In our day there are three solemn realities of which men have lost sight. These are death, judgment and eternity. Each of these is a dread and awful reality, yet men seem to be wholly blinded to them, and continue to live out their lives as though these weighty realities would never meet them.
The first of these is death. It would appear impossible for men to close their eyes to something so certain as death. Though the sickle of death is removing generation after generation, yet men fail to lay it to heart. Though the messenger of death is continually visiting homes and communities removing relatives and friends, yet each individual puts death far from himself or herself. The sudden death of a leading statesman may make a nation pause for a moment, but then things go on as before. Life is lived in the midst of death, yet no one enquires into the cause of death. Men do not look beyond the natural causes of death such as the illness or accident which brought about that death.
The Bible leaves men in no doubt of the certainty of death and the cause of death. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Men everywhere have to meet death. From this messenger there is no escape, nor can there be any delay. The time is appointed for each one, and they must answer that call. Sin is the procuring cause of death. Why is it that man is not immortal? Man is fallen and so must die. He cannot live here always. Death must inevitably and inexorably do its work. Man must go “to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.” Not only must the wicked die but the righteous also, only the righteous has hope in his death. Because of the great work which Christ has wrought out for His people, of their death it can be said: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory.” They obtain the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. When death will meet with us will it meet us in Christ or out of Christ? How much hangs upon that, for as the tree falls, so it shall lie.
The second reality to which men are blind is the great Day of Judgment. That man is accountable to God his Creator and must appear before His judgment seat is a matter which men will not lay to heart. Men live out their lives as though they were not accountable to anyone. They may live as they please and no one should interfere with them. That is the attitude of the present generation. Often the view is expressed that we must not be judgmental, applying our own standards or the standards of the Word of God to other men. This is taken as interfering with the right of men to live out their life as they please. To even suggest that there may be a Higher Power to which man is ultimately answerable, is regarded as something belonging to a past age, from which the present age has been mercifully delivered. The teaching of God’s Word is set aside. The testimony of that Word, that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”, is given no place whatsoever by the present and the rising generation. Yet the Bible makes plain that the Day of Judgement is certain. It will come at the end of the world when Christ shall sit upon the Throne of Glory, and before Him shall be gathered all the nations of the earth. How solemn was the views given to the Apostle John of that day, as recorded in the Revelation: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.”
Once men mocked at the very thought of millions being gathered together at one time to the Great Assize, there to give in their account to God of the deeds done in the body, whether they were good or bad. It was impossible, in their view, that such a thing could ever be. How could millions upon millions be gathered before one judgment seat? Now it is possible, through instruments of man’s invention, for millions of men to view, all at the same time, one particular event. If that is possible for men, how much more is it possible for God to arraign before His judgment seat, all the generations of men that have been, or ever shall be, on the earth!
The third reality which is hidden from men, or rather to which they have shut their eyes, is the great eternity. Men are unaware of that realm to which they are going. Time and the things of time so occupy the minds of men that they remain totally blinded to what lies before them. No doubt, if questioned about it, most have a vague idea of a heaven of some sorts to which they expect to go — an extension of this present life without the miseries which attach to life here. It is all so nebulous that it is obvious that they have never given any serious thought to the life that is to come. It is viewed as a place where those that die will be much better off than they are in this life, yet they have no real conception of what Scripture reveals it to be.
Few consider that the world to come — eternity — is of endless duration. That all do not go to the same place, has never been truly considered by men generally. The solemn doctrine of a lost eternity has been cast aside as unworthy of a God of love, as though the Saviour had never given utterance to these solemn words: “These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” Men have lost sight of the holiness and justice of God, and of His declaration that sin shall not go unpunished. If we reason with those who deny a lost eternity, who say, ‘Surely God will not deal alike with the righteous and the wicked,’ they will then resort to the Romish doctrine of purgatory, and assume that the wicked will be punished only for a time and then admitted to heaven. It is vain to reply that there is no Scriptural warrant for such a belief. Those who hold such views do not ground their beliefs on the Word of God, but on the precepts of men. For such, only seeing is believing. How solemn it will be for those who refuse to accept the reality of a lost eternity — that place where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth — until they actually experience it, through being cast into that place of torment!
How different is the hope, and will be the experience of the righteous. They shall enter into their rest and that rest shall be eternal. It will not be a rest of inactivity but a rest of unwearied service throughout eternity. There sorrow and sighing shall flee away. The assaults of a tempting devil and of indwelling corruption shall be for ever at an end. “There the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest.” It will be an eternal Sabbath-keeping in the enjoyment of God. “The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”