I received a phone call from
Paul Mahan telling me that Bruce Crabtree's wife, Jo, was diagnosed
with brain cancer. And she was going in Wednesday to
be operated on, and I haven't received any, thing since so
I don't know how she's doing so far but you remember them
in prayer. Also this past week it was my
privilege to get to preach the death of one of our beloved saints
and members of this church, Georgia Fay. And I was asked to keep
the message short by her on believing relatives. And about 15 minutes
is about all they can stand when you're telling them the truth,
and it's so sad. So I use Revelation 14, 13 as
my text, and I decided as I preached that to them that I would work
on that a little bit and bring you the full message instead
of just a 15 minute overview. So if you'll turn with me to
Revelation chapter 14 verse 13. My subject is a blessed death. A blessed death. I want to be very clear in warning
you about facing death outside of Christ. I know that half the
people in this place this morning are young people. And I'm telling
you, I know that you're young and healthy and you're not sick
and so on, but death can come so fast, it can come in an instant. And it can come to the young
as well as the old. And I want to be as clear as
I can be in warning you about facing death outside of Christ. you don't want to die outside
of Christ. It is an absolute impossibility
for a natural man to die a blessed death. Now hear what I'm telling you.
It's an absolute impossibility. There's nothing on his deathbed
to draw any hope, any assurance, any hope for the future after
he's gone. There's nothing there. It's just
emptiness. For a natural man to die a blessed
death except as he's been deceived by false prophets or taken refuge
in the blackness of his nature in a vain imagination. And that's
what I mostly hear at funerals. And it just makes me ill to listen
to folks at funerals spewing out their wicked ideas about
heaven and hell and life in the hereafter. It makes me ill. Why
won't you listen to what I'm saying? Why won't you listen
to what I'm reading? You don't have to die in ignorance. The truth is written in this
book. And the truth is proclaimed from everybody who preaches the
gospel from the pulpit to the people. There's no reason for any man
to go out and face death apart from Christ. And it just makes
me ill when I get down there. One fellow came to me, a very
close relative of hers. And he said, I'm a deacon in
a Southern Baptist church, and we have a fellow there that holds
an office in our church that's been to heaven for an hour. And
when he got back, he wrote a book, 60 Minutes in Ecstasy. I'd rather read a Playboy magazine,
something like that. That just makes me ill. That makes me ill. Listen to
folks spew out all these wicked ideas. I've often heard people
say at their loved one's passing, well, at least it's an end to
their suffering. You hear what I'm saying? Because
you're going to hear it. At the very next funeral, you're going
to hear it. I've never been to a funeral. I haven't heard that
very thought. Well, at least their suffering is over. Not if they're still in their
sins. And I'm gonna tell you something. They would gladly
rush back to their suffering rather than to suffer what they're
suffering now. I want you to listen to what
the scripture says. The scripture says that the unbelieving
rebels shall suffer the vengeance of God's eternal fire. That sound
like an end of suffering to you? Listen to this, and they shall
be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast
and the false prophets are and shall be tormented day and night
forever and ever. That sound like an end of suffering
to you? In Matthew 25 46 our Lord said,
and these shall go away into everlasting punishment. And on more than one occasion
he's intimated this, and on one occasion he actually said it,
it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. I don't know, people got God
the Father pictured as some old white bearded man who just will
just take anybody into his arms and That's not God. That's not God. I hear them talk
about death being a release. Death is not a release to the
unbelieving rebel, but the shackles whereby he is delivered to the
judge, sentenced, and the sentence carried out. Funerals are the place where
ignorant, deceived men breathe out all their imaginations and
superstitious ideas of the hereafter. They picture grandma looking
down on them. Heaven and hell are not what
you think they are. They are what God declares them
to be. That's just so. What is death? Well, death is
an end of hearing. You've heard all you're gonna
hear. It's an end of hearing. Long as you're able to sit in
that seat and you've got someone to stand before you and preach
to you, there's some hope. But there's no hope after you
die. Hearing's over with. Death is an end of hearing. It's
an end of opportunity. No more opportunity of grace.
