(1) LIFE IS SHORT

WE WILL DIE THEN BE JUDGED
KJV Hebrews 9:27
 27.  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

LIFE IS OF A FEW DAYS AS COMPARED TO THE DEATH OF A FLOWER
KJV Job 14:1-2
1.  Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.
 2.  He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

LIFE IS A VAPOR
KJV James 4:13-14
13.  Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
 14.  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

(2)HOW CAN I KNOW?
KEEP CHRIST AND THE PROMISE OF ETERNITY IS OURS
KJV 1 John 2:21-25
 21.  I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
 22.  Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
 23.  Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
 24.  Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
 25.  And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

GOD WILL REMEMBER OUR LABORS
KJV Hebrews 6:9-19
 9.  But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
 10.  For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
 11.  And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
 12.  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
 13.  For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
 14.  Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
 15.  And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
 16.  For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
 17.  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
 18.  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
 19.  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

THE PROMISES WE HAVE ARE GREAT
KJV 2 Peter 1:4-12
.  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
 5.  And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
 6.  And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
 7.  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
 8.  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 9.  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
 10.  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
 11.  For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
 12.  Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.

WE MUST FOLLOW CHRIST AND HIS FOOTPRINTS TO BE RIGHT IN HIS SIGHT
KJV 1 Peter 2:21
21. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

WE HAVE LIFE THROUGH CHRIST
KJV 1 John 5:9-13
9.  If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
 10.  He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.
 11.  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
 12.  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
 13.  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

WE NEED TO BE THANKFUL FOR OUR DELIVERENCE
KJV Colossians 1:12-14
 12.  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
 13.  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
 14.  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

WE NEED TO ASSURE OUR FOUNDATION
KJV Matthew 7:24-27
24.  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
 25.  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
 26.  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

(3) HE KEPT HIS PROMISE IN THE FIRST DESTRUCTION AS HE WILL IN THE SECOND
HE DESTROYED THE EARTH BY WATER AND THIS WILL NOT BE SO AGAIN
KJV Genesis 9:8-15
 8.  And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
 9.  And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
 10.  And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
 11.  And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
 12.  And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
 13.  I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
 14.  And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
 15.  And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

IT WILL BE DESTROYED BY FLAME
KJV 2 Peter 3:10-14
 10.  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
 11.  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
 12.  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
 13.  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
14. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

CONCLUSION:

TO KNOW THAT WE HAVE ETERNITY WE MUST ACCEPT THE PLAN OF SALVATION

HEARING – ROMANS 10:17
BELIEVING – JOHN 8:24
REPENTING – ACTS 2:38
CONFESSING – ROMANS 10:9-10

BAPTISM AT WHICH WE WILL BE SAVED BY WATER AS SO WAS NOAH
KJV 1 Peter 3:20-21
20.  Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

You then are added to the one Church (Eph 4:4, Eph 1:22-23, Matt 16:18)
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST 
 

Copyright 2000 by Brian Yeager may be reproducted for non-commercial purposes at no cost to others.