Repent From Your Unrepentant Repentance - [Luke 13:1ff]

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I'm going to do something this morning that I've only done once in the last 15 years. And that is preach the
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Sunday night message now and I'll preach 1 Corinthians 12 tonight.
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And so this morning is tonight and tonight is this morning. All week long
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I've been thinking about death. About how life is fleeting. Life is like a vapor.
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We all know people who have died and friends and relatives, parents, children.
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Work associates will say, oh yes, my mother died, my father died. We've had deaths in our own congregation.
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And death is ugly. Death is the enemy. Death is painful.
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And death is your sure appointment. Short of the
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Lord returning, everyone here will die. From the newborns at the church to the grandparents.
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Everyone here will meet God. And if you have to pay for your own sins, death is going to be the terror of terrors for you.
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Indescribably horrific. And so I ask you this morning, are you ready to die? Is it well with your soul that is to say you know you don't have to pay for your own sins?
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Because you've trusted a savior, a substitute. You see, every sin that's ever been committed will be paid for.
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Justice will be meted out. And it will be meted out either on the person who sinned or on Christ the substitute.
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And so the psalmist that we heard about just in that last song says, Instead of counting your years, and I like birthdays.
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I like them less as I get older. But instead of counting birthdays, count your days.
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Today might be your last day. Signs of death
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I studied this week. Cessation of breathing. Cardiac arrest. Palarmortis, which is the body that turns pale.
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Liver mortis. There's a settling of blood in the lower parts of the body. Algar mortis.
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The temperature of the body reduces to its outside environment. Rigor mortis.
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The body becomes stiff. And then finally, decomposition. Why do people die?
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What's the cause of death? In countries that are not technologically savvy, they die because of malnutrition, because of some malaria,
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TB type of thing. In America, 150 ,000 people die.
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Excuse me, across the world, 150 ,000 people die every day. Can you imagine 150 ,000 die every day?
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And you're going to die too. People die in America of heart disease, cancer, lower respiratory diseases, stroke, accidents, diabetes, influenza.
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36 ,000 people die every year in America from self -harm. Actually, the technical term is intentional self -harm, suicide.
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And if you were to do an autopsy on these people, and I've seen a couple autopsies and I won't soon forget them, even though they were 20 years ago.
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And they open up the body and they take all kinds of cross segments and they analyze and take some of the blood and put it under microscopes and they try to figure out why this person died.
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And at the end of the day, the reason why everyone dies is a theological reason.
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Because God credited Adam's sin to your account and the wages of sin is what?
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Death. And consequently, because of Adam's sin imputed to your account, you are a sinner by nature and then a sinner by deed and thought and action.
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And so people die, ultimately, theologically, because of sin.
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But grimly, there is something worse than death. Think about the terror of death and how it separates you from loved ones, family, friends, pleasures, career.
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But there's something worse than death and that is meeting God, having to pay for your own sins.
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Are you ready to meet God today? This is, after all, a safe place, a safe environment.
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We should all be safe and secure from all alarms here, shouldn't we? I looked on the website and there's something called deathclock .com.
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And it's an interesting site. You can type in some of your data and find out when you'll die. And so age, are you a smoker, body mass index.
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I kind of cheated on that one a little bit. According to deathclock .com,
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I personally, I'm 52 now, I have a death date of Tuesday, February 21st, 2034.
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According to the deathclock .com, I have 685 ,000 seconds left to live.
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As a matter of fact, I misread that. 685 ,000 ,000 seconds to live.
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People in the world today notice a tragedy that's on the internet or on TV and they immediately default to the, you know, why would
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God do that? If God's all loving and God's all kind and God's all powerful, how can there be so much suffering in the world?
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That's their default response to seeing things like that. When you see a tragedy, what's your default response?
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When 9 -11 happened, almost 3 ,000 people died, what was your response? How did you take that in?
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Was there a theological point to it all? Let's turn our Bibles to Luke chapter 13 and find out from Jesus himself, love incarnate, what is the point to tragedy and what you should know and how you should respond.
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Because it is appointed for men once to die and then judgment.
