TIMELESS TRUTHS
Psalms 119:160
God’s Word is truth in its entirety. Every promise in it is sure of fulfillment. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matthew 5:18)
Ever since God began to reveal himself to the children of men all he said was true.
ILLUSTRATION: I heard about two Americans who were visiting a South American country when they both ran afoul of the law and faced death by a firing squad. Before their execution the squad commander asked if they had a final request. The first said, "Right before I die, I want you to play that Macarena song so I can do that dance one last time." The Commander said, "We can do that." He then turned to the next man and said, "Do you have a final request?" The man said, "Yes. Shoot me first."
Well the truth is those who die will face eternity. After death they will either spend it in Heaven or Hell
This morning I want to declare God’s truth with about eternity.
I-WE SEE THAT LIFE IS SHORT: I Chronicles 29:15
For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
Life is short, uncertain, and fragile, it is here today, gone tomorrow.
Psalm 139 tells us that our days on earth are determined by God while we are still in our mother’ womb. Only He knows how long we will live, two weeks, two years, 40 years, 80 years.
ILLUSTRATION: A minister was visiting one of his members in the hospital on Saturday. The patient was sitting up in a chair. He said to his pastor, I’ve not felt this good in a long time. In fact, the doctor is going to release me tomorrow. But he never left the hospital. He died that very night. Life is short!
We read about people living into their late nineties and even 100 and we say, That’s a long time to live. But Methuselah lived to be 969 years old. Yet even that is a short time compared to eternity. Some of us that are in our senior years¨ often say, Where have the years gone? I was young only yesterday.
ILLUSTRATION: I heard about a man that was at a basketball game that was going badly for the visiting team. The home team was scoring at will and the visitors could not seem to get a break. With the home team up by thirty points in the second half, during a lull in the action, some fan yelled, “I wish this game could go on forever!”
Many feel like that today about life but Unfortunately, that is not the way things work. We all know things must come to an end. on this earth.
ILLUSTRATION: It is said that an old lady was to take a train journey of about fifty miles through a most beautiful country. For months she contemplated the trip. She was anxious to enjoy the beautiful scenery. The day came and she boarded the train. After getting her seat, she began arranging matters. She wanted everything just right. She began placing her bags, fixing her lunch box, adjusting the shades, and getting everything ready to enjoy the trip to the full. But, sad to say, just as everything was adjusted and she settled back, the conductor called out her station. She had to hurry around and gather up her belongings. "Oh, me!" she said, "if I had known we would get here so soon, I would not have wasted my time fussing around."
That is a fair picture of multitudes. We are so busy with the transient things of earth that we have little time to prepare for the next world. About the time we think we are all fixed for this world, the death angel will call out, "Eternity."
II-WE SEE THAT ETERNITY IS SLOW:
Matthew 25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
An old time preacher once said, if this world were a steel ball and an eagle would fly down from it lofty height every 100 years and touch it with his beak, when the ball was completely worn out, then eternity had just begun.
The Bible tells us that the souls of men and women will spend eternity in either heaven or hell.
The description of heaven found in the bible is wonderful. The picture of hell is absolutely horrible.
IILUSTRATION: Passing through a country graveyard, a man was struck by the inscription on a tombstone. The stone was by the side of the path where everyone could see it. It had been placed there in memory of a young man who died at the age of seventeen. It was, "Reader, stop and think; I am in eternity! and you are on the brink." In eternity! A young man, only seventeen years of age, in eternity! In a fixed, a changeless state, heaven or hell! And yet many have gone to hell before they were seventeen years of age.
God has provided a way for us to be sure that we spend eternity with Him in heaven.
That way is through faith in His one and only precious Son.
IILUSTRATION: I heard of a man who was dying some time ago, a man of great wealth. When the doctor told him he could not live, he sent for a lawyer to come to make out his will. The dying man’s little girl, only about four years old, did not understand what death meant; and, when the mother told her that her papa was going away, the little child went to the bedside and looked into her father’s eyes and asked, "Papa, have you got a home in that land you are going to?" The question sank deep into his soul. He had spent all his time and all his energy in the accumulation of great wealth. He had a grand home and had now to leave it; and how that question came home to him!
III-WE SEE THAT SIN IS SERIOUS:
Psalm 51:5-Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Ever since Adam and Eve allowed sin into their lives, everyone has been contaminated with it. This world is full of sin, and it has entered your heart and mine.
ILLUSTRATION: Twenty years later Rembrandt painted another picture of himself. As a young man he determined to deny himself no pleasure. He, therefore, sought out every delight and followed his appetite. Hence, one by one the torches of his life went out. Having been untrue to himself, he lost faith in others. In middle age we see the artist shrunken, an old rag around his throat, weakness in his chin, the mark of the beast upon his brow, the eyes heavy and dull, without vision or beauty. There are two pictures. The second shows the result of sin. His body was ruined by his own wickedness. In his youth he lived for his own ideals and for God. Twenty years later, after living for self and sin, the lights had gone out of his life. His body was a noble mansion given over to darkness and decay.
