I want you to take your Bibles
this morning and open them to the book of Hebrews. I'd like
you to read with me Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14 and 15. Now, while
you're finding the scripture, Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, I'm going
to announce my subject, and I believe you're going to be interested
in the message. I hope that the Lord is pleased
to speak through me for his glory and for your good. Here's the
subject. Are you afraid to die? Are you afraid to die? Paul writes in the book of Hebrews
chapter 2 verse 14, for as much then as his children are partakers
of flesh and blood, the children of God are flesh and blood. That's
what we are right now, we're flesh and blood. Jesus Christ
himself Likewise, took part of the same, that is, he became
a man. He came down to this earth and
was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had flesh and blood,
just like we have. He is God, but he is perfect
man. That through death, and our Lord
died. He died on the cross. He suffered
death. Through death, he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. and deliver
them who through fear of death, who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. Do you fear death? Are you afraid to die? Have you been delivered from
the fear of death or are you in bondage to the fear of death?
If a man fears death, he is in bondage all his life because
death is sure and death is certain and he knows it. And this is
the subject today, are you afraid to die? There's deliverance from
that fear. We have it right here in the
scripture. Christ came for that purpose, to destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. Now listen to me for a little
while, will you? And let me make these statements in opening the
message. First of all, it's a natural
thing. for a man to fear death. It's
a natural thing. You know why? Because man was
not originally created to die. He wasn't created to die. God
didn't create Adam to die. God breathed into Adam the breath
of life and he became a living soul. There was no reason for
unfallen man to die. There was no reason for Adam
to die. He would have lived on if he had not sinned. But Adam
sinned, and the seeds of death and the seeds of corruption are
in the flesh. The scripture says, by one man,
sin entered the world, and death by sin. So death, physical death,
spiritual death, separation from God, all that is death, passed
upon all men. That's where we got this thing
of death. If man had continued in his unfallen state, he would
never have died. But because he sinned, corruption
is planted within his very bones, and within his very nature, and
within his very being. And sin brought death, and death
passed upon all men. Now it's appointed unto men once
to die. And after that, the judgment.
But this body seems to sense the fact that it wasn't created
to die. Your body senses that fact. I
believe mine does. It senses the fact that it wasn't
made to die, and therefore it's reluctant to die. So I'm saying
that a fear of death is natural. It's natural for all men, because
man was not made to die. And secondly, the fear of death
in the natural sense is not all wrong. Now, for this reason,
if men did not fear death, if women did not fear death, Many
people, even some listening to my voice this morning, would
take your own life to end your misery and your unhappiness.
And you'd take your life if you didn't fear death. And one of
the things that keeps you from taking your life is you're afraid
to die. I'll tell you another thing that
this fear of death serves, and that is it causes men to have
a greater regard for human life. They fear to die, and therefore
they fear to take a life. And another thing that it serves
is this, it gives men and women a greater will to live. Under
any and all circumstances, they fight death, they resist death,
they will to live. And therefore, a fear of death
is a natural thing. And it serves some good purposes.
But now let me address believers, you who are Christians, you who
believe on Christ, you who know the Son of God. Fear of death
in the believer produces many evil consequences. It produces
many evil effects. The believer ought not fear to
die. For when we fear death, first
of all, fear of death is dishonoring to God. It is. It's dishonoring
to God. It appears when we're afraid
to die that we can trust God in fair weather, but we can't
trust Him in the storm. That's what it looks like. It
looks like when we fear death that we can trust God when we're
well, But we can't trust him when we're sick. And we can trust
God when we're young, but he can't be trusted when we get
old and when we're near Jordan's shore and when we're near the
gates of death. But you know what Job said? He
said, though he slay me, I'll trust him. And David said, yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, I will fear not, thou art with me. A fear of death
in a believer. It's dishonoring to his God.
It is saying, yes, I can trust God when everything's going my
way and when everything's well and I'm happy, but I can't trust
God. He can't be trusted when I'm
sick and diseased and near death. I'll tell you another thing.
A fear of death dishonors our faith. It dishonors our faith
in the eyes of unbelievers. Now, whatever you say, unbelieving,
ungodly men and women are impressed when a believer faces death calmly. I've seen this happen many times.
I've seen many believers die. I've been at their bedside often
in their closing hours, and I've looked around at the family and
other people, and they've been impressed. When a believer faces
death with joy and certainty and submission and happiness,
it impresses the unbeliever. But when that believer comes
to die and he is afraid, and he is reluctant to die, the unbeliever
looks at him and says, well, you're acting like I would act.