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Thankfully, we have Christ who on His way to Jerusalem, on His way to Calvary to die because He had great love for us, demonstrating that great love for us, tells us other things in love even though they're difficult medicine sometimes to swallow.
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It's like a doctor who has a bedside manner that eventually he has to tell you the words, it's terminal.
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No matter how you say that, it still comes across with the shockwave, it's terminal and it's time to get my life in order.
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I deal with people when they die and I rightly say to them, now would you like to be cremated or would you like to be buried?
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Who has health care proxy? Do you have a certain funeral home that you'd like to use?
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Is everything okay? Is your wife's name on the 401k? Are there other things that you'd like to do?
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Have you talked to your family? Have you brought them all in? Is there anything you'd like to say to them at the end? Those are good pastoral things to help the dying.
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But for Jesus today in Luke 13, to help the living, He says, you are going to die, are you ready to meet
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God? And if you're a brand new little one here, are you the oldest person in this room, you are going to die and then meet
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God. Are you ready? And for Jesus here in Luke 13, verses 1 -5, there are two tragedies that happen and people see them wrongly and then
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He gives the right solution. And so they're going to be very helpful for us because we live in a society where we see tragedy all the time.
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Now in one sense, I don't like the internet because it gives me more of a view towards things that I shouldn't have to process.
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To know about every death all across the world and every gruesome detail actually on video half the time and you can watch it.
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I don't think people are supposed to be able to take all that, watching every kind of death.
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I mean in the old days, you say, well Uncle Jim, he was over there on the farm and the tractor fell on him and you think that was really bad and it was bad.
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But it wasn't one after another after another after another. Hundreds of thousands of people dying and you can just click on it and watch.
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But on the other hand, I kind of like it that we're reminded that people die every day because the lesson from Jesus, love incarnate, is this.
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When you see people die, don't default to, oh they're sinful, oh they're worse than me, oh
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God must not be good. Here's the lesson, buckle up because you're next.
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That's the lesson. And we need this because we just live in this haze and this walking around robotically, zombie -like, thinking my next career path, my next paycheck, the next working for the weekend,
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I need to do this and do that and I want you to have goals and I want you to have accomplishments and I want you to do much for the glory of God.
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But factored into your mind should be this, I'm a dead man walking. And unless you repent, there will be a
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Christ -less eternity for you. So are you ready to die? Think about all the important things in life.
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We say, but yeah, but we don't really want to talk about this. What kind of mental LSD must people be on to just say, well
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I want to get everything in order. I want to take care of all my priorities. But the most important thing that will ever be happening in your life is do you pay for your own sins or somebody else has paid for them because there's a
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Savior Christ Jesus and unless you're born again, you're going straight to hell when you die.
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So let's look through Luke 13 today and find out from Jesus' words. Maybe the force is less because they're from Jesus because people think, oh
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Jesus is kind and nice. But Jesus is God Almighty. Love incarnate, yes, but a holiness incarnate too.
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Who cares enough to tell you the truth? I'm not sure this is the way to fill churches and get two services going and three services and buy more land.
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But I am very sure that this is the kind of message that will prepare people for death.
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And you've got to be ready. Prepare to meet your God. Now the context of Luke is that Luke is writing about Jesus to show that He's not just God, but that He's a man too.
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God the Son could die on a cross and have infinite value to His death so He could apply it to all those who would believe.
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But God the Son also has to be human so He can die in our place as a man. A man dying for men.
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You can't have a spirit being dying for a man. The substitution wouldn't work. And so Luke tries to write this account so that you all say,
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Jesus is God, yes indeed, but He's a man too, the God -man. And the context of Luke chapter 12 brings us to 13.
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And the context of Luke 12, if you'll look at Luke 12 with me, is impending judgment.
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Get ready. So it should come to no surprise when we hit 13 that Jesus brings out the bazooka.
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Luke 12, verse 4, just to see context again, of judgment coming, judgment for sure.
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Make sure you're thinking rightly. I tell you, my friends, Luke 12, 4, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do.
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But I warn you, whom to fear. Fear Him who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell.
