Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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I want to share a bit this morning
in an opening devotional, opening meditation message.
Prepare to die.
Don't let it be said of you or
I that we waited too long to prepare
to die.
And it was too late.
It was too late.
The scriptures tell us that it is appointed
unto men once to die.
It is appointed.
It is appointed by God unto men.
And that is unto mankind.
That is to women.
That is to children.
That is to youth.
That is to old men.
That is to babies.
It is appointed unto mankind once to die.
We have an appointment with death.
There's multitudes in the valley of decision putting
off till tomorrow to prepare to die.
The Bible says we must needs die.
We are as water spilt upon the ground.
Where is water spilt upon the ground?
And that water that is spilt upon the
ground, it cannot be gathered up again.
I can't go down here and gather up
this water that was spilt upon the ground
and put it back in the cup.
We must needs die.
We are as water spilt upon the ground
which cannot be gathered up again.
Neither does God respect any person.
The Bible is very clear that as when
one is born, there is nothing in his
hand.
We are born with empty hands.
We come out of the womb with empty
hands.
As he came forth of his mother's womb
naked, shall he return to go as he
came and shall take nothing of his labor
which he may carry away in his hand.
He shall take nothing.
In Timothy it tells us that we brought
nothing into this world.
And it is certain that we can carry
nothing out.
Prepare to die.
It is appointed unto men once to die.
We have no promise of today.
We have no promise of tomorrow.
James tells us, go to now ye that
say today or tomorrow we will go into
such a city and continue there a year
and to buy and to sell and to
get gain.
Whereas ye know not what shall be on
the morrow.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appeareth for
a little time and then it vanishes away.
For ye ought to say, if the Lord
will, we shall live and do this or
that.
But now ye rejoice in your boastings and
all such rejoicing is evil.
No promise of today.
No promise for me to finish this message.
No promise for you to finish listening to
it.
No promise for us to go out of
these doors to our lunch engagement and dinner
invitation.
No promise of today.
No promise of tomorrow.
Go to now ye that say that today
or tomorrow we will go into such a
city and we will continue there a year
and we will buy and we will sell
and we will get gain.
For ye know not what shall be on
the morrow.
For what is your life?
It is even a vapor.
It's just like a little bit of steam
coming up out of that kettle and then
it disappears into the air.
It appears for a little time but then
it vanishes away.
Oh that they were wise, the scripture says,
that they would understand this, that they would
consider their latter end.
The Bible tells us in 2 Kings
that Hezekiah was sick unto death and the
prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to
him and said unto him, Thus saith the
Lord, set thy house in order for thou
shalt die and not live.
But you know this is not always the
case, is it?
Not all men become sick and hear the
word and the spirit of God begin to
speak to their hearts, knocking on their heart's
door, set the house in order.
You have a terminal illness, you're going to
die.
It doesn't always happen that way, does it?
Some die without warning, sudden.
Some die young, some die old.
Some die in the womb, ere they were
ever born.
We were reminded of that this past week.
This past week, dear brother and sister, laid
their stillborn in the grave.
Maybe about a week before birth, no signs
of life were there any longer.
Last Sunday morning, about this time, maybe an
hour later, six young men in a car
driving down the road thinking they're going to
play with all their hockey equipment in their
vehicle did not know that it was their
appointment with death for five of them and
their vehicle suddenly, out of control, had on
collision into a snowplow.
The only warning they had to prepare to
die was the preacher's, was the word of
God, was their co-workers, maybe you, sharing
with them, prepare to meet God.
What is your life?
What are you living for?
Where will you be when it's all over?
No warning.
Suddenly, God said, today thy soul is required
of thee.
Others, they get sick, they
have lots of time, and as you look
back over their life, some have deep regrets,
but yet their heart is filled with gratitude
that God had mercy upon them.
And they say with a solemnness, it was
good for me that I was afflicted.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray, I
cared not for God.
All I was concerned about was making money,
materialism.
All I was concerned about was living for
self, sports, pleasures, revelings
and such like.
You know, today, I want us to just
stop and think, am I prepared to
die?
Life is a time to serve the Lord,
the time to ensure the great reward.
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
the vilest sinner may return.
Life is the hour that God has given
to escape from hell and fly to heaven.
The day of grace and mortals may secure
the blessings of the day.
The living know that they must die, but
all the dead forgotten lie.
Their memory and their sense is gone, alike
unknowing and unknown.
Their hatred and their love is lost, their
envy buried in the dust.
They have no share in all that's done
beneath the circuit of the sun.
Then what my thoughts designed to do, my
hands with all their might pursue, since no
device, no work is found, nor faith, nor
hope beneath the ground.
