The word eternity is only mentioned once in
this English Bible of mine, the old King
James Version, that some people don't read so
much today, but it's the grand, basic Bible
for the British people.
And the word eternity is only mentioned once
in the text of Scripture.
But three times, on the margin, or in
the revised version, you'll find references to eternity,
fitting the case of another word.
But will you remember this word, it's a
sonically word, a wonderful word, just like a
great mountain peak, standing up and leaping above
all its fellows, and casting a kind of
glorious shadow over the whole mountain range.
An Everest of Scripture, snow-capped in the
purity of God.
Eternity!
Thus saith the High and Holy One, who
inhabiteth eternity, I dwell in the holy place,
with him also who is of a humble
spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble,
to revive the heart of the contrite one.
Eternity!
What a remarkable, uplifting, glorified word, once uttered,
because there's only one eternity, and the Eternal
God is in command of it.
I seem to hear it coming out of
the past, like a distant sound of thunder,
bursting with a clap in the present, and
rolling on with mumblings and rumblings into the
unknown future.
Eternity!
How can you preach on eternity?
Yet, if a preacher does not touch eternity,
he is missing the great mountain ridge and
glorious scene that God has given us in
this world, who inhabiteth eternity.
Oh, how can you begin the sermon?
I don't know of a beginning, and I'm
not sure of an end.
It seems almost that you cannot contain everlastingness
into a small sermon.
Yet, it is essential that all preachers should
remind the congregation time and again that they
are travellers to eternity.
Eternity.
Oh, define it, preacher, you say.
Tell us what it means.
Well, some people have tried to do that,
my friends, and thirty-seven and a half
years ago, I tried to do it in
a long piece that one grand old writer
had given, but I won't tonight.
All I say is, the best definition I've
ever read of eternity came from a deaf
and dumb boy.
He was in the deaf and dumb school
in Paris, and the teacher wrote on the
blackboard, what is eternity?
And there was a silence, of course, because
they were deaf and dumb, and no one
moved for a few moments, and then this
laddie came forward and took up the piece
of chalk and wrote, the lifetime of the
Almighty.
There you've got it.
The lifetime of the Almighty.
Thus saith the high and lofty One who
inhabited eternity.
Archibald Brown once said, there's no word that
is mourned, passed by, and ignored than the
word eternity.
And yet, that is one of the most
vital things that men and women must face,
everlastingness.
How privileged I was to be saved under
the preaching of William Lamb.
My brother Yonder would remember it with me.
We sat beneath that man, and the hymns
he introduced us to were the hymns of
the Eternal.
Eternity is drawing nigh, was one of them.
Another one, very precious and sung tonight, the
sands of time are sinking.
That's true for every one of you here
tonight.
No matter how old you are, five, ten,
twenty, forty, fifty, sixty, the sands of time
are sinking.
I wonder if the dawn of heaven waits.
He gave us the hymns of Jerusalem, the
golden, forever with the Lord.
And a few more years shall roll, and
where will you spend eternity?
And in my young heart, I realized the
greatness of eternity.
And I remember so clearly one of his
hymns.
Oh, the clanging bells of time, how their
changes rise and fall, but in undertone sublime,
sounding clearly through them all, is a voice
that must be heard as our moments onward
flee, and it speaketh aye one word, eternity,
eternity.
I want to show you some of the
echoes.
I want to unstop your ears, and let
the echoes of that word get into your
heart if possible.
Only three great headings in it, but if
you can grasp them and remember them, you'll
be a good candidate for eternity.
Listen, the first one is this, creation echoes
eternity, eternity, eternity.
Yes, it does.
Way back about 1795, a certain man escaped
from Paris, the French Revolution was on, and
this man escaped from Paris, and got across
the Atlantic, and he came to America, and
got freedom, and Stephen Grellet was full of
joy.
He'd been in all the awful horror of
the French Revolution, he'd been in danger of
death time and again, and now he's in
the free land of the United States, and
he said, I was a conformed infidel, and
I walked out into the country, thinking of
nothing religious, and then I approached a forest,
and as I walked into the forest, I
had dissipated thoughts, but nothing to do with
religion.
Suddenly, I heard the wind moving and rustling
the leaves of the trees, and then I
heard all the insects round about, all murmuring
louder and louder, eternity, eternity, eternity.
He said, it brought me to the dust,
like Saul of Tartus.
It opened up before me a terrible gulf.
