Unbelievers and the Law of God

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew chapter 5.
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Hold your place at verse 19.
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Matthew chapter 5 and verse 19.
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In our message last Sunday, we dealt with a foundational subject in regard to our faith.
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And that is the relationship between the Christian and the law of God.
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I made some points that I would like to now reiterate before moving on to our message for today as they set the stage for what we're going to study.
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Last week, we discussed the fact that Christ fulfilled the law of God.
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He did not abolish it, but rather He obeyed it perfectly and fulfilled every requirement of it.
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His life was one lived in perfect obedience to the law of God.
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He filled it to the brim, as it were.
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He did that in all of God's laws, all of the ceremonial, all of the governmental, and even all of the moral laws were fulfilled perfectly in Christ.
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He satisfied the requirement of the law perfectly.
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Now, the believing Christian is said to be in Christ, which is why the Apostle Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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You see, all the sins that we have committed, all of the sins that we will ever commit, have been charged to Christ, and He paid for them on the cross.
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As we read in our opening text for worship this morning, Colossians 2, verse 14, it says that all of our sins were nailed to the cross.
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Thus, for the believer, the law has a very specific function.
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First, it showed us our need of a Savior.
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Paul tells us in Galatians 3, verse 24, that the law was our schoolmaster which leads us to Christ.
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The law shows us how helpless we are, and how our righteousness really is as filthy rags.
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In addition, the law shows us why Christ came.
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Christ did not come just to live a good life.
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Christ did not come just to live an exemplary life.
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Christ came to live a perfect life.
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In regard to the law of God, His was the only life to ever fulfill in toto the law of God.
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Now, that's a condensed version of what I said last week.
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Christ fulfilled the law.
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Christians are in Christ.
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As a result, the law has been fulfilled on our behalf, and now there is no condemnation for us.
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That's breaking everything I said last week down into just a few moments.
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I wanted to set the stage with that, because I know not only were some of you not here, but also I think it bears on what we're going to say this morning.
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This week, I want to look at a key portion of the text that we read last week.
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Last week we read a couple of verses together, but this week we're only going to look at one.
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Specifically, the one which regards the relaxing of the law of God.
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Now, that's the way it says it in the ESV.
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It says relax.
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In the New American Standard Version, it says annul, and in the King James, New King James, and NIV, it says break the law.
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That's the word we're going to be looking at today, because believers are accused by the world of doing that very thing.
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We are accused of relaxing the law of God, because we don't practice sacrifices.
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We don't obey strict dietary laws.
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We wear clothes that have both cotton and wool thread, which the Bible talks about in the Old Testament, is we're not to mix wool, we're not to mix fabrics.
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So all of these things Christians are...
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Well, you guys are hypocrites, because you break those laws.
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But what I want to show you this morning, beloved, that it is not the Christian who relaxes the law of God, but it is actually the unbeliever who is under the condemnation of this passage.
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So that being said, let us stand together.
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Read chapter 5, verse 19 of the Gospel of Matthew.
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Verse 19 tells us, Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
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But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
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Our Father and our God, we thank You for this opportunity to study Your Word.
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We thank You for this opportunity to look at the law of God again, to understand it afresh, and how it operates both in the life of the believer and in the life of the unbeliever.
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To the believer it is life, and to the unbeliever it is death.
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And Father, I pray that You would keep me from error as I seek to bring this message.
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And I pray that Your Holy Spirit would ultimately be the teacher of hearts today, opening hearts to understand the text.
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And also, Lord, if there are those among us who have not received the Gospel, who have not been changed by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that this morning that You would move on them toward that very thing.
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In Jesus' name we pray and for His sake, Amen.
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The title of the message this morning is The Unbeliever and the Law of God.
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Now before we get to the meat of the message, I want to make sure that we have a proper definition of terms.
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Unbeliever can mean different things in different contexts.
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In fact, I am an unbeliever about many things.
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I am an unbeliever in regard to Islam.
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In fact, an Islamic person would call me an infidel, which means an unbeliever.
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I am an unbeliever in regard to the word faith movement.
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I think these charlatans are using the Gospel for financial gain.
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They are not preaching the true Gospel.
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So I am an unbeliever when it comes to that.
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I am an unbeliever when it comes to the promises of most politicians.
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So when we talk about being a believer and an unbeliever, we understand we have to make a context.
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We have to understand the context of what that means.
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In today's message, when we use the term unbeliever, we are going to be very specific with our definition.
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We are going to use the term unbeliever to describe someone who does not have a genuine living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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An unbeliever in this sense is an unregenerate individual.
