Death & the House of Mourning

What happens when we die? In this exhortation, we let the Scriptures explain it and take some time to apply the lesson to our own lives. Please forgive us for losing composure with this weighty subject! As the Spirit exhorts us through Solomon, "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart" (Ecclesiastes 7:2).

You may watch the exhortation below or read it by scrolling past the video.

*The following was given as a Sunday morning exhortation to a live audience. What follows is a transcript of the exhortation.

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Ecclesiastes 7:2 – It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.

I have a rather uncomfortable subject today, and that is death. Death is of course a universal issue that sometimes even we Christadelphians don’t like to spend too much time on, but this morning, we want to take a long, hard look at death and lay these things to heart. It’s ironic that oftentimes, the only way we really begin to live our lives is after we have thought long and hard about death. For those who are younger – pay attention. This has just as much bearing on you as it does elders. It’s a subject that’s not only essential to living well, but also to obtaining eternal life because death touches so many important principles of God’s truth.

What is Death?

It seems obvious, but death is the opposite of life. Life is animation and being, and death is the removal of these things. Life and death are not only opposite states, but they also have opposite processes. To understand the death process, we must know what the life process of man was.

Genesis 2:7 – And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

God took the dust of the earth and formed man out of it. He then breathed into him the breath of life, and as a result of having the breath of life, he became what Scripture calls “a living soul”, or creature. What was man before this? He was merely dust. He didn’t exist at all beforehand except for as a thought in God’s mind.

Now, Adam and Eve were given one law, the punishment for breaking it was death. Genesis 2:16 says that “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” What is death in Scriptural terms? Adam and Eve were told after their sin that they would “…return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19). They were made from dust, and they would therefore return to that state – plain and simple. It is the exact reversal of the life process, and we see this plainly in

Psalms 146:4 – His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Such was the punishment for eating of the forbidden tree. Man had no existence or being before he was made, and that was the state he would return to if he transgressed. Now note that they were not told, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, your mortal bodies will perish and your immortal soul will pass onto either heaven or hell.” No – it was that they would die. They would not live in any sense, but would cease from living and existing.

The main reason for the fall of man was in the lie of the serpent. The serpent deceived Eve in telling her, “Thou shalt not surely die.” Sin in the flesh was not part of man’s constitution yet, so we see the need for an external tempter here. Eve was deceived into thinking she would not die, and she therefore ate, and then gave to Adam.

As we heard in last week’s talk, the ultimate result of their resulted in the condemnation of the entire race to return to the dust of the earth. There were only two people in existence at this time, they came under the condemnation to death, and only after the fall did they have children, and so all of their offspring inherited the same condition. As Romans 5:12 says, “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that (or “in whom” – Diaglott) all have sinned”. Ever since then, mankind has groaned under this great enemy of sin and death, and that is what Christ was sent for.

The Death State

As to the nature of the death state, the Scriptures leave us without any question. Ecclesiastes is clear:

Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 – For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.  (6)  Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 – Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

Man had no existence before he was made, and that is the state which he returns to in death. David specifically points this out in

Psalms 146:2 – While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

Once we die, we aren’t transported somewhere else while our body is destroyed. We no longer have any being – not here on earth, not in heaven or hell, not anywhere. Job talks about this and shows that all that man is stays in the dust once he ceases to exist, and he’s described as “sleeping in the dust of the earth”:

Job 7:21 – … for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

We return to dust and stay that way. Any hope for existing again is dependent strictly and only upon the resurrection – a physical bringing back to life which is attained through covenant relationship with God through Christ, which is done through faith and baptism today. As Job again says,

Job 19:26 – And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Note again that this is a physical resurrection of the person. Not “in the spirit”, but “in his flesh” Job will see the Lord.

The Popular Theory – The Immortal Soul

We could spend the whole morning looking at verses like this, but we can see that it’s very simple. Yet it’s necessary to lay this foundation about death because there’s much confusion about it in modern Christendom which flatly contradicts Scripture. Churches teach that people do not die, but simply pass on. Every single day, the lie of the serpent is repeated at funerals. They say, “We know that this person has not truly died, but has merely passed on to a better place.” Isn’t it interesting that it’s rarely (if ever) stated that the person will go to hell?

