We read of the Lord Jesus Christ
in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14 as follows. For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime. subject
to bondage. That through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver
them who through the fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. The fear of death The fear of death is something
which ultimately takes hold upon all men. At some point they may turn their backs on
death, not consider death, pretend it will never come. We may turn
our backs on death, not consider death, and pretend it will never
come. we walk backwards through life
as it were looking at the world here and now looking at each
day that comes upon us looking upon our own things and those
things that concern us in a pretense that death won't
come because if we consider death and the reality of death it fills
us with fear causes us to tremble. When we're
thrown into a situation where death stands before us it can
overcome us. The warrior sent to war who sees
death all around him knows that it might come upon him. The person sick with a terminal
illness knows he has little time then comes the fear of death but ultimately this fear extends
throughout all our lifetime it is because there is this awareness
within us that death will come upon us that we choose not to
think of it that we distract ourselves that we look upon this
and upon that everything but death. We won't consider it because
we're full of fear. We don't know what is to come. I heard of one of the consultants
working in the hospitals in our current situation dealing with
the patients on the COVID wards. and how he spoke of the traumatic
situations in which he and his staff were placed in dealing
with these people that were coming in who were on the brink of death. These people whose lives were
wasting away. They cannot breathe. They're
kept alive on ventilators. and he spake of how hard it is
to deal with people who are full of terror when they're so ill
that they know they could go in a moment and they know that
death awaits. Their faces, he said, are full
of terror. They're pleading with the doctors
and the nurses to save them. Don't let me die. When you're
placed where they are, suddenly death becomes very real to you. And even the strongest of people,
the strongest of characters, who've lived all their life as
though death is far off, suddenly they find themselves ravaged
by disease with death upon them. Death just around the corner
and they're full of fear, their faces show it. How terrifying
this is. Their cries to be delivered,
their cries to be saved, don't let me die. How people fear death. But why? Why do these people
in the wards so fear? Why does fear come upon their
faces? Why does death frighten us? Why
do even the strongest of atheists, who say there's no God, there's
no eternity, there's no sin, there's no righteousness, who
deny all the truth, why do even they at the final hour, when
death confronts them, suddenly cry out in fear as they do? Because there's that in them,
and that in you. in our conscience, in our understanding,
in our being, that knows what lies beyond the grave, that knows
that there is eternity outside of this world. There must be. We know that we are conscious,
we know that that consciousness will continue, we know that life
is so brief, this cannot be the end. We know that our Creator
waits on the other side. Whoever we are, whatever we profess,
whatever we say we believe, we all know that our Creator stands on the other side of death. and before Him we must answer. Hence, when death suddenly comes
upon us, if we know not Christ, if we know not Christ's salvation,
if we cannot say that before God I'm righteous, fear fills us from head to toe. because we know what comes. We
know we have no plea, we know we're guilty. We spent a lifetime
rejecting the truth, shutting our ears to the Gospel, shutting
our ears to God, going off another way and suddenly here we are
about to meet Him. What can we say? Nothing. Why did you not believe? Why did you not hear? Why did
you not serve me? Why did you not care? We have
no answer. All our lifetimes we are subject
to bondage because of the fear of death. Yes we may bury that fear Yes,
we may fool ourselves that we may live here below forever.
