Reality - Facing Mortality and Eternity

Tom Shrader confronts the uncomfortable reality that all people are terminal and will face God's judgment after death. Using a newspaper story about a baseball manager's brain cancer, he emphasizes that the mortality rate is 100 percent and that after death comes judgment. He calls those who have never trusted Christ to come to Him in repentance and faith, and challenges believers to live transformed lives that reflect Christ's humility rather than conforming to worldly values.

“The mortality rate for the people in this room is 100 percent - in fact doctors tell us from the moment of birth our body begins to die.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Miscellaneous

Duration: 30 min

Themes: mortality, judgment, repentance, faith, humility, transformation, eternity, reality, facing terminal illness, confronting death, unbeliever, new believer, struggling with worldliness, seeking purpose, middle aged, questioning mortality

Scripture: James 4:13-14, Hebrews 9:27, Matthew 25:31-46, Romans 12:1-2, Romans 3, Romans 5:1, Romans 7, 1 John 5:11-13, Philippians 2:3-11, Isaiah 55:8-9

Theological Themes: eschatology, final judgment, justification, salvation by faith, sanctification, spiritual transformation, eternal life, biblical worldview

Full Transcript

I look around at you guys, and virtually every time I come up here when Larry's gone, I think of the same thing. I think about when I came here for the first time and I was over at Phoenix Country Club about six and a half years ago. I had known from several guys in the office that there was a Bible study, and I determined that I would go. I didn't know exactly what to expect. I certainly didn't think it would be harmful for me—thought it might be good.

I've used the phrase before: I viewed it as kind of a religious rotary at absolute worst that I couldn't be hurt by it, and I might even benefit from it business-wise. But that moment that I entered that room and Larry began to speak, he spoke to me in a way that was unmistakable. I went back to the office and I called him on the phone, and we got together. I said, "When you were talking today, I know that there were 40 of us in the room, but it's as though there was only you and I."

Probably you're here today for that very same reason: Larry teaches in a very practical and a very real way. I think that we demand, at least when we can get it, from teachers that they be practical and that they be straightforward and that they tell it like it is. I hear those comments when I stand in the back by the coffee. Those are the things I hear: "I'm here because Larry tells it like it is and he hits me right where I live."

The Reality We Face

Well, let me try to tell it to you like it is. I can't think of anything more relevant or more timely than the paper. Now this isn't quite timely in that it's yesterday's paper, but virtually the same story will be there today. I just want to read this to you. I think this is reality.

Dateline Kansas City, USA Today, page one: "Doctors are working on treatment for Kansas City Royals manager Dick Hauser after they were unable to remove all of a malignant brain tumor Tuesday. Only part of the tumor was taken by doctors because they feared they'd damage Hauser's brain, said team physician Paul Meyer. Hauser, 50, was in serious condition but awake and speaking, Meyer said. He said radiation treatment on the deadly cancer is possible."

That's reality. The headline reads: "Royals play to take their mind off Hauser." Stunned by the news of Dick Hauser's malignant brain tumor, the Kansas City Royals prayed privately then played baseball with a renewed perspective. George Brett said, "This is a sad way to put it, but baseball doesn't seem do or die anymore."

Hauser and his family were all that the Royals had on their minds until they entered the field that night. "The game is our release. It's the only time right now when our thoughts aren't on Dick and what's happening to him." The hours of waiting in the clubhouse for the results of Hauser's operation were uneasy. General Manager John Schuholtz ended the suspense at 4:39 Eastern Daylight Time, and he led the team in prayer. He said, "We all hope for the best, but unfortunately it was the worst news of all."

George Brett had another quote: "If God knocked on our door and said what's more important—you winning the World Series this year or Dick's health—there'd be 24 guys who said Dick's health." That's reality. That's practicality. That's where we live.

Our Universal Condition

Dick Hauser has inoperable brain cancer, and unless there's a direct intervention by God, he is not going to live long. It's terminal. But then we come to the realization that you and I are terminal. The mortality rate for the people in this room is 100 percent. In fact, doctors tell us from the moment of birth our body begins to die.

I taught Tuesday night, and afterwards I was talking to a friend in the back. He's 26 years old and he had with him his little honey lamb—they're in love. I'm 36, he's 26, and I was saying, "You have no idea how tough these next 10 years are in your body. You don't understand what's going to happen." I don't run as fast as I used to, and I don't jump as high as I used to. I can't even do some of the things I used to do. I don't even want to do some of the things I used to do.

I said, "That's the truth." And I said, "The sad reality is when I talk to somebody 46, they say to me, 'You don't know how hard these next 10 years are going to be on your body.'" Because fellas, it's all dying and it's all passing away.

I read a Dick Hauser story and I read it to you, and the room gets quiet and we sense for a minute that we're vulnerable and that it's going to happen. Then we quickly pop it away. James says it this way in James chapter 4, verse 13: "Come now, you say today or tomorrow we'll go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit, yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You're just a vapor that appears here for a little while and then vanishes away." That's what's ahead for each and every one of us. We're all terminal.

What Happens Next

The author of Hebrews chapter 9 says this: "It's appointed to man once to die." It's coming, and I don't know when. I'm a vapor today—probably not today. You insurance guys in the room know that I should live to be 72.3 years of age. It's statistics, but it's inevitable. At that moment that I die, the author of Hebrews adds a little something here. He said it's appointed for man once to die, and after that comes judgment.

Judgment. I'll stand before God and He's either going to say you're going to spend eternity in heaven or hell. That doesn't sink in either. A poll that was done here in Phoenix in January showed 88 percent of the people believed in God, 51 percent of the people called themselves born-again Christians. Actually, 96 percent believed in God, 88 percent considered themselves Christian, 51 percent born-again. Only 4 percent considered themselves atheists.

Yet when they were asked what God was like, 97 percent of the people said God is love, but only 53 percent—only half—said God judges and God punishes. Today we're going to stand before God, and it's important for us to understand that He's

Going to judge us that He's going to look down and there's a heaven to be gained and a hell to be avoided. Let me just read to you Matthew chapter 25 verse 31. He said when the Son of Man comes in glory all the angels with Him, then He shall sit upon His throne in glory and before Him all the nations will gather and He'll separate them one from another as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. Then the King shall say to those on the right hand, "Come you're blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world." And then He'll say to those on the left, "Depart from Me, you are cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devils and his angels." And these shall go to everlasting punishment, but the righteous will inherit eternal life.

Assumptions About Faith

Sometimes we assume in a group like this that we've all dealt with God and we've all come to grips with His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus said at the last supper He said, "This cup has been passed around. This is My blood, the blood of a new covenant which is poured out for many." Charles Ryrie says here's what a covenant is: the word covenant means an arrangement by which one party - an arrangement made by one party which the other party involved can either accept or reject but cannot alter.

I'm in the real estate business. Many of you are in the real estate business, some practice law, some are in other professions, and we negotiate all day long. A buyer comes and he has price, terms and conditions in his mind. The seller has price, terms and conditions in his mind, and then we begin the process of negotiation. A covenant is different. That's what God offers us through His Son Jesus Christ - a one-way offer. I either accept it or reject it on the price, terms and conditions that God offers.

God's Terms, Not Ours

I either come into a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ on His price and on His terms and on His conditions, or I simply don't come at all. I'm born lost. I'm born a sinful man. David writes, "Behold I was born a sinner. From the moment my mother conceived me, when I was still in the womb, I was a sinner."

Plato suggested many years ago that man is what he called in the Latin tabula rasa - man is a blank slate, man's born neutral. God says no, no, no, no. Man is born at war with God. Paul writes in Romans chapter three, "There's no one righteous, no not one. All have turned aside, all have become useless. There's none who does good, not even one. None fear God."

