Review / Introduction:
Judgment is Inescapable for the Unsaved. Someday It Will Be Too Late... (Nahum 3)
- Judgment IS going to Happen. (Nahum 3:1-7)
- It's been too late for Others. (Nahum 3:8-11)
- Your Resources won't matter. (Nahum 3:12-18)
- There is NO coming Back won't matter. (Nahum 3:19)
Hebrews 9:27 - And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment...
Hebrews 6:4-6 - For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt.
Isaiah 55:6 - Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up your Bibles to the book of Nahum, chapter 3.
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As we conclude today our series, entitled, "God's Judgment - Why and How." I'm going to be completely honest with you, this is not the servant series I was looking forward to this year.
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It's fun to talk about grace and love and marriage and parenting.
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It's not the most fun thing to talk about, but like the Apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders, "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God." And I feel it's my responsibility as a pastor to give you the whole story.
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We're not going to shy away from uncomfortable subjects.
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Right? Right?
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Yeah, you know.
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You know.
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So, let's pray.
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Father in heaven, as we turn to Your Word right now, this is something people don't want to talk about, God.
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People want to think that this stuff isn't real, but it is.
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It's as real as heaven.
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We're mindful that when Jesus talked about hell, He said it lasts as long as heaven lasts, and it's eternal.
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We think of judgment and hell, "Father, we should be stirred up that real people are really going there.
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People that we work with.
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People in our families.
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Maybe somebody sitting here or listening to this message online later, shake us out of our apathy.
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Let your Word be clear, Father.
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I pray in Jesus' name, that all of God's people said, "Amen." We are talking about God's judgment.
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What is judgment?
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Well, judgment is - simplest definition I could come up with - identifying sin and condemning sinners.
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That's judgment.
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God says, "This is sin. This is wrong." And those who persist in living this lifestyle without turning from their sin, without receiving My grace, they are condemned.
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That's judgment.
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In the book of Nahum, this little prophet in the Old Testament is a book all about God's judgment.
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was judging a city called Nineveh, which was the capital of Assyria, for her violence and for her pride.
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We've talked about that.
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Nineveh, they were violent people, building monuments out of corpses and skulls, skinning people alive, taking people and chopping off hands and feet.
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They were brutal, brutal, brutal people.
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Wicked.
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And they were proud.
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You can't even touch us. We're unstoppable." And the Lord says, "We'll see about that." We saw our messages week one, judgment is fueled by God's jealousy.
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The reason God brings judgment is because He loves His people.
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Judgment is fueled by jealousy.
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Then week two, we saw judgment is a response to man's pride.
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God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
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You're going to get God's attention one way or the other, through your pride or through your humility.
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Choose wisely.
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And last week, we talked about hell.
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And we see that God's judgment is horrific.
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It's horrific.
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Being Father's Day, I was thinking about some things that parents do.
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And not condemning, not pointing fingers, because I think every parent at some point has done this.
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You don't have to raise your hand and confess.
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If you want to, that makes you feel better, you can.
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How many parents have ever done this thing?
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I'm gonna count to three, and if you don't stop doing that, you ever done that, don't raise your hand, but I think we all have.
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Actually, my parents didn't count to three, they counted to one, right?
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It's like, I'm gonna count, boom!
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That's not politically correct or whatever today, but I'm gonna count to three, I'm gonna count to three.
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I gotta tell you the thing that cracks me up about it.
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One of the things that cracks me up about that is I've heard parents threaten to take something away from the kids that I'm like, I wanna jump in and say, kid, there's no way your parents not gonna give that.
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Like I've heard parents say something like, I'm gonna count to three, if you don't put that down, we're not going to Disney World next week.
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Like, come on, really?
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Really, if he doesn't put it down, you're gonna...
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the plane tickets and the park tickets and all your plans, your vacation, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, that's what you're gonna do, that's your plan.
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Or if you don't put that down, I'm not gonna feed you this week.
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Somebody call CYS.
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Like that's not gonna happen, right?
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But we, and then they get to the actual counting, right?
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All right, I'm gonna count to three.
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One, two, two, two, two and a half.
