Breaking news, you're gonna die. I hope we'll all soberly consider
that. Every one of us, if the Lord
doesn't return first, we are going to die. Benjamin Franklin
said, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Mr. Franklin was wrong. There's been
a lot of people evade taxes over the years. Get off the grid.
But no one evades death. This is an appointment we must
all keep. And a man or woman is a fool
that doesn't consider this. You and I are going to die. Is death the end? Do we die like animals? Is there life after death? Why is there death in the first
place? Why is there life in the first
place? You know, I preached a lot of
funerals over the years. And I'm still struck by the sight
of a dead body. Preached a funeral just a few
weeks ago. And here this man was that I knew, that I had fellowship
with in the gospel. And he had thoughts, he had aspirations,
he had a personality. And now there's a dead corpse
with no life. Like a piece of wood. No life
whatsoever. Once there was life and now there
is death. That will be me and you one day.
Now, in this passage of scripture that I just read, Paul said in
verse 26, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Life. Life's an amazing thing, isn't
it? A life lived. What is the origin of life? Some would have us believe that
the origin of life was a random chemical reaction in some primordial
stew, where a one-celled organism became alive. And all life comes
from that one-celled organism. It's never been replicated. And that is a guess with no scientific
backing at all, a blind leap of faith into utter darkness
that doesn't even come close to making sense. God is life. He is the self-existent one. He has life in himself. Unlike
us, he has no needs. He's given unto his son to have
life in himself, independent life. Christ is called the prince of
life and the author of life. God the Holy Spirit is the one
who begets life. Why is there life? God. He's the author of microscopic
life, a life we don't see. He's the author of plant life,
of animal life, of human life, of angelic life, of spiritual
life, of eternal life. God is the author of life. How beastly to deny that. God is life. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, the truth, the life. There's life, his life, that
eternal life, which was with the father and was manifested
unto us. Now there are lives that were
well-lived and there were lives that were not well-lived and
they both had the same end, death. Death does not discriminate. Everyone will reach this end. If the Lord doesn't come back
first, this body that you're living in one day will be a corpse,
lifeless, cold. No longer is there life. You know, you've heard of that
saying, YOLO, you only live once. That's a mistake. There's eternal existence either
in heaven or in hell after this life. John Lennon wrote that
song, Imagine There's No Heaven. You can if you try. No hell below
us, above us only skies. upon the instant of his death,
he found out he was sadly mistaken. But why is there death? I mean,
it's an awesome thing to think about why there's life. Life
is miraculous. It says God is. But why is there
death? Why is there a cold corpse laid
out without life that begins the process of decay? Why is
there death? Romans 4.23 says the wages of
sin is death. Every dead body testifies to
the fact that that person was a sinner. You know, when people
say they died of natural causes, yes, I suppose they did die of
natural causes, sin. Sin is the natural cause of death. Paul said in Romans chapter five,
verse 12, by one man, sin entered the world and death by sin. So that death passed upon all
men in that all have sinned. Now here's the reason me and
you are gonna die. It's a very simple answer. Sin. Sin against God. Let me quote this verse again. By one man, sin entered into
the world. And death by sin, so death passed
upon all men, in that all sinned. Do you know that when Adam sinned,
you sinned? When Adam disobeyed God, you
disobeyed God. Now somebody says, explain that
to me. Well, the Bible says it. In Adam all die. When he sinned,
we sinned. You say, well, how could that
be? Well, it is. I don't need to give an explanation
other than there's what the word of God teaches. It is. Now, somebody
says it doesn't seem fair. Well, forget that for just a
moment. How have you done on your own? Let's say you had no
connection with Adam. How have you done on your own?
It wouldn't help you any. You've sinned. I've sinned. All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So even if
you had no connection with Adam, it wouldn't do you any good.
But here's the blessed, glorious, good news in this. It's very true that if you're
in Christ, when he obeyed, you obeyed. When he worked out perfect
righteousness, you yourself worked out perfect righteousness. He
said to John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. So the only hope you and I have
is We're either in Adam, and there's no hope there, but my
hope is in Christ. I have perfect obedience. But the reason for death is sin. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
two. Verse 15. And the Lord God took the man,
Adam, who was created innocent. He wasn't created a sinner. The
wise man said, this I know, that God made man upright. Adam was
not a sinner in his original state before the fall. And the
Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it. You know, work was before the
fall. It was before the fall, a good
thing. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely eat. Now, can you imagine all those
trees, those beautiful trees with the beautiful fruit? He
said, it's all yours. You can freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, Thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day
that thou eatest thereof, he didn't say if you eat, he said
in the day you do. Could God have kept it from happening?
Yes, easily. Did God keep it from happening?
No. You see, this is part of God's
eternal purpose. God brings good out of evil. And through this, we have the
glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he said, in the day
you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And that very day that he
ate, he died. Remember, Satan said, you shall
not surely die. He lied to him. Eve ate of the
fruit, gave it to Adam, he ate, and they died. Now, they didn't
die physically. As a matter of fact, Adam didn't
die until he was 930 years old. Now, somebody's wondering, how
did they live so long back then? I don't know, but it's what the
Bible says. And him being 930 years old would,
look at it this way, what if somebody was born in the year
1095, and they're still alive and didn't die till today? That's
how old Adam was. That's how much he saw. But on
that very day, he did die spiritually. Now, what is spiritual death?
Well, what is physical death? You can't breathe. Your heart doesn't work. You
can't feel. You can't see. You can't hear. You can't touch. You're dead. Spiritually dead. I can't believe. I can't see the glory of Jesus
Christ. I can't hear the gospel. I can't
taste that he is gracious. My senses are gone. I'm dead. I'm unable to save myself. God's going to have to give me
life. God's going to have to put away my sin. God's going
to have to give me life. Ephesians 2 says, And you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now that's
the state of the natural man. That's the way you and I were
born. Spiritually dead. Our minds work. We have souls.
We have bodies. But we don't have spiritual life.
That's what died in the garden. Spiritual life. When God saves
somebody, He gives them spiritual life. Something they were not
born with. He gives a new heart to here
and to believe the gospel. Now the cause of physical death
is spiritual death and the end of spiritual death is eternal
death. You will remember the rich man
cried to Abraham in Abraham's bosom, Father Abraham send Lazarus
that he may dip just a drop of water on the cool of my tongue
for I am tormented in this flame. I don't know how to describe
that. And being scared to hell never
brought anybody to Christ. I can't stand hellfire and brimstone
preaching. We're trying to manipulate and
scare people. But I know this hell is very
real, and hell is the end of spiritual death, complete separation
from God, cut off. You'll have the same desires
with no way to satisfy those desires. You'll have the same
hatred for God that you had on earth and maybe didn't even know
you'll have it, but you'll see it then. Death is the enemy. Listen to this scripture from
1 Corinthians 15. The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. The law of God, as long as God's
law is over us, all it's going to do, not its fault, my fault,
it's going to stir up the wicked passions that are in me. That's
the strength of the law. Paul said in Romans 5, 20, sin
reigned unto death. Not many believe that, but it's
true nonetheless. As long as God's law is, there
is an almighty case against us. and it will end in death. Paul called the law in 2 Corinthians
3, the ministration of condemnation and the ministration of death.
Now, let me pause and remind you what law means. Here's law. If salvation is dependent upon
you doing anything before God can do something for you, that
is law. That is works. It's not just
the Ten Commandments. If there's something you must
do before God can do something for you, you believe in salvation
by law. You believe in salvation by works.
