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SERMON: Chris McKenzie, First Baptist Church of Elizabethtown, IL
13 Plays3 months ago
"The Judgment & Death of Jeroboam"
1 Kings 14:1-20
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Prayer
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First Kings chapter 14 this evening.
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But before we go to the scripture, let us first go to the Lord once more in a word of prayer, if you will, now with me. Father, thank you so much again for bringing us here tonight to worship you.
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And Father, as we open up your word tonight, help us to just put aside the world and focus on you and your Holy Spirit and what you're revealing to us.
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And Father, let my words be yours. It's in Jesus' name I pray all these things. Amen.
Division of the Kingdom
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So as we continue on through the Book of the Kings, man, it's a wild ride. We're already to chapter 14, and a lot of different things have happened, but if you're just now catching up, here's what's happened.
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David's gone. His son Solomon took over. His son Solomon did pretty good, and then he didn't. And then he went on, he passed on, and his son took over the kingdom.
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Well, About two seconds. And in those two seconds, the kingdom became divided. And now you have the house of Israel on one side and the house of Judah on the other side. And you've got Rehoboam who was over Judah and Jeroboam, because they like to name all their names very similar to each other, who was the king over all of israel
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And God sent a prophet to Jeroboam and said, i am taking the kingdom away from the line of David.
Prophecy Against Jeroboam
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I am going to give to you ten kingdoms. And with those ten kingdoms, you're going to rule and you will have an enduring throne you there's a big word right there right if you listen to me if you follow my commandments if you don't sin against me I promise you Jeroboam you're going to have been doing some but what did Jeroboam do Well, he got jealous of Jerusalem.
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He got jealous of the house of Judah. He didn't want his people in Israel to go to Jerusalem where they were commanded to worship God in the temple, where they were commanded to make sacrifices of the gods. So he builds up those two calves and he says, hey, Israel, don't go to Jerusalem anymore.
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Here are the gods that delivered you from Egypt.
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And so now, we find Jeroboam going against the commands of God. And a man of God tells him, your kingdom will be taken from you.
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And not only that, not only will your kingdom be taken from you, but your descendants, they will rule for a moment, but eventually there will be no one left of your house, Jeroboam, because you sinned against God.
Sin and Turmoil
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it's tonight I'll know if you read it on the screen yet but we're gonna read of the judgment and the death of Jeroboam as we read this we learn a couple things we learn one we can't trick God you know they were trying to do that can't you can't trick God We learned that sin leads to turmoil.
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No matter who you are, either eternal turmoil turmoil if you're lost in your sin and outside of Christ, or if you are in Christ and you're not listening to Him, let me tell you, your sins can lead to a lot of bad things right here, right now.
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And another thing we learned is that one day we will stand before King Jesus you and an account of Or what we have done. And there's a question to that.
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Are you ready for that day? I'm ready. I'm ready because I know when I stand there what I'm going to hear. I know that I've stumbled. I know that I've fallen and I've sought the help of Christ to stand back up on my two feet. But I see in scripture that tells us two things that we're going to hear on judgment day.
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Either those that are in Christ, they're going to hear the most wonderful words. And what are those?
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Welcome home, my good and faithful servant. And I'm ready for that day because I know that by faith, i don't get to stand before Jesus on that day of judgment and hear, welcome home, my good and faithful servant.
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But on the other side, those that are outside of Christ will hear the worst words. What are those?
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Man, it sounds like, yo, listen. Yeah.
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Depart from me, worker of iniquity. I never need
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And it's because of those words why it's important for us to share our faith. It's important for you to put your faith in King Jesus.
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So let's go ahead and we're going to read...
Deception and Downfall
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the whole part right here verses 1 through 20 here and look at the death and judgment of Jeroboam
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but in verse 1 of chapter 14 says at that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick Jeroboam said to his wife please arise and disguise yourself but they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam and go to Shiloh indeed Ahijah the prophet is there who told me that I would be king over this people also take with you ten loaves some cakes and a jar of honey and go to him he will tell you what will become of the child
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And Jeroboam's wife did so. She arose and went to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. And get this, but Ahijah could not see for his eyes were glazed by reason of his age.
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Let's go put on a disguise for a guy that can't see.
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In verse 5,
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coming to ask you something about her son for he is sick Thus and thus you shall say to her, for it will be when she comes in and that she will pretend to be another woman.
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And so it was when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door and said, Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have sent to you been sent to you with bad news.
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Go tell Jeroboam, Thus says the Lord God of israel Because I exalted you from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you.
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And yet you have not been as my servant David who kept my commandments and who followed me with all his heart to do only what was right in my eyes. But you have done more evil than all those who were before you.
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For you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke me to anger, and you've cast me behind your back. Therefore, behold, i will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free.
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I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field, for the Lord has spoken.
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Arise, therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die, and all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him.
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For he is the only one Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel and the house of Jeroboam.
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Moreover, the Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day. What? Even now? For the Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water.
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He will uproot Israel from this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger.
Judgment on Jeroboam's Household
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And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel sinned. Then Jeroboam's wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah, where she came to the threshold of the house.
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And when she came to the threshold of the house, the child died, and they buried him. And all Israel moved for him according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke through his servant Ahijah the prophet.
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Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned indeed, they are written in the books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. The period that Jeroboam reigned was 22 years.
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So he rested with his fathers. And Abab, his reigned in his place.
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lot of things going on there.
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But the first thing is this, in our very first point, God cannot be fooled.
Spiritual Disguises
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Nor can he be bought either. He's not like me. If you say, hey, Chris, I got some donuts and I got some honey. You want to work out a deal? I'm most likely going to work out a deal with you.
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And so Jeroboam tells his wife, I need you to go in disguise, to go talk to a guy that can't even see. And while you're going over there, I want you to take some food to bribe him.
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And maybe, just maybe, he's not going to remember that we sinned against God. And maybe, just maybe, if I don't go in there and you go instead of me, the wife going instead of him, Ahijah give him some good news.
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But that wasn't the case. Again, God cannot be fooled.
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You can wear your disguises all you want, but he doesn't look at the outward person, but the internal person. Remember David himself, when he was picked as king and anointed as king by God, his brothers came before him and they were fit and they were strong and they were warriors and here's a little separate boy.
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He didn't look like a king on the outside, but God saw his heart. knew that he was a king on the inside
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so my friends again God cannot be fooled he's not fooled by disguises Hebrews 4 13 says there is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him who we must give account So that means not only can you not disguise yourself from him, but you can't hide anything from him because he sees all things.
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But the thing that we need to know, like Jeroboam's wife, she wore a disguise. It was a physical disguise. She had to try and look different so that no one would know that it was Jeroboam's wife.
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But how many people wear spiritual disguises today?
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How many times do people come in and they say, Lord, Lord, and they prophesy in his name and they sit down in a church pew or they show up to Sunday school or they quote but Bible verses online as much as they can?
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How often do we say, look at me and look how holy I am?
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and yet we have no relationship.
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Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, that there will be people who are disguised in that way. Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name?
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Cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
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So God, cannot be fooled we can dress up pretty we can talk pretty and we can act pretty when everybody's around
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God sees not the outward person but he sees the heart the contents of your heart and he knows if you were truly serving him not So I want you to answer this.
Consequences of Sin
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I want you to think about this.
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But when God looks at your heart, and let's forget about how broken and messed up we are because we're all on the same level there. Every single one of us, if we were to lay out everything, we'd be pretty embarrassed, wouldn't we?
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We're messed up. We're broken.
00:15:39
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But who does your heart belong to?
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When God looks at your heart, what does he see?
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because you might fool the whole world. You might fool the pastor. And guess what? If you fool the pastor, I'm not vouching for you at heaven. I can't. I didn't die for you.
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I can't take away your sins.
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When you get to heaven, Jesus isn't going to say, hey, what does your pastor think of you? Might be a good thing for some of you. No, I'm just kidding.
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But when Jesus looks at your heart, what does he say?
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And God can't be fooled. And scripture tells us in Numbers 22, 33, this is not on the screen, but the scripture tells us, be sure that your sin will find you out.
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Have you all heard that one before? Be sure that your sin will find you out. And this leads us to our next point. Sin has has consequences I think that's a reoccurring theme throughout the book of Kings and you notice mr. King over here I'm gonna give you a throne I'm gonna give you everything you need oh you've got to do listen to me that's all you gotta to do and I'm gonna make sure it goes well for you and when they don't and when they sin and then what happens God pulls you out from underneath
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And the sin had consequences not just for Jeroboam, but the sin had consequences for all of those around him. It had consequences for the nation that he was leading. It had consequences for his family. His own child was looked at in in the way that the scripture tells us there is and that God looked at this child and it was the only thing good about Jeroboam.
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And God said, I'll take that child back. I know that sounds kind of harsh, right?
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But where do you think Jeroboam would have led that kid? Down the path of destruction.
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And so sin has consequences. Jeroboam sinned against God. He created these idols. And it led to the death of a family member.
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It led to destruction within his household. It was eventually going to lead to the destruction completely of his household. And we're going to eventually read in Scripture where finally one of the last males of his household dies.
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And the Scripture is going to say, and thus the last male of the house of Jeroboam died. And the house of Jeroboam was no more.
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Sin hands consequences And there's two ways
Eternal Consequences and Faith
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to look at this. Sin does have eternal consequences. If you are lost and dying in your sin and you refuse to bow down before the throne of King Jesus, the eternal consequence is this, is that you will stand before him and hear these words, depart from me, worker of iniquity. I never knew you. And you will experience what the scripture calls is the second death, an eternal death, eternal separation from God in a place called hell.
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And those are consequences God doesn't want you to experience.
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I know that because he sent his only begotten son, that whoever shall believe in shall not perish, but have everlasting life. He wants to say, welcome home, my good and faithful servant.
00:19:36
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But still it remains, sin has consequences. you're a Christian you have been redeemed you are saved your slave is wiped clean and you saying guess what your sin still has consequences if I go up and I get mad at Roger and I have an outburst of wrath and I slap him across the face I don't think I'd ever do that there's gonna be consequences to that right
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even though i've been forgiven even though i've been redeemed God's not gonna come pat me on the back and say I'm gonna wipe all this clean no I'm taking care of the sin part I've taken care of the penalty but now you've got a good one and he's got a whole lot more I can't say I'll get kicked off of Facebook if I say the next word
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and I think he's a good shot
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but I have to deal with the consequences of my sin. So sin has consequences. Remember what we see in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death.
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I love the second part of that, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord, but we've got to take that first part serious. The wages of sin is death.
00:21:10
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And recall what Paul writes also in Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 through 8. Don't be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For if he sows to his flesh, will the the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
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So Jeroboam, he was judged for his sin.
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And then he died.
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But if we look at the spiritual application of this today, it's a little bit different.
00:21:52
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Jeroboam did wrong, and then he died.
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Jeroboam, his life was reviewed. He was told to do something. He didn't do it. God said, i'm judging you now. And then because of that judgment, he died.
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And now scripture tells us this.
Facing Divine Judgment
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ah very mixed point a little bit reversed we will die and be judged
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if everybody just went to heaven there was no judgment we wouldn't even be here today what would be the need to prepare ourselves what would be the need to call people to faith and righteousness in Christ if there is no judgment
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But Jesus talks just as much about hell and judgment as he does heaven.
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And that's what he wants to save us from.
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It's his righteous judgment.