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Come on, I'm gonna count one, two, you've heard parents do that, right?
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And some of us have done that.
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This is not a message about parenting.
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But some people think God is like that.
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Some people think God is like that.
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You better stop sinning because you're making me mad and I'm gonna count one, two, stop sinning, two, stop, put that down, stop sinning, one, two, and then not bring judgment, right?
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Go to Disney World anyways, give you heaven anyways.
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Some people think God is like that constantly counting, threatening parent that we know is never going to come through with the actual punishment.
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And I gotta tell you, I wish that were true.
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I wish that that was what the Bible said.
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I wish that what the Bible said about judgment just wasn't in there, but it is.
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It's absolutely true.
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And it absolutely should shake you down to the marrow in your bones.
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Chapter 3 we're looking at today is just like chapter 2.
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There's no instruction, there's no call for repentance, there's just a declaration of judgment.
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That's what makes Nahum a hard book to read and to study and to preach from.
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Like, "Well, wait a second, it doesn't sound like God to not offer repentance.
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Why isn't God offering repentance?" Well, this passage, and really the whole book of Nahum, screams a biblical truth that flies in the face of a lie that most people believe.
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And here's the lie.
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And this is what we're addressing today.
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The lie is, I will always have another chance to get right with God later.
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I'll always have another chance.
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Yeah, I'm in sin now, but I'll repent later.
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And the book of Nahum is in God's Word to remind us that you're not always going to have later.
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There's going to come a point that it's too late.
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"I'll get serious about God later. I'll repent later.
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I'll stop living this way later." That is the procrastination of the worst kind because it can cost you eternity.
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And none of us learn.
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And we're going to learn today there comes a point when it's too late, and when it's too late, judgment is inescapable." So let's look at the text. In the name of chapter 3, are you there?
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Drawing notes down.
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Someday it will be too late. Okay?
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Someday it will be too late.
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Number one, judgment is going to happen. Okay?
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Judgment is going to happen.
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Look at verses 1 through 7.
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Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder.
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No end to the prey." Again, nasty, wicked people.
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Verses 2 and 3 talk about the sounds of the destruction that's coming.
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Verse 3 talks about the sights of destruction that's coming.
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This is what it's going to sound like, this is what it's going to look like.
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The crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariots.
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You kind of hear that in your head?
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Well, here's what it looks like, verse 3, "Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end, they stumble over the bodies.
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And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings and people with her charms.
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God says, "You're like a prostitute. Not only are you wicked, but you're enticing other people into wickedness with you." Verse 5, the Lord says, "Behold, I am against you." He said that in 2:13. Everybody saw that.
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The most chilling thing God can ever say, right?
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"Behold, I am against you." declares the Lord of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face, and I will make nations look at your nakedness, and kingdoms at your shame.
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I will throw filth at you, and treat you with contempt, and make you a spectacle." It's going to be humiliating.
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Judgment is going to be humiliating.
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Nineveh, hey, you're getting what you gain.
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Right?
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God says, and no one's going to care, by the way.
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No one's going to care.
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Look at verse 7.
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"And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, 'Wasted is Nineveh!
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Who will grieve for her?
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Where shall I seek comforters for you?'" Like Nineveh, you're going down and it's going to be shameful, There's not a person that's going to give a rip.
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There's going to be a giant funeral for you, and not one person is going to show up.
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You see, Nineveh repented when Jonah preached.
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Do you remember that?
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But a little more than 100 years later, they were worse than ever.
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And through Nahum, God is saying it's enough.
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Repenting is not on the table anymore.
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Judgment is the only thing on the table.
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It's too late. It's over.
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I'd like to remind you that someday And you don't know if God's going to allow you one more decade on this earth, if He's going to allow you one more year, one more week, or one more hour.
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I'd like to remind you not to ever, ever presume upon God's patience.
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Just because God's waited doesn't mean that He'll wait forever.
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We've already covered that. Let's look at number two here.
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So judgment is going to happen.
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Someday it will be too late, number two.
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It's been too late for others.
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Verses 8 through 11, God's giving a case study of another city.
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It's interesting.
