Why Death?

Good morning. My name is Pastor Mike Berry, and it's my privilege to be Delivering the message this morning. Before we get into The sermon proper, I wanted to take a little bit of time. to acknowledge.

the significance of this Sunday, there's a number on the screen behind you. 57,762,169. Does anybody know what this number signifies? Yes, this is the number of abortions since the passage of Roe versus Wade.

That historic decision. And this is sanctity of Life Sunday where we, Give some special attention to, just the tragedy of abortion in our country. What's sad is Rowe, who is the plaintiff in the case, Jane Rowe, whose actual name is Norma McCovey. She is a believer born again and actually today fights against abortion.

she actually is a gal who at 21 years of age, she was seeking a divorce. she had an unwanted pregnancy. And through the influence of very influential lawyers, the case was made, she was basically the test case to try to overturn abortion in Texas, not just Texas, but all the way to the Supreme Court. Fact is that she never had an abortion.

She had 3 daughters and. the main thing that she wanted was a divorce. She said, quote, I think it is safe to say that the entire abortion industry is based on a lie. I am, I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name.

I wanna just make a couple of suggestions to you to, some resources that you can, to look at to educate yourself and also to just suggest to other people. There's Eternal Perspectives Ministry, Randy Alcorn, you can look on their resources tab and look for Pro-Life, and they have all kinds of wonderful resources that will help educate you and, and help arm you on how to speak about this issue. In a loving and yet, biblically sound way. Also, I want to suggest a website, Live Action.org, which is the organization that was started by Leila Rose when she was 15 years old.

And Leila Rose, on the homepage, you'll see a debate between Leila Rose and Elise Hogue, one of the, Elise Hogue is one of the biggest pro-choice advocates. And this is actually, it's a 20-minute program where they debate and this is very informative to see how Leila, who is really a veteran that's 26 years old, how she responds to some of the tough toughest questions on abortion. Lyla Rose at 18 years old, as a UCLA graduate or, or student, began to go into Planned Parenthood clinics around the country and secretly film what was really going on in these clinics.

she would pose herself as a 15-year-old who had been impregnated by someone who was 23 or 31, and each time she went into one of these, clinics, they would counsel her to say that she was 16, that they would not report the sex crime.

And then she would document these videos on YouTube to which Planned Parenthood responded with a lawsuit or the threat of a lawsuit. And her organization, stands to this day. She's a frequent guest on several news stations. This particular program was on CNN News.

So you can take time to look at that if you wish. I would highly encourage you to take a look at these sites on the Sanctity of Life Sunday. We're gonna take just a moment to pray, before we get into this morning's message. So if you would, bow with me in prayer.

Oh, let me say one other thing before we pray, I'm sorry. in your bulletin, you'll note, that there is a class being offered called Save One Abortion Recovery Bible Study. It starts February 3rd. At 6 p.m.

and the information is in your bulletin. If you have had an abortion and you are struggling with the, the trauma of that, this would be a great resource for you and it is confidential. Let's, let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, Creator of all, we acknowledge that you have made every person in your image, people from every nation, every language, Male or female, from the womb to old age.

We are all made in your image. Lord Jesus Christ, you are the way, the truth and the life. You are the eternal God who came to this fallen world to redeem a people for yourself. And through your blood shed at Calvary, we have the promise of eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and the hope of the world to come.

Oh Holy Spirit, we thank you that you are the one who convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. And yet you are the comforter. And you draw us to Jesus. Convict, comfort, draw us as we pray, Holy Spirit.

We confess, so God 3 and 1, our sins as a nation. As we have aborted our children, over 57 million of them since 1973. Your word tells us that righteousness exalts a nation, but that sin is a reproach to any people. And we have shed the blood of the innocent.

And have soaked our nation's soil. We confess that all too often we as a nation have been indifferent to the plight of unborn children. We confess the sin of legalizing this evil. And that as a culture, we have promoted this evil as good.

We confess that as a nation, we have used the desperateness and ignorance of people as a as an occasion to make money. We confess our sins, as your church, your people in this matter, we have not prayed as much as we ought. We've not spoken up in private or in public as we ought. We have not shown the love and compassion to desperate mothers as we ought.

We have not used our time, money, and labor to establish alternatives as we ought. Forgive us, your people, for our many sins and failures. We pray for Jesus' sake. Jesus, You alone are our hope and righteousness.

