Are You a Practical Atheist?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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March 27, 2016

00:01: I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 14th Psalm.
00:34: George Whitefield was one of the greatest preachers in the history of the church.
00:43: Even Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, made note of the preaching power of George Whitefield.
00:53: He traveled from England to America seven times preaching the Gospel.
01:03: And he was instrumental in the Great Awakening, preaching often in the open air, sometimes three sermons a day.
01:10: It's estimated he preached over 30,000 times in his life.
01:14: And that 80% of the American colonists saw him in person more than did George Washington, the President of the United States.
01:26: 80% of the colonists saw George Whitefield and heard from his mouth the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
01:35: And as I mentioned in my sermon during the open air this morning, I wanted to share again with you how Whitefield would open his messages.
01:46: Whitefield would begin his sermons oftentimes by looking out into an audience, and remember his audience is sometimes thousands of people standing and sitting in fields, and he's crying out without a microphone, without a bullhorn.
02:02: He's simply crying out and he looks out into the congregation, these thousands of people listening to him, and he says, I have come today to talk to you about your soul.
02:18: When I was in seminary, I was told never to address crowds of individuals with personal pronouns like you, but that we should use the collective we.
02:32: Never say you're a sinner, say we're sinners.
02:34: Never say you need to accept Christ, say we need to accept Christ.
02:40: Well, Whitefield broke that normal pulpit oratory rule, and he looked at people in the face, and he said, I've come to talk to you about your soul.
02:56: Well, today I'm saying the same thing, and I realize that as the pastor of this church, some of you have preached, some of you have heard me preach hundreds of times, but I often wondered if I've really gotten the message across that I'm concerned about your soul, that this isn't a game, that this is life and this is death and it's serious business and eternity is in the balance.
03:28: Today is Resurrection Sunday, what the world calls Easter, and this means in addition to the many who are normally here on Sunday morning, we have a lot of guests and that's normal for a day like today.
03:40: Folks come from other churches, family members come, and we're grateful for that.
03:47: And I'm equally concerned about your souls as I am of the people that are here every Sunday.
03:53: If you're here listening to me, I'm here to talk to you about your soul.
04:00: Before we read our text, I want to share something with you, something that most of you probably know, but some of you don't.
04:08: Along with my preaching duties at the church, I also serve a funeral home and I do a lot of funeral services.
04:18: They've gotten into the habit of calling me because I've been doing it for so long, I've learned how to talk to families in times of grief and God has graciously given me an ability to do that.
04:30: And so I've sat with almost 100 families in the last 10 years that I did not know before that and had an opportunity to share with them during their time of grief, words of comfort in the gospel.
04:47: And in almost every case that I can think of in every one of those times, the assumption was, well, this person's in heaven.
05:02: And I understand why it's part of the way that people cope.
05:05: It's part of the way people deal with the pain.
05:09: And I understand that.
05:10: And it's always, you know, they're in a better place.
05:12: And we use these platitudes to sort of get us along.
05:17: But I know also in many of those cases, not all, and I've had some blessed opportunities to preach to people that I knew were believers.
05:24: But in many of those cases, I've preached over people that have died outside of Christ.
05:31: And I always say the same thing.
05:33: I always say, look, this service is not for them.
05:35: It's for you.
05:38: The person who has passed can't hear me, but you can.
05:40: So this is for you.
05:42: And the reason why I bring this up this morning is because I wonder how many of those people in those caskets, how many of those people who have died sat in services just like this and had moments just like you're having today? How many of them had someone call and plead to them regarding their soul? As some of you are having me call you and plead for your soul today, how many of them ignored them like you're going to ignore me today? You see, it is appointed unto man to die.
06:18: And then comes judgment.
06:19: Every one of us is going to the box, every one of us.
06:27: It's just the 10 out of 10 die.
06:30: And no matter how good medical science gets, it is not going to stop.
06:38: Are you ready to face God today if you were called to that? I've come to talk to you about your soul.
06:51: If you came today hoping for a man centered self-help message, you are going to be disappointed.
06:59: I care too much for you to spend what little time I have with you on bunnies and Easter eggs.
07:07: I've come to talk to you about your soul.
07:12: The thesis of today is very simple.
07:14: The message is entitled, Are You a Practical Atheist? And I truly believe that most Americans, even those who call themselves evangelicals, Christians, live like atheists.
07:29: They live as if God does not exist.
07:32: And while they may pay lip service to him, they may even pay regular lip service to him.
07:40: They live their lives as if he does not exist.
07:46: So if that is you today, I want you to really listen to me.
07:51: And if you don't know, then listen to me.
07:55: And if it's not you, listen to me, listen to me today.
07:59: This is important.
08:01: Let's stand and read Psalm 14 and pray that God would open his heart to his word as he says to us in Psalm 14, the fool says in his heart, there is no God.
08:23: They are corrupt.
08:24: They do abominable deeds.
08:26: There is none who does good.
08:28: The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.
08:35: They've all turned aside together, they have become corrupt.
08:38: There is none who does good, not even one.
08:42: Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord? Lord, there they are in great number, for God is with the generation of the righteous.
08:55: You would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge.
09:00: Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people.
09:06: Let Jacob rejoice.
09:08: Let Israel be glad.
09:11: Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
09:14: I pray now that as I seek to preach it, that you would keep me from error, for I am fallible, capable of preaching error, and I don't want to.
09:27: I pray for the hearts and souls of the people that hear me, that they would hear the pleading of the gospel, that they would hear the challenge, that they might be ones who are living as if you don't exist.
09:43: And I pray today would be to them a call to repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ.
09:52: And it's in his name we pray.
09:55: Amen.
10:12: Intellectual atheism has become very trendy in our modern culture.
10:22: I personally believe that as a culture, we have given too much credit to the atheistic philosophers of our day.
10:30: We laud the atheists as brilliant, free thinking, erudite, science minded, and part of the intelligentsia.
10:41: We put them up like they're heroes.
10:47: Degrassi and Nye and Dawkins and Hawkins, we put them up as bastions of wisdom and brilliance.
10:58: These are the intelligent men.
11:00: These are the wise men of our day.
11:05: Yet, according to the Bible, these men are fools, not fools in the sense that they can't understand complex ideas, not fools in the sense that they can't understand logical principles, not fools in the sense that they can't even discern human issues.
11:30: But fools in that they have denied the very foundation of wisdom itself.
11:36: And they have denied the source of the wisdom that they are so quick to profess that they possess.
11:45: The psalmist tells us that it is the fool who says in his heart, there is no God.
11:52: And I want you to understand why that is so foolish.
11:55: And I want to show you today that many people, even some of you, live in that foolishness.
12:04: And again, you may ask yourself, why this sermon on Resurrection Sunday? Why this sermon on Easter? Well, for two reasons, as I was praying and asking God what to preach this week and every year, obviously, Resurrection Sunday comes every year, Holy Week comes every year.
12:18: And every year I've had to preach a message on this Sunday.
12:20: It's not always the same.
12:21: In fact, it's rarely ever the same message year to year.
12:24: But this year, it really has really confronted my heart that this is the time of year that people really flirt with God.
12:31: This is the time of year people really spend a few moments thinking about these things.
12:36: And it's an opportunity to challenge the heart.
12:38: It's an opportunity to say, look, God is not one to be flirted with.
12:42: God is not one to be trifled with.
12:47: God is not one for our scraps.
12:52: Number one.
12:52: Number two, this is the time of the year when the world puts the spotlight on Christianity and you turn on your television set and you see things like searching for the real Jesus.
13:01: Was there really a resurrection? The passion play with all that silly, nonsensical music that they had.
13:06: You see all this stuff and all this is intended to cast doubt and questions on the historic Christian faith.
