Death for the Christian is not an end but a glorious departure to be with the Lord, offering a stark contrast to the melancholy view of death presented in Ecclesiastes. The sermon highlights numerous contrasts found in 2 Corinthians 4-5, such as the perishing outward man versus the renewed inward man, light afflictions versus eternal glory, and the seen versus the unseen. It emphasizes that while the physical body deteriorates, the spirit is renewed daily, and believers possess an eternal dwelling in heaven. The message encourages embracing old age and death not with dread, but with the anticipation of eternal life, drawing parallels to the lives of faithful servants who found joy and purpose even in their final years.
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Second Corinthians chapter four. And verse fifteen. Second Corinthians four and fifteen. For all things are for your sake that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal wink of glory.
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, and how I thank God, that this passage does not end there with a groan. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be untold, but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit, or the pledge, the guarantee of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, We are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be peasant with the Lord. And I wrote down beside that verse in my Bible, Are we? I'll read it again. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be peasant with the Lord.
Are we? Whether we labor, that wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. That's quite a challenge to our hearts, for my more anxious to be with the Lord than I am to be right here. If you may have something to say about that little later on. This morning our subject is death and afterwards for the Christians. Tonight it will be for the Christless. I want to go down this passage with you. But I think we have somewhere near fourteen contrasts in this passage. There may be more. You may look them up and study this passage thoroughly, and you'll find these amazing contrasts in this amazing passage.
First of all, in verse sixteen of chapter four, you have the outward man contrasted with the inward man. You have the physical man contrasted with the spiritual man. You have the outward man perishing or wasting away, but you have the new, the spiritual man renewed day by day. In verse seventeen you have our light affliction compared with the weight of glory. You have our affliction in contrast to the glory that is in store for all who are saved. You have a moment in contrast to eternal or eternity.
In verse eighteen, you have things seen in contrast to things not seen, or things temporal, those things which have an end, in contrast to that which is eternal, which has no end. And you might say in the New Testament you have seven things that are eternal. You have eternal God, eternal Spirit, eternal redemption, eternal inheritance. eternal purpose, eternal punishment, and eternal judgment. And in this passage, eternal is mentioned three times. Notice chapter five and verse one. Our earthly house of this tabernacle is contrasted with the building of God, and the earthly house is dissolved in contrast to eternal in the heavens.
That is the building of God. Verses two to four, we find ourselves unclosed, that death, but then also closed upon, which is resurrection. You have also that which is mortal, in contrast to that which is swallowed up of life, immortality. Verse six, absent from the body, in contrast at home with the Lord. Verse seven, you have living by sight, in contrast to living by faith. Verse eight, absent from the Lord, present with the Lord in verse eight. Now no thoughtful person could weigh this evidence, this series of contrast, and have any doubt as to the future of the redeemed or the Lord's beloved people.
You know, one time a man announced he was going to preach on doctors. He had a lot of doctors in his audience. Another time he said he was going to preach to lawyers. He had a lot of lawyers in his audience. Then he said he would preach on backsliders. He had quite an audience. So I announced I was going to speak on old age. I'll let you get to it, sir. You know, when you stop to think of old age, it's something that people seem to dread. But you know, there's such a thing as a glory to growing old. And only in the last few days, I think I've read this passage several times, the time and the way, just meditating upon this subject of going old, because I'm getting into that fraternity myself.
You know the Apostle Paul, we understand, passed away about the age of sixty or sixty-one. You think of the Apostle and what he accomplished, and he speaks of himself as such in one as Paul the ages. So if you're bordering around sixty, you're aged. according to that, for Paul says, such a one as Paul he aged, and he was about sixty-one years of age when he went on to be with the Lord. You know, with the age Persian that great Baptist, oh, seventy-five years ago, what a tremendous life that man lived. His wife said after his departure, when I think of all the preaching my husband did, I seem to feel as though he spent all his life preaching.
Then when I think of all the writing he did, and I'll tell you if you have seen that Treasury of David, those vast volumes on the book of Psalms alone, not to mention his other many volumes, his wife said, when I think of all the writings of my dear husband, it seems as though he spent his life in nothing else but writing. Then when I think of all the studying he did, the hours and hours and hours he spent in his library. She said he would think he did nothing else but study. Then the hours that I heard him in prayer prevailing before the Lord, it seemed as though his life was spent in praise. Then when I think of all the visiting that he did, you would think his life was spent in nothing else but visitation.
