Truth is, You Have a Choice
It is an honor to be called on to pastor and lead this church in this community. Whiting Community Church, also known as The Baptist Meeting House, the Whiting Meeting House, and the Old White Meeting House, has a rich history of culture and spiritual influence. After the town of Whiting was founded, the first cooperative project that the towns’ people attempted was to build this building so that they would have a place to worship God. There has only been a hand full of years throughout the 200-year-old history of this church that the doors were not open. For the majority of the time there has been someone behind this pulpit proclaiming truth.
Truth. What is it? Some say that there is no such thing. Some say that truth differs for different people. That it depends on how you were raised or what country you grew up in. They say it depends on what religion you were taught as a child. Truth is what I want to talk to you about this morning. As the pastor of this church, my main job is to tell the truth from this pulpit.
The Truth is that God loves this town very much. But more importantly, He loves you. He loves me. John 3:16 says that “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Did you know that is one of the reasons that God created you? So that He could love you and that you would love Him.
The Truth is however, that because of the sin that Adam committed in the garden of Eden, we have a thing called a sin nature. This sin nature makes us not want to love God, but it makes us love ourselves instead. That is what sin is. Sin is loving yourself more than you love God. That is why we do things that are outside of the laws of God. That is why there is murder, and rape, and theft, liars and every other evil in the world. Because people love themselves more than they love God and his Guidelines for life.
The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that every single person in the world is a sinner. That means that everyone here this morning is a sinner. We have all sinned.
The truth is, God cannot be in the presence of sin. God is Holy, He is perfect, He is pure. Trying to have God and sin reside in the same place is like trying to have darkness stay in a room when you turn on your 120 watt light. Light and darkness cannot dwell together and neither can God dwell with a sinner. Because of this, as sinners, when we die we are useless to God. What do you do with worthless stuff? You throw it away. You take trash and put in the garbage. Here in the past two weeks, the members of this church have been on a cleaning spree. They have gathered up nearly 2000 lbs of garbage and useless items, broken items and taken them to the place where you dispose of garbage. The dump, the refuse pit.
You see, the Bible tells us in Romans 6:32 that the price of sin is death. There are two kinds of death. There is a physical death and a spiritual death. Unless the rapture occurs we will all experience a physical death. The Bible says that we all have been given an appointment with death. We do not know when that is, but God has assigned us a check out date.
Spiritual death is something very different. Spiritual death put simply is an eternity without God. You see in God’s eyes, when we are filled with sin we are of no use to Him. We cannot be in His presence. Therefore he cannot use us in His Kingdom. The only place He can put us after we die is the place that he prepared for Satan. Hell is a garbage pit. It is the Spiritual dump. A place where God puts those who have rejected Him, people who have placed themselves more important than God, people who live their life according to their plan instead of God’s plan.
The Truth is that the price of having sin in one’s life is spiritual death and an eternity in Hell. The Truth is Hell is a real place. It is not fake, it is not imagined, it is not a story or a fable, or a fairytale. The fire is hot and the worms squirm and the darkness is DARK. It is a real place that God created to punish Satan and the angels that rebelled against him that we know today as demons.
Now so far I know that it seems that I am preaching gloom and doom, but really I am telling the unpleasant part of the Truth that God’s Word. Fortunately, it is only half of the truth.
God does provide a means of escape.
Man on roof during Flood, is offered help by Fire truck, Boat and then helicopter. Refuses all because he is relying on God to save him but he dies. He is angry with God for not saving him. God replies that he tried 3 times!!!
You see, the Truth is God knows that we are sinners and that he cannot be in the presence of sin. So in order to allow the creation, which He loves, to be with Him, He a made a plan B. Romans 6:23 tells us that the price of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.
The Truth is, God sent His only son to die as a payment for your sins, so that you would not have to. He experienced that separation from God for us so that we would not have to. The blood that He shed on the cross paid in full the debt of sin that we owe. He purchased the keys to hell, His death and resurrection gave Him the right to decide who goes and doesn’t.
Revelation 1:17 Fear not; I am the first and the last:
18I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
The Comic B.C. tells it well. Two women are sitting on a small hill. One is reading the Bible and says, “Oh, my goodness. . . Says here. . . Jesus descended into hell!” The other is shocked and says, “You’re kidding!” Then the woman with the Bible says, “Oh, no. . . Not to stay! He just dropped in to cancel our reservations!”
Tim Lahaye in his book Revelation Unveiled says, “Years ago I was taken to see a prosiner by the special representative of the warden’s office in the reformatory at St. Cloud, Minnesota. While there, I noted that the new inmates oviously feared the institution and the long-anticipated confinement; however, I did not fear the institution. Why? Because the representative of the warden’s office held the keys to the institution for me, even though I passed through sixteen heavy steel doors all securely locked. In a similar manner, those who know Jesus Chirst need never fear Hades and death, for He holds the key that unlocks the door to this dreaded place. The big question is, DO you know Him? Is He your Savior? Though Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world, He has not saved all the people of the world, for He has chosen to leave it up to each person’s will whether he or she will accept or reject Him.” Pg 41-42
Lets look back to John 3:16 for a second, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The Truth is that we need pay special attention to that middle phrase. That whosoever believeth. The key word is believe. This is not the kind of believe like “I believe in Santa Clause.” This word believe in the Greek means to “put trust in” or to “commit to trust.” What this means is if you want to benefit from Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection then you have to believe in, trust in, and commit to HIM. It is not enough just to believe in Jesus. Satan believes in Jesus and one day he will spend eternity in Hell. In order to escape Hell ourselves we need to Commit to Jesus Christ.
What that means is this. A total turning away from our sin and placing Jesus Christ at the top of our lives. It means no more living for Self, but only living for God. It means that You are no longer giving the orders, but you are taking orders from Christ and his Holy Word. It means asking Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. The Bible says in I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” He is no liar! If he says he will forgive them I believe it.
When I was just a child I learned that there was a God that loved me and that I had a choice. I could love Him back and put Him in charge of my life and that then I would some day spend eternity with Him in heaven. Or I could live my life with me in charge and enjoy sin but then some day when I died I would spend Eternity without God in Hell. I choose to Trust God and put Him in Charge.
The truth is, you have a choice to make today. As you sit in your pew you have to make a choice today. You will either choose to live for yourself, or for God. There are no other options. The choice of oh well I will think about it is a choice to live yourself. The choice of, I will live for God when I am older, or I will accept Him when I am almost dead, those are choices to live for yourself and not for God and will not hold up in God’s court.
Recently when Hurricane Ike was taking aim at Galveston Texas all the residents of that island were given orders to leave the island or to face certain death. As the Hurricane approached they were given one last warning, leave before it is too late, if you do not there will be no rescue. Many of the residents choose to stay and ride out the storm. As the storm drew closer the time for rescue expired as it was too dangerous for the police and coast guard to be out. After the winds starting blowing harder and the water began to rise many “brave storm chasers” decided they had had enough and began to call 911. They were told that they had a chance to make their trip to safety but that now it was too late. Many of those people were never heard from again because of their decision to wait for a rescue until it was too late.
The Truth?
Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”
That is Truth!
Will you Choose to believe it?
