Concerning The Times

The Road to Eternity is Measured in Seconds

• Howard Green • Season 3 • Episode 14

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Our lives are made up of decades, years, hours, minutes, and seconds, and there are 86,400 seconds in each day. Time is an immeasurably valuable commodity, a finite resource that we can spend, invest in, or waste just like money. We are all given a limited amount of time on earth to live, and then we die. In God’s grace and mercy, He knows when that time is for each person. As the awareness of sin marches on, the seconds of our lives tick away. Every one of those seconds is a step on the road to eternity.

Show notes:

Quotes in this episode were from King David, Leonard Ravenhill, and Dave Hunt.

Recommended reading: 

Why Revival Tarries  by Leonard Ravenhill                 

Whatever Happened to Heaven  by Dave Hunt    

Link to The Berean Call, the ministry founded by Dave Hunt for more solid Bible teaching and resources.

Text us for prayer, comments, or ministry questions.

Connect with us at: concerningthetimes.com

Howard Green: Hello, friends. Welcome to the Concerned at the Times podcast. It's Howard Green. So good to be with you again today. And I have to tell you, I was thinking about the latest podcast and what I wanted to discuss today. And it's really on the subject of time. And, you know, as we approach the holiday season, everybody seems pressed for time, and people are so busy. And again, it's one of those things where we lose track of it so quickly. Right? So with that in mind, I wanted to talk about something significant today, as we talk about time and it's slipping by, I want to talk about the road to eternity is measured in seconds. Say, well, man, that's, it's very interesting. What does that mean? Well, that means that, and you know how it is, friends, our lives are made up of decades of years, of months, days, hours, minutes, and individual seconds.

Howard Green: And we know, as far as life and numbers will vary by individual, but we're all given a certain amount of time on this earth to live. Right. And as it's my research, I see that the average American lifespan is about 78 years. It's a little different for women and men, of course, but roughly 78 years. And that's about 2.5 billion seconds of life. Each of us gets on average, if you go by the average lifespan of someone here in the West.

Howard Green: And in that lifespan, there comes a time when we as people truly comprehend good and evil. And I don't want to get into too much about what we would talk about, the age of accountability, or when people, as young people, individuals, boys, girls, pre-teen, teenagers, truly understand the concept of good and evil. Because I think it varies for each person. But the reality is that the conscience bears witness to the law of God being written on our human hearts, right?

Howard Green: And, you, I talk about this a lot of times, but the reality is that when a little boy slaps his little sister, and he goes and runs and hides, he doesn't do it because he doesn't understand good and evil. He understands that what he did was wrong. He has to hide it from his mom or his dad. And you know how that works, right? Or a person in a far-off country who hasn't heard of the Jesus of the Bible, right? They go hurt someone, or they steal, or they murder someone. What do they do?

Howard Green: They hide the fact that they're stealing. They hide away the body that they murdered. The reality is you don't have to tell someone, a human being, they did was evil because they know it. The law of God is written on every individual human heart and the conscious, excuse me the conscience bears that out, right? So, but in God's grace and mercy, he knows the time for each person. He understands and sees obviously in his grace and mercy.

Howard Green: Would each of us understand the true difference between good and evil? And as that awareness of sin marches on each of us, the seconds of our lives tick away. And each one of those seconds is literally a step on the road to eternity. You think about it, time is an invaluable commodity. I mean, it's a finite resource that we can spend, invest, or waste just like money.

Howard Green:86,400 seconds in every single day. And obviously, we'll spend some of those seconds sleeping. If the average person sleeps eight hours a day, obviously, that's not for most of us parents, right? You have small kids, teens, preteens, and college-age students. We're not going to sleep eight hours a day, right? But let's just say the average person does get a chance to sleep eight hours a day. We still have around 56,000 seconds every single day to fill.

