Fourthly, If I were dying tonight I would want to know I had some sheaves to lay at the Master's feet. I don't want to go up empty-handed. God has been good to me--better than I deserve. I want to carry a few sheaves with me. "Bringing in the sheaves -- bringing in the sheaves: We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves." Have you ever done anything for the Lord? Get busy for God. Don't you care a rap if other souls go to hell?
The "one-pound man" was not a thief. He was an honest man. I wish everybody was as honest as he was. He went and dug a hole and buried it. When the Lord came back, the servant got his pound and handed it back. "Where are the dividends?" Friends, do you know a lot of people are burying what God has entrusted to them? Burying it in the earth. Isn't that suggestive language? In cars and houses and bank accounts and gadgets, etc.. Oh, my God! It pays to live for Jesus. Can't you hear that sweet voice say: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant?"
Fifthly, If I were dying tonight, I would want to know I didn't have any bitterness or hatred or unforgiveness in my heart against anyone in the world. (John 4:20) "If a man say he loves God and hates his brother he is a liar."
Isn't that strong language? I have never gotten over an experience I had in California. The pastor and wife were both good friends of ours. Godly people. But the mother-in-law was as radical as she could be, I believe. She said she was not treated right. If we go out into eternity with bitterness in our hearts there is just no hope. If we forgive not men their trespasses, neither will our heavenly Father forgive us.
"Lord, don't let me ever harbor ill will against anyone, regardless of what they do." Jesus said of those that were pounding the nails into his flesh: "Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do." The grace of God, Hallelujah! I would not want any unadjusted sins against my fellow man.
Sixthly, I would want to leave a good influence behind me. Wouldn't you? I stood by the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte. It didn't thrill me a bit. He murdered a lot of people. He was a genius. He was a powerful man. He was a great man of history.
But when he was a prisoner on the Isle of St. Helena, he said, "Alexander, and Charlemagne and myself have established great empires with the force of arms, but here comes Jesus Christ without a sword, without a spear, and He established a kingdom that the world and the devil and man cannot destroy. He established a kingdom in the hearts of His people." And across this world there are hearts that are being true to Jesus Christ. Many of them are dying martyrs while I am talking to you, but they won't deny Christ. They love Him.
Paul is not dead. John Wesley is not dead. Nobody really dies. Their life lives on, either as a curse or as a blessing--a curse to damn humanity, or to bless humanity.
Seventhly, I would want to know if I were dying tonight that I did not have the blood of souls on my hands. God told Ezekiel: "You must warn the people. If you don't warn them, and they die in their sins, their blood will I require at your hands. If you warn them and they don't repent, their blood will be on their own hands."
That is true of every child of God. I don't want any blood on my hands, because I have not been faithful to people--because I haven't warned them--because I haven't done my best. There is the blood of my own unsaved children. Parents, if you were to die, would you have the blood of your children on your hands? Seems like in America, homes are going down. Parents are losing their children.
Maybe a tornado is going to hit us in the night while we are sleeping this coming summer. "Oh," you say, "I don't want to think about that." Thousands have been carried into eternity while they slept peacefully in their bed at night.
At the great judgment throne the books will be opened--the book of my life. I don't just want to get saved to escape hell. I want to do something for Jesus. He's done so much for me.
If you forget all else I have said tonight, don't forget the text: "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live." I've showed you some of the important things you must do to set your house in order well enough so you would dare venture into the chilly waters of death, from whence you shall not return to make any more corrections.
I wish every soul in this house would act in the light of eternity tonight, as though you knew you were slipping out into eternity at midnight tonight. If you had known, you would have gone to the altar. If we knew we would die tonight at twelve o'clock, we wouldn't care what people thought. We wouldn't hang on to the trifling things of this world and reject God one more time.
Sixthly, I would want to leave a good influence behind me. Wouldn't you? I stood by the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte. It didn't thrill me a bit. He murdered a lot of people. He was a genius. He was a powerful man. He was a great man of history.
But when he was a prisoner on the Isle of St. Helena, he said, "Alexander, and Charlemagne and myself have established great empires with the force of arms, but here comes Jesus Christ without a sword, without a spear, and He established a kingdom that the world and the devil and man cannot destroy. He established a kingdom in the hearts of His people." And across this world there are hearts that are being true to Jesus Christ. Many of them are dying martyrs while I am talking to you, but they won't deny Christ. They love Him.
Paul is not dead. John Wesley is not dead. Nobody really dies. Their life lives on, either as a curse or as a blessing--a curse to damn humanity, or to bless humanity.
Seventhly, I would want to know if I were dying tonight that I did not have the blood of souls on my hands. God told Ezekiel: "You must warn the people. If you don't warn them, and they die in their sins, their blood will I require at your hands. If you warn them and they don't repent, their blood will be on their own hands."
That is true of every child of God. I don't want any blood on my hands, because I have not been faithful to people--because I haven't warned them--because I haven't done my best. There is the blood of my own unsaved children. Parents, if you were to die, would you have the blood of your children on your hands? Seems like in America, homes are going down. Parents are losing their children.
Maybe a tornado is going to hit us in the night while we are sleeping this coming summer. "Oh," you say, "I don't want to think about that." Thousands have been carried into eternity while they slept peacefully in their bed at night.
At the great judgment throne the books will be opened--the book of my life. I don't just want to get saved to escape hell. I want to do something for Jesus. He's done so much for me.
If you forget all else I have said tonight, don't forget the text: "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live." I've showed you some of the important things you must do to set your house in order well enough so you would dare venture into the chilly waters of death, from whence you shall not return to make any more corrections.
I wish every soul in this house would act in the light of eternity tonight, as though you knew you were slipping out into eternity at midnight tonight. If you had known, you would have gone to the altar. If we knew we would die tonight at twelve o'clock, we wouldn't care what people thought. We wouldn't hang on to the trifling things of this world and reject God one more time.
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