Thank you, brother. Thank you. Several years ago, I received
a telephone call from my dear friend, God's faithful servant,
Brother Rupert Reichenbach. His youngest daughter had a newborn
baby, and she went out One night, committed suicide. Brother Henry
Mahan and I flew down for the funeral with a couple of other
friends. And at the funeral, the only
thing Brother Rupert said that I recall, I'm sure he must have
said another thing or two, but he said, we have come here to
kiss the hand of God's providence. Let us kiss the hand of God's
providence. He does all things well. Back
in 1969, Brother Henry Mahan's oldest son, Robbie, volunteered
to go fight for his country in Vietnam. Landed in Vietnam the
day he landed on his way to the base. Truck he was in struck
by enemy fire and he was killed. News came out in the local paper
in Ashland and one of the well-worshiping, God-hating babblers, pastor of
one of the churches there, called Henry the next day. He said,
where's your God now? He said, my God is right where
He was the day my boy was born. He's on His throne. Our God and our Father does all
things well. The Son of God came into this
world, took on Himself our nature that He might destroy the works
of the devil and that He might deliver us from our sins and
that he might deliver us who all our lifetime were subject
to bondage from the fear of death. Turn with me to Psalm 116. I didn't find out until just
a few minutes ago that Virginia died last night in that accident
or that she began to live last night in that accident. I got
a call earlier this morning by the Lindsay Campbell's mother
who took a fall several weeks ago, and we've been praying God
would take her. He took her earlier this morning. Just a few weeks earlier, I had
the responsibility of preaching the funeral for a woman who died with no hope in her
old age. That's a tough task. But to speak of the death of
God's saints, that's not tough at all. Are you afraid to die? If you are without Christ, you
have every reason to be. The wrath of God's on you. Judgment awaits you. Hell awaits
you. You will be rised to flee for
refuge to the Son of God right now. But for the believer, death
is another thing altogether. For the believer, there's no
such thing as death. Isn't that what our Lord told
Martha? He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth on me shall
never die. I have no anticipation of dying. One of these days, this tent
will be worn out. It will have served all its purposes
and God will fold it up and I'll rejoice. But I have no idea of
dying. And let me tell you why. Psalm
116. I love the Lord. And this is the reason why. I've
experienced His grace because He hath heard my voice
and my supplications. John said we love Him because
He first loved us. And we come to know His love
for us in the sweet experience of His grace when we are by His
Spirit compelled to call upon Him for mercy. to seek life and
salvation from Him. And I'll tell you when you will
call upon Him, when you will make your supplications to Him.
Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I
call upon Him as long as I live. Because He bent over and listened
to me, I'll worship Him as long as I live. That's what it is
to call on the name of the Lord. It is to worship Him. Verse 3,
the sorrows of death compassed me. Do you know anything at all about
that? The sorrows of death compassed
me. Like Jonah spoke in the belly
of the whale, he was compassed about with the hand of God. The
sorrows of death, death in my soul, compassed me. I was made by God's grace and
mercy to see what I am by nature. made by God's grace to taste
death in my soul, to taste his fierce anger and his wrath. And I was brought low. The sorrows
of death compassed me. When I was a young man, 15, 16 years old, during that year,
and the next until just before God saved me. I was so utterly miserable, so
utterly miserable with the sorrows of death, the pains of death,
the pains of a guilty, tormenting conscience. If it hadn't been
for just the fear of hell, I would have committed suicide. Have
you ever been shut up? to your own condemnation, I promise
you, you will never seek God's mercy till he shuts you up to
what you are under the curse of his holy law. Now, I've never
experienced anything like that, Brother Don. I just decided one
day I'd accept the Lord and decided I'd join the church and decided
I'd start following Jesus and give my life to God. I doubt
it. I doubt it. The sorrows of death
come past me and the pains of hell. I know the passage is talking
specifically about the grave and that which lies beyond the
grave. Laying the body in the grave
like you go bury a dead dog doesn't involve any pain. If that's all there is to dying
is just ceasing to exist, there's not an animal in the world that
avoids it. A good dog, a good dog gets old
enough to die, he or she knows she's going to die, you know
what they'll do? They'll run off and go lay down somewhere.
