How To Die Well

Again this morning we're going to read a passage from the Old Testament and then a passage from Hebrews chapter 11.! So we'll begin with Genesis chapter 50 and verses 22 through 26.

! Genesis chapter 50 and verse 22. Joseph stayed in Egypt along with all his father's family.

He lived 110 years and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children, also the children of Maker, son of Manasseh, were placed at birth on Joseph's knees.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones to carry my bones up from this place.

So Joseph died at the age of 110 and after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Please turn over to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 20.

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. And by faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons and worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

And by faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.

John Wesley was an unconverted missionary in the 18th century. You heard me right, an unconverted missionary. Many times he made that long journey from England down to the colony of Georgia to invite people to trust in the Savior that he himself had not yet trusted in.

And it was on one of his trips back to England that a terrible storm came upon the ship he was on, threatening to tear it apart. And he was petrified. There were some Moravian missionaries also on board.

And when he looked at them and even their wives, he found a settled peace upon their faces. And the stark contrast between his fear and their peace, both in the face of death, was used of God to show him that he had still not come to peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

He was saved not many weeks after that. And God went on to use him to bring many others to saving faith in the Lord Jesus. Much later in his ministry, after visiting the deathbed of many of his people, he wrote, Our people die well.

Our people die well. It's not a small thing to say. And it's no small thing to do. It's something that concerns us all this morning, whether you're 10 or 80.

For death is the destiny of all men. It's appointed unto all men to die. And then the judgment. And it's an appointment every one of us will keep.

No one can break this appointment. It's the last enemy that we face. Death. And believer, this is the last trial of your faith.

A trial for which your whole life of faith, your whole life of trials of faith, has been preparing you. And life is none too long to prepare our faith for this last and greatest trial.

Now, so far in Hebrews 11, we've seen faith worshiping, faith walking, faith building, faith obeying, faith waiting, faith reasoning, and now we see faith dying.

Or faith in the hour of death. We've seen what it is to live by faith. Now we're shown what it is to die by faith. And the importance of faith is seen just here in that it enables us to die well.

The righteous shall live by faith. That means the very first step of the Christian life is by faith. We put all of our trust in Jesus to make us right with God.

The first step, it's by faith. And every day, every step thereafter, we walk by faith. Putting our faith in the Son of God, in what He has said.

And the last step, the last step is also a step of faith. Your last step in death.

And oh, what a step that is. When you step out of this life and into the next. Out of this world, into worlds unseen.

Out of a few years here, into a never-ending eternity. That's no small step to take.

And Hebrews chapter 11 is telling you, you will need faith helping you to take that step. Matthew Henry says, faith has its work to do at the very last to help believers finish well.

You know, in a race, it's all about how you finish. How will you finish the race of life? Well, it's one of the great benefits of faith in the Lord Jesus that it enables you to die well.

And the next three examples of faith here in Hebrews 11 show us the value of faith on a deathbed. For some time now, we've been studying Abraham and his faith.

And surely in a chapter of faith, like Hebrews 11, we would expect to find many, many verses about the man of faith, the father of the faithful, Abraham.

But now we go on from him. And now we come to the next three generations after him. Abraham's son, Isaac, Isaac's son, Jacob, and Jacob's son, Joseph.

And it's interesting to see what the Holy Spirit selects from the scrapbook of their lives to hold before us as examples of their faith. All three pictures are taken from the very end of their lives.

He passes right over many possible choices from their exciting younger years, and instead he brings us into a dimly lit bedroom or a tent.

And there's a bed. And on the bed is a very old man. And he's dying. He's a whisper of what he used to be. So withered and worn that he must be propped up in bed.

Hollow cheeks, sunken eyes, failing, giving some last words before he dies. We say, what is this?

Faith? From a deathbed? Yes. Now all three examples are making the same point about faith, and that's why they're grouped together here, and we're going to take them together, though you could spend a Sunday on each one.

It was the custom of fathers to pronounce a blessing, a fatherly blessing over their children at their death. But there's something more going on here. There's not just a well-wishing departure.

