[Feb. 18th, 1855.]
I. What it is to triumph over death.
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Not to die as do the brutes without any appreciation of what death is.
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Not to die as the sceptics who do not believe in a future state.
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Nor as the Stoics, who submit in silence to an unavoidable evil. But it implies, 1. An intelligent apprehension of what it is for a man to die.
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A scriptural and well-founded persuasion that the power of death to injure us is destroyed.
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A joyful assurance that to die is gain.
II. The way in which the power of death is destroyed. 1. It is only so far as death is a final evil, and as it separates us from God, it is to be dreaded. 2. Therefore it is only to sinners and on account of sin that death is the king of terrors. 3. Sin, however, derives its power from the law. It is the law which gives sin its power to condemn. 4. What, therefore, satisfies the law, destroys the power of sin, and thus deprives death of its sting. 5. Christ having by his righteousness and death satisfied the demands of the law, gives us the victory over death.
III. How are we to avail ourselves of this provision for our triumph? 1. We must in fact be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. 2. We must know that we are in him. 3. We must be prepared at all times to give up the pleasures and treasures of this life for heaven. 4. We must therefore live near to God and elevated above the world.
IV. The experience of God’s people.
- Some die in doubt. 2. Some in praise. 3. Some in triumph. It matters little, provided we are only in Christ. But it is of great moment that when death comes we should have nothing to do but to die.
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