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Yes, I tell you, fear Him. Go down to verse 49, if you would.
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It's the same kind of language that leads up to Luke 13. I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled.
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I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?
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No, I tell you, but rather division. Verse 52, For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two, and two against three.
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They will be divided father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, mother -in -law against her daughter -in -law, and daughter -in -law against mother -in -law.
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He also said to the crowds, When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, Shower's coming. And it so happens.
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And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, There'll be a scorching heat. And it happens. You hypocrites.
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You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
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Judgment is coming. Now for me these days, it's getting a little easier, because when
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I look at the mirror, I think judgment is coming. I have warning signs. People say, Well, nobody ever taught me that I'm growing older.
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Well, you just look in the mirror every day, and you think, I am getting older. It's like a warning. But this message is good for young people too.
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Just after the first morning service, Scott Goddard came to me and said, I almost lost
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Tim yesterday. Tim was jumping off this rock ledge, and this 500 pound rock fell on top of him.
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He said, I was 100 yards away. I went running over, and going to have to lift this rock up, and there I could just see my son's legs hanging out.
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That's it. And he said, I lifted up the rock, and I commanded him to get out, and he was able to move, and he slipped out, and it could even be today.
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Thankfully, he's fine. But everyone here is going to die. And then what?
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We have vacation Bible school coming up soon. Do I like good mannered kids? You better believe it, especially if I'm flying.
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Especially if it helps me. But good mannered kids, disciplined kids, nice kids, go straight to hell when they die if they don't have their sins covered.
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So in this passage in Luke 13, if you'd like an outline, let me give you two tragedies and the same response.
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These two tragedies were in places where things were safe, secure.
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It's not like you say, well, let's go skydiving today. And are you sure?
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I always tell my kids, no skydiving until we make sure you're a Christian and you have assurance. Right?
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It's like the man I interviewed the other day on the radio and he was going to World War II and he said,
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Ed Harrell, and he said, I have to make sure my soul's right before God before I go to war.
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Why? Because I'm going to be in harm's way. This is dangerous. Except these two tragedies are found at the safest place you could be.
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One at church in a sense, the temple, and another at a place of safety and security high on a tower looking out for enemies.
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Safe. Secure. I read just yesterday of a lady who went to the
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Congo at 50 years old. Got all prepared. Wrote her three daughters notes in case she died.
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Came home. Was home for a month after the Congo missions trip. Everything went fine. She was safe.
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Cat woke her up. She let the cat out. She laid back down. Heart attack. Dead. In her own bedroom.
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That's this kind of thing. Safe. Secure. Let's take a look at the first tragedy found in Luke 13 verse 1.
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There were some present at that very time. That very time Jesus is talking about issues like in Luke 12 tied into the last chapter.
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Who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
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And so here's the background. Pilate was a bad man. You can see what happened with Jesus later on to see how ruthless he was and how cruel he was.
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But history shows that he's cruel as well and we can't pinpoint a historical fact of this but we know it's true because our
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Lord talked about it. But in the temple or close to the temple some
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Galileans probably coming during Passover time were going to go in for sacrifices. Atonement for sin.
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Now the Gentiles weren't allowed to go in there. You could cause yourself to get killed if you were a Gentile. But here, ruthless, vicious
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Pilate sends in pagans into the house of God and kills these Galileans.
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And he mingles the blood with the sacrifices. That's either figurative for he just ruthlessly killed them or it's literal where they would say you know what, let's take some of the blood from these men and pour it with some of the blood from the animals just to blaspheme
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God all the more. And so these people are coming to Jesus and they're basically saying this.
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Those people were bad, weren't they? Because the Jewish mindset was sadly and wrongly ask
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Job's friends. If you sin, bad things happen. Comes around, goes around.
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Kind of a karma -like thing where you know what? That guy sinned and it was bad for them.
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They were so perverted in their minds they weren't even saying to Jesus, Pilate's bad. They were saying the people that Pilate killed, they're the ones really at fault.
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Because they must have sinned to have that kind of death. Well, what would you say?
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How would you respond? I find it interesting that Jesus doesn't talk about politics. Let's vote
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Pilate out. Let's get the vote out. Rock the vote, right? He doesn't say, you know what?
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Let's talk about theodicy. Problem of evil. How can a good God...
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He doesn't do any of that. He gets to the heart of the situation. And what does
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Jesus say? Verse 2. And He answered them.
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By the way, in His answer, He fleshes out what they're thinking. And here's what they're thinking.
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They were bad people, therefore they got killed. I love the way Jesus responds with a question.
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Better be careful when you ask Jesus a question. And He answered them.
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Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners? Of course they were thinking that, and He can read their mind. Than all the other
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Galileans, because they suffered in this way? Classically responding with a question.
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He raises the conclusion that they're thinking about, and then turns it. And veers it away from that faulty conclusion.
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Now, is it true that sometimes in Scripture, there's a connection between sin and death?
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Yes, Herod kills a man of God, and God kills him. Right?
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Acts chapter 12. In this particular case, how does Jesus respond?
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Verse 3. No, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
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Sudden destruction. Eternity. What about those people over there who died? You need to be ready to die.
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That's Jesus' point. And see, if we're not careful, that's what we end up doing. Oh, there's a lot worse people out there than me.
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And look at them. What about that? How did that happen? Oh, I would never do that.
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When the whole time, every single tragedy that happens, is happening for you as a road bump, as a speed bump.
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Are you ready to die? Go home and turn on CNN, and then ask yourself the question. Within about five minutes, somebody will have been killed.
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And then the answer, the question for you is, are you ready? Because a lot of people aren't ready.
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There's such a thing in the Bible as false faith. And actually, I think many people here are Christians, and they're born again.
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But I think there are many in this room, who have a false faith.
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They're trusting in something else. Jesus says, repent. They're trusting in their baptism. They're trusting in them being good.
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They're trusting in, well, I go to church, and I do this, and I do that. And Jesus says, repent.
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Because if you haven't repented, you're not going to heaven. And repentance is a simple word.
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It just means to change your mind. And if your mind changes, everything about you changes.
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I used to tell the kids, around the kitchen table, teaching them repentance. Start walking, and then when
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Daddy says, repent, you turn. Try to wait until they get right up to the wall, right?
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And then turn. That's what repentance is, to think things differently. Instead of thinking,
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I'm the center of the universe. I'll put God over here, and He's my fire insurance for when I die.
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I'm self -sufficient. I can pay for my own sins. I'm not that bad. I'll serve
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God later. I have my own life to live. No. Right thinking is, you breathe
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God's air, you drink God's water, you're living in the body God gave you, and you are to pay homage to Him, not just on Sunday.
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And He says, unless you repent, turns it right back to them, you will all likewise, what's the end of verse 3?
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Perish. Luke 9 talks about perishing.
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Jesus said, whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
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For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses our forfeits himself?
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Luke 17, Jesus talked about perishing. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the
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Son of Man. They're eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when
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Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
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But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all, so will it be on the day when the
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Son of Man is revealed. Jesus uses a tragedy to launch into be ready to die.
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Repent. John the Baptist, Jesus' forerunner, frontrunner, said early on in Luke chapter 3.
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What's the first word that came out of his mouth? Repent. And at the end of the
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Gospel of Luke, we are to go proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all nations.
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From the beginning of Luke to the end of Luke. That's why these people in evangelicalism who say we can't tell people to repent need to repent from that and look at the
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Gospel of Luke. Repent. Change your mind. And every time you see true repentance turning from sin, there's a true turning by faith into the person and work of Christ Jesus, the risen
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Savior. They go together. You change your mind away from, remember 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, unto faith in Christ Jesus.
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And you say, yeah, but it sounds like almost it's a work. Well, we can't repent on our own.
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By the way, if you've repented, and many of you have, and you believe in the Gospel, God has granted you that gift.
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It's the work of God in your life. We command people to repent knowing the whole time sinners enslaved by their own sin can't repent.
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That's why it has to be a gift of God. One thing's for certain.
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Disaster looms for those who don't repent. I go to funerals.