13:20: And it sounds very astute.
13:21: It sounds brilliant.
13:22: They pull up the scientists to ask the serious questions, and yet they're absurd and they don't even realize their absurdity.
13:35: So today I want to challenge you with three questions.
13:37: And they're in.
13:38: Well, no, I didn't put them in your worship folder.
13:40: If you want to write them down, I'll give them to you.
13:42: It's very simple.
13:43: What does the Bible mean when it says the fool says there's no God? What does that mean? We're going to look at Psalm 14 today.
13:50: What does the Bible mean when it says the fool says there's no God? Number one.
13:54: Number two, what is practical atheism look like? And number three, are you living as a practical atheist? That's the three questions.
14:04: And today we're instead of didactic points, we're going to pull our message from questions.
14:09: The first question.
14:10: What does the Bible mean when it says the fool has said in his heart there is no God? Well, here's what it doesn't mean in this.
14:20: I want to get something across to you.
14:21: I want to help you understand something.
14:24: This text has been misused by Christians for a long time to try to say that atheists are dumb people.
14:35: In fact, I've heard Christians use this text in a very unloving way, unbecoming of the faith.
14:44: They say, oh, we should we should say April 1st is is Atheist Day because they're a bunch of fools.
14:49: You ever heard that? It's let me tell you something, folks, that type of talking, it doesn't help.
15:00: It's like taking the M out of Mormon and calling them morons.
15:03: It doesn't help.
15:04: It's not helpful.
15:06: You might say, oh, wait, I do that sometimes.
15:09: Don't I don't encourage that to sound helpful.
15:12: That is not what this text is doing.
15:15: This text is not giving you a license to go around putting your finger on people's forehead and say you're a fool because I'm going to show you something about this text that you probably don't even realize this is not dealing with philosophical atheism.
15:31: This text is dealing with practical atheism.
15:35: If you look at the original language, the Hebrew that underlies the English that we have here.
15:42: We read it and it says the fool says in his heart there is no God, but in the Hebrew, this is what it says.
15:48: The fool says in his own heart, God doesn't matter.
15:57: That's different, isn't it? This isn't as much denying the existence of God as much as it is denying that God matters.
16:09: You understand? Let me read to you from the UBS handbook, which is a textual handbook.
16:14: It says there is no God is not a philosophical denial of God's existence.
16:18: It is rather to reject that God matters and that God's will is of any importance in human affairs.
16:24: The Bible in basic English translates it like this.
16:27: The foolish man has said in his heart, God will not do anything.
16:33: You see, that's practical atheism.
16:36: Philosophical atheism says, I don't see God, thus he doesn't exist.
16:40: That's foolish, yes, but that's not what this text is talking about.
16:46: Practical atheism says this, I know God exists and I don't care.
16:52: And that, my friends, is the vast majority of America.
16:58: You realize everybody knows God exists.
17:02: You know, the Bible says that the Bible says that God has revealed himself to all men and that no man will have an excuse on judgment day.
17:08: No one will be able to look at God and say, I didn't know you existed.
17:11: He has made himself revealed in the heart of every man.
17:15: Romans chapter one, verse 18 and following, go home and read it.
17:18: It says that he has revealed himself to every man and the person suppresses the truth and unrighteousness.
17:24: The philosophical atheist has to lie to himself.
17:30: That's what he has to do because he knows God exists.
17:32: So he has to suppress that truth and unrighteousness.
17:34: But most of us aren't philosophical atheists, and that's not who the psalmist is addressing.
17:41: Most of us are practical atheists, and that's who the psalmist is addressing, because you know God exists and you don't care.
17:49: You know God exists and you don't serve him.
17:52: You know God exists and you don't follow him.
17:54: You know God exists and you don't repent.
17:56: That is worse than philosophical atheism.
17:59: At least the philosophical atheism says, I have no one to bother with.
18:05: I'm lying to myself to say he's not there.
