Death (Part 1)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. I sound like I'm underwater.

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Why? Because I feel like I'm underwater. I don't know what's going on here. It's the middle of June as I record this show.

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Probably taped and aired, rather aired in August, but I don't feel too august.

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I feel like I've got a cold and I feel like I've had my sinuses flattened by a truck.

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So today on No Compromise Radio, I'd like to talk about life and death.

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Everyone listening today is going to die short of the Lord's return and His eminent return.

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Short of that, you're going to die. And even now with this cold that I have,

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I look at myself in the mirror and think, bags under my eyes, crow's feet around my eyes, not just crow's feet, but crow's feet.

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I look and I see the gray. Some people think, you know, why didn't anybody tell me

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I'm getting older, I'm getting closer to death. Middle -aged, I'm 52. That's over. If I was supposed to live to be 70 on average, 35 is middle -aged.

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I'm way past middle -aged. What's going to happen? Why didn't anyone tell me?

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And actually the way our body is breaking down, we are getting told every day we look in the mirror, we're one breath closer to death.

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And today I'd like to remind you that one day you will die so that you can consider your soul, so that you make sure you know that when you die, you're going to heaven.

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And contrary to what the religion of choice here happens to be in Massachusetts and New England, i .e.

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Roman Catholicism, you can know. You can know for sure. And we don't have to try to control you by saying you can't know.

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Stay close to us. We say you can know. Stay close to the Bible and Christ Jesus himself.

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You need to know. Now often as a pastor, I'm around people who are sick and dying and around the dead.

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Now when people are dying and I go visit them, you wouldn't think it was wrong if among other things

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I talked about medical issues like health care proxy, legal issues like do you have a will, who is your guardian, what about a variety of,

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I'm trying to think of the legal thing now, for whose power of attorney. You wouldn't be mad at me if I talked about those things because those are things that need to be taken care of.

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Why? It's important for us to take care of those on behalf of those you love so it makes it easier for them, for your estate and other things.

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You wouldn't be mad at me, I hope, if I asked if there were unreconciled issues between you and your family that you might want to reconcile now.

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You'd probably think that was a good thing. Oh it might sting, you might not want to do it. But death has a way of crystallizing and making clear things that seem to get pushed to the side because of entertainment, because of our jobs, because it's just a busy life.

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So all those things you would probably think would be good for me to talk about. But what if I never talked about your soul?

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Do you have assurance? Do you know for a fact that your sins are forgiven?

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Do you know who Jesus is and what his claims are? If I was a pastor and I neglected the most important, you would think that would be negligence and I did the wrong thing.

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If I was a lawyer and never said, let's talk about probate and wills and everything else, you would think that was wrong. If I was a doctor and never asked about the white blood count, you'd think that was wrong.

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How much more with a pastor going to talk to someone does he need to talk about eternal issues?

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Which includes death itself. I remember listening to stories and being involved with people who, there's an elderly gentleman or an elderly lady and she is going to die and everyone knows it except the person.

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The person themselves. Well, we better not tell them, that might upset them. Or maybe there's a child and the child is very sick.

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Let's not tell the child that they're terminal because that might upset them. Friends, now

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I know occasionally on No Compromise Radio, tongue in cheek, that I get after people and that I have the hair on the back of my neck go up in disdain and anger for false teaching and I want to silence critics of the

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Bible and free grace found in Christ alone. But really, with all honesty, with all kindness, with all gentleness, there are things that need to be taken care of and that we need to discuss death with people so that they know they're going to die.

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If someone is on their deathbed, you need to tell them. Yes, you need to tell them.

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The doctors might not want to say it. The nurses might not want to say it. Your friends and family might not want to say it.

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But love is, I want what's best for the other person. It's an others regard.

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And so I want to regard them and what's best for them. They need to know that one day soon they're going to meet

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God and are they ready? You've got to tell them. Don't fall into this, well, we don't want to upset them.

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Child or adult, they need to know. You are going to die one day, yes, generally that's true.