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Or in layman's terms, a person who has not been born again.
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Or even simpler terms, he is not saved.
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There are a lot of people out there, by the way, who claim to be Christians.
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But yet they are not.
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They pay lip service to Christ.
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And beloved, lip service is not faith.
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Faith gives a desire to follow Christ.
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And lip service to Christ is not faith, because they do not have a genuine desire to follow after Him.
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James, in his epistle, makes this point.
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He says that such faith that does not result in works that are pleasing to God, faith that does not result in works that are desirous to follow after Christ, is dead faith.
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It is not genuine.
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It is not living.
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It is dead.
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As a result, the world can be boiled down into two categories.
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And I know some people, as I mentioned in my communion message this morning, sometimes we get too busy categorizing people.
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And we sometimes overly do it.
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But I think that it is important that we understand that the world can ultimately be boiled down into two categories.
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Christ did this quite a bit in His parables, talking about the sheep and the goats, the weed and the pears.
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You know, He always made that separation.
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But ultimately, He is referring to those who are in Christ and those who are not.
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Those who are in Him and those who are not in Him.
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And those who are not in Christ are unbelievers.
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So that is how we are using the term today in our message.
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Within the realm of unbelief, there is great variety.
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But for today, I am going to look at simply three different types of unbelief or unbelievers.
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We are going to look at the religious unbeliever.
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This is the person who has strong religious convictions but has no allegiance to Christ.
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We are going to look at the atheistic unbeliever.
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This is the person who has strong beliefs about the non-existence of God and by extension would have no belief in Christ.
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And we are going to look at the unconcerned unbeliever.
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Who is the unconcerned unbeliever? We are going to get to them in a moment, but just to tell you who they are, this is the person who does not really care one way or the other.
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And beloved, they are out there.
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In fact, they are growing.
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The unconcerned are massive.
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The latest polls show us that the one area that is growing in the census, where they go and take roll or take censuses and find out what people, you know, their race and things like that.
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The growing religious response is non-religious.
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No religious affiliation.
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Non-religious is growing all around the world, even in the United States.
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Now, some of you may be saying, Pastor, this is great and all, but how in the world does this relate to the passage that we are looking at? Well, now let's talk about that because that is the most important part.
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Is this passage inspired what we are talking about? How does this passage even relate? Well, let's look at the passage again.
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Verse 19, it says, Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
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But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
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Now, it's important to make this very clear.
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Jesus is condemning those who would relax the law of God.
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He is making a statement of condemnation.
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He's not saying they'll have the smallest house in heaven.
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Don't mistake it.
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You know, well, they'll have a mansion, but it'll just be littler than everybody else's.
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No, He's condemning.
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Their being called least is a statement of their condemnation.
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But why are they here condemned? Well, in the ESV it says they're condemned for relaxing the law and teaching others to do so.
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The New American Standard Bible says annuls the law and teaches others to do so.
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The King James NIV say break the law and teach others to do so.
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The Greek word is luo.
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It means to loosen, break up, dissolve.
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And essentially, this is a condemnation of anyone who sees any part of the law as unbinding and unworthy of obedience.
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Anybody who would see any part of the law and say that part doesn't really apply.
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Now, you might wait.
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Now, wait a minute, Pastor.
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How is this not a condemnation of the church? We don't bring in goats every Sunday and have a sacrifice.
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I'm not wearing a Urim and a Thummim in a big outfit that the priest would wear.
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We don't have a, this is not the holy of holies.
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Beloved, again, it is important, it is imperative that you understand the word fulfilled.
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And if you weren't here last Sunday and you need a bigger, a more expressive understanding of this, go back and listen.
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But I will explain it again.
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Believers in Christ understand that the entire law has been fulfilled in Christ.
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Not one iota, not one dot of the law was left unfulfilled by Him.
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The Christian does not relax the law.
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The Christian understands the place of the law.
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And they understand that the law is fully and completely fulfilled in Christ.
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So then, who is Jesus here condemning? Who is the one who relaxes the law? I propose to you this morning that it is the unbeliever who relaxes the law of God.
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And I want to demonstrate to you today that the person who is under the condemnation of Christ in this passage is the unbeliever.
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Whether he be religious, whether he be atheistic, whether he be totally unconcerned.
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For it is the unbeliever who has decided in his heart that the law does not apply to him.
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How? How does the unbeliever relax the law of God? How does he relax the law? Or annul it, or break it, however it is in your text? Well, let's look first at the religious unbeliever.
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Again, the outline, if you're taking notes, we're going to look at the religious unbeliever, the atheistic unbeliever, and the unconcerned unbeliever.
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The religious unbeliever.
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Again, this is a person who has strong religious convictions, but has no allegiance to Christ.
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And, beloved, they're out there.
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There's a lot of people who have many different religious faiths, many different religious backgrounds, and they have no allegiance to Christ.
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And they relax the law of God.
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Now, why would I say they relax the law of God? I mean, sometimes these are the most religious people that you know.
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Sometimes these are the most legalistic people that you've ever met.
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They try to stand on everything that they can.
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They try to do everything.
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I mean, look at a Mormon.
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They have laws on top of laws.
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They can't even drink a Coca-Cola.
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I mean, they have everything.
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They have all of these rules and precepts that they have to live by.
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How can I accuse them of breaking the law of God? Or how about a Muslim? Let's look at Islam, for instance.
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Muslims are a very religious people.
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They are so religious indeed that they are willing to fight and yet die for what they believe in.
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But, beloved, when it comes to the law of God, they have a very relaxed view.
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How can you say that, Pastor? Well, understand what they believe about judgment.
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Islam teaches that our good deeds at death will be weighed against our bad deeds.
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And the result is that if our good outweighs our bad, then we will be accepted into paradise by Allah.
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If our good outweighs our bad.
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Now, consider what that means about Allah.
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It means that all the sins which were committed have been swept under the rug.
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Allah has turned a blind eye to all of the sins which were committed.
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He has relaxed the law on their behalf.
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And some people might say, well, that's great.
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He's so forgiving.
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Slow down.
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Before you get all excited about how forgiving Allah is, just remember that that would also make Him unjust.
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People have broken His law, but their sins have never been punished.
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It would be like a rapist standing before a judge and the judge saying, yes, you have committed this vile deed, but because you also donated money to the poor, because you also worked at the soup kitchen, because you also helped the old lady across the street, your rape has been expunged and you're free to go.
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What kind of a judge would that be? What kind of righteousness would allow such things? It wouldn't be justice.
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In fact, we would all scream if we heard of a judge who did such a thing.
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In this sense, the God of Islam demonstrates that He is not just, because He is allowing sin after sin after sin after sin to be committed and yet be unpunished.
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But beloved, in Christ, in Christianity, the Bible teaches that not one sin goes unaccounted for.
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The Bible says not one sin goes apart from the judgment of God.
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And here's how it works.
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Either the judge places the punishment on the perpetrator by sending them to hell, and yes, hell is a real place.
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Don't assuage your conscience by believing something other than that.
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He either places the punishment on the head of the perpetrator, or He places the punishment on the head of a substitute, but never once does a sin escape the judgment of God.
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No law is ever relapsed within the Christian understanding of the law of God and the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.
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And by the way, Christ didn't invent anything new.
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That substitutionary principle had gone all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible.
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Ever since the beginning of the Bible, they'd been making sacrifices and sacrifices and sacrifices.
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What were those sacrifices for? Those sacrifices, they would pray their sins over those sacrifices and then kill the animal as a symbolic gesture of their sins being transferred to Him and a punishment being made.
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Substitutionary sacrifice is not a New Testament concept.
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Substitutionary sacrifice goes all the way back to the beginning.
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The very first sin of Adam and Eve resulted in the sacrifice of an animal.
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The Bible doesn't say that.
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Well, certainly it does.
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It says God clothed them with the skin of an animal.
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Where do you think the skin came from? The same scenario could be made regarding Orthodox Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even groups like Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses.
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They all in some way believe that their religious devotion will outweigh their sins and as a result will allow them into paradise.
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And they are all wrong.
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God will not relax one law.
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Their penalty will either be paid by themselves or will be paid by Christ on their behalf.
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No religion, no religious exercise, no act of good work will ever save us from our sins.
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Christ paid it all or we will pay it all.
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So the religious unbeliever has himself deceived because he believes in some way God will relax the law on his behalf.
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So that's the first one.
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The second one is the atheistic unbeliever.
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This is the person who has strong beliefs about the non-existence of God and by extension would have no belief in Christ, the Son of God.
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Now, how does that person relax the law of God? Well, they relax it by flat out denying it.
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But here's the real danger and why I mention them in response to this text.
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They teach others to do so.
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You know, Jesus condemned that as well.
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He condemned those who relaxed the law and those who teach others to do so.
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Atheists have for years, and particularly in recent years, become very evangelistic in their atheism.
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It's kind of an interesting word.
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An evangelistic atheist sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not.
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Because they have.
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They've become very evangelistic.
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They've proselytized people.
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They go out into the world and they try to bring people to their faith.
