Word of Salvation – Vol. 30 No. 23 – Jun 1985

 

Are You Ready For Eternity?

 

Sermon by Rev. K. Vethaak on Mark 8:36,37

(Suitable for a Guest Service)

Reading: Mark 8:31-38)

 

In mid-1984, an unemployed security guard, named James Huberty, walked into a MacDonalds hamburger restaurant near San Diego in the United States.

Waving a gun around, he ordered everyone inside to lie down.  And then he calmly fired bullet after bullet into his helpless victims, killing 21 of them and wounding many more.

Twenty one people went to buy a big Mac on a hot Wednesday afternoon, and it was the last thing that they were ever to do on this earth.

They went to get food and instead they got eternity.

I wonder how many of those people were ready for eternity.

I wonder if you had been one of those 21 whether or not you would have been ready for eternity.

It’s very tragic that these people had to die – and yet we all realise that around us people die all the time.

There is one absolute certainty in life and that is death.

The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, but after that the judgment.  At the end of this life we will not cease to exist – at the end of our lives each one of us will have to face one of two destinies: heaven or hell.

The real tragedy is not that people die – we all have to die someday – the real tragedy is that many, many people who die are simply totally unprepared for eternity.

I find it a disturbing thing that in this world in which we live there is so little concern about our eternal destiny.

Our lives tend to be filled with frenzied activity – even our quiet moments are often spent with the business of television or radio so that we have little time to think – to think about one of the most important things that we can think about:  our eternal destiny.

In 1929 a brilliant young British Medical Doctor by the name of Martyn Lloyd-Jones made news headlines because he did a very unusual thing.  He gave up his medical career to take up a position as a preacher in a little Welsh coastal village.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones was on the verge of a brilliant medical career.  He had already begun practice in Harley St., and he was being groomed for a professorship at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.  He was a rising star in the medical world.  And then he left to become a preacher.

They asked him why?  The people of his day just couldn’t understand it.  And this is the answer he gave:

If you knew more about the work of a doctor you would understand.  We spend most of our time rendering people fit to go back to their sins – I want to heal souls.  If a man has a diseased body and his soul is alright, he is alright to the end, but a man with a healthy body and a diseased soul is alright for sixty years or so and then he has to face an eternity of Hell.

When we study the Bible we find that Jesus was very concerned with what happened to people after death.  He was actually far less concerned with what happened with people in this life than with what happened with them in eternity.

He said:

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul Rather, be afraid of him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said:

If your right eye causes you to sin gouge it out and throw it away it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into Hell.

Jesus compared the Kingdom of heaven with treasure, treasure for which a person would gladly sell all that he had just so that he could have this.

As we study the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the Bible there is nothing more important, nothing more valuable than your soul.

Jesus’ main concern is not about justice, it is not about happiness, it is not about oppression, it is not about morals, it is not about success, but it is that we escape eternal condemnation.

Jesus’ teachings are summed up in Mark 8:36,37.

What does it profit a man if he gains the world and loses his soul?  What will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The Bible says that there is a day of reckoning coming.  It is appointed unto men once to die and after death the judgement.  Those who belong to Jesus, those who know him, they will receive eternal life.  But those who do not know Jesus will receive eternal destruction and will be cut off from the presence of God for ever and for ever.

O please listen to what the Bible says.  We think, especially when we are young, that our life on this earth is such a big deal, but really, in terms of both time and content our life on earth is nothing compared to eternity.

As the Psalmist says:

As for man his days are like grass; like the flower of the field: the wind blows over it and it is gone.

There one day, gone the next.

Even if we live to be seventy or eighty or even 100 what is 100 years compared to eternity?  And no one knows about eternity better than Jesus.  That is why he is so concerned about our souls.  For your relationship with Jesus is going to affect you forever and forever.

In 2Thess. chapter 1 we read this:

When the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven in blazing fire with all his powerful angels, he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord.

