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You sit comfortably and sanguine in your chairs, confident that the future has good things in store for you. You remain upbeat and optimistic and have great plans for your life. The world is yours for the taking. Yet you do not consider for a moment your tenuous hold on this life. Your future station in life and your very existence is wholly dependent upon your precarious, weak, and infirm body to see you through the ravages of this world. At any turn it may fail you and you will meet death, the king of terrors. This is the bleak outlook of mortal man. But there is more to you than your body. What you see in the mirror is not all of you. It is not even the most important part of you. Your eternal soul and spirit is housed within your body - a frail fleshly tabernacle. It is only so long as your flesh lives that you remain on this side of eternity. When death comes for you, you will immediately be transported into another dimension - the spirit world of the damned. This is the fate of all natural men.

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12).

Adam, the head of your race, has sinned against God. You have inherited his sin nature. You have expressed this nature by a life of sin and rebellion against God.

"The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23a)

All have sinned. All will die. You are just another man that will experience this grim fate. The process is perpetual and never ending. For every baby that is born someone must die. And it's not only old people that die.

"One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh"
    (Ecclesiastes 1:4).

Death is a fact of life. Yet why is it that you pay no attention to this most important fact? Why have you made no plans or preparation to meet God your Maker (Amos 4:12)?

"Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:4).

Men in the Bible have described what they felt when they were at death's door:

"Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud" (Job 30:15).

"My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me" (Psalm 55:4).

The terrors of death will also be your experience when it's your turn to die.

The brevity of life is not something that occupies your thinking. You take life for granted. You assume you will live to a ripe old age. But you think no further; you stop short of thinking about your death. You believe death is only something that old people need to think about. "I have a lot of time to spend and enjoy," you say. You don't think about death, because it's a terrifying thought to you. You subconsciously suppress all thoughts of death and dying, because it's too horrible a thought to hold.

One day soon your body will lie lifeless in the grave. It will look gruesome and be stiff and cold. Then your body will smell like rotten flesh - the horrible smell of death. Worms will be eating your body. All your hopes and dreams will go down with you to the grave. This will happen to you. Believe it.

But you deny all possibilities that you will die. When you read about a murder or see a deadly car accident you never think, "I could be next." When you hear that a person has died of cancer or attend a funeral of a loved one, you never think, "This could happen to me." But one day soon you will meet death - the king of terrors. All shall meet him one day.

I.    First, death is the king of terrors, because no one will escape it.

"What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" (Psalm 89:48).

"There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of his death"
    (Ecclesiastes 8:8).

Albert Barnes, in his notes on the Old Testament in the book of Job (Baker Book House, reprinted in 1988, page 311), said this:

There is something singularly beautiful and appropriate in the phrase "the king of terror." Death is a fearful monarch. All dread him. He presides in regions of chilliness and gloom. All fear to enter those dark regions where he dwells and reigns, and an involuntary shudder seizes the soul on approaching the confines of his kingdom. Yet all must be brought there; and though man dreads the interview with the fearful king, there is no release. The monarch reigns from age to age - reigns over all.

Man since the beginning of time has been terrified at the prospects of death and has sought all means to escape it. The Egyptians mastered the process of mummification to deny the finality of death. Chinese and others in the East worship their ancestors in an attempt to immortalize them. The rich and famous make huge donations to have their name inscribed on stone to be remembered in future generations. Mao Tse Tung pickled his body and Walt Disney froze his body with the hopes to rise again in this world.

All vain attempts by mortal men did not lessen the terror of death for them. It merely deluded them for a time, but it gained them not one more minute of life upon this earth. There is nothing that you can do to forestall death, the king of terrors, when he comes for you.

II.   Second, death is the king of terrors, because it will come upon you suddenly
    and unexpectedly.

"There is but a step between me and death" (I Samuel 20:3).

"Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings" (Psalm 55:15).

"Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with terrors" (Psalm 73:18,19).

You will not be ready to die when death comes for you. In my experience as a medical doctor, not the elderly, not even those that are terminally ill with advanced cancer, are ready for death. How much less will you be ready that are not expecting it for years, if at all? Though you may kick and scream, your life will be rudely taken from you when death, the king of terrors, comes for you.