Death is a terrible thing, and we can naturally see why people want to believe that everyone goes somewhere better after death. It helps with grief and makes people feel better, but not only is this directly against what God says happens – it seems that deep down, many of these professors of the immortal soul don’t really believe it themselves.

Bro. Robert Roberts writes in Christendom Astray,

“If our friends are really gone to ‘glory,’ we ought to feel as thankful as we do when they are promoted to honour ‘here below’; but we do not; and why?... Because the strength of natural instinct can never be overcome by theological fiction. Men will never practically believe the occurrence of death to be the commencement of life, when they see it to be the extinction of all they ever knew or felt of life.”

Christendom Astray, pg. 53

If we are so sure that people are in this place which is far better than ours in every way, then why all of the sadness? Why not a celebration? It’s not just about “missing them”, the sadness hits deeper than that. Bro. Roberts continues on to show how problematic this is as it relates to God’s plan:

“If the dead are not dead, but ‘gone before; if they are ‘praising God among the ransomed above,’ they are alive, and, therefore, they have merely changed a place of ‘temporal’ for a place of eternal abode. They have simply shifted out of the body from earth to heaven, or to hell, as the case may be. The word ‘death,’ in its original meaning, has, therefore, no application to man. It has lost its meaning as popularly employed. It is no longer the antithesis of ‘life.’ It no longer means the cessation of living existence (its radical signification), but simply means a change of habitation. ‘A man can die? No, impossible! He may go out of the body, but he CANNOT DIE.’ This is the popular sentiment – the dictum of the world’s wisdom…”

Christendom Astray, pg. 53

Such a belief changes God’s law. Again, God did not say, “If you eat of the tree you will live forever in either heaven or hell.” In fact, they were cast from the garden specifically so that they would not live forever.

Genesis 3:22-23 – now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:  (23)  Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

The punishment was – you eat, you return to the dust state. If we can’t grasp what the great problem of mankind is and that we are mortal, dying souls, then we cannot understand and abide by God’s solution to it, particularly because the solution involves understanding, believing, and obeying what God has declared. 

What is the Soul?

Popular belief holds that man is made of two parts: the body and the immortal soul. The body is merely a temporary shell, but the soul is supposedly immaterial and immortal. But that the soul is not immortal and is not a separate entity from our own selves is one of the easiest things to see in Scripture if we come to the Bible strictly to learn – not seeking support for a preconceived idea. Danny spoke on this not that long ago so we won’t go too in depth now (go back and watch it on our YouTube channel if needed), but a soul is defined by Strong’s as simply a “living creature”. The very first occurrence of the word “soul” is in Genesis 1:21 and actually relates to animals, not man. It talks about “every living creature (nephesh) that moveth”. 

What we see is that man and beast do not have souls, they are souls. As we read earlier about man, God gave him the breath of life and “man became a living soul.” Rather than being an eternal entity with no real beginning or end, the Scriptures tell us that

• Souls are born – Genesis 46:27 says, “And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.” It’s not the body that was born, but the soul – the creature.

• Souls die – Joshua 11:11 notes that “they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe…” Again, it was not the body that died and was utterly destroyed, but the soul. The being was destroyed.

What makes something a “soul” is indicated in Joshua 11. It is anything that has the breath of life. Plants are not spoken of in Scripture as being souls or as dying because they don’t have the breath of life. Plants are said to wither, fade, or be cut down (Isaiah 40:7–8, Psalm 37:2, Jonah 4:7).

But man and animals were both formed from the dust and given the breath of life, and they therefore are both souls and die the same way.

Ecclesiastes 3:18-20 – I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.  (19)  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.  (20)  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Such is a quick summary of Scriptural teaching on death and the soul, and many of us are very familiar with this. These things were an important preliminary for what I really want to talk about this morning.

A Hard Look at Life and Death

We know and believe these things in our minds, but far less often do we take the time to apply this to our own selves. Death is not a subject we often think too long upon. It is uncomfortable. Thinking of ceasing to exist and the world continuing on without us is a scary thought. But every single living thing on this planet will face this end unless Christ returns in their lifetime. Man invests billions and billions of dollars to find a cure for death, but nothing can change or escape the law of God.

