Will You Die Tonight?

I want to read my text again, Luke 12, verse 20. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee. My subject tonight is in the
form of a question, and the question is this. Will
you die tonight? Will you die tonight? Is this the day that your life
on earth will end? Is this the last worship service
you will ever attend on this earth? Is this the last day that you'll
spend with your family and with your friends? Will this congregation gather
this coming Tuesday night at one of the local funeral homes
and look into your lifeless face and say nice things about you? Next week, will your family be
busy tying up the loose ends of your affairs and paying off
your bills and getting in touch with your insurance company and
collecting what you have provided? Will you tonight be in the awesome,
fearful presence of a holy God? Will you? Will you die tonight? Let me answer the question for
you. I think I can answer it in the way that if all of us
were honest, this is the way that we'd answer this question.
This is the way I'd answer it, and this is the way I believe
you would. Will you die tonight? No. I have no plans to die tonight.
I'm still relatively a young person. I know our Lord died
when he was only 33. I know that. I know that the
great Maxine died at 29. I know that David Brainerd, who
was used of God in a mighty and unusual way, was called away
by God at 30 years of age. I know there are literally thousands
who die every day younger than I. But I have no plans to die
tonight. I haven't even thought about
it. I have no plans to die tonight. I'm in reasonably good health.
Oh, I know that I have relatives and I have close loved ones who
have died much younger than I. And I know that health is as
frail as a tent. I know that God's Word speaks
of this body as a tent, a tabernacle which shall someday be blown
down. But I have no plans to die tonight.
Will you die tonight? No. I have no plans to die tonight. I have a work to do. We just
built a building back here behind this church, and I plan to be
here 20 or 25 years, pay off that building and continue to
preach the gospel. I have a work to do. So did Spurgeon. When he was only 58 years of
age, he left a church ten times bigger than this one. He left
an orphanage with hundreds of boys and girls depending upon
him for their support. He left a college of almost a
hundred preacher boys looking to him for leadership. He left
missionaries on the field depending upon him for their daily bread. God's Word says, Boast not thyself
of tomorrow, thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. But
my calendar tomorrow is quite full. Next week, the next week,
I've gone ahead and marked the days that I'll be taping for
television a year ahead. I don't plan to die tonight.
Will I die tonight? I have no plans to die tonight.
My family needs me. My friends need me. I even feel, unlike the grace of God, that
God needs me. I know that the earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. I know he said over here in his
word in Psalm 50, if I needed anything, I wouldn't ask you.
But I still believe that because I'm needed, I won't die tonight.
I have no plans to die tonight. Many of my friends and relatives
are already gone, but I just feel that I have a few more years. Don't you? And in a few more
years, I probably will believe I have a few more years. In a
few more years, I believe I have a few more years. I know God
tells me to number my days. He says, so teach us to number
our days. But we don't number our days.
We prefer to number our years. Will I die tonight? No, I don't believe so. I ask
you, will you die tonight? And I know your reply has to
be, if you're honest, I know you say, well, I might, but that's
not what you believe. Well, I know I could. Yes, we
could, but that's not what we believe. Will I die tonight? No, sir, I don't believe it.
Now, am I any less a fool than this man right here? Our Lord
said a certain man had many riches, his fields brought forth plentifully,
and he thought within himself, what shall I do? I have no room
to bestow my fruits, and he said, I'll do this, I'll build a bigger
barn, and there I'll bestow all my fruits and my goods. So thou
hast much goods laid up for many years, many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
be merry. But God said, Thou fool, and
am I any less a fool than this man right here? Boast not thyself
of tomorrow, the Scripture said. Thou knowest not what a day shall
bring forth. It is appointed unto men once
to die, after that the judgment. Do not say that tomorrow we'll
go into such and such a city and do this and that. Rather
say the Lord will. We'll go into the city and do
this or that. The Lord speaks to us in this
parable. He speaks to me and He speaks
to you. And we ought to do something about it. We ought to live every
day in the light of death and of judgment. We ought to live
every day as if that day was our last day on this earth. Richard
Baxter says, I must preach as one who may never preach again.
I must preach as a dying man to dying men. There are five
statements in this parable that I want us to look at and ask
the Holy Spirit to make each of them live for us personally.
And I'm preaching to myself and I'm preaching to you tonight.
