A Step Away from Eternity

Father in heaven, I come before you by the blood of thy dear son Jesus. I ask you to move on hearts today and attend the reading of your word by your spirit. I ask you, great God, to come in your pungent presence and disturb folks today.

Give us a glimpse of eternity and let us peer into heaven and hell. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.

Last December, I went for my morning walk, but I didn't get far. I had to sit down after five minutes. I was having trouble breathing and I thought I might have bronchitis.

I tried walking back to my car, but I barely made it. The next day, I had a heart attack. The doctors told me that all four of my main arteries were 90% blocked.

It was touch and go as I underwent a successful quadruple bypass surgery. Little did I know that morning when I went out for my walk that I was just a step away from eternity. Oh, God could have removed me suddenly and unexpectedly out of this world.

The title of my message today, friends, is a step away from eternity because all of us, every single one of us, no matter how healthy we think we are, are just a step away from eternity. Two of my childhood friends died suddenly. Both men were in their 20s when they suddenly died.

One died in a motorcycle accident, the other in an automobile accident. In Ecclesiastes, we read, one generation passes away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. Take a moment, friend, and think about all the generations of people who have lived and died and who have left this earth.

Go take a walk through a graveyard today and contemplate and take the time to read the headstones and appreciate how brief life really is. Go rent a black and white movie from the 1940s and admit that every actor in that film is dead and gone. Death is no respecter of persons.

The rich and famous die just like the poor and unknown. Sooner or later, death comes to every man, for God's word declares to everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven, a time to be born and a time to die. When it comes your time to die, you will slip out of this world and part with friends and family.

You will part with your bank accounts and investment portfolios and land holdings and all material possessions, and you will go stripped and naked into eternity. For we read in Job, naked I came out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return. God is the one who keeps the world in order, and God is the one who causes all things to happen in their seasons.

Some folks get to raise a family and grow old together before death separates them. Others are cut down in youth, but death comes to the old and young alike. I had a good friend whose 16-year-old son went out one night with some school friends, and his last words to his son were be careful.

That boy died tragically in a car accident that night, and when I saw my friend next, it was at the funeral for his 16-year-old son. With tears in his eyes, he told me, we had plans for my son, but God had other plans. We never know, friends, when we wake up today, if it will be our last day on earth.

In Ecclesiastes 9-12 we read, for man knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men, snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. We live in an evil time, where society is in moral chaos, and it's spinning fast out of control. I've never seen a time in my life, friends, where there are so many sudden deaths, the millions who have died from COVID-19 unexpectedly, and suddenly the sudden deaths from natural calamities that are more frequent than ever, like fire and floods, tornadoes and hurricanes.

Our nation has become so violent, it's not safe to even go outside anymore. You can suddenly be gunned down by a madman, or run over by a drunk. Like our text says, the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

I was standing with Adrian Rogers at the funeral of my friend and homiletical mentor, Stephen F. Alford, and Adrian Rogers commented to me on how God was calling his saints home one by one, and within 12 months I was staring at Adrian in his coffin. We are each only a step away from eternity. We only have one opportunity to serve God in our generation, and to make a difference in the world for him.

George Whitfield died at 55, Jonathan Edwards at 56, Charles Spurgeon at 57, Sam Jones at 58, D.L. Moody was the patriarch, falling into his grave at 61. We don't have as much time as we think. God can remove us quite suddenly from this world and thrust us into another world, Ecclesiastes 12.7 states.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. One minute we're here, and the next minute we're gone, gone into heaven or hell. Or you say, friend, has God been dealing with your soul by his spirit? Has his spirit been striving with you, and have you delayed coming to him? My Bible says, and it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.

My Bible declares in this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. A bleeding and dying Christ hung on that cross at Calvary so we could live. There's life in a look.

Look at that man on the cross, friend, with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. Look at that bloodstained Savior from sin as he wrestles there under the weight of sin, becoming sin for us. If you have not trusted this blessed Savior, receive him now before it's too late.

Soon he will come in judgment on this world when his anger shall burn as an oven, and then you shall meet him as your judge. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Life is short, friend.

We're only a step away from eternity. One generation passes away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. How we live our life for Christ is all that really matters.

Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.