What is sin? It is rebellion against God. It is breaking His law. It is unbelief.
Unbelief is the worst kind of sin, it is that which damns souls to hell.
If a person could journey through the halls of hell and could talk to its inhabitants, we would find all kinds of people there: thieves, adulterers, liars, murderers, good people, moral people, respectable people, people who always obeyed the law. What are they doing there? Well, if we would ask them, they would say, We are here because we did not repent and receive Christ into our lives. To ignore Christ is to choose the devil.
ILLUSTRATION: Ozzy Osborne, now famed for the reality show, The Osbornes, was asked if he was a Christian. He said yes. Then he was asked what he thought of God. His reply was that he was okay with God, it was that Jesus he had a problem with.
Well Jesus is what makes us Christians and Jesus is the one who shows us the way home. Without Him, we’re LOST!!
I saw a church sign the other day that suggested a New Year’s diet plan: Loose the weight of sin, feed on the word of God!
IV-WE SEE THAT HELL IS SURE:
Matthew 5:29-30 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut if off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
ILLUSTRATION: Some years ago a man was preaching a revival in a large city church. A man in the church was a reporter and he would take sermon notes and then have them published each day in the paper. One night the sermon topic was on hell. When this was published, he received a scathing letter in which a man wrote, Don’t you know that only backwoods fools would believe in hell? Don’t you know that thinking, educated people don’t believe in it anymore? Even theologians don’t believe in it. The preacher wrote him back and said, Yes, I know about what men say about hell. But I also know that they haven’t destroyed the place. Its fires are as hot as ever!¨
ILLUSTRATION: Dr. Rawlings worked at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in the Emergency Room. It was his practice to interview hundreds of patients as soon as possible after their resuscitation. Many of them reported moving to the light…seeing long lines of smiling relatives, and feeling tremendous peace. Almost 50%, however, reported lakes of fire and brimstone, devil-like figures and other sights hailing from the darkness of hell. Many of the later, Dr. Rawlings found, later changed their stories because they were ashamed to admit they had been to hell.
Dr. Rawlings conclusion: "Just listening to these patients has changed my whole life. There is a life after death, and if I don’t know where I’m going, it’s not safe to die."
The Bible speaks more about hell than it does about heaven. Why is that? I believe it is because God loves us and wants to warn us so that we can find a way of avoiding it.
Hell is certain and there is no escape except through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.
V-WE SEE THAT HEAVEN IS SENSATIONAL:
Revelation 21:10-11-18,23
10-11 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
What kind of place is Heaven?
First, Heaven is home. The Bible takes the word “home” with all of its tender associations and with all of its sacred memories and tells us that Heaven is home.
Second, Heaven is a home which is permanent. We have the promise of a home where Christ’s followers will remain forever.
Third, Heaven is a home which is beautiful beyond every imagination. Heaven could not help but be so, because God is a God of beauty.
Fourth, Heaven will be a home which is happy, because there will be nothing to make it sad. In Heaven families and friends will be reunited. God’s house will be a happy home because Christ will be there. He will be the center of Heaven. To Him all hearts will turn, and upon Him all eyes will rest.
—Billy Graham
What’s so great about heaven? I’ll tell you.
Jesus is there
Loved ones are there
Bible characters are there
Angels are there
The devil isn’t there
Sin isn’t there
Pain, suffering, disease, and death aren’t there
IILUSTRATION: A wealthy American made a trip to London. He was all taken up with Buckingham Palace, where the King lived. So one morning he went to the gates, expecting to go right in. But two soldiers stuck out their bayonets and stopped him. He took a $1,000 bill out of his pocket and said to them, Take this money. I can pay my way in.¨ But they said, You can’t buy your way into the Kings palace. You have to be invited. And if the King invites you, you can go in free.¨
You can’t buy your way in or work your way in or do enough good deeds to get in. There’s only one way in by accepting the invitation of Christ.
ILLUSTRATION: Dwight L. Moody said, "Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all-out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal; a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned like unto his glorious body. I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever."
Conclusion: A thief broke into a Buffalo, N. Y., church and got away with some valuable equipment and several dollars from a collection box. The next day the church’s outside bulletin board carried the words, “If the person who burglarized this church will contact the pastor, he will receive important news.”
Interested, reporters called on the pastor. “What’s the good news?” they wanted to know.Replied the pastor, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
—Charles E. Fuller
Wouldn’t you like accept that good news today? If so, repent of your sins and trust Jesus as your Saviour so that you will spend eternity in Heaven.
Note-Some of the above materials were taken from Sermon Central Preachers.
