Baptist Church of Trinidad. Once again, welcome to those faithfully joined us via internet all over the world. Please open your hymnals to number 294. 294. Savior like a shepherd lead us. Number 294. Saviour, like a shepherd lead us, much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pasture feed us, for our use thy foods prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Thou hast bought us, Thine we are Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus Thou hast bought us, Thine we are We are thine to be freed Give thy flocks from sin defend us, Seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Hear, O hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve us, we still pledge our heart to pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Early let us seek thy favor, early let us know thy will. Blessed Lord and Holy Saviour, with Thy love our bosom filled. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, Thou hast loved us, loved us still. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, Thou wast loved, as love was then. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we can pray to Thee and ask Thee for Thy salvation and for Thy love, and we know that we have a God who loves us eternally, a God who demonstrated that love by sending the Lord Jesus Christ, Thine only begotten Son, into this world to become a man, to be able to die on the cross of Calvary, to shed His blood there so that we could be forgiven and saved. So we're thankful that we can know that love of God in our hearts, and that we can have that peace of God in our hearts and lives as well. We continue to pray for our country of Canada, the great need in our country for souls to be saved, for our own area here, as many people in this area know of this church, and they know about us, but they don't come. They have chosen to reject the truth. We pray that people would be broken and see the importance of listening to the truth and choosing wisely instead of just saying no. That thy will be accomplished, that many could be saved in these days of grace. We do pray for our doctors and nurses here, for our hospital. We're thankful for a hospital here in our town. And we just pray that we can be a help and a testimony there. Pray for our services in the seniors' homes, that we can be an encouragement to the seniors, that many of them would be saved as well. And for the Remembrance Day services that are coming up, that we'd have wisdom in preparing for them and be able to be a help to people in these last days in which we're living. We continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that many Jews would be saved across the world. And we pray also for the situation in Ukraine, for the Christians there and in Russia, that they would be faithful to thee, and in Venezuela, China, North Korea, countries that are more or less closed to the gospel. But we're thankful that thy word is never bound and that there are ways to get the gospel in through the internet. And we do pray for the Christians in those countries that they would be faithful to thee and encouraged in thee. God indirect us here that we would honor thee in all that is said and done. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. And over to 467. 467, since I have been redeemed. Number 467. I have a song I love to sing Since I have been redeemed Of my Redeemer, Savior, King Since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed I will glory in His name, since I have been redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. I am a Christ that satisfies, since I have been redeemed. To do His will, my heart is prized, since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed. I will glory in His name, since I have been redeemed. I will glory in my Savior's name. I am a witness bright and clear, since I have been redeemed. Since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed I will glory in His name Since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name Since I have been redeemed Where I shall dwell eternally Since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed Since I have been redeemed I will glory in His name Since I have been redeemed And over to 512 Saved by grace 512 Someday the silver corn will break And I no more as now shall sing But to the joy when I shall wake Within the palace of the King. And I shall see Him face to face, Until the story's saved by grace. And I shall see Him face to face, Until the story's saved by grace. Someday my earthly house will fall I cannot tell how soon it will be But this I know, my holy Lord Has now a place in heaven for me And I shall see Him face to face And tell the story same grace and i shall see him face to face and tell the story saved by grace someday when fades the golden sign beneath the rosy tinted west My blessed Lord will see well thine, and I shall enter into his, and I shall see him face to face. Until the story's saved by grace And I shall see him face to face Until the story's saved by grace Someday, till then, I'll watch and wait My love for dream and burning bright Then when my Saviour opens the gate, My soul to Him it takes its flight, And I shall see Him face to face, And tell the story seen by grace, And I shall see Take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13, we're going to be reading there the first five verses. Luke chapter 13, beginning there at verse one. We'll stand for the reading of God's word. Verse one, there were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful this morning that we have Thy Word, which helps us to look at things properly, to discern things, and to be careful when we're judging that we're judging according to righteousness and not according to our own bias. We're thankful for Thy salvation, that it is there for