He says something here about a man's life, a man's life. And then he says something about
thou hast many years. And then the statement is made,
thou fool, thou fool. And then the statement is made,
this night shall thou soul be required, required. And then the statement, not rich
toward God. Now first of all, in verse 15,
our Lord said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life A man's life,
what is a man's life? I've lived 50, almost 51 years. Some of you out there have lived
longer than that, and some of you have lived less time than
that. But have you ever sat down and
just taken inventory and said, what is my life? What is my life? I've got a precious gift. God
has given me life. I have human life. What is my
life? My life is not, it does not consist
in how long I live. That's not the measurement of
it at all. A turtle lives 400 years, but
he's still a turtle. James 4, 14 says, what is your
life? Well, by way of length, it is
but a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanisheth
away. Our life, the scripture says,
is like a flower with such a short span, like a shadow that fleeth. What is my life? What is a man's
life? Well, it consists not in how
long he lives. Some of us are shooting to live
a long time, 90, 95 years. But I would say that Max Shane,
in 29 years, lived a richer, fuller, more complete life than
most men who live 90 or 100 years. So a man's life consists not
in the length of it. That really doesn't matter a
great deal. And then a man's life, our Lord
says, consists if not in the abundance of the things which
he possesses. What shall a man profit if he
gain the whole world? Belshazzar had a kingdom. The
thief on the cross had only a cross. The rich man in Luke chapter
16 had an abundance of wealth. Lazarus lying at his gate had
nothing. And yet which life would you
rather have, Belshazzar's or the thieves? Which life had you
rather be yours, the rich man who fared sumptuously every day,
or Lazarus full of sowers? Well, you say, I'd hate to have
to endure the sowers and the poverty, but now which life,
really, after it's all over, all said and done, which would
you choose? The rich man's in hell, Lazarus in the bosom of
Abraham. Belshazzar, who had a kingdom,
Babylon, the great kingdom, is in hell. The thief, robber, Christ
said, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. So a man's life
certainly does not consist in how long it is, nor in what he
possesses or what he gains. Then a man's life certainly does
not consist in how much he knows. We've got some strange goals.
We need to straighten them out. We need to re-evaluate them.
We want to live a long time. Or we want to gain a whole lot.
Or we want to learn a whole lot. But our Lord spoke condemnation
upon those who were ever learning, ever learning, ever learning,
and never coming to knowledge of the truth. I wonder what worldly wise men
like Socrates or Aristotle or some of these Plato or some of
these great philosophers, what would they give to be able to
say to the Apostle Paul, I know whom I have believed. I know history, I know Greek,
I know this, I know that. I don't know Christ. And to know
all these things and not know Christ makes life worthless,
utterly, completely worthless. So a man's life does not consist
in how much he knows, how much education he has. A man's life does not consist
in how well he is known. A lot of people have given their
lives for a little fame, a little glory. What a tragedy to be known
by all men, and then to stand at the judgment before Him whom
we will hear to declare, I never knew you. But Lord, I was known in my community,
and I was known in my city, and I was known throughout my state. I was known. I was famous. I never knew you. Depart from
me. I never knew you. A man's life
certainly does not consist in how high he climbs. For our Lord
said, He that exalteth himself shall be humbled. He that exalted
himself shall be abased. But are not these the goals of
natural men and fearfully some who profess to know Christ? to
see how long we can live, to preserve these bodies and preserve
these frail tents, to make them last just as long as we can make
them last, and to clothe them as fine as we can clothe them
and give them the best that they crave, to eat, to find out how
much we can learn about this world and about the mechanics
of this world, to see how many people we can get to know us.
We like to be well known. and to see how high we can climb
and leave our marks on this earth and leave plaques and monuments
with our names on them. But that's not, a man's life
doesn't consist in those things. You can have all of those things
and yet hear him say, I don't know you. I never knew you. To come to the end of life and
with a taste of death upon your lips to have to say, I call,
Lord, and he says, I don't hear you. I don't hear you. What is a man's life? What's
the worth of a man's life? I believe the worth of a man's
life lies in two things. The real value of life. Number
one, what he is. And number two, whom he knows. What am I? Can I say tonight,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. I'm a sinner, but I've
been convicted by God's spirit of my sins. And I have laid them
out before the throne of a holy God, and I have sought His mercy
in His Son. I am a believer. I am looking
to Calvary. I am looking to His blood. I
am looking to Christ and Christ alone as my refuge and my help
in time of trouble. I am a son of God by His mercy,
born of His Spirit. I am a bondslave of Jesus Christ. I am committed to His glory.