Teach us your heart and your concern for the lives of the unborn, enable us to humbly seek your face and will, and to be moved by your care for the helpless and the fatherless. Lord, draw near to those women who out of ignorance or desperation, have aborted their own children. Grant to them repentance, grant to them peace of your forgiveness, and the fellowship of your church. Heal their hearts, minds, and bodies, restore them to wholeness and hope.

Lord, we also pray for those who have performed abortions. We ask Lord, that you would grant them repentance, grant them peace of your forgiveness and the fellowship of your church, that you would heal their hearts, minds and bodies, and that you would restore to them wholeness and hope. Holy Father, Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. In whose hands are the times of all people everywhere in every age, hear from heaven and forgive us our sins, heal our land, we pray.

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, and all God's people said, Amen. So again, I commend those various resources to you and let's continue to pray for our nation. If you would turn with me to Genesis chapter 2. We've been involved here at Cornerstone in a A series going through the Book of Genesis.

And, Pastor Milton is speaking at a college career retreat, this morning. And there are 57 people up at that retreat, and so we're very grateful for the ministry. That is going on there. we appreciate, your prayers, just for the preaching ministry here at Cornerstone.

I, I felt it this week just in preparing for this message. In fact, yesterday I was hitting a real roadblock and text my wife and my wife and kids began to pray for me and really saw some, progress as a result of their prayers. we appreciate your prayers for, all of our preaching pastors. There's something.

Very unique about preaching. when I'm up here leading worship, there's some challenges to it, but it's something that I really enjoy doing. When I'm up here doing Sunday school, there's challenges to it, but there's something that I, I really enjoy teaching Sunday school. There's something about preaching, you can ask Pastor Milton, you ask Pastor Carlos, you can ask myself, especially the preparation process that is, a real challenge.

And I don't know that any of our pastors, this may come as a surprise to you, enjoy the process of preparing to preach. In fact, I would say that all of us loathe it. And that may seem like a surprise, but there really is something, there is a spiritual battle or whatever you want to call it, that makes preaching very difficult. And so we appreciate, your prayers.

and so this morning, I'm actually gonna leave the, the next text, verses 10 to 17 to Pastor Milton to get to next week. But what I want to do is pick up on one word in Genesis 2:17, where the text says, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. This is spoken by God to, to Adam. And this is the first use of the word die in the Bible, the Hebrew word mote.

It's the first time we see any reference to death, dying, died, die, whatever form of the verb you want to take. And from this point on, as you move into chapter 3 and then into chapter 5 and following, we see this concept. Of death. Anybody know what these four individuals have in common?

Yeah, they all died this week or within the last 8 days. Ernie Banks, big Ernie Banks fan, Cubs Hall of Famer, Marcus Borg is below Ernie Banks. He is one of the scholars who was a front runner in searching for the historical Jesus. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Arabia.

And then anybody know who the other guy is up in the Up here. ASAP Yams. He's a rapper with the group ASAP Mob. His real name is Steven Rodriguez.

All of these folks died, this week. Perhaps you have lost a loved one or a friend recently. Or maybe even a long time ago. I lost my grandfather back in 80, in the late 80s, and it's still fresh to me.

I can remember being at work when my dad called me to say my grandfather had passed away, just immediately, just tears. I can still remember driving to the cemetery for his funeral. this week it was strange. My, I was talking with my kids, we were talking about different dreams that we have, and, and suddenly I was reminded that I have this reoccurring dream of my grandfather just being alive, and there I am talking to him and he's still alive and there's just so much emotion that, fills me and this, this was 30 years ago that he passed away and there's still, some deep, deep feelings about my grandfather and his passing.

This number represents, how many people died yesterday in the world? 156,706, according to World World emitters died yesterday. 3.8 million people have died in 2015. So far in the world.

What message from heaven speaks louder to us than the daily dying and departure of our fellow creatures? That's, that's true. good friends will often remind us of things that we don't want to deal with, but that are very important for us. And today, Jesus, who is a friend of sinners, wants to remind us of something of massive importance.

And that thing of massive importance is that we all must die. CH Spurgeon, pastor, theologian of the 1800s, said this, we know that we will die. But we tend to imagine that it will not be, it'll be far off somewhere in the distance, but death will not spare us because we avoid him. Each day we try to avoid making eye contact with death.