It’s so uncomfortable to think about that we often go the majority of our lives not even thinking about it. But God exhorts us to focus directly on it like we read in our opening passage. If we add a little more context, we learn more of the reason why:

Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 – It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.  (3)  Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.  (4)  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

We see death every day – smashing a bug, hitting a squirrel, we hear about people on the news, etc. We grow numb to it. Only when we fully understand what death is and relate that lesson to our individual lives are we impacted.

Stop for a moment and think about your life. Every single one of us has been given the gift of life and our own unique, personal experience of it. On the ages of time that have passed, God has given us a span to exist and be a part of it. We enter this world as a child, most of which don’t have any true cares or concerns. Think back to your childhood and your earliest memories with your parents, siblings. We play and have things taken care of for us, and these formative years can be some of the most special and impressionable. The relationships and memories we make with our siblings form an integral part of our identity.

We get busier as we get older once we start taking on responsibilities and work, and we start to get tossed around in life having to make big decisions about what we’ll do for a living, where we’ll live, and what we want our life to look like. Our perspectives on things change, but there are always some things which take us right back to our childhoods. It could be the smell of your grandparents’ house, the voice of your mother singing to you in her arms, your first time hunting with your dad. Everyone’s experience is unique, and that’s special. Nobody can have yours, and you can’t have anyone else’s. We get to experience this thing called life, and we all get our own unique experience of it.

We get older and start to work, learning how to navigate adulthood and experience the growing pains of growing up. Before we know it, decades have passed and other special things get added that we cherish – perhaps meeting who would become our spouse, witnessing our children come into the world, the feeling of them in our arms as we rock them to sleep and just stare at their perfect peaceful, sleeping faces. There are moments in which we wish we could just stop time, but it marches stubbornly onward.

You look at pictures of your family and your kids and see the hand of time upon them, and you wonder, “When did everyone change so much? Has that much time really passed?” Most of us are told from a young age that time flies faster than we think, but we only fully learn this when we experience it. We blink again our children now have children. We don’t feel old enough to be a grandparent, but here we’re looking at our grandchildren.

We see the cycle of life turning over again with every generation that we see come along, and then we start to realize that our time is short, and we wonder, “Where did all of the time go?” With little time left, we look back on our lives, and we begin to appreciate and see in a new light all of the experiences, relationships, even the sights, sounds, smells, emotions, which form the picture of our life. The things which we took for granted are the things which made it all so special – and now what? We’re faced with the cessation of it all. We come to realize that while we were given relationships and other people which formed such an important part of our lives and identity, but in the end – we are an individual. We can have family alongside us, but this final thing we are about to face is one that we must face on our own…

In looking back, we wonder, What was the purpose of it all? Were the things that we experienced and lived worth anything in the long run? In the death state – apart from the hope of God – all ceases to exist. Did the things we lived and make us us have any lasting purpose, or was it all for nothing?

Take a look around the room. Look at your spouse. Your children. Your parents. Your friends. All will one day meet this same end and be dust and ashes. At some point today, take a long, silent look at yourself in the mirror and absorb the fact that you will die. How do we feel when we think of these things? It's wretchedly uncomfortable. Horribly uncomfortable, isn’t it? Every nerve tells us to “Stop and think about something else.” I believe it isn’t just me that feels this way, but it’s particularly difficult when we think of others. We don’t want our parents, spouses, and children to die, and this horrible panic and sadness arises out of the fact that we cannot stop it. We are utterly incapable of preventing it.

Everything within us – save perhaps a small voice in the back our minds – tells us to change subjects. But that’s avoiding truth. If Christ does not return in our lifetimes, this will happen. We have no say in the matter. We can either stare it directly in the face now and come away with some resolve to use the time we have wisely, intentionally, and purposefully, or we can ignore the thought and cram it down, going about our nonchalant lives half-heartedly. If we don’t focus on it, it’s easy to go about our happy lives and deal with what the day holds for us. Perhaps we have intentions of doing well or heightening our service to our Master or to our brethren, but this can easily be kicked down the road for a future time.

But time flies, and what happens is that our entire lives pass by without us ever acting upon these intentions.  But one day, we will face these facts, and as the wisdom of God through Solomon is teaching us – Consider this now. Let the living lay it to their hearts that they will die, and by doing so, we can use our time wisely. By absorbing these facts, we gain the urgent motivation to do something about it. We come away with resolve.

