Ezekiel chapter 33, verses 10
and 11, and Isaiah chapter 55. And this is my titles. We find
it here in our first text, Why Will You Die? Why Will You Die? And then my second text and second
title is this, Here and Live. Here and Live. Why will you die? Let's read our text here in Ezekiel
chapter 33 and verse 10. Look at it. Wherefore, O thou
Son of man, speak unto the house of Israel. Thus ye speak, saying,
If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine
away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live,
saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye,
turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house
of Israel?" The Lord confronts us with this question. He absolutely
confronts us with this question. And he does that because you
and I won't face this question ourselves. If there's anything
that you and I avoid thinking upon, it's this subject of death. Why will you die? I don't even
want to think about death. I don't want to think about dying.
It frightens me. It's even repulsive to me. But
the Lord forces us, as it were, to confront this whole concept
of dying and death. And then not only does He force
us to confront the fact of it, but the cause of it. Why will
you die? I'd much rather talk about living.
I love living. I love life. I don't like death. And our generation has gone a
great length to try to soothe people and comfort people and
prepare people for the fact of dying. I remember when my dad
was dying, they had this particular group of people that came in
and cared for him. And one of their missions was,
if you so desired, that they would mentally, emotionally,
prepare you for death. And one of the ways that they
did that by telling us that death was a natural thing, that we
should embrace death and even invite it. Death is a natural
thing. But death is not a natural thing. If death was a natural thing,
why do we dread it? Why do we dread that moment,
perhaps, that we go to the doctor and they take us and put us on
the bed and do surgery upon us and come out and say, I'm sorry,
there's nothing we can do. I have known strong men who were
jolted when they got that message. I'm sorry, there's nothing we
can do. Death is not a natural thing. Death is our enemy. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. And as far as welcoming death,
or inviting death, or receiving death, what options do we have? It's not like we have any options. We can't stay the hand of death. It's not like we can build a
wall to keep it out. Death doesn't come invited, it
comes uninvited. It's the king of terrors. When it's time that you and I
face that appointment, death comes. We have no weapons to
fight against it. It breaks in upon us irresistible
and it takes us. The Lord confronts us with this.
There is something so mysterious about death. And I think this
shows us that God did not make us to die. He made man to live. That is why we fight it with
the last breath that we have. And I think it is more evident
than anything that God made us to live that we cannot believe
that we are going to die. There's something in us, and
you know what I mean, I can't explain it, but you feel about
death the same way I do. I don't believe, really, that
I'm going to die. I see people around me dying,
I read it in obituaries, but yet I cannot receive into my
conscience the fact that I'm going to die. That's how foreign
and alien death is to us. But the Lord brings us back here,
and He won't let us get away from the fact of it. You're going
to die. Why will you die? And you know
death comes to old, it comes to young, it comes to the poor,
and it comes to the rich. I heard a man say the other day,
he was talking about the most wealthy queen that England had
ever known. And she was laying and dying.
And she said, all my wealth for one more day. And she died. All my wealth. We're going to
die. And death comes uninvited, but
it comes irresistible. Let me write quickly, before
I go to my second text, tell you and remind you of these deaths
that are spoken of in the scriptures. There are several kinds of deaths
spoken of in the scripture. First of all, we have physical
death. In Adam, all die. A physical death is simply when
the life leaves this body, when the soul and the body are finally
severed. We put the body back in the dirt,
and the soul takes its flight to its long home. Physical death. When you and I are born into
this world, we're born with this seed of death in us, and we begin
to die. They tell us if the body didn't
replenish itself that we'd die soon. We're dying while we live. Physical death. Physical death. And then secondly, there's another
death. You and I looked at it just last
Sunday morning. And that is spiritual death.
You who were dead in sins, has He quickened. To be dead in sins. When Adam had sinned against
the Lord, before he had sinned against the Lord, the Lord said
to him, the day that you eat of this fruit, you'll die. The
day you disobey Me, you'll die." Well, Adam lived over 900 years
after he ate that fruit. Finally, he died physically,
but the Lord was speaking first and foremost of this spiritual
death. When you sin against Me, sin
will bring death. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men. Death is a passing thing. Spiritual
death is a passing thing. It passed from Adam and Eve.
