Please turn back in your Bibles
to the book of Hebrews chapter 2. I would like to read verse 14,
15, and 16. For as much then as the children The children are the children
of God. And Paul said in Galatians that we're all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, that is Christ 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. For verily or truly he took not
on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham in Galatians 3 and 29 it says that if you be Christ then are ye
Abraham's seed if you're in Christ you are Abraham's seed the scripture
says for verily he took not on him the nature of angels but
he took on him the seed of Abraham, which is all believers, all those
who are believers in Jesus Christ. And just take a walk in the cemetery
and you'll know that death is real, it's real, it truly is.
Every living thing shall die. There's a poem that says that
the clock of life is wound but once. And no man has the power
to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour. To lose one's wealth is sad indeed. To lose one's health is more. To lose one's soul is such a
loss that no man can restore. Now it is estimated that in the
time that it took me to read that poem, There's about 40 people
that passed into eternity. It is further estimated that
every hour there's approximately 6,000 souls that make their exodus
from this life into eternity. You and I could have been among
them and sooner or later we will. Sooner or later our names will
appear in the obituary column. Are we ready to meet God. Seeing that death is real and
seeing that every living thing dies, are we ready to meet God? Well, the scripture says the
living know they shall die. So you know in your own heart
and soul this morning that your day is coming. The time of your
departure is at hand. Hebrews 9 and 27 says it is appointed
unto men once to die and after this is the judgment. It is further stated in the Word
of God that we all do fade as a leaf. Do you ever look at yourself
in the mirror? You see it coming on? You see
this fading that's taking place? We all do fade as a leaf in the
fall. And our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away. Isaiah 64 and 6. James 4 and
14 says, For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears
for a little time and then it just vanishes away. Now the fear of death is naturally
common to all men. It's naturally common to all
men because we do not have faith, sufficient faith in our hearts
by nature to believe that it's okay to die. We do not have that. The fear of death is naturally
common to all men. Fear to die. Fear to die. They're
in bondage with the fear of death. And the natural and unregenerate
man has great reason to be afraid. The man who is outside of Christ,
who has no hope when he leaves this world, he has every reason
to be very anxious. He has every reason to believe
that things are going to be terrible for him in eternity. He has a
reason to be afraid. Because of the sin and the guilt
that men have before God, knowing that they must die and face God,
they truly are to be pitied. But death will not end their
existence, because they're going to stand before a holy and a
just God in a righteous judgment. In a righteous judgment, and
they will reap the exact penalty due their sin. The infinite,
eternal wrath of God in a place the Bible calls Hell. Now for
the believer, however, things are far different. They're far
different. Aren't you grateful? Aren't you
thankful in your heart to know that things are far different
for the believer? The text, that is Hebrews chapter
2 and verse 15, The text here tells us that the Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world for this purpose, for this very purpose. Focus your mind upon that for
a moment, for this very purpose, that he might deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So it appears to me that the
Son of God, the Son of Man, has come into this world on a specific
mission, and that is to deliver those who are subject to the
fear of death from that fear. To deliver them from that. Now
you and I who are washed in the blood of Christ and living by
faith in Him should have no fear of death. We should have no fear
of death, but many believers are yet struggling with this
tormenting fear. Now the reason we know that is
because there are those among the believing professedly believing
who do not want to think about death. Now you can gauge your
own self. Does it bother you to think about
dying? Does it bother you to think about
that you might just suddenly pass from this life? Does that
bother you? Or are you comfortable believing
and looking at the truth of Holy Scripture? It talks about our
departure from this life. Are you comfortable facing death? Are you comfortable with that?
Or is there a torment in that for you? Well, my friend, this
is so obvious when we're so unwilling to die. When we're so unwilling
to pass from this life. Now, why are men so unwilling
to die? Why are they so? Well, let me
offer to you quickly Four reasons why that I believe that people
are unwilling to die. First of all, our hearts are
full of unbelief. Now we know that death in itself
is not desirable, but the soul's rest with God is desirable. It is desirable, as Paul made
the statement, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. He further said, it's better
for me be with Christ, he said it's far better for me to depart
and be with Christ. And so while death itself is
not desirable, the soul being with God and being absent from
the body, we are present with the Lord. The soul being with
God is desirable, and we cannot be with God apart from the common
passage, that which is referred to as death, our leaving this
world at the time of the Lord's bidding. Now, our hearts are
full of unbelief. It's full of unbelief. I know
that it is. I know that I have to deal with
that myself. Unbelief. Now, in John 14 and
1, the Lord Jesus said, if you believe in God, believe also
in me. If you say you've got faith in
God, then you believe me. You believe what I say. You believe
what I say to you. You believe it. You trust it.
You depend upon it. Do you know anyone else you can
trust that explicitly? I tell you that you can believe
what God says and you can believe what the Lord Jesus Christ says.