Howard Green: At our discretion. And you know how it is. We've come to a point in time when there are so many things that are clamoring for attention. I mean, right now it's the holidays. You're flicking through the channels, or you're looking at the internet, and you're having ads constantly pop up, Macy's or Best Buy or Honey Baked Hams. And somebody wants to sell you a Christmas tree. Somebody else wants to sell you some Pyrex, or somebody else wants to sell you some clothes.

Howard Green: Crazy to me, the amount of advertising and things that are clamoring for our attention. You're over here, look over here. So again, time is this invaluable and measurably invaluable commodity that it's a finite resource that we can spend our time, we can invest it, or we can waste it just like money. So in those 86,000 roughly seconds we have every day, we're gonna spend some of that time sleeping, and then we have the 56,000 seconds left.

Howard Green :And all these things are clamoring for our attention. It's interesting to note, and I was always thinking about this podcast just a few decades ago for those of us who are a little bit older, right? You could come home after work or after classes in college or after high school, and you would actually be able to close that door and have a refuge from the outside world. And you still had the phone on the hook on the wall, but if you chose not to answer it, that's the way it was right now, right? But now it's like now we have this constant interruption. You have an email alert.

Howard Green: Or a text alert, and it's all of a sudden they're ringing or they're beeping and people are in these different social media and different advertisers and even friends and colleagues and co-workers are always clamoring for our attention. You used to be able to close the door; now it's always in our face. And then on top of that, we have our own personal leisure time. I mean, you could find yourself at, I'm speaking to myself and preaching to myself. We can find ourselves scrolling through social media.

Howard Green: Posting on our profile just to update our status. It's on LinkedIn. It's one Facebook or or tick tock or Instagram or wherever, right and Then after we post in our profile, when we got the channel surfing We have all these things chipping away at the remaining 56,000 seconds that were awake every day

Howard Green: But friends, as we do this, and listen, here's the thing before we go any further into the podcast, this is not a diatribe on time usage or on time management. Okay, that's not my intention here. But I intend to have us look at our whole day and look at our seconds in view of eternity. Because the reality is one day if you're a Christian, when I'm a Christian, we're gonna have to stand at the Bema seat

Howard Green:The judgment seat of Christ and give an account to how we spend our seconds and our minutes and our hours and our days and so forth. Because we can find ourselves going ahead 20, 30 years, 40, 50 years, whatever your age is at the end of our life and thinking, man, didn't the time pass by quickly? But remember, all that time is made up of individual seconds. We have to decide how to spend it. So with eternity in mind, with eternity in the Bema seat, the judgment seat of Christ in view,

Howard Green: He's gonna ask us how we accounted for our time. Do we account for our time in a way that would make eternity matter, that would do much for the kingdom of God rather than ourselves? Because friends, as the fire is poured out on our lives, on what we did, on our works per se, is it gonna be wood, hay, and stubble? Or is it gonna be precious gold? Well, that remains to be seen. What do we do with our life? King David said it like this.

Howard Green: King David said, show me Lord, my life's end and number my days. And some versions say teach me to number my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. You make my days but a hand's breadth, a hand length. The span of my years is as nothing before you. And that was King David. And I would say that he had a right view of a time and eternity, knowing that our life is fleeting. He's like, Lord, show me my days. Show me how to number my days and show me how short life is.

Howard Green :Why is this? So we can make the most of our seconds, dear friends. Every day, every second we have could be an investment in God's kingdom for eternity. Amen? But let's continue. I believe, and I can show you in the Bible, we have a biblical mandate to redeem the time, right? And we do this by using our seconds we've been given to count for God's glory. In the scope of eternity, our life on earth is a mere vapor and a mist compared to the ages to come, right?

Howard Green:And that's what James 4 14 says, he goes, yet you do not know what tomorrow might bring. What is your life for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. And that's in James 4 14. But Jesus also told several parables about using our time wisely, right? We have Matthew 25 14 through 30, where Jesus said, it's like a young man going on a journey and he called to his servants and entrusted them.