It passed from Adam to his wife. And from Adam to his children,
to his grandchildren. And it passes to us. Why are
you and I dead in trespasses and sins until the Lord gives
us life? Because Adam sinned. By one man,
sin entered into the world, and death by his sin, and so death
passed upon all men." Dead in trespasses and sin. And then
along the line of that, the Scripture talks about another death. Physical
death, dead in sins. And the Lord Jesus told the Jews
one day, He said, except you believe that I am He. You shall die in your sin. That's another death. And that's
a horrible death. A man can face physical death
if he's been raised from the spiritual grave. You and I can
face eternity. We can face the judgment of God
if we've been given life eternal. If we've been delivered from
that spiritual death, But if a man dies in his sins, from
that death there is no deliverance. And that death is so horrible
because it's there that the wages of sin begins to be paid. The judge says it's time now
to pay your fine. What is the wages of sin? It's
death. Separation from God. Brother
Glenn read it to us this morning. The rich man died. And he died
in his sins. And in hell he lifted up his
eyes. And what did he do? He cried. He cried. Maybe for the first time in that
man's existence, he cried. He never cried before. He was
a strong man. Strong in his constitution. Nothing
got him down. Nobody ever saw that man cry. But in hell he cries. Why? There's no God there. There's
no life there. There's no mercy there. All that's
there is eternal separation from God. All that's there is torment. Payment for sin. Why will you
die? Then the Scripture talks about
another death, and this has to be the most horrible death of
all. We are told about in Revelation
chapter 20, I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on this
throne was so bright and so glorious and holiness that the heavens
and the earth fled. from His presence, and there
was found no place for them. And death gave up the dead that
were in them, and death and hell delivered up the dead that were
in them, and they all stood before Him to be judged. And the books
were opened, and another book was opened, which was the book
of life, and the dead were judged out of those things that were
written in the book according to their works. And the Scriptures
make this awful, fearful statement. Whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." This
is the second death. That's the final death. And for
all eternity to be swallowed up in death. No wonder the Lord
faces us with this question. No wonder He brings us here and
says, you're going to have to face this. Why will you die? Die you shall, but why will you
die? And he gives us the reason for
it here in my text in verse 10. Look at this. Therefore, O son
of man, speak unto the house of Israel. Thus speak you, saying,
If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we fade
away in them, how should we then live? All of these deaths that
I spoke to you about, all of them have one cause, and you
know what it is? It's sin. If our sins be upon
us, how can we live? We cannot. If God should mark iniquity against
us, how can we stand? We cannot. We cannot. Sin is the cause of our temporal
trouble. Sin is the cause of our eternal
trouble. Sin brings death. Is there a
remedy for death? Is there a remedy for this horrible,
eternal condition that you and I face? Is there a remedy? There is a remedy. There is a
remedy. And God does not face us with
death just to torment us. He doesn't bring us to the reality
of this just to make us afraid and leave us there in our fear.
He brings us to this in order to reveal to us that there is
indeed a remedy. There is a remedy for our death. Now look over at it in chapter
55 of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 55. Here's the remedy. Look what he says in verse 3. Incline your ear and comment
to me Here it is. Here and your soul shall live. There's a remedy for death. And
what is it? Here and your soul shall live. Who's he talking to? He tells
us in verse 7. The very same people that he
was talking to in Ezekiel chapter 33. Let the wicked forsake his
way. and the unrighteous man his thought,
and let him return unto the Lord, and he'll have mercy upon him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." The very same people.
And he says, listen, the remedy for your death is not found in
yourself. Your ways are evil. To find life, you must turn from
your way. You must turn to Me. You must
come to Me. Life is in Me. Now, somebody
asked the question, Bruce, how do I come to Him? How can I return
to Him? I don't know how. I've tried
to come. I've tried to turn. I don't know
how to turn. I don't know how to come. Well, He gives us this wonderful
Word. You know what it is to come to
Christ? It's to hear Christ. You know
what it is to believe in Christ? It's to hear Christ. You know
what it is to turn to God? It's to hear God. I love this word, hear, because
it's the same as coming. It's the same as turning. It's
the same as believing. We have some words in the Bible,
and though they're different words, they mean the same. Coming
to Christ and believing in Christ is the very same thing. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. And the reason I love this word
here, you know why I like this word here so much. Because it brings us together
this morning. And it says, sit down and forget
about doing anything. You just come in and sit like
you are this morning. Get doing out of your mind. Quit thinking of doing something
or doing anything and just sit and hear. And that's the way you'll live.
Here and your soul shall live. Ain't that wonderful? Ain't that simple? And that's
the remedy. Here and your soul shall live. You don't live by doing. We can't get this out of our
heads, can we? We don't live by doing. We live
by hearing. Hear, and your soul shall live. Turn from your ways and live. Life is not in your way. What
is your way? It's doing. And everything you
do is sinful. Everything you do has got sin
mixed with it. You must turn from your way of
doing. If you want to live, you must
hear. Hear. The angel appeared to Cornelius,
that centurion, that Roman soldier, and he said, you send up to Jerusalem,
over to Joppa, for Peter, the apostle Peter. And he is going
to tell you words whereby you and all your house can be saved.
