I was going to continue our series in Titus, but his condition got in the way this week, and so we'll return, Lord willing, to Titus next week. But in looking for a sermon from the past that was apropos to various things that I was thinking myself, I came across this text in Jeremiah 28. Hopefully we'll see how fitting that is. So I turn your attention to Jeremiah chapter 28. I'll be reading the chapter. Give your attention as this is a reading of God's inerrant, infallible, and inspired word. Jeremiah 28 and it happened in the same year at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year and in the fifth month that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet who was from Gibeon spoke to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people saying Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place and carried to Babylon. And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord. For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon." Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of the people who stood in the house of the Lord. And the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen. The Lord do so. The Lord perform your words which you have prophesied to bring back the vessels of the Lord's house and all who were carried away captive from Babylon to this place. Nevertheless, hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and the hearing of all the people. The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms of war and disaster and pestilence. As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent. Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and broke it. And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people saying, thus says the Lord, even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah saying, Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus says the LORD, You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made in their place yokes of iron. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, And they shall serve him, I have given him the beasts of the field also. Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth This year you shall die because you have taught rebellion against the Lord. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. So far in the reading of the word, may that word dwell in us richly. Let's go before the throne of grace once again. Our Heavenly Father, we do come to a text and see that these were men of God, or at least one, professing to be a man of God, did not speak your word. And we, O Lord, come and would have your word spoken rightly, truly, faithfully. So we pray for the preacher and for those who hear that together we may honor and glorify you And take your word, apply it to our own hearts, that we might, Lord, have our faith built up. We ask it for Christ's sake, in whose name we pray. Amen. January 1st, 1761. This sermon was first preached 260 years ago by Samuel Davies. He died one month after he preached this sermon. He was 38 years old. Numbers 24, the Lord tells Aaron, remember the assistant to Moses, the voice of God to the people of Egypt, the people in captivity in Egypt. In Numbers 24, the Lord tells Aaron, you shall be gathered to your people and die. 2 Kings 1, Elijah says to Azariah, you shall not come down from that bed, you shall surely die. In verse 17 of 2 Kings 1, he does die. In 2 Kings 20, perhaps one of the more famous times, we remember Hezekiah was sick. And he said, the Lord said to him through the prophet, set your house in order, for you shall die and not live. And in Hebrews 9, 27, we have that passage that said, it is appointed unto men once to die. And although no one knows the day, within the last year, we probably know people who have passed away. Or we know somebody who knows somebody who has passed away. And come next January, who among us might not be here Who will have crossed over into eternity? Maybe somebody 38 years old and that will take us by surprise. If we could see the divine decree, I wonder if we would find on that divine decree, our death set out on a calendar within the next 12 months. For many people, all of a sudden, unbeknownst and out of the blue, here comes a change. Life has changed forever with the loss of a loved one. Now, the Lord may not have spoken a word so clear as the word through Jeremiah to Hananiah. None of us have that date. None of us have been told, set your house in order, within six months you will be in glory. None of us have that information. But should we not consider, should we not consider this very serious thing that this year you may die. What will the next year be like? Well, did we not start last year with all kinds of expectations? And by March, everything was upside down. Now, I didn't come to January 1st with Pollyanna ideas, but I didn't expect what we saw Tuesday, did you? And it looked like our Our whole country was in chaos. And what does the next several weeks hold, and the next several months, and the next four years of this administration, or a change in all the stuff that goes swirling around in our minds, and brothers and sisters, should we not be thinking? What will the next year be like? This year, God may bless you. With the prosperity of your business, and your family, and your health, and your work, and things may come to a place where everything is kind of on an even keel. And what will you do with that if God