Dying Satisfied, Part 2

We're in Genesis chapter 25, first 11 verses, for at least one more week, dying satisfied. It was John Milton who said. Said these words concerning death. He said that death is the golden key that opens the palace of eternity. It was E. Stanley Jones who declared: Death is the anes God uses while his Children pass from one life to another. Ecclesiastes 7:1 says that your death day is better than your birthday, providing you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Words of our great God Jehovah said this about Abraham.

Genesis 25, verse number 8. And Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man. And satisfied with life. What a com on a man. He died satisfied with life. You know, I guess as time Goes on, and as a pastor, you marry people, and you bury people, you become very much acquainted with death. And yet, in order to die satisfied, certain things must take place in your life. Those in Genesis 25 with the life of Abraham. Abraham was a remarkable man. He was the father of our faith, and we looked to Abraham as the kind of man that we want to follow.

God chose this man out. Out of Ur, the Chaldees, to be his representative. He chose this man to begin a nation, the Jewish people. He was a great man. But as we have discussed this man for many months, when the text says that this man Man died satisfied. It sums up this man's life. And it causes us to ask the question: how are we going to die? How are we going to die? You know, just in passing over the last few funerals that I have done, many of you know the sisters that come to our church, Maria and Am and Ju.

And they are at a lot of those funerals, I do. And you know, it never ceases that when I'm leaving the graves, that either one or all three of them say to me in unison, you know, one day back. You're going to be giving our funeral, and I wonder what it is you're going to say about us. And I said, Well, you won't be here to know, you're going to be gone. But they are already. To die whenever God calls them, they are satisfied with life. Abraham was that way. And last week we began by giving you the principles.

There are four of them, at least, Lord willing, we would get through them today. Don't count on it, but we might. But the first one was that Abraham died satisfied because he was forgiven by God.

He was forgiven by God. The Bible says in Genesis 15, verse number 6, that Abraham believed God. And it was reckoned unto him as right. He was released from the debt he owed God. And we discussed what that meant. Because when a man is saved, there are three basic things. That happen. Number one, he is saved from the penalty of a sin.

Romans 8:1 says that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that would cause any man to die satisfied because he would. Know that when he died, he would go home to be with the Lord and not have to face any condemnation, any judgment from the Lord because he has been set free from his sin. How about you? Are you released? For the penalty of your sin. I'm going to spend some more time here today, as I did last week. I'm going tell you why. We got a man in our church that's been coming for over three years.

He's a man who in his previous church was a deacon. For a number of years, he serves quite regularly in our church. All of you probably know who he is. He's even had the wonderful privilege of leading family members to the Lord. But it wasn't until last Sunday that he became a Christian. It wasn't until last Sunday that he gave his life to Christ. It wasn't until last Sunday that he realized that there was nothing he could do to earn salvation. It was a free gift of God. This man has been with us through our study of the book of Genesis over 70 messages.

He was with us in Genesis 15 when he talked about what it means to be declared righteous before God. But it wasn't until last Sunday when we reviewed. That they finally realized that there's nothing I do that will gain acceptance to God that will cause me to be saved.

It's all a work of grace. He examined his life and realized. That he could lead people to the Lord, he could serve in the church, he could be a deacon in the church, but never be set free from the penalty of sin. Now he knows for certain that's the case. And it caused me to wonder how many. Many more people could be in that same situation. It wasn't too long ago that we had a man in our church, he's still with us. He'd been a pastor for over 20 years. In a very prominent denomination, preached the word of God week after week after week.

But it wasn't until he came to Christ Community Church, heard the word of the Lord. And he got saved that he realized that what he had done for all those years, although God had used it because God could use anybody, anything, anytime, anywhere, it wasn't until he came to Christ Community Church, heard the word of the Lord preached, and realized, you know what? I am not. A born-again believer. That has happened several times in our church. I just give you two examples. But how many people do you know that claim to be Christians, that can speak all the talk, that have all the verses?

Memorized, but have never given their life to Christ. A lot of people that way. So I thought it imperative that we spend a little bit more time here because of some questions that were raised as a result of last Sunday Message: If you don't have that, I would encourage you to get that because there are some things that we need to clear up and make sure that we understand. To be set free from the penalty of sin is a very freeing kind of reality. Know that is to realize that, number two, you've been set free from the power and the practice of sin.

I'm going to spend some more time here today because I want you to know for certain that you're going to die satisfied. Turn with me to Romans 6 for a moment.

In Romans chapter 6, Paul begins to answer a question. The first two chapters of Romans talk about. About man's condition. Chapters 3 to 5 talk about man's salvation, how man is just before God. Chapters 6 and 7 talk about man's sanctification. Chapter 8, speak of man's glorification. In a nutshell, that's the book of Romans, the first eight chapters.