Your faith is no stronger than my faith. Your hope is no better
than my hope. And so really, it dishonors our
faith in the eyes of unbelievers when we're afraid to die. You
know what Paul said? He said, for me to live is Christ,
and for me to die is gain. It's gain. I'll tell you another
thing that the fear of death another result it produces, it's
evil, it robs you of peace and joy. If you're afraid to die,
and you realize, especially you who are older and you who are
sick, if you're afraid to die, you're depriving yourself of
the peace that Christ gives and the joy and the rest. Fear of
death will plunge you into despair and depression. Why should we
fear to die? What trembling worms we mortals
are, Death is the gate to endless joy, and yet we dread to enter
there. The pains, the groans, the dying
strife frighten our souls away, and we hold to this frail, sinful
life. I wonder, are we fond of our
prison? Are we fond of our clay? Simeon
held the child Jesus in his arms when Laban Joseph brought Christ
to the temple when he was just a baby. And Simeon, the old man,
having come to the end of his journey, lifted his eyes to heaven
and he said, Lord, now let me depart in peace. I've seen thy
salvation. I want to depart in peace, don't
you? And fear of death will rob me
of that peace and rob me of that joy. Let me die the death of
the righteous and let my latter end be like his. How do we get
rid of the fear of death? Well, I'll tell you one thing.
This fear of death that keeps us in bondage all our lives cannot
be gotten rid of. It cannot be erased by ignoring
it. Now, that won't do it. You can't
just ignore death. I know a lot of people that try
to do that. They try to ignore death. They
try to pretend it's not there. But that's not going to help
us because it is there and we know it's there. And another
way, we'll not get rid of this fear of death by joking about
it. Now, death is not a joking matter. It's not a laughing matter.
We need to get serious about this thing. It's appointed unto
men once to die. And all about us people are dying,
and everybody has died with the exception of Enoch and Elijah.
They didn't die, but those are the only two men out of the billions
that have lived on this earth who haven't died. And we're not
going to get rid of this fear of death by refusing to face
it. And thoughtlessness. God has declared some things
that we need to hear. And it can be done. You can be
delivered from the fear of death. And I will tell you, by God's
grace and lead of his Spirit, how this can be done if you're
a believer. First of all, we receive deliverance from the
fear of death just like we receive every other spiritual blessing
by looking to Christ. That's right, by looking to Christ.
Everything is in Christ. He's the fountainhead of every
blessing. He's the source of every mercy.
He is the giver of every grace. He is the author of every faith.
And we'll receive deliverance from the fear of death by looking
to the source of mercy, grace, and faith, and that's to Christ
our Lord. He says, He took flesh and blood
that through death He might deliver us from the fear of death. How
does Christ deliver us from the fear of death? How does looking
to Christ deliver us from the fear of death? Well, here's the
way. Listen. Here are two or three things.
Number one, he removes sin, which is the sting of death. What is
the sting of death? What makes death fearful? What
makes death terrible? What makes death to be feared
and to be avoided? Sin. The sting of death is sin. Sin is the cause of death, and
sin is the cause of fear that grips men's hearts, because Christ
said, if you die in your sins, you'll forever be separated from
God. If you die in your sins, you'll be brought to judgment
to face those sins. If you die in your sins, the
wrath of God will forever be upon you. But if sin be pardoned,
if sin be pardoned, if sin be removed, if sin be taken away,
I'm secure, and death hath no sting beside. The law gives sin
its damning power, but Christ, my ransom, died. So the way that
Christ removes the fear of death is he removes the sin, which
is the sting of death. He removes the sin, which is
the cause of death. He removes the sin, which makes
death a horrible experience. I have no sin, therefore I need
not fear to die. Secondly, how does Christ remove
the fear of death? By removing the sin. Our sins
are blotted out. Our sins are paid for. Our sins
are forgiven. Our sins are no more. With His
spotless garments on, I'm as holy as God's Son. Nearer, so
near to God, nearer I cannot be, for in the person of His
Son, I'm as near as He. Unreprovable, unblameable, my
sins are blotted out. The songwriter said, I know.
And then secondly, Christ changes the character of death for the
believer. He changes the character of death. He said to Martha,
Whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Now, believers
do not die in the same sense that unbelievers die. Now, you
need to listen here. Believers, Christians, do not
die in the same sense that other people die. Ungodly men die in
order to endure the penalty of sin. The wages of sin is death. The penalty of sin is death.
But Christ has borne our penalty. Christ has paid our debt. So
we have no penalty. And death for the believer is
not a penalty. It's a privilege. It's a promotion. Death for the believer is not
an execution. It's a deliverance. Death for
the believer is not the end. It's the beginning. To die is
to be with Christ. To die is to be like Christ.
