The Christian Family: Children, Fatherhood, and Generational Faithfulness: The Family

When You Know You're Going to Die

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Family Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2009-07-19

Synopsis: John Weaver examines Numbers 14 and Hebrews 3 to explore what it means to know you are going to die under God's judgment. He explains that God has ordained both the end and the means: obedience generally leads to long life, while disobedience shortens it. The Israelites who provoked God ten times were condemned to die in the wilderness, their carcasses unburied. Weaver applies this to the gospel, warning that those outside Christ will die under judgment, while believers have victory over death through Christ.

[John Weaver] All right, let's open our Bibles into the book of Numbers chapter 14 and also the book of Hebrews chapter 3. Numbers 14 and Hebrews chapter 3. OK. All right. Numbers chapter 14 and then Hebrews chapter 3. We will read Numbers 14 first. The title of the message today is, When You Know You're Going to Die. Of course, I hope you've noticed the last three messages have really been around the book of Numbers, because as I read through the book of Numbers, these three things popped out at me, and so I'm dealing with them today. Notice if you would when you know you're going to die. Numbers 14 verse 21.

[John Weaver] God says as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me now these 10 times and have not hearkened to my voice. Surely they shall not see the land which I swear to their fathers. Neither shall any of them that provoked me see it.

[John Weaver] Skip down to verse 26. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless you shall not come into the land concerning which I swear to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

[John Weaver] But your little ones which you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you search the land, even 40 days each day for a year, you shall bear your iniquities even 40 years and you shall know my breach of promise.

[John Weaver] Now look in Hebrews 3 in verse 17, which refers to this passage. Hebrews 3 in verse 17. The Word of God asked, but with whom was he grieved 40 years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, when you know you're going to die. Have you ever considered what it must be like to know when you're going to die? How about not only knowing when you're going to die, but also how you're going to die? Have you ever thought about some of these men, and women I guess as well, who are on death row? Not only has a date been designated for them to die, But also the method of their death has also been designated. Have you ever wondered what it's like?

[John Weaver] To have to count down. The years, the months, the days and the minutes before one's going to be executed. I wonder what it must be like to know that in 15 minutes. You're either going to be executed by, say, the electric chair or lethal injection. What must it be like to know that within 15 minutes all of your questions concerning God, death and judgment will be answered? Now, in one sense of the word, we all know that we're going to die. Because the Bible declares in Hebrews 9 in verse 27, as it is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment. We know that the wages of sin are death. We know that we were created from the dust of the earth and into the dust we shall return. There is no escape from physical death. As Pilgrim explained in the book Pilgrim's Progress, we must die and stand before God in judgment. And Pilgrim at that time said he was unwilling to do the first, that is to die, and unable to do the second, that is stand before God in judgment.

[John Weaver] And Pilgrim therefore was going around saying, I must die, I must die, I must die. And what a realization when we realize that we must die. How would you like to be like Hezekiah when he heard the words from God As delivered to him by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 38 in verse 1, where God said to King Hezekiah, set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live.

[John Weaver] We know that the Bible teaches us that the wages of sin is death. Now, we also know that we're going to die, and we don't know exactly when we're going to die, but we know about when we're going to die. How can I say that? Well, look in your Bibles, whole Numbers 14, but look in your Bibles to Psalm 90, and look at verse 10. Psalm 90 and verse 10.

[John Weaver] And here the Word of God says this. Psalm 90, verse 10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten. And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." So what God is telling us in Psalm 90 and verse 10 is that the average lifespan is from 70 to 80 years.

[John Weaver] Usually around 70, more or less. If, he says, we make it 80, usually our days are filled with sorrow and sickness. Some, however, do not even make the normal lifespan. Some are cut down in the prime of their life, while others do not even get to begin life.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just tell you that in the Scripture, there are general promises for long life. And there are also general promises for a shortened life as well. I suppose the most famous passage for a long life is found in Exodus 20, verse 12, where Scripture says, Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Now, that same promise is repeated in Ephesians 6, verses 2 and 3, where God said, Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment of the promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth. So here, then, is a promise of long life, and this long life is in relationship to whether or not we honor our parents or not. Now, actually, there are three promises of long life in the Bible.

[John Weaver] I'm going to show them to you. Each one of these promises relate to the very core of our being. The first promise I just mentioned is in reference to our attitude and our action toward our parents. We must honor them if we expect a long life. And I'm not going to get into what it means to honor the parents right now. That is certainly more than saying yes sir and yes ma'am and no sir and no ma'am.

[John Weaver] According to Matthew 15, Mark 7, it involves a great deal more. But God is simply saying that we must honor them if we have any expectation of long life.

[John Weaver] Now, if God says, honor thy father and thy mother, for this is the first commandment of the promise, that thy days may be long upon the earth, Conversely, it is also true that if we dishonor our parents, our days will be shortened upon this earth. In other words, there is an implicated and inherent threat for those who dishonor their parents. Now, let me show you the second promise in the Bible for long life.

[John Weaver] Whole Numbers 14, but look, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 22. So the first promise then is in reference to our parents, whether we honor them or dishonor them. But in Deuteronomy 22, beginning there with verse six, this may surprise you, may shock you, but here it is. This promise is in relation to how we treat animals. Well, here it is, Deuteronomy 22, look at verse six.

[John Weaver] If a bird's nest chance to be before the way in any tree or on the ground, Whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam, that is, the mother, with the young. But thou shalt anywise let the dam or the mother go, and take the young to thee. Now note that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. Now I want you to note something. God has said in other passages of Scripture, for instance, thou shalt not kill her mother and her young on the same day. So God forbid, say, like killing a cow and a calf on the same day. Here, he says, if you're walking down the road and you see a bird's nest and the mother is on the nest, you may take the eggs and let the mother go, or you may take the young and let the mother go, but you can't take both of them. And of course, he expressly forbids taking the mother.

[John Weaver] Why? If you took the mother, then the eggs are not going to hatch or the baby's going to die. So you'd be taking the mother and the young and both one day.

[John Weaver] Now, very obviously, this is an illustration of the fifth commandment. And what God is demanding here is respect and honor to the family, even the families of animals. In other words, it is an argument from the lesser to the greater. So if God then is commanding us to honor the families of animals, how much more then are we commanded to honor the families of men and women, and how much more particularly are we commanded then to honor our own family? So very obviously, here are two general promises of long life. One is how we respect and honor our own family, and number two, how we respect and honor the family of animals as well. And then if you will turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 25, you'll see the third general promise of long life. And by the way, this one may surprise you. But you will see how intimately it is tied once again to the very core of our being. Notice what he said, Deuteronomy 25 and verse. Thirteen, let's begin reading.

[John Weaver] Thou shalt not have in my bag divers weights, different weights are great and small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers, or different measures, or great and small, but thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have, that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." The third promise for long life is in relationship to our money and how we deal with other people, how we deal with each other. In other words, we cannot be cheaters. We cannot be thieves. We cannot be dishonest.

[John Weaver] Incidentally, let's put these three promises together. There's the promise of long life, how we treat our family. There's the general promise of long life, how we treat the families of animals. And there's the general promise of long life of how we treat each other. So we have to learn to be honest and just with each other.

[John Weaver] Now, it is not simply a quantity of life that God has promised, but a quality of life as well. I could ask this question, what good is long life if you live that life in misery and sickness and turmoil and trouble? Well, if you would hold Numbers 14, but look in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3. I want you to note that God only promises quantity of life, but also a quality of life as well. So in 1 Peter 3, notice what he says, please, in verses 10 and 11. 1 Peter 3, verses 10 and 11. Here it is. He says this, For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile, let him eschew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it. Now when he says let him eschew evil, that means let him spit it out.

[John Weaver] He can't swallow it, he can't stomach it. So God says if you want not just quantity of life, but a quality of life, then you also refrain your tongue from speaking evil, you restrain your lips that they speak no guile, you You spit out evil, you seek peace, and you ensue it. So God then has promised long life, not just quantity, but quality as well. Now, I want you to note that there are general promises for long life, but there's also general promises for shortened lives. Obedience is the way, is the means that God has ordained to lengthen our days. Disobedience is the means that God has ordained to shorten our days.

[John Weaver] Now, I can hear the objection right now. You say, but wait a minute, Pastor. I thought that the Scripture taught that our days were numbered. That we're going to die when we're going to die. There's nothing we can do about it. That's true in one sense of the word. It's certainly true when you read Job 7 in verse 1. Let me just quote it. God asks, is there not an appointed time for man upon the earth? Or is days also like the days of a harling? Is there not an appointed time? Yes, there is an appointed time. There was appointed time for you to be born. There's an appointed time for you to die. You know what the Bible says in Job 14 verses 4 and 5 again. Let me just quote it.

[John Weaver] Who can bring a clean thing out of unclean? Not one. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. So God has said to each one of us, like the sea, hitherto shalt thou come and no further. However, You have to consider this. When God ordained the end, He also ordained the means to that end.

[John Weaver] Thus, if I live a long life, that long life will be because I have obeyed God, and honored my parents, and honored the families of animals, and been honest in my dealings with each other, and been generally obedient in all of my life. On the other hand, if I have a shortened life, it's because I've used the means, that is, I've disobeyed God, I've dishonored my parents, I've dishonored the families of animals, I've been dishonest in my dealings with other men, I've been disobedient generally in my life, and there's the means to shorten my life.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just explain this very quickly. Does this mean, therefore, that every individual that is obedient is going to live a long life? Does it? No. Of course not. There is God's secretive will that must be applied. I do not know God's secretive will for you. Generally speaking, this is true. Does it mean that every wicked man is going to be cut down in the prime of life? No.

[John Weaver] All you got to do is read Psalm 73. There are plenty of wicked men that live to ripe old ages. But they're the exception and not the rule. Generally speaking, God is ordained that if we obey, we're going to live long lives. If we disobey, we're going to live shortened lives.

[John Weaver] Now let me just show you some of the promises or I might say some of the threats as well. So before we look in number chapter 14, I want you to go to Psalm 34. Let's work our way through the book of Psalms very quickly and show you some of the warnings and some of the curses and some of the threats, or if you want to call them promises, that's fine. Notice Psalm 34 and verse 16. Psalm 34 verse 16.

[John Weaver] Here is what God is telling you about how to shorten your days in this sense of the word. Psalm 34 notice verse 16. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Wow. God's only going to cut him off. He's going to cut off the remembrance of him. Look in Psalm 37 and verse 9. Psalm 37, verse 9, here he says it again, for evil doers shall be cut off. But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Look in Psalm 37 and verse 22. Psalm 37, verse 22, for such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. Look in verse 28, for the Lord loveth judgment and forsaken not the seed of the forsaken, not his saints, they are preserved forever, but the seed of a wicked shall be cut off. Now, as you turn to Psalm 55, let me just quote to you Proverbs 2 in verse 22.

[John Weaver] In Proverbs 2 in verse 22, the Word of God says, But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it. So God's only going to cut the wicked off, the disobedient. He's going to root them out. Now look at Psalm 55 and verse 23. Psalm 55 verse 23, But thou, O God, He's talking about the wicked now. But thou, O God, shall bring them down into the pit of destruction.

[John Weaver] Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in thee.

[John Weaver] Now, what did David just say? Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. What's he saying? God's going to cut them off. God's going to kill them. In other words, disobedience is the means to shorten your life.

[John Weaver] Now, if you will turn back in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 2, I will show you an excellent illustration of this principle. You remember Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who were wicked men, although they were priests. They were vile, wicked men. And Eli refused to restrain his sons. They not only dishonored God, they committed immorality. They were just vile. They were just wicked. So notice if you would, in 1 Samuel chapter 2, what God tells Eli. Verse 31, 1 Samuel 2, verse 31, God tells Eli. In fact, let's begin with verse 30. Wherefore, the Lord God of Israel said, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord saith, Be it far from me.

