Three Faces Of Death

Three Faces of Death

Romans 5:12

Introduction

I heard a saying one time as a young boy. Now the source of the individual that I heard this from escapes me. But it was Benjamin Franklin who we get this quote from. I heard it as “The only thing certain in life are death and taxes.” When Benjamin Franklin said it, it was like this, “In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

How many have heard that? There is a truth to it. I am not going to talk about taxes this morning. But I am going to talk about death. There is not one person here this morning that has not been touched by death in one way or another. Whether by a family member or friend, we have been affected by this phenomenon called death. It has touched the lives of all who have lived. And as we continue in this world the way it is, it will continue to do so.

No doubt about it, death is a sad topic. Nobody really likes to talk about death. We try to avoid it, explain it away but when it all boils down to it, Mr. Franklin was right. We will face death.

May I say this morning that death is not a respecter of persons? It is not. You go to a grave sight and you see different sizes of graves. There are long ones, and there are short ones. Many of you know that I have a triplet brother that died three days after he was born. The church that Connie and I attended in Virginia Beach many years ago was pastured by a man who lost his little boy. He drowned in a pool.

Human beings try to avoid it. Try as they might, as hard as they can, we try not to think of this topic. Death is a morbid subject to many. We don’t gather around the water cooler and start talking about dying. Death brings sadness, emptiness and loneliness. Death leaves many grieving over the loss of a loved one and friend that has departed this life. But we have to understand that it is a part of life.

One thing that death does, it leaves us with questions. Why did God take them? Is he/she going to a better place? Too sadly, many don’t think about death until it is too late. We have to understand that we all will die. Hebrews 9:27 As it is appointed unto man once to die… I think the hardest part about death is losing that person that passed away down here on earth. We may think about all they are going to miss out on, about how much we will miss them (and we will) and so on and so on. Yes death is a sad and often times tragic event. People die lots of ways. From sickness to accidents. They range in age from infants to well over 100 years. It happens to the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant, black and the white. We cannot escape it no matter how we try.

This morning I would like to take a look at death. There are many passages of scripture that I could go to, like Luke 16 where we have the story of the rich man and Lazarus. I could go all the way back to the first death (physically speaking of course) in Genesis where Cain slew Able his brother. But I want to use our text verse found in Romans. I believe that answers a lot of questions about death. I.E. where did death come from, who does it affect?

This morning I want to look at the three faces of death. You have heard me many times talking about two deaths: Physical death and spiritual death. But there is a third. Lets look at these three faces.

I. Physical Death

This is the death that brings sorrow to our hearts.

This death refers only to the physical body and it means a separation of the spirit from the body. It is also the kind of death mentioned in Hebrews 9:27. We all have an appointment with this death.

This is the kind of death that sin brought about way back in the Garden of Eden. It’s that which came about thanks to Adam. We have him to thank for that. Lets look at Genesis 2:15-17. It says in James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Now we need to understand from our text verse that the sin we’re talking about is the sin of Adam. Not his second sin or his third or his fourth. It was his first sin of disobedience which brought death upon all mankind. Romans 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,…