I want to begin this morning
by reading a portion of scripture from the book of Revelation.
I'm going to begin reading in chapter 20 and verse 11. I saw a great white throne, and
him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw
the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were
opened. And another book was opened,
which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books according to their
works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people, and
God himself shall be with them, and shall be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things were passed away. And I saw no temple therein,
for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to
shine in it. For the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the gates of it
shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into
it. And there shall in no wise enter
into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life. Our Father, our God, will you be pleased today to give these eternity-bound
men and women the ability to cast their eyes now away from
the things of time to eternity? Will you be pleased to speak
through your word to the hearts of these immortal souls for their
everlasting good and the glory of your son? We thank you for your wise, adorable,
and good providence. Thank you even for this painful
event that brings us here to this place this hour and forces
us now to number our days. We recognize that we're just
vanity. Will you give us grace to apply
our hearts to Christ who is wisdom, to seek his righteousness and
his cleansing through his precious blood from our deep-seated horrible evil corruption, death
and sin. I ask for Kathy and her children
that you'll be pleased to give them the comfort, peace, resting in your good providence,
recognizing that our God does all things well. These things I ask for Christ's
sake. Amen. I never met Ms. Murphy, you know,
Darvin, Kathy, their children, most of their married lives.
And you can imagine the difficulty of trying to prepare a message
for the funeral of someone you never knew. And I thought about this a good bit
the last several days, and I recognized that what I have to say today
will do absolutely nothing for the woman whose memory we've
come to observe. She lies here in this box, her
body dead. But life is not over. There is
life eternal, and there is a second death in hell. And we will be
wise, very wise, to give consideration to those facts. This woman has
gone to meet God in eternity. Eternity. What a heavy, heavy
word. You and I live in a world where
everything is temporary and changing and vanishing away. We're going
to a world where everything is eternal and unchanging. And whatever our state is when
we leave this world, that will be our state forever. Whatever our condition is when
we leave this world, that will be our condition forever. Last night and this morning,
I spent a good bit of time looking at this statement from the wise
man Solomon. He said, if a tree fall toward
the south or toward the north, and the place where the tree
falleth, there it shall be. And Solomon's not talking about
the falling of trees. He's declaring to us whatever
our state and condition before God Almighty is when we leave
this world, that will be our state and condition forever. When Ms. Murphy was alive, she
chose not to hear the message I've come to declare to you today,
when it may have done her some good. I pray that God will give
you better wisdom. and force you to hear what I
have to say today. We read earlier John's description
of eternity in Revelation 20 and 21 speaking of the judgment
and declaring that all men will stand before God in judgment
and every man judged out of the books. Either the books of divine
justice recording the sins and transgressions of men or another
book called the Book of Life. Every man will be judged according
to his works in strict accordance with justice. And you can be
assured the justice of God is blind. It gives no consideration
to race or rank. It gives no consideration to
knowledge or ability. Justice demands absolute holiness
or everlasting death. one of the two. Justice demands
that every man receive exactly that which is his due according
to his works. You will stand before God to
be judged, and I will stand before him to be judged, not to be weighed
in the balance and determine whether or not we have enough
good works or enough bad works to take us to heaven or to take
us to hell, but rather to declare the basis upon which we shall
forever Stand before God in the bliss of heavenly glory or be
cast into outer darkness in the second death in eternal damnation
in hell. If you stand before God on your
own merit, your conscience verifies what I'm about to tell you. Hell
will be your everlasting portion. If you dare presume to stand
before God to meet God Almighty without a Savior, without a substitute,
you shall forever be damned. The only way on this earth sinners
can be made righteous and holy before God is by the doing and
dying of another, and that is of Jesus Christ, God's darling
Son, by His obedience and His death as the sinner's substitute,
and by that alone we can stand before the God of glory, accepted,
perfect, holy, and just. The last verse I read to you
a moment ago declares that there shall in no wise enter into heaven
anything that defileth. And the 11th verse of Revelation
22, just before wrapping up this book, the Spirit of God declares
to us again exactly what He did in Ecclesiastes 11, verse 3. Where the tree falleth, there
it shall be. The Lord God says, he that is
unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. Now in that passage of Scripture,
Revelation 22, 11, the Lord God describes for us two states in
which you and I will find ourselves, one or the other, and two conditions
in which all of us are in. A state of being unjust or a
state of being righteous. A state of being filthy or a
state of being holy. If we are found without Christ,
we are unjust and filthy. If we're found in Christ, we
are righteous and holy. Now let me make four statements
to you. God help you to hear me. If you
leave this world without Christ, you leave this world unjust before
God. And unjust you shall forever
be. Unjust. Not measuring up to God's
law. Not meeting the requirements
of God's law. Unjustified. guilty, condemned. If you're without Christ, your
conscience tells you those things are so. I don't have to convince
you, I can't convince you, but your conscience declares you
unjust. You know you're going to meet
God in heaven one day, you're going to meet God in judgment
one day, and you have no basis upon which to expect any acceptance
before Him because you're guilty before God. You're born guilty
and you've lived guilty and you will die guilty unless God intervenes
on your behalf. Here's the second thing. If you're
without Christ, not only are you guilty, you're filthy. Filthy before God. What a word
with which to describe the heart of man. What a word with which
to describe the conduct of man. What a word with which to describe
the best deeds and the best thoughts of a man. As filthy things, that's
what we are. As filthy rags, that's what we
are. Without Christ, that's the nature
of every human being. That's the works of every human
being, filthy. The heart is filthy. The mind,
filthy. Oh, preacher, I'm not that way.