And when you combine all these things, what a fool like C. H. Spurgeon lived, and he went home to heaven at fifty-nine years of age. A worn-out old man. I'm sure C. Spurgeon got a great thrill out of his being old at fifty-nine, to reflect upon such a fool and such a fruitful life that he had. You think of this in comparison, I thought of it, in comparison or contrast with what Solomon gives us in Ecclesiastes chapter twelve. There in chapter twelve in Ecclesiastes the wise man, Solomon the king, he gives us a melancholy picture of death.
The approach of death, if you've never read it, read it when you get home. And here is Solomon as a melancholy picture of death that he presents. I thought of it in contrast with the passage we've just read. What a difference. There is Solomon in the Old Testament. He's looking at death in the light of that which is under the sun, leaving God out, leaving eternal life out, looking at man as someone who lives for this life and dies like a beast. And when you consider that passage in that light, it is indeed melancholic. There's no joy, there's no note of gladness, there's no note of triumph as you read the twelfth chapter of Ecclesia.
But when you come over to the chapter of the passage we read, how thrilling it is to read what is in store for Christians as they're getting old and then they're finally departured from this life. Why, in this very passage we've just read, you have precious visions of the process of aging and the glory associated with death. Did you ever think of the glory associated with death? Julia Ward Howe and I called a number of testimonies the last few days on people and what they did in old age. Julia Ward Howe said, All the sugar is at the bottom of the cup when you reach old age.
What does she mean? She meant old age should be characterized by sweetness, not bitterness. All the sugar is at the bottom of the cup. Now, people don't believe that today, the way they're trying to stay young. You think all the sugar was at the top. All the sweetness belongs to you. But here it is, dear old soul. She says, all the sugar is at the bottom of the cup. Old age can be sweet. It's sad when it's bitter. I spent some time with a friend of mine down in Florida who's running the New Smyrna Beach Retirement Center. Most of those in that retirement center are past eighty, over ninety, and some of them are bitter.
I had an example the other day I was sitting at the head table, and Mr. Harding sits through his manager of his place. There was a fellow king in the door, and the proof all of us doubled backwards. He was trying to make his way to the sink, to the table, where he ate. There were three elderly ladies sitting over here. One tried to give a helping hand, and she reached up to touch them, and she must have touched a sore spot. And boy, did he react. And one of them said, hey, he's like a snap and twirl. You can see there was no sympathy there. just bitter, one to another, one just waiting for the other to say something to do something, this is so they could react unkindly.
I thought, isn't it sad? Here is one trying to give help, and the other one resents it. And you see plenty of that bitterness, the bitterness of old age. And it shouldn't be. God says we should drink coarse fruit in old age. And there's a glory to old age. There's a sweetness to old age. I think of Robert Brownling. He says, the last of life, for which the first was made. Old age is the last of life, for which the first was made. My, the old age, for the latter years can be wonderful. Years of reflection, except if you've spent your early life, for Christ, and for that which is profitable, not if those days can be fruitful.
Michelangelo at sixty-six was at six, was appointed architect of St. Peter's. He died at eighty-nine, said to him, painted his greatest masterpiece at eighty-five. Imagine that at eighty-five. Goat finished writing off at eighty-seven. John Wesley preached till eighty-eight. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote some of his most brilliant decisions and judicial decisions at ninety years of age. Thomas Edison's best inventions were between seventy and eighty years. Old age is the autumn of light. It can be made beautiful with the golden crimson tints of indium summer, or cold, cheerless and disagreeable like dead leaves and a piercing wind.
How are we growing old? We won't worry about old age if you find something in this text. It's as though the outward man perishes. The inward man is removed day by day. And we can't deny the fact that the outward man perishes. That's true even with young people. You find teenagers dying with leukemia. You find teenagers crippled with polio. But the elder man's going to perish, whether it's young or old. But what's the answer? What's the secret? It's arising above this melancholy, pitiful, physical situation. It is not that the inward man is renewed day by day.
