I invite you to take your Bibles
and turn back with me, if you would, to the book of Philippians,
chapter 1. We greet you this morning in
Jesus' name. Trust that your heart has been
prepared for this meeting and that you come with a prayer on
your heart. Remember the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous
man availeth much. It was said that during the years
that Charles Spurgeon preached in London, England, that more people in London was
healed through his prayers than what was healed with all
of the physicians that were practicing at that time. I don't know whether
that's true or not. Prayer has a definite effect
upon those for whom we're praying and upon our own lives also.
I covet your prayers. Pray for me. In the book of Philippians
chapter 1, I'd like to read verse 20 down through verse 24. according to my earnest expectation
and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that
with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified
in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For me to live
is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose, I want not. For I'm in a strait betwixt two,
having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. My text primarily this morning
is verse 23. I'd like to preface my remarks
by saying that we know that death is not the end. It is not the
end of our being. By faith we're persuaded that
better things await us over there. We have that written in us which
cannot be accounted for. If there be not a world to come,
and especially as believers, we have hopes and desires and
we have aspirations which cannot be fulfilled and which must have
been given to us only to purposely make us miserable. If there be
not a place where every one of these hopes, aspirations, and
desires shall be satisfied. We know too that the world into
which we will soon be ushered is one which is eternal. We have learned by experience
in this world that all things here are but for a season. They will not remain when God
shall shake both heaven and earth, and that He will do. And I think
it becomes every one of us professing the name of Christ, professing
to be believers in the Lord Jesus, professing to believe the Word
of God, to be questioning ourselves as to the view we take as to
the world to come. Do we really believe what the
Word of God has to say about the world to come? Do we really
believe what the scriptures teach concerning heaven, our home?
Do we have it in our hearts? There are very few, and I'm very
sure of this, There are very, very few who have attained to
the assurance that the Apostle Paul had. Very, very few. He had a desire to depart and
be with Christ. He said, unhook the moorings. He said, lift the anchor. I'm
ready to depart and to be with Christ. There was a great deal
of assurance in that. And I take it that the view that
we take of our own death is one sure way to judge our own spirituality. Are we afraid to die? Are we
fearful of departing and being with Christ? Are we fearful to
leave this world, to leave the securities of this life, and
to depart and to be with the Lord? Or do we have a hope that
is both steadfast and sure, one that enters in to the veil? Do we have a hope in our blessed
God? I want to speak to you this morning
on this verse of Scripture, verse 23, and I hope to speak to you
about the assurance that Paul had and how he could come to
it. and I hope this morning that
the Lord will use it. I've been praying that the Lord
would use it to anchor the souls of His people, and that there
would be a time when we would all be able to rejoice and be
unafraid, but would be able to joy in the God of our salvation
and in what He has prepared for us. Well, the Apostle Paul was
in prison at this time when he wrote these words, and it's very
probable that he had soldiers that were chained, one to his
left, one to his right arm. And it was very possible that
this position is what suggested to him the expression, I am in
a straight betwixt two. He was literally held, my friend,
by two forces, and he was mentally in the same condition, exercised
with two strong desires, and he did not know to which he should
yield. He says, I'm in a perplexity.
I am straightened by the pressure of two things. Now just think
of it. Here he is in this gloomy dungeon. He's a captive in the hands of
the cruel tyrant Nero, expecting very soon to be put to death,
perhaps a horrible death. And what would be his feelings?
He says, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, but then
he says, also, it's needful that I abide in the flesh. He said,
that's more needful for you. He was in a straight betwixt
two. He had pressure from both sides. Kind of like a woman that
I read about one time who was starving, and she had a little
baby, and the baby was very sick and starving, and she knocked
on a door, and they came to the door, The baby was squalling
very loudly, and she told the people that she was starving
and her baby was sick, and they said, well, you can come in and
eat at the table, but you have to leave the squalling baby outside.