people in Canada, people in the Philippines, in Africa, in Venezuela, across the world. Thy salvation is available to all people. We know that we live in greater peace here than Venezuela, China, and North Korea. And yet we cannot say that the people in those countries are more wicked than we are. We know that there's a lot of wickedness in Canada. And so we need to be careful how we look at these countries and how we look at other people and look at ourselves. And that we understand the importance of knowing Thee, the true God, first of all, and then walking with thee humbly according to thy word. So may thy will be accomplished as we look into these verses, that we would know thy peace and blessing in our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The title of the message is The Necessity of True Repentance, The Necessity of True Repentance. The Bible is very clear that man is born lost in sin. Adam was created without sin, but all of Adam's descendants are born in sin. We are conceived in sin. Jesus, or not Jesus, David said, in sin did my mother conceive me. So it wasn't that David's father and mother were sinning in the conception of David, but the fact is that the moment that that conception took place in what our world is arguing about, is that a human life or is that a thing? And our secular world calls it a fetus. And so they believe that you can murder that thing, which they call it, you can murder that some places right up until the moment of birth. That's murder right from the time of conception. So when a mother, a woman, is pregnant and she has a miscarriage, that's a human being that has died inside her womb. And if that woman is a godly woman, she's gonna grieve the loss of that human being. That's just the way she is made. She knows this was a human being. And so there's a grief there, even though that baby would never have survived outside the womb, but it died inside the womb. And God has a way of purging that dead body out of the woman so that she doesn't get sick. But it's a human life. And so every one of us was conceived in sin, and then we, when we were born, we demonstrated that we were sinners very quickly after being born. And so in one of the things that we understand from that is that there's nobody that was born good. In Romans chapter three, verses nine through 18, gonna read that. Romans chapter 3, verses 9 through 18, it says, what then? Are we better than they? The we in that verse is the Jews. Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. So even though the nation of Israel is still today called God's chosen people, They are still conceived in sin, born in sin, live in sin until they repent and are saved. The majority of Jews today don't know the Lord as their God and Savior. They are living in sin. So let's carry on. Verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That's what God says about humanity. That's where we're at. Notice there in verse 13, their throat is an open sepulcher. A sepulcher is a place where dead bodies are rotting and decaying. Think of the smell. That's what God says the throat of every one of us before we were saved. That's what our throat was like. In his presence, we stunk, we stink. Isaiah 64, six, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight. That filthy rag is not a grease rag. It's a rag that has to do with human effluent that stinks. That's what it's talking about. So we need to understand that when we are born, we are, even though the Bible says, 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, that's a fact, God loves us, but he loves us enough to provide salvation so that we can get out of that stinky place of being that stinky person and of being presentable to God. No lost person will be in heaven. They can't go there because of their sin. And that's important. So if you're here today and you're not saved, you cannot go to heaven because of your sin. You have a sin nature and that sin nature cannot enter into heaven. And if you were to go to heaven, you would make a mess of heaven. because you don't want to serve God. And so God has said, the Garden of Eden, when God put Adam and Eve in there, he told them, this is a garden, it was a beautiful garden, everything was beautiful. We don't have anything on earth today that's like that. And God told Adam how to live in that garden. But he also told Adam that if you eat of the forbidden fruit, you're gonna die immediately. And because Adam chose to disobey God and eat of that fruit, God chased him out of the garden because the tree of life was in that garden. And Adam could not stay there because God did not want to have Adam live eternally in sin. So he had to be away from the tree of life. He couldn't have access to it. So after that, The only way to get into a right relationship with God is through salvation. It's the only way. And that's the only ones that will be in heaven. Heaven, nobody can be kicked out of heaven. Once we are saved, the Bible says we have eternal life. We have everlasting life. We cannot be kicked out of heaven. That's a beautiful thing. But we also cannot sin in heaven. Once we get to heaven, we will not sin. But on earth, we must understand, that's what the problem is with most of people. They don't believe that their lost sinner is going to hell. The Catholic Church, United Church, Presbyterian Church, Anglican Church, most Mennonite churches, some Baptist churches, a lot of religions teach that when a person dies, they just, they went to heaven. Unless, of course, They hated that person and they were alive. Then they say, well, that person went to hell. But, you know, the judgment that people use is very subjective and it's very unjust. But the fact is that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God and he can't enter the kingdom