[John Weaver] For they that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, and there shall not be an old man in thine house." Wait a minute. When God says there shall not be an old man in thine house, help me translate that. He's going to kill them before they get old. Now watch. And thou shalt see an enemy in thy habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from thine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart, and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age." What is he saying? I'm going to kill every one of them, and there are not going to be old men around.

[John Weaver] Anybody who lives a little bit longer, it will just be to cause heartache and grief. You're under my judgment. That's it. So here's the means that you use to shorten your life.

[John Weaver] Now, if you will turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30. And then we're going to go to Jeremiah 7. Deuteronomy 30. Notice if you would, verse 20. I want you to note how length of life, long days are promised to those who obey. Notice Deuteronomy 30 and verse 20. Deuteronomy 30 verse 20, that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him. Now note what the Bible says, for he is thy life and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them. Note you love the Lord and you obey him and you cleave to him. Why? He is thy life. and the length of thy days. Then if you will look in Jeremiah 7 and verse 23 very quickly. Jeremiah 7 and verse 23. Notice if you would what God says. Jeremiah 7 and verse 23. Jeremiah 7 verse 23. God says, But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, And I will be your God and you shall be my people and walk you in all the ways that I've commanded you that it may be well unto you.

[John Weaver] So it's not just quantity of life. It is a quality that God promises if we obey.

[John Weaver] Now, I do want you to turn back very quickly to Deuteronomy 30 and let me show you how God puts this together. Deuteronomy 30. and then we're going back to numbers 14 and deal with the message. Look in Deuteronomy 30 and begin there with verse 15. Deuteronomy 30 verse 15. Look what God says.

[John Weaver] Now remember, He has set before them His will, His law. He says this, Deuteronomy 30 verse 15, See I have set before this day life and good, death and evil. In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply. And the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. Watch, but if thine heart turn away so that thou wilt not hear, but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I denounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish. And that you shall not prolong your days upon the land, whether thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him, for he is thy life and the length of thy days, that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware to thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

[John Weaver] Now, what did he say? I've set before you life and death. I've set before you blessing and curses. If you want a long life, if you want quality of life, God says obey me. Generally speaking, that's how you live long. If you want to die early, fine. Disobey God. Generally speaking, that's how you die early. The principle is very simple. Obedience brings life and blessing, and disobedience brings death and curses. Now, I want you to go back to Numbers chapter 14, because in Numbers chapter 14, we have some people who have provoked God, and they have provoked Him grievously. Look in Numbers chapter 14 and verse 22. Here's what the Lord says.

[John Weaver] Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice. God is saying these same reprobates have now provoked him ten distinct times. Most of these provocations are given to us in the Bible. They provoked him at the Red Sea, in Exodus 14. They provoked him in Marah, Exodus chapter 15. In the wilderness of sin, Exodus chapter 16. At Rephidim, in Exodus 17. In the Golden Calf, in Exodus 32. At Taborah, in Kerbereth Hadimah, Numbers chapter 11. And Numbers chapter 14, here at Kadesh Barnea, they provoked him again.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to look back at verse 22. Look what he says. Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you something, folks. There are several, at least two, very painfully obvious truths from verse 22. The first one is this. God does keep a record of our sins. He knew how many times these people had provoked him. You know what the Bible says in Numbers 32 and verse 23? Be sure your sins will find you out. In Psalm 50 and verse 21, here's what God told the wicked. Now listen, here's what God said.

[John Weaver] These things hast thou done and I kept silent. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as thyself, but I will reprove thee and set them, that is, thy sins, I will set them in order before thine eyes." God said, I know what you've done. And just because I didn't slap you down instantly, you think I didn't see it? Or that I didn't record it, that I didn't know about it?

[John Weaver] Oh, let me tell you. Many of the wicked have a peace that comes only from their own forgetfulness. They have forgotten, but I can assure you that God has not. In Exodus 34 and verse 7, he said it like this, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sins, and that will by no means clear the guilty. If you are outside of Christ, if you are unregenerated, if you are unconverted, then you are unforgiven and God knows each and every one of your sins. He has not forgotten them. He has recorded them. You may have forgotten them, but I can assure you God has not. The second truth we find here is this, that God does have a point at which time He will no longer extend mercy or grace. Wow. What did he say?

[John Weaver] I've had it with you. 10 times you provoked me.

[John Weaver] Now you're going to be destroyed. You know what the Bible says in Romans 2 verses 4 through 6? Let me read it to you. God says, or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. But after the hardness and impenitent heart, treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his needs." What did God say? God said, you despise my goodness. You despise my forbearance. You despise my longsuffering. And when you despise everything that I am and everything that I do for you, all you're doing is just treasuring up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath. Because God says there will be one day that I will render every man. I will render every man according to his deeds. To those who provoke God.

[John Weaver] They have nothing but judgment and destruction ahead of them, not only in this life, but the life to come as well. Now, if you look back in Numbers 14 verse one, I want you to see again how this chapter opens were these wicked people provoking God, failing to obey Him. Numbers 14 verse 1, And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night.

[John Weaver] And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. And the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God we had died in this wilderness, and wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey, were it not better for us to return to Egypt. And they said one to another, let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt." Now, you know, here are people who are expressing a belief that death in Egypt or death in the wilderness would be far better for them than that which God had prepared and provided for them. They failed to believe Moses. They failed to believe Aaron. They failed to believe Joshua and Caleb. They failed to believe God. In fact, they chose to believe those ten spies who brought up an evil report, a false and a libelous report against God and against His promised land. And so God then rightly charges them with provocation.

[John Weaver] Look in verse 11, Numbers 14, and the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have shown unto them? So God is saying, they have provoked me, their unbelief. Clearly, that which led to their murmuring and bellyaching and complaining was their unbelief.

[John Weaver] Now, I spoke on this just a little bit last week, but let me just emphasize this again. Unbelief dishonors God. It challenges His Word. It ignores His promises as well as threatenings. And it calls God a liar. Unbelief basically spits in the face of a holy God. And unbelief challenges God and dares Him to do His worst. Unbelief is a heinous sin and brings judgment upon the unbeliever.

[John Weaver] Now, look in verse 2. Numbers chapter 14. I want you to understand. If you really grasp this verse, it should make you very. Oh, what should I say? It should make you very concerned for that which you pray. Numbers 14 verse two and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole congregation said unto them, Now watch what they said, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God that we had died in this wilderness.

[John Weaver] Now the translation of these two words, would God, is from a conditional particle which literally can be interpreted like this, would God, or oh that it might be, Or if haply, or I pray thee, if only that, all that it might be. In other words, use what they're saying, I pray that, if haply, I would, I prefer, I want to die either in Egypt or in this wilderness.

[John Weaver] Now let me tell you something, folks. They weren't in Egypt. So they couldn't die there. But they were in the wilderness. And God could answer their prayer Very easily now look in numbers 14 verse 26. Or should watch carefully. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me? I've heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me, say unto them as truly as I live, said the Lord, As you have spoken in mine ears, so will I do unto you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which you have murmured against me." What did God say? God says, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.

[John Weaver] As you have spoken to me, as you've prayed, as you've wished, as you've wanted, that's exactly what I'm going to do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And by the way, your children, whom you said would be a prey, they are going into the promised land, but you will never see it.

[John Weaver] Now skip down to verse 31. But your little ones, which you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you despise. But as for you, now here it is again, Your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness, and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in this wilderness."

[John Weaver] Now let me tell you something, folks. The word of the Lord had been given. Their sentence had been pronounced. They would die in the wilderness. There's no escaping this now. They know that they are going to die. The sovereign, omnipotent God of heaven and earth has pronounced His decree. You prayed to me to die in this wilderness. I'm going to answer your prayer. I'm going to let you die. Your carcasses shall fall.

[John Weaver] Now, look in verse 35. I, the Lord, have said, note, I, the Lord, have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation that are gathered together against me in this wilderness. They shall be consumed, and there they shall die. And the men which Moses sent to search the land who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring up an evil report upon the land died by plague before the Lord."

[John Weaver] Now, what did God just do? Let's see, he looked at all those men and he said, you want to die in this wilderness? Fine, I'm going to answer your prayer. Your carcasses shall fall. And by the way, these ten men that brought up this libelous, slanderous report, they died instantly as a plague before the Lord. So the death of those ten men was kind of like an earnest, When they die instantly, God says, I'm guaranteeing your death. Just like I killed them, so you are going to die as well. Those ten were nothing more than earnest, so to speak. And what did God say? Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. You prayed for it. You asked for it. You've got it. Now let me tell you, when God said your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, it's more than the fact that they're just going to die. They're going to die.

[John Weaver] But there's more to it than that. I want you to look in your Bibles to Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, and let's begin reading their verse 18 and read about Joachim. You're going to see the implication when God says your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. Jeremiah 22. And look at verse 18. Now we're talking about King Joachim, OK? Here's what God said about King Joachim. Jeremiah 22. Notice verse 18. Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning Joachim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

[John Weaver] They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother, or Ah, sister. They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, Lord, or Ah, His glory. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." How do you bury an ass? You don't. You drag him off and let his body rot and let the buzzards pick his bones. Wow.

[John Weaver] What did God say your purposes? Shall fall. In this wilderness, go back in your Bibles to Hebrews 3 and verse 17. Because they are the author of the book of Hebrews is referring. Is referring to number chapter 14 and he says this. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell, past tense, in the wilderness?

[John Weaver] Now, I want to read you the comment of three commentators. First of all, Albert Barnes. Each one of these men are commenting on Hebrews 317. Their carcasses fell in the wilderness. Here's what Albert Barnes says. That is, they all died. and were left on the sands of the desert. The whole generation was strewn along the way to Canaan. All of those who had seen the wonders that God had done in the land of Ham, who had been rescued in so remarkable a manner from oppression, were thus cut down and died in the desert through which they were passing.

[John Weaver] Such an example of the effects of revolt against God and unbelief was well fitted to admonish the Christians in the time of the Apostle and is fitted to admonish us now of the danger of the sin of unbelief." But note what he said. Their carcasses were strewn along the sands of the desert. Adam Clark. commented on Hebrews 3.17, says this,"...whose carcasses fell, for the Greek properly signifies the members of a body. And here may be an allusion to the scattered, bleached bones of this people that were a long time apparent in the wilderness, continually there as proof of their crimes and of the judgment of God." They weren't buried. They weren't mourned. They just fell down and died. Finally, John Gill says in Hebrews 317, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness and so never entered the land of Canaan. They died in the wilderness and they did not die common or natural deaths, at least not all of them. Their deaths were by way of punishment in the way of wrath in a judicial way.

[John Weaver] The Syriac version renders it their bones fell in the wilderness. They lay scattered and unburied and exposed of you. As an example of divine vengeance. So when God said to those wicked, unbelieving people, turn you into the wilderness. They started dying. From the judgment of God, now let me tell you, you need to remember this. When that cloud moved, they moved. When that cloud stopped, they stopped. But if that cloud's moving and somebody dropped dead, what did the rest of the people do? They kept moving. They kept walking. You want to know how many men died in the wilderness?

[John Weaver] Look back in your Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 1 and verse 46, because here is just the men from 20 years old and upward who were able to fight, who were able to go to war. The numbers given to us. Numbers 1 and verse 46. Here's how many warriors dropped dead in the wilderness. Even all they that were numbered were 600,000, 3,550. So there were 603,550 men above 20 years of age.

[John Weaver] Now, there were probably 2 million people. That didn't count the younger men. That didn't count the little children. That certainly didn't count the women.

[John Weaver] Now, if they wandered for 40 years, I'm just doing this approximately, okay? If they wandered for 40 years, you divide 40 to 603,550 and you're going to get approximately 16,000 that's going to die a year. approximately 1,300 a month or 50 a day. So here are these people walking along and all of a sudden 50 men fall down dead. What do they do? They keep going.