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This other city called Thebes, also called Neumann, was another city that was mighty and vicious and proud and actually was situated on a river and thought they were unstoppable.
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So God gives a case study.
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God says, "You better than Thebes?" That sat by the Nile with water around her, her rampart a sea and water her wall.
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Cush was her strength, Egypt too, and that without limit, put, and the Libyans were her helpers.
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So Thebes was actually the capital of South Egypt, and they fell to the Assyrians in 663 They had the water as natural barrier, they had alliances with Put and the Libyans, and God here is saying, "Oh, you think you're better than them.
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Do you remember them? Do you remember the Thebes?
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You're going to fall just like they did." Verses 10 and 11, "Yet she became an exile, she went into captivity, her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street.
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For her honored men lots were cast, but all her great men were bound in chains.
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You also will be drunken, you will go into hiding, you will seek refuge from the enemy." History is riddled with mighty nations, with people who have come and gone.
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If you're taking notes, I want you to just jot down a little list here.
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Write out names of people that you know, heard of, read about, that cheated death.
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Write down the names of the people that you know of that figured out a way to avoid God.
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Who was the person who managed to sidestep judgment?
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Name the empire that was mighty enough to withstand the Lord Almighty.
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Are you writing them down?
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History is proof. That's what God's saying here.
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History is proof.
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You're not too big to fall.
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You're not too mighty to withstand the Almighty.
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Time is up for everyone at some point.
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Number three, someday it will be too late, and your resources won't matter.
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Resources won't matter.
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Look at verses 12 and 13.
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"All your fortresses are like fig trees, with first-ripe figs.
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If shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater." What a picture.
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God says, "You know these fortresses you think are so mighty?
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You know how tough they are?
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It's like a fig tree that somebody just goes up and opens their mouth and shakes the tree and the figs just fall in." He's like, "That's how tough you are." Not impressive. Everybody say, "Not impressive." Verse 13, "Behold, your troops are women in your midst." That is so not politically correct, Lord.
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I'm sure God's not losing any sleep over that.
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If He slept, He's not losing any sleep over that.
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You understand the picture here, right?
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You understand the picture.
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Like you think your soldiers are a bunch of Darren Millers.
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what you think they are.
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God says, "You know what your soldiers are to me?
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They're Livy-orts. That's what they are to me." No offense, but there's obviously a difference there, right?
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Right? Right?
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Okay. Come on. I hope.
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Livy, that didn't offend you, did it?
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Okay, you understand the picture.
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You see, you're little and cute, And we're not scared of you.
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And that's a good thing.
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That's God's point here, because you think you're this and you're that.
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"The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies.
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Fire has devoured your bars." God says, "You're weak and defenseless." Verse 14, here comes more mocking.
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God says, "Draw water for the seeds, strengthen your forts, go into the clay, tread the mortar, take hold of the brick mold.
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There the fire will devour you.
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The sword will cut you off, it will devour you like the locusts." Multiply yourselves like the locusts. Multiply like the grasshopper.
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God says, he's mocking him, he says, "Your efforts are useless.
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The numbers don't matter." He says, "You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens.
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The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
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Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in the day of cold.
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When the sun rises, they fly away. No one knows where they are.
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Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria.
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Your nobles slumber.
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Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them." God's saying, "First of all, your commerce will not make a difference.
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I don't care how big your economy is." Again, not too big to fail.
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God says, "Your commerce, your merchants, they're not going to make a difference." He says, "Your government can't stop me." And He says, "Your important people are gone." Do you see that? Look again, verse 18.
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"Your shepherds are asleep, your nobles slumber." And you know, I was thinking about that a lot this week, because how does something like that translate to our day?
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Like if God was giving this message in our day, who would be the nobles?
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I thought who would be considered the important people?
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You know who that is, right?
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It's the celebrities, right?
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It's the celebrities.
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These celebrities, they're very good at what they do, But they make a living pretending to be something else, and all of a sudden they're the expert in all matters of morality and theology and politics.
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And church, it absolutely floors me that anybody gives a rip what a celebrity says.
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Absolutely floors me.
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A couple of recent examples where people were just...
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Christians were just so shocked and outraged.