of God. So the first thing we want to notice here this morning is corrupt judgment. If we looked at verse one, it said, and again, as we look at this here, Jesus is talking to a group of people, but in this case, they're not identified. We don't know if they're Pharisees. We don't know if they're scribes. We don't know if they're Sadducees, lawyers. We don't know who they are. We know they're Jews. Most of them, there might've been some Romans there, but mostly they would be Jews. But it says, there were present at that season, some, that's all we know about them, some, that told him of the Galileans. So whoever these people were, they thought they were pretty good. And so they told Jesus about these Galileans, and it says, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. So these Galileans that they're talking about here, they were not believers in God. They had a false religion. They had their own sacrifices that they offered to their idols. And Pilate, in judging these Galileans, because keep in mind that the Roman Empire was in place at this time. So the whole world of that area was under the Roman government. Pilate was the governor. We know that he's the one before whom Jesus stood. So he was the governor for a number of years. And so he decided that these particular Galileans, we don't know how many, but these particular Galileans were so bad in Pilate's eyes that he had killed them and mixed their blood with their animal sacrifices that week they gave to their idols. So he could have even put them on that altar and burnt them with their animal sacrifice. We don't know. The details are not given. But he mixed their blood, said, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. So Pilate had an adverse hatred for these particular Galileans. He had unlimited power, pretty well. He was accountable, he was answerable to Herod, but as long as he kept the peace, Herod didn't care what he did. If he would have allowed an uprising to develop in Judea and Samaria, in that area, Herod would have had to send soldiers in, and most likely Pilate would have been killed and they'd have found a different governor. But as long as the governor in a certain area would abide by the general principles of the king, Herod, then they could do what they wanted to. And so there was a lot of corruption in the government of that time, just like today. As long as the Liberal Party adheres to the basic ideas of what Carney wants, they can do what they want. There's no concern that they're going to be arrested. Even Mr. Carney can lie and cheat and take our money and use it for corruption. There's no problem. Mr. Ford, last week, he made an advertisement Think about this, $75 million. Whose money was that? It wasn't his, it was the people of Ontario. $75 million for this ad and he sent it into the states to try to undermine the American government. That's illegal. For a country to go into another country and try to overthrow that government of that country is illegal. I'm expecting that Mr. Trump is going to sue Mr. Ford and the Ontario government for that ad. That's what I'm expecting. But think about it, $75 million on an advertisement. not his own money, he should be in jail. That's criminal. To steal the people's money when people are starving, people can't afford to buy houses, and he's taking $75 million for one little ad. And in that ad, he lied. He took Mr. Reagan's words and chopped it up and made Mr. Reagan say something that he didn't say. But is he going to get in trouble for that? He might get sued. But again, if he gets sued, who's going to pay for it? Not Mr. Ford. It's going to be the taxpayer that's going to pay for it. So that's the corrupt government system we have in Canada. So we're no better than the Romans were here in Jesus' day. But these particular Galileans, they had done something that had really upset Pilate. And he used these Gaulians to teach the rest of them, you better smarten up. If you don't listen to what I say, same thing's gonna happen to you. And that's how our world operates, by fear. They tried to get us to submit to them. They tried to do it when the Wuhan virus thing was on. They've done it in different ways. They tried to make us bow to them. But again, we have a Bible. We don't have to be intimidated and go with what the government says when we know it's wrong. And that's why we have a Bible, so that we can know what is right and what is wrong. Verse two, Jesus says here, and Jesus answering said to them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? So Jesus is asking these self-righteous people in verse one, do you think, and obviously they did, but do you think that these particular Galileans that Pilate took and murdered, were they worse than the rest of the Galileans? And the point that Jesus is making is they weren't any worse. Just because a person doesn't get put in prison, doesn't get butchered by a wicked government, or whatever, doesn't mean that person is better than someone else. And we talked about that before, that just because China has a very oppressive government, so does Russia, not as oppressive. Saudi Arabia is a very oppressive government. There are many countries that are very oppressive, Iran as well. But does that make those people worse than we are? Now, those people live in an area that is, especially in Iran, that's controlled by Islam. And so they have to bow to Islamic rule in general. But again, a Christian in Iran would have to be very careful, but he could still be a Christian. He wouldn't have to bow to that. And I believe a true Christian, if the government is so oppressive that they would try to force the women to wear a hijab, if they're a Christian, they'd have to leave that country. Because the hijab is not just a matter of clothing, it's a religious statement. So it's not like moving into a country that says all women have to have dresses with flowers on them. Big deal. But this hijab is a religious statement that declares what they believe. So again, there are places in this world that are very oppressive. But some of those countries, they are that way because for years, the people have rejected the truth. And that's why they are in the condition they're in. It's like we talked in a devotional this week that Jesus talked about the blind leading the blind, and if the blind are leading the blind, they're both gonna go in the ditch, because they can't see the difference between the ditch and the road. And that's where some countries are at. The country is so blind that they cannot see their way out of it. And the good thing is that even in a country like Iran, there are people who are resisting. the oppressive nature of that government. They're not saved, but they're resisting. Just like in Canada during the Wuhan virus debacle, there were people who decided, no, we're not going to do this. They weren't saved people. But they decided to take their trucks to Ottawa and park them there and protest what was going on. Now they didn't gain anything by that. Some of them were arrested. Some of them had their bank accounts frozen. But they made a public statement. They were not going to go along with that. Too bad they didn't get saved and then start telling the government why we don't go along with that. That's what should have happened, but it didn't happen. Too many churches decided they were going to bow to that wicked government mandate and decided to go along with it rather than stand up in their pulpits and say, no, this is unbiblical. The Bible never tells us that a whole country, a whole world should be locked down. Never tells us that. We know that during the time of Joseph and Mary, when Mary was pregnant with Jesus, that Herod had the power to force the people to go for a census, but that's different than being locked down over a virus that was not that deadly. It was the vaccine that was deadly, not the virus. And it wasn't even a vaccine, they call it that, but it's a poison shot is what it is. And that was deadly. but not the virus. People die of the flu every year. So it was a lie that people were given to cause people to bow to the dictates of a wicked government. So were these Galileans that Pilate killed worse than the rest of the Galileans? No, they weren't. So let's go to the second example that Jesus gives, and we'll call the second point an act of God with a question mark. Let's look at verse four. Or those 18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. So we're not told, again, we don't know why that tower collapsed. It doesn't tell us there was a big storm. It doesn't tell us there was an earthquake, but it says that it collapsed. So what caused it? We don't know, but we understand that this tower was made of stone. It wasn't made of wood. So if it was made of stone, there would have been mortar most likely between the stones. They had mortar back in those days. They knew how to do things. And so it's possible that in one part of that tower near the base, it would have had to been near the base, that the mortar either was crumbling or there were some stones that were not strong enough and they were slowly crumbling and the people weren't paying attention. And once the base is weakened enough, it's going to fall over. So it tells us here, Jesus is using this example. There was 18 people, there was probably more than that people around there. We're not sure, it doesn't tell us if these 18 people were in the tower or standing around the tower. But whatever, there was 18 people that were killed when this tower toppled over. Now, you take a tower that's made of stone, doesn't tell us how tall it was, but you take a tower that's made of stone and falls over, anybody that's in the path of the rubble that's coming down is gonna get hurt, and 18 of them died. So Jesus asked the question of these self-righteous people in verse one, were those 18 people that died, Did they deserve to die? Was God angry with those 18 people and said, I'm gonna kill you, but I'm not going to kill the other sinners that are in Jerusalem? The point that Jesus makes several times in the gospels is that the Jews in Jerusalem were in need of God's judgment. In fact, they were under God's judgment. And that's why in 70 AD, the Roman government came in and destroyed the temple and many people lost their lives because they were under the wrath of God. And God was merciful. Was he not merciful to these 18? Sure. They were not babies that had just been born. They were not babies that were still inside their mother's womb. They had opportunity to be saved, just like today here. We have people in our church here today. Some of you are young people, but you're not saved. Now, if this building were to collapse or catch on fire and you were caught in here and you died, you would not have the right to stand before God and say, God, you weren't fair to us. We were just young. You shouldn't have killed us. You couldn't do that. You have the opportunity to be saved. You're choosing not to. So if you're going to die in your youth as a lost person, it's your own fault. Nobody to blame but yourself, because you're sitting here week after week hearing the gospel. You have opportunity to be saved. You also hear it in your house. See, it's not like even the Bible says in Romans chapter one, there's none that has an excuse. So even those people in the jungles of Africa don't have an excuse. When they die without Christ, they're going to hell. because they had the truth. Go in your Bibles to Romans chapter one. This is important. You see, this is something that we need to consider very carefully. This applies to Canada as well. There was a time in Canadian history when it was much easier to proclaim the gospel than it is today. When I was a child in school, back in the public school days, The Bible was read, King James Bible was read in school at least once a week. I remember my grade six teacher would read her Bible to us in class more than once a week at the beginning of the day. So there was a time when the gospel was much more accessible in Canada than today. Our country is in big danger because we have chosen to say no to God more and more and becoming more defiant against God. Romans chapter one, verse 16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So that's a verse that we as Christians should be reminded of. When we are talking to other people, we should be always asking God to show us in that conversation where we can bring the gospel into the conversation. Because if we're talking to a lost person, and they're complaining about the weather, or they're complaining about Trudeau, or they're complaining about Carney, or they're complaining about whatever they're complaining about, we need to be looking for the way to turn that conversation to bring the gospel in, because that's the solution. We could have an election tomorrow, and Mr. Pellivier could be voted in as the prime minister, and it wouldn't change our country one bit. We would still have the murder of unborn children. We would still have the sodomite agenda being rammed down the throats of children in our public school system. We would still have divorces going on across this country. We would still have cursing and swearing being popularized across the media. All that stuff would still be going on. The deficit wouldn't change one bit, even if it was a different government. That's not the solution. The solution is salvation. So let's go on. Verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith. Verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. You see, there's the problem. When you take the truth and you say, that's not the truth, that's destructive, that's bad for our country, that's bad for us as a people, we should not be reading the Bible. And there were a few years ago, it's a number of years ago now, where a man simply quoted from Romans chapter one, I believe from verse 18 through 21 or 22, somewhere in that range, simply asked a newspaper to publish those verses. That person was arrested for putting those verses in the newspaper. The word of God. That's holding the truth in unrighteousness. When a government says you cannot say that when you read the Bible, that's holding the truth in unrighteousness. That's the problem. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that when they, because that which that may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them. So what's that saying? That's telling us, as it tells us further in Romans, that we have a conscience. Every person has a conscience. In that conscience, every person knows the basic difference between a lie and the truth. That's why a young child, when they tell a lie, they try to hide their face from you. They don't want to look you straight in the eye and say, I didn't take that cookie when they did take the cookie. I didn't break that thing over there when they did break it. They lie and they know they're lying. You don't have to tell them they're lying, they know it. Now it is important to tell them that, but they know it. because God puts it in every person that we can know the difference between right and wrong. When a person goes to the store and he looks at that candy bar in the store, he knows that candy bar doesn't belong to him. That's why he looks around, who's watching me? And if nobody's watching and he's got his mind set, I want that candy bar, but I don't have any money, and he takes it, he doesn't just walk up to the manager and say, hey, come over here, I wanna take this candy, I want you to watch me to take it. Now, in some places now, because our governments are so corrupt, people are walking, especially liquor stores, the law now says, if a person walks into a liquor store and wants to steal liquor, you're not supposed to stop him. That's what our government says. That's how corrupt our system is. Now, liquor stores should be all destroyed anyway, but that's not by us to do that. But they shouldn't exist. And if people were saved, they wouldn't exist. So there's a problem. So I'm not advocating we should go out and take our baseball bats and go smash all the liquor in the liquor store. No. But they shouldn't exist. And Christians don't buy liquor. We don't buy it because it's against God and we want to serve him. So in verse 19, that which that because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has showed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. That's what God says. Any person can look up into the sky. Psalm 19, verse one, the heavens declare the glory of God. So you don't have to have a Bible. You don't have to have anybody talking to you. You just walk outside and look up into the sky. You see the clouds. You see the stars at night. You see the moon. You see the sun in the daytime. You see all of that. The birds flying up there. How do they stay up there? You try and fly. Flap your arms. Can you get up in the air? Run as fast as you want to. Flap your arms. Are you going to go flying? How about if you go up on a clip and you jump off the clip? Are you going to fly? No, you're gonna crash to your death. How come the birds can fly? You see, all a person needs to do is look up into the sky. God says, the heavens declare the glory of God. So any person that hasn't been brainwashed by wicked ideas, and again, we look at pagan countries, children, even Canada, children that go to a Catholic church are being brainwashed. They