THE MYSTERY OF DEATH

JOB 14:1

A. "BUT MAN DIETH, AND WASTETH AWAY: YEA, MAN GIVETH UP THE GHOST AND WHERE IS HE?
  1. The Words of our text:
    1. Are a part of his bitter complaint of his experience
    2. They are a part of the answer of Job to the arguments of his friends - Eliphas the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite
  2. Job's answer as revealed in our text:
    1. Shows a remarkable knowledge as to the nature of death - what takes place when man dies
    2. Job's explanation about death answers many of the controversial questions about death B. THE MYSTERY OF DEATH
  3. To many people, death is and remains a mystery:
    1. That is because of the opposing views held by humanity
    2. To some death is, so we are told, the beginning of life in the spirit world
    3. To others death is the dissolution of man as indicated in our text
  4. What makes death so mysterious is:
    1. That it begins with man's birth - "dying thou shalt die" - Gen. 2:17
    2. Medical Science teaches us that life and death are the normal functions in the human body going on constantly
  5. The mystery of death unraveled:
    1. All one needs to unravel the mystery of death is to abandon the contradictory theories of man and come back to the teaching of the Bible for the information it gives about death
    2. The Creator tells us in plain words what happens when man dies
  6. said He to Adam, "Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return" - Gen. 3:19
  7. God used the dust of the ground to make man - Gen. 2:7
    1. The Psalmist says, "His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish" - Ps. 146:3-4
    2. Our opening text affirms this truth in words easy to be understood - "Man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man giveth up the ghost and where is he" C. THE MYSTERY OF DEATH IS CLOSELY RELATED TO THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY OR SIN
  8. Satan is the author of sin:
    1. That is what Jesus taught - John 8:44
    2. And that is what the beloved John affirms - I John 3:8
  9. Death is the result of disobedience or transgression of God's law:
    1. Sin had its origin in the lives of Adam and Eve - Gen. 2:16-17; 3:6-8; Rom. 5:12
    2. In Adam all men have sinned, therefore, in Adam all men die - Rom. 5:12
  10. What the Bible teaches about death:
    1. Since man was made of the dust of the earth, he returns to the dust, just as the Creator says, he would that means disillusionment or destruction of his being - Ps. 90:3; 104:29; Job 17:13-16
    2. His spirit or breath goes back to God who gave it; he loses consciousness that very moment - Ps. 146:3-4; Eccl. 9:5,10
  11. The hope of the resurrection of the dead:
    1. Is promised in the Bible - I Cor. 15:21-23
    2. Christ taught the resurrection of the dead, of the just and the unjust - John 5:28-29
    3. The resurrection of the dead is man's only hope - I Cor. 15:12-18; Acts 23:6; 24:15
  12. It is the hope of the resurrection that Paul offers as God's consolation:
    1. To the dying - Rev. 2:10-11
    2. To the bereaved - John 11:23; I Thes. 4:13-17; Is. 26:19-20; Jer. 31:15-17
  13. It is very important them:
    1. That our thoughts are focused upon the resurrection of the dead - and not upon a theory that has no foundation in the Word of God
    2. The theory that death is, in reality, the beginning of life has its origin in the assertion made by the serpent in the garden of Eden - Gen. 3:1-5; John 8:44
    3. It is a plain contradiction of the gospel of Jesus Christ which makes immortality - eternal life conditional - I John 5:10-12; John 3:16


Design © John Bryant 2011