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You remember recently Joy Behar mocked Christians on The View, saying, you know, "It's a mental illness." Did you see that?
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I'm sorry, who?
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I was like, I heard that, I'm like, "Who the heck's Joy Behar?" Follow-up question, "Why do I care what she said?" So are we that shocked that a godless person made a godless comment?
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(gasps)
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I would have been more shocked if she'd get on the view reading scripture.
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That would have shocked me.
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You know, whoopie, what do you think about Revelation 19 or whatever?
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If these celebrities get on there, they're the nobles, they're the important people of our day and everybody just hangs on their every tweet.
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Maybe we should pray for her.
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Going back a couple years prior, Kathy Griffin in accepting an award said Jesus had nothing to do with it.
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She says people get up and thank Jesus.
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Jesus had nothing to do with this.
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She then told Jesus to quote suck it and said that the Emmy was her God.
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Well, she's going to be in for a surprise.
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Maybe we should pray for her.
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But that's the point here.
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It doesn't matter.
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When judgment is coming, that day when it's too late for the Joy Behars and the Kathy Griffins, Any of them.
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When judgment is coming, it doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter who your friends are, it doesn't matter your position at work, it doesn't matter how much kale you've eaten, and it doesn't matter how many burpees you've done.
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When it's too late, your resources are not going to grant you an extension.
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Not now, God, I'm in for a promotion.
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Not now, God, do you know how much money I make?
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He doesn't care, because someday it's going to be too late.
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And that's the point that he's making here in Nahum.
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"Oh, your merchants are like locusts and grasshoppers, so multiplied and so busy and so..." God's like, "At the end of the day, you're a group of insects.
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Someday it will be too late." Number four, someday it will be too late, and there is no coming back.
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All of that that I said to this point was the introduction.
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This is the sermon.
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And it's all in verse 19.
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Look at this with me closely.
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God says, "This is how Nahum ends, okay?
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There is no easing your hurt.
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Your wound is grievous.
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All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you.
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For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?" Nahum closes with the message, "Someday it will be too late.
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There's no coming back.
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It's all over." Back to where we started right there.
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There's a point of no return.
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Remember I said the lie that people believe?
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You will not always have the chance to repent.
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I'll repent later. I'll repent later.
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You will not always have the chance to repent.
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I know I've shared this story before.
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In this instance, it certainly bears repeating, but I think about this guy often.
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One time in the prison ministry, we go into Butler County and have Bible study.
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I had a guy one time, some of you guys heard this story, but this guy, he said, "I have a question." I said, "Yeah, what's your question?" He said, "So are you telling me that if I was on my deathbed, And I pray and receive Jesus then, I'll go to heaven." And I'm like, "Oh, I know where this is going." And I said, "Yeah, technically that's true." He goes, "Well, I'll just do that. I'll just do that." And I said, "No, you won't." He's like, "What do you mean, 'No, I won't'? Why won't I?" I said, "Well, there's two reasons you're not going to do that. Two reasons.
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Number one, you might not have a deathbed, right?
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Oh, wouldn't it be great if that's how we all died?
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We all live to be 120, and we're in our deathbed, in our homes, and our families surrounding us and holding our hands, and they're singing, you know, "Will the circle be unbroken" very softly to us, and we just fall asleep and we don't wake up.
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Wouldn't it be nice if we all had that?
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Do you know how often that actually happens?
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Hardly ever, right?
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How many of us could get up here and tell stories of people who have died way too soon, unexpectedly?
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accidents, heart attacks, strokes.
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So you might not have a deathbed, but there's even a worse problem.
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Well, I told the guys, I said, hypothetically, let's pretend here, hypothetically, you have a deathbed experience.
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I'm gonna give you that.
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You live to be 120 and you're on your deathbed, your family's surrounding you, will the circle be unbroken, all that stuff, right?
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And I'm gonna give you that.
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I'll grant you that." There is no way, there is no way in that moment you will receive Jesus Christ.
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Why not?
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I said, "Because leading up to that point, you will have spent decades saying no to God, shutting God out, ignoring God." And you know what the Bible calls that?
