This sermon delves into the inevitability of death and the importance of being prepared for the afterlife. It emphasizes the brevity of life, the reality of facing judgment after death, and the need for faith in Jesus Christ to overcome the fear of death and find eternal peace. The speaker shares personal stories and biblical truths to highlight the significance of being saved and living with the assurance of salvation.

Now, I'm going to read a lot of verses, so don't go back and forth, because you'll just be finding a place in our three-verse chain. And you know these verses, but I want you to listen to them in your heart, not in your head. Put your head down. There. You see, that's right. No one gets offended about it. Hebrews 9.27 says, It is appointed unto men once to die. In Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1, we read, To everything there is a season and a time. To every purpose unto heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. To everything there is a season. God says, There are four seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter. In the spring, the flower buds. Life. In the summer, it spreads forth its petals in full bloom. In the autumn, it begins to wilt and fade. In the winter, it dies. Now God says to everything, There's a season. God says, Not just that flower. To you. In a time of every purpose. Unto him. A time to be born and a time to die. Staggering words. Sorry about this. You live and you love every hour. The future seems so bright and so calm. Then soon, like that sad rooted flower, the world seems to lose all its charm. And so does the past, thrown away in all the thrift of tears and strife. You're alone at the end of the day. In John 14 verse 1, we read, Man that is born a woman is of few days. Don't doubt that. Don't doubt that. You never have a second chance. Be careful with those few days. That's all you've got. There's a good one sitting there, there's a good one sitting here. The greatest shock we're ever going to have in life is how short life is. In a moment, it's gone. They don't come back yet, but they will any moment now. Man that is born a woman is of few days, God saves. And full of trouble. If you don't know that yet, brace yourself. I want to meet the man, even millionaires. I've met billionaires. With love, with meaning, one can make a big fund of a million. Man that is born a woman is of few days, God saves. And full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower. And is cut down, and fleeth away as a shadow. He continues not. In a brief moment, this moment called life. It's all we have. And don't doubt it, that's all you've got. In a brief moment, this moment called life, we will all swiftly cry. What Isaiah 38 verse 12 says, my age is departed. Literally in the Hebrew, my lifespan is gone. My life is gone. Psalm 89 verse 48 asks, what man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Can he deliver his soul from the grave, God asks. God asks. There is no man that hath power over the spirit. Neither hath he power in the day of death, Ecclesiastes 8 verse 8. Thou shalt return unto the ground, God says. For out of it was thou taken for dust thou art. And unto dust shalt thou return, Genesis 3 verse 19. All turn to dust again, Ecclesiastes 3 verse 20. Then man goeth to his long home. The Hebrew here is eternal home. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 5. And shall the dust return to the earth as it was? And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7. There their beauty will consume. In the grave. Psalm 49 verse 14. Psalm 90 verse 10. The days of our years are three score years and ten. That's 70. I'm 65. The United Nations put out a survey. I don't know how they get all these things, but... Generally, not certain privileged people, classes. Generally, no one. Oh, sorry. 92% of the world's population will never reach beyond 70. Many nations, it doesn't reach beyond 35, do you know that? Suit of poverty. The sicknesses. The malnutrition. The disease. And the lack of food, even to children. Who don't reach in their millions past the age of six. Did you know that? Oh, be careful. The days of our years are three score years and ten, God says. That's generally according to the United Nations, who didn't consult the public with. The days of our year are three score years and ten, the Bible says. That's 70. And if by reason of strength, they be four score years. That's 80. If somehow through privilege, living, careful living. Using your common sense and not defiling the health God's given you. Or abusing it. If by reason of strength, whatever the circumstances were that brought that about. That you could go past what God says most people will never go past. They be four score years. It's 80. Yet is their strength labor and sorrow. And it is soon cut off. We fly away. If you go beyond 70, God says it's going to not be easy. My mother is 91. My mother is a remarkable woman. Remarkable woman. Actually, she's so remarkable that I marvel. I marvel at her uniqueness and goodness. When my mother went years beyond other people. I'm 65, my mother's still alive. Most people don't have that. But she's a wonderful, wonderful person. My darling mother. But there was an age where suddenly we had to restrict her. And that was not easy for my mother, trust me. I'll never forget when we said, you can't drive anymore. Oh, she wasn't ignorant. Don't you dare. Think of it. She hid the keys. She parked the car somewhere incredibly hidden place. In her abode. When our mother, of course, couldn't drive anymore. I said, mother, you're 80-something years old. And mother, you've never been a capable driver. You are really God's daughter. No way. They had to come when she was sleeping and steal it. And she took weeks to even speak to anyone. She was so angry. Well, that's mother. But mother, when she went past a certain age, she began to do things no one ever dreamed mother had a capacity for. She fell badly. I mean really