very delightful call early this
morning from our friend, Brother Sonny Dutra. Some of you will
recall just a couple of years ago, I baptized his mother and
father both out in Rescue, one of the conferences. They have
no gospel church, no place near them, but Sonny's been sending
them videotapes for a number of years. Sonny's dad, Anthony
Dutra, spent 80 years in the blindness and darkness of Catholicism,
devoted Catholic, devoted to his religious delusion. And then
God saved him. And now he's going home. Sonny
called this morning, said it looked like he wouldn't last
long. He's got a lot of fluid gathering around his heart, been
in the hospital since Thursday evening. So you pray for that
family. And I thought, Thank God for
his grace. For his grace. I've watched a
lot of folks die. When I was 21 years old, shortly
after I became pastor of the church at Lookout, one of the
deacons asked me if I'd go see his brother. He was in the hospital,
looked like he was dying, and he was. And I told him I'd be
happy to if it's all right if I tell him you sent me. And he
said, yes, by all means. So I went down to speak to him.
He's an old man, about the age of Mr. Dutra, somewhere in his
late 70s, early 80s. And when I walked into the room,
I introduced myself and told him, I said, your brother Harold
sent me down to see you. I'm his pastor. He said, if you've
come to talk to me about God, you can go back home. He said,
I've lived like hell and now I'm going to die like hell. And
he did. He did. About six years later,
I went to see his brother Harold on his last day. I spent his
last day on this earth with him, the last day he was cognizant
of anything. We visited together off and on,
all through the day. Whenever he would come to a little
bit and chat, spoke very plainly, very clearly about the things
that were precious to him. And these were his last words.
He said, Don, it's good to know that everything is under the
blood. What a difference. What a difference. Now I want you to think about
your dance. You're going to die. Right soon. You're going to leave
this world. Are you afraid to die? Are you afraid to die? I know this. If you die without Christ, if
you're without Christ, you've got good reason to be afraid.
It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. I like to do things that folks
think I guess are a little morbid, but when I get a chance, I walk
through cemeteries and I read the inscriptions. Of course,
about everybody, you know, about everybody's saved by the time
they get there as far as the world's concerned. Nobody's ever
going to hell as far as those inscriptions are concerned. But
one of them that I had passed along to me, I think Brother
Mahan passed this along to me, he had seen somewhere, and I
thought it was so good. He was walking in the cemetery
and read this inscription. It said, Please view my grave
as you pass by, for as you are, so once was I. And as I am, soon
you must be. So make your plans to follow
me. Because of your sin and guilt
before God, you must die. But death will not end your existence. Man does not die like a dog.
When you die, you shall stand before the holy, just, and righteous
God in judgment. Today, you may soothe your conscience
with a little thin-veiled pretense of righteousness. You may soothe
your conscience with an assurance that one of these days surely
you will make things right with God and everything will be all
right. You may soothe your conscience and quieten the terrors of your
soul with a religious profession of faith and you cling to it
and say that's my hope. But you're going to find that
the bed's too short and the covers are too narrow and it'll give
you no rest in that day. You will reap in eternity exactly
what you deserve. Everybody. Everybody. Listen
to this. Turn if you will to Revelation
chapter 20. We'll get to my text in a moment.
But listen to these words from the Apostle Paul as he gives
his reasons for urgency in preaching the gospel. Sometimes folks ask me why I
preach as I do. And sometimes folks listen to
me preach and they had a comment Sunday from young men visiting
with us. He said, you preach without presuming
that anybody knows God. Exactly. How come? How come? To my perception of things, I've
never known a more faithful man than Lindsey Campbell. To my
perception of things. But I don't dare presume he knows
God. I don't dare presume it, for
your sake and God's sake. I don't dare presume it. Don't
dare. For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the
things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether
it be good or bad. You're going to stand before
God in judgment, and I am too. And we're going to receive exactly
what God's record books say we demand, in absolute justice,
without one bending of the law. We're going to get what we deserve
by this. Either by what we've done in our bodies personally,
or what our Lord Jesus Christ did in his body as our representative,
one of the two. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord. The terror of the Lord. The terror of the Lord. We persuade men. And look in Revelation 20 verse
6. Blessed and holy. Blessed and holy. What a word. What a contract. Blessed and
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Now that's
talking about the new birth. Blessed and holy is he who is
born of God. That's exactly what it's saying.
On such, the second death hath no power. That judgment's not
gonna touch you. On such, the second death hath
no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall
reign with him a thousand years. Reign with him forever. So pastor,
how do you know that's what it's talking about? Skip down to 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
now no place for them, no place to hide. 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 will judge every man
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. I'll honestly concede, I don't
have any idea what it involves. Thank God I don't. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now turn
to our text, Hebrews chapter 2. Our text tells us here that the
Lord Jesus Christ The Son of God came into this world in human
flesh for this purpose, that he might deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,
as he delivered you from the fear of death. Verse 14, for as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself
likewise took part of the same through death. He might destroy
him that had the power of death. That is the devil. He has the
power of it because he's the one who causes it. That's what
fits the word used here. He has the power of it because
he's the one who will be the executioner of the second death.