May the Lord bless you, son. No, all three of these men received revelation from God about the future of their sons, about their descendants.

Future events that they would otherwise have no way of knowing about. Not just general things, but specific things, detailed things, things you couldn't never guess, improbable events, highly unlikely events, unexpected by all appearances to the contrary.

And yet here they are, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, all confidently pronouncing future blessing upon their children and their offspring, even as they are going out of this life, fully expecting that it will happen, even as God had revealed.

Now what would cause a man to do that? They never would dare to say such things about the future had it not been for faith. And that's why three times in our text, by faith, Isaac, by faith, Jacob, by faith, Joseph, they believed the word from God and passed it on to their descendants.

Here we have faith still triumphing in the face of death at the very end of their lives. Now we're going to consider each one very briefly and then come to the applications to us.

We see first of all in verse 20, by faith, Isaac, blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. You can read in Genesis 27 the story, it's a familiar story, Isaac's old, his eyes are failing, cannot see, he's uncertain of his life continuing.

He actually does live some years further but he thinks, I don't know when my life's going to end, I want to bless my children before I die. So he calls them to him, he's got Esau before him, he says, I want to bless you.

You remember Esau runs off to get a deer and while he's gone, Jacob slithers in and pretends to be Esau. Anyway, here's Isaac with a revelation from God to present to the son that is before him.

He thinks it's Esau, it's really Jacob but he believes the words of God and pronounces them upon the boy. May nations serve you, peoples bow down to you.

How many of you fathers would dare say that about any of your sons? It's preposterous. What would make a man say something like that? Faith in the God who revealed it to him and by faith he blesses him and he says to him as well, may those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.

Say that sounds a lot like the blessing that God gave upon Abraham. Indeed, many of the blessings that these fathers gave to their children were the blessings that God gave to Abraham.

The blessing of a people, a multitude of descendants, the blessing of a place, a promised land that would be their inheritance, the blessing of a presence, of a God who would be present and provide and protect them and the blessing of one of his descendants who would bring blessing to the ends of the world.

Yes, those promises to Abraham weren't fulfilled and so Abraham passed them on to Isaac and Isaac is passing them on to Jacob and Jacob will pass them on to Joseph and so on.

They're convinced that what God has said will happen. It will all happen just as he said it would. There's not only a blessing for Jacob who receives the chief blessing but there's even a blessing for Esau as our text says.

He blessed Jacob and Esau. Again, he received a revelation from God and he believed it and pronounced it at his death upon his sons.

Nothing but faith would cause a man dying to do that. And then there's Jacob verse 21 by faith Jacob when he was dying blessed each of Joseph's sons his sons' sons so these were his grandsons and he worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

Remember Jacob thought he'd never see his son Joseph again. He came up missing and they brought him his coat of many colors that had blood all over it looked like an animal killed.

He never thought he'd see Joseph again but lo and behold after many, many years of troubles he's now second in command in the country of Egypt and there's food there and they go up and so Jacob leads his whole family down to Egypt he's reunited with Joseph his son lives there many years then it comes his time to die.

Jacob's dying Joseph takes two of his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim and goes to see him and Jacob rallies his strength when he hears that his son Joseph is here to see him and the boys are brought out from beneath his legs they must have been young boys each hanging on to one of his legs and they're pulled out and brought and placed in front of their grandpa Jacob and Jacob puts his hands upon them and pronounces the blessing and yes puts the blessing upon the younger one but he's pronouncing their future future events of these boys these descendants revelation received from God he believed it and at a time when no man is lying as he goes out of this world he says these things are going to happen to these boys and he pronounces blessing and says may they increase greatly upon the earth say that was one of the blessings to Abraham wasn't it multitude of descendants like the sand like the stars and he passes that on to these great grandsons great great grandsons of Abraham it was all by faith by faith and then he says to Joseph