Oh, that rich man, he begged Father Abraham, he said, send
somebody back to warn my relatives. He said, there's a great golf
fix between you and I. You can't come over here and
we can't come over there. And it wouldn't make any difference
they wouldn't believe it one rose from the dead and one day
and more than one day it's an end of opportunity it's
the end of life darkness that's what he said
over the book of june darkness No light of conscience, no light,
period. And it's the end of mercy. There'd
be no mercy in hell. There's nothing out there right
now, after death, but eternal misery and suffering and separation
from God. My brother, who ended his life
in suicide, once said to me, if I wind up in hell, I'll be
in good company. Oh, no you won't. And there won't
be anything good in hell. You'll be in the blackness of
darkness forever. Mourners of their lost loved
ones are men and women whistling in the cemetery. They're saying
things and hoping things and telling each other things that
are just not so. They're just not so. And I'll tell you something else,
this text does not speak of the blessedness of death. In fact, he calls death the last
enemy. I read it to you a while ago.
The last enemy that shall be put under his feet is death.
There's nothing pleasant about dying. If you're a believer,
there's nothing pleasant about dying. Dying's hard. I've seen
men suffer right up to the very end. Georgia Fay was a mass of
bruises laying there in that bed. Ain't nothing blessed about
that. What he calls blessed is that
man or woman who dies in the Lord. Blessed are they which
die in the Lord. Believers are men and women whose
hopes are all pinned to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't have any
hope apart from Christ. I don't have any hope in my attendance
here, in my willingness to come and preach, in my devotion to
study. I don't have any hope in any
of those things. My hope's all tied up to Him. Somebody asked Brother Mayhem
one time, said, you still saved? He said, I don't know. Is Christ
still on the throne? My hopes are pinned to Him. It's not so much what men and
women believe, although that is important, but it's whom they
believe. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. Now, if you know whom
you have believed, then you know a lot of things about him. To know Him is to know God and
to know God is eternal life. To know Christ is to be blessed
forever because He is God over all blessed forever. Let me give you three things
this morning concerning our text to help prepare us as we're all
on our way to the grave. First of all, let's talk a little
bit about what it means to be in Christ. Why should anybody
think about or listen to someone preach about being in Christ? What does it mean to be in Christ? Well, first of all, to be in
Christ means that God has set his eternal love upon you. That's what that means. This
is my beloved son. in whom I'm well pleased. When
did he get to be beloved? He's always been beloved. Never
was a time when he wasn't beloved. Turn with me to Romans chapter
8. Let me show you something over here. Somebody said beginning
with verse 28 of Romans chapter 8 is the golden chain of assurance. Each one of these things is linked.
God's foreknowledge, his eternal predestination, his justification,
his calling, all of these things are linked together. And they're
all linked around the neck of Christ. In verse 35, he said,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who is this us
that he's talking about? Well, in verse 28, he calls the
us those who are the called according to his purpose. In verse 29,
it's those he foreknew and did predestinate. And as you go on
down, you find out this us is them that he called and justified. Those whom he is for that none
can be against. Those for whom he spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for them all. Verse 33, his
elect whom he justified, his elect for whom Christ died and
rose and now sits in glory, make an intercession for. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation. That's trouble. Trouble gonna
take you away from Christ? Trouble at home, trouble with
your kids, trouble in the world, trouble with income, trouble
with disease. Tribulation going to take you
away from Christ? Your unbelieving relatives despising
you, not inviting you to all their get-togethers. Is that
going to separate you from Christ? Distress, persecution. Famine, nakedness, peril, or
soaring. As it is written, for thy sake
we're killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep for the
slaughter. That is, the world and Satan would kill us at every
opportunity. Every opportunity. They'll spare
no opportunity or occasion to persecute, torment, or cause
us to suffer. But God's sheep are immortal.
until God brings her death to pass. Almost seven years ago, the doctor
came in shaking his head, told my wife she had a year to live. She's still sitting there. Six
years later, cancer came back, the doctor come in and said,
you got three months to live. She's still sitting there. You're immortal until God takes
you out of this world. You've got a purpose in your
being here. You've got a purpose in everything
that comes to pass in your life. And you may not see it here,
but you'll know it there. And so in all things, he said,
we're more than conquerors through him that loved us, for I am persuaded
that neither death, nor light, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us,
now listen, from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus
the Lord. What does it mean to be in Christ?
It means that you're an object of God's love from all eternity. That's what it means. In Ephesians
1, 3, and 4, talking about being blessed of our Father with all
spiritual blessings. He said that this is according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy without blame before Him in love. Now that's
not talking about your before him loving him, although believers
do. But this is talking about being
before him being loved. Being loved. To be in Christ
means to be the object of God's love, which is in Christ Jesus,
the Lord. What does it mean to be in Christ?