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But now you're in the hospital and you're all hooked up to some machines and according to the doctor, short of a miracle of God, God providently working rather, probably is the more technical way to say it, short of God's intervention, you're going to stand and meet

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Him. And then what? And then there's going to be judgment and either your sins will be judged on you on the judgment day and the great white throne judgment or your sins will have already been judged by God on Jesus, who was your representative, who took your place.

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And therefore God in His holy justice won't and can't punish sin twice, not on His Son and on you too.

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And therefore you'll be free from your sin debt and you will experience what forgiven people experience after they die.

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You will also, if you're a Christian, because of what Christ has done on your behalf as you believe that, you have credited to you not just getting back to neutral somehow, sins are forgiven, but also more than that, having the righteousness of Christ, being placed in the body of Christ and having all

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Christ's righteousness. And God will look at you as if you didn't just not sin but you completely kept

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His moral law, His holy law, His complete law.

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All laws are moral as far as I'm concerned. So people need to know this.

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And so when you're around death, it has a way of crystallizing things, but don't forget to tell the person that they're going to die.

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That's what needs to happen. And if you tell me, don't tell this person they're going to die,

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I might not do it that particular second, but it is incumbent upon me. It's the most important decision.

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Oh, there are many decisions in life that are important, but making sure you know where you go when you die isn't in fact the most important.

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Giving glory to God the Father and the Son and the Spirit for salvation and what

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He has done. Ed Harrell, the man I interviewed a while ago in the USS Indianapolis when it was sunk by a

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Japanese torpedo, and he was in the water for I think four and a half, five days. He knew that before he went to war, he had to make sure everything was right before he and his maker.

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After all, Ed was smart enough to know, and you should be smart enough to know, that you're breathing

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God's air, that you're breathing, that you're drinking

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God's water, that you're living in God's world, that God is a creator, and if He's a creator, then

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He's the judge of the universe, and thankfully, mercifully, graciously, He's also a gracious Savior.

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And so today we're talking a little bit about deathbeds and how one day, knowing that you're going to die, it should motivate you now.

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See, this is really eschatology. Sometimes we think of eschatology as, well, the rapture take place before the tribulation in the middle of the tribulation, pre -wrath tribulation, or post -tribulation.

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Is there a millennium now? Will there be a millennium later? Is there a millennial reigning in heaven?

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There's a lot of those kind of questions. But eschatology does include last things like what will happen to the dead on judgment day.

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So what's going to happen to you? I know it probably is not going to sell much airspace, but after all,

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I pay to be on. You are going to die, and then judgment.

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Hebrews chapter 9, are you ready? I know you're sinful, and so do you, because A, your conscience tells you,

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B, when you get sick like I'm sick, that is the result of not necessarily personal sin, but that's the result of Adam's sin credited to my account.

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Consequently, I have a sin nature, and therefore I sin, and the wages of sin is death, and I'm slowly dying.

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You are a sinner. We know people sin. We know people sin, why? Because they die.

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And even when it comes to infants, we know sin has been credited to their account because before they're even able to sin, sadly, children die.

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And so we know that everyone listening today is a sinner. So that's why it's so important to believe on the

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Lord Jesus Christ, to confess Him as Lord now while you're living. First Corinthians chapter 15, verse 26 says, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

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And can you imagine that horrible enemy, death, separating you from your body, separating you from your family, separating you from riches, separating you from real estate, separating you from your 401k, separating you from pleasure, separating you from friends, separating you from everything, right?

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Death is an enemy. Death is ugly. Death is painful.

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It is grim, and it awaits you. Are you ready to die?

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Are you ready to die? 150 ,000 people around the world are going to die today.

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And they will die tomorrow, and they will die the next day, and they died yesterday. 150 ,000 people every single day.

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And then they're waiting judgment. So, the message of Christianity, at its core, is that God not only is a holy

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God, but He's also a loving God, and for those that will turn from their sins by repentance and turn unto

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Christ Jesus by faith alone, trusting in what God said He would do and did through the person and work of Christ Jesus, who offered

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Himself as a substitutionary atonement for all who would live, all who would believe, rather, than they would live, confirmed by the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

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Those repenting and believing in this good news of the gospel that Jesus died for our sins according to the

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Scriptures, was buried and raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures, then they have hope.

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Now you will live forever. Now you haven't lived forever in eternity past. You had a beginning, unlike God who is self -existent and never had a beginning.

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That's pretty amazing to think about. You had a beginning, and you will have no end, right?

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So if you are in math class and you're learning things in geometry and you put a point down on the graph and then draw a line and put an end at the arrow, that's your life.

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There's a starting point and there's not an ending. God on the other hand, there's a line and then on both sides of the line, left and right, there's an arrow.

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God has always existed. He's the self -existent one. I am. I am who

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I am. I am that I am. I just exist. And so since you're going to live forever, you'll either live forever in the presence of God in heaven or in the presence of God in hell.

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Yes, that's right, in the presence of God in heaven, worshiping the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world, worthy is the

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Lamb who was slain, worshiping Him with all kinds of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, talking about His great creation, talking about His great redemption, learning forever and ever.

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You the finite one, glorified, yes, but still finite, worshiping the infinite one.

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It will take an infinite amount of time to learn all the greatness of God. Is there more to God to learn than the

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Scriptures? Yes. Nothing in contradiction, but there is more to learn because we will forever see

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God, the infinite one, unfold His nature and His character and His excellencies throughout eternity.

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It will be a fascinating thing to learn about God in heaven. But if you don't believe and repent, when you die, of course there's a series of judgments in a sense of hell and then the lake of fire, etc.

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But you will be in the presence of God. Yes, matter of fact, it says that in Revelation chapter 14, knowing that God is omnipresent, that He is everywhere, that He is everywhere simultaneously with all

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His being, that is, He is immense. There's no place

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God can't be and there's no place God isn't. And so that includes hell, although it won't be

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God's goodness in hell, His generosity in hell, His kindness in hell, His patience in hell,

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His forbearance and love in hell, His loving kindness in hell. No, it won't be any of those. It'll be

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His holiness and hell is hell because God is there. That's why it's so bad.

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And you can just imagine some of these people in the Bible when they got a look at the naked

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God, that is to say God in all His fury, in a sense, with all

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His attributes, people realized that they were sinful and they were undone. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, they got it.

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Peter, when they realized who God was and they were in His presence, they knew that they were undone.

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Now multiply that by millions, whatever the number is, an infinite amount, forever and forever having this just God punishing you there in hell.

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And so you are going to die. Now again, it doesn't make good ratings, but I think as a minister of the gospel,

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I need to tell people the truth and the world is afraid to talk about death. Why? Because I think they know.

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It's a secret. Well, let's not talk about it and let's talk about evolution a lot and let's get all involved with a variety of other idolatry things like sports and other issues, sports and sex and rock and roll and pleasure and vacations and could even be work or kids or family, wife.

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There's a lot of different kinds of idols out there. But they don't like it when we think, okay, what are the signs of death?

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Cessation of breathing, cardiac arrest, there's no pulse, palomortis is a paleness that comes on a body, liver mortis,

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L -I -V -O -R, is when the blood settles in the lower parts of the body, algor mortis, the temperature of the body reduces to whatever the temperature is in that particular environment or room, rigor mortis, the one that you know where rigor means stiff, can't move the body anymore, and finally the body begins to decompose.

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And as the internet account says, accompanied by a strong, unpleasant odor.

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Now to think that Jesus Christ could go to Lazarus' tomb after there was all of these.

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In Lazarus, there was a cessation of breath, cardiac arrest, palomortis, liver mortis, algor mortis, rigor mortis, and decomposition.

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And Jesus says, arise. See, I want to know what the one who has died and came back from life, he came from heaven, died, was raised from the dead, and ascended back into heaven.

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I want to know what he thinks, the one who says, I'm the resurrection and the life, and he who believes in me will have life.

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I want to know what he thinks. I don't know what, I don't care what Michael Foucault thinks,

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I don't care what Nietzsche thinks, I don't care what Hemingway thinks, I don't care what you think,

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I don't care what I think, we need to know from the one who has gone before us how to have entrance into heaven, because we are going to die.

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Now, if you're listening to this, you're probably not in a third world country, or maybe you are. Third world people tend to die because of infectious disease, they die from malaria and TB and some other things.

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But in westernized societies here in America, this is what killed people.

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Heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, accidents,

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Alzheimer's, diabetes, influenza slash pneumonia, nephritis, and then lastly, they phrase this interestingly don't they?

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Intentional self -harm, suicide. That's what kills people here, and when you open up a body in the autopsy to determine cause of death, and they're looking for some of these things, what they can't see is what really, ultimately, theologically killed the patient.

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The wages of sin is death. That's the common denominator. Sin kills.

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Sin kills. I remember the first time I saw an autopsy, scene two, the first one

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I saw was a man who tried to commit suicide, and in fact did. He lived for a while though, he poured gasoline all over his body and drank some and then lit his mouth area so it would go both inside of him and outside of him, and he lived for a few hours.

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And I remember them peeling back the skin and peeling back the scalp, and that's about all

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I'll say on radio, but they can take little samples and little cross segments, put them under the microscope and take a look and see what the scoop was and examine the lungs and the burnt out tissue, but what they can't see with a microscope and what they can't test in a centrifuge is sin is the ultimate cause.

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Yes, these secondary causes of self -harm and these things, but it's sin. People don't like death for lots of reasons.

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It's painful, separation, but I think the main reason people don't like death is because it reminds us that there's something worse, that the end of this porthole of death leads us into the presence of God.

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There's something worse than death, and that would be separation from the goodness of God, hell, damnation, judgment.

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That's why people need to run to the Savior. There's an opportunity for salvation for all those listening, if you'll just look and believe to repent of your sins and believe in your heart that God raised

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Jesus from the dead, that he is Lord and Savior just like he said. That's why this is an important topic because everyone's going to die.

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No wonder there's all kinds of cryogenic storage, life extension people, good diets and exercise, don't smoke.

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That's all fine and dandy, but when it's done with the biogerontologist view of let's extend our lives and let's be longevityists is what they're actually called.

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And eventually cure aging, it's never going to happen. Now you might live a little bit longer, but you're still going to die and then judgment.

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Why? Because that is what the Bible teaches. And everyone listening, everyone in your car, everyone in your home, every newborn, every senior citizen,

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I'm getting AARP things now after 50, I don't know what's next. Three years I'll be able to live in retirement homes, 55 and older.

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I guess my young wife won't be able to do that until four years later. But you're going to die and then what?

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I went on deathclock .com. You can type in body weight index, body mass index rather, and your age and everything else.

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You're a smoker and it said I'm going to die in February 21st, 2034. I've got 685 million seconds to go.

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Now I might die today. I might die today or I might die in 2034 or maybe 2044, but I am going to die and so are you.

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So it's time to get right with the Lord. It's time to shut off your iPhone. It's time to shut off the TV. It's time to take a long walk and look up at the sky and the moon and look up at the sun and the stars and say the

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God who made these things made me and he is the one with whom I have to do on my death day.

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And God help me. Lord have mercy on me. I'm a sinner. Grant me repentance.

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Grant me faith. Grant me eternal life. Help me to trust in the promises of Christ Jesus, your son, so that I might honor you and honor him.

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God, I'm afraid to die and God give me a fear of standing before you if I have to stand before you alone without the advocate, the one who makes propitiation for sins like mine,

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Jesus Christ, the risen Savior. Now, on No Compromise Radio, you can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

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And if, especially if you've got a question about your salvation, how do I know if I'm saved? I'm afraid of death.

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Tragedies happen all the time and I want to think rightly about death. How can

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I do that? What should I read? Best thing you could do right now is to read the gospel according to Mark and you just watch

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Jesus in action and you watch as he speaks. This is the God -man. He is the one who holds the keys to heaven for you.

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And you can't do anything to get into heaven, but you can rely on, by faith, what he has done for people just like you.

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For sinners just like you, God loves to save because he then shows his glory and his attributes, his perfections, his excellencies, as he does something for people which they can't do for themselves, so they have to boast in him.