CORONAVIRUS REFLECTIONS

Justin Peters

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Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Justin Peters. I hope that you and your family are doing well today I want to thank you very much for joining me

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I'm putting this video together because I've been asked by a number of people to kind of share my thoughts on What we are all experiencing right now the corona virus and all the effects of it and a number of other people have done this

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As well some more ably than others some of what I've seen has been very good Others Not so much.

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So I'm just wanting to put together some of my own thoughts. I hope that this video will

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Encourage you and maybe even challenge you a little bit as well. I'm gonna break this down into five different Categories and or questions.

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I'm gonna begin by giving us a little bit of historical perspective as to what we are seeing right now and then we are going to ask the question is this a judgment from God and Then we will consider whether or not

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God caused this and Then we will ask is the corona virus a test for us

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And then we will conclude by asking is there hope for us? So let's dive right into this first a little bit of historical perspective

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As bad as things may seem right now They have been worse before they have been a lot worse before I did a little bit of research and Let's look at some numbers just to contrast with what we're seeing today

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Back in the 14th century, which of course would have been the 1300 so about 700 years ago

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The black death killed not infected killed 50 million people in Europe that is a staggering number

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Especially when you consider that the world's population was not nearly what it is now in killing 50 million people in Europe the black death

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Killed half of Europe's population literally one out of every two people in Europe Died from the black death about 700 years ago.

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So we're not looking at anything Like that on that kind of a scale with the corona virus a bit more

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Modern times a little bit over a hundred years ago in 1918 the

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Spanish flu came it infected 500 million people and killed anywhere from 17 to 50 million people.

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I've seen some reports up to a hundred million. I'm not sure why there's such a discrepancy there but nonetheless it killed on the order of tens of Millions of people and this was just a little bit over a hundred years ago again.

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We're not looking at Anything like the Spanish flu with the corona virus, so Modern times.

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I mean very modern right now. I went to the CDC website Centers for Disease Control and according to the

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CDC Last year in this country not worldwide just in this country the flu the regular

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Generic flu that we get every single year in this country killed 34 ,000 people last year killed 34 ,000 people

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This year alone so far according to a report that was released on March the 13th of 2020

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Which was just about two weeks ago as of this recording recording

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So as of two weeks ago the flu in this country has killed 22 ,000 people and there's been over 370 ,000 hospitalizations thus far this year just from the generic flu and the generic flu has killed 22 ,000 now the corona virus the last

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I looked today So far in the United States there have been 75 ,000 diagnosed cases of corona virus and 1070 deaths

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From the corona virus the flu killed 22 ,000 it has killed 22 ,000 this year killed 34 ,000 last year 22 ,000 thus far this year in the corona virus 1070 now that number of course will go up how much it will go up.

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We don't know but So, you know you look at the numbers and it kind of puts things in a bit of perspective here that yes, it's bad

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I think one of the things that makes the corona virus so dangerous is that it is very

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It's highly highly contagious Spreads more easily than some other strains of the flu

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But we're still not looking from a historical perspective anything of the of what we've seen the scale of things

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That we've seen before now We don't know how many people have been infected by the corona virus

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There's been 75 ,000 Diagnosed cases a little over a thousand deaths as of right now

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So you run the numbers on that and that gives you the mortality rate of about I think it's 1 .3

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to 1 .5 percent right now last I saw But there's way more people in this country than 75 ,000 who actually have the corona virus

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There's no way to know how many people actually have it right now, there's there's no telling

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I think I mean far far more than what have been diagnosed

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Now we know how many people have died from it. That's a hard number We don't know how many people have it.

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So the mortality rate they're calculating from the number of diagnosed cases Compared with the number of fatalities and it's giving you 1 .3

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or 1 .4 1 .5 percent fatality rate but when you consider that far more people have the corona virus than what have actually died from it,

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I think the Fatality rate mortality rate I should say of the corona virus is a lot lower than that one point whatever

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Percent so I'm not saying that it's not serious and I'm look I'm not a doctor But you know, these are these are just numbers that we should all be able to agree upon.

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So yes, it's serious Yes, we should take precautions. So anyway, I hope that that kind of puts things into a bit of perspective for you.

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So Very serious. Yes, but we're not dealing with we're not dealing with the black death either

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Okay. Now the next question. Is this a judgment of God?

