SERMON 15
TURN YE, TURN YE, FOR WHY WILL YE DIE?
EZEKIEL 33:11
(11) Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
I want you to notice that these words did not come from the prophet Ezekiel.
He penned them but, they came from the lips of God himself. He was speaking to Ezekiel.
The prophet Ezekiel was literally just the mouth piece of God.
"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"
INTRODUCTION:
There are those today who think that God is sitting up in heaven and dictating to mankind and those who do not listen, He sends them to Hell.
And they think that He enjoys doing it.
But, mark it down, God sends no one to Hell, you send yourself by rejecting his Son.
God gets no pleasure from seeing his creation perish. Mankind was created to fellowship with God, and that is his sole desire that we fulfill that desire.
I want to speak to you on the topic," "WHY WILL YE DIE?"
God is telling those inhabitants in Ezekiel's day just like He's telling those today, that there is no reason to be lost,
There is no reason to perish;
There is no reason to die in your sin;
You don't have to walk through this world as those having no hope;
He said, "I have no pleasure in it."
In 2 Peter 3:9 He says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
In 1 Timothy 2:4 he tells us, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
In I John 1:9, He tells us that, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
I want you to know one thing today, That God is not interested in sending men and women to Hell, but He's interested in bringing you and I back into fellowship with Him, like it was before Adam fell in the garden.
God wants you to be saved!
And there are reasons why He gave that you might be saved.
I want to deal with those reasons today.
I believe that He gave his only begotten Son because;
1).HE LOVES YOU.
If there is one thing you can count on, it's that God loves you!
When everything around you seems to fall apart;
When the world fails you;
When friends forsake you;
When circumstances in your life turn on you;
When it seems like there's no way out;
Know this one thing, God loves you!
David said, "When my mother and my father shall forsake me, the Lord will lift me up."
What David was saying was, "I know that whatever I do,
though I fall,
I may sin,
I may slip,
Even though I fail God, GOD LOVES ME!!
You can't make that statement about people!
You fail some people, or you make a mistake, you will never be the same in their eyes again!
God, don't hold grudges, God forgives and forgets, and puts you back in your rightful place.
One man wrote of the Love of God in a song and it said,
"Could we with ink, the ocean fill"
Or were the sky's of parchment made,
Were every stock on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the Love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Tho stretched from sky to sky."
I'm here to declare to you this day, that tho you may have failed God;
And tho the ceiling seems like brass when you pray;
Tho everything you do seems wrong;
When man forsakes you, Realize that God still loves you!
You may say, "Preacher, I want to serve God,
I want to do the right things, but I just can't seem to get it together"
"What's wrong with me preacher?"
Listen, You're not a special case, everyone has those problems.
The great Apostle Paul said, "Every time I go to do right, evil is present, The things I would do, I do not; The things I would not, that I do."
But I want you to know God still loved Paul.
Here's a man that literally wasted the church.
He rounded up Christians and delivered them to prison.
He made havoc of the church.
He was there as Stephen was stoned;
Yet still God loved Paul!
I'm not talking about brotherly love, but Agape love, A Godly love.
One man said of brotherly love;
To dwell above with saints we love,
that will be grace and glory.
To live below with saints we know;
That's another story!
But I believe if you really want to see THE LOVE OF GOD,
Don't look at:
The beauty of creation,
The heavens or earth,
Look at Mount Calvary;
Look at the old rugged cross;
Look at a hill called Golgotha;
Look at God's only begotten Son;
Look at Jesus as he hung suspended between heaven and earth;
He gave His life that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.
That's the love of God.
That's the greatest gift you can give.
John 3:16, For God so loved..."
John 15:13 says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
Jesus when he went to the cross, he went in obedience. He said, "I've come to do thy will O God"
He did not go because he felt like it.
Some have painted the cross into a pastel color, but it was a place or brutality, and pain and it was there that he offered himself a ransom for many.
He willingly gave all that He had, so that you and I might become sons of God.
Paul said it so beautifully in Romans 5:8 when he said, "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Isaiah 53:1 said, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"
(2) "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him."
(3) "He is despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."
(4) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."
(5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."
(6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
(7) He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."
He walked down the stairway of heaven to be identified with mankind.
He left the splendors of heaven, and took upon himself the form of man;
He took upon him a robe of flesh that in that flesh He could condemn Sin and declare to the world that God Loves You.
Every time I read Ezekiel 33:11, I realize that God is not a mean old man like Thomas Pane pictured him to be.
He's not a mean old man that He stands over you and I to beat us with a rod every time we step out of line, but He is a God of Love.
He said, "I have no pleasure in it!"
What He so desires is that man turn from their wicked ways; And turn unto Him; And then God can bless you.
Now, don't you Christians out there, you that are born again think this message is just for the sinner!
Read the Text! "O House of Israel" God cares about how his church lives!
2 Chron 7:14 says, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; Then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land."
I'm telling you today that God Loves You!!
You that can't find time for church!
You that are running from God!
You that have rejected His will!
You that are in Sin!
You that love the world! And love not the Father!
Can you hear him pleading in love, "TURN YE, TURN YE, FROM YOUR EVIL WAYS, FOR WHY WILL YE DIE?
LISTEN, God loved Israel!
We can't seem to grasp it, but, you that have children, have you ever tried to forewarn them of impending disaster only to have them go through the school of hard knocks?
God was saying, There is no reason for you to perish!
TURN YE, TURN YE, FOR WHY WILL YE DIE?
So understand today that God loves you!
Another reason He Gave that you might be saved is;
2) HE HAS THE POWER TO REDEEM YOU
He's not like some people, He doesn't tell you about something He cannot produce.
He's not just talking to hear his own words. Num 23:19, "God is not a man"
Isa 55:11, "So shall my word be"
He's as good as His Word.
