Musings 77

Mat 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

When we die, the worms will scramble for our bodies, our friends and family for our possessions, and the devils for our souls. What will matter then? (Thomas Shepard)

Eternity should be at the foremost of our thinking during our lives. But who really believes that eternity matters more than the present life now? Has the whole concept of eternity been virtually lost in our day? We are consumed with the present life. We are consumed with things of the world. Why are we not consumed with the things of eternity? Why are we not driven by eternal life and eternal damnation?

Matthew 16:26 tells us this: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Therefore, if there is no profit in having the entire world, then what profit can there be in what you are selling your soul for? If the whole world is a loss rather than a profit as compared to our soul, then people are selling their souls for sex, food, money, and many other things. How cheaply they are valuing their souls and giving them to sin.

Do we really believe the following these days: “all the curses written in the book of God, the curses of God, the curses of Christ, the curses of the Law, the curses of time and eternity, shall be upon unrepentant sinners, not only light on him to terrify him, but abide on him, to sink him into the Lake of Fire, to launch his wretched soul, grip and gnaw his guilty conscience, and prey on his damned body throughout endless ages.” If we really believed that, and more than just the intellectual information, surely our churches would be different.

Do we really believe that our soul and the souls of all others will spend eternity in one of two places? In light of eternity, being nice is not enough. Being orthodox is not enough. Being religious is not enough. Being externally moral is not enough. Most professing believers know those things in the head, but do they have those truths in the depths of their very hearts? Do they believe those things with every fiber of their being? Do those things really and truly grip us enough so that we live in light of them? Do we really think that only Christ and Christ alone is enough for us? Do we live as if Christ is our treasure?

When people are faced with the reality and finality of death, what type of person will they want to be around? It is true that it is nice to be around nice people, but hell is full of nice people. It is much better to be around those who are moral rather than the immoral, but hell will be full of people who are moral as well as the immoral. It is a good thing to be around talented people, but once again hell will be full of talented people. Is it a good thing to be around smart people? Perhaps if a doctor was smart one would want a smart doctor, but then again hell will be full of smart people and most likely have a lot of smart doctors. What kind of preacher or friends would one want to hang around? Do we want people to comfort us and encourage us as we slip into hell? Perhaps it would be better to find awakening preachers who will tell us the truth about our sinful natures and sinful practices before we reach our death beds. Perhaps it would be better to find people to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we reach our death beds. Perhaps it is vital that we turn from the fluff and niceness found in professing churches today and ask for God to give us men after His heart who will tell us the truth without fear of men.

Leave a comment