Please be seated. And we'll let the little ones go to class with Mrs. Shore to the creche. And the rest of us can open our Bibles, if you'd like, to the Book of Psalms. Most of our text this morning is coming from Psalms, Isaiah that we read in our song service here. is what God used to kind of work in my heart about this message, and I'll explain that in a second. But, you know, life goes on very quickly. Have you noticed? I mean, I can't believe that my wife and I, this summer, will have been married 17 years. I mean, that's astounding to me. I feel like, you know, college was just the other day. I look at the changes that have taken place at the university since I've been there, and I'm amazed. You know, how, and I think, how can these changes take place so quickly? And praise God, much, much of the changes for good has taken place. But I remember just a few years after we graduated, went back to Bob Jones University where we went to school. And my job at the university was I was the guy that did the concessions and I became a manager at the snack shop when I was getting my grad work done. And so my wife and I picture us down working at the football pitch at the concession stand as managers on a Friday night with a big football game taking place. Football was a big sport at our school, and I am speaking about British football. And we did that. And another thing we did is at the basketball games, we had a hot dog stand. Picture me working a hot dog stand, like the New York hot dog stand type stands. And I used that stand over at the, The academy as well, there at Bob Jones, they have an academy high school. And I had the hot dog stand over there, too. And I'd serve the kids their lunch and stuff as they come to that. But now when you go back, and actually just five years later, if you went back to Bob Jones, instead of a hot dog stand, they have a cafe at the Academy. And the manager has a cafe. They built a new gymnasium. And it's this awesome facility that has also a cafe, no more hot dog stand. Life changes, and it changes very quickly. I mean, we look at ourselves in the mirror, and a year later, we go, who are you? You're not the guy I saw a year ago. Who are you? I mean, it changes, doesn't it? Life goes by very quickly. But what I read in this Isaiah passage that God spoke to my heart about this message is who Isaiah is speaking about is a prophecy. He's speaking about John the Baptist. In our text, as we read it, it said in Isaiah 40 verse three, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all applied that scripture in Isaiah to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, the guy that's out in the wilderness wearing, you know, camel's hair and eating locusts and wild hunting. Remember that man. But in our text, there's a message that John the Baptist preached. And the message is, in Isaiah 40 verse six, the voice said, cry, and he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth. And we look at our lives, and we go, what is our life? It's even a vapor that appears for a little time, then vanishes away. Like this morning, if you poured yourself a cup of tea or a cup of coffee, and you saw that vapor go up into the air, it was there, and then it was gone. And God says, that's what our life is like. And so John the Baptist, as he preached, he told the people, he said, look, life is short. Life is short. Then he said, the beauty fades of life. Nobody, as we get older, again, I'm looking in the mirror thinking, man, where did that handsome guy from college go? Yeah, right? You've changed a lot. And it's not for the better. Things are getting worse. You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying we're not pretty. You know what I'm saying? We're all beautiful here today. Just feel good about yourself. But it changes, doesn't it? You start thinking about it. But then what does that verse say at the end? It says, but the word of God shall stand forever. What he was trying to get those people to focus as John the Baptist, great preacher that God used, and as he tried to wake up those people to Christ coming, he was getting them looking at their life and realizing this is not it. It's about eternity. This is short. This is very, very temporary. I witnessed, again, I'll mention him again probably in my notes here, but I witnessed to a man last night that I've witnessed to before. He's 17 years old. And he said to me, is it a bad thing if I don't care if I die? If I'm not scared to die? Is that a bad thing? And I spoke to him about hell and why it's a good thing to be afraid to die because eternity is forever. And we'll get into that in the message. But I mean, you look at him, 17 years old, he thinks he's got his whole life ahead of him. But I mean, it's going to be over in just a very short space of time. It goes so quickly. And I remember hearing this as a child, you know, older people saying it goes quickly, it goes quickly. But now I'm living it. And I echo what they have said. It goes quickly. And so this morning, as we come to this passage in this idea, what I want us to focus on is what lasts forever. What lasts forever? You know that phrase forever is found 390 times in the Word of God in 380 verses. 97 times the phrase or the word everlasting is found in 91 verses. 