I'm about to die but God will be with you and he will take you back to the land of your fathers the land where Abraham's buried he'll take you back there well why would he ever say that they're down in Egypt that's where they now live that's where there's food because God had said so and they believed he believed it and pronounced it to Joseph and then we have this strange reference in our text verse 21 of Hebrews 11 that he worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff that did not happen at this time it happened just a little bit before you can read about it in Genesis 47 that when the time drew near for Jacob to die now he's called Israel he called for his son Joseph and he said 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 that's back in the promised land in that little parcel of ground that Abraham bought to bury his wife

Sarah and himself take me back out of Egypt to the promised land and bury me there that's the direction swear to me he says swear to me then Joseph swore to him and he worshipped as he leaned on his staff now our text mentions that that we might remember what happened as he leaned upon the staff what happened in that situation well he gave orders he made his son Joseph swear to him that he wouldn't bury him there oh he would have had a great burial there wouldn't have he he was second in command to Pharaoh maybe a pyramid for a grave but no take me back why because that's the land that had been promised to us and I believe it's going to happen even though that promise is 200 years old and it still doesn't look like those Canaanites are going to move over and let us in I believe it and at his death he pronounces I want to be buried there that was a confession of his faith that he believed what God had said would happen he dies still clinging to the promise of God bury me there it'll soon it will one day be all ours and then there's Joseph and by faith

Joseph verse 22 says when his end was near spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instruction about his bones we read the portion in our scripture reading so here's Joseph and ever since a boy of 17 he's out of the land of promise he's down in Egypt and first as a slave and then as a prisoner and then eventually as the second in command second only to Pharaoh in the land now here he is at the end of his exciting life he's been living by faith and he's still living by faith that's the point faith has survived both the bad times and the good times that's the way it is with faith when Jesus is the author and finisher of it it survives the bad times and even more dangerous it survives the good times lest we get content with these things and no longer care about the unseen unfulfilled promises that are yet to come so here he is old and dying and still believing and as he died he spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt we're not going to be here forever how do you know that

God God's word says so we're going to go out of this land that's what exodus means to be let out brought out and we're going to go back to the promised land remember God made a promise of that land that place for us as our inheritance and he gave instructions concerning his bones gathered his brothers around him and he said I'm about to die but God will surely come to your aid and take you out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up from this place he died and they embalmed him in a coffin in Egypt he died with faith firmly clinging to the promise of God that what God had said would happen even after his death and so when the Israelites marched out of Egypt 150 years later there it is that box of bones it's Joseph's bones and they're carrying it back to the promised land where he was then buried so three times with three different men we've seen faith triumphing at death by clinging to the promises of God

Hebrews 11 tells us that their faith grasped more than God's promise just to give them that land in Canaan it says rather by faith they were believing in a life after death verse 10 they were looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God not a city built with human hands but the eternal enduring city of God verse 13 they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth every place on earth I'm a stranger here but they were looking for a country of their own they were longing for a better country a heavenly one and indeed God has prepared such a place for them death was not the end but the way to this better country this was the hope in which they lived and the hope in which they died they died being sure of what they hoped for being certain of what they could not see those unfulfilled promises of what would happen even after they died and as they died they confessed their faith in that faithful

God of the promise now in the last several years I have encountered death in a way I had never encountered it before more personal and up close and with some of those dearest on earth to me and it's made me to think about my own approaching death and how to prepare for it how to die well so I I hear a text like this and I say I'm all ears Lord teach me to die well will we learn something from the example of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and the key lesson is simply this that the best preparation to die well is to live by faith now to live by faith now does that make sense do you hope to have a living strong faith as you're about to take that last step into an unseen world do you hope you'll have a faith then that will not fail you then start walking by faith today put your trust in Jesus Christ today and then trust him every day of your life so that when you come to the last step it's a faithful savior that you've proved over and over to be the faithful lord that he is true to his word you've leaned on him you've taken him at his word and you can take him at his word for this last step and what is about to happen to you the best preparation to die is to live by faith now