We would rather look at the sports page than the obituaries. But death will not spare us because we avoid him. The modern mood is that we all live as if death is not waiting for us at the end. But the Bible, praise the Lord, does not avoid death.

And we want to take a moment, we, this is the first time we've come to this word in the Bible, the word moat, die. And we want to ask this question, why death? Why do people die? And I want to suggest 5 pointed truths from God's word, through which he seeks to make eye contact with you.

5 truths. First, this is where our train of thought must begin. God is the loving giver of life. God looks at you and says, I gave you life.

The Bible tells us plainly in Acts 17, since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things. we've seen in Genesis that God is the one that formed Adam and breathed into his nostrils life, right? And he gives you all life. He gave me life on August 10th, 1968, Saturday.

I don't remember what time. Is, is mom in here or? My mom would probably remember the time. But God gave me life.

He gives you life, and, and you have life, and I have life because a loving God wills it. The whole reason that we're alive, that we were born is because God willed our births. So God is the loving giver of life, and that's where our thoughts begin. Secondly, God is the loving sustainer of life.

God looks at you and he makes eye contact with you this morning. And he says, I sustain your life. the Bible tells us in Colossians 1:17. He speaking of Jesus is before all things and in him all things hold together.

Every element in the universe is held together by Jesus Christ. And he sustains you. Every atom in your body is held together by Jesus. He has given me 46 years of life.

He has given me the wonderful enjoyment of life. My wife, my children, this church, that all comes from him, and he sustains your life now as you sit in this room. Your heart is beating because a loving God wills it. You are able to breathe because a loving God wills it.

He wills your being. He sustains you. You are alive right now because God loves you and he sustains you. I don't know about you, but when I eat breakfast or lunch or dinner, I really don't have to work very hard to cause my stomach to digest the food and to send it to my, the various parts of my body to sustain me.

I eat the food, and then I move on to my next task. And while I'm thinking about other things, God is in the way that he's created me, causing nutrients to move throughout my body to sustain my life. I really don't have to go throughout my life gasping at the atmosphere to get the proper amount of oxygen into my body. I, I breathe in.

And I breathe out, and I stay alive. And God, a loving God wills all of these things, these things that we, rarely think about, this all happens because God wills it. But thirdly, God is the just taker. Of life.

God looks at you this morning. And as as comfortable as it may be to make eye contact with him, God looks at you and he says, I am the just taker. Of life. Listen to what Job says, Actually, let's, let's look at Hebrews 91.

Where the writer of Hebrews says, it is appointed for men to die once. What does that word appointed mean? Yeah, it's God has ordained. He has decreed that you will die.

And he has put your death on his calendar. I make, I make appointments every week, put it on the calendar. Hopefully, remember 80% of them. Right?

God has everybody in this room. Every person who's ever lived on the planet, He has their death on his calendar. He has appointed a day for me to die. He's appointed a day for you to die.

When I'm sharing the gospel with people, I, I will, frequently just open up the Bible to Hebrews 9:27 and have them read it to me. It is appointed for men to die once and ask them, what do, what do you think that means? That God has your death on his calendar. Job says it like this, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Life was given by God. Life is taken by God.

The Bible indicates that death is no accident. The Bible tells us right here in, in, in Genesis 2. That If you eat of this tree, you shall surely die. Adam and Eve ate of the tree, and they died.

They got to a certain age and they died. We see the first, actual person who dies in Genesis 5. Genesis 5, it says, and he died. In fact, why don't you turn there?

Genesis 5:5. So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died. This isn't just some process of chance or just the result of evolution. God is the activator of death.

those little glow sticks where they don't really do anything until you break the little thing inside. That's basically what God has done. He, he creates the life, and he sustains the life, and he's the one that's created life in such a way to where it will end post fall. Death is God's just punishment for and against our sin.

And God reminds us of death all throughout the scriptures. We see Adam die, we see people die in the flood, we see the 10 plagues of Egypt, when there are hundreds, thousands of people who die, even these wonderful saints that we read about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they all die. The Bible reminds us of death from Genesis to Revelation. In Romans 5:12, Paul tells us, therefore, just as through one man's sin entered through one man's sin entered the world, death through sin.

