{"id":24585,"date":"2025-03-30T20:35:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T20:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=24585"},"modified":"2025-03-30T20:35:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T20:35:03","slug":"hope-in-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2025\/03\/hope-in-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope In Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201dThe wicked is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death.\u201d\u2014Proverbs 16:32<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is most comfortable in a dying hour to look back upon a well-spent life, say many. It is most comfortable to \u2018forget the things that are behind, and to look forward, and press towards the mark for the prize of our high-calling of God in Christ Jesus,\u2019 saith the Christian. Phil. 3:14. What a delightful prospect in a dying hour, to view a reconciled God, a glorified Jesus, and a kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world. But if we have not experienced a life of faith on Jesus, and by the grace of God had our conversation in the world, a life of self-righteousness will only beget vain confidence, and delude the soul with false hopes, which will end in awful disappointment at death. But who are \u2018the wicked?\u2019 Verily all who reject the faith of the Son of God, who refuse to submit to his righteousness, hope in themselves, and trust to what they can do to make themselves righteous, and to make their peace with God. This is the very essence of wickedness. All such are destitute of righteousness, their eyes are blinded by sin, their hearts are hardened against the truth. Living and dying so, they shall be \u2018driven away\u2019 from the comforts of the righteous in the awful hour of death; in the tremendous day of judgment, they shall be \u2018driven away\u2019 from the presence of Jesus, with \u2018Go, ye cursed.\u2019<\/p>\n

Who are \u2018the righteous?\u2019 Even all who receive the gift of new covenant love, the gift of righteousness, which \u2018cometh upon all the children of faith by one, Jesus Christ.\u2019 Rom. 5:17. The righteous man is of divine extraction, born again from above; he hath the mind of Christ, he loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. The righteous hath hope in a God of justice, hope in a God of truth, hope in a God of faithfulness, because his hope standeth in God\u2019s own covenant grace and love, which maketh sinners righteous in Jesus. This hope shall never forsake the righteous: it animates him in life to love and obedience, it comforts him in death against fears of wrath and terrors of hell, it inspires him with joyful assurance of a crown of righteousness in life and immortality.<\/p>\n

Well might that eminently faithful minister of Jesus, the late Rev. Mr. Hervey, so sweetly fall asleep, with this hope in his heart, while his lips were warbling his dying song: \u2018Precious salvation, precious salvation! Oh precious grace, precious promises, precious faith, precious hope\u2014all flowing to poor sinners, through the perfect righteousness and precious blood of the infinitely and eternally precious Jesus.\u2019 Well might St. Paul sum up all our blessedness in that apostolic benediction, which includes all our hope: \u2018The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.\u2019 2 Corinthians 13:14.<\/p>\n

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It is most comfortable in a dying hour to look back upon a well-spent life, say many. It is most comfortable to \u2018forget the things that are behind, and to look forward, and press towards the mark for the prize of our high-calling of God in Christ Jesus,\u2019 saith the Christian. Phil. 3:14. What a delightful prospect in a dying hour, to view a reconciled God, a glorified Jesus, and a kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world. But if we have not experienced a life of faith on Jesus, and by the grace of God had our conversation in the world, a life of self-righteousness will only beget vain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":20656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1571],"tags":[1244],"class_list":["post-24585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-william-mason","tag-death"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24588,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24585\/revisions\/24588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}