Now in the Book of Ecclesiastes at chapter 12, I want to read you the account of a funeral procession of a man going to his long home. "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened.
"And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it" (Ecclesiastes 12:1-7).
Last Lord's Day I spoke to you on "Sudden Death." Today I want to speak to you on "Watching Men Die." I have watched men die. It is an awful thing to watch men die, to watch men die screaming, to watch men die afraid not only of what is out yonder on the other side of death, but WHO is out there. I have had men hold on to my hands and scream and beg, "Preacher, don't let me go to hell." I have had the nurses break the fingers of the dead man (this sounds silly, but I have) because I would be so overcome I have had them holding my hand and I would forget and hold on until I could not get my fingers out of theirs. And they have died – they have died with the hobgoblins of the past crawling upon their beds. They have died looking to me, but they died afraid. I have watched men die.
In my early ministry, a little over 31 years ago, I went to the world's largest oil town that just sprung up in a cow pasture. In a little while there were 50,000 people there crawling over one another's backs to see which could get to hell the quickest. I was the only preacher there for 16 months, and I watched men die. For 16 months I preached on an average of three funerals in one day. I was just a boy 23 years old, and I lived with death. I lived in the county hospital where the old folks would be sent, you know, and there to rot and die, and when they were dying they would call for the preacher. I lived in the houses of ill fame and the saloons where men would get shot and poor women would get shot or die of disease, and just before they died they would call for the preacher, and the preacher would come, and there they would look up into my face. They would want me to pray for them, but it would be too late to pray then.
In those days I had something impressed on my soul. I guess that is the reason I have been a hitchhiking evangelist all my life. I just can't settle down. I want to tell everybody I can just one time, "Brother, you have got to die!" You are going to be afraid to die! But you just wait until the rattle of death is in your throat and the dew of death is on your brow, and you will be afraid to die. I would rather be the kind of preacher the folks curse while they are getting along fine but call for when they die than anything this side of God's heaven.
I have watched men die. Oh, I wish we could face the fact that men do die. We live like we are going to live forever. Men live like they don't have any soul. Men live like there isn't any God, but when they come to die, those men who have lived that way know there is a God, and they know that out yonder they have got to meet Him, and they call for the preacher. Watching men die! Yes, watching men die! My text says, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was [that is, physical death], and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it. "That is the second death.
I saw a cartoon one day of a very busy, wealthy businessman, who was sitting at his desk on Monday morning getting ready for the week's business. A shrouded figure came through the locked door and tapped him on the shoulder and said, "I have come for you." The man was very busy and said, "Get away; I can't be disturbed now." But the shrouded visitor tapped him on the shoulder again and said, "But I have come for you." But the businessman, still not concerned, said, "Now please don't bother me. Go away; I am very busy." The shrouded figure said, "I am death, and I have come for you"; and the businessman said, "I haven't got time to die." But the shrouded figure repeated, "Well, anyhow I have come for you." The businessman argued, "But I have not made any preparation to die." Again the shrouded figure said, "I have come for you." The cartoon ended with the shrouded figure picking the fellow up by the nape of the neck and dragging him out to death.
Oh, men die! Men die! The screams of dying men! If it were not for the goodness of doctors and nurses using dope and medicine to ease the pain of people, New Orleans would be one great mass of screaming people in the hospitals and on beds of affliction, in the jails and houses of ill fame. If there was not something being taken to relieve their awful pain, that would be all you could hear. You could not even hear the exhaust of the cars or the honk of the horn for the screams of dying men and women all over this city, or all over the city where you live. Men die.
There is a cemetery on every comer. In New York City they have to bury people six deep, and I understand they do something like that in New Orleans. Brother, those old men like Richard Baxter who said, "I preach to dying men as a dying man," knew what they were facing. I wish I could scream out in radio land to every child of God that you are living in a dying world, and dead men walk the streets. Some of them live in your homes, and they are dead to God. After a while their breath is going to cease, and God is not going to give them that next breath. All that will be left of what we call "them" will go back to the earth from whence it came. But that won't be the last of it, because when a man dies physically, if he has not repented, if he has not laid hold on Jesus Christ, when he dies physically, he goes out into the hands of the God Who breathed life into him and made him a living soul. Hebrews 9:27: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
I remember Dixie. Dixie was the queen of the dance hall girls in my oil field town. When she came to die, she was just 23 years old. She had already been married seven times, and was now living, of course, in sin with an eighth man. I remember when Dixie sent somebody to me and said she wanted the preacher to tie the knot, that she was going to get married again. I sent word back that I would not marry her. She got so mad; she came to see me and said, "It is some note when a girl wants to be decent and the preacher won't tie the knot." I said, "Dixie, you can go get somebody else to tie the knot, but I don't want to have anything to do with it." I said, "You can't get married in the sight of God."
I remember when Dixie called for me later. She had been on the dance floor, and she was dancing with some man, and another fellow came and tried to take her out of the arms of the other man. They got into a scuffle and somebody pulled the trigger, and instead of shooting the man, the bullet went into the vitals of Dixie. They carried her into her bedroom there. There was no use to take her to the hospital. They summoned the doctor and the nurse, and in a little while my phone rang and someone said, "Preacher, Dixie is dying and she is calling for you." I went. When I went, the doctor was gone and the nurse was there. She said, "Preacher, you can come on it; we have done all we can. There is no hope for Dixie." I went over and sat by the bed. I said, "Dixie, this is the preacher and you sent for me. What do you want, Dixie?
Oh," she said, "Preacher, don't let me go to hell." I said, "Dixie, I wish I could keep you out of hell, but I can't keep you out of hell." She said, "Preacher, won't you pray for me?" I said, "Dixie, I'm afraid it is too late to pray now." I said, "God never has saved anybody unless they were brought to repent and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."
Isn't it a shame to wait until the death dew is upon you, and you want somebody to say a little magic word and pray for you and think God will ignore everything that He is and save you! No, He wouldn't do that apart from you turning from your sins to Him and laying hold of Jesus Christ. And so she said, "Well, Preacher, how do you do that?" – and the best I could I sat by her bedside in that late midnight hour when I could almost see death in her face. I preached unto her the Law and the Gospel, and when I finished, Dixie turned (I don't know how she had strength enough to do it) and faced the wall, and great racking sobs filled the room – I thought they would tear her body in pieces; great racking sobs came from Dixie's throat. In a little while she turned back and looked into my face, and 1 saw hell. Brother, I saw hell! Oh, I saw hell! And as I demanded that she repent right then and there, Dixie screamed out of that croaking voice, "Preacher, I can't repent. I can't repent." And God help me! She died as she said that last, "I can't repent."
My soul! This business of repenting is not as easy to do as it is to talk about, even when you are in the fulness of your health, but when death's dew is upon you, and the gurgle of death is in your throat, it is a mighty late time to try to get around to the business of tearing yourself off the throne of your life and enthroning Christ Jesus as your Lord. I carry the memory of Dixie's beautiful face around with me, and sometimes, please God, I wake up in the night, and I hear that croaking voice, "Preacher, I can't repent; I can't repent!" The last words that girl ever said here on this earth before her body began to rot, and her spirit went back into the hands of God Who gave it – the last words she ever said, "I can't repent! I can't repent!"
You have heard the truth; you have heard it! You have written in that you are lost. Well, if you are, for God's sake and your soul's sake, don't dilly-dally about it any more while there is space given for repentance. Do it now! You say, "Preacher, I can't." For God's sake, do it anyhow! Do it anyhow. Reach in there into that heart of yours, and tear that old self off the throne and stamp it with your feet, and crown Christ Jesus the God and Saviour and Lord of your life, because if you die in the flesh, brother, that is not the last of you. The flesh goes back to earth from whence it came, but you can't go back there. No, you don't go back there! You go into the hands of God Who shall one day visit you with the stroke that is called in the Bible "the second death."
Let me talk to you a little while this morning about that second death. This is the death of the spirit. Oh, God can't get rid of you. God breathed into you and you became a living soul. Even God can't do away with you. He can't annihilate you. He can't burn you up. Oh, what is God going to do with you if you die never having repented toward God and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, they will take your physical body out here and cover it up with six feet of earth so it won't corrupt the air with its foulness, but that won't be YOU, for all the time they are having that funeral service around your rotting body, you will be in the hands of God. One day He is going to drag you out of hell and bring you to the judgment, and you will look there in the face of the One Whose face while here was marred because of His suffering for you. You will see those eyes that pierce so terribly, and you will hear that One as He deals with you, for I tell you the Scriptures speak and say that the second death will hurt. It will hurt. Listen to Revelation 2:11: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; he that overcometh shall not be HURT of the second death."
The second death, the stroke of God's judgment, will hurt. It will hurt! I read in the Book of the Revelation, chapter 20: "And death and hell were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death." Now the Scriptures say three things about this second death that you are facing, my sinner friend.
1. It is eternal banishment from the presence of Almighty God. Oh, there is a sense in which all men are without God now, but you are not without His goodness –you are not without His mercy – you are not without His protection – you are not without His kindness – you are not without His Providence. But when God Almighty brings you to the judgment and fixes to send you away, you will be sent away not simply from the goodness and the grace and mercy of God, but from the very presence of God. I read in the Word of God in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9: "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." Taking vengeance! Punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord! From the presence of the Lord!
There is that majestic scene depicted for us in Matthew 25:41 when our Lord Jesus Christ shall say, "Depart from Me" – get away from Me! He Who extended His hands when He was here and little children ran and climbed into His arms, then He blessed them – He Whom the common people heard gladly and the old religious people said of Him, "This Man receiveth sinners" – I read where that same Blessed Lord shall say to people, "Get away from Me. Get away from Me. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Oh, yes, the second death is eternal. Eternal! For ever and ever and ever and ever! Eternal banishment from the presence of the Lord.
2. In the second place, I read in the Word of God that the second death means eternal dying and never dying. I don't understand that, but Mark 9:49 reads: "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." You will burn and yet will never burn up. You will suffer and yet your suffering will never come to an end. You will die and yet you will never die. Oh, my soul, a state of eternal death! Dying all the time and yet never dying! Suffering all the time and no surcease from your suffering! Death! Death! Death! Death! Death! That is hell. That is the second death.
3. In the third place, I read in the Bible that the second death is to be cast into the Lake of Fire. To be cast into the Lake of Fire. You know, my friend, you are not going into that Lake of Fire willingly. No, sir! Oh, my soul, if you burn forever in the Lake of Fire somebody will have to cast you there, and the Lord Jesus Christ has taken upon Himself the authority and the responsibility of casting men and women into the Lake of Fire. No wonder the Bible talks about men screaming and wailing. I warn you now, it's not going to be so funny. Brother, people are making fun of my God now and the Name which is above every name, the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, which today has become a nice comfortable, everyday respectable curse word in so-called Christian America.
I warn you that when you face Him, He has been given judgment over all mankind and authority to execute it. His business is that of saying to men, "Get away from Me," and the business of taking men with His angels of might and casting them into the Lake of Fire. I tell you, it won't be so funny then! I warn you, that is the penalty of sin!
I was in another state and one night after the preaching service (it was in the North and the Yankee people like to take you out for coffee and cake after you preach) one of the deacons said, "Brother, will you come out with me for a little refreshment? I have an experience that I think you ought to hear." We went to his home and had the inevitable coffee and cake. Then he said, "You know, as you were preaching tonight, I thought I would like to share with you an experience that might help you when preaching." He said, "As you know, I am a guard in death row in the state penitentiary. I have been a guard in death row, standing over the people that have been brought out of the main cell and brought down to the cells on either side of a little narrow path that leads to a door that opens upon the gas chamber and the electric chair. I have seen hundreds of people electrocuted or put in a gas chamber, and it is my job for eight hours a day, five days a week, to work as a guard of some of those prisoners sitting there counting off the seconds and the moments until the executioner comes to lead them out through that door and seat them in a chair and burn them up in this life and send them out into eternity."
He said, "Perhaps you remember reading about Mrs. So and So. She had been accused of murdering about 12 husbands, and whether she was guilty or not, she had been tried and convicted. She was sitting there in death row waiting the time of execution." I remembered the newspapers had picked it up, and thousands of dollars had been raised to get her a new trial, but all to no avail. He said, "You know, Brother Barnard, that was the vilest, foulest mouth I have ever heard. She would curse and use such terrible expressions that hardened criminals sitting there in death row waiting to be killed would call for the guard and he would bring them cotton so they could stuff their ears with it. Even those hardened criminals just could not stand the language that woman used to curse the governor and the president, and to curse God and her mother and father, and curse everybody."
This guard said, "I will never forget as long as I live the day they came and shaved her on the appointed places on her body, and she knew it was time, and they told her that her last appeal was to no avail. She began to curse. Finally, with another guard, it came time to unlock the door of her cell and go in. We each grabbed her by an arm and started along that little walk toward the execution chamber." He said, "As we were walking along we weren't guarding very carefully, and with one great effort she threw us off and ran back into her cell, and got like a little child in one comer on her knees." He said, "If I ever heard anything that was pitiful, I heard it from that poor woman. All her cursing was gone now. She was over there just like a little child huddled in the corner saying, 'Please don't kill me. Please don't kill me.' Over and again she cried, 'Please don't kill me!' She had superhuman strength, and it took four of us guards to take her – two got her arms and two her legs, and we carried her like a pig to the slaughter. As we carried her down that corridor, all you heard from her was, 'Please don't kill me!'"
He said, "We sat her down by main strength and awkwardness in that electric chair and held her until they strapped her legs and arms and put the cap with the electricity on her head, and she died like a little child saying, 'Please don't kill me!' Preacher, I wonder if it will be that way when poor sinners are being cast into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone? No wonder they will be screaming. All the bravado will be gone. Gone!" And sinners will be CAST – God help us – God's Son will cast them, will cast them as they plead, into the Lake of Fire!