My text this morning will be
found in the book of Job, chapter 16. Job, chapter 16. When a few years are come, then
I shall go the way whence I shall not return. And my subject is
one upon which it will be impossible to say anything new. It's all
been said. It's been said over and over
and over again. The only problem is that it hasn't
been heard by very many people. Death is not unusual. Cemeteries
are in every city. dot every hillside. Death is
not uncommon. There are deaths every day from
Abel until this present time. All men, with the exception of
two, have died. So death is not something that
we don't know anything about. It's not unusual. It's not uncommon. It is about us on every hand.
I can't say anything new on this subject, I realize that, but
perhaps I'll be heard by somebody for the first time, and then
I'll not try to be eloquent. When we speak of eternal matters,
when we speak of a man's relationship with God, when we speak of death
and judgment and hell, the less attempt that we make at fine
language and eloquent the better off everyone is. This is neither
the time for fine language or for jesting. It's serious business. It's solemn. Now, God has been
pleased to visit our church and my family again in death. This past week, B. Fraser's husband
quickly left this earth and my brother died. This is the second
time in five weeks that death has visited my family. And I would play the fool, and
so would you, if we tried to dismiss from our minds this divine
lesson and this divine warning which has once again come to
us, as David said, teaching us to number our days. that we may
apply our hearts to wisdom. Five weeks ago, my mother died.
She was 67. A week ago, Troy died. He was 60. A few days ago, my
brother died. He was 48. And the thing that
impressed me about this, about John's death, The thing I thought
about immediately when the message came that he was gone was the thing that has burdened
my heart, and I've mentioned it many times lately to you all.
Just five weeks ago, he was here worshiping with us on Sunday
morning. Just five weeks ago, he was here
worshiping in this congregation. as strong and as well and as
alert as you are right now. I remember my message that morning.
I preached on the master principle. Paul said, The love of Christ
constraineth me. Now, he's much younger than many
of you. He's the same age as many of you. Yet I'm sure it
never entered his mind that his body would be lying in state
five weeks from that Sunday morning, five weeks ago, I'm sure it hasn't
entered your mind. I'm sure right now there isn't
a man in this congregation or a single person, woman here.
This morning, this is the Lord's Day, this is the time for meditation,
this is the time for reading the Bible, this is the time for
meeting with God, this is the time for worship. This is the
time to set our affections on things above. This is the time
to think about our relationship with God. And I'm sure, I'm just
as sure as I'm standing here, not a one of you came here this
morning prepared to hear your last sermon. I'm just as certain
as I'm standing here, not a one of you, you men 65, 70, 75 years
old, you didn't come here to hear God speak for the last time,
did you? It never entered your mind. It's
not in your mind now. But how many times will this
happen to your posture before it dawns on you that I'm preaching
to some people for the last time this morning? It's happened so
many times lately. It's happened so many times in
my ministry and in your experience. People come and sit here and
listen to the Word of God, and that's the last time they hear
it. We're like the dumb animals out
in the field. We are like the beasts that chew
the grass. We stand around eating our grass
and the farmer comes out and takes one of the herd, takes
him down and slaughters him. We don't even look up from our
chewing. And the next day he comes and gets another one standing
right beside us and takes him down and slaughters him. We never
look up. The next day he comes and takes
another, and it goes on day after day after day as we eat our grass
and feast on our worldly pleasures, and after a while the farmer
comes and says, it's your time. Well, that never occurred to
me. It has never occurred to me. So as I said, nothing new
can be preached on this subject. Death has honeycombed the earth
with graves, and we haven't heard anything yet. That's our problem. Nothing new can be said. But
we're just not hearing. He said, Son of man, they're
talking about you, and they're saying, let's go down and hear
the preacher. And he says, they'll come and they'll sit in front
of you as my people, but they're not going to hear your word.
For that's all they are to them, words, just words, that's all.
You know, I looked at 1 Samuel, chapter 20. There's a verse of
Scripture here that ought to be underlined in your Bible.
