Are You Ready to Die?

The point: Stop looking away from the reality of death and face it squarely.

Martin describes visiting young mothers in the hospital and looking at newborns in the nursery. He reflects that the only certainty about any baby's future is that it will die, emphasizing the universal and unavoidable nature of death.

And so death is the great leveler of all human beings. And one of the most sobering thoughts that comes to me, and I'm not a killjoy in this, I hope I'm a biblical realist, when I go to visit the young mothers in the hospital, and I'm taken to view their child for the first time through the gospel, and I'm taken to view their child for the first time through the gospel, and I'm taken to view their child for the first time through the gospel, by looking out at the glass of the nursery window, often I think as I look into the little bundle of life that has brought such joy to mom and dad, partic...

6:44 - 7:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop looking away from the reality of death and face it squarely.

He uses the example of expensive burial vaults to illustrate that no amount of money or effort can prevent the body from returning to dust and being eaten by worms, reinforcing the physical reality of death.

It is laid up for you to die. Face it, my friend. Your body, upon which so much time and money is spent, will one day be eaten by the worms. Oh, but I'm going to have... Yes, oh yes. So you're going to put yourself in a very expensive vault. It may delay the process. It will be eaten by the worms. Dust thou into dust thou shalt return. And the spiritual return to God who gave it is the teaching of the word of God. It is appointed the absolute certainty and unavoidableness of death. And my friend, the sooner we stop looking away from it and face it squarely, the better off we'll be. We don't ta...

8:13 - 9:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop looking away from the reality of death and face it squarely.

Martin points out common euphemisms like 'passing on' or 'deceased' and the practice of making the dead 'look better than they did in life' to show how society tries to avoid the stark reality of death.

deceased. We die. It's appointed on the men once to die. We fix up our death so that they look better than they did in life. They're dead upon a silken cloth. Dead. The essence of living flowers will not change it. Dead. Dead. Dead. It is appointed on the men once to die. The absolute unavoidableness of the experience of death. And then there is in this text, the inevitable sequel to death. Look at it. As it is appointed on the men once to die, that rending of soul from body which constitutes death. And after this cometh judgment. Just as

9:11 - 10:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine if you are 'in the Lord' by a living faith and true repentance.

The analogy of marriage, where a man leaves his father and mother to cleave to his wife, is used to explain repentance as leaving one's old sphere of self-government and cleaving to Christ as Savior and Sovereign.

Repentance is the forsaking of all others leaving father and mother the existing sphere of government for the young man and woman in which they've lived from birth. God says a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. Come under a new sphere of relationship and government and delight. So it is in embracing the Savior.

42:03 - 42:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Death can only take me up beyond the morning star up beyond the evening star and out into that glittering light of glory and lay me on the loving breast of Jesus.

Martin recounts a poetic sermon by James Weldon Johnson, picturing Death summoned by God to fetch 'Sister Caroline.' Death, on a white charger, gently carries her beyond the stars to lay her on the loving breast of Jesus, illustrating death's subservience to Christ for the believer.

and delivered us who prefer death we're not in our lifetime subject to bondage we have in our record collection at home a record given to us by a dear missionary to South America and it's the collection of a series of poems by a black poet who lived from 1871 to 1938 James Weldon Johnson and these are poetic sermons and with Fred Waring's choral group doing the background music and choral work they have two excellent readers and one of the sermons that has profoundly influenced me and has etched its way into the channels of my mind is the one on death and I wish I could I even toyed with the i...

52:23 - 53:52 Read in full sermon