I ask you to turn with me to the book of the Revelation, and in chapter 14, looking particularly at verse 13. Revelation chapter 14 and verse 13, where the Apostle John writes, I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Now, I can imagine that there might be someone who will think to themselves, well, this is not the kind of subject for a Lord's Day morning. This is the kind of subject and text for a funeral service. Well, it is an appropriate text for a funeral service, but I would suggest to you it's very much an important text that we think of well in advance of any funeral, for what is the gospel about? The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to do with a different lifestyle from what we see in the world around us. It is not something simply to give us cheer for the difficult times of life. It is all to do, isn't it, ultimately with where we go and what happens to us at the end. Now there are people, of course, that rightly prepare for all kinds of things that may not happen. You go out in the morning and you think, well, the weather looks a bit iffy, and so I'll take my umbrella just in case. Or you go to the shops or you hear on the news that there's a shortage of one kind of commodity or another, and just in case I can't get this next week, I'll stock up today. Well, death is not a possibility, is it? It's not a maybe. It's going to happen. And the only exception to that is, of course, if the Lord shall return in advance of our death. Death is inevitable. The Word of God says it is appointed unto men once to die and after this, the judgment. So I say to you, if there's anything that we need to prepare for, it's this. And we find in this verse, in the book of the Revelation, a wonderful statement and a wonderful encouragement, to say the least, to be found as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the words again. I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. You notice there's a phrase there, halfway through there, that little clause, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Now what does that mean? We'll look at that in just a moment. But before we do, We have to draw a conclusion from this. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. It is therefore very clear that it is most horribly possible to die not in the Lord. And that's what the Lord Jesus was talking about there in John chapter eight. Do you remember what we read there? He spoke to these unbelieving Pharisees and Jews who didn't believe that he was the Messiah, that counted upon their own righteousness, that that's what would get them into heaven, or their Jewish heritage and lineage, that kind of a thing. But they wouldn't have it that he was the Messiah sent by God. They wouldn't have it that they needed him as a savior. And therefore he said to them, He shall die in your sins if you believe not that I am he. So the opposite of dying in the Lord is to die in your sins. I want to ask you to follow my chain of thought here as I think of someone who goes through their life with no faith in Christ from the beginning to the end. How is it that we progress through life? Well, the Bible tells us, of course, that we are not only born in sin, we are conceived in sin. That's what David said in Psalm 51. In sin did my mother conceive me. Now that's not a reflection upon David's mother. That's a state of the entire population of the world. We are conceived in a state of sin. We are conceived with Adam's guilt for Adam's first sin, and we're also conceived with a sinful nature. That's how we are. That's how we begin our lives in this world. And I think of someone who is therefore conceived in sin and then through life continues to live in sin. Sin of the heart, sin of the outward life, sin that is committed in knowledge and willingly, a life that is in love with the world, a life that is rebellious against God and disobedient to all his laws and rejecting him, continuing sin, and clinging on to that life of sin, suppressing concerns about the soul, shying away from this theme that we have before us this morning, the end of life and death and what lies beyond. People don't want to think about it, do they? I remember years ago in Chichester, where I was the pastor until last year, speaking to somebody out there in the street, or trying to, and he wouldn't have it. He was an elderly gentleman, and he was walking down the street with a stick, and he realized what the tract was that I was offering to him, and wanting to engage in conversation, and he said to me, don't talk about that. I'm worried enough about it and I don't want to think about it. And he hurried along with his stick. And that's what people are like, isn't it? And they bury themselves in all the entertainment of the world and all of those things which will distract them from what is inevitably going to come. And we cling on to this life that we have in this world. And we can even stubbornly resist and refuse the gospel of God's redeeming grace. So there we have someone who continues to live in sin, clinging on to that life. And then, of course, the inevitable happens. Such a person will die in his sin. With all the lifetime of sin on heaven's charge seat against that person, if you will, And there we are, perhaps we've lived in sin, now we die in sin, our own sin, and we never sought the forgiveness of God in Christ. We wouldn't think about meeting him, but there