A preoccupation now exists among mankind that defies any sanity. I speak of the idea of living on this earth forever, for behind all the mass propaganda of who will live the longest is the Satanic idea that "ye shall not surely die." The search for the fountain of youth has reached gigantic proportions.
We pay millions of dollars a year so that our government can continually find what elements cause cancer in rats and other animals. This may have SOME merit, BUT IT SEEMS THAT ALMOST EVERYTHING WE TOUCH OR CONSUME WILL CAUSE CANCER. Don't you grow weary of all this asinine witch-hunting? The people who are most knowledgeable (???), I suppose, are dying just like everybody else.
All of us are either too fat or too thin. The diet-fad business is raking in our hard-earned dollars at an astonishing rate. Health food stores have multiplied a thousand-fold. We have become a nation of seekers, not of the Blessed God, but of that fond hope of longevity. My question is this: Doesn't a man have to die of SOMETHING? I do not mean to imply that we are not to take reasonable care of the bodies which God has given us, but this has become a religious pursuit with the end result that we will defeat death.
Our text says, "Yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, yet hath he seen no good: do not all go to one place?" THAT ONE PLACE IS THE GRAVE. Six feet under with worms for company. And now, where is all this relish for the fountain of youth which was a delusive dream? Finality. The end. No more. Would you now trade all your search for physical life in exchange for one minute to search for God "whom to know IS life eternal?"
Though a man live two thousand years, yet has he seen no good UNLESS his mortal pursuits have enabled him to see the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the only final Good.
We can exercise, eat with good sense, take vitamins, avoid all cancerous elements, get a regular checkup, and do ALL things to live; but one thing is deadsure - " It is appointed unto men once to die..." (Heb. 9:27.) The worst thing we face is the remainder of the verse, "...but after this the judgment."
How shall we appear in the judgment? What does it matter here whether we have been fat or slim, healthy or unhealthy? What does it matter here whether we died of cancer or heart disease or just lay down and died? Isn't it all vanity and vexation of spirit unless we prepare for that great day that our Lord Jesus spoke of in John 5:28-29? "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation,"
What shall that day bring for those who know not Christ? Listen to Thomas Boston: "Their appearance will be frightful and horrible beyond expression when they come forth of their graves under the curse, and set their feet on the earth again. What a fearful awakening will they have out of their long sleep! When they get another sight of this earth, upon which they led their ungodly lives, and when they see the Judge come forward to the judgment of the great day, what ghastly visage will they have. Now the fairest, ungodly face will be black as coal through terror and anguish. Men will shiver, tremble, their knees smite one against another, and their hearts pierced as with arrows. What roarings and yellings, and hideous noise will be heard as they go as beasts to the slaughter! Then will the weight of the curse be felt mightily, no matter how lightly men walk under it."
This IS IMPORTANT. Men SHALL NOT LIVE ON THIS EARTH FOREVER, no matter how great care is taken of our bodies, either by the government or ourselves. And while I am here, I intend to enjoy some of the good things that God has given and not spend my time seeking that fountain of youth of the flesh, but rather seeking the fountain of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ who said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall never thirst."
"YEA, THOUGH HE LIVE A THOUSAND YEARS TWICE TOLD, YET HATH HE SEEN NO GOOD: DO NOT ALL GO TO ONE PLACE?"