Part 2 A Believer's Last Day, His Best Day
Part 3 A Believer's Last Day, His Best Day
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"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain!"
Philippians 1:21
Beloved, I am here at this time to speak a word to the living, my business being not to speak anything of the dead. Be pleased, therefore, to cast your eye upon Ecclesiastes 7:1: "A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth." I shall discourse upon the latter part of this verse at this time: "The day of death is better than the day of birth."
The Greeks say, "that the beginning of a man's nativity—is the begetting of his misery."
Job 14:1, "Man who is born of a woman is born to trouble" and sorrow. The word which is there rendered "born," signifies also generated or conceived; to note to us that man is miserable as soon as he is warm in the womb; he comes crying into the world. Before ever the child speaks, he prophesies by his tears—of his ensuing sorrows.
And this made Solomon to prefer his coffin before his crown, the day of his dissolution before the day of his coronation. But not to hold you longer from what is mainly intended, the observation that I shall speak to at this time is this—That a believer's last day is his best day! His dying-day is better than his birthday! This will be a very sweet and useful point to all believers.
1. I shall first demonstrate the truth, that a believer's last day is his best day!
1. Death is a change of PLACE. When a believer dies, he does but change his place. He changes earth for heaven, a wilderness for a Canaan, an Egypt for a land of Goshen, a dunghill for a palace: as it is said of Judas, that "he went to his place," Acts 1:25. An unbeliever is not yet in his place—hell is his place. Just so, when a believer dies he goes to his place. Heaven, the bosom of Christ, is his place. And that speaks out the truth asserted, that a believer's dying day is his best day.
"We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord." 2 Corinthians 5:8. A believer is not at present, in his place. His soul is still working and warring, and he cannot rest until he comes to center in the bosom of Christ. This Paul well understood when he said, "I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far!" Phil. 1:23. I would gladly weigh anchor, hoist sail, and cruise home. And upon this account those precious souls groaned for deliverance, "Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling!" 2 Corinthians 5:2 Why is this? "While we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord," ver. 6. We are not in our place, and therefore we groan to be at home—that is, to be in heaven, to be in the bosom of Christ, which is our proper place, our most desirable home.
2. Death is a change of COMPANY. In this world, the godliest man must live with the wicked, and converse with the wicked, etc.; and this is a part of their misery; it is their hell on this side heaven. This stuck upon the spirit of David: Psalm 120:5, "Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!" [I have read of a godly woman, who, being near death, cried out, "O Lord, let me not go to hell where the wicked are, for you know that I never loved their company while in this life!"] And so Jer. 9:2, "Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people!" And this was that that did vex and tear Lot's righteous soul: 2 Peter 2:7-8, "Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard." Oh—but death is a change of company. A godly man does but change the company of profane people, of vile people, etc., for the company of angels; and the company of weak Christians for the company of just men made perfect. That is a remarkable place, "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, " Hebrews 12:22-24. Here is a change indeed. Death is a change of company as well as a change of place. And if this be but well weighed, it must needs be granted that a believer's dying day is better than his birthday.
3. Death is a change of EMPLOYMENT. A believing soul when he dies, changes his work and employment. I open it thus: The work of a believer in this world, lies in praying, groaning, sighing, mourning, wrestling, and fighting, etc. And we see throughout the Scripture that the choicest saints, who have had the highest visions of God, have driven this trade; they have spent their time in praying, groaning, mourning, wrestling, and fighting: Eph. 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood—but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." [Probus a valiant Roman emperor's motto was, "No fight—no pay!" Just so, I say, "No fight—no crown! No fight—no heaven!"] The truth is, the very life of a believer is a continual warfare. Believers have to deal with subtle enemies, malicious enemies, vigilant enemies, and untiring enemies. They have to deal with such enemies as threw down Adam in paradise, the most innocent man in the world, and that threw down Moses, the meekest man in the world, and Job, the patientest man in the world, and Joshua, the most courageous man in the world, and Paul, the best apostle in the world, etc. A Christian's life is a warfare. Job says, "All the time of my warfare will I wait, until my change come," Job 14:14. "I am still a-fighting," says Job, "with lusts and corruptions within, and with devils and men abroad!" "All the time of my warfare will I wait until my change come." Just so, in 2 Tim. 4:8, "I have fought the good fight of faith," etc.
Death is a change of employment. It changes our hard service, our work that lies in mourning, wrestling, and fighting—for rejoicing and singing hallelujahs to the Almighty! No longer prayers—but praises! No longer fighting and wrestling—but dancing and triumphing! Can a believing soul look upon this glorious change, and not say, Surely "better is the day of a believer's death than the day of his birth"? Death's shroud wipes away all tears from the believer's eyes! Rev. 7:9.
