How to Smile at Death

Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ, and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here's Adrian Rogers. Take God's word and find Psalm 23 and verse four. Psalm 23 and verse four.

Now I suppose that Psalm 23 is known better than any other psalm in all of the Bible, and I suppose that verse four is quoted perhaps more than any other verse in that psalm. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. A little lady had walked with God for many, many years. She was a saint by every measure of the word.

At last, her body grew frail, and her life was ebbing away. And she was on what many would call her deathbed, and her loved ones were around her, and they were wringing the hands, and they were crying, and they were weeping, and she looked up at them. She said, "Now, go ahead and cry if you must, but she said, 'Don't cry for me.' She said, 'I am tickled to death to die. I like that, tickled to death.'" To die, I want to talk to you today about how to smile at death, how to smile at death, how to be tickled to death, to die.

Now, death is not a popular subject. As a matter of fact, when you mention death, people will change the subject like they switch channels on the TV set. We've done everything we can do to avoid thinking about death. Man is the only creature who knows he's going to die. And he's trying desperately to forget it.

We're trying to do everything we can do to obscure the fact that we're winding down to the grave, and even the graves, the burial places, we make them look like a memorial park or a a garden of some kind. We don't like the idea of dying. But death is a very real fact, as we're going to see, and it's something that we're not to be afraid of. Really, it's something that we are to anticipate.

Now, David had that in mind, I'm certain, when he wrote this wonderful, beautiful psalm, and especially verse four, he spoke of a valley called the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and there is such a valley in the land of Palestine. There is a valley called the Valley of the Shout of Death. If you were to go there, you could seek it out. It starts up between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, up about two thousand seven hundred feet above sea level, and there is a little spring that comes out of the hillside there, and it starts a little rivulet. And sometimes it's full of water, and the water casts cage down.

Sometimes there's just a trickle that goes through it. But over the centuries, it has cut a ravine, a chasm, if you will, a little Grand Canyon in those Judean hills. It starts up there and it flows down, down, down, down, down, thirteen hundred feet below sea level to the Dead Sea. This ravine, this canyon. That is called the Valley of the Shadow of Death, because it is so narrow that at the bottom, in some places, it's only about twelve feet wide, and even at high noon, it's always full of shadows, and there are caves there, and shadowy places there, and in Bible times there were bears there, and hyenas there.

And leopards there, and there were robbers, and there were steep places where sheep might fall, and it was a frightening place with the grotesque shadows on the canyon walls. And the shepherds had named it the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It was a very useful canyon, a very useful valley, in the winter time. When there was not much grass, the shepherds would take the sheep down to Jericho, and there the sheep would winter at Jericho and feed there in that lush grass that would grow even at winter time. And then, when the spring would come, and the Judean hills would grow bright with that verdant color of green, and the and the flowers would come out and dot the hillside, the shepherd would lead his sheep through that valley to greener pastures in the highlands.

And that surely is what David had in mind when David wrote this beautiful psalm. Because David himself, as a shepherd, doubtless had many times led his sheep through that valley, the valley of the shadow of death. And David said, "The Lord is to me what I've been to my sheep. The Lord is my shepherd, and yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. David had learned to smile at death, and I want you to learn to smile at death.

And I want to give you three principles that will help you to do that. Number one, number one, I want you to accept death. As a decided fact, f a c t fact, it is a fact.

Now notice how that verse begins. Yay, y e a, not nay. Yay, yay. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Now, as I said, that's the fact that many people don't want to face. We sometimes try to change the subject, but the Bible says in Hebrews nine verse twenty-seven, "It's appointed unto man, once to die." That's an appointment, my dear friend, that you have. It is appointed unto man once to die, and the same Bible says in Romans chapter five and verse twelve, "Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin." So death passed upon all men, for that all have sin. The only exception to whether or not you might die is if Jesus comes first. But if Jesus does not come first, you're certainly going to die.

There's a new statistic out on death: one out of one people die.

Okay, one out of one.

So pointed on the man wants to die, but not only is it a stubborn fact; it's an uncertain fact. You don't know when you're going to die. You see, David said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley," he's walking through the valley, and he doesn't know from one moment to the next what is going to happen. The psalmist said, "There is but a step between me and death. There is but a step between me and death.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it is a stubborn fact." But it is an uncertain fact. You don't know when you're going to die. Old men die, but sometimes mothers kiss their helpless babies and the innocent babies goodbye and leave them.

Sometimes even a little child must drop his toys to grapple with the iron strength of death. I must preach, dear friend, as a dying man would preach to dying men, because I don't know. This may be the last sermon I'll ever preach. It may be the last sermon you'll ever hear. I don't know.

You don't know. Many a time I preached the last sermon a person has heard before that person died. And so, in the book of James, verse thirteen and fourteen, go to now, ye that say today or tomorrow, we'll enter into such and such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? But even a vapor.

That appeareth for a little while, and then vanisheth away.

So that you ought to say, "If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that." You see, God doesn't have to take your life; all He has to do is stop giving it. You understand that? It's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. Life is a gift from God. If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.

Your life is like a Is like a vapor on a frosty morning, like a breath on a frosty morning. Here for a moment and then gone. You see, listen. Accept death as a decided fact. It is a stubborn fact.

It is an uncertain fact. I tell you what else it is. It's a personal fact. Yea, though I walk, I walk, not they walk. I walk.

You are walking in the valley of the shadow of death, just like David was.

Well, you know when a preacher talks about people getting ready to die. You know what happens in the human mind. You know what the human mind says. Tell them, preacher. Tell them they're going to die.

Tell them to get ready. Tell them that they may die at any moment. Friend, you may die at any moment. You say, well, I'm healthy right now. You may not be as healthy as you think.

But you know automobiles run over healthy people. Also, death, my dear friend, is a stubborn fact. Death is an uncertain fact, and death is a personal fact. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and step number one in learning to smile at death is to look death straight in the face. Look death straight in the face.

Think about it. Bring it into focus, and say with David, Yea. Though, it's there. Yes, it's there. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

Now, there's something else I want you to do. Number two, not only do I want you to accept death as a decided fact, but I want you to acknowledge death as a defeated foe, as a defeated foe. Yea. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Three wonderful truths there as we think about death as a defeated foe.

First of all, he talks about a valley.

Now learn this: there can be no valley without mountains. Isn't that true? It's impossible. It's impossible for there to be a valley unless there are mountains. And you see, this is the valley psalm between two mountain psalms.

Psalm 22 is a mountain psalm; it deals with Mount Calvary and it tells of the crucifixion of Messiah. And then Psalm 24 is a mountain psalm; it deals with the coronation of Messiah. It deals with the second coming.

So Psalm 23 is a valley between two mountains. Over here are the blood-drenched slopes of Mount Calvary, and over here are the sunlit peaks of Mount Zion, and over here we have crucifixion, and over here we have coronation, and we are living in the valley. Remember, we said that the Lord Jesus Christ is described as a shepherd three times in the New Testament. For example, the Lord Jesus is called the Good Shepherd. John ten verse eleven.

I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Now, the Good Shepherd. That's Mount Calvary, and then the Lord Jesus is called the Chief Shepherd. First Peter chapter five verse four, and when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory. That fadeth not away. The good shepherd died for me.

The chief shepherd is coming for me. But then also the Lord Jesus is called the great shepherd, and that's the one who now lives for me. Hebrews 13 verses 20 and 21.

Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep. You see, he's the one who rose from the dead. He's the one who has conquered the valley. Of the shadow of death, the good shepherd he died for me. The chief shepherd he's coming for me.

The great shepherd he lives for me in the valley of the shadow of death. He was raised from the dead. And so what I'm trying to tell you, my dear friend, if you want to learn how to smile at death, understand number one, there can be no valley without mountains. Thank God, I'll lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. Are you down in the valley?

Then look at the mountains, my dear friend. Look. Look, I say to Mount Calvary, and look to Mount Zion. Second thing, second thing. There can be no shadow without a light.

Notice what it says: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." Now, death is just a shadow if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, because Jesus has become the death of death. You see, Jesus pulled the sting out of death. Jesus took the gloom out of the grave. Jesus took the dread out of dying, and Jesus has given us a hope that is steadfast and sure. A shadow may frighten you, but a shadow cannot hurt you.

Joyce and I took a walk the other morning. We go for morning walks, and we were walking there along Grove Park. It was early in the morning; the sun was coming up, and the automobiles were going down Grove Park, 25, 35, 40 miles an hour. They were coming down Grove Park, and Joyce and I were walking north, and the cars were coming past, and the sun was making the shadow of the cars to come right down the sidewalk there. And as we were walking down there, the shadow of those cars kept hitting us and running over us.

Bang! One would hit. Bang! Another would hit. Oh, it hurt when those shadows would run over me.

Oh, it was terrible. You say, "Now wait a minute, Pastor. The shadow couldn't hurt you, and you're exactly right, dear friend.

Now, if the automobile had hit me, that's one thing. There can be no shadow without a substance. But all we were doing was being hit by shadows, and it was kind of humorous to see those shadows come and run over us. And you see, God made us to walk through shadows.

Now, listen. There cannot be a shadow without a light. There was a great, great preacher whose wife died when she was still a very young woman." Left a little girl in the family. The little girl didn't understand all of the intricacies about life and death and Jesus dying for our sins and all of that. But after the funeral, one day the the father was downtown.

They were doing some shopping. The little girl was in the car and she looked over on the wall of a department store, and saw the shadow of a truck. The shadow was even larger than the truck because the sun was setting low in the west and it made a huge shadow on the department store wall. The little girl said, "Daddy, look at the big shadow of the truck." And he thought, right then, I'm going to teach her a lesson. And he said, "Sweetheart, if you had your choice, would you rather be hit by the shadow of the truck, or had you rather be hit by the truck?" Oh, she said, "Daddy, that's easy.

I'd much rather be hit by the shadow of that truck than to be hit by that truck." He said, "That's right, darling." He said, "It was only the shadow that hit Mama." The truck hit Jesus two thousand years ago at Calvary. Tremendous lesson. The truck hit Jesus. Jesus has taken the sting out of sin, the dread out of the grave. Jesus has become our victor, and there cannot be a shadow unless there's a light.

Let me give you some verses here. I found these. What a blessing! Isaiah 9:2. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light, and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them.

Hath the light shine? There's no shadow without a light. Are you in the valley of the shadow of death right now? Look to the light, and I'll tell you, my dear friend, if you look to the light, the shadow will fall behind you. You won't even see it.

Look to the light. There is no valley without mountains, and there is no shadow without a light.

So, third thing I want you to learn, as you see death as a defeated foe. And that is this: there is no evil without a greater good. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me. This time now, he is comparing the evil with the great Shepherd, the great Shepherd of the sheep. Who is the Thou?

Who is he talking to?

Well, remember how this psalm begins: "The Lord is my shepherd." And if you have the old King James version of the scripture, the word "Lord" L O R D is in all caps because that word "Lord" means Jehovah. Or as some would say, Yahweh. Actually, it's an unpronounceable word, just four consonants that cannot be pronounced. We pronounce it as best we know how, Jehovah. But actually, Yahweh, or the Lord, is my shepherd.

It was the most sacred name for God that the Jews knew. When Moses was getting ready to deliver the children of Israel out of bondage, he made excuses. He said, "I can't go; they won't believe me. Who shall I say sent me?" God said to Moses, "Moses, you tell them that I am. That I am sent you.

That is, I am the great eternal personal God, the ever-existing One, the One who never had a beginning, the One who never had an ending. Not I was, not I will be, but I am." You tell them that I am sent you, and then he said, "You tell them Jehovah is my name. Jehovah is my name." That name Jehovah is not mentioned in the New Testament, only in the Old. Why? Because Jesus is our Jehovah.

Let me tell you what happened. That name was so sacred that a Jew copying that name would go take a bath. Before he would copy that name, get a new pen. Before he would write down that name, that holy name, Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah. But you know what the name Jesus means?

It means Jehovah saves. Jehovah saves. You remember when Moses could no longer lead the children of Israel? He had a man named Joshua who took his place. Joshua.

But Joshua's name wasn't always Joshua. His name was Hoshea. Hoshea, that was his name, and his name Hoshea means salvation. Moses said, "I'm going to give you a new name, and I'm going to take Hoshea, a part of that name, and I'm going to take a part of the name Jehovah, and I'm going to put them together, and then so you have Jehoshua, Joshua." And I'm going to put Jehovah and Hosea, and I put them together, and I get a new name. Jehovah saves.

Hoshea, salvation. Jehovah, Jehovah saves, and that was Joshua's name in the Old Testament.

Now, in the New Testament, the name Jesus is the same as the Old Testament name Jehovah. Jehovah, Old Testament. Jesus, New Testament. Both of those names are the same. Jesus is the Joshua of the New Testament.

He is the Jehovah saves of the New Testament. And what was David saying? David saying, "There may be evil, but." Jehovah is with me. How much more can we say it? Jesus, Jehovah is with us.

There can be no valley without mountains. There can be no shadow without a light. Truth is mightier than error. Grace is greater than sin. Our sovereign God is greater than Satan, and life is greater than death.

You've got to understand that. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou, Jehovah, art with me. As a third thing, I want you to learn, and it is this: not only must you see death as a decided fact. And not only must you see death as a defeated foe, but you need to see death as a delightful friend. Pastor, did you say friend, death?

Yes, I said friend. I wanted to change that as I prepared this sermon, and I did change it. I said I'm going to change it to something else because I just don't like calling death a friend. Then I just came back and I said, "No, I'm going to leave that there." Death is a delightful friend. Let me give you an interesting verse, First Corinthians chapter three, verses twenty-two and twenty-three.

The Apostle Paul is telling us what we have in Christ, and the Corinthians had been arguing and squabbling a little bit about what preacher they liked best. And this is what Paul said: whether Paul or Apollos. Or Cephas, or the world, or life.

Now watch this. Or death, are things present, are things to come, all are yours.

Now of the wonderful things he says belongs to us. He says death belongs to us. It's one of our treasured possessions. It's yours. Death is yours.

He thinks of death now not as an enemy, but as a servant to help us. Did you know the Bible says in Psalm one hundred sixteen, verse fifteen, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Did you know that the Apostle Paul said in Philippians one, verse twenty-one, "For me to die is gain." I mean, physically, it's gain. My body is going to be made like the Lord Jesus. Intellectually, it's gain, for I'll know as I am known. Emotionally, it is gain because I'll be able to praise Him with my whole heart.

Socially, it is gain because I will be with the saints of all of the ages and with my Lord face to face. Spiritually, it is gain because temptation and sin will be behind me, and I will be one with my Lord like never before.

Now, what brings me into that relationship? What brings me there is death.

So death is not an enemy if it helps me to come into a place like that. For me to die is gain.

Now listen, see what why David thought of it as a friend.

Now notice what he says: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Now watch, for Thou art with me. First of all, there's the presence of the shepherd. Thou art with me. You know, up until this time, he's been talking about the Lord. The Lord is my shepherd; he maketh me to lie down.

He leadeth me; he restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness. His rod and his staff. But now, when he's in the valleys, no longer talking about him, he's talking to him. Thou art with me.

There's nothing that will bring you face to face with God more than the dark valleys of life. But when you get in the dark valleys of life, you're going to know what He meant when He said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. I will be with thee always, even to the end of the age." There is the presence of the Shepherd.

Now, who is the Shepherd? Jehovah. The ultimate is my intimate. Think about it. Think about.

I won't have to cross Jordan alone. I'm not going to have to die alone. I tell you, when I come to die, our Lord is there with us. The light is there. The Shepherd is there.

There is the presence of my Shepherd. But not only is there the presence of my Shepherd, there is the power of my Shepherd. For His rod and His staff, they comfort me. When you come to die, I can promise you, the Lord will be with you. He will strengthen you.

I mean, there will be the presence Jehovah God, who says, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Will be there? His rod will be there to protect you from all of the powers of evil, and His staff will be there to draw you up close to Him as you walk through that valley, and as your feet touch those chilly waters of the rivers of death. Singing, you can go along your way. But not only is there, my dear friend, the presence of the Shepherd and the power of the Shepherd. There is the purpose of the shepherd, and what is the purpose of the shepherd?

It is through the valley. It's not a box canyon; it's a valley, dear friend. And Jesus has kicked the end out of the grave. I want you to know that. I want you to know that He's bringing us through.

And you may be in some trouble today, and you may be in some difficulty today. But I want to tell you, my dear friend, it's only for a season, and it's only for a purpose. David knew enough about a shepherd to know that a shepherd would never lead his sheep through any place like that unless he's leading them to a better place. Psalm. David knew that the shepherd would never lead his sheep through any place like that unless he was leading them to a better place.

Somebody asked a man, "What's your favorite verse?" He says, "It's that one that says, 'It came to pass.'" So why is that your favorite? He said, "I know it didn't come to stay; it came to pass. Whatever it is, it has come to pass, and we are going through." I love the song that we sang all the way. My Savior leads me. What have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercies? Who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest comfort here by faith in Him to dwell, and I know whatever befall me, Jesus. Doeth all things well. The purpose of the shepherd is to lead us through.

Now, my dear friend, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter two that the devil keeps people in bondage through the fear of death. You listen to me. You are not ready to live until you're no longer afraid to die. You are not ready to live until you're no longer afraid to die. Well, you say, "With my sins, though I'm afraid to die, what shall I do with my sins?" I'll tell you what to do with your sins.

You put your faith where God put your sins on Jesus. Just put your faith where God has put your sins on Jesus. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website lwf.org.

For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call one eight hundred two seven four five six eight three. Thank you.