Says the Apostle in this passage, though the outward man perishes, the inward man is renewed day by day. The inward man is kept happy. The inward man is kept rejoicing, delighting in the Lord, and that rises above. The outward man perishes. I suppose you've heard the famous statement of Quincy Adams, John Quincy Adams, at eighty years of age he was asked how he felt. His eyes twinkled and then speaking slowly he gave his famous reply, John Quincy Adams is very well, thank you. But the house he lives in is sadly dilapidated. The building trembles with every wind and I think that John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it before long.
but he himself did very well. Thank you. Now that's just exactly what we've been reading about. Our earthly house of this tabernacle being dissolved, but we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heaven. Blessed is the man who does not have to pass through the deep waters of suffering as he crosses the river to the celestial city, but he goes under. My, how wonderful when they go that way. Everybody, I believe, wants to go sudden. Their passage through the river is rapid, and their entrance into the celestial city is going to move.
But you know, although that blessed, more blessed, is he who is in the refining fire and can say, like Job, God knows the way that I take, and when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Those who go suddenly miss that happy sweet fellowship and communion with their Lord that others have when they're on a bed of sickness. You say, well, how would you like to go? I'd like to be here when the Lord comes. And be caught up to see him face to face. But if you have to go by way of a sick bed, remember you can have sweet and happy fellowship with your Lord, a communion that those do not have who are caught up suddenly in a moment.
or taken away with a sudden heart attack. You know, it was an old Quaker who were eighty-two years of age said, I'm going to live till I die and then I'm going to live forever. Well, I think that's one. I'm going to live till I die and then I'm going to live forever. And that's the way we should look at life. Well, I trust this will be a comfort to those of us who are getting up in years. You know, man is distinctly spirit, soul, and body. The body distinctly is that outward man that we've been reading about here in our passage. The spirit and soul together constitute the inward man.
Now the new nature, which is the spirit, quickens man's spirit and soul now. My spirit and soul is quickened by the Holy Spirit when I accept Jesus Christ. You see my body, but you don't see my spirit and my soul. My spirit and soul constitute the inner man that the Bible speaks of that's quickened by the Holy Spirit as a new man. That's what you read in John chapter three. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's your body. But that which is born of the spirit is spirit. My Almighty says, I say unto you, you must be born again. And so when a person is born again by the Spirit of God and all, how far this is from just joining the church, turning over to Luke, doing the best you can.
Though so many are depending on that to take them to heaven, when the Bible says you must be born again, there must be the christening of your soul and spirit. By the spirit of God, you must have the new life in Christ Jesus, or you're not a Christian at all, and you're likely lived to be a bitter old man or a bitter old woman. It's the child of God who lives with a smile, on his face and a trickle in his eye. He knows he's going on not to old days and death, but on to youth and eternal immortality. Falling asleep, as the Bible speaks of it. You know, when the body sleeps and death, do I, the inward man, sleep?
There are those who try and tell us that there's such thing as soul sleep. Nonsense. The moment a child of God passes from this light, The moment he breathes his last is here, one minute, it's in the glory, the next minute. There's no such thing as shows this at all. The Bible is very clear, and that is the time for that. You know, the body, as we've been reading here, is the tabernacle, which is to be taken down, or a tent, if you will, something that's frail and fragile, something that's subject to storm. head. That's what our body is, just a tabernacle.
He refers to it here right in this second, fifth, in chapter five passage. Listen to what Peter says in first, second, Peter one, thirteen and fifteen. Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put all this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that he may be able, after my deceit, to have these things always in remembrance. Here's Peter talking about putting off his tabernacle. He's living on the inside, but he's going to lay aside, or he's going to put off his body.
That's what he's talking about. And he uses the word deceit. That word deceit is the same as the word Exodus. And our second book in the Bible, the book of Exodus, takes all the children of Israel moving out of Egypt on their way to the promised land. Here they are being brought out, moving out of Egypt. That's the word Exodus, the same word we use today as deceit. We're moving out. And the children of Israel, they moved out of Egypt on their way to the promised land. And that's exactly the thought when a person is deceived. His exodus, why Moses and Elias, you see them on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they're speaking of his deceit, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
They're speaking of Christ's exodus, when he's going to depart his life to be with the Father. How wonderful are these expressions in your Bible? The Apostle Paul says he had the desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is very far better. No right-minded Christian is yearning to die. Rather, like the Apostle, he says, I am in a straight, but tricks too. I have a desire to depart to be with Christ, but he says, for your sake I'll sooner remain, and for me to live is great. To die is gain, when the time comes, when the moment comes, then...
It'll be all right. To die is game for me. But he says until that time, when I would soon linger here, he said, for me to live is Christ. You know, dear, Moody was asked one time, Moody, do you think... He's got grace to die right now? No. He says, I don't think so. He says, God's giving me grace to live at the moment. He says, when my time comes to die, he'll give me grace to die. And I believe that's the point. The Lord gives us grace to die when that time comes. I've talked to many Christians, and they've been fearful of sickness, and fearful of death.
