Let's stand and pray once again. O Lord, our God and our Father in heaven, consider now how this assembly of people has come before Thee, has come unto the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ to be taught, each one with particular needs of soul, and particular providences having fallen upon him or her. So we pray now that thy word would go forth in power and that each one might receive his fitting portion from the Word of God. We ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen. As we're seated together again, I'll draw your attention to Luke 23 and verse 46. As we consider this last saying of our Lord Jesus from the cross, I'm reminded of the brevity of each of these words from the cross. This one, simply, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. We find a richness and fullness in each of the sayings from the cross that far surpasses the brevity of the words in which it's contained. And this morning, as we would consider the seventh of Christ's sayings from the cross, not that we've looked at each one, we've been following Luke's account here. He doesn't record them all. But as we consider this word from the cross, there is a particular direction that I want to go in terms of the application of the word of God. But before we do so, let's consider together some of the truths about our Lord Jesus that are either taught or implied, and there are four that come to my mind. Truths about our Lord Jesus taught or implied in verse 46 alone. The first is our Lord's actual experience of death. The text says that he gave up the ghost. This simply means that he breathed his last. He expired. He breathed out his life. What occurred at that moment? It was the separation of his human body and his human soul. We're told in Ecclesiastes 12 that the dust returns to the earth and the spirit returns to God who gave it. The death of a man involves the separation of his body and soul and the soul outlives the body. The body crumbles into dust and the soul or spirit looks out for its eternal resting place. And so our Lord says, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. In the case of our Lord Jesus and his people, the spirit goes immediately into the presence of God. And in the case of the impenitent and believing, the spirit or soul immediately goes into hell. Our Lord actually died. He experienced human death to the fullest. Now, this implies that our Lord Jesus had a full and true human nature. Our catechism teaches us that Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. Christ had a human body and a human soul. a human soul which was able to experience suffering. and God in his own proper nature cannot suffer. Christ had a human soul. Now notice, there was an early heresy in the midst of the Christian church called Apollinarianism, which said Christ did not have a human soul. He merely had a human body. And the divine spirit came and inhabited a human body for a time. Now, if that were true, we could not say that Christ died. We could not say that he experienced human death as a man, because when man experiences death, it involves that unnatural, painful separation of body and soul. If Apollinarianism were true, all we could say is that the human spirit, the divine spirit that was possessing a human body evacuated or withdrew. But that's not what scripture is teaching. Scripture says that Christ died. for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Death is the wages of sin and our Lord Jesus in a true and full human nature had the wages of sin paid out to him fully. If that were not true, there could be no redemption for us from death. There could be no pity and sucker from our great high priest who has the heart of a man, the compassionate heart of a man. We couldn't look to a high priest having experienced himself the pangs and sorrows of death. But blessed be God that Christ as a true man with a full and real human nature experienced an actual and full death as a sin bearer, now risen from the dead, now able to sympathize with his people. when they go through the valley of the shadow of death. Our text implies our Lord's actual experience of death. Our text also implies our Lord's trust in his father's power and acceptance. His words involve an act of trust. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. we might say, I commit my spirit. The word is used in 2 Timothy 2.2. You'll remember the 2.2.2 principle, 2 Timothy 2.2. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Take what has been given to you in the deposit of apostolic preaching and committed, entrusted, put it into the hands of others who will then give it on, et cetera. And so when Christ says, I come father into thy hands, I commit, I commend my spirit he was entrusting his spirit or soul into the keeping of his father now this implies the father's power on the one hand our Lord had an eye to his father's power when he said these words he said father into thy hands I commend my spirit hands imply skill and power to care be Very interesting question for a Mormon, wouldn't it? So the Mormons believe that God the Father has a body. They believe that he has a body of flesh and bones. And so then necessarily, if the Lord Jesus committed his spirit into the Father's hands, I'd like to ask a Mormon, how can hands of flesh and blood and sinew care for a spirit? How can hands of flesh and blood keep, preserve, welcome, embrace, and receive a spirit? But of course, we're not speaking here of hands of flesh and blood. Our Lord's language, when He speaks of His Father's hands, our hands are the most skillful part of our body. He's speaking of His Father's ability to keep, to welcome, receive his spirit. So who cared for our Lord's body after his death? Joseph of Arimathea and the women who prepared the spices. But it was our Lord's father in heaven and our father in heaven who kept, who received his soul or spirit. You see, at death, the soul launches out into the unseen world of eternity. whose hands can care for your soul when it goes into that unknown reach of eternity. No one but God, none but His hands are capable of receiving your soul. Our Lord had an eye to His Father's power. Our Lord had an eye to His Father's acceptance. You'll remember that before on the cross he cried, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? That as our sin bearer with our sins imputed to him and through the hours hanging on the cross and those three hours of darkness under the wrath and curse of God, He was cast off and forsaken by God until he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But see here in his last words, uttered with a loud cry, he will not be cast off now, but received. He knows that his work is finished. That he, it's a glorious thought. that our Lord spent his every breath serving his father in heaven and doing his will. And now with his very last breath, he's giving expression to his confidence that his work is finished. It is time for him, for his spirit to go into the presence of his father, that he won't be reproached And you won't be told you've left something undone. His work is done. He goes to the father knowing that nothing more need be added or can be added to his work of putting away sin and bringing in everlasting righteousness. This is an expression of confidence into thy hands. I commend my spirit. Our Lord had an eye to his father's power and his father's acceptance when he said this also. This statement implies our Lord's headship over his people. All that he did, he did for us. He did not as a private person, but as a public person. We might say that he did not just commend his own departing soul into the Father's hands, but that he'd commended all the departing souls of all his elect people into the Father's hands. So as an illustration, you'll remember what Judah said about his father, Jacob. that his life is bound up in the lad's life. He was talking about that close connection between Father Jacob and the youngest son, Benjamin, who was so precious in Jacob's sight that if harm comes to Benjamin, if Benjamin dies, Jacob will die. Their lives are bound up together. Now, that was simply a relationship of flesh and blood, a temporal relationship of father to son. If Jacob's life and Benjamin's life could be bound up so closely together that they stand or fall together, How much more is it true of Christ and his people that Christ's life and the lives of his people are bound up together? They are in the same bundle together. Indeed, the Bible says we are the members of which of the body of which he is head, that he is the vine. We are the branches. We are livingly connected to him. And so I'm convinced that this saying of our Lord at his death, was for the comfort of believers in their death. And indeed, as we've seen, Christ was echoing the words of David. He was echoing the words of a saint who came before. And also you'll remember there was a saint who came after, there was Stephen. You'll remember his death as he's being stoned. He says, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He put his spirit into the hands of the Lord Jesus that the Lord Jesus might put his spirit into the father's hands. That's how the believer dies in Christ. He is able to have the same confidence. that he is able to commend his spirit or soul into the Father's hands through Jesus Christ, who has gone before him and has opened up the passageway through death into the Father's presence. Christ did this for his people. We'll come back to this in a moment. But first, one more observation. we should notice our Lord's public testimony as he died. There are several times when scripture says that our Lord Jesus cried, and one of them is here. What he said, he said with a loud cry. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. When our Lord cried, He had been hanging on the cross for six hours. Death by crucifixion is generally death by asphyxiation. And here, with the last dying shred of strength in his mortal frame, he summons his last strength and cries aloud. This is a public testimony. We should hear What Christ says is a testimony against his enemies who said, let him save himself. If he trusted God, why isn't God saving him? It's a public testimony to his enemies. I'm not dying in defeat. And it's a public testimony to his people. Look here, I triumph over death for you. I trample it underfoot. for you, my beloved people, a testimony to his friends, to comfort them. And then there is that day coming when the voice of our Lord Jesus will ring out again with a loud cry, when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. It's quite a solemn thought. Although we know that our Lord Jesus spoke in a more private manner to his disciples after his resurrection, this is the last time that the voice of the Lord Jesus rung out in public testimony through the atmosphere of our world. And a day is coming when it will again. And so now let us hear his voice. Now is the time for us to hear His voice. So we've considered those things implied or taught in this one verse of Scripture. But let's try to apply the doctrine, take it in a particular direction of all the many things that might be said. Let's set this forth, that it is the privilege of Christ's people to commend their spirits into the hands of the Father at death. if we want to say it this way, to commend their spirits into the hands of the Lord Jesus, that he might put their spirits into the Father's