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Colin Smith: The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now here's the marvelous thing: when you are Christ's and Christ is yours, Christ carried your sins into his death so that you do not need to carry them into yours. That's the good news of the gospel.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Colin, most of us don't like to think about, let alone talk about, death. Yet as we just heard, if we do know Christ, there is good news for us.

Colin Smith: That's right. This becomes the great subject that cannot be spoken about. How false is that? A fear that is repressed is actually a fear that is increased. The only way to face fear is to look at it in the face and then to address it with the truth. That's what the Word of God does for us.

Jesus Christ came to deliver those, the Bible says, who all their lives lived in the fear of death. It's not the will of God for us to live in fear. Let's look at the triumph of the gospel as it relates to us at some point. This relates to every person. Nothing could be more important or relevant to all of us than this.

Steve Hiller: All right, so let's open our Bibles and join Pastor Colin in John chapter 8 as we continue the message, Dying in Your Sins.

Colin Smith: There are ultimately only two ways in which any human being dies. We either die in our sins or we die in the Lord. We really need to understand what these two things are about. This is too big to gloss over.

Let's ask this honest question today: what does it mean to die in your sins? What is that? To die in your sins means to carry your sins into your death with you. That's what it means. It is a terrible thing, and I'll tell you in a few moments how you can be absolutely sure it will not happen for you.

Lloyd-Jones gave a compelling description of this in the message that I referred to a few moments ago, and I want to read an extended quote. I don't often do that, but I do this with a great sense of purpose here today. I want you to picture a person at the endpoint of life, and they're moving into death. This person has not followed Christ and does not believe in Christ, and he doesn't know what's happening to him.

He knows he's going forward. He feels he's going out. It's as if he's going into something that is strange and ahead and foreign, and he doesn't want to go, but he can't pull back. It's irresistibly pulling him in. He's dying in his sins.

Listen to these words of Lloyd-Jones: "He has an awful feeling that he is guilty. Suddenly the whole of his past life flashes in front of him and he sees that it was all wrong. All of his life he stifled his conscience, he's pressed it down, and suddenly it asserts itself. He begins to feel condemned. Worse is the fact that he is condemned in the sight of God and under the curse of God against sin. All of this comes to him now. He hadn't seen it before, but it's all clear now."

"The commandments he stifled and kept down begin to speak to him: 'Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt love the Lord thy God and serve him only.' He hasn't done it and he's dying. It all comes back. He's dying in his sins. He's surrounded by them. He's in the atmosphere of them. That's his position."

"He glimpses into the future and he sees flashes of hell and torment and misery. He's filled with a sense of remorse, hates himself for the things he's done, and feels that he's been a fool. He's lived his whole life without thinking of this, and he's going out. He's going on from this present world and into an unknown future. He doesn't know where, and nothing he has lived for can help him."

"I believe," Lloyd-Jones says at this point, "also he is given a glimpse of heaven and of glory but realizes that he is not fit for it. It's clean, it's pure, it's light, it's holy, and he knows he wouldn't be happy there. He hasn't thought about these things. He's lived for the opposite. There is God in all his glory, in all his purity, and there's all this worship. He sees it. It's wonderful. It's glorious. But he's not fit for it, and he can't go there."

Friends, I cannot imagine anything more tragic than this, can you? To die in your sins. That leads to the obvious question, the question every one of us must ask and that I must answer clearly from the Bible for you here today: how can I be sure that that will not happen to me?

I know that I will die. I don't know when, I don't know how, but what I need to know is that when it happens, I do not die in my sins. Look at what Jesus says in verse 21. It's very distinct. Jesus says, "You will die in your sin," singular. One sin.

What is the one sin that Jesus says in verse 21 people are in danger of dying in? He tells us that quite clearly in verse 24. He says, "I told you that you would die in your sins," plural, "for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins."

Jesus is making it very clear here that unbelief towards Jesus Christ is the one sin that leaves you taking all your other sins into your death with you. This is the tragedy of unbelief. If you do not believe, Jesus says you will die in all your other sins. Unbelief is the master sin. This is the sin that causes a person to go into death carrying all other sins with them and upon them.

Flip that around and you get the hope of the gospel. Unbelief towards Jesus leaves you dying in your sins. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, if you believe as Jesus says that "I am he," you will not die in your sins.