To die is to live forever. So the very character of death
has been changed. It's no longer a penalty, it's
a promotion. It's no longer an execution,
it's a deliverance. Death is no longer the end, it's
the beginning. I read a newspaper article one
time talking about a certain criminal that had been executed
that said the end comes to so-and-so. Well, that's not true. That's
not the end. That's not the end. It's the beginning of sorrows.
And for the believer, death is not the end. It's the beginning
of happiness. in Christ Jesus. Then thirdly,
Christ removes the fear of death by assuring us that our souls,
upon death, go immediately into his presence. What did he say
to the thief on the cross? He didn't say, now you'll go
to purgatory and spend 200 years till somebody pays you out or
prays you out. That's not what he said. He said,
today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Today. Wherever Christ
is, that's where the believer is. His soul immediately goes
to be with Christ. You know, the apostle Paul didn't
say to be absent from the body is to be in a soul sleep or a
state of purgatory or a state of punishment until God thinks
maybe we've paid the price and then takes us to heaven. Paul
said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
That's what he said. And the wise man in Ecclesiastes
wrote, the body returns to the dust from which it came and the
soul to God who gave it. That's what happens at death.
So our Lord removes the fear of death. Don't be afraid of
going into some twilight zone when you die. If these bodies,
these tabernacles be dissolved, we have a building eternal in
the heavens, not made with hands. We have an abode. Our Lord said,
I go to prepare a place for you. And he prepared that place where
he is. All right? Then fourthly, our Lord removes
the fear of death by assuring us of the resurrection of our
bodies. Christ not only redeemed our souls, He redeemed our bodies.
He redeemed the whole man. He redeemed all of us. Thy brother,
Christ said, shall rise again. Thy brother shall rise again.
The dead in Christ shall rise, the Scripture said. Oh yes, we'll
be sown or buried a natural body. We'll be raised a spiritual body. We'll be sown in corruption and
raised in holiness and righteousness. We'll be sown in weakness and
raised in power. We'll be buried wrinkled and
old and gray and diseased and sickly, but we'll be raised in
honor and power and glory. That's the promise of the Redeemer.
He's going to raise us. So if you want to have the fear
of death removed, look to Christ. Look to Christ. He's the source
of every mercy and every blessing and every benefit and every gift
from God. It's Christ Jesus. You look to
Him. He came down here to die to deliver
us from the fear of death, which keeps us in bondage. And the
way He does it is removing sin. Removing sin, just blotting it
out. It doesn't exist anymore. And changing the character of
death. It's not death to die. It's to go to be with the Lord.
And assuring us that immediately upon death, we go to be with
Christ. And some of these days, He'll
come back and raise our bodies. All right? Something else. Look
is the first thing. Be rid of this fear of death.
Look. Now, secondly, think. Think. Think how? About what,
preacher? Well, meditate on the promises
of God. And that'll remove the fear of
death. Now, here's what I'm going to meditate about, first of all,
when I come to die. I will do no more than my Lord's
already done. Our Lord died. Our Lord died
and rose again. Shall not the servant be as his
master? If Christ died, why shouldn't
I die? If I profess to follow Christ, shall I not follow him
also to the grave and out again? Think about that. Secondly, death
cannot separate me from Christ. It may separate me temporarily
from my friends and my loved ones, but Paul wrote in Romans
8, neither death nor life can separate me from the love of
God. Christ said, I'll never leave you, though I'm with you
always, even to the end. of the world. Think about that.
Death cannot separate you. He loves me today. He'll love
me tomorrow. He loves me if I'm well and alive. He loves me if my body is buried
and my soul is with him. He loves me. He loves me with
everlasting love. Thirdly, death will usher me
directly into the presence of my Lord and into everlasting
fellowship with my friends who have preceded me in death. You
think about that. Think what death's going to do.
It's going to take you into the very presence of the Lord. It's
going to take you into the presence of those to whom you've said
goodbye. Friends will be there. I've loved long ago. Joy like
a river around me shall flow, yet just a smile from my Savior
I know will through the ages be glory for me. Death's going
to usher me personally into the presence of my Lord. Well, rather
than fearing death, that would make us covet death. And listen
to this. Death will bring an answer to
all my prayers. That's exactly right. Why should
we fear to die? Death's going to bring an answer
to all my prayers. How often we've prayed to be
rid of our troubles, we'll be rid of them then. How often we've
prayed to be rid of sin, we'll be rid of it then. How often
we've prayed to be rid of temptation. There's no temptation in death. How often we've prayed for a
full vision of Christ. Oh, that I might see Him. I'll
see Him. I'll see Him when I die. How
often we've prayed to be like Christ. Oh, that I might be perfect
and perfectly holy and just be just like my Lord. I will be
then. You see, death is going to bring
an answer to all my prayers. One old hymn writer put it this
way, Father, I long, I faint to see the place of thine abode.