She was in a strait at Twix, too. She could not leave the
baby outside, but she ought to, she must eat also, and so she
was in a fix. And so that's kind of how Paul
was. He said, I'd like to depart and be with Christ, which would
be far better, but it's needful that I abide in the flesh. Well, what would be your feelings
in a situation like this, like Paul was in? If you were not
a Christian, I would expect you to be trembling at the fear of
death. If your sins were upon you, the
guilt of your sin was still there, I would expect that you would
be very fearful, knowing that your life would soon come to
an end and you would have to stand before a holy God. And even if you were a believer
in the flesh, I think you might shrink back from the prospect
of such a death as being beheaded by the swordsman. Now men are
subject, the Bible says, to the fear of death all their lifetime.
And unless they are supernaturally lifted above it, and Paul was
lifted above it, was he not? He was lifted above it. He did
not have the slightest fear of becoming a martyr. He did not
fear that death. He calls his expected death,
he calls it a departure. He meant by that it's a loosing
of the cable which holds his ship to the shore and a putting
forth of his soul into the sea of eternity. He's not afraid
to die. He stands fully prepared, you
see. He waits patiently and anticipates
the joyful hour when his change shall come. Now I would have
you to understand that Paul was not just trying to get out of
the miseries of this life. That was not what it was all
about. He's not saying, I would to God that this life were at
an end and that these miseries were over. There's not a trace
of impatience about him that I can detect in this scripture. No impatience, no desire just
to get out from under it all and to get away from here. He
admits, joyfully admits, that to be with Christ, he says, is
far better than anything he'd ever known before. But upon consideration,
he sees reason for his remaining here, and therefore he cheerfully
submits to whatever may be the Lord's will, whatever be the
will of God. He does not choose. He cannot
choose. The will of the Lord must be
done. And what a blessed state of heart it is, beloved, to be
in considering his circumstances, that he could trust the Lord
with the outcome, with what happens. Paul is not weary of life or
afraid of death. He calmly considers his own case
and he says to depart and to be with Christ is in itself considered
far better. He therefore desires it, but
looking round upon the churches which he had formed, which were
still in their feebleness and infancy and perils, needed his
care. He says, to abide in the flesh
is more needful for you. What shall I choose? He said,
I don't know. I don't know. Now, there was
a 90-year-old preacher, when asked about his life and the
fact that he had lived a long time and had been blessed to
continue in the Master's service, about his own death, and he said,
I have nothing to do with death. I've got nothing to do with death.
I'm to live as long as I can. as well as I can and serve God
in His glory all my days and leave it to God when He would
deem it best for me to die and leave this world. And that's
the attitude that believers must have. Now one thing is clear
that considering his own interest only, considering Paul's own
interest only, it would have greatly increased his happiness
to depart and to be with Christ. He had said the same thing before
basically in verse 21 when he said, for me to live is Christ
and to die would be gain. He had no doubt that to be loosed
from this body and to be carried by the angels into heaven and
home would be a great and eternal blessing. Beloved, I want that
assurance myself. And it is to this assurance that
I want to speak to you this morning And may the Lord bless these
things to our hearts. First of all, I want to talk
a little bit about Paul's absolute certainty concerning the disembodied
state. In one of our young people's
meetings a couple weeks ago, there was one of our young people
that asked the question, what happens when a person dies? What
happens when someone leaves this world? Well, we'll answer that
question this morning, and I hope that you're listening. Well,
having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far
better, Paul says concerning the disembodied state. Now, the
Apostle Paul was a very conscientious man. In every incident of his
history, we mark him preeminently a man guided by conscience. If he believed a thing, he believed
it wholeheartedly. He believed it with all of his
heart. Even before he was saved, he was this way, you remember.
He thought he did God's service in persecuting Christians, and
he persecuted them not just to run them off, but unto death.
My point is, he would not do or say that which he did not
fully believe to be right and true. If the Apostle Paul said
to depart and be with Christ is far better, mark it down.
That's exactly true. He is a faithful witness. Paul's testimony can be relied
upon. He was also a man of well-balanced
reason, I think. Paul is calm, he's collected,
and you never find him excited beyond the bounds of reason.
He is orderly, he is correct, he's enthusiastic to a wide heap,
but he does not go out on a limb and saw it off. No he does not. So we have a testimony of a man
here who is both conscientious to tell what he believes to be
true and calm and logical to form a clear judgment as to what
is really and truly biblical fact. Now this man Paul was convinced
that there's a future state for believers and he believed it
to be a future conscious state which commenced which commenced
the moment they died and was beyond measure full of blessedness.
Now that's what Paul believed, and that's what he's telling
us. No, he did not believe in purgatory. He did not believe
in purgatory. He did not believe in soul sleep,
where the body and the soul sleep together in the grave until the
resurrection. No, he said absent from the body,
present with the Lord in another scripture. And so depart, he
said, depart and be with Christ immediately. And this, beloved,
is his testimony, that when a soul leaves this world, they either
go to be with the Lord or they're carried by the black angels of
hell into Hades itself. They're carried away into everlasting
judgment, everlasting burning, but the people of God are gathered
together and are taken into the very presence of the Lord. Immediately,
this is the testimony of Scripture. Well, what had made this conscientious
and collected man come to this conclusion? How did he come to
this conclusion? I suppose that he would reply
if asked. First of all, he would say, that
he had been converted by sight of the Lord Jesus Christ on the
road to Damascus. While desperately set against
the religion of Jesus, the Lord himself had appeared to him so
that he had seen Jesus with his own eyes and heard him speak. No question about it, Christ
was alive in heaven as far as Paul was concerned. Jesus was
alive. He had been crucified. Here's
that one that was dead, now is alive forevermore. Jesus is alive. And I've told you before that
the resurrection of Christ was more than a doctrine to Paul,
it was an experience. in that that he had seen and
had talked to the Lord Jesus Christ. So he knew that he was
in heaven. He knew that he was alive. And
from that hour on, that hour which he saw Christ and spoke
to him, Paul was content to be made the filth and the offscouring
of all things for the love of that once despised Savior who
out of the windows of heaven had looked down upon him in mercy. And so Paul believed that Jesus
was in heaven. This was his dwelling. This was
his dwelling place, and it was a place of happiness, and it
was a place of blessedness, it was a place of glory. The poet
said once, heaven seemed a far off place until Jesus showed
his smiling face, and now it's begun within my soul to last
while endless ages roll. And so beloved Paul had looked
upon the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and to him heaven was
a place where he would find the Lord Jesus Christ. He recollected
also the prayer of Jesus that's recorded by John in John chapter
17. I think it's verse 24. Father
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am that they may behold my glory. And so Paul was reminded
of that. So he was certain that as soon
as the saints died, they would be where their glorious Lord
Jesus was and would be joint heirs with Him of His eternal
glory. Remember also that this truthful
witness had on other occasions distinct evidences of heaven. He said, and this is his testimony
in 2 Corinthians 12, Verse 2 and 4, he said that he had been caught
up into the third heaven, and there he heard things which was
not lawful for a man to utter. He did not understand how he
got there, his body was alive here on earth, and yet his spirit
was caught away into heaven. He says, while they're in the
body or out of the body, he says, I don't know, but God knoweth. He said that twice in those few
short verses there. But God knoweth. But God knoweth. I don't understand all about
this. All I know is that I was caught up into the third heavens
and I heard these things which was not possible for him to utter. So it was not merely a matter
of belief. but as a matter of observation
that there was a place into which disembodied spirits go, where
they're with Jesus their Lord, which is far better. Next I want
us to notice that he does not express any sort of hesitation
or doubt. He does not say what some of
us might say, it would be far better certainly for me to die
if I was sure that I should be with Christ when I leave this
world. No such hesitation with Paul.