Isaac and Jacob and Joseph did not wait till they were on their deathbeds to start believing God they walked by faith they lived by faith in his promises verse 13 says all these people that is the patriarchs were still living by faith when they died and when they did die they died by faith they died believing they died counting on God's promises to come true and testifying to it now how did these dying men testify to their faith in God's promises well they said don't bury me here bury me there in the land of promise I believe that promise though there's nothing to suggest it in history and what we see I believe it bury me there it's going to be ours one day God has spoken and so with these other promises that God made clear to them they believed them and what a spur to a family's faith as they hear the one dying that they love saying these promises are true what a spur for them to look to those promises and expect that they will come true just as

God said so they lived on the promises they died on the promises and I say if that's true of these patriarchs way back in the book of Genesis the very first book of the Bible what should it be true of you and me who have the whole book of promises think how many more precious and great promises we have that Isaac Jacob and Joseph never had and we have fulfilled promises about this descendant of Abraham who would come and through his life and death and righteousness bring blessing to sinners all over the world it's happened he's died he's risen he's in heaven he is saving people we see these promises we have this sure word and how much more do we have to live by faith on and to die by faith on than these patriarchs William Carey spent his life bringing the gospel to sinners in India he died at age 73 he loved the hymns of Isaac

Watts and one of his last requests was that these words from one of Watts hymns and nothing more be inscribed on the stone slab that marked his grave a wretched poor and worthless worm on thy kind arms I fall you know that's what saving faith is to fall into the kind arms of Jesus you ever done that kids where maybe mom and dad you don't remember back then but you were just a we taught and you wanted to jump into the water and there they were saying jump trust me trust me and you had to trust them and you jumped or maybe you've played that game where you close your eyes and somebody is behind you and you trust them and just start going back expecting them to catch you that's saving faith we don't do something to make God save us we fall into the kind arms of Jesus who saves us by his grace and and that faith that is the first act of faith falling into the arms of Jesus is the last act of faith when you die

Christian you are falling into the arms of Jesus so we come to another death scene it's not a death bed it's a death cross and it's none other than the God man the eternal God become man and he's lived the perfect life and there he is on the cross and he's suffering the hell that his people deserve and it's dark and you can't see anything of God's love at all and he cries why have you abandoned me forsaken me here and through the darkness faith penetrates and is able to say as his last words into your hands I commit my spirit I trust my spirit into your hands I trust that you will catch me I trust that you will not let your holy one see decay that you will not leave me to rot in this grave but you will raise me from the dead and in your presence

I will have fullness of joy and at your right hand I will have pleasures forevermore Jesus Christ the man of faith par excellence dies by faith and entrusts His very spirit into the hands of God into his arms he falls so that Stephen he can't he can't do better than that when he's being stoned for his faith in the Lord Jesus as he's drawing his last breath says Lord Jesus receive my spirit here I come here I come receive me you see he falls into the arms the kind arms of Jesus now that's the last act of faith in this whole life of faith to fall into the kind arms of Jesus believing he will receive you believing that he who guided me with his counsel afterwards will take me into glory believing that as his goodness and mercy has followed me all the days of my life that afterwards

I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever that death is going home for the Christian to the home the house of God isn't home a wonderful!

word home is where our people are home is where our father is and so our heavenly father's home death is going home to our heavenly father to our elder brother Jesus Christ to all our loved ones who died with their faith in Jesus Christ we're going home to those that place where we belong home home is the place where of refuge and safety after being beat up in the world all day we come home to a safe place it's a place of rest isn't it for working hard all day we come home we collapse and we rest at home that's heaven and to die is to go home to rest all the struggle with sin all the struggle and hardship of living in a fallen world and temptation all of that's done we go home to rest and there is our father and what's he doing he's wiping every tear from our eye we've been living in a world of tribulation and problem and it's as if we're coming home and he does to us what a mother does to her little girl it's fallen down and scat her knee open it'll be alright dear it's all over now it's all over now all those things are past behold I make all things new and he wipes the tears from we're going home friends death is going home do you believe that you see will you believe it in the hour of death heaven is our home and