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Now, they'll get angry with you if you say that it's faith.
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They do not believe that atheism is faith.
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They believe that it is the opposite of faith.
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They believe it's the most logical of deductions, that God does not exist.
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And they believe themselves to be the most logical and erudite people on the planet.
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I had an opportunity this week to see something that broke my heart.
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A young girl who I knew for many years.
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I've not had contact with her, but I knew she wasn't a believer.
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But she has gone into full-blown atheism, and not only into atheism, but now her whole life is devoted to supporting men like Richard Dawkins and putting out their propaganda, anti-Christian, anti-belief system, total evolutionary propaganda.
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I saw a little website that she had, and it just tore my heart to see such a thing.
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They say it's not a faith, but beloved, when you begin to study the things that they believe, when you begin to study the things that they actually profess, you notice that it is a faith.
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They believe in tons of things that they cannot verify on their own.
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They have to believe something that someone else has told them, or believe in a history that doesn't exist, evolution and all these things that make no sense, and are not found scientifically, but are found in the minds of men.
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Yet, though they deny it as a faith, they spread it like a faith.
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They call it science, but they spread it and propagandize it as a faith.
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They hold conferences, they start study groups, they wear t-shirts, they have bumper stickers that support and perpetuate their belief system.
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They're the most religious people I've ever seen.
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There's even an atheistic megachurch now.
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Did you know that? They have churches for atheists.
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They gather in buildings similar to our own.
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They sing songs and give inspirational talks about how much they don't believe in God, and nobody needs to.
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And just like any good church, recently they had their first church split.
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They did.
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The atheistic megachurch had its first church split over a division that was unreconcilable, so one church went one way, one church went the other.
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Even our town, our little town of Jacksonville, which I know isn't really a little town, but our town of Jacksonville has a group called Jack's Atheists.
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That's the group, and this is what their website says.
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The Jacksonville Atheists Meetup group is devoted to bringing atheists, agnostics, humanists, free thinkers, and everyone else together for camaraderie and support.
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I would argue that everyone else would not include me.
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Just saying.
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They said everyone else.
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I believe I would be rejected.
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But they, you know.
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It can be tough living in this part of the country and not subscribe to a religion or faith-based group.
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That's why it's really important that we get together, and even more important that we, all capital letters, stay together.
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End quote.
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Tell me that doesn't sound like a religious group to you.
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We've got to get together.
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We've got to stay together.
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We've got to support one another.
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We've got to encourage one another in our non-belief.
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You see, for them it's not just about not believing.
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It's not just enough to deny the law of God.
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They have to teach others to do so.
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They have to encourage others to do so, because their consciences are so seared, they have to get other people's consciences seared as well, so that they have somebody to talk to.
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They're not just satisfied ignoring the law of God.
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They've got to teach other people to deny it as well.
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Finally, the unconcerned unbeliever.
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Now, who is this person? Who is the unconcerned unbeliever? Well, again, this person is a person who doesn't really care one way or another.
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They wouldn't go to church.
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They wouldn't go to Jacksonville Atheists.
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They just don't care.
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But if you ask that person...
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And, beloved, I say this, I say this having had a lot of experience dealing with people.
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In my life, I've spent a lot of time dealing with people, particularly those in times of grief.
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You ask somebody, yep, I'm going to heaven.
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Why are you going to heaven? Say it with me, class.
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Why do they think they're going to heaven? Because they are a good person.
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You all know this.
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You've all had these conversations with people.
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You'll say, do you believe you're going to heaven when you die? Or maybe you ask it some other way.
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Maybe you have a creative way to talk to somebody about your faith, but the nuts and the bolts of it are you say, are you going to go to heaven? Do you believe you're going to go to heaven? They will say, absolutely, positively.
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And you say, why? Because I'm a good person.
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Beloved, there is no person in the world who relaxes the law of God more than a person who can look themselves in the eyes and honestly say, I'm a good person.
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Yet millions do it every single day.
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They believe that because they might work hard, they might give to charity, they may volunteer their time, that they're good people.
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They refuse to accept the reality that they are sinners, and worse yet, they refuse to accept the reality that their sin is worthy of hell.
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You tell a person that they're a sinner, and what do they say? Well, everybody's a sinner.
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God's not concerned with my sins.
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My sins are little sins.
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I'm not a big sinner.
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I'm a little sinner.
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And by their very words, they demonstrate what? Their willingness to relax the law.
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Well, I only broke a little.
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I only broke this much.
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I only had this much that I didn't do.
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And what does Jesus say? Whoever relaxes even the least of these laws, He's condemning them right off.
