Are You Prepared to Die?

The point: Listen with both the external and internal ears of the soul, giving earnest and fair hearing to the sermon's message.

Martin recounts leading the funeral of a former church attender who died suddenly at 82 while working in his yard. This event deeply impressed upon him the urgency of preaching on death and judgment.

Those of you who were present at our prayer meeting on Wednesday will know that yesterday morning found me discharging a very solemn responsibility. That responsibility was leading the funeral service and the subsequent interment of a former friend and once regular attender here at our assembly. The man moved to Tennessee several years ago, got up this past Tuesday morning to go out and work in his yard, though an 82-year-old man knows signs that death was anywhere near at his doorstep, and yet by Tuesday night he lay dead in a funeral parlor. And as I was privileged to take that funeral yeste...

0:04 - 1:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on the brevity and uncertainty of life using various biblical passages and common observations. He highlights that life, even a long one, passes quickly and that…

He describes the experience of intense physical pain where minutes feel like hours, yet even in such moments, Job declared his days swifter than a weaver's shuttle, highlighting life's brevity.

Yet in the midst of a situation in which time seems to pass so slowly. And some of us have known that kind of intense physical trauma. When we have lain upon a bed of pain and looked at a clock in the middle of the night and sought thought for sure, we must have misread the clock when it showed that only five or ten minutes had passed and we thought surely an hour and five or ten minutes had passed. Yet in that moment, in that setting, listen to what Job says in verse 6.

7:14 - 7:44 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on the brevity and uncertainty of life using various biblical passages and common observations. He highlights that life, even a long one, passes quickly and that…

To illustrate life as a vapor, Martin uses the examples of visible steam from a car exhaust on a cold morning and the contrail of a jet, both appearing substantial but quickly vanishing, emphasizing life's fleeting nature.

You are a vapor. You know what a vapor is, don't you, kids? Wintery morning, dad starts up the car and out the exhaust pipe comes that that you might call steam. It's that visible vapor and it looks so thick on a real cold morning you think you could go out and grab a hunk of it. By the time you got out of the house to go out and grab it, it's gone. It appears for a little time and then it is gone. Or think of the contrail of a jet passing high above us in stable upper air and sometimes those contrails are as strong as the wind. It's great and seem to be as dense as something solid. And you lo...

10:39 - 11:38 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on the brevity and uncertainty of life using various biblical passages and common observations. He highlights that life, even a long one, passes quickly and that…

He points to emergency rooms being open 24/7 as proof that no one anticipates the accidents or sudden illnesses that bring them there, underscoring life's uncertainty.

You and I do not know what a day may bring forth. This is not a Bible scare tactic. This is a statement of a simple plain observable fact of life. Do not boast of tomorrow for you and I do not know what a day may bring forth. You see emergency rooms don't keep specific hours. They are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Why? Well, if you went to Chilton Hospital or you went to any other local hospital and did a little interview of all the people in the emergency room and said, how many of you expected to be in here? They'd look at you like you were crazy. They said, don't you see the sign?

13:16 - 14:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on the brevity and uncertainty of life using various biblical passages and common observations. He highlights that life, even a long one, passes quickly and that…

Martin shares a personal anecdote of his wife breaking her toe by simply stepping out of bed in the middle of the night, illustrating how unexpected events can dramatically alter life.

This is the emergency room. This is not pre-scheduled same-day surgery. This is not admissions to three or four-day surgical procedures. This is the emergency room. Do you think I knew this morning? that some drunk was going to hit me in the car and I'd come in here with my neck out of whack? Do you think my wife knew she was going to break her toe in the middle of the night two weeks ago simply stepping out of bed? She would have been one of those you could have interviewed at children's emergency room two weeks ago today at 8 o'clock in the morning.

14:00 - 14:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on the brevity and uncertainty of life using various biblical passages and common observations. He highlights that life, even a long one, passes quickly and that…

He cites recent events like tornadoes destroying possessions and a lightning bolt making a family homeless to show that life's uncertainties are not mere 'preachers' scare tactics' but reality.

The people that in recent days have had all of their life's possessions taken away in a moment of time with the fierceness of a tornado that's come as it were out of nowhere and in minutes has left an area in devastation. The lightning bolt that's left the family in Long Island homeless as it struck in such a way that it ignited the home yesterday afternoon. These are not preachers' scare tactics, this is reality. Life is not only brief, it is uncertain.

15:50 - 16:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on the brevity and uncertainty of life using various biblical passages and common observations. He highlights that life, even a long one, passes quickly and that…

The example of someone choking on a steak in a restaurant highlights how quickly and unexpectedly life can end, reinforcing the brevity and uncertainty of life.

That person that this afternoon will lie choking in a restaurant on a piece of a $20 steak didn't anticipate the piece of crystal getting caught in the throat. Life is brief and life is uncertain. That's a fact. A simple, plain, straightforward, unadorned, non-scare tactic fact.

16:26 - 16:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Look yourself in the mirror and acknowledge that you, too, will die, rather than ignoring death's inevitability.