18:07: The practical atheist says, I know he's there and I don't care.
18:11: We've got relatives.
18:12: My wife and I have talked to our relatives, people that we love, people that we reach out to with the gospel.
18:17: And we say, don't you understand that you're going to die one day? Don't you understand you're going to face God at judgment one day? And they'll look me right in the face and they'll say, I don't care.
18:30: That's the problem.
18:35: It's the problem.
18:36: It's not that you don't know God exists, you do.
18:41: I had a young man come to me and say, I don't believe God exists.
18:43: I said, yes, you know he exists.
18:44: You are lying to yourself.
18:47: There's a man lives right up around the corner.
18:49: I went to his house one day and I talked to you about Christ.
18:53: I'm an atheist.
18:54: I said, OK, you know God exists, though.
18:57: You believe that he doesn't, but you know that he does.
19:03: I'm not saying that to be ugly.
19:05: Listen to the text.
19:06: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
19:10: For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made.
19:18: So they are without excuse.
19:21: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.
19:25: But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
19:29: Claiming to be wise, they became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
19:38: Therefore, God gave them up to the lust of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.
19:48: And they worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever.
19:53: Amen.
19:53: That's what Paul says about the person.
19:56: Who says there's no God, he says, you know, there's a God.
20:00: And he has revealed himself to you.
20:05: And if you deny it, you are simply denying something you know is true.
20:14: And according to Romans 1, that's what I just read, by the way, Romans 1.
20:16: I told you to go home and read it.
20:17: I decided not to do that.
20:18: I'm gonna read it to you.
20:21: Because the reality is, according to that text, everyone knows God exists.
20:26: And they're not going to have an excuse of judgment.
20:28: If you think you're going to get to face God at judgment one day, and I heard an atheist say this one time.
20:31: He said, if I do die and I find out God exists, I'm just gonna look at him and say, God, you didn't give me enough evidence for your existence.
20:37: Yeah, try that.
20:38: See how that works for you.
20:43: This text tells us that all men know God exists in two ways.
20:45: Number one, natural revelation.
20:47: You can look at the world around you.
20:48: You see how it was made.
20:49: You see that it was created.
20:50: You see it's the hand of a creator.
20:51: You look inside the human body.
20:52: You see the eye.
20:53: You see it has a million different photosensitive cells.
20:56: All of these things together demonstrate a design feature, which has at its very core a designer.
21:04: Nature testifies to the glory of God.
21:05: The heavens declare the glory of God.
21:06: We know this.
21:08: But he also says there's something inside of us, our conscience.
21:12: We know there's a standard for right and wrong.
21:15: You know, every time an atheist says that something is wrong or right morally, they're giving up their own worldview position.
21:25: If an atheist says, I don't believe in God because I believe in evil, and evil exists, so I don't believe God exists.
21:31: You can't have it both ways, because if there's no God, nothing is evil.
21:35: You say, why not? Because there's no standard.
21:37: If there's no God, there's no standard.
21:39: If there's no standard, there's no evil.
21:40: Then what Hitler did is no different than anyone else, because Hitler did what he thought was right.
21:45: And who are you to tell Hitler he was wrong if there is no standard? You say, well, that seems like an extreme position.
21:56: No, it's not an extreme position.
21:59: I hear atheists all the time talk about ought.
22:01: You ought to do this and you ought not do that.
22:03: There is no ought without God.
22:06: Because there's no standard without God.
22:13: How can this text say that all men know God when so many men claim to be atheists? Well, they suppress the truth and unrighteousness, as I've already said.
22:20: Men would prefer that God not exist.
22:22: You understand that? Now, they want to believe in a blessing God.
22:27: They want to believe...
22:28: That's why Joel Osteen is popular, by the way, because he talks all about God's blessings without God's judgment.
22:33: And he's a heretic and he's a false teacher, but that's what he does.
22:37: And that's why he's so popular, because he appeals to so many people who are lost.