hands. Consider a believer committing his spirit by faith through Christ into the hands of the Father. Consider whether there is anything so precious as this. A believer who is dying experiences bitterness and pain. Death is still unnatural. It is still humiliating. His body returns to the dust and is laid in the grave. He is laid low in his death. And yet amidst the bitterness and humiliation of death, this is more than counterbalanced by the consolations that belong to him. To be able to echo the words of our Lord Jesus, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. You know that Asaph said about the wicked, there are no bands in their death, no fetters in their death. Oh, they seem to die so easily, but to die easily and go to hell is far worse than yes, to face the bitterness and humiliation of death, but with unspeakable and heavenly comforts on your deathbed. Will this death be yours? Let's consider the preciousness of the believer's death. Consider a few things. The believer who is dying, he feels the preciousness of his soul. Now, before you die, generally, we make arrangements for our things to be disposed of and cared for. My grandfather died. My mother was the executrix of his estate. She was the one legally entrusted to carry out his wishes and to dispose of his estate according to his will. So we commit, we commend our worldly goods into someone's hands. And the believer may thank God if he's able to leave behind wealth as a blessing to those he leaves behind. But the believer at his death also feels how loose his grasp is on these things he must leave behind. We must let go of visible things and temporal things. And the believer rejoices. He says, whatever becomes of my worldly estate, I know that I'm able to commit my most precious possession into the hands of a father in heaven. I'm able to say, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. I'm launching into a world, into a yawning expanse of eternity where I've never been, but I have one into whose hands I may commit my spirit. The believer feels the preciousness of his soul as never before. The believer feels the preciousness of Christ as never before. because the believer might die surrounded by friends, and he might think upon believing friends who've gone before him, who are now in the presence of God. But who can go with him through that experience of death? Who can pass with him through the valley of the shadow of death? There is no one except Christ himself, my bridegroom, to whom I am inseparably united, Christ in whom I live and abide. He is with me. He draws alongside of me. He himself commended his spirit into his father's hands. And here I, a dying believer, am united unto him who is with me. And I'll pass into that world, that unseen world. I'll come into the presence of God himself. I'll be grateful as never before for Christ as my propitiation. Because in this life, I've been aware of my sins. I've confessed them. But now comes the real test. I come into the presence of God himself before his searching eye and all how grateful I am for Jesus Christ, my propitiation. Jesus Christ, my righteousness to clothe me. Jesus Christ, my advocate to speak for me. The dying believer finds Christ very precious. The dying believer finds the privilege of adoption very precious. The dying believer is able to use this language that Christ used, Father, into thy hands. I commend my spirit. He is able by the testimony of the Holy Spirit with his spirit to cry to God, Abba, Father, to know him, not as a condemning judge. but as a father receiving him, a father who has pitied and protected and provided for him all his life and will surely not abandon him at his last and most needful hour. The dying believer feels the preciousness of the grace of faith. He thanks God that God has planted within him that faith that is the substance of things unseen. The believer in this life learns to trust God for those things he cannot see and to wait upon God and wait upon God's timing. But there's a sense in which on his deathbed that faith rises to an even greater exercise. John Flavel says there are two moments in particular where the glory of the grace of faith shines forth. It's when a sinner first comes unto God through Jesus Christ. He comes by that way that he's never come before. He's never tasted the sweetness of it before, but he comes now for the first time. And then there's the moment when a dying believer launches out into an eternity that he's never experienced before. His faith has to outrun his sight. He goes to something he's not experienced. Hebrews 11 highlights several instances of dying in faith. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph. By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel. Blessed be God for that grace of faith which is able to cleave unto God and His promises in Christ, even on a deathbed. See, there is nothing so precious as the deathbed of a believer. Have you seen that? Have you seen that none of the world religions, for instance, have anything to offer in comparison to this? What does Islam offer? A repulsive, carnal, womanizing paradise. What does Hinduism offer? Reincarnation back into this sin-cursed earth. What does Buddhism offer? the loss of your identity in the universal one. What does unbelieving Judaism offer? It can't offer you He who is the resurrection and the life. And what can the world offer you? It just says, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. There's something precious and desirable about the death of those who die in Christ. And this is a question that faces us all. You must die. Will you die in hope or in despair? Will you die abiding in Christ and laying hold through him upon this confidence in a father in heaven to receive your spirit? Healthy young people may die. Children also. You must die one day. How will you die? Will you be able to die with the words of our Lord Jesus on your lips, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. I hope that each one of us here may be spared to live a normal span of life. If that's true, we'll still face this question. If it's not true, if another hurricane comes, God forbid, and takes our life, we'll have to face this question. How will you die? We notice that not everyone who desires to die the death of the righteous does so. You remember the prophet Balaam in Numbers chapter 23 verse 10. He has come with the intent of cursing Israel. God ties his tongue and instead causes him to bless Israel. And one of the things that he says It's an exclamation. He says, let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his. He wanted to die the death of the righteous. Did he? He did not. We're told in Joshua 13 that the children of Israel slew him with a sword. We're told that he, in the book of Jude, we're told that he has a pattern of woe. to false teachers. Balaam did not die the death of the righteous, even though under the irresistible power of the word of God, he saw that it would be desirable to die like the righteous die. You see, here's the thing. He didn't repent. He was right in the midst of seeking after the wages of unrighteousness and tangled in a life of sin, walking contrary to God and saying, as it were, money will be my God right now while I live. But, oh, may the Lord be my God when it comes to die. Are there how many professing Christians think like this? Money will be my God. The world will be my idol. But may the Lord be my God on my deathbed. Let me die the death of the righteous. God save us from it. Does the word of God come to you today, finding you walking contrary to God? then your need is to repent, be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Not everyone who wishes to die the death of the righteous does, but let's also apply this now to the believer. So the believer says, I hear the warning concerning Balaam. And I know I'll be the first to tell you that my repentance is not perfect and that there's all too much love of money within me. I'm all too much like Balaam, but I do sincerely repent of my sins. I do sincerely trust the savior and seek by his strength to walk before him in obedience to him. I do belong to him. And yet, as I think upon this topic of death, of dying well, I need to be helped because I know how weak I am. And I know that death is an enemy, a bitter enemy. What can you say to help me die well? That's a good question. Let me seek to help you. So I'll say two things. Seek grace to live well and seek grace to die well, and there's a connection, isn't there? So first, seek grace to live well. What should you do now? Seek grace to be living upon Jesus Christ. The apostle says, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. You see, it's when we live in Christ, upon Christ, by His strength, by His grace, for His glory, that a life lived abiding in Christ, His words abiding in us, coming constantly to the Father through Him with all our need, living in Christ and upon Christ. That is the way to prepare to die the death that is gained. Live upon Christ Himself. Use the means of grace. The means of grace spiritually lift us up to heaven before we come there. It is in the worship of God as Christ's ordinances are administered and the power of his spirit, it is here that we behold our God and we are transformed into his likeness. Do you determine that on the Sabbath day in particular, that day where God has freed you from other responsibilities and other legitimate claims on your time, are you resolved that nothing will interfere unless God providentially keeps you from attending upon the means of grace and coming into the worship of God and doing so expectantly and prayerfully, remembering what's our goal. I'm preparing to die well. And may God use his means of grace to lift up my affections unto heaven to give me poverty of spirit familiarity with the Savior and all his riches. Love for my God. so that I will be prepared to let go of these visible things and lay hold upon the invisible things. Do I come to the means of grace remembering that I am one who must die? And they are helps to me towards that day. Also consider, seek grace to live well so that you might die well. Seek grace to suffer well Sufferings are God's providences, which loosen our grips upon the movable things and which fasten them upon the immovable things. James says, Let patients have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting in nothing. Suffering is that God's special providential way of conforming us unto the image of Christ. Seek grace to suffer well. Lay up treasures in heaven. It's interesting when our Lord Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. I would have expected it to be the other way around for where your heart is, there will your treasure be. And that's true. Where your heart is, where your affections are, there you'll lay up treasures, but that's not the way he said it. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. You see, if our heavy investments are simply in this earth, if the place where we are expending our toil and time is to heap up comforts and things of this life. It will have a tendency to make our heart cleave to the earth. It will be hard to die well if your treasures are on earth because your heart will be gripping the temporal unseen things with a death grip that doesn't want to let go. My heart is here because my treasure is here. but you see laying up treasure in heaven makes the heart at death ready to fly into heaven. You see the believer who in his life has been laying up treasure in heaven, he says, oh, I can't wait to go to heaven to see the answers to my prayers revealed to me. I can't wait to go to heaven because there are people whom I've invested in to seek to see them converted, to seek to see them strengthened in the faith and helped along the way to heaven. I've been seeking above all things, seeking first. the kingdom of God and his righteousness, not neglecting my needs or pretending I don't have them, not pretending I don't enjoy God's blessings in this life. But I've been seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, seeking to see that glorious and everlasting kingdom of Christ established through pain and self-denial. I've made a heavy investment in heavenly things, and that makes me ready to die, because that's where my heart is, in heaven. So seek grace to live well. This is one way to prepare to die well. But you might still say to me, I have heard everything that you've said. And by God's grace, to some degree, I'm seeking grace to live well. I'm remembering that I'm mortal, that I must die. But still, I'm afraid to die. I ask you, why are you afraid? Are you afraid because of something in God or something in yourself? Now it's healthy to realize that there's something in ourself. that I am not reliable. It's healthy to some degree to realize I am but soft, weak flesh, and death is the last enemy. It is a bitter enemy. My heart is deceitful. I have so many old sins that Satan could bring up against me on my deathbed. What if Satan violently attacks me on my deathbed? I'm too weak for him. It's good to realize our weakness. What we also need to realize is the faithfulness of our God. Yes, you are weak and left to yourself. You wouldn't die well, but God, if he gives you grace to live well, if he's been faithful to do that, will give you grace to die well. You need grace to die well. You need a special provision of God in that hour, and God will give it to his people. Could God, who has from eternity chosen you to everlasting life, could he reverse his eternal decree at the last minute? No. Could the Savior, who has faithfully interceded for you Your sympathetic high priest who has prayed for you in all your greatest needs, could he neglect you just when your need is greatest and you are weakest? No. Could that spirit who indwells you and has been working in you all along to carry on to completion the work that he has begun, Could the spirit who has been indwelling you for the purpose of making you heavenly, the spirit who's bringing heaven into your heart all the time, could that spirit abandon you at the moment when your soul is about to enter heaven? Never. Perhaps Satan may surprise you with a strong attack on your deathbed. It's possible. but God may surprise you as well. Hasn't God enabled his people many times to die well, and they've left behind them a wonderful testimony? You see, what's involved in a Christian dying well is his own comfort, but it's also God's glory. And the saints have often given dying testimonies that have been a help to others. There's godly old Simeon who said, now let us thou thy servant to depart in peace. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. There was Stephen, angel faced Stephen, whom we referred to before. There was James Guthrie, who was a Covenanter in Scotland. Cheese had always bothered James Guthrie's stomach. But on the day that he died, he ate cheerfully with his friends and asked for some cheese because he said it wouldn't bother him anymore. He faced death with composure, faced it square in the face, and was able to be cheerful. On the scaffold, he preached. for about an hour with all the composure of a man that might preach to you on an ordinary occasion such as this. He was not overcome with dread about his own state. He was concerned, heartily concerned for Scotland and spoke words of warning. God gave him strength and composure to face Death. What may God do for you, believer, in your dying hour? And remember, whoever we've spoken of just now, Stephen, James Guthrie, martyrs of Christ, do we admire them and say, oh, how strong they were? No. Instead, we say they were but branches and members of Christ. And this victory of our Savior in the midst of death with his loud cry and his public testimony, his eye to his father's power, his father's acceptance, the finishing of his work in putting away sin and bringing in righteousness. It is through the victory of the Savior at His death that these other ones, these martyrs, triumphed in Christ. And the one who is the Savior of martyrs is also your Savior, if your trust is in Him. And so, looking unto Him, you may face even death with confidence. And if we are victors in the last thing, over the last enemy, then we may face whatever challenges, so-called ordinary challenges that lie ahead of us in the week to come. Face them in Christ for he has overcome. Amen. And would you stand with me as we pray together? O Lord, our God and our Father in Heaven, we do give Thee great thanksgiving for our Lord Jesus Christ, for He who overcame, who finished Thy work, who did it and spent His last breath giving testimony that the work was finished and the last enemy was faced and was overcome, who also, then three days after this death, on the first day of the week, rose up gloriously from the dead and is now alive, who has the keys of death and Hades. And so, O Lord, in life and in death, grant that our hope should be in Him. Help us to fix our eyes upon Him. Help us to remember to meditate upon, and even in a dying hour, to profit from this portion of thy word. We ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen.