Do you still insist that God is unjust, that He has no right to condemn you for refusing to accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour? Listen! You have an enemy. Every injury that lay in his power he has done you. He hates the sight of you, and curses the ground you walk on. Through him your home has been broken up and your family life ruined. But there comes a day when he is hungry, starving to death. You hear of it, and in the kindness of your heart you search him out and persuade him to come to your home. Food is brought and placed before him, abundance of it, and he urged to eat. But all the urging goes unheeded. By the side of the table loaded with life-giving food he sits, but he never raises a hand to take. Finally he sinks down and expires at your feet. Now tell me, why did he die? What more could have been done? Nothing! He died because he would not live. Life was within his reach, but he chose death. Yea, more, he was urged to take and eat, but he would not. Hence, he died. And how could it have been otherwise?
Let me change Pilate’s question somewhat. Let me put it this way: “What shall I do without Jesus?” What are you going to do without Jesus in the hour of death? Are you willing to face your last enemy alone? I wouldn’t take all the millions of this world and go through the valley of death without Jesus Christ. What are you going to do without Jesus on the Judgment Day? Would you stand before God alone? I wouldn’t take earth’s millions and face God without an advocate. I want someone to stand by my side and plead my case. What are you going to do without Jesus in Eternity? One thousand years from tonight you will be somewhere. Ah yes, but where? And that will only be the beginning. Can you face the countless ages of Eternity without Jesus? What will you do without Jesus in the hour of sorrows? Perhaps you are young. You have never been bereaved. Rest assured that before many years have passed tragedy will strike. Do you think you can bear sorrow alone?
When Oswald J. Smith was nineteen years of age, He was a missionary to the Indians. He lived alone on an Indian reserve up near Alaska. One day a little Indian baby died. It was buried in a grave on the shores of the Pacific, under the primeval trees of the great forest. The mother watched as the earth was thrown in. suddenly she put her two hands to her until her head and began tearing out her hair in great handfuls, through the village street, she wailed so that she could be heard half a mile away. While He was there another little Indian baby died. He took the little body in his arms and led the way through the forest along the Indian trail to the shore of the Pacific, in the rockery soil we dug another little grave and placed the body in it. As the earth was thrown in, the Indian mother stood by the side of the grave weeping, not wailing aloud and tearing her hair, but just weeping silently. And when it was all over she returned to her little humble shack weeping to herself.
Why the great difference? Both mothers had lost a baby. Both mothers loved their babies as much as you mothers love your babies. But one was able to bear her grief while the other was not. Why, I ask, the difference? The first mother was a heathen mother. She did not know Jesus Christ. She looked into the face of her little one, and she cried, “I’ll never see my baby again.” No wonder she wailed aloud. No wonder she tore out her hair. The other mother was a Christian. She knew Jesus Christ, and the glad hope of the resurrection throbbed in her heart. “He shall not return to me,” she said, “but I shall go to him.” He knew that the great Shepherd of the sheep would take her little lamb in His arms and keep it until He could hand it back to her, and that then she would have it for all Eternity. It is always so. Every time I conduct a funeral services it is the same. Those who know Jesus Christ are able to bear their grief because of the hope of reunion by and by. Those who do not know Him cannot face such sorrow. They almost go wild with grief. I do not know how you can face your sorrow without Jesus Christ.
“What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” No, my friend that is not the question. The question then will be: “What will Jesus do with me?” The question now is: “What shall I do with Him?” What Jesus Christ does with you then will depend upon what you do with HIM now? What shall I do? You will have to do something. A decision must be made. What shall I do? It is an individual decision. No one can decide for you. You will have to decide for yourself. What shall I do then with Jesus? It doesn’t matter very much what church you join or how you have been baptized. All that matters first is your relationship to Jesus Christ. What are you going to do with Him? What shall I do? It is not, what shall I believe? It is, what shall I DO? It is not an intellectual question at all.
It has to do, not with your head, but with your heart, your will. Never mind what you believe; decide what you are going to do. Will you accept or will you reject? Your decision will determine your eternal destiny. Therefore, I beg you to decide and decide now. Do not put it off until tomorrow may be too late. “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). What then will be your answer? If you accept Him you will be saved. If you reject Him you will lost. Oh, then, accept Him and accept Him-NOW.
Dr. Lewis Akpogena
08055059656
E-mail: akpogena@yahoo.com