Which of you would like for everybody in this room to know what's going
through your mind this morning? You're exactly as I've described
and worse, filthy. Our deeds, our best deeds are
selfish and full of sin and serving self and acts of rebellion against
God Almighty. And if you die without Christ,
you will die filthy. And filthy, you will forever
be in hell. But bless God, that's not the
end of what's revealed here. If you're in Christ, in Christ
by God's free grace, in Christ being born of His Spirit, in
Christ by faith, believing Him, drawing life from Him. If you're
in Christ, you're righteous. Righteous before God. Right at
law before God. Right in God's eyes. Righteous because Jesus Christ's
righteousness has been made yours. just as your sin was made his
and he suffered the just consequences of your sins at Calvary, you're
righteous before God. And being righteous before God,
having the righteousness of God as your own, you shall stand
before God in everlasting glory, righteous, justly rewarded with
eternal life with Christ in heaven. Imagine that. It is right for
me, for me, the vilest man you've ever looked at, it is right for
me to enter into glory because Jesus Christ purchased it for
me with His blood and earned it for me with His obedience.
And God has made His righteousness mine. Not only that, if you're
in Christ, If right now God has given you faith to trust his
son, if you're in Christ by God's free favor, in Christ living
in him because you're born of his spirit, you're holy. And you should be holy forever. Death changes nothing. Eternity
changes nothing. Death is just the cessation of
our state in this time world, but it changes nothing. He that is unjust when he dies
will be unjust forever. He that is filthy when he dies
will be filthy forever. He that is righteous when he
dies will be righteous forever. He that is holy when he dies
will be holy forever. You see, in order for you and
me to stand before God Almighty accepted forever, we must be
righteous and we must be holy. Perhaps you think, well, but
Don, what's the difference between righteous and holy? Righteousness
is a state, a legal standing. Holiness is a condition of life. Righteousness is that which God
declares His elect to be in Christ. Holiness is what He makes them
to be by causing them to be partakers of the divine nature. Holiness
is that new nature put in God's elect when He gives them life
and faith in Christ Jesus. It is Christ formed in you the
hope of glory, and this too you must have. Without holiness no
man shall see the Lord." Well, if that's what righteousness
is, if that's what holiness is, if righteousness is that which
Jesus Christ alone can perform, and holiness is that which God
alone can give, then salvation is not something you perform.
It's not a work you can muster. It is that which God alone can
give you. And it is that which God gives
to every sinner who trusts his son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath everlasting life." Will you trust my Savior? Will you trust the Son of God? Will you believe on Jesus Christ
the Lord? Or will you live unjust and filthy. Die unjust and filthy, and spend
eternity in hell, unjust and filthy. God help you. Oh, God help you to believe. Our Father, that sinners such as we are are
allowed to address the God of glory as Father through Jesus
Christ the Lord. Because you have been pleased
to give us the righteousness of your Son and to give us life
in your Son. Oh God, we give you thanks. And
we ask that what you've done by your grace for us, you will
do by your grace For these who now hear your word, Lord God, will you do for them what they
will not and cannot do for themselves? Sweetly, graciously, force your
word into their hearts and cause them to believe on your Son.