Howard Green:To his property and he said watch my property essentially and to one he gave five talents to another two talents to another one talent to each according to his ability then he went away and you know the rest of story Jesus said when the man came back he made each servant account for what he gave them in other words what did you do with your time and your abilities and your talents all the opportunities I gave you and you know the rest of the parable basically you had to give an account not only that they were rewarded accordingly

Howard Green:Well, and then again, in Matthew 25, one through 13, Jesus talks about time and warns about those who waste time. Then he says, the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. For the ones who were foolish took their lamps and they had no oil on them. But the wise servants, excuse me, the wise virgins, of course, had oil on their lamps. They were ready to meet the bridegroom. And friends,

Howard Green:That's a mandate from the Lord to always be ready and watch and wait for His return. And it says a lot about what we do in the meantime. Question, friend to friend, I'm asking myself this too dear friends, is your lamp full of oil? Is the Holy Spirit working and moving inside of you? Do you take time every day to read His word, to pray, to seek the Lord? It's a heavenly Father in Jesus' name. I'm filled with your Spirit. Please continue to fill me.

Howard Green:Fill me as the Bible says to overflowing. We should always be ready, working and watching and waiting for the Lord, amen? That should be the attitude of our heart. Don't be like the foolish virgins who sort of like, well, the master's delayed, my lamp isn't full, I'll go about my life and then when I think he might be coming, then I'll get down to business, friends. That is not the out that Jesus talked about. But let's continue. In John 9,4,

Howard Green:Jesus said this, must work, excuse me, we must work the works of him who sent us. Why it is still day, the night is coming when no one can work. The time to work is now, the time to do the will of God is now because again, your friends, we're not guaranteed tomorrow. The other thing too is we're instructed to pray. So as we use our time wisely, what does the Bible say? We're instructed to pray without ceasing and make the most of the days.

Howard Green:Because the days are evil, right? That's Ephesians 5, 15, and 16. I'll read it to you in its exact context. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. So anyway, the fact is that as Christians, being a good steward of our time goes, as I said, the beginning of the podcast, well beyond a well-managed schedule because our time doesn't belong to us. Our time, literally, if you're a Christian,

Howard Green:Belongs to the Lord. And I don't have the scripture and the verse in front of me, but I can tell you this. What does he say? He goes, your life is not yours. You were bought with a price. Right. Now, using our time wisely. There's all sorts of things we can do. Part of using our time wisely might be sitting on the floor and playing with your kids or taking your teenage daughter on a lunch or dinner date. Dads, right. Or mom's taking your son out on a lunch or dinner date or vice versa.

Howard Green:It might be spending time with your spouse at dinner or in prayer because all these things are honoring to God. So many people, and listen, I've talked to them, you've talked to them, you might be one of them. They gripe, they have very little time or no time for prayer or Bible study or witnessing about Jesus to others. Yet you think about it, we feel collectively, we fill our time with hours of activities that won't matter in eternity.

Howard Green:Friends, can you imagine what would happen if all true Christians started to redeem the time as though Jesus might come back at any minute? Because he might. Our walk with the Lord will be marked by a renewed boldness for him and love for lost souls. We don't have a minute to waste. In this life, we don't have a minute to waste. I'm not talking about some leisure time or downtime or taking a nap or taking a hike or taking a walk. All those things are good uses of time. But what I'm talking about is letting the days

Howard Green:In the weeks, in the months, in the years, in the decades go by and they slip through your fingers and you're thinking, I didn't have time to pray, hardly. I didn't have time to read my Bible consistently. I didn't have time to go out and witness for the Lord and be a good witness for him and share the gospel. But friends, those intentions, they're marked by days and hours and minutes and seconds that slip by unaccounted for. Amen.