22:43: And what he does is he tells everyone how good everything is, because the God that he's teaching is moralistic, therapeutic and deistic.
22:55: So we call moralistic, therapeutic deism.
22:58: He wants you to act right, feel right and believe in a God of some kind.
23:03: That's not biblical Christianity.
23:05: Moralistic, therapeutic deism is the belief system of America, but it's not biblical Christianity.
23:10: If your God just wants you to live right, feel right and believe in some type of a God, you're worshipping the wrong God.
23:19: The God of the Bible says, repent, follow my son, trust in him, take up your cross, be willing to die for him.
23:26: That's the God of the Bible.
23:29: That's the God people don't want.
23:31: And I'm telling you, people don't want that God.
23:32: People don't want that God to exist.
23:34: Listen to Richard Dawkins.
23:36: This is how Richard Dawkins, one of the most famous atheists in the world, describes the God of the Bible.
23:44: He says, the God of the Old Testament is the most unpleasant character in all of fiction.
23:49: He's jealous and proud, petty, unjust, unforgiving, controlling, vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleansing, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infancidal, genocidal, filicidal, pesticidal, megalomaniac, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
24:08: That's the way Richard Dawkins describes the God of the Bible.
24:11: You see, Richard Dawkins doesn't deny God exists.
24:14: He knows he does and he hates him.
24:19: He denies that he exists and he hates him at the same time.
24:22: It's like Ray Comfort said.
24:23: Ray Comfort said, atheists don't hate leprechauns and they don't hate fairies.
24:28: They don't hate unicorns because those things don't exist.
24:31: They hate God because he does exist.
24:39: But here's what's scary, folks.
24:41: This is the real scary part.
24:42: Guys like Richard Dawkins are not the most dangerous.
24:46: The real issue is the person who's not gone all the way to philosophical atheism.
24:50: The real issue is the person who wouldn't deny God with their lips, but denies Him with their life.
24:56: Hear it again.
24:57: The real problem is not the person who denies God with their lips.
25:00: It's the person who denies God with their lives.
25:04: That's the focus of Psalm 14.
25:06: The person who says God doesn't matter.
25:13: So that's what it means when it says the fool has said in his heart there is no God.
25:17: The fool says in his heart, I know God exists.
25:19: It doesn't matter to me.
25:21: That's foolish.
25:23: But that is the life of the average person today.
25:28: Number two, what does it look like? What does practical atheism look like? Well, I've used the term practical atheism, and that's a coined phrase.
25:36: You know, it's just a phrase.
25:37: It's not in the text, but it's based on the text.
25:41: And we've already said a practical atheist is a person who lives his life as if God doesn't exist.
25:46: Consider the text.
25:47: Consider what it says.
25:48: The person says God doesn't matter.
25:50: Verse one, he says it says his behavior is marked by consistent ungodliness.
25:54: That's the second part of verse one.
25:56: He lives his life without seeking God.
25:58: That's verse two.
25:59: He doesn't seek to do good toward God.
26:01: That's verse three.
26:02: And he does not call upon God.
26:04: That's in verse four.
26:05: All of these things are simply building what it means to be a practical atheist.
26:10: And essentially, his life is lived in a way that is not influenced by God.
26:19: In essence, the practical atheist is the one who sins without fear.
26:23: And he lives his life apart from the fear of God.
26:26: His life is governed not by faith or by fear of God, but by himself.
26:34: And here's the real sad reality.
26:37: The church is filled with these people.
26:41: Just think about how little time in a given week some of you here.
26:49: I want you to think about this.
26:50: I really I thought about this a lot this week.
26:52: And again, when I when I'm going to preach a message like this, I'm always sort of having to take a step back and make sure that I'm not.
27:00: Make sure that I'm not saying anything wrong, but I also just want to kind of get you to sort of practically put this in your mind.
27:09: What what what is it? Think about how little time people spend with God each week.
27:18: Think about how little time people spend with God each week.
