[Repentance cont.]
In 1936 an Oklahoma insurance company turn down 80,000 applicants. It turned down some because of hereditary disease problems. It turned others because of their age, occupational hazards, or personal health problems.
Nevertheless, 8,700 of those whom the company did insure died within the first twelve months of coverage.
A. Just because an actuary’s table says you should live many years does not guarantee that you should live to pay the second premium on your life insurance policy. Simply because a cardiograph says your heart is in perfect condition does not mean you will live to walk out of the doctor’s office to your car. Cardiographs only record history; they do not predict the future.
B. The shortness of life may catch you unprepared because of a preoccupation with other times as it did the rich foolish man that went to hell. The brevity of life may catch you unprepared because of your refusal to face the fact of death.
C. This brief life that we live today is the only chance afforded. Hebrews 9:27 says, “And it is appointed onto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
There is no second chance after death but only the judgment because you have sufficient opportunities to repent in this life.
D. All mankind will live in eternity. The question is not whether one lives after death but rather where one lives after death.
In St John 5:28-29 the Apostle John said “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice.
And shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”
CONCLUSION
The day of the Lord’s return will be unexpected.
The Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”
He also said in 2 Timothy 4:1-4 “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the Word; be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall turn unto fables.”
Many years ago in a small town in the Midwest a young lawyer was on his way to work early one morning.
The quietness of the hour as he walked to work was shattered by the clatter of horse hoofs and the rumble of wagon wheels.
As the lawyer looked down the street he saw a team of runaway horses pulling a wagon.
The rider in the wagon was desperately trying to stop and bring the horses and wagon under control, but to no avail.
The lawyer knew that at the end of the street was a flimsy barricade beyond which was a deep ravine.
He knew that if the horses were not turned, they would surely pull the man to his death.
So at the risk of his own life, the lawyer rushed out into the path of the horses, grabbed the reins, turned the wagon, and saved the man’s life.
The wagon turned over, but the man was not seriously hurt. He dusted himself off and thanked the lawyer and went on his way.
Twenty years later the scene had changed. The little town had grown into a fair size city.
The lawyer had become a respected judge now. In this judge’s court room a man had been tried for murder and had been convicted.
Prior to formal sentencing the judge asked the accused man if he had any last words to say.
The man indicated that he did have something that he wanted to say.
He approached the judge’s bench and said, “Judge don’t you remember me?
And the judge looked him in the eyes and said, “No, I don’t remember having met you anywhere prior to this trial.”
But, Judge, the man answered, don’t you remember saving a man’s live by turning a team of runaway horses twenty to twenty-five years ago?
Oh, yes, replied the judge, “I remember that as if it was only yesterday.”
Well, Judge, I am that same man, said the accused man. “You were my savior then. Can’t you be my savior now?
The Christian Judge dropped his head, and when he regained his composure he said, “Yesterday I was your savior, but today I must be your judge.”
When Jesus comes again, how will you meet him - as Savior or only as Judge? Amen. Amen
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