evening. I want you to turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 2. Brother Paul Harries asked me
a little while ago how long I had known Brother Bill Clark. Met him in Memphis, Tennessee
in 1972. He was preaching at a Sovereign
Grace Bible Conference that was being hosted in a church there,
and we became slightly acquainted then and increasingly so over
the past number of years. And all those years, Bill has
demonstrated faithfulness, steadfastness, commitment, every increasing
growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ and commitment to the
gospel of his grace. And tonight, he's finished his
race, and he's seated around the throne of the Lamb. where
he wants to be, worshiping our Redeemer. But I have a question
for you. Are you afraid to die? I've been working on that almost
ever since I got called this afternoon. How's it going to
be for you when you draw your last breath, when you leave this
world? Everything, everything, is utter
vanity in comparison to that issue. Everything. I want you to understand something.
I wish I could look at everybody right square now just like I'm
looking at you right now, Steve. You're gonna die. You're gonna
meet God. It is appointed unto man once
to die. Now the Lord graciously, providentially,
gives us warning after warning after warning. He just every
now and then lets us see how quickly he can snuff out our
lives. He takes a young child. How many
of the friends of your kids in the last few years have been
killed one way or the other? Just the fact that. Take somebody
midlife, take somebody in their old age. And we, you know, we
kind of shake ourselves for a little bit, and go right about our business.
Just as though, well, that's over with now. We can forget
about that now. We don't have to be concerned about that anymore.
I recall several years ago, I used to help fellows from West Virginia,
and I had time to do it. I'd go out and help them slaughter
cattle. I used to do it every Thanksgiving day. You go out,
shoot a calf, and other cows standing around, they'd look
at it, look around for just a little bit, sniff the air, go right
back to grazing because this is not bothering me. It doesn't
affect me. That was another cow. He's gone.
She's gone. Let me tell you something. Soon
it's going to be you. You're going to meet God Almighty
face to face. Face to face. And God's going
to demand something from you. He's going to demand from you
perfect righteousness and complete satisfaction for your sin. You're going to die because you
deserve to die. And if you perish without Christ,
you're going to hell because you deserve to go to hell. And
that's true of every one of us, every one of us. You've lived
your life with your fists square in God's face. You've lived your
days breathing God's air, living upon God's bounty. Constantly
shaking your fist in God's face defying him at every turn. That's
the way we have spent our days Every one of us. There's not
a commandment in the book. We've not broken and broken every
day of our lives the wages of our sin is death and You're gonna
get what you deserve Everyone and that's not just physical
death Unless God intervenes Unless God stops you in your bad rush
to hell, soon you're going to be there. Unless God graciously
opens the windows and reaches down and opens your heart and
drops his grace, you're going to hell. I hope I've got you. Look here in Hebrews chapter
2. I want to begin in verse 1 and I'm moving in the direction of
verses 14 Therefore, therefore, since the
Lord Jesus Christ has finished the work of redemption, since
the Lord Jesus Christ has put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself, and he's sat down now in the right hand of the majesty
on high, therefore, since there is a mediator, since there is
a savior, since there is a gospel revealed, a gospel preached,
a gospel by which we may be saved, therefore, we ought to give the
more earnest tease to the things which we've heard. I was reading
that a minute ago, Merle, and I thought about you, Oscar. Some
of you have probably been around a long time. Been around a long
time. Don't let it, don't let go. Don't let go. Give the more earnest
heed to the things that we've heard. Less at any time. Hold on to something. And if
it's valuable, you make sure you don't have any grease on
your hands. You grab hold of it and you hold it. You hold
it with great, great tenacity. If your life depends on the hold,
you hold firmly. Hold with all your might. Rest
it. Just slip out of your hands.
Hold the gospel of God's grace. Hold Jesus Christ with the firm
grip of faith as though as though it were possible that you were
slipping yourself down into hell. You who believe, hold him tenaciously,
lest at any time we should let these things slip." He said,
well, how serious is this? I've seen lots of folks come
further than any of us have thus far come, at least to outward
appearance, who finally let it slip. Look at verse 2. For if
the word spoken by angels, the word of the law given in the
Old Testament, was steadfast, that law given by the angels
of God to Moses, from Moses to the people of Israel, if that
was steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense of reward, this is what he said. God said in the
Old Testament, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. God said,
now here's my law, you do it and you'll live forever. Break
one commandment and you're dead. Now, here's what Paul says here.
