In the 14th chapter of the book
of Job, verse 14, there's a question. Job asked a question. He says,
if a man die, shall he live again? If a man die, shall he live again?"
Now, Job opens this chapter talking about death, talking about the
brevity, the shortness of life. He says, man that is born of
woman is of few days and full of trouble. He says again, life
is like a flower. It blooms for a while, even in
beauty and fragrance, but then it's cut down and it's gone. And he says life is like a fleeting
shadow. frail and fragile. And then the
apostle wrote, it's appointed unto men once to die, and after
that, the judgment. Man will die. He will die. Every person will die. In all
of the history of mankind, everybody has died, with the exception
of two men. Just two men, and they were taken to heaven without
seeing death, Enoch and Elijah. That's the only two that have
not died. But you and I shall die. And then in verse 5, Job writes
this, man's days are determined by whom? Who determines man's
days? We know who gives life. God gives
life. But who determines the length
of a man's days and months and years? Who sets his bounds? Who determines the day of his
death? Well, let's see what the scriptures say. Let God be true
and every man a liar. In verse 5, Job says, man's days
are determined. The number of his months are
with God. God has appointed his bounds. He cannot pass. So what Job is
writing here is that our lives are not in the hands of blind
fate or chance, but the living God who gave life determines
its length. The living God who gave life
determines its end and the day of death. Now here's the question.
If a man dies, and he shall, there's no doubt about that,
shall he live again? Well, according to the Bible,
according to God's word, man shall live again. He shall be
resurrected. All men shall live again. All
men shall live eternally. Some shall be resurrected, the
scripture says, to the resurrection of glory and life everlasting. And all the rest will be resurrected. They shall be in the resurrection
of damnation. But all shall be raised. Let's
look at a few passages of Scripture. First of all, in Ecclesiastes
12, verse 7, the dust, and it talks about man going back to
the dust from whence he came. God said that to Adam. Dust thou
art, to dust shalt thou return. And the dust shall return to
the earth as it was, but the Spirit to God who gave it. And then in John 14, 1 through
3, our Lord Jesus Christ said, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am there ye may be also." There is life after
this life, life on this earth and death. In John 11, 25, the
Lord Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." 2 Corinthians
5.1, the apostle wrote, we know that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle or this tent, this frail tent, be dissolved,
we have a building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heaven. You know, for generations people
have sung of the hope of the resurrection, the hope of eternal
life. We have hymn after hymn after hymn in our song books
talking about eternal life. When I can read my title clear
to mansions in the sky, I'll bid farewell to every fear and
white by weeping eye. There's a land that is fairer
than day, and by faith we can see it afar, for the Father waits
over the way to prepare us a dwelling place there. Man shall live again. Man shall die, and man shall
be raised. That's what the Scripture teaches.
If a man die, shall he live again? according to the word of God,
he shall, either eternally in the presence of the Lord, or
eternally separated from the presence of the Lord. So if death
is so certain, and it is, and if eternity is so long, And it
surely is. And if heaven is so sweet and
so blessed and so to be desired, and if hell is so terrible, and
it is, then why do men miss heaven? And why do so many people perish
eternally? Why do so many die without hope?
If death is so certain, now you think about this, and these are
words that you've got to deal with. You may switch me off.
and go somewhere else. But I'm telling you this, these
are words you've got to deal with. You've got to live one
life. You've got to die one death. You've got to face one judgment,
and you've got to hear one charge of guilt or one joyful declaration
of forgiveness, and then you've got one eternity to spend somewhere. Now, that's important. So we
ask this question, then, if this is true, Why do so many people
ignore this message and care nothing for it? And why do they
die without any assurance or confidence or hope of eternal
life? Let me give you some reasons.
Could I give you about seven? With your patience, stay with
me. The first reason is this. Men miss heaven because they
love this present world and cannot part with it. That's the first
reason. Men miss eternal life. They miss heaven because their
hearts are set on this world and they just can't part with
it. Every time I think of that, I see in my mind Esau. He saw
the great hunter. He saw the man of the world.
But he was the firstborn and the birthright. And the birthright,
my friend, was a whole lot more than just a pile of money. That's
what a lot of people think of when they think of the birthright.
