One of the things I was thinking
about is your father was everything I'm not. I can recall one time
my wife asked me to put up some shutters and she came back and
she said they were put up upside down. And I said that's debatable,
but she insisted they were. And then she said to me, if it
takes any ability, don't even try it. I said, OK, you can rake leaves,
but that's. I would like to read a verse
of scripture from Revelation chapter 14, the 13th verse. Revelation chapter 14, verse
13. And I heard a voice from heaven. saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. From henceforth, yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works
do follow them. As John says, I heard a voice
from heaven, and I'm so thankful for these words, write, write,
write it down. I'm so thankful for the scripture.
If God can create the universe, it's very easy for him to inspire
men to write a book and keep it preserved through the ages. It's what we call the Bible.
Write it down. And then he says, blessed are
the dead. which die in the Lord. Blessed. This is not some groundless
hope. You know, usually when people
die, whether they have a reason to believe this or not, they
say, well, they're in a better place. Well, if I die in the Lord, I
am in an infinitely better place. Blessed, blessed by God. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. Now, not all the dead are blessed,
only those who die in the Lord. Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. Now think with me, there are
two things every man born into this world is born knowing. The first thing everybody knows
is that God is. You're born with that knowledge. I love what Romans 1.18 says,
creation. Everybody can see from the creation,
he is eternal power and Godhead. You look at creation and you
know somebody made this who is all powerful. That's the only
way it could be. And nobody made him. He is eternal. Everyone is born with that knowledge. Now they might turn the lights
off at some point and say, I won't have that, but they'll find out
once again that it's true. Everybody's born knowing God
is, and everybody is born knowing that God will reward the righteous
and punish the wicked. Everyone is born with that knowledge. We're born with this sense of
justice. One of the first things a kid
learns to think of is that's not fair. That's not fair. We're
born with this sense of right and wrong. God will reward the
righteous, and God will punish the wicked. There are only two
kinds of people in this world. The righteous, and the wicked. There's no in-between. In God's
sight, I am either righteous or I am wicked. Now, listen to this. All of the righteous, with that
exception, all of the righteous believe themselves to be wicked. And all of the wicked, without
exception, believe themselves to either be righteous or have
the potential to make themselves righteous. Now, just write that
down. All of the righteous believe
themselves to be wicked. All of the wicked believe themselves
to be righteous or at least have the potential to become righteous. Now, only those that die in the
Lord are blessed. Write it down. Blessed are they
that die in the Lord. Now, what in the world does this
mean to be in the Lord? Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. I want to read a passage of scripture
from Hebrews chapter seven that gives so much light on this.
The writer of the Hebrew says in verse nine, and as I may so
say, Levi, that's the great grandson of Abraham. Levi also, who received tithes. Under the Old Testament economy,
the children of Israel were to pay tithes to the Levites. Now
look what he says. And as I may so say, Levi also,
who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in
the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. Now, Levi
wasn't born. He was not born, and yet the
scripture says he himself paid tithes when Abraham paid tithes. Now what that lets me know is
that in Christ, just as Levi was in the loins of Abraham,
in Christ, if I'm in Christ, that means whatever he did, I
did. Christian baptism signifies.
When a believer's baptized, he's saying, here is why I am saved,
because when Christ lived, I lived. When he died, I died. My sin was punished. When he
was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. Now, someone
is thinking, what does this mean to be in him? Well, The scripture
gives so many illustrations. What did it mean to be in the
ark when God sent the flood? How safe were you in that ark?
You were completely secure. What happened outside of that
ark? You were drowned. It's that simple. In the ark,
salvation. In Christ, salvation. Outside
of Christ, nothing but the wrath of God. Now here's another beautiful
illustration of this. The Passover. God passed through
the land of Egypt, and he had them slay a lamb, a spotless
lamb, take that lamb's blood, put it over the door of the house. If you were in the house with
the blood, what did God say? He said, when I see the blood. He didn't say when you see it.
He didn't say when I see your works. He didn't say when I see
your religion. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Now, let's say someone was in
that house that had committed a grievous sin that very day. I'm not excusing that in any
way, but let's say somebody had committed some atrocious scene
that very day, and then they were in the house with the blood
over the door. Were they safe? One hundred percent. Now that's what it means to be
in the Lord. That means when God sees you,
he sees the blood. When God sees you, he sees his
son. You're in his son. And that's
what he's talking about when he said, blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord. That's where I want to be. I
understand what Paul meant when he said, oh, that I may win Christ
and be found in him. When God comes looking for me,
there's only one place I want to be found. And let me tell
you, it ain't up here preaching. It ain't praying. It ain't reading
the scripture. It isn't anything but in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, next question. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. We see what that means in their
security. How does one get in the Lord?
How does one get in the Lord? Well, here's what the Bible says.
Of Him are you in Christ Jesus. The only way you can get in the
Lord is if God puts you in the Lord. Of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. Listen to this scripture. Ephesians
1-4, according as He hath chosen us. Talking about election before
the foundation of the world, according as He has chosen us
in Him. There's the key. In Him. Before the foundation of the
world. God chose the elect before time
began in Christ and they've always been in Him. Somebody says, explain
that. I can't. I just believe it. Of
Him. in Christ Jesus. Now, when Christ Jesus walked
upon this earth, there was a great group of people in him. Remember
when he said to John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness? When Jesus Christ kept the Law,
so did everybody in Him. When He died, so did everybody
in Him. When He was raised from the dead,
so was everybody in Him. That is why John said, blessed
are the dead that die in the Lord. Now look what he says next. I heard a voice from heaven saying
unto me, right, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from
henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they
may have rest from their labors." Now, the very moment a believer
dies, they enter a state of sinlessness. Perfect conformity to the image
of Jesus Christ. Beholding His glory. That's where our brother is now.
You know, people talk about somebody, boy, they're up in heaven looking
down on us. No, he's not. Do you think he has any interest
in us right now? He's worshiping the Lamb of God
in a state of sinlessness, something he didn't know before this time
when he puts down the flesh. Now, the spirit The infallible
Spirit of God tells us that these blessed dead who have died in
the Lord have rest from their labors. Now what does that mean? That they have rest from their
labors? Does that mean he had spent so
much time working for the Lord and doing all kinds of things
for the Lord, now all of a sudden he gets to rest from all that?
It doesn't have anything to do with what that means. Not a thing
to do with it. What this is talking about is
the believer no longer has to labor and struggle with sin. And an unbeliever doesn't understand
that, because an unbeliever doesn't understand what sin is. He thinks
he can refrain from sin by doing this and start doing that and
start becoming better. He doesn't really have an understanding
of what sin is, but a believer does. It's what made Paul say,
O wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from the body
of this death? This is something that a believer
struggles with every day. My sin, said David, is ever before
me. You see, the believer has seen
God in his holiness. He's seen himself in his sinfulness. And he's seeing Christ as his
righteousness before God. And as long as he lives in this
flesh, he struggles with sin. Now, why is that? Because every
believer has two natures, one holy nature, one sinful nature. That's just facts. And if you're
a believer, you know that. And you're going to struggle
with sin, hate sin, be beaten down by sin, as long as you are
in the flesh. Now, I love that passage of scripture
in Colossians 1, 12, when it says, He hath made us meat. to
be inherited into, into saints in light. Right now, I'm meat. I have everything I need to be
inherited. I'm not gonna be any more holy there than I am now.
Here's the difference. I'm gonna put down this flesh.
I'm gonna put down this sin. I'm gonna be in the very presence
of God. Now, rest from their labors. Rest from sin. Now, if you're
a believer, I bet you look forward to death, don't you? Now, I realize
if you're young, you have children, you think, God, nobody can raise
my children. Like, I realize that. And you don't want to die
just yet, but you do, too. You do, too, if you're a believer.
To be. Have rest from your labor. To no longer be a sinner. Now, look what he says next.
He said, I heard a voice from heaven saying, write. Write this
down. This is the Scripture. This is
why we know it's true. Not because some preacher said
it, but because it's written in the Word of God. Thank God for
the Scripture. Write this down. Blessed are
the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, sayeth
the Spirit that they may rest from their labors. And look at
this last line. And their works do follow them. Now, what's that mean? Their
works do follow them. Well, I want you to notice, it
doesn't say their works precede them. That's the cause of their
salvation. Thank God for that. that the
works don't precede them as the cause of their salvation. If
you're saved, it's because Christ died for your sins, not because
of something you've done. And it doesn't say their works
walk along by their side to give them assurance that they're saved. Oh, I must be saved because look
at my life. I've changed. I've become better.
I sin less and I'm more holy. Nobody believes that. Nobody
believes that. If you believe that about yourself,
you're deceived. If you can look at your works
and think, I must be saved because I'm so holy and I'm so good and
I'm so righteous, you're deceived. Those works
don't come along to give us assurance. I look at my life, I must be
saved. But the works do follow them. They do follow them as
evidence that they really were saved. And what does that mean? Well, I believe the best example
of this is Abraham. Abraham. God promised Abraham
the promised Messiah is going to come through that boy Isaac.
That was God's promise. And then God says, you take that
boy that I promised the Messiah is going to come from, and you
take him up onto a mountain that I'll tell you of, and you slit
his throat, order him and offer him up as a burnt offering to
me, because that's what was involved in this thing of offering up
a burnt offering. Now, Abraham could have thought, if I do that, you'll mess up
God's promise. But he didn't do that, think
that. The scripture says that he went to that mountain and
said, I and the lad will go and worship and return to you. You know why Abraham said that?
He knew that God would raise that boy from the dead. His works
proved that he really believed what he said he did. If he would
have refused to offer Isaac, all that would prove was that
he did not believe God. But when he offered up his son,
he proved that he really did believe God. And I have no doubt
that when he put his son on the altar. His son could have stopped
it from happening. He was a young man at that time.
But he didn't do it because his dad told him, God's gonna raise
you from the dead. And he went down willingly because
he believed God would raise him from the dead. Now you know the
great chapter in James chapter 2 about faith without works is
dead, being alone. That's what that means. That's
what that means. Abraham proved he really believed
what he said he did. Now, Think of this glorious scripture. Blessed. Write it down first. Write it down. This is God's
Word. This is in some preacher's opinion. This is God's Word.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. From henceforth,
saith the Spirit, they have rest from all their labors. and their
works do follow them. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for thy dear son. Lord, how we thank you that you
were pleased to make yourself known to this dear saint. that
he was in you and truly he's blessed as dying in you. And Lord, our prayer is that
we might be found in thy son. Lord, we know that we can't make
ourselves to be in your son, but we pray that we might be
found in your son. And Lord, we ask that you would
give us the grace to believe your gospel. Thank you for the
salvation that's in your son. We pray for your blessing upon
us. In Christ's blessed name, we pray. Amen.