badly. Hospitalised. Oh, stitches. Blood. Open. And mother, what did I do with you? And as the years went by, more and more, you know, her sister in law, my dear sister, they were childhood friends like this. They are the closest things to this day, both in the United States. The two of them were walking in a supermarket with one of these trolleys in which you could push these things. And they collided. And they were hospitalised. Oh, no. Collided. How impossible. Collided each other. Extremely. And hospitalised. The orders were, you know, I don't know how to answer you. One day she was falling, and I said to the lady, now look, we've put her in, taken her away from the cottage that she was so grateful to. She was really privileged. Mother has been privileged. Daddy made sure of it. But we put her into this wonderful place, and I said, now listen, sister, to the sisters in these. Take every single thing in sight. There's nothing going to devour her. So they did. Oh, they phoned me. I'm a thousand miles away. Your mother's in hospital. Oh, thank you. My mother, there was nothing in that room before her. How could you possibly have forgotten? Wait till you are ninety. Then you'll speak of it. Anyway. When I look at her and marvel at her, what she is, I weep. I literally weep sometimes into the night. It's the labour and sorrow. If by reason of strength they go beyond what God says, their strength is labour and sorrow. It's not easy, I tell you. Psalm 90, verse 12. So teach us to number our days. Psalm 39, verse 4. Lord, make me to know mine end. The measure of my days, what it is that I may know. How frail I am, literally how short my time is. Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, not rubbish. What do you like to call it? Oh, God, Psalm 90, verse 12. Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, God says. But there is no man that hath power over the Spirit, God says. Neither hath he power in the day of his death. Ecclesiastes 8, verse 8. Voltaire, he was a French intellectual in the day of intellectualism that swept across Europe. He was aristocracy. He was what we would call a billionaire, a multi-billionaire in today's terms. That's why he had a voice that people listened to equally. He was so wealthy that they put him into the class of one of the five richest men on earth, above royalty and monarchies. That's why they feared Voltaire. He was not just an intellectual aristocrat. He was wealth, the wealth of the world. And men take notice of you, even if you are very, very foolish when you have wealth. They quote you because you're a success story. Well, Voltaire spent his life aggressively, with his intellectualism, opposing the viability of God. The possible viability that there could be a God should be paved the way for evolution. Darwinism has its founding in Voltaire. He had all these ideas, you know. Voltaire read through the Bible 28 times, from comic to comic, and went to hell. Reading the Bible doesn't save you. And he read it carefully. Why? Why? To disprove its divine authority. He says, if I can find one error, one contradiction, that proves the Bible is not divinely inspired. If I can just find one. Sure, he read and he wrote this book. And by the way, have you seen Voltaire's copies? Black leather, golden leafed. Old world. It's the Bible. Atheists. It's a religion. Now, Voltaire, spending his life, as they said, from Paris, and you could see 15 miles from here, I don't know how that's possible, but they said, the flames of the Bible of people across intellectual Europe, in the time of intellectualism. Through Voltaire you could see the flames of the Bible burning. And that was staggering. Voltaire, to this day, has been responsible for millions, multitudes of millions of people denying the existence of God. The possibility of there being a God, or the viability of God having created. Well, we don't go into all the arguments that are shown before either, but Voltaire did it. But now this is a shock. Voltaire was not an old man. He was in the prime of life, and revered and feared as few men in history, and influenced in as few men in history. Voltaire suddenly found out he had six months to live, at the most. No symptoms. The world's greatest physician. He was being given more money by Voltaire than the royal family could give him. So that's why the greatest physician acknowledged on earth in his lifetime was Voltaire's personal physician. Money. The best there was for the team. But Voltaire said to his personal physician, a lot of people present, I will give you half of all that I possess on earth. You will have been one of the richest men on earth in one moment, if you can do it. If you will not extend my life for six months. That's all I ask, six months. And I give you half of what I possess on earth. You will have been a multibillionaire, this doctor. The team and the doctor eventually, not in that moment, looked at him in despair. They said there's nothing medical science can do to extend one day to your life. You were Voltaire's officer of war. It was staggering as he wept in fear. Tell me you're an atheist when you face death. No, he didn't say that, I'm saying, Voltaire, weeping, cried out, I'm abandoned by God. I wish they'd write that in the front of the Bible. The Voltaire opposition to the Bible. To disprove it. Better to take intellectuals who want anything, even trash, so long as they can deny the existence of God. They're going to face it one day. Oh no, they say for the last month of his life especially, you could hear the screams of this one man, blocks away, blocks away, in fear of facing God. The God he denied. He had fear. Scream. They could hear Voltaire screaming blocks away. You can't hide it, you atheists. Too many heard it. Too many witnessed, too many wrote about it. Including his personal nurse in the end, because the doctor abandoned him. And what was he screaming? God have mercy on my soul. Oh God have mercy. But he found no peace with God. Don't play the