I'll leave these earthly courts and flee up to thy throne, my
God, not till I die. A grain of wheat will abide alone
unless it falls into the ground and dies. It's got to die. It's
got to be buried to rise again. We've got to pass through Jordan
to get to Canaan. That's the only way, there's
no way around, except unless Christ comes, and then we shall
not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Flesh and blood is
not going to inherit the kingdom of God. We're going to be changed. There's a natural body and there's
a spiritual body, and in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, we
shall be changed. But death's going to bring that change for
most of us. I'll tell you something else, we need to consider the
glory, the glory which shall follow death." That'll help us
remove the fear. One moment in heaven will be
worth it all. Just think about it. There'll
be no more sin. There'll be no more sorrow. There'll
be no more tears. There'll be no more death. There'll
be no more night. That'll be wonderful, won't it?
Well, now you think about that. And God shall be their God and
dwell with them, and God's gonna wipe all tears from their eyes.
The more you think about that and the more you contemplate
the glory and joys which shall be yours and mine when we die,
rather than fearing death, I think we'll be like Paul and say, I
have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better,
far better. Well, I've told you, if you want
the fear of death removed, to look, look to Christ. And I've
told you to think, think upon the promises of God. Now I give
you something to do. There is something that you can
do. And the first thing is this. If I want the fear of death to
be removed, here's something for me to do. Let me die daily. Let me die daily. Now the man
who has a daily rehearsal of death, that's what Paul said,
I die daily. And the man who has a daily rehearsal
of death will not fear when the reality comes. when he thinks
about it, when he weighs everything in the light of death and judgment
and meeting God, then when the real thing comes, if he's thought
upon it enough and committed himself to God enough and been
submissive enough, when the real thing comes, he won't be afraid. It's like dress rehearsal for
a play. Years ago, I used to be in a lot of plays, and we'd
have rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals, and then two or three
dress rehearsals. Then when the curtain opened
up for the main play, We weren't afraid. We'd been this route
before. We'd gone over these lines before.
We'd gone through these motions before. So if I can die daily,
then when the reality comes, it won't be such a shock. It
won't be such a shock. Teach me, David said, to number
my days that I may apply my heart to wisdom. Tell you something
else to do. Hold loosely to the things of
this earth. the material and the physical
things. Now, all these things shall pass away. Most of us have
children, and we have parents, and we have grandchildren, and
we have friends, and we have homes, and all of these things
shall fade away. The fashion of this world passeth
away. These are all temporary. You've
got to remember that. You've got to get that. We've
got to get that through our hands. that all of these things, we've
got to turn loose of them someday. Well, why not do it now? Why
not commit them to God? Why not surrender them to God?
I read the story one time of a man who was sitting in his
den. His wife was fixing supper. His
children were there visiting. They had their children, his
grandchildren. His pastor was there visiting, and he was in
good health. They were sitting in front of
the fire, and they were talking. The man was quiet for a moment,
and then he looked at his pastor, and he said, Pastor? And he pointed
to his grandchildren, his children, his wife, and his home, and he
said, These are the things that make it hard to die. These are
the things. Is that true? Well, not if we'll
hold loosely to them. Commit them to God. The Lord
gave, and the Lord will take away. in his own time, in his
own way. Now, if you'll commit them to
him now, it won't be such a shock when he comes to take them. When
the angel says, the master's come, and he calls for you, or
he calls for your son, or he calls for your daughter, or he
calls for your wife, you say, well, I've already given her
to the Lord, and it won't be as difficult now because she
belongs to him. We're like a traveling man who
stops in a motel. I stay in a lot of motels, hold
a lot of Bible conferences and meetings. And you know, the condition
of that motel doesn't matter a whole lot to me. If the room
is not decorated like I'd like for it to be decorated, I don't
say anything because I'm just passing through. I'll be going
home. If a picture's on the wall that I don't like, that doesn't
bother me too much. If the personnel are not very
nice to me, I don't care too much because I've got my bags
packed. I'm leaving. That's the way we are sojourning
through this earth. Don't be too alarmed about the
condition of the government or the world or the decor of nature
and all these things. We got our bags packed. We're
just passing through. I'll tell you another thing to
do. Walk with God. You won't fear death if you walk
with Him who is the life. There was a man who walked with
God, and he walked right on into heaven. That was Enoch. He walked
with God, and he just walked right on into heaven. If you
learn to walk with God, quit walking with the world, walk
with God. And when it comes time to walk on into heaven, it won't
be such a shock. And I'll tell you something else,
live each day as if it were your last day on earth, because someday
it will be. Someday it will. Walk with God.
Hold loosely to the things of this world. Die daily.