Two things that I recently read serves as a catalyst for my thoughts today. One of them is the title of a lesson recently published by Bro. Lawson that I've appropriated and adapted to fit some thoughts of mine. The other reading was of an illustration used in an editorial I recently came across. Both writings were of a different subject than mine but, like I said, they just seemed to fit with my subject so I thank those writers for providing me with my "catalyst."
In 1741, a preacher by the name of Jonathon Edwards preached one of the most famous sermons ever: "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God." It was, and still is, a tremendous sermon. It's probably the epitome of what we used to hear referred to as a "fire and brimstone" lesson. I'm going to cite to you just a few points from that sermon and tie them into my thoughts here today.
One profound statement from the sermon was this one: "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." That brings to me a greater understanding of Peter's warning in 2Pet. 3:9 about God's "longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance." We have time due to God's benevolence (pleasure).
Edwards also drew a word picture in his sermon of Satan and his angels eagerly waiting to pull the souls of the wicked into the open mouth of hell. They're just waiting to devour the souls of those condemned there. Another picture regarding the condition of the wicked is described in this manner: they "hang by a slender thread" over the open fires of hell. Ready at any moment for the "thread" to break and once it does, nothing can save them.
Let me leave Jonathon's sermon now and go to the title I borrowed from Bro. Lawson's lesson. He called it "Three Inches From God." That title just fits right in with my previously "jotted" lesson topic regarding our nearness to the judgment of God all the time we're here in this life.
Even the Bible describes our lives in ways that depict it's brevity, it's "slender thread," so to speak. James says that it's like a "vapor," here and then gone. (4:14) Several times our lives are seen as "grass" (Psa. 103:15 & 1Pet. 1:24). The purpose of these descriptions is to make us aware of how transient our lives are. How easily the "silver cord" can be "loosed." (Eccl. 12:6)
Let me ask you this: how many close calls to death have you had in your life? Probably most of us have at least one occasion that could have spelled the end of us here on earth. Just for clarification, a "close call" is defined as something that almost happened, usually in a bad way. I'm going to cite a few examples of "close calls" that I believe will help illustrate my lesson.
One of my buddies on the Police Dept. was the first one to purchase a brand new piece of equipment called a "bullet proof vest." (Interestingly, the commercial name for that vest was "Second Chance.) Two days after buying it, he was shot by a person he was attempting to arrest with the bullet striking the vest right over his heart. He survived with just a bruise there, however he did have other wounds. By my estimation there was, at the most, 1 inch of material between my fellow officer and eternity.
You history buffs may be familiar with a man named Oliver Cromwell. He was a British General back in the mid-1600's and was a devout "Puritan." When given command of the British army, he ordered that every soldier was to carry a Bible on his person. (The King James Bible was still fairly new at the time.)
Upon returning to camp following a major battle, a young soldier was undressing and when he took his Bible out of his coat pocket, he noticed there was a hole in it. Upon examination, he found a bullet had penetrated the front of the Bible and was lodged next to verse 9, chapter 11 of Ecclesiastes. Let me cite that passage to you: "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."
The writer there, of course, is Solomon and what he's basically saying is: go ahead, walk in the ways of your own heart/mind. Do it all. Enjoy the pleasures of life. But, understand and know of a certainty, there will be a day of reckoning. Don't you think that Solomon could be talking there to everyone regardless of age?
When you study the book of Ecclesiastes you find that Solomon says that he had the same desires when he was young. That he wanted to know and experience it all. Everything that his heart desired. And, according to the Biblical record, he pretty much did exactly that. But, you also see what his final analysis is: that "all is vanity" (worthless).
Here's my personal "close call." Several years ago I was driving West on I-70 through the state of Utah. It was early in the morning, before sunup and I was driving through a dense fog. I-70 is a major freeway and divided by about a 30 yard median between the Eastbound and Westbound lanes. All of a sudden, coming at me out of the fog was an Eastbound semi truck that passed by me in the lane to my left. I had absolutely no time to swerve and had he been in the same lane as myself, I'm sure that my personal "vapor" would have "vanished." I was separated from God by about 3 feet.
On the French island of Dominica is a cemetery. Upon the death of one of the inhabitants, the leaders would evaluate the life of that person and if it was determined that the deceased was an ungodly person, they would have inscribed on their tomb: "VOUS AVEZ TRAVAILLE POUR RIEN." Translated into English, that reads: "YOU HAVE WORKED FOR NOTHING."
Isn't that pretty much what Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes? That if we live a wicked and ungodly life, in the end it's "worthless?" And the point of the lesson here is, our lives are hanging by a thread that can be broken at any time. When our "vapor vanishes" or our "grass withers" there is nothing separating us from God. So, the question is, do we want to face a happy God, or an angry God? Here's a couple of closing verses to keep in mind.
"God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day." Psa. 7:11
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb. 10:31
Ron Covey
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