if you would to turn back with
me to the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and I want us to read the
13th verse. Verse 13 and we want to kind
of just talk a little bit this morning about things that are
upon our hearts and I hope the Lord will use it for His glory
and for your edification. But in Hebrews chapter 11 in
verse 13, it says, These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded
of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. The writer of the book of Hebrews,
I believe it's the Apostle Paul, he's been talking about those
who walked in faith before God, those who had pleased God, talking
about Abel and talking about Noah, talking about Abraham,
those who had trusted God and believed God, and those who had
pleased Him, because verse 6 tells us that without faith it is impossible
to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. Now all these Old Testament saints
of God who were those who were chosen of God and called out
by God during their pilgrimage in this world, these were told
in verse 13, these These all died in faith. These all died
in faith. Now, these believers, they constitute,
I believe, a class by themselves. They constitute a class by themselves
because all men are not believers. Only those to whom God gives
repentance and faith are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
there are many in this world who do not have faith in the
living God. Now we see a great many distinctions
in the world which God takes no notice of. many distinctions
in the world. Some are rich, some are poor,
some are blind, some are deaf, and there are some healthy and
some unhealthy. But God takes, no, he makes nothing
of these distinctions that men make a great deal of. Now there's
neither Jew, the Bible says, nor Gentile, bond nor free, in
his sight. But there is a distinction which
men think very little of, which God greatly observes. It's greatly observed of God.
One distinction, and that is the distinction between them
that believe and them that believe not. Now beloved, if you expect
to go to heaven when you die and pass from this life, you
must be among the believing. You must be among those who believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, and that He
bore your sin in His body on the tree, and that the Lord Jesus
Christ has become your substitute before God, and that He has suffered
in His body in your womb instead all of the vengeance of God that
would do your sin. You must be a believer on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now faith brings sinners out
of darkness into God's marvelous light. And it brings sinners
out of death, spiritual death, into spiritual life. I'm talking about faith. I'm
talking about the ability to believe God and to believe His
Word and to trust Him. It brings us out from under the
dominion of Satan into the kingdom of God's own dear Son. If we're able to believe, if
we have like precious faith, And faith is precious, beloved,
because it's a gift of God, number one. It's a gift of God, and
faith is precious because it has been given of God unto us
in order that we might escape eternal darkness and eternal
death and that we might experience life and liberty in this life
and in the life to come through the gospel. Now the most important
thing under heaven is that we should believe God. That's the
most important thing under heaven. Now you may possibly have your
priorities a little bit mixed up and maybe you think there's
some other things that are more important. But the most important
thing is that we believe God, that we believe God, that we
believe the truth of God, that we believe the gospel of God's
grace, that we believe it. And if we are not believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ, then we've neglected that which is the most
important thing that we're here in this world for. Now the Holy
Spirit here puts believers by themselves and speaks of them
as these. as these. These all died in faith. Now we do not separate believers
from unbelievers at the cemetery. We don't go out, we don't have
a cemetery where just only believers are buried. We don't try to separate
them. I mean, when we go out to buy
a plot of ground in the cemeteries to bury our loved ones, We do
not just look for a place where we know that believers are planted
or where believers have been sown, their bodies have been
sown in the dust of the earth where they've been buried. No,
beloved, but I want you to understand that God knows His own. Now they
may be mixed up in the cemetery, and you may not be able to tell
who it is that believed and who it was that did not believe,
but yet God knows His own, and God is not confused. You and
I may be a great deal confused about our relationship with the
Lord, whether we're true believers or whether we're not. whether
our loved ones were true believers or whether they were not, but
beloved God is not confused. The Bible says that the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are His, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity. Now hear the Lord, as it were,
in this 13th verse of Hebrews chapter 11, Our Lord here seems
to write the epitaph across the front of the tombstone for Abel,
Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, and all the Old Testament believers.
He seems to write, as it were, the epitaph. Now, there used
to be a time when people would write something on the tombstone
of their loved ones when they buried them. And on the tombstone,
let me give you an example of this. On the tombstone of C.