47 times eternal is found. You know this book that God's given to us has a lot to say not about just life but about eternity. Eternity. And Obviously, 390 times forever is found in the word of God. It would take us a little while to get through every text where the Bible speaks about eternity. But so what I wanna do, I've taken texts from Psalms this morning. So if you have your Bible open to Psalms, you can follow along as we look at some of those times that the word of God speaks about forever. But think about this this morning. And let me give a title to the message. Let me give it this title, when does it end? And that it, I want that it to represent what you live for. What's the biggest thing in your life? What makes your world go round? What makes your life tick? When does it end? And if it's in the temporal category, think about that, how sad that is. There's people today that their biggest thing is sport. I've mentioned before, I like sports. There's something about us that God gave us, you know, this competitive spirit. There's some very good things, positive things that you can get from sport and achieving and fighting. And even the Bible has illustrations about athletes and such. But let me ask you this. Does it really matter if your team won? I was talking to my brother on the phone. We were just talking about sports. And it's such a big thing in the United States like it is here. He doesn't have time for it anymore. He's really busy because I was asking if he's keeping up with anything. He's just too busy. But it kind of brings about the question of, so what? My team won. So what? I'm really excited. So what? Or I'm really depressed because my team lost. And you gotta ask yourself again, so what? It's not just sport. What about hobbies? What about work? What about family? Say I'm living for those things and I look at those things and I say, that's something that's very important in my life. But does it really matter? Is that something, is that what life's all about? Or would we say about that again, so what? So ask that question, when does it end? What are you living for? The answer to that question will help us understand whether or not we're living for eternity or not. So let's just pray and ask God to bless these thoughts from his word here as we consider what is forever. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the word of God as we come to it. And Lord, I'm thankful for the ability that you have to speak. And Lord, we desire that today. We ask that the spirit of God would walk amongst us and speak to hearts. Lord, I can speak externally. I can speak so that people can audibly perceive words. But Father, I have no ability to speak to the heart. But I ask, please, that the Spirit of God would do that today. Father, please, I pray, put me where you've got to put me so that you could use me. I just pray the Spirit of God would hide me behind the cross, I pray. God, give us grace to let you speak. I mean, that's what we need. We come to church because we want to hear from heaven. Father, we need a life-changing message today from your Word. And so I just pray, Spirit of God, would you work, would you speak, would you help? It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, first thing, and it comes from our text that we looked at, first thing that won't ever end, and that's God's Word. God's Word will never end, and so ask the question, because we ask the question, when does it end? How important is God's Word to you? I mean, God's word never ends. So in your day today, how important is God's word to you? In your day tomorrow, in your day Wednesday, I'm reading a book about St. Kilda, the island that's way off that direction, all isolated by itself that was populated until, I think, the 1930s. I'm reading this book, but what he said in the book was religion was not just for Sunday. Religion was every day. They would wake up and at breakfast, everybody in the community would have devotions. Shocking. Imagine that today. Can you imagine? I mean, it just blows your mind to think how far society has drifted. Can you imagine every household in Lone Head getting up and saying, we're going to eat and we're going to feed on the word of God today because it's eternal. It's eternal. How important. is God's Word. God's Word is unchanging forever. God's Word is unchanging forever. Our first text is Psalm 119, verse 160. Psalm 119, verse 160. It says, thy word is true from the beginning and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Every single one, every single word of God this morning, it endures forever. It's an eternal book that I lift up in my hand today as I get the privilege of standing up here and preaching. You know, God's word, as God spoke his word to Adam and Eve, it's eternal. As he said, thou shalt not eat of that tree of the garden. Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou mayest not eat, because in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. That truth that God gave about breaking his law to Adam and Eve way back then, it's still good. God's law that he gave to Moses as he gave him the Ten Commandments, as Moses came down from the mountain, as he held those tablets of stone, and they said, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt. As God's word gave those commands, you know that word still applies. It doesn't matter today that they're trying to get that out of the courtroom in the United States. I don't know if it's been in the courtroom over here. I don't know if they've ever had the Ten Commandments up, but in the States, every court had the Ten Commandments up, and then they started taking them down. And I'm sure by this point in history, they're probably down. Thou shalt not. Those commands, those eternal, the eternal word of God that we have. You know, mankind has convinced themselves that they can change God's Word. They've convinced themselves. I sometimes, I'm speaking to people about faith, they think faith, if you believe that, that's great, it makes it. They think that it's kind of like this magical thing where if you believe that, that makes it so good for you type thing. And I'll say to them, if I stood in Arthur's seat on the Craigs and I go, I don't believe in gravity. So what I'm going to do, I'm just going to step out. Does it matter what I believe? No. What matters? What's true? Right? What's true? You know, it doesn't matter today how much somebody thinks, I'm gonna change God's scientific laws. Does it matter? No, why? Because it can't. They can get contrary laws to overcome laws, like we can fly in airplanes because that can overcome the law of gravity, the law of aerodynamics. But those are God's laws, right? They're not changing, they're just functioning as God made them to function. Mankind has this idea about the Word of God. Okay, I can't change scientific law, but I can change God's law. No. No, forever. It's forever. And so God's Word is unchanging forever. God's Word is true forever. It's true forever. Psalm 117.2 says, For His merciful kindness is great toward us. The truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. Not only is it unchanging, but it is true forever. It's true. I had a sad article that Adele forwarded to me just before he left to go up to the Isle of Skye. And it's from a group called Christian Concern. And this is from the 28th of February. Okay, so we're just going back, what, two weeks? Not quite two weeks. Here's what the article said. Two street preachers have been convicted of public order offenses after a public prosecutor claimed that quoting parts of the King James Bible in the context of modern British society must be considered to be abusive and is a criminal matter. Does this sound shocking? That does, doesn't it? Am I really standing here today and saying that somebody said in court that it is a criminal offense to take this book and to read it authoritatively in modern British culture? Astounding. During the four-day trial, Prosecutor Ian Jackson claimed to say to someone that Jesus is the only God is not a matter of truth. To the extent that they are saying that the only way to God is through Jesus, that cannot be a truth. Can I say to Mr. Ian, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. To the extent that I am saying that he is the only way, the true way, there is no other way. I'm saying it that way, aren't I? Because that's what the Word of God says. And listen, I hear in my head as I hear that statement that that man made, and by the way, these men were found guilty. They were fined 2,000 pounds. One of them has a further court trial coming up. But you look at that and you hear the apostle Peter saying, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. Our world is saying, that's not true. God says it is. And here's what the word of God says in Romans 3, 4, let God be true, but every man a liar. I can, I'm so thankful I can stand here today and say, it doesn't matter what this prosecutor, Ian, says about this book. This book is true, beginning to end. And yes, it does mean what it says. And our world doesn't want that. The whole thing about homosexuality and evolution has never been about just those things. It's been about saying that this book is not true. That they reject this book. God's Word is true. Praise God this morning. Again, we can say it is true. The truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord. God's Word is settled forever. God's Word is settled forever. Psalm 119, 89 says, forever, O Lord, thy Word is settled in heaven. That means it's complete. It's entire. It's not going to be edited. There's no additions of God's word. It is in its entirety, in its entirety. There's a quote that says, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Have you heard that before? God said it. I believe it. That settles it. That's a good statement for me as a person taking up the Word of God and reading it. You know, that's the way we ought to read this book. God said it. I believe it. That settles it. That's good for my life. But you know, can I say this? And this is what many other people have said about that statement. God said it. That settles it. Whether I believe it or not does not matter because this book is true. Thomas Jefferson. You might have heard of the Jefferson Bible. Thomas Jefferson decided that he would cut and paste and he would clip out sayings of Jesus Christ and he compiled them into a book. He did that and that book became known as the Jefferson Bible, but I can tell you there's one thing Jesus said I don't believe Jefferson put into that book, and that is Matthew 5.18. which says, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. That jot or tittle is a diacritical marks in the Hebrew text. So it's just the smallest dot or hyphenation. And what Jesus was saying is, listen, till everything's fulfilled, nothing is going to change of this book. The people today walking around saying, boy, you know, I hope this, you know, we can take this, drop this. It's modern times. And so we're going to edit it. Guess what? Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. It's an unchanging, unchanging book. God's word also has God's authority forever. Psalm 119 verse 152. Concerning thy testimonies, now let me just ask you, whose testimonies are these? God's. Concerning thy testimony, God, I have known of old that thou, God, has founded them forever. Who gave us this book? Holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. This is God's book. You know, I mean, we call it God's word, don't we? This is the word of who? God. It's not the word of man. It's not stories, it's not traditions, it's not Chinese whispers, certainly as liberals would say, this is the word of God. It's his word. Psalm 146, verse six, which made heaven and earth and sea and all that therein is, which is speaking about who? God. Which keepeth truth forever. Who's the guardian of this book today? God. Whose authority this morning is behind this book? God's. This is forever. It is settled by God, and it is kept by God. I mentioned my university that Katie and I went to, and that's where we met. It was founded by a man, surprisingly, by the name of Bob Jones. It's Bob Jones University. Dr. Bob Senior, he was an evangelist, and as he'd go into areas, he'd preach, and he was just burdened for the Christian young people that they have a Christian place to go and study and to get further education. And so he started a university. They named it Bob Jones University. Now, there's things that I mentioned even in my lifetime have changed from the time I was a student there. Some I would say good change, positive change. Some I would say bad change. Things I wish that hadn't changed. And people might disagree about that, whatnot. So Bob Jones Sr., if he was alive today, I think there's things that he'd look at at the university and say, that's commendable, that's great. I wish we could have had that back when we started. I wish it would have been that way, and that's clever, and that's smart, and that's wise, and that's good. He'd say that. But there's things that he'd look at and say, I wish that never happened. I wish it was back like the old days. I wish it was staying to this. Why? Because things are in flux and things change and men are fallible. But the person that gave us the book that we're speaking about this morning, the person that gave us this never changes. This book has always been true. It will always be true. And the person that stands behind this book this morning is God. God, this is an authoritative book that God has given to us. It'll last forever. So again, I ask the question, when you think about God's word, how important is the Bible to you? Seriously, think about it. I mean, do you, Do you really care about this book? When's the last time you picked up the Bible just because you wanted to hear from heaven? You just wanted God to speak to you. Or you decided, Lord, today I'm going to spend more time in that book because God, I need to hear from you. God, that's eternal. I mean, I could turn on the telly and I could watch sports, but who cares? I mean, even on holiday, I was thinking about this, you know, Lord, I'm on holiday. I just, and we did have fun. And there's some things that you just need to relax and it's just fun. But, but when you really think about it and stop and think about it is what does it, what does that really matter? What matters is this book. What matters is eternity. And God help us to let that be a priority. So the Bible will last forever. Second, and that's going to take a bit more time than other ones that we're going to look at this morning. But the reign of Jesus will never end. The reign of Jesus will never end. I ask people as I witness to them a lot of times as we get talking about God, I'll just ask them, who's the most important person in human history? And they're unbelievers. I mean, these people might be atheists. I like especially to ask that to atheists because they don't believe in God. But you know what they have to say and they have to agree with? It's Jesus Christ. He's the central figure in human history. We date our calendar by the Lord. We celebrate every year the birthday of a man that lived 2,000 years ago. I mean, it's incredible because he's God. And because He's forever, He's eternal. Jesus is King forever. Psalm 10 verse 16 says, The Lord is King forever and ever. The heathen are perished out of His land. The Lord's King forever. You know, think about that. Is He your King? Maybe today you've never gotten saved. He's not your King. You've never yielded to His authority in your life. Or maybe as a believer, he is your king today. It's an awesome thing to be loyal to your king. We've got patriotism in society, and it's a good thing if it's a good nation, like a nation like Britain or the United States, or a nation that helps overlook other nations and hold other nations accountable to good government and things. And as British citizens, we're very proud to have that citizenship and that relationship. And I mentioned that our family recently got British citizenship. And when we did that, we had to swear allegiance to the queen