Today was the funeral for a man that I have known for the past 15 years. While I was the pastor of the church where his wife led worship every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening, John sat at home and refused month after month to attend a single service.
His family who loved the Lord, tried numerous times to convince John to come with them to church and many of the other functions that we had throughout the week. Even the Friday night Barbecue’s where the setting was mostly benign of attempts to evangelize, John would not attend. His dear wife would often come to church in tears because her closest and dearest friend would not share in her greatest joy, the simplicity of knowing and loving Jesus.
After 57 years of hearing about God’s love for him, after hundreds of opportunities to say “yes to Jesus” offer of forgiveness for sins and the guarantee of eternal life, John’s days for obtaining salvation, ran out suddenly and without any warning.
The Bible records that God has said that “His Spirit shall not always strive with man…” He has given all persons who are born on the Earth, about 120 years to make up their mind about Jesus. The decision either ‘for or against’ is sealed at the moment of death, and their is no reprieve once the body ceases to function.
Genesis 6:3 “And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
I read in a recent article in USA Today on my iPad, that the world’s oldest living person recently died at the age of 114 years of age. The name of this dear woman was Eugenie Blanchard, known to her friends as “Sweets” because of her kindness and gentle spirit.
If you carefully research the historical records that chronicle the age at death of human beings who have lived on the earth since verified records were kept, you will discover that no person has ever lived past the age of 122 years.
A ‘supercentenarian’ is considered ‘verified’ if his or her claim has been validated by an international body that specifically deals in longevity research, such as the Gerontology Research Group and Guinness World Records. (Wikipedia)
“The longest unambiguously documented lifespan is that of Jeanne Calment of France (1875—1997), who died at age 122 years, 164 days”. (Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_people)
At the time that Genesis 6:3 was written, people were living to over 900 years of age. Immediately after the great flood, the ages and life span’s of those born, began to diminish until the maximum age settled at about 120 years, or less. Just as the Lord had said, the maximum period of time that a person has to live on the Earth in order to make up their mind what to do with Jesus, is not more than about 120 years.
What is striking about this idea, is that most people think of God’s patience as ‘never ending.’ Because God is Love, He never ceases to try to and reason with people to receive His love and salvation, not so. The Lord has an appointed amount of time to strive with the spirt of man to cause him to repent of his sins and receive God’s Salvation, and after that time has expired, so also has God’s patience.
Perhaps the most graphic and clearest statement in the Bible about life after death, is told by Jesus Himself in the Gospel of Luke chapter 16:
Luke 16:19-31 “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’
But Abraham said, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’
And he said, “No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”
Jesus tells the story of two men’s lives upon the Earth. One lived for himself with no thought for God, nor any concern for the eternal issues that will face every person at the end of their life.
The second man was mindful of the limited number of days that he had upon the Earth, recognizing his own sinful nature, and approached God on the promise of His forgiveness of sin and hope of eternal life for any person who would believe in Jesus sacrifice for their sins.
What is stunning about this story that Jesus is describing, is the fact that the rich man who has rejected God’s Salvation, is conscious, feels regret for the decision he made while on this earth, and feel pain and torment in this new location of his spirit after his physical death.
As Jesus is describing the details of hell, He points out that there is no return from this place, no hope of a change from hell to heaven after the moment of death, and no chance that someone from hell can revisit earth to tell of it’s horror.
When the rich man makes a request that ‘since he cannot go back to warn his family members, that Lazarus be allowed to return to earth to warn his family’. Jesus tells the rich man that ‘no one who has died can go back to earth again after their death’. The decisions that were made while still alive, are sealed upon the death of the person.
God’s generous, merciful and loving Spirit will only strive with man until he dies, after that, there is no longer any hope for anyone that has died without receiving Jesus as their Savior.
This is why the Bible constantly urges us that “Today is the day of salvation“, now is the time to receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior.” None of us knows that our next breath may be our last. There is no guarantee that tonight when we lay our head upon our pillow, that we will wake up on the earth in the morning. Last year, another of my friends who had received Jesus as His Savior, laid down on his couch after work and never woke up on this earth again.
I cannot understand how anyone can live throughout their life and hear of the great love of God, and the immense cost that He has paid in giving up His Only Son to pay for all men’s sins, and not feel their heart compelled. How is it that a man can face death everyday, with eternity uncertain, and feel no fear? How can anyone love their sin so much that they will not turn from it and fall at the feet of Jesus and beg for mercy and forgiveness?
It must be as the Prophet Jeremiah declared;
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
When John wrote his eyewitness account of Jesus life as he walked and talked with the Lord everyday, he also wondered at the coldness of the human heart, that will love sin and darkness more than cleansing and light:
John 3:19 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.“
The miracle of God’s offer of Salvation is unique in all the history of the Universe. Even when the angels who stood in the very presence of God sinned and fell, there was no plan of salvation offered to them. Only man has received the unbelievable, unfathomable second chance to change his eternal destiny from eternal torment in hell, to eternal joy in heaven.
But God’s offer of an eternal pardon will not last forever. He will not wait for man and suffer at the indecision of his hard heart much longer. There is a day that is fast approaching when no man will be able to stand in the presence of God, who has not had their sin removed by Jesus Cross.
When the day of the Great White Throne is called near, all those who appear before that great and dreadful place of judgment will have their opportunity to defend themselves. Having found “no other place for those who have rejected the offer of Salvation that was presented to them, those who are without Jesus will give an account to God as to why they would not allow Jesus to save them.
It will be found a personal and tragic final offense to God, that the lost have “trampled underfoot the sacrifice of God’s Son”, and “counted the blood of His convenant as nothing”. All those appearing at this Great White Throne will find no appeal, no reception of mercy, no entertainment of their plees for a reprieve for their foolish error.
It will be too late, and the Spirit of God will no longer strive with man’s sin…
Rob Robinson
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