Yes, we may consider everything but, and try not to consider
that which is to come, but that in itself is a demonstration
of the fear of death. We don't like to consider it. It fills us with bondage because
we know that if we die, we must stand before God righteous, and
we're not righteous. fact is we will die and we will
stand before God and we will stand before God full of sin
and corruption guilty before a holy God because we die because
we are sinners the cause of death is within us It's a fool who
says there is no God and a fool who says there is no life after
death. Because the cause of death itself
is within us. That which motivates us, that
by which we live, that which governs our every action, deed
and thought. is that which brings death upon
us. Sin within us. Our rebellion
against God, our rebellion against the truth, our unbelief of the
truth, our denial of the truth, is that which slays us. We've
rejected God and because we've rejected God, because we've turned
our back on God, because we've gone our own way, so we die. And we see that death every day. Every day the cells in our body
are dying. Every day we feel the frailty
within. Every time we hurt ourselves,
every time we're injured, every time we ache, every time we're
tired, every time illness comes upon us, we feel the physical
effects of death, which are just ticking away by the hour until
that day when we are no more. Likewise, spiritually we are
dead. Every day we deny the Gospel,
we show the death within. Every day we turn aside from
our Maker, we show the death within. Every day we refuse to
bow down before Almighty God, we show the sin and the death
within. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We're dead by nature. We're already
dead. Sin entered into man when he
turned his back upon God and death by sin. We live a dying
life. What we call life here below
for the brief few years that we are here is a life of death. It's a life of sorrow. It's a
life of tragedy. It's a life of disaster. It's
a struggle. even for the most successful,
even for the most seemingly outwardly blessed in this world, the richest,
the most revered, the most powerful, they all die and they all have
their tragedies and they all have their sorrows. You could
look at the lives of anyone in this world and you will find
in their journey, this tragedy and that, this difficulty and
that, this sorrow and that. This is a veil of tears through
which we pass. We pass through the shadow of
death. We journey through the valley
of the shadow of death. This is a dark and an evil world
and all around us there are those dropping down daily and falling
into the abyss of the grave. like those soldiers in battle,
in the First World War perhaps, who left their trenches and marched
on across no man's land, side by side, this one dropped down
dead, that one dropped down dead, this one dropped down dead, until
eventually they're hit and they drop down dead. even if you were
a survivor, all around you was death. And our sojourn, our pathway
in this world is much like that. We go through and we hear of
this person ill, and that person ill, and that person who's died,
and that person who's gone. It's a valley of the shadow of
death. Not only is it all around us,
in others, It's in our conscience, in our souls, in ourselves. We had the sentence of death
in ourselves, we read in 2 Corinthians. That we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead. The sentence of death is
in us. We know we're sinners. And we
know the consequence of that sin. Many pretend otherwise,
many deny otherwise. But our conscience tells us we're
sinners before a holy God. We're dead by nature and we're
dying. And we will meet him one day. We will meet him one day. Christ
came. to deliver them who through fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Though we are in a terrible state, though sin has wrought such damage, though our lifetime might be
in bondage because of the fear of death. Yet God sent his son
to deliver sinners like us. Sinners who through the fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. What we call freedom in this
world is no freedom at all. What men think of as being free
is but an illusion for a few short years upon this earth until
eternity comes upon them. There's no freedom. We're subject
to bondage. The bondage and the captivity
of death We're subject to bondage in that the fear of death itself would break us if we considered
it. We're subject to bondage in that
our lifetimes are a ticking clock. Our lives are brief. time ticks
away on us rapidly so everyone grows up as a child, comes to
young adolescence, grows into a young woman or a young man
and tries to grasp all that they can of life whilst it's there
before them. They have their goals and their
aspirations. They try to achieve this and
to achieve that and gain this and gain that but they can see
the passing of time. Soon their twenties are gone. Soon their thirties are gone
and their forties are gone. Soon old age starts to creep
upon them. And that which they thought lied
ahead of them is soon in the past and it's a catalogue of
missed opportunities. or perhaps taken opportunities
which can no longer be repeated. However your life comes across,
however successful you may be or however great a failure you
may be, no matter, it's soon gone. It really doesn't matter. So one achieves great things
and another achieves nothing, but soon both are old and soon
both face the grave. and the passing of time and the
fleetingness of time. It's bondage. You can't stop
it. You can't prevent it. You can't
escape it. Looking ahead unto the grave
brings bondage. It brings fear. and those who see their state
those who are brought to see what lies ahead and are brought
to flee from it and desire to flee from it those who want to
escape what's the other side of the grave are turned to strive to make
themselves right before God. Those who are brought to understand
that there is a God to whom they must answer and they must be
righteous. Those who are brought to see
that they are a sinner before a holy God find themselves in
bondage because they strive to make themselves better and they
can't. They turn to their own deeds,
their own works, their own ability, they try to reform themselves,
they try to live in a way that they think God will be pleased
with. They come to the scriptures, they come to the Bible, they
come to the law of God and they try to live accordingly. This
is how I must be, this is how I should be before God, I must
be righteous. So they strive at righteousness,
they strive at holiness, they strive to live in a way that
God will be pleased with and they can't do it. The law condemns
us. Thou shalt not it says and we
do. Thou shalt and we don't. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, all thy soul, all thy mind, and we don't. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself, and we don't. We're guilty in every point. We're subject to bondage. The
law condemns us. We're found under bondage under
it. It's bondage under the law. It's
captivity under the law. We're captives. We're locked
up. We cannot escape. We cannot escape
its rule. We cannot escape its condemnation. We are, as it were, sinners in
the hands of an angry God. We see God beholding us through
the righteousness of his law. and we find ourselves guilty.
