Death: The Fear of Dying | Dr. David Jeremiah

Donald gray barnhouse one of the great teachers of another generation was driving home from the funeral of his first wife and he had his children with them and they were overwhelmed with grief as he sought some way to comfort his children as they were standing at the corner a huge moving van passed them and its shadow swept over where they were standing Dr barnhouse said children would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow and of course they said the shadow it's harmless he said let me tell you something kids two thousand years ago the truck ran over Jesus Christ in order that only the shadow would have to run over us isn't that a great thought the truck ran over Jesus Christ he suffered the death so that only the shadow has to run over us the Bible says death is a shadow not a reality no longer is it true that we have to be afraid for Jesus said and I quote it again I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me though he may die he shall live and whoever lives and Believes In Me shall never die you might be interested to know that on all of the major lists of what people are afraid of and I think this is probably not thought through very carefully by most people the number one thing on almost every list guess this is public speaking now that that would say that people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of disease I don't know that I believe that but at least in the moment when they fill out their little questionnaire they believe it probably because they've been asked to do it and it strikes Terror into their heart but second or third on almost every list that I've seen during this time of research is the fear of dying or the fear of death and that's because nobody nobody knows what to think about it if they don't know the word of God if they don't know what the Bible says death is this big mystery to them I remember reading that Woody Allen once said it's not that I'm afraid of dying I just don't want to be there when it happens he had apparently given some thought to this because he went on to contribute this encouraging line he said I do not want to achieve immortality through my work I want to achieve immortality through not dying I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen I would rather live on in my apartment and he probably expresses the sentiments of a lot of folks it's interesting to me how we treat the subject of death differently than we treat any other subject it is the ultimate obscene word for many people rather than simply saying he died think of the endless supply of euphemisms we plug in we say he passed on he went to a better place he was called home he went to sleep he departed this life or if Shakespeare is your thing he shuffled off this Mortal coil did you know there's an internet page you can look up that has over 200 ways of saying death without saying the word the poet John Benjamin wanted to know why do people waste their breath inventing deity names for death and we do it don't we we all do it Joseph Bailey tells us how foolish it is for you see death plays no favorites and cuts no deals Dairy Farmer and sales executive live in death Shadow with Nobel Prize winner and prostitute mother infant teen old man the hearse stands waiting for the surgeon who transplants a heart as well as the hopeful recipient for the funeral director as well as the corpse he manipulates death spares nobody what if I promised you that we could change forever the way that you look at death perhaps move it out of the fear category altogether what if we would take on this subject for a few moments from the Bible and pull death out of the terrifying Darkness once and for all if you'll stay focused I think I can do that because the Bible does that before we go any further we need to discuss what we mean when we talk about death the Faces of Death in the Bible there are three different descriptions of death let me give you the key word for all three of them it's the word separation say that with me separation in every three instances where death is mentioned in the Bible it always involves separation let's begin first of all with physical death what is physical death physical death is the separation of the soul and the spirit from the body what happens when a person dies their body stays here but their body without a soul and spirit is not functioning any longer so the body is buried but the Soul and Spirit go to be either with God or apart from God and so physical death is first and foremost the separation of the Soul and Spirit from the body it is a time of Separation if you study the Bible you will see this come up several places for instance James 2 26 says the body without the spirit is dead When Rachel the wife of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob died while giving birth to their son the scripture says and so it was as her soul was departing that she called his name benome When Rachel died what happened her soul Departed Solomon describes the separation this way he says and the spirit will return to God who gave it when you die physically it is a time of Separation the separation of your soul and your spirit from your body people are often confused about what happens at death because they hear people say well when you die you go to be with Jesus but then they go to a funeral and they watch the casket come and then they take it to the funeral cemetery and they bury it and they say well he didn't go to Jesus he went into the cemetery well his