Good Works Make Death Worth Dying

Please turn your Bible to John chapter 12. John chapter 12, our preaching text is particularly verse 24, truly, truly

I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Yet I will read verses, I'll begin in verse 12 for context.

Please stand when you have that for the reading of God's word. John 12, beginning in verse 12.

The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying,

Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt.

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continues to bear witness, continued to bear witness.

The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done the sign.

So the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing, look, the world has gone after him.

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks, so these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, sir, we wish to see

Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew, Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus, and Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.

Truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone.

But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him, amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for the comforts that it brings us, teaches us difficult things about what you require of your people, and yet at the same time, it gives us incredible comforts of the gospel, the blessings of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and likewise, the great hope that we have at the end of this life, and the implications for the joys that entails even for the present one.

We pray that you would make all these things very real to us, very apparent to us, in Jesus's name, amen.

Last week, we looked at the following passage in Philippians 1, 21.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. For I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which

I shall choose, I cannot tell. I am hard -pressed between the two. My desire is to part and be with Christ, for that is far better.

So last week, we looked at the fact that good works make life worth living.

Paul was content with continuing living, not because he wanted all the various joys that this world has to offer, because they are very limited compared to the joys that we would have in Jesus Christ upon death.

Instead, he looked forward to continuing to live his life because of the fruits that would come from it, that he would be able to continue doing good works for the sake of the

Lord, in particular, for the sake of those who were in the Lord at Philippi. But this does not mean that the relation between good works and our existence is only in life.

It is likewise in death. Good works do not just make life worth living, it makes death worth dying.

Death is inevitable. Now, on one hand, this refers primarily to that final death that you would experience, but as we see here, when

Jesus speaks of one hating his own life, the kind of death he calls his people to is not only that final death, but likewise, continual self -denial, and such things are inevitable.

Many people deny themselves in a kind of pointless way with no real intent at any kind of fruit.

This is known as asceticism. So you have different monastic organizations or gurus who would deny themselves all sorts of pleasures for really no reason at all.

It has the appearance of religion, but is of no profit to the soul. There are others who attempt to do things that are outwardly fruitful, and may even be outwardly fruitful.

Maybe they would deny themselves for the sake of their families, et cetera. But apart from faith in Jesus Christ, having faith in him, doing these works in a way that desires to glorify

God, those things are not truly good works. Romans 14, 23 says that whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

The one who acts even in ways that are outwardly according to God's law, but not with an inward desire to please him do not act in faith, and therefore, they sin in such works, so they might have some outward fruit for a temporary little while.

They are ultimately pointless. They are ultimately fruitless. Consider the pagan in some faraway place so that neither he nor his family ever hears about Jesus Christ.

He labors to keep them going, et cetera, and they continue on, et cetera. But at the end of it, all things that are created are shaken, as it describes in Hebrews 12.

All things are destroyed, and what is the end of all the blessings that he tries to give his family?

If they all end apart from Jesus Christ, there really is no ultimate fruit that comes from any of it.

And then, of course, every single person will die. There are some that will not experience death in the same way.

If Christ were to no longer tarry and he were to return, we would immediately be with him. But in some sense, it can still be said that everyone must face death.

Those who die before Christ returns clearly face death. Those who would go to be with Christ, that which is corrupted in them, even physically, will pass away.

And likewise, for the unbeliever who would be here when Christ returns, still they would experience what we would call death.

Everyone faces death in one sense or another. What makes that death worthwhile is good works, is good works that then become fruitful through death.

This is what Jesus describes in verse 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Those good works that are done, apart from death, do not reach the fullness of their fruition.

But also, the other way around, apart from good works, death does not have much advantage to it.

But upon death, good works having their full fruition make death a pleasant thing, not only because we would go to be with the

Lord, but because it is through death, it is through the daily dying and through that final death that we experience the fullness of the fruit of good works.

I know this is a difficult concept. We'll get through some of these things in parts. Consider the context of this passage.

Jesus has come in his triumphal entry, and then

Gentiles come to him. This is surprising because he is only commissioned to go the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but yet Gentiles are coming to him.

