The End Is Near

I have heard of a few people who had very short experiences of what hell was like, or perhaps had a glimpse of Heaven but none of them stayed long enough for either place to make a lifelong impression. They still have to walk by faith and not by sight and all too often they soon forget the experience they had as the devil begins to tell them that it was all just a dream.

When we talk about the near coming of the Lord, my mind always goes back to that scruffy looking character walking down the sidewalk of a busy city either carrying a huge sign that says, “Repent, the end is near”, or another one who walks among the crowd with a “sandwich board” that says the same thing. Most of the time we just walk past them and consider them to be a “few French fries short of a Happy Meal”.

It seems that God’s message of his soon coming has become little more than a nuisance as we try to enjoy the best that this life has to offer. We just don’t like to think of the complete destruction of the whole world by fire. It all sometimes seems like just a scare tactic to get us to go to church and serve a God that we revere and respect but really don’t know like we should.

I wish I could say that I am always thinking about the second coming of Christ, but that’s just not the way it is. If you are like me you do think of it quite often but not all the time. The cares and duties of this life often force us to give them all of our attention while the eternal things of God are placed on the back burner for a while.

Even so, God’s message isn’t changed this morning. His message is, “Prepare yourself, make yourself ready, keep yourself ready, and don’t allow the things of this life to lull you to sleep.” There is no more important message than I can give to you today than to let you know that the end of all things as we know them, is truly closer than we think.

I can’t put a day, or a time, or even a year for that great event to happen, but I am convinced by the Word of God and by the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Bible that we see every day, that it won’t be long.

In light of that fact now, I have another message for you so turn with me if you will to Isaiah chapter 51.

Isaiah 51:1, "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged."

As I look around the church this morning, there is no doubt that all of us believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we are trusting in Him as our Savior. But God is reminding us to be vigilant in keeping our relationship with Jesus strong. We are to remember that Jesus is the foundation for our life. He is the Rock of my salvation. His death upon the cross on that rock called “Golgotha’s Hill”, and his resurrection from that grave that was carved out of a rock and sealed by a stone, made the way for my sins to be washed away and for this sinful heart to be made righteous. It’s only by His precious blood, through God’s grace and mercy that I can make Heaven my home.