H. Spurgeon are these words. We sung them a while ago. E'er
since, by faith, I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply. Redeeming
love has been my theme and shall be till I die. That's written
on his tombstone. And then on the tombstone of
T. M. Martin, who preached the gospel
during the Civil War, days are these words a bond slave of Jesus
Christ. And then I especially like these
words inscribed on a tombstone in England that I read about
till he comes. till he comes that's good I thought
and then also I read about a little boy and after a devastating flood
in which many people were killed the body of this small boy was
found he was never claimed he was never identified by anybody
so they buried him and they wrote two words on his grave marker
and those two words is God knows God knows. God knows who are
His, and God knows who this little boy is. And Job, if you remember,
wrote his own epitaph. He said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth. He said, engrave this on the
rock. that marks my resting place,
I know that my Redeemer liveth." And so the Lord here has written
the epitaph for these Old Testament believers who believed Him and
trust Him, and that epitaph is, these all died in faith. All of them died believing, all
of them died trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now beloved
listen, they sleep in Jesus and are blessed how kind their slumbers
are. These Old Testament believers
and all who have fallen asleep in Jesus Christ. Now the characteristics
of God's people are peculiar to themselves and we're all different
in many ways. We're all different, I say, in
many ways, but we're all alike in this. In this one thing that
we all live by faith and we shall all die in faith. We shall all die by faith. Now they were not all equal even
here. They were not all equal even
in faith. because some of them had strong faith, some of them
had few doubts, they believed God, they trusted God in spite
of what came into their lives in the way of circumstances,
and then others of them were rather weak in faith, but they
all had faith and they continued even to the end in faith. And so, beloved, whether a child
of God has strong faith or weak faith, if it's the gift of God,
then we shall continue in that faith unto the end to die without
it. So without exception, these all,
the Scripture says, died in faith. They died trusting in the Lord. Well, what does it mean? What
does it mean to die in faith? Somebody says, well now, when
these died in faith, what does that mean? Well, we read here
that they hadn't received the promises yet. Many things that
God had told them, many things that God had assured them of,
many things that they had seen afar off, and they did not see
it with the naked eye, they saw it by faith. They had not received. They embraced these things. They
believed in eternity. They believed in a heaven where
God dwells. And they believed that in heaven
they would dwell with God for all eternity. And they would
have blessings rich through the grace of God throughout eternity.
And they had embraced these truths and they had confessed. that
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They confessed
that they were not of this world, but that their citizenship was
in heaven above, and that they expected someday to leave this
world and to go up yonder to be with the Lord forever. They
confessed that. They spoke those things. Now
these people then were people who died believing the promises
of God, even though they had not yet received them. And you
and I undoubtedly, we probably will experience the same thing
in our departure from this life. We will die in faith, believing
what the Word of God says, believing the testimony of Holy Scripture,
believing what God has told us in His Word. Believing what Christ
has taught us about eternity, we shall pass away believing
those things. We probably will not see the
actual coming of the Lord for His own. We shall not be alive
probably when the Lord returns. There's a possibility of that,
but we probably won't be. It's possible but not probable
that we'll be alive when the Lord returns to this earth. when
he comes and when he raises the dead out of the graves and when
the bodies of those that are still alive trusting Christ when
they're changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the
last trump for the trump shall sound and the dead incorruptible
shall be raised from their graves and we may not be alive to see
that we may have to die believing that this is exactly what's going
to happen and trust the Lord that it shall be so. Well, what
does it mean to die? Well, it means to believe the
promises of God and it means to confess that you believe these
promises by saying that you're strangers and pilgrims on the
earth, that this is not our home, this is not our place of everlasting
abode, but our place, our real citizenship, the real country
is that one which God has made and that one to which we are
now on our way. Now then, but I would like to
say this because I think it's very important that I do so.
I think it means that they came to die, that when they came to
die, these Old Testament saints, that they did not have to look.