And what is his response to this when they say they wish to see Jesus? It's not immediately bring them here.

It's instead, this is a sign. This is a sign that it is time for the Son of Man to be glorified.

The fact that it is now the time that that radiance not be limited to just the

Jews, but expand also to the Gentiles. And what does that mean for him to be glorified?

Once again, very counterintuitive. You might think that it mean immediate exaltation. He must go sit on the throne.

He's coming to Jerusalem for his triumphal entry. It's time to sit on the throne of David and to rule not only

Judea, but the whole world. But he goes to the cross.

He goes in order to die, in order to be glorified. It is through his death that he is exalted.

He dies accomplishing the gospel, accomplishing salvation for his people, and then later is exalted.

And moreover, on top of this, he calls us into the same. He says to his disciples afterward, whoever loves his life loses it.

And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me.

And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

In other words, this reality applies in a particular way to Jesus Christ. As the Gentiles come, he knows it is his time to be glorified.

He must die in order that he must be exalted. But he applies the same thing to his disciples.

This also means that his disciples must die in order that they would be exalted.

His disciples must hate their own life in order that they would keep it in the fullness of it and have eternal life.

So this applies not only to Christ in his most important death and life, but all to those who are joined with him and to their death and life.

Christ's death was necessary in order that he would be glorified.

It was necessary in order to accomplish forgiveness of sins. It was necessary in order to, that he would be exalted above the heavens and that his

Father would be pleased so that he would sit at the right hand of the throne. It is necessary also in order for many to be gathered to him.

Apart from him dying for people, he would not have that status as a great king and savior of the world, but he would also not have the many brothers gathered to him apart from his death.

This is necessary that he be glorified. And also, it is necessary for his union with us.

Now in one way that is probably obvious. Since we are sinners, we need forgiveness.

You know from scripture that the blood of bulls and goats does not take away sin. As it says in Hebrews 10, four, no animal sacrifice was capable of accomplishing this eternal forgiveness before the

Lord. All they could do, all those animal sacrifices could do was forgive in terms of a temporal covenant.

By temporal, I don't mean temporary, that it's lasting only a short period of time. By temporal, I mean that it pertains to temporals.

It pertains to the things of this earth. So as long, so they needed to be forgiven so that they could continue living in the land of Canaan.

This is the forgiveness that the blood of bulls and goats provided. It did not provide any kind of eternal forgiveness in the courts of God.

And by eternal there, I don't just mean lasting forever. I mean being of a transcendent value, being addressing more than that temporal covenant so that they would live long in the land, but they must live forever in general.

So in that sense, it is necessary that he die for the sake of his people. For the sake of his people also, it would be necessary if he were to be our king regardless of our sin.

Now this might be something that strikes you by surprise. Consider this hypothetical question.

Would it be necessary for Christ to die if his people had not sinned? I'm going to answer that question yes, still.

And there are maybe other ways that God could accomplish this, but the way that he has spoken of in scripture in Romans 7 is that it is through his death and us being united to him in his death that we are able to die to the law in order to be joined to him in marriage.

Okay, so in other words, your natural state, even Adam's natural state before the fall is to be married to the law so that his right standing before God and his kind of kingship is just over himself and his people is happening through the law.

This is just happening through the law. Now let's say Christ were to come and he were to say,

I want to be a king of his people. Well, Adam is already the head of his people. How does that transaction happen so that we would no longer be in Adam, we would no longer be married to the law as it describes in Romans 7, but instead be married to Christ?

The mechanism that Romans 7 describes is that we need to be united to Christ in his death.

So what I'm saying is that the death of Christ is accomplishing something more than a mere forgiveness.

The death of Christ is likewise severing us from that marriage in Adam's headship over us to the law so that we can be free to be joined with Christ.

Union with Christ would not happen otherwise. And so his death is accomplishing this glorification, this union that brings all his brothers around doing more than mere forgiveness, but accomplishing even the joining of us together with him.

And that union does a profound thing in that it makes our life have a different quality.

