PREPARING FOR ETERNITY (Part 2)

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: REVELATION 22:8-21




INTRODUCTION:


  1. Three times in Revelation 22, our Lord says: "I come quickly" (22:7,12,20). In this context, "quickly" does not mean that our Lord was going to necessarily return at the time John wrote the book of Revelation.
  2. It means "suddenly" and "unexpectedly." Are you ready? Are you prepared to meet Jesus?
  3. Many of us are starting to prepare for the next season (spring).
  4. Some people are planning for their retirement. They are saving their money, getting ready to collect their Social Security, or their pension, etc.
  5. But very few people are preparing for eternity. So I want to speak this today on the second coming of Christ and what we can be doing to prepare ourselves.
  1. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR DESTINY (22:11)
    1. The choices you make now while you are young will have a permanent effect on your character. You are developing habits now, some good, and some bad. Now is the time to get rid of the bad habits and develop the good ones.
    2. Here is how a poet put it:
    3. Sow a thought and reap an act

      Sow an act and reap a habit

      Sow a habit and reap a character

      Sow a character and reap a destiny.

    4. The decisions we make, the choices we make, the things we do, the habits we develop – will determine our destiny.
    5. When our Lord comes back, the "unjust" (22:11) will be fixed in their impenitence. Sometimes it seems that many of them are now fixed in their impenitence. And perhaps some are. But when our Lord comes back in judgment, it will be too late for the unsaved.
    6. The filthy will be fixed in a permanent state of filthiness (22:11). They love their filth and so God will allow them to remain filthy for all eternity.
    7. As they step from time to eternity they carry with them the materials of their eternal torment. On the tablet of the inner man, these words are indelibly engraved: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still."
    8. Do you remember what John wrote in John 3:36? "…And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." The wrath of God abideth on them, and as long as they continue to reject the Lord Jesus Christ and as long as they continue to disobey His Word, this wrath of God builds up until we arrive at the door of eternity and read these words – "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still."
    9. A great preacher from the past named J.C. Ryle, once wrote that he was skeptical of most death-bed conversions. He agreed that on occasion a sinner might get genuinely saved at the last minute, but for the most part this is not the case. He wrote these words: "But I am afraid in 99 cases out of 100 such evidences (of genuine conversion) are not to be depended on. I suspect that, with rare exceptions, men die just as they have lived."
    10. I have read similar statements from others who have done research on death-bed conversions.
    11. Bishop Ryle said, "Men die just as they have lived" (cf. 22:11a). But thank God there are those who love God and are deemed righteous and holy in His eyes (22:11b), and they go off into eternity prepared for the glories of heaven.
  1. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR REWARDS (22:12-14)
    1. One of the great themes of the New Testament is the judgment seat of Christ (cf. Rom.14:10,12; II Cor.5:10,11).
    2. He is the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last" (22:13; cf. 1:8,11,17; Isa.41:4; 44:6; 48:12).
    3. Some day each and every one of us must stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account. And our actions now determine what our rewards will be then.
    4. Some will receive a crown. I like that song, "Little Is Much When God Is In It" – "There’s a crown and you can win it, if you’ll go in Jesus’ name."
    5. A few years ago, one of my daughters asked me what this meant. It means that our actions now determine what rewards (if any) we will receive up yonder in heaven (cf. II Tim.4:6-8). Paul was prepared for eternity. Are you?
    6. You may have noticed I said, "Our actions now determine what rewards if any we will receive" (cf. II John 8). Some Christians start out alright but then they mess up and undo all the good they have done. We need to be careful.
  1. OUR ACTIONS NOW DETERMINE OUR PUNISHMENT (22:15)
    1. Unfortunately, not every one who professes to be a Christian is going to "enter in through the gates into the city" (22:14).
    2. Many will be shut out for all eternity. And our actions now will determine whether or not we enter through those gates to the new Jerusalem.
    3. Let me stop for a moment and say a few words to those that are not genuinely saved. If you do not repent and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour you will be shut outside the gate with "dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie" (22:15; cf. 21:23-27; 21:8; 20:12-15).
    4. Whether it is dishonesty, immorality, idolatry or any other sin – our actions now determine our punishment. And for those who refuse to repent and bow their knee to Jesus Christ that means eternity in the lake of fire.

CONCLUSION:

  1. Most of you remember the Men For Missions. One of them asked me to visit a friend’s unsaved mother. She is 83 years old and I went to see her yesterday at Elmhurst Hospital.
  2. She has a 90-year-old boyfriend. He told me he has "wasted his life."
    Boys and girls: do not waste your lives.


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