This would be a wretched state, I think, to be in. For a man
to say, well, I'm sure, I'm sure that if I am going to be with
Christ, that it would be far better for me to die, but I'm
not sure. I'm not sure. Now, beloved, this
is the very point that I'm driving at this morning. This is the
main thrust of what I'm preaching to you is this assurance so that
we know in our hearts beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we're
going to be with Christ when we die. And that will alleviate
all of the fears of our hearts about dying and leaving this
world. And so it would be sweet to depart
if these glories were indeed mine. And beloved, Paul had got
beyond all doubt as to whether eternal bliss would be his. He'd
got beyond all doubt about it. He was sure. Why are we not sure?
Why are we not sure that when we die, we're going to have...
Why do we hesitate where he spoke so confidently? Now, beloved,
did Paul have something to base his confidence on, which we don't
have? Did he have something? Well,
it is true that I have not seen the risen Christ except through
the revelation of the word of God. But I have been enabled
to see him through the scriptures, through the truths of the word
of God. And it's true that I've never been called up into heaven
like Paul was, but my citizenship is there. My conversation is
in heaven. My citizenship is there. And
I'm a citizen of another country. I'm sure of that as I am alive. This world is not my home. This
is not my rest. This is not it. And I know that
and I feel that within that tells me daily, this is not it, John. This is not all of it. This is
not the place. This is not the time. And so
I am confident that my citizenship is in heaven. Well, do you suppose
that Paul believed he would be saved because of his abundant
labors? No, I don't think that had anything
to do with it. His earnest ministry, his great
success in the ministry? Well, he said, I labored more
abundantly than they all, speaking of his labors in the gospel,
and certainly he did labor more abundantly than all the other
apostles. But that wasn't the basis of his hope and the basis
of his confidence that he could depart as soon as this life was
over and be with the Lord. Far from it. He said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said he wanted to be found
in Christ, not having righteousness of his own after the law, but
the righteousness which is of God by faith. This was his testimony. Now where Paul stood, we must
stand if we would have his assurance. I say, where Paul stood, we must
stand if we're going to ever arrive at the assurance that
Paul had. Our hope is to be built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness upon the grace of God, upon the
promise of our Heavenly Father. In hope of eternal life, which
God that cannot lie promised before the world began. Titus
1 and verse 2. In hope of eternal life, which
God that cannot lie. Mike mentioned this in the scripture
that he quoted. God cannot lie, promised before
the world began. God's word is true. Well, I make
bold to say that he who was the chief of the apostles had not
a solitary grain of advantage, over any one of us as to the
basis and essence of his hope. He said, this is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. He was a sinner through
and through. Mercy, grace, atoning blood,
the precious blood of Christ, the promise, these alone he built
upon. For other foundation, Paul said,
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ
the righteous. That's his foundation. It's Christ
and Christ alone that is his foundation. If Paul was sure,
so should I. Paul was a poor sinner and I
need to be sure because we struggle with these things and so should
you. Are you equally sure of being with Christ as Paul was,
based upon the teaching, the plain teaching and promises of
the Word of God? Well, you should be, for you
have the very same reason for certainty as Paul had. We do
not esteem the Scriptures as we should. We do not. We, a lot
of times, would trust science before we would trust the Word
of God. I read recently where somebody
was talking about whether the whale could swallow Jonah or
not. And so they said, well, I'm sure
that it's true because the scientists have measured the inside of the
throat of a whale, and sure enough, his throat is large enough, a
full-grown whale, that his throat is large enough to swallow a
man. And therefore, it's possible.
Well, my friend, would we go to a scientist to find out whether
or not a whale could swallow Jonah? Absolutely not. Grant
me God and a whale can swallow Jonah. Grant me God and we can
have a miracle. We can. God is able. God is able. God is able. We need to believe
the Word. That's what we need to believe.
