‘Verily I say unto you, there be some
standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of
man coming in his kingdom.’ Matthew 16:28
Suggested Further Reading: Hebrews 2:6–15
This
tasting of death here may be explained, and I believe it is to be
explained, by a reference to the second death, which men will not taste
of till the Lord comes. And what a dreadful sentence that was, when the
Saviour said, perhaps singling out Judas as he spoke; ‘Verily I say unto
you, there be some standing here, who shall never know what that
dreadful word ‘death’ means, till the Lord shall come.’ You think that
if you save your lives, you escape from death. The demise of the body is
but a prelude to the perdition of the soul. The grave is but the porch
of death; you will never understand the meaning of that terrible word
till the Lord comes. This can have no reference to the saints, because
in John 8:51–52
you find this passage:—‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep
my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we
know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and
thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.’ No
righteous man, therefore, can ever ‘taste of death.’ He will fall into
that deep oblivious sleep in which the body sees corruption; but that is
another and a very different thing from the bitter cup referred to as
tasting of death. When the Holy Spirit wanted an expression to set forth
that which was the equivalent for the divine wrath, what expression was
used (in Hebrews 2:9)?
Christ ‘by the grace of God should taste death for every man.’ The
expression ‘to taste of death,’ means the reception of that true and
essential death, which kills both the body and the soul in hell for
ever.
For meditation: This terrible tasting of everlasting
death will be the only course available for those who have refused in
this life to taste and see that the Lord is the good and gracious giver
of salvation and blessings to all who trust in him (Psalm 34:8; 1 Peter 2:3).
Sermon no. 594
15 August (Undated Sermon)
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