If He said it, you can believe it!
It doesn't matter:
How far away from God you are;
How deep in Sin you have fallen;
How full of the Devil you are;
How rebellious you are;
Who you are,
How you are,
Where you are;
God is able to break every fetter that binds you and bring You out of bondage!
There's a song that says;
What can wash away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
O precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow,
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
I'm telling you it's by the blood of Jesus Christ, The only begotten of the Father that you and I can be saved.
"There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12
You may be saying, "Preacher I've gone too far this time"
No, No, A thousand times no!!
He can touch the untouchable!
He can reach the unreachable!
He can love the unlovable!
His ears are not so heavy that he cannot hear you;
His eyes are not dim, that he cannot see you;
His arm is not short, that He cannot reach you;
Isa 59:1 says, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:"
(2) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."
It's sin that separates us from God. And we must turn from our sins and then God can open up the channel once again.
Oh listen, My God is able to uphold and strengthen that which remains.
All it will take is turning from your evil ways.
I've seen people who thought they had crossed the point of no return.
I've heard them say, "There's no hope for me!" "There's no hope for me!"
Can I just tell you; Try it one more time! Don't give up on God! Never give up!
This is where Israel was;
This was their condition!
They were saying, "There is no hope for us, It's to rough!
But God said, "Turn ye, Turn ye, from your evil ways, for why will ye die?"
I believe God would have me tell you, Sir, Mam, "I give you Jesus"
He is the bridge that spans the gap between God and man.
God has bent his ear down and he's listening too you!
Reach out and receive what he has for you right now!
Reach out and receive that healing right now!
Reach out and receive that promise right now!
Listen my friend; JESUS still HEALS; SAVES; DELIVERS;
He said, "I've come to seek and save that which was lost!"
Lost when? When Adam sold us out
Lost Where? In the Garden
What was lost? Eternal life;
Communion with God! Health; Wealth; Dominion;
He gave His only Son that we might receive back that which was lost!
You see It's through the blood of Jesus that we are Saved;
Healed; Delivered;
The Bible says that, "Where there is no shedding of blood, there is no remission of Sins."
That blood tho it's 2000 years old, still cleanses today!
There's no sin so deep that God can't reach.
There's no one so low, where God can't go!
There's nobody so mean, that God can't clean.
God can reach way down for you, even to the pits of Hell.
He will lift you up today.
He will set that captive soul free!
Isaiah said, "He's sent me to proclaim liberty to them that are in captivity, to open the prisons to them that are bound."
God help us to realize that nothing else matters but that you know Him!
And that he has the power to save!
He loves you, and he can redeem you, and He's telling you to turn from your Evil ways, for why will you die.
He loves you;
He can redeem you;
And thirdly,
3) HE KNOWS WHAT IS BEFORE YOU
God knows what will happen to you if you don't get saved.
Somebody said, "Preacher now your going to talk about Hell, and your going to try to scare us!
O listen, I would to God I could scare you today.
I would to God I could preach as hot a message as Jonathan Edwards preached, when men and women cried out, "Mr. Edwards, is there no mercy?"
Preacher, "If I knew you were going to say those things, I would have stayed home."
People don't like to hear about Hell, About judgement, about eternity.
It takes the thrill out of the chill
It takes the romance out of the moonlight.
It takes the rhythm out of the dance;
But it's there my friend.
I'm here to tell you Hell is real! Job said, "If a man die, shall he live again?"
I'm here to tell you that there is life after death, and you will be one of two places.
You can't run from your appointment with Him.
One of these days it will be all over.
It could be today!;
It could be tomorrow!
It could be in a moment in the twinkling of an eye.
You might try to deny it.
You might try to say within yourself, "I don't believe it!"
You may try to say, "There's nothing to it!"
But then Jesus said, "There was a rich man; He lived and died and was buried.
And in that 16th chapter of Luke's gospel We find him in Hell.
In Hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments; YOU CAN SEE IN HELL!
And seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
(24) And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (You can feel in Hell)
There is a place of torment and if you will not listen, you will find yourself there.
Are you hearing me today?
Somebody's saying, I've heard all this before!
Yet, you will hear it one more time, and in eternity it will haunt you if you are not ready.
Your memory will not be erased in Hell!
Revivals, will look good to you in Hell.
Prayer meetings, will look like a place you ought to be!
Sunday School would be a vacation.
You'd give all you have, to hear the word of God preached just one more time, but it will be too late.
God never created Hell for you and I. It was created for the Devil and his angels, if you go, it will be as an intruder.
God created heaven for you.
Jesus said in John 14:1, "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me."
"In my Fathers house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you,I go to prepare a place for you,"
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
"And whether I go you know, and the way you know"
Thomas saith unto him, "Lord,We know not whether thou goest; and how can we know the way?"
Jesus saith unto him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; No man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
I'm here to tell you that Jesus loves you;
Jesus can redeem you;
And he wants to save you from Hell.
He said, Turn ye, Turn ye, for why will ye die?
Yet it seems there are those who are determined to have their way if it hair lips every devil in hell.
Someone said, "God can do anything"
But I tell you today, "He can't save a person who's determined to be lost!
Jesus never healed a person that didn't want to be healed!
If you go to hell it will be because you reject Jesus as the lamb of God.
CONCLUSION:
I realize that this is not a popular message, but I believe it's the message for this hour.
Turn ye! Turn ye, For why will ye die? "I have no pleasure in it!"
Wake up my friend, the hours are ticking by.
Do you realize that Jesus could come today before this service concludes.
He's saying, "You don't have to die"
He said in John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
What about your condition"?
Are you ready?
Preacher, I'm not real sure!
You can be !
WHY WILL YE DIE?