Infidel as I was, I cried out, if
there's no God, there's certainly a hell.
And then, he said, as that awful sound
continued, eternity, eternity, he said, it opened to
me a new sphere.
It led me to see a place where
mock and rush does not corrupt, and where
thieves do not break through nor steal, and
lo, where the stranger finds a home, and
the weary find rest.
Oh, he said, through the blood of the
Lamb of God, through the finished work of
Jesus Christ, I came to see it all.
Stephen Grellet, oh, what an evangelist.
No, he didn't address multitudes like Billy Graham,
but he reached the kings, and the captains,
and the presidents, and the prelates, and the
prime ministers, and he went everywhere, proclaiming the
gospel, with a spirit burning, that it's eternal
life, or it's eternal death.
And oh, Stephen Grellet never forgot that the
whispering wind, and the rustling leaf, and the
insects were all saying, eternity, eternity, eternity.
How true that is.
You know who is the creator, don't you?
You've read the first chapter of John, and
you tell there quite well, you could see
quite well there, that all things were made
by him, Jesus Christ, and without him was
not anything made that was made.
Who is the creator?
God, who created all things, by Jesus Christ,
Paul said.
He's the creator.
That's why the wind, and the rustling leaves,
and the insects all said eternity to Stephen
Grellet.
Go and look out on the wild waves
of the ocean.
Ah, there was a grand touch in one
of Dickens' books, Dombey and Son.
There was little Paul dying day by day,
and there was sweet Florence, 15 years, and
little Paul only six years, and little Paul
says to his sister, Flo, what does it
say?
The ocean, I mean the sea.
You know, Flo, what it says, don't you?
Oh, what are the wild waves saying?
Sister, all day in their song.
Oh no, brother, she said, I don't know
anything about that.
It's just the wind moving the waves.
No, no, no, he said, it is something
greater that speaks to the heart alone.
The voice of the great creator dwells in
that mighty tone.
Have you ever heard the ocean?
Have you ever seen those waves come whitening
to the shore, and you've seen them break
with the beauty on the rocks, and you've
heard a sudden roar, and then that night
in your motel, or your little camp near
the sea, you heard a constant, constant roaring,
roaring.
I was only a little chap when I
was taken to Manly by my mother, along
with the family one day, and we were
there in the sand and enjoying ourselves right
up to about four o'clock in the
afternoon, and then we saw a lot of
people racing to one spot, and we hurried
after them.
They said, it's a man, he's been caught
in the current, and he's been dragged out.
They're after him.
Oh no, no, they haven't got him.
Oh, they might get him yet.
No, no, they're heading back now.
No, they're not, they're helping each other back.
And slowly the night came on, and I
knew, as we got word later, they couldn't
find him.
He was caught in the current and carried
out, and I don't know that my parents
lingered there, and the night came down, and
we stood on the promenade, and there in
the darkness with the wind around us, I
heard the roar of the ocean as it
was rising in tempo and power, and I
thought, where is he now?
I wonder if he's in heaven.
Ah yes, the voice of the great creator
is heard in that solemn tone.
The sea, the sea is his, and he
made it, and his hands prepared the dry
land, and he said, thus far shall thou
come and no farther, and here shall thy
proud waves be stained, the creator.
Doesn't it whisper, doesn't it challenge you with
an echo, eternity?
Or turn, if you like, to the inland
of the bush, and the far-stretching plains
of Australia.
And oh, look at that drover.
He's been driving those sheep for a few
days, and now he comes to another stop.
The night is falling, and he's tethered his
horse, and he's got the sheep in a
kind of a pen to hold them for
the night, and he's boiled a billy, and
he's had his tea, his damper and his
tea, and now darkness upon the earth, and
he's put his saddle up there as a
pillow, and he's stretching himself without any covering
in the hottest trade and inland, he's stretching
himself out, and he's looking up.
And he sees the wondrous glory of the
everlasting stars.
Yes, that's right, Banjo Patterson wrote it, you're
right.
I came home from the first war with
Banjo Patterson.
He's quite a character, if you knew Banjo
Patterson.
But that was from Clancy of the Overflow.
It's the drover who, looking up in the
night, can see the wondrous glory of the
everlasting stars.
But long before Patterson wrote that, long before
the drover looked up, God said to Abraham,
lift up thine eyes to the heavens and
see the stars, and if you can, count
them.
Thy seed shall be as those stars.
And Abraham believed God, and it was counted
to him for righteousness.
The stars.
Listen.
What does David say?
When I consider thy heavens, the moon and
the stars, the work of thy fingers, what
is man that thou art mindful of him?
Or the son of man that thou visitest
him?
Stars to the shepherd David.
Take a leaf over in your Bible to
the twelfth chapter of Daniel, and see this
mighty prophet.
And by the way, I preached on this
at the memorial service for William Lamb.
And hear Daniel saying, and they that be
wise shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever.
You won't see their photograph in the paper.
You won't see them done up at all
or adorned exceptedly with the laurel wreath of
glory.
But they shall shine how long for?
Ever.
And ever.
Eternity.
Look.
Creation.
The greatest of them all.
The man.
And there they are gathered round doing a
job on the road, and they're having a
talk and a joke every now and again.
And then suddenly there's a halt, and one
says, take your hat off, boys, take your
hat off.
Silence.
Caps off.
Another poor fellow gone.
I wonder who'll be the next.
Oh, well, I suppose take your chance about
it.
And there the coffin goes by.
Oh, open your ears, men, open your ears.
It's a poor human being who is saying
from the casket in his cold clay, you've
got to meet it, you've got to meet
it.
You can't sidestep it.
Eternity.
No subject more ignored and passed by, said
Archbishop Brown.
That creation.
Witnesses.
And echoes over the valleys of time.
Echoes.
Eternity.
But I want to tell you, my dear
friends, the Christian echoes eternity.
Are you a Christian?
Are you a Christ one?
Are you really belonging to Jesus Christ?
Then, out of your lips will spring the
word eternity sometime or other.
It'll leap out of your lips because it's
born in your heart.
When you came and took Jesus Christ as
your Saviour, and he settled down in your
heart because he's always willing to come, he
tells you this is an eternal business.
I heard that that night in the third
front seat there on the right, from the
lips of William Lamb, and foolish as I
was, I lay there awake with a kind,
oh, I thank God for the new birth,
born of the Spirit, washed in the precious
blood of Christ.
And the Christian must speak of eternity, of
course he must.
He can't sidestep it.
He won't always use that word, but he'll
bring in the meaning of eternity alright.
I give you that little beautiful illustration from
Uncle Tom's cabin, that master classic written by
a godly woman.
You remember that Uncle Tom was whipped almost
to a death point because he refused to
whip, rather, a poor old woman, a slave
who couldn't work fast.
And so Legree took it on his strongest
men to beat Uncle Tom, till he's terribly
torn, and he's hardly able to move with
the pain.
And now early in the morning after Tom's
whipping, Legree, that brutal character, comes round and
looks down on him and says, hey Tom,
well how do you feel now?
How do you like it, Tom, when I
tie you to a tree and light a
little slow fire round your feet?
Pleasant day, Tom?
Oh, Master, he said, I know you can
do dreadful things, but when you've killed this
old body, there's nothing more that you can
do, and there's all eternity to come.
Eternity, said Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, commenting on
her own writing, eternity, that word thrilled through
the black man's soul with power and light,
and it thrilled through the sinner's soul like
the bite of a scorpion.
Eternity, eternity, and some men and women are
going out into eternity, and they're not Christ,
and they're going out with all their brutality
or badness, all their wrong and sin and
debauchery, they're going out into the vast.
Oh, beloved, we've got to, we've got to
echo the word, we must echo that word,
eternity, we Christians must, in some way or
other, that's why he breathes his blessing down
and revives the humble, and revives the contrite
heart to keep fervent in witnessing, because time
closes with eternity.
Then every one of them shall give account
of himself to God, but without Christ, no
hope, no hope.
Oh, that grand saintly minister, Robert Murray MacSane,
dying about 29 years of age, or 30,
and they found in his records of his
visitation in the parish of Dundee, Scotland, they
saw these words, MG, two initials, lies hard
on my conscience, I've done that woman no
good, oh, speak, speak, what matters it in
eternity, the slight awkwardness of time.
You ever been silenced?
I have, afraid, sometimes been silenced, it's been
awkward to speak of holy things and great
testimony, and sometimes it's just awkward.
But other times not so bad, I gave
a man away out in the country years
ago, in November, early November, I handed him
out a tract and I said, will you
take a friend?
Oh, he said, yes, I said, will it
tell you how to win the Milton Cup,
eh?
I said, no, it'll tell you how to
win eternity through Jesus Christ as your personal
saviour, if you want to, oh, disappeared suddenly,
the small awkwardness of time, but I'm glad
I said it now, so glad, and I
remember passing another place, and it was either
the barmaid, or else the lady in charge
of the hotel, oh, a poor old ramshackle
place far out in the bush, and she
was coming out rather early in the morning
to clear up just at the side door,
and I went up to her and I
said, would you mind taking some of these
gospel messages, lady?
Oh, I haven't time for that kind of
thing, she said.
Oh, haven't, I said, you'll have to find
time to die some day, lady.
Yes, she said, and some of us don't
find time for that, we're taken off so
suddenly, condemning our own self, condemning our own
self.
Dear Arthur States, he said he heard my
great big voice thundering out, eternity, eternity, but
I didn't think of anyone for years, I
didn't know anything about it, but he went
out to relay it, far more than ever
I could do, to relay it with his
simple word all over the place until they
couldn't ignore the little fellow.
Oh, but you say, Mr. Ridley, I can't
talk much, and after all, you're speaking about
this one and that one, but it's Jesus
that counts right, oh, I'm so glad you've
fallen on the sword, that's all.
If anyone ever witnessed to eternity, it was
Jesus, it was Jesus.
And when the king comes and sits upon
his throne, he will divide the sheep from
the goats, and he'll put the sheep on
his right hand and the goats on his
left, then shall the king say to those
on his right hand, come, ye blessed of
my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world, then shall
the king say to those on his left
hand, depart from me, ye cursed, ye cursed,
I leave it there, it's worse if I
went on, the devil a place for the
devil and his angels.
Do you think I should go on when
Jesus Christ said that?
Yes, depart from me, ye cursed, and depart
the place prepared for the devil and his
angels, no one wants surely to inherit that.
Listen again, Jesus Christ is speaking about a
certain man who looked at his grand, well
-packed barns and he said, well, I know
what I'll do, now I'll pull down these
barns and I'll build bigger ones, that's right,
and then I'll say to my own soul,
soul, take your ease, eat, drink, and be
merry, you've got much goods laid up for
many years, and Jesus said, and that night
God said, thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee, who shall these
things be?
Jesus spoke of eternity, listen again, be also
ready, for in such an hour as you
think not, the Son of Man cometh.
Watch, watch, watch as if on that alone
hung the issue of the day, pray that
grace may be sent down, watch and pray,
my Christian friend, are you fighting the Christian
battle?
Are you echoing?
Eternity's got to come, friend, eternity, now you're
two-thirds of the way through and we
won't belong, why?
Creation, creation whispers eternity, and again the Christian
echoes eternity, and again and last that great
monument, no friend, no, it's not the great
pyramid, once in my foolish days as a
young man I climbed the great pyramid, a
marvellous monument, I saw the desert and the
Nile, but oh dear, if ever I was
shaken, it was climbing that pyramid, never again,
never again, now it's greater than the pyramid,
then you say, what is it, the Taj
Mahal of India, of Agra, no, I saw
it in its golden beauty and in its
glory, a remarkable place, but that's not the
greatest monument in the world, then you say,
perhaps then the arch of triumph in Paris,
crowning that great city, no, I've stood there
and I've gazed down the swamp to see
and seen its wonder, but that's not the
greatest monument, what is it?
The cross echoes eternity, the cross lifted up
was he to die, it is finished was
his cry, now in heaven exalted high, hallelujah,
what a saviour, why was he there on
that cross of shame, why was he there
to perform a great sacrifice, preacher, to give
a great example, oh no friend, no, don't
you call him a victim, don't you call
him a martyr, don't you call him a
hero, unless it's just to go up something
higher, he was there as the son of
God, he was there on that cross and
he is the same essence as God, it
is God bearing his people's punishment for sin
upon that cross, and it is God the
son drinking the cup, he tasted what?
Death for every man, he tasted death and
drank the cup for every man, wondrous love,
to bleed, to die, to bear the cross
and shame, this guilty sinner such as I
should name that blessed name, Jesus, oh Lord
Jesus, what love was poured out of the
cross, the love that came to die, no
man taketh my life from me, I have
power to lay it down, and I have
power to take it again, this commandment have
I received of my father.
Now in heaven, at the right hand of
the majesty and high, there's the man of
the cross, the man of the wounds of
the cross, and he's commended God's love to
me, and to you, and to all men,
he said in effect, you have sinned and
failed shockingly, you are the offspring of Adam,
come unto me, come unto me, come unto
me, and thou shalt be born again, and
the sin will be blotted out, and the
evil will be overthrown, I have found a
ransom in this blessed redeemer.