He says that law was steadfast. And every man received a just
recompense of reward. Men and women broke God's law,
God visited them in judgment. Nations broke God's law, God
visited them in judgment. Generations broke God's law,
God visited them in judgment. Go back and ask the inhabitants
of the earth during Noah's day. Go back and ask Sodom and Gomorrah.
Go back and ask the sons of Korah. God Almighty is a God who is
just and true to his word. Now, if men, by breaking God's
law, are perishing under the wrath of God forever, how much
more you and I who've heard and despised his gospel. Will you
hear me? to have received the law at Sinai. If you had been there, back there
on Mount Sinai, when God gave his law, and Moses came down
from the mount, and Moses' face showed right there, and you saw
his face glistening so much so that the people said, Moses,
cover your face, we can't look on you. If you'd been there,
and seen that and heard God speak with thunderous voice from Mount
Sinai, inscribing his law on tables of stone. That's nothing. You've heard the gospel of God's
free grace. You've heard the message of redemption and grace
in Jesus Christ. You've heard how that God in
his Son has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. You've
heard how that God visited his Son with our transgressions and
visited our transgressions with the full extremity of his wrath
and that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has put away sin for
all who believe him. Now if you despise that, there's
not a greater evil in the whole world. You can talk about homosexual
perversion, you can talk about adultery, you can talk about
fornication, you can talk about drunkenness, you can talk about
murder, you can talk about rape, you can talk about child abuse,
there's no evil in the world like hearing and despising the
gospel. No evil in the world. Read on.
How shall we appear if we neglect so great salvation? What a word
for God's salvation, so great. This is salvation that comes
from the great God. Through the merits of Christ
the great Savior. from the great reservoir of his grace for great
sinners, and saves us unto a great inheritance, which at the first
began to be spoken by the Lord." Now he's talking here about the
Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, this salvation has
been revealed from the beginning of time in the various pictures
and types and promises and prophecies of the Old Testament. But now
the apostle comes and he says, he says, this gospel began to
be spoken by the Lord Jesus himself, by the Son of God. He walked
on this earth and said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. I came
to die, he said. He said, I came so that I might
be lifted up so that anybody who believes on me has life everlasting. And it was confirmed to us, confirmed
to us by those who heard him, by those apostles. It was confirmed
to us by them in that they, by the special anointing and unction
and inspiration of God's Spirit, wrote down for us passages just
like we're reading right now, in which they explained infallibly
what the Son of God taught while he was on this earth. It was
confirmed, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and
wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost,
according to his own wisdom. He gave those men the ability
to speak languages they had never learned. He gave those men the
ability to perform miracles, to heal the sick. He gave them
the ability, by His grace and power, to even raise the dead.
And those men were mighty, mighty, because of Him. Because of the
gifts which God gave them. Not to honor them. Not to puff
them up. Not to give them to have bigger
crowds come to their tent meetings. That wasn't it. Oh no, it was
so that when men heard these men speak, they knew they heard
God Almighty. When they saw these men as they
performed these miracles, these wonders, according as the prophecy
of Joel said they would, they said, this now is true. The Messiah
has come. Redemption's accomplished. These
are God's messengers. Now, people today claim to have
those gifts. I know we're living in this day
of Pentecostal charismatic mania. Everybody seems to be jumping
on the bandwagon, and if they don't say, well, we believe these
things, well, it's all right. You know, we can't condemn that.
It's hellish. It's hellish. Those who claim
today to have these apostolic gifts are telling us that the
book of God is not complete. The revelation of God is not
finished. The message revealed in this book is not enough. But
now we've come with a new message from God. Because if you've got
the gift of the Apostle Rex, then you've got the gift of giving
the inspired word of God. Those men who claim such gifts
are false prophets or else this book is false. One of the two.