They think, well, he was the firstborn son. When his daddy died, everything
became his. Not necessarily. Even though
he sold his birthright, he became a very wealthy man, even more
wealthy than Jacob. But the birthright, was the family
leadership. The birthright was the priesthood
of that home. The birthright was the relationship
with God that was so important. This man, whoever the firstborn
happened to be, he became the spiritual leader of that tribe
or the spiritual leader of that home. And Esau came in from the
hunting trip and there sat Jacob, eating those bowl of beans or
whatever it was. And he thought so little of his
birthright, so little of this leadership, this spiritual leadership
of that home and tribe, that he sold it to his brother for
that bowl of beans. You say, what a fool. Well, now
be careful. What are you selling your birthright
for? How much are you getting for your title to heaven? How
much are you getting for your relationship with the Son of
God? I think there's some folks selling out a lot cheaper than
Esau sold out. Demas. Demas was a companion
of the Apostle Paul. Demas was a friend of the great
Apostle. And finally Paul wrote of this man Demas, he hath forsaken
me. Why? He loved this present world. My friend, our Lord said, this
is condemnation. Light is coming to this world
in the person of God's Son. Light is coming to the world
in the person of God's beloved. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said this. He told the rich young ruler.
He said, go sell what you have. Go sell your trinkets. Go sell
your jewels, go sell your paper money, go sell what you have,
give it to the poor, and you come take up your cross and follow
me." But I'll tell you, this man's riches just meant too much
to him. He turned his back on the Son
of God because he loved this present world. No man can serve
two masters. I know that we can use this world
without abusing this world, for the fashion of this world fadeth
away, but you cannot serve God in mammon. You cannot serve God
and the world. And plenty of men and women are
confronted with the claims, the royal claims of King Jesus, who
refuse those claims because of their love for the world and
the attachments of this world. Oh, how our prayer ought to be,
Lord, lead me to seek thee with all my heart and my affection. And that word is singular, set
your affection on things above. That doesn't mean you can't have
affections for your friends and loved ones and family and wife
and children and even for your job. whatever it might be. But your affection is the tenor
of your life, and the bent of your will, and the joy of your
heart, and the purpose of your existence. Set your affection
on things above. And I'll tell you why so many
people miss heaven. They're just too much in love
with this world, with its pride, and with its fame, and with its
money, and with its jewelry, and with its attachments, and
with its glamour, and with its so-called entertainment. They're
wrapped up in and controlled By this word, they walk in the
flesh and they do mind the things of the flesh and not the things
of God. And it just can't be. You can't have the master and
yet bow to another master. Christ is King. That's the reason
he said, if you lose your life for my sake, you'll gain it.
But if you save your life, you're going to lose it. That's the
first reason. All right, I'll give you some
more reasons why men miss heaven. They just flat love this world.
They won't turn loose of it. They'd rather have a bowl of
beans than a relationship with God Almighty. And that's what
they are, just a bowl of beans. They're all going to pass away.
You can walk in these big fine homes, you know, and folks like
to show you their fine homes. They like to take you from room
to room. And when I'm going along behind them looking at all these
trinkets, I'm saying in my heart, God's going to burn this place
down someday. God's going to burn this place down. And they
show you all of their attainments and all of these things. God's
going to burn this up too. Everything. He that doeth the
will of God shall abide forever. All flesh is grass and all the
glory of man is the flower of the field. The grass withereth
and the flower fadeth because the Spirit of God will blow on
it. But the Word of God shall abide forever. All right. Secondly, men miss heaven because
Satan blinds them to the truth of the gospel. That's right. Satan blinds them. The God of
this world has blinded them. Listen to 2 Corinthians 4, 3
and 4. If our gospel be hid... Now,
the gospel's not hid in the sense that God covers it up so you
can't find it. The gospel is hid in Christ.
And men can't find it because they're not looking for it in
the right place. It's easily found when you turn your eyes
on Christ. You're looking for the gospel in the wrong place.
It's in Christ, and you're looking in the pool, the waters. You're
looking in the ordinances and the ceremonies and the laws.
And you're looking in your churches and denominations, in your own
heart, and to your preachers and priests and popes and all
these title ecclesiastical leaders. That's not where salvation is.
It's in Christ. And the reason it's hid is because
we're looking in the wrong places. If you look to Christ, you'll
find it. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that perish.
in whom the God of this world hath blinded their minds, lest
the glorious light of the gospel of Christ should shine unto them."
The gospel of Christ. And they should be saved. Men
are blind to the true nature of sin. Paul said, and he was
a very religious man, a very orthodox theologian, but he said,
I didn't know what sin was. That's exactly what he said.
I didn't know what sin was until the law said, thou shalt not
covet. So many men confine sin to outward acts. And our Lord
said, it's not that which goeth in the mouth that defileth you.
It's that which comes out of your heart. What a man puts in
his mouth goes into his belly and is cast out in the draft.
It can't do it. It can't defile his soul. It
never touches his soul. But out of the heart proceeds
murder, adultery, fornication, blasphemy, evil thoughts. That's
what defiles a man. But men are blind to that. They're
out here trying to tell people what sin is, and they're telling
them what the products of sin are, and the results of sin. Sin is a principle. It's a nature.