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Yes, yes This is a judgment of God at least in a very general sense in that What we are seeing today with the corona virus is a manifestation of the wrath of God against sin in a general sense

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Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and they brought sin into the world in Romans 5 12

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It passed throughout the whole human race as a virus like a virus pardon the pun

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But ever since Adam and Eve sinned against God Every natural disaster whether it's tornadoes fires

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Hurricanes earthquakes blizzards droughts All of these are a result of sin.

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This is one of the manifestations of God's judgment against sin in a very general sense.

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So is sickness and disease So is cerebral palsy what I've got my cerebral palsy is a result of sin.

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It is a result. It is a It is a manifestation of God's judgment against sin

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Not my personal sin, but the sin of Adam and Eve Okay multiple sclerosis cancer arthritis

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And viruses all of these things they these are manifestations of the wrath of God against sin in a general sense

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So yes, it is a judgment of God. Is it a judgment against believers?

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No, if you are in Christ, if you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord if you've been born again

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You are regenerate you have been adopted into the family of God through the merits of Christ Then according to what

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Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verse 1 There is now therefore no condemnation

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For those who are in Christ Jesus if you are in Christ Jesus your sins have been paid for and you are under no condemnation in a judicial sense and In an eschatological sense against God you're the wrath of God that burned against your sin was satisfied in the personal work of Jesus Christ and so You and I as Christians are not subject to the wrath of God in a judicial sense in an eschatological sense

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Now we still live in a fallen world, right? And the fallen world all of creation as Paul says in Romans We'll just read this

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Romans chapter 8 Romans 8 20 through 22 For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly

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But because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption

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Into the freedom of the glory of the children of God For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now and so all of creation groans under the strain and the weight and the

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Consequences of sin and you and I are part of that creation you and I even though we are redeemed and we have

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Our sins have been paid for you and I live in a fallen world that Groans under the weight of sin.

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And so yes, the coronavirus is a judgment of God in a general sense It is not a judgment against believers.

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It is not a judgment against your sin Christians are not subject to the wrath of God.

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However, you and I as Christians Absolutely are subject and we don't do go through Various times in our lives the discipline of God, but the discipline of God is a very different thing from the wrath of God Okay, so if you're a

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Christian, no, this is not God judging you. Okay. It is a judgment in a very general sense against sin

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Now, let me also say that the United States of America as a whole is under the judgment of God A lot of people said well, you know if we if we several years ago if we legalize gay marriage homosexual marriage

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That's gonna bring the judgment of God. No, no, no. No, it's not going to bring the judgment of God It is the judgment of God read

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Romans chapter 1 this is God giving people over to depraved minds to do those things which are not fitting and homosexual marriage is just one of the manifestations of The wrath of God's abandonment on people giving people over to depraved minds and so it's not a matter of if It's not even a matter of when the

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United States is going to come under the judgment of God We already are we already are and homosexual marriage approves that so anyway

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So now we turn our attention to the question. Did God cause this and the short answer to that question

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Is yes Yes, he did. Let's go to scripture Isaiah chapter 45 6 through 7 says that men may know from the rising to the setting of the

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Sun that there is no one besides me I am Yahweh and there is no other

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The one forming light and creating darkness causing well -being and creating calamity

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I am Yahweh who does all these Now I know your translation likely says

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Lord there, but the that name is Yahweh That's God's proper name, and I wish that our

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English translations would employ it We would start calling God by his name Yahweh, but at any rate that's a another conversation for another matter

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So this seems pretty clear does it not Isaiah 45 gives very clear testimony that God Forms light and he creates darkness

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He causes well -being and he creates calamity now in if you have the King James that word is rendered as evil

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I think the better rendering there is Calamity, but the short answer yes

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Everything that happens that is is bad whether we're talking about tornadoes or Wildfires or hurricanes or droughts or floods earthquakes

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I say earthquakes these are all part of God's judgment against sin, and he does

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Send these things We see a number of times in the Bible that God sins

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For example he sent he sent plagues right in Egypt. He sent plagues he sent pestilence so God does do these things and God creates calamity this is part of his overall judgment against sin

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And I think we need to stop trying to absolve God for Responsibility for the things that that happened today.

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He does cause these things these are expressions of his General wrath against sin as we were discussing in our last question because these two points are closely tied to one another

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I want to take you to another passage Let's go to the book of Amos Amos chapter 3 verses 6 through 7

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Says if a trumpet is blown in the city will not the people tremble if a calamity occurs in a city has not

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Yahweh done it Surely Yahweh God does nothing unless he reveals his secret counsel to his servants the prophets now

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I Can't help but to smile a little bit with this passage because you hear the word faith charismatic people quote

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Amos 3 7 all the time Surely God does nothing unless he first reveals it to his prophets.