Thus death spread to all men because all sin. There's a connection, there's a chain between this thing called sin and this thing called death. It's not just something that happens to us. There's a connection between sin and death, according to the Bible.

the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is what? Death. A way to say that in more modern terms, what you deserve for sin or the paycheck that you receive for your work of sin is death. All of us deserve a paycheck.

since the time we were born, we've been occupied in a particular job, and that job is called sin. And the paycheck that we earn for sin is death. Well, what that begs the question, what is sin? If sin and death are connected, then what is sin?

Well, quite simply, sin is the breaking of God's commandments. God, because he loves us, gives us commands, and he knows what is best for you. He knows what is best for me, and he, he gives his word. And when we say, no, I don't want to do it that way.

That tree of, of life is not what I want. I want the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as Adam and Eve did. What you say is not the best for me. This is what is the best for me.

That is sin. To basically do the opposite of what God commands. why does God even give us commands? God gives us commands because he knows what is best and he loves us.

Why do I tell my son that when, that you must stop at the curb and you can't just run into the street? Because I don't want him to run across the street and get hit by a car and die, right? And God, who is God knows what is best for us. And so he gives us commands.

These commands came and were written by the very finger of God and given over to Moses, the 10 Commandments. He tells, Israel, you shall have no other gods before me. But we live as if we're our own gods. death is God's limit on creatures who want to be God.

Death is God's determination to limit our arrogance. Pastor Milton will be getting into this later, but you notice how, right after the fall, we, we clearly have death, but you have people living for 8-900 years. And then the flood comes, and suddenly, the lifespan is reduced drastically. That is God's grace.

That God limits. The wickedness of man from living 950 years and getting 900 years more creative and more wicked in his sin, God begins to limit the lifespan of man so that he can limit sin. we take the name of the Lord in vain. what that, it doesn't mean just using God's name as a curse word.

The big idea is when we make vows, like in the vows of marriage, we stand before God and these witnesses, and we say, I will love you till death do us part. And then when we break that vow, that's taking the name of the Lord in vain. we make God a God in our own mind, rather than the God, God, as he's revealed in the Bible, we are disobedient to parents. we are adulterous in our hearts.

We commit murder and hatred as we were speaking of this morning. We lie and cheat on our taxes, we steal. These are all things that commands that God gives us for our own good, and we just think they're not that important. And so we go our own way and we incur this paycheck, this penalty called death.

And God reminds us of death, not just in the Bible, but he reminds us of death in the newspapers or online. Just look around you. I was driving into a church this morning, and two people driving on the 118 flipped over, fell off the overpass, and died. The dog survived.

The people died. This is one in the morning. Look at what's going on as a result of the Charlie Hebdo paper, protests, the, you have the paper in France that's, been, mocking Islam. By the way, their mocking of Islam is child's play compared to their mocking of Christianity.

what they say about Christianity is much more harsh and severe. They've been very light on Islam or very, not as critical of Islam. And yet, you have people all over Africa that are protesting and, in ***, there are 45 churches have been burned recently, 5 dead. Death is just everywhere.

In fact, I would, I would, propose to you to look, read through the book of Judges, and you look through the book of Judges and you see how terrible sin is and how terrible death is, you can find almost any story in our papers today that you see in Judges. There's really not much, much difference. you can find it. But all that being said, God is the just taker of life, and we would argue biblically, because he is the one who has appointed men to die once that people do not die one moment sooner than the Lord wills.

He's appointed our death. And That day will come. The one thing that should occur to us today, the elephant in the room is who's next. Which one of us will die next?

In His love, God calls us to think about death before it comes upon us, so we can ready our souls for eternity. This is one of the assiduous natures about some of the health practices that are going on, I know, more prominently outside of the United States, but I think even in the US to some extent is this when loved ones are approaching death, it's becoming more and more common, especially in medical practices in Europe, to not really let them know how bad it is. Because we want, we, we want to, we want them to feel comforted.

We don't want them to know they're gonna die, so let's keep them as happy as possible.

God does not do that to us. He comes in and tells us how stark the reality is, because he wants you and I to have an opportunity to prepare. Our souls for eternity, before we get Alzheimer's. Before they drug us up so much in the hospital that we can't think about our souls anymore.

God wants you to prepare your soul for eternity. And so God is the just taker of life. That's the third point of eye contact. Fourthly, God is the just judge of all, and God looks at you and he makes eye contact with each of us in this room, and he says, I am the just judge of all.

Back to Hebrews 9, it is appointed for men to die once, but after this, the judgment, people die. And they go into judgment. And death is the appropriate judgment of arrogant men. And yet death is not the end.