They will be lost in total darkness, total aloneness – like being lost in space forever.

O it’s so important for us to hear and understand what Jesus is saying.  What he is saying to you because he loves you and it is not his desire for anyone to be lost.

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?  What can a man give in exchange for his soul?

O please listen to Jesus.  It doesn’t matter if you are a regular member of a Church.  It doesn’t matter if you are known as a top-notch Christian full of good deeds.  It doesn’t matter if you are the blackest sinner that ever lived.  It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done – the same applies to all – if you do not know Jesus, if you have not received him as your Saviour and your Lord, then you are lost for ever and ever.

You know, sometimes preachers have been afraid to preach about eternity.  They think, people will think that Christianity is irrelevant, that it’s just pie in the sky when we die.  We had better tackle the real issues of this world: the arms race, hunger, injustice, immorality, racism, test-tube babies…!

Now I’m not saying that these things are unimportant – but compared to eternity, compared to the value of a human soul, all these things put together count for very little.

The Bible tells us of a time when a man came to Jesus and said: “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

This was a question of justice; a question of right and wrong.  How did Jesus respond?  He refused to go into it.  Instead he told the parable of the rich fool.

He said:

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed – a man life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.  And he told them this parable.  The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  He thought to himself, what shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.  Then he said: This is what I will do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I’ll say to myself.  You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy, eat, drink and be merry.  But God said to him: You fool!   This very night your soul will be demanded from you.  Who then will get what you have prepared for yourself?  What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and he lose his soul?

O let me ask you: what fills your mind?  What really concerns you?  What are you going to be doing and thinking about tomorrow?

Maybe you work hard and you spend much time carefully planning your investments – Maybe you live for the pursuit of happiness.  Maybe you are really concerned about your health you discercise and exercise and eat the right foods – Maybe you are flat out just surviving from day to day.  Whoever you are, whatever you do, one day you are going to die.  But it will only be your physical body that will die.  Your soul, your spirit, will live on for ever and ever – the question is where?

Why don’t you settle this question of eternity tonight?  It’s not only important for the future, it’s also important for now.  C.S.  Lewis once said, No one is really ready to live in this life until he is ready to live in the life to come.

Why don’t you settle the question tonight – you can, you know.  Jesus says: He who believes in me HAS eternal life.  The Bible tells us that Jesus died – he went all the way to death on a cross so that we would not have to die.  The Bible says that Jesus, God the Son, volunteered to go to Hell so that we would not have to go to Hell.

Do you remember what happened on that Friday when they took Jesus, the sinless holy Son of God,
  they took God the Son…
  they took the One through whom the world was made
  the one in whom all things hold together
  they took him and they nailed him to the cross.

And when he was hanging there, on that cross, symbol of God’s curse, the Bible says that the darkness fell
  the sun refused to shine
  And out of that darkness came a great cry from the lips of Jesus
            “Eloi!  Eloi!   Lama Sabachthani…!”
            “My God!   My God!   Why have YOU forsaken me?”

In the pitch darkness Jesus was all alone.  The sins of the world had been laid on him and he was being punished.
  Jesus, God the Son, was in Hell.
  In that moment on the cross
   Jesus was experiencing an eternity of pain and punishment,
     an eternity of suffering and torment.

Why?  Why did he do it?

Because God loves us.

God cannot remove the reality of Hell, but in his great and wonderful and marvellous love he has provided a way of escape.

The Bible says:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Jesus took our punishment upon himself so that we would not have to be punished.

Jesus suffered the agony of Hell so that we might escape.

O what does it profit a man if he gains the world and loses his soul?  What can a man give in exchange for his soul?

But you don’t have to lose your soul – you can be safe for all eternity.

BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

CONFESS YOUR SIN TO GOD

AND RECEIVE JESUS AS THE ONE THROUGH WHOM GOD FREELY GIVES US FORGIVENESS AND ETERNAL LIFE.

Would you pray with me right now…!

Amen.