Truth For Life

Guest (Male): In the book of Genesis, Jacob gives us a helpful illustration of how to prepare for death and bless others in the process. Maybe you'd like to follow Jacob's example, but you're not sure where to begin. Today on Truth For Life, Alistair Begg offers some practical tips that will help us adequately prepare for our own death as we lighten the burden on our loved ones.

Alistair Begg: Have you visited elderly people much? It's not easy to deal with because in the moments of lucidity, you cherish great hope that this is what it's all about. You endure the frequent reminiscing, and you're disappointed by the obvious disorientation.

But it is an indication, it is a God-given indication that time is passing, that life does not go on forever, that we will not always be together in this way. God, in His grace and in His mercy, provides for some in going into old age these indications, which they may cherish to themselves, which they may make a matter of prayer, which they may share with those who are nearest and dearest to them, but which are signal blessings from God to prepare us for the fact that there is a dimension that is different from this so that we will not hold on unduly to that which represents life now.

You can't see the way you once are. I was talking with a friend the other day—the other day is a euphemism for in the last few months—and as we got out of the car to play golf, this chap said to me, who is about 56, he said, "You know, I'm seeing it in my legs." I said, "Seeing what in your legs?" He had shorts on. I looked at them; I wasn't seeing much in his legs, but that is the pot calling the kettle black, believe me.

And he said, "You know, just in getting out of the car, I'm starting to see it. I would just always get up from chairs, I'd get out of the car, but now when I go to get up, it's different. Now there's just a dimension that I never knew." And the Lord is saying, "Hey Bill, you're closing down, buddy. You're not going to be here forever. You're not supposed to be here forever. Don't worry about it. It's better where you're going. You're going to get new legs."

The fading you see of our physical frame, the diminishing of our mental powers are not things to be railed against. They're not things to be fought off. They're things to be understood as indications of God's signal blessing to us so that we might recognize: Am I making adequate preparation? When the epitaph reads for me, what will it mean?

And the reminiscing there, the wonderful picture in 48:11 as Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too." If it was late 20th century, he would have a couple of photographs, and when you went to see him in the nursing home, or when you went to see him into McDonald's when he got that senior coffee for a ridiculous small amount of money, and when he sat there with a Plain Dealer just kind of looking at it but not turning the pages, any occasion he would get, he'd bring out his wallet and he'd say, "Hey, let me show you these boys. You know, I never expected to see my son. He was in Vietnam, and he was posted missing. And for 20 years, I thought he was dead, you know. And he came back, and not only did he come back, but he brought me these boys. I never thought I'd see him again, and I never thought—and there's lovely boys. Look at these boys, see."

Can you imagine as years from today, sharing a park bench quietly, how terribly strange to be 70 and 80 and 90, to become old friends, to become that person we've observed, to walk like a grasshopper, to be unable to hear the telephone, and yet to become an insomniac because of the sound of the birds? How can that be? You can't hear the phone and the birds wake you up.

And sixthly and finally, he displays a heightened level of concern about putting his affairs in order. A heightened level of concern about putting his affairs in order. People who have died from an earthly perspective prematurely have in many cases, I think, had a premonition of their demise. We don't know because they never were here long enough for us to ask them, but it becomes apparent as people put the jigsaw puzzle of the last few weeks of their lives together that somehow or another, they had taken care of a lot of business, unbeknown often to the spouse or the children or the siblings. They had actually been dealing with situations that needed dealt with. They had been making telephone calls, they had been writing notes, they had been making plans. They had actually lived a month of their lives with a heightened awareness of the need to take care of certain essentials.

And you see this here, don't you? Verse 29 of 47: When the time drew near for Israel to die, he calls for his son and he says to him, "If I found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh." What does that mean? It was a symbolic gesture. It was a significant signal of solemnity in the making of a pledge or an oath. It was all of that. "Show me kindness and faithfulness," he says. Joseph presumably says, "You've got it, Dad. What do you want?" And then he says, "Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried."

You see, when the time comes for our departure, if God is gracious to us, He will often heighten our awareness of taking care of essentials. For example, in verse 20 in giving the blessing to these boys in chapter 48, he is very clear that the younger is to receive the blessing over the older. He is in absolutely no doubt concerning this, and he is aware of all that is represented in it in terms of the unfolding of God's covenant and His plan throughout all generations.

So although he can't really see and although his physical powers are diminishing, God grants to him the ability to rally and pay attention and grant blessing in a way that is going to be representative of God's grace and favor in the lives of countless generations. In the same way, in verse one of chapter 49, then Jacob called for his sons and said, "Gather 'round so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come." Here's an old man, his life is ebbing out. Does he really have time for this? Does he really have the energy for this? He has a heightened awareness of the essentials. "I want you to get here, boys, and I want to tell you certain things that are pressingly important."

And again at the end of chapter 49, in verse 29, he gave them these instructions: "I am about to be gathered to my people. This is where I want you to bury me. I want you to know the cave, I want you to know the field, I want you to understand why this is important." And to that, we'll come probably next time. But for now, notice that there is a lesson here in learning how to prepare adequately for the time of our death.

You see, we do not know when—we may be given indications—but we do know that. And it is sufficient for us to know that in order that we might plan for then. Most recently, we conducted here the funeral of Diane Sercelli. She passed away after the onset of an illness which was in part triggered by the debilitating scleroderma, which had marked her life since the age of 17. And in these last few weeks, as her life ebbed away and as members of our pastoral team and many of you as friends and loved ones ministered to her, each one was struck by the awareness that possessed Diane of the actuality and reality of life beyond death.

And it came out most clearly, actually, some time ago when on the 4th of July in 1995, Diane wrote an open letter to her mom and dad and her friends, which she wanted me to have. One of you delivered it to me personally. And this is how it reads. I thought you may find it instructive.

"Dear Mom, Dad, family and friends, first and foremost, I want to tell you how much I love you and how grateful I am for the love and care you have given me. It isn't easy thinking about leaving you, but since we know the time is approaching, I would like to share some requests with you and trust that you will carry them out. My hope is that this will make a difficult time a little easier for everyone, and it will help you knowing what pleasure it gives me. I would like my memorial service to be a reflection of me. I have requested that my pastor, Alistair Begg, conduct a simple memorial service at church. If the church hall is available, I would like to have a reception there following the service. Although I would prefer not to have a wake at all, I know that this may be important to you and I respect that. However, I would like a closed casket, perhaps with some pictures."

Can you imagine writing that down? We're not talking about writing it down out on a football field somewhere in the afternoon where a bunch get together and go, "Hey, you know, what we're never going to die, but let's just put some stuff together." No, this is somebody looking death in the face and saying, "Incidentally, don't leave my casket open. Just close it up. Be nice to have one or two pictures."

"It's difficult expressing all that this life and my future eternal life mean to me. This verse expresses a little of my feelings and my gratitude to God for the life, the family, and the friends He has given me." And she quotes Job chapter 10, verse 12: "You gave me life and showed kindness, and in Your providence watched over my spirit." And then she concludes in this way: "It is strange yet appropriate that I am writing this to you on Independence Day, for I am anticipating the day when I will truly be free in the Lord. Please celebrate my homecoming with me. I love you, Diane."

When the time came for Jacob to die, when the time comes for you and I to die, what then? Have you made plans? Can I ask you, do you have a will, and is it up to date? And if not, why not? And does it simply contain information regarding the functional, financial, real estate, taxation elements of life, or does it actually contain this kind of important information which will, in our passing, leave a testimony to our faith and make things a whole lot easier for those that we leave behind?

Do you realize how difficult it is going to be choosing for some of you your funeral hymns because you love so many songs? So if you don't write them down, we may sing the wrong ones. And do you have scripture readings that you want read? And do you have a message for each of your children that you want opened on that day? You see, the real issue on that day is not going to be when the attorney sits at the table and everybody gets around and says, "And to my first son, I leave X, and to my second child, I leave Y, and to my wife, I leave the balance of my estate," and all those kind of things. That's all froth, that's all nothing stuff. The real legacy has to do with the blessings of the covenant-keeping God, which is what takes us to our second point, which we can't get to this morning.

And in seeking to help those who are facing the prospect of death, let us remember that, as we have said before, it is absolutely imperative to balance hope with reality. To encourage each other to prepare for the worst while at the same time praying and trusting for the best. And where this morning death has not reached out to us, it would be good that we heard it rattling its chains to stir us into action and to call us to faith in Jesus.

When the writer to the Hebrews describes the wonder and grandeur of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and of His work, he does so in many different ways. But one of the classic expressions of the triumphant work and ministry of Christ is there in Hebrews 2, and let me just quote it to you: "Since the children have flesh and blood, He, Jesus, shared in their humanity" Why? "so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

You see, how does she get this Independence Day analogy? Because she's been set free. She was freed. She was freed from the chains, the enslavement, the notion that death would come like some Grim Reaper, that she would die and go we know not where, that she would go to this faceless bourn where there is no more recognition, where there is no possibility of hearing the voice of loved ones. She was freed from all of that.

And bless her, she wrote it down so that I would have such a wonderful illustration with which to conclude my message this morning. Do you have a letter like this? Could you write a letter like this? Have you been freed from the slavery which comes from the fear of death?

Some of you sitting here this morning have to go to sleep with a light on; you're afraid to die. Some of you have to go to sleep with a radio playing; you are afraid of the silence. Some of you go to sleep very, very little in the night because you are afraid that if you sleep for too long, it may be a sleep from which you never wake. And you're wondering, why is this? And you've gone to psychologists and to psychiatrists, and you're asking them for the help. I want to tell you: Here is the great psychiatrist. Here is the great answer. Here in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the one who frees from the slavery of the fear of death.

Because you see, death came by one man, Adam, and when sin entered into the world and death came, then came all of that hell and all of that hopelessness and all of that fear and consequently all of the jolly silliness which surrounds death in the Western world. Plastic flowers and silly music and stupid statements and bogus references to things that aren't true.

And everybody has this horrible sense that the minister or the priest had a black book and he looked it up, and it said on the top of the page, "A funeral service for a single between the age of 35 and 42," and he read it out. And it had all the passion and all the compassion of somebody reading from the Yellow Pages, and it was hopeless. It was absolutely hopeless. And we ran out of the building and said, "Wherever there is an answer, that man does not have it." Well, I want you to know, I've got it. And I want you to know it's in this book, and I want to share it with you. And I want no one to leave this building this morning enslaved by a fear of death because in the story of Jacob and in the fullness of Christ is the opportunity for you and I to be set free from the chains that ensnare us.

For the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. And we read the law, and we say, "I'm not getting 10 out of 10 on this. I'm a dead man. I'm a dead girl. If this is the standard, there is no hope. How, if I lived all of my life now, could I ever get righteous enough?" It's about going into a library and saying, "If I read a book every day for the rest of my life, I still couldn't read all the books in the Solon library, let alone all the books in all the world." And that's how you feel: "Oh, I need to be so righteous if I'm going to go to heaven, for only the perfect go to heaven and I am so horribly imperfect. There is no hope for me in this life. I think I'll just go out and get smashed. I think I'll go fix up. I think I'll buy a pickup and move to Los Angeles. I think I'll get a Harley and drive off into the night. I've got to do something, I've got to get out of this place."

Let me tell you the place to which you've got to get: the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. And there, your burden goes, your vistas open, your life is changed, and you too, in Independence Day number one, can look forward to Independence Day number two. You see, that's why when the space shuttle Challenger went up and Reagan came on and did that stuff about the poem, you know, "and we will fly as the birds into the thing," you know. It's high-sounding and it's good, and it makes you feel good for about 15 milliseconds. But you then say, "On what is this based?" And the answer is nothing. Clouds.

But here it's: "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, even though he die, yet shall he live, and whosoever lives and believes in me is never going to die. Do you believe this?" That was the question He asked. "Yes, Lord," said Martha. "We believe that there will be a resurrection in the last day." Jesus must have smiled to Himself and said, "You ain't seen nothing yet. Watch this. Hey Lazarus!"

And that's what it's going to be at the resurrection when the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time will be no more, and the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair. When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore and the roll is called up yonder, you're going to be there? See, there is a roll; it's called the Lamb's Book of Life. Either your name's in it, or your name's not in it. Your name doesn't get called unless it's in the book. If I were you, I'd want to make absolutely certain that of all the mailing lists and of all the places they have my name and my social security number, that they got it in that book.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Truth For Life with Alistair Begg. Alistair will be back in just a moment to close today's program. If you're not sure that your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, you'd like to know more about the gospel, we have a learn more page on our website. Go to truthforlife.org/learnmore. There, you will find a couple of brief videos that explain the story of the Bible and God's plan of salvation. You'll also find additional teaching from Alistair about Jesus, about the Bible, about the church, the basics of Christianity. All of it's available to watch or listen to for free.

Now, if you listen to Truth For Life regularly, you're probably aware that Alistair is now dedicating himself full-time to Truth For Life. And in this new season, he has opportunities to share the gospel at many live events. In fact, today and tomorrow, he is speaking at a church equipping conference in Mesa, Arizona, where he'll be encouraging pastors and elders and deacons, teachers and church members how to grow in their faith. Please pray for Alistair and for those who are attending, that God's spirit will be at work powerfully through his teaching and this will be a blessed time of learning, worship, and fellowship. And if you'd like to view Alistair's speaking schedule so you can pray for him as he travels, go to truthforlife.org and click on the events tab at the top. Now, here is Alistair to close with prayer.

Alistair Begg: The word of God says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Saved from what? Saved from sin, saved from the judgment that will fall on sin because it has been borne by Christ. Saved from the terrors of death and hell, saved from the fear of the grave. Saved unto all eternity. And just where you're seated this morning, in your own words and in your own way, why don't you cry out to God for His mercy and for His grace? Ask Him to save you, to forgive your sins, to fill you with His Spirit. Father, hear our prayers as we cry to You in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thanks for studying God's word with us today. Tomorrow, we'll learn why as Christians, we should be just as radically different from the world in our dying as we are in our living. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth For Life, where the learning is for living.