The testimony of the Word of God. And you will never have
any assurance of your salvation and of your eternal hope and
bliss and glory by and by until you start believing the plain
unadulterated teachings of the Word of God. And when you shut
yourself up to faith in the Word of God, then, my friend, you
will have some assurance. Are you trusting Christ? Or are
you trusting yourself? Which is it? God is not a God
of perhapses and ifs and buts, but He's a God of sovereign shalls
and wills, of faithful truths and everlasting verities. God
is a God of truth. And you need to believe what
he said. Listen to the word. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. He that believeth is not condemned. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. And Paul said in the book of
Romans chapter 8, Who shall lay anything to the charge of Paul
the apostle? No, he didn't say that. He didn't
say that at all. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of Paul the Apostle? No, no, no, no. He said, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? That's what he
said, taking you and I in consideration. All of those who know the Lord,
there all of them collectively, or any one of them individually,
however humble or obscure, all save in the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that true? It is true. He
has made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And this He did for sinners,
for sinners, for believing sinners. I know, Paul said, whom I have
believed, we sang the song a little while ago, and am persuaded that
He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against
that day. Well then, so much for his certainty
and his assurance. He knew that immediately when
this life was over, he was in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Next, I want to say something
about the Apostle Paul's idea of that state. He says, it is
to be with Christ. It is to be with Christ. It is
a one-sided idea, beloved, to be with Christ. Now Paul knew
much about heaven as any intelligent, most intelligent, the most intelligent,
and the best read Christian that ever lived. Do you agree with
that? Paul knew as much about heaven as the most intelligent,
best-read Christian that ever lived on the face of the earth,
or that is alive now on the face of the earth. He could tell you
about the fellowship of the brethren, the fellowship of the saints
in heaven. And he said, we will sit down with Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, or he believed that's what the
Word of God taught. It will be certainly as true
in heaven as it is on earth that we'll have fellowship one with
another. We enjoy fellowship with God's people. We enjoy coming
together apart from the world and gathering together as we
are here this morning and being in fellowship one with another. Somebody said fellowship. That's
two fellows in the same ship. And it's good to be in fellowship
and to have fellows in the same ship with you, to have the Lord's
people and to be able to fellowship with them. I have no doubt he
believed that heaven was a place of a far clearer knowledge than
we possess here below. The fact is he once said so.
He said, Here I know in part, but there I shall know even as
I am known. Paul believed all that, but here
it is plain that he gives us only one idea. He had a great mind, but here
he gives us only one idea. I want to press that onto you.
For my part, one that satisfies me. One that satisfies me greatly. It will charm and fill the heart,
I believe, of every believer to overflowing if they get this
one idea that Paul presents here about heaven. He describes the
disembodied state as to be with Christ, as to be with the Lord
Jesus. A very exclusive idea, you say.
No, it's a very inclusive idea, for it takes in all the heaven
which our minds can conceive of. It does seem to admit a great
many things, but Paul felt, and I dare say, that they were such
trifles that it did not matter about forgetting them. Being
with Christ is so great a thing that he mentioned it alone, to
be with Christ. I think he did this first because
his love was so consecrated, concentrated upon Christ that
he could not think of nothing else. He could think of nothing
else in connection with going to heaven. It's to be with Christ. That's what it's about. I read
of a woman one time who was going to go to India and she was going
to India to see her husband. She had to travel great many
miles. It was a great journey. She had
a brother there also, but she never said anything about, I'm
going to see my brother. Her husband had a home there,
but never did she speak a word about going to see it. That really
wasn't what was on her mind. There was no other inducement
to make the trip but to be with her beloved. He is the master
object of her journey, you see. Whatever the country may be,
it matters not. The man she loves with all of
her soul is there. He is there, and that's all that
matters. She was going to India because
that's where her husband was. So it is with the child of God.
Only enhanced tenfold, I believe. Paul does not say he's going
to heaven to hear the angels sing. He didn't say that. Paul did not say, I'm going to
heaven to walk on the streets of gold. He didn't say that.
He did not say, I'm going to heaven to shake hands with mother
again. He didn't say that. He said, I'm going to heaven
to be with Christ. I'm going there to be with the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the first and highest
thought of Paul. And I believe that it would argue
unchastity to Christ that we're not the first and the highest
thought. of every child of God. Do you love the Lord Jesus? Do
you love Him? Is He your beloved? Do you really
love Him? Well, no doubt to Paul, heaven
could not be heaven if Christ was not there. It would not be
heaven. Think of it, heaven without Christ.
