**This is a sermon-not a bible study. If you would like more in-depth information on this subject or would prefer an on-line bible study, please feel free to contact me through Sermon Central.
Dwight Davis
“The Shadow of Death”
I remember when I was about nine or ten years old......after what seemed like years of pleading, I had just been given my very first bb gun. This is a very memorable occasion in any young boy’s life, and it certainly was in mine. The first day I had it, I was walking along a ditch not too far from my house. This ditch had a narrow strip of woods along each side and as I was walking, I shot at cans, dirt clods, bottles and any thing else that I could find. Well needless to say, near the end of the day, I became a fairly good shot, but I also grew extremely bored with shooting at these “easy targets.”
So as I was walking and wondering what to shoot next, I was literally stopped in my tracks by the distinctive song of a mocking bird. I looked way up at the top of a tall poplar tree and there sat the source of this music. I gazed at this beautiful bird swaying on the very tip top of that tree, then my focus was shifted to the gun in my hand. It would indeed be a challenge to hit this bird ---I mean after all, I wasn’t going to shoot at dirt clods and cans forever--this was to be the true test of my marksmanship! So, I cocked the gun, took careful aim, allowing for the drop of the bb and the wind as best I could, and I slowly squeezed the trigger.
The joyful sound of that bird’s music stopped abruptly as I saw him falling from the top of this tree, flapping aimlessly and hitting branch after branch as he fell. I got him! I said to myself in amazement. I hurried into the underbrush where he had fallen and began to look for my quarry. It didn’t take very long before I found him because he was still flapping and struggling. I picked him up and held him in my hands and I noticed a lot of blood coming from his chest. His mouth was open and he was trying desperately to breathe, but he couldn’t. My excitement soon turned to sadness as I watched helplessly as this bird that was only seconds ago singing a joyous song was now fighting for his life in the hands of the one who shot him. I lightly stroked his head and apologized to this innocent creature wishing that I had never seen him. Finally, he could take no more, he gave up his fight to live and laid limp and still in my hand.
There, in a thicket of briars, with tears in my eyes and a dead bird in my hand, I for the first time, really stopped and considered the wondrous beauty of life and the cold hard reality of death.
Today, you and I are going stop and consider the very same thing. We are going to open the scriptures together and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into the truth about life and death;and,if we allow Him, He will give us comfort, peace, hope and even joy in the face of the most feared foe that this world has ever known: death.
The first place in the bible that mentions death is in the book of Genesis 2:15-17:
“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
Now we all are familiar with what happened next; Adam and Eve did in fact eat of the tree thus disobeying God and committing the first sin of the human race. Some people are kind of confused about what happened, or didn’t happen next. Remember, God told them that in the day that thou eatest of it, Thou shalt surely DIE.”
It’s a fact that neither Adam nor Eve died that day.....or did they? You see, before sin entered their lives, their days were not “numbered”. They were like the angels in the sense that they weren’t subject to death because they were made perfectly and in the image of God. But the very second they sinned.......their countdown to death began. Essentially, they BEGAN TO DIE. Now, I don’t want to spoil your next birthday but, the moment we were conceived in the womb, death began it’s advance towards us. The passing of every year, every month, day, and even second brings us closer and closer to death. It’s an unavoidable and relentless cycle, everyone that lives is in the very process of dying.
Ever since the fall of man, death has been an unyielding and seemingly insensitive part of life. In this world, death is no respecter of persons. It is a disease that we all have, it just takes longer to run it’s course in some people than it does with others. In Ezekiel 18 God says, and I believe, that; “the soul that sins shall die.” You see, we have been born into a sinful world with a sinful nature and so everyone is a sinner destined to die. But the majority of the world is still buying Satan’s lie to Eve; “you shall not surely die...”
Many believe that the soul is immortal, that at the point of death it either rises to heaven or descends to the depths of hell. But with that mentality, I would have to respectfully disagree because this is not what the bible teaches.
In Romans 6:23 Paul reiterates what we know from Ezekiel 18; and that is that “the wages of sin is death....” He didn’t say that; “the wages of sin is eternal life in torment and suffering.”
I had a co-worker once who was in fact a Christian, and one day the subject of salvation came up. He was saying how bad it would be for all those who rejected the grace of God and were doomed to hell for eternity. I obviously agreed that it would in fact be terrible for those who reject the Lord but I was quick to tell my friend that “my” God would never torture anyone in hell for eternity. I said; how could a loving and just God like ours take someone who has lived on the average of 50 to seventy years and condemn them to suffering and torture for millions and millions of years??......and all because they didn’t know Him or return His love for them!
The look on my friend’s face was one of shock and confusion. But when I suggested that we study this together, he indignantly refused- almost as if he preferred the thought of billions of people suffering in eternal torment even now.
You see, the world is content with it’s own version of what death holds for us. Many people take a couple of “less than vivid” verses of scripture out of context and build an entire doctrine on them even though the bible is very clear that there is no consciousness whatsoever in death. Ecclesiastes 9:5 says; “The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing.” Solomon goes on to say in verse 10; “....in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working or planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.”
Psalm 146 tells us that at the day of death; “our thoughts perish.”
This is the same teaching that runs throughout the bible. Death is likened to a deep sleep. Remember what Jesus said about His friend Lazarous who had just died? “He is asleep.” How happy do you suppose Lazarous would have been to be snatched from heaven and brought back to this imperfect world? Besides, if Lazarous would have went to heaven, I would think that he would have been telling everyone about his amazing experience! Jesus also said the same thing about the little boy who had died and was being carried in a funeral procession; before He resurrected him, He said; “he is asleep..”
