Robertson, Ian: Gospel Message-Man Dies And Where Is He-01

Now, just another word of welcome to everyone that's joined with us tonight. It's good to see you. You know, there's no greater occupation, really, than to sit and listen, uh, to the preaching of of God's word. I know the, I know the old devil would put many distractions into your, across your path and would, you know, tell you there's something good in the box tomorrow night or Wednesday night or whatever, but I want to tell you there's no greater, there's no greater occupation than just to sit and listen to the the sound of God's word. Even the reading of God's word, there's a blessing in that. Uh, you know, we read that in the very last book of the Bible, the book of the, the Revelation. It talks about the blessing that comes from the reading of the word of God. So it's a very privileged place that we find ourselves in tonight, just to sit in this room and to have the word of God read and the word of God preached to us. So these meetings will continue, and it'll be good to see you back just as often as you can. The children's meetings will be there every, every night this week again. Ian Gillespie will be here again to take the meetings with the boys and girls Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, every night at, uh, quarter past six, quarter past six. So if you know any boys and girls in the area that haven't yet been, try and give them a wee prod to come along, and I'm sure Ian would be delighted to have their company with him, uh, over these incoming days as well. Now, I just want to read a verse. It's in the book of Job again. In the book of Job in chapter number fourteen. We've been looking at some of the big questions, the big issues of life and death that are brought before us in the book of Job. Uh, we looked at the question on Thursday night, can man by searching find out God? And, you know, we thought of the, the greatness of God. We thought of who God is, the vastness of God, and how that it's impossible for you and I with our puny, finite minds to comprehend God. We can never understand God. He's so vast. But we did notice that God has revealed himself to us. He's revealed himself in his wondrous grace and love, revealed himself to us in the person of his son. And we noted on Thursday night that by trusting the Lord Jesus, by receiving the Lord Jesus into our lives, that we can really come to know God. We can never comprehend him. We can never search him out. We can never fully grasp the magnitude of God, but we can know him. And God wants men and women, and you come up tonight, to come to know him, to know him as a savior God, and to know him as a loving, tender, compassionate father. And that's a wonderful thing that you tonight can really come to know God because he's revealed himself in the Lord Jesus, and when we trust in Jesus Christ as our savior, then we, we know God. But tonight we're going to think of a, another question that's asked in the book of Job, a very solemn question. It's verse ten of Job chapter fourteen. Read these words, man dies and wastes away, yea, man gives up the ghost, and where is he? Where is he? That's all we'll read, and we just pray that God would impress that very, very solemn verse of scripture in all our hearts today. We're going to speak about death. Not because we particularly want to speak about it. Not because we have any joy in speaking about it. But in faithfulness to God tonight, and in faithfulness to you, tonight we need to address the subject of death. Death is a fact. Job states it very clearly, and our own personal experience confirms that, that man dies. Man dies. The evidence of death is all around us. It's inescapable. Everyone in a little meeting tonight, on various occasions through the course of our life, we've visited the cemetery, and there we've been confronted with the inevitable evidence of death. We see it almost daily, as we see the movement of the cortege from the home or from the church or from the rest place to the cemetery. Every week when we open our Combert Chronicle or our Ayrshire Post or whatever it is, and we, we flick through and we suddenly come to a page, and as we look at that page, we're confronted with the evidence that man dies. Man dies. Not only is the evidence of death all around us, but the threat of death is over us. It's inescapable. Death is in all our tracks. It's like that dark shadow that follows us wherever we go. We can't hide from it, we can't run from it, we can't escape it. The very threat of death hangs over every one of us. And the process of death is within us. And that's irrevocable. Someone has said that we start to die the moment we live. That that process of death is within us. And we know that ultimately, that last enemy, that great enemy, will claim you and I as its victim. Man dies. Man dies. Man dies. Someone has said that death is the greatest of all preachers. Death speaks, death shouts. Death appeals. Death is a message that it conveys to men and women who are living upon earth. It's the greatest, the oldest of all preachers, death. It's not popular. But it travels the globe. Speaks in every language. Visits the poor and the rich alike. Preaches to people of all religions, bringing tears to eyes that seldom weep. Strikes at the heart and the conscience of all men. What a preacher. He's dead. The writer goes on to say, most men hate him, but all must listen to him. He is rude. He comes in unexpectedly, unannounced, uninvited. He breaks up social occasions. He interrupts men's pleasures. He