It would be the same thing as thinking about hell if you think
about heaven without Christ being there. Heaven without Christ,
it is like a day without the sun. It is existing without having
life. It's feasting without food. It's
seeing without light. It involves a contradiction of
terms. Heaven without Christ? Absurd! Cannot be. Is the sea without
water? Is the earth without fields?
The heavens without stars? My friend, there cannot be heaven
without Christ. He is the sum total of bliss.
He's the element of which heaven is composed. Christ is heaven
and heaven is Christ. To be where Jesus is, is the
highest imaginable bliss. And bliss away from Jesus is
inconceivable to the child of God. If you were invited to a
wedding and the bridegroom did not show up, no need to talk
about the guests, No need to talk about the reception. Or
you could talk about the church bells ringing until the building
shut. And all that would do would be
to mock the sorrow of the bride. Such would be Christless heaven
to the saints of God. Just be a mockery. To be there
if Christ was not there. Where Jesus is, is heaven there. The Apostle Paul does not say
to be in heaven, which is far better. No, but to be with Christ,
which is far better. So make that distinction in your
heart. The poet said, to dwell with
Christ, to feel his love, is the full heaven enjoyed above.
And the sweet expectation now is the young dawn of heaven below. The bare thing, just to be with
Christ, is all the heaven. a believer wants when he's right. When he's right. Well, last of
all, the apostle estimates his estimate of heaven, he says it's
far better. He says it's far better. To be
with Christ is far better. We could not say far more better,
but that would be a fair translation of what he said. Far more better. We will say it is far rather
preferable. Or it is much better to be with
Christ away from the body than it would be to abide here in
the body. When a believer dies, we know
that half he leaves behind in the grave. He leaves this mortal
body. Mike said flesh and blood could
not inherit the kingdom of God. According to what Paul said in
1 Corinthians 15. And so it is true. We leave half
of it. But it will come to heaven when
the redemption of the body is fully achieved on resurrection
day. This whole body is coming out.
It's going to be changed. We're going to have a body like
unto the glorious body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will,
that body will meet our souls and we will be complete. The
body will be united. Our spirit will be perfected
with it when in the day of the resurrection. At the present,
the saints who are with Jesus are without their bodies, but
they're pure spirits. As Mike said, he didn't want
any flesh and blood there. Well, that's true. We don't.
Our humanity, as we said, is put away, it's put off, and it
must go through the sieve of the worms before it can be united
as a heavenly body with our spirits. Our manhood will be with Jesus
at that time, a complete manhood. We will be complete. Yet even
for that half of the manhood to be with Christ is far better
than for the whole of their being to be here in the best possible
condition. Face it. To be there for our
spirits to be there is far better than it would be to be here when
you're in your absolute prime and have both the body and the
spirit. That's what Paul's saying in
reality. He's saying it would be better to be with Christ,
just half of us there, half, just the spirit there, than it
would to be here in the best condition. Friends, in this world
the highest joys which the best taught believer can hear or possess
are inferior to being with Christ. Whatever you know, however much
truth you know, however much revelation you've received, you're
far better off to be with Christ sitting at His feet, being taught
daily, being fed from the bread, the eternal bread of life, than
to be here getting piecemeal things about the Bible and things
about glory, things about Christ. Paul was no obscure believer.
He was, as we all know, was a leader among the followers of Christ.
Could he not say thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph
in every place? He had all the victory there
is. He said he kept the faith. And the only victory there is
in this world is the victory of faith. For a child of God
to believe God and to trust Him regardless of what happens and
regardless of the difficulties that he finds himself in. And
Paul had all of that. He knew the graces of the Holy
Spirit. He had them abundantly. He had
the gifts of an apostle. He was head and shoulders above
the tallest Christian here in this world. He had the highest
experience of any man out of heaven, and was that which he
contrasted with being with Christ. And he said that the most that
we could get here of heavenly things, of spiritual things,
was not to be compared with being with Christ. That was far, far,
far better. And truly, brethren, it is so. It is better to depart and to
be with Christ. It is far preferable to any other
state that you can imagine. And I know that we often say,
well, it would be wonderful if we could It'd be wonderful if we could
reclaim our health again. It'd be wonderful if we could
reclaim the vigor of our youth again. It'd be wonderful if our
hair would turn dark again without the aid or assistance of any
of the chemicals or dyes that are often used for that purpose.