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Hebrews 9, 27-28 says, It's appointed for men to die once. I mean, gary and that includes women too. You women are gonna live forever.
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It's point for men to die once. Every single one of us in here. From the youngest, Mr. Malachi, to the oldest. Who do I say in that one? No, I'm just kidding.
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I'm gonna get judged tonight.
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Every single one of us will take our last breath. But after this, the ah judgment. Verse 28, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.
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To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation.
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That's the part I want to be with.
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That's where what I want to be a part of is when I'm standing there, he it says he's going to appear another time, a second time, apart from sin to those who eagerly wait for him. And that's what I'm doing. And I hope that's what you're doing tonight, that you are eagerly waiting for him. But there's going to be a lot of people that are going about their lives now to care in the world.
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about their sin, their salvation, and their eternal destination.
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But Jesus will appear to them too, but not apart from sin for salvation, but to judge them.
Resurrection and Salvation
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2 Corinthians 5.10 For we must all appear,
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before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good but bad.
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John 5, 26 through 29, the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man,
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Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life,
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and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.
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Because of sin, there is a physical death. but far worse than a physical death because it soon there is a spiritual death and the only one is brother Rick said this week the only one that has the cure for that is who?
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King Jesus Jesus is the only one that has the cure for that and we are all going to stand before his seat of judgment
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And there's going to be two resurrections, it says right there. Here's the resurrection I want to be a part of. I want to be a part of the resurrection of life. And how do I get that?
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Through faith in Jesus.
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But then he says there's another resurrection. The resurrection of what?
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Condemnation. Condemnation.
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Eternal separation from God.
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Everybody has an eternity.
Choosing Faith
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Some will be in eternal life with Jesus. Some will be in eternal death apart from them.
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But the choice you make right here in this world
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matters the choice to accept jesus as your king your savior and to follow him and put your faith in him that leads to eternal life but if you're like jeroboam and you say god i don't need you i'll do what i want well will suffer the same fate as terrible not only did he die a physical death but he completely rebelled and rejected God there's only one place for that if you don't want to be with him he won't make you but I promise you the place that you go where you can't be with him not a place I'd send my worst enemy to if I had the choice
00:28:20
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my friends think when we look at scripture we need to be serious about what hell is it was not a joke
00:28:32
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hell is a place that so many people are on their way to and hell was a place that they don't have to go do you know that when I was eight years old I was walking the past the hill and then I met Jesus and he turned me around He said, let me take you on a different path.
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And I followed him.
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Do you know someone that's lost?
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Do you know someone that is on that path right now?
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Can you tell me when they'll take their last breath because it's appointed for every man wants to die and then the judgment? My friends, Introduce them to King Jesus now, not tomorrow.
00:29:26
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When we leave here tonight, I can say, do this sometime this week. Do it now. Go out there and reach out to that person because you don't know when they're going to take their last breath. And my friends, if you haven't made that choice yet, if you ever put your faith in Jesus, you don't know when you're going to take your last breath.
00:29:49
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So what choice have you made?
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but if you're a Christian tonight, I encourage you to do this. Live for King Jesus. Can't fool him. He knows you in your entirety. He knows the contents of your heart. He knows if you belong to him or if you
Living for Jesus and Conclusion
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don't.
00:30:08
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So you need to come to ah clear conclusion of who you belong to here in this world. And if you belong to Jesus. Here's the challenge.
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This one.
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And if you're not a Christian, you will stand before the king.
00:30:31
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You will stand before Jesus. And he wants you to be ready for that day. He wants to look you in the eye. He wants to embrace you.
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And he wants to say, welcome home, my good and faithful servant.
00:30:49
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But the only way you'll hear those words is to turn away from the world and put your faith in Jesus. If you haven't made that choice yet, encourage you, don't leave here tonight without doing so.
00:31:07
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The church, and the Lord, now, what will you do with it? Go live for Jesus. Let's pray.
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Father, thank you so much.