FIVE THINGS THAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU ON THE DAY YOU DIE

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When you are young it seems that life will go on forever. But I am now nearly sixty. It doesn’t seem very long to me any more. It seems to me, now that I am getting old, that

“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1).

For every person who lives to be 100 there are thousands who die much earlier. Fifty-nine million American children were killed in the womb of their mothers by abortion, without ever seeing the light of day or taking in a breath of air. Millions die in childhood, or as young people. Thousands of teenagers die in automobile wrecks. Thousands more die from drug abuse. Thousands die from suicide. Death comes at every age. So it is true,

“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1).

How long will you live? There is only one person who knows – and that is God. God knows exactly how many months you will live. The Bible says, “His days are determined, the number of his months are with thee” (Job 14:5).

How many more months will you live? God knows exactly. God already knows the date and time of your death. The date is set. The time is fixed. The day of your death may be tomorrow, or a few weeks from now, or a few months later. But be sure of this – it is not far off. Job said,

“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1).

The night before he died Dr. Hymers’ father said to him, “Robert, I won’t live much longer. I will die soon, but remember that you will soon follow me.” Dr. Hymers often thinks about what his father said that night, “You will soon follow me.” And so will you, who are listening to this sermon tonight. You should think about the day of your death. If you are not saved, here is what will happen to all of you on the day that you die.

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

“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

Your body will either be burned in the pagan manner of cremation, or be buried beneath the ground in a Christian ceremony. Then your spirit will return to God. For some that will mean that you enter the joyful presence of God in Heaven. But for many it will mean that your spirit will return to God for judgment, and that He will consign you to a place of great horror in Hell.

You have no power or ability to decide when your body and soul will be separated. The Bible says,

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

Bob Hope was a famous comedian. Bob Hope received the highest honors the world can offer. Queen Elizabeth made him a knight of the British Commonwealth. John F. Kennedy gave Bob Hope the great honor of a Presidential Medal. Five U.S. Presidents attended his ninety-fifth birthday party. Bob Hope was a multi-millionaire. Bob Hope owned thousands of acres of land 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. He lived to be 100 years old. And yet, when his appointed day came – none of this could keep his soul and body from separating in death.

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

And it will be the same for you. When the day and hour of your death arrives – perhaps in a few months – you will have no power at all to stop your soul from being pulled out of your body – and, in your unsaved state, sent to the boiling, burning dungeon of pain and suffering in Hell for all time, and for all eternity.

II. Second, on the day that you die all earthly relations and friendships
will end.

This is made clear in the account of the rich man’s death, recorded in the sixteenth chapter of Luke.

“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments…Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send [Lazarus] to my father's house…that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment” (Luke 16:23, 27-28).

But Abraham told him that 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.

Death separates you from every human relative and friend on this earth. If you are not a Christian, you have no hope of ever seeing them again, for in Hell all comforts are gone, and there can be no joyful reunions there. That is why the rich man in Luke 16 was desperately alone in his suffering. You will be separated forever from all of your closest friends, and all of your beloved relatives, if you are unsaved when death comes.

We will stand around your coffin and weep. Part of our sorrow will lie in the fact that we will know that we will never, ever, see you again – for you will have gone to Hell – and we will know it. Think how lonely Hell will be for you without your close Christian friends to give you comfort. Think of the horrible loneliness of Hell!

III. Third, on the day that you die all of your possessions will be
taken from you.

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 coins. Other maids, and even the undertakers, stole his clothing, his big gold watch and chain, and even the blankets on his bed – as they laughed about what a mean old fool he had been in life.

This horrible scene may not occur exactly like that when you die, but there will be similarities. You girls – all of your pretty little dolls and dresses will be boxed up and sold or given away. Your earrings and bracelets, perhaps even your prized wedding ring, will be sold or stolen by greedy relatives. Dr. Hymers watched the undertaker pull the wedding ring, with great difficulty, off of the finger of his dear old aunt, so one of her children could sell it and use the money to buy drugs, which his aunt would have hated.

You boys and men will not be better. They will box up your souvenirs, and photographs, and toys from childhood and sell them – or put them away in a musty attic, never to be seen again.

Any money you had in life will be fought over and taken by greedy relatives. Nothing will be left as a token of your life on earth. Death will strip you of all your earthly possessions.

And so it will be with you. On the day of your death everything you own will be taken from you in a moment of time. The rich man in Luke 16 took nothing with him to Hell – and neither will you, for

You have made plans for the future. You have hopes of doing many things in your life. But on the day of your death all of these hopes and plans will end abruptly. Jesus gave a parable to show this. A rich man died, and everything he owed was taken by others. That man had great plans, but they all ended suddenly the night that he died. You have many plans and dreams of things you want to do. The day that you die all of those plans and dreams and hopes will suddenly end – and you will face eternity without hope – because you did not seek the salvation of your soul. Then God will also say to you,

“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still…” (Revelation 22:11).

If you die 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.

“Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that…neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:26).

A great gulf is fixed between Heaven and Hell. A “gulf” is an abyss, a wide separation. There is a separation wider than the Grand Canyon between those in Hell and those in Heaven.

“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble” (Job 14:1).

“His days are determined, the number of his months are with thee” (Job 14:5).

God alone knows how many days, how many months, you have left before you die. That’s why the Bible says, “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12). Come to Christ and be cleansed from your sin by His Blood before it is too late. Dr. Hymers, please come and close this service.

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Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“Too Long I Neglected” (by Dr. John R. Rice, 1895-1980).