27:21: I want to think how many hours in the week there's a there's one hundred and sixty eight hours in the week.
27:27: If you sleep eight hours a night, that's fifty six hours of your week that you're unconscious.
27:34: That leaves you with one hundred and twelve hours a week.
27:37: If you spend two hours a week in church, that is less than two percent of your time, which is invested in thinking about God.
27:46: If that's all the time in the week that you spend thinking about God and that's if you come to church and often to our shame, when we come to church, we don't even think about God while we're here.
28:04: We come to God to see, we come to church to see our friends and we want to talk about fishing.
28:09: We want to talk about football.
28:10: We want to talk about our garden.
28:12: We want to talk about homeschooling.
28:14: We want to talk about everything but the cross.
28:17: And the least attended things that we do here are prayer studies and Bible studies.
28:27: But have a barbecue.
28:28: Have a barbecue and watch them come.
28:41: I said in the beginning, I want to talk to you about your soul.
28:43: This is getting real now.
28:46: The practical atheist gives very little consideration to his own soul.
28:50: He doesn't seek God in prayer.
28:51: He doesn't desire God's word.
28:53: He doesn't desire to see himself grow in holiness.
28:55: He doesn't desire to share his faith with others.
28:57: He doesn't care if he sins.
28:59: The mantra of the practical atheist is this.
29:01: Well, I know it's wrong, but.
29:04: Well, I know God wouldn't want me to do that, but.
29:11: How many of our lives are marked by that single phrase? Well, I know God wouldn't want me to do this, but.
29:20: You realize what you're saying? And that it doesn't even really matter.
29:25: It rolls off the tongue as if it's a non-thing.
29:29: You're talking about the God of the universe.
29:30: You're talking about the God who spoke all things into existence simply by the word of his mouth.
29:33: He holds all things together by the word of his power.
29:35: You talk about him like he's your dog.
29:41: Because nobody cares if they kick their dog and the dog gets mad.
29:44: Because he's going to forgive me tomorrow.
29:54: The only thing that separates philosophical atheism from practical atheism is words.
29:58: And words don't mean nothing.
30:00: That's a double negative, so let me fix it.
30:02: Words don't mean anything.
30:05: They have no meaning.
30:07: If the only thing that separates you from the world is your words, then you are lost.
30:21: Finally, third question.
30:23: Are you living as a practical atheist? Well, you might say this.
30:28: Hey, that's absurd, man.
30:30: How can you ask me if I'm living as a practical atheist? I'm standing here in church or sitting.
30:36: Atheists don't go to church.
30:42: Consider again the definition of practical atheism.
30:44: Practical atheism is more about how you live than what you say.
30:49: Ask yourself, has Christ changed my life? Has Christ changed your life? Has Christ changed your life? Now answer this, how? Can you answer that? Do you desire to please God? Do you have a desire to forsake all and follow Christ? Would you be willing to stand against father, mother, sister, brother for the cause of Christ? And at this moment, some of you, I know in my heart of hearts, I know somebody is saying it in their heart.
31:32: They're saying, Pastor, Keith is so extreme.
31:38: But all I'm doing is quoting Jesus.
31:42: Jesus said in Matthew 10, 34, Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth.
31:47: I have not come to bring peace but a sword.
31:50: For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
32:00: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
32:03: And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
32:07: And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
32:11: Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
32:15: That's not Keith Foskey, that is Jesus Christ.
32:20: One of the most difficult things for the practical atheist to do is actually hear and listen to what Jesus actually said.
32:31: How would you know? How would you know? You're living like an atheist.
32:37: You're living like a practical atheist.
32:40: Just look at your last week, man.
32:42: Just look at your life.
32:43: Ask yourself a few questions.
32:47: This past week, in what ways did your faith in Christ influence how you treated other people? In what ways did your fidelity to God drive you to share Christ with someone else? In what ways did the Holy Spirit guide you in understanding the Word of God, if you even read it? Beloved, this is not legalism.