Judgment's inevitable - judgment based on God's price, terms and conditions. God says you're either for Me or against Me. There's no neutrality. I know a lot of people who are looking for that spiritual Switzerland. They want to be able to just stand in the middle. You could well be here today where you're saying, "I'm not quite persuaded but I'm sure no atheist. I'm just figuring it out." Understand what Jesus said: if you're not for Me, if you haven't come to Me in repentance and faith, you're against Me. You may not see it as a strong aggressive attack on Me, but that's indeed what you are.

The Gospel Call

Let me just call to mind the words of Christ that get lost sometimes. He says the very first words He speaks in the Gospel of Mark: "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe." That's what we're called to. Those are the price, terms and conditions of the new covenant: repentance and belief.

Repentance is seeing myself as I really am, acknowledging the sin that's there, turning away from that. And as I turn away, turning to God, putting my faith and my trust in His Son Jesus Christ for my salvation. John writes in First John chapter 5 verse 11 through 13 that Jesus is the answer. He says, "This is the record: God has given us eternal life and that life is in the Son. He that has the Son has life. He that doesn't have the Son shall not have life."

First John chapter 5 verse 13: "These things I've written to you that you might believe on the Son and you might know that you have eternal life." You can know right now where you'll spend eternity.

Certainty of Salvation

I used to think for years that God had a huge IBM PC and He did a debit and a credit on me. When I die, I'd come to this judgment and I'd stand before Him and He'd hit the grand old button and there'd be a little suspense and it would either come up heaven or hell. But the Bible doesn't teach that at all. It says I can know that right now.

It says in fact, if that's what I'm waiting for, I'm lost. If I'm trying to earn it, I'm lost. The Bible says I'm saved by grace through faith, that not of myself lest any man should boast. There's nothing I can do - nothing I can do to earn it. I can't go to church enough. I can't come to Bible study enough. I can't give enough to the cancer drive or to the little sisters of the poor or to the people in Calcutta or to Zimbabwe or Ethiopia or the street people. There's nothing I can do to earn salvation.

Let me just plead with those of you who are hearing this for the first time - it may not be the first time you're here, but this may be the first time you've heard this. This may be the first time God's given you ears to hear. If you've never come to Him in repentance and faith, do business with Him now on His price and His terms and His conditions: repentance and faith. There is no other way.

A Sobering Example

I have a friend who was in church seven years and came to Christ several years ago. He went to his pastor and said, "Pastor, I'm a Christian. I came to Christ." His response was, "I thought you already were." That's very misleading. Externally I'm telling you, internally take a look at yourself and come on that basis.

Moving Forward in Faith

But most of you have already done that. That's so basic. But now we get on to the process of life. "Okay Tom, I've heard all that. I've heard it over and over and over again. Now it's time to live." Let me just give you a little source of encouragement. Let's turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 - it's a passage of Scripture...

That is very familiar to us, Romans chapter 12. Paul writes in verse 1: "Therefore brethren" - and the therefore refers back to the entire previous 11 chapters where Paul lays out exactly what I just laid out for you - "because you've come to Christ in repentance and faith, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."

Once I've come to Christ, I'm to present my body to Him. The picture there is I'm to give Him everything I have.

The Problem with Priorities

I used to teach priorities this way: we need priorities in our life. Here's the priorities of your life. If I passed around pieces of paper, they'd come back just about like this: God's first, then my spouse, then my kids, then we get a little hazy at that point - believers, the church, basketball, the job's down here hopefully somewhere. Here's this long list. I taught that one day and all the heads nodded and said, "Yeah, that's exactly right."

A fellow came up to me afterwards and said, "You taught that completely wrong." I said, "Boy, is it good that he came up privately and said that!" He said, "You taught it wrong because it should go this way: God, my family, my spouse, business, whatever it would be." He said, "When you teach God first, the implication is we put God up here and now we come and deal with these other issues. That's not it at all."

When I deal with my spouse, God is in the center of that relationship. When I deal with my kids, God's in the center of that relationship. When I go to work, God's in the center of that relationship. I don't set Him on top and then move down to three through a hundred.

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice acceptable to God. Another version says "reasonable to God." The only reasonable response once I've come in repentance and faith is to give God everything there is to give.