It makes our good works have meaning. Our good works apart from Christ are not truly good works.

They might be outwardly according to God's law, but they don't have any real fruitfulness. Being imperfect, they cannot be offered to God, but with Christ as a mediator, they can be offered to God.

Moreover, being joined to Christ, they are being counted as those very things as though he himself were doing them so that they would be regarded as good and as fruitful.

And they have fruit from them. All the blessings that come, not just as God looks in favor on our good works, but even blesses them with results, comes through our union with Jesus Christ so that our lives themselves are offered in him.

We die with him and we live with him. We live through him, offering of ourselves, dying each day in self -denial, offering through him what otherwise could not be offered to God at all.

And so it is through Christ's death that our good works have any kind of meaning at all.

And what this entails for us is that we must live our lives looking forward to that death, knowing that it will bring our works to a fuller fruition than anything that we could experience here.

Once again, not only is it the case that apart from death, good works would not have meaning, but apart from good works, our death would be fruitless.

But with good works, that death becomes meaningful. The world has all kinds of outwardly good things that they do but when they die, none of that has any meaning.

Being joined to Christ, us offering our gifts to the Lord in death, it becomes fruitful.

It becomes like the seed. He says, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Your life is like that. Who would hang on to a seed? What use is a seed? You might be able to use it in some kinds of cooking dishes but not for much, it doesn't contribute much.

And so to hold on to that jealously is the greatest of follies.

Instead, you should be happy to get rid of it knowing that it is only by it dying that these things that you would do in this life take on their fullest effect.

This is known in us in two kinds of death. One is our daily death and one is that final death.

Our daily death brings fruit. Now, when

I talk about our daily death, what I'm talking about is self -denial. There's what he is describing here is denying yourself, hating your own life, not in a way that's necessarily going to martyrdom as Christ went to martyrdom, but in a way that is giving it up as though it were a sort of death.

This is the death that is required. This is the death that happens daily. Now, this results, first of all, in our sanctification.

I'm gonna quote several times from the Westminster Larger Catechism because it summarizes a lot of Christian, a lot of biblical thoughts into very simple words.

These things can all be demonstrated from scripture quite clearly, but Westminster Larger Catechism 75 says, describes the sanctification as the

Holy Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, not being believers, that they more and more die unto sin and rise into newness of life.

So how does sanctification happen? It happens by Christ's death being applied to us more and more so that we would die more and more and grow into him.

So it's necessary that we might be made more holy. That's what sanctification is. We have to, that corrupt flesh, and by flesh,

I mean that sinful aspect of us must become more and more mortified, more and more dead, and that happens by Christ's death being applied to us by the

Spirit. Likewise, that daily death is needed for the sake of the edification of brothers and sisters.

The church must be edified through our giving up of ourselves.

Second Corinthians 4 .10 through 12 says, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So death is at work in us, but life in you. So what

Paul is explaining is how are people edified? Well, it's by the death of Christ being in him, that as he offers his own life for the sake of God's people, him being shipwrecked, beaten, et cetera, that this is bringing life to others.

So it is through Paul's daily death before God that great fruit is coming from it.

That death is necessary for his good works to reach the fullness of its fruition.

Now beyond that, there's also not just the edification of the church, but evangelism, bringing more people into the church.

It is through us giving up of ourselves and losing ourselves in some measure that others are brought into the church.

Think about why that is and what scripture speaks of. It talks about our light shining. Why is it that believers are distinguished from unbelievers in good works?

Well, it's particularly because we don't fear death. How is it that we are able to die daily and give of ourselves in a dying way?

Well, the answer is we don't love our lives because we don't fear death. We don't fear death because we have the life of Jesus Christ.

So this is how the light shines. The light shines in embracing death, knowing that it shows something different about us, that we have the life of Christ.

But then it also demonstrates the unity that we have in Jesus Christ. John 13, 35 says that by this all men will know that you are my disciples.

If you have love for one another. When we love one another, we demonstrate.

So this is not talking about the love we might have for anybody. It's talking particularly about a love that we have for one another. What does that demonstrate?