blesses you that way? Will it lead you to repentance, and faith, and greater obedience? Because brothers and sisters, when God pours out such blessings on us, that's what it ought to do. What will this next year be like? Will you find a series of afflictions and trials and sickness? Will you find the loss of a job? Thousands have. I noticed in the last A week or so, a couple of reports of businesses, some of them 200 years old that have closed, probably for good because of all of this turmoil. Will the next year hold pain and sorrow? And why might that come into our lives? Might not the Lord try to get our attention? Oh, you wouldn't listen to me? When I was blessing you with prosperity, maybe I'll get your attention, the Lord says, maybe, with some affliction. Maybe it'll give you a renewed duty to care for your own soul. Even if your body is declining, maybe the affliction will turn your heart to the things of God. As a pastor, you know, I hope this next year will do another great work. I hope at last the grace of God will break the heart of some stubborn person who sat under the preaching of the word for years and still has yet to make a profession of faith. May this be the year that people we know and have been praying for are born again. Will that not make 2021 a great year? The year of salvation. The year of putting on Christ. The year that some person is never to be the same again. Might this be the year that They find themselves in the hands of Jesus, never to be plucked out of his hand again. Forever to live in glory. Would that not make 2021 a glorious year? I would think for that person, it would. What will happen in the next 12 months? Could it be that this is the last year that the Lord will strive with you? That's a pretty serious thought. Might this be the year that he gives you over to your rebellious heart, your disobedient lifestyle? Might this be the year that the lust of your heart bears the fruit of open rebellion? and whatever consequences that might bring. The only thing worse than knowing somebody who goes through that kind of rebellion is to be the person who actually hears the Lord say, depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire. Hananiah heard the word of the Lord. This is a man who purported to be the mouthpiece of God. Who purported to be a prophet of God. And made a very public show of his hearing God's voice. And Hananiah hears the word of the Lord. I will cast you From the face of the earth this year, you shall die. Well, brothers and sisters, the future is unknown to us, just as unknown as it was last March. I don't know what kind of feelings you had on Tuesday when you finally caught up to what was going on. We turned the TV on, I had flashbacks to 9-11. I'm glad it wasn't that bad as far as loss of life goes. But it was not what I was thinking would happen this week. But the future is also known to us in a general way. And in a general way, you may take it to the bank that Ecclesiastes 9.3 is true. One thing happens to all. You remember what the preacher says there? Everybody dies. Providentially, if you will, R.C. Sproul in our Sunday school lesson mentioned this very thing this morning. There's one thing that happens to all of us. that if the Lord tarries long enough, not one of you will still be here. You will all have passed away. And so we might ask, well, what has the last year been like? I know you can look at charts and numbers and all those kind of things, but one of the amazing things that I saw, and apparently the numbers are already there, that the death rate in the USA over the last 10 years, including 2020, Some 2,000, 2,500,000 roughly people died every year in the USA over the last 10 years. That's 6,887 per day, give or take. That's a lot of people every day. And in that number were young, old, healthy, busy, they had plans, vacations, mission trips, college, weddings, they bought a house, they had all kinds of things on their mind. We were chatting after, talking after church today, Mr. Jacob's name came up, and I said, well, he's two years into college. And Bob said, no, no, he's a senior. I went, what? How could that much time have passed? Because time seems to catch us by surprise, doesn't it? Well, so does this. This year, you may die, even though you have made I would think, have any of you made plans for your death this year? I haven't. My will's out of date. I have no funeral arrangements made. No plans to die, do you? And yet the Lord says to Hananiah, as a judgment of God on his presumptuous prophecies. This year you will die, even though you may say, I'm not ready to die. Though you have put off thinking about death, not trying to be morbid, so that you spend the next several months thinking about your death. But brothers and sisters, there was an old movie some years ago called Death Takes a Holiday. Death doesn't take a holiday. And just because you don't like death, doesn't mean it doesn't come. Famous folks in 2020. Kobe Bryant passed away. Kenny Rogers passed away. Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away. Sean Connery passed away. Alex Trebek passed away. And assuredly and unexpectedly as death came to thousands last year, thousands more are going to pass away at the rate of some 6,887. this coming 12 months. Well, brothers and sisters, what if it comes to you? That's a big if. But if you are not ready, it's going to come all the same. If you are a sinner who flatters yourself that you are years from going to hell, if you ever go to hell, if hell even exists, that day will break on you with such reality that you won't know what hit you. Because the penalty for sin will be understood and felt in that instant. The Lord hasn't given us, for all of the death and near death experiences we have, the Lord has not given us any real experience of the very first few moments after death. We have all kinds of speculation. But if you are ready for death, if you are a believer who has put on Jesus Christ, because you know your need of a savior, because you know you are a sinner who cannot stand before a holy God, all the doubts that you have about glory and the presence of Christ will disappear the moment after your death. All your fears will be gone. You will know the reality of what the thief on the cross knew. This day, you will be with me in paradise. Those are the realities for Christians. And the reality is that that's a pleasing thing to think about. But our text is not focused on believers. It's focused on a man who was deluded He was living under the delusion that he was God's messenger. And the Lord says to him, this year you shall die. You know what's very interesting about this story and the chapters that follow, it doesn't appear that Hananiah went, oh, well then I repent and I change my ways. No, it says, In the next year, in that year, he died on the seventh month. Brothers and sisters, if you are outside of Christ, if you do not repent of your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, every pleasure, every recreation, every delight that you have ever known will be lost forever. Music will not have the soothing effect that it sometimes does. The sun will not warm you. About the only thing I like about winter are those days when the sun is really bright. I'm out walking the dog and it's cold and you look up at the sun and you can feel the warmth of it. Spring's coming. But if you are outside of Christ, even the sun will not warm. The coldness that's creeping in. Riches will not benefit you. What can riches do in the day of your death? Nothing. You can't buy off death. Whatever honors you may get in this life, they will fade. Every future plan that you have made, will perish in the moment of your death. The education that you are pursuing, what good it will be if you have a moment of death. The business that you start, the dreams that you dream, the plans that you make will all vanish. Boy, Pastor, I'm really sad that I came tonight. But 1 Corinthians 15, 19 puts it just like this, doesn't it? If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. If all of your hopes and all of your dreams and all of your plans for the future are about this life, you're a miserable person. You are the most pitiful of all people. Because every hope that you have is no hope at all if you die in your sins. I was again shocked, shocked, surprised, pun intended by the Sunday school, surprised by suffering. I was surprised by his teaching. Because he made that very point this morning, to die in faith or to die in your sins. Brothers and sisters, you understand there is no second chance after your death. There is no reincarnation. There is no redemption after you die. Whatever you think of religion, church, the gospel, and Christianity, whatever you think about it right now, will do you no good after you're dead. You can argue with the preacher, with the gospel. You can argue about whether Jesus died only for those who believe, or you can argue all those things. But brothers and sisters, the means of grace are for this life right now. Because there's no hope after this life. There is only judgment and doom. or a welcoming into the very presence of God. Now, in a church as small as ours and the attendance as small as we are tonight, surely there's no one here in that sorry condition. Well, that's the delightful hope of positive thinking. But do you know that sinners can be found even in small churches? There may be someone here who's tuned out everything I have to say a long time ago. You haven't been listening for the last 25 minutes. There may be some clouded mind that hasn't heard a thing that I've said. Listen, this year you may die. And I don't say that to scare you into the kingdom of God. But what will all those things that you are thinking about do for you then? Is it possible for you to escape the danger that you are in? Do you even know that you're in danger? Outside of Christ? Because brothers and sisters, if there's someone here tonight not aware of your danger, whatever I say, however I say, it won't matter if you're not concerned about your own soul. It doesn't matter. But if you're here tonight and you know that your heart is hard and your sins are many, if you have any inclination that you can't save yourself, and you can't, There isn't a thing that you can do that will make God love you. But I would say to you exactly what the Bible says right now. Leave your sins behind. That's the word repent. And accept the Lord Jesus Christ as he is offered in the gospel. That's the word believe. Repent and believe. And if you do, this may be the best year of your life. And I don't just necessarily mean that you'll get everything you want, and everything will be prosperous, and the government will be wonderful, and the economy will be great. I don't mean that at all. But I mean your biggest