It's a condition of the heart. It's born in us. It's a rattlesnake
that lives in the heart. And all of these things we do
outwardly are nothing in the world but fruits of that evil
nature within. A man's not a thief because he
steals something. He steals because he's already
a thief. It was born in his heart before his hand ever accomplished
the act. Men compare themselves with other
men. I thank you, Lord, I'm not like other men. Well, that doesn't
matter. You may be better than other
men. Somebody may say, you're the finest man I know. That's
just one worm bragging on another worm. But you compare yourself
in the light of God's holiness and see how far short you fall
of His glory. But folks are blind to that.
And there's not many people preaching it. There are not many preachers
who are really fighting sin. They're fighting the consequences
of sin and the results of sin and the products of sin. They're
naming them, getting people to quit them and all this thing,
while that evil just still lurks within. And on the outside, we
appear beautiful. And on the inside we're full
of extortion and excess on the outside We wear our sleeves long
and our hair long and our faces long and we don't do this. We
don't drink. We don't smoke We don't chew
and we don't run around with those that do and we don't do
any of these things But on the inside God says you're full of
dead men's bones You're like a whited sepulcher clean on the
outside and rotten on the inside and God doesn't look on the outside
He looks on the inside and he said thou blind hypocrite cleanse
first that which is within and that the outside might be clean.
Folks are blind to the true nature of sin. They're blind to the
holiness of God. God said, you thought I was altogether
such a one as yourself. Isaiah, he said, when King Uzziah
died, I saw the Lord, and I heard the cherubims and seraphims of
glory crying, holy, holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts. Do you know how holy is the Lord?
Who shall stand in his presence? Who shall stand in his presence?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. You got it? No,
sir. I need it. It can only be found in Christ.
They're blind to the gospel of grace. They are compelled to
mix works with grace. And the scripture says, for by
grace are you saved. Free grace. Sovereign grace. God saves men according to the
good pleasure of his will. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. It is of God that showeth mercy.
For as many as received him, to them gave he the privilege
to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,
who were born not of natural descent, not of the will of the
flesh, not of the will of man, born of God, born from above,
born of the Spirit of God. Salvation is by the grace of
God, all of grace from Alpha to Omega. Men are blind to that.
They're blind to the sufficiency of Christ. We're complete in
Christ. Everything that a sinner needs
is found in Christ. Everything the law requires is
found in Christ. Everything justice demands is
found in Christ. Everything God the Father expects
is found in Christ. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. and redemption, it's all in him.
Oh, how sadly is this truth set forth, the way of life they have
not known. Isn't that sad? The way of life. There's a way that seems right
unto men. Like old Naomi stood outside the little house of the
prophet and cried, I thought, I thought, I thought. And that's
what we're doing today. This is what I think. Why don't
we turn to the book and see what God says. I am the way, Christ
said, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the father but
by me. He says, I can't see that. I just read why you can't see
it, too. But God of this world hath blinded their mind, and
it's so clear. Other foundations can no man
lay than that which is laid, Christ Jesus. None other name
unto heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. We're
not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold,
but with the precious blood of the Son of God. I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness
of sin." I could go on the rest of the morning quoting those
verses like that. I'm the door, by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved. I'm the door of the sheepfold.
I'm the good shepherd. I'm the chief shepherd. I'm the
great shepherd, Christ said. now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, and to present you holy, faultless,
without blame, in his presence with exceeding joy. Unto Jesus
Christ, the only wise, God be glory and majesty, honor forever
and ever. Thirdly, men miss heaven because
they refuse God's counsel. In other words, God's word. And
they refuse God's call. Listen, in Proverbs 1.24, he
said, You have set it not, my counsel. You've cast it aside. God laid his counsel out before
our very eyes, and what did we do? We pushed it aside. Just
push it aside. We push his word aside and get
out the literature of our denomination. We push his word aside and get
out the old hand-me-down traditions. We push his word aside and reach
and grab the old wise tables. You've set it, not my counsel,
God says. I've called and you've refused.
I've stretched out my hand and no man's regarded." Now he said,
the day's coming when you'll call and I won't hear you. You
read Proverbs chapter 1. God says, all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. And you say, we may not sinners.
I'm not such a bad fellow. I'm not as bad as so-and-so.