Well, that there's something that's unifying us that would make us care especially about each other. What is that?

That is Christ, the Holy Spirit uniting us to Christ, us all being joined together in the same vine.

And so it is because we don't fear death. It is because we are united to Christ that our good works have, in a dying way, communicate to an unbelieving world the gospel of Jesus Christ, that there is life in us.

If you consider the special period of time that we are in, this notion of good works needing some kind of dying for them to come to a fullness of fruition, that is something particular in our own era, partly because of our sin.

Because of our own sin, of course, we must grow in holiness. But consider the way that God has shaped this world, that we would have to wait until one day when those good works be blessed in a particular way.

But on that final day, because we will continue doing good works before the Lord, but they will have a different shape. They won't involve the same kind of denying of ourselves.

They won't involve delayed rewards in the same way. We read in 1

Corinthians 13 about knowing in part, seeing in part, et cetera.

On that final day, we will know immediately. On that final day, faith and hope will take a backseat to love.

Right now, faith and hope are joined in the same way to love so that we must give of ourselves in hoping for this life that is to come.

Yet on that final day, we don't have to look forward to anything. There won't be the same kind of daily dying.

There won't be the same kind of denying ourselves. But that is necessary now in order that our good works be meaningful.

So beyond this daily dying, there's also the final death, the final death that one would experience before the

Lord simply by their bodies going into the grave, the soul no longer being united to the body, but going to Jesus Christ in order to be made perfect in holiness.

And that is the first way that it comes to, that our good works have their full fruition.

That final sanctification, think about this, Paul says that, well, the author of Hebrews, I believe it was

Paul. Hebrews 12 says, 12, 14 says, without faith, excuse me, it says that we should pursue the holiness without which no one will see the

Lord. Yet that final holiness comes about only on that final day.

It's not just that death completes holiness, although it does.

And let me go ahead and demonstrate that real quick. First Corinthians 11, 32 says that, but when we are judged by the

Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. This is talking about believers as they're taking the

Lord's Supper wrongly. God, as a blessing to them, disciplines them by killing some of the

Corinthians so that they would be made holy and not be condemned along with the world. That's a fantastic thing that's being described there.

That death comes in order to make someone perfectly holy. And by perfect here,

I mean complete. I do not necessarily mean maximally holy. But there are various levels of holiness, just like it describes in First Corinthians 15.

Some stars shine brighter than others in glory. Yet it is completed at that time.

Yet if Hebrews 12, 14 tells us that we need to pursue holiness without which no one will see the

Lord, that means that what it's calling us to is something more than just that final holiness that you get at death.

Because otherwise, why wouldn't it just say, you know, you don't need to pursue holiness right now. Death is going to bring that final holiness.

Well, no, there's a holiness that happens through pursuing it that becomes made complete and perfect upon that final death.

There is an importance to pursuing holiness now so that when it is perfected, it is perfected in a fuller sense than it would be otherwise.

There is something good about pursuing holiness so that that holiness, when it is completed, would be even greater than it would be otherwise.

Beyond sanctification, and let me go ahead and read another Westminster larger catechism on sanctification, 86.

Their souls are then made perfect in holiness. It says the same thing in the Baptist catechism that upon death, our souls are made perfect in holiness.

Okay, now other than sanctification, there's also glorification. We are made glorious. We're not just made a little more holy.

We are made glorious in that final state, especially upon the resurrection.

And this is the primary way, or this is the final and quintessential way in which we are, in which our good works through death bear the greatest fruit.

Romans six, five through eight says, for if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

All right, so he's talking about this resurrection that we will have. But what is it contingent on in each one of these verses?

It's contingent on having been united in his death, that we must die with him in order to live with him.

Now everybody will experience, should the Lord tarry, everyone will experience some earthly death.

But to die with him is a particular kind of death that happens only in union with him.

And so all those, all the ways that we serve him throughout this life and that we would pursue in holiness and that we would daily die, has the fullest effect only upon that final death, that we would be raised, that we would be raised in glory.

Dying with him and then being raised with him in glory. Once again, edification.