fool with God, sir. Don't play the fool with God. He died screaming to his last breath. But he agonized and kept rolling off that bed shower onto the floor like an animal, screaming in fear. Not in pain, in fear of facing God. There is no man that hath power over the spirit God wants. Neither hath he power in the day of his death. Ecclesiastes 8 verse 8. I was preaching in the southern part of Africa, along the coast of a very beautiful place called Rijsdael. The wealthy love to retire there. But I was preaching and a doctor came up to me, attending one of the services where I was preaching. And he told me of something that really shook me. He said, today, I shacked a man when I got all the tests back, and his wife, and I said, you have two weeks at the most to return. Now, my brother Daniel, there was no symptoms until all this moment when he suddenly came and he found without any warning from God, you have two weeks at the most to let it happen. Now he was a very wealthy man. And the doctor said to me, the man stood up and sobbed uncontrollably, screaming. He just lost control of his emotion. And his wife hugged him, just sobbed, the two of them just screaming in shock. He didn't know what to do with the doctor. I just stood there helpless. But I had to be honest. I can't deny what happened. So the man eventually settled down and he said, sir, I'm a very wealthy man. I will make you a millionaire. Medical science is doing many things. Even if I become a guinea pig, but don't tell me you're not going to try. Fly me to America. They said, it doesn't matter. Money means nothing. I'm not ready to die. I cannot die. You have to do something in medical science. You have to explain it. Don't tell me there's nothing there whatsoever. I cannot die now. You've got to help me. Now the doctor looked at me and said, brother, I looked at him and I said, sir, there's nothing in medical science yet. Nothing in the world that I can offer to extend your life. But I can offer you eternal life. I cannot offer you to extend your life one day, officer, but I can offer you the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. The Bible says it. The wages of sin, the reward, the result of sin on mankind is death. But the gift, now actually the literal Greek says is eternal death. It's a state that isn't cut off. It's just called death, the second death. The wages of sin, the ultimate end is not just physical death, but eternal death. But the free gift of God, says the literal translation, is eternal life through Jesus Christ. I'll go on now. He said, I explained the gospel to him. I gave him the verses of Christ, the verses of the holy God. And the man and his wife knelt and he just cried out to God to give him this gift of eternal life. Not just a few months extra. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, eternal life. Hebrews 9.27. You see, I began the sermon with these words. It is appointed. If that's an appointment, if he's occasionally in a number, God says, he's sovereign. He's God. He's eternal. Don't try and understand him. Just accept and believe him. There's no understanding, OK? The concept of God is beyond our comprehension. You've got to just understand him. You've got to understand this one thing about God. Obey him. Or face eternal consequences. It is appointed unto men once to die, God says. But the verse does not stop there. And I would be a hypocrite in the providence of God if I stopped there. But, after this, the judgment. OK. If you read through 28 times, you would have read that a few times, you would have no wonder you were in the state you were in. It's appointed unto men once to die, but after this, God says not meet the judgment. The judgment. Judgment! O prepare thyself to meet with thy God. Amos tells us in chapter 4, verse 12, Prepare thyself, God says to you, and me, to meet with thy God. Amos 4, verse 12. In Romans 8, verse 1, God promises there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And God cannot lie or deny what he says. You have no condemnation. No judgment will come upon anyone in Christ Jesus. God promises the way to the sinner's death, yes, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. God promises. John 49, verse 15. God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. He promised. I will ransom them, God says, from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death, God says. In Hosea 13, verse 14. 1 Peter 8, verse 18. For as much as ye know that ye will not redeem with corrupt things, silver and gold, received from tradition by your heritage, ye will not redeem with corrupt things, silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. God says. The blood of Jesus Christ. God's Son cleanses us from all sin. That's by grace through faith, being justified freely by grace through faith. In his blood, Romans tells us, shall we come to God with the promise of the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sin, being justified freely by grace through faith. Not only my own righteousness which is in the law, but that which is in the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is in God by faith. For by grace have ye saved through faith. Now do you see, that's the gift of God. It's the gift of God. To him that worketh not, believeth not, even justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness. In one moment, God declares you righteous. By grace, through faith, in the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son that cleanses us from all sin, Romans 3 verse 25, 24 and 25. The last enemy that shall be destroyed, God says, is death. 1 Corinthians 15, 26. We all have to face this enemy. God calls death an enemy. Whether you're saved or unsaved, it is still one enemy you will face. Wait until you face it. Even if you're saved, it's an enemy. It's not going to be easy. But you will face it. But you can die with God's peace, even though you might have to face suffering, which is why it's an enemy. No matter how hard you have to die, you can face it with God's peace and pass your own understanding concerning facing God for eternity. Even if you're longing for death, you have no fear of judgment. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Psalm 116, verse 15. Oh yes, I've stood to many people and died. I don't know why God required that of me. And it was not easy for me to face it. But for some reason, I was called to many, many, many, many, many families and my people as they died. And I understand, and I mean this, what God means when He says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Because I've stood to those who are not saved as they died in Bethlehem by AIDS. But those that died with Christ in their hearts, it was a testimony not only to me, but to the doctors and the nurses and the family to know and to see their written across a life precious in the sight of the Lord and that death is the death of God's saints. The righteous have hope in His death. Proverbs 14, verse 32. His heart cries, O death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15, verse 55. The sting of death is sin. That's what makes death really powerful. What about my sin? Conscience? Conscience tells me I wouldn't be given a conscience if I were not accountable to the God who gave it. The sting of death is sin. Verse 56. We fear death because of our sin. But Hebrews 2, verse 9 tells us that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. He would face death, he tells me, for every man who will have all the way to be saved and to come out of the knowledge of the truth. Why do we do it all? And that through death this Savior, that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man, would face death for every man. And that He, through death, Hebrews 2, verse 14, even the death of the cross, Philippians 2, verse 8, He might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. There is fear. Oh, that He might deliver them from that fear. Hebrews 2, verse 15. 1 John 3, verse 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life. 1 John 3, verse 14. If you don't know death, you're not saved, you're still going to hell. Don't tell me that God mocks us when He says we will know. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God, the children of God. Even believe it or not, the Son of God hath the witness in Him. All God lies. God's word is a lie if that's not the truth. You know. You know. We have a piece of partial understanding when it comes to facing death. In its context. God's piece. That partial understanding. There's no comprehending it. But God gives it. Because the Holy Spirit loves you on your back. Not some emotional thing going on. No, no, no. Just a consciousness. Yesterday I couldn't look at anybody on this earth and honestly say without lying I know I'm going to heaven. But today I can. I can look at the whole world and without any hypocrisy or any fear of being judged by God. I can look though I couldn't say yesterday actually I know I'm saved. That's the witness of the Holy Spirit. Not feelings. A consciousness. In a consciousness. In a conscience. That God gives it. You know. We've passed from death unto life. We know! But if you don't know don't have any God die like that for you. And then save your soul and don't bear witness of your spirit that leads you to doubt and fear. And you might still go to hell. No way, sir. Oh, I believe doubts can come in sickness and when mental fatigue comes through and long to long I believe things can happen to our lives that we need like Pilgrim's Progress, you know. When Pilgrim was dying and going through the river on to the other side there were the angels, the pallbearers waiting to escort him. But he had to go through the river and so doubts come to him. Oh, John Bundy was wonderful. He kind of knew just what people would face. And let's face it, I've stood with many godly people that as they're dying they need someone like HOPE for them. Thank God we never feel like that. And he just whispered from the Bible reassuring what God had promised him. As he had promised peace from God in his heart as he died so we're going to have to whisper it to our godly loved ones and our friends. But the word, you see, faith comes by the word of God. Sometimes we need to be reminded even that death, Bundy says who was to me the greatest theologian that ever lived. I'm sorry, the Bible. Yes. But he by the grace of God who takes death for every man, God says Hebrews 2 verse 9, that through death Hebrews 2 verse 14, even the death of the cross Philippians 2 verse 8 he might deliver them who through fear of death were old at night and shall fit upon death. That's fear. Hebrews 2 verse 9. We know that we pass from death unto life, God says. God's word says, John says in 1 John 3 verse 14 there is no condemnation to them which are in Jesus Christ. Romans 8 verse 1. That's what our hope is, an inner consciousness an inner awareness that you don't doubt it. You know you will not face eternal judgment once you've been saved. Revelation 14 verse 13 proclaims blessed, I love that word you won't find it in the new translations blessed are the dead the dead which die in the Lord from the edge of pallor blessed are the dead which die in the Lord for the saviour for the saviour but death still is the last enemy we must not deny that in our pulpits I'm sure that even my father died 1 Corinthians 15 verse 6 I believe the man of God greatly revered and greatly feared he was a leader of many he was so capable and he was so strong in his personality one look and he ran when he was young he didn't have to say a word one look and he ran yes he was a great leader and a great influence in Africa across Africa to many multitudes of people but he had a heart attack and finally took the hospital and I couldn't believe how a man of such strength could look so totally helpless that on Christmas every bit of strength was gone absolutely nothing nothing of authority nothing just total helplessness causing God