The Dimension Of Eternity

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, and hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? Are you doing alright today? Well, I trust so. Bless your heart. This is your good friend, Bob Cook, and I’m back with you for a few precious moments that we can invest together around the inerrant, infallible, eternal Word of God, the Bible. We’ll be looking at the 37th Psalm. I thought it was a rich study; at least, it was to myself.

We’ve come to the last three verses of the Psalm, and they read like this. The psalmist has just been saying, “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright.” Perfect, in that sense, means that you love God with all your heart; upright means that you’re obeying what He has to say. Your conduct follows your heart. He says, “The end of that man is peace.” Now the contrast, then, is the next verse: “But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.” The end of the upright, of the righteous person, is peace. The end of the transgressor is to be cut off.

What about that? Well, the contrast is deeper than the mere play on words. Peace because you are right with the God whom you are going to meet momentarily when you die. Peace because the relationship is based not upon your goodness but upon the shining righteousness of Jesus, who died for you and who lives to be your High Priest and your advocate and your intercessor. Peace because you have committed all of the details of life to God in prayer, and the peace of God that passes all understanding is keeping your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. So at any moment, when you are called to step from this life to the next, there is peace. That’s what the psalmist is saying. The end of that man is peace.

But, he says, transgressors will be destroyed together. People have often said to me, jokingly, “Well, if I go to Hell I’ll have a lot of company.” The fact is you’ll have company only in destruction. If you’re on a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean, and somebody else is also on the sinking ship, and there’s no escape, and the lifeboats don’t work, and you know you’re going to drown, is that any consolation? That you’re not alone? I don’t think so. Destroyed together.

See, the togetherness of the Christian is God’s wonderful gift of blessed fellowship. The believers, we read in the book of Acts, Chapter 2, were all gathered together in an upper room, praying. They were all with one accord in one place. And later on, you have that with one accord they were speaking, and they were praising, and seeing God work. The togetherness of the people of God. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren. They were together with one accord.

You see, that’s the Christian’s blessed heritage. Wherever I go in all the world, I find people to whom I belong as a family. Pastor Al Olsen was saying on the radio the other day that he and his wife were three thousand miles away from their beloved church that they pastored for many years and he was homesick for them on a Sunday morning, but suddenly he heard the singing of hymns in an adjoining room in the hotel where they were. He found there were a bunch of Gideons meeting there. He joined in with them in praise and prayer and fellowship, and he said, “Immediately, I was with family.”

That’s how it is. You belong. We belong to each other. We are together in heart because, John says, our fellowship is with the Father and with His son Jesus Christ. It’s you and I and Jesus that make up that divine triangle of fellowship. Now that’s the Christian side. The unbeliever’s, the unsaved person’s side is destroyed together. You may be with other unsaved people, but there will be no company, no fellowship, in Hell. You’ll be the loneliest that it is possible to be in the universe, without God, and without hope. “For whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.”

Oh, if I’m talking to someone this minute who has never made the Lord Jesus Lord of your life; you’ve never invited Him into your heart, never confessed Him as your Savior…just now, settle that, won’t you? Settle that, so that what you have to look forward to is the peace of God now, peace in your heart when it comes time to step across from this life into eternity. Perfect peace because you’re right with God. God, by His Holy Spirit lives within you and everything is under His control. Settle that, won’t you? The way to do it is to ask Jesus as Savior, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner, and save me, for Jesus’ sake.” This is the prayer that thousands have prayed and God always answers.

Now, he said, “But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble. The Lord shall help them and deliver them and save them, because they trust in Him.” The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. Now why does he bring that in? He’s been talking about the end of life, he’s been talking about how transgressors will be destroyed together, and instead of perfect peace, there will simply be a cutting-off of life. But, he said, the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. The point is, your relationship with Almighty God through Jesus our Lord is what puts the dimension of eternity into all that you do. It’s of the Lord. Can you sing? Can you preach? Can you write? Can you promote? Can you make money? Can you manage? What can you do? It’s of the Lord.