because she's the monarch. And we got saved. We ought to have sworn allegiance in our heart to who? The king. He's eternal. Do you own his cause today? Jesus is king forever. Jesus has authority forever. Psalm 45 verse 6 says, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter. It's not just that he's king, but he is on the throne eternally. And in his throne, it doesn't matter whether you're a good citizen or bad citizen as far as your allegiance to him, that the fact is he has absolute authority today. Jesus Christ, His throne is forever and ever. Isaiah 45 verse 23 says, I've sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. You know, there's a day that's coming that Adolf Hitler is gonna get on his knees before God and he's gonna acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord There's coming a day where, let me use another example, I've prayed for David Attenborough, the evolutionist, is going to bow the knee and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, He's King. Let me ask you this morning, does the King reign in your heart today? We're talking in Sunday School about authority. Boy, when's the last time you picked up this book, something convicted your heart, and God spoke to your heart, and you said, God said, you know what, that needs to change in your life, or you need to obey that, you need to yield to that. When's the last time that your heart just said, God, whatever you want me to do, God will do? Remember how David put it? He said, I'll run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. God, when you tell me from your word what you'd have me do, God, that's me running to get it done. How quick are you to serve your king? As king, his home, his beautiful home, is eternal. It's eternal. Psalm 23 verse 6, remember, that's the shepherd's psalm, it says at the end, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The house of God is eternal. I mean, you just have to think about it. I want to buy a house someday, if God helped me to do it. But you know, that house is temporal. It's not gonna last. I mean, we saw, when we were up on Skye, we saw ruins. We saw houses that used to be houses are not houses anymore, whether it's from the highland clearances or from something else that took place, but they're not inhabited anymore, and they're in ruins. Why? Because earthly houses don't last. But God's house is eternal. Psalm 93, verse five says, Thy testimonies are very sure. Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever. God, what makes your house so beautiful is your holiness, and it's eternal, eternal. When I was in high school, my junior and senior year, both my junior year and my senior year, which is the last two years of high school, we got to go on a senior trip. And so one of those years, I forget which one, we went to Colorado, and there was just, in our senior class, there was just a girl and a boy and myself. It was a small Christian school. And Colorado is very mountainous, beautiful. And we went skiing and did just a bunch of different things out there. But we went to a house that was owned by an uncle of the girl that was in our graduating class. And it wasn't a normal house. I wish I could take you there. And I'm just thankful that I had the opportunity to go because I've never seen anything like it. What it was, this man bought out a housing scheme on the edge of a mountainside, and the mountainside was all government land. So there's nothing built on it. It's just mountains and rugged. He brought out this whole housing scheme that was supposed to go in this valley. And he took and he built a huge log home. And I don't have the dimensions, but he said the single beam in his roof of his home was, at that time, the longest single beam in a house. log house. It was lowered into place by a helicopter, is how they put it onto the top. He had off his deck, he had two trout ponds, he had brook trout, he had rainbow trout. His furniture and everything in the house was amazing. His bathroom for their ensuite was as if he's bigger than my living room and the conservatory combined. I mean, he's just massive, this house. It had a glassed-in tower. The log home went up, glassed-in tower, and a pair of binoculars. I've never seen anything like this that were that long just for glassing the hillside and looking for elk. This is a very posh place. Two cabins. We took quad bikes. He had like six quad bikes. We took his quad bikes and went up to his cabins. And I look at that and I go, wow. It's amazing. What makes this home so beautiful is what? Money. Because he can afford it. He's obviously very rich. And with money, he's made a beautiful house. But guess what? I've already mentioned, I don't have that much money. How did I feel in that house? I felt a little out of place. Because that's not what I'm used to. That's not what I can afford. It's incredible. you know, what money has done. Now think about this, with God's house, what makes God's house beautiful? Not money. Holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, forever. What makes God's house gorgeous for all eternity is the purity that's there in God's house. How do you feel this morning when you think about God's house? How would you feel to enter into that holy place where the presence of God is this morning? You know what? I think a lot of us would say, you know, I