[John Weaver] What happens to their bodies? The buzzards gets them. I mean, they're unburied, unmourned. This is just the men of war. This doesn't count women. who died or children who died, some naturally, maybe some by the judgment of God. It doesn't count those who died of old age or those who died of diseases. But can you imagine? Not only knowing that you're going to die, but knowing that you're going to die under the judgment of God, and when you die, you will be unburied and unmourned. And you would lay just simply wherever you fail. Now, the question is. Did they all die?

[John Weaver] Well, look in your Bibles to numbers 26 and let's begin reading with verse 23 and you will get your answer. Numbers 26. Beginning there, verse 23, I believe it is. I may have the wrong chapter. Let me see. OK.

[John Weaver] I think I've given you the wrong verse there. Let's see. OK. It's verse 63, verse 63, Numbers 26, verse 63.

[John Weaver] 63 through 65. Notice, these are they that were numbered by Moses and Elijah, the priests who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron, the priests, numbered when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in this wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. Notice there was not a man left of them.

[John Weaver] Did God kill all of them? He killed all of them. Not one escaped. Everyone that God said was going to die, died. Oh my! Do you imagine that there were some that vainly hoped that they would escape God's judgment? Do you imagine there was some that thought, well, maybe God will forget or God will overlook me? But he didn't. There was not a man of them left. God accomplished all of his purpose.

[John Weaver] His decree was totally and completely carried out. And when God told these folks to turn in the wilderness. They knew. They're going to die. May not know exactly the date, but they knew. Within 40 years, not one of them would be left.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make a couple of applications today. I believe that each of us know exactly like those Israelites. Surely that we're going to die. And we are. Hebrews 9 verse 27 says, As it was appointed unto man once to die, after that the judgment. The question is, are we prepared to die? You remember I told you earlier about Pilgrim and Pilgrim's Progress. When Evangelist met him, and Pilgrim was weeping, An evangelist asked him why he was weeping. He said, I must die. I must die. I must die. I find that I must die and stand before God.

[John Weaver] I'm unwilling to do the first and I'm unable to do the second. Dear friend, let me tell you something. All of those who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, all of those who are outside of him in faith, are not prepared to die. If you do not know Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, like Pilgrim, you're not prepared. I want you to note, secondly, the Israelites who refused to trust in God and obey his voice died under the judgment of God. Likewise, today, those who refuse to trust in Christ will die under God's judgment. You know what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 1, beginning in verse 7?

[John Weaver] Listen, and to you who are troubled, rest with us. Now listen, when our Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who know not God, who obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, who shall perish and be punished with everlasting destruction. Those who are outside of Jesus Christ will be destroyed, will be judged, just like those Israelites in the wilderness. You know, Hobie said something earlier this morning, and I was going to say something then and did not do so, but I'm going to point it out now.

[John Weaver] Not all the Bible may be written to you, and not all the Bible may be written about you, But all the Bible is written for you. And you better understand. That what is revealed in the Old Testament, according to Romans 15 and 1 Corinthians chapter 10 is written for our admonition, our learning, and just like these men died under God's judgment in Numbers 14 and 15 and 16. Those who refuse Christ shall also die under God's judgment. How?

[John Weaver] Can we have a greater surety of death and destruction than the Word of God. God decreed the deaths of these men in Numbers chapter 14, and it came to pass exactly like he said. God has decreed it's appointed to us once to die, and after that, in judgment, a dear friend, it will come to pass exactly as God said. Psalm 138 verse 2 tells us that God has placed His Word above His name. Listen, if God's Word ever fails, then God would cease to be God. But I do have some good news, and that is this, for the child of God, the one who's been regenerated by grace, who's been converted through repentance and faith, death has no sting. and judgment holds no harm.

[John Weaver] I want you to look in 1 Corinthians 15. I know most of you can probably quote this, but look at it. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and let's begin reading there with verse 53. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 53. Look what he says. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 53. The apostle says, for this corruptible must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.

[John Weaver] But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. For those who are in Christ, death has no sting. The grave holds no horror. Judgment holds no horror. Why? Because God has given us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Bible says in Hebrews 2, Let me just quote it. Verses 14 and 15. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he that is Christ also likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Do you realize when Christ died as our substitute and the wrath of God fell upon him in our place, He took all the stain, all the horror, all the pain, so that now, for the believer in the Scripture, it's called those who sleep in Christ. What?

[John Weaver] Let me ask you a question. Do you have a horror each night of going to sleep? I don't. I welcome it. I'm thankful for it. I look forward to it. For the child of God, death is nothing more than just simply sleep. It's just simply going to sleep. And there's no horror. There's no pain. As children of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, we know that we shall lie down and go to sleep physically.

[John Weaver] That is, we shall leave this earthly body. But for the child of God, listen carefully, there is no death, only life. What did Christ say? I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. And do you remember what he said in John 5 and verse 24? He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me have everlasting life. Are you listening? And shall not come unto death. But is passed from death unto life. We will not experience. as believers, the agonies and the staining and the pain of death, because Christ has experienced that for us.

[John Weaver] And when it comes our time to die physically, it's just going to sleep. It is really and truly entering into life. Death is nothing more than a passport into eternity for the child of God. As the Apostle said in 2 Corinthians 5, we'd rather lose this earthly tabernacle that we might have a heavenly tabernacle. And the Apostle Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

[John Weaver] How horrible could that be? To have the blessed Son of God and to be in His presence, His life. It's not death, and it's not pain. But those who are without Christ know that they shall die. And they will die with God's judgment upon them. So, dear Christian, you be thankful for the salvation that God has given us through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let's pray. Father, we ask You today to help us, to teach us. Make us, Lord, thankful and grateful for Thy so great salvation.

[John Weaver] May we trust in Thee. May we look to Thee. May we honor Thee. We pray that You would speak to hearts, convict and convert, and have Your will in every way and in every life. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray, Amen.

When You Know You're Going to Die

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	105091139156
Subject	Family Government
Course	The Christian Family: Children, Fatherhood, and Generational Faithfulness: The Family
Genre	Sermon
Date	2009-07-19
Dictation Name
Book	Book 028: The Christian Family: Children, Fatherhood, and Generational Faithfulness — Chapter 8
Source Timed Segments	86

Formatted Transcript

Introduction: The Certainty of Death

Weaver introduces the topic by asking what it is like to know when and how you will die, noting that all people know they will die because Scripture says it is appointed.

All right, let's open our Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 14 and also the book of Hebrews chapter 3. Numbers 14 and Hebrews chapter 3. OK. All right. Numbers chapter 14 and then Hebrews chapter 3. We will read Numbers 14 first. The title of the message today is, "When You Know You're Going to Die." Of course, I hope you've noticed the last three messages have really been around the book of Numbers, because as I read through the book of Numbers, these three things popped out at me, and so I'm dealing with them today. Notice if you would, when you know you're going to die. Numbers 14 verse 21.

God says, "As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers. Neither shall any of them that provoked me see it." Skip down to verse 26. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, 'How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless you shall not come into the land concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.'"

"But your little ones which you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, you shall bear your iniquities even forty years and you shall know my breach of promise."

Now look in Hebrews 3 in verse 17, which refers to this passage. Hebrews 3 in verse 17. The Word of God asks,

Scripture Reading — Hebrews 3:17

"But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?"

When you know you're going to die. Have you ever considered what it must be like to know when you're going to die? How about not only knowing when you're going to die, but also how you're going to die? Have you ever thought about some of these men, and women I guess as well, who are on death row? Not only has a date been designated for them to die, but also the method of their death has also been designated. Have you ever wondered what it's like?

To have to count down the years, the months, the days, and the minutes before one's going to be executed. I wonder what it must be like to know that in fifteen minutes you're either going to be executed by, say, the electric chair or lethal injection. What must it be like to know that within fifteen minutes all of your questions concerning God, death, and judgment will be answered? Now, in one sense of the word, we all know that we're going to die. Because the Bible declares in Hebrews 9 in verse 27,

Scripture Reading — Hebrews 9:27

"As it is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment."

We know that the wages of sin are death. We know that we were created from the dust of the earth and into the dust we shall return. There is no escape from physical death. As Pilgrim explained in the book Pilgrim's Progress, we must die and stand before God in judgment. And Pilgrim at that time said he was unwilling to do the first, that is to die, and unable to do the second, that is stand before God in judgment.

General Promises for Long Life

God promises long life to those who honor parents, treat animals with respect, and deal honestly with others. Obedience is the means to lengthen days.

Now, let me just tell you that in the Scripture, there are general promises for long life. And there are also general promises for a shortened life as well. I suppose the most famous passage for a long life is found in Exodus 20, verse 12, where Scripture says,

Scripture Reading — Exodus 20:12

"Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

Now, that same promise is repeated in Ephesians 6, verses 2 and 3, where God said,

Scripture Reading — Exodus 20:12

"Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth."

So here, then, is a promise of long life, and this long life is in relationship to whether or not we honor our parents or not. Now, actually, there are three promises of long life in the Bible.

I'm going to show them to you. Each one of these promises relate to the very core of our being. The first promise I just mentioned is in reference to our attitude and our action toward our parents. We must honor them if we expect a long life. And I'm not going to get into what it means to honor the parents right now. That is certainly more than saying yes sir and yes ma'am and no sir and no ma'am. According to Matthew 15, Mark 7, it involves a great deal more. But God is simply saying that we must honor them if we have any expectation of long life.

Now, if God says, "Honor thy father and thy mother, for this is the first commandment with promise, that thy days may be long upon the earth," conversely, it is also true that if we dishonor our parents, our days will be shortened upon this earth. In other words, there is an implicated and inherent threat for those who dishonor their parents. Now, let me show you the second promise in the Bible for long life. Hold Numbers 14, but look, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 22. So the first promise then is in reference to our parents, whether we honor them or dishonor them. But in Deuteronomy 22, beginning there with verse six, this may surprise you, may shock you, but here it is. This promise is in relation to how we treat animals. Well, here it is, Deuteronomy 22, look at verse six.

"If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam, that is, the mother, with the young. But thou shalt in any wise let the dam or the mother go, and take the young to thee. Now note that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days." Now I want you to note something. God has said in other passages of Scripture, for instance, "Thou shalt not kill her mother and her young on the same day." So God forbade, say, like killing a cow and a calf on the same day. Here, he says, if you're walking down the road and you see a bird's nest and the mother is on the nest, you may take the eggs and let the mother go, or you may take the young and let the mother go, but you can't take both of them. And of course, he expressly forbids taking the mother.

Why? If you took the mother, then the eggs are not going to hatch or the babies are going to die. So you'd be taking the mother and the young both in one day. Now, very obviously, this is an illustration of the fifth commandment. And what God is demanding here is respect and honor to the family, even the families of animals. In other words, it is an argument from the lesser to the greater. So if God then is commanding us to honor the families of animals, how much more then are we commanded to honor the families of men and women, and how much more particularly are we commanded then to honor our own family? So very obviously, here are two general promises of long life. One is how we respect and honor our own family, and number two, how we respect and honor the family of animals as well. And then if you will turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 25, you'll see the third general promise of long life. And by the way, this one may surprise you. But you will see how intimately it is tied once again to the very core of our being. Notice what he said, Deuteronomy 25 and verse thirteen. Let's begin reading.

"Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, different weights, great and small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers, or different measures, great and small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have, that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." The third promise for long life is in relationship to our money and how we deal with other people, how we deal with each other. In other words, we cannot be cheaters. We cannot be thieves. We cannot be dishonest. Incidentally, let's put these three promises together. There's the promise of long life, how we treat our family. There's the general promise of long life, how we treat the families of animals. And there's the general promise of long life of how we treat each other. So we have to learn to be honest and just with each other.

Now, it is not simply a quantity of life that God has promised, but a quality of life as well. I could ask this question, what good is long life if you live that life in misery and sickness and turmoil and trouble? Well, if you would hold Numbers 14, but look in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3. I want you to note that God not only promises quantity of life, but also a quality of life as well. So in 1 Peter 3, notice what he says, please, in verses 10 and 11. 1 Peter 3, verses 10 and 11. Here it is. He says this, "For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil and do good; let him seek peace and ensue it." Now when he says let him eschew evil, that means let him spit it out.