You might say, "I thought you might say that, but I can never quite figure out why is it that this believing is so important? Does it just mean you believe the right things?" No, that's not it. Here's why believing is so important everywhere in the Bible: faith is the bond of a living union that joins you to Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you become his and he becomes yours.

He becomes your Savior. He becomes your friend. He becomes your Lord. He becomes your master. When you belong to him, guess what? His home is yours. He opens it to you.

The Gospels make very clear that Jesus lived a sinless life. He is the only person who has ever done this. He is the only person who ever could or ever will. Jesus lived and died without a single sin.

The Bible tells us, therefore, that he was uniquely qualified and able to deal with the sins of others. So when he died on the cross, the Bible tells us that he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. That was what was happening at the cross. Or as Isaiah puts it, "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Now here's the marvelous thing: when you are Christ's and Christ is yours, Christ carried your sins into his death so that you do not need to carry them into yours. That's the good news of the gospel. They've been carried into the death of another.

Christ carried your sins into his death, so you won't carry them into yours if you are Christ's and Christ is yours, and that union is made through the bond of faith. I say to you and to everyone within the sound of this message today: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Give yourself to him. By faith, make him yours. Receive him, embrace him, follow him.

You have his word: you will not die in your sins if Christ is yours because Christ has taken your sins into his death. How, therefore, can you take them into yours? They're separated from you. That's why we sing an old, old song that some of you will know and others may not have heard, but it's beautiful: "Living, he loved me; dying, he saved me; buried, he carried my sins far away."

He took them away. He separated them from me. He bore them. He took them into his death so that I will not take them into mine. That's the good news of the gospel for everyone who is in Jesus Christ. You'll not die in your sins if you belong to Jesus. You will die in the Lord.

We'll look at that, God willing, next week and what it means and how glorious that hope really is for every believer. The book of Revelation just says this: "Blessed are they who die in the Lord." All the difference in the world.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called Dying in Your Sins. Now we have to pause here, but we'll get back to the message in just a moment. You know, Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. We depend on your generosity to keep Pastor Colin's teaching on this station.

As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you as our way of saying thanks for your support a copy of Brad Wetherell's book called *Saved to Sin No More*. Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: It's really for every Christian who wants to make progress in his or her battle against sin. That's surely got to be everyone who knows and loves the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the greatest struggles that we have is just discouragement. The doctrine of union with Christ is the most encouraging truth that I know in all of the Bible.

Faith unites us to the Lord Jesus Christ so that his presence is in us through the Holy Spirit. When Christ is in us, there's something of the power and the peace and the joy of the Lord Jesus that's actually in us too. When that's the case, it makes what would have been impossible for us on our own possible because his power and his presence is with us.

Getting hold of what it means to actually have Christ in us and for us to be in him—that's union with Christ—is going to be the most encouraging thing for moving forward in the battle against stubborn sins that often defeat us.

Steve Hiller: We'd love to send you a copy of this book. Again, it's called *Saved to Sin No More*. It's our thanks for your financial support this month. You can give a gift online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-673-6365. That might be easier to remember as 1-877-OPEN-365. Again, our website is openthebible.org. Let's get back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Let me deal with one very practical question by way of application before we conclude here today. What can you say to a friend or to a loved one who is not a Christian and is drawing near to the point of death? This is one of the most difficult moments for any Christian.

Here is a person you care about deeply: a family member, a long-standing business colleague, or a friend. You know that they have not believed in Christ and they have not been following him. You feel that you should say something. He's going to die, but you really find it very difficult to know where to begin. This is the most sensitive and the most delicate of all situations. Probably every one of us here will face that situation at some point. What would you say?

We're all dependent on the Holy Spirit to prompt us in times like these, but we're also to be guided by the scriptures. I want to suggest to you very simply that you could begin with these words of Jesus. You could with great profit say something like this: you could say with compassion and with affection, "My friend, soon you are going to be in another world. Jesus said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not be in darkness but will have the light of life.'"

There is another world that is very dark because Christ is not there. There is another world that is full of love and joy and peace because Christ is its light. I so long and I have so long prayed that you would be there.

Because this is a moment to be honest, I know that you've not followed Christ in your life and you have not believed, but I want to say to you it is not too late to change even now. Christ died, my friend, for sinners like us. You could ask Christ to have mercy on you as I ask Christ to have mercy on me.