feel a bit uncomfortable because of the sin that's in my life. And so Jesus is home. It's beautiful eternally. How important is Jesus to you this morning? Then God's mercy. God's mercy will never end. God's mercy will never end. Praise God, we just talked about holiness becometh thine house, oh Lord, forever. Guess what? This morning, we all have something that is against that, that creeps into our life. And it's called what? Sin. If you're here today and you die in your sin, the Bible says you'll spend eternity in hell. The wage of sin is what? Death. I mean, it can't go. And you might, looking at that idea again and again, God's holiness, you might feel in your heart, oh God, I struggle with sin and sin has crept into my life and God, I need you to purify me. You know what that is? That is a need for God's mercy. And God's mercy is also forever. God's mercy is forever. His people trust in it forever. Psalm 52 verse eight, David said, but I'm like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. David, had David ever sinned? Yeah. I mean, we talked about the integrity of David this morning at Sunday school, submitting to King Saul, not killing King Saul, not killing Nabal. But David did take Bathsheba, who was an adulterer. David did kill Uriah the Hittite. He's a murderer. And David had to find forgiveness with God. So what did he find? The mercy of God. And David trusted in that mercy forever and ever. Praise God, he's merciful. Back when I was in high school, I needed mercy at one point, not from God, but from somebody. My brother, okay, married into a farm family on a farm that we'd go hunting on when I grew up. Their name's Sahlstrom, Jim and Sue Sahlstrom. They had four girls. My brother married one of the girls. But they were visiting our church. They came in during the service. They parked in our driveway and came to the church. Our church was right next door to our house. And after church, we had a youth activity at somebody's house, or we were just at somebody's house. And I could drive. I was 16. And our station wagon was in the garage. And it was very cold. And in the wintertime in the United States, it gets so cold that when you step on the snow, it squeaks. It really squeaks. That's how you know it's really cold, when the snow starts squeaking. I'm talking probably, I don't know, Celsius minus 20. Real cold. And it was one of those nights with snow squeaking. And so I got in the car, I'm driving, my friends got in, in the garage, and I'm reversing out of the drive. And I'm hearing, eeeeee. And I'm thinking, well, it snows really squeaky tonight. Not kind of. That's what I thought it was. I thought it was snow. What it was, was the bumper on the station wagon, we called it, when I was driving, had a plastic piece that went around the metal. And that plastic piece was putting a scratch down Jim's car all the way down the side of it. I forgot they're parked there. They parked there during church. I forgot they're there. I'm not used to having to look for a car. So I'm just putting a perfect scratch right down it. And Andre was sitting behind me. And Andre goes, Ben! I'm like, oh, man. You know how I felt? That was Jim's new car. Jim still doesn't have new things. He's just not that way. But I mean, this was kind of a new car to him. And I went to that party, and I felt so guilty. I mean, I just felt miserable. I couldn't enjoy myself. And I got home that night, and they were at our house just having a good time. And I hadn't said anything yet. And I knew I had to. And so I said to my dad, I said, dad, I got to talk to you. So we went out in the garage, and I said, yeah, I put a scratch all the way down his car. I can't imagine how my dad felt. So Jim, we got to show Jim. Jim comes out, and this is Jim. He's just like, no big deal. That's Jim. He's still that way. He is the most gracious man. And if I would have understood what I know about Jim now, I would have felt bad, but I wouldn't have worried. I wouldn't have been anxious because I would have known, you know, if I go to Jim, Jim's merciful. He's merciful. You know, can I say this morning, when you go to God, you don't have to be all up and tight and saying, my, I really messed up. We can go, yeah, feeling like we really messed up. God, I really failed you. but God, you're merciful, and I trust in your mercy, so that when I go to you and I ask your forgiveness, I know, God, that you're gonna be forgiving, because I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. Because of God's goodness, his mercy will never end. Psalm 106. Praise you, the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. It endures forever. And as I was thinking about this, I thought, I wonder what other truth in scripture is emphasized so clearly or as clearly as the fact that God's mercy is eternal. It's eternal. Psalm, I just read it in that Psalm, Psalm 106, but Psalm 126 has 26 verses and every single one ends with the phrase, for his mercy endureth forever. I mean, when something's repeated in the Bible, it's important, when it's repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, repeated, then I go, hey, God's mercy is eternal. You know what would be a bad thing for us today, if God was just merciful in life, but he's not merciful in eternity? You ever think about that? If God's mercy would end, I mean, that'd be a bad thing. It'd