They're going to lay down somewhere. That's not what it's talking
about. No. No, the pains of hell got a hold on me. I don't know how else to describe
what the scriptures speak of when it talks about being convinced
of your sin by God the Holy Spirit than the pains of hell. You will never be lifted up to
the joys of life eternal with Christ in heaven until you have
been cast down into hell in your own conscience, with your own
guilt. The pains of hell got hold on
me." Read on. I found trouble and sorrow. then. Oh, blessed misery, blessed sorrow,
blessed pain. My good friend, Brother Harry
Gray, when I was a young man, sitting on his hearth in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, Brother Harry was a good 30 years older than
me. He said, Brother Don, when God the Holy Spirit gets hold
of a man and you see what he's doing, You look at me, you think
I wouldn't treat a mad dog like that. Oh, but then, then called I upon
the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, I beseech thee, deliver
my soul. Now, look at verse one again.
I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplication. because he bent over from heaven
and stuck his ear to my lips and heard me, inclined his ear
unto me. Therefore, I will call upon him
as long as I live. Verse 5. Gracious is the Lord. Oh, how
gracious. eternally gracious, savingly
gracious, and providentially gracious. Always gracious with
his people, gracious when he sends sorrow, and gracious when
he relieves the sorrow. Gracious when he sends misery,
and gracious when he takes the misery away. Gracious when he
cast down and gracious when he lifts up. Gracious when he kills
and gracious when he makes alive. Not only gracious, but righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. He is gracious in righteousness. and exercises his grace only
in righteousness through Christ Jesus the Lord, so that because
of that which Christ has done for us, satisfying all the demands
of God's law and justice, all the demands of righteousness
and truth on behalf of his people by his obedience unto death as
our substitute, the Lord God is gracious and righteous, yea,
he is merciful. merciful through Christ, righteously
and graciously merciful. Read on. The Lord preserveth
the simple. I was brought low, and he helped
me. Now, return unto thy rest, O my soul. What's he talking about? Every time something distresses,
every time something disturbs, every time something happens
that makes you uneasy, every time something comes along that
causes your soul to be disturbed and no longer at rest, return
right here to this. The Lord is gracious. He is righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. What he does is right, and what
he does is good. Read on. Return to Christ, the
Lord God, the rest of your soul, because the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. Shelby and I have had life together of just unceasing
ease. And sometimes that scares me
to death. I have a lot of friends, some
I preach to every week in our congregation, some pastors and
their wives. whose lives are constantly turned
upside down. And let me tell you, my brothers,
my sisters, if you're God's, if you're his, the Lord hath
dealt bountifully with you, and the greatest pain from his
hand is his bountiful dealing with you by one means or another,
some way or another. I don't have any idea how, but
one way or another, he takes that which breaks your heart
and makes it good for your soul. He has always dealt bountifully
with you. He is dealing bountifully with
you and he will yet deal bountifully with you. That's the way of our
God. You know, the Lord has dealt
bountifully with me. For he has delivered my soul
from death, spiritual death, temporal death and the second
death. He died in my place. He took my death and gave me
life. He's delivered mine eyes from
tears and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living. Now, tomorrow, and forever. I believed, therefore have I
spoken. I was greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are
liars. And I read this so many times
over the years and wondered, why is David saying that? The
fact is all men are liars. Romans chapter 3 says so plainly.
But he says I said in my haste all men are liars. I think reading
it in the context this must be what he's saying. I said in the
haste of my judgment about this circumstance of that where this
man and that man and the other man has turned against me, Absalom
turned against me, Ahithophel turned against me, Joab's against
me. Everybody's a liar. Everybody's
against me. I never felt that way. Oh, didn't
you? I don't more than 100 times a
day. I've said in my haste all my lives, that's not so. That's
not so. I'm talking to a congregation
of many women. God's made faithful and true. I talk to folks born of God. I can lean on and trust and depend
on in time of difficulty. Hasty to think you can't. Hasty
to think you're alone in this world. Read on. I said in my
haste, all men are liars. Now what shall I render unto
the Lord for all his benefits toward me? What shall I do for God who done
so much for me? I will take the cup of salvation and worship God and call upon the name of the
Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of his people." Well, we don't make vows. Most of you have. Most of you
have. I made a vow to God and his people
and to the world who heard me 40 years ago. I took my place in the waters
of baptism to confess my Redeemer. And this is what I said, I am
crucified with Christ. I'm dead to this world. dead to judgment, dead to death. And I've risen with Christ. I'm
seated with him in heavenly places. I belong to him, lock, stock,
and barrel. And I will live to Christ. Jephthah made a vow to God. God had given him that great
victory And he said, Lord, I'll give you whatever it is that
meets me, comes forth first out of my door. And he's riding back
to his house full of joy and anticipation. And all of a sudden,
his heart turned to sorrow because there came his only daughter. There came his only daughter. And with tears in his eyes, He
said, I've lifted my hand to God and I can't go back. I've
lifted my hand to God. You did too. And I can't go back. I'm his. Lock, stock, and barrel. Read on. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of his saints. And I'm going to tell you something,
it's getting to be more and more precious to me all the time.
Precious in God's eyes is the death of his saints. How come?
Because they're precious. He chose them and said, you're
precious in my sight. And they had been redeemed with
the precious blood of his darling son. And the Lord Jesus, our
savior, makes this great word of intercession on their behalf.
Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me be with
me where I am that they may behold my glory. We've been reminded again that there is but a breath between
us and eternity, just a breath. Soon you're going
to leave this world and you're going to meet God in all his
holiness, in all the perfection of his glorious being, either
with a beaming smile of approval or the furious wrath of His holy
indignation forever. That's just fact. As your pastor's already said,
at the appointed time, you're leaving here and me too. By the appointed means, I know
you can eat a bale of hay every day the rest of your life and
never eat another piece of red meat I'll tell you how much you're
going to add to your life. Nothing. Nothing. I just feel like I can
do this and improve my life. Forget it. It ain't going to
happen. It ain't going to happen. The body you're sitting here
in was made to die and die it shall. Exactly. as God Almighty
appointed. But what happens after that?
Turn to 2 Corinthians Chapter 5. 2 Corinthians Chapter 5. I'm speaking
now for believers. What happens when they die? The
Apostle Paul, speaking in Verse 17 of Chapter 4, He says, our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal. I wonder if we'll ever learn
that. Reach over and lay your hand
on the person next to you. Husband, wife, do it right now.
That's just temporary. Now, what do you own more precious
than what you got your hand on? It's just temporary. It's a puff
of smoke. We live like ignorant wild beasts
defending their den in a hole in a rock, trying to protect
our wealth and our riches and our property and our possessions
and get more, get all you can and can't all you can get so
you can kiss it goodbye. God teach me. to value nothing
on this earth more than I would value it on the day I have to
leave it. I mean nothing, nothing. God teach me to live every day
as if I knew this were my last. That changed the way we live,
wouldn't it? That changed our priorities real quick, wouldn't
it? Samuel Rutherford said, don't build your nest in any of the
trees of this forest. They're all marked to be burned.
Everything you can see with your eyes is temple. But I'm talking
about things that are eternal. The things which are not seen
are eternal. For we know, we know, that if
our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, We have a building
of God. We have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Most people have
the idea that somehow our dear sister now is floating around
in a ghostly kind of condition, you know, just floating around
in heaven. That's not what they're saying.
As soon as we drop this earthly tabernacle, we have a house not
made with hands, a house of God eternal in the heavens. The believer
Seated with him in that general assembly and church of the firstborn
the heavenly Jerusalem right now It's seated with him in such
a way as is recognized not only recognized by the Lord But in
such a way they recognize one another Moses and Elijah stood
on the Mount of Transfiguration indicating exactly what would
happen with the transfigured Christ himself. And God's people
have a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. Yes,
the day is coming when our Lord will raise these corruptible
bodies in incorruption. And this mortal will put on immortality
being joined to that house. But we have a house right now
as soon as we die. For in this, in this house, we
grow, earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being
clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle, this pup tent, do grow, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclosed,
but closed apart. I don't know how to state this
like it needs to be stated. Forgive me if I mess up here. Sometimes I hear folks joke about
the most serious things, how sad. We all want to die, but
not right now. Let me tell you something. Right
now. Right now. Right this second. Right now. I'm fairly well convinced it's
not going to happen right now. because I'm fairly well convinced
God has some things for me yet to do, but long and want to die
right now. Not that I want to escape trouble
and difficulty and pain. Not that I want to get out of
the woe and misery I bring on myself, but oh, I want to live. To live. To live as I know shall
live in the immortality of everlasting glory. Not to be unclothed, but
clothed upon. That mortality might be swaddled
up of immortality. Read on. Swaddled up of life. He that hath wrought us for the
selfsame thing. Not he that hath wrought for
us the selfsame thing. He that hath wrought us for the
selfsame thing. What? For this thirst, this yearning
to be absent from the body and present with the Lord is God.