There are no acts of pardon passed in
the cold grave to which we haste, but
darkness, death and long despair in eternal silence
there.
It's too late to go ask for forgiveness.
There's no acts or pardon passed.
It's too late to cry out to God
for mercy and to escape hell after they're
in the grave.
Life is the time to serve the Lord,
the time to secure the great reward.
And while the lamp holds out to burn,
the vilest sinner may return.
The light of the gospel is held forth
and the vilest sinner may return this morning.
But life with all of its
encroachments pressing in upon us and busyness and
things to do, no time to prepare.
Later, I'm still young, I have plenty of
time.
But alas, the time has come to die
at eighteen, at twenty, at birth, at
fifty-five.
Prepare to die.
I want us to just stop and think,
if somehow we could just transport ourselves and
our minds into the very presence of God.
It is appointed unto men once to die.
But after this, the judgment, when it's time,
when it's your appointment to be in the
box called a coffin, what will it be
for you after you draw your last breath?
I want us to just stop and think,
where I'm at right now, am I prepared
to meet God?
It's an awful thing to die in sin.
It's a terrible thing.
No more hope.
It's a terrible thing to die unsaved and
awake in torment.
It may say, enter into rest.
But the Bible says, those who die in
their sins awake in torment
and their state is fixed.
O sinner friend, the
triumphing of the wicked is short.
The pleasures of sin are for a very
short season.
The joy of the hypocrite is but for
a moment.
Though his excellency mound up to heaven and
his head reach into the clouds, and he
accomplish a lot of great things upon the
earth, and full of pride and pomp and
show, yet he shall perish forever like his
own tongue.
He shall fly away as a dream, he
shall not be found.
The eye also which saw him shall see
him no more.
His bones are full of the sin of
his youth, which shall lie down with him
in the dust.
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself,
and he shall be holden with the cords
of his sins, and he shall die without
instruction, and in the greatness of his folly
shall he go astray.
They that trust in their wealth and boast
themselves in the multitude of their riches, none
of them can by any means redeem them,
or can by any means redeem his brother,
nor give to God a ransom for him.
To pay the priest a sum of money,
to redeem him out of purgatory, is a
lie of the devil.
None of them can by any means redeem
his brother, nor give to God a ransom
for him.
My fellow Christians, I believe this speaks to
Christians as well as to any other person.
The ground of a certain rich man brought
forth plentifully, and he thought within himself saying,
What shall I do?
Because I have no room where to bestow
my fruits.
And he said, This will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build
greater.
There will I bestow all my fruits and
my goods.
And I will say to my soul, Soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many
years.
Take thine ease.
Eat, drink, and be merry.
But God, but God said, Thou fool, this
night shall thy soul be required of thee.
Then, whose shall those things be which thou
hast provided?
So is he that layeth up treasure for
himself, and is not rich toward God.
We see that on every hand, don't we?
We need bigger warehouses.
We need bigger barns.
The ground brought forth plentifully, building greater, building
bigger, prosperity, materialism.
The economy is revving back up in speed,
and we're building greater, building bigger.
But are we rich toward God?
Are we in poverty of soul and in
poverty of spirit?
As I live, saith the Lord, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but that the wicked turn from his way
and live.
Turn ye, turn from your evil ways, for
why will ye die?
I appeal to you this morning, whatever it
is in your life that is not right,
that if you knew that today is my
last day upon earth, whatever comes into your
heart and mind that you know must be
done, do it now.
Please, do it now.
Don't wait.
The death of the wicked is a grief
to God.
God has no pleasure in the death of
the wicked.
And He says, why will ye die?
Why don't you turn from your wickedness and
your evil ways and live?
I know we all know this.
I'll just make mention of it.
Levi went in and out among us here
in church, and this past Tuesday, he went
out to work on the roof just like
usual.
It was just another day of work.
From all that we know, he had no
indication that my time is just about finished.
In fact, the roof he was working on
at the construction site, if I remember correctly,
was just about finished.
A lot of it was done.
There was one side, I believe, on the
front that needed to be done still.
Just doing like he did so many times
before.
Start shingling on the bottom edge of the
roof or roll the paper.
I guess it was rolling the tar paper.
But that was his appointment day to meet
God.
If today is your appointment or my appointment,
are you ready to meet God?
Is everything clear?
There's no acts of pardon past after we
die.
As the tree falleth, so it lieth.
He that is filthy, let him be filthy
still.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust
still.
But then comes the judgment.
Why don't you...
Why don't you just turn everything over to
God?
Is there anything in this life worth gaining
and losing your soul?
The wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God, it's eternal life.
You needn't be lost, but you must be
born again in order to be saved.