And Paul wants people to understand: listen very carefully, that justification. A man declared right before God, a man's position standing in Christ, being changed because of the work of Christ, naturally affects the rest of his life. And that's sanctification. If a man's life Is not sanctified, being set apart for God's purposes. You can bet that the man's life was never justified before God. The two are inseparable in Scripture. And yet, there are churches across our country that will tell you that there is a distinct difference between the two.

But the Bible is very clear, and Paul in Romans 6 would handle that argument in a very concise and a very clear way. Listen to what he says: He says, we say then, are we to continue in sin that grace may inc? Paul asks this question, if you have been justified in Christ, chapters 3 to 5. Does that mean you're going to continue in sin? Does that mean that sin will have the same kind of eff on your life after you were saved as before you were saved? That 's the question Paul asks. Because he wants you to understand that justification and sanctification are linked together.

It doesn't mean that you never sin because Abraham was the man who sinned. Yet Abraham was a man who was forgiven by God. Abraham didn't continue in the practice and the habits of sin, although he sinned. And we have looked at those accounts of sin in great detail. But the habitual pattern of Abraham's life was one of. Righteousness. Paul would tell those in Corinth over in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, again, another familiar text, when he said these words: Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate.

Nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our Lord. Paul says, listen, this is the way you used to be. This is what you continued in. This was the habit pattern of your life. But now that you've come to Christ, now that you've been washed, now that you've been justified, now that you've been sanctified, those things are not habit patterns in your life.

So we understand Paul. Paul's argument in Romans chapter 6, where he says, Are we to continue to remain to abide under in sin in order for grace to abound? In other words, listen, if faith Faith is the root. Works will be the fruit. If faith is the root, then work will be the fruit. Need to get that. Remember, Christ had a discussion with the Pharisees, and you've got to realize that the Pharisees were so religious. I mean, everybody looked at them as the pinnacle of religiosity. I mean, these people.

If anybody was close to God, it was the Pharisees. And everybody, you know, kind of took that for granted because these were the spiritual leaders of Israel, right? And so Christ comes on the scene and has all these discussions with these people. Who are religious, and every time he has a discussion with them, they hate him, they can't stand him. And in a particular discussion in the eighth chapter of John, he discusses the Effects of freedom in Christ. He talks about what it means to be in Christ and finally free from the penalty of sin.

Turn to me to John 8. For a moment. Jesus said in verse number 31, Jesus, therefore, was saying to those Jews who believed him: If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall meet Make you free. They answered him, We are Abraham's offspring and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, You shall become free? And Jesus. Entered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, and the slave does not remain in the house forever.

The Son does remain forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Free from what? Free from the slavery of sin, free from the power and the Practice of sin. I know that you are Abraham's offspring, yet you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with my father, therefore, you also do the things. Which you heard from your father. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham.

Listen, if you're truly one of Abraham's children, Then he who is the father of your faith will be the model you follow, and you will live as Abraham lived. You will live a life of righteous obedience. You will live a life in subjection to me. You will live a life that honors and glorifies me if you're truly. Abraham's children. Then in verse number 40, but as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. And you are doing the deeds of your father.

They said to him, We are not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. And Jesus said to them, If God were your father, you would what? Love me. You'd love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God. For I have not even come on my own initiative, but He sent me. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and you. Want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. one of you convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God. Listen, the one who is set free from a sin, the one who does not have sin ruling over him, has Christ dominate his life and God's Word dominate his life. Paul would come back in Romans 6 and say, Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid. Listen, Ezekiel 36 says, If you're a believer, You have a new heart. Ezekiel 16 says you have a new spirit. Revelation 2 says you have a new name. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says you are a new creation. Ephesians 4 says, you are a new man. If that's the case, if all those things are new, how is it you can live as if you were the old? You're a new man. You have a new heart. You're a new creation. You're a new creature. You've been given a new name, the Bible says.

And that's why we talked about it last week over in Titus chapter 2: that the grace of God has. Appeared to all men, teaching them to deny ungodliness and world lusts and to live righteously and soberly in this present age. He goes on to say this in verse number 14 about Christ Jesus, who gave him for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. And purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Do you know the mark of a believer is that he is zealous to do things for God?

And yet we look at people and say, well, Their fire's gone out. They just must be carnal. Really? Maybe they never knew Christ. I mean, read Hebrews 11. If you had to go to any chapter in the Bible that talked about true saving faith, it's Hebrews 11. It defines faith, it declares. What faith really is, and it demonstrates what faith does in the life of an individual. And look at the hall of faith, look at those people, those were true believers, those were people who lived a life of faith, who experienced the saving grace of God.

Because the writer of Hebrews says true, faith always works. Always. It does. Because you are saved from the power and the practice of habitual sin. May never be. How shall we who d to sin still live in it? The reason you can't continue to live in sin is because you died to sin. That 's why. You died to sin. And if you die to something, you can't live in something. That's why death and life are contrasted here. If you're dead to sin, you're not going to continue to live in sin. The only ones who continue to live in sin are those who haven't died to sin.

That's what Paul says. Now listen very carefully. He says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Don't you know that your life becomes infused with God? You become one with God, one with Christ, because your life is immersed or baptized, baptism, which means to immerse. Your life has been immersed. With Christ's life. Look what it says. Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of.

Life. Listen, that little phrase, so we too might walk in the new of life, is very significant. Why? It's not an obligation. Listen carefully, it is a divine accomplishment. Listen, when Jesus Christ Christ died, the natural byproduct of his death was the consequence of a resurrected life. When the believer dies to sin and to self, the natural consequence and byproduct is the Wife that lives to God. And therefore, we realize that when a man or woman, a boy, a girl gives their life to Christ, something happens.

If God saved you by grace, He causes you to stand in grace. He will sustain you with His grace. He will strengthen you by His grace, so that you will live a life that reflects the grace work of God. Your life. One author said it this way: because a believer is a new creation in Christ, his new lifestyle is vastly different from his old. That is why a believer cannot habitually sin. He now lives in a different realm. Those who simply add Christ to their sinful life. Lifestyles are not saved at all.

When a person comes to Christ, he shares in his death and becomes a different person. Believers die in Christ to live in Christ. We have been justified that we might be sanctified. Those are inseparable. Realities. You die to stealth and sin. You're raised in new of life. And what does Christ say? He says these words. In Matthew chapter 16. Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it.

Whoever loses his life for my sake. Shall find it. For what shall a man be profited if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Folks, listen.

We gotta stop going around thinking everybody's a Christian because. Because they go to church or because they said so. We got stop thinking that people in our families are Christian because one time they made this quote profession when they were just a kid, but their lives don't evidence it anymore. Where do you find that in the Bible anywhere? I've thumbed it through. All 66 books, I don't see it anywhere. If you've given your life to Christ, God lives in you. The Bible says in Hebrews 12 that every son of God is disciplined when he lives in sin.

If you are A true child of God and you sin, the Father will discipline you. If you're not being disciplined and you're living in sin, Hebrews 12 says you're not a true child of God's. That is so clear. But we want to muddy the waters, for this was what the word of the Lord says. 1 John chapter 3, verse 9. No one who is born of God practices sin because he is born of God. Can it get any more clear than that? We muddy the waters by thinking, well, maybe I won't say anything today. Maybe I'll just let it go.

Don't ever let it go. Do you love your family? Do you love your friends? Do you love them enough to? Tell them the truth? Or are you afraid they're going to turn away from you, be angry with you? Listen, I want you to know the truth. If you know the truth, Christ says, you Are free.

You are free from the penalty of sin. You are being set free from the power and practice of sin, and you will ultimately be free from the presence of sin. When you are totally glorified with God. But in the meantime, God is doing a work in your life. And you see it, and everybody else sees it. Because it's God who says in Romans 6 that you You will walk in newness of life. Creed. What's he saying? He's saying, if you're saved, if you've experienced the grace of God, And that grace continues to work in your life without question.

You know it, another seat. This is the word. Of that familiar hymn by Charles Wesley. And can it be that I should gain? Long my impris spirit lay, fast bound in sin in nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke. The dungeon flame with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee. That is the summation of salvation. The slavery of sin, the change. Chains that kept me bound of doing those things that were rebellious against God, He broke. And once He broke them, I was set free to follow Him.

Not set free to do whatever it is I want to do. But set free to do whatever God has designed me to do. And that's salvation. That was Abraham. Abraham had been called from ear of the Chaldees Abraham was a man who, when he left on the other side of the river Euphrates and crossed that river, he was a new man. He was the first Jew.

And when a man who is a believer sins at the deepest part, Part of his life, his desire is to obey the law of God and to follow it with everything that he has. That's where Paul would say, Man, I know I struggle with sin, but boy, I tell you, down deep, this is what I want to do. Oh, wretched man that I am. He would scream. And Abraham had to look at his life at different times and say, oh man, what a fool I've been.

What a fool. But as we read through the book of Genesis, what have we seen? A man who would build his altars, a man Who would worship his God, a man who would follow his God and serve his God more so than anything else because his heart's desire was to live in obedience to his Maker. Abraham was forgiven by God. Are you? Are you? Are you forgiven by God? Are you set free from the penalty of sin? Are you being set free from the power and the practice of sin because your life is more like Christ? Today, than it was yesterday?

If so, then you know for certain that one day you will be set free from the presence of sin. And that's what Abraham looked for: that city whose maker and architect was God. He looked to that. Day, that day in which he could be with his God in heaven, he'd finally be glorified.

So the Bible says that when Abraham died at a ripe old age, 1 years of age, he died satisfied. Will you? Let's bring together.