(Written on 8/9/2012, Bob went to be with Christ on 11/6/2012)

1. Behold the wrath of God!  Sin is this bad – that it is going to tear my dear body right apart. God is out to kill everything and everyone.¹ Sin and death reign like awful tyrants right now.² Because of sin, God is taking everything down, even the stars.³ The fires of hell are the end of it all. Only those in Christ will escape.⁴

2. Behold the goodness of God! It is so loving of God to make a way of escape in sending His own Son to die and pay the believer’s sin-debt, even when we were enemies.⁵ Why? There is no answer but love.⁶ The Christian should be so thankful.

3. Christ is all anyone can have.⁷ We have nothing apart from Christ and the work He did on the cross imputed to us. All else is stripped away at death. In Christ we have everything.⁸ Even death is a servant to the Christian. A Puritan said something like this, “Death is the grim reaper sent to usher us in to the palace of God.” For the Christian, ultimately all will be well.⁹ The Christian has the indestructible seed in him – eternal life. The resurrection is all right indeed. Immortality is all right indeed. The Lord Jesus is praying us to heaven.¹⁰ This is incredible that He would want us there – with Him!

4. Stand on the promises. On the darkest night we can see the stars the best. So also, things can get very dark when the “sentence of death” comes to you. It is then that the Christian most realized that he is counting on the Book. I am putting all my weight on the Book of God.¹¹ I’m facing the great hereafter with nothing under me but the Book. If it is false, I’m ruined. But I know, I do know it is true. Be rich in the word.¹² The more the word is part of you, all the easier to know the comfort of it in a dark hour. Make the word of God your intimate friend so it can easily talk to you.¹³ It must be part of you.

5. We are not our own. The Christian has been bought with a price.¹⁴ What God does with you is His business, not yours. Hands off. Our times are in His hands.¹⁵ God is the potter, we are the clay.¹⁶ The bottom line is, “Not my will but Yours be done,”¹⁷ and again, “Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”¹⁸

6. We are not victims of circumstances, but objects of a loving heavenly Father. “It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent.”¹⁹ He works all for good for us.²⁰

7. It is a pure privilege to serve Christ.²¹ Wasn’t the Lord Jesus a perfect man with a perfect and powerful ministry? Wouldn’t the Father have wanted Him to stay on for longer service? Yet the Lord Jesus was taken at a young age. Many great men of God were taken young. It is absolutely foolish to not number your days.²² We had better do what we can do right now, especially in the days of our youth.²³ Don’t presume you have many years.²⁴ Serve the Lord with gladness.²⁵

8. Do you love Him now?²⁶ Is your relationship real? Or is your Christianity superficial and imaginary?²⁷ Most will miss it all with a false profession.²⁸ You had better be intimate and real right now. Don’t think you can do such weighty business with God when you are on your death bed. God has called and you did not respond. You call on God and He likewise might not respond.²⁹ “I grant you true repentance is never too late, but I warn you at the same time, late repentance is seldom true. I grant you, one penitent thief was converted in his last hours, that no man might despair; but I warn you, only one was converted, that no man might presume.”³⁰