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They really like to quote verse 7 They don't like quoting verse 6 so much because it very clearly here says if a calamity occurs in the city

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Has not Yahweh done it Clearly the answer to that Question is yes.

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Yahweh has done it. Surely surely he has done these things. So I find it somewhat amusing That as we're talking here about the corona virus this particular calamity that has all of our attentions right now

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The word faith people are very fond of claiming quoting verse 7. They don't quote verse 6 and And God didn't give any of the charismatic prophets a heads -up about the corona virus as I demonstrated in my last video

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So, oh the irony But the overall point here dear friends is is difficult to miss

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There's no amount of hermeneutical gymnastics that you can go through to get away

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Get away from texts like Isaiah 45 In Amos chapter 3. Yes.

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God does these things? He absolutely does Let's go to Isaiah chapter 46 verses 9 through 10 says

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Remember the former things long past for I am God and there is no other I am

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God. There is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning and From ancient times things which have not been done saying my purpose will be established and I will

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Accomplish all my good pleasure dear friends God has decreed all things

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From eternity past there is nothing that happens that does not happen as a result of God's eternal decree

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God is not responsible for Evil in the sense that it

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Evil sin was introduced Not by God, but by Adam and Eve Adam and Eve introduced sin

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So God did not do that Adam and Eve did and they bear the responsibility of that course has been passed on as we were talking about But even even though God there is no darkness in God.

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There's no shadow of turning with him God uses even Evil in even even sin you could say

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God uses that as part of it is within his Sovereign decree and he is sovereign over these things.

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He is sovereign over them Uses them as part of his eternal decree. They are components of his eternal decree and yet there is no shadow of turning within God and if that if that Scrambles your mind just a little bit.

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It's okay. It does mine too. There are minds are finite Not only are they finite but they're fallen

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So our fallen finite minds cannot wrap around all of the things of the thrice holy eternal triune

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God But but scripture is very clear that that God decrees all things

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From beginning to end and so we need to stop trying to absolve God of responsibility When these things come to pass and he is he sends him he is sovereign over them

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I want to look at Job chapter 2 as well You remember the story of Job of course

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Job was upright an upright man blameless Walk before God or walk with God rather I should say

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And God allowed Satan to come and to strike from Job everything that he had his possessions

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Destroyed his family dead and then Satan came and smote

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Job with boils on his skin Look at this in John John Job chapter 2

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Then his wife Job's wife said to him Do you still after all these things that happened to him?

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Do you still hold fast your integrity curse God and die? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Job's wife

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Did not have mercy as her predominant spiritual gifts He was not the most encouraging lady curse

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God and die But he said to her you speak as one of the foolish women speaks Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity in all this

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Job did not sin with his lips That's spiritual maturity shall we not accept

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Adversity from God as well as the good that is spiritual maturity and in saying this

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Job did not sin with his lips So dear friends, we need to be grateful and thankful for all of the nice kind Good providences of God the things that we enjoy our health our sense of sight which a lot of people don't have our

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You know our the roof over our head the food that we eat the clothing that we have friends family a beautiful sunset, you know the

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All of these all of these nice things of life that all of us enjoy.

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We need to be grateful for those things And we also need to accept the things from God that are not so pleasant that are difficult that are trials we must accept these as well and accept all of it as a

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His providences of God in our lives You know,

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I was having lunch with my pastor my former pastor We've Kathy not moved from one from Idaho to Montana, but a few years ago

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Jim Osmond and I were having lunch Some of you may have heard me say this before but Jim said if God were to strike from me

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Everything that I have take away my possessions take away my home take away my children take away my wife and leave me to die

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Cold and alone a slow painful death in a ditch by myself and then send me straight to hell

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He would have done me no wrong And you know what that may sound harsh But he's right

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He would have done Jim no wrong And if he would do that to you and if he were to do that to me, he would have done us no wrong

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Dear friends anything short of hell is The mercy of God because that is what you and I deserve

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So It's easy for us to get into this kind of almost an

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Entitlement mentality that God somehow owes us Comfort in this life. He doesn't the one thing that we are owed is

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The one thing that we really don't want and that is hell and God has made a way of escape For us from hell.