That's what I am by the grace of God. That's what I am. I'm not famous, but I'm known
in glory. My name is not in who's who,
but it's in the Book of Life. I don't know a lot of great people,
but I know the Lord. Huh? Isn't that what matters? I haven't climbed to any great position of fame and recognition,
but I have the highest position in all the universe, Son of God. Son of God. I have not much of
this world's goods, but I have an inheritance undefiled, eternal,
that fadeth not away, awaiting my coming. Now you re-evaluate
life and think about this for a moment. What is important? How long I live here, how long
I live in God's presence. What I have here are my riches
toward God. How much I know about this world
which Christ said shall fade away, shall be destroyed, shall
melt with a fervent heat, or how much I know about Him. Who
knows me here or who knows me there? I know whom I have believed. Christ is my surety and my Savior. Christ is my prophet, priest,
and king. Christ is my life and my hope. Christ is my mediator. This is
my life. Turn to John 11, 25, and listen
to what Christ said about this. In John 11, verse 25, Jesus said
unto her, I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Do you believe this? A man's
life consisteth not in how long he lives, in what he possesses,
how much he knows, who knows him, How high it climbs. It consists in two things. That
he is redeemed by the grace of God and in the person he knows. I know him whom I have believed. The second statement that caught
my attention in this scripture is found here in verse 19. And I will say to my soul, soul
thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Now, we're quick
to condemn this man. I condemn him, you condemn him,
but we're wrong in condemning him when we, ourselves, this
is the statement that we know in our heart. This is what we
really believe. We have many years. Theologically and doctrinally,
we don't believe that. Turn to Job chapter 14. Theologically
and doctrinally, this is what we believe. We believe that our
lives are in the hands of God Almighty. Job 14, verse 5, we
believe that man's days are determined, the number of his months are
with God, God has appointed his bounds, and he cannot pass. That's what we believe theologically.
Boast not thyself of tomorrow. We can't boast of one more day,
let alone many years. That's what we believe theologically.
Which of you, by taking thought, can add one year to his life?
That's what we believe theologically. We don't, if you were to ask,
put all of us down before a questioner and the questioner says, now
theologically, what do you believe about death? I may die any moment.
But if we could look with God's eyes into our hearts, this is
what we believe. We believe we have many years.
That's what we believe. If I were to ask you tonight,
how old will you be when you die? Most of you would say, well,
my dad lived to be 90. And his dad lived to be about
80, and I've got some aunts and uncles that are still living
well into their 90s in good health. Our family lives a long life.
What you're saying is this, I expect to live many, many years. We're
spending our days as if we had plenty. We're living our lives
as if we had many years. And this man sits back at night,
and he's mulling over his business. He's got all these crops, and
he's got no place to put them. And he says, I'll tell you what
I'm going to do. I'm going to tear down the barn over here and the barn
over there, and I'm going to build bigger barns, and then
I'll store my goods, and I'll take care of this thing, and
I'll arrange for my business to be taken over by my son or
somebody else, and I'll just sell out, and I'll invest it,
and I'll draw the interest, and my wife and I can live right
on to our old age, and everything's going to be fine. And that's
just the way you and I operate. You know it, and I know it. That's
the way we think. That's the way we think. It's
condemning, it's convicting, it's contrary to the scripture,
but that's the way we think, right there. I have many years. We don't intend to die tonight,
we don't intend to meet God tomorrow, we don't intend for this to be
the last day, and we don't believe it. And that's what brings me
to the third thing, and our Lord came to him, but God said, these
were his plans, these were his thoughts, but God said, Thy fool. Thy fool. The man was a fool
for many reasons. He was a fool to think his soul
could be satisfied with many goods, fruits, and all these
other things. He was a fool to think he had
many years. But the Bible describes several sorts of fools. I'm not
going to have you look all these up. Our time's getting away.
But God says in Psalm 14 1, the fool hath said, no God for me. No God for me. In Proverbs 10,
verse 18, the fool is the man who slanders another person.
That man's a fool. In Proverbs 15, 5, the scripture
says fools despise instruction. They despise rebuke. You can't
rebuke a fool. He won't take it. You can't instruct
a fool. He knows everything. Proverbs
14, 9, fools make a mock of sin. Matthew 7.26, fools build their
houses on the sand. Foolish man. Ecclesiastes 5.1,
fools are rash with their mouths in the presence of the Lord.
In Luke 11.39, our Lord said, fools cleanse the outside of
the cup and neglect the inside of the cup. But the greatest
fool is the one our Lord's talking about here who says, I have many
years and neglected his soul while he gave his thought to
his body alone." Are any of us willing to take
our place with this man and say, Lord, I'm a fool? I have given
much care to my body, I've given much care to my business, I've
given much care to my position, I've given much care to all these
things, and I have totally neglected my relationship with you." And
God says, you're a fool. This night thy soul shall be
required of thee, and then whose shall these things be? Now here's the fourth thing.