be like Joseph and the children of Israel, as they came there in Egypt, and a king arose, the Bible says, which knew not Joseph, and he put him into bondage. The mercy was gone, because things change. You know, praise God today, as we think about God's mercy, God's not gonna change his mind in eternity. If we've been forgiven by God, it's eternal. Praise God this morning. His mercy never ends. And because of God's goodness, His mercy will never end. How important is God's mercy to you? Now I'm gonna hurry in this next point, okay? And because I've got two points left, but we're gonna speed up here. Everlasting life will never end. Everlasting life will never end. And Jesus said everlasting life is so important that if your riches are keeping you from it, get rid of your riches. He said that to the rich young ruler. He said, go sell all that thou hast and come and follow me. And the young man went away sorrowful because he had great riches. But Jesus knew those riches were keeping him from coming to Christ. Eternity is important. Everlasting life is important. Get rid of the riches. Eternity is so important. that God said, if your hands are keeping you from eternity, cut them off. Because it's better to enter into eternity with one hand, be maimed, rather than to have two hands to be cast into hell. That's important, isn't it? I think I'd say everlasting life must be very important for God to say that. But those who receive life from him get it eternally. Psalm 21 verse four says, he has life of thee and thou gavest it him, even length of days forever. and ever. God, give me life, eternal life. Isn't that great? Everlasting life. I met a man over in Liberton and I said to him, don't you want to live forever? He said, and have all these problems? And I said, no, eternity is not like that. He goes, I still don't want it. Because I told him it's perfect. I still don't want it. I said, well, you want to die today? No. You want to die tomorrow? No. Well, if you want to live today and you want to live tomorrow, don't you think that you want to live eternally? And the answer is what? Yes. Yes. Every single one of us has that desire in our heart, boy, I want to live forever. You ever get a sad thing about life? Life's so short. That's sad, I wish it was longer. Well, guess what? It is! Because what we have here, physical life, praise God, is temporary. You know, I can rejoice in the shortness of life, why? Because sin is done, death is done, heartache's gone, sorrow's gone. But everlasting life, the perfect everlasting life is eternal. It's eternal. Do you have that everlasting life that God gives? If you get it, it's eternal. The inheritance of God's children is eternal. Psalm 37 verse 18, the Lord knoweth the days of their upright and their inheritance shall be forever. Their inheritance shall be forever. You know, I don't have anyone of wealth in my family that I think is gonna leave me a big inheritance. I don't. So I'm not looking in life for a big inheritance, but I found myself in West Linton a couple weeks ago, as I'm putting out flyers, West Linton's kind of a posh area, big houses, nice houses, expensive area. Looking at that and thinking, you know what, I was singing before I knew it, is I've got a mansion just over the hilltop in that bright land, right? I've got a home prepared for me that God's gonna give, and by the way, it's gonna be beautiful, it's gonna be awesome, what God gives. But my inheritance is eternal. Do you have that? Are you laying up treasure in heaven? I mean, again, what are you focused on in your life? Are you living for things that are going to benefit you eternally? And living for eternity. God is not just our God in life, He's our God in eternity. Psalm 48, 14, for this God is our God forever and ever. We abide in him eternally. Psalm 61 verse four, I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. A tabernacle's a tent. I mean, just like something that keeps us and protects us and shelters us, we have that. If we have Christ, we have that eternally. God's covenant never ends. Psalm 105 verse eight, he hath remembered his covenant forever. If you got saved, you entered into a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ by the promise of God. The Bible says in Titus 1.2, in hope of eternal life with God that cannot lie promised before the world began. God, when you got saved, God said, you've got it everlasting life. It's yours. He's never going to take it back. It's never going to change. But you know, I've got to end with a sad truth this morning. And that is, on the other side of everlasting life, over here you've got everlasting hell. Eternal hell. We can't just look at the good forevers today and say, hey, great forevers over here. We've got to look at the other forever that is not worth living for. There's four incredibly awful things about hell. First of all, hell's a literal fire. I was witnessing last night a mention to a young man And he said he didn't care about eternity. I said, well, you ought to care about hell. And I said to him, if I had a lighter in my pocket and I flicked it open, you're not going to put your hand over the flame. And if you saw somebody in a building and it's on fire, it's going to be horrible. And I mean, it's going to be grievous to you to see that, right? Why? Because hell's awful. Hell's a fire. Hell is where those