It'd be wonderful if we could just go back. But my friend,
would it be? Oh, my friend, we're only postponing the day and the
hour and the time when that which is most preferable would be our
experience, when we would depart, loose our moorings and lift up
the anchor and sail away. Picture, if you will, a boat
sailing away from the shore and your loved ones on that boat
and they part and after a while you get binoculars and you keep
looking and you faintly can see them as they're going away. as
they're going away. Well, believers are going to
be, they're going to be leaving. They're going to be leaving.
They're going to depart. They're going to pick up anchor
and they're going to be going. Going. God's people are going.
They're on their way to eternal bliss, to eternal glory. Now
trust this morning that you've asked yourself some questions
as we went along about the degree of assurance or how you feel
about your exodus from this world. It's certain that a person without
Christ is not ready to make their exodus from this world. It's
certain. If you're not in Christ, you're
not ready to die. There's no heaven for you in
the by and by. There's no place for you in eternal
glory. There's no place for you with
Christ. But if you be in Christ, Have the assurance. Believe the
Word of God. Believe the testimony of Scripture.
Get the Bible down. Read it. Study it. Meditate.
Most of your lack of assurance is the fact of your laziness
and the fact that you don't read, the fact that you don't study,
the fact you don't get the book and meditate upon the Word of
God. My friend, we must see the vanity
and the emptiness of all these things around us and everything
in this world will become dull and lose its luster. And there's
going to come a time when you'll no longer find any interest in
these things. Study the Word of God. Replace
all the vain thoughts of this world with the truths of the
Word of God, so that your soul will be anchored, so that when
your time comes, when the Lord calls you away, if you have a
moment to reflect upon it before you depart, you'll be able to
say with Paul, for me to depart is to be with Christ, and that's
far better. But if you have time to reflect,
will you mourn, will you mourn? I remember reading stories of
death that experiences, and I remember, I think it was Luther, and you
may say, well, it's just, it's not a very big deal, and there
is a song that says, death is no big deal. But my friend, death
is a whole lot more sobering than you realize. Death is the
last enemy. True, it's been conquered. But
you don't become flippant about death. Because Luther himself,
it is said, that when he come to die, now here's a man that
said that he didn't care if every tile on the roof was a devil.
He was going to stand before the Pope, he said, I'm going
to get married just to tease the Pope and to tease the devil
and make him get mad at me. So he'll rile them up, and then
he said, I'm going to present to them the truth of the Word
of God, and regardless, and if every tile of the roof is a devil,
it don't matter to me. Here's a man who was strong in
the faith, stood his ground, but when it come time to die,
he wept and wept and wept at the time when he was to leave
this world. And I'm going to tell you something, you may think,
oh, it's a piece of cake. But my friend, to get the assurance
that Paul had, and to be able to stand your ground, and to
be able with assurance and confidence to believe what God says when
you feel that breath leave in your body, it'll take the grace
of God. It'll take the grace of God.
You better start working on it, and you better start working
on it now. And you listen, and you listen carefully. I preached
this message this morning. There's other sermons I would
have rather preached. But I enjoyed preaching it. I
didn't feel I had much liberty to preach it, but I preached
it. And I hope this morning that the Lord will use it in your
heart, preparing you for your exodus, your time of leaving.
this world. Father, in the name of Jesus,
take these stuttering, stammering remarks and use them for Thy
glory. Use them to build up the saints
and use them, our Father, to strike fear into the hearts of
those that are without Christ. And I pray that they may be brought
savingly to the Lord Jesus Christ. Have Thine own way with us, O
Lord, and receive the glory. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.