Quality of Life Also Promised

From 1 Peter 3, Weaver shows that God promises not just quantity but quality of life to those who refrain from evil and seek peace.

He can't swallow it, he can't stomach it. So God says if you want not just quantity of life, but a quality of life, then you also refrain your tongue from speaking evil, you restrain your lips that they speak no guile, you spit out evil, you seek peace, and you ensue it. So God then has promised long life, not just quantity, but quality as well. Now, I want you to note that there are general promises for long life, but there's also general promises for shortened lives. Obedience is the way, is the means that God has ordained to lengthen our days. Disobedience is the means that God has ordained to shorten our days.

Disobedience Shortens Life

Just as obedience lengthens life, disobedience shortens it. God threatens to cut off the wicked, as seen in Psalms and the example of Eli's sons.

Now, I can hear the objection right now. You say, but wait a minute, Pastor. I thought that the Scripture taught that our days were numbered. That we're going to die when we're going to die. There's nothing we can do about it. That's true in one sense of the word. It's certainly true when you read Job 7 in verse 1. Let me just quote it. God asks, "Is there not an appointed time for man upon the earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling?" Is there not an appointed time? Yes, there is an appointed time. There was an appointed time for you to be born. There's an appointed time for you to die. You know what the Bible says in Job 14 verses 4 and 5 again. Let me just quote it.

"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." So God has said to each one of us, like the sea, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further." However, you have to consider this. When God ordained the end, He also ordained the means to that end.

Thus, if I live a long life, that long life will be because I have obeyed God, and honored my parents, and honored the families of animals, and been honest in my dealings with each other, and been generally obedient in all of my life. On the other hand, if I have a shortened life, it's because I've used the means, that is, I've disobeyed God, I've dishonored my parents, I've dishonored the families of animals, I've been dishonest in my dealings with other men, I've been disobedient generally in my life, and there's the means to shorten my life. Now, let me just explain this very quickly. Does this mean, therefore, that every individual that is obedient is going to live a long life? Does it? No. Of course not. There is God's secretive will that must be applied. I do not know God's secretive will for you. Generally speaking, this is true. Does it mean that every wicked man is going to be cut down in the prime of life? No.

All you got to do is read Psalm 73. There are plenty of wicked men that live to ripe old ages. But they're the exception and not the rule. Generally speaking, God has ordained that if we obey, we're going to live long lives. If we disobey, we're going to live shortened lives.

Now let me just show you some of the promises or I might say some of the threats as well. So before we look in Numbers chapter 14, I want you to go to Psalm 34. Let's work our way through the book of Psalms very quickly and show you some of the warnings and some of the curses and some of the threats, or if you want to call them promises, that's fine. Notice Psalm 34 and verse 16. Psalm 34 verse 16. Here is what God is telling you about how to shorten your days in this sense of the word. Psalm 34 notice verse 16.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 34:16

"The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth."

Wow. God's going to cut him off. He's going to cut off the remembrance of him. Look in Psalm 37 and verse 9. Psalm 37, verse 9, here he says it again, "For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." Look in Psalm 37 and verse 22. Psalm 37, verse 22, "For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off." Look in verse 28, "For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off." Now, as you turn to Psalm 55, let me just quote to you Proverbs 2 in verse 22.

In Proverbs 2 in verse 22, the Word of God says,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 37:9, 22, 28

"But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it."

So God's going to cut the wicked off, the disobedient. He's going to root them out. Now look at Psalm 55 and verse 23. Psalm 55 verse 23, "But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee." Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in thee.

Now, what did David just say? Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. What's he saying? God's going to cut them off. God's going to kill them. In other words, disobedience is the means to shorten your life.

Now, if you will turn back in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 2, I will show you an excellent illustration of this principle. You remember Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who were wicked men, although they were priests. They were vile, wicked men. And Eli refused to restrain his sons. They not only dishonored God, they committed immorality. They were just vile. They were just wicked. So notice if you would, in 1 Samuel chapter 2, what God tells Eli. Verse 31, 1 Samuel 2, verse 31, God tells Eli. In fact, let's begin with verse 30.

Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 2:30-34

"Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house."

Wait a minute. When God says there shall not be an old man in thine house, help me translate that. He's going to kill them before they get old. Now watch.

Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 2:30-34

"And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age."

What is he saying? I'm going to kill every one of them, and there are not going to be old men around.

For they that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, and there shall not be an old man in thine house." Wait a minute. When God says there shall not be an old man in thine house, help me translate that. He's going to kill them before they get old. Now watch. And thou shalt see an enemy in thy habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from thine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart, and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age." What is he saying? I'm going to kill every one of them, and there are not going to be old men around.

Anybody who lives a little bit longer, it will just be to cause heartache and grief. You're under my judgment. That's it. So here's the means that you use to shorten your life.

The Israelites' Provocation and Judgment

In Numbers 14, the Israelites provoked God ten times through unbelief and murmuring. God decreed that their carcasses would fall in the wilderness.

"Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice." God is saying these same reprobates have now provoked him ten distinct times. Most of these provocations are given to us in the Bible. They provoked him at the Red Sea, in Exodus 14. They provoked him in Marah, Exodus chapter 15. In the wilderness of sin, Exodus chapter 16. At Rephidim, in Exodus 17. In the golden calf, in Exodus 32. At Taberah, in Kibroth-hattaavah, Numbers chapter 11. And Numbers chapter 14, here at Kadesh-barnea, they provoked him again.

Now I want you to look back at verse 22. Look what he says. "Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times." Now, let me tell you something, folks. There are several, at least two, very painfully obvious truths from verse 22. The first one is this. God does keep a record of our sins. He knew how many times these people had provoked him. You know what the Bible says in Numbers 32 and verse 23? "Be sure your sins will find you out." In Psalm 50 and verse 21, here's what God told the wicked. Now listen, here's what God said.

"These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes." God said, I know what you've done. And just because I didn't slap you down instantly, you think I didn't see it? Or that I didn't record it, that I didn't know about it? Oh, let me tell you. Many of the wicked have a peace that comes only from their own forgetfulness. They have forgotten, but I can assure you that God has not. In Exodus 34 and verse 7, he said it like this, "Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." If you are outside of Christ, if you are unregenerated, if you are unconverted, then you are unforgiven and God knows each and every one of your sins. He has not forgotten them. He has recorded them. You may have forgotten them, but I can assure you God has not. The second truth we find here is this, that God does have a point at which time He will no longer extend mercy or grace. Wow. What did he say?

"I've had it with you. Ten times you provoked me." Now you're going to be destroyed. You know what the Bible says in Romans 2 verses 4 through 6? Let me read it to you. God says, "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds." What did God say? God said, you despise my goodness. You despise my forbearance. You despise my longsuffering. And when you despise everything that I am and everything that I do for you, all you're doing is just treasuring up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath. Because God says there will be one day that I will render every man. I will render every man according to his deeds. To those who provoke God.

They have nothing but judgment and destruction ahead of them, not only in this life, but the life to come as well. Now, if you look back in Numbers 14 verse one, I want you to see again how this chapter opens where these wicked people provoking God, failing to obey Him. Numbers 14 verse 1, "And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night." "And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." Now, you know, here are people who are expressing a belief that death in Egypt or death in the wilderness would be far better for them than that which God had prepared and provided for them. They failed to believe Moses. They failed to believe Aaron. They failed to believe Joshua and Caleb. They failed to believe God. In fact, they chose to believe those ten spies who brought up an evil report, a false and a libelous report against God and against His promised land. And so God then rightly charges them with provocation.

Look in verse 11, Numbers 14, "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?" So God is saying, they have provoked me, their unbelief. Clearly, that which led to their murmuring and bellyaching and complaining was their unbelief. Now, I spoke on this just a little bit last week, but let me just emphasize this again. Unbelief dishonors God. It challenges His Word. It ignores His promises as well as threatenings. And it calls God a liar. Unbelief basically spits in the face of a holy God. And unbelief challenges God and dares Him to do His worst. Unbelief is a heinous sin and brings judgment upon the unbeliever.

Now, look in verse 2. Numbers chapter 14. I want you to understand. If you really grasp this verse, it should make you very—oh, what should I say? It should make you very concerned for that which you pray. Numbers 14 verse two, "And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them," now watch what they said, "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!"

Now the translation of these two words, "would God," is from a conditional particle which literally can be interpreted like this, "would God," or "oh that it might be," or "if haply," or "I pray thee," "if only that," "all that it might be." In other words, what they're saying, "I pray that, if haply, I would, I prefer, I want to die either in Egypt or in this wilderness." Now let me tell you something, folks. They weren't in Egypt. So they couldn't die there. But they were in the wilderness. And God could answer their prayer very easily. Now look in Numbers 14 verse 26. Or should watch carefully. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me." What did God say? God says, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.

As you have spoken to me, as you've prayed, as you've wished, as you've wanted, that's exactly what I'm going to do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And by the way, your children, whom you said would be a prey, they are going into the promised land, but you will never see it.

The Horror of Dying Under Judgment

Commentators describe the Israelites' bones scattered in the desert, unburied and unmourned. All 603,550 men of war died over forty years.

But there's more to it than that. I want you to look in your Bibles to Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, and let's begin reading there verse 18 and read about Jehoiakim. You're going to see the implication when God says your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. Jeremiah 22. And look at verse 18. Now we're talking about King Jehoiakim, OK? Here's what God said about King Jehoiakim. Jeremiah 22. Notice verse 18.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 22:18-19

"Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem."

How do you bury an ass? You don't. You drag him off and let his body rot and let the buzzards pick his bones. Wow.

They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother, or Ah, sister. They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, Lord, or Ah, His glory. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." How do you bury an ass? You don't. You drag him off and let his body rot and let the buzzards pick his bones. Wow. What did God say? Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. Go back in your Bibles to Hebrews 3 and verse 17. Because the author of the book of Hebrews is referring to Numbers chapter 14 and he says this. "But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell," past tense, "in the wilderness?"

Now, I want to read you the comment of three commentators. First of all, Albert Barnes. Each one of these men are commenting on Hebrews 3:17. "Their carcasses fell in the wilderness." Here's what Albert Barnes says. "That is, they all died, and were left on the sands of the desert. The whole generation was strewn along the way to Canaan. All of those who had seen the wonders that God had done in the land of Ham, who had been rescued in so remarkable a manner from oppression, were thus cut down and died in the desert through which they were passing."

"Such an example of the effects of revolt against God and unbelief was well fitted to admonish the Christians in the time of the Apostle and is fitted to admonish us now of the danger of the sin of unbelief." But note what he said. Their carcasses were strewn along the sands of the desert. Adam Clarke commented on Hebrews 3:17, says this, "...whose carcasses fell, for the Greek properly signifies the members of a body. And here may be an allusion to the scattered, bleached bones of this people that were a long time apparent in the wilderness, continually there as proof of their crimes and of the judgment of God." They weren't buried. They weren't mourned. They just fell down and died. Finally, John Gill says in Hebrews 3:17, "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness and so never entered the land of Canaan. They died in the wilderness and they did not die common or natural deaths, at least not all of them. Their deaths were by way of punishment in the way of wrath in a judicial way."

"The Syriac version renders it their bones fell in the wilderness. They lay scattered and unburied and exposed to view as an example of divine vengeance." So when God said to those wicked, unbelieving people, turn you into the wilderness, they started dying from the judgment of God. Now let me tell you, you need to remember this. When that cloud moved, they moved. When that cloud stopped, they stopped. But if that cloud's moving and somebody dropped dead, what did the rest of the people do? They kept moving. They kept walking. You want to know how many men died in the wilderness?

Look back in your Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 1 and verse 46, because here is just the men from twenty years old and upward who were able to fight, who were able to go to war. The numbers given to us. Numbers 1 and verse 46. Here's how many warriors dropped dead in the wilderness.