We know that when God looks at us, he will see no good thing
in us. And yet we know that unless we
stand before him righteous, we're condemned. We have no way out. So all our lifetime we're subject
to bondage. The fear of death stands before
us, but we know we're condemned. We know we're condemned to eternal
death. We cannot escape. What of you? What of you? Do you turn your back upon God?
Do you turn your back upon the truth? Do you turn your back
upon the witness of God in the gospel? The witness of God in
his word? The witness of your own conscience? The witness of what you see all
around you? Do you shut your ears? Do you
hope for the best? Do you turn aside from The knowledge
of death because it fills you with fear. Because it fills you
with sorrow. As God brought you to turn and
to look for salvation. In this passage, in this book, God writes unto sinners like
you and I, not to condemn, not to bring us and leave us under
the fear of death, not to leave us under bondage, but to point
to his Son who came to deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. As the chapter opens,
Therefore we ought to give them more earnest heed to the things
which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression
and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? which at the first
began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by
them that heard him. God also bearing them witnessed
both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. God came in the
person of Jesus Christ. He came into this world full
of the fear of death and he preached unto sinners salvation. He preached unto sinners salvation
through Christ and His blood. Salvation through the death of
Christ in the place of sinners. He came and He preached the Gospel
unto us. And then He came and He spake
that Gospel. He preached that Gospel to others
and they went forth and preached it. and others heard them and
they went forth and preached it. All down through the generations
until now when others are sent of God and come before us and
declare and say, Behold the Lamb of God! Behold He who took upon
Himself flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver
them like you who through fear of death are all their lifetime
subject to bondage God comes unto us today and by his preachers
preaches what Christ himself preached when on this earth.
Look unto me, look unto Christ all ye ends of the earth and
be ye saved. Where are you looking? How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? a salvation that came at such
a price. The fear of death brings us under
bondage. The fear of death brings the
sick to fear and quake. The fear of death brings horrors
upon a man. Yet Christ came. to partake of
death, that through his death he might deliver those who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
That same fear, that same death, that same sorrow that they're
so afraid of, he came to take He came to drink the cup that
they deserve to drink. He came to drink the cup of God's
wrath, which his people deserve to drink. He came to take their
guilt. He came to take their condemnation. He came to take the judgment
that was due unto them. He took upon Himself flesh and
blood, that He should be as they are, that He might stand as a
man in the place of men. If the same flesh and the same
blood, a human, a man, equal to them, but as the Son of God,
equal unto God. that he could take their sins
and bear their sins through death that he might destroy him that
had the power of death that is the devil. Oh the sorrows of death that
came upon the Saviour that came upon Christ in order that he
might deliver his people from their sins. In order that sinners
like you and I might be spared. In Philippians 2 verse 8 we read
that he being found in fashion as a man. with flesh and blood. He humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He went there
voluntarily. We're all heading towards the
grave, we're all heading towards death, against our will as it
were. We can't stop the journey. We're as it was stood on a conveyor
belt, which is constantly moving one way. And no matter which
way we turn, we keep traveling along it. There's nothing we
can do to stop. There's nothing we can do to
stop the aging process. Time is against us. If we could choose another path,
we would, but we can't help it. We're heading that way. But the
eternal Son of God, who was righteous, without sin, without the cause
of death in Him, without guilt, innocent of every charge, He
voluntarily headed towards the cross. He became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. He went that way. He came into this world to go
to a place of execution, though he himself deserved it not. Though he was innocent, though
he was righteous, he took upon himself the sorrow. He was plunged. into the waters
of death, voluntarily. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. The just came for the unjust
the righteous for sinners the innocent for the guilty he suffered
for sins that he might bring us his people to God he went there by choice because
he loved his own because he loved a people like you and I sinners
wretches, rebels, hard-hearted, the guilty, the vile, the condemned,
those who rejected him, those who hated him, and those who
with their own hands took him and crucified him. he set his
love upon them. You my friend, believer, with
your sin, with your rebellion, with your hatred of God, took
his son when you despised his gospel. You took his son when
you rejected the truth. You took his son when you lived
for self, and you took him and pierced him and crucified him. You said in your heart, away
with this man, crucify him. You said in your heart, there
is no God. You said in your heart, I'll
live forever. And you put him to death. You
rejected him. but He came for those that hated
and rejected Him. And although we did that to Him,
He died in love for us that we should live forever. Oh, the
grace of God that He came for those that put Him to death. You today may still in your heart
be piercing the Son of God. You may still be kicking Him
in the face. You may still be trampling His
blood underfoot. You may still be turning aside
unto your own ways and shutting your ears to the truth. But if
you're His and He came for you, one day these words will come
into your ears and open them up. That He loved you when you hated
Him. That He died for you when you
put Him to death. That He suffered for you, that
you should live forever. Oh, what our sins did to Him.
What sorrows they brought upon Him. What waves of destruction
they brought over his head. What horrors they brought into
his soul. To Samuel 22, David writes prophetically
of Christ. When the waves of death compassed
me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of
hell compassed me about, the snares of death prevented me. These words are recorded in the
Psalms. The sorrows of death compassed
me, Psalm 18, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed
me about, the snares of death prevented me. Psalm 116, the sorrows of death
compass me and the pains of hell get hold upon me I found trouble
and sorrow God put David through such a circumstance in his life
through such sorrow and loss and tragedy He brought him so
low that David himself experienced something of the sorrows of death
and the terrors of hell, that he could write in such a way,
knowing what Christ would suffer for him. He could write by the
Spirit of God what Christ suffered and felt. When Christ came, when
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross, when he once suffered for sins, the just for
the unjust, this is what it cost him, this is what he felt, the
sorrows of death. The waves of death compassed
him. The sorrows of hell compassed
me about. The snares of death prevented
me. He was alone upon the cross. He was alone in the darkness. He felt the weight of the guilt
of every child of God throughout all time. All the sins of all
His people were laid upon Him. All the wrath of God against
every sin of everyone throughout all time poured down upon the
Saviour. The sorrows of death encompass
me. All that we fear death came upon
him. All the wrath of God, all the
judgment, all the fires of death, eternal death, eternal damnation
came upon the Savior as He hung upon the cross, held up between
heaven and earth, alone. When even His Father had to turn
aside because of what Christ was made to be, because of what
he bore. He was made sin. He bore the
sins of all his people. He was guilty from head to toe. And God cannot look upon sin. He cannot have fellowship with
a sinner. His wrath poured out against
his own son because his own son hung there as the guilty one. The sorrows of death came upon
him and he hung there because he would voluntarily suffer death
in order to deliver his people from the fear of death. and the
bondage and the captivity which all their lifetime they were
subject to. He would deliver them. He would
deliver them from him that had the power of death. That is the
devil. The devil's got his grip on us
because he holds death in his hands to bring us down to where
he is. To bring us down to hell below. He'll take every one of us with
him if he can. But Christ conquered him. Christ
destroyed him. Christ stood on the serpent's
head and though that serpent bit Christ's heel and bruised
him, Christ destroyed that serpent. He destroyed our enemy. He destroyed our adversary. He
destroyed death. He conquered it. Oh what a conqueror. What a saviour Christ is. When he went to that place it
was not the end. It was not tragedy. It was deliverance. It was salvation. He wrought
a finished work. He came and he delivered us from
so great a death. And he doth deliver. In whom
we trust that he will yet deliver us. He delivered us from so great
a death. And his people He doth, He has,
and He will deliver. There is nothing that lies before
the believer's gaze that they need fear. If you've been brought
to hear this truth, if you've been brought to behold Christ
crucified for you, if you've been brought to see His love
for you that took Him to that place, that took Him to suffer
in your stead, then though your journey through this world may
not be over, though you may yet pass through that point of time
when you enter eternity, you have nothing to fear, because
He suffered the sorrows of death for you. There's nothing that
will come upon you. When you come to stand before
God, you will come into His presence clothed in the blood of the Lamb
of God. That blood that was shed upon
the cross that day washes us from every sin. We will enter
eternity. Believer, you will enter eternity
and stand before God righteous. and you will see the Saviour
upon His throne. And He will not sit there in
condemnation, in judgment of you, but you will see His smiling
face and know that you stand in Him before God, righteous,
with an everlasting life. Sin is no more, nowhere to be
seen. As far as the east is from the
west, it's gone. It's nowhere to be seen. He's
delivered us from so great a death because he's taken our sin away. Taken it away. All we see now is Jesus. We see Jesus. who was made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. For it became him for whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. We see Jesus. We see him now
by faith. We will see him then with our
own eyes, our saviour who tasted death for us. We read in 2 Timothy, but is
now made manifest by the appearing of our saviour Jesus Christ who
have abolished death and have brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. He's abolished death. He's taken
it away. He's blotted it out. He's destroyed
it. He's destroyed it. We read of this in 1st Corinthians
15 how Christ died the first man, the first man Adam of the
earth of whom we are the offspring was earthy was a sinner and we
died in him. But the second man, Christ, the
Lord from heaven, came to this world and took upon him flesh
and blood in order that he might rise from the dead and we in
him, in order that he might deliver us from death, in order that
we might be raised again with him in that resurrection to come.