Thy fool this night, thy soul shall be," I've never noticed
this before in all my life, required of thee. The believer, the man
who knows Christ, the man who walks with God, his soul will
never be required of him. He's already committed it to
Christ. That's right. Our Lord, when
he suffered on that cross, when he died, this is what he said,
Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. His soul was not required
of him, he committed it to the Father. When Stephen was stoned,
when he was dying, he looked up and he said, I see the Lord
Jesus on the right hand of the Father, and he said, Lord Jesus,
amplified version, receive and welcome my spirit. He committed
it. The Apostle Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. I am persuaded he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him. The believer's soul
is never acquired. He's already done business with
God. He's already committed his soul,
he has committed his life, he has committed his family, he
has committed his future, he has committed everything to Christ,
and nothing shall ever be required because it's been committed.
Now the unbeliever has kept his soul. Our Lord said, he that
saveth his life shall lose it. The unbeliever has lived for
himself, he has lived for sin, He has not committed his soul
to Christ, he has kept it himself, and now God comes to him in this
moment and says, this night thy soul shall be taken from you,
it shall be required of you, you're going to give it up now. You have refused to commit it
to God, you have refused to turn loose of it, you have refused
to lay it at the feet of Christ, now it'll be It'll be required
of you. You'll leave all behind. You'll
turn loose of your soul now. Your soul shall be required of
you and cast into the hands of God Almighty's wrath and God
Almighty's justice. Thy fool. This night thy soul
shall be required. Required. You know the Apostle
Paul talking about death talking about the time of his departure,
he said, the time of my departure, not my soul being yanked and
my soul being taken, my soul being required, the time of my
departure. He talked as if death were but
a trip. He'd leave this place and go
to be with the Lord. I fought a good fight. I've kept
the faith. I've finished my course. They've
laid up for me a crown of righteousness. He said, I have a desire to depart
and be with Christ, which is far better. be absent from the
bodies to be present with the Lord. The Lord already has my
soul. If he leaves it in this body
for a few more years, that's all right. If he takes it to
glory, that's all right. But it's already his. I've already
given it to him. But in the case of this man here,
our Lord came and required his soul. Now the fifth statement. So is he that layeth up treasure
for himself. and is not rich toward God. I think to be rich toward God
includes four things. I'll give them to you in closing.
If you'll turn to Ephesians chapter 2, the first of the many riches
toward God is to be rich in mercy, in mercy. A man who's never been
brought to the place where he understands and acknowledges
something of sin and guilt, knows nothing of God's mercy. The publican
came to the temple and would not so much as lift his eyes
to heaven, but smote on his breast and cried, God, be merciful,
be merciful to me, the sinner. And the richest thing in all
this world is to be a recipient of God's mercy. God's mercy,
not God's justice. God's mercy. In Ephesians 2,
verse 4, If you could exchange God's mercy
for the wealth of ten million worlds, would you do it? Not
ten billion worlds. God's mercy. God's mercy. The
riches of his mercy. He hath been merciful. He hath
not dealt with us according to our sins, but he hath dealt with
us in mercy. Secondly, verse 7. That in the
ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. the riches of his grace. God Almighty dealt with us in
mercy, in forgiving our sins, and dealt with us in grace, in
bestowing all of his love, forgiveness, kindness, life in Christ our
Lord. He died for us. That's grace. God Almighty came where we were.
We didn't seek him. He sought us. That's grace. We
didn't love Him, He loved us, that's grace. We didn't call
upon Him, He called upon us, that's grace. His Son came down
here and assumed flesh and blood in the likeness of human flesh
and went to the cross and bore our guilt, that's grace. God
Almighty brought us to repentance toward Him and faith in Christ,
that's grace. And God keeps us day by day.
That's grace. And one day He'll call us to
Himself. That's grace. And we'll live forever in His
presence, perfectly conformed to His image. And that's grace,
the riches of His grace. And then verse 16 of Ephesians
3, listen to this. Ephesians 3 verse 16, that God
would grant you according to the riches of His glory. Of His glory. I wish I knew more about the
glory of God. I know a little bit about it.
A little bit about it. I'm able to rejoice in this Word.