Death, if, if death were the end of all things, you could find some comfort. In your life that seems to have no meaning when people live outside of a Christian worldview. If death were the end of all things, then we could just, as the modern mood is, we could just party it up, do whatever we wish, and then you die. And that's actually quite a comfort to most people.

it's not an uncommon criticism of Christianity that Christianity kinda just gives people the sense of comfort so that you can feel better about life and make sense of the world. Really, Christianity, properly understood, doesn't give anybody outside of Christ any comfort whatsoever. In fact, it's a horrific doctrine, this thing called Christianity, because death is not the end. For those that do not Christ know Christ, death is only the beginning.

Of an eternity Acts 17:31 says that God has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man Jesus, whom he has ordained. God's appointed this particular day. And he is an ordained Jesus Christ to be the judge, who will judge all men. And we know that the Bible tells us that all of sin and falls short of giving God the glory that he that he alone deserves.

The wages of sin is death. And God, when death occurs, it is not the end, it is the beginning. Of judgment for many, many people. Think about this, what fear and terror would death hold if it were not for the judgment that awaits us on the other side?

This is, again, one of the, the sad commentaries in our culture about people with these alleged post-death experiences and they come back and tell us how wonderful it is and how that they saw grandma and grandpa and everybody, and that really to die is, is not a big deal. this was Hamlet's, dilemma and, Shakespeare's Hamlet. you've, you guys have all heard the speech to be or not to be, right? What is that speech really about?

Hamlet's got a dagger, he's got this, he's about ready to sink it into his breath. This is Bair Botkin, and he's thinking about reality. And he's thinking about the, what he calls the undiscovered country. Hamlet ultimately could not sink, sink the dagger into his breast because of this undiscovered country.

It's like, who knows if all the ills and terrible things, the laws, delays, and so on in this life, if, if we kill ourselves here, who knows if it's not worse on the other side. And the answer to his dilemma is, without Christ, it is worse. You do not want to die and fall into the hands. Of God.

An almighty God. And so this is our 4th point of contact that God is the just judge of all. But finally, God is the loving Savior of all who call on Him. God makes eye contact with you this morning, and he says, I am the savior of all who will call upon me.

He is the savior of all who will turn from sin and believe in His Son Jesus Christ. the loudest message in the Bible is not sin. The loudest message in the Bible is not death. The loud loudest message of the Bible is not judgment.

The loudest message in the Bible is divine forgiveness for sin. That's the loudest message. That's why we have a message of sin and death and judgment, so that we can understand the gospel that there is divine forgiveness if we will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us right after it tells us that the, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is what eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And how does God show His love for us? He demonstrates Romans 5:8, his love towards us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God doesn't look at you this morning or he doesn't look at any Any unbeliever or sinner on the planet and say you must clean your, clean your life up and then I'll save you. While you are still sinners, Christ died for you.

The Bible tells us in Romans 10 that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's, that's the beautiful message of scripture is, is while there are these terrible prospects, these fearsome things that we must think about, death and sin and judgment. The wonderful news is that if we just come and confess that we're sinners, And confess our belief in Jesus Christ, that he died for us where we deserve to die, and that he was raised from the dead, we shall be saved.

It's a glorious truth. The Bible further tells us that there's no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, that is Jesus Christ. You can be saved from death, from ultimate death, if you believe in Jesus. is what the Bible says.

We need, we must believe in the Jesus of the Bible. Jesus tells us, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes the Father, but through me. If we want to move through this passage of death and move into eternal life, we have to believe in Jesus.

What Jesus is this? There, there are, there are false views of Jesus. Paul even warns us in 2 Corinthians, he warns the Corinthians, not to believe in another Jesus. We have people that are promoting concepts of Jesus all the time.

The Bible's version of Jesus is that Jesus is God in the flesh, who came to earth as a man and was sinless, never sinned one time. Fulfilled the whole law, all those 1010 commandments that you and I have broken. We want to create God in our own image. we break our vows, we have hatred in our hearts, we have lust in our hearts.

Jesus never, never broke any of those commands. The wages of sin is death, so you and I deserve to die. Jesus never sinned, so he shouldn't have died. So why did he die?

He died for you. He died for me. So that we get His righteousness, we get his life. And what is offered to us is the forgiveness of sin.

We have no greater need than this forgiveness. There's no greater need than forgiveness. And you may have grown up in the church. There's many young people in this auditorium today.