body went into the cemetery but his soul in the spirit which is who he really is goes to heaven physical death is the separation of the soul and the spirit from the body and let me tell you something friends I've done studying this very carefully there are no exceptions the statistics regarding physical death are 100 percent except perhaps for Christians who will be alive at the rapture but that hasn't happened yet so I can say with authority that death is 100 percent someone has Riley made this observation that death is the number one killer in America [Laughter] physical death so I know this is kind of a serious subject but we don't have to be so serious about it let's just kind of I I'll tell you this little story to lighten it up a little bit I heard about a doctor who went to see a young man he says I I've just examined I've examined your your reports and I have bad news and worst news he says well what do you mean he says well I have bad news and I have worse news what news would you like to have first and he said give me the bad news he said well he said we've looked at your test and you have you have 48 hours to live he says well what could be worse than that what's the what's the worst news he said we've been looking for you since yesterday so I mean all right I'm glad to hear you laugh So Physical death is the separation of the Soul and Spirit from the body now the other kind of death the Bible speaks about is spiritual death this may surprise you because it almost sounds like a disconnect but look up here for a moment let me tell you something that's true of every one of us we were all born dead did you know that we were all born spiritually dead because spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God and when you are born you do not have a relationship with God except for the protective custody of those who are under the age of accountability we know about that but spiritual death is simply your soul being separated from God you don't have any relationship with him you don't have fellowship with him we are separated from him because of sin and the Bible says the wages of sin are death When sin entered the world through Adam it spread to everyone so that every unregenerate man and woman is dead spiritually separated from God So Physical death is the separation of your soul from your body spiritual death is the separation of your soul from God and then there's the Third Kind Of Death that's mentioned in the Bible and let me tell you something this is the one you don't want to mess with you don't want to experience this of all the other things I've said so far please make sure you don't get on this list this is called the second death even though it's the third on our list it's called the second death and we read about it in the Book of Revelation so follow on the screen as I read from my from my copy of the scripture and the Sea gave up the Dead who were in it and death and Hades delivered up the Dead who were in them and they were judged each according to his works then death and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire this is the second death and anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire the last form of death second death is the final banishment from God and the final misery of the wicked in Hell following the Great Wide Throne judgment in other words physical death is the separation of your soul from your body spiritual death is the separation of your soul from God the second death is the separation of your soul from God forever and ever and ever with no hope of it ever being changed I have often tried to bring understanding to this subject by using a little mathematic formula so if you'll bear with me I'd like to teach you a little math this morning if you have been born only once you will have to die twice but if you have been born twice you will only have to die once and you may even Escape that if the Lord Jesus comes back before your physical death you say Pastor Jeremiah what do you mean by those numbers what I mean is this all of us have been born once so we wouldn't be here but if we are not born again through the spirit and the word of God we will die twice we will die physically when our soul is separated from our body and then we will die spiritually when our soul is separated from God but if we are born the second time through trusting in Jesus Christ we may have to die once physically but we will never ever die spiritually in other words if you are born again you will never die spiritually you will never ever be separated from God John 11 25 puts it this way I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me though he may die physically he shall live and whoever lives and Believes In Me shall never never die so if you want to live forever in the presence of God you have to have two birthdays you have to have your physical birthday and you have to have a spiritual birthday if you are only born once you will have to die twice but if you are born twice you will only ever have to think about dying once that's the fact of death and the Faces of Death let me talk most of all today about the fear of death I want to share with you some reasons this morning why if you're a Christian you should never really have to be tormented by the fear of death there are only two ways you can ever face the future no matter what it is you can face the future by faith or you can face the future in fear and if you know the word of God you will not have to be afraid and there are several reasons why you won't have to be