who never accepted God's mercy will suffer. Isn't that sad? Think about hell, eternal suffering. Hell is complete separation from God. God is not there. Hell is eternal, I mentioned that. Well, hell is an awful place. I talk to people sometimes and they say, I'll find out when I get there. If you died today, where would you go? I'll find out when I get there. Isn't that a dumb thing to say? If you're walking down a path that's dangerous, and somebody warns you and says, stop, stop, don't go that way, because destruction is right around the corner, and somebody in Iraq or Afghanistan, and there's a battle taking place, and they just go, I'll find out when I get there. That's foolish. And we've got a world today that is just on their way to hell, and they're just saying, I'll find out when I get there. but it's eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. It's an eternal death. Psalm 49 verse 8 says, for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth forever. Forever. The devil's cast into hell. We're reading this on Thursday nights. We study the book of Revelation. but he's cast into hell there at the end of time, and it's where the beast and the false prophet are, and he shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And you might say, but he's an angel, he's gonna live forever in hell. Listen, that beast and false prophet, they're human, we've studied that. They're cast into the lake of fire, and God doesn't say where they were consumed, but he says where they are, where they are. And the Bible goes on to say, Revelation 20 verse 14, death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found, written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. Cast into the lake of fire. For all eternity. I mean, can we not weep this morning? Can we not get on our face and plead for any family or any friends or any loved ones that are lost? Because hell is forever. and it's torment forever. It's an eternal death, it's eternal destruction. Psalm 92 verse seven. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed forever. Does that sound like a party? I mean, people say, I'm going to hell with all my friends. It's gonna be great. Destruction forever? You know, guys coming back from Afghanistan, Iraq, they struggle with something called post-traumatic stress disorder. Because they have seen things that are destructive. They've seen lives destroyed physically. What happens to a body that has been, you know, mutilated by weaponry. And it grieves them. And they struggle with that. You know, our hearts out of pity. Then the soldier, we gotta pray for the soldiers. They come back. They've had seen some awful things, but can I say this about hell? If anybody could come back from hell, uh, they would tell us that is the most awful destructive place they've ever, ever seen. And it's eternal. And I think this morning we ought to stop and just think, you know, I'm living my life. Hey, sports are great. Hey, You know, hobbies are great. Hey, work is great. Hey, family's great. And I'm just having a good time in life. But wait a second. There's people around us that are going to spend eternity in lake of fire. And we don't care. I mean, that's that's heartbreaking, isn't it, to think, God, how calloused am I to understand this morning that hell is eternal, that people are going to go there eternally, and I don't care. God, help me to speak to people about you. Help me to witness, help me to make a difference in those people that they don't go to hell forever. On the other side, what do we have? Praise God. We've got this morning an eternal savior that gives eternal life, that has eternal mercy. You know, John the Baptist this morning, I'd love to have had him preach to us this morning, because I think he would've, He would have woke us up this morning. Life's short. You know, your life, it appears for a moment and vanishes away. It is like the grass that withereth. The beauty of the flower fades. But this book is eternal. This is what, by God's grace, we need to focus on. You know, let me just encourage you. This book has all the precious promises of God that are eternal. This book is what is gonna build us up. It's eternal. This book is what we need. Is that your priority today? Are you living for eternity? May God help us. I just pray the Spirit of God stir us up and thinking about things that last forever. Let's pray. Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would speak. Give us grace, Lord. This book is an eternal book. It doesn't change. And Father, it's life changing. And praise your name. Father, we can rejoice this morning in everlasting life. Oh God, thank you that we're going to be in a place where there's no more sorrow, no more death, no more heartache, no more struggle. That's worth living for. I mean, that is worth obeying Christ and accepting. But Father, the sad reality is there's an eternity for those that don't live for eternity, that live for themselves in life, live for riches, live for material, live for family, live for friends, to the neglect of ever accepting Christ as their Savior. And Father, when they die, they'll go to hell forever. And I just pray the Spirit of God really speak to our hearts about that this morning. Give us grace to do something. And God, thank you for your help this morning in our services. In Christ's name we pray, amen.