Ain't that amazing that we are saved by words? And he went out in the neighborhood
and got all of his family together, all of his relatives, and says,
You've got to be at this worship service. You dare not miss this worship
service. And I bet you he sent soldiers
out. I bet you he sent his faithful relatives out. You make sure
that one's here, and you make sure that one's here, because
we're going to hear words that will save our souls. And there
he was, and the house was full of people, and Peter came in
the door. And the first thing Cornelius said to Peter was,
We're all here to hear. He shall tell thee words. And
while Peter was preaching, that our Lord Jesus had died upon
the cross, and God had raised Him and set Him in His own right
hand. And through Him was forgiveness
of sins. And the Bible said, they that
heard, the Holy Spirit fell upon them. They were just said it
like you and me. And they heard. Brothers and
sisters, there is life eternal. And you hear it. You hear it. What do we hear? Look back over
here in chapter 53. If you sometimes get your concordance
out and you go through this book of Isaiah, and this is one of
Isaiah's favorite words, is hearing. The book begins like this. Listen
to this. Hear, O heavens, and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord has spoken. Hear, the Lord has spoken. Give
ear and hear my voice, and hear my speech. In that day shall
the deaf hear the words of the book. I left that passage. The
deaf shall hear. How can a deaf man hear? Well,
he does. And you and I are born into this
world spiritually deaf, and there comes a time when we hear, and
what do we hear? The words of this book. The book. The book. You shall hear a word behind
thee, saying, This is the way. This is the way. You'll hear
a word behind you saying, this is the way. The ears of them
that hear shall hearken. People try to hearken before
they hear. Hearing is hearkening. Come near you nations to hear
and hearken you people. Let the earth hear. Hear ye death,
and look ye blind, that ye may see. And he closes with this. Here's the way he closes. Hear
the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word. We begin
with, Hear, O heavens, for the Lord has spoken. And he ends
with, Ye that fear this word, hear this word. And right here
in the middle he says, Hear, and your soul shall live. What
do we hear? Well, if you're in Isaiah chapter
53, look at this. Isaiah chapter 53. Now, what
you and I have to be so careful with is this. When we say, hear
the words of this book, there are words in this book that are
not words of life. This is the words of life, but
there are words in here that's not life at all. But it's words
of death and cursing. It commands you and I to do certain
things that we cannot do. But we'll be judged and condemned
and even cursed for not doing them. Love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul,
with all your strength, and love your neighbor the same way as
yourself. You continue in that from the
cradle to your grave, in your motives, in your thoughts, in
your words, in your deeds. Love God with all your heart.
Don't deviate from that commandment. And when you do that, you shall
live. This do and you shall live. But
as soon as you and I try to do that, what do we see? We see
sin mixed with everything we do, don't we? And we're cursed. Cursed is every man that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the Lord to do them.
But then there are words in this book that are words of life that
don't command us to do anything, but hear these words and live. It tells us that the doing has
already been done. And when we hear these words,
when we hear them, we live. And here in Isaiah chapter 53,
here's these words of life. Look here what he says. Look
here in chapter 53. This blessed old prophet began
there in verse 1 and said, you know, he complained, Lord, who's
heard our report? Who's heard it? Who's heard it
in their hearts? Who's believed it? Who's heard
it? He's complaining about that. What is it? What is his report? Well, look at it in verse 6.
Let me just show you three things right here, right quickly. Look
in verse 6. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every last one
of us, to our own way. And what kind of way is it? It's
an evil way. Might as well have been honest
about it, hadn't we? Be honest about it. Ain't no
sense denying it any longer. Ain't no sense, brothers and
sisters. Ain't no sense, my friend. Listen,
there's no sense in deceiving ourselves about this. We're not
walking parallel with God by nature. It ain't that someday
we just need to step over in God's path and walk on with Him. No. God is going this way. We're going this way. We have
turned to our ways, and our ways are evil. They're sinful. And
they're the ways of death. And look at this. The Lord hath
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Do you remember why He said
we're going to die? Do you remember what caused death?
If our iniquities be on us, if our sins are left on us, how
can we live? That's our problem at it. That's
why we die. Well, look at this. Look at this
glorious passage. God hath taken our iniquities
from us and laid them upon His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who but God could do such a thing?