Christians are those who are dying to get there that's true in two ways but I mean it literally that's the only way you do get there you know that brother you know that sister you gotta die to get home unless Jesus comes back first in Christ death is now my entrance into glory my entrance the doorway into glory and so to die well is to die by faith in those promises that tell me that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord so there I am I'm the old man with sunken cheeks and failing eyes do I believe that when I breathe my last breath I'll be home to be absent from the body the moment my spirit absence this body I'll be at home with the Lord it's it's like a doorway death is a doorway and and and there's the doorway it's just it's just a threshold there and and when

I'm no longer in this room I'm in this room that's how it is with doors isn't it to not be here is to be there how long does it take to get home just like that to cross the portal to no long to be absent here from this home is to be at home with the Lord there's no long corridor with lights and all it's it's a moment absent from the body is present with the Lord do you believe that will you believe it on the day of your death to die well is to believe the promises of God to believe the record that God has given us eternal life and that this life is in to die well is to die believing that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ that the blood of Jesus really does cleanse from all sin and so though I am as red as crimson his blood cleanses whiter than snow

I believe it and I die with that promise in my hand and I say to my children it's true and it's true for me they died clinging to the promise proclaiming it to their children that's to die well I die believing that nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ my Lord neither death nor life you know death is the first thing mentioned of things that cannot separate us from God's love I'm about to be separated from my wife my children all that I've known for however many years I've left but nothing can separate me from God's love in Jesus Christ from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is on those who fear him and in death I believe that promise

I cling to that promise and I go out of this world hanging on to the promises of God I believe that he is able to present me before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy that for me for the believer at death I'm not going to something of foreboding and and something of dread I'm going to joy enter the joy of thy Lord is the welcome I'll receive I believe it because he said it and though I see nothing of it isn't that the dread reality of death as you stand there looking at your love you see nothing of that glory of heaven you don't see anything!

of it but by! your eye of faith penetrates that for them you believe it for yourself you proclaim it to your children that's to die well I believe with the apostle Paul that when the time comes for my departure there is in store for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will give to me on that day not to me only but to all those also who love his appearing and I die believing that this body that is dying and is about to draw its last breath and then will be decaying and rotting in the ground will at Jesus return be raised incorruptible!

Immortal! Unable to die! Unable to be sick! I die believing that in Christ to die is gain! That's right! Put it all down you accountants profit loss to die!

Where are you going to put it? Which side? Loss or gain Paul says for the believer to die is gain! I believe that! I'm better off not worse!

I believe that to depart is to be with Christ which is not only better than living here it's better by far literally very far better a triple comparative so on my deathbed you see I just go on believing the promises of God I think and speak of them it's what I'm expecting to happen the moment after I breathe my last and it's not the first time that I've thought of those promises it's not the first time that I've spoken of them I've spent a lifetime with my Savior trusting his promises proving him over and over and in that day I return to those precious promises and I find them to be my peace and joy in believing as I'm ready to take that last step trusting in the same faithful Lord and

Savior yes I've been meditating on them day and night by faith looking forward to that day I've been rejoicing in them I've been singing you know we sing about that day a lot!

here don't we in our hymns we've been speaking and believing these promises so when it's my time to die I'll still be speaking still believing still trusting and that's how I'll die clinging to the same promises of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ parents won't they be strange children that never wanted to come home Donald McLeod says God's got some awfully strange people awfully strange children that act like being away from home is to be preferred to home they don't want to come home what's God to think of that where is your faith sometimes when my dad sensed that we were displaying too much sadness over his soon departure he would lovingly chide us by asking or saying well

I thought that heaven was not a bad place to go to I thought it was actually a place to look forward to better by far what was he doing he was telling us he believed!

the promises of God he believed those promises of things he had not seen those things that he was hoping in he was sure! convinced of and he wanted us to be convinced about them as well carry my bones back and bury them in the promised land that's what he was saying I believe the promise don't you that's to die well I believe it'll all happen just as he said it would so so you see it doesn't really matter how you die or where you die whether you die in a car or in a hospital or in your home whether you die of cancer whether you die of heart disease whether you die young or whether you die old what really matters is that you die in Christ believing his promise that's what counts that's what matters young or old is that you come as a poor wretched helpless worm and fall into the kind arms of