The strength of sin is the law. The last enemy is death. And whether men fear death or
not, they have a reason to fear. I'm not afraid of death. You ought to be. You ought to be. Death is the last enemy. And
this great enemy, now I've just been talking about the bad part
of death. This great enemy was destroyed by the death of Christ. Now I'm interested in this. John Owen. wrote a book entitled
The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. This great enemy is
no enemy to the believer. Every believer can say, for me
to live as Christ and to die is gain. The best day of my life
will be the last day here when I enter into glory. and see my
Redeemer face to face, because He destroyed death. I quoted this scripture this
morning, but Luke chapter 9, verse 31, I quote this one a
lot. When Moses and Elijah appeared
to the Lord Jesus Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, the
scripture says they were speaking, they were talking. The Son of
God and these two men brought back at this time, do we just sleep until the resurrection? Well, they didn't. They didn't.
They came back. And what were they talking about?
They spake of the decease which he should accomplish. The accomplishments of the death
of Jesus Christ. I love to think about that because
my death's no accomplishment. My death just shows my weakness
and my sinfulness and my defeat. Not him. His death when he died
on Calvary Street because of who he is. He accomplished something. He accomplished the full glorification
of God. Somebody says, how can you say
that? Him being nailed to a tree and dying? That's the full glorification
of God? Well, it's because of what he
accomplished in that. Now, there wouldn't be anything to it if
he wasn't raised from the dead. But remember, he was raised from
the dead. And in this, he demonstrated every attribute of God. God's
wisdom in making the way for him to be just and justify the
ungodly. God's power in putting away sin. God's righteousness in punishing
sin. God's grace in forgiving sin. Oh, every attribute of God is
displayed in the death of Jesus Christ. He put death to death. Let me show you that in the scriptures. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Verse 8, be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner,
but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who hath saved us and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began, but is now, what took place before time began,
is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death. He disannulled it. He deprived
it of its power. It has no power over the person
for whom he died. You see, your death is only gonna
bring you into life. It's not something you need to
think it's a bad thing. No, it's a good thing. It's the
best thing for you. Blessed are the dead that die
in the Lord. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ put
death to death. His death on Calvary's tree is
the greatest act of obedience there is. Go be nailed to a son,
to a cross. Yes, Father. Whatever His Father
said to do, He did. What did he accomplish? The complete
putting away of sin. He made my sin to be no more. I had no sin. It's gone. That's what his death accomplished. And his death destroyed death
The word means rendered, idle, inactivated, inoperative. It
has no further efficacy. It's deprived of its force, power,
or influence. It's abolished. Death is abolished
for the believer. Now, I realize that we're still
gonna die physically. And if you're a young believer, you'd
think, I'd like it to wait. And I understand that. We have
a natural desire for life to preserve. You might even feel
that way if you're an old believer, too. I'm not saying. But if we're
thinking right, we don't think right very often. But if we were
thinking right, we would be looking forward to death. When will my
day come? I'm awaiting that glorious wedding
day. with the married supper of the
Lamb. Now here's what death accomplished.
They spake of the decease which he should accomplish. Let me
show you two scriptures, Romans 5. Verse 10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son. Now I want you to think about
what that is saying. Because of the death of Christ,
God is completely reconciled toward me. He has no reason to
be angry with me. He's pleased with me. I'm perfect
in His sight because of the death of Jesus Christ. Listen to this
scripture, let me quote it. Having made peace, Colossians
120, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him,
to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things earth and things in heaven and you that were before times
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath He reconciled through death in the body of His flesh so that
He might present you holy, unblameable and and unreprovable in His sight."
Believer, child of God, that's the way God looks at you right
now. Now, if you think He's got something against you, you're
afraid to come near. As a matter of fact, you'd almost
rather be away. But if He has nothing against
you, He's totally and completely pleased with you and happy with
you through the death of His Son. And let me say this, all
that's relevant in this is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And his work makes God reconciled toward and pleased with you. That's what his death accomplished. Now let me say this, if he died for everybody and
some of those people he died for wind up in hell anyway, all
this is meaningless. He died for his people and he
accomplished their salvation. Death has been abolished. Now, before he gave us spiritual
life, now this death is abolished. Now because of that, he can give
me spiritual life. Why am I born again? Because
God elected me. because Jesus Christ died for
me, because God the Holy Spirit birthed me into the kingdom of
heaven through hearing the gospel and the preaching of the gospel.