problem will be solved. Your sin problem. And if you tonight recognize that you need this savior, that the gospel has laid out, that the Bible has laid out, receive him tonight. And then what do you do the rest of the year? Well, read your Bible regularly, pray, fellowship with other Christians in whatever way that you can. Hear the word often and think on these things. I cannot change your heart. But God, if he sees fit, can use this sermon, this moment, this text to change your heart right now. This year, you may die. What would you be talking about if one month from tonight, I'm as dead as Samuel Davis was. Is that possible? Well, yeah, brothers and sisters, it is possible. You know how many times the story has been told where a preacher was standing in the pulpit saying, I may not see the, and then dropped over dead. It's happened more than once because man knows not his time. But this is not meant to be a morbid advice. It is meant to be a fervent plea. It is meant to be something that you think and act on in faith. And if you do think and act on this possibility, not in a morbid and awful and dark way, but if you think on it by faith, it will bring you the most pleasure and happiness you will ever know. And when you do come to face the day of your death, you will face it in a very different way than many others. I've been with enough people who have passed away. to see what I think is the difference between real faith and no faith. And brothers and sisters, it's a scary thing to watch somebody leave this world, denying Christ, refusing to come. It's a scary thing. But it's also something that I cannot explain, to see the peace that passes understanding. in those who believe. Right now the gospel is freely offered. The gospel is being preached again. Jesus came to live, to die, for those who believe in him. And the gospel says, repent of your sin and believe in him. And you either are somebody who has done that, therefore death should not be a great fear. The Bible says, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. We as believers should look forward to the day we're going home. Not morbidly, not rushing it. God is patient, but he won't wait forever. This year, you may die. Christ has come once for all to deliver sinners from the wrath of God. Don't put off this for another year. You may be saying, well, that's fine, Pastor, but I've heard you say that before. I said it 10 years ago when I preached this message. And you may say, well, I made it 10 years. Maybe when you preach it again 10 years from now, what will it? Maybe then all the sin, don't put it off. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Let this be, for those of you who may not be believers yet, the first day of your new year. You might die, but maybe I hear you saying, Yes, Pastor, but this year I might not die. Well, that's true too. But what will be your last year? You will have a last year. Might not be this year. I mean, I'm thinking over the last 12 months, I haven't done a funeral in I don't know how long. But does anybody think that we won't have a funeral at some point? It might not be your last year, but every year that you put it off, I would ask you, why are you waiting? Are you going to be the same one year from today that you are right at the moment? Brothers and sisters, if you ignore the things of God, you will just add to your guilt. You will have added another year of wrath to your guilt, if you will. Maybe you think, well, I've spent all these years Who would ever pray something like this? Oh God, who created me, Father of all mercies, I have spent the last 10, 20, 60 years displeasing you. Give me another year to displease you. Can you imagine anybody consciously thinking that? Well, I've dishonored and disobeyed and ignored the gospel. Give me another year to disobey and ignore the gospel. You'd be a fool. Give me more time to waste myself in this coming year. It's a foolish prayer. Let me be selfish one more year, Lord. Brothers and sisters, every day that you refuse to accept Jesus as Lord, you are praying such a prayer. Every day that you are not walking in His steps, You are praying such a prayer. And I would just say to you, whether you die this year or not, redeem the time because the days are evil. Jesus said a couple of different ways in a couple of different places. Whoever hears this word and believes in God who sent Jesus Christ has everlasting life and will not come into judgment. But it's passed from death into life. You understand that death is the curse on sin? Why is there death in the world? Because of sin. and God's solution to that death is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Have you passed from death into life? May be a little heavy to think about, but when our physical frame is failing or not improving, when the prospects as we look out into the future may be dim. Brothers and sisters, we need to set our heart on the things of God. And then rejoice at whatever time He gives us and use it wisely to the praise, glory, and honor of His name. This year you may die, but yes, brothers and sisters, this year you may not die. And a year from now, we may be still looking at each other and praising God that we made another year. Let's make an appointment to come back on January 10th and say, well, praise God, he didn't take us home yet. Must have more for us to do. Let's be about doing it. Let's pray together.