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FIVE THINGS THAT HAPPEN ON THE DAY WE DIE

Introduction

There was a news report on Tuesday of this week telling of a 115 year old Dutch woman who passed away. She was the oldest known person living at the time of her death.

Methuselah was the oldest person to ever live on the face of this earth at 969 years.

And yet even 115 years and even 969 years is a short time, when seen against the backdrop of eternity. They are only a "few days" in comparison to all of time. That amount of time is not even a blip on the radar screen of eternity.

Job says in Job 14:1–"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble"

Job is not speaking of man's soul in that verse. The soul, once created, lives on forever, either in Hell or in Heaven. Job is not speaking of the soul of man. He is speaking of man's flesh. He is reminding us of the shortness of time we have in the flesh on this earth.

I know that 115 years seems like a long time to you when you are young. But I am now forty-nine, and it doesn't seem very long to me any more. It seems to me, now that I am getting old, that even if a person is able to reach 115, yet it is still just a few days.

Very few have ever or will ever reach 115 years of age. For every person who lives to be 100 or more, there are thousands who die much younger than that.

There have been over forty-seven million American children since 1973 who were killed in the womb of their mothers, by an abortionist, without ever seeing the light of day or taking in a breath of air.

Millions of others die in childhood, or as young people.

            Thousands of teenagers die in automobile wrecks.

            Thousands more die from drug abuse.

Thousands more die from suicide, or other accidents or diseases. Death comes at every age, and so it is true, "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble"

How long will you and I live? There is only one person who knows - and that is God. Job knew that. Look at what he said in verse five,

"Seeing his [that is, man's] days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds [his limits] that he cannot pass" (Job 14:5).

"The number of his months are with thee." God knows exactly how many months we will live.

Dr. John Gill in his book entitled “An Exposition Of The Old Testament” says, “The term of man's life is so...fixed by God, that he cannot die sooner, nor live longer, than he [God] has determined he should...and when God requires of man his soul, no one has power over his spirit to retain it one moment...[the poet] Seneca says the same thing; ‘There is a boundary fixed for every man, which always remains where it is set, nor can any move it forward by any means whatsoever’” (John Gill, D.D., An Exposition of the Old Testament, The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989 reprint of the 1810 edition, volume III, p. 307).

How many more months will we live? God knows exactly. God already knows the date and time of each of our deaths. The date is set. The time is fixed. The day of our death may or may not be today. But we can be sure of this - it is not far off!

Moses said in Deuteronomy 32:29–, "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!"

Some of us have lost loved ones to death. But it would be wise for us to consider that we will soon follow our loved ones. Death is coming much sooner that we can imagine and maybe even much sooner than we would like for it to be.

Since that is the case, then it is wise for us to consider, to think about, our latter end, and to

think of the day of our death. I want share with you some things that happen on the day we die.

I.        ON THE DAY WE DIE, OUR BODY WILL BE SEPARATED FROM OUR SOUL AND SPIRIT.

The Bible makes that very clear. It says that when we die our body will return to dust and our spirit will go to God:

            Ecclesiastes 12:7–"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

Our body will either be buried beneath the ground or a in a mausoleum or it may be burned by cremation. However, our soul and our spirit, will return to God.

For those of us who have been born again by the Spirit of God, that means that we enter the joyful presence of God in Heaven.

But for those who have never personally received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, it will mean that their soul will return to God for judgment, and that He will consign them to a place of great horror in Hell.

We have absolutely no power or ability to decide when our body and soul will be separated. The Bible says,

            Ecclesiastes 8:8–“There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death.”

            Two years ago, back in 2003, Bob Hope died at the ripe old age of 100.

                        Bob Hope had the highest honors the world can offer.

                        Queen Elizabeth made him a knight of the British Commonwealth.

                        John F. Kennedy gave him the great honor of a Presidential Medal.

Five U.S. Presidents attended his ninety-fifth birthday party five years earlier. Bob Hope was a multi-millionaire.

He owned thousands of acres in Malibu, Palm Springs, and the San Fernando Valley.

                        He owned two major television stations, and much more.

                        He could afford the best medical treatment in the world.

                        He had the finest doctors available anywhere.

And yet, when his appointed day of death came - none of this could keep his soul and body from separating in death.

Ecclesiastes 8:8–“There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death.”

And it will be the same for each of us. When the day and hour of our death arrives - whether it be in a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, a few months, or in a few years– we will have no power at all to stop our soul from being wrenched from our body.

            Look at Luke 16:22-23

ON THE DAY THAT WE DIE, OUR BODY WILL BE SEPARATED FROM OUR SOUL AND SPIRIT.

II.      ON THE DAY THAT WE DIE, ALL EARTHLY RELATIONS WILL END.

This is made clear in Luke 16:27-28.

            But Abraham told him that this was impossible, that the dead could not go back to the living - even to warn them.

            You see, this rich man was cut off forever from his friends and relatives by death.

Sometimes after loved ones have died, some of those left behind give witness to feeling the presence or sometimes even seeing their loved ones. But we know from the Bible that this is not true. Those things are only hallucinations, perhaps even demonic tricks, for once our loved ones die, they are no longer with us.

            Death dissolves and separates us from every human relative and friend on this earth.

If you are not a Christian, I want you to realize that you have no Scriptural hope of ever seeing your loved ones again in Hell. Because in Hell all comforts are gone, and there can be no joyful reunions there.

            That is why the rich man in Luke 16 was so desperately alone in his suffering.

Death will separate you forever from all of your closest friends, and all of your most loved relatives if you are unsaved when death comes.

Friends and Family may stand around your coffin and weep. Part of their sorrow may lie in that if they know your spiritual condition, then they will know that they will never, ever, see you again.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–“. . .sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”

ON THE DAY THAT WE DIE, OUR BODY WILL BE SEPARATED FROM OUR SOUL AND SPIRIT. . .ALL EARTHLY RELATIONS WILL END. . .

III.     ON THE DAY THAT WE DIE, ALL OF OUR WORLDLY POSSESSIONS WILL BE LEFT BEHIND. (1 Timothy 6:6-7)

Job said in Job 1:21–“. . .Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Do you remember that awful scene in Dickens' A Christmas Carol, when rich old Scrooge was given a glimpse in a vision of what they would do after his death? The maids tore down the expensive curtains around his Victorian bed - to be sold for a few farthings. Other maids, and even the undertakers, stole his clothing, his big gold watch and chair, and even the blankets on his bed - as they laughed and cackled about what a mean and miserly old fool he had been in life.

Now that scene may not occur exactly like that when we die, but there may be similarities.

All that we have will be split among our family and friends, or sold, or even given away.

Any money we may have had in life will be left behind to our heirs.

            Death strips us of all our earthly possessions.

I still have some of the possessions given to me after my Grandmother died and after my Dad died, but one day I will leave them behind too if I still have them in the day of my death.

And so it will be with all of us. On the day of our appointed death everything we own will be taken from us in a moment of time.

The rich man in Luke 16 took nothing with him to Hell - and if you are here lost neither will you, for the Bible says in Proverbs 11:4–“Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death.”

IV.     ON THE DAY THAT WE DIE, ALL OUR EARTHLY PLANS WILL END.

            (James 4:13-16)

            We all have made plans for the future. We may have hopes of doing many things in

            our life. But on the day of our death all of these hopes and plans will end abruptly.

            Jesus gave a parable to show this in Luke 12:16-20.

            This man had great plans, but they all ended suddenly that night, when he

            died. We have many plans and dreams of things we hope to do.

            The day that we die all our earthly plans and dreams and hopes will suddenly end -

and we will face eternity without the spiritual condition that we are in at that point in time.

Some will leave without hope of eternal life because they did not take time to seek the salvation of their eternal soul. How foolish is that!?

Some will leave saved, but then they’ll watch their works burn up at the Judgement seat of Christ because they focused on the temporal things of this world rather than the eternal things of God.

            Look at Matthew 6:19-21

V.       ON THE DAY THAT WE DIE, ALL HOPE OF SALVATION IS EITHER REALIZED OR ENDS.

            There is no hope whatsoever left for anyone who dies unsaved. The Bible says,

            Revelation 22:11–"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he

            which is filthy, let him be filthy still..."

If you die unjustified and filthy, uncleansed from your sin by the Blood of Christ, you will remain in that lost state, in Hell, for all eternity.

            There is no hope of getting to Heaven for anyone who dies without Christ.

In Heaven, Abraham spoke to the rich man in Hell. He said, in Luke 16:26–“Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence"

A great gulf is fixed between Heaven and Hell. A "gulf" is an abyss, a wide separation, like the Grand Canyon..

            On the day that you die, all hope of salvation in Christ will end for you.

Conclusion

Remember Job’s words, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble"

and "...his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass"

God alone knows how many days, how many months, you have left before you die.

This service will end in a few moments, that you know - but you do not know the day that you will die.

Amos 4:12–"Prepare to meet thy God". That can apply to both the saved and unsaved.

If aren’t saved, come to Christ and be cleansed from your sin by His Blood before it is too late.

If you are saved, are you living for Christ? If not, get right and get busy for God!

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NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD