Death's Immediate Sequel for the Believer

Driving home: I knew with unshakable certainty the sequel to her death. I knew what had happened from the time of her last breath to the time of her death. And this morning I want to preach to you on the things that I knew then and kn…

Martin recounts his wife's rapid decline, his indefinite leave of absence to care for her, and her eventual death. This personal narrative sets the emotional and theological context for the sermon, making the topic of death's immediate sequel deeply personal and urgent.

Many of you know that it was eight weeks ago today, August the 22nd to be exact, that I stood behind this pulpit and made an attempt to... ...expound and apply that marvelous text in Romans chapter 8, verse 28.

1:18 - 1:47 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I knew with unshakable certainty the sequel to her death. I knew what had happened from the time of her last breath to the time of her death. And this morning I want to preach to you on the things that I knew then and kn…

He describes cradling his wife's lifeless body and asking what happened to her soul in those moments. This vivid, intimate detail underscores the stark reality of death and frames the central question the sermon seeks to answer from Scripture.

As best I can recall the time frame, in the moments between her last breath and my cradling my beloved in my arms, while staring death straight in the eye, without any ability to avoid the stark reality of the presence of the last enemy, feeling keenly the many profound realities that surround the intrusion of death, I asked myself this question, what happened to my beloved from the time she breathed her last and the moments later when I lifted her from her deathbed and cradled her in my arms? And I bless God that as I do.

3:42 - 4:45 Read in full sermon

Driving home: No, the Bible is abundantly clear that death is a holy, unnatural intrusion into human experience an intrusion which has come as the result of sin.

Martin quotes Mr. Venema's book 'The Promise of the Future' to emphasize that the Bible portrays death as an unnatural intrusion due to sin, not a natural part of life, countering modern myths.

Death is not a natural part of life with which we simply need to learn to cope as we cope with cutting teeth and losing teeth and getting crowns and false teeth and all the rest. No, the Bible is abundantly clear that death is a holy, unnatural intrusion into human experience an intrusion which has come as the result of sin. Listen to the very perceptive words of Mr. Venema in his very excellent book The Promise of the Future.

14:58 - 15:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first reality is that the believer's soul is immediately made perfect in moral likeness to Christ upon death, as evidenced by Hebrews 12:23. This perfection is a concentrated…

He quotes J.I. Packer's simple definition of glorification as 'sinless souls inhabiting deathless bodies.' This concise statement clarifies the ultimate goal of redemption and the two-stage process for most believers.

It is to experience total conformity to the moral likeness of Christ's body and soul at the consummation of Christ's body and soul. of redemptive grace. As J.I. Packer stated it so simply and beautifully, it will be sinless souls inhabiting deathless bodies. That's it! But you see, for most of us, we're going to get it in two stages. Those alive at the return of the Lord, they're going to get the whole shebang all at once.

24:19 - 24:50 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God in his grace puts forth a concentrated degree of the divine energy of sanctifying grace that accomplishes more in a millisecond than we have known of progressive sanctification through a whole lifetime. Amen. I tell …

Martin shares the story of his wife's conversion at age 19 and her subsequent 52 years of progressive sanctification. This personal testimony highlights the ongoing work of grace in life, contrasting it with the instantaneous perfection at death.

What did he do with every one of you who's a Christian? There's a 19-year-old girl in nurses training. God brought her into contact with some Christians and they witnessed to her and opened up the scriptures and little bits of seeds that had been sown along her past. God caused them to germinate and to spring forth into new life in union with Jesus Christ.

27:39 - 28:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Think more of what your loved one has gained than of what you have lost.

He uses the analogy of putting all of God's work in his wife's life into a 'thimble' compared to the 'ocean' of grace she received at death. This illustrates the magnitude of instantaneous moral perfection at the moment of death.

And God gave her the ocean. The moment she breathed her last, she joined the company of just men made perfect. Never again to have to feel the twin, the twinge of grief for an envious thought, a prideful thought, an angry thought, an irritated thought, an unkind thought, utterly rid of anything that would be the fuel of repentance on the positive side, fully endowed with every grace that will make the soul reflective of the moral perfections of Christ, capable of growth, capable of developing, yes. But as to its moral constitution, it is the spirits of just men made, made mind affections and w...

29:21 - 30:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Think more of what your loved one has gained than of what you have lost.

He references Isaiah's vision of God's burning holiness, which left Isaiah undone and prostrate. This example contrasts Isaiah's fear with the believer's unbounded joy upon entering God's presence, having been made perfect.

And God gave her the ocean. The moment she breathed her last, she joined the company of just men made perfect. Never again to have to feel the twin, the twinge of grief for an envious thought, a prideful thought, an angry thought, an irritated thought, an unkind thought, utterly rid of anything that would be the fuel of repentance on the positive side, fully endowed with every grace that will make the soul reflective of the moral perfections of Christ, capable of growth, capable of developing, yes. But as to its moral constitution, it is the spirits of just men made, made mind affections and w...

29:21 - 30:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Think more of what your loved one has gained than of what you have lost.

Martin shares a personal maxim he uses to cope with grief: 'Albert, think more of what she has gained than of what you have lost.' This provides a practical, faith-based approach to processing loss.

And my friend, I've got news for you. That's what God's going to do for you the moment you breathe your last. If you're in Christ, that's what he's committed to do, to make you join the company of just men, made. And I have found as I've been trying to shape into little maxims how to handle the deep and crushing grief of my loss.

31:56 - 32:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second reality is that the believer's soul is immediately brought into the presence of Christ, supported by 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 and Philippians 1:21-23. This is a 'very far…

He quotes Spurgeon's devotional on John 17:24, where Spurgeon asks whose will (the believer's or Christ's) will win the day regarding a loved one's presence. This emphasizes Christ's sovereign desire for believers to be with Him.

And so, as Spurgeon in his inimitable way in Morning and Evening has a devotional on this text, he says, ah, believer, you would keep them with you, but your Savior would have them with you. You would have them with him. And then he draws that out as only Spurgeon does. And the believer and the Lord, he said, now I ask you, dear believer, whose will will win the day?

40:39 - 41:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third reality is that the believer's soul is immediately brought into the company of all blood-washed saints. While salvation is individual, God's ultimate desire is for a new…

Martin describes the precious, friction-free interaction with his sister and daughter during his time of grief. This serves as a 'taste of heaven,' illustrating the perfect love and harmony that will characterize fellowship in the company of perfected saints.

You can imagine now, my daughter ordering her household under her husband, with all her patterns, my sister who's been a widow for 14 years and a very competent, take-charge woman, and I don't think I'm exactly milquetoast, and we're all under one roof for weeks together. It was precious. Not one time was there any outcropping of any friction. If there was a little something that could have created, we just looked each other in the eye and said, I won't do that.

47:27 - 48:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third reality is that the believer's soul is immediately brought into the company of all blood-washed saints. While salvation is individual, God's ultimate desire is for a new…

He speaks of falling in love with figures like David Brainerd and Spurgeon through their writings, desiring to embrace them. This illustrates the deep bonds of love believers feel for one another, even across time, and anticipates the augmented love in heaven.

We pray for brethren we have not seen. And yet what bonds of love we feel. Don't you fall in love with David Brainerd when you read his journal? Don't you fall in love with Spurgeon when you read the early years?

49:30 - 49:42 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third reality is that the believer's soul is immediately brought into the company of all blood-washed saints. While salvation is individual, God's ultimate desire is for a new…

He uses the metaphor of the 'dunghill' of sin to describe the remaining sin in believers on earth. This highlights the transformative power of death, where the 'dunghill is all gone,' allowing love to break out in its full capacity.

You want to see them and tell them how much you love them. If we can experience all that with this dunghill still in us, can you imagine what it's like when the dunghill is all gone? And all that stuff breaks out into its full capacity in the presence of our God and of the Lamb. There's a stanza of a hymn that I've sung many times, but I didn't understand it.

49:56 - 50:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The third reality is that the believer's soul is immediately brought into the company of all blood-washed saints. While salvation is individual, God's ultimate desire is for a new…

He quotes a stanza from 'The Church's One Foundation' about 'mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is one.' This hymn reinforces the idea of fellowship with departed saints.

Now I do. The church is one foundation. What's the last stanza? Yet she on earth hath union with God the three in one and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is one.

50:22 - 50:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It means sharing in the blessedness of God so that in the very depth of our being there is contentment and joy and fulfillment. There is total shalom, a sense of sheer well-being every need is met, every longing is fulfi…

Martin quotes an unnamed 'servant of God' describing heavenly rest as freedom from responsibilities, pain, temptation, harassment, and pressure, and as sharing in God's blessedness and shalom. This provides a rich description of the promised rest.

Their spirit leaves the theater of all the remaining labor, all the remaining burdensome of life, all the striving, struggling aspects of the Christian life. And they enter into rest. One servant of God described it this way. But rest, too, describing heaven, may be rest above all.

54:22 - 54:48 Read in full sermon

The point: While death is an enemy, for the believer, Christ has removed its sting and made it a servant for redemptive purposes.

He recalls Dr. Tozer's statement about hating cancer, which Martin now understands after his wife's suffering. This personalizes the concept of death as an 'ugly' and 'cruel' enemy, even for believers.

When that enemy caused my beloved to feed upon her own body for the last couple of weeks of her life, it was ugly. I understood what I heard Dr. Tozer say years ago and I didn't understand him. He was talking about our ability to love will be in direct proportion to our ability to hate.

57:08 - 57:29 Read in full sermon

Driving home: All death can do is chase me out of this tattered tent and release me to be fully conformed to the image of Jesus, to know the exquisite joy of the immediate presence of Jesus, to be found among the company of the people…

He shares an anecdote about a Scottish Covenanter's tombstone with the phrase 'And prelates' rage did but chase them up to heaven.' This illustrates how death, even martyrdom, serves God's redemptive purposes for believers.

Death is mine. I shall never forget standing in the graveyard of some of the Scottish Covenanters, these noble souls who were willing to be martyred rather than submit to the pressure of ecclesiastical systems that did not respect the word of God. And they would refer to those ecclesiastical officers as prelates. And I shall never forget a phrase on one of the tombstones.

60:52 - 61:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Dear children, get into Christ so you can say 'it is well' with you, even in the face of terminal illness.

Martin tells the story of a nine-year-old girl who, on her deathbed, requested her pastor preach from 2 Kings 4:26, confidently stating 'it is well' with her. This serves as a powerful example of a child's faith and the 'gift' of assurance in death.

That's somewhere in England. We've got some Brits here. You can tell me afterward where that was. She died at nine years of age.

69:11 - 69:18 Read in full sermon