if_i_shold_die_before_i_wake.pptx | |
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“IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE…”
TEXT: James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
THESIS: To reveal the teaching of God’s Word regarding the death of the believer.
INTRO.:
A. When I was a child and into my teen years I would always kneel down beside my bed at night and repeat the prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I was unsaved and didn’t know what those words really meant, and then when I got saved at age 22, I thought about their meaning. Of course I no longer prayed that simple prayer, but began to go to church and study the Bible and found out what death and eternity was really all about.
B. The question I want to address tonight is what would happen to you and me if we really did die before morning in our sleep (or simply drop dead at any time).? Are we really ready? Perhaps we should examine what death really is about…from God’s infallible Word and words…
I. THE METAPHORS OF DEATH IN THE BIBLE:
A. The Bible Reveals the Brevity of Life: (It puts death into proper perspective)
1. It refers to death as a vapor in James 4:14 (as steam from a teapot)
a. You say I am young, and don’t need to think about dying just yet.
b. According to God’s Word, you had better think about it.
2. It refers to death as grass or a flower in 1 Peter:
1 Peter 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
ILLUS.: We place beautiful flowers in a vase and admire them and in a couple of days at best they wither and we throw them away! That is how brief our journey on earth is in light of eternity.
3. God says our earthly life is like the wind in Job:
Job 7:7-8 O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.
a. Job says that his friends and loved ones will never see him again.
b. However if you are saved and they are saved you will meet again.
ILLUS.: One of the great longings in my life is that I will soon see my wife of nearly 60 years again and she will be in perfect health! And so will I.
4. God says our earth life is like smoke in Psalm 102:
Ps. 102:3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
a. Job also refers to death as the “king of terrors” to the lost. (Job 18:14)
ILLUS.: Unsaved people are even terrified to speak about the subject of death. It unnerves them.💥That is why they don’t want you to witness to them. They can talk freely about sports, vacations, news events, etc., but avoid the subject of death because of their uncertainty of what comes next!
b. The Lord Jesus never uses the word death for the believer and the Bible calls it ”sleep”.
c. When the believer prays: “Now I lay me down to sleep…” that includes his or her death.
1 Thess. 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
d. Other metaphors for death in the Bible are a tent, cloud, water spilled out, dream, shadow, departing ship, etc.
II. THE BIBLE REFERS TO THE DEATH OF THE BELIEVER AS OUR “LAST ENEMY”:
1Cor. 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
A. Because Christ is Risen We Too Shall Rise Again:
1. If you have trusted our resurrected Savior, you too shall rise again with a new life.
1 Cor. 15:21-23 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (We have never really lived before!) . But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
2. Death may be prolonged, but Heaven is instant: “absent…present”
ILLUS.: When a person dies the medical profession says it is simply that he or she has:
1. No response to the environment…
2. no reflexes re: muscle tone…
3. no spontaneous breathing,
4. no BP, and
5. a flat EEG. For the believer it is simply “absent from the body and present with the Lord.”
a. The believer should never fear death since it is simply the doorway to Heaven.
b. Think of seeing your saved loved ones again, but in a body that cannot die.
ILLUS.: When you as a believer die, (or rather when your temporary body dies) you will instantly receive an intermediate body waiting for your glorified body at the Rapture, when you will be like Christ, your Savior.
2 Cor. 5:1,2 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
B. Spiritual Circumcision: (How this is possible)
Col. 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
1. Circumcision is a “cutting away”
2. Flesh is cut away in physical circumcision.
3. The spirit is cut away in spiritual circumcision from the flesh.
a. This cutting away is what frees the spirit from the body at death.
b. This operation sets us free so that sin can no longer affect our eternal security since our flesh can no longer “defile” our soul.
QUOTE: Dr. Lance Waldie “So the proper view of circumcision is that it is only an outward proof that man is born sinful and in need of cleansing. The cutting away of the male foreskin was a vivid exhibition of this truth. Since it sends out the seed of life, the male sex organ, like no other part of the body, represents the depths of human sin since it perpetuates fallen humanity.” So that in spiritual circumcision that sinful part of us is cut away from the spiritual “new man.”
Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
CONCL.: So the question is: “Are you ready to die tonight?!” Or if you should die when you go to sleep tonight, would you wake up in Heaven? Are you really looking forward to Heaven? Do you really believe in eternal life in Glory?
💥Believers can only be found in one of two places.
1. Living on earth or
2. Living in Heaven. “Absent…present” 2 Cor. 5:6-8 Presently you are living on earth.
💥The question is where will you live forever? Paul longed to go to Heaven. Do YOU?