And He said, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you'll
be also. Do you expect to be with the
Lord throughout all eternity? I do. I believe what the Word
of God says about this, and I believe that all believers are going
to be with Him. Now you may have trouble believing
that. and you may have difficulty in being able to rest your soul
in these truths, but we must submit ourselves to God and beg
God to give us that faith which would relieve our fears in this
matter. Now, if we can just believe what
he said, that's what we must do. This will relieve our hearts. Now, I want you to turn back
with me. I thought about this The situation that's described
in the book of Mark, in chapter 9, there was a man who came to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, first of all, he came to
the disciples, and he had a boy that was ill. Actually, he was
demon-possessed, and in verse 17 of Mark 9, and one of the
multitudes answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee
my son, which hath a dumb spirit. And wheresoever he taketh him,
he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth,
and pineth away. And I spake to your disciples,
that they should cast him out, and they could not. And he answered
him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him unto me. And they brought him unto him. And when he saw him, straightway
the spirit tear him. And he fell on the ground and
wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, that
is Jesus asked his father, how long is it ago since this came
unto him? And he said, of a child. And
oftentimes it has cast him into the fire and into the waters
to destroy him. But listen to what this father
said to Christ. But if thou can't do anything,
have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, if
thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. If thou canst believe. In other
words, don't question my ableness. I'm able. If thou canst believe,
then all things are possible to him that believeth. Now in
verse 24, we find what should be our attitude this morning
in the light of our present subject. And straightway the father of
the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe,
I believe, no question about that, Lord, I believe. Now when you and I face a passage
like Hebrews 2 and 15, Brother, sister, if we're going to enter
into the victory of that verse, we must believe God. We must
believe God. And he said, Lord, I believe. But then he added this, help
thou mine unbelief. And I'll tell you what, when
the years begin to roll on by, and you come nearer and nearer
to the time When you know, because you know
the young may die, I've told you many times, the young may
die, but the old must die. They must die. And when you come
near and near to that time, you cry out as that father did, Lord,
help mine unbelief. that we may believe God and trust
Him. And you know the Bible talks
about us having a conversation that is becoming to the gospel
of Jesus Christ in the book of Philippians. A gospel or a conversation,
a behavior that is according to the gospel. And beloved, if
we're going to have proper behavior At the time of our departure
from this world is going to be and if it's going to be a departure
that is Glorifying to God as we leave this life we're going
to have to be full of faith and Confidence in the Lord, and that's
the only death that is becoming to the gospel the coming to the
gospel of God's grace and And so we need this faith. We need
it. And we need to cry out to God,
help my unbelief. Help my unbelief and strengthen
me. Now then, why are men so unwilling
to die? We linger like locked in Sodom
till the Lord, being merciful unto us, takes us away many times
against our very will. takes us out of this world. Now,
our hearts are full of unbelief and if we just could believe
what he said, what he's prepared for his people, The Bible says,
but as it is written, I have not seen nor heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. It's never entered in to our
hearts as far as flesh is concerned, nature, as far as our being able
to see it or to hear it, to know about it, then we cannot have,
we don't have that ability in this body. We don't have it.
However, Paul did say, but God hath revealed them unto us by
His Spirit. And by faith, we can feed on
what God has revealed to us by His Holy Spirit. As we read and
meditate and think upon the promises of the Word of God, if we only
or really believed it, Every day, a year, would be... Well, let me say it another way.
If we only, or really believed it, every day would be a year
till our last day should come for leaving this world. If we
could really, really believe it. Beloved, we need faith. And
may God bless us with that faith. The Bible says is better than
his birth Death my friend Glory don't fear it Don't fear
it. It is also. I believe that The
coldness of our love for Christ You know one of the burdens Is the coldness and the lukewarmness toward the Savior. Now surely
we want to be with those that we love. We surely do. I think
that that's common and it certainly can't be contradicted, that statement,
surely people want to be with those that they love. Then we're
not You know, when we think upon Christ and think upon being with
Him for all eternity, surely we want to do that. And so we
need to face that as we think about death. I want to be with
my loved one, that one who loved my soul out of the pit of sin
and loved me into everlasting life, loved me into everlasting
glory. I want to be with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then also I think another reason
why we're still fearful of dying and why we're so hesitant to
submit ourselves to it is that we're not weary of sin yet. Not
weary yet of the ways of this world. If we felt sin to be the
greatest evil, we should not be willing to have its company
so long. we would want the company with
sin to end. God will have to nail our ear,
as it were, to the door of misery, I guess, before we will be ready
to turn loose and leave this world. Will we have to suffer
so long before we get out of this world? Will we still try
to cling to this world and to cleave to it when God is weaning
us away from this world? My friend, give up on the world. give up on it. This world is
not a friend of grace to help you on to God. This world is
going to hinder you every day of your life and certainly hinder
you in the day of your death. And then we're also, I think,
insensible of the vanity of Earth, that we don't want to think of
our removal. The vanity of this world. All is vanity, the Bible says,
and vexation of spirit. Do we understand that? Do we
understand that all is vanity? The Bible says that even childhood
and youth is vanity. But somehow or other we want
no deliverance from it. From this vain, vain, empty world. From this waste, howling wilderness. We want no deliverance from it. We'd really like to stay and
camp here and some would maybe want to stay permanently. We
want no deliverance. And I say to you this morning
that We need to judge ourselves to see whether or not we're just
foolish people when we think that way. Because apparently
we don't know the meaning of vanity, or apparently we haven't
experienced enough of the emptiness of this world that we would desire
to depart from it. Somebody said this, doesn't every
prisoner groan for freedom? Doesn't every slave want his
jubilee? Doesn't every sick man long for
health? Doesn't every hungry man long
for food? Does the sailor wish to see land? Does the farmer desire the harvest? Does the laborer want his pay? Does the traveler want to get
home? Does the runner want to win the
race or the prize? And the soldier to win the battle?