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No one is so guilty as he who can look at the law of God and not be concerned with what it says.
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As I said and I keep saying, as Christians, we don't relax the law.
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We are the only people in the world who believe that it's actually been fulfilled.
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We're the only ones who believe that in Christ is the only place we can go to have the law fulfilled.
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Everyone else thinks by some magic way they're going to be able to do it on their own.
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And as such, they're already lost.
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I want to paint you a picture from the Old Testament, which might help you understand the condition of the unbeliever in regard to the law of God.
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For those of you in Jack's Sunday School class, you'll probably enjoy this part because I know recently you've been looking at the story of Noah.
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Noah lived very close to the creation of man.
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We don't know how close, but we know he was one of the early characters in the Bible.
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He was a man of faith who lived during a time of severe sin and rampant depravity.
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It was a time when the intention of men's hearts was only evil continually as the Bible says in Genesis 6.
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So God told Noah that He was going to bring judgment on the world and swallow it in a great and disastrous deluge.
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The only persons who would survive this flood would be Noah and his family.
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His three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
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Their wives together.
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Eight people on the ark.
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Noah was also commanded to make that ark and to make it large enough that it could fit a container, a stock of animals, earth-dwelling animals, to protect them from this judgment as well.
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Now most of you know that story.
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You are very familiar with Noah and the ark.
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But there is a part that people often miss.
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Noah and the ark is a true story.
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In fact, I'll go to my grave believing in the historicity of it.
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But it is also a picture of a much more present reality.
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Noah's ark was salvation for his family.
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All those inside the ark were saved from the wrath of God.
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All of those outside of the ark perished under the weight of God's fury.
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And beloved, there are few pictures of Christ's work in Scripture that are so potent.
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Because believers in Christ are in Christ in very much the same way that Noah and his family were in that ark.
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Unbelievers are outside of Christ in much the same way as those who were outside of the ark.
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They, for whatever reason, believe that they are safe.
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They either believe that Jesus is not required for salvation, I don't have to get on the ark, or they believe that God doesn't exist, it's never going to reign, or they believe that they're good enough, hey, if it rains, I can swim.
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And beloved, the error that they are in is the error of the most serious kind, because a person who does not believe that he needs Christ is like a person standing outside of Noah's ark dancing in the rain.
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He may sing and dance for a time, but eventually he will be crushed by the wrath of God.
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Beloved, does that describe you? Are you outside of Christ this morning? Are you just another religious person who doesn't have true fidelity to the Savior? Are you someone who sits in disbelief about the existence of God, though the world around you tells you that He does exist? Are you one who lives daily unconcerned about the judgment which is coming? If so, I urge you today to turn from your disbelief.
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Give up on your disbelief and turn to Christ.
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The Bible says we will face judgment one day, and we will be accountable to the law of God.
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The Bible says in Hebrews 9.27, it is appointed for man to die once, and after this, the judgment.
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We will all have an appointment with judgment from the judge of the universe, and either we will have trusted Christ and the law will have been fulfilled on our behalf, or we will stand judged guilty by the law before the judge of the universe because of a lifetime spent in disobedience to that law.
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So again, I implore you.
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I urge you, if you never have, repent of your sins and trust in Christ.
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Do not be as the fool who dances in the rain but comes safely into the ark.
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Jesus is the ark.
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Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Me.
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And beloved, He wasn't lying.
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He was not exaggerating.
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He was not believing as the world believes it.
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There are many paths to God.
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We're all going to the top of the same mountain just by many routes.
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Christ said, no, that's a lie.
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That's wrong.
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There is one way and I am that way.
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If you're looking for another way, stop, turn, repent, and trust Christ.
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If you are here today and that is you, I am going to pray for you.
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I'm going to pray that God will open up your heart because I know that that is required for you to come to Him.
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I pray that He will open your heart so that you might repent of your sins, call upon Christ as Savior, seek Him in faith, and know what it means to have the peace which passes all understanding.
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Let us pray.
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Our Father and our God, we come to You in Jesus' name.
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And Lord, I pray for this congregation.
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I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice that Lord, if there be one who knows not Christ, who are living a life of religion but have never trusted Him, who are living a life unconcerned about their eternal destiny, whose lives have never been changed by the Gospel, that You, by Your powerful, sovereign providence, would open their hearts and change their life.
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Father, I pray these words go out not only to those who hear me now, but those who will hear in the future these words.
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And Lord God, that You would do that which only You can do and save souls.
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In Jesus' name and for His sake.
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Beloved, let's stand and sing.
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If you need to pray, I encourage you to come as we sing.