afraid of death that are presented clearly in the word of God and let me give them to you kind of one at a time and let's unpack them together number one you don't have to be afraid of death because the prince of death has been defeated the prince of death has been defeated listen to the words of Hebrews chapter 2 verses 14 and 15. listen carefully to every word in as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood that is us Jesus himself likewise shared in the same in other words he became flesh and blood that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil and release those who through the fear of death where all their lifetime subject to bondage the author of the book of Hebrews declares that Jesus has conquered death by death and has freed us from the fear of death he says in the book of Hebrews that there are some people who live their whole lives in bondage because of their fear of death have you ever known anybody like that people who are just paranoid and freak out over the thought of dying I had a friend back in Fort Wayne when I was a pastor back there it was a very successful man he ran his business out of the basement of his home he manipulated stocks and bonds and he was very good at it but this man was living in the bondage of death and I went to visit him one time and he showed me around and I noticed every room that I walked into there was an oxygen tank in every room there was an oxygen tank in the bathroom and then he took me to see his boat there were oxygen tanks all over his yacht he didn't have any place with it and he had one in his car one in the trunk of his car one in the back seat of his car and so I said what's that for he says well you know I just have this thing about death and I think maybe if if I have a heart attack or something and I have an oxygen tank I'll Escape it and I wanted to tell him how foolish that was but he's an illustration of a lot of folks now listen the Bible says there's something that Jesus did when he died on the cross that delivers you from that the Bible says that in his death and Resurrection the Son of God played the devil's own trump card just as David took the sword of Goliath and cut off his head with it Jesus Took the weapon of Satan and defeated him with that very weapon the cross must have seemed like the ultimate victory for Satan but it was precisely the opposite when Christ by his own death paid the penalty for our sin he took the sting out of the devil's condemnation and when Jesus stepped out from the open Tomb on Resurrection Sunday Satan's defeat was absolutely certain his weapon of death had been destroyed he is still alive and active but his failure is a foregone conclusion he has to settle for winning the little battles because the war he started has already been lost to him forever when Jesus came out of the Grave Victorious over death he took death out of Satan's weaponry and he can't hurt us with it anymore I remember a story about a couple named Steven Ann Campbell who live in Hampton Tennessee they were sitting at their breakfast room one morning and they had a little dog named Gigi I never heard of a dog like this it was a mouth to poo a Maltese and a poodle and this old dog was asleep on the bench in the bay window and suddenly a jolt rocked the room and toppled Gigi from the bench and nothing was hurt but the little dog's Pride and the couple wondered what had caused all the commotion they couldn't find any clue until they spotted a large Hawk outside lying beneath the bay window the bird had swooped down with its Talons out for Gigi with no regard for the protective pane of glass and a few minutes later the hawk shook off its stupor and vanished into the sky minus its canine lunch and that's exactly what happened at the cross the devil wants to get his Talons into us the power of the Resurrection provides a pain of protection that cannot be broken Satan may knock himself out trying but he can't hurt us because Christ died we have lives that are forgiven and because he came out of the Grave we have lives that are forever the prince of death has been defeated foreign number two the power of death has been destroyed First Corinthians 15 says it this way oh death where is your sting oh Hades where is your Victory The Sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation we are told that death has no part of any future that belongs to any believer in fact the Bible says when we get to heaven God will wipe away every tear from their eyes and there shall be no more death not even physical death the prince of death has been defeated the power of death has been destroyed here's the third one the process of death has been described everywhere you go today people want to know what's going to happen after a person dies and all these wonderful books have been written by people who've come back from the grave I don't know what to think about most of those I'm sure you don't either some of them I believe some of them I think have been for good book sales but I don't have to read some Modern book to know what happens when you die because the Bible tells me and I want to tell you a little story here that will help you understand what I mean Jesus told this story in the 16th chapter of the Book of Luke and it offers a penetrating view of what happens after death in fact it may tell us more about life after death than any passage in the scripture here's the story it's a parable Jesus told concerning two men one rich and one poor now the poor man's name we know it was Lazarus and we don't know the rich man's name but we do know something about his lifestyle because Jesus tells us that this rich man wears the Finest Clothing he eats the finest food he has had the best and he has let everyone know about it even the Beggars who lie at his Gates trying to get some of the crumbs that he might drop to them the poor man Lazarus who hopes to be thrown a few Crumbs from the Bountiful table is not only hungry but the scripture tells us and this is pretty gross that he's very ill covered with sores and the Town Dogs licked the sores on his body he is one miserable creature living a miserable existence now watch Lazarus does possess one thing that no one can take away from him and that is his love for God the rich man possesses one thing he can't keep his life now in the story Jesus tells both men die and on the other side of the gate that separates this life from eternity the beggar Lazarus is carried by Heavenly angels to the bosom of Abraham now he is kissed by the Angels instead of licked by the dogs the Bible just says that the rich man died did you know that when a Believer dies the Angels come and carry that believer to God when any of us who are believers pass from this life to the next almighty God dispatches angels to convey us into his presence we won't Simply Be beamed up to heaven we will be carried there by the angels and this passage provides one of the euphemisms we employ for death we say the Angels took him it may sound like a cliche from some Victorian greeting card but it's the biblical truth that's applied to Believers in Christ on the day when you wait for the curtains to be drawn on this life God's Messengers stand ready to Bear you away on life's ultimate Journey on that Journey Christians will experience none of the travel worries we face you won't get lost I'm very thankful for that one you won't miss the bus there's no waiting for the next plane God has a special Angel assigned to bring you home and in the face of such Assurance why should you be afraid the prince of death has been defeated the power of death has been destroyed the process of death has been described and finally the picture of death has been developed on December 7 1941 Peter Marshall who was the chaplain of the United States Senate was speaking to the cadets at Annapolis and if you remember the date it was the day of infamy because Pearl Harbor was happening and it now lay in the Flames of an enemy attack the room was filled with young men who would soon give their lives sacrificially and he told them the story of a Dying child a little boy with a disease who was afraid of dying and this little boy asked his mother what is it like to die does it hurt and the mother thought for a while and then she said honey do you remember when you were smaller and you played very hard and you fell asleep on your mommy's bed but the next morning you awoke to find yourself somehow in your own bed your daddy had come along and with his big strong arms had lifted you undressed you put you in your pajamas as you slept and then she said honey that's what death is like it's like waking up in your own room like this little boy most of us are curious about the process of death and there's no verse of scripture that gives us more comforting information about it than Psalm 23 4 and that's why we love this whole psalm the sheer beauty of this passage never fails to move us I am certain that this verse has been read at more funerals than any other verse in the Bible it's poetic phrases teach us several things here's what the verse teaches us three things number one that death is a journey not a destination the Bible says yea though I walk through the valley in the shepherd Psalm David sees death not as a destination but as a journey through a place with God's hand in ours we go through death to a place but death itself is not the destination death is just the process through which we go my friend Rob Morgan has written a wonderful book on Psalm 23 and in the fourth verse he describes this in this way he says death does not speak of a cave or a dead end Trail it's a valley which means it has an opening on both ends and the emphasis on through which indicates a temporary State a transition a brighter path ahead a hopeful future for Christians problems are always temporary and blessings are always Eternal as opposed to non-christians whose blessings are always temporal and whose problems are always eternal valleys don't go on forever and the road ahead is always bright for the child of God as bright as his promises death isn't a place that you go to it's a place you go through to the other side that's why Paul said absent from the body and present with the Lord indicating that the two conditions are one in the same one man has observed that death is an exit gate and Heaven is an entrance but the two are arranged so closely that one opens as the other shuts one person says that a dying man is lying at the gates of death and another says no he's lying at the Gate of Heaven and they're both right because death is simply A Passage through life forever with God most of the time if we were accurate we would say we're not afraid of death we're just afraid of dying because we're afraid of what it's like what the process is but dying for a Believer is not anything for us to fear first of all the Angels come and get us and it's only a temporary moment that we walk through to the other side number two here's my favorite thing in this whole message death is a shadow not a reality the Bible says it this way yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death when I was growing up my father was a pastor of a church in Toledo Ohio and the church was growing and they didn't have enough room and so they didn't have any place where they could go and get a bigger church and they didn't have enough money to start over and so they found an old mansion that was for sale out on the edge of town it was in pretty good shape and they went and they bought this Mansion which included a number of buildings but a rather large building and then the church built sort of an auditorium on the end of it and it became the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Toledo Ohio I was a young boy then maybe about six or seven or eight and the Mance or the parsonage as they used to call it was on the second floor of a 10-car garage behind the uh the big mansion itself we lived up on the second floor underneath was this garage this humongous 10-car garage and my job as a young boy my one of my chores was I had to take out the garbage every night well there was only one little light in that garage a little light bulb hanging from the ceiling and it was dark as it could be and it was one scary spooky place I had to go down the stairs carrying the garbage and get from the front of the garage all the way to the back and put the garbage out and I believe to this day that I set some world records of speed going through the garage from one end to the other because it was really frightening to me the light cast the shadows in spooky ways and it kind of would move and I still remember it you can tell this made quite an impression on me but you see the next day I would get up and I'd go down there and play sometimes and there was there was nothing to be afraid of there was nothing there it was just a shadow listen to this darnold gray barnhouse one of the great teachers of another generation was driving home from the funeral of his first wife and he had his children with them and they were overwhelmed with grief as he sought some way to comfort his children as they were standing at the corner a huge moving van passed them and its shadow swept over where they were standing Dr barnhouse said children would you rather be run over by a truck or by its shadow and of course they said the shadow it's harmless he said let me tell you something kids two thousand years ago the truck ran over Jesus Christ in order that only the shadow would have to run over us isn't that a great thought the truck ran over Jesus Christ he suffered the death so that only the shadow has to run over us the Bible says death is a shadow not a reality no longer is it true that we have to be afraid for Jesus said and I quoted again I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me though he may die he shall live and whoever lives and Believes In Me shall never die third from Psalm 23 4 death is a journey not a destination it's a shadow not a reality death is lonely but you are never never alone and let me tell you something that's real can I say this is really cool in this in this psalm this is a little grammatical thing I want to share with you listen to me this is how this Psalm is laid out in the first part of the psalm the shepherd psalmist is talking about the shepherd he's describing him here's how he talks he says he leads me he restores me he makes me to lie down in Green Pastures and then all of a sudden you get to the fourth verse and very abruptly the third person becomes the second person and David says you are with me he moves from he to you he quits talking about the shepherd and begins talking to him you are with me it's as if he's been talking about God and then in the midst of the Shadows he realizes that God is right there and he begins to talk directly to him an essay becomes an intimate conversation it all makes beautiful sense if you've ever walked through the valley with anyone you think about God and suddenly you find yourself caught up in a conversation with him his presence suddenly changes your whole line of thought over the years I've spoken to many many people who were traveling their darkest Road and they've often told me that they were never more aware of the presence of God than when walking through that shadow we don't have to be afraid because we might feel lonely but we are not alone I've counseled with many people as they have sat in death's waiting room and experience has proven to me that God makes his presence known as they walk through the valley he reaches for their hand he whispers words of comfort into their ears and it's not limited to just the dying but it's also for those who are grieving over the dying they too walk through this Valley and God reaches out to them as well and the Bible is so filled with comfort for those who might be experiencing grief Psalm 46 1-2 says God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear Hebrews 13 5 says he himself has said I will never leave you nor forsake you we must realize that when we experience death either ourselves or with others that we love we never walk that road alone there's a wonderful story that I want to share with you as we close today that puts everything that I've said kind of in the context where I want it to be when we're finished the story took place back in 1800 a man by the name of John Todd saw the significance and hope of death God was a Vermont boy who lost both his parents at the age of six he lost his brothers and sisters too because they were divided among relatives and John was taken in by a kindly ant and there he lived for 15 years until he left to study for the ministry the years passed and he ended up becoming a very effective pastor one day he received a letter from the aunt who had raised him and she was dying knowing that he was a pastor she had the questions that all of us ask she said what is awaiting me in death is this the end John could feel her anxiety in every line that she wrote and he loved her and sat down to answer her letter and he began the letter with the story of a little boy of six who had waited for the arrival of the woman who was going to become mother to him and here's what he wrote I can still recall my disappointment when instead of coming for me yourself you sent your servant Caesar to fetch me I remember my tears and my anxiety as perched high on your horse clinging tight to Caesar I rode off to my new home night fell before we finished the journey and I became lonely and Afraid do you think she'll go to bed before I get there I ask Caesar anxiously oh no he said she'll surely stay up for you when we get out of these here Woods you'll see her candle shining in the window and then Todd said presently we did ride out into the clearing and there sure enough was your candle I remember you were waiting at the door that you put your arms close about me a tired and bewildered little boy and you had a big fire burning in the Hearth and a hot supper waiting on the stove and after supper you took me to my new room and you heard my prayers and then sat beside me until I fell asleep and then he made the transition someday soon Auntie God will sin for you to take you to a New Home Don't Fear The summons the strange Journey or the dark messenger of death God can be trusted to do as much for you as you were kind enough to do for me so many years ago at the end of the road you will find love and a welcome awaiting and you will be safe in God's care John Todd painted for his aunt a picture of new life that was as beautiful as any person could hope for but I can assure you it's not even close to the way it really is when we finally close this gate and open the new one into God's presence we will be wondering for eternity why we ever let death even cause us one moment of concern for God loves us and it is not yet dawned on us all of the good that he has in store for each of us now having said all of this let me tell you something that's very important for you to hear a provision that God has made for death these wonderful promises and stories that I have told you is only applicable to those who put their trust in Christ if you want to go to heaven when you die you have to do something about it in the here and now you don't get to heaven and make a choice your choice has to be made here and now the Bible says that you must place your trust in Jesus Christ if you will believe in him he will give you eternal life as your gift the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord I want to urge you today don't play chicken with death don't sit back there and say well I don't need to do this now there's some other time I can do it listen you not you're not going to ever hear another sermon like this the rest of your life because the next time a sermon like this is going to be preached you won't hear it so will you take the opportunity of this moment to really ask yourself the question am I ready to die I don't mean physically I mean spiritually are you ready to meet God because you can get ready and you can do it today and it's simply a matter of putting your trust in him it's a matter of saying I am going to decide to believe in Jesus Christ and his word and what he has done for me on the cross will you do that today will you say look I'm not going to play any more games with death I am going to get ready today so that no matter how long I live or how short my life may be I'm ready to meet God because what God has in store for those who put their trust in him is far beyond anything I have said to you today but it's only for those who trust him you say well that's pretty narrow it's just as narrow as the word of God makes it I didn't make up the script God did he's offering us today this wonderful opportunity to put our trust in him will you do it [Music] thus at the end of our Earthly lives gives us incredible peace and comfort not only at the time of death but for our lifetime you've heard the expression of Fate worse than death that's not just a figure of speech there really is a fate worse than death and that's dying without knowing the Savior Jesus Christ that relationship makes all the difference in this life and in the next and it's my deepest hope that you've entered into that relationship I want you to have two powerful resources that have enabled people all around the world to grow in their relationship with Christ one is a booklet called your greatest turning point and the other is our monthly devotional magazine turning points they're yours at no charge when you contact us here at turning point I'm turning point it's a great day coming and it won't be long and there's a bright light on the horizon and we have plenty of evidence for it and we have biblical evidence and boy does it lift our Spirits Jesus Christ is coming back and he's coming back soon thank you for being with us today join Dr Jeremiah next time for his message a great day here on turning point [Music]

Channel: David Jeremiah

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Id: c7MdTp6w9AQ

Length: 42min 22sec (2542 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2023