The text does not imply at all that he has some power. God hasn't
given him and uses him to accomplish. Verse 15. and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Now you and I who are washed
in the blood of Christ and living by faith in him should have no
fear of death. Rex read back in the office in
Colossians chapter 1, the passage where Paul speaks of the assurance
of confidence and understanding. Assurance. We ought to, as we
understand the gospel of God's grace, have no trembling before
death's door. If you're struggling with this
thing, with a tormenting fear of death, this message is particularly
for you. I hope it'll be helpful, by God's
blessing. I'll say this at the outset, don't expect to have
dying grace until dying time comes. God doesn't give grace
needlessly, and when dying grace is needed, he gives it. And yet,
we ought not to live out our days on this earth clinging to
the vanity of this thing that men call life. We just ought not to. We ought
not cling to the vanity of mortality, of flesh, of grass, withering,
perishing grass. and fearing its end. When Winston Churchill came to
die, I wrote this down just a little bit ago. This is what he said. That man
so great, so great so many ways. Tremendous man of influence.
Tremendous man, leadership and accomplishments. His very last
words were these, what a fool I've been. What a fool I've been. What a fool. Voltaire, the great,
notorious infidel, when he lay dying, he said this. That's exactly
what he said. For all the wealth of Europe,
I would not wish to see another infidel die. Alternately, praying and blaspheming,
his last words were these. He died crying, oh Christ, oh
Jesus Christ, and went to hell. I want you to know him. My God,
I want you to know him. Lest you perish in your sins
under the wrath of God. So I urge you, look to Christ. There is no deliverance from
the fear of death except by looking to him whose death is the death
of death. Our Lord Jesus has done many
things to deliver his people from the fear of death and its
bondage. Number one, he has destroyed
the power of death by dying in our place. as our substitute
and rising again in life and glory. Since God's elect were
themselves partakers of flesh and blood, he took part of the
same. Since we were under the dominion of death, he became
a man and submitted himself unto death to die for us. And it was
not possible that we should ever be freed from the sentence of
death. except he die for us, satisfying the just claims of
death on our behalf. So that when we stand before
God and the books are opened, the books are opened revealing
man's transgression, man's iniquity, man's sin, the Lord God says
he will search and look and the iniquity of Israel shall not
be found. and another book is opened, called
the book of life. And there he finds our names
written, written by his own finger from eternity. Number two, our
Lord Jesus Christ delivers us from the fear of death by removing
our sin. Turn to John, 1st John chapter
3. The sting of death is sin. The only thing that makes death
tormenting is sin. That's the only thing. If you didn't have any sin, you
wouldn't have any concern at all about death. Your conscience
torments you because of sin. That's the only thing. If it
weren't for sin, there'd be no difficulty. The sting of death
is sin. It's sin which gives torment
to death. But in Christ, we have no sin. In Him, believers are fully forgiven. By His blood, our sins are washed
away. Here in 1 John 3, John writes,
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us. that
we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. This is not something we're waiting
on, we're right now God's sons. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that
hath this hope of being with him and being like him, of seeing
him as he is, purifies himself even as he is pure. Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the
transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested. to take away our sin. That's why he came, to take away
our sin. Neither he did it or he didn't.
Look at the next line. And in him is no sin. Glory. No sin. No sin in him personally, but
in this text it's saying more than that, no sin in him representative
list. He was made to be sin, and he
who was made to be sin has put away our sins so that in him
we have no sin. Be sure you have the forgiveness
of sin by faith in Christ, and the fear of death is no more. To be forgiven, is to be accepted
in the beloved. To be forgiven is not really
to die at all. You see, for the forgiven, death
is simply departure out of this world into the Father's house. Turn to Galatians chapter 3.
No, turn to Romans chapter 8. We'll skip Galatians 3. I'll
just give you a reference to it. I'll show you a third thing.
The law of God held us in bondage and fear under the sentence of
death. We were condemned by nature, but the scripture tells us Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
That means he's the end of the law's power to condemn us. In
the book of God's holy law, there is no legal claim against us. There is no charge against us.
We are freed from the debt because we are dead to the law. And being
dead to the law, the law has nothing to do with us. Look here
in Romans 8. There is therefore, therefore,
Why? Because of what Christ has done.
There is therefore now, right now, no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do, the law could never make
me free. The law could never make me righteous.
The law could never purge my conscience. What the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
How on earth can Sam Wall fulfill the righteousness of the law?
Walk after the Spirit. Now he's not talking about, you
know, we born again and now we start to clean ourselves up. We start to fulfill the law.
No, no, no. To walk after the Spirit, Sam,
is to trust God's Son. That's it. That's it. The believer
walks after the spirit, not the flesh. He walks in the spirit,
not in the flesh. He fulfills the spirit, not the
flesh. And fulfilling these things,
he fulfills the law, looking to Christ, who fulfilled the
law for us. All right, here's another thing.
The Lord Jesus Christ delivers us from the fear of death by
changing its character. You see, for the unbeliever,
Death is a horrible, horrible thing. For the unbeliever, anything
short of death is mercy. Joan Crawford, famous movie star,
if you can call her that. Not anymore. She was in her lifetime. Died in 1977. She had a employee in her house, a maid
I guess it was, when she lay dying, this maid began to pray
for her. And this is what she said, damn
it, don't ask God to have mercy on me. Dying with the fear of death.
But for the believer, oh what a blessing. John Trapp put it
this way, To those that are in Christ, death is but the daybreak
of eternal brightness. Not the punishment of sin, but
the period of sin. It is a sturdy porter opening
the door of eternity, a rough passage to eternal pleasure. Why should Israel be afraid to
cross over the raging Jordan into the land which God promised
them when the ark of God's covenant is before them? Why should we
fear the passage through this dark valley into heaven's glory
land when Christ is before us? Believers do not really die. That's what our Lord told Martha.
He said in John 11, 26, whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall
never die. But Lazarus was dead. No, he
wasn't. Yes, he was. No, he wasn't. Yes,
he was. No, his body was dead. He wasn't
dead. And the believer, though he dies
in the flesh, never dies. To the ungodly, death is the
penalty of sin. To the believer, it's just a
change of location. Death to the wicked is the execution of
justice. To the believer, it's deliverance
from bondage. To the worldling, death is but
the beginning of sorrows. To the believer, death is an
admission into glory. To the rebel, death is everlasting
imprisonment in the torture chambers of the Almighty. To the believer,
death his resurrection glory. Our Savior has also taken away
the fear of death from those who trust him by assuring us
that as soon as we die, as soon as we die, we go to be with him
immediately in glory. Do you remember what he said
to the dying thief? Do you remember what he said? Today, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. The Apostle Paul said to be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord. Because I live,
you shall live also. Our Savior said, Father, I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. And when I leave this world, I'm going to leave this world
to enter into glory immediately with Christ. Let other folks
talk all they want to about soul sleep and all that nonsense. That's what you won't have it.
But I'm telling you, this book declares to every child of God
as he leaves this world today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. Our Lord delivers us from the
fear of death by assuring us of the resurrection of our bodies. When the Lord Jesus comes, the
scripture says this, you don't need to turn there, you can look
at it in 1 Thessalonians 4 later. When he comes again, the Lord
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice
of the archangel. with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Those who have preceded us, they're
going to rise first. Then, immediately after that,
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. So comfort one another with these
words. This body must die, but bless God, we're going to
arise. This flesh goes back to the dust
from whence it came. Sown in the earth a natural body,
raised a glorious spiritual body. That's just beyond me. I can't
begin to imagine, even thinking about trying to explain that
to anybody, but I know it so. With Job of old I say I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself
and not another. Mine eyes shall behold him, though
my skin worms be destroyed, though my rage be consumed within me. And with such a hope, the grave
just doesn't cause too much alarm. try every day, deliberately,
every day, I try to think a little bit about dying. I'd advise you
to do the same. If we would be free from the
fear of death, we ought to meditate often on what it is to die in
Christ. Death will bring us into the
presence of a great multitude of One of
these days, death is going to take me from that dear lady,
or her from me. Death takes a child from its
mother, a father from his family. But we cheer ourselves with the
prospect of a happy reunion in glory. Now I know preeminently
we're going to see Christ. Some folks, they try to act real
spiritual, you know, say I'm not interested in anything but
Him. I'm interested in him and everything about him. And part
of being about him is all of his people. We're going to see
and know one another in glory. I don't have any question about
that. Did the apostles know Moses and Elijah when they stood on
Mount Transfiguration? They knew exactly who they were.
I don't have any idea how, but they knew and they'd never seen
them. And they sure didn't have any snapshots. And Michelangelo
hadn't painted any pictures yet. But they knew them. They knew
them. Yeah, believing we know each other in glory. We're coming,
the apostle says, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn
whose names are written in heaven. We're going to sit down with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Dying in Christ means our most
earnest, constant prayers and desires will be answered. When I have closed my eyes in
death, and breathe my last breath, this sinner will be free from
sin. Exactly like Christ my Lord. And I'll see it as he is. No wonder he said, They shall
never die. They shall never die. The death
of God's saints, I'm certain, is accompanied by
many comforts. This is what the Lord said in
that passage you love to read, Bobby, Exodus 15. He said, as
they cross over the Red Sea, and the pictures of us crossing
over into glory. He said, fear and dread shall
fall upon them, that is, fear and dread shall fall upon all
our enemies. By the greatness of God's arm,
they shall be as still as a stone, till thy people pass over, O
Lord, till the people pass over which thou hast One last thing. Our Savior delivers
us from the fear of death by giving us foretaste of glory
that is to come. I have not seen nor heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the things which God has
prepared for them that love him. And yet he has given us his spirit,
which is the earnest of our inheritance. Oh, I can't comprehend what glory
is, but I'm sure think about it. In Christ, heaven is ours. The throne of Christ is ours. The glory of Christ is ours. The crown of life is ours. Eternal joy. God is mine, Christ is mine,
the Spirit is mine, heaven is mine, glory is mine. Therefore, death is the greatest anticipation
I have in life. the greatest anticipation I have
in life. Amen. Let's sing it as well with
my soul, isn't it? We'll be dismissed with this.