The edification of the church happens in particular through our final death.

So not just through our daily death, where like Paul described, carrying in his body the death of Christ, that he's bringing life to others.

So that's true as we go about dying every day, our daily death. But it is especially true on that final death.

This may not be evident to you, but there is a way that your good works are able to be an encouragement to others after you are dead, in a way that they are not able while you are living.

In part, the hagiography that's necessary for some of these things to take place can't take place until death.

What I mean by hagiography, hagiography is the study of the saints, writings about the saints. In Roman Catholic theology, saints are those that are known to be in heaven.

They are the dead and only a special set of dead believers. Biblically, the saints are all who are in Christ, all who are holy in any sense, positionally holy, having been set apart for God by union with Christ.

So everyone here who trusts in the Lord is a saint. And so as we see the good works of other saints, of others who

God is working, and that is an encouragement to us, yet there's a particular way that it can be an encouragement, even more so upon death.

Because upon death, having lived a life that commends one to God, and that final stamp of approval has been placed on the one who has died, completing their race, having demonstrated that there was not something secret that God was going to expose before they died, et cetera.

That final stamp of approval that we have in death permits others to look and not treat someone as, while they are a fallible man, they no longer are, having been raised, or having been, having in death been granted the presence of Christ, that they are now, having been made perfect in holiness, one that you can speak of their life and what

God has done in a more complete way than you would be able to otherwise. You can acknowledge that this person had flaws in their life, but they were truly a saint who went to the final end of their days before the

Lord in holiness. And so we can look at their works and speak about them in a way that is respectful, understanding that God truly was working in that person, in a way that you can say about the living, but with not the same degree of confidence.

And so through final death, your works have a greater encouragement to others.

This is true both naturally and supernaturally. Supernaturally, God would simply have it be the case that the rewards that we receive, that the blessings that we would see from our good works wouldn't happen immediately.

He has called us to walk by faith and to not see all these things. And so he has supernaturally arranged it so that many things we do not see much fruit of at all from.

We might plant and water, as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 3, talking about the work of evangelizing or teaching, and not see the fruit that it would bring in someone else's life until much later.

A lot of that happens just supernaturally, that God intentionally, providentially delays things so that we wouldn't see until later.

But many of these things happen just naturally, happen just naturally, as I already described with the way that you would have confidence of someone who has made the final end of the race.

Proverbs 10, seven says, the memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

Consider Abel. He spoke more in death than he did in life.

Through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. It says in Hebrews 11, four. 11, four.

His blood calls out demanding vengeance, speaking about the evil of sin and speaking also of zeal for righteousness, calling others into it.

This is something that speaks more in his death than it did in life, even though he was a righteous man in life.

Likewise, that final death has an evangelistic effect. This is true, especially, of course, for martyrs, that God has ordained that martyrs would especially call people to him.

Now, this is true with every saint that dies. The memory of them, having been exalted in some lesser sense, would call people to the faith.

Even now, many people hear an evangelistic call when they hear of the saints of old having served him.

But this is especially true of those who die a death of martyrdom explicitly for the sake of the

Lord as persecutors come against them. It's often said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

This is true, the church expands, the church grows through martyrs in a particular way that it does not with others.

With those who do not have this special kind of death, this special kind of death makes their good works all the more fruitful.

Acts chapter eight, verse one, right after Stephen has been martyred,

Stephen being the first martyr in the church. It says, Saul approved of his execution, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles.

So what happens immediately? Well, they're all scattered around. Verse four, now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

And so what happens, the gospel spreads, has an evangelistic effect, that as persecution happens, as people are suffering particularly for the sake of the gospel, and particularly in death itself against persecution, it has a great effect.

And this is something you've probably seen before. I mean, consider even Charlie Kirk, someone who was not known, he was known primarily as a political activist and only secondarily as a

Christian, but because the things that he died for were particularly those Christian values applied to politics, people who saw that, many people, came to church that next week.

That was something that really moved in a lot of people to realize the need for something greater than what they were living for.

And that was someone whose main thing was not church life, right?

