[BBC List] an appointment you will keep

[Mike Abendroth]

An Appointment You Will Keep
Joel Beeke

Dear Reader, 

You and I may not know each other; possibly we shall never see one another.
Yet, I desire to write a personal letter to you. 

I write to you because you and I have more in common than you may realize.
Though we may never meet each other in this world, we shall one day be in
each other's presence because we both possess a never-dying soul. With this
soul both of us must appear before God, your and my Creator, in the great
judgment day. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment" (Heb. 9:27). 

You may do all in your power to put the thought of death away from you. Yet
you cannot escape the fact that you must die. You know that you must die and
face God. Perhaps you are reluctant to think about death because you also
know judgment follows death as surely as night follows day. In all
seriousness, therefore, could I possibly press upon you a more significant
question than this: What is going to happen to you when you die? 

The Bible, conscience, and common sense, all declare to you that there is an
eternity you must face. Therefore, don't avoid this question for your own
sake: Am I prepared to die and face God as Judge? 

I am sorry to have to tell you that millions today think they are prepared
to meet God who shall end in hell following the great day of judgment. This
is what God tells us in His Holy Word: "Many will say to Me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast
out devils? and in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity"
(Matt. 7:22-23). 

Did you ever consider what a terrible awakening it will be for those who are
traveling on in this life thinking all is well with them to hear in that day
as they stand before the Most High God, "I never knew you"? Words cannot
describe the anguish of soul as this sentence will be passed upon them:
"Depart from me, ye that work iniquity." 

Shall you and I also be among these disappointed "many" that Christ speaks
of in Matthew 7? 

Dear reader, please give me five minutes of your time to try to show you who
will end in hell and who will end in heaven. 

The Broad Road to Eternal Destruction 

First, I must honestly tell you the Bible informs us in Matthew 7 that the
vast majority of people will be going to hell. "Wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth
unto life, and few there be that find it." Perhaps this sounds cruel to you,
but this sad fact is true not because God is cruel; rather, we are cruel to
ourselves. We willfully defy our Creator and despise His love, while
trampling upon His commandments given for our true well-being. Due to such
rebellion and wickedness, we have all earned death and hell. These are the
only two things we have deserved, "For all have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23), and the "wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). 

What kinds of people are included in this vast multitude which is hellbound?
(1) All ungodly people shall end in hell. This includes those who openly
live wicked lives, doing such things as: 

*	spending their time in taverns and their money on drink and drugs, 
*	engaging in unlawful sexual relationships, 
*	treating Sunday as but another day of the week, 
*	daily watching the graphic display of sin on a TV screen, 
*	openly swearing against God by using His Holy Name in vain, 
*	living a life of rebellion against parents and authority given by
God. 

Such ungodly people shall end in hell unless they are brought to true
repentance and conversion by the almighty power of God's grace. Are you one
of this group? If so, I urge you to seek repenting, confession, and turning
grace before it is forever too late to seek the Lord! 

(2) All worldly people shall end in hell. Those shall end in hell who
abstain from gross sins, but whose lives are intertwined with the world, who
live unburdened when they continually do such things as: 

*	place self above and before God, 
*	esteem the possessions of worldly riches above the riches of God's
grace, 
*	promote the desires of other people above God's will as revealed in
His Word, 
*	value the needs of daily life above the need of a Savior for their
immortal souls, 
*	consider the results of sin to be more tragic than offending and
sinning against their holy Creator who showers them with blessings, 
*	believe it is more important what their neighbors and friends think
of them than what God thinks of them. 

These shall end in hell unless they are brought to true repentance and
conversion by the almighty power of God's grace. Are you one of this group? 

If so, I must say to you: Heaven itself would be no happiness to you if you
arrived there, for the Lord of heaven is not your friend - what pleases Him
does not please you; what He dislikes gives you no pain. His Word is not
your counselor; His day is not your delight; His law is not your guide. You
care little for hearing of Him; you know even less of speaking with Him. To
be forever in His company would be a thing you could not endure; the society
of saints and angels would weary you. As far as your practical life is
concerned, the Bible means little, Christ means less, and salvation is a
needless thing. "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and
Christ shall give thee light."...You cannot serve God and mammon" (Eph.
5:14; Matt. 6:24). 

(3) Many religious people shall end in hell. It is possible to be hell-bound
though we are faithful church attenders, Sunday school teachers, and even
ministers. Religion can be our favorite subject, our conversation can be
about God and Christ, and our outward walk of life can be blameless - all
without our soul being saved from destruction. 

We can be as religious as the five false virgins in Matthew 25, possessing
the same confession, the same expectation, the same lamps, and the same
outward appearance as the five wise virgins - and still perish. We can be as
religious as Ahab of whom Scripture says, ". . . he rent his clothes, and
put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went
softly" (I Kings 21:27) - and still be unconverted. 

It is possible to experience common convictions of sin and impressions of
God and His holy attributes - even to acknowledge sin and be somewhat
humbled under it, to weep and pray over it, to be afraid to sin again - and
still not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. Think of Cain, Saul, and
Judas. 

We need more than half-hearted religion and church attendance. We need the
irresistible, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in order to be born again
and converted. Only then will we love God with our entire being - the key
ingredient missing in the foregoing examples - and pant after God as a
thirsty man pants for cold water. Only then shall we be enabled by God's
grace to be prepared to meet the Lord. "Take heed therefore that the light
which is in thee be not darkness" (Luke 11:35). 

How may I know if I am included among those who are heaven-bound? 

The Narrow Road to Eternal Life 

All those who shall arrive in heaven will confess their salvation to be a
great miracle of God's free grace. They shall all be souls that have been
truly born again by the Holy Spirit (see John 3). They are people who have
been converted by God. In their conversion they experience three things: (1)
heartfelt sorrow over their own sinfulness, (2) heartfelt joy over salvation
in Jesus Christ, and (3) heartfelt gratitude to God for His great salvation
(see Rom. 7:24-25; Ps. 50:15). 

(1) When the Holy Spirit begins to work salvation in a sinner He does not
begin with revealing Christ to him. There is no room in our hearts by nature
for Christ. Rather, He brings such a sinner face to face with his tragic
misery and dangerous state of sinnership before God. The sinner is brought
to experience: 

*	heartfelt sorrow over his innumerable actual sins in thoughts,
words, and actions against an all-knowing God; 
*	heartfelt sorrow over being without God, without Christ, and without
hope in the world; 
*	heartfelt sorrow over his dreadful original sin through his deep
fall in Adam, being taught his entire heart is nothing but a fountain of
pollution and corruption; 
*	heartfelt sorrow not only because the burden of sin becomes too
heavy to bear, but also because he finds it impossible to free himself of
this burden; 
*	heartfelt sorrow when he is brought to the point where he realizes
that he cannot save himself and yet that he must be saved so that he cries
out, "Lord, Thou art righteous and just to cast me away forever, but is it
possible that there is a way in Thee to escape Thy divine punishment and be
restored into Thy favor?" 

Have you also become such a concerned, miserable, unworthy, guilty, and lost
sinner - a sinner who knows by experience that there is no hope of salvation
from your side? 

(2) When the sinner experiences he has no future but condemnation from his
side, and the Holy Spirit enables him to cast himself upon God as the only
place of refuge, that same blessed Spirit shall unveil the triune God's
unspeakably rich way of salvation and deliverance through the blood and
satisfaction of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sinner is brought to experience: 

*	a need for Christ; 
*	a view of some aspect of Christ's atoning work in its beauty,
fullness, and suitability; 
*	a revelation of Christ in his soul by means of Word and Spirit
through which he learns how Christ has fully obeyed the law and fully borne
the punishment of sin on behalf of fallen, unworthy sinners; 
*	an application of Christ by which he may embrace Christ with
unspeakable joy as his Savior and his salvation. 

Have you also experienced something of Christ as the great way of
deliverance through the power of the Holy Spirit applying God's Word to your
soul? Has it caused you to desire to know Christ more and more as your
All-in-all - to know Him experientially as the exclusive, willing Savior who
saves to the uttermost? 

(3) Finally, those who truly experience God's way of salvation in Jesus
Christ will also express a wholehearted gratitude for such a great
deliverance: "What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits toward
me?" (Ps. 116:12). They desire to surrender everything, soul and body, for
time and eternity into the hands of the Lord, lie at His feet in true
submission, and confess, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Despite many shortcomings on our part, we then desire to live to the glory
of God above all, and to lovingly serve our neighbor to his spiritual and
temporal welfare. 

Dear reader, examine yourself. 

Which Road Are You Traveling? 

Are you traveling the broad road to eternal destruction or the narrow road
to eternal life? In this world there are many different roads, but in the
spiritual world there are only two, and these two never intersect. They are
as opposite from one another as darkness from light, Satan from God, nature
f rom grace, and hell from heaven. Only God, in His free grace, can take us
off the broad road to destruction and place us on the narrow road to
everlasting life. 

Sinner, we beseech you, turn from your sinful and evil ways. Cry for true
conversion from Him who not only said, "Ye must be born again," but who also
testified of Himself, "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which
is lost." Your soul is lost and your condition miserable; therefore, beg the
Lord to show you this, so that room may be made within you for the gospel
message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

Allow me to leave you with a final warning. In the twenty-seven books of the
New Testament hell is mentioned 234 times. If life's road were twenty-seven
miles long, and there were 234 billboards along this route which all read,
"This road leads to hell," would you stay on that road? As long as you are
an unrepenting, unbelieving, Christless, self-satisfied sinner, you are on
this road to hell. Hell is the end of a worldly or religious life which
remains Christless. 

This short message is still another billboard sent by God to you on your
pathway of life to warn you that all the ways of man end in death. "Seek ye
the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near" (Is.
55:6). 

How many more billboards will the Lord send your way before His patience
comes to an end, and He fulfills His own Word: "It is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment"? 

Make haste, sinner, for your life's sake. The thread of your life is not yet
cut, but it is growing increasingly thin and brittle. The Lord still calls
to you, "As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of
the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways; for why will ye die?" (Ez. 33:11). 

The door of grace is still open. The throne of Christ is not yet shut. Will
you hear His voice before it is too late? "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed
are all they that put their trust in Him" (Ps. 2:12). 

All those who have lived without God on earth shall be without God in hell.
How terrible it shall be to experience with the rich man in Luke 16, "In
hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments . . . . And he cried . . . . I
am tormented in this flame." 

Dear friend, I desire to warn you with love. You and I cannot escape death.
It is an appointment we will keep . . . regardless. 

Are you prepared to die? 

Sincerely, 
Joel R. Beeke 

 

 

Thanks.

 

Charis,

 

Mike Abendroth

 

 <http://www.bbcchurch.org> www.bbcchurch.org

 

2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

 

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