he is. There he is. And we stand before him with all our sin, with this enormous child sheet of sin after sin after sin after sin. And then, of course, we receive the wages of sin, which is death, spiritual death, separation from the God of grace forever and forever, destined to feel the wrath of God eternally, punishment that shall never end, that awful anguish of soul and despair and eternal regret. That's what it is to die not in the Lord, but to die in your sin. Who wants to do that? Who's brave enough to face God with all your sin? The God who knows it all and the God who will pour out his judgment because that's the most definite statement that we have in the word of God. The Lord Jesus himself had a great deal to say about it. And to pretend it's not gonna happen To pretend that we can avoid it somehow has surely got to be the most foolish thing that we could ever do. But there's another way. We can die in our sin, or according to this verse that we have in the book of the Revelation, chapter 14, we can die in the Lord. In the Lord. I cannot conceive of a greater contrast between dying in sin and dying in the Lord. We can talk about chalk and cheese and black and white, but this is far greater contrast than even those things. To die in your sin, to go into an eternity of ruin and misery, or to die in the Lord and to go into an eternal state of joy and holiness and righteousness that will never end. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Notice that this voice from heaven said unto John, write, write this down. This needs to be heard. Well, of course, the whole book is written down. But there was a command given earlier on about this. But it's a singular command about this one matter. Write. Write this down. Let no one be under any misapprehension about this. This needs to be crystal clear. Write. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. What does it mean to die in the Lord? Well, this is a phrase that you find frequently cropping up, particularly in the New Testament. And if you read Paul's letter to the Ephesians, you have this in Christ, in the Lord, over and over again, especially in the first chapter. What it means is simply this, that when we believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, we are united to him. We are joined to him. And the meaning of that in practical terms is that everything that Christ did becomes ours. You think of his perfect life, the life of righteousness, the life that you, I, no one, no one born into this world could ever, ever live. We're always breaking the law of God. We have done from the beginning and we shall do until the end. But he was perfect. perfect, not one sin, not one failure, not one shortcoming. You could examine his soul, his heart, his life, and you would never find anything that is amiss. You would never find anything that was a contravention of the law of God. On the other hand, you would find him to be absolutely obedient and pleasing to God, his Father, from the beginning to the end of his life. And when we believe upon Him, we are in Him, and that perfect life is credited to us. What a wonderful thing, isn't it? What we could never do, He's done for us. And we're joined to Him, and that life is credited to us, and so when the Lord looks upon us, that's what He sees. And because that's what he sees, that's how he treats us. How has he treated Christ? He raised him up from the dead. We shall be raised up from the dead. He was ascended into the glory of heaven. We shall ascend into the glory of heaven. Christ is there at the right hand of the majesty on high to be there forevermore. And we shall be there forevermore in the glory of heaven. All that's true of Christ becomes true of us. And of course, the other side of the coin in our salvation is the dying of Jesus, the atonement that was made in his death. And I'm sure you're all very aware of what that meant. When he went to the cross, he bore our sins, and as it were, he died. in our sins. Our sins were loaded upon Him, and therefore the wrath of God fell upon Him. And because the wrath of God fell upon Him, it will never fall upon us. We are in the Lord. This is the point. All that's true of Jesus Christ becomes true of a believer. Joined to him, it's as though he takes us to the cross with us, and he dies for us. He takes us into the tomb, and he rises up for us. And he ascends up into heaven, and he takes us with him. And he enjoys all the blessings of heaven, and he bestows them to us as well. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. And therefore, this great statement that John is commanded to write down is a most wonderful thing. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. We die in the Lord, and then, so far as this world is concerned, of course, we're dead. But we're not dead. The soul isn't dead. You know what the doctrine of death is according to the scriptures? When our bodies cease to function, when after we've taken our final breath, the soul departs from the body. The body remains upon earth and is laid to the ground, but the soul immediately rises to God, and God does with that soul according to whether or not that soul believed in Jesus Christ in life. And for the believer, it's blessing. Blessed are the dead. There they are. Perhaps you know someone, I'm sure you do, who is a true Christian. And you think of them, and you miss them. I can think of many people that I miss. Good men, good friends, and they're not here anymore, and I wish they were. But they wouldn't want to be here, now they're there. They're in the wonderful glory of heaven. And they're blessed, blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord. You've heard of a great American evangelist of the Victorian age, the 19th century, D.L. Moody. a remarkable man that traveled about a lot. He came over to England to preach. He even preached for Spurgeon, I believe, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. But he was a well-known figure, almost like an evangelical celebrity, I suppose you would call him, of his age. And the papers wrote about him and all the meetings that he held. And he said once, one day you'll read in the press that D.L. Moody is dead. And he said, when you read that, don't believe a word of it, because I shall be more alive then than I have ever been before. And that's the truth of it. Blessed are the dead. They're in the glory of heaven. They're with the Lord. They knew him in life. They put their trust in him in life. They died in the Lord. And he receives them into glory. And they're with him. And they're blessed. Some Bible translations use the word happy instead of blessed. I think that's a bit of a feeble substitute for the word blessed. Happy, yes. But there's more to it than that, isn't there? More to it. Not just happy. Blessed. As blessed as even God can make them to be. More happy. than anyone could ever be in this present world because there they are in the presence of Christ. Remember when Stephen, the martyr in the book of Acts, when he was being stoned, he looked up and he saw heaven open to him. and he saw the Son of Man standing. Now it's often been said that of course you usually find Christ referred to in that heavenly state as being seated. But Stephen saw him standing. And the comment made by many about this is that it's as though Christ is standing ready to receive him personally. ready to welcome him. Christ died for him and died for him in order that he might go to be where he is, that he might be blessed forever. And there is the Savior with his arms open, as it were, ready to receive him into that heavenly state. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. You know the words of the Psalm, Psalm 16. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. And that's what the dead are receiving. That's how it is. Joy that is beyond expression. Joy that is beyond anything that we know in this world. Fullness of joy. Pleasures forevermore. The illustration that springs to mind, of course, is the arrival of the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem. She'd heard about Solomon's riches and his wisdom and all the rest of it. And she'd made that lengthy journey to go and visit him, intrigued about this great man and his court. and how wise he was, what knowledge he had. And so she went with this great royal escort and arrived there in Jerusalem and sees the riches and the splendor of his palace and the court and so on and so forth, and no doubt listens to the wisdom that he had to offer in all his speeches. And she went on to say, I had heard of thee. but the half had not been told me. It was more splendid than anybody had explained. It was more splendid than I could ever have anticipated. And you know, that's heaven, isn't it? That's heaven. Language is strained beyond breaking point. to describe it. Our minds are so finite that we cannot take it in. And it's not until we're there that we realize how wonderful it's going to be. There is Jesus Christ, the center of all heaven's gaze. If he's there, then there's it must be glorious. If he's there, it must be the manifestation of the love of God that will fill our souls and fill us with joy unspeakable in such a way that we have never known in this present life. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. The verse goes on to say that they may rest from their labors. I expect people have said to you, as they've said to me, and they've said to just about any and every Christian, people only turn to Christianity as a crutch. They're weak people. Heard that? I'm sure you have. Weak people, they need something to hold onto and something to hold them up. But the Christian life is not a life of leaning upon a crutch in that sense. The Christian life is a life of labour and it's the kind of labour that a worldly person doesn't know anything about. The Christian is a person who labours against their sins and their corruptions. The Christian is a person who so loves the Lord that their whole life is devoted unto Him and we labour for Him. The word means toil, wearying, being worn out. And why do we do that? Why do we live a life like that? Because Christ is so precious to us. He's done so much for us. His promises are so rich and so deep and so certain. And we feel compelled to serve Him. It's a life of labor. And we wouldn't want it any other way. Now, I retired from the pastorate there in Chichester about 18 months ago. And there were people praying in the prayer meeting before we were able to call another man to take over the pastorate. Lord, bring us another pastor so that John can retire and put his feet up. Well, that was never, ever, ever in my mind. And so it's proved there's work to be done. And speaking for myself, I want to do as much as I can, as well as I can, for as long as I can, for the Lord. Because that's the