His main thing was applying Christian values to policies.

Think about how much more it's the case for someone who goes about their life in a more direct way for the sake of the gospel.

Someone who's really, really, in a vocational way even, you know, someone who is set apart in an ordained sense.

Now, that may not be what God is calling you to. In fact, it's unlikely it is because it's something he calls only very few to.

But think about the greater ways that you could give yourself to the Lord so that when he calls you to his presence in death, your works would have the greatest fruit.

Now, considering how to apply this to ourselves. First, you must begin to hate your own life, just as Jesus describes here in John chapter 12.

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

This is something that you should do inventory on occasionally, that you should ask yourself, do I hate my own life? How much would

I be upset if I lost various things? How much would

I be upset if I lost my relationships? How upset would I be if I lost my possessions?

And how upset would I be if my life itself were threatened to be lost? If the answer is that it would severely shake your peace, you need to cultivate a hatred of your own life so that you would love the life that Christ gives.

Your life is like that seed. It's to be hated. Hated meaning, hating here does not refer to so much an active negative loathing towards so much as it is a despising, a devaluing, so that it's like nothing.

It's just a little seed. Who cares about this thing? Just throw it away. In as much as that competes with the presence of Christ, happily throw it away.

Happily throw it away to have this other thing. Cultivate that so that on that final day when you are facing, and by final day we usually mean the return of Christ, but what

I mean is when you are at death's door, that you are prepared for that day, that it doesn't come as a surprise to you and that you haven't taken the time to prepare yourself in order to face it, but that you would face it gladly knowing now's the time

I get to throw away this seed and get a massive tree instead. Cultivate that in you.

And you can do that by going to God's word to hear of the promises of the life to come, to hear of the values of being in his presence, and to hear of the evils in this world, to know that there is so little, there are so many good things in this world, but none of them are good the way that they will be eventually, and we'll have that forever.

This is just a temporary little blip where even the good things are compromised in their goodness. It's just worth throwing away for the sake of the gospel.

And hating your own life. Practice self -denial. Practice self -denial. That means learning to love and joining love together with that daily death.

Okay, so there's a couple of ways people try to go about good works. Okay, one is where they try to go about it with self -denial without love, right?

That's the asceticism that I was describing earlier. Really has no point to it. It doesn't have any benefit to yourself or to others.

Okay, so self -denial without love does not accomplish anything. But also, love without self -denial while we are in this life does not accomplish anything.

If you love others, but then you're not willing to give of yourself for them, then what is that?

That's some kind of phony emotion. Okay, it's insincerity. It's not real, and a lot of people consider themselves great lovers.

It's so funny watching very, especially immature people in the world, they will talk about themselves as great lovers, but anything of theirs gets threatened.

They have no interest in giving it up. So many people talk a huge game about caring for the homeless, et cetera, but they want other people to do it.

When it actually comes to them, sacrificing anything to take care of anyone else, they get very upset about this.

So learn to join together self -denial and love, and this will cultivate the kind of hates and the kind of loves that you should have in your life.

And remember Christ's death. Remember his own death as he describes here in John 12.

It is his time to be glorified in order for others to be joined together. We are to die because he has died, and because he lives and we joined with him in his death, we will be joined with him in his life.

It's important that you not just remember the task before you, but the one who calls you to it and who empowers you for it, having forgiven you of your sins so that you don't have to fear death, and having given you his spirit that empowers you to live before him and grants you the blessings of not only rewards for such good works, but the fact that there is a great fruit to be had through them upon death that you can't even experience in this life.

It's important to remember the death of Christ. Now, you can do that in all kinds of ways, once again, going to his word, but most especially, he has given us the

Lord's Supper. Do not neglect the Lord's Supper. If you come in the morning, but then don't attend in the evening, or maybe you come, but you've not pursued membership, and so you're not able to join with the church in the

Lord's Supper as it is something that represents the unity of the body described in 1 Corinthians 10, do not neglect the

Lord's Supper. This is the main way he has given us of remembering his death in order that we would walk in it, being willing to die ourselves.