And when the time came, why, it was wonderful. Or when Moody did die, my what he said was beautiful. Why, he said, if this is buried, it is sweet. This is my coronation day. Earth is receding. Heaven is opening up before me. And Moody fell asleep. to be forever with the Lord. That is his body, hellishly, not his soul. And so when the time comes for a Christian to die, the Lord will give him grace and it will be a wonderful experience. You know, in your Bible you have a lot of similes of death. Job especially, I guess Job thought his time had come, and he used a lot of similes of death in the book of Job.
He speaks of it as a voyage of a ship. In other words, there is a shift and you watch it as it disappears over the horizon, but it's not out of existence. You can't see it, but it's there. It just passed from your view. That's what Job said. One of these days when my change comes, he said, I'm just going to pass out of faith. You won't see me, but I'll be in existence. And not these peaks of light. As a boy, he speaks of it as a weaver shuttle. My life is as a weaver shuttle, like that shuttle, as it flies back and forth until finally the last thread is woven in, and the feast determined by the masters at proper length, and is taken out of the loop.
One of these days a shuttle is going to take its last run, and the length of life determined by God is going to come to its end. And the shuttle will have made its last run, the last thread. has been woven into the pattern that you have made throughout your life. He's shown to the master in that day. Light is so rapid, like weaver shuffles, you're shooting back and forth. How quickly the days go by. I write a diary. I've been doing it for thirty years. And when I pick up my diary every night, it seems only five minutes ago, I'll fill it in the night before. How quickly the days come.
That's life. It's just a shuttle flying to and fro, to and fro, to and fro. How quick and the older you get, the faster the shuttle flies. That's what Wollstone says. He speaks of it as a postman. The postman in those days, transportation wasn't fast, but they looked upon the dromedary of the camel as a fast-witted liver male, far faster than on foot. The camel can go very fast when it has to. He speaks of his life as a swift post. or the postman. The other postman comes and delivers the mail. One of these days, the mailman's going to knock a chore-law on its death. And it's got to go.
Light is just that swift, uncertain. And he speaks of light too as a, or again, such as a vapor, like a fog that settles down. You can't see anything. Disability is nil. then after a while the fog begins to lift and you see everything clear and plain that day we live our lives in a fog in a kind of a mist or vapor you can't see things clearly why should my void be taken why should this happen to me we spend our lives in a fog unable to see and explain and understand things but one of these days The fog is going to lift and we'll see everything clear.
We'll see everything plain. That's what Job's talking about in James. Light. What is your life even as a vapor? It doesn't last long. It lifts. Very quickly. Then he speaks of life as flowers. Man comes forth like a flower and is cut down. Where is he? Here is a beautiful flower. My, it's just ready to be picked and put on the table of the king. And come a fall like a far and it's cut down, thick of youth, in their early tender years. And they're cut down just like the blooming flowers. Then he speaks of his life as a tale.
He says, my life is as a tale that is told, a book. But every book has a beginning. Every book has an end. There's a final chapter. There's fineness to every book. You don't know what chapter you're writing today. You may be writing the last page of the last chapter of your life. But the day will spell thine us and your life's been written. Don't says, oh, that my life were written in the book. He said, ah, that everybody's here. Everyone see it. I'd be glad for everyone. Leave my enemies to see my life. It's an open book. I wonder if we would like everyone to see our life.
Friends and foes alike. gobbling enough to think that God needs every page and every word. And our life is going to be an open book in that day. He speaks to sleep. The New Testament uses the word sleep for the Christian, not for the unconverted. The word dead. For dead is used for the unconverted, as we'll be speaking on tonight. But for the Christian, the word is sleep. How beautiful. person paul says. People long at times to pass away, old bodies racking in caves, like old people, longing to go home to be with the Lord.
I know when my mother was dying I sat at her bedside that I came down because she rallied, I came back, so I had been in Albany only a couple of days and I had to go back up for those few days. While I was there, he passed this at the end. He called the doctor, got to come down, give her a shot and the alarm, and she had rallied. She had fussed with the doctor. What did you bring me back for? I was almost home. I was almost home. What did you bring me back for? She fussed with the doctor. Oh, yes. It's nice, isn't it? You know that you're going home. Just write someone longing for sleep. That's the way the Bible speaks of death for the fifth in this sleep.