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They bring a casket in. They throw some smoke and censors around and say based on this person's baptism, we now know they're in heaven.
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That is a lie. Based on repentance from sin and faith in Christ Jesus, we know this person's in heaven.
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One commentator said, all sinners face the same fate before God so that the natural end to their life or its timing is in a sense irrelevant.
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The person who shot Lincoln died. Lincoln died. And every person who was on the planet during the life of Abraham Lincoln is dead.
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Whether you live to be 10 years old or 100 years old, the common denominator is short of the Lord's return, you're going to die.
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Psalm 7 says if a man does not repent, God will wet his sword.
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He has bent and readied his bow. Ever seen one of those deluxe archery sets?
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The bows with all the different cords and levers and tensile strengths and all that? And I look at that and I go that is a killing machine.
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It's God has the bow and arrow pointing at your heart.
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And unless Jesus stands in front of that and takes it in your place, you're going to pay for your sins.
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Robert Dabney said of repentance, the brevity and in some cases neglect with which this prominent subject repentance is treated by many systems is surprising and reprehensible.
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Unless you repent, you will have to pay for your own sins, stand before God, and then there's something worse than death.
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Listen to what the Westminster Confession of Faith says about repentance. It calls it an evangelical grace, by it a sinner out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God and upon the apprehension of His mercy in Christ to such as are penitent.
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This person, the repentant one, so grieves for and hates his sins as to turn from them all unto
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God purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments.
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And it goes on to say our repentance doesn't atone for sin, but our repentance is a fruit of us looking to the atoning sinful sacrifice.
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The good news about repentance is even though one sin will damn you forever, through repentance, the worst sins that you could ever commit can be forgiven because Christ's merit is so great.
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Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. If you die from an accident, or old age, or cancer, or a heart attack, the common denominator is you're dead.
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You'll die from something and then stand before God. The only way of escape is through repentance.
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And it doesn't do any good to watch a tragedy and then pontificate about all the different issues that are going on.
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When there's tragedy, should we be kind, and should we be prayerful, should we reach out in Christian love?
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Yes. But don't miss the main message. You're going to die. We all have this kind of fantasy in our world.
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At least I know I did until God opened my eyes. It's kind of the kid's fantasy where you think, you know,
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I'm never going to die. If the elevator cord breaks, the cable breaks, right before it hits the ground, you're going to what?
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You're going to jump. Right? There's a way to kind of trick death. And Jesus kindly, this is not a
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I hate you message. This is I love you enough to tell you the truth. One of my all -time pet peeves is if I'm in the hospital being an advocate for a patient, whether it's my mom or one of you, and I'm trying to help, and they've got maybe like a young person or something, well, don't tell me that if you're a doctor because I'm going to be the first person to go in there kindly and nicely with tears in my eyes and say to little
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Johnny who's nine years old, Johnny, you're going to die. And unless God intervenes with a miracle, you're going to die and you need to get ready to die.
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I've talked to their parents and all that, but this whole idea, let's not tell Grandpa he's dying.
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Every death should be in your mind, I'm dying. That's the exact opposite of Jesus.
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What would Jesus do? He'd tell the person, prepare to meet your God. There's another tragedy in a safe place found in verse 4 that Jesus talks about.
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The first tragedy was at human hands, from human hands, through murderous pilots, henchmen.
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Now, this isn't through human hands directly. Maybe it was a faulty tower that was built.
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Maybe it was a hand of God through an earthquake. We're not told. But the end result is the same and the response is the same.
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Verse 4, "...are those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell, killed them."
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Do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?
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You go to the lower part of Jerusalem and you'll find a pool there. We just were there last year, the pool of Siloam.
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It was very interesting to see. And there was some kind of tower there for defenses, surely.
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Maybe some scaffolding by the side. We don't know exactly. But that tower fell. Something used to be a symbol as safety.
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Are there any marauders out there? It's now used to crush them to death. Maybe they were more sinful.
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It only fell on those eighteen. It didn't fall on those other eighteen. The question is not, are we
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Job's friends? Who's more guilty? The question is, you're guilty. And you're a debtor.