Howard Green:We have to make the most of those times. So as we consider people who don't know Jesus as the Lord, reality, and here's the thing, friends, the reality that they will soon face God's wrath, that should compel us to make the most of every second we have available to share the good news with them. The problem is, and you know what I'm talking about, many, not all, thank God for the remnant church, but many of our modern churches are nothing more than swanky spiritual country clubs

Howard Green:And they're bringing with people who have itching ears. They want to hear what's good for them, what's in it for them, what the pastor can do for them, what the church has for them, what the church has for the family. They have itching ears, but not broken hearts for lost souls. And that's the reality. Second Timothy four three says, there's a time coming when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will have itching ears.

Howard Green:And they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Friends, having we arrived at that point, you think about it right now, the average church in America, in the West, I'm sure in England, I've got many other pastoral friends in England and different parts of the world that will attest to the fact that many of our churches are nothing but spiritually sounding country clubs, albeit with a cross and a door, and they mention the name of Christ, and they mention the gospel, but that is a mile wide

Howard Green:And then shtit because you have programs and activities galore, but very little preaching on the gospel and very little actually reaching the unreached. And that's a fact.

Howard Green:But there are still local churches, and hear me out, because I love the local church. I love the church. There are still local churches where remnant Christians gather together to make much of Jesus, not themselves. And where's the mandate to do this? Well, here it is in Hebrews 10.25. Do not neglect the assembling of yourselves together, as is the habit of some, but you encourage one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. We understand that as we approach the return of Jesus,

Howard Green:As we see the day approaching, as we discern the times and the seasons, we know, friends, we have this much time, very little time left to go out and do the Lord's work. That's to reach the lost no matter what it takes. Go out to the highways and the hedges, the workplaces, the schools, your college dorms, everywhere to make Jesus known and go out there and compel people to come in.

Howard Green:And I think about it because as these seconds tick away, you're with these people.

Howard Green:And all the time that we spend in quote unquote getting to know people and the endless coffee talk and the endless activities and the endless getting them to trust us. Well, friend, you may never see these people again sometime. And it's a fact the only chance they might get to hear the gospel and hear about eternity is when they're with you. Will you have a chance to meet them again? We have a chance to do lunch with them again? I don't know. So friends,

Howard Green:The Bible says if you hear his voice, not their heart and your heart, today is the day of salvation. You might be the very one the Lord is using to bring people to saving faith in Jesus, amen? And whether they come or not, that's up to them. And that's really up to the Holy Spirit. He's out there doing his work, pulling on their hearts. Your job is to be faithful and to plant a seed, amen? But let's make the most of these seconds. That's not a rebuke, that's an exhortation. I'm preaching to myself too.

Howard Green:We got to make the most of every second.

Howard Green:So when we realize the road to eternity is measured in seconds, we will have a renewed sense of biblical urgency to compel lost people to come to repentance and to saving faith. Friends, we're not dealing with numbers. We're not dealing with converts. We're dealing with lost souls that'll enter eternity without a savior. Eternity apart from Jesus in hell and eternal conscious torment. And we don't want that for anybody. Pardon me. Here's a quote from Leonard Ravenhill. And I think this puts

Howard Green:What exactly we're talking about in perspective, ready? Leonard Ravenhill said this, right now, people are being swept into the vortex of a sewer of gross iniquity, which ultimately will suck them down into an eternal hell. So friends, if we love Jesus and lost souls, we don't have a second to waste. Here's the other thing, don't put off reaching people until you feel equipped, right? I mean, think people say this to me a lot.

Howard Green:I'm not a preacher, I'm not an evangelist, I'm not really a witnessing person. I sort of just want to be in the background and love on them and I get that. But friends, don't put off reaching people until you feel equipped and why is this? This is an exhortation to you, an encouragement to you because if the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, consider yourself equipped. He has given you everything you need. His word, his spirit, a broken heart for lost people.

Howard Green:So as you plan and pray, if the Lord's will be done in your life, He'll direct you. And since the road to eternity is measured in seconds, we can't assume that we'll have the old age to serve the Lord. You think about it. A lot of people, and I've heard it over the years, will say, well, you know, I'll serve God. I'll really get on fire when I get older. Well, friends, that time might not come. Listen, I have a good friend. I'm not gonna mention his name, but he was a pastor and he died a couple of months ago.