calls at the factory, at the office, at the home, at the club. Wherever he goes, he preaches his message. His message is preached from every tombstone. His congregation is seen passing to and from the cemetery. He has preached his message to you. The sudden departure of a neighbor, a friend, a loved one. And in that passing, you've heard the preaching of the greatest of all preachers, death. His appeals are loud and solemn and unmistakable. And one day he will use you as his next text. And by your graveside, death will preach his message to others. Death shouts to us tonight. Death cries out to us. Death cries in this world that is marked by materialism and pleasure. Death cries out to us tonight. Consider your latter end. Death appeals to us tonight to stop in our tracks and consider eternity. Death screams at us tonight. In this pleasure mad world. Death screams, prepare to meet God. Prepare to meet God. I wonder tonight, my friend, will you listen to the old preacher? Will your vo- your ear be unstopped to the greatest of all preachers, death, as he appeals to you? To stop and consider. To weigh up the course of your life, to ponder the brevity of life, and to prepare to meet God in eternity. Man dies. Man dies. Man dies. The ultimate reality, the inescapable reality, we must face it. It's on our tracks, and death appeals to us tonight to stop and consider eternity. But what's the reason for death? What's the reason for death? Did God create mankind? And we noticed that on a previous evening, as we consider the question, what is man? We noticed that man is a created being. He came from the hands of God, that God imparted life to him. Did God create man with the capacity of dying? Was that God's desire for man? Death? Ah, the Bible tells us the reason for death, and it's sin. Sin. What did Paul write to the Christians at Rome almost two thousand years ago? He said, the wages of sin is death. And if you had spoken to the first man that ever lived on this little planet, I tell you, he would have concurred to that, because he experienced that. And Adam knew that the end result of his sin, the end result of his disobedience against God was death. And Paul says, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, death coming hard on the heels of sin. And so death has passed upon all men because all have sinned. Death is God's judgment. Death is God's punishment, or part of God's punishment for man's sin. And the reason there's coming a day when you'll die, and there will come a day when I will die, apart from the coming again of the Lord Jesus, the reason we die is because of sin. Because of sin. But what are the means of death? Well, you know, Job says man dies. He says man wastes away. I was interested just to look at that word, uh, in a Bible dictionary, and I noticed that there was two sort of connotations. On the one hand, it means man is weakened. On the other hand, it means man is cut off. I thought that was interesting. And I thought over the course of my life, and I thought of the occasions when I was confronted with the reality of death, and I knew, and I realized that there were some individuals, and they had become weakened under the point of death. And there was other individuals, and they were just cut off, just cut off. And I suppose that every death, the death of every individual, could really be placed in one or two of these categories. There are those that are weakened as a result of disease and old age, and they're weakened right under the point of death. Death comes slowly. And sometimes it comes painfully. And death comes gradually. And death is expected. And I can think of my own father just a, just a year past October. And you know, we sat day after day in the hospice, and we just noticed the onslaught of death. As that old frame became weaker and weaker, as the breathing became more and more labored, until ultimately he just weakened under the point of death. I'm glad that my father knew where he was going. I wonder, my friend, do you know where you're going? Some of the most precious moments that I spent with my father was as I sat by his bed in the air hospice and talked about the things of the Lord and the things of heaven. He knew where he was going. My friend, if I had the privilege of sitting by your bed, if you were weakening on and to the point of death, I tell you, my friend, what would your conversation be about? Do you have that hope of heaven? Do you have that assurance that there's one that waits for you on the other side, the one that loved you and died for you in Calvary? Do you have that prospect of heaven? But sometimes men are just cut off. Sometimes, rather than death being gradual, it's sudden. Sometimes, rather being expected, it's unexpected, and men, even in the prime of life, so often are cut off. Who would have thought that a dear old man that sat just there every night last year as these meetings went on, and sat just over there on the first night of these meetings, and two weeks ago tonight, doing what I'm doing tonight, he was just suddenly cut off, suddenly cut off, unexpectedly, suddenly, without warning, he was gone. But praise God, he likewise knew where he was going. He likewise had a savior that was with him at the point of death and took him through its cold waters and into glory. I don't know how you'll die. I don't know whether you'll waste away. I don't know whether you'll be cut off. But my friend, when the point of death comes for you, I wonder, do you have an assurance? Do you have an anchor for your soul? Do you have something to lay hold upon? Do you have Christ to take you through cold death's cold waters and take you into the sh- onto the shores of glory, into the realms of eternal bliss in heaven. Man dies. Yea, man wastes away. Man gives up the goers. Man expires. Man breathes out his life. That's what it really means. My friend, there's coming a moment in all our experience when that's exactly what's going to happen. We're going to take our last breath. It's a solemn moment, isn't it? It's a sad moment. And someone just gasps the last breath of air. They're gone. They're gone. They're gone. My friend, the moment when you'll draw your last breath is not in your hands. It's not even in the hands of the doctors. It's in the hand of God. I'm glad about that tonight. God, in whose hand thy breath is. The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, that's the appointment. There was a time to be born, there's a time to die, it's all in God's hands. But But whenever whenever it comes, I don't know, and you don't know. But we're just faced tonight with the inevitable, the inevitableness of its coming. But Job says man dies, man wastes away, man gives up the ghost, and then he asks a question, and where is he? Where is he? Does death end everything? I- is there life beyond? I don't know how many times you have been confronted with death. But maybe you've had the telephone call someday and someone has said, listen, so and so has gone. It's gone. It's gone. Maybe you make your way to the house and you go into the room where that individual was lying, and he's still there. He's still there. But yet he's gone. What happens at death? What is death really all about? Well, you know, those who are here one day in the first week of the meetings will remember that we spoke on the question, what is man? And we noticed that man was a tripartite being, that man had a spirit, he had a soul, he had a body. What happens when a man dies? Well, that body just goes back to dust. The body, the carcass, the, the, the tent that the man lives in is, is, is placed in the ground or, or placed in a, in, in the, in the crematorium, and it just goes back to dust. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. But we're more than a body. Bible says the wise man Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, he says the spirit goes back to God who gave it. But we're more than a body and a spirit. We have a soul. That is the real you, that's the real me. That's our identity, that's our personality. And the Bible speaks about the possibility of our soul being saved. And it talks about the possibility of our soul being lost. So what happens when a man dies? The spirit goes back to God who gave it. The body is placed in Mother Earth, but the soul will live on. And for some, their soul will be saved forever. And for others, their soul will be lost forever. The Bible speaks about two places beyond death. Not three, only two. The Bible speaks about heaven. The Bible speaks about hell. And the Bible makes it perfectly clear that the moment a man dies, his soul will immediately be transferred to one or other of these places, heaven or hell. Heaven's where Jesus is, where God is. Heaven is a place of eternal joy, eternal delight, eternal bliss. But hell is a place of darkness. It's a place of torment. It's a place of judgment. It's a place of loneliness. And yet every one of us in this meeting tonight, not only do we face the inevitability of death, but beyond death, for every one of us, there's either heaven or there's hell for eternity. There's no escape. There's no other place to go. You say tonight, well, I don't want to be in hell. I don't want to experience the darkness and the loneliness and the judgment of hell. I want to be in heaven. Maybe you're saying tonight, how can I be sure that I'll be in heaven? I would be a good question for you to ask me. How can you be sure? Well, my friend, I've noticed this, that the great God of heaven, the God of the Bible, has made it absolutely abundantly clear how we can be sure. How was my father, Louis Robertson, how was he sure? How was my father-in-law, Willie Parrett, that died just two weeks ago, how was he so sure? They were both sure because they'd availed themselves of the provision that God had made for their security in Christ. You see, the reality of the situation is simply this, that there's none of us deserve to be in heaven. And there's none of us are fit for heaven. But every one of us deserve to be in heaven. Every one of us deserve to come under God's judgment forever. That's what we deserve. God loves us. Praise his name tonight. God loves us. He loves you. Oh, he doesn't love all the things that you've done in your life. Doesn't he love your sin? Doesn't he love your selfishness? Doesn't he love your greed? Doesn't he love your habits? He hates all that, but he loves you. And the desire of God's heart, as we underlined on a previous night, is simply this, that he might share heaven with you, that he might open heaven to you. God wants you to spend eternity with him. He doesn't want to see you banished from his presence. He doesn't want to cast you into the everlasting burning. No, God wants you to be saved. He wants your soul to be saved for eternity, for heaven. But he's got to deal with your sin. He's got to deal with my sin. That's why he sent the Lord Jesus into the world, to deal with our sin. Paul wrote these very, very simple and yet profound words to the Christians at Corinth. He says, Christ died for our sins. Christ died for, died for