Jesus save me Lord I come to you dear believer do you fear that your faith will fail on your death bed well there is a dying faith for a dying moment and you shouldn't expect the dying faith to arrive before the dying moment but grow in your faith now by feasting it upon the book of promises that tell you what is that last step how can I be sure that when I make that last step I'll receive well done come come you blessed of my how can it's all here live upon it cling to the promises take him at his word so that when it comes your time to die you're still clinging to it as you take the last step Jesus is such a savior to be trusted in every day of your life and he's a savior to trust in on the last step of your life and you'll find him to receive you on the other side and if your faith should be weak dear

Christian in your dying hour your savior will be strong for you for it's not your faith but your savior that saves you and even weak faith lays hold of a strong savior and weak faith in a strong savior will take you safely to heaven but why have a weak faith in a strong savior that sound something strange with that if you got a strong savior he's worthy of strong faith and strong faith in a strong favor a savior will not only get you safely to heaven he will take you peacefully full of comfort to heaven as you take that last step from this life to the next so every day is what it's a day to prepare to die every trial of faith is what is preparation for the last trial will

I take God at his word will I cling to my savior today for my problem today and live by faith in him who my eye has never seen so that when I come to the last day it won't be the first time maybe the hundredth time maybe the thousandth ten thousandth time I said Jesus it's you again and it's your promise again and I clinging to into your kind arms I fall Lord Jesus receive my spirit so that when thy love shall call a savior from the world away let no fear of death appall us glad thy summons to obey what will you do when it comes your time to die we have a rock to stand on Balaam that unbelieving prophet said let me die the death of the righteous let my end be like theirs you see they died well the righteous you know they die well and

Balaam said that wicked man Balaam he wanted he wanted to live like a sinner and die like a saint you can't you can't you can't you must live like the righteous to die like the righteous you must live like the righteous and how do the righteous live they live by faith in the son of God the first step for salvation and every step thereafter their whole way of life it's a new way of living they're not leaning on themselves they're living by faith in him and so if you are one of the righteous you will die the death of the righteous trust in the Lord today you don't know about tomorrow today if you hear his voice harden not your heart and if you come to Christ today and trust in him to save you he'll save you today you might have come lost you'll go home saved and if you don't go home saved it'll be all your fault he would have saved you today he's such a gracious savior he turns away none that come to him he catches everyone who falls into his kind arms that was

Balaam let me die the death of the righteous! when he was 88 years old it was his time to die some of his last words from his death bed show us where his faith was resting there is no way into the holiest but by the blood of Jesus and we sing about that what can wash away my sins nothing but the blood of Jesus how does John Wesley go out of this world clinging to the blood of Jesus the precious promise that his blood washes white as snow again from his death bed as he drew near to his last breath the best of all is God is with us the best of all is that

God is with us yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil why not because thou art with me and that's what Wesley found he'd walked with God throughout his life and when it came time to death what did he find God is with us he trusted that promise he went to be with him and his last word farewell farewell my own brother Rob last words to me see you soon confession of faith from a death bed it's faith in the Lord Jesus that enables you to say right into the face of death where oh death is your sting where oh death is your victory where is it I've met you the last enemy where is this great victory of you the sting of death is the law and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to

God who gives us the victory over you death through our Lord Jesus Christ thanks be to God you see it's not all about your faith it's about God's son Jesus Christ that's the rock that our faith rests in in that day of trouble!

we are saved when I launch in worlds unseen oh may I then be found in him dressed in his righteousness alone faultless to stand before the throne on Christ the solid rock I stand no other ground is sinking stand when you launch into worlds unknown friend will Christ be with you or will you stand in your own uncleanness to meet your God oh come to Christ now live by faith on him now and you will be ready to live by faith in him on your death bed let's pray thank you father for giving us your son who died that we might live thank you for the gift of faith itself come and strengthen that faith with your own precious word and promise teach us to live by faith upon your word of promise to rest the whole of our weight upon the

Lord Jesus Christ your son in whom is everlasting life and so having known it Christ to live may we know it gain to die we ask in his precious name amen