chapter of the book of Job. The 16th chapter of the book
of Job. I want you to look beginning
with verse 22 of that chapter and I'll read chapter 17. The
book of Job. You know, chapter divisions are
not inspired of the Holy Spirit. And so we begin with verse 22. When a few years are come, then
I shall go the way, whence I shall not return. My breath is corrupt,
my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me. Are there not
mockers with me, and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? Lay down now, put me in a surety
with thee. Who is he that will strike hands
with me? For thou hast hid their heart
from understanding, therefore shalt thou not exalt them. He
that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his
children shall fail. He hath made me also a byword
of the people, and aforetime I was as a tabret. Mine eye also
is dimmed by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow. Upright men shall be astonished
at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite. The righteous also shall hold
on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger
and stronger. But as for you all, Do you return
and come now? For I cannot find one wise man
among you. My days are past. My purposes
are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. They change the
night into day. The light is short because of
darkness. If I wait, the grave is mine
house. I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, thou
art my father. To the worm, thou art my mother
and my sister. And where is now my hope? As
for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars
of the pit when our rest together is in the dust. May the Lord
bless this solemn reading of his word this morning. I want to read the 22nd verse
of chapter 16. This will be my text this morning,
God willing. Listen to it carefully. This
is a very sobering message, and one that I trust will affect you for the rest of your
life. I trust, God, it will affect
us all for the rest of our lives. Let's listen carefully. When
a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not
return. When a few years are come, says
Job, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return. Now this season of the year may
very well remind us I think of our mortality. The year has commenced
to die, has it not? Its glory and its prime have
all gone, it seems, away. The leaves are turning and the
fall of the year is upon us. Now these are creation's warnings,
I believe, reminding us that the Lord has set a harvest for
us and that we all physically do fade as a leaf. Nature has her prophets, I guess,
as well as Revelation. Now, when I speak of Revelation,
I'm talking about the Word of God and those things that are
revealed therein. And the fall of the year seems
to me to be one of creation's prophets. Now, the solemn message
of the season is, the harvest is past and the summer is ended. Prepare to meet your God. one of my own sisters this last
week was operated on in indiana and she is very near death she's
in the valley in that vestibule of death as the old prophets
used to speak of it and so these things have been brought to my
mind Words of our text have been impressed upon me this morning,
and I wanted, by the grace of God, to be able to bring this
message today to the end that we might all be sobered by the
reality of death and the fact that when a few years are come,
then we shall go the way whence we shall not return. Now he that
hath ears to hear, might I say, let him hear. Let him hear. If you got ears to hear, then
hear this morning the word of God. Now my subject is one upon
which it would be impossible to say anything new since death
is neither novel nor uncommon. For from the days of Abel, as
you very well know, even to this present time, death has honeycombed
this earth with graves. This earth is full of the graves
of the sons of Adam, those who have lived, those who have died. And may we be enabled to put
away this morning all trifling thoughts. You know, many times
as I look out upon you, I don't have a clue as to what's going
through your minds. I don't have a clue as to what
kind of an attitude you had when you came in. You know, we can
smile a little bit and put on a little veneer, and nobody knows
exactly just how we feel, what's going through our minds, what
our thoughts are, and so on and so forth. But I hope this morning
we can put away all foolishness, trifling thoughts, and wear,
as one old prophet said, wear the shroud for just a little
while. Let our imagination bow with
solemnity, for we're dealing with death. We're dealing with
the grave. We're dealing with the judgment
throne. Now, we're to anticipate then,
by the reading of this text, as Job was, the day in which
we shall receive our final call from the judge of all the earth.