They did not have to seek. for faith to die with. They did not have to seek for
faith to die in when they came to die. Now, beloved, this is
so very important because I think that many people fail to see
how important it is that while we're young, while we're robust,
while we're healthy, that we seek the Lord, that we call upon
the Lord, that we cry out to God, that we attempt to find
the way of the Lord while we're healthy and robust and strong. I will say very little about
deathbed repentance. I heard this week about an individual
who passed away at 92 years old, just passed away early, I think
probably, it was on Monday also, and supposedly he made a last
On his deathbed he made a statement of faith and he supposedly was
converted an hour or so before he passed from this life. Now
beloved, I have very little confidence in deathbed repentance. I have
very little confidence in that and I'll be glad to tell you
why. I don't want to get into that this morning too much, but
I'll be glad to tell you why in just a moment. Beloved, we
must not wait till the time of our death, beg to seek a Savior,
because in that hour, and I think this is one of the lessons we
learn by observing those who are ill and observing their departure
from this world, is that we learn this truth and we need to have
our eyes open to it and that is that in the dying hour, that
is when we're on our last bed of affliction, that the strife
of dying, that the medications that generally people are on
and the pain that they're going through and the disorder of the
brain brought on by the illness and the trauma is just simply
too much for an individual to be trying to find some comfort
or trying to find a savior in that hour. I mean it's too much. And then there are many that
are barely conscious and you could whisper to them or you
could shake their hand or you could touch them and they would
not know it. And there are others that are
not even conscious at all before they depart this life. And what
I'm saying to you is that we are not to wait until we get
on our deathbed to try to seek faith by which to die with. These all died in faith and the
reason they died in faith was because they lived in faith.
I believe as the tree falls, that's the way it will lie throughout
eternity. And if an individual has lived
out his life in unbelief, how can it be said of you that you
die in faith if it cannot be said of you that you live in
faith? How can it be said? How can it
be said? Now every one of us need to ask
ourselves that question. Can it be said by the preacher
about me when I die that I died in faith? And the reason he can
say it is because I lived in faith. I lived by faith. I trusted God. I believed God. I did what God led me to do. I obeyed the Lord. And we have
the examples here of those in the Old Testament. Noah, he feared
God and God told him to build an ark. He built an ark. to the
saving of his own life and the lives of the members of his family.
Oh Abraham, he was led out to go to a place, he didn't know
where it was, God didn't give him any forwarding address, but
he obeyed the Lord and he went out. Not knowing where he was
going, but he obeyed the Lord. And it was known of Abraham that
he believed God. And the Bible tells us that he's
the father of the faithful. And that was the testimony that
he had. He trusted God. He relied upon
God. He waited on God. And then there's
Moses. Moses, he just said, Well, I
don't want to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and I
don't want all of the finery and the riches that comes with
that. He says, I want to suffer affliction with the people of
God. And he chose to do so rather than to enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season. Now, beloved, it wouldn't be
hard to preach old Moses' funeral because all you'd have to do
is get up and say, here it is, Moses believed God and he walked
with God and walked in faith and he died in faith. And so,
listen to me this morning. Don't wait until you get on your
deathbed to be seeking a Savior. I mean, seek Him now. Seek him
now. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Call you upon him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
unto the Lord and the Lord will have mercy upon him and to our
God for he will abundantly pardon. But you must seek him while he
may be found. Don't wait until you get on your
deathbed and the doctor comes in and says, You've got a terminal
illness? You've just got a matter of hours?
Don't wait! You must seek the Lord now. You
must call upon Him now and seek His face and plead with Him and
sue for mercy at His throne until He have mercy upon you, until
He forgive your transgressions and your sin. And so ask yourself
the question, can it be said of me that I've lived in faith? And can the preacher say, He
or she died in faith because they live that way. And so that's
the way you know how a person dies is how they live. And don't
you ever believe it's contrary to that because it's not so,
beloved. I'm not saying that God can't save the thief on the
cross, he did. I'm not saying that God can't
save somebody on their deathbed. I'm not saying he can't do that.
But generally speaking, it's not that way. And it don't work
that way. I know a lot of people would
argue with that, but I want you to know this morning that according
to what the Bible says, these all died in faith. And if you
read how they lived, they lived in faith. And the scripture says
that just shall live by faith. That's the way they lived. They
lived by trusting God. They lived by believing God.
They lived by waiting upon the Lord. They live by receiving
daily from God what they need in this life, and they trust
Him and wait upon Him. And they care very little for
material security in this world. They wait, and they trust, and
they look to the hand of a faithful God who will not fail His people. Well, I'd like to say also that
these people that died in faith here, that they never got beyond
faith. They just never got beyond it.
