The Church Meeting in Jesus’ Name
602 Oak Knoll Dr.
San Antonio, TX 78228
Epistle
August 2026
2026 Event Calendar
OCTOBER 24
- Men’s Meeting
NOVEMBER 29
- Thanksgiving Sunday – Dinner on the Grounds
- Open meeting for 2 hours
- Early Lord’s Supper
MARCH 5-14
- Revival Meeting with David Spurgeon
Time Is Wasting
10 Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah. Psalm 88
We all have favorite verses. Christians saved by grace tend to prefer the epistles of Paul, who explains grace like no other in the Bible. Grace is found in every book, to be sure, but Paul leaves no room for misinterpretation. However, when we preach grace, there is always someone who mentions James 2 because they are not “children” of grace, but “children” of works. Our headline text is one of the favorite verses of Jehovah’s Witnesses because important texts in their view follow:
11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? Psalm 88
JWs memorize these verses because they think that the soul dies when the body dies. According to their calculations, there is no consciousness or memory in death, but the dead person ceases to exist, like an animal. There are a few other verses they use to defend this idea:
Job 14:10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
Psalm 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Psalm 115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
Eccl. 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
Isa. 38:18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
All these verses are true, but they cannot contradict the clear verses in both testaments that say that the dead are still alive, and that they are conscious and have memory.
38 For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. Luke 20
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Php. 1
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 2 Cor. 5
In spite of being misused to pretend the dead cease to exist, the earlier verses are still true. And they have an important message, even for us Christians. All those misused verses speak primarily of the life of the body, not the life of the spirit. And the body does indeed die, and that is final. This does not contradict the survival of the spirit beyond death. But don’t miss the important message they contain concerning the spiritual life of Christians. This life is final, and after death there are many opportunities of this life that are gone forever. And some Christians live as though this were not true.
Consider our text. Does God perform miracles for the dead? Is praise after death of the same nature as praise in this life? Is there an opportunity to tell of the mercy of God to someone who does not know him after passing through the grave? Will there ever be the same sense of wonder concerning God once we have become accustomed to his very face? Will the patient searching out of truth continue, or will there be Bible-study meetings once we are in his very presence? What work, what industry, what profit will there be once we have entered into “rest”? Of what use will our wisdom be to the saints once they all have direct access to our Lord Jesus Christ?
The clear teaching of these important passages is that in death we forever lose all these opportunities to please God, that is, to exercise faith. For when we die and are in his presence, faith comes to an end, as does hope, leaving us with charity alone.
Thinking about it, we can see that we have a great blessing in this life which the angels never had, and can never have. The angels can never exercise faith. They have seen God, so it is no great thing that they worship him, or that they obey him. But a human being, having been born in ignorance, having to seek after God almost “feeling after” him, has the great opportunity to exercise faith. Would it be any wonder if we discovered that Gabriel or Michael loved our Lord Jesus Christ? In the same way, is it astonishing that Peter or James would serve the Lord unto death, having eaten and drunk with him, having seen his wonders, and having witnessed his ascension into heaven? I say our faith is more astonishing when we serve the Lord in the same way without having seen him. Nevertheless, although we now have opportunities that the angels and apostles did not have, we are wasting them daily, and once we are dead, we will regret that we did not take advantage of them.
Opportunity to Worship
8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
1 Peter 1
Although the saints in heaven themselves worship God, there are certain circumstances in this life that make our worship superior to theirs. First of all, in heaven everyone worships him, while in this life relatively few of us do so. As we can observe in any stadium full of enthusiastic fans, it is easy to become excited in the midst of a great multitude, everyone fervent, everyone energized. It is difficult not to be carried along by the current, and it is strange when someone does not run with the same “excess.” Thus, worship in heaven carries less weight than worship here, because there it will be difficult not to be caught up in the moment, but here it is an act of faith.
But what is more, worship here takes place in the midst of afflictions, which add sincerity to your words. Young people are always telling each other that they love one another, while they are healthy, both possessing the beauty of youth, and, moreover, filled with sexual desire. In truth, words spoken under such circumstances are worth little. Compare those same words in the midst of infirmity, when one is an invalid, burned, barely surviving, and surrounded by the stench of death. A husband who says to his wife as she lies suffering, “I love you, my best friend; I will never leave you; I love being with you; you are beautiful to me, the most beautiful woman in the world…” Are not those words worth more then? Without question. So it is with worship now compared with worship in the future. When we bless God now there is real weight in it. Our professions of love have genuine significance now. And think about it, if we do not say them now, we will feel like hypocrites when we say them then. Do not waste the limited opportunity to worship your Lord while all your words still carry weight. Tell him that you love him, that you long for him, that your soul thirsts for him. If you do not know how to worship him, read the Psalms and learn from David. Your opportunities are slipping away, brother and sister, and never again, throughout endless ages, will there be the possibility of worshiping God in the midst of difficult circumstances.
Opportunity for Prayer
A blind preacher in England in the early 1800s (William Walford), who managed to have memorized most of the Bible, quoting extensively in his sermons, also wrote a hymn we still sing, named Sweet Hour of Prayer. His words are relevant here:
This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize,
And shout, while passing thru the air,
“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”
The truth found in this song is little appreciated among us. The day you die, brother and sister, you will never pray again. During our days upon this earth, we have the opportunity to exercise faith in prayer, to ask of God and to receive from God provision and blessing. We have the opportunity to discern the will of God, and to move it as well. We can ask, we can plead, we can demand according to his will. We can protect our children in distant lands and dangerous situations; we can change the political circumstances in our country; we can see the sick healed; we can open closed doors; we can bring down strong towers. But after your soul flies upward faster than light, passes beyond the north star, breaks through the void, and finds itself in the presence of Jesus Christ himself, without need, without hunger, without affliction, without tears, without worries, without uncertainties, believing friend, the prayer of faith comes to an end. Here and now is your only opportunity to move the world. You have leverage with God: faith exercised in prayer.
Opportunity to Suffer Reproach
41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Acts 5
I have spent almost sixty years observing street preachers. I remember as a little boy watching my father preach in downtown San Antonio parked directly in front of the Alamo, back when the street passed close to it. I never felt ashamed or embarrassed by him. It seemed normal to me; it even seemed glorious. But when I reached adolescence, it was a different story. I was terrified of the embarrassment of being a Christian. Street preaching was the most embarrassing foolishness in Christianity. But nothing had changed. The preaching was the same. The only difference between my two attitudes toward preaching was my “world.” As a child my world was my home; as a young man my world was my friends. It is clear that in this world there is a shame attached to following Christ:
26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. Luke 9
But in that world which is to come, there will be no possibility of feeling shame for the love of Christ. There will be no one who thinks it is, or ever was, foolishness. The only opportunity we have to feel embarrassment and preach anyway is now. When you come to cross that murky Jordan, when you have finally entered into his rest, there will be no one to mock us, no one to hold us in contempt for the love of Jesus Christ. Instead, the sufferings we endure now will be our glories there, and we will deeply regret every lost opportunity to endure a blow, a curse, or humiliation for the sake of the gospel.
Opportunity to Win Souls
20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. James 5
I can think of no greater joy in this world than seeing a sinner saved. There is much disappointment in the work of winning souls, of course, for many are “converted” but do not change, or believe but do not repent, or are baptized but do not endure. But once you have seen a life truly changed, a man sanctified by the Spirit of God, who lives his faith, who follows the Lord, and especially one who goes on to win others as well, you understand the wonder of salvation. There is no other joy in this life that compares with it, for it is an eternal inheritance. But once “ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken” there will no longer be an opportunity to bring souls to the feet of the Savior. When the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, our harvest will forever be ended. There will be no more discussions with Jehovah’s Witnesses, no more disputes with angry Catholics downtown, no more patient reasoning with atheists and Muslims, and never again will you feel the ecstasy of guiding a penitent sinner to faith in the promises of Jesus Christ. No more baptisms, no more confessions of Christ in the park, no more testimonies of new converts in the open meetings. We have only a little time left, and then the opportunity is lost forever.
Opportunity to Overcome Temptation
It is said of the men who walked on the moon a generation ago that each one fell into depression after returning to earth. The highest mountain had been conquered, and there was nothing more to do. For one who has walked on the moon, a roller coaster is boring, horror movies put him to sleep, and the unknown future no longer brings suspense. So also for us once we cast off this body. What challenge will there be when temptation has lost its meaning? Just as the rich do not stoop down to pick up a discarded coin, neither will we see the attraction of temptations; instead, they will appear to us as the foolishness they truly are. But at this moment we have the opportunity to overcome real temptation. We can feel the attraction of evil and resist it victoriously. We can walk with heads held high in the midst of lusts and covetousness; we can even despise the things most coveted in this world, feeling their attraction yet resisting them. But once our nature loses its earthly sensibility, never again will there be the opportunity to exercise faith against temptation.
Opportunity to Give
The story is told of a hardhead who would not accept the truth that you cannot take anything with you when you die. So stubborn was he that, according to the one telling the story, heaven itself gave him permission to bring one thing with him. Before he died, the hardhead sold all his possessions and bought a suitcase full of gold. As he passed through the gate of heaven, everyone was curious to see what the hardhead had brought with him. When he opened the suitcase, someone exclaimed in amazement, “He brought pavement!”
In heaven, what will you give to God? Can you imagine any gift that he would esteem? Can you think of any sacrifice possible in heaven, where everyone has everything he could possibly desire, and where every jewel must shine in the presence of the One who himself outshines the sun? Will there be an opportunity to give an offering that has meaning? Will there be any possibility of deprivation in heaven, of denying oneself? I do not believe so. I believe the only opportunity we have to give, to abstain, to deny ourselves, is now. Death will consume the possibility of offering anything costly to our Lord.
Spiritual Understanding and Wisdom
One of my joys in this life is discovery in the Bible. I enjoy finding the answer to some problem; I enjoy finding references that clarify some question. I enjoy discovering prophecies and fitting them together like a puzzle. I enjoy having the Biblical answer to some unbelieving objection. I enjoy learning from some other preacher a Biblical truth that had been hidden from me. I love hearing the voice of the Spirit in my meditations, like a “still small voice,” giving me some wisdom, some answer. I enjoy putting together messages for preaching that follow the same spirit as the Bible. I want to learn to think as Christ thinks, I love his words and phrases, and I want my sermons to be filled with his meaning.
But what will become of spiritual understanding once everyone is taught by God? What use will my wisdom be when the All-Wise One is at hand? What benefit can I be to my people once they all stand at the feet of Jesus Christ and are confessed before the Father? Who will need me then? What unlearned person can I counsel in the congregation of just men made perfect?
Brethren, death brings finality to our opportunities. To lose a house, an inheritance, or a career is to lose nothing important. But to lose forever the opportunity to exercise faith is a serious consequence. We must take advantage of every moment of this life to worship our God before we see him, to offer what now seems valuable before its luster dissolves like snow. We must win souls, preach in the streets, endure reproach, and teach the simple while there is opportunity, because all these things will be forever lost the moment we die.