1 Samuel, chapter 20, verse 25. I think in most congregations
like this congregation that people usually sit in a certain place
every service. I can look over this congregation
and tell who's missing almost the first five minutes of the
service because I know where you sit every Sunday. You like
to sit in the same location, the same pew. One of these Sunday
mornings we're going to come here and that pew is going to
be empty. You're not going to be there. And that's what is
said of David here, the last line in verse 25 of 1 Samuel
20. Well, read the whole verse. And
the king sat upon his seat as at other times, even upon a seat
by the wall. And Jonathan arose, and Abner
sat by Saul's side, and David's place was empty. And David's
place was empty. Your place may be empty next
Sunday, So I want you to listen to me for a little while this
morning, and I want you to think upon your last journey. Job said,
when a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall
not return. There are four things that are
suggested here. First of all, an inevitable journey. I shall go. There's no doubt
about it. God said it's appointed unto
men once to die. And after that, the judgment.
And the thing that catches my eye here is the word, I. The
individual personal declaration. Job said, a few years. When a
few years have come, I shall go. I shall go. I, the preacher. You, individually. I shall go. As surely as I'm
standing here, I'm going to die. We're prone to say, well, all
men are mortal. Has it ever occurred to you that
you ought to say, I am mortal? We say all men shall die. You're
doing yourself a great injustice when you do not say, I shall
die. We say all men must face God. All men have got to be gathered
before the judgment seat of Christ. You're not being fair to yourself.
What you ought to say today is, I must die. I must stand before
the judgment bar of God Almighty. I must meet Jesus Christ. I must. Our Lord said to the rich young
man who had fared sumptuously and filled his barns and had
great plans to tear those down and build more, He said, Thou
fool, this night thy soul, this night thy soul shall be required
of thee, and then whose shall these things be? Have you ever
thought how important the individuality of a man becomes in his dying
hour? What an important person he becomes
when a man's dying. We think more of him than of
all the thousands of living persons walking the streets, no matter
who he is. He's dying now, and he becomes
very important, and we tread softly. how important his character
becomes now, how important his life, how important his faith,
how important his conduct, how important his relationship with
God. These things are in the balance.
Was he rich or was he poor? Well, what difference does it
make? If a man dies on a satin sheet or if he dies on a cock,
what difference does it make? Was he famous or was he little
known? What difference does it make?
What difference does it make if there's fifty people around
the bed and a hundred in the corridor? Or if he died alone? What difference does it make?
He's dying. Did he live ninety years or did he live twenty-five
years? What difference does it make?
It's over now. Differences on a dying bed do
not arise out of rank. or materialism. What makes the
difference on a dying bed is faith. Job said, Naked I came
out of my mother's womb, and naked I shall depart from this
earth. So what difference does it make
if I'm rich or poor, or if I'm famous or little known, or if
I'm old or young? I'm dying. The question now is,
did he know Christ? Was he righteous or wicked? Was
he a stranger to grace, or did he walk in fellowship with the
living God? Oh, when a man comes to die,
he becomes mighty important. When you come to face death,
you've heard about it, now you've got to experience it yourself.
You've heard about judgment, now you must stand in the judgment. You've heard about eternity,
now you must enter into eternity. No one can go there for you.
No one can face God for you. No one can die for you. You've
got to die yourself. A few years have come, then I
shall go. I'm going to go. The issue becomes, as it always
has been, though unrecognized, What were your thoughts toward
God? Did you repent? Did you receive Christ? Did you
rest in the blood of Calvary? Are your sins put away by the
atonement of Christ? Have you failed to settle these
questions? Have you dealt with them? Have
you faced them? Can you say with the Apostle
Paul, I'm ready to depart? I've kept the faith. I read something
the other day that impressed me. Charles Spurgeon said, these
fine ideas of our goodness, these fine ideas of becoming completely
sanctified on this earth begin to melt like the frost before
the sun when a man faces death. These religious experiences which
we have that lead us to think that we're somebody in the Church,
they are of little account when we come to die. A man can't die
on stilts. A man has to lie down in the
dust. And death reveals the truth about us, and death blows away
the chaff that we thought was wheat. When a man comes to die,
he sees himself as he really is. He faces facts he's refused
to face. He acknowledges truth he has
refused to admit. Because he's no longer dealing
with men, he's dealing with God, and things are bare and open. And when a man comes to die,
He can no longer look at the grandeur of religion, of ritualism
and forms and laws and ceremonies. He has to look for mercy now.
He has to look to the blood of Christ, to the promises of the
gospel. He must cling in that dying moment
as a poor, needy, guilty sinner to the free, rich, sovereign
grace of God, or his soul will perish. For now, in the light
of God's presence, and in the light of God's holiness, and
in the light of God's judgment, his self-righteous rags begin
to fade. And they become rags with no
brilliance and no brightness and no gleam. His works, his
church membership, his decisions, all become nothing when life
is ebbing away. Nothing will do, but that fateful
saying, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Mr. Spurgeon said, It's been
my experience to find that children of God always die as seeking
souls. They come to God again at the
gate of death as they came to Him the first time, trusting
the work of Christ and that alone. Dying men must have reality. Dying men must have a sinner
Savior. Dying men want atonement, for
only then can they die with any hope. I shall go I shall go." And then notice
this, the second thing. It says, when a few years are
come. Does it say a few years? You know, you could read that
a few months. I'm certain some of you can read
it a few weeks, or perhaps even a few days. Is it possible that
it could say a few minutes. In a few minutes, I shall go. In a few days, or weeks, or months,
I shall go. We think about the death of our
friends and our loved ones and those who are close to us. Do
we ever say, in a few weeks, I shall go? David's place is
empty. David's gone. He doesn't live
here anymore. In a few weeks, I shall go, If there's a burden to be borne,
we may as well bear it cheerfully because it won't last long. If
there's work to be done, I'd better do it now because Christ
said the night's hastening on when no man can work. If there's
salvation to be sought, it would be wise to seek it now.
For in a few weeks I shall go the way where salvation is never
found. where salvation is not offered,
where salvation is not available. If there's forgiveness to seek,
let me seek it now. If there's mercy to be had, let
me find it now. In a few weeks I'll be where
there is no mercy, just stark justice and holiness and righteousness. If there's stewardship to account
for, let's get on with it, for we must soon balance our books. we must soon give an account."
Who's next? My brother and I had a talk while
he was here, and we had some things to say about the fact
that he would be gone for three and a half years on this tour
to Germany. And I said to him, there's a
possibility that All of us won't be here when you come back. Three
and a half years is a long time. Let's make the most of these
days." I had no idea that he would be the one who wouldn't
come back. Who is next? Someone said one
time, he who is to die next should be the one making the preparation.
Wouldn't you say that's true? If H. B. Thompson is the next
to die, don't you think he ought to be mighty concerned about
the Lord right now? If Aaron Yeager is the next one
that God's going to call, don't you think that he ought to be
mighty concerned about his relationship with the Lord? But he won't be
next, will he? Won't he? An old knife sharpener used to
walk up and down the streets of Boston He sharpened knives
and scissors. And as he walked up and down
the streets, he'd cry, Who'll be next? Who'll be next? And one day the minister said,
just as he came around the corner, a funeral passed by. The body and the amulets and
the family, the grieving family in cars behind. And just as they
went by, the old man cried. He didn't see the hearse. But
he cried out so that all could hear, Who'll be next? And then the next thing I notice
in this text, when a few years, months, weeks, days, I shall
go. And the third thing, I shall
go the way from which I shall not return. I could say so many
things here. There's so much that could be
said. If I were to die today, I'll never return back to this
church. Never. No way. If God calls me
away this afternoon, I'll never again, never, never, never, ever
walk back in this building. The messages that I have preached,
God's called me to preach, this is the pulpit He's given me,
they're all preached, that's it. I can't come back and change
anything. I can't come back and preach
any other message. The messages I've preached, they're
preached. I'm not coming back and change them. I'm not coming
back and have another opportunity to right the wrong. And then
I'd never enter that home over there on Stevens Street ever
again. Never. I'd never, never again. I shall
go, Job said, in a few years, and I shall not return. I'll
never sit down at that table again. The example that I've
set, it's set. The attitude that I've had, that's
it. The way that I've treated my
wife, my children, my parents, it's all over. I can't make amends
now. There's no way. I'm not coming
back. I know a lot of us would like
to, wouldn't we? And then I'll never return to
my friends. Their memory of me is established.
I should have loved yesterday because it's too late today.
I should have forgiven yesterday because it's too late today.
I should have helped them yesterday. It's too late today. If you die unsaved, if you leave
this church this morning and this is the last message you
hear and the last service you attend, you're not coming back. You're not going to return to
the house of God. You're not going to hear the
preacher preach again. You're not going to hear the
Word of God again. You're not going to hear another warning.
You're not going to be bothered by another invitation. You'll
never hear anyone discuss the Bible again. I don't want to
hear you discuss religion." Well, you won't. You'll never hear
anybody discuss religion again. You'll never walk an aisle or
you'll never enter a baptistry. You'll never take the Lord's
table. It's all over. It's all over. In a few years,
I shall go the way whence I shall not return. The great MacArthur,
when he left the Philippine Islands, stood after defeat and humiliation. And as the boat pulled away,
he looked back at those islands and he said, I shall return.
And I know what he meant. He meant he was coming back to
right the wrongs. He was coming back to erase the
humiliation. He was coming back to turn defeat
into victory. But when you lie down to die,
you're not coming back. You're not coming back to right
these wrongs. You're not coming back to turn
defeat into victory. You're not coming back to hear
the Word of God preached. You're not coming back to read
the Bible. When you leave this earth unsaved,
Christ said, if you die in your sins, you can't come where I
am. You're not coming back. And you've
been sufficiently warned You've been sufficiently exhorted, you've
been sufficiently invited, you've been sufficiently taught. And then the last thing I see
in this passage is this, when a few years have come, then I
shall go the way whence I shall not return. And I ask this question,
where are you going? Where are you going? I shall go." Where are you going? Well, first of all, you're going
to the grave. Now, that's the place where your
body's got to rest. The grave is the destination
of every human body. The Word of God declares that
when a man dies, his body goes to the dust. It goes back to
the earth from whence it came. It matters little where that
is. It may be under a beautiful weeping willow. It may be in
the depths of the great ocean. It doesn't matter. You're going
back to the grave. Your body's going back to the
dust and back to the earth and back to the ashes from whence
it came. It's going to corruption and
decay and rotting. But now your soul is another
matter. If you die in Christ, in faith,
the Word of God says, if a man dies in Christ, that he goes
to be with the Lord Jesus. To be absent from the bodies,
to be present with the Lord. Christ said to the thief on the
cross, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. The promise of
redemption is not only will Jesus Christ forgive our sins and deliver
us from the curse of the broken law and put away our transgressions
and our iniquities, but he shall also save our bodies. He's going to raise our bodies
in the resurrection of life, and we shall forever be with
the Lord. But if you die in unbelief, the Word of God says that you'll
perish in eternal hell. Roland Hill, a great minister
who lived in England years and years ago, told about a dream
that he had. He said he was sleeping one night
and dreamed that he died, and that he went before God in
the judgment. And there were multiplied millions
of people there, all who had lived on the earth. And they
were being judged. As the Scripture said, the books
were opened. And Jesus Christ the Lord was
sitting on the throne, and he was judging men out of the things
that were written in the books. And he said that names were being
called one at a time, and men were being judged individually.
And he said as he sat there listening to the calling of the names and
the judging of people, he heard his name, Roland Hill. And he said, I just sat there,
unable to move. I thought that I was saved. I
thought that I was redeemed. I thought that I was a child
of God. I thought that I knew the Lord. And again that name
echoed across all of those multiplied millions of people waiting judgment.