Personal Struggles with Sin

Verse two deals with an area of my life that I seem to be in right now. I came back from Tucson yesterday and we sat and we talked for a while, and we came to a general agreement of frustration. I can't understand why I'm doing what I'm doing. I can't understand that the sin continues in my life.

I was driving up from Tucson to set up this conversation. I was thinking, "I'm worse off now than I was three years ago. There's more sin in my life now than there was three years ago. Why is that?"

I know - and if I ask you to put up your hands if you agree with this, I won't do that - if I pray, God answers prayer. How many believe that? The hands shoot up. If I said I know when I study His word I grow and He speaks to me, how many believe that? How many have experienced that? The hands shoot up.

Let me ask a real simple question then: Why don't we pray and study? Why don't I do that? I know that's the truth.

I find great comfort and great encouragement in Paul's life in Romans chapter 7 when Paul says, "Wretched man that I am! The things I want to do I don't do. The things I don't want to do, I do." I come and I sit in a Bible study and I do all this God stuff and I got it so figured out, and then I walk out and the phone rings and I can't help it - I'm gone again. I'm being as transparent as I can be because that's exactly where I am. There's a huge sense of frustration.

Let me take that moment to encourage you, and we'll come back to that.

The Invisible Battle

Here's the struggle. It's in verse 2 of Romans chapter 12. Here's why it's that way - we know it's that way. The very fact that He has to say it: "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Here's the problem: there's an invisible battle going on. He said don't be conformed. Another version says, "Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold" - the world system there, the belief system, the value system.

Research has found that the value system of the church and the value system of the world have essentially become the same. The divorce rate in the church is virtually the same as in the world. The abortion rate in the church - this will shock some of you - is virtually the same as the world. The attitude on abortion is virtually the same.

There's a battle going on. I'm being conformed to the world. I've got the same wants and the same desires as the guy sitting across from me who couldn't give a flip about Jesus.

Confusion Between Needs and Wants

I think it's become so confused that we can't even begin to separate our needs from our wants. I got that advice not long ago: "You need to take a look at your life and separate your needs from your wants." I'm saying it's so muddled up I don't even know what's the needs and what's the wants. How big a house should it be? How big a car should it be?

Pride runs through my life. Pride reeks in my life. C.S. Lewis speaks a great deal about pride. He says this: "As long as you're proud, you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people, and of course, as long as you're looking down, you cannot see something from above."

The Danger of Religious Pride

That raises a terrible question. Here's the heart of what we're talking about: How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I'm afraid it means they're worshiping an imaginary God.

He concludes they theoretically admit to themselves that there is nothing - that they are nothing in the presence of this phantom God - but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks of them far better than ordinary people. "Oh, God has blessed me," and the implication is, "Why wouldn't He? What a terrific guy I am. Why would He bless this muck over here?" It's pride and it eeks out.

He concludes: "It's a terrible thing that the worst of all vices can smuggle itself into the center of our religious life." That runs contrary to the teaching of God.

Don't be conformed to this world's value system, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Turn to Philippians chapter 2, and we'll end there.

The Struggle: Selfishness Versus Selflessness

Philippians chapter 2 verse 3—here's the struggle. It's selfishness versus selflessness. When He says be transformed by the renewing of your mind, here's what He says: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others."

Here's a verse to underline—verse 5: "Have the attitude in yourself which is also in Christ Jesus." Another translation says have the same mind in you that's in Christ. Here's the transformation that occurs by the renewing of your mind, and here's what He's talking about. It's not more knowledge. It's not a new database. It's a new attitude.

Christ's Example of Humility

Your attitude is like Christ. Philippians chapter 2 verse 6: "Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped. He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance of man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross."

The most horrible and humiliating of all deaths. Therefore God has also highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow—of those that are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God.

He said here's the attitude of a renewed mind: it's humility. It looks out for the other guy.