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The Bible calls that hardening your heart.
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How hard do you think your heart is going to be after decades of hardening it?
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How hard do you think it's going to be?
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It's going to be rock solid.
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And the chances of the Word of God penetrating a heart that has said no for decades, it is not going to happen.
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Not because the fault's on God's end, oh no, no.
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The fault's on your end, because you have committed yourself to a lifetime of saying no to Jesus Christ.
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So don't think that there's going to come a point where you've chosen to say no for decades and then magically you're interested in the things of God.
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So there's no coming back.
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You're like, "Do you mean after you die?" Yeah, yeah.
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Okay, clear teaching of the Bible, this life is your opportunity, right?
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Hebrews 9.27 says, "And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." That is absolutely true. This life is your opportunity.
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But I want you to listen very closely to this.
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You can lose the opportunity to get saved.
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You can go past the point of no return.
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You can be in a position where you are unable to repent.
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you can cross a line that you can't come back from in this life.
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Again, it's not that God is unable to reach you.
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But in this life, you can harden yourself to the point that you cannot be reached.
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And I want you to look at this passage with me.
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This is from Hebrews 6. We're just going to look at a couple of verses here.
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It says, "For it is" - do you see that word? - "impossible." Do you know what that word means?
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Not possible. Right?
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"For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding Him up to contempt." Let's keep this passage up here.
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This passage clearly teaches that someone can be around Christians, can be around the Holy Spirit, can be around the church, but never receive Christ.
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You see, there's some people that teach this passage is talking about a Christian who loses their salvation.
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Absolutely not. This is not teaching that whatsoever.
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Because look, look at the language that's being used.
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It doesn't say the person who is born again, the person who is regenerate, the person who is fully committed to following Christ.
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That's not the language used in this passage at all.
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Look at the words that are used.
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It says, "They've been enlightened, they know something." "They've tasted the heavenly gifts." It doesn't say, "They possess the Holy Spirit." It says, "They've shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the Word of God." This is clearly talking about somebody that's around Christians, around the work of the Holy Spirit.
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Notice a couple of times he says "tasted." So if you're still not convinced, here's what I want you to do.
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I want you to invite me to lunch after service, and whatever you order, you're going to get a taste of it, and then I'm going to take it away from you.
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And then you'll understand there's a big difference between tasting something and consuming something.
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Right? These people haven't fully embraced and consumed Christ like Jesus calls you to in John 6.
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They've simply been around long enough to get some of the overflow of what it is like to be around somebody that has the Holy Spirit.
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Right? They get a knowledge of the gospel, they get a taste of what it's like.
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It's the guy or the girl that visits church, they seem to like going to church, They go to small groups, and the people seem nice in small groups.
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And they feel good about being around them.
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They appreciate them, and they even get a taste of the benefits of being in the family of God.
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That's why it says, "Tasted the goodness of the word of God, and the powers of the age to come." You can be in this church and not be saved, but still get a little sample of heaven, because this is what heaven is going to be like.
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God's people, God's truth, worshipping God, praising God all about Jesus.
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So you're getting like this taste of it all, but never receiving Jesus Christ personally.
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And he said, "If they then fall away," meaning this.
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I know this passage says a lot, but here's the point.
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When you get to the point that you truly understand who Jesus is, You truly understand what Jesus Christ has done, then you walk away.
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It's impossible to get such a person back to them.
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This is one of the scariest things in the Bible church.
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You can get to the threshold, and you understand in your head, "I see who Jesus is. It makes sense to me now.
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I understand why He died for me.
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I understand it's the love of God that spared not His own Son.
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And I understand He rose from the dead. I understand it.
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But I'm not receiving.
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My sin is more important to me.
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My selfish lifestyle is more important to me.
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See, this passage is saying you can't get the person back to that place.
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They were before.
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Now look, I don't know when that is for each person, okay?
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I can't see your heart. Only God can see your heart.
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Only God knows when that actually happens in a person's life.
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So I don't know when it happens in a person, but here's the thing, church, I know that it does happen.
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So the point is, the whole "I'll wait till later," that is the worst idea ever.