my sins. That's the message of God tonight to our souls. As I stand here as a dying man speaking to dying men and women, I've come to bring you a message of hope. A hope beyond that take us beyond the grave and into heaven, that Christ, that God loves us, and Christ died for us. And that God in his matchless grace is offering salvation. He's offering the assurance of heaven to those that repent of their sins and put their trust in the Lord Jesus. Realizing in themselves they're unfit. Realizing in themselves they're sinners deserving of judgment, but by faith laying hold of the provision that God has made for them through the death of his son, the sacrifice of his son. Laying hold on that by faith, God accepts us into heaven, and the virtue of what Christ has done when he died for our sins at Calvary. My friend, as I close this meeting time, the simple message is this, that our, our destiny for eternity will be determined by the decision that we make when we're faced with the reality of what happened at Calvary. You'll never get into heaven apart from Calvary. You'll never escape the flames of hell apart from a personal appropriation by faith of the value of the work of the Lord Jesus in Calvary. You'll need to be a time in your life when you come as a sinner to Jesus. There's no other way. There's no other way to be sure of heaven than to have a personal faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. Willie Park that sat there just over two weeks ago as a young boy of nine years of age. Nine years of age, he trusted Christ, and he received a hope and an assurance that from that moment onwards, his path was leading him ultimately to heaven itself. Billy Robertson, as a young man of seventeen years of age, walking the back streets of Kilmarnock after hearing the gospel of God's grace sounding into his ears, realized he was a sinner, trusted Christ, and from that moment onwards he knew that he was destined to the realms of glory. What about you then? I don't have a shadow of a doubt where my father-in-law is today. I know where the family would want him to be. I know there's a mess in the home, but I know where he is. He's where he wanted to be. He's in heaven. And I know where my father is tonight. He's with the Lord Jesus, which is far better. And as a Christian, I sorrow, but not as others that I've got no hope. But my friend, if I was sorrowing over your death tonight, would there be any hope in that sorrow? If I was to speak words at your funeral over your coffin, could I offer any words of hope to those that were left and were weeping? Could I give them the assurance that all was well with your soul? Could I speak with certainty that you were in the courts of heaven? Because there's a time in your life when you availed yourself of the sacrifice of Christ. The death that he died for St. us at Calvary. You see, where you're going to be for eternity is not going to be determined by whether you've been religious, whether you've attended meetings. But my friend, it's simply this, it's going to be determined by the decision you make when you're confronted by the crucified. There's no other way, there's no other way to home, there's no other way to heaven but to come and take your place as a needy sinner at the foot of the cross, and by faith to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. And tomorrow night we're going to look at hell. Tuesday night we're going to look at heaven. We're going to talk about what the Bible tells us about these places. But my friend, your destiny for eternity, heaven or hell, will be determined by what you do tonight. In Jesus' name. Our gracious God and Father, these are solemn things tonight that have been brought before us. And God, if there's been any hardness in our voice as we have spoken this message, O God, grant us thy forgiveness. But we pray that something of thy compassion would come across tonight to this audience. Sad, O God, to think there are some still in their sins. Some, O God, here right now, if they were to die, they would be in hell. O God, grant that you would awaken them tonight, that they would realize the awful end to which they're heading, and that tonight, O God, they would come in simple faith and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, receive him as their savior, and have imparted to them from above that assurance that all is well with their soul forever. So, our God, we do pray for thy blessing upon thy word. As we go home, our God, take us home safely. Our God, we pray that the solemn words that we've heard would remain with us, challenging our hearts. Our God, we gr- grant that everyone in this meeting would have that assurance before this very night is out. Grant, our God, that everyone would have the assurance that all is well with their soul. We ask these things in the Savior's name. Now, we normally sing a hymn at the end, but we'll just, we'll just dispense with that tonight. We'll just bring everything to a close now. We just thank you again for coming, and just remind you of the CDs at the end and the, and the, the book board just as you go out. These CDs are free if you, if you think it would be beneficial just to take them and just to listen to them. They're CDs of the previous messages, then just take them. If there's friends that you think would benefit from them, then just, just take them away. There's literature as well in a rack just outside the door. Uh, we're just really interested in one thing tonight, and that is you being sure as to where you're going. Take your time.