We're to anticipate that day. And let us shut out this present
world. Let's shut it out this morning
and become familiar with that world which we're to go to, that
world which is to come. Now, the considerations of this
morning will be very simple and self-evident. May the Spirit
of God bless this word and by its means prepare us for our
last journey of which this text speaks this morning. First of
all then, let us all realize our inevitable journey. We're
all going to take a journey. Every one of us are going to
make an exodus from this world an exodus from this world, and
we're going to take a journey. Now, these words must be taken
in a very personal manner by each one of us. in a very personal
manner because the language is singular. I shall go the way
whence I shall not return. Now, I know that we own ourselves
mortal. I don't think there's anybody
here that questions that every one of us are mortal. We know
that when Adam sinned in the garden, the Bible says that he
died. He died spiritually instantly,
and he began to die physically. and Adam finally did suffer a
physical death. And all of the sons of Adam,
the Bible says in that that we did what Adam did in Adam, that
we also, death hath passed upon all men from Adam to Moses, and
also even from that time the effects of that sin yet upon
us even this day. Now then, I know that as we own
ourselves mortal, but none of us really expect to die very
soon, do we? None of us really expect to die. Most of us, you see, we just
somehow or other believe, even the aged look forward to life
continuing. And even the sick, regardless
of how sick they are, they dream of the possibility of recovering
or being healed. They dream of it. I mean, they
work toward it. They do everything in their power
to recover. their health and their strength.
So I guess that there's no need to stress the general truth that
man's days are few and full of trouble. I don't guess there's
any need to stress that man's life is even as a vapor that
appears for a little time and then it just vanishes away. I
guess there's no need to lay any stress on that too much,
but I'll place it before you like this, like the text puts
it to us. I, the preacher, you that look
upon the preacher this morning, I shall go, we shall go, we shall
all go the way whence we shall not return. As surely as you
live, beloved, you'll die. As surely as you live, you'll
die. Now the day may come in our experience,
and it may not come, but it may come in our experience. You see,
we may fall over in sudden death. Somebody said, well, sudden death
is a mercy. Well, I'm inclined to agree with
that. Sudden death is a mercy from
God. But the day may come in our experience
when either a physician, a doctor, or a preacher, member of our
family, some trusted friend, will come to us and break the
news to us that our end is very near. We have a terminal disease
and our end is near. Now you may take the news in
different ways. You may take it in a very, very
different way than other people. But first of all, you may not
believe it when it's put to you. But your doctor, we whisper in
your ear, he is compelled to believe that yours is a terminal
case. He is compelled to believe there's
no hope for you to get well. He is compelled to believe that
you're soon going to die. And then we can press upon you
that it's as certain as a thing can be. There's no way out of
it. You're very soon to make your
exodus. You're very soon to die. And
we press that upon you. But you still may not believe
it. People have a way of shutting out what they don't want to hear. And many, many people will not
accept what is told them in that hour. They will not believe it. And then it may be If you do
not believe it, or if you do believe it, that it may bring
great pain to your very soul. It may wound your heart. It may
cut your soul to the very quick. To hear this news, that I'm about
to leave this world. I'm about to begin this journey. I'm about to leave this world
and to go yonder into the world that is in eternity. I'm about
to do that. And it may be a very painful
day for you. I've known people that would
go out and quickly end their life. I've known of people who
would do very, very serious things short of that. when they heard
the news that they were about to die. But you also might receive
the news with calmness. You might be patient. You might
have patient resignation, just like you've always been in a
habit of doing as a child of God in this world. You just submit
yourself to the will of God. You might do that. And that'd
be a wonderful thing if you do that. You see, the biggest word
I've often said in the Christian vocabulary is submission. Submission. Very difficult thing
to do. But when this word comes, that
the journey, you're about to begin the journey, My friend,
listen to me. Listen to me. If you're a child
of God, and you've been bowing your knee to the Lordship of
Christ, yea, if you've been dying a little bit every day, like
the Apostle Paul, he said, I die daily. I mean, I've been working
on this thing for years. I've been dying a little bit
every day. And if you have been doing that,
then my friend, you'll be able to submit yourself Doesn't mean
you won't weep a little, doesn't mean you'll be sorrowful, doesn't
mean that you won't have some problems with it, but you will
bow your knee and in patience and calmness give a good witness
of the love and kindness and grace and compassion of your
Lord towards you that has kept you alive all these days. Now
again, it may be accepted with joy, It may be accepted with
joy when you get this news. It's a thing you might say that
I've longed for. I've been looking for this day.
Now I'm going to be free of this dreadful pain and this dreadful
misery and free of this body. I'm going to drop this body.