And then it's moving there, as you have here in this passage. Death is moving there. You're moving up. The poor old body, fragile, failing, faltering, perishing this earth here. Though the outward man perishes. The old building at the center, in this marvelous statement, the old building at somewhat dilapidated, drank with rheumatism, dropped through with arthritis, asthma, heart trouble, all kinds of diseases, and that's the old house. Luke's getting pretty thin.
I want to say many other things about the old house. It's getting pretty old and shaky and uncertain. It will not stand any more storm. But this fall I'm moving out of this old place. Don't worry about the old place. I'm leaving it behind. I'm going to get a new building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Why dread moving days? Life is like an unto a day. The sun rises, then the sun climbs to the meridian fullness, midday, then the late afternoon the shadows begin to fall, and then sunset. Blessed are the dead, this guy and the Lord, they will rest from their labors.
And their works, we call them. Like a man who's got a hard, long, difficult day's work. Oh, how he's ready to hit the shack, they say. He's ready to go to bed. That's death. For the Christians, having rested from their labors, their works after their shades, we call them. Paul speaks of death. As the end of a fight, he said, I've fought a good fight. and up against enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. He speaks of life at the end of the race. I have finished my course. I have finished my course. That's the test of faith. Henceforth it laid up on the crown of righteousness that's the Lord, the righteous judge for giving you that day.
Not to me only, but as well then that love is appearing. Here it is likened unto the end of a mark. Our hearts as the poet has said, our hearts like muffled drums are beating funeral marches to the grave. As you listen to that heart pumping away in there like a muffled drum, every beat simply means death is summer. Your life is through the end. What about it? I love to think of what the apostle uses. The word he uses, departure. Death is departure. He said, I am ready to depart. I have a desire to depart, to be with Lord.
Now, when a person departs, it means he's going somewhere. I had an old friend, a picture, old James Watt. He didn't say so-and-so departed. He said, brother, she arrived. She arrived. For he arrived. Isn't that nice? Don't let the Wilson go. Don't worry about him having departed. He arrived. Today when a person gets wealthy or hits the jackpot a day, they say, they say he arrives. Well, I'll tell you the Christians are going to arrive on these days, born against Christians, those saved by salvation. Then they follow the street. It means they've arrived. Oh, of course, they've left here.
They departed here, but they've arrived at the time you'd get to see them. They've already arrived at home with the Lord. Paul says, I'm ready to go, departure. The time of my departure is at hand. He desired to depart and to be with Christ. He was ready to depart. He said, I'm now ready, ready to depart. Are you ready for departure? I thought of Stephen last night. You know I was going to just try and quote it, but it's too sacred. It's too wonderful to try and quote. I may miss a word as to Steven's departure.
I'm going to read it to you. You can find it over in Acts chapter six and Acts chapter seven. Acts chapter six and verse fifteen. And all that sat in the council looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Verse fifty-four of chapter seven, when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God as he was calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit.
And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. When he had said this, he fell asleep. That's what a Christian rebuttal. What a wonderful story. They saw his face at the face of an angel. You know the face indicates character. The face of an angel radiates light on light states of intelligence. And here is Stephen. He's going home to be with the Lord. It's only a matter of minutes. His face is as the face of an angel. What character, this depth of character you see, it's upon that covenant.
What intelligence he's manifesting. He's not panting. not acting like somebody ignorant. His face is the face of an angel lit up with intelligence. He's an intelligent man. He just silences enemies so much so that they are now about to tell them how intelligent Christians should be at their getting old and at their facing death. The face of an angel indicating warmth, love and gentleness. Repose, no care or unrest. Strength, no weakness.
This is the face of an angel. And in eternity those sons of light, the angels, they don't know anything about the feel of death. They're eternal beings. Here is Stephen, he's radiating the very face of an angel. Two or three minutes, she'll be at home with the Lord. It wasn't a very pleasant envy. They'd stoned them to death. They'd stoned after stone fell and pummeled, forced to even a man filled with the Holy Spirit. Ah, he looked up and he didn't feel some of those final stones. He was beyond them. He saw the Son of Man standing in the right hand of God.
You know, the Bible says when Jesus went to heaven, he sat down on the right hand of God. that he's standing up now. Jesus Christ is so honored, the first martyr of the church, he's standing up the welcomes of the world. A young man going home to heaven, he sees Jesus standing on the right hand of God. He says, Lord, Jesus received my service before he did that. He says, Oh, may they send you their charge. No bigger old man here. Don't lay this thing with their charge, Lord. They don't know what they're doing.
