The Greatest IF in the World
Introduction
Theme - A biblical look at one’s death, decision, and destiny.
Job 14: 14, 2 Corinthians 5: 17, Mark 8: 36–37
Jim grabbed his suitcase off the luggage carousel and headed outside to hail a taxi. A taxi promptly picked him up and they were on there way. Twenty minutes into the ride Jim had a question for the taxi driver, “Excuse me sir” said Jim tapping the driver on the shoulder. “AHHHH
HHH” screamed the taxi driver swerving the taxi across three lanes of traffic finally stopping the car on the opposite shoulder. “What the heck was that all about?” demanded Jim thoroughly shaken. “I’m sorry,” said the taxi driver, wiping his brow, “this is my first day on the job, and I’ve been driving a hearse for the last fifty years!”…
Eulogy
After dying in a car crash, three friends go to Heaven for orientation. They are all asked the same question: "When you are in your casket, friends and family are mourning over you, what would you like to hear them say about you?"
The first guy immediately responds, "I would like to hear them say that I was one of the great doctors of my time, and a great family man."
The second guy says, "I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher who made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow."
The last guy thinks a minute and replies, "I'd like to hear them say...... LOOK, HE'S MOVING!!!!!"
I. The “If” Concerning a Man’s Death
Job 14:14 KJV - If a man die, shall he live [again]? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Death of Race Car Drivers at Indianapolis Speedway
"You don't go look at where it happened," said Scott Goodyear, who starts 33rd [speaking of race-car drivers who have been killed in crashes at the Indianapolis 500]. "You don't watch the films of it on television. You don't deal with it. You pretend it never happened." The Speedway operation itself encourages this approach. As soon as the track closes the day of an accident, a crew heads out to paint over the spot where the car hit the wall. Through the years, a driver has never been pronounced dead at the race track. A trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Racing Museum, located inside the 2.5-mile oval, has no memorial to the 40 drivers who have lost their lives here. Nowhere is there even a mention. (Source Unknown.)
A. Death is Realistic
Rom 5:12 KJV - Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom 6:23 KJV - For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
According to the 2007 National Vital Statistics Reports (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_19.pdf), the "average age at death in the US was 86.2 years." 2010 the stats were 78.7 years. This is not the same as "Life Expectancy" and should not be confused.
Consider the Record - 100% of the people born will eventually die. It is part of the cycle of life. When you look back at the human race, you have generations of people who came, they lived, and they died. We have lots of graveyards and mausoleums to attest to this fact. Science fiction might provide entertaining stories about immortal humans, but those stories are just that- fiction.
B. Death is Futuristic
Hbr 9:27 KJV - And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
If the truth be known, most of us live as if we will never die, but as we all know, death is the large elephant that kneels outside every house, but goes unnoticed due to our uneasiness about its intent. In reality death is the dark invader of every human life that has ever lived or that will ever live. No man or woman has ever outrun its steady sure pace. The future appointment that we have can be ignored but no evaded.
Please consider how we treat this futuristic event:
Crossing over
Biting the bullet
Kicking the bucket
Buying the farm
Joining the angels
When facing the future of our looming death, we often:
Buy life insurance
Prepare wills
Purchase grave plots
We all know in the back of our minds that death is a real fact; we just don’t think it will be today nor will it be us. We fully believe people die, it just won’t be us that the grim reaper chooses.
Now What?
Before his death in 1981, American writer William Saroyan telephoned in to the Associated Press this final, very Saroyan-like observation: "Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?" Today in the Word, April 11, 1993.
Neil Simon, who wrote The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park, was asked on the Dick Cavett Show whether making a lot of money concerned him. The studio went dead silent when Simon answered, "No...what does concern me is the fear of dying." Leighton Ford, Good News is For Sharing, p. 31.
C. Death is Deterministic
1Jo 5:12 KJV - He that hath the Son hath life; [and] he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Job 14:14 KJV - If a man die, shall he live [again]? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Is death a period in the sentence of life or is it just a comma? The reason why it is such an important question for us is because there is something that every life has in common with a street, a book, and a movie and that is they all have endings. Your life has an ending just as surely as it had a beginning. Your heart has only so many beats and then it will beat no more. Your lungs only have so many breaths and then they will breathe no more.
As the cowboys use to put it, “When you come to the end of the trail”, “When you reach the end of the journey”, when you finally make that inevitable move that every person in history has made, or will make, from the cradle to the casket, the question is, “Is there something more?”
If death is deterministic, we must ask ourselves this question, “if a man die, will he live again?”
This question must be answered by every human being that breaths God good air, does death end it all, or is there more?
The truth of the matter is that 98% of Americans believe that when they die they will go too heaven. I find that a humorous assumption, since 75% of them have no religious affiliation.
It might help each of us to realize that we are standing on the edge of eternity. The very moment we die, the eternal decision has already been made.
Enough Is Enough
My old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, “You’re next!”
After a while, I figured out how to stop them. I started doing the same thing to them at funerals!
II. The “If” Concerning a Man’s Decision
2Cr 5:17 KJV - Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
A. Salvation is a Personal Decision
The decision that we make about Jesus Christ is the most personal decision one will ever make.
Act 4:12 KJV - Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Act 16:30 KJV - And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Act 16:31 KJV - And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Rom 10:9 KJV - That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 KJV - For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Rom 10:13 KJV - For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
B. Salvation is a Pressing Decision
2Cr 6:2 KJV - (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation.)
Jam 4:14 KJV - Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
C. Salvation is a Pivotal Decision
If we are truly saved, we have nothing to fear concerning death and dying, but if we have never made the decision of salvation, we should fear.
At age 95, Margot Woelk, one of Hitler's 15 food tasters during his habitation at the infamous Wolf's Lair (Hitler's WWII command center in what is now Poland), has decided to purge her conscience. Plagued by decades of guilt and shame, Margot is now telling her story--a story she hid from even her husband and closest friends.
Woelk says her association with Hitler began after she fled Berlin to escape Allied air attacks. With her husband gone and serving in the German army, she moved in with relatives ... in Rastenburg, then part of Germany ... [it] became Poland after the war.
There she was drafted into civilian service and assigned for the next two and a half years as a food taster and kitchen bookkeeper at the Wolf's Lair complex, located a few miles (kilometers) outside the town.
"The food was delicious, only the best vegetables, asparagus, bell peppers, everything you can imagine. And always with a side of rice or pasta," she recalled. "But this constant fear — we knew of all those poisoning rumors and could never enjoy the food. Every day we feared it was going to be our last meal."
1Cr 15:54 KJV - So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
1Cr 15:55 KJV - O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory?
1Cr 15:56 KJV - The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin [is] the law.
1Cr 15:57 KJV - But thanks [be] to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
III. The “If” Concerning a Man’s Destiny
Mar 8:36 KJV - For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mar 8:37 KJV - Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Sarah Winchester's husband had acquired a fortune by manufacturing and selling rifles. After he died of influenza in 1918, she moved to San Jose, California. Because of her grief and her long time interest in spiritism, Sarah sought out a medium to contact her dead husband. The medium told her, "As long as you keep building your home, you will never face death."
Sarah believed the spiritualist, so she bought an unfinished 17-room mansion and started to expand it. The project continued until she died at the age of 85. It cost 5 million dollars at a time when workmen earned 50 cents a day. The mansion had 150 rooms, 13 bathrooms, 2,000 doors, 47 fireplaces, and 10,000 windows. And Mrs. Winchester left enough materials so that they could have continued building for another 80 years.
Today that house stands as more than a tourist attraction. It is a silent witness to the dread of death that holds millions of people in bondage (Heb. 2:15). Our Daily Bread, April 2, 1994.
A. Question 1 “What’s the Price for your Soul?”
Howard Hughes: Worth 2.5 billion dollars at his death, he was the richest man in the United States. He owned a private fleet of jets, hotels and casinos. When asked to claim his body, his nearest relative, a distant cousin, exclaimed, "Is this Mr. Hughes?" He had spent the last 15 years of his life a drug addict, too weak in the end to even administer the shots to himself. His 6'4" frame had shrunk to 6'1" and he weighed only 90 lbs. Not a single acquaintance or relative mourned his death. The only honor he received was a moment of silence in his Las Vegas casinos.
Time magazine put it this way: "Howard Hughes' death was commemorated in Las Vegas by a minute of silence. Casinos fell silent. Housewives stood uncomfortable clutching their paper cups full of coins at the slot machines, the blackjack games paused, and at the crap tables the stickmen cradled the dice in the crook of their wooden wands. Then a pit boss looked at his watch, leaned forward and whispered, "O.K., roll the dice. He's had his minute." Time, December 13, 1976.
B. Question 2 “What’s the Path of your Soul?”
Ready or not here I come!!!
According to an old fable, a man made an unusual agreement with Death. He told the Grim Reaper that he would willingly accompany him when it came time to die, but only on one condition--that Death would send a messenger well in advance to warn him.
Weeks winged away into months, and months into years. Then one bitter winter evening, as the man sat thinking about all his possessions, Death suddenly entered the room and tapped him on the shoulder. Startled, the man cried out, "You're here so soon and without warning! I thought we had an agreement."
Death replied, "I've more than kept my part. I've sent you many messengers. Look in the mirror and you'll see some of them." As the man complied, Death whispered, "Notice your hair! Once it was full and black, now it is thin and white. Look at the way you cock your head to listen to me because you can't hear very well. Observe how close to the mirror you must stand to see yourself clearly. Yes, I've sent many messengers through the years. I'm sorry you're not ready, but the time has come to leave." Daily Bread, February 29, 1991.
Heaven Joke
A man died and went to The Judgment, they told him , “Before you meet with God, I should tell you — we’ve looked over your life, and to be honest you really didn’t do anything particularly good or bad. We’re not really sure what to do with you. Can you tell us anything you did that can help us make a decision?”
The newly arrived soul thought for a moment and replied, “Yeah, once I was driving along and came upon a person who was being harassed by a group of thugs. So I pulled over, got out a bat, and went up to the leader of the thugs. He was a big, muscular guy with a ring pierced through his lip. Well, I tore the ring out of his lip, and told him he and his gang had better stop bothering this guy or they would have to deal with me!”
“Wow that’s impressive, “When did this happen?”
“About three minutes ago,” came the reply.
C. Question 3 “What’s the Payment for your Soul?”
When Lincoln's body was brought from Washington to Illinois, it passed through Albany and it was carried through the street. They say a black woman stood upon the curb and lifted her little son as far as she could reach above the heads of the crowd and was heard to say to him, "Take a long look, honey. He died for you". So, if I could, I would lift up your spirit to see Calvary. Take a long look, He died for you. Craig Glickman, Knowing Christ, p.89.