I'm better than a lot of people down at your church. You see,
you've set it in aught, God's counsel. God says, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. You say, I'm not such a
bad fellow. You've just cast his counsel
aside. He said, kiss the son lest he be angry. Fall at his
feet and crown him King of kings and Lord of lords. You say, we'll
not have this man reign over us. You've set it in aught, my
counsel. He says, the wages of sin is
death. And we believe what Satan said instead, you shall not die. You shall not die. We listen
to our false prophets crying, peace, peace, when there is no
peace. All men shall honor the Son,
the Father said. All men shall honor the Son,
even as they honor the Father. And you say we will not honor
Christ, not supremely, not sovereignly, not preeminently. Well, my God
said, you will. You will. There's coming a day
when every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess that
Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Somebody said,
make Jesus your Lord. It's too late. God beat you to
it. The Lord God of heaven made him Lord a long time ago. He's
every man's Lord. He died that he may be Lord of
the dead and the living. He's Lord by decree. He's Lord
by design. And he's Lord by death. He's
Lord. It's just a matter of when you're
going to confess it and where you'll be when you do. But men
are blind. They refuse God's counsel. God
in grace calls men to repentance and faith. Come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. And then
our Lord turns around and says, you will not come. The table
is spread, the fountain is flowing free, there's plenty, he says. Come, come for all things are
ready, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood
was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb
of God, I come, I come. Poor, wretched, blind, sight,
riches, healing of the mind, all I need in Christ to find,
I come. I come. And then fourthly, men miss heaven
because they have a false view of God's mercy. God is merciful. Oh yes, God is love. But men
have a false view of that mercy and a false view of that love.
It says here in Deuteronomy 29, 29, and it came to pass And it shall come to pass, when
he hears the words of this curse, that he will bless himself in
his heart and say, I will have peace, though I walk in the imagination
of my own heart. Yes, sir, listen. And it shall
come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, the curse,
the judgment of God upon sin, that he will bless himself in
his heart and say, I will have peace, though I walk in the imagination
of my own heart. Though I do not bow to the gospel,
though I do not receive God's Son, though I don't have any
hope of eternal life through the remission of sin, I'll have
peace." That's the imagination of his own heart. Now this is
the pit into which most people have fallen. They think that
God will just overlook sin, that God will just pass by sin, that
God will just wink at sin, that God will just set it aside. But
my friend, listen to me. God will punish sin. He says
the soul that sinned is that shall surely die. He says I will
by in no wise or by no means clear the guilty. God's justice
must be satisfied. His law must be honored and you
and I can't do it and haven't done it and won't do it. Our
only hope is that somebody will do it for us. And that's what
Christ came to do. He came into this world in the
flesh. He took on himself, not the nature of angels, but the
seed of Abraham. And as our representative in
human flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, as a man, met the holy law of
God and obeyed it in every jot and tittle, as our representative.
And through his obedience, he has imputed to us, and that's
a big word just meaning he reckoned it to our account, he's charged
it to us. It's mine, because he gave it to me, a perfect righteousness,
a perfect standing, a perfect holiness before God's law, so
God doesn't have to compromise his law and show mercy to me.
And my Lord went to the cross of Calvary, and there the judgment
and wrath and anger of Almighty God fell upon him as he became
sin for us. He bore our sins in his own body.
He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The justice and judgment and wrath of God fell on Christ in
my place and in the place of every believer. So God can now
be just and still justify folks like us because Christ paid the
debt. The debt's paid. Here's a judge sitting on the
bench and they bring a young man before him, he's guilty of
murder. And the judge looks on him with compassion and love.
And his heart's broken for that young man. And he loves him,
and he wants to show mercy to him, but he can't. The law won't
let him. Justice won't let him. He occupies
a place of justice and righteousness, and he must punish crime. He
can't set that man free. And Almighty God sits on a throne
of justice and righteousness and holiness, and he cannot arbitrarily
Passed by sin, it's got to be punished. Now then, his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who had no sin, who knew no sin, can
stand in my place before the doctor, stand in my place before
the judge, stand in my place and take my guilt and serve my
sentence and die my death, then I can go free. because my debt
is paid. You see that? At Calvary, I see
the love of God that passeth understanding. At Calvary, I
see the righteousness of God displayed, the justice of God
honored and satisfied, and the sinner set free. Can you see
that? Oh, a false view of God's mercy.
You see, the Lord God just cannot. He's too holy. to pass by sin
without sin being punished. He can't do it, my friend. He
just can't do it, not in big off. Read Romans 3, 19 through
26. It shows you the whole world
is guilty, but there's a righteousness without the law being manifested
and witnessed by the law and the prophets manifested in the
gospel in Christ Jesus, how God can be just and justified. Men
miss heaven because they establish a false refuge. That's right.
Good works is a false refuge. Church membership is a false
refuge. An old experience that stays old. Also, baptism, whether
it's put on a baby's head or over an adult's body, it's a
false refuge.