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That's the language here, is debtor. No wonder Jesus in Matthew 6 taught His disciples to pray, forgive us our debts, because every sin is a debt against God.
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It's like this credit card debt. You're just feeling the pressure. You're under credit card debt. You can't get out.
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How much more in debt to God? A sin debt. Here's a violent death.
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The last death, maybe we could blame Pilate. Maybe we could blame them. This death, it just fell.
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What does Jesus say? Verse 5, No, I tell you. Emphasis.
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He repeats the warning. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
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When you see tragedy, that's the message. Good thing
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Jesus tells us, because if it wasn't for Jesus, we would just walk through this world just not wanting to even think about it.
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Can't even say the word dead, let alone hell and judgment, past dawn, kick the bucket, sleeping.
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Take a look at verse 2, 3, 4, and 5 and see if you can spot the word all there just to show you the universality of judgment.
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All, all, all, all. Verse 2, All the other
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Galileans. Verse 3, All likewise perish. Verse 4,
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All the others. Verse 5, All likewise perish. Now some people think, oh, this is
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Jerusalem getting destroyed 70 A .D. There could be some truth to that, but it's more universal.
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You all are going to die. You need a substitute. You need a Savior. You say, well, that's just your opinion.
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Friends, you are going to die. And your conscience tells you that you're sinful.
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And you want relief. Even in your relationships with your spouse or with your kids or with your family.
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When there's a disagreement, doesn't your conscience say, I want to make things right.
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I want to reconcile. This isn't good. This isn't healthy. I don't feel good when there's a schism, some break in the relationship.
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Even that should be pointed. When you sin with your conscience, when you sin, your conscience says, there's a problem.
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And you can either drink it away, pleasure it away, and thankfully there are men, the
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God -men like Jesus, who tell us, repent. God welcomes the repenter.
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No sin is so great that God won't welcome repentance. Unless you're converted, you will all likewise perish.
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So you better be careful. Listen to what
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J .C. Ryle said about repentance. It's an excellent chapter. There are many things which are not needful.
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Riches are not needful. Health is not needful. Fine clothes are not needful.
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Noble friends are not needful. The favor of the world is not needful. Gifts and learning are not needful.
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Millions have reached heaven without these things. Thousands are reaching heaven every year without them.
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But no one ever reached heaven without repentance toward God and faith toward our
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Lord Jesus Christ. No, not one.
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Have you repented? Have you believed in Christ alone for salvation? Discarding any kind of work or baptism or merit or I'm better than anyone else?
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And if you have, and I know many of you have in this congregation, death has lost its sting then for those who have repented.
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Without repentance, death is the worst enemy because it leads into even a greater enemy's territory.
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But for Christians who have repented, the Bible softens death because it's just an entry into the presence of God.
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Three words I can think of that soften the blow of death in the Bible. One is sleeping.
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We looked at this in 1 Corinthians 11, didn't we? Christians, when they're dead, only used of Christians, they're sleeping.
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Because that means they're alive underneath and they're going to wake up. And so death is minimized.
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Death is made less outlandish when we think, oh yes, sleep.
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It's sleep. It takes the edge off of things. There's another word for Christians dying used by Paul in 2
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Timothy 4 .6 and that is departure. Paul was ready to sail for home.
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That's what death is for the Christian, a departure. If you go to Salem, Massachusetts and stand there by Adoniram Judson's statue and you see some family members and they get in a sailboat and they travel off and they depart.
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Pretty soon they'll be gone. So far you'll say they're gone. But really, they're not gone.
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They're on their way to the other side and eventually they'll be on the other side. And that's the language of 2
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Timothy. Departure. And the last thing that's used in the
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Bible to soften the blow of death for the Christian is taking down a tent. Some of you brave souls are going to go camping with the
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BBC group this summer and you just camp once a year.
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But these people think of Israel with the tabernacle. Put up the tent, travel, put up the tent, travel, put up the tent, travel.
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You take down the tent, you have to go put it up again. 2 Corinthians 5 talks about the earthly house and the tabernacle dissolved.