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So anything short of that is the mercy of God. So Let us be very reluctant to complain about things in our lives that are not going well because we deserve

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Far far worse. So yes to wrap this up this question at least yes

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God is the one who sends these things. Okay. All right. Now let us look at our next ones is

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The coronavirus a test for us Yes, the coronavirus certainly is a test for us in a in a couple of different ways

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One of the things that has struck me about the coronavirus is that? You know as of this recording

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Thursday, March 26 2020 a month ago Things were really good in this country.

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I mean we were The economy was roaring we were we were at full employment the stock market

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Shattering record highs. I mean just going up and up and up You know things are going well wages are rising economy was arguably maybe the strongest economy that we've ever had in this country and Boy things are quite different now and I know that most of you probably watching this or political conservatives as am

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I and the temptation is there to kind of maybe

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Take a little bit of pride take a little bit of Confidence and assurance not so much in God, but in the

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Good old us of a right. I mean leave it living in good times, you know, we look at the economy strong Look at the military strongest military that the world has ever seen a

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Month ago everything. I mean just kind of a little bit maybe a little bit of a chest thumping on our part even some of us as Christians, maybe

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Boy how things have changed and here we are just a few weeks later and something as small as a virus a microscopic virus has brought the economy to its knees and No matter what we have in our military know there there no amount of M1a2 Abrams tanks or f -15s or f -16s or f -18s

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F -22s f -35s b2 bombers b1 bombers Aircraft carriers

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ICBMs No matter how much how strong our military is all of our military might

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Can't kill a microscopic virus It is this this virus has brought this country

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Basically to its knees right now and I'm reminded of what the psalmist says in Psalm chapter 20 verse 7

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Some boast in chariots some in horses, but we will boast in the name of Yahweh our

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God It's easy to kind of boast in the United States, wasn't it about a month ago strong economy world's mightiest military

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And yet this little thing this little microscopic Coronavirus has brought all of that to its knees and our military is impotent against a virus so Dear friends.

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I think this has served in a very dramatic way to kind of let us realize that our Confidence cannot be in the

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United States or wherever it is in the world that you are living You know, I actually looked at some of the stats from my videos

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I was shocked to see how many people around the world watch this so no matter where it is that you live

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Our confidence it cannot be in our government cannot be in our countries our respective countries or military or economy or any of those things

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We say we trust in the Lord. We say we boast in the Lord But that's kind of easy to say isn't it when when everything is going well

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When the economy is strong when we have a nice job and there's money in the bank and our our bodies are healthy

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It's it's even easy to say. Oh, yeah, I trust in the Lord a Little bit harder to say in times like this a little bit harder and Finally, is there hope?

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Yes, there certainly is and regardless of how the coronavirus pandemic ends up or plays out

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Our ultimate hope is the gospel of Jesus Christ The coronavirus

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I think has shown the entire world How quickly life can change and how uncertain that it is and for a lot of people their own mortality

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Is more in the forefront of their minds and what it normally is all of us Know at least intellectually that one of these days we're going to die

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But for most of us, you know death seems like something way down the road far off in the future

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But in times like this We're a little bit more aware of our own mortality

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And so if you are watching right now and you are not certain of where you are in your relationship

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With God if you're not certain of where you would go when your appointment with death comes

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Let me share with you what God's Word has to say about that All of us are sinners

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All of us have broken God's laws and just like when we break laws on earth.

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There's a penalty to be paid How much more so when we break the laws of God, but unlike breaking laws on earth, which just have a temporal

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Penalty temporal consequences when we sin against God we have sinned against the one who is eternal and Because we have sinned against God who is eternal the consequences of those sins are also

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Eternal and all of us have broken God's laws Thousands of times we are liars.

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We have lied to people we have Blasphemed the name of God in both our words and our deeds we are thieves

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We have taken something that does not belong to us. We are adulterers at heart at least at heart

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Jesus says if you look at a woman with lust you've committed adultery already in your heart And so if you've looked at another person with lust you're an adulterer and we have we have broken

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God's laws thousands of times We have sinned against The eternal, holy, holy, holy

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God and none of our little piddling good works are going to make up For the sin that we have committed against God In fact, the

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Bible says that our works apart from God are as filthy rags Isaiah chapter 64 it's a very gross description actually in the

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Hebrew. It's our works are as filthy rags You're not gonna help enough little old ladies across the street to earn the favor of God.

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That is an impossibility That's an that's an insult to God to To try to portray your works is somehow going to appease the sin that you have committed against him

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That's that's an insult to God. It will not work. We have no righteousness on our own

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None, there is none righteous. No, not one Paul says in Romans chapter 3

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We need the righteousness of someone else and that someone else dear ones is

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Jesus Christ God sent his son Jesus Christ to this earth the

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God man fully God Fully man one person with two natures in Jesus lived a perfect life

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He never broke any of God's laws in Jesus willingly laid down his life on the cross

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His life was not taken. He gave it. He gave his life on the cross as a sacrifice to pay for our sins a perfect person

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Jesus Christ offered a once -for -all by the way Once for all perfect sacrifice not to be repeated again as the

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Roman Catholic Church teaches once for all perfect sacrifice Perfect person offered a perfect sacrifice that perfectly

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Satisfied God's perfect wrath He died on the cross and three days later bodily raised from the dead

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Proving himself to be who he said he was God in human flesh The only way to be saved is to have his righteousness

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How does that righteousness come it comes when we repent of our sin and place our trust in?

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What he did for us on the cross? We place our faith in him and I want to say something about repentance

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Repentance is not just willing yourself to Turn over a new leaf or willing yourself to turn away from certain sins.

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That's not what repentance is Genuine repentance number one is in and of itself granted by God God grants repentance

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Acts chapter 5 Acts chapter 11 2nd Timothy chapter 2 God grants repentance and when

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God grants repentance It results in a lot more than just a change in mind as you hear so often the word

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Repentance in the Greek metanoia means a change in mind. Well, that is what the word itself means

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But when you look at how that word is used in Scripture It means a lot more than just a change in mind genuine repentance dear friends when

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God grants repentance It does result in a change of mind, but it results in a change to life

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Not only our mind or our minds changed everything about us is changed

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Our affections are changed our desires are changed

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We begin to love what God loves and hate what God hates So has there been a change in your life?

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Do you have a godly sorrow over your sin? The Bible speaks of this two different kinds of sorrow over sin a worldly sorrow in a godly sorrow a worldly sorrow is nothing more than a guilty conscience a worldly sorrow is the kind of sorrow that says

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What would happen to me if my sin were exposed? What would be the consequences to me?

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And so we try to cover up our sin not because we grieve over it But because we don't want the consequences of that sin

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But if we could get away with it, you see if nobody would know about it We would go right back to it

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That's a worldly sorrow and Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 that a worldly sorrow leads to death eternal death

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But there's another kind of sorrow over sin and that is a godly sorrow What is a godly sorrow?

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A godly sorrow over sin comes when we grieve over our sin When we grieve over our sin because we understand that our sin grieves

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God and we do not want to grieve Him we do not want to grieve his person

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Godly sorrow is what David had in Psalm chapter 51 Remember David David the king had committed

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Gross sin, right? He had committed murder. He had committed adultery and well committed murder to cover up his adultery and Then his friend

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Nathan came to him in 2nd Samuel chapter 12 and Nathan pointed his finger at him and he

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I'm paraphrasing Summarizing a story here, but Nathan looked at David. He said you were the man he confronted

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David in a sin and David was broken And he cried out he said against you and you alone

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Oh Lord have I sinned That's a godly sorrow because even though David had committed sin against other people murder and adultery

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He knew that his sin was first and foremost against God and it grieved him because he knew

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That his sin grieved God does your sin grieve you? It's not that a

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Christian cannot sin but Christians don't Enjoy sin.

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They don't live in sin. They don't swim in it They don't look for opportunities to sin.

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They don't plan sin out. They don't relish it When a Christian sins it grieves him does your sin grieve you?

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Because you understand that your sin grieves God it grieves his person if you are watching right now, and you realize that you are a sinner and your sin grieves you and You you are grieved by that because you know that it grieves

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God Then I would implore you go to the

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Lord if you're not certain of where you are with him go to the Lord Confess your sins before you cry out to him ask him to forgive you ask him to grant you repentance

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Place your faith in Jesus Christ and him alone And if dear one if you will come to Christ in a true godly sorrow over your sin

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If you come to him, he will save you He will save you

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Jesus says the one who comes to me. I will in no wise cast out you will pass from death to life and no matter when that Appointment with physical death comes for you.

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It is the only death you will ever taste a brief physical death and then

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Glorification all of eternity with Christ Enjoying him forever.

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And that is our hope that is our sure hope so If you grieve over your sin

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Cry out to him. He will save you. Thank you very much for watching dear ones May the