In the secular world, Billions of dollars are spent each year promoting Satan’s lie that “we shall not surely die.” That whether you are wicked or righteous, your “soul” will live forever. Television shows like Touched by an Angel, Highway to Heaven and many others are spreading this lie to the world. Not to mention that it’s being preached from nearly every pulpit and at almost every funeral. Why is it so important to Satan that the world accept this false doctrine as truth?? How many of us here today know someone who claims to have seen and or talked to a dearly departed loved one? Are we to believe that these people are lying? Though chances are good that many are, I believe that some are very sincere. It is very possible that they did see or hear "something." But it wasn’t there dearly departed loved ones..
To illustrate my point, suppose a person died who had not truly accepted the Lord as their Savior and lived in a way contrary to the will of God. Suppose this person never opened his or her bible and gave no thought to any of the Lord’s commandments and lived a life with little or no real relationship with Jesus Christ... Well if Satan produces an illusion of this dead person (as he caused King Saul’s witch to see an illusion of Samuel..(1Samuel 28) to a friend or family member and tells them that “everything will be alright because they are in a ‘better place’ now..” then the person who supposedly saw their dearly beloved will automatically assume that they can live the same way and would still enter the kingdom of God upon their own death. Thus Satan succeeds in giving them a false sense of security without the relationship with Jesus that they need.
In Ephesians 6:12 Paul tells us that; “..our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Brothers and sisters, these “spiritualists” and mediums who try to consult the dead are, for the most part, outright frauds and con artists. But there are some who are truly genuine and do in fact communicate with spirits. But as we just read in Ephesians, they are talking to spiritual forces of evil masquerading as our dead loved ones....... and God has made it very clear that this practice is contemptible in His sight. (Is 8:18-20; 1Chron 10:13; 2Chron 33:6 ect..)
Friends, as much as the rest of the world wants to believe this lie, the bible is again very clear on what death is. Let’s go back to when God created man.... Genesis 2:7 says; “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Notice that before God breathed the breath of life into Adam, he was merely sculpted clay--‘dust of the ground.’ It was not until God breathed into this body His life force that the creation was complete and the man became “living soul.”
Take a computer for instance; you may have the fastest proccesser, most memory and best quality screen available.... but that computer is nothing if another vital element is not added, electricity. Electricity is the life force of a computer and without electricity the computer is nothing but a hunk of plastic, microchips and wire. It’s the same with a human soul; when we die, God’s breath of life goes back to Him and our bodies remain. Our ‘souls’ do not go to heaven because, at death, our souls cease to exist.
When Jesus prayed on the cross; “Father receive my spirit...” and then died, Jesus’ “soul” did NOT go to heaven. How do I know this? Well, three days later--after He was physically resurrected, He plainly told Mary that He had not yet ascended to the Father. You see, the same thing that happened to Him happens to us; His breath of life (life force) went back to God and He was dead. And when He finally did ascend into heaven, He took His body (though now glorified) with Him.
In the beginning of this message, I said that death is the most feared foe that this world has ever known.....and that’s true. The threat of death can persuade even the most stubborn of people to do nearly anything. It is the death penalty of our criminal justice system that helps “keep the peace” so to speak. It’s pretty much a “given” that no one wants to die.... And when people do die, prematurely or not, those of us left behind will no doubt be sad and mourn the loss of our loved one because we will indeed miss them. And for me personally, one of the main reasons that I don’t particularly want to die right now is because I don’t want to leave my family alone.
But there are many people that are “scared to death” to die. For the Christian, however, is death really such a terrible thing? Well, the bible doesn’t indicate that it is, and God doesn’t want us to fear death or be preoccupied with it. In the Old Testament, when people died, it was often stated that they “rested with their fathers.” And in the New Testament they are said to have “fallen asleep.” Like Steven for instance in Acts 7:59;60.
Let’s turn to what is perhaps the most read passage of scripture at funerals today...John 14:1-4
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Now, if when we die, we go straight to heaven, what would be the need of our Lord coming back to take us there? Jesus said that He was coming again....let’s turn to one of the scriptures that describes what will happen when He comes, 1Thes. 4:13-18
“13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
This passage is very clear that Jesus will return to this earth, bringing back that “life force” that had returned to God upon the demise of those who had “fallen asleep in Him.” I praise the Lord that we don’t slowly “trickle” into heaven or into some burning torture chamber, but those of us who accept Jesus as our Savior and have our lives hidden in His, will see His glorious face together and together we will ascend into that heavenly city that He has prepared for us!
Please consider carefully what I’m about to say; if you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life, as Lord and Master, if you have not been born again of the Spirit, then you have every right--in fact, I encourage you, to fear death with every fiber of your being, because if you should die in the state that you are presently in, you will be forever and totally destroyed. No, you won’t burn in hell forever and ever, but you will be eternally separated by the “second death” from Him who created and loves you more than you can ever imagine.
Personally, I would rather claim the promise of
1Corrinthians 15:51-55;
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
My brothers and sisters, death can only be defeated by the blood of the Lamb. If you will accept His sacrifice on your behalf and if you will allow Him to dwell inside of you, covering you unrighteousness with His righteousness, then you too can claim victory in Jesus!
The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
