“JUST in a moment, and he was gone,” were the words uttered in awestruck tones, in describing the fearfully sudden death of a neighbor of mine, who had been in my house only three days before, to speak about a matter of business. And now he was gone forever―gone to meet God, to render his account to One inflexibly righteous. I do not pretend to say how he will meet Him, whether in his sins or justified from his sins; “As the tree falls so it must lie.” We must leave that soul with Him who judges righteously. He is dead. “Gone in a moment.” There we must leave him. But we who are alive, what about us?
How true is the Word of God! We read in the book of Job 21:13,13They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. (Job 21:13) “In a moment they go down to the grave.” But is this the end? However much you might wish it, it is not the end. You remember the words “after death the judgment.” God will not forego His holy claim, over you, He is God and you are His creature. Nor can He be indifferent to your soul’s danger because He is Love itself.
Death is the wages of sin; so that if you were to be called away “in a moment,” it is because of sin, and “death by sin”; but after the death of the body there follows the judgment of the soul, and if you die in your sins, there follows the “second death,” which is to be eternally banished from the presence of God, in that place where their worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched. And are you running this awful risk every moment you live? Are you (perhaps without meaning to do so) playing the hypocrite, hoping that professing you are all right will make you all right? You may deceive yourself, but you cannot deceive God. The word of God to you is, “the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment” (Job 26:55Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof. (Job 26:5)). Now is your little moment of pleasure; endless woe will surely follow if the great sin-question remains unsettled.
It is settled on God’s side, was settled over eighteen hundred years ago, when His beloved Son said on the cross, “It is finished.” Have you ever come to a settlement with God about your sins? I had to make monthly settlements with the neighbor whose end I have related above. If I did not settle regularly could I complain if supplies were stopped? Payment must be made or trouble followed. Is man’s righteousness more than God’s? Does God keep no account? “His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings” (Job 34:2121For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. (Job 34:21)). Now, dear friend, with all your “goings” before the eye of God, would you be perfectly happy about being summoned into His holy presence “just in a moment”? Or, would that solemn scripture fit your case which says, “How are they brought into desolation as in a moment, they are utterly consumed with terrors, as a dream when one awaketh” (Psa. 73:1919How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. (Psalm 73:19)). Your sins are against you in God’s holy books. They must be settled or you run the risk of the doom of Sodom, “that was overthrown as in a moment” (Lam. 4:66For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. (Lamentations 4:6)). Only yours will be an eternal overthrow.
Oh, dear friend, what will the next moment bring you? The present moment is a moment of grace; the next may be a moment of judgment. This is not written to terrify you, but we are not ignorant of Satan’s devices, or of the awful deceitfulness of your heart; it is Satan’s game to cheat you, and it is natural for your heart to believe his lie. Awake! “repent, and believe the gospel.” The Lord Jesus may come any moment, and you will be left behind for judgment. For we read, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.” When will you rise, dear friend? Will it be in the resurrection of the just or in the resurrection of the unjust? Now is the moment for you to avail yourself of that blessed One who died, He, the Just One, for you, the unjust one, that He might bring you to God. Remember, all has been done. But have you “obeyed the gospel”? In obeying the gospel there will be repentance. Repentance is seeing and owning that you are a guilty sinner in God’s sight. Repentance will not save you, but you cannot be saved without it. In bowing to Christ, in obeying the gospel, you repent. Bow to Jesus, get into His blessed presence alone.
Remember, the holy angels are not ashamed to bow before Him day and night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy.” He is worthy, and He is worthy of your heart’s fullest confidence. What a friend you have in Him. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend’s.” Will you turn your back on Him? He would fain be your friend for eternity.
Seeing you may die in a moment, why not settle this matter in a moment, and let it be this moment? God says, “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” Do not fear, you can turn to God in a moment, and be saved in a moment. The thief on the cross was saved in a moment, Saul of Tarsus was saved in a moment, the Philippian jailer was saved in a moment. They err who say you cannot be saved now, and in a moment, and know it. “Let God be true and every man a liar.” I repeat, all the work of redemption has been done, done by the Son of God, but what have you done to get the benefit of that work? You may reply, “I will do my best―an angel from heaven can do no more.” But you must know, my friend, that not even an angel from heaven could finish what the Son of God has fulfilled―he would not attempt it, he would not dishonor God or His holy Son by so doing. You can do nothing, and yet you can believe the gospel; you can repent and believe the gospel; you can obey the gospel, or you can disobey the gospel and be lost forever.
Should God cat you off “just in a moment,” if your friends had to say about you, “Just in a moment and he was gone,” would it be to the place of torment, or to be among the harpers harping with their harps?
J. N.
FRAGMENT. ―What a wonderful thing that the believer stands before God in association with the Man that is alive from the dead. Just before His death, He said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)). He was the unique, solitary corn of wheat, the only sinless Man that ever was in this world. He went unto death, met all God’s claims, and annulled Satan’s power. He who was the Son of the living God, by undergoing death, abolished it.
W. T. P. W.