Is not that in the hearts of these that we've described? And
we don't want to receive the end of our faith. and the sufferings
in this world. Somehow or other, we don't want
to receive the end of our faith. We cling to life. We fear death. We want nothing to do with it.
Well, may God help us. Well, let me offer some suggestions
to our hearts briefly in order that we might be able to maybe
close out this morning this short message. I could preach nothing
else but this today. I was affected by what happened
this last week and touched by it and felt that to handle any
other subject would be out of place for me this morning. So
listen carefully as I offer some suggestions to our hearts. Number
one, let us look to Christ. Let us look to Christ. There's
no deliverance from the fear of death except by looking to
Him whose death is the death of death. Let us look to Christ. Our Lord has done many things
to deliver us from this fear of death and its bondage. He
has destroyed the power of death by dying in our place and rising
again. These are not just mere words.
This is statement of truth. And we need to reflect upon it.
He has destroyed the power of death by dying in our place and
rising again. Since all of God's elect were
partakers of flesh and blood under the dominion of death,
Christ became a man to suffer and to die for us. That was one
of the purposes of the Incarnation. was that he, God, would take
upon himself a body of flesh in which he could suffer and
die in our place. He could suffer our death for
us. It was not possible for our representative
to satisfy the claims of divine justice against us unless he
lived and died in our nature. He had to do it. My admonition
is, look to Christ. And by his substitutionary death
on the tree and his triumphant resurrection, the Son of God
destroyed the power of Satan and the power of the grave over
us, and then why should we continue to tolerate this this fear of
death in our hearts. Christ delivers us from the fear
of death by changing the very character of death. Believers
do not die in the sense that unbelievers do. To the ungodly,
listen to it, death is the penalty of sin, but to the believer it
is just a change of location. Death to the wicked is the execution
of justice, but to the believer it is a deliverance from sin. To the whirling, death is the
beginning of sorrows, but to the believer it is admission
into glory. To the rebel death is imprisonment,
but to the believer it is freedom, perfect freedom. To the believer
it is a promotion to die. Now if you think on these things
for a little while, then I believe that you probably will receive
some comfort from our text. And the last admonition that
I would give you in this short message this morning is this,
that if you would be free from the fear of death, live every
day as though it were your last. Live every day as though it were
your last. Beloved, get into the habit of
dying to this world. Dying out to this world. Don't drive your stakes too deep
in this world. Let us die daily. Paul said he
died daily. Hold everything here with a very
loose hand. Learn to live in this world in
the awareness that everything in this world is perishing. Live not for the perishing things
of time, but for the lasting things of eternity. Live as a
traveler as you go through this world. Think about it as you
go. The Bible calls us pilgrims,
wayfaring pilgrims in the world. And we're to live each day of
our life like we were just traveling through. A traveler, he doesn't
stop and build a house every place he stops. He doesn't stop
and, you know, just lauder around there. He moves on. He's moving. And so a believer needs to keep
that in mind. Do not become too fond of this
world. Soon you're going to let it go. Be prepared at a moment's notice
to do so. Be prepared at a moment's notice
to do so. Because at an hour when you think
not, the death angel will knock at your door. The time is coming
for all of us to have to leave this world. It'll not always
be somebody else. somebody else whose name appears
in the obituary column. If you're subject to the fear
of death, take what was said here this morning and may God
give you the ability to cry to him as that man did who had the
son that was afflicted Lord, help my unbelief. Help me to
so grasp the Gospel that when the time comes for me to leave
this world, I will have embraced it with all my heart and receive
the joy and the comfort of that Gospel victory and be able to
leave this world in faith. Let us have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you this morning for your Word and for the preciousness
of your Word. and for this great truth. And
Father, we do pray that Thou be pleased to bless it to our
hearts and to our lives. Give us the victory, Father,
in our hearts that we desperately desire and want. You know how
the old body of sin drags us down. And we do pray that thou
will revive our hearts and strengthen us greatly in the faith of the
gospel. Father, we do ask this morning
that you would lead us now in the rest of the meeting and give
us wisdom and discernment. And Father, have your way with
us and in us and through us. We pray for Christ's sake in
his name. Amen.