go to an Anglican church, they're being brainwashed. In their minds, they're being trained to think a certain way, just like here. We're not brainwashing you because we're not lying to you. We are telling you the truth. So you have the opportunity here, even for the lost, you have the opportunity to think of everything from a biblical perspective, even as a lost person. You know that there's a God. You know that that God is the creator of all things. You know that. But there are many people that are being trained right from young on. There is no God. And they go to a public school system that in less than a week now is going to be celebrating Satan. Halloween is a celebration of Satan. That's what they're going to do. You go right outside of our building here, the next lot over, there's an old truck sitting there. What have they got on that truck? They've got some vegetables on there and things, but they've also got stuff that's supposed to look like spider web stuff, you know? What's that for? That's all part of Halloween. They've got some other thing, I don't even know what is all there, but they've got some other things on that truck that is supposed to remind people of evil, not good, evil. That's what it's for. And that's not the only place. Probably if you walked into the bank, you'd see that kind of stuff in there. A lot of people's homes right now, they have stuff up already that is designed for Halloween, worshiping the devil. But people, ah, come on, it's just for fun. No, it's not just for fun. It's not just for fun. So again, is Canada that much better that our country should not be in the same place as the people in Ukraine who get up every morning not sure if they'll be alive in the evening because the Russians might send a bomb that blows up their house? Are we better? No. These 18 people that died when that tower fell down, were they worse than the people in Jerusalem? No. They weren't. But you see, God doesn't kill everybody that is sinning immediately, but he picks and chooses according to his will. He picks and chooses certain people. And by that, he wants to show the rest of society, you better wake up and listen. So when we look at our third point, without repentance, there is no hope. Verse three and verse five. I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. So you see, it's not a matter of how long you live before you die, it's a matter of what do you believe while you are alive. Because whether a person dies at two days old, 10 years old, 20 years old, 100 years old, it doesn't matter. If you die without Christ, you're going to hell. Simple as it is. Doesn't matter how much money you make. Doesn't matter how big a bank account you have. Doesn't matter how smart you are. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior, you're going to hell. So it says here, I tell you nay, but except ye repent. Repentance, biblical repentance, is not just a turning. There are drunkards who stop drinking. And they do it because they go to AA, or they go to some other group, or maybe they just are, they have enough willpower to say, okay, I've made enough mess of my life, I've wasted enough money on liquor, I'm stopping. And a few people can do that. Or cigarettes or whatever, a few people can do it. But most people need some kind of an outside help. But even if they stop whatever it is that they're doing, they're still just as lost as they were before, unless they repent toward God. So even though it doesn't say here, except ye repent toward God, that's the biblical teaching. Repentance must be toward God, Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 and verse 21. This is the Apostle Paul, this is what he preached, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's needed. So when we look at our verse again, three and five, it's Jesus that's talking, And Jesus is not skipping anything. But again, you don't take a verse in isolation and build a doctrine on it. You look at the verse in its context, and you look at the verse in the broader context. And when we talk about here in this passage, repentance, when we look at the thief on the cross, we don't find the word repentance there. We look at see him turning to Jesus and asking him to remember him. But we know because we have a Bible, that that thief repented toward God and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for his salvation. We know that. Same thing here. Accept ye repent. That's the first step, you see. It's not a work, but you cannot, see there's a lot of people today who say they believe in Jesus Christ. A lot of them, you know, in our time today, there are a lot of divorced people who remarry and then they get saved. claim to get saved, but they stay with that remarried person. They still have a wife or a husband somewhere, but they've married someone else. The Bible calls that adultery. So if that person truly gets saved, then they're gonna wanna leave that adulterous relationship. If there's children there, yeah, that's a sad reality of wickedness. There may be children there. We're gonna be talking about that more this afternoon. But the person needs to break off the sin. That's what repentance is. It's a turning to God, trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation. Because I do that, I no longer want to live in sin. The drunkard. If the drunkard gets saved, he doesn't want to touch another bottle of booze. He's done with that. He may have a case of beer in his house. What does he do with that? He smashes every bottle or pours it down the drain and throws the bottles away. He doesn't take the bottles to recycling to make some money on them because he's just perpetuating the sin. Same thing with the guy that smoked cigarettes or drugs or whatever it is. You get rid of it. You don't sell it. Well, it cost me money. Yeah, that was a fool you were. You bought it, but you don't keep it. You don't try to make money off it. Repentance. Except he repent, you shall all likewise perish. So again, doesn't matter whether you die in a train wreck or a car crash as a lost person, or you live to be a hundred years old and die healthy as a horse and you die and are buried. Doesn't matter. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you're going to same place. You're going to hell. That's what the Bible teaches. So the key is to repent. That's the key. Without that, you have nothing. That's very important. And if we go to 1 Thessalonians 1, we've been there before. But let's go back there and remind ourselves this verse gives a very clear picture of what biblical repentance is. Not my opinion. It's what the Bible says. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9. You should memorize this verse. You should know where it is if you're a Christian because you're going to use it in your testifying. 1 Thessalonians 1 9 For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. The word repentance is not there, but that's what repentance is. It's a turning to God. And in biblical repentance again, when you're turning to God, you're not coming to God and saying, well, God, I want to keep what I have. I just want to be forgiven. Forgiven for what? If you like your foul mouth, that's why a Christian can't be swearing. So repentance is a turning to God from idols. I'm not interested in having that idol any longer. Doesn't matter what you made it from, what you paid for, you don't want it anymore. Whatever that idol is. And an idol doesn't have to be a graven image that you bow down before. Covetousness is idolatry, the Bible says. So if you're in your mind out there going to work every day because you want to have something that you see somebody else has, and you want that, and you say, I'm going to work hard because I want to have the same thing that person has, that's idolatry. There are parents that make their children their idols. Instead of Disciplining when they do wrong, they say, oh, well, they're just children, you know, it's okay. You laugh it off and you don't do anything about it. And then someone talks to you about your child and say, your child was caught doing this. Oh, that's not, my child would never do that. Even though you know they did it. That's idolatry. You're protecting your child in their sin and you're worshiping them instead of helping them to know God's peace and blessing. So repentance is a turning to God. And in turning to God, I don't want what I had. I want God to take that away from me. That's why we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation, because he is the one who provides the means for us to be washed clean. That's why 2 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. That's what happens when a person gets saved. If that didn't happen in your life, you better check, did you get saved? Because that's what the Bible says. You became a new creature when you got saved. You weren't perfect. I'm not perfect now. but you became a new creature. You had a different desire, different wants in your life. That's why you wanted to go to church. That's why you wanted to read your Bible. That's why you wanted to get baptized. That's why you wanted to become a member of a church and so on, because you got saved. If that's not true, if someone has to twist your arm to get you to go to church and you only go once in a while, you don't wanna be baptized, you don't wanna join a church, there's something wrong with your brand of salvation. It's not supported by the Bible. You need to understand that. That's not me saying, that's what God says. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. That's what the Bible says. So when we look at what happens when a person is saved, I want us to look at a couple of verses here that talk about our attitude towards wrong. Go in your Bible to Psalm 101, verse three. Psalm 101, verse three. And it says there, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me. The word cleave means stick. So this is about a person who believes in God and he says that he hates the work of them that turn aside. Doesn't say he hates the people, he hates the work of them that turn aside. So if you are a Christian, you don't want to hang around in the bar. You don't want to sit at coffee break with people that are telling dirty jokes and cursing and swearing. You don't wanna be there. Psalm 119 and verse 104. Psalm 119 verse 104. Through thy precepts I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way." How does that happen? When you're saved and you're reading God's word, you're in a good church where you're being taught the truth, through thy precepts I get understanding. So if you're here today, you should be getting understanding in the things of God. If you're not, Either I'm not doing my work properly or you're not listening properly. Because I'm using God's word here. So through God's word, we should be gaining understanding of the things of God. And if you're saved, the Bible says you hate every false way. Lying, stealing, cheating, whatever it is, you hate it. Psalm 119 verse 113. I hate vain thoughts. Jokes. You know, you can go to a bookstore and you can buy a book of jokes. That's a waste of money. That's a waste of paper to print that book. It's a waste of time for the people that develop those jokes. And the Bible says the saved person hates vain thoughts. But thy law do I love. Verse 128. Therefore, I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. See, there are things we need to hate. Verse 163, I hate and abhor lying. but thy law do I love. A Christian cannot be known as a liar. I hate and abhor lying, but thy law do I love. Psalm 139 verse 21 and 22. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee, and am not I grieved with those that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies. So that's why we separate from people that are false teachers. We warn them, say, you know what, your teaching there is wrong. I don't care, I'm gonna do it anyway. Okay, that's your decision, I'm staying away from you. Proverbs 8 verse 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogancy and the evil way and the forward mouth do I hate. When you have the fear of the Lord, when you're saved, when you're saved, you will have the fear of the Lord in your heart. And when you have the fear of the Lord in your heart, you hate evil. And here are some of the things that are listed as evil. Pride, every one of us has to deal with pride. The same person needs to identify where that pride is and confess it as sin and forsake it. But it's a reality. Arrogancy, related to pride, the evil way. Well, that covers everything that's anti-God, is evil. The froward mouth, that's the person who's very boastful, like Mr. Trump is. That kind of a person, a froward mouth. Nobody can do this better than I can. Romans chapter seven, verse 15. It's the last one. Romans chapter seven, verse 15. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I." So there's a battle going on in the Christian's life. This is Paul directed by God to write these words. He wants to do right, he's an apostle, he's saved, he's an apostle, been taught by Jesus Christ, He's out there preaching to people, baptizing people, a few people. He didn't baptize many, other people did the baptizing. But he's preaching all over the place. Churches are being started because of Paul's preaching. But he says, this is the battle that's going on in my own heart and in every Christian's heart, you're gonna find that the devil is always gonna try to get you to sin. And Paul says that what I hate, that do I. So their sin is something I hate. I don't want to lie. I don't want to steal. I don't want to cheat. Whatever it is. But yet, if I'm honest, I have to admit that sometimes I do that. So what's the solution? Well, if you go to Romans chapter seven, it's by the grace of God that we can be forgiven when we sin. Not that we just brush it over and say, oh well, everybody does it. No, it's by God's grace we are forgiven and eventually we gain power over that particular thing. But the devil's always gonna come with something else. He doesn't give up till we die. Eventually he's gonna be in the lake of fire. but he's always trying to get a way to get a Christian to sin. He's already got the unbeliever, they're always in sin, but he's trying to get the Christian to sin. So when we look at the Bible and we look at the importance of repentance, and repentance again means that I do not want to continue in my old life. I want to be forgiven, I want to be saved. And Jesus says, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. So if you think that your sin is okay, you can continue there, you're in trouble. There needs to be a time in your life when you can say, I turn to God, I ask God to forgive me and save me, and from there, it should be identifiable in your life, my life changed at that moment. My thinking changed, my desires changed, I started doing things different because you were saved. Not because I'm trying to please dad and mom, or because I'm trying to please the pastor, or I'm trying to get this particular woman to like me, so I'm gonna do this and try to trick her into liking me. No, it's because you got saved that you changed, and then God continues to work in your heart to change you more to be more Christ-like. That's what the Bible teaches. So very important for us to be careful how we judge people, how we judge things around us. Judgment, we all judge. We can't get away from that. And we're supposed to judge righteous judgment. We need to understand that when you're pointing a finger at somebody else, you got three pointing back at you. So when we're gonna point that finger, we better be sure that the other three are clean. Make sure that you have the right to talk to that person about that sin. Doesn't mean we shouldn't talk to them, but make sure your heart is right with God so that you have the authority from God to help that. That's the desire. You want to help that person to do what God wants them to do. That's why you go to that person and talk to them. Not because you're trying to put them down. It's because you want to help that person to do what's right. So if you're here today and you're not saved, that's the first place to start. You need to get saved. You need to turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. If you're here and you're saved, you should be growing in the Lord. You shouldn't be satisfied with where you were last week or the week before and say, well, that's good enough. You should be growing in the Lord today and every day and seeking to help others to know him as well. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for thy word, thankful for the truthfulness of thy word that we can know the truth. Thankful for thy mercy and grace towards us as wicked people and that we can come to the place where we recognize we are wicked and we can repent and be saved. I pray for anyone listening today that's not saved, that they might see their need to humble themselves, to turn to Thee and repent and be forgiven and saved to know Thy peace and blessing. For those of us that are saved, that we would want to grow in Thee and not be stubborn and need to be chastened by Thee, but that we would want to listen and follow Thee more faithfully and glorify Thee. We're thankful for this opportunity. May thy will be accomplished in our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.