They didn't know what they were doing, but they crucified me. Now they're putting me in the debt. They don't know what they're doing. They're just cranked. They're crazy. Don't lay this thing with those charges. Those sin all right. But don't lay it with their charge. But don't lay it with their charge. I'm happy. I witnessed for you before them. Now I'm coming home. This is departure and he was cracked. I want to close this three things. Departure, decision, and destiny. Departure, that's just for the trial of God. Decision, no, Simeon, what did he say? Now let us thou thy servant depart.
He uses a strange word, old Simeon. You read in Luke chapter two. Here is this old man, he's been waiting, waiting, waiting for the coming of the Lord. He says, Lord, now let us thou thy servant be part in peace from thy life and see thy salvation. Thou shalt not always give and waiting for the coming of the Lord. And the Lord finally gave him. He took the child Jesus up into his arms. He said, bless this Lord. I've waited for this. I'm ready to go now. And he took Christ into his arms and he blessed the Lord and said, I'm ready to depart. I want to go home. I say, Christ. I've got Christ.
I receive Christ. I'm ready. This is the only way you can be ready. He made a decision. He took Christ. And also the case of the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road, when Christ speaks from heaven to Paul says, what was thou had me to do, Lord. If it is written, I've made it. Lord, what will you have me to do? Friend, in view of the departure, if you're going to make one of these days, I'm not speaking this morning on where you're going to arrive when you die as you are. I'm speaking of where the Christians are going to arrive when you breathe at last.
But if you're a sinner, you know where you'll arrive. In the light of that, it will be wise that you can make a decision a decision for Christ, a decision that Jesus Christ from this moment on is going to be your savior. He died on the cross, he said, it floods, what will it be? What's the destiny? The destiny that's determined by your decision. If you decided for Christ, your destiny of heaven, if you decided against Christ, your destiny is terrible. All must choose. or all must choose.
Though this doesn't weigh with this business as if a person is to be saved, he's to be saved, he's to be lost, he's to be lost. It doesn't matter what it takes, he says, a person's got to choose. And to choose, he's got to be old enough and intelligent enough to make a choice. He's got to know the two things he's got to choose between. Choose ye this day, whom ye will serve. And so it's a choice you've got to make. Romans ten and nine points at us. Thou shalt confess with thy most. The Lord Jesus believed in thine heart that draw the grace and from the dead, thou shalt be saved. It's something you've got to believe. It's a choice you've got to make.
It's something you've got to confess. Before God says, thou shalt be saved. What is your decision this morning? What is your choice? Your destiny will be determined. how you depart from this life through that destiny will be determined upon your choice, the choice you make, possibly right here this morning. It's an awful verse covered in Matthew twenty-five, forty-one, and listen to it. It's not a departure to be with the Lord. It's a departure in another sense. Jesus Christ says, Depart from me, ye Christian into everlasting fire that is paired with the devil and the devil.
the sad depositors. Paul departed to be with Christ, but here are some, and they're not going to be with Christ. They're departing to another place. They're departing to the lost of whom. They're departing to be where they're meeting and veiling and gnashing at peace, whatever. He says, depart from me, he's cursed, he will ever last in fire prepared for the devil and his angel. That's a mortal depart and a fearful arrival in the place upon him. But though one hastens to get back to death for the Christian, how wonderful it is to die a child of God.
He'll fall asleep in heaven. know that if you close your eyes on earth you'll open them in his presence you'll see loved ones here may be for chance at the last you'll see him the loved ones when you open their eyes and draw them are you ready for that death take the end of the decisions you must make to determine your destiny and the manner of your departure from this life Jesus Christ is the dividing point. You go right or left, up and down with Jesus Christ. What will you do with Jesus?
What will your answer be right now? We will accept him as you say. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Son, we commit to thy presence. We give you thanks for thy word. We ask you to use it. Let it. What a comfort, what an encouragement to those of us who belong to be, whether young or old or middle-aged, or to departure to be with Christ, which is very, very far better. That is, if anything, this world has to offer. So, Father, we think of those who are not Christians in our lives.
What an awful departure there will be, the everlasting fire. and believe that these who make precious our lives so that it will bear upon them and that this morning you will meet the choice of the visions of Christ we are like this and we are worthy and precious Mary amen