33:18: I'm not saying that any of these things save you.
33:20: You're saved by one thing, and that's the blood of Jesus Christ.
33:24: You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
33:30: And here's how it works.
33:31: It's very simple.
33:32: You're a sinner.
33:32: You deserve God's punishment, and you deserve all of it.
33:36: You deserve the full fury of the wrath of God, and you say, well, I'm not that bad.
33:40: Do we really have to go through how much of a sinner we all are? The two greatest commandments are these, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
33:50: And you've never done that, even one day of your life, perfectly.
33:55: You've told lies.
33:57: I don't have to ask you if you have.
33:59: And I have a little difference with Ray Comfort.
34:01: Ray Comfort will say, have you ever told a lie? Yes.
34:04: Well, then you're a liar.
34:05: No.
34:05: You know why you tell lies? Because you're a liar.
34:08: Because you're a sinner.
34:09: You're a sinner from birth.
34:10: And you're a sinner by nature, and by choice.
34:16: And you're an affront to God.
34:18: And yet God, while you were still a sinner, God loved you.
34:21: And while you were yet a sinner, Christ came and He died on the cross.
34:26: And He promised that every person that comes to Him, He will take away their sins and give them His righteousness.
34:32: That's the gospel, very simply.
34:35: That's it.
34:36: And that's not legalism.
34:37: But I will tell you this.
34:38: If Christ changes your heart, He will change your life, and you'll be a different person.
34:42: And if you're not a different person, then you don't know Christ.
34:45: That's it.
34:47: If you don't care about the things of God, if you don't care about the Christ of the Bible, if you don't care about His Word, and about His people, and about His gospel, then you are not His.
35:00: And I call you today to consider your life, to consider your ways, to consider your soul, and ask the question, do I know that if I faced God today, that I would be with Him in glory? Or do I know that if I face God today, I would bear the weight of His wrath for all of my sins? See, there's only two options, folks.
35:38: There's no purgatory.
35:39: The Catholics got that one wrong.
35:42: There's no second chance.
35:43: The Jehovah Witnesses got that wrong.
35:47: The Bible says in Luke, the Gospel of Luke, Jesus told a story of two men who died.
35:53: One was a poor man, one was a rich man, and the rich man had treated the poor man badly.
35:56: He didn't have faith.
35:57: The poor man, the text doesn't say it, but it's implied that he was a man of faith.
36:00: It says when the poor man died, his soul was taken by the angels to Abraham's bosom, and there he was comforted in his death.
36:10: But it says the man who died, who died outside of faith, he closed his eyes here, and he opened his eyes in hell.
36:23: Are you a hellfire preacher? No, I'm a Jesus preacher, and Jesus preached about the fires of hell.
36:28: And Jesus said this, he says, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through me.
36:49: If you're living as a practical atheist today, I'm calling you to repentance, and I'm calling you to faith in the only one who can save you, and I'm calling you to follow him, not to raise your hand, not to walk in ire.
37:02: I'm calling you to discipleship.
37:05: I'm calling you to take up your cross and follow Christ.
37:11: Let's pray.
37:13: Father, I thank you for your word.
37:16: I thank you for the truth.
37:18: I thank you for the call of the gospel, and though it be a hard call, though it not be an easy call, Lord, I pray that it's been heard today.
37:25: I pray that it will cut hearts, that it will break hearts, and that it will mend hearts by the power of the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit.
37:35: I pray for believers, Lord.
37:36: I pray that today they've been confirmed in their faith, reminded of the truth that Christ is all in all, and that he's called us to faithful discipleship and called us to a faithful following of him.
37:54: And Lord, if a person has come here today, knows not Christ, I pray you'd break their heart, show them their sin, and their need for a savior, and that Jesus is the only savior.
38:07: In whose name we pray, amen.
38:12: Well let's stand and sing and prepare our hearts for the receiving of communion.