They always had to keep believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. They
were sinners and they had no strength of their own. Their
strength was in the Lord and they waited on the Lord and they
trusted in God and they depended upon God to lead them and to
bless them and meet their needs. They just simply never got beyond
faith. Now there's some people that
they may feel that they've gotten so good, and they may feel so
righteous, that they don't need to trust the Lord anymore, that
they can just go on, you know, that they're made perfect in
the flesh. But it's not so. A sinner always needs Christ,
and he needs to keep believing on the Lord Jesus. And the mercy
of it is, is that they never got below it either. They never
got below faith. Some poor souls go through many,
many radical and difficult times in this world, many trying times,
many desperate times when their faith is shaken and when they
feel that they just are unbelievers really. They're so filled with
fear and doubt and so greatly discouraged and despondent and
maybe filled with despair over the way things have turned out
for them in this life. But beloved, it's a marvelous
and wonderful thing when we don't get below faith. I mean, when
we can just keep trusting God in spite of what happens. desperately
difficult our days are, and how desperate our circumstances are,
and how bereaved that we are, and how suffering that we are
in our daily experience. Beloved, listen, it's a wonderful
thing if we don't get below faith and despair. And so these people,
I think they always had to believe, and they did believe, and they
never got below that. They never got beyond it, and
they never got below it. they trusted in the Lord. Now, I've asked myself a few
questions and I'd like to be able this morning to be of some
help to you if I can. I'd like to, I run across something
here a while back that was kind of a blessing to me and I'd like
to share this with you. And this is the thoughts of an
old saint of God. as he meditated and as he thought
about his departure from this life and his coming into the
presence of Almighty God. And this is some things he thought
about. And I thought, well, in preparing
this message, I thought, well, I should use this because I thought
it would fit in real well in our subject this morning. send his servant named Death
to carry my soul into his presence where I shall stand before the
bar of God." And he said, doubtless in the background when I'm summonsed
to glory and I arrive at the gates of glory, in the background
will be the saints of God who have entered heaven before and
they shall be there singing the praises of God unto the Lamb
whose blood had redeemed them unto God. And then he said, I
thought in that moment when I shall stand before his throne that
certain questions will probably be asked of me. And these are
the questions that will probably be asked of maybe of every sinner
that comes to the gate of heaven. Now listen to me. Why should
I let a sinner like you into my glorious abode? Why should I let a sinner like
you into my glorious abode? Why should I, the holy and the
eternal God, allow such a worm into my presence? Why should
I? Well, if indeed I am asked these
questions, I wouldn't give any of the following reasons. Now
this was a man who knew the gospel, and he knew himself. And I want
you to listen to this. He said, I wouldn't give any
of the following reasons. Number one, he would not say,
because of my outstanding works. He wouldn't say that. Now some
people in Matthew chapter 7, if you remember Matthew 7, 22
and 23, they spoke of their good works and of their many, many
wonderful works. And the Lord said to them, Matthew
chapter 7, He said, Depart from Me, I never knew you. They said,
Why, we ought to be able to trade our righteousness and our works
for a seat in heaven. And the Lord said, no, he said,
depart from me, I never knew you. And so this old saint of
God said, that's one thing I wouldn't say. You ought to let me in because
of my outstanding works. And then another thing he said,
I will not say, is you ought to let me in because of my goodness. Now the Pharisee in Luke chapter
18, you remember the Pharisee and the publican, the Pharisee
went up to the temple to pray and said, I thank thee oh God
I'm not like other men. I'm not an adulterer, I'm not
this, I'm not that, and I pay tithes and I do all these things. The old publican, he just smote
on his breast, couldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, and
he prayed and said, Father, he said, have mercy upon me! Have mercy upon me! And the Bible
says that the publican, the sinner, he went down to his house justified,
and the Pharisee, he went down to his house, but it was still
any sin. because he was not a humble,
repentant soul. So the Pharisee, beloved, he
claimed personal goodness only to be rejected by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now my friend, you might as well
expect to be saved by your wickedness as to be saved by your righteousness. You better face it. You better
face it. Because your wickedness will
come just about as much saving you as your own personal righteousness,
because they're probably both going to be put in the same category
as far as a holy God is concerned, because all of our righteousness
is as filthy rags in the sight of a thrash holy God. And beloved,
listen to me this morning, he said in the next place, he said,
I would not say because I was an officer in the church. In
other words, let me in to your holy heaven because I was an
officer in the church. Judas was an apostle. He was a preacher and the treasure
of the disciples, yet he perished in his own sins. He perished
in his sins and went to hell. I'm talking about Judas. And
so you would not answer, you let me in, let this bioworm into
heaven because I was an officer in the church. And then also
you would not answer, because I've been baptized. He said,
I wouldn't give that as an answer. Why the Lord ought to let me
in heaven? Because I've been baptized. Because Simon Magus
in chapter 8 in verse 21 of the book of Acts was baptized and
yet Peter said to him, thy heart, thine heart is not right in the
sight of God. And you better pray that the
very thoughts of your heart will be forgiven you. Salvation is
hard work. It's not just being dipped in
water. It's not just baptism. Salvation is an experience in
the grace of God. It's through the regenerating
power of the Spirit of God that we're regenerate and we're brought
in to the family of God. And so it won't be enough to
say to God there at heaven's gate, because I've been baptized. Well, what then would my answer
be? He says, what then would my answer be? Well, he said,
I'm firmly convinced that a simple three-word reply will result
in the gates of heaven swinging open for this vile sinner. Just a three-word answer will
suffice. What are these three words? For
Christ's sake! For Christ's sake! Let me in
to heaven. For Christ's sake, let me in.