I'm going to put it off. This body that has struck me
down and held me in as an eagle would be held in a cage with
a chain around its leg. The chain is going to be taken
off. The door, the cage will be opened and I'll fly away. I'm going to fly away. Oh glory,
I'm going to fly away. Now that may be the way that
you take this news, I'm going to be free. But brother, sister,
this is solemn business. This business of dying is nothing
just to carry on about or talk about in a frivolous way. Let
me point this out that however you receive the news and how
you take it as you may, it's solemn business to die. Solemn
to those who tell the news and more solemn still to those who
hear it. It's solemn. You know, we may
beat around the bush when we come to talk to you. may beat
around the bush for a little while. We may not just come right
out and dump it all on you right quick, but I'm telling you it's
solemn business to die. Look, if you will, with me at
the poor dying man wasting away before your eyes. Here's the
son of Adam, and the news has come he's about to start his
journey. He's about to leave this world. He's wasting away. And he must
now go to his long home, and the mourners will go about the
street. Remember, he must go! He must
go!" Job said, I shall go the way." So he must go. Beloved,
no one can delay his departure. It's upon him. The hearse is,
as it were, at the door. If he could offer all the gold
in Fort Knox, he could not bribe inoxorable death. That word means
not to be persuaded or moved by entreaty. No man can bribe
death. There's no way that you're going
to say, go away, go away. It will not go away. He could
be the treasure of the largest bank in America. Here he is,
lying there, fading away. Here he is, about to make his
departure from the world. He could be the treasure in the
largest bank in America, and he cannot buy one minute more
of life. Not one minute more. He cannot
extend his life. His time has come, and he must
go. His beloved wife would detain
him, but death will tear him from her embrace. She would detain
all the children, weep, but he cannot stay behind. to wipe the
tears from their eyes. A kind friend would almost make
an exchange and die instead. But there can be no proxies here.
Nobody can step in for us in this hour. We must go. I shall go. I shall go and you
shall go. It is appointed unto all men
once to die and he must. And he must. Look at him, his
pulse is slowing, his eyes are glazing, his muscles are drawing,
and he's in great pain and misery in Tibet. Do you not feel for
a man in such solemn circumstances, seeing that we also are in a
body and we'll all shortly be where he is? Can you not feel
for this man? Can you not feel for him? I ask
you to place yourself in his place and try to feel as he must
feel because to such a condition we all must come except the Lord
come. except the Lord come from heaven,
except we hear the shout and the voice of the archangel and
the trump of God. Now, we know very little about
when he's coming. We don't know. But unless he
does come, every one of us are going to be right there where
this man finds himself. Now, the individuality of a man
or of a person comes out, I believe, in the dying hour. Now, what
an important being that he becomes, or they become. We think more
of that one person that's dying. Our thoughts are upon that person.
We think of that person more than the thousands that are in
the streets. Here is a man, here is a man,
here's a woman, here's a boy or a girl that is dying. And
no matter who they are, they're dying, and we tread softly, and
our thoughts are with them. How important also their character
becomes, their character. Now I know there's a lot of sovereign
grace believers, professed believers, and character means very little
to them, means very little. But beloved, when you come to
die, character is going to mean something to you. It's going
to mean a whole lot to you, and I'll explain that a little bit
later. But here's this man. Here's this
man. It's his life. It's his own life,
and there's questions to be asked. Was he righteous, or was he wicked? Was he a fearer of God, or was
he a despiser of God's grace? whether he was rich or poor,
it doesn't matter now, does it? Or whether he's at home or whether
he's in the hospital, it really doesn't matter now. And it really
doesn't matter how his bed is made up, if he's got the finest
linen on his bed, or if he's just got old bed clothes, it
really doesn't matter now, does it? This man is about to begin
his journey, and differences on the deathbed arises out of
character and not out of rank or station. You get that straight. The differences on the deathbed
arises out of a man's character, whether he's a believer or not,
whether he has a solid relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
you must face this for yourself. Here you are, and you're on this
deathbed. the great things of eternity. You must face them. And you,
my friend, cannot leave them to another now. You say, my dad
and my mother, they've made all the decisions up to this time,