God can put the dimension of eternity into what you are and what you do. Everything that is lumped together under this idea of salvation, everything in your Christian life, every blessing that you enjoy, every challenge that you face…it’s all part of what God has planned for you. It’s of the Lord.

Now, how does that work out? It says, “He is their strength in the time of trouble.” My prayer, ordinarily, when I’m in trouble, is “Lord, get me out of this.” Isn’t that true of you, most of the time? But the Lord never promises to get me out of trouble; He promises to be with me. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify Me,” is one promise, and that means deliver. But there is another promise that says, “I will be with him in trouble. When thou passeth through the waters, they shall not overflow thee.” The flood does come, the trouble does come, the heartache does come. God says, “I’ll be with you.”

Now, in this passage, it says, “He is their strength in the time of trouble.” Have you ever said to yourself, “I can’t take any more. If I have to take anything more it’s going to kill me?” I guess we all get to that point some time or other, don’t we? If I have to take any more of this, it’ll kill me. Well, it doesn’t, of course, but that’s how you feel. He is their strength. God keeps you from giving up or blowing up. He keeps you looking up instead.

You don’t have to give up and run away, or just cave in. You don’t have to blow up and scatter pieces of your anguish all over the landscape. You don’t have to. You don’t have to fight the battle on your own. The Bible says, “The battle is the Lord’s.” So, it says, “He is their strength.” Now here’s the secret you see, of the Christian Life. Christ becomes to us all that we need. I so often go back for my own sake as well as in speaking with others, to 1 Corinthians 1:30, I think it is: “Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.” Wisdom is knowing what to do with what you know. Righteousness is being good spontaneously. Sanctification is being holy without being pious, and redemption is wrapping up the whole package of life and giving it an eternal dimension so that it’s all an adventure with God. Christ becomes to us all that we need. You can take by faith all that He is.

Wendell P. Loveless used to talk about “the exchanged life.” I bring all of my need and unworthiness and weakness and failure to Christ and I exchange it for His perfect righteousness, for His wisdom, for His holiness, and for His touch upon life so that it becomes a continuing miracle of redemption. “The exchanged life”: Do you know anything about that?

See, by faith you can take from Jesus what you need. Martha Minnick came to minister at our church in Philadelphia back in the 1930’s. A missionary to missionaries, she was, greatly blessing many people all across the world. And she said, I recall so clearly, in one of her messages to my little flock there in Philadelphia, “You know, I have learned to trust the Lord Jesus not only as my Savior but as my Creator. She said, when I face a situation for which I am ill-prepared and don’t have any talent or ability, I just pray ‘Lord, be my Creator. Create what I need to tackle this need.’ And He does.” All that you need is in the Lord Jesus Christ and you can take it by faith. The step of faith: “The just shall live by faith.” How do you live? You don’t live a day at a time, you live a heartbeat at a time, a breath at a time, a tear at a time. And so, “the just shall live by faith” means “trust the Lord Jesus for every step in life.” Pray your way through the day. Pray when you wake up, pray before you greet the family, pray before you start the day’s work, pray before you answer the phone, pray before you open a letter (it could be a check or a bill, there is a difference), pray before you make a decision, pray before you sign a contract, pray before you hire a person or certainly, fire a person. Pray before you make the great decisions of life: Whom shall I marry? Where shall I live? What work shall I do? And so on. Pray before you go on a date. Pray before you enter into a conversation, even a casual conversation among friends. You never know what words of yours might make a tremendous impression upon somebody’s heart and mind and linger there for half a lifetime.

Why am I telling you to do this? Because you may take by faith, beloved, all you need to make life a continuing miracle, by the grace of God. “The just shall live by faith.” “The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.” He is their strength in the time of trouble. Learn by faith to take your Lord as your strength, and you will find that He is able.

Blessed Father, oh, we take by faith from Thee, through Jesus, all that we need. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!