Rowan Hill! And he said, finally I got enough
strength to stand to my feet. And he said, as I stood to my
feet and lifted up my eyes, I looked right into the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as I looked into his face,
I heard him say, Here, I'm Roland Hill. I came down to the earth,
and I took Roland Hill's place. I came down to the earth and
took upon myself his flesh and his bones, and met the law in
his place, and satisfied the righteousness of thy holy law,
O Father. in the place of Rowan Hill. I
went to the cross of Calvary, and I bore his sins and his iniquities
and his transgression, and I paid his debt. And I'm here in his
place and in his stead. Judge me, and you'll find no
guilt, and you'll find no transgression, and you'll find no reason for
condemnation." There is therefore now no condemnation to them who
are in Christ Jesus. Outside of Christ, condemnation,
judgment, damnation, wrath. In Christ, holiness, righteousness,
life eternal. If you died today, this week,
next week, would you die in Christ or would you die under the judgment
of God? When a few years are come, I
shall go the way from whence I shall not return. But I can
say to you this morning with all confidence and assurance
that Christ is my Lord and my Redeemer, and Christ is my hope
and my refuge, and Christ is my Advocate and my Mediator.
And Jesus Christ will have to stand for me. I cannot stand
alone. I'm not going to walk the lonesome
valley alone. I'm going to walk with Him. I'm
not going to stand in the judgment alone. He's going to stand there
for me. I'm not going to live throughout
eternity alone. I'm going to live with Christ
because Christ is my portion and Christ is my strength and
Christ is my life. Is He yours? That's the only
way to die. Everything else is just not worthwhile. Everything else is nothing but
sham and vanity. That's what Solomon said. It's
all vanity. Riches and pleasures and wealth
and wisdom and all of these things are nothing but vanity. Your
beauty is going to mold into the dust someday, my friend.
And your strength is going to give way to weakness and go back
to wrinkles. and ashes and dust, the thing
that's important is your relationship with Him. You better settle it. I haven't said anything new,
I realize that, but the thing that bothers me more than anything
is those who ought to hear it haven't heard it. Again, they
haven't heard it. It's been preached again and
they haven't heard it. I want us to turn to number 384,
but that's all I can do is tell you and warn you and invite you. That's all I can do. I cannot
save you, as I read a few moments ago from the book of Psalms.
None of them can by any means redeem either himself or his
brother. The ransom is too costly, and
the price that you can pay won't suffice. Christ paid the ransom. He paid the price. I wonder why
we're saying this morning, is there someone here in this congregation
who wants to settle this matter of your relationship with God?
If there's somebody in this congregation who wants to publicly confess
the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Redeemer, you want to
confess Him here in order that He'll confess you there. He said,
if you confess Me before men, what is it? I'll confess you
before the Father which is in heaven. I'll stand for you. I'm
rolling hill. If you deny me here, then when
you stand in the judgment, he's going to sit in silence. Now,
right now, I've preached Christ, and I've said, who wants to confess
him? Who wants to own him? And you're going to sit there
another service in silence. You're going to sit right there.
You're not going to confess him. With the mouth, confession is made
unto salvation. You know what the Word of God
says? With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. With the
mouth, confession is made unto salvation. You're going to sit
there another service, and then God's going to kill you and take
you to judgment. And when you get into judgment
and your name's called, anybody here want to speak for this man?
Christ's going to sit right there in silence. That's what that
Word is saying. He's going to sit right there
in dead silence. You confess me before men, I'll confess you. You deny me before men, I'll
deny you." I don't know him. I don't know him. But, Lord,
I know you. I don't know you. I don't know
you. Let's stand and sing number 384. I can hear my Savior calling. I can hear my Savior calling. I can hear my Savior calling
in my heart. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, I will follow. I'll go with him. With him all
the way I'll go with him through the judgment I'll go with him
through the judgment I'll go with him through I'll go with
him, with him all the way. Where he leads me, I will follow. Where he leads me, follow where he leads me I will
follow I'll go with him with him all the way