Eternity, death is the doorway to eternity, and
Jesus tasted that death to give us an
open doorway into the presence of the father,
provided we are truly Christian, and truly Christ,
and we have contrite hearts, and we have
humble spirits, truly there's welcome for the wanderer,
welcome home at the end of the day.
Oh, my friends, you've got to meet him,
oh, I remember one great preacher, I heard
him preach on one occasion, but this is
what he said, you, you my friend, young
man, young woman, older friend, you must die,
unless the savior comes suddenly, then it might
be a different story, but given your measure
of life, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70,
80, well, not much further, 90, perhaps you
might time the 100, it'd be all added
strain and stress, and what is that in
the great millenniums of God?
It's in time you've got to settle this
matter, you must not go into eternity, unless
you come beneath its shadow, but on the
father's side, the darkness of an awful grave,
the gates both deep and wide, and there
between us stands the cross, two arms outstretched
aside like a watchman, set to guard the
world from that eternal grave, the wages of
sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
the cross divides, there was one manufacturer, there
was another manufacturer, and Jesus in the midst,
and though one railed on him, and it
seems from one of the gospels, the other
railed on him too, oh, bitter moment, and
then one changed too, and lo, he's saying,
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom, and the blessed Saviour answers, verily I
say unto thee, today shall thou be with
me in paradise, life, instant deliverance, instant acceptance,
brought instant promise of blessing in paradise, oh,
paradise, who would not long for thee, terrible
thing to be separated, and terrible beyond description,
to be separated from the sovereign Father, and
the sweet Saviour Jesus Christ, and the loving
Spirit, now comes my few final words, dear
friend, not with the strength of thirty-seven
and a half years ago, but just a
kind word to you as I say, that
monument of the cross is the place of
decision, there you decide in the light of
love's fabulous sacrifice, in the light of untold
mercy, to poor miserable failing people, in the
light of infinite wondrous grace, sovereign grace, you're
told to make a decision, you're told to
stand up for Jesus, you're told to come
to the Redeemer, and to keep on coming,
and to get fresh blessing, to revive the
heart of the humble, to revive the contrite
one, yes, well, you must do it at
the cross if it means anything, and I
think of those few great men that I
could go on numbering, but I come to
the close list, and how great were those
men, here is one called George Whitfield, and
it said of George Whitfield, that he walked
in two worlds, and had eternity stamped on
his eyeball, and he shook England, and America,
and the British Isles, one of the greatest
of soul winners, Whitfield.
Here is Dr. Leighton, Archbishop Leighton and Doctor,
saying to the theological students in Edinburgh two
or three centuries back, saying young men, you
are candidates for eternity, give yourself to the
Saviour, oh, give yourself to the Saviour, yes,
and here is another speaking, and this one,
a grand scholar, a master of the Hebrew,
a marshal in the army of God, and
a humble child, Dr. Duncan, almost an amazing
scholar, he memorised a great part of the
Old Testament in the Hebrew, he loved the
old English translation of the Bible, the authorised
version, and he said at the close of
one of the years, he said young men,
young men, my brother, pointing to the men
in his class, many people will be wishing
you a happy new year, your old tutor,
himself, wishes you a happy eternity, do you
think that this preacher doesn't wish in his
heart, with all his soul, each one of
you, I wish for you this, and I
read it from God's word, they shall hunger
no more, they shall thirst, neither shall they
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light
on them, nor any heat, for the lamb,
which is in the midst of the throne,
shall lead them, and shall feed them, and
will lead to living fountains of waters, and
God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes, I wish for you these wonderful words,
I heard a great voice out of heaven
saying, behold the tabernacle of God is with
men, and he will dwell with them, and
they shall be his people, and God himself
shall be with them, and be their God,
and God shall wipe away all tears from
their faces, and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things
are passed away, all the saints of God,
their conflict passed, their life's long battle won
at last, no more they need the shield
and sword, they throw them down before the
Lord, all happy saints, forever blessed are Jesus
Christ, how safe your rest, where will you
spend eternity, this question comes to you and
me, tell me, what will your answer be,
where will you spend eternity, some are accepting
Christ today, turning from all their sins away,
heaven will their blessed portion be, where will
you spend eternity, turn and believe this very
hour, trust to the Saviour's grace and power,
then will your joyous answer be saved, through
a long eternity.