III.  Third, death is the king of terrors, because you will experience it alone.

No one can quite comfort you when death comes, because you will experience it alone. As your earthly tabernacle fails you and you drift out to eternity, you will meet death, the king of terrors, alone. How that will aggravate your misery! Psychologists tell us that it is a common desire of natural men to have the whole world die with them to allay their fears and terrors of death; but, alas, you shall die alone and without comfort. Men can endure much suffering if they are part of a group, but to do so alone brings it to terrifying heights. The rich man that built his barn to store up treasures on earth died alone, and so will you.

IV.   Fourth, death is the king of terrors, because all former pleasures will cease.

Your entire life is based on what future pleasure you can enjoy and what comforts you can experience. You will be terrified when it dawns upon you at the time of your death that you will enjoy these no longer. No more opportunities for you to "take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." (Luke 12:19). Instead of pleasure you will experience the eternal torment of the damned. Imagine the terror of the rich man when God said to him, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? (Luke 12:20).

V.    Fifth, death is the king of terrors, because after it comes the judgment of God
    and eternal punishment in Hell.

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).

It would be frightening enough if death was the final punishment. But death is merely the door that you must pass to enter into the final judgment of the unsaved dead.

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:12,15).

God has all your sins written in His books. He will judge you according to your wicked works and justly send you to Hell. All your former fears of death will seem as nothing compared to your future eternal punishment in Hell.

"And in hell he lifteth up his eyes being in torments. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:23,24).

"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:44).

Why are you not in Hell at this very moment? You certainly deserve to be there with all those sins on your record. Billions upon billions are experiencing the terrors and torments of Hell right now and yet you are spared. That's because you are still in your flesh, and your spirit and soul remain in your body. But time is fleeting. The next breath you take may be your last, and you find yourself on the other side, in eternity standing before the judgment seat of God. You must realize full well how transient this life is and prepare for eternity.

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels" (II Corinthians 4:7)

"Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am" (Psalm 39:4).

To meditate upon your mortality is the first step to receiving any spiritual truth and planning for eternity. Death is a serious and morbid subject and I don't blame you for not wanting to think about it. But you are in an awful predicament with all those sins on your record. Death, the grave, judgment, and eternal punishment await you. The prospects are not nice but nevertheless real. Believe it. Feel it. Dread it. Then maybe you will be ready to hear the hope of the gospel

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 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 though our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 15:22, 26, 55-57).

Jesus died and shed His Blood and rose again so that you don't have to die for your sins. Oh, sure, your body will die, but if you are in Christ you will not experience the second death in Hell but live in the bliss of Heaven for eternity. That's something to look forward to. So you see, the sting of death and the grave has been taken away by Jesus. The genuine Christian has good reason to rejoice. Jesus has given him victory over death.

Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus said, "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19). But you must come to Him by faith and trust in His Blood if your sins are to be forgiven.

"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" (Hebrews 2:14-15).

You need not fear death any longer. Death need not be the "king of terrors" for you. Christ can deliver you from this terrible life of bondage of the fear of death. Death will be seen as a natural event that will be followed by an eternal wonderful home in Heaven.

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Corinthians 5:1).

A wonderful life with Christ awaits you. Come to Him. He will receive you. He will wash your sins away with His Blood. Have life and not death.

"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (I John 5:12).

Scripture Read Before Sermon: Luke 12:16-20; Job 8:5-14. Solo by Benjamin Kincaid Griffith: "Am I Prepared?"

I.   Death is the king of terrors because try as you may you will
not escape it, Psalm 89:48; Ecclesiastes 8:8.

II.  Death is the king of terrors because it will come upon you
suddenly and unexpectedly, I Samuel 20:3; Psalm 55:15;
Psalm 73:18,19.

III. Death is the king of terrors because you will experience it alone.

IV. Death is the king of terrors because it will cause all your former
pleasures to cease, Luke 12:19,20.

V.  Death is the king of terrors because after it comes the judgment
of God and eternal punishment in Hell, Hebrews 9:27;
Revelation 20:12,15; Luke 16:23,24; Mark 9:44;
II Corinthians 4:7; Psalm 39:4; I Corinthians 15:22,26,55-57;
John 14:19; Hebrews 2:14,15; II Corinthians 5:1; I John 5:12.