I can't take my sins and put them upon Him. But God can, and
God did. Before you and I were ever born,
before we ever committed a sin, 2,000 years ago, upon the cross
of Calvary, God took our sins and put them upon His blessed
Son. You hear that? You ever hear
such a thing? I'll be honest with you, I was
23 years old before I heard this. I thought I heard it. If somebody
told me about Jesus, oh yes, I know something about Jesus.
I didn't know about Jesus. I kept trying to put my sin off
by doing good works and make restitution and making promises. Let me live one more day and
I promise you, That's not the way God gives life. Here's the
words of life. My sin was put on somebody else. God put them on Him. Can you
hear that? Can you hear that? Here's the second fact. What
happens when God puts our sin on Him? Look in verse 4. Surely He hath borne our griefs,
And He has carried our sorrows. We did esteem Him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. And look in verse 8. He was taken
from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of My people
was He stricken. Look in verse 9, "...he made
his grave with the wicked, with the rich in his death. He has
done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet
it pleased God to bruise him. He has put him to grief." Why? Look at this, "...when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sins." Can you hear that? God took your sins, dear soul,
if you can hear it this morning, and put them upon His blessed
Son. And now He punishes His Son for your sins. God smites Him. God will smite
sin wherever He finds it. He is no respecter person, not
even with His blessed Son. He smote Him and brought Him
to the dust of death and made His soul an offering for sin. Now look in verse 11. This is
what God saw. God saw the travail of His soul,
the soul of the Lord Jesus. And look at this. And shall be
satisfied. Satisfied. By His knowledge,
by Him knowing us, by our knowing Him, He shall justify many, for
He shall burn their iniquities. He justifies them from everything,
from all of their sins. He's satisfied. Can you hear that? Can you open your book and just
look at that? and look at it until you finally
hear it. When you hear it, you have life. Without moving a muscle, without
walking an aisle, without paying any tithes, without going to
the baptistry, if you hear this, you live. There are certain messages I've
heard, probably have come on one hand in my life, and I'm
thinking about it right now. The last few messages I preached,
I can't get away from the message that Brother Thomas preached.
And he was talking about this very thing. About Jesus Christ
by Himself purging our sins. And he went and sat down there
on the right hand of God because the work is finished. And this
word here says that God is satisfied. And Brother Thomas made this
statement about this. He said, you go into heaven.
And you ask the Father concerning His Son and what He did upon
the cross. And you say, Father, are you
satisfied? And He says, I'm satisfied. And
you ask the Son, how do you feel about what you did? And He says,
I'm satisfied. And you ask the Holy Spirit,
how do you feel about what the Lord Jesus did? And He says,
I'm satisfied. And you ask the spirits of those
just men in heaven that's looking upon the face of the Lord Jesus,
and you ask them what they think about His death and sin burying.
And they'll tell you, we're satisfied. And Brother Thomas says, ain't
it strange that everybody else is satisfied but you? You struggle with your guilt
and you won't rest. You struggle with your doubts,
and you've got all these questions. And your whole problem is this,
you're not satisfied with Christ and His work upon the cross.
God is satisfied with it, the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit,
the saints are satisfied with it, but you're not satisfied. Ain't that strange? There's life
in these words. These are words of life. Hear
it. Hear it. The Lord Jesus was preaching
to the Jews there in John chapter 6. And He kept making this statement. He said, I'm the bread that comes
down from heaven and gives life to the world. Your fathers eat
manna, He said, out in the wilderness and they all died. But I'm the
bread that comes down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and
not die. He that eateth of this bread,
he shall live forever." And then he went on to tell them what
that bread was. The bread that I give you is
my flesh, which I give for the life, he said, of the world.
And they couldn't hear that. They said, this is a hard saying.
Who can hear it? How can this man give us his body to eat? and his blood to drink. He said,
if you don't eat my body and drink my blood, you have no life
in you. And they were offended in that.
And he said, your whole problem is this. You're taking me literally. It's not going to do you any
good. He said, if you take my flesh and eat my flesh, I could
drain the blood out of my body and you drink it. That won't
do you any good." He said, you're misunderstanding me. You're not
hearing what I'm saying. He said, I'm talking about my
broken body. My body that's broken for your
sins. My blood that's poured out to
atone for your sins. And then he made this wonderful
statement. This is what we're talking about this morning. He
said, the words I speak unto you, They are Spirit. Isn't that what we need, brothers
and sisters? That we need something outside
of ourselves. We need something to go through
these ears and reach our spirits. Flesh and blood cannot reach
our spirits. We are dead spiritually. We need
spiritual life. And you know the Lord Jesus comes
down from heaven and He preaches to us and He said, the words
I have for you, they are Spirit. and their life, their life. Hear them and you'll live. And
they all went away. They said, we can't hear it.
And they went away. What would have happened if they
would have heard? They would have lived. But they
went away and died. And the Lord Jesus turned to
Peter and He said, Peter, will you go away? And Peter said,
Lord, I can't go away. You have the words of eternal
life. Ain't that what this book is
to you? When you look in here, who do
you see? You see Him upon the cross, don't you? You see your
sins have been punished. You see your sins have been put
away by His precious blood. And you read that God is satisfied. And you rest right there. You
say, I heard it. Oh, I heard it. How many people
have been sitting, like we are this morning, in their dead and
trespasses and sins, and suddenly they lived, and their testimony
was this, I heard this morning, I heard for the first time in
my life, I heard, and the words of our Master proved true. They
lived. They lived. The gospel, my brothers and sisters,
The Gospel, my dear friend, is not what we think it is. We think
the Gospel is doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing. The Gospel
is hearing what has already been done. I hope you can hear it
this morning. I hope you hear it. The last words that the Apostle
Paul spoke to the Jewish nation It was so sad. Found in Acts chapter 28, and
here's what he got them together, and here's what he said to them.
He said, the heart of this Jewish people are waxed gross. Their
ears are dull of hearing, their eyes they've closed. Lest at
any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their hearts, and be converted, and
I should heal them. And then he makes this statement
to them. He said, Be it known unto you that the salvation of God is
sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it. The gospel is to
be heard. It comes right where you are.
And it doesn't ask you to do anything but hear and live. I'll close with this. If you leave here this morning
dead in trespasses and sins, after I've instructed you as
I have, I'll give you four quick reasons
as to why. First of all, you ain't believe
the word I told you. You ain't believe God. You ain't believe God. If you
leave here without life this morning, it's because you haven't
believed God. You can't blame Him. I take no
pleasure in the death of the wicked. I want Him to hear and
live. But you leave here lost because
you don't believe Him. That's the only reason I know
of. You don't believe him concerning
the testimony of yourself. He says, let the wicked, and
you want all that to be you. I'm bad, but I'm not that bad
now. Let the wicked forsake his evil
way. Now wait. I know I've done some
bad things, and I've told some lies and some other things, but
evil ways, You won't come to Him and say,
Lord, You've judged me truthfully. I'm wicked and my ways are evil.
You don't believe His testimony concerning Himself. He has a
right to judge you. And He has a right to judge you
according to justice and holiness. He's too holy to look on sin.
He must tell you the truth about yourself and Himself. And you
won't believe the testimony concerning His Son. You're not satisfied
with Him. Last time I talked to my dad
that I could remember about the Lord Jesus and having His righteousness,
you know what he told me? I'd be scared to death to stand
before God without something in my arm. And this, neglect. Neglect. I bet you no lost person will
walk out that door this morning shaking his fist at God. There
won't be nobody going out that door shaking a fist and cussing
heaven. Most people do not intend to
die in sins. Most people say in their hearts,
someday, someday I'm going to get serious about seeking the
Lord. Someday I'm really going to seek Him. But they never do. They're like
Felix. When I have a more convenient
season, I'll call for you. They neglect, they neglect, they
neglect until death comes. Neglect. Man don't have to be
in direct opposition to God and manifest it and go cussing heaven. Just neglect. How shall we escape? if we neglect the greatest of
us. And lastly is this, why will you die even after hearing of
this message? Just flat out rebellion. You
will not come to me. I stretched out my hand. You
know what happens every time we gather as we are right now
this morning. You know what God's doing. He's stretching out His
hand. What just happened this morning?
God stretched out His hand in it, stretched out a hand of mercy
and grace with words of life. He didn't have to meet with us
here this morning, but He has with words of life. But you know
what He says? No man regarded. I sent you counsel
and you rejected it. You despised knowledge. You hated
knowledge. You hated me. You stopped your
ears, you closed your eyes, you hardened your heart. And now
death has come. And now I'm going to laugh at
you. Now it's me to laugh. It's my time now. Now you're
going to pray, have mercy, and I'm going to neglect you. I dealt
with you honestly and sincerely. I called a poor old man to preach
to you the gospel of life. And you wouldn't listen. And
now I ain't going to listen to you. Oh, ain't that awful? Ain't
that awful? Why will you die? Don't die. Don't die. May God give you ears
to hear this morning. Let's pray.