A couple more catechism questions that speak of this, or rather, the answers. Speaks of, in Westminster Larger Catechism 170, speaking of what we are supposed to be doing while we're taking the

Lord's Supper. By faith, they receive and apply unto themselves Christ crucified and all the benefits of his death.

As you are remembering Christ, by faith, remembering him in the act of observing the Lord's Supper, you are applying, the

Holy Spirit is applying unto you, and you, by grasping onto that in faith, are applying unto yourself the benefits of Christ's death.

Question 174, it speaks of affectionately meditating on his deaths and sufferings.

This is what you are supposed to be doing while you're observing the Lord's Supper. You're supposed to be remembering the fact that he died for you, and that he suffered for you, and you're supposed to be doing so, not just cataloging them, but doing so affectionately.

Affectionately doesn't mean just being happy about it. It means experiencing all the proper emotions.

Okay, affections, in theological language, just refers to the various kinds of emotions that you would experience because you're being affected by this reality.

Being affected by the memory of Christ's death should produce in you certain kinds of sadness and certain kinds of gladness.

And these are the ways that you recall Christ's death. Then, not just remembering

Christ's death, but remembering your own death. You might be familiar with the Latin phrase, memento mori, remember that you will die.

Remember that you will die. You will not live here forever, and you must remember that. Psalm 90, 12 says, so teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

If you live your life as though you have forever, you will waste it so poorly. But if you remember, and you count frequently, you have this much time left, or maybe even less, it will motivate you and orient your thinking so that you properly honor the

Lord with your activities before him. And know that, on the final day, your good works will have their fullest fruition in death.

Psalm 116, verse 15 says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Your life is precious, and so he will bring much blessing through your death.

Your death, it's not just your life that's precious to him, your death is precious to him. As you are joined with Christ, and you are united to him in his death, having already died that spiritual death, but then to die that physical death even.

It's something that is precious to the Lord. And all the various works that you do find their fullest fruition in that death.

And it makes death worth dying. Otherwise, your life would not have any purpose.

The good works that you do, outwardly speaking, would have no final fruit.

Your death would just be meaningless. It would be pain and suffering for nothing. But the fact that you are joined to Christ, able to do good works in him, and are joined to him in both his death and his life, means that your good works have fruit.

Good works make your death worth dying. And on that last day, we will no longer be called to that kind of death.

We will no longer be called to a final death. We will no longer be called to a daily death. That when we give of ourselves in love, it would not be met with a delay of any kind of experience of the fruit.

When we work before the Lord, when we give of ourselves to others, in that eternal state, when we are all gathered together before the throne, when we're all gathered together with our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ himself, there will not be this giving of self that requires pain and requires delayed benefits and fruit.

But these things will all be immediate. Because now we see in part, but then we will see completely. There is a passage

I'd like to read you from Dante's work. If you're familiar with Dante's, I think it's

Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. When Dante, in this poem, is about to ascend into Paradiso, he's told the following.

No word from me, no further sign expect. Free upright whole, thy will henceforth lays down guidance that it were error to neglect.

That's supposed to rhyme, but the second line is always longer than the first. No word from me, no further sign expect.

Free upright whole, thy will henceforth lays down guidance that it will be error to neglect.

So what that's saying is, in this life, okay, you need to deny yourself. These different things that your flesh wants, you have to say no, no, no, no, and deny yourself constantly.

But as you enter paradise to be with the Lord, your will will be made so perfect in holiness that it actually reverses and it becomes a sin before, it would become, not that we could sin, but it would become a sin to deny yourself.

Because your will will desire what is good, so that you should only do what your will desires. And there would be no denying yourself because there's no more death required because you would have the fullness of life in Christ, including that will, so that you can do only and all that your heart desires.

Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing that you have given us of union with Christ.

We thank you that through him, we may see great blessings. We thank you that you have given us much to do in this life and that we are not just waiting for that final day when we would be sanctified without anything to do here, but rather that we can prepare ourselves for it and that we can prepare ourselves for even greater blessings pursuing what you have given us.