and they brought me to church, they determined what I would
do this way and that way, and I have come with the others into
the house of God, and I've listened to the word of God. Or you cannot
leave it to another, or you cannot leave it to another time. Right
now, the issue must be dealt with. I'm going to take my journey,
and I've got to deal with this question." You heard about it
with others, as we said, but you now experience it alone. Alone, I say, and by yourself. Now you're shut up. to God, now
you're shut up to the truth about yourself. Oh, how clear it comes
in that hour to each one of us that we must believe in the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ, for ourselves. We must have a personal relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. We must each one of us serve
God personally, and each one of us have a good hope through
grace wrought in our own soul. Every one of us must have that,
and it won't do any good. Say, my mother was this, my daddy
was that. Not in that hour, because your
mom and daddy's not there in that bed. You're the one that's
about ready to leave this world. You're the one that's ready to
depart. Now, in death, a man's spiritual
condition, I believe, is the most important thing. Now, I
know there are many things that we don't think of when we're
in health. We never think of them. We might
be reminded, somebody might mention them, but we don't really think
of them until we come to die. Now, the question is this, how
did this man live? You say, well, I thought it all
had to do with believing, had nothing to do with the way he
lived. Now, let's settle one thing right here, beloved. Let's
settle one thing, and that is, what a man believes, if it doesn't
affect the way he lives, it is worthless. You remember what
I'm telling you? It's worthless. It has nothing
whatsoever. It will give him no comfort in
the dying hour to say, I believe. Well, what do you believe? You
know, the devils believe in tremble. You know that? They believe in
tremble. Well, what do you believe? Do you believe that the wicked
are going to be gathered in bundles? and that they're going to be
burnt in the fire. Do you believe that? Do you believe
the ungodly is not so, but they're like the chaff which the wind
driveth away? Do you believe that? Do you believe
that the wicked shall be turned into hell along with all the
nations that forget God? Do you believe that? What do
you believe, my friend? You say, well, it hadn't affected
your life. You're not interested in saying,
you're not interested in dealing with the question, how have I
lived? My friend, this is a very important
question. Well, what were your thoughts? What were his thoughts? The thoughts
of this man that's ready to leave this world. What is his thoughts?
Well, was his heart right with God? Is his heart right with
God? Did he repent of his sin? Does
he still repent? These are questions. that need
to be asked, and that will involve how you feel in that dying hour. You see, I've repented more since
I repented than I ever did when I first repented. I'll tell you
this, that I didn't know enough to repent when I first trusted
the Lord. I had a little bit, you know,
of sorrow for this or that or something else, but I tell you
what, when the Spirit of God began to open my heart to the
Word of God and the Spirit of God came in to live and revelation
and light came into my soul, then, beloved, I began to pour
out Repentance for what I was by nature, what I am by nature,
poured out before God. And I've never got over mourning
about what a Mitchell is. I never got over it. It's obnoxious
in the sight of God what we are by nature. and we'll repent more
when we get more light. And a believer, a true believer,
is doing it all the time. Does he still repent? And I'd
asked you this morning here, you that profess to be the people
of God, are you still repenting? Are you still turning from the
mind of the flesh to the mind of God? Are you? Are you still
doing it? Well, when you get on your deathbed,
We'll find out whether or not you repented up or not. Does
he believe in Jesus Christ? You remember that Philippian
jailer? He came in and said, what must I do? Sirs, what must
I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Well, is he resting
on the finished work of Christ or not? That is a question, my
friend, that we'll be asking that day. Now before now, he
didn't want to be bothered with these questions, but now he must
put his soul through the paces. Now, he must ask these questions. It's now or never. What is your
answer? He will have an answer. He will
have an answer. Well, what are we before the
all-searching eye of the Most High God? I guess that's the
question. Now, death, beloved, will test all things. Don't you
forget it. You can now listen to me. When
you come to die, it's past the time for pretense and sham. It's
past the time. You won't be able to pass it
off then. You'll not be able. You say,
well, I think I'm getting along fine. Wait till you come to die.
Dying will test everything about you. We want to know, don't we? When we see somebody that's in
this state we've been describing, this man who's about to leave
and embark on his journey, we'd like to know about their spiritual
state. Oh, my sister, God bless her. I tell you, I really would like
to know that her sins are put away. I'd like to know that her
sins are under the blood. I'd like to know she's a believer.
I just don't think she is. I just don't think she is. I
don't know. God's the final judge of everything. But I want to
tell you, when you come down, we'd like to know in that hour. The point is, a dying man will
want realities. not pretense and sham. Oh, brother, sister, ever follow
that which is real and solid, for nothing else will serve you
well when you come to die. A lot of things that we wrap
ourselves in now will not serve us well in the hour of our death. You get a little bit of hope,
a little bit of enjoyment, because you come to church, and that's
all well and good. But I'm telling you, just coming
to church, you can wrap yourself in that now, and you say, I'm
getting along fine, and I'm okay. But in that hour, that'll fail
you. It'll fail you. It's what you
are inside. It's what's real. It's what's
solid. It's what's real in here. And
are we prepared? That's the question. Pray, God,
we may be. Pray, God, we may be. Willing
or unwilling, it matters not. The journey is inevitable. And
this man is going. Now, the second point is this. I want to make some comments
on when a few years are come. when a few years had come. Somebody
said, well, when, preacher, when? You talk like this is imminent.
When? Well, the text says, when a few
years had come. The old songwriter put it this
way. Just a few more years with their
toils and tears and the journey will be ended. And I'll be with him where the
tide of time with eternity is blended. I'll exchange my cross for a
starry crown, where the gates swing outward ever. At his feet I'll lay every burden
down, and with Jesus reign forever. My friend, just a few more years.
with their twirls and tears. Now, at the commencement of life,
when a person is just starting out in life, the road just looks
like that it's endless. You look out there, and it just
looks like there'd be no end to your life, that it's endless.
Now, when you get middle, middle age, and some of these people
around here could tell you about that, you have just a short view
of forward and backward, just a short view. don't don't don't
seem like they've been here very long and really to them if they're
really serious don't seem like they got a whole lot of time
left either but whenever a person comes to age and age descends
upon them well they'd be well aware they should be well aware
how short for certain their time here must be because you see
the young may die but the old must die No way out of it. Must stop. Your lease and the
older folks need to learn that your lease has almost run out.
And you may be here today, and you might not be aged, but your
lease may be almost run out. Now, the text says a few years,
but you can read it months, you can read it days, you can read
it hours, you can read it minutes, for we cannot tell how soon we
must set sail for that far-off land. We can't tell how soon
it's going to be. Who is he that is next to die? an old huckster out in an eastern
state many, many years ago, was in the habit of saying. He would
go around from house to house peddling his goods, and he would
say, Who is the next? Who is the next? Who is the next? as he went along. And one day,
as he was crying out that line, there was a funeral procession
that went by. And he cried out, Who will be
next? Who will be next? And there was
an old man standing on the street corner, an aged man, that fell
to his knees and and cried out to God for mercy and was saved,
and that old huckster, he never realized what really happened,
but this man gave the testimony after that, that it was those
words when that funeral procession was going by that moved his soul
to repentance before God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who will be next? Now may God make us wise, beloved,
unto salvation. To be prepared to die is an immediate
duty. Man's days, as we said, are few
and full of trouble, and seeing that we'll be gone so soon, let
us be ready. Let us be ready to die. Now,
to be ready to die, one must know in his soul the forgiveness
of his sin. One must be in relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. One must have a heart union with
the Son of God. There's no time to spare. The
end is drawing near. We must now get right with God. Now then, consider the fact,
in the third place, that we shall not return. You see, this is
one of the things that makes this so serious. When a few years
have come, I shall go whence I shall not return. Not going to return, you see.
We ain't coming back. It's not a lot going to town
and then coming back. You're not coming back, my friend.
This is it. I want to impress it upon you.
This is the serious thing. There are people that take their
lives and I cannot believe that they seriously consider that
they shall not return. I can't believe that they consider
that at all. When a few years have come, then
I shall go the way whence I shall not return. I shall not return
to the occupation of life. I shall not return to sow and
reap. I shall not return to my home.