to die he said his words to me the Bible says death is the last enemy and it is an enemy but a wonderful thing brother Keith to me though I know I am facing the last enemy out of the face of my mouth the single man is that because of my faith in Jesus Christ I have no fear of judgment I have absolute peace that absent from the body presents the Lord and that is the wonder of the gospel in spite of having to face death which the gospel does not deal with death physically it deals with death I would have wished one of the great theologians of Africa Kelvin Cook who was the dean of the largest theological seminar in Africa one of the largest the university of Greenstone for longer than any other dean but his mother Kelvin Cook's mother she had been a missionary in Africa and she always attended my meetings from when I was a young fellow so the years go by I go back to this town and there is a little letter on the pulpit a note I am close to death that is why I am not with you tonight you can come and pray for me tomorrow so I went oh I couldn't believe this woman what in two years was yesterday because I couldn't believe what was yesterday and there she was mad weakness and frailty hanging on to life she smiled a gentle smile you can pray for me so I said Lord this lady has meant so much here in Africa to show me what it is and Lord it would be in my heart to hear her to spare her for the kingdom and her family for her prayers have mercy Lord would thou not consider possible to heal her strange she said stop to open my eyes tell God you are sorry apologize I don't want to know I have had my time don't you tell God to heal me you ask God to take me now have you ever begged someone to die so I said Lord it would be in my heart to deliver her from my suffering oh yes the bible speaks of a time when we become conscious that we are prisoners of the earth prisoners in the earth God says what does that mean those who long for death those who long for death but cometh not be not scared of dying be not scared of living there is no longer this enemy that God wants us to be facing Romans 8.22 we know that the old creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now you don't know that if you think everybody ought to be having a way with their time you are wrong but they go down to a street before the end of the street they are honest with you and what they are facing around you especially those who are not saved we know that the old creation groaneth and travaileth in their millions right now you wouldn't want to be in their pain or situation in their millions right now virtue not only they but we ourselves also we have the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves groan in ourselves for the adoption that's the deliverance with the redemption of our body the time which will be come we will no longer let go of this life you know where it comes from Romans those who long for death but cometh not to everything there is a season a time for every person to have a time to be born and then you find it easier to speak a time to gather stones a time that's the things every one of us face in this life we work out the reality I mean stop it happens that's life then it comes to this moment called death there is a time to be born and there is a time to die but there must be this also a time to be born again or you didn't know why you were given again and you didn't that all there is to it is to live like you want to it doesn't matter what you do and all that happens is you go to sleep under the ground in a room box, that's it no deep further that's just not true and the moment you die the thoughts that come into your head will be cast into the lake and the moment you die you are not saved, you are judged for Christ's sake in one statement there is a time to be born there is a time to die there is a time to be born again I was preaching in a town called Christmas Rock a big rock and every woman down there she used to take from that part of the country in the early days but Christmas Rock sure it's a community now mostly retired people and holiday makers a very lovely place and I've preached there many times in the one church that holds it every single religion uses it but nonetheless Christmas Rock the man and woman I live with godly people but they had a father, he was way in his 80's close to 90 didn't speak English speak Afrikaans which is the language generally of many millions of people in South Africa which derived from the French Dutch, German into what is a very unique language called Afrikaans now when I was there in their home I realised this man was going to change but I arrived there one day and they decided to do something to get people to come because the church wasn't as full as they liked it to be so the next time I came they said well if they don't want to come to the church just give them some other way so they advertised in a very wonderful way about a breakfast service there you are Mary Beth oops it's very hard for a Jew no matter how much he's against religion to say no to the one meeting this town has never had before a breakfast service oh do you know what I mean on the condition that you get another bit of food you see afterwards you have to go to the gospel right so of course the whole town comes everyone was there the place was open oh it works do what works you see so day after world day all the Christians rock was there including the Holland English their own cottages down there so I'm sitting here looking around the old man who didn't speak good English he spoke Afrikaans many of them told me I said word the Europeans didn't have any word in English we were very limited anyway so he decided well the whole town is going my bishop my son-in-law and daughter have arranged a meeting if you want to go you may go even though it's going to be engos that means defence atop the enemy's language since the war war it never stopped by the way it's been like an ocean of war but it's still fighting anyway