In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of preparing to die and not waiting until it is too late. He shares a tragic story of six young men who unexpectedly died in a car accident, highlighting the suddenness of death and the need to be ready. The preacher urges listeners to examine their lives and consider what they are living for, reminding them that life is a time to serve the Lord and secure the great reward of eternal life. He emphasizes the urgency of preparing for death and seeking forgiveness and mercy from God while there is still time.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. I want to share a bit this morning in an opening devotional, opening meditation message. Prepare to die. Prepare to die. Don't let it be said of you or I that we waited too long to prepare to die. And it was too late. It was too late. The scriptures tell us that it is appointed unto men once to die. It is appointed. It is appointed by God unto men. And that is unto mankind. That is to women. That is to children. That is to youth. That is to old men. That is to babies. It is appointed unto mankind once to die. We have an appointment with death. There's multitudes in the valley of decision putting off till tomorrow to prepare to die. The Bible says we must needs die. We are as water spilt upon the ground. Where is water spilt upon the ground? And that water that is spilt upon the ground, it cannot be gathered up again. I can't go down here and gather up this water that was spilt upon the ground and put it back in the cup. We must needs die. We are as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Neither does God respect any person. The Bible is very clear that as when one is born, there is nothing in his hand. We are born with empty hands. We come out of the womb with empty hands. As he came forth of his mother's womb naked, shall he return to go as he came and shall take nothing of his labor which he may carry away in his hand. He shall take nothing. In Timothy it tells us that we brought nothing into this world. And it is certain that we can carry nothing out. Prepare to die. It is appointed unto men once to die. We have no promise of today. We have no promise of tomorrow. James tells us, go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and to buy and to sell and to get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then it vanishes away. For ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings and all such rejoicing is evil. No promise of today. No promise for me to finish this message. No promise for you to finish listening to it. No promise for us to go out of these doors to our lunch engagement and dinner invitation. No promise of today. No promise of tomorrow. Go to now ye that say that today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and we will continue there a year and we will buy and we will sell and we will get gain. For ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor. It's just like a little bit of steam coming up out of that kettle and then it disappears into the air. It appears for a little time but then it vanishes away. Oh that they were wise, the scripture says, that they would understand this, that they would consider their latter end. The Bible tells us in 2 Kings that Hezekiah was sick unto death and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, set thy house in order for thou shalt die and not live. But you know this is not always the case, is it? Not all men become sick and hear the word and the spirit of God begin to speak to their hearts, knocking on their heart's door, set the house in order. You have a terminal illness, you're going to die. It doesn't always happen that way, does it? Some die without warning, sudden. Some die young, some die old. Some die in the womb, ere they were ever born. We were reminded of that this past week. This past week, dear brother and sister, laid their stillborn in the grave. Maybe about a week before birth, no signs of life were there any longer. Last Sunday morning, about this time, maybe an hour later, six young men in a car driving down the road thinking they're going to play with all their hockey equipment in their vehicle did not know that it was their appointment with death for five of them and their vehicle suddenly, out of control, had on collision into a snowplow. The only warning they had to prepare to die was the preacher's, was the word of God, was their co-workers, maybe you, sharing with them, prepare to meet God. What is your life? What are you living for? Where will you be when it's all over? No warning. Suddenly, God said, today thy soul is required of thee. Others, they get sick, they have lots of time, and as you look back over their life, some have deep regrets, but yet their heart is filled with gratitude that God had mercy upon them. And they say with a solemnness, it was good for me that I was afflicted. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, I cared not for God. All I was concerned about was making money, materialism. All I was concerned about was living for self, sports, pleasures, revelings and such like. You know, today, I want us to just stop and think, am I prepared to die? Life is a time to serve the Lord, the time to ensure the great reward. And while the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Life is the hour that God has given to escape from hell and fly to heaven. The day of grace and mortals may secure the blessings of the day. The living know that they must die, but all the dead forgotten lie. Their memory and their sense is gone, alike unknowing and unknown. Their hatred and their love is lost, their envy buried in the dust. They have no share in all that's done beneath the circuit of the sun. Then what my thoughts designed to do, my hands with all their might pursue, since no device, no work is found, nor faith, nor hope beneath the ground. There are no acts of pardon passed in the cold grave to which we haste, but darkness, death and long despair in eternal silence there. It's too late to go ask for forgiveness. There's no acts or pardon passed. It's too late to cry out to God for mercy and to escape hell after they're in the grave. Life is the time to serve the Lord, the time to secure the great reward. And while the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. The light of the gospel is held forth and the vilest sinner may return this morning. But life with all of its encroachments pressing in upon us and busyness and things to do, no time to prepare. Later, I'm still young, I have plenty of time. But alas, the time has come to die at eighteen, at twenty, at birth, at fifty-five. Prepare to die. I want us to just stop and think, if somehow we could just transport ourselves and our minds into the very presence of God. It is appointed unto men once to die. But after this, the judgment, when it's time, when it's your appointment to be in the box called a coffin, what will it be for you after you draw your last breath? I want us to just stop and think, where I'm at right now, am I prepared to meet God? It's an awful thing to die in sin. It's a terrible thing. No more hope. It's a terrible thing to die unsaved and awake in torment. It may say, enter into rest. But the Bible says, those who die in their sins awake in torment and their state is fixed. O sinner friend, the triumphing of the wicked is short. The pleasures of sin are for a very short season. The joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. Though his excellency mound up to heaven and his head reach into the clouds, and he accomplish a lot of great things upon the earth, and full of pride and pomp and show, yet he shall perish forever like his own tongue. He shall fly away as a dream, he shall not be found. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more. His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins, and he shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly shall he go astray. They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means redeem them, or can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. To pay the priest a sum of money, to redeem him out of purgatory, is a lie of the devil. None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. My fellow Christians, I believe this speaks to Christians as well as to any other person. The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully, and he thought within himself saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater. There will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. But God, but God said, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. Then, whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. We see that on every hand, don't we? We need bigger warehouses. We need bigger barns. The ground brought forth plentifully, building greater, building bigger, prosperity, materialism. The economy is revving back up in speed, and we're building greater, building bigger. But are we rich toward God? Are we in poverty of soul and in poverty of spirit? As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn from your evil ways, for why will ye die? I appeal to you this morning, whatever it is in your life that is not right, that if you knew that today is my last day upon earth, whatever comes into your heart and mind that you know must be done, do it now. Please, do it now. Don't wait. Don't wait. The death of the wicked is a grief to God. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And He says, why will ye die? Why don't you turn from your wickedness and your evil ways and live? I know we all know this. I'll just make mention of it. Levi went in and out among us here in church, and this past Tuesday, he went out to work on the roof just like usual. It was just another day of work. From all that we know, he had no indication that my time is just about finished. In fact, the roof he was working on at the construction site, if I remember correctly, was just about finished. A lot of it was done. There was one side, I believe, on the front that needed to be done still. Just doing like he did so many times before. Start shingling on the bottom edge of the roof or roll the paper. I guess it was rolling the tar paper. But that was his appointment day to meet God. If today is your appointment or my appointment, are you ready to meet God? Is everything clear? There's no acts of pardon past after we die. As the tree falleth, so it lieth. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. But then comes the judgment. Why don't you... Why don't you just turn everything over to God? Is there anything in this life worth gaining and losing your soul? The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, it's eternal life. You needn't be lost, but you must be born again in order to be saved. Coming to church here isn't good enough. Being a member is not good enough. You must be born again. You must. Oh, how sad when the person whose soul has departed and his body lays in the box and those who knew him or her know that he wasn't prepared. Oh, what weeping. Oh, what grief. What sorrow. May I, may you so live that when it's our turn to be in the box, we can rejoice because we know to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. For this person, oh, my brothers and sisters, let us so live every day that we're prepared to die. For some, yes, he has a terminal illness, he's sick, and there's lots of time. For others, it's in a moment. As sudden as the clapping of the hands together. As sudden as a head-on impact of collision. As sudden as a heart attack while they sleep. I knew a man very well who his wife died in her sleep. She wasn't old. She might have been 50. I'm 46. But you know, for the Christian, we need not fear death. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Paul said, I have a difficult problem. I'm in a straight. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is better. So for the Christian to die is gain. Let us read Psalm 90 in closing. Psalm 90. Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou has formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, return ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night. Thou carryest them away as with a flood. They are asleep. In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourishes. It groweth up. In the evening it is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger and by thy wrath we are troubled. Thou has set our iniquities before thee. Our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore and ten. And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is there strength, labor and sorrow. For it is soon cut off and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O, satisfy us early with thy mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. And establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. Just in closing, teach us, O Lord, to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Make me, O Lord, to know mine end and the measure of my days, for it is what it is that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days as in hand breath, and mine ages as nothing before thee. Verily, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. Think upon these things. Let's kneel together in prayer. Father in Heaven, Lord, we pray, O God, teach us how frail we are that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom and number our days. Let us not presume upon tomorrow. Teach us how to live in prosperous America, lest we be overcharged and overtaken when the ground bringeth forth plentiful and our herds are increased and our businesses flourish. O God, stamp eternity upon our hearts, knowing that as we came into the world with nothing in our hand, we are going to go out with nothing as far as material is concerned. O Lord, Father, this morning I pray that you would just put your finger upon my heart, upon our hearts, Lord. Is there something I have yet to do before I die? Is there some act of forgiveness need to be granted? Is there some act of repentance needing to take place? Is there some act of fleeing and turning away from sin needing to take place? Is there some things to sell and lay up treasures in Heaven? O God, is there some bondage of sin? Is there some selfish stubbornness in my heart, some rebellion? O God, lay your finger upon our hearts this morning, for we have an appointment with death and we have an appointment with God. Show us how frail we are, how suddenly life can end, and then we're in that box, a coffin, dust to dust, but then to stand before God in judgment. O Lord, settle down upon every heart. Please, Lord, let us not just push it aside and say another time, for we know not what is today, and we know not what is on tomorrow. O God, save some unsaved souls, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for your Word, and thank you for your provision through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he that believeth in Christ Jesus the Lord, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Father, we just do commit the rest of the service into your hand, and pray, God, you would have your way in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. God bless you all for coming today. We welcome the visitors, all of the church family here. God bless you for coming, for your prayerful attention. We want to continue on with the service. Brother Ron, if you would come and lead us in a few songs, and we'll receive the offering while we have a few songs. God bless you, brother.