Lord, receive this poor sinner because of who Christ is and
because of what he did and for what he did for sinners. Now, this is so important that
we understand, beloved, how that we are only going to be received
in the glory on the basis of what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done for us. God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven us of our sins. The forgiveness of sin is not
something that is conditioned upon the will, the work, or the
worth of the sinner. No, it is something that is accomplished
by the will of God, the work of Christ, and the worth of His
precious blood. And so if you're going to be
received into glory, it's going to be for Christ's sake. It's
going to be for what he is. It's going to be for what he's
done, not what you've done. Now I want you to hear me out.
If a sinner can be saved by the performance of certain religious
deeds or good works, then why did God hang his blessed son
on a tree? Why did He do that? If you can
be saved by what you do, I mean if you have the strength and
the ability to do that, then save yourself, then why was it
necessary that God hung His Son on a cross? Many people believe
that through better behavior, and church membership or baptism,
they can put themselves into God's favor. Now if this is true,
God did a horrible and senseless thing in sacrificing the Lord
Jesus Christ, His own Son. He should have never done it.
Because if sinners can save themselves, if what we're hearing in our
day and time in religious circles, sinners save ourselves, if that's
a true message, then God did a senseless and horrible thing
in sacrificing His own beloved Son. Why would God subject His
Son to such agonies if sinners could be rescued some other way? If sinners could be saved by
some other way, but the truth of the matter is this, God sent
his Son into the world to live, to suffer, to bleed and die for
sinners because there was no other way whereby God could righteously
justify a sinner. and God could remain righteous
and pardon the guilty. Sinners are accepted by God solely
on the basis of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So do not insult the glorious person and Redeemer, Jesus Christ,
by seeking acceptance with God on some other grounds. Christ
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. For there is one God, Paul said,
and one mediator between God and men, and that is the man,
Christ Jesus. And so my friend, if you're going
to die in faith, You must have the testimony of this old sinner
that thought it out, and he said it's going to be for Christ's
sake if I'm going to be received into heaven. And if this sinner
gets into heaven, it'll be for Christ's sake. Now I want to
share a little poem with you, and I'll let you go. This poem
is written by Don Fortner, and the name of it is Forever with
the Lord. This world is not my home, I'm only passing through. A stranger here, I must go on,
my home is now in view. There is no resting place in
all the earth for me, but Christ in heaven prepares a place of
rest, sweet rest, for me. My journey soon shall end, my
Lord will come for me. He'll take me home to be with
Him for all eternity. My soul be of good cheer. With
such good hope as this, what sorrows here can be compared
to heaven's endless bliss? Forever with the Lord. Amen. So let it be. With Christ I'll
live forevermore in immortality. I thought that was real good
and I wanted to share it with you. Father, we thank you for
your precious word this morning and for the testimony of the
holy scriptures that these all died in faith. Grant, our Father,
that we may each one here live by faith, that we may also die
in the faith of the gospel. I pray, Father, for your comforting
word and for the truth of the gospel to come home with such
power to each one of our hearts that we may all love and embrace
the blessed Lord Jesus Christ for what he's done on our behalf.
that we may praise Him for His worth, that we may trust Him
for His merit and righteousness, and that we may hide ourselves
away in His five bleeding wounds, trusting that we shall be received
into eternal bliss at last because of Him and for His sake. We pray it in Jesus' name and
for His sake alone, Amen.