Ask him to forgive you and to cleanse you. Tell him that he died for sinners and you're a sinner who needs saving. Christ carried sins into his death so that you would not need to carry yours into your death. Would you like to pray to Jesus Christ and to ask him to have mercy on your soul?

I could tell you stories about folks who have turned to Jesus Christ at the last moment of life. You know a great one from the Bible, of course, with the thief on the cross. Comment that was made on that story that always stays with me whenever I think of it: two thieves on the cross here, one dies in his sins, one dies in the Lord. One was saved that none may despair; the other was lost that none may presume.

My very last word to you here today is simply this: do not put off closing in faith with Jesus Christ for another day. If you're young, it's so easy to say this is stuff that's for years ahead. You don't know that. Nor do you know that your own heart will be open years from now. You're under the sound of the Word of God now.

The Holy Spirit is at work in hearts now. Today if you hear his voice, if in any sense you're connecting with the things of eternity, can you not see that the Lord Jesus Christ is drawing you to respond to faith in him today? I want to give you these words in closing that you could use right now as a prayer in which you close in faith with Jesus Christ—some words to make this your own.

They're the words of an old hymn. Some of you will know them very well, where Jesus is described as the Rock of Ages. "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy riven side that flowed"—you're putting your faith in Jesus who died for you—"be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and its power."

If you will close with Jesus Christ in faith today and if you will become his follower—you give yourself to him and he embraces you—then when the moment of your death comes, you'll be able to say these words from the same hymn: "When I draw this fleeting breath, and when my eyelids close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown and I see you on your judgment throne, then Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee."

Steve Hiller: What a powerful way for us to wrap up today's message, Dying in Your Sins. As Pastor Colin has called that question today: what would happen to you in eternity if you were to die today? I hope that's caused you to stop and to think about that. If you do know Christ, be grateful for the gift of salvation that he gives to us.

If you don't know Christ, I hope this causes you to think about what you want your eternity to be. If you want to know that you'll spend your eternity with him, I'd encourage you to contact us. We have staff members who would love to talk with you about this. Call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365.

This message, Dying in Your Sins, is originally part of a series called *The Inside Story of Your Future Life*. It's been one of the most listened-to messages of this past year. We've gone back and we've taken a look at what have been the most listened to, streamed, and downloaded messages, and we've bundled them together in a series called *Listener Favorites 2026*, airing all month long on the radio.

You can also get a copy of this series on CD. Ask about *Listener Favorites* when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. You'll find ordering information at our website, openthebible.org. Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. It is your generosity that allows us to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day.

As you give a gift to Open the Bible this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of a book written by Brad Wetherell called *Saved to Sin No More*. Colin, who is Brad Wetherell and why should we read this book?

Colin Smith: I've often said that we should choose books not by the title but by the author. The reason for that is that when you read a book, you're actually reading a person; you're reading what has come out of that person. So who has written a book is really very important.

I'm so glad to have the opportunity to introduce Brad Wetherell. His name may not be widely known. He is my successor as the senior pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church. I served that church for 30 years. I've worked with Brad for more than 15. I stepped down from being the senior pastor just over a year ago to focus full-time on the ministry of Open the Bible.

Brad is someone that I feel very close to and very confident in. He has a deep, authentic walk with the Lord. That's always the first thing you want to know about someone who you're going to read. He has a wonderful gift of preaching and a wonderful gift of writing. This is his first book and he's chosen to write on a subject that he's studied very deeply, and it's this wonderful truth of union with Christ.

I think this may be the most important and least understood doctrine in all of the Bible. People often look a bit quizzical: "union with Christ, what's that?" Folks are going to love this compelling and clear introduction to what I think is one of the most encouraging truths in all of the Christian life.

Steve Hiller: The book is called *Saved to Sin No More: How Union with Christ Empowers a Life of Holiness*. We want to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for financially supporting Open the Bible this month. You can call and give over the phone. Our number is 1-877-OPEN-365 or give online at openthebible.org.

Again, our phone number is 1-877-673-6365 and the website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." God's word is the food that will nourish your soul. You need it every day. Open the Bible Daily is a daily devotional that will open the Word of God and lead you to Jesus. It's available for free on our website, openthebible.org. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That's openthebible.org/daily.