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Because like Mr. Deathbed's plan, If you keep hardening your heart, you get to the place where it is impossible to get that person to repent. Impossible.
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That should scare you like nothing else.
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The person that says, "Oh, I'll repent later.
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After this season of my life, I know I'm kind of involved in sin now.
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I'm going to get serious about God later. I'm going to repent later.
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I'll give my life to Jesus later.
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I'll always have a chance to repent." No, you won't.
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Hebrews 3-4, don't turn there.
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Got that down there. Hebrews 3-4, five times it says, "Today." Today, today, today, today, today.
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Today, if you hear God's voice, do not harden your heart.
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Isaiah 55-6, again, look at this.
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"Seek the Lord while he may be found." You know what that verse tells us?
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There's going to come a time that God's not going to be found.
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There's going to come a time that maybe you want to search for God, but it's been too late.
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Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near." Lots of bad news today.
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This is good news.
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"Call upon Him while He is near." You know what the good news is? Right now, He is near.
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He is near right now!
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And it doesn't matter who you are, and it doesn't matter what you've done.
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Today, today, if God's Holy Spirit is stirring something in your heart with this message, this isn't something to chew on and think about, maybe possibly down the road, today.
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Because someday it might be too late.
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Someday it will be too late, if you keep putting it off.
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I want you to bow your heads with me.
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The worship team is going to make their way forward.
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But I want you to bow your heads, as we close this series, church.
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The day of judgment is coming.
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But today is the day of grace.
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Today is the day that we can call upon God while He is near.
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I'm going to lead us in a prayer.
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Now listen, if you're sitting here today and you are born again, you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want you to pray for someone who needs to take that step.
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But if you're listening to this, if you're sitting here, and you have been putting Him off, putting Him off, I'll repent later." And now you realize, "You know what? I might not have later.
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Someday it is going to be too late for me." I want you to pray something like this.
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I'm going to give you some words and some phrases here, and it's not a matter of just repeating them, right?
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It's understanding these concepts and personalizing them, and praying them from your own heart to say, "Yes, I agree with these things, And God, I'm crying out to You personally.
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I'm going to give you the opportunity right now.
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First of all, pray something like this, "God, I realize that I am a sinner." Like one of our elders said this morning, "We are all sinners.
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We've all fallen short of the glory of God." And step one in coming to Jesus Christ is acknowledging that.
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Acknowledge that right now before the Lord.
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Next, pray something like this, I understand that Jesus Christ died in my place, and He rose to give me eternal life.
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And then pray, God, I believe, and I receive Him, because receiving Him makes me a forgiven child of God.
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God, I know You want none to perish. You want everyone to come to the truth.
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God, You love us and spared no expense.
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You spared not even Your own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.
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God, You let Your Son be brutally executed to pay the penalty for all the wrong things that I've done.
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Pray, "Today, Father, I cry out to You, and receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior." Pray, "God, I know I cannot put it off.
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Today, I want to give my life to You.
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Let Your Holy Spirit come into my life and transform me.
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Pray that.
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Father, as there are people praying that right now, I lift them up before You.
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God, I thank You that Your Word tells us, "You do not delight in the death of the wicked.
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It is Your will that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance." Your Word tells us that you desire that all men would be saved.
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And again, God, Your Word tells us that You spared not Your own Son, but You delivered Him up for us all.
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You did everything, Father, so that our sins could be forgiven.
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Father, I lift up the person right now who, maybe they've been confused about that.
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Maybe they still are. Maybe they're struggling with understanding all of this.
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Let your Holy Spirit and your Word do the work that you do, in the way that only you can do it.
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Let salvation spring up from the ground.
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Let righteousness rain down.
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Let more children be adopted into your family today.
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Today.
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Because someday it will be too late.
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Thank You, Father, for Your mercy and Your grace.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Nahum 3
Read Nahum 3:5-7. Why does God make the judgment so shameful?
Why did God mention what happened to Thebes (No amon, Nahum 3:8-11)?
When was the last time you have warned someone about God's judgment? Why are we so reluctant to do so?
What was your big "take-away" from this passage / message? What was your big "takeaway" from the series?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.