I shall not return to my family, to the pleasures of life, to
the church, to the pulpit and the pew, to the church or to
the chamber of love, and to the hearth of affection, and to the
walk with friends. We shall not return. We shall
not return. We shall not return to hopes
and to fears and to joys and pains. We shall not return. We shall not return to summer's
flowers and to winter's snows. My friend, to nothing that is
done under the sun shall we return. We shall be separated forever
from all materialism. Forever. We shall not return.
soul, unsaved soul, to the land of the gospel and to that place
where the mercy seat is set forth to you, you shall not return. If you die unsaved, you'll not
be able to come back to the house of God to hear again the ministry
of reconciliation. Jesus will never again be set
before your eyes as hope. as the eternal hope. You will
never be able to come back to the family prayer gathering,
the earnest entreaties of godly parents and loving friends, or
even back to your Bible, and to the opportunity of searching
the scriptures thinking that in them you might find eternal
life. You shall not return. Once past the barriers of life,
unsaved, and you cannot return again to a new probation. It is never going to be. Once
you die, listen to me, the die is cast where the tree falleth,
it must forever be, it shall be said of you, he which is filthy,
let him be filthy still. You die unsaved, you, my friend,
will never ever have another chance. I know there are people
out espousing the view that there will be chances, there will be
opportunities in eternity, but there will be none. there will
be none. The only chance for you to have
a relationship with God Almighty through Jesus Christ is in this
world, and your time is passing away like the sand running through
the hourglass. Now believer, as far as you're
concerned, we need not wish to return. As far as the child of
God is concerned, we need not wish to return. What is there
here that could tempt us to return from such a place as to which
we're going, even if we could? Now, we might imagine some reasons
why that somebody might want to return and to come back. We
might want to come back, you see, to undo some mistakes of
life. But we shall not come back to
undo mistakes. We might want to come back to
plead with our children if we felt that we neglected that duty
while we was here. But you cannot come back to mend
or to undo anything. My friend, the message is, do
it now. Do it now. You're not coming
back to take up the task again. Therefore, if what your hand
finds to do, do it with all your might while you're here in this
world. See now to the bringing up of your children. Give your
witness of the grace of God and what God has done in your soul
to your neighbors and your kin now. Spell it out now, don't
you see? Because you're not coming back.
If it's a good work, then it's to be done. Do it now. Do it now. What is it that you
ought to do? Is there some apologies that
ought to be made? Is there some mending of fences? Is there some restitution that
needs to be made? Do it now. Do it now. because
you're not coming back again. You're not ever going to come
back. The curfew of time is sounding. What thou doest, do quickly. Do it quickly, because the time
is running out. Well, the last thing in this
text that I want to mention to you is let me inquire if we are
going, and we are, and we're going in a short time, If we
shall not return, might the question be put to each one of us this
morning, where are we going? Where are we going? Where are
we going to be in eternity? Where is my soul going to be
in eternity? We shall all die and we'll all
pass into a disembodied state, every one of us. Where shall
my disembodied soul go? Let me say it like this, if at
this very instant, if your soul were to leave your body, where
would your soul be? You see, your soul is going away
from your body, and your soul's going to be, somebody said, well,
a man's soul, see, nobody's ever seen a soul leave a body. There
was a physician, a French physician, that weighed a man before he
died, weighed him after he died, and he said that his soul weighed
8 ounces. That's what it weighed. Because
he weighed 8 ounces less after he died than he did before he
died. So he said his soul weighed 8 ounces. I don't know anything
about that. All I know is that we're all
going to pass into a disembodied state. Now listen to me now. If your soul was to leave your
body, where would it go? Where would it go? Well, you
might be surprised if I told you that you can know where it's
going. You can know where your soul's going. Where does it delight
to be now? Now this is getting down to it
now, and you listen to me, I'm not going to keep you much longer,
but I want you to listen to what I say. Where does your soul delight
to be now? There was an old lady, she was
a believer, and she was ready to die, and she told her preacher,
Sir, I do not think that God will appoint me, my portion,
with the ungodly, for I could never bear their company, and
I do hope that I shall be among his people, though I am very
unworthy, for I was always happy when I was with them." Now, what do you think of that?
She said, I don't believe God's going to appoint me, my portion,
with the ungodly. I never had any fellowship with the ungodly.
I never liked to be around them. I couldn't stand them. I was
only happy when I was with God's family and when I was with the
Lord's people. Yes, my friend, you're gonna
keep the same company in eternity you kept here. Now that's what
I'm telling you. When your soul leaves your body,
you're gonna keep the same company that you kept here. The Bible
says that we're to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather avoid them. The Bible says, what fellowship
hath Christ with Baal? What fellowship hath a believer
with darkness, or the child of light with darkness? What fellowship? You know what fellowship is,
two fellows in the same ship. And if you have light in your
soul, You want to be around other people
that are alive in the Lord. And you delight in their company. Now my friend, you listen to
me. You're going to keep the same company in eternity. The
sheep with the sheep, the goats with the goats. Your present
joy, hear this statement. Your present joys and delights
are prophecies of your destiny. And don't you forget it. Don't
you forget it. A man, John Calvin said, has
no right to expect anything in eternity, the seed of which is
not in his heart here. And if you love to go to that
tavern and drink that booze along with the ungodly people of this
world, and if you just enjoy the company of lost people, of
people that have no fellowship with your God, or might I say
with God, maybe it's not your God. But if you can do that,
if you'd like to be in the world and you just gotta have the fellowship
of the world, my friend, that's a prophecy of your destiny. That
tells me where you're going. And it ought to tell you where
you're going. You're not going, Your Honor, to be with the Lord.
The scoffer, the drunkard, the liar, the unchaste will be your
comrades in hell if they were so here. They'll be your comrades
in hell. If you love sin, you will be
up to it, to your throat. And it'll burn around you like,
like liquid fire. Death, the wages of sin, gonna
rage about you and gnaw you with undying, with the undying, it's
undying worm. That's what's gonna happen. But
if your delight has been with your God, you're going to dwell
with Him. You're going to dwell with the
Lord. If you've rejoiced in Christ Jesus, you shall reign with Him,
and if you've loved His people, you shall abide with them forever.
Your disembodied state shall be spent either with Christ and
His people, or with sin and sinners. That's what I'm saying. Our Lord
told, did he not, of the great gulf that was fixed when he was
talking about the death of old Lazarus and the rich man. And
he described this great gulf which cannot be passed. Nobody
can get over this great gulf. There'll be a tremendous separation.
And he also described the torment of those that were on the other
side. And you may know where you're
going before the clock strikes again, you can know where you're
going. The Bible says in John chapter
five, verse 11 and 12, this is God's witness, eternal life,
and this life is in his son, and he that hath the son hath
life, and he that hath not the son of God hath not life. A child
of God, listen to me now, that was 50 years old, was dying. And when she was dying, she said
to one standing by her bed, I have enjoyed more in the two hours
that I've been dying than in the whole 50 years that I was
living. Here, listen to what she said.
It is so blessed a thing to die, for I have a clear prospect of
the resurrection of the just, and I believe that I shall dwell
with the spirits of just saints forever." Now, my friend, that
would be a wonderful way to die, wouldn't it? Death, somebody
said, is not a tragedy, but it's a decree of God. We're going
to die. Now, will your resurrection be
a blessing, or will it be a whore? will be a whore. The tongue that
now dares to curse God will then ask in vain for a drop of water
to cool its burning. Oh, may you lay hold on Christ
at once and find eternal life. Do you believe in the great white
throne judgment? I believe in it. I believe in
it. I believe there's coming a time when God's going to call
all men before Him. And the books are going to be
opened. And God, out of those books, is going to judge men
in the light of the white righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I believe that Jesus Christ Himself will be the judge. I believe
that God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world
in righteousness. He has given assurance unto all
men in that He raised Christ from the dead to be the judge.