Behold, I show you a mystery, Paul writes. We shall not all
sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, 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. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The sting of death is sin. Christ took it away. The strength
of sin is the law. Christ delivered us from it.
Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Death has no fear for those in
Christ. The fear of death is no bondage
for those in Christ. The law is no bondage for those
in Christ. We've been delivered from sin
delivered from condemnation, delivered from the law, delivered
from death. We are alive in Christ alone. And we are because, and solely
because, of the love, the mercy, and the grace of God. There's
only one thing that can deliver us from death. There's only one
thing that can deliver us from the fear of death and its bondage
and that is the grace of God. We cannot deliver ourselves and
we do not deliver ourselves. We choose death. We choose sin. We choose corruption. Such is our nature. Such is the
deadness of our nature. Such is the folly of our way.
We choose a path that leads unto destruction. We go our own way,
heading to the grave. It may fill us with fear. It
may place us under bondage. But every time we hear of God,
we go that way. That's our foolishness. There's
only one thing that will deliver us from it. God's grace through
His Son in His Gospel. What a mercy it is if God comes
unto us in time and points us unto His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a mercy if He comes unto us and makes the Gospel
known unto us. What a mercy if He gives us ears
to hear it. Eyes to behold Christ by faith. What a mercy if he changes our
hearts, grants us repentance, turns us from our own way, our
own wisdom, to look under Christ. What a mercy if he sets his grace
upon us. I'm thankful for the grace of
God. I'm thankful for the grace of God which brings salvation.
I'm thankful that my salvation stands in nothing but that grace.
Not my understanding, not my wisdom, not my learning. Salvation does not stand in how
much I have sought God out. It does not stand in how much
I have read the word. It does not stand in my wisdom
upon the scriptures or my understanding of doctrine. It does not stand
in my discernment or my readiness to sacrifice. It does not stand
in how willing I have been. to turn from this or turn to
that. It does not stand in how self-sacrificing
I am. It does not stand in how understanding
I might be of the right way and the wrong way. It does not stand
in my wisdom upon the scriptures. in my wisdom and discernment
regarding every error and every deception which has come in to
the churches and to Christendom over the generations. My salvation
does not stand in my wisdom in this world, in my discernment
of what is right or wrong in my journey. My salvation does
not stand in whether I vote for this man or vote for that man.
whether I think this or think that, on whether I discern the
signs of the times or the events of the times, whatever we may
do, whatever we are, our salvation does not stand in it, nor is
it added to by it. God saves sinners. My salvation
stands in the grace of God in Jesus Christ. All that we are,
all that we think and all that we do is sin and has brought
us under death and condemnation. All that we are, all that we
think and do leads us away from God. But all
that he does for his people through Christ in his gospel delivers
them from sin, from condemnation, from the law, from hell, from
the power of the devil, it takes them and plucks them out and
brings them into everlasting life. O believer, we are nothing
but what we are in Christ. All we have is from Christ alone. All we are is in Christ alone. And our only reason for being
here in this world is to know Christ, to behold Christ, to
speak of Christ, to declare His grace unto others, to follow
Christ. Turn from this world in which
there's nothing but death. Turn from this world and its
wisdom which leads under condemnation. Turn from time and the things
of time, the events of time, the distractions of time, under
Christ alone. For he came for sinners to deliver
them from sin, death, the world, condemnation, the devil, themselves
into everlasting life. O death, Where is thy sting,
O grave? Where is thy victory? Amen.