Blessed are the Dead Who Die in The Lord

Driving home: Blessed are the dead who die. The word dead. Dead and die are nestled under a canopy of blessedness.

Martin shares the personal story of his wife Marilyn's death three years prior, and the recent deaths of Dan Haynes and Arif and Kathy Kahn from the congregation. This personal and congregational grief provides the immediate pastoral context and motivation for the sermon.

It was on September 20th, 2004, exactly three years ago this past Thursday, at 6.20 in the morning, that Marilyn Martin, my wife of 48 years, breathed her last and died. As most of you know, she died at home in my presence and in the presence of her daughter, Heidi Cook, and of my sister, Joyce Maltby. Four weeks later, on October 17th, 2004, I stood behind this very pulpit and preached a sermon entitled, Death and Its Immediate Sequel for the One Who Dies in the Lord. In His wise, loving, but inscrutable providence, God has once more, thrust upon us as a congregation the unsettling facts conc...

2:10 - 3:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: They get the glorification of the inner man the moment they die. They'll get the glorification of the outer man when Jesus returns and gives them resurrection bodies.

Martin uses the examples of doing cartwheels or running 100-yard dashes as a disembodied spirit to correct 'sloppy thinking' among Christians about the intermediate state, emphasizing that bodily glorification awaits the resurrection.

The glorification of our bodies when He returns. And I'm amazed how much sloppy thinking there is among Christians. They say, Oh, my loved one has gone to heaven, and they're doing cartwheels. No, you don't do cartwheels as a disembodied spirit.

30:11 - 30:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The moment we die, listen to me carefully, the moment we breathe our last and our spirits leave our bodies, in order to make it feel comfortable in the immediate presence of God and of the Lamb, the Holy Spirit puts fort…

He compares the power of the Holy Spirit in breaking sin's dominion during life (five watts) to the immense power God will pour into the spirit at death (10,000 megawatts) to purge every vestige of sin and perfect it.

And these two are contrary, the one to the other, so that you may not do the things that you would. That's the reality. And the child of God longs, longs with a passionate longing for the time when sin will no longer be any element in his experience of grace. The moment we die, listen to me carefully, the moment we breathe our last and our spirits leave our bodies, in order to make it feel comfortable in the immediate presence of God and of the Lamb, the Holy Spirit puts forth a burst of redemptive energy and power upon every last element in the texture of the human spirit that purges away eve...

37:55 - 39:21 Read in full sermon

The point: Believers should not look on death with dark foreboding and shrinking fears if they truly believe their spirit will be perfected and at home with Jesus.

The story of Isaiah's vision of God's holiness, which shattered him, is used to illustrate how a perfected spirit will feel 'at home' in God's presence, unlike an unperfected one.

So instead of being uncomfortable in the presence of the Holy One of Israel, we'll feel perfectly at home in His presence. What happened to Isaiah when he had a vision of the Holy God? It shattered him! Fell on his face!

41:10 - 41:27 Read in full sermon

The point: Believers should not look on death with dark foreboding and shrinking fears if they truly believe their spirit will be perfected and at home with Jesus.

Martin quotes a hymn by Robert Murray McShane to express the longing for full knowledge of Christ, which will only be realized when sin is fully absent.

Do you really believe that? Then you'll understand why McShane wrote the words that he did. When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not my own, when I see you as you are, love you, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much. Some of us feel we could give a pinky to go through one day without sinning.

42:14 - 42:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Believers should find comfort in the knowledge that their loved ones who died in the Lord have been gathered into the company of the redeemed.

He contrasts the sweet communion experienced on a Lord's Day with fellow believers, which is still 'a pathetic taste' due to remaining sin, with the far grander, perfected communion in heaven.

when at the end of a Lord's day when we've worshipped God together and we felt the impress of the word upon our hearts together and we've been drawn out in prayer and praise together and we've lingered long to enter into each other's joys and sorrows and we've said ah this Lord's day was a taste of heaven ah but what a pathetic taste still a bunch of sinners with selfishness and we hear things wrongly and we interpret things wrongly what will it be to be gathered home with the spirits of just men made perfect and I'll be one of them and you will be one of them I say again this should be of com...

52:17 - 53:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Believers should find consolation in the fact that their loved ones who died in the Lord have entered into perfect rest, free from all earthly struggles and weariness.

Martin quotes an unnamed 'man of God' to vividly describe the nature of heavenly rest: freedom from responsibilities, pain, temptation, harassment, persecution, disappointment, and relentless pressure.

Rest also may be rest above all. Here we have responsibilities, pain and temptation. Here harassment by the demonic, persecution from the world. Disappointment in our friends.

57:36 - 57:53 Read in full sermon

The point: In facing their own death and the death of others in the Lord, believers ought to enter into the 'holy triumphalism' of the Apostle Paul, knowing they are 'more than conquerors' through Christ.

He recounts hearing Dr. A.W. Tozer speak about hating the devil, Khrushchev, and cancer, explaining that he now understands Tozer's hatred for death's instruments after experiencing the debilitating illness of a loved one.

The last enemy, 1 Corinthians 15, 26. A cruel, ugly, heartless enemy. And if you've had to look at it up close, by bits and pieces, taking a loved one to a grave with a horrible, lingering, debilitating illness, you grow to hate that enemy. Years ago, I heard Dr. Tozer on a table speaking of the fact that if you can't hate, you can't love and make it mean anything. And he was speaking of the things he loved. And then he spoke of the things he hated. And this will tell you when you live.

61:12 - 61:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Believers should be able to speak of death with confidence, explaining that it ushers them into wonderful dimensions of God's love: being with Jesus, being like Jesus, being with Jesus' people, and entering Jesus' rest.

The billions of dollars spent on elective cosmetic surgery is used as an example of the world's denial of death and its futile attempts to reverse the decay of the outward man.

And in honest moments people will admit they fear it and they want to do everything to reverse the undeniable evidences that the outward man is decaying. The billions of dollars spent on elective cosmetic surgery to say, I'm going to live forever in this body that's going to rot and be eaten by the worms in a grave. And when you as a child of God can speak of death, not in a cavalier way, but with the confidence of the Apostle, death shall not separate me from the love of God. It will usher me in to four wonderful dimensions of the love of God that I can't have. And then you tell them what the...

63:39 - 64:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Truly, truly, I say unto you, if a man keep my word, he shall never see death.

Martin recalls a phrase from a college anthem, 'Thou hast made death glorious and triumphant,' to illustrate the Christian perspective of death as a portal to God's presence.

Death is mine to do that for me. There's an anthem I sang way back 50 plus years ago in college. And the phrase in it was this. Thou hast made death glorious and triumphant for through its portals we enter into the presence of the living God.

66:00 - 66:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Murky views of what happens after death and a crippling fear of death are inexcusable and dishonorable to God for those in Christ.

The story of Billy Bray, a Cornish miner known for his unusual gift of joy, is told to illustrate a triumphant, joyful response to death, even if not everyone can attain his level of exuberance.

Have you ever heard of Billy Bray? He was a Cornish miner, Cornwall in England. He'd been a profligate, wicked man, and God saved him. And just as God gave to George Muller an unusual gift of faith, he gave to Billy Bray an unusual gift of joy.

69:10 - 69:28 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are not in the Lord, determine that the sun will not set without embracing the Son of Righteousness and casting yourself upon Him.

Martin shares his personal childhood experience of being terrified of death and hell, using it to connect with children in the audience who might share similar fears.

I think especially of you dear children. And I do so because I cannot remember a time as a child when I was not terrified at the thought of death. I'd go to bed every night saying, Oh God, don't let me die. Afraid to go to sleep for fear I might die in my sleep.

72:44 - 73:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Children are tenderly pleaded with to join the ranks of those who are in the Lord, trusting in Jesus, loving Him, obeying parents, and speaking truthfully.

The story of a nine-year-old girl who, before her death, requested her pastor preach a sermon to children from 2 Kings 4:26 ('It is well') at her funeral, is used to tenderly plead with children to trust in Jesus and have assurance of salvation.

I found this little story. A young girl at a certain point in England who died at nine years of age one day in her illness said to her aunt with whom she lived quote When I'm dead I should like the pastor to preach a sermon to children to persuade them to trust in Jesus to love Christ to obey their parents not to tell lies but to think about dying and going to heaven. I've been thinking she said what text I should like the pastor to preach from at my funeral. 2 Kings 4 26 Auntie you're the Shunammite.

73:36 - 74:18 Read in full sermon