But God can give me spiritual life because of what Christ accomplished
in my behalf. That's why I'm born again. I
didn't decide to become born again. I didn't make a decision,
I'm gonna become born again. No, God birthed me into the kingdom
of heaven and I now have this spiritual life. I'm no longer
dead in sins. I have spiritual life. Life before God. Now, before he gave us spiritual
life, we were under the dominion of sin. Sin was my master. Sin
was my Lord. It's called being dead in trespasses
and sins. And when he gives spiritual life,
it's life from the dead. I was dead. He's given me life. And what is the evidence of spiritual
life? Faith in Christ. You know how I know I have spiritual
life? Because I look to the Son of
God only as everything in my salvation. I'm not looking anywhere
else to anything else. I'm looking to Him only. And
the only folks who do that are people who have spiritual life. While I got life, I still deal
with this old man. Paul said, who should deliver
me from the body of this death? Oh, wretched man that I am, not
that I was before God saved me. He didn't know it before God
saved him. But when God saved him, then he was dealing with
this wretched man, this body of death. But I love thinking
about this. Even this body of death is The elder, my old nature,
it's older than my new nature. It's serving the younger in this
sense. Even my old nature shows me I
have nothing but Christ. That's what my old nature does
for me. It shows me to look nowhere but the Lord Jesus Christ. I
said this in Sunday school last week. Christ plus nothing equals
everything. Christ plus anything equals nothing. Even the old man that's still
there is subservient to the new. And upon our death, the old man
will be no more. And that's when we shall shine
as the sun in the kingdom of our father. Death, the enemy
of Christ, was put to death and destroyed. And every believer
has no reason to fear death. You may fear it. But you have
no reason to. The wages of sin? Death. That wage that I earned was paid
for and put away by the death of Christ. And now there is spiritual
life. The new man has dominion over
the old man. For every believer, death has
been destroyed. Upon physical death, I don't
know how this works, my body is going to decay, decompose, maybe animals will
eat it. It could be spread out all over
the place. Maybe if I was drowned, fish
would eat it and other fish would eat those fish and all that.
How's it going to be resurrected? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? I'm going to die, but I'm going to be raised from the dead. I'm going to have the same spiritual
nature I had before I physically died, but I won't have that sinful
nature to deal with anymore. And I'll be raised with a glorified
body. We're going to talk about that
more next week. Paul said there is a natural
body and there is a spiritual body. I'm going to be raised
with a spiritual body. It's gonna be flesh and bones.
It's gonna be me. I don't know what all that means,
but it's there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Like when you throw
a piece of corn or a wheat or some kind of seed in the ground,
it goes into the ground, it dies, it rots. What comes out? That
seed? No, a beautiful plant. Resurrection
is the same way. The last enemy that should be
destroyed is death. And upon my resurrection, I'm
going to see the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm going to behold him face
to face in righteousness, David said. As for me, I will behold
thy face in righteousness. In righteousness I'll be satisfied
when I awake in thy likeness. There's no death in heaven. But even in glory, that place
where there's no death, no spiritual death, no physical death, no
eternal death, life, even in glory, when I look upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, and I see the scars of his death in his body, I'm
going to know that the only reason I'm there is because of him. And how grateful we will be We ought to be so much more grateful
than we are now. The flesh holds us down from
being grateful as we should with unbelief, murmuring, blah, blah,
blah. But then, face to face, pure
gratitude, thankfulness, joy. The last enemy that's destroyed
is death. And then, Eternal bliss with
the Lamb, eternally. Let's pray. Lord, how thankful we are that
you've destroyed this great enemy. Lord, we could not stop it. But Lord, you destroyed it. You
put death to death in the death of your son. And all of our acceptance
is in him, his life being our life, his death being our sin
payment, his resurrection being our justification. Lord, we're
so thankful that you've destroyed this enemy for us and that we
have reason to anticipate the time
of our death as the beginning of life. Bless this message for
your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray.