what the Scriptures are most interested in in terms of the how question of our death. Is what will the state of our souls be? When we pass from this planet. We don't like to think about dying. Yet death is a certainty.
This is Renewing Your Mind, the daily Bible teaching podcast from Ligonier Ministries.
Okay. You likely know that the title of this program, Renewing Your Mind, comes from Romans chapter 12. And it's a reminder that Christians should strive to align our thinking with the truth revealed in Scripture. And this includes the way we think about death and dying.
So how should Christians think about death? How should we die according to God's word? This is the topic we'll be exploring today as we hear a message from RC Sprolls series Surprise by Suffering. We'll only be in this series for a few more days, but you can continue your study by getting the downloadable version of this series in the Ligonir app and a digital study guide. Just go to renewingyourmind.org to give.
Now, let's listen as Arcee helps us consider this important topic. It's a cliche in our culture and in our language that. There are two things that we cannot Avoid and they are death and taxes. But I think all of us know. Certain people who have been clever.
Enough, or astute enough, or crooked enough to avoid or evade taxes. But none of us has been able to find a method yet. To evade Das. That's one thing that we understand. As adults, That we are going to die.
If the Lord Tarries And so the question is not if We shall die? And at this point, I'm not even going to address the question, why? We will die. We've already looked at that a little bit. But the two questions I think that haunt all of us are these two.
The questions when? And how? But I notice when I read the scriptures. That when the scriptures talk about the how question of death. It's not so much concerned about whether or not I will die through a heart attack or by an accident or through a gunshot wound or by cancer or some other disease.
But rather, what the scriptures are most interested in in terms of the how question of our death. Is what will the state of our souls be? When we pass from this planet. I remember the last words that my mother ever spoke in this world. I had come home as one of those ironic things that my mother happened to die.
the day that my son was born. Early in the morning, Of that day, our son was born, and I picked my mother up from her job. We went to the hospital, and I showed her this newborn grandson of hers, and she was thrilled beyond words. And I brought her back to her apartment and She said she wanted to retire early that night, she was somewhat tired and And so just before she went into her bedroom to go to sleep, she looked at me and she smiled and she said, You know what? And I said, What?
She said, This is the happiest day of my life. And she went into her bedroom and went to sleep, And died in her sleep. I mean, would you like to die like that? I would certainly like to die. I know of a theological professor at Princeton University who had a distinguished career for many, many years.
And the story is that he was out for his afternoon constitutional. He was walking down the street in Princeton and just quietly slumped over. And left this planet. Was over just like that. And I thought, I wonder if it goes with a profession.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if this is the way God has ordained that theologians would die? Because that's how I would like to die. But my mother died peaceably. without suffering, without struggling, saying, This is the happiest day of my life. Those were her last words.
But when the scriptures talk again, as I said, about the how of Beth. They're concerned about What our relationship is to God At the moment we breathe our last. I would tell a little story here about two men. Who had the same last name? Their last name is Graham.
A few months ago I received a letter from my professor of theology that I had in seminary, and he was reporting in that letter. About a mutual friend that we had whose name was Tom Graham. Tom was a clergyman in the northern part of the United States and had been sick for the last couple of years. with cancer. And I got this note from my professor, and he said, I just wanted to write to let you know.
The Tom Graham Passed away this week. And then he wrote one more sentence. in this note. He said. The Tom.
Died. See, my theological professor wasn't concerned about whether or not Tom was going to die through heart failure. Through suffocation. Through whatever medical cause of death there might be, the how question that my professor was concerned about was: would this man die in faith? And to say this was to echo a statement that is made again throughout the Scriptures about heroic persons whose lives are set forth before us in the pages of the Bible when the scriptures say of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of David, these all died in faith.
That is, they were people, men and women. Who trusted God, not for a moment or not when it was convenient. But for the long haul. Up to the very point. of their deaths.
Now the other man named Graham, I'm sure You've all heard of. His name is Billy Graham. And this past summer I had to speak in North Carolina. And I had an opportunity that I never thought would happen to me. to have dinner.
With Billy Graham. And I was impressed, first of all, by how big he is. Have you ever seen Billy Graham in person? I mean, Uh wow, he he was just Huge fellow there, and I'm not all that big. And we were sitting at the dinner table and talking over certain things.
And I said, You know, Dr. Graham. There's something I'll always remember about your ministry, something that stuck in my mind that I'd like to ask you about. And he said, What's that? I said, When I was in college, as a freshman in college, there were a group of us fellows that were gathered in the rec room of our dormitory, and we'd been playing ping-pong pool, and whatever else college freshmen play.
and the T V was on over in the corner and the big deal of that night that the press was making something of a sensation over was that Billy Graham was going to appear on national television on the Jack Parr Show.
Now imagine it. Jack Parr and Billy Graham. I mean, that just didn't seem to fit together very well. And I thought. Goodness sakes, Jack Parr is such a master of repartee and witticism and jocularity.
He's never serious for a second. How in the world is Billy Graham going to relate to an interview By Jack Parr.
Well, we watched it and as soon as Billy came out and was introduced, Jack Parr started messing around and playing all kinds of games and joking and keeping Billy Graham as far as arm's length as he could about anything serious about religion. And right in the middle of all the jokes, Billy just stopped and looked him straight in the eye and said, Jack, Have you settled things with God? You know, he started right in on it. You know, I thought he was going to say, look, Jack, if you came on a bus, it'll wait, you know? And they're going to sing a couple more choruses of Just As I Am without One Play.
But I was, I just couldn't believe that Billy Graham would have the presence of mind. On national television. In a very polite And yet straightforward way He sort of socked it to Jack Barr. And so on this occasion last summer, when I had this opportunity to have dinner with Doctor Graham, I said. You know, that really left an impression on me.
And I... Wondered Whatever happened to Jack Barr His star had a meteoric rise, and then he sort of faded from the scene. Johnny Carson came and took his place. He said, Whatever happened to Jack Parr, did you maintain a relationship with him? And I'll tell you why.
It stuck in my mind. Because when the scriptures talk about death, they really are only concerned about two ways of dying. The scripture says there are those who die in faith, and it also refers to those who die. There. Sin.
Those are some of the most tragic words that you'll read on the pages of Holy Writ. To say that somebody died in their semi-well are centers. And there's a certain sense in which we all die in our sins. But the distinction here that the Scripture is making is At the time of our death, have we or have we not ever? settled things.
Most God. What the scripture means about somebody dying in their sins is that it describes that person. who up until the very last moment of their lives, until they pass over the line, they refuse They absolutely refuse. To submit. To their Creator.
I had an uncle. I mean, I had an uncle who was one of the roughest, toughest guys in all the world. He was a laborer. We used to call him meat muscles. He had muscles, and he looked like a page out of a streetcar named Desar when he would come into our house with the old-fashioned sweatshirt and the muscles bulging, his fingernails all black and grimy.
And when I decided to go into the ministry, my uncle just about had apoplexy. I might as well, I might have told him I had a sex change operation. He said that. You know, for him, anybody that went in the ministry had to be a bona fide sissy and had just completely abandoned all hopes of manhood. And he said, Oh, you're going to wear your color around backwards and wear a little dress and all.
And he just He rode me unmercifully. He contracted a fatal disease. And in the last days of his life. I mean the last weeks of his life when I would go to see him. He would still laugh and mock.
The Sings of God than my profession, but I knew he loved me. I mean, that was that always came through, all of the fooling around and And so on. I don't remember the day. I was in his bedroom. Things were rough for him.
And I said to him, Are you ready? To meet God. And he looked at me, and all the joking stopped, and he said. No. And the tears came and he said But I want to be.
Tell me about it. And I had one of those. Rare. And unspeakably precious experiences. was a dying man.
And he got things settled. And I know that my uncle. Died. In faith. I told Aunt the Billy Graham, and I said.
What about Jack Parr? He said, RC, I don't know. Where Jack Parr is right now with his faith. But we're still in touch. And we stay in touch.
He said it's my prayer. Then when Jack parrs, time comes. That he will die in faith.
Well, I've already told you my mother's last words, This is the happiest day of my life. And those are words that I remember with great joy. And confidence. It's not the same way with my father's. Last words?
When I was 14 years old, my father was stricken with a stroke that was severe. And that stroke left him paralyzed in half of his body. His one side was virtually useless. He couldn't use his arm. He couldn't use his leg and his his mouth drooped.
His speech was impaired and he lost the vision in one side, one eye. And with that devastating stroke, it was the end of his career, it was the end of his. income. And the doctors told him, and told my mother at that time, that there was no cure for the problem. that he had And that he would slowly Die.
Well, it took him three years to die, and he had three more strokes. in the course of that time before he finally did die. And he spent the last three years of his life confined to a chair. In the den, of our home. There's an overstuffed chair.
And he had weights there on his legs, and he had this great big magnifying glass that he used for the one good eye he had. And all he did in those last three years was to sit there and read the Bible, which was somewhat surprising to me because he wasn't a particularly religious fellow. And I had no understanding of the Christian faith at that time. I was as pagan as a young boy could be and as secular. Our family was not, as I said, a deeply religious family by any means.
But in those last three years, my father began to think about. The ultimate meaning of life. and he began to read the book. And he used that magnifying glass.
Well, we had a sort of a ritual that went on. Is you know, when a man is paralyzed and loses his position of earning a livelihood and And taking care of his family, that's that's extremely difficult emotionally. From man. And As a matter of dignity to my father, he wanted to be able to sit at the dining room table, at the head of the table, every night at dinner time.
Now to get him from the den. Up through the living rooms, up the stairs. It was a sunken den, a couple stairs up into the living room, then into the dining room, was a Herculean task. But it was my task, and I have to say It was my delight. To be able to do this one thing every day.
to contribute to my father's dignity. When time came for dinner. I went into the den. and I got myself in front of his chair, sort of hunkered down, And I took his two arms and took them and put them around my neck and squeezed them together at the wrists, and then sort of got up in a sort of a semi fireman's carry, got him on my back, and dragged him as it were, out to the dining room table, and so then sat him down in that chair at the head of the table, and he sat there with this useless one side and sat with the family every single night in his seat, the head of the house, for three years.
Well At the end of this three year period. After dinner The dishes were cleared, and And I went back to the end of the table and I Got him around my neck again and started back towards the dent. Instead of just passing through the living room, he asked me to stop. He said he wanted to sit down on the couch in the living room, and so I sat him down on the couch. I said, What's the matter?
And he said, I have something to say. I have to understand he spoke in very garbled words. It was difficult to understand him, but He said these words to me. He said, Son. I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race. I have cut the planes.
Now, friends, I had no idea. Were those words? came from. I had no idea what their biblical and theological meaning. was about.
But as uninitiated in religion as I was at that point in my life, now I'm seventeen when this is going on, and he's saying those words to me, I understood exactly what my dad was saying. My Dad was saying to me. It's over. I'm going to die now. And as a matter of fact, those words that he uttered that night were the last words he ever spoke in this world.
Because within an hour, he had his fourth stroke, went into a coma, and the next day, he died. It's almost like he made a decision.
Well, today I've had armor-take. I'm going home now. And I'm telling you goodbye, son. And I want you to learn. How to die.
I don't know if he taught me how to live. But I sure hope he taught me how to die. It wasn't for a couple of years after that that I became a Christian. In my virgin reading. Of the New Testament.
It's a long way through the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and Romans, and 1 and 2 Corinthians, and all those Pauline epistles and everything. that I came to the second letter of Paul. To his beloved disciple Timothy, and we get to the end where Paul is in prison and he's expecting now to be executed. And we know that he was executed by Nero in 65 AD. And at the end of this correspondence that he has to his young disciple.
He writes these words to Timothy, For I am already being poured out. Like a drink offering. And the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith. And I saw those words, I said, those were the words. Those are the last words.
Now I understand what my dad was trying to tell me. On his deathbed. And then I understood, ladies and gentlemen. That my Father Died. In faith.
That's how he died. But what does that mean? What does it mean to die in faith? Faith is a word that has become so cheap. In our culture.
It's almost become a word that that conjures up Magic and superstition. But the simplest meaning of the word. Faith in New Testament language. Is the work Trust? Which brings this whole circle, doesn't it?
It's one thing to believe in God. It's not a thing to believe God. It's one thing to trust that there is a God. It's another thing to trust God for whatever is and for whatever happens. And what happens to me?
And I notice the way that the apostle brings all these words together. He says, I fought the good fight. Usually, Christians think about fighting as something evil. Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers. We're called to be people who are docile, who are meek, who are humble, not who are belligerent and bellicose, people who are contentious and ready to fight at the drop of a hat.
But there are certain struggles to which we are called, and when we get. A serious illness. God is honored when we fight it tooth and nail. When we fight it as hard as we possibly can fight it, we give it every shot we can. Again, here at MD Anderson, they'll go and ask these physicians, they'll tell you.
They said they can almost predict. Who's going to recover and who isn't? There are those who when they get some of these diseases They just say, I'm going to fight this thing every inch of the way. And their spirit becomes contagious and inspirational to other people. Because the fight that they're engaged in is a good fight.
Then immediately the Apostle changes from the imagery and the language of the contest of fighting to that of a race. And this is something else I noticed about the Christian faith: that anybody can be a Christian for five minutes, or for five hours, or for five days, or for five years. But again, the recurring theme in the scripture is: he who endures to the end. Is the one who experiences redemption. And the race of which the Apostles speak is not a hundred-yard dash, it's a marathon.
It's the kind of race that requires that extra courage to keep going when you don't feel like you have any strength. You know, the thing that Judy Greasy said to me in Miami was, she said, RC, I can't take any more. And I thought about when I joined Weight Watchers. That they have this little hokey little thing that they do when you join this organization, at least in Florida. They give you a soda straw.
They hand that out to you the first night. You say, What's that? I said, You take that home and you put it on your refrigerator. And I say, Well, what is that? They say, That's the straw that breaks the camel's back.
That every time you look at that straw, you ask yourself what it was that made you come in here and decide to go on this diet. The last straw is what it was. And I thought of the image of the camel, that beast of burden that's loaded down with all of this straw that they had to carry. And there's a certain point at which the camel just can't take one more piece of straw, one more piece of straw, and that camel collapses. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know where that last piece is for me, and I don't know where it is for you.
And even Judy Gruisi didn't know. She said, I can't take anymore. And God gave her 30 more days. Take. And she took it.
She finished the course. And she kept. The face. That's how I want to die. I wanna die.
Trust in God. I wanna die. without abandoning hope, In him. The New Testament tells us that the just shall live by faith. But it also tells us that the just She'll die.
In face. To live well, we need the truth of God's Word. and we also need his word to die well. Thanks be to God who gave us His word, that we may have sure hope in both life and in death. You've been listening to the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
I'm so glad you could join us for this study today, and I hope it was helpful for you. If you want to continue exploring on this topic, or if maybe you know someone who is suffering, then you can receive downloadable access to this series in the Liginear app and a digital study guide. Just go to renewingyourmind.org to give.
And thank you for supporting this program. What lies on the other side of the grave? That's the important question that RC Sproll will help us explore tomorrow here. on Renewing Your Mind.