Coming to church here isn't good enough.
Being a member is not good enough.
You must be born again.
You must.
Oh, how sad when the person whose soul
has departed and his body lays in the
box and those who knew him or her
know that he wasn't prepared.
Oh, what weeping.
Oh, what grief.
What sorrow.
May I, may you so live that when
it's our turn to be in the box,
we can rejoice because we know to be
absent from the body is to be present
with the Lord.
For this person, oh, my brothers and sisters,
let us so live every day that we're
prepared to die.
For some, yes, he has a terminal illness,
he's sick, and there's lots of time.
For others, it's in a moment.
As sudden as the clapping of the hands
together.
As sudden as a head-on impact of
collision.
As sudden as a heart attack while they
sleep.
I knew a man very well who his
wife died in her sleep.
She wasn't old.
She might have been 50.
I'm 46.
But you know, for the Christian, we need
not fear death.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no
evil for thou art with me.
Paul said, I have a difficult problem.
I'm in a straight.
I have a desire to depart and to
be with Christ, which is better.
So for the Christian to die is gain.
Let us read Psalm 90 in closing.
Psalm 90.
Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in
all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth or ever
thou has formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, return
ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are
as yesterday when it is past and as
a watch in the night.
Thou carryest them away as with a flood.
They are asleep.
In the morning they are like grass which
groweth up.
In the morning it flourishes.
It groweth up.
In the evening it is cut down and
withereth.
For we are consumed by thine anger and
by thy wrath we are troubled.
Thou has set our iniquities before thee.
Our secret sins in the light of thy
countenance.
For all our days are passed away in
thy wrath.
We spend our years as a tale that
is told.
The days of our years are threescore and
ten.
And if by reason of strength they be
fourscore years, yet is there strength, labor and
sorrow.
For it is soon cut off and we
fly away.
Who knoweth the power of thine anger?
Even according to thy fear so is thy
wrath.
So teach us to number our days that
we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Return, O Lord, how long and let it
repent thee concerning thy servants.
O, satisfy us early with thy mercy that
we may rejoice and be glad all our
days.
Make us glad according to the days wherein
thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein
we have seen evil.
Let thy work appear unto thy servants and
thy glory unto their children.
And let the beauty of the Lord our
God be upon us.
And establish thou the work of our hands
upon us.
Yea, the work of our hands establish thou
it.
Just in closing, teach us, O Lord, to
number our days that we may apply our
hearts unto wisdom.
Make me, O Lord, to know mine end
and the measure of my days, for it
is what it is that I may know
how frail I am.
Behold, thou hast made my days as in
hand breath, and mine ages as nothing before
thee.
Verily, every man at his best state is
altogether vanity.
Selah.
Think upon these things.
Let's kneel together in prayer.
Father in Heaven, Lord, we pray, O God,
teach us how frail we are that we
may apply our hearts unto wisdom and number
our days.
Let us not presume upon tomorrow.
Teach us how to live in prosperous America,
lest we be overcharged and overtaken when the
ground bringeth forth plentiful and our herds are
increased and our businesses flourish.
O God, stamp eternity upon our hearts, knowing
that as we came into the world with
nothing in our hand, we are going to
go out with nothing as far as material
is concerned.
O Lord, Father, this morning I pray that
you would just put your finger upon my
heart, upon our hearts, Lord.
Is there something I have yet to do
before I die?
Is there some act of forgiveness need to
be granted?
Is there some act of repentance needing to
take place?
Is there some act of fleeing and turning
away from sin needing to take place?
Is there some things to sell and lay
up treasures in Heaven?
O God, is there some bondage of sin?
Is there some selfish stubbornness in my heart,
some rebellion?
O God, lay your finger upon our hearts
this morning, for we have an appointment with
death and we have an appointment with God.
Show us how frail we are, how suddenly
life can end, and then we're in that
box, a coffin, dust to dust, but then
to stand before God in judgment.
O Lord, settle down upon every heart.
Please, Lord, let us not just push it
aside and say another time, for we know
not what is today, and we know not
what is on tomorrow.
O God, save some unsaved souls, Lord.
Thank you, Lord, for your Word, and thank
you for your provision through the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he that believeth
in Christ Jesus the Lord, though he were
dead, yet shall he live.
Thank you, Jesus.
Father, we just do commit the rest of
the service into your hand, and pray, God,
you would have your way in Jesus Christ's
name.
Amen.
God bless you all for coming today.
We welcome the visitors, all of the church
family here.
God bless you for coming, for your prayerful
attention.
We want to continue on with the service.
Brother Ron, if you would come and lead
us in a few songs, and we'll receive
the offering while we have a few songs.
God bless you, brother.