You may have grown up in the church and heard the gospel your whole lives. But I pray the Holy Spirit will help you hear this this morning afresh, that your greatest need is not the next form of technology. Your greatest need is not to figure out which college you're gonna go to. Your greatest need is not that boy or girl that you have a crush on.

Your greatest need is forgiveness. Everything hangs on forgiveness. Jesus or God theoretically could have just thrown our sins under the rug and said, what, it's not that big of a deal. You're pretty good people and I'm a nice guy, you're forgiven.

That's not the way he did it. He sent his son. to suffer a horrific death, to actually drink in the wrath of Almighty God, to propitiate or to bear the wrath for the sins of the world. And today we stand in the place where the Father's righteousness has been satisfied.

In Jesus, God must be just, He must punish all sin, and all sin is either punished in Christ, or it is punished on the sinner. And the Father has been satisfied so that if you believe in Him today, If you have not yet believed, you can be saved. Furthermore, his righteousness was publicly vindicated in the resurrection. Romans tells us that Jesus was raised because we were justified.

Because we have been justified in the eyes of God, Jesus was raised. If the wages of sin is death, If we deserve death for sin, and Jesus died in our place, and God's justice has been satisfied, was there any reason for Jesus to stay in the grave? Answer, no, that's why Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus had not died in vain.

He was raised because of our justification. And so Those of us who have believed, which I believe is the vast majority of us here, but I'm not gonna assume that all of us here have believed. Many visitors, many children are growing up in the church. Those of us who have come to know Christ, we understand a couple of things that we have the freedom from fear of death, right?

And we have the freedom from fear of future wrath. We've escaped the wrath to come. Because Jesus has already drunk it in for us. And so we rejoice.

Christians still die. But we do not need to be terrorized. Of death. Death is redefined for the Christian.

I heard one believer say who was on the brink of death, I am afraid but not terrified. Remember Vernon Anderson, before he passed away, Pastor Milton went to visit him and, and he was wrestling with fear. All of a sudden, in light of the fact that he was ready to cross over the River Jordan into the next life, all of his sins in his life were magnified. And he said to Pastor Milton, Has God truly forgiven me of my sins, and Milton had to remind him of the gospel.

And then he took comfort and hope. He was afraid, but not terrified. It reminds you of Pilgrim's Progress, where Christian, at the end of his life is crossing over the river, and then he begins to doubt, Lord, Lord, and he has to be pulled out of the river by God's grace at the very end of his life. And so for the Christian, it's not that we have no fear of death, we are still part of the race of Adam.

All of us are in Adam, in the sense that we're connected to our Father, and we will die. Unless Jesus Christ comes back in your lifetime or my lifetime, we will all die because we're still connected to Adam, and we will still incur that part of the curse. But we escape the second death because of our belief in Jesus Christ. We do not grieve without hope, as Paul says.

And so we come to the Lord, not of our works, but we come to the Lord by grace. It's a, it's a free gift, even the faith that is, that we have has been gifted to us. And we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he rescues us from sin. So here's the question, are you ready?

Are you ready? Are you a child of God? You are not his child merely because you are his creation. We know that God has created everybody in this room, right?

And you are all made in God's image. But you are not his child, merely because you are of his creation, you must become his child through becoming a new creation through faith in Christ. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to become a new creation. Then you become a child of God.

We should all prepare to die. It's, it's one of the thoughts that Christians have kept in their minds for two millennia. one of the things that the Puritans were known for, for thinking about is to, to have ready in their mind the thought of death, judgment, and eternal life. They constantly taught their kids to think about you are going to die.

We will all come to judgment. And there really is a heaven, and there really is a hell, and it all hangs on your faith in Christ. These were regular thoughts that Puritan children would grow up in it. So imagine some of these nursery rhymes, these kids would sing.

All you gotta do is read some of Isaac Watts's hymns for children, right? And you get an idea of some of the things these kids were thinking about. Right? Let me just from a, from, from the perspective of those in the room who know Christ and you've believed in Christ, which is, I believe the vast majority of us, how should we use the doctrine of death to encourage us, in our life?