And judgment has been given into the hands of Christ. Now hear
me, I think that in that day and time, this is some of the
language that that great host of people that have been divided
in two classes, all the human race divided in two classes,
the sheep on one hand and the goats on the other, this is some
of the language to the right and to the left. Bless it. Curse
it. Come. Depart. The terror that's
in the voice of that one that's sitting on that judgment throne
in that day will cause men and women to cry out for the rocks
to fall upon them and to cover them and to hide them from the
face of the Lamb that's sitting on the throne. I believe in the
great white throne judgment, and I want to ask you, will your
resurrection be a blessed, blessed resurrection? As this lady anticipated,
or will it be a resurrection of horror? You see, God's going
to raise your body from the grave. He's going to raise it up. And
your body is going to unite with your soul. You see, when you
die, the body is buried, the soul goes to be with the Lord,
or it goes to hell. And the day is coming when God's
going to raise the bodies out of the grave, and there's going
to be a reunion between the body and the soul, then they're coming
to this judgment! And God is going to mete out
judgment. And then, you will either be sentenced to that death
that never dies, which is the lake of fire, or you will be
bid to come come and enter in to that kingdom which has been
prepared by the Father for his people. You'll be bid to come
and to receive of the joys of the Lord. But now don't flatter
yourself. Which side are you going to be
on in that judgment? Which side are you going to be
on? Well, don't flatter yourself with the idea that the ungodly
are going to be annihilated. They're just going to be burnt
up and that's going to be it. Don't, don't, don't, don't swallow
that. That's a lie from hell. There
ain't no truth to that. It's not so. You have chosen sin. You have deliberately rejected
the Lord Jesus and if you continue to do so, you have settled your
own destiny and settled it forever. Repent and believe the gospel. Look the danger in the face. Believe the Word of God. Repent. Repent. Turn. Turn lest you burn. Turn from your wicked ways. Turn
and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you believe in Jesus
Christ, look your future in the face and rejoice. that this scripture here has
become no longer a dredge, as the old word is, but it's a sonnet. It's a song to our souls that
we're going to take this journey in a few years, whence we shall
not return. And if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, look your future in the face and rejoice. Keep
your eyes on the eastern skies, the song says, for your redemption
draweth nigh. See your body and your soul together
again, both of them perfect. Both of them perfect by faith.
See your body and your soul perfect and together again. And see Christ,
the judge, acquitting you on the basis of imputed righteousness. See it. Look at it. Look it in
the face and see it. And saying, come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom, as we mentioned a few minutes
ago. Can you imagine the joy and your ecstatic delight in
that hour? when you stand before the Lord,
the presence of angels, the fellowship of saints that are perfect to
see Jesus, communion with your God, and all of this forever
and forever for the Lord's people. Now, believer, when a few years
have come, we're going to go whence we shall not return, nor
ever wish to return, but shall be forever with the Lord. And
the last word I guess I would give here this morning is to
both the lost and the saved. There was a preacher named Archbishop
Layton, and one morning, one Sunday morning, there was a fellow
that met him, I guess 10, 30, 11 o'clock, and this fellow asked
him a question, and said, preacher, have you heard a sermon today?
And the preacher said, no, I haven't heard a sermon today, but I met
one. I met one. I met a funeral possession. They were carrying a man out
to the cemetery to bury his body in the grave. I met one. And I trust this morning that
every funeral that you attend, the rest of your life, every
funeral you read about, hear about, that it'll remind you
of this text. It'll remind you of this sermon.
that you heard this morning. These are very sobering thoughts
that we've given you this morning. Most of the time, maybe, the
sermon is not as sober as this one. But you know, Job, he said,
the grave is my house. The grave will be my house. I'll
make my bed in the darkness. And he said, I have said to corruption,
you're my father. And he said, I've said to the
worm, you're my mother. and you're my sister." And he
said, we're all going to rest together in the dust. May God
sober our hearts. And I tell you, it's your immediate
duty to seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. If you're here
lost this morning, cry to God in your heart. May God, by His
Holy Spirit and by His grace, move your soul to seek Him today. Father, in the name of Jesus,
own the message and bless it to the benefit of both believers
and unbelievers, and may joy fill our souls if we know that
there is that which is solid, that which is real about our
relationship with God. If we know that we're in Christ,
may we rejoice. And may all of those who are
outside of Christ be moved upon now, and may they never rest
until they're brought to beg God for mercy, sue for mercy
at the mercy seat. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.