Scripture Reading — Numbers 1:46

"Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty."

So there were 603,550 men above twenty years of age.

Now, there were probably two million people. That didn't count the younger men. That didn't count the little children. That certainly didn't count the women.

Now, if they wandered for forty years, I'm just doing this approximately, okay? If they wandered for forty years, you divide forty into 603,550 and you're going to get approximately 16,000 that's going to die a year. Approximately 1,300 a month or fifty a day. So here are these people walking along and all of a sudden fifty men fall down dead. What do they do? They keep going. What happens to their bodies? The buzzards get them. I mean, they're unburied, unmourned. This is just the men of war. This doesn't count women who died or children who died, some naturally, maybe some by the judgment of God. It doesn't count those who died of old age or those who died of diseases. But can you imagine? Not only knowing that you're going to die, but knowing that you're going to die under the judgment of God, and when you die, you will be unburied and unmourned. And you would lay just simply wherever you fall. Now, the question is, did they all die?

Application: Are You Prepared to Die?

Weaver applies the lesson: those outside Christ are not prepared to die and will face judgment, but believers have victory over death through Christ.

Now, let me make a couple of applications today. I believe that each of us know exactly like those Israelites, surely that we're going to die. And we are. Hebrews 9 verse 27 says, "As it was appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment." The question is, are we prepared to die? You remember I told you earlier about Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress. When Evangelist met him, and Pilgrim was weeping, and Evangelist asked him why he was weeping. He said, "I must die. I must die. I must die. I find that I must die and stand before God."

"I'm unwilling to do the first and I'm unable to do the second." Dear friend, let me tell you something. All of those who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, all of those who are outside of him in faith, are not prepared to die. If you do not know Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, like Pilgrim, you're not prepared. I want you to note, secondly, the Israelites who refused to trust in God and obey his voice died under the judgment of God. Likewise, today, those who refuse to trust in Christ will die under God's judgment. You know what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 1, beginning in verse 7? Listen, "And to you who are troubled rest with us," now listen, "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, and from the glory of his power." Those who are outside of Jesus Christ will be destroyed, will be judged, just like those Israelites in the wilderness. You know, Hobie said something earlier this morning, and I was going to say something then and did not do so, but I'm going to point it out now.

Not all the Bible may be written to you, and not all the Bible may be written about you, but all the Bible is written for you. And you better understand that what is revealed in the Old Testament, according to Romans 15 and 1 Corinthians chapter 10, is written for our admonition, our learning, and just like these men died under God's judgment in Numbers 14 and 15 and 16, those who refuse Christ shall also die under God's judgment. How? Can we have a greater surety of death and destruction than the Word of God? God decreed the deaths of these men in Numbers chapter 14, and it came to pass exactly like he said. God has decreed it's appointed to us once to die, and after that the judgment. Dear friend, it will come to pass exactly as God said. Psalm 138 verse 2 tells us that God has placed His Word above His name. Listen, if God's Word ever fails, then God would cease to be God. But I do have some good news, and that is this, for the child of God, the one who's been regenerated by grace, who's been converted through repentance and faith, death has no sting and judgment holds no harm.

I want you to look in 1 Corinthians 15. I know most of you can probably quote this, but look at it. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and let's begin reading there with verse 53. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 53. Look what he says. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 53. The apostle says,

Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 15:53-57

"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law."

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." For those who are in Christ, death has no sting. The grave holds no horror. Judgment holds no horror. Why? Because God has given us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Bible says in Hebrews 2, let me just quote it. Verses 14 and 15. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Do you realize when Christ died as our substitute and the wrath of God fell upon him in our place, He took all the sting, all the horror, all the pain, so that now, for the believer in the Scripture, it's called those who sleep in Christ. What?

Conclusion: Death Swallowed in Victory

For the Christian, death is like sleep; Christ has taken the sting. The sermon ends with a prayer of thanksgiving for salvation.

Let me ask you a question. Do you have a horror each night of going to sleep? I don't. I welcome it. I'm thankful for it. I look forward to it. For the child of God, death is nothing more than just simply sleep. It's just simply going to sleep. And there's no horror. There's no pain. As children of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, we know that we shall lie down and go to sleep physically.

That is, we shall leave this earthly body. But for the child of God, listen carefully, there is no death, only life. What did Christ say? "I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly." And do you remember what he said in John 5 and verse 24? He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." We will not experience, as believers, the agonies and the sting and the pain of death, because Christ has experienced that for us. And when it comes our time to die physically, it's just going to sleep. It is really and truly entering into life. Death is nothing more than a passport into eternity for the child of God. As the Apostle said in 2 Corinthians 5, we'd rather lose this earthly tabernacle that we might have a heavenly tabernacle. And the Apostle Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

How horrible could that be? To have the blessed Son of God and to be in His presence, His life. It's not death, and it's not pain. But those who are without Christ know that they shall die. And they will die with God's judgment upon them. So, dear Christian, you be thankful for the salvation that God has given us through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let's pray. Father, we ask You today to help us, to teach us. Make us, Lord, thankful and grateful for Thy so great salvation.

May we trust in Thee. May we look to Thee. May we honor Thee. We pray that You would speak to hearts, convict and convert, and have Your will in every way and in every life. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray, Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

The Certainty of Death

Summary: All people know they will die because Scripture declares it is appointed unto men once to die.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'in one sense of the word, we all know that we're going to die. Because the Bible declares in Hebrews 9 in verse 27, "As it is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment."'

Obedience as the Means to Long Life

Summary: God has ordained that honoring parents, treating animals well, and honest dealings generally lead to a long life.

Evidence: Weaver cites Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 22:6-7, and Deuteronomy 25:13-15 as promises of long life tied to obedience.

Disobedience Shortens Life

Summary: Disobedience is the means God uses to shorten life; the wicked are cut off.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Psalm 55:23, 'Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days,' and the judgment on Eli's house.

God Keeps a Record of Sins

Summary: God knows and records every sin; He will set them in order before the sinner's eyes.

Evidence: Weaver references Numbers 14:22 and Psalm 50:21, saying, 'God does keep a record of our sins.'

The Danger of Unbelief

Summary: Unbelief dishonors God, calls Him a liar, and brings judgment.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Unbelief dishonors God. It challenges His Word. It ignores His promises as well as threatenings. And it calls God a liar.'

Death Under Judgment vs. Death in Christ

Summary: Those outside Christ die under judgment; believers have victory over death through Christ.

Evidence: Weaver contrasts the Israelites' death with 1 Corinthians 15:53-57, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'

Key Arguments

God ordains both the end and the means of life

Summary: While our days are numbered, God uses our obedience or disobedience as the means to lengthen or shorten our lives.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'When God ordained the end, He also ordained the means to that end.'

The Israelites' prayer for death was answered

Summary: The Israelites wished to die in the wilderness, and God granted their request as judgment.

Evidence: Weaver points to Numbers 14:2, 28-29: 'As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.'

God's judgment on the Israelites was total

Summary: Not one man of the condemned generation survived; God's decree was fully carried out.

Evidence: Weaver cites Numbers 26:64-65: 'There was not left a man of them, save Caleb... and Joshua.'

Unbelievers today face the same judgment

Summary: Those who refuse to trust in Christ will die under God's judgment, just like the Israelites.

Evidence: Weaver quotes 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 about flaming fire taking vengeance on those who obey not the gospel.

Believers have no fear of death

Summary: For the Christian, death is like sleep; Christ has removed its sting.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'For the child of God, death is nothing more than just simply sleep.'

Scripture References

Numbers 14:21-23

Context: God swears that those who tempted Him ten times will not see the promised land.

Numbers 14:26-30

Context: God decrees that the murmuring Israelites' carcasses will fall in the wilderness.

Numbers 14:31-35

Context: The children will enter the land, but the adults will die in the wilderness over forty years.

Hebrews 3:17

Context: The author refers to the Israelites whose carcasses fell in the wilderness due to sin.

Hebrews 9:27

Context: It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment.

Psalm 90:10

Context: The average lifespan is seventy to eighty years.

Exodus 20:12

Context: Honor thy father and mother that thy days may be long.

Deuteronomy 22:6-7

Context: Letting a mother bird go prolongs one's days.

Deuteronomy 25:13-15

Context: Having just weights and measures lengthens one's days.

1 Peter 3:10-11

Context: To love life and see good days, refrain from evil and seek peace.

Psalm 34:16

Context: The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off their remembrance.

Psalm 37:9, 22, 28

Context: Evildoers shall be cut off, but the righteous inherit the earth.

Psalm 55:23

Context: Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.

1 Samuel 2:30-34

Context: God tells Eli there will not be an old man in his house; his sons will die in the flower of their age.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Context: God sets before Israel life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life by obeying.

Numbers 14:22

Context: God notes the ten times the Israelites tempted Him.

Jeremiah 22:18-19

Context: Jehoiakim will be buried with the burial of an ass, unburied and unmourned.

Numbers 1:46

Context: The number of men of war was 603,550.

Numbers 26:63-65

Context: Not a man of the condemned generation remained except Caleb and Joshua.

1 Corinthians 15:53-57

Context: Death is swallowed up in victory; the sting of death is sin, but thanks be to God who gives victory through Christ.

Historical References

Pilgrim's Progress (Pilgrim's fear of death)

Context: Weaver recounts Pilgrim saying, 'I must die, I must die, I must die,' and being unwilling to die and unable to stand before God.

Hezekiah's death sentence (Isaiah 38:1)

Context: Weaver mentions Hezekiah being told to set his house in order for he would die.

Commentators on Hebrews 3:17 (Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke, John Gill)

Context: Weaver quotes Barnes, Clarke, and Gill describing the Israelites' carcasses strewn in the wilderness as an example of divine judgment.

Important Quotes

As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers.

Significance: God's oath that the rebellious generation will not enter the promised land, establishing the theme of judgment.

Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me.

Significance: The direct decree of death in the wilderness, answering their own wish.

But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?

Significance: New Testament confirmation of the judgment on the Israelites, used as a warning.

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Significance: Establishes the average human lifespan, framing the discussion of long and short life.

Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.

Significance: A clear promise that the wicked will have shortened lives.

Be sure your sins will find you out.

Significance: Weaver quotes Numbers 32:23 to emphasize that God records sins.

Discussion Questions

How does knowing that God ordains both the end and the means of our lives affect the way we view obedience?

Context: Weaver explains that God uses our obedience or disobedience as the means to lengthen or shorten our days.

In what ways does unbelief dishonor God, and why is it such a serious sin?

Context: Weaver states that unbelief challenges God's Word, ignores His promises, and calls Him a liar.

What can we learn from the fact that God answered the Israelites' prayer to die in the wilderness?

Context: The Israelites wished for death, and God granted it as judgment.

How should the image of carcasses strewn in the wilderness impact our understanding of God's judgment?

Context: Weaver quotes commentators describing the unburied bones as a warning.

Why is death described as 'sleep' for the believer, and how does that change our perspective on dying?

Context: Weaver says that for the child of God, death is nothing more than sleep, with no horror.

Applications

Examine your preparation for death

Summary: Weaver urges listeners to consider whether they are prepared to die, like Pilgrim who was unwilling to die and unable to stand before God.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Dear friend, let me tell you something. All of those who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ... are not prepared to die.'

Trust in Christ to escape judgment

Summary: Those who refuse to trust in Christ will die under God's judgment, just like the Israelites.

Evidence: Weaver quotes 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 and says, 'those who refuse Christ shall also die under God's judgment.'

Be thankful for salvation in Christ

Summary: Believers should be grateful that Christ has taken the sting of death and given victory.

Evidence: Weaver prays, 'Make us, Lord, thankful and grateful for Thy so great salvation.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T20:38:13Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T13:00:34Z

Clean Transcript

When You Know You're Going to Die

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

All right, let's open our Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 14 and also the book of Hebrews chapter 3. Numbers 14 and Hebrews chapter 3. OK. All right. Numbers chapter 14 and then Hebrews chapter 3. We will read Numbers 14 first. The title of the message today is, "When You Know You're Going to Die." Of course, I hope you've noticed the last three messages have really been around the book of Numbers, because as I read through the book of Numbers, these three things popped out at me, and so I'm dealing with them today. Notice if you would, when you know you're going to die. Numbers 14 verse 21.
#1 | 0:02 to 1:00 | cleaned
God says, "As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers. Neither shall any of them that provoked me see it."
#2 | 1:00 to 1:23 | cleaned
Skip down to verse 26. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, 'How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as you have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless you shall not come into the land concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.'"
#3 | 1:24 to 2:00 | cleaned
"But your little ones which you said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which you searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, you shall bear your iniquities even forty years and you shall know my breach of promise."
#4 | 2:01 to 2:30 | cleaned
Now look in Hebrews 3 in verse 17, which refers to this passage. Hebrews 3 in verse 17. The Word of God asks, "But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?" When you know you're going to die. Have you ever considered what it must be like to know when you're going to die? How about not only knowing when you're going to die, but also how you're going to die? Have you ever thought about some of these men, and women I guess as well, who are on death row? Not only has a date been designated for them to die, but also the method of their death has also been designated. Have you ever wondered what it's like?
#5 | 2:30 to 3:27 | cleaned
To have to count down the years, the months, the days, and the minutes before one's going to be executed. I wonder what it must be like to know that in fifteen minutes you're either going to be executed by, say, the electric chair or lethal injection. What must it be like to know that within fifteen minutes all of your questions concerning God, death, and judgment will be answered? Now, in one sense of the word, we all know that we're going to die. Because the Bible declares in Hebrews 9 in verse 27, "As it is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment." We know that the wages of sin are death. We know that we were created from the dust of the earth and into the dust we shall return. There is no escape from physical death. As Pilgrim explained in the book Pilgrim's Progress, we must die and stand before God in judgment. And Pilgrim at that time said he was unwilling to do the first, that is to die, and unable to do the second, that is stand before God in judgment.
#6 | 3:28 to 4:48 | cleaned
And Pilgrim therefore was going around saying, "I must die, I must die, I must die." And what a realization when we realize that we must die. How would you like to be like Hezekiah when he heard the words from God as delivered to him by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 38 in verse 1, where God said to King Hezekiah, "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live."
#7 | 4:48 to 5:14 | cleaned
We know that the Bible teaches us that the wages of sin is death. Now, we also know that we're going to die, and we don't know exactly when we're going to die, but we know about when we're going to die. How can I say that? Well, look in your Bibles, hold Numbers 14, but look in your Bibles to Psalm 90, and look at verse 10. Psalm 90 and verse 10.
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And here the Word of God says this. Psalm 90, verse 10: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." So what God is telling us in Psalm 90 and verse 10 is that the average lifespan is from seventy to eighty years.
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Usually around seventy, more or less. If, he says, we make it eighty, usually our days are filled with sorrow and sickness. Some, however, do not even make the normal lifespan. Some are cut down in the prime of their life, while others do not even get to begin life.
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Now, let me just tell you that in the Scripture, there are general promises for long life. And there are also general promises for a shortened life as well. I suppose the most famous passage for a long life is found in Exodus 20, verse 12, where Scripture says, "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Now, that same promise is repeated in Ephesians 6, verses 2 and 3, where God said, "Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth." So here, then, is a promise of long life, and this long life is in relationship to whether or not we honor our parents or not. Now, actually, there are three promises of long life in the Bible.
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I'm going to show them to you. Each one of these promises relate to the very core of our being. The first promise I just mentioned is in reference to our attitude and our action toward our parents. We must honor them if we expect a long life. And I'm not going to get into what it means to honor the parents right now. That is certainly more than saying yes sir and yes ma'am and no sir and no ma'am.
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According to Matthew 15, Mark 7, it involves a great deal more. But God is simply saying that we must honor them if we have any expectation of long life.
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Now, if God says, "Honor thy father and thy mother, for this is the first commandment with promise, that thy days may be long upon the earth," conversely, it is also true that if we dishonor our parents, our days will be shortened upon this earth. In other words, there is an implicated and inherent threat for those who dishonor their parents. Now, let me show you the second promise in the Bible for long life.
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Hold Numbers 14, but look, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 22. So the first promise then is in reference to our parents, whether we honor them or dishonor them. But in Deuteronomy 22, beginning there with verse six, this may surprise you, may shock you, but here it is. This promise is in relation to how we treat animals. Well, here it is, Deuteronomy 22, look at verse six.
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"If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam, that is, the mother, with the young. But thou shalt in any wise let the dam or the mother go, and take the young to thee. Now note that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days." Now I want you to note something. God has said in other passages of Scripture, for instance, "Thou shalt not kill her mother and her young on the same day." So God forbade, say, like killing a cow and a calf on the same day. Here, he says, if you're walking down the road and you see a bird's nest and the mother is on the nest, you may take the eggs and let the mother go, or you may take the young and let the mother go, but you can't take both of them. And of course, he expressly forbids taking the mother.
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Why? If you took the mother, then the eggs are not going to hatch or the babies are going to die. So you'd be taking the mother and the young both in one day.
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Now, very obviously, this is an illustration of the fifth commandment. And what God is demanding here is respect and honor to the family, even the families of animals. In other words, it is an argument from the lesser to the greater. So if God then is commanding us to honor the families of animals, how much more then are we commanded to honor the families of men and women, and how much more particularly are we commanded then to honor our own family? So very obviously, here are two general promises of long life. One is how we respect and honor our own family, and number two, how we respect and honor the family of animals as well. And then if you will turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 25, you'll see the third general promise of long life. And by the way, this one may surprise you. But you will see how intimately it is tied once again to the very core of our being. Notice what he said, Deuteronomy 25 and verse thirteen. Let's begin reading.
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"Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, different weights, great and small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers, or different measures, great and small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have, that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." The third promise for long life is in relationship to our money and how we deal with other people, how we deal with each other. In other words, we cannot be cheaters. We cannot be thieves. We cannot be dishonest.
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Incidentally, let's put these three promises together. There's the promise of long life, how we treat our family. There's the general promise of long life, how we treat the families of animals. And there's the general promise of long life of how we treat each other. So we have to learn to be honest and just with each other.
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Now, it is not simply a quantity of life that God has promised, but a quality of life as well. I could ask this question, what good is long life if you live that life in misery and sickness and turmoil and trouble? Well, if you would hold Numbers 14, but look in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3. I want you to note that God not only promises quantity of life, but also a quality of life as well. So in 1 Peter 3, notice what he says, please, in verses 10 and 11. 1 Peter 3, verses 10 and 11. Here it is. He says this, "For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil and do good; let him seek peace and ensue it." Now when he says let him eschew evil, that means let him spit it out.
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He can't swallow it, he can't stomach it. So God says if you want not just quantity of life, but a quality of life, then you also refrain your tongue from speaking evil, you restrain your lips that they speak no guile, you spit out evil, you seek peace, and you ensue it. So God then has promised long life, not just quantity, but quality as well. Now, I want you to note that there are general promises for long life, but there's also general promises for shortened lives. Obedience is the way, is the means that God has ordained to lengthen our days. Disobedience is the means that God has ordained to shorten our days.
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Now, I can hear the objection right now. You say, but wait a minute, Pastor. I thought that the Scripture taught that our days were numbered. That we're going to die when we're going to die. There's nothing we can do about it. That's true in one sense of the word. It's certainly true when you read Job 7 in verse 1. Let me just quote it. God asks, "Is there not an appointed time for man upon the earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling?" Is there not an appointed time? Yes, there is an appointed time. There was an appointed time for you to be born. There's an appointed time for you to die. You know what the Bible says in Job 14 verses 4 and 5 again. Let me just quote it.
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"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." So God has said to each one of us, like the sea, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further." However, you have to consider this. When God ordained the end, He also ordained the means to that end.
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Thus, if I live a long life, that long life will be because I have obeyed God, and honored my parents, and honored the families of animals, and been honest in my dealings with each other, and been generally obedient in all of my life. On the other hand, if I have a shortened life, it's because I've used the means, that is, I've disobeyed God, I've dishonored my parents, I've dishonored the families of animals, I've been dishonest in my dealings with other men, I've been disobedient generally in my life, and there's the means to shorten my life.
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Now, let me just explain this very quickly. Does this mean, therefore, that every individual that is obedient is going to live a long life? Does it? No. Of course not. There is God's secretive will that must be applied. I do not know God's secretive will for you. Generally speaking, this is true. Does it mean that every wicked man is going to be cut down in the prime of life? No.
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All you got to do is read Psalm 73. There are plenty of wicked men that live to ripe old ages. But they're the exception and not the rule. Generally speaking, God has ordained that if we obey, we're going to live long lives. If we disobey, we're going to live shortened lives.
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Now let me just show you some of the promises or I might say some of the threats as well. So before we look in Numbers chapter 14, I want you to go to Psalm 34. Let's work our way through the book of Psalms very quickly and show you some of the warnings and some of the curses and some of the threats, or if you want to call them promises, that's fine. Notice Psalm 34 and verse 16. Psalm 34 verse 16.
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Here is what God is telling you about how to shorten your days in this sense of the word. Psalm 34 notice verse 16. "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." Wow. God's going to cut him off. He's going to cut off the remembrance of him. Look in Psalm 37 and verse 9. Psalm 37, verse 9, here he says it again, "For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." Look in Psalm 37 and verse 22. Psalm 37, verse 22, "For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off." Look in verse 28, "For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off." Now, as you turn to Psalm 55, let me just quote to you Proverbs 2 in verse 22.
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In Proverbs 2 in verse 22, the Word of God says, "But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it." So God's going to cut the wicked off, the disobedient. He's going to root them out. Now look at Psalm 55 and verse 23. Psalm 55 verse 23, "But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee."
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Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in thee.
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Now, what did David just say? Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. What's he saying? God's going to cut them off. God's going to kill them. In other words, disobedience is the means to shorten your life.
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Now, if you will turn back in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 2, I will show you an excellent illustration of this principle. You remember Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who were wicked men, although they were priests. They were vile, wicked men. And Eli refused to restrain his sons. They not only dishonored God, they committed immorality. They were just vile. They were just wicked. So notice if you would, in 1 Samuel chapter 2, what God tells Eli. Verse 31, 1 Samuel 2, verse 31, God tells Eli. In fact, let's begin with verse 30. "Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house." Wait a minute. When God says there shall not be an old man in thine house, help me translate that. He's going to kill them before they get old. Now watch. "And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age." What is he saying? I'm going to kill every one of them, and there are not going to be old men around.
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For they that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, and there shall not be an old man in thine house." Wait a minute. When God says there shall not be an old man in thine house, help me translate that. He's going to kill them before they get old. Now watch. And thou shalt see an enemy in thy habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel, and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from thine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart, and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age." What is he saying? I'm going to kill every one of them, and there are not going to be old men around.
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Anybody who lives a little bit longer, it will just be to cause heartache and grief. You're under my judgment. That's it. So here's the means that you use to shorten your life.
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Now, if you will turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30. And then we're going to go to Jeremiah 7. Deuteronomy 30. Notice if you would, verse 20. I want you to note how length of life, long days are promised to those who obey. Notice Deuteronomy 30 and verse 20. Deuteronomy 30 verse 20, "That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." Note you love the Lord and you obey him and you cleave to him. Why? He is thy life and the length of thy days. Then if you will look in Jeremiah 7 and verse 23 very quickly. Jeremiah 7 and verse 23. Notice if you would what God says. Jeremiah 7 verse 23. Jeremiah 7 verse 23. God says, "But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you."
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So it's not just quantity of life. It is a quality that God promises if we obey.
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Now, I do want you to turn back very quickly to Deuteronomy 30 and let me show you how God puts this together. Deuteronomy 30, and then we're going back to Numbers 14 and deal with the message. Look in Deuteronomy 30 and begin there with verse 15. Deuteronomy 30 verse 15. Look what God says.
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Now remember, He has set before them His will, His law. He says this, Deuteronomy 30 verse 15, "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
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Now, what did he say? I've set before you life and death. I've set before you blessing and curses. If you want a long life, if you want quality of life, God says obey me. Generally speaking, that's how you live long. If you want to die early, fine. Disobey God. Generally speaking, that's how you die early. The principle is very simple. Obedience brings life and blessing, and disobedience brings death and curses. Now, I want you to go back to Numbers chapter 14, because in Numbers chapter 14, we have some people who have provoked God, and they have provoked Him grievously. Look in Numbers chapter 14 and verse 22. Here's what the Lord says.
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"Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice." God is saying these same reprobates have now provoked him ten distinct times. Most of these provocations are given to us in the Bible. They provoked him at the Red Sea, in Exodus 14. They provoked him in Marah, Exodus chapter 15. In the wilderness of sin, Exodus chapter 16. At Rephidim, in Exodus 17. In the golden calf, in Exodus 32. At Taberah, in Kibroth-hattaavah, Numbers chapter 11. And Numbers chapter 14, here at Kadesh-barnea, they provoked him again.
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Now I want you to look back at verse 22. Look what he says. "Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times."