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When we die, since Christ has already paid for our sins as our substitute, as our representative,
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God confirms that great death and exchange by raising Jesus from the dead. It's just like taking down our tent and we put it up again in the next city called heaven.
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No wonder Paul can say, O death for the Christian, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
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For death has been swallowed up in victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Infidel Hobbes, I am taking a fearful leap into the dark.
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Queen Elizabeth, O that I might not die, I would give millions if I would not have to die. Atheist Gibbon, all is dark and doubtful.
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Murderer Charles IX, I do not know where I am. I am lost forever. I know it. But for the
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Christian, Revelation 14, blessed are they that die in the Lord. You either believe that He is and die in your sins, or you believe that He is.
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If you believe not and die in your sins, are you believing that He is? And heaven, we are to think properly about life and death, hell and heaven,
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Christ and His atonement. James 4 says you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
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You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Congregation, for those of you who are
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Christians, no wonder we have a redemptive agenda in the church and not a political one.
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Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Green Party, without Christ Jesus, they all die and go to hell.
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That is not my goal in life, to make you a Democrat, to make you a Republican, to try to get you to vote with me.
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We have a redemptive agenda. MacArthur said, and I will say this to all those unfaithful pastors and all those unfaithful churches and all those people fooling around out here and there with shallow, trivial services on Sunday trying to entertain people.
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If you have been doing that, you need to repent and get serious about preaching a serious message in a serious day.
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If anybody thinks seriously, they are going to run from places like that and they are going to find places where God is speaking out of His Word the truth about life and death and time and eternity.
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This should be serious enough to shut down the trivia going on in the name of Christianity. And friends, you have the message.
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Your mom, your dad, your kids, your friends, your neighbors, those that you work with, unless they are born again, they are going to hell forever.
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And you have the message of forgiveness. Say, yeah, but if I tell them, then they might not like me.
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They may not want to talk with me. They may not want to associate with me. Well, you know what?
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You are in good stead because when Jesus preached the truth and said, I am going to tell you the truth in John 6 and I am not just going to give you bread anymore, some of His disciples followed
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Him what? No more. I think it is freeing. It is not a popularity contest.
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I have the truth and truth matters. This is the truth. Yes, I want to be kind.
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Yes, I want to do all that and speak the truth in love. But I have got to tell you the truth.
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And this effeminized nation that we live in now won't let people just stand up in the pulpit and say, these are the facts.
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You are going to die. Yet they will welcome me into the room when everyone is standing in the hospital room at the deathbed of someone and no one knows what to do.
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The doctors don't know. The nurses don't know. The priests don't know. The people don't know. But God has told us exactly what to do.
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And to stand up and tell the people there is forgiveness to be found. Here is Christ Jesus.
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Repent or perish. Where are those people? You know where I think they are?
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I think they are right here. Because you don't have to be a superstar to preach the Gospel.
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You have to preach about the super Christ Jesus and you can be weak and frail and sinful and afraid and a people pleaser, but resolve to say,
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I repent of my watered down milk sop preaching style.
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I am going to tell people the truth. Because I want to honor God because He has granted me forgiveness. Jesus paid it all.
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All to Him I go. Oh, I am going to tell people the truth. Tozer said,
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Let a flood or a fire hit a populous countryside and no able -bodied citizen feels that he has any right to rest until he has done all he can to save as many as he can.
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While death stalks farmhouse and village, no one dares relax. This is the accepted code by which we live.
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The critical emergency for some becomes an emergency for all. From the highest government official to the local
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Boy Scout troop. As long as the flood rages or the fire roars on, no one talks about normal times.
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No times are normal when helpless people cower in the path of destruction. In times of extraordinary crisis, ordinary measures will not suffice.
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The world lives in such time of crisis. Christians alone are in position to rescue the perishing.
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We dare not settle down to try to live as if things were normal. Nothing is normal while sin and lust and death roam the world, pouncing upon one and another until the whole population has been destroyed.
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Tozer said, I am too often at ease and consumed with my self -interest, Lord. Open my eyes to see the tragedy of friends and acquaintances on their way to a