It means that God has made provision for us in his son. We didn't
have anything to do with it. Oh, preachers are big on telling
you what you have to do to be saved, how to get saved. You
can't get saved. You didn't have anything to do
with it. Who was his counselor when he made provision for us
in Christ in eternity past? Which one of you was there giving
him advice? Paul asked that question several
times. And God asked it originally to Joel. It means God has made provision
for us. God has saved us. That's what
Paul wrote to Timothy. God saved us. And then he called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. In him, Paul said, dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you're complete in him who
is the head of all principality and power. He tells us in whom, that is
in Christ, in whom we are reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present us holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. There's nothing concerning the
salvation of his elect that's not been made provision for in
his son. And that's why he starts verse
28 off there in Romans 8, saying, for we know, we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. The guarantee of this provision
is the giving of his son upon the cross. In Romans 8.32 it
says, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us
all things? If God spared not his son, what's
he going to spare? He's not going to spare anything. What shall our Father withhold,
seeing He has not spared His beloved Son? And even so, His
death manifests the love of God. Now, what the Scripture said
in this was manifested the love of God, because God sent His
Son into the world that we might live through Him. What does it
mean to be in Christ? Well, thirdly, to be in Christ
means that we're new creatures. We're new creatures. I know people
like to go over and talk about the converted man being a new
creature, and he is. That's all true, but I'm not
sure that's what this verse is talking about. This is talking
about if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. He's a new creature. Second Corinthians 517, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. How's that happen? What's that
talking about? Well, in Adam all died. Is that
right? In Christ shall all be made live.
Old things passed away. You see what I'm saying? When
a man finds out that he's in Christ, that he's in Christ. All of these old things that
the scripture had to say about Adam's race, those things passed
away. Is that right? I'm not represented
in Adam anymore. I'm represented in Christ. I'm not going to bear Adam's
image anymore. I'm going to bear the image of
Christ. Death doesn't reign in me anymore. Righteousness reigns
in me. Grace reigns in me. Every son of Adam is by nature
a child of wrath. He's fallen in his father Adam
and bears his father's image. And certain things apply to him,
certain things that are consistent with his old nature. He will
not receive the things of the Spirit of God. 2 Corinthians
2.14. He's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be, Romans 8.7. He minds the things of the
flesh, Romans 8.5. But those who are in Christ Jesus
are new creatures. Old things are passed away. And
all things are become new. Every natural man who hears the
gospel is unaffected by it. not so with the elect of God.
When he hears the gospel, he's born again. He receives the blessings
of God. God makes known these things
to him. Every natural man hears the same
thing God's elect hears, but finds no hope in it, sees no
glory in it, finds nothing attractive about it. But that beloved man
or woman chosen by God is a new creature in the Savior, and God
has sent his Spirit forth to him. Because he is a son, he's
always been a son, God chose him to be a son, predestinated
him under the adoption of sons. And because he's a son, God sends
forth his Spirit. And that man will cry, Abba,
Father. God loves him and makes him willing
in the day of his power and allows him to see his glory and leads
him to faith and repentance and establishes the truth in him
and shuts him up to Christ. Everything that used to apply
to him has passed away. He now has a hope of righteousness,
a hope of redemption. I don't have any righteousness,
but I do in Christ. I have a perfect righteousness. I don't have anything to pay
for my sins. I couldn't begin to pay for my
sins. But in Him, payment's been fully made and received. Who's
going to lay anything to the charge of God to let God justify
Him? Who's going to condemn Him? Christ
died. You see what I'm saying? The old things passed away. That old false gospel that used
to be attractive to you, now it makes you sick. That old darkness that you walked
in and vanity of your mind, that passed away, it's gone. Now you
see, all things have become new. What does it mean to be in Christ?
It means everything. There's nothing for the sinner
outside of Christ. I know there's men and women
preaching from the pulpit that there's things that they can
have and things that... there's nothing outside of Christ.
Nothing. And I'll tell you this, what
it means to be damned is to be without Christ. You got nothing outside of Christ.
Without are dogs and sorcerers and adulterers Whoremongers. To be without Christ means you're
without a sin offering, without a righteousness, without an intercessor,
without a representative, without any acceptance before God. You
see what I'm saying? What does it mean to be in Christ?
It means everything. It means everything. Alright? Here's the second thing
we need to talk about. How does a poor fallen sinner
get into Christ? Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. Here I am, I'm a sinner. None
good, none righteous. None that understand it, none
that's seeking after God. How do I get in Christ? And here's the only answer I can
find in the scripture. First Corinthians chapter one,
verse 30. But of him, that is of God, are
ye in Christ Jesus. Ain't that what that says? How can a poor sinner get in
Christ? He can't. God puts him in Christ. God put him in Christ. Of God
are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, that
is, those he put into Christ. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. That according as it is written,
he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. Somebody said, well,
you're getting Christ by believing. No, sir. Believing is God letting
you in on what he's already done. That's what believing is. That's
right. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. He tells
us in Ephesians 2, 5, by grace ye are saved. And he has raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ that in ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
He gonna let you in on it. And then he said, four, by grace
are you saved through faith. Faith doesn't, now listen to
me, faith doesn't buy anything, it doesn't accomplish anything,
and it doesn't change anything. Faith simply allows the sinner
to know what God has done for him in Christ. Paul wrote to the Corinthians
He said, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. What's he talking about? He's
talking about things that God's done for you in Christ. That's
what he's talking about. No natural man's ever seen that,
never contemplated it, never... But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things. He knows all things. Well, Pastor, don't faith decide
your destiny? No. God's election and predestination
decide your destiny. Faith just lets you in on it.
Isn't that right? Faith is just the evidence and
earnest of it. Listen to the Scriptures. Because
you're sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts. Didn't make you sons, it just
let you in on it. But doesn't faith justify the
sinner? Isn't that what the whole book
of Romans is about? Faith justifying the sinner?
No. Christ was delivered for our
offenses and raised again for our justification. That's what
it says in Romans 4, isn't it? What is it, verse 25? It's God that justified Christ
that died. Faith is just God revealing to
you what He's already done. My friend, salvation's of the
Lord. It's of the Lord in its design, it's of the Lord in its
accomplishment, in its application, in its preservation, and in its
ultimate perfection. It's all of God. Nobody's gonna
be in glory, glorifying in anything except Christ. Of God are you in, Christ Jesus. And then thirdly, and I'll be
brief, how long shall those he put in Christ be blessed? Religion told me when I was growing
up, religion told me that God can bless me for a little while
and then take the blessing away. Told me that God can save me,
but I can backslide into hell. If God has blessed us before
the foundation of the world with all spiritual blessings in Christ,
how long shall I be blessed? As long as Christ lives. That's right. As long as our
Savior shall live, I shall be blessed. Now listen to this verse
close. Colossians 3.1. If you then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where
Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things of the earth. For you are dead. You're dead. This flesh, this
body, you're dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Blessed forever. In order for you to be cursed,
Christ must be cursed. And he was cursed for me once. He made a curse for me. He's
not gonna be cursed again. If you're blessed of God, you're
blessed forever. You're blessed forever. Everything the believer hopes
for is pinned to the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you're trusting
in Him alone, resting in Him alone, believing that He is the
Christ, the Son of the living God, you're blessed, and this blessedness
extends past your life and past your death, even into eternity. Blessed, he said, are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth. Now we're blessed. We were blessed
before the foundation of the world and we're blessed every
day we live upon this earth. We're blessed. God's merciful
and long-suffering and kind to us who believe. There's a blessedness about the
believer. God preserves him and he's blessed. There in Matthew, how many times
does he go on and say, blessed are they that mourn, blessed.
He didn't say blessed they will be, he said blessed, they are
blessed. They wouldn't mourn if they wasn't blessed. They
wouldn't follow if they wasn't blessed. They wouldn't love if
they wasn't blessed. They wouldn't be merciful if they wasn't blessed.
And that blessedness is in this life, but I'm telling you, once
death takes you from this world, and to be absent from this body
is to be present with the Lord. You're blessed in a way that
you can't even imagine forever from henceforth. There's nothing
but blessedness. No more sin, no more inability,
no more weakness, no more cravings of the flesh, no more being drawn,
drawn aside by this and drawn aside by this and no more weakness
and no more anything. Blessed from henceforth. from henceforth. Yea, saith the
Spirit that they may rest from their labors. What did they labor? What did they do? Salvation,
not by works. What kind of labors he talking
about? Oh, we labor to trust in Him, don't we? We labor to honor Him, to worship
Him, to follow Him, to live for Him. And their works do follow
them. Works done in them and for them
and with them. That's why he looks at the believer
on one occasion and he says, well done, my good and faithful
servant. You can't look in the mirror
at yourself and say that. You can't do that. I will. Because all he sees in you is
what he sees in Christ. That's what he'll say. Well done,
thy good and faithful son. Enter thou in. Enter thou in. But without Christ, what do you
have? Nothing. Nothing. That's why
they call death, and afterwards they call it the second death.
The second death. And the second death is worse
than the first. But he said, blessed are them
who were raised in Christ, the second death doesn't have any
power over them. They have that first resurrection,
and that second death doesn't have any power over them. All right, thank you.