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Now, let me tell you something, folks. There are several, at least two, very painfully obvious truths from verse 22. The first one is this. God does keep a record of our sins. He knew how many times these people had provoked him. You know what the Bible says in Numbers 32 and verse 23? "Be sure your sins will find you out." In Psalm 50 and verse 21, here's what God told the wicked. Now listen, here's what God said.
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"These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes." God said, I know what you've done. And just because I didn't slap you down instantly, you think I didn't see it? Or that I didn't record it, that I didn't know about it?
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Oh, let me tell you. Many of the wicked have a peace that comes only from their own forgetfulness. They have forgotten, but I can assure you that God has not. In Exodus 34 and verse 7, he said it like this, "Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." If you are outside of Christ, if you are unregenerated, if you are unconverted, then you are unforgiven and God knows each and every one of your sins. He has not forgotten them. He has recorded them. You may have forgotten them, but I can assure you God has not. The second truth we find here is this, that God does have a point at which time He will no longer extend mercy or grace. Wow. What did he say?
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"I've had it with you. Ten times you provoked me."
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Now you're going to be destroyed. You know what the Bible says in Romans 2 verses 4 through 6? Let me read it to you. God says, "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds." What did God say? God said, you despise my goodness. You despise my forbearance. You despise my longsuffering. And when you despise everything that I am and everything that I do for you, all you're doing is just treasuring up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath. Because God says there will be one day that I will render every man. I will render every man according to his deeds. To those who provoke God.
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They have nothing but judgment and destruction ahead of them, not only in this life, but the life to come as well. Now, if you look back in Numbers 14 verse one, I want you to see again how this chapter opens where these wicked people provoking God, failing to obey Him. Numbers 14 verse 1, "And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night."
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"And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the Lord brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." Now, you know, here are people who are expressing a belief that death in Egypt or death in the wilderness would be far better for them than that which God had prepared and provided for them. They failed to believe Moses. They failed to believe Aaron. They failed to believe Joshua and Caleb. They failed to believe God. In fact, they chose to believe those ten spies who brought up an evil report, a false and a libelous report against God and against His promised land. And so God then rightly charges them with provocation.
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Look in verse 11, Numbers 14, "And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?" So God is saying, they have provoked me, their unbelief. Clearly, that which led to their murmuring and bellyaching and complaining was their unbelief.
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Now, I spoke on this just a little bit last week, but let me just emphasize this again. Unbelief dishonors God. It challenges His Word. It ignores His promises as well as threatenings. And it calls God a liar. Unbelief basically spits in the face of a holy God. And unbelief challenges God and dares Him to do His worst. Unbelief is a heinous sin and brings judgment upon the unbeliever.
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Now, look in verse 2. Numbers chapter 14. I want you to understand. If you really grasp this verse, it should make you very—oh, what should I say? It should make you very concerned for that which you pray. Numbers 14 verse two, "And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them," now watch what they said, "Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!"
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Now the translation of these two words, "would God," is from a conditional particle which literally can be interpreted like this, "would God," or "oh that it might be," or "if haply," or "I pray thee," "if only that," "all that it might be." In other words, what they're saying, "I pray that, if haply, I would, I prefer, I want to die either in Egypt or in this wilderness."
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Now let me tell you something, folks. They weren't in Egypt. So they couldn't die there. But they were in the wilderness. And God could answer their prayer very easily. Now look in Numbers 14 verse 26. Or should watch carefully. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me." What did God say? God says, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.
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As you have spoken to me, as you've prayed, as you've wished, as you've wanted, that's exactly what I'm going to do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And by the way, your children, whom you said would be a prey, they are going into the promised land, but you will never see it.
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Now skip down to verse 31. "But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you," now here it is again, "your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in this wilderness."
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Now let me tell you something, folks. The word of the Lord had been given. Their sentence had been pronounced. They would die in the wilderness. There's no escaping this now. They know that they are going to die. The sovereign, omnipotent God of heaven and earth has pronounced His decree. You prayed to me to die in this wilderness. I'm going to answer your prayer. I'm going to let you die. Your carcasses shall fall.
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Now, look in verse 35. "I the Lord have said," note, "I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord."
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Now, what did God just do? Let's see, he looked at all those men and he said, you want to die in this wilderness? Fine, I'm going to answer your prayer. Your carcasses shall fall. And by the way, these ten men that brought up this libelous, slanderous report, they died instantly as a plague before the Lord. So the death of those ten men was kind of like an earnest. When they die instantly, God says, I'm guaranteeing your death. Just like I killed them, so you are going to die as well. Those ten were nothing more than earnest, so to speak. And what did God say? Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. You prayed for it. You asked for it. You've got it. Now let me tell you, when God said your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, it's more than the fact that they're just going to die. They're going to die.
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But there's more to it than that. I want you to look in your Bibles to Jeremiah 22, Jeremiah 22, and let's begin reading there verse 18 and read about Jehoiakim. You're going to see the implication when God says your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. Jeremiah 22. And look at verse 18. Now we're talking about King Jehoiakim, OK? Here's what God said about King Jehoiakim. Jeremiah 22. Notice verse 18. "Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." How do you bury an ass? You don't. You drag him off and let his body rot and let the buzzards pick his bones. Wow.
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They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother, or Ah, sister. They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, Lord, or Ah, His glory. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem." How do you bury an ass? You don't. You drag him off and let his body rot and let the buzzards pick his bones. Wow.
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What did God say? Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. Go back in your Bibles to Hebrews 3 and verse 17. Because the author of the book of Hebrews is referring to Numbers chapter 14 and he says this. "But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell," past tense, "in the wilderness?"
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Now, I want to read you the comment of three commentators. First of all, Albert Barnes. Each one of these men are commenting on Hebrews 3:17. "Their carcasses fell in the wilderness." Here's what Albert Barnes says. "That is, they all died, and were left on the sands of the desert. The whole generation was strewn along the way to Canaan. All of those who had seen the wonders that God had done in the land of Ham, who had been rescued in so remarkable a manner from oppression, were thus cut down and died in the desert through which they were passing."
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"Such an example of the effects of revolt against God and unbelief was well fitted to admonish the Christians in the time of the Apostle and is fitted to admonish us now of the danger of the sin of unbelief." But note what he said. Their carcasses were strewn along the sands of the desert. Adam Clarke commented on Hebrews 3:17, says this, "...whose carcasses fell, for the Greek properly signifies the members of a body. And here may be an allusion to the scattered, bleached bones of this people that were a long time apparent in the wilderness, continually there as proof of their crimes and of the judgment of God." They weren't buried. They weren't mourned. They just fell down and died. Finally, John Gill says in Hebrews 3:17, "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness and so never entered the land of Canaan. They died in the wilderness and they did not die common or natural deaths, at least not all of them. Their deaths were by way of punishment in the way of wrath in a judicial way."
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"The Syriac version renders it their bones fell in the wilderness. They lay scattered and unburied and exposed to view as an example of divine vengeance." So when God said to those wicked, unbelieving people, turn you into the wilderness, they started dying from the judgment of God. Now let me tell you, you need to remember this. When that cloud moved, they moved. When that cloud stopped, they stopped. But if that cloud's moving and somebody dropped dead, what did the rest of the people do? They kept moving. They kept walking. You want to know how many men died in the wilderness?
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Look back in your Bibles to the book of Numbers chapter 1 and verse 46, because here is just the men from twenty years old and upward who were able to fight, who were able to go to war. The numbers given to us. Numbers 1 and verse 46. Here's how many warriors dropped dead in the wilderness. "Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty." So there were 603,550 men above twenty years of age.
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Now, there were probably two million people. That didn't count the younger men. That didn't count the little children. That certainly didn't count the women.
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Now, if they wandered for forty years, I'm just doing this approximately, okay? If they wandered for forty years, you divide forty into 603,550 and you're going to get approximately 16,000 that's going to die a year. Approximately 1,300 a month or fifty a day. So here are these people walking along and all of a sudden fifty men fall down dead. What do they do? They keep going.
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What happens to their bodies? The buzzards get them. I mean, they're unburied, unmourned. This is just the men of war. This doesn't count women who died or children who died, some naturally, maybe some by the judgment of God. It doesn't count those who died of old age or those who died of diseases. But can you imagine? Not only knowing that you're going to die, but knowing that you're going to die under the judgment of God, and when you die, you will be unburied and unmourned. And you would lay just simply wherever you fall. Now, the question is, did they all die?
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Well, look in your Bibles to Numbers 26 and let's begin reading with verse 23 and you will get your answer. Numbers 26. Beginning there, verse 23, I believe it is. I may have the wrong chapter. Let me see. OK.
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I think I've given you the wrong verse there. Let's see. OK. It's verse 63, verse 63, Numbers 26, verse 63.
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63 through 65. Notice, "These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun." Notice there was not a man left of them.
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Did God kill all of them? He killed all of them. Not one escaped. Everyone that God said was going to die, died. Oh my! Do you imagine that there were some that vainly hoped that they would escape God's judgment? Do you imagine there was some that thought, well, maybe God will forget or God will overlook me? But he didn't. There was not a man of them left. God accomplished all of his purpose.
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His decree was totally and completely carried out. And when God told these folks to turn in the wilderness, they knew they're going to die. May not know exactly the date, but they knew within forty years, not one of them would be left.
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Now, let me make a couple of applications today. I believe that each of us know exactly like those Israelites, surely that we're going to die. And we are. Hebrews 9 verse 27 says, "As it was appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment." The question is, are we prepared to die? You remember I told you earlier about Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress. When Evangelist met him, and Pilgrim was weeping, and Evangelist asked him why he was weeping. He said, "I must die. I must die. I must die. I find that I must die and stand before God."
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"I'm unwilling to do the first and I'm unable to do the second." Dear friend, let me tell you something. All of those who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, all of those who are outside of him in faith, are not prepared to die. If you do not know Jesus Christ in repentance and faith, like Pilgrim, you're not prepared. I want you to note, secondly, the Israelites who refused to trust in God and obey his voice died under the judgment of God. Likewise, today, those who refuse to trust in Christ will die under God's judgment. You know what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 1, beginning in verse 7?
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Listen, "And to you who are troubled rest with us," now listen, "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, and from the glory of his power." Those who are outside of Jesus Christ will be destroyed, will be judged, just like those Israelites in the wilderness. You know, Hobie said something earlier this morning, and I was going to say something then and did not do so, but I'm going to point it out now.
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Not all the Bible may be written to you, and not all the Bible may be written about you, but all the Bible is written for you. And you better understand that what is revealed in the Old Testament, according to Romans 15 and 1 Corinthians chapter 10, is written for our admonition, our learning, and just like these men died under God's judgment in Numbers 14 and 15 and 16, those who refuse Christ shall also die under God's judgment. How?
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Can we have a greater surety of death and destruction than the Word of God? God decreed the deaths of these men in Numbers chapter 14, and it came to pass exactly like he said. God has decreed it's appointed to us once to die, and after that the judgment. Dear friend, it will come to pass exactly as God said. Psalm 138 verse 2 tells us that God has placed His Word above His name. Listen, if God's Word ever fails, then God would cease to be God. But I do have some good news, and that is this, for the child of God, the one who's been regenerated by grace, who's been converted through repentance and faith, death has no sting and judgment holds no harm.
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I want you to look in 1 Corinthians 15. I know most of you can probably quote this, but look at it. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and let's begin reading there with verse 53. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 53. Look what he says. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 53. The apostle says, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law."
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"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." For those who are in Christ, death has no sting. The grave holds no horror. Judgment holds no horror. Why? Because God has given us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Bible says in Hebrews 2, let me just quote it. Verses 14 and 15. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Do you realize when Christ died as our substitute and the wrath of God fell upon him in our place, He took all the sting, all the horror, all the pain, so that now, for the believer in the Scripture, it's called those who sleep in Christ. What?
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Let me ask you a question. Do you have a horror each night of going to sleep? I don't. I welcome it. I'm thankful for it. I look forward to it. For the child of God, death is nothing more than just simply sleep. It's just simply going to sleep. And there's no horror. There's no pain. As children of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, we know that we shall lie down and go to sleep physically.
#82 | 53:09 to 53:41 | cleaned
That is, we shall leave this earthly body. But for the child of God, listen carefully, there is no death, only life. What did Christ say? "I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly." And do you remember what he said in John 5 and verse 24? He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." We will not experience, as believers, the agonies and the sting and the pain of death, because Christ has experienced that for us.
#83 | 53:41 to 54:31 | cleaned
And when it comes our time to die physically, it's just going to sleep. It is really and truly entering into life. Death is nothing more than a passport into eternity for the child of God. As the Apostle said in 2 Corinthians 5, we'd rather lose this earthly tabernacle that we might have a heavenly tabernacle. And the Apostle Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
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How horrible could that be? To have the blessed Son of God and to be in His presence, His life. It's not death, and it's not pain. But those who are without Christ know that they shall die. And they will die with God's judgment upon them. So, dear Christian, you be thankful for the salvation that God has given us through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Let's pray. Father, we ask You today to help us, to teach us. Make us, Lord, thankful and grateful for Thy so great salvation.
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May we trust in Thee. May we look to Thee. May we honor Thee. We pray that You would speak to hearts, convict and convert, and have Your will in every way and in every life. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray, Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T20:38:13Z