Who hath given us the earnest of the spirit. The confident
expectation of eternal life. Therefore, we are always confident,
knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we're absent
from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight. We are confident, I say, and willing, rather, to be absent
from the body and to be present with the Lord. How come? Let me remind you of what will
take place when we are immediately made present with the Lord. Let
me hold out for you that which will make life in this world
appear as it ought to appear, but a brief passing state of
vanity. and life eternal, that which
is real and blessing. What is it for the believer to
die? Why is it that the death of God's
saints is precious? It is because as soon as we close
our eyes in death, we will behold our Redeemer face to face. In all the fullness of His glory. And when we have left this world,
our God will wipe away all tears from our eyes. There'll be no
more sorrow no more sickness, no more pain, no more death,
no more weeping, because there will be no more sin. You mean there won't be any sin
in heaven? That almost goes without saying,
doesn't it? What are you talking about? No more sin. So thorough, so complete, is
the salvation of our souls. When God gets done, John, there
won't even be any regret for anything on this earth. All the
consequences of sin, all the evil consequence of Adam's fall
and our transgressions, gone forever. Gone forever. And where there's no sin, There
could be no sorrow. When we leave this world, children
of God, all our most earnest prayers and intense desires shall
be immediately satisfied. What is it you want? What is
it you want? I mean, really, what do you want? I want to be like my Redeemer soon. I want to be done with sin soon. I want to cease doing harm soon. I've got some friends I'm anxious
to see, soon. I've got some questions I want
answered, soon, soon. I've got some confusing things
I want settled, soon, soon. Somebody wrote to me recently.
An old man, he'd been disturbed because somebody was trying to
argue with him, telling him, we get to heaven, we won't know
each other. And I wrote him back and then I wrote an article dealing
with it. I said, I know Norm Wells now. I'd recognize
me at least that spot when I get to glory. I know him as I ought to know
him, only as he is in Christ. Know her? Oh yeah, I know that
she was my wife, yeah. But that won't matter. That won't
matter. I'll know her only as I ought
to know her, in Christ the Lord. Dying, someone said, is like,
for the believer, it's like taking off a shoe that hurts my feet.
It'll be a welcome relief. Dying is like taking a tool that
has served all its purposes and laying it aside because it has
no more use. That's what death is for the
believer. This body and this time existence in this world
is for the believer only a state in which God uses us in this
frame, in this physical earthly frame to accomplish specific
purposes. And I want to live just as long
is I'm useful to accomplish that purpose, and I want to leave
just as soon as that purpose is done, and I'm going to have
what I want. That's exactly as it shall be. And when I leave this world, the Lord God says, in his sight will be the death
of Don Fortner, his saint. That one he sanctified in everlasting
love unto himself and sanctified unto himself by the precious
blood of his dear son and sanctified to himself by the call of his
spirit in the new birth. and at last sanctified to himself
in heavenly glory. Precious in his sight. Wonder if your death will be. Wonder if your death will be. If you die in Christ it will
be. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord from henceforth and forever. And if you die without
Christ, oh, no mercy, no hope, no grace,
just wrath and judgment forever. Some years ago, someone had this
inscribed on their tombstone. Please view my tomb as you pass
by. For as you are, so once was I. And as I am, soon you shall be. So make your plans to follow
me. And I'll tell you one more thing,
and I'll turn it over to Brother Norman and let him preach. I've
just been talking to you. Old lady making funeral arrangements,
old lady. Called her pastor in, picked
out songs and things she wanted done at the funeral, and she
said to her pastor, who was a young man, last thing she said to him,
said, then be sure, be sure that they put my fork in my hand. And he said, I understand all
this, Why would you want to be buried with a fork in your hand?
She said, well, when we were growing up, we didn't always
have dessert. But when Mama said, keep your fork, I knew something
better was coming. Buried me with a fork in my hand.
Something better's coming.