Let me just, suggest to you the example of Jonathan Edwards, who young, early in his life developed these resolutions, to help him. Just think through the most important things in life. And some of the resolutions that he made that guided his life had to do with thoughts of death and In judgment. One of his resolutions, the 7th 1, says this resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

It's an excellent resolution for us to, to keep. It's something to meditate on as you're considering various activities and things to engage in. Is this something that I want to be involved doing if I'm gonna die 60 minutes from now? his 17th resolution resolved that I will live so as I wish I had, I had done when I come to die.

if you talk to anybody in this room who's probably over the age of 40, you'll, you could probably, if you scratch hard enough, you could probably find regrets. It's not uncommon, even for godly, godly people as they age and mature to have regrets. that's just part of life and it's part of one of the things that we confess. but as you are younger, it's, it's good to contemplate.

what will you wish you had done when you come to death? When you are staring death in the face, what will you wish you had done with your life?, a third resolution, this is resolution, 19 and then 51, resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if I expected it would not be above an hour before I should hear the last trump. So if Christ were going to come back in the next 60 minutes. What would you be engaged in?

51 resolved that I will act so in every respect as I think I shall wish I had done if I should at last be damned. In other words, this is an interesting thought. It's like, what thoughts would I have if I totally rejected Christ and I end up in hell? What types of things would I wish my life had been about?

That may sound rather morbid. But rather to think about these things now, than to be at the end of your life and To wish you had thought about these things earlier. Ultimately, we think about death, sin, heaven, all within the scope of the life and death of Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ is the one that gives us hope and, and no doubt there will be regrets in our lives, and no doubt there will be things that we wish we would have done and could have done.

But we look to Christ, who is our righteousness. We look to Christ who died in our place, and he was raised because of our justification, who will take us to be with Himself. And it is in heaven, where really the vast majority of our dreams are to be realized, other than on this earth. To those who may not know the Lord this morning, Let me just say that you can be saved today.

No one falls into the judgment of hell merely because of sin. Everyone in this, every one of us in this room will die unless Jesus comes back in our lifetime. 100% of the human beings who've lived on the earth have died, right? you just think about just some of your, the favorite historical figures.

Everybody has, has died. I think of my, my kids and I, we like to watch these old comedies like Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd and, Buster Keaton, and we just love these guys. And then, one of my kids will ruin the moment and say, Daddy, is he still alive? Or they'll ask me, how did Curly die?

like, these are all people that are, they're dead and gone, right? And everyone in this room will, 100 years from now, people, if they even know what your name is. You will not be there to, to give them any recollections of your life. You will have passed on.

But while death is certain, Even the Lord Jesus Christ died, though he was raised. You have a few exceptions like Eli, What's his name? Elijah and Enoch, yeah. we can talk about that in our eschatology class type of the rapture.

But no one falls into judgment of hell merely because of sin. It is because they cover sin. They will not acknowledge and admit sin. God is always ready to forgive.

We must confess, we must forsake, we must believe. Nobody in this room will go to hell merely because they're a sinner. People go to hell because they refuse to confess sin. God is ever ready to forgive the sinner through His Son Jesus Christ.

You cannot avoid making eye contact with death. And this morning, God wants to make eye contact with you. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you for your word.

In the topic which we have discussed this morning is very sobering to it's very sobering to consider the first use of the word. Death In the Bible, and it's very sobering to consider how much death there is on the pages of Scripture. And the evidence of death that we see all around us. And yet we acknowledge you as the one that sustains, that has given us our lives and sustains our lives this morning.

Yet we know that you have the right to take our life when you wish. And each of us will come to judgment after death. And yet the loudest message. In your letter to us is that you are a savior.

And that whoever shall call upon you shall be saved. We pray this morning. That you would send your spirit. That you would convict.

Those who do not know you in this room of their sin. And that you would help them to see that you would open up their eyes to know that there's a savior, there's a God who loves, who is stands ready to forgive whatever they have done, no sin. No sin is beyond the reach of the cross. We ask that you would move in our presence, even as we give to you this morning.

We thank you for the opportunity to worship you with our offering. We ask Lord that you'd use this offering to, to grow this church and to support its pastors and it's preaching, to support its ministries, that the gospel would continue to shine in this community and through the world. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Let me just say one final thing before we take up our offering and sing the final song. If anybody would like to talk to me about the gospel, if you would like to receive the Lord Jesus Christ today, I'm gonna be situated down here in the front row. I'd love to talk with you about the Lord, explain the gospel to you further. I would just beg of you to not leave this day without making Christ your Lord and Savior.

Thank you.