When You Know You're Going to Die

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver examines Numbers 14 and Hebrews 3 to explore what it means to know you are going to die under God's judgment. He explains that God has ordained both the end and the means: obedience generally leads to long life, while disobedience shortens it. The Israelites who provoked God ten times were condemned to die in the wilderness, their carcasses unburied. Weaver applies this to the gospel, warning that those outside Christ will die under judgment, while believers have victory over death through Christ.

Introduction: The Certainty of Death

Weaver introduces the topic by asking what it is like to know when and how you will die, noting that all people know they will die because Scripture says it is appointed.

Now look in Hebrews 3 in verse 17, which refers to this passage. Hebrews 3 in verse 17. The Word of God asks,

Scripture Reading — Hebrews 3:17

"But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?"

Scripture Reading — Hebrews 9:27

"As it is appointed unto men once to die, after that the judgment."

General Promises for Long Life

God promises long life to those who honor parents, treat animals with respect, and deal honestly with others. Obedience is the means to lengthen days.

Scripture Reading — Exodus 20:12

"Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

Now, that same promise is repeated in Ephesians 6, verses 2 and 3, where God said,

Scripture Reading — Exodus 20:12

"Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon the earth."

So here, then, is a promise of long life, and this long life is in relationship to whether or not we honor our parents or not. Now, actually, there are three promises of long life in the Bible.

Quality of Life Also Promised

From 1 Peter 3, Weaver shows that God promises not just quantity but quality of life to those who refrain from evil and seek peace.

Disobedience Shortens Life

Just as obedience lengthens life, disobedience shortens it. God threatens to cut off the wicked, as seen in Psalms and the example of Eli's sons.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 34:16

"The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth."

In Proverbs 2 in verse 22, the Word of God says,

Scripture Reading — Psalm 37:9, 22, 28

"But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it."

Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 2:30-34

"Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house."

Wait a minute. When God says there shall not be an old man in thine house, help me translate that. He's going to kill them before they get old. Now watch.

Scripture Reading — 1 Samuel 2:30-34

"And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever. And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age."

What is he saying? I'm going to kill every one of them, and there are not going to be old men around.

Anybody who lives a little bit longer, it will just be to cause heartache and grief. You're under my judgment. That's it. So here's the means that you use to shorten your life.

The Israelites' Provocation and Judgment

In Numbers 14, the Israelites provoked God ten times through unbelief and murmuring. God decreed that their carcasses would fall in the wilderness.

The Horror of Dying Under Judgment

Commentators describe the Israelites' bones scattered in the desert, unburied and unmourned. All 603,550 men of war died over forty years.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 22:18-19

"Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem."

How do you bury an ass? You don't. You drag him off and let his body rot and let the buzzards pick his bones. Wow.

Scripture Reading — Numbers 1:46

"Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty."

So there were 603,550 men above twenty years of age.

Now, there were probably two million people. That didn't count the younger men. That didn't count the little children. That certainly didn't count the women.

Application: Are You Prepared to Die?

Weaver applies the lesson: those outside Christ are not prepared to die and will face judgment, but believers have victory over death through Christ.

Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 15:53-57

"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law."

Conclusion: Death Swallowed in Victory

For the Christian, death is like sleep; Christ has taken the sting. The sermon ends with a prayer of thanksgiving for salvation.

When You Know You're Going to Die

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	105091139156
Subject	Family Government
Course	The Christian Family: Children, Fatherhood, and Generational Faithfulness: The Family
Genre	Sermon
Date	2009-07-19
Dictation Name
Book	Book 028: The Christian Family: Children, Fatherhood, and Generational Faithfulness — Chapter 8
Source Timed Segments	86

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Certainty of Death: Weaver introduces the topic by asking what it is like to know when and how you will die, noting that all people know they will die because Scripture says it is appointed.
General Promises for Long Life: God promises long life to those who honor parents, treat animals with respect, and deal honestly with others. Obedience is the means to lengthen days.
Quality of Life Also Promised: From 1 Peter 3, Weaver shows that God promises not just quantity but quality of life to those who refrain from evil and seek peace.
Disobedience Shortens Life: Just as obedience lengthens life, disobedience shortens it. God threatens to cut off the wicked, as seen in Psalms and the example of Eli's sons.
The Israelites' Provocation and Judgment: In Numbers 14, the Israelites provoked God ten times through unbelief and murmuring. God decreed that their carcasses would fall in the wilderness.
The Horror of Dying Under Judgment: Commentators describe the Israelites' bones scattered in the desert, unburied and unmourned. All 603,550 men of war died over forty years.
Application: Are You Prepared to Die?: Weaver applies the lesson: those outside Christ are not prepared to die and will face judgment, but believers have victory over death through Christ.
Conclusion: Death Swallowed in Victory: For the Christian, death is like sleep; Christ has taken the sting. The sermon ends with a prayer of thanksgiving for salvation.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

God ordains both the end and the means of life

While our days are numbered, God uses our obedience or disobedience as the means to lengthen or shorten our lives.

Weaver says, 'When God ordained the end, He also ordained the means to that end.'

The Israelites' prayer for death was answered

The Israelites wished to die in the wilderness, and God granted their request as judgment.

Weaver points to Numbers 14:2, 28-29: 'As ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness.'

God's judgment on the Israelites was total

Not one man of the condemned generation survived; God's decree was fully carried out.

Weaver cites Numbers 26:64-65: 'There was not left a man of them, save Caleb... and Joshua.'

Unbelievers today face the same judgment

Those who refuse to trust in Christ will die under God's judgment, just like the Israelites.

Weaver quotes 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 about flaming fire taking vengeance on those who obey not the gospel.

Believers have no fear of death

For the Christian, death is like sleep; Christ has removed its sting.

Weaver says, 'For the child of God, death is nothing more than just simply sleep.'

Scripture References

Numbers 14:21-23: God swears that those who tempted Him ten times will not see the promised land.
Numbers 14:26-30: God decrees that the murmuring Israelites' carcasses will fall in the wilderness.
Numbers 14:31-35: The children will enter the land, but the adults will die in the wilderness over forty years.
Hebrews 3:17: The author refers to the Israelites whose carcasses fell in the wilderness due to sin.
Hebrews 9:27: It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment.
Psalm 90:10: The average lifespan is seventy to eighty years.
Exodus 20:12: Honor thy father and mother that thy days may be long.
Deuteronomy 22:6-7: Letting a mother bird go prolongs one's days.
Deuteronomy 25:13-15: Having just weights and measures lengthens one's days.
1 Peter 3:10-11: To love life and see good days, refrain from evil and seek peace.
Psalm 34:16: The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off their remembrance.
Psalm 37:9, 22, 28: Evildoers shall be cut off, but the righteous inherit the earth.
Psalm 55:23: Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days.
1 Samuel 2:30-34: God tells Eli there will not be an old man in his house; his sons will die in the flower of their age.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20: God sets before Israel life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life by obeying.
Numbers 14:22: God notes the ten times the Israelites tempted Him.
Jeremiah 22:18-19: Jehoiakim will be buried with the burial of an ass, unburied and unmourned.
Numbers 1:46: The number of men of war was 603,550.
Numbers 26:63-65: Not a man of the condemned generation remained except Caleb and Joshua.
1 Corinthians 15:53-57: Death is swallowed up in victory; the sting of death is sin, but thanks be to God who gives victory through Christ.

Historical References

Pilgrim's Progress (Pilgrim's fear of death): Weaver recounts Pilgrim saying, 'I must die, I must die, I must die,' and being unwilling to die and unable to stand before God.
Hezekiah's death sentence (Isaiah 38:1): Weaver mentions Hezekiah being told to set his house in order for he would die.
Commentators on Hebrews 3:17 (Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke, John Gill): Weaver quotes Barnes, Clarke, and Gill describing the Israelites' carcasses strewn in the wilderness as an example of divine judgment.

Important Quotes

As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. Because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers.

God's oath that the rebellious generation will not enter the promised land, establishing the theme of judgment.

Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me.

The direct decree of death in the wilderness, answering their own wish.

But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?

New Testament confirmation of the judgment on the Israelites, used as a warning.

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Establishes the average human lifespan, framing the discussion of long and short life.

Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.

A clear promise that the wicked will have shortened lives.

Be sure your sins will find you out.

Weaver quotes Numbers 32:23 to emphasize that God records sins.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does knowing that God ordains both the end and the means of our lives affect the way we view obedience?

[Context]

Weaver explains that God uses our obedience or disobedience as the means to lengthen or shorten our days.

[Question]

In what ways does unbelief dishonor God, and why is it such a serious sin?

[Context]

Weaver states that unbelief challenges God's Word, ignores His promises, and calls Him a liar.

[Question]

What can we learn from the fact that God answered the Israelites' prayer to die in the wilderness?

[Context]

The Israelites wished for death, and God granted it as judgment.

[Question]

How should the image of carcasses strewn in the wilderness impact our understanding of God's judgment?

[Context]

Weaver quotes commentators describing the unburied bones as a warning.

[Question]

Why is death described as 'sleep' for the believer, and how does that change our perspective on dying?

[Context]

Weaver says that for the child of God, death is nothing more than sleep, with no horror.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T13:00:34Z