The Dilemma We Face

Now if that doesn't present to you clearly the dilemma that you're in and the frustration that you're in, then I don't know how else to communicate it. Everything in the Christian life runs contrary to the world system that says watch out for number one. It says you deserve that break today. It says I need to look good so I'll feel good and have a good self-image. I've worked hard, after all—now it's got to be Miller time. And we're bombarded with that every day in every way from all directions.

Fellas, I just want to encourage you to hang in there. I want to encourage you to come to Christ on His price, in His terms, in His conditions, and then to begin to live for Him and to begin to seek His mind.

God's Higher Ways

Isaiah chapter 55 verses 8 and 9—God says, "My thoughts aren't your thoughts, neither are My ways your ways. For as heaven is higher than the earth, My ways and My thoughts are higher than yours." And yet the beauty is He wants to change your mind and give you His thoughts. He says come to Me, and when you come, begin to spend time with Me. Grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peter says that means spend time with Him—communicate with Him, pray, listen, fellowship.

I got this letter from a fellow this week, and I think he speaks for a lot of us. He said, "Dear Tom, thank you for everything." I put that in so you'll think I did something for him. "Thank you for everything. As you know, the last couple of months have been very difficult. They have also been the best learning months of my life. My walk with Christ has drifted a long way with my continual striving to be successful from the world's perspective and the mixing up of my priorities. I had let a lot of things slip. My walk and my talk did not match." I should add for you—this man was in church all the time and at our Bible study every Wednesday night.

A Testimony of Restoration

"Every day I'm now spending time in the Word of God. God only knows what lies ahead, but I no longer have the fear or the worry that I once had because I know He's in control. I am now taking one day at a time. God is in control. As I read the Bible, it's amazing how out of tune my walk was. I considered myself a Christian, but I know now that I was definitely not being led by the Holy Spirit."

This is an interesting insight: "One sin in my life seemed to lead to others, with my tongue continually getting in the way. What I'm trying to say is it's really great to come into that relationship with Him again. In many ways, my life was probably not a great deal different from the average Sunday churchgoer or the Wednesday Bible study attender. I know how to talk the talk, and I could even tell you most of the Bible stories. But Jesus wants us also to walk with Him, and that is what I'm only beginning to learn and have a long way to go. Please continue to pray for me and my family."

The Consequences of Compromise

And he adds this—and this is inevitable, fellas—"By not allowing Christ to be first place in my life, I let them down and I'm paying a heavy price. But I'm thankful for God as a God who forgives." He concludes, "The Bible is so true when it talks about the rewards of righteousness and the consequence of sin."

Man just hit it on the head. That's where we all are. The struggle in the world is so real and so true, and the attitude that God will work it out—I'll just let Him handle it and I'm not going to do anything about it. He'll forgive me. One sin led to another and to another. One compromise to another and to another. And after a period of time, he found himself so far away from God that he felt no one could ever reconcile that difference.

Peace with God

Man is at war with God, but Paul writes in Romans chapter 5 verse 1: "Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God." Fellas, if you've come to Him in repentance and faith, you've signed a peace treaty. He's on your side. He's still going to discipline you, but He's there to help you.

A.W. Tozer closes the first chapter of his book "The Pursuit of God" with a prayer, and let's let that prayer be our prayer today. Let's listen to this as he writes: "O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I'm painfully conscious of the need for further grace. I'm ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the triune God, I want to want Thee. I long to be filled with longing. I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray, that so..."

I may indeed know Thee begin in mercy a new work within me. Say to my soul: "Rise up my love, my fair one, come away." And then give me the grace to resist and to follow Thee from the midst of the lowly land where I have wandered so long.

Let's close with that prayer.

Father, just thank You for Your word. Help us, strengthen us, lead us, guide us. Let us know that You're on our side and we know that. Let us understand the truth of that, but let us understand that we need to be distinct and real and light and salt. Father, we thank You for that gift of faith.

We pray for the people in here, the man or women in here that have never come to You in repentance and faith. We pray that they'd come and they'd come today. For those of us have come, we just praise You for the gift of Your Son Jesus Christ, and it's in His precious name that we pray. Amen.

Larry, I'll be back next week.