Howard Green:He died at the age of 57 or 58 with plans to go minister to another city, another place, another time, and the Lord took him home. He reached eternity. Everything that he did for Jesus on this earth stopped at that moment that he entered eternity. Why do I say this? Not to make you fear or inflame your emotions, but to remind you, including myself, we have a very limited, allotted amount of time that we have to serve the Lord here. We can't assume that we have to old age

Howard Green:To serve God or do what we're going to do for him. Friends do it today. Two dear brothers were called home to be with the Lord at a very young age. But man, they might they made quite an impact for his kingdom in just a few years. Listen to this William Borden. Some of you might know about him. Some might not. William Borden was born in 1887 into a very wealthy family. After conversion around the age of 16, the young billionaire, he was a billionaire. His dad made money in gold mining. He went on a

Howard Green:Trip, excuse me, a trip around the world and while in London he felt called to foreign missions. So he went on a trip around the world just to check everything out and while he was in London he felt the call to foreign missions. So he had a desire to bring the good news to the Wei tribe, the Wei Muslims in northern, northwestern China. These were a group of Muslims in northwestern China but first he went to Cairo to study Islam.

Howard Green:And Arabic before going on to China. Now think about this, that was his heart, right? He went to Cairo, Egypt first, that's where he sailed to first, to learn Arabic so he could communicate with the Muslims and to spend time studying Islam. So he would be able to better reach these Islamic people. While in Egypt, he spent a lot of his time distributing Christian sermons on the streets of Cairo, handing out tracts of Christian sermons. That was William Borden's heart, this young man. But why William?

Howard Green:Was in Cairo, he contracted cerebral meningitis on March, in March 1913, it looks like. He died three weeks later. Three weeks later after getting meningitis. He was only 25 years old, but the seconds he had, he made count for eternity.

Howard Green:Friends, a vapor and a mist here and gone. What does that famous poem say? One life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last to me to live as Christ. Amen. How about this man? I know a lot of you know him. Beloved singer songwriter, Keith Green was born again at the age of 19. At the age of 19. I love Keith. If you ever get a chance to look up Keith Green's testimony,

Howard Green:On YouTube or somewhere else, look it up. It's an amazing testimony. I think he's on the, one of the programs, the Christian programs, Huntly Street, and he gives a detailed account of his testimony. And we also have that on one of our YouTube videos and one of our podcasts as well here, Concerned of the Times. But Keith Green was born again at the age of 19. And from that point on, whether he was composing soul-stirring worship songs, providing housing, him and his wife, Melanie, for marginalized people,

Howard Green:Are preaching the gospel. Keith Green lived a life of no compromise. And at the pinnacle of his ministry, he died in a plane crash at age 28. And that was back in 1982. So Keith Green died at age of 28.

Howard Green:After Keith Green came to saving faith in Jesus, he lived the remaining few years of his life for God's glory. Both William Borden and Keith Green's lives were brief, but these men both stand as a vivid testimony of what the Holy Spirit can accomplish in a person who understands that the road to eternity is measured in seconds. I want to read a quote from one of my favorite authors and one of my favorite preachers, it's Dave Hunt.

Howard Green:Davis went on to be with Jesus. He's been in eternity for a while now, but what a man of God he was and his words live on to the glory of God. Here's what Dave Hunt said about the brevity of life and eternity. Here it is. The longest life ends abruptly and one is suddenly ushered into eternity. Time has vanished into the past except as choices in words and deeds have affected eternity. And that was Dave Hunt.