I'm able to rejoice in the fellowship of His people. I'm able to rejoice
in the mystery of the gospel. I'm able to rejoice in the substitutionary
work of Christ. I'm able to rejoice in God's
mercy and God's grace. I'm able to rejoice in the way
he's revealed himself to us. That's a foretaste of his glory. But one of these days, as we
read in the bulletin this morning, one of these days, John Bunyan
said, I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of, but now I'm going
to see his glory. I've seen the print of his shoe
on the earth, now I'm going to sit at his feet. That's glory. I have read his word, now I'm
going to hear his voice. That's glory. I have beheld his
world, beautiful though touched by sin, now I'm going to dwell
in his heaven. That's glory. The riches of his
glory. Someday the silver cord will
break, and I no more as now shall sing, but oh, the joy when I
awake in the palace of the King, and I shall see him face to face."
And then fourthly, Colossians 2, verse 2, the riches of his
mercy, mercy to the undeserving. The riches of his grace, his
grace in Christ Jesus. The riches of his glory to behold
his face. And then here's something, Colossians
2, verse 2, that their hearts might be comforted being knit
together in love and to all riches of the full assurance of understanding. Full assurance. All of us don't
have the assurance we'd like to have, but you know, just to
believe five minutes a day that I belong to the Lord, that's
rich. And if he by his grace enables
me to believe one hour a day that I'm his, that's riches.
And if he enables me, don't despair when you have doubts and fears. Wait for the time of assurance.
If you know Christ, that comes too. And if he just enabled me
two hours a day to enjoy the full assurance of his presence,
that's riches. The riches are full of shillings. The royal feast was done, and the King sought some new
sport to banish care. And to his gesture cried, Sir
Fool, kneel down and make for us a prayer. The jester doffed
his cap and bells and stood the mocking court before. They couldn't
see the bitter smile behind the painted grin that he wore. But
he bowed his head and he bent his knee upon the monarch's silken
stool, and his pleading voice arose, O God, be merciful to
me, a fool. It is not by guilt, the coming
of grace, we stay. It is by our foolishness that
we hold heaven from this earth away. No pity, Lord, can change
the heart from red with wrong to white as wool. The cross must
heal the sin, but Lord, be merciful to me, a fool. These clumsy feet still in the
mire grow crushing blossoms without end. These hard, selfish hands
we thrust among the heartstrings of a friend. The ill-timed truth
we could have kept. Who knows how sharp it pierced
in stone. The words of love we didn't say.
Who knows how sweetly they would have rung. Our sins, no tenderness
should ask. The cross of Christ must cleanse
them all. for our foolishness, O, and shame! Before the eyes of heaven we
fall. Earth has no healing for mistakes. Men crown the knave and scourge
the tool that did his will, but thou, O Lord, be merciful to
me, a fool." The room was hushed. In silence
rose the King. and sought his gardens cool.
And he walked apart, and he murmured low, God be merciful to me, a
fool." If after reading this parable
of our Lord tonight, if after hearing the Holy Spirit speak
to our hearts, we can, like this foolish king, upon hearing the
gesture of prayer, walk apart, alone, in our gardens cool, and
murmur from our hearts, sincerely, God be merciful to me a fool. It may be, it may be, that God
will be pleased to help us by his grace to begin living a life
for the glory of Christ. In the light of eternity, in
the light of death, in the light of judgment, in the light of
the cross, God be merciful to me, the fool. Our Father in heaven, so teach
us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts
to O Lord, impress upon these hearts of ours that Thy mercy
and Thy grace hath led us safe thus far, and only by Thy mercy
and Thy grace will we reach our home. That our days are determined,
the number of our months are with Thee. That all things work
together for Thy glory and for our good. And grant, O Lord,
that we shall live in thy love and in thy grace, and in the
full knowledge that this may be our last day upon this earth.
And let us live our days in the future. Grant us the grace. We
make no vows, we make no promises, because we know our flesh, but
we pray for strength. Thy grace is sufficient. And
we pray, O Lord, Our relationship with thee shall be lived each
day as if it were our last day. And our conduct on this earth
in the eyes of other people shall be lived as if this were our
last day. And our conversation and the way we treat our family
and our friends and our loved ones and the words that we say
may be words that we would say if they were farewell words. Grant, O Lord, thy mercy and
thy grace to foolish men, and give us the wisdom of Christ.
We praise thy name for our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his blood
cleanseth us from all sin. Grant, O Lord, that this message
shall be directed to my heart, and grant that it shall be directed
to every heart in this congregation. For it's in the matchless name
of our Lord and Redeemer we pray. Amen.

Will You Die Tonight?

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