THESIS: To reveal the teaching of God’s Word regarding the death of the believer.
INTRO.:
A. When I was a child and into my teen years I would always kneel down beside my bed at night and repeat the prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” I was unsaved and didn’t know what those words really meant, and then when I got saved at age 22, I thought about their meaning. Of course I no longer prayed that simple prayer, but began to go to church and study the Bible and found out what death and eternity was really all about.
B. The question I want to address tonight is what would happen to you and me if we really did die before morning in our sleep (or simply drop dead at any time).? Are we really ready? Perhaps we should examine what death really is about…from God’s infallible Word and words…
I. THE METAPHORS OF DEATH IN THE BIBLE:
A. The Bible Reveals the Brevity of Life: (It puts death into proper perspective)
1. It refers to death as a vapor in James 4:14 (as steam from a teapot)
a. You say I am young, and don’t need to think about dying just yet.
b. According to God’s Word, you had better think about it.
2. It refers to death as grass or a flower in 1 Peter:
1 Peter 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
ILLUS.: We place beautiful flowers in a vase and admire them and in a couple of days at best they wither and we throw them away! That is how brief our journey on earth is in light of eternity.
3. God says our earthly life is like the wind in Job:
Job 7:7-8 O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.
a. Job says that his friends and loved ones will never see him again.
b. However if you are saved and they are saved you will meet again.
ILLUS.: One of the great longings in my life is that I will soon see my wife of nearly 60 years again and she will be in perfect health! And so will I.
4. God says our earth life is like smoke in Psalm 102:
Ps. 102:3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
a. Job also refers to death as the “king of terrors” to the lost. (Job 18:14)
ILLUS.: Unsaved people are even terrified to speak about the subject of death. It unnerves them.💥That is why they don’t want you to witness to them. They can talk freely about sports, vacations, news events, etc., but avoid the subject of death because of their uncertainty of what comes next!
b. The Lord Jesus never uses the word death for the believer and the Bible calls it ”sleep”.
c. When the believer prays: “Now I lay me down to sleep…” that includes his or her death.
1 Thess. 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
d. Other metaphors for death in the Bible are a tent, cloud, water spilled out, dream, shadow, departing ship, etc.
II. THE BIBLE REFERS TO THE DEATH OF THE BELIEVER AS OUR “LAST ENEMY”:
1Cor. 15:26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
A. Because Christ is Risen We Too Shall Rise Again:
1. If you have trusted our resurrected Savior, you too shall rise again with a new life.
1 Cor. 15:21-23 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (We have never really lived before!) . But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
2. Death may be prolonged, but Heaven is instant: “absent…present”
ILLUS.: When a person dies the medical profession says it is simply that he or she has:
1. No response to the environment…
2. no reflexes re: muscle tone…
3. no spontaneous breathing,
4. no BP, and
5. a flat EEG. For the believer it is simply “absent from the body and present with the Lord.”
a. The believer should never fear death since it is simply the doorway to Heaven.
b. Think of seeing your saved loved ones again, but in a body that cannot die.
ILLUS.: When you as a believer die, (or rather when your temporary body dies) you will instantly receive an intermediate body waiting for your glorified body at the Rapture, when you will be like Christ, your Savior.
2 Cor. 5:1,2 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
B. Spiritual Circumcision: (How this is possible)
Col. 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
1. Circumcision is a “cutting away”
2. Flesh is cut away in physical circumcision.
3. The spirit is cut away in spiritual circumcision from the flesh.
a. This cutting away is what frees the spirit from the body at death.
b. This operation sets us free so that sin can no longer affect our eternal security since our flesh can no longer “defile” our soul.
QUOTE: Dr. Lance Waldie “So the proper view of circumcision is that it is only an outward proof that man is born sinful and in need of cleansing. The cutting away of the male foreskin was a vivid exhibition of this truth. Since it sends out the seed of life, the male sex organ, like no other part of the body, represents the depths of human sin since it perpetuates fallen humanity.” So that in spiritual circumcision that sinful part of us is cut away from the spiritual “new man.”
Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
CONCL.: So the question is: “Are you ready to die tonight?!” Or if you should die when you go to sleep tonight, would you wake up in Heaven? Are you really looking forward to Heaven? Do you really believe in eternal life in Glory?
💥Believers can only be found in one of two places.
1. Living on earth or
2. Living in Heaven. “Absent…present” 2 Cor. 5:6-8 Presently you are living on earth.
💥The question is where will you live forever? Paul longed to go to Heaven. Do YOU?