life that's worth living. That's the life that doesn't repay what Christ has done for us, but it's an expression, isn't it? of how we value, how we treasure him in all that he's done. But when we get to heaven, we rest from our labors. No more fighting against sin. No more wrestling against our own weaknesses and frailties and foolishness and all the rest of it. No more struggling on, hanging on as it were, but at times by our fingertips in faith. No more of that. We rest from our labors. That's not to say that we shall be idle. This popular foolish notion that heaven is about lying on fluffy white clouds while angels feed us, grapes or whatever it might be. Well, absolute nonsense. When Adam and Eve were put into this world, they were to tend the garden. They were to labor. They were to do things. And we shall not be idle. There shall be plenty for us to do in heaven. Don't ask me the details. We're not given those things. But we shall be active, occupied. And you know, one of the chief occupations of heaven is to gaze at Christ and to behold him and to learn of him. What a prospect. What a prospect. And then it goes on to say, and their works do follow them. Works, what they did in their Christian lives for their Savior. Works, works for the sake of God, works for the sake of Christ, works for the sake of the gospel, for the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the works of an unbelieving person as noble and as worthwhile as they may have been, are in the end, they're forgotten, aren't they? They don't carry forward into eternity. Someone may have invented penicillin or some great other scientific discovery or whatever it might be. You can use your imagination, if you will. When the end comes, all of that will be consigned to a forgotten history. But the works that we do in this world for the sake of God and Christ will not be forgotten. They carry forward into eternity. Do you remember the Lord Jesus spoke to those fishermen that he called to be his disciples? There they were, occupied with fishing, a very worthwhile kind of thing to feed the people and so on. but there they are, they catch their fish and they sell them in the marketplace and then it's all forgotten and they go out and they catch some more. But it's a worldly kind of occupation, isn't it? But he said to them, follow after me and I will make you fishers of men. The fish are long gone, but the men that they caught in the gospel net, are in the glories of heaven. The point is, it lasts. It goes forward into eternity. You may say to yourself, well, there's not much I can do. Doesn't matter. Do what you can do. Do what the Lord enables you to do. It counts for Him. He values it. He treasures it. Their works do follow them into heaven, into eternity. And the Lord has a way of rewarding us in eternity. So dear friends, how is it that we shall come to the end of our days? Shall we pass from this world in our sin? God forbid. Or shall we pass from this world in the Lord? In the Lord. Belonging to him, joined to him, united to him, inseparably, forever. As long as Christ is in heaven, we shall be in heaven with him. And how long will Christ be in heaven for? Eternally, never ending. And because he's there, we shall be there too. Because he lives, we shall live also. That's the blessing. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. If you've never come to Christ, dear friend, come to him today. be united to him, be joined to him. And then when the end finally comes, you will be able to face what is coming, that whole prospect of death and the process, if you like, of dying with a savior by your side and a savior who stands to receive you into the glory of heaven and the blessedness that even now you cannot begin to comprehend. You see what I mean about a contrast? A contrast, everlasting ruin or misery or everlasting blessedness with the Lord forevermore. May it be that blessedness for us all. Amen. Closing hymn is 533. 533. God calleth yet, at last shall I not heed? How long shall I refuse the grace I need? While pleasure fades and time's swift moments fly, still shall my soul in mortal peril lie. 533. God calleth yet, at last shall I not heed? How long shall I refuse the grace I need? While pleasure fades and time's swift moments fly Still shall my soul in mortal peril lie God calleth yet, at length shall I not turn? Dare I once more his faithful pleading spurn? No, I have none, for well what I should be. How didn't you yet? Now he beckoneth me. God calleth yet, alas, thy stubborn heart. I feared my yoke shrank from the nobler part. God and my soul have I He draws me still. Rise, heart, be not afraid. Heal to him now, once and forever yield. May God thy portion and His grace thy shield, What though the world its pleasure still display, God calleth yet, O heart, do thou obey? O Lord, we thank Thee that there is that way to glory, that way to blessedness, that way to everlasting bliss and holiness, and that way is through Thy Son, Jesus Christ. And, O Lord, we thank Thee that through Him and by Him that salvation that we need is promised and assured to everyone who truly believes. Or may there be that true saving faith in our hearts this morning. And may we be able to look at the prospect of eternity with unbridled joy and expectation. Lord, look upon us, we pray thee, and make these things to be real in our hearts. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.