You can take your choice, but I'm telling you they're false
prophets. And I don't care who joins the bandwagon. This charismatic
stuff is not of God. All right, read on. This message
of grace was confirmed, broken by the Lord Jesus, confirmed
by those who heard it. Verse 5, for unto the angel hath
he not put into objection the world to come, whereof we speak. I read that a little bit ago
and I thought, what's he talking about? He hasn't been talking
about the world to come. Yeah, he has, that's the whole
message. The whole book is talking about
the world to come. I'm talking to you, Bob, about
future things. This stuff down here, this is just temporary.
Everything you see, everything you feel, everything you touch
here is just temporary and it's vanishing away quicker than you
can touch it. We're talking about the world
to come. That has not been put in subjection to angels. Oh no,
that's been put in subjection to a man. A man. A man who is
himself God. Read on. But one in a certain
place testified saying, what is man? You can read that in
Psalm 8 verse 4. You can read it in Job chapter
7 verse 17. What is man? Insignificant man. Fallen man. Depraved man. Ruined man. Corrupt
man. What is man? That thou art mindful
of all wondrous things. God Almighty takes mind of us. Wonder of wonders. God in heaven
looks down on here and is mindful of men such as we are. Or the
son of man that thou visitest here. He visits us with his grace. He visited us in time, sent his
son into this world. He comes and visits us here from
time to time. That thou visit us here. Read
on. Thou madest him a little lower
than the angel. Man was made something less than
an angel. But you crowned him with glory,
Adonai. And you set him over all the
works of your hands. In other words, he's saying,
now God made man something more humble than the angels, but he
made man to be prince and king over everything. He made man
to make him highest of dignitaries, to set him over all his creation.
He says, verse 8, thou hast put all things into objection under
his feet. Well, I don't see that, do you?
Man doesn't look to me like there's not much objection under my feet.
Yours? There's not much in this world
I control. There's not much in this world you control. Well,
what's he talking about? He says you made him and you
put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him. He left nothing that is not put
under him. But now we don't yet see it. We don't see this yet. Well,
how do you perceive it then? But we see Jesus. Oh yeah, look yonder, look yonder,
look, look, look away yonder to the throne of heaven. There
sits upon the throne of the universe a man, a representative man. And God Almighty has put everything
in subjection under him. And one of these days, Bobby,
we're going to join him in his good. Everything. We don't see
this full field yet, but we see Jesus and that's good enough.
who was made a little lower than the angels. Look at this. Why
was he made a little lower than the angels? Why did God send
his son into this world? Why did the son of God step into
this world of time and sin and misery? For the suffering of
death. He came here to die. He came
here because he came to redeem and save his people by the sacrifice
of himself. Now we see him crowned with glory
and honor. He came here that he, by the
grace of God, should taste death for every man. Now, I can't bypass
that. The word man was added by our
translators. You can look up any commentary
you want to, or not commentary, my soul pay no attention to those
fellows. Look up in any concordance you want to. The word is that
he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every. And there
shouldn't be a period there. There ought to be a colon. Because
in the next verses he tells us who he tasted death for. He tasted
death not for every man in the world, every man in the universe.
If that were the case, then every man in the universe would be
saved. But he tasted death for many sons, verse 10. He tasted
death for those who are sanctified, verse 11. For his brethren, verse
11. For those who are called the
children of God, verse 11. For the seed of Abraham, down
in verse 16. That he, by the grace of God, should taste death
for his elect. That's what he's saying. For
it became him. It was necessary for him. for
whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing
many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through suffering." What does that mean? The Lord Jesus came
down here in this world, the holy man, there's no sin in him,
no corruption, no defilement. He came down here, the Son of
God in human flesh. Well, how was he made perfect?
He was made a perfect savior for you by the things he suffered. He could not save you otherwise.
You understand that? There was no way that the holy
God could put away your sin, but by the satisfaction of justice.
And the only way justice could be satisfied is if he who is
God assumed human flesh, suffer and die. All right, read on.
For both he that sanctifies, that's Christ, And they who are
sanctified, that's us, are all of one. For which cause? He's not ashamed to call them
blessed. I know what it is to be a brother, and everybody in
the family would be ashamed to say, yeah, that's my brother.
But he who is my God has taken me into union with himself, and
he's not ashamed to say, Don Horton is my brother, my brother. He's mine, one with me, and I'm
his, one with him. Saying, I will declare thy name,
verse 12. I declare my name to my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee. The Lord Jesus spoke to the Father
in covenant mercy before the world began. And he said, I will
bring my sons to glory and I will set my brethren down with me
in glory. And I'll declare your name among
them and sing praise for eternity. Verse 13. And again, I will put
my trust in him. The Lord God Almighty trusted
his glory, his covenant, his purpose and his will and his
people in the hands of his God. He trusted him long before any
of us ever did. He trusted him from eternity. And the Lord Jesus,
speaking to the father as he puts his trust in him, says,
Behold, I and the children which God has given you, they're here
with me, and they'll be here with me forever. Verse 14, For
as much then as children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same. that he, through
death, might destroy him that had power of death." That is
the devil. He comes, the seed of the woman,
and he crushes the serpent's head. By his death at Calvary,
he stamped to death the devil, so that he who had power of death,
not that he has somehow power in rival with God, but he's the
one who brought death into the world. He's the one who brought
misery and destruction into the world. Now the son of God has
come and crushed him and broken his power. And he's come by his
death. To deliver them. Who through
fear of death. Were all their lifetime. Subject
to bondage. That's just the position some
of you are still in. live in the fear of death, and it's not
necessary. Are you afraid to die? Answer
that question, my soul, honestly. No. And I'm not speaking oratorically. I'm not speaking without experience. I know what it is to stand in
the immediate prospect of death. You see, I know that I'm a dying
man. And when I die, death will be a welcome relief. This body
that I have pampered and overindulged is my greatest enemy. This physical
form which houses that man, Adam, my flesh. Oh, nothing is greater
birth. Nothing is greater birth. For
now, it's a useful tool, a necessary tool. But one of these days,
the tool is going to have no more use. And when you get done
with the tool, you stick it in the drawer and forget it. You're
just done with it, don't have any more use. You get a pair
of shoes that pinch your feet, you pull them off and say, what
a relief. Well, this body's been pinching
me and death will be a welcome relief. I try to live every day
in the immediate prospect of leaving this world. I try to
live every day. Oh, God, help me turn this world,
turning loose of everything that holds me to this clawed collar. I urge you, value nothing today
more than you will value it when you leave. You say, well, I can't
do that. Then you put too high a price
on whatever it is. I have no reason to fear death.
Because the Lord Jesus Christ. The son of God. Has put away
my sin. I mean, put it away. Before God,
I had no sin. Before God skipped my sin. And he has closed me. with his
perfect righteousness. He made me the righteousness
of God in him. And now, with his spotless garments
on, I am as holy. He said, Preacher, you can't
say that. Oh, you can't say that unless you believe God. Unless
you believe God. Oh, but listen to me. If right
where you sit, right now, You look to the Lamb of God. Confess
your sin. You look to Christ as your Savior
and your Lord. I'm telling you, he put away
all your sin and he robed you in his perfect righteousness.
And you are the righteousness of God in him. And with his spotless
garments on, you're as holy as God's own Son. I have no reason
to fear death, but rather every reason to anticipate I don't
know what work God yet has for me to do. Whatever it is, I'll
be content to wait. But one of these days, when I
close my eyes and breathe my last breath, be aware of this,
my most earnest desires will be fulfilled. More than anything I'll have. It's called sinlessness. It's called communion with Christ. It's called life. Eternal life. Life. Everlasting life. Life. Perfect life. And my greatest
sorrows will all be over. There'll be no more sorrow, no
more crying, no more sickness, no more tears, because there'll
be no more sin and there'll be no more death. Oh, may God be
pleased to deliver you to yet trudge along through this world
in the bondage of the fear of death. Oh, may he give you liberty
and freedom from the fear of death by faith in Jesus Christ
the Lord.