4. Death is a change of ENJOYMENTS, as well as a change of employments. I shall express this in three considerable things—
(1.) Death is a change of our more dark and obscure enjoyment of God—for a more clear and sweet enjoyment of God. I say, the best believer who breathes in this world, who does see and enjoy most of God, and the visions of his glory—yet he does not enjoy God so clearly—but that he is much in the dark.
The apostle Paul was a man who was high in his enjoyments of God—yet while he was here in the flesh, he did but see as through a dark glass. "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." 1 Corinthians 13:12
God told Moses that he could not see his face and live. The truth is, we are able to bear but little of the discoveries of God, there being such a mighty majesty and glory in all the spiritual discoveries of God. We are weak, and able to take in little of God. We have but dark apprehensions of God. Witness our tears, sighs, groans, and complaints, because we go forward and backward. We look on the right hand and on the left, as Job speaks, Job 23:8-9, and God hides himself that we cannot see him. Plutarch tells of Eudoxus, that he would be willing to be burnt up presently by the sun, so he might be admitted to come so near it as to learn the nature of it. This is upon the heart of believers, "Lord, let us be burnt up—so we may see you more in all your glorious manifestations; let us be poor, let us be anything—just so that we may be taken up into a more clear enjoyment of yourself." [Chrysostom professes that the lack of the enjoyment of God would be a far greater hell to him, than the feeling of any punishment.] Ask those who live highest in the enjoyment of God, "What is your greatest burden?" They will tell you, "This is our greatest burden, that our apprehensions of God are no more clear, that we cannot see him whom our souls do dearly love, face to face!" Oh—but now in heaven saints shall have a clear vision of God! There are no clouds or mists in heaven!
(2.) Death is a change of our imperfect and incomplete enjoyments of God, for a more complete and perfect enjoyment of him. As no believer has a clear sight of God here, so no believer has a full and perfect sight of God here. In Job 26:14, how little a portion is heard of him—speaking of God—and of that is heard, ah how little a portion is understood! It is an excellent expression that Augustine has: "The glorious things of heaven are so many—that they exceed number; so precious—that they exceed estimation; so great—that they exceed measure!" Bernard says, "For Christ to be with Paul was the greatest security—but for Paul to be with Christ was the chief happiness!" Chrysostom says, "If it were possible that all the sufferings of the saints should be laid upon one man, it could not equal one hour's being in heaven!" Such is the greatness and fullness of that glory above. The saints' motto is, "Let us go hence! Let us go hence!
So in 1 Cor. 13:12, "Now we see through a glass darkly—but then face to face. Now I know in part—but then shall I know even as also I am known." The soul, while it is in this present world, says, "I enjoy
something of God--and that I would not lack for a thousand
worlds—yet my enjoyment is not full." If you should say, "Souls, why do you wait upon God in this ordinance and that ordinance?" they will answer, "That we may enjoy God more fully. Oh, that I might be filled with the fullness of God!"
There are no complaints in heaven, because there are no needs. Oh, when death shall give the fatal stroke, there shall be an exchange of earth—for heaven; of imperfect enjoyments—for perfect enjoyments of God; then the soul shall be swallowed up with a full enjoyment of God; no corner of the soul shall be left empty—but all shall be filled up with the fullness of God. Here in this present world, they receive grace—but in heaven they shall receive glory. God keeps the best wine until last; the best of God, Christ, and heaven—is beyond this present world. Here we have but some sips, some tastes of God; fullness is reserved for the glorious state. He who sees most of God here on earth, sees but his back parts; his face is a jewel of that splendor and glory, which no eye can behold but a glorified eye.
The best of Christians are able to take in but little of God; their hearts are like the widow's vessel, which could receive but a little oil. Sin, the world, and creatures do take up so much room in the best hearts, that God gives out himself little by little, as parents give sweets to their children. But in heaven God will communicate himself fully at once to the soul! Grace shall then be swallowed up of glory!
(3.) Death is a change of a more inconstant and transient enjoyment of God—for a more constant and permanent enjoyment of God. Here on earth, the saints' enjoyment of God is inconstant. One day they enjoy God, and another day the soul sits and complains in anguish of spirit. He who should "comfort my soul stands afar off;" my glass is out, my sun is set, and what can make up the lack of this sun? As all candle-light, star-light, and torch-light, cannot make up the lack of the light of the sun; so when the Sun of righteousness hides his face, it is not all creature-comforts that can make up the lack of his countenance.
[By death, saints come to a fixed and invariable eternity. What will that life be—or rather, what will not that life be—since all good is in such a life—light which place cannot limit, music which time cannot vanish away, fragrances which are never dissipated, a feast which is never consumed, a blessing which eternity bestows—but eternity shall never see at an end.]
David sometimes could say that "God was his portion, and his salvation, and his strong tower," and what not; and yet shortly cries out, "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?" In one place he says, "I will never be shaken," Psalm 30:6; and yet presently it follows, "You hide your face from me, and I was troubled," ver. 7. And this is the state of a believer in this world. But in heaven there shall no clouds arise between the Lord and a believing heart. God will not one day smile, and another day frown; one day take a soul in his arms, and another day lay that soul at his feet. This is his dealing with his people here. But in heaven there are nothing but kisses and embraces, nothing but a perpetual enjoyment of God. When once God takes the soul unto himself, it shall never be night with it any more—never dark with that soul any more, etc.; all tears shall then be wiped away. That is a sweet word in the 1 Thes. 4:17-18, "And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." There are angels and archangels in heaven. Yes—but they do not make heaven; Christ is the most sparkling diamond in the ring of glory! It is heaven and happiness enough to see Christ, and to be forever with Christ. Now, oh what a glorious change is this! Methinks these things should make us long for our dying-day, and account this present life but a lingering death.
5. Death is a change, which puts an end to all CHANGES. What is the whole life of a man—but a life of changes? Death is a change that puts an end to all external changes. Here on earth, you often change your joy for sorrow, your health for sickness, your strength for weakness, your honor for dishonor, your plenty for poverty, your beauty for deformity, your friends for foes, your silver for brass, and your gold for copper. Now the comforts of a man are smiling, the next hour they are dying, etc. All temporals are as transitory as a rapid torrent, a ship, a bird, an arrow, a runner who passes by. Man himself—the king of these outward comforts—what is he—but a mere nothing?—the dream of a dream, a shadow, a bubble, a flash, a blast. Now death puts an end to all external changes: there shall be no more sickness, no more complaints, no more needs, etc.
And then death also puts an end to all internal changes. Now the Lord smiles upon the soul, and at another time he frowns upon the soul. Now God gives assistance to conquer sin, before long the man is carried captive by his sin; now he is strengthened against the temptation, in a short while he falls before the temptation, etc. Job was heroic in the midst of storms, and speaks like an angel—but when his body was afflicted, and the arrows of the Almighty stuck in him, and his day was turned into night, and his rejoicing into mourning, etc., then a man would have thought him an incarnate devil, by his cursing. But death puts an end to internal changes, as well as external changes. Now the soul shall be tempted no more, sin no more, be foiled no more. Now you may judge by this, that a Christian's dying-day is his best day.
Death is another Moses: it delivers believers out of bondage, and from making bricks in Egypt. It is a day or year of jubilee to a gracious spirit—the year wherein he goes out free from all those cruel taskmasters which it had long groaned under. The heathen gods held death to be man's summum bonum, his chief good; therefore, when one of them had built and dedicated the temple at Delphos, he asked of Apollo for his recompense the thing that was best for man: the oracle told him that he should go home, and within three days he should have it—within which time he died. Thus the very heathens themselves have consented to this truth, that a man's dying-day is his best day.
6. Death is a change, which brings the soul to an eternal REST. Death is the bringing of the soul to bed—to a state of eternal rest. [Death is a rest from the trouble of our labors, a rest from afflictions, a rest from persecutions, a rest from temptation, a rest from desertion, a rest from sin, and a rest from sorrow, Gen. 8:8.] That is the last demonstration of the point, that a believer's dying-day is his best day. Now while we are here in this present world, the soul is in a perpetual agitation. The godliest man in the world—who is highest and clearest in his enjoyments of God—is too often like to Noah's dove, which found no rest: either he lacks some temporal mercy or spiritual mercy—and will do so until his soul is swallowed up in the everlasting enjoyments of God! Death brings a man to an unchangeable rest!
Rev. 14:13, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." Why? "They will rest from their labor." Oh, says he, write it down as a thing of worth and weight, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. They will rest from their labor." Death brings the soul to unchangeable rest.
"The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death." Isaiah 57:1-2
Oh, death is a change which brings a soul to unchangeable rest; it brings a soul to bed. This was that that made Paul long "to be dissolved, and to be with Christ;" and the Corinthians to groan for deliverance. [Laurence Saunders kissing the stake, said, Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life. Faninus, the Italian martyr, kissed him who brought him word of his execution. It was a notable saying of blessed Cooper, "Many a day have I sought death with tears; not out of impatience or distrust," says he, "but because I am weary of sin, and fearful to fall into it." You know how the martyrs hugged the stake, and welcomed every messenger of death which came to them, and clapped their hands in the midst of the flames.
Death is a believer's coronation-day, it is his marriage-day. It is a rest from sin, a rest from sorrow, a rest from afflictions and temptations, etc. Death to a believer is an entrance into Abraham's bosom, into paradise, into the "New Jerusalem," into the joy of his Lord.
And thus much for the doctrinal part. You see that it is clear, by these six things, that a believer's dying-day is his best day, and the day of his death better than the day of his birth.
Part 3 A Believer's Last Day, His Best Day
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