David said, you mark the perfect
man. Mark him, watch him. Behold the upright. Now who's
the perfect man? Who's the upright man? It's only
the man in the Lord, right? That's the only way we can be
perfect. That's the only way we can be upright is to be in Christ.
David said, you mark him, you watch him. The end of that man
is peace. Those who die in the faith, those
who die in Christ will have eternal peace. I told somebody the other
day, I long for peace. I long for it. I'm ready for
the fight by God's grace, but I long for peace. They are going
to have it. That's the blessing of dying
in the Lord, peace. You think of our brother, a dying
being. That poor fella had never done
one good work. He didn't even know the Lord
till he was dying. But he died in Christ, didn't he? He died
believing the Lord. And what did our Lord tell him?
Verily, truly, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. Jay and I are preparing for vacation. We think sitting on the beach,
reading a book, we think that's paradise. No, it's nothing. Nothing like being with Christ. To lay this flesh down is to
be with the Lord in paradise. One more scripture, Psalm 116,
verse 15. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. When our loved ones die, it's
not precious to us. It's not precious to say goodbye.
It's not precious to have that union ripped apart. It's not
precious to us. But our Lord, we don't see things
like we are. We don't see things as they really
are. But our Lord has 20-20 vision. He always sees things exactly
as they are. And it goes back to my first
point. This is true because of who said it. The Lord says, the
death of his saints is precious. And it must be a real blessing
to die in the Lord. It must be a real blessing for
us to look forward to, to not fear, to not dread, but actually
have as a blessing to die in the Lord. But it's my prayer
that the Lord put us in Christ, that we may have this blessing.
All right, Lord bless you.