Howard Green:And you know, I've spoke a lot today on the podcast to Christians and encouraging you and admonishing you and myself, by the way, to go out there and make the most of every single second we have for Jesus. Amen. Time on this earth is short. Just like my friend, the pastor overseas, we don't know when the Lord's gonna call us home. It could be today. So please, dear friends, if you're a Christian, make every second count on the road to eternity. Amen. But friends,

Howard Green:If you're listening to this podcast and you can't think of a time when you've come to saving faith in Jesus, you'd say, Howard, I know about Jesus, but I'm not a Christian. He's not my savior. I mean, I like him. I've heard about him. think he's interesting or, or I don't know much about him. Dear friend, I have to warn you about the eternal danger you're in. And like we said earlier in the podcast, no one is guaranteed tomorrow.

Howard Green:And do you know that approximately give or take a few thousand, 150,000 people die and go into eternity every day? Many go there unexpectedly. Now you think about it, some people are diagnosed with cancer or heart disease and they know the end's coming and they have a chance to repair their lives and get their affairs in order as it were and even make peace with their maker, with the God of the universe. But friends, a lot of people don't. I mean, the overwhelming majority go into eternity and it's sudden and it's quick.

Howard Green:It's so swift, they don't have a chance to get things right.

Howard Green:And the reality is, Jesus said that most people would take the wide road that leads to destruction and hell, not to eternal life. Friends, God's wrath will fall on an unrepentant people very soon. And the only way to be saved is to come to repentance and be born again. You think about it. And here's the fact, God does love you. He loves you with an everlasting love. He loves you so much that he sent Jesus, his only son, to die for you.

Howard Green:So that His blood would cleanse every sin you or I could ever commit. And friends, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, He will forgive every sin you've ever committed. And God the Father will look down and say, forgiven, why? That's because you put your faith in Jesus. You've been born again, you've come to repentance. But Jesus is the only way to eternal life. You can't work your way to heaven. You can't earn your way to heaven. It's by putting all of your faith and trust in Jesus.

Howard Green:John 14 six in the Bible, it says, I'm the way, the truth in the life and no one comes to the father. No one gets to God, no one gets to heaven except through me. That's except through Jesus. So dear friend, I'm pleading with you to come to saving faith in Jesus while you still have time, while there's still breath in your body. You could be a preteen, you could be a teenager, you could be a college age student. You might be a young mom or dad or a career aged.

Howard Green:Or you might be an older person. Listen, I'm pleading with you today. I don't care who you are or where you come from. You could be a Hindu, you could be a Muslim, you could be a Buddhist, you could be a Sikh, you could be a nominal Christian. You know, you're a church-goer, but never really come to saving faith in Jesus, friends. Why not do it today? I don't think it's a mistake that you happened upon this podcast. So I'm pleading with you as eternity rushes upon each one of us to make peace with God today through his son, Jesus. Amen.

Howard Green:And if you want to know more about that, you can go to my website. Our ministry site is www.concerningthetimes.com. If you go down to the menu page, there's a tab that says, are you saved? Mark. Click on that and I'll explain the good news to you in detail there. But I would plead with you to come to Saving Faith in Jesus today. So friends, remember the road to eternity is measured in seconds and each one might be a final opportunity to have our sins forgiven.

Howard Green:Come to Jesus today when there's still time. Friends, it's been another heavy subject today, but a subject that needs to be talked about as we get busy with the time of Christmas time coming up and Thanksgiving and planning for our family's get togethers and dinners and presents and all that. Friends, enjoy the reason for the season, enjoy celebrating Jesus coming to the earth the first time and dying for our sins and all that is so important. And as we do that,

Howard Green:Don't lose sight of the fact that he did it. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He came on a rescue mission. So if you're a Christian, go out there and interdict hell with that mindset and snatch people out of the fire. And friends, if you don't know Jesus, why not give yourself the best Christmas present of all? Give yourself eternal life. The only way that can get that is obtaining the free gift of salvation that Jesus bought for you on his cross. Amen.

Howard Green:God bless you, dear friends. Have a great week. I wanna wish you a happy Thanksgiving. We'll come back again in a couple of weeks with another relevant podcast that's all about the Lord, all about serving Him and making much of Him. Amen? God bless you guys. Happy Thanksgiving. Take care. Bye-bye.