Martin uses Frank Sinatra's death to illustrate that despite fame, influence, and power, no one can avoid death when God's appointed time comes.

Death is unavoidable, utterly unavoidable for every single one of us. And how we've been reminded of that. Some of us can remember when the teenagers with their buckskin shoes and their bobby socks were screeching and sighing and fainting when old blue eyes first hit the scene during the Second World War. We are old enough to remember when Frank Sinatra was a little skinny kid out of an obscure town in New Jersey.

20:03 - 20:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Look yourself in the mirror and acknowledge that you, too, will die, rather than ignoring death's inevitability.

He uses Princess Diana's death to further illustrate that wealth and influence cannot prevent death when God's appointment arrives.

And there's nothing he could do. All the power brokers in Hollywood couldn't give him one extra minute. He died, and Princess died with all of her money and all of her influence. When God said, your appointment has come, woman, she died.

20:48 - 21:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Look yourself in the mirror and acknowledge that you, too, will die, rather than ignoring death's inevitability.

Martin notes that Moses observed a whole generation die in the wilderness, calculating the 'frightening amount' of deaths per week, illustrating the winding down of life.

The days of our years are 70. If by reason of strength they may be 80. Moses had seen a whole generation in the wilderness with the spring of life wind down and wind down in one and after another. And one time I calculated how many deaths he saw per week through that wilderness wandering.

22:36 - 22:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second fact asserts that death is a universal and inescapable reality for all humanity, often striking unexpectedly. Martin uses biblical examples like the rich fool and the…

He recounts Jesus' parable of the rich fool who planned for many years of ease but was told by God, 'This night your soul is required of you,' serving as a classic illustration of sudden, unexpected death.

So that even if you knew you were going to live out your 80 years, how foolish it would be to avoid the serious thoughts about death and its sequel. However, the word of God and human observation both declare that, death sometimes does come suddenly and unexpectedly. Can you think of the classic illustration of this in the scriptures? Remember what our Lord taught in Luke chapter 12?

23:26 - 23:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second fact asserts that death is a universal and inescapable reality for all humanity, often striking unexpectedly. Martin uses biblical examples like the rich fool and the…

The biblical account of the flood, where people 'knew not until the flood came and took them all away,' illustrates sudden, universal death.

Think of this. Think of this. Think of those. It says they knew not until the flood came and took them all away.

25:44 - 25:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second fact asserts that death is a universal and inescapable reality for all humanity, often striking unexpectedly. Martin uses biblical examples like the rich fool and the…

The story of men going to apprehend a prophet and being consumed by fire from heaven in an instant illustrates sudden, divine judgment and death.

Children, young people, teenagers, young adults, and old men and women, all but eight who were saved in the ark were suddenly swept away. Think of those men who went out to apprehend the prophet. They went out one day polishing their buckles and their brass, and they're going to have some fun with the prophet of God. And fire comes out of heaven in an instant.

25:52 - 26:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second fact asserts that death is a universal and inescapable reality for all humanity, often striking unexpectedly. Martin uses biblical examples like the rich fool and the…

He uses the modern example of children in a classroom suddenly becoming 'slaughtered carcasses' on a playground after a fire bell rings, emphasizing death's sudden and unexpected nature.

It consumes. Think of what's happened in our own day. Those kids that one minute are in the classroom laughing with their peers, listening to their teachers and the fire bell rings. And minutes later, they're nothing but slaughtered carcasses out on the school playground.

26:14 - 26:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: as death leaves you the judgment will find you and as the judgment finds you eternity will hold you do you get that?

Martin shares his personal childhood experience of being terrified by the thought of dying in his sleep and facing an eternal, irreversible judgment, which he now sees as God bringing him to reality.

dear people do you get that? as death leaves you the judgment will find you the judgment will find you no change no moral no spiritual no ethical change between death and judgment as death leaves you the judgment will find you and as the judgment finds you eternity will hold you that's a sobering reality no escape from it I can remember as a little boy lying upon my bed and though those were not the words that were in my head that was the words that were in my head that was the words that were in my head that was the words that were in my head that was the words that were in my head and that r...

33:53 - 35:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near, lest you go home terrified.

He asks listeners to imagine receiving a phone call about their own sudden death, similar to the funeral he conducted, to prompt serious self-examination about their preparedness.

As I was prayerfully considering how can I try to get inside your head and reason with you, my final perspective is this. It's this. Suppose, just suppose, this coming week, you were to be the next living proof that life is uncertain. And I were to receive the unexpected phone call at my study that I received this past Wednesday.

53:53 - 54:19 Read in full sermon

The point: If not prepared to die, seek the Lord, call upon Him, forsake wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts, and return to God for mercy and abundant pardon.

Martin challenges listeners to consider what words of solid biblical comfort he could genuinely offer their grieving family at their funeral, based on their life's testimony of trusting in Christ.

Was killed in an accident at work. On his or her way to this or that, was struck by a car and suddenly dead. I want to ask you a simple question. What words of comfort from the Bible could I give were I asked to conduct your funeral?

54:44 - 55:06 Read in full sermon