Christ’s Parable – Today is Your Last Day

In Luke 12:16-21, Christ gave the parable of the rich man who had so many things that he used all of his time to build barns to store up his wealth. He says to himself, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.  (20)  But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”

The man puts so much stock in the future that all of his actions of the day are given only to temporal things. But he’s told that he would die that very day. Let’s put ourselves in this man’s shoes. You were just told by God, “You will not see tomorrow. You will die in your sleep tonight. This Sunday night...” Right now – stop and absorb it. When you tuck yourself in tonight, either by yourself or next to your spouse, that will be the last time... You will not wake. Your feet will not hit the floor again. You will not see the sunrise. Never again will you breathe the morning air, feel the breeze on your face, hear the voice of your spouse or children. You will not hear the hustle and bustle of your busy house again. We will either cease to exist forever, or, if we have put on the name of Christ, the next thing we will know, we will be lifted out of the dust of the earth to stand before our Lord and Master. At this moment, you have approximately 12 hours left… 12 hours…

Brothers and sisters, what will we do with the rest of this day? There’s so much exhortation both on the natural and spiritual level. What do we want to tell others? We have 12 hours left. What do we want to say to our parents? To our spouses? To our children? Are there things we should say but have not yet done so yet? If we’re going to do it, today is the day. Think of what things will we leave behind which we treasure so much. What unfinished projects will we leave undone? What plans will never be realized?

What will our next prayer be like? Will it be quickly rushed through and said the same as always, or will it be more intentional, specific, and genuine? The words of Isaiah 38:18-19 suddenly have a stinging relevance – “For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. 19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day...”

How much we can possibly do in the way of salvation in 12 mere hours? Though it is something, it’s not much compared to what our normal everyday life is. I think if we really put ourselves in this situation, the things that we think of choosing to say and don’t relate not to our own selves, but to others. We want to make the best and greatest impact on them that we can. Brethren, we may be helpless to save others from death, but that is not entirely true. There is only one who can save us from the grave, and that is our Lord and Master. We cannot personally save our children and loved ones, but we can help them by teaching them about God and Christ.

Think of it - we have more influence over this than we may realize. When we are raising our children, are we intentionally instilling in them a knowledge and love of Christ and the Truth, or are we just bringing them along with us to Sunday School and class and hoping they pick things up along the way? Are we giving them the tools they need, and are we practicing what we preach? It’s sad that some children who are raised in Christadelphian households don’t take hold of the truth, and we may wonder why. It varies, but from personal witness, it’s not usually that the doctrine isn’t understood, it seems to relate more to how their teachers did not live it out fully. It’s the application of it into everyday life which impresses upon others, and our actions speak more truth than our words do.

And for our children and grandchildren who we hope will live on for a long time after we go the way of all the earth, what can we give them, teach them, or say to them which they can take and keep with them after we are gone? What kind of long-reaching wisdom can we share that they may not even able to fully understand yet at their current stage of life, but we share it while we can so it’s in their brains. Both our death and the return of Christ represent end of our lives as we know them, and either could happen today. Instead of putting off our good intentions, we need to make good on them “while it is called to day”.

Our Final Moments

Let’s carry this another step further. We go about this day trying to make the absolute most of every fleeting second we have, and knowing that we cannot escape death, we crawl into bed. Everyone else in the home is sound asleep, and it’s just you, your thoughts, and God. You feel our eyes start to get heavy with sleep. Your probation is almost over. Your time of trial is nearly ended. The next thing you’ll be aware of is the resurrection. Consider your walk: your trials, shortcomings. You’re about to give account for everything you’ve done in covenant. You are about to stand before the very son of God Himself, Jesus Christ…

As we these things run through our minds – hearts probably pounding and knowing that our minutes are few, where do our thoughts go? How do we feel? Are we overcome by a sense of shame? Are we ashamed at how little we accomplished in our walk, at how little we applied ourselves to our Master? Do we regret not having let our light shine brighter? Do we wish we would have forgiven someone? Do we wish that we would have applied ourselves earlier? Are we deathly afraid that we’ll be rejected by our Judge, knowing that we could have done more, but for some reason, never did?

Or… are we excited? Is this the moment we have been so eagerly awaiting – not death, but the time to meet our Lord and Master – our elder brother who offered himself so we might have this wondrous hope of His Kingdom? We’ve learned about him for so long, and in what will seem like mere moments from now, we will meet him face to face. Brethren, what can prepare us for that moment? The only thing we can do is try to picture it now and take steps today to make our calling and election sure.

Rejection at the Judgment Seat

But let’s take this a final step and end with one more exercise. Our eyes close for a final time, and they suddenly open and we’re in a completely different time and place – a place we believe will be Mt. Sinai. We were just raised from the dead by the blood of the covenant, and we hear our name called from the throne on high. An angel escorts us to Christ’s seat of judgment. We round a corner, and there his sits. We behold him for the very first time in all his glory. The Master we believed on now sits before us so that we might “give account” before him.

Now, our Lord is full of grace and mercy, and all that he asks us of us our best. I believe we will be surprised at the amount of grace he extends. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say that he tells us that we did not make the cut. After discussion, he locks eyes with us and gives the final verdict, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41). That’s it – it was all for nothing. We availed ourselves of God’s plan of redemption but did not do our part.

We’re told that in this day of judgment that Christ will command his angels, “cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30). This weeping and gnashing is not eternal torments of an torturous hell, but the natural response of those who committed themselves to Christ but were found to have fallen short, and they realize that they wasted the opportunity. Christ says in

Luke 13:28 – There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

We are taken by the hand and escorted to the final death – the final return to dust.

So the question for us is, If we were to die today and were to be rejected by Christ, what are we doing or not doing now that might result in that sentence? What are we doing that we should not be doing? What aren’t we doing that we should? Really think, “If I were to fall short in the judgment today, why would that be the case?” It may not take long for certain things to come to our minds which prick our conscience, and those are the things that we need to address.

Again, I believe our Master will be abundantly merciful, but at the same time, we are also given accounts which show that there will be many who are rejected. We’re told that “many are called, but few are chosen.” And even if we do think we are upright, Paul exhorts us in

1 Corinthians 10:12 – Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

There can only be good which comes from examining ourselves like this, and in doing so, we help ensure that instead of being cast out, we are warmly welcomed by our Master, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:21).

Walking Away with Resolve

Perhaps some of the things we’ve considered have created a sense of resolve in us. But as things go, we will get back to our normal lives and they will wear off within a few days. How many classes have we been in at a Bible school where we felt it was life-changing, but within a few weeks of returning home we forget most of the details of the class? We need our intentions to turn into resolve and purpose so they have a true impact on us. 

Brethren and friends, if there is anything that we feel like we need to do or change in our lives, write them down while we’re thinking of them. And let us take these things into our prayers and ask specifically that God might show us what we need to correct. If we fervently pray that God might help us understand anything we’re doing which could even potentially endanger our salvation, we may be surprised at what things come to mind.

Concluding Thoughts

If we can keep things in perspective and live our lives fully aware of the end of man, our death bed will likely not be one of panic, but of peace. David was in constant fear of death for a good portion of his life, and in 1 Kings 2, we have some of his last words to his son Solomon:

1 Kings 2:1-2 – Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,  (2)  I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man;

We find no fear or panic here. He knew and understood what was coming. And he also knew what his hope was because he had committed himself to God:

Psalms 16:8-10 – I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.  (9)  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.  (10)  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell…

What was this hope? It was the hope of the resurrection – that he would not be left in the grave forever. He writes in the next Psalm,

Psalms 17:15 – As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

There is a true, genuine hope from the grave, and the emblems which we are about to partake symbolize and are a memorial to how that was made possible and how we attached ourselves to this hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:14-16 – For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  (15)  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  (16)  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

By being dying, being buried, and resurrected in Christ through baptism, we are guaranteed resurrection. David knew that he would be raised from the slumber of death, and in his case, it’s been revealed that he will be immortalized because he was faithful. But for you and I who still have life to live, the only thing the saints are guaranteed is a resurrection. As to the sentence we’ll receive when we stand before our loving and merciful Master, we make that answer now.

Psalms 146:1-5 – Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.  (2)  While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.  (3)  Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.  (4)  His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.  (5)  Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: