And the rest of us, if you please take your Bible and open it up to Ezekiel chapter 18. Here's our text this morning. We're excited about this week. My wife has been... Excuse my voice here, see if we can get it cleared. My wife's been working very hard getting ready for the ladies' meeting this Saturday. And she's praying about it. We're looking forward to what God's going to do. Pray for Shelly Smith that she's going to share her testimony. Shelly is the pastor's wife that we know from Fife that lost her husband to a brain tumor. I think Jeff passed away about three or four years ago now. And so pray God will bless her as she does that. And then pray for my wife as she shares the devotional, the Spirit of God to guide her and help her as she prepares that. And for good attendance, we had another church contact us this morning that's probably gonna be bringing some ladies to it. We anticipate possibly having, I don't know, 30 to 40 ladies that'll be there. So just pray that the Spirit of God speak to hearts of ladies as they come, and then be a good event this week. All right, let's pray and ask God to bless His Word to our hearts, and then we'll get into our message for this morning. Father, we're thankful for the grace that you give. Thank you for the opportunity that we have, again, to open the Word of God. And Father, I do pray that our hearts would be tender to you this morning. Father, I'm thankful for the Word of God. Father, it's what we need today. It's that which, if we would take it into our hearts and not just be hearers of the Word, but doers as well, that it would change our life. And Father, always for the better, and that's the crux of the message today as we look at it, that those that would yield would have the blessing. Those that resist will face destruction. And Father, how you desire today for us as your people to hear. And Father, it's possible, again, this morning that some are not yet saved. They've not yet trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Father, we pray today would be the day that they yield, that they bow the knee, that they accept the Savior, that they be passed from death unto life, that they no longer have to fear the fires of hell for all eternity. Father, we look Thursday night at hell, and it's awful. And I just pray, Spirit of God, that you'd awaken hearts before it's too late. Father, I'd be very sad to have somebody I know and love pass into eternity and to think I don't know that they ever trusted in Jesus Christ. So I pray, God, for those that we care about, those that we love, those that we're praying for. Help us to witness as you give opportunity. But I pray, God, that they would repent and accept Christ. And Father, for us that are believers this morning, we just pray, Spirit of God, speak to our hearts. Help us not to Let carnality into our lives, fleshly living, as we looked at in Sunday school. Lord, those things that creep in and quench the spirit, grieve the spirit. And so I just pray today that you do a good work in our hearts. And I pray you'd help me as I preach, help us as we listen. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. You can't go very far in Scotland without seeing a ruin. We like to look as we're driving along. We'll look over and say, oh, there's a ruin. There's a ruin. And some of our favorite castles in Scotland are in ruins. I don't know if you've been to Tintallin Castle in North Berwick. If you've ever been down there in North Berwick, you're looking out at Bass Rock, and you're up on a cliff. As you get along the coast down there, you're up about probably 40 meters or something. And then the castle is built up on top of that. It's just lovely to walk through. It's incredible, the strength of this fortress that was built in Tintin. We like Linlithgow Palace over in Linlithgow. You've probably seen that by the motorways you're driving by in the autumn. You can see the leaves are down. You can look over and you can see Linlithgow Palace. And again, what a strongly built facade that is there still. And you can still go up in the tower. You can still see a sense of what it used to be. But as you look at those ruins, and they're glorious to us, and there's something powerful about them, a ruin of itself is just a shell, isn't it? It's just a cavernous, burned-out building, like when Lithgow Palace was destroyed in fire. Cromwell destroyed Tantalum as the Covenanters were there holding that, and it was under siege. And you can see where the shells and things hit. and destroying the beauty of the building. The tapestries are no longer there. You could go to Sterling Palace. You can see the tapestries there because it's a building that's kind of alive still. It's a building that's still ornate, and it's not in ruin. It's a place that they've preserved. And you've got the painted ceilings and such. But as you go into these ruins, they're not that way. They're lifeless. They're empty. the music that they had of the day in the parties, in the festive things that were there. And perhaps somebody that had seen that in the day, if they were to see what we see, they wouldn't look at the ruin and say, oh, that's glorious. They'd look at it and say, it's so sad because I know what that used to be. I knew the life that used to be there, the vitality that used to be there, the enjoyment that used to be there. But now it's just a shell. It's empty and it's dead. And as you look at that, you think, well, that's just a building. Sadder still is what God is speaking about as we come to the Word of God today, as He speaks not about the ruin of a building, but He's speaking about the ruin of men's lives. I mean, it's very sad for a parent to go to the funeral of a child that their life was destroyed by sin. They know the happy, joyful little kid. And we thought recently about that mother of the man that killed the people there down in London. What must it be like to be that mother? What an awful thing to see a child that you looked at, I mean, you played with as a child. They're so innocent, so fun, so full of life. Then they get into things they shouldn't get into, and it brings them to death and destruction. And see, that's the way sin is. Sin comes in, sin creeps in, and sin destroys. Always, that's why even Paul, as Paul ran as a believer, as a Christian, he said, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I get under my body, I bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. He's talking about I myself should be put on the shelf as a broken vessel, no longer fit, no longer meet for the master's use, no longer able to be used by God. It's a very sad thing. Sin destroys. And in the context of what we're looking at, as God is speaking about death as a consequence of sin, He's not, in this case, speaking about eternal death. He's just speaking about death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. It's what the Word of God teaches in James 1.15. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. See, Although there is the aspect, and we know this as believers, the wages of sin is death. We understand that there is eternal damnation for those that die in their sin without Christ. We understand that idea of the second death. But yet there is also in life the reality that if I let sin rule my life, that sin can bring about premature death. Tonight we get to celebrate the Lord's Supper, the memorial, and rejoice that our Savior died for us, that He shed His blood for us, that He had His body broken for us, and honor Him for His death and what He did on the cross for us. But that's a result of sin. Death is the result of sin. What we're going to see as we even look at the Savior is that Jesus Christ had to die. Why? Because of our sin. But we stop and think about a lot of things that are in life. You know there's a lot of sins that just brings about physical death, isn't there? Do you read about this past week there were some young people that broke into a home in the United States? And they had weapons. They didn't have guns. But they had weapons on them. And there was a girl in the getaway car. And they broke in. But what they didn't count on was the owner's son, adult son that lived there, having an assault rifle and legally defending his home. They all died. They didn't expect, as they took up that sin and wicked companions and wicked friends, that it was going to lead to death. But it did lead to death. The Bible says in Proverbs 13 verse 20, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. See, there's consequences. And it's not just mom and dad saying, hey, get good friends. You need good friends. I don't want you to hang out with those guys. It's that the wrong friends can bring about destruction. We hear just in the last few years in Dunbar, there was a youth that was driving with his friends and speeding. And what happened? They all died. Why? Because wrong companions and sin, breaking the law. We had a girl die of a drug overdose in Midlothian this past year. Why? Because sin has consequences. Alcohol. I went to the funeral. Since I've been back, I went to the funeral for Gordon. And Gordon, you folks know him. He came to church a few times. And when he came, I mean, we were hopeful God set him free because he was an addict. He was addicted to alcohol. And he was addicted to cigarettes. But you know, Gordon died because he drank himself to death. Sin. Fornication brings death as well, sexually transmitted diseases, abortions. I mean, we could just stop this morning and say, there's a lot of sin that the end result of that sin is death, and so God is standing before Israel and saying, There is judgment for sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And so God's desire for Israel is that they repent. We read that this morning as we read the end of the passage. And so God says here in our text, Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 20, again, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And verse 23, have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return from his ways and live? God said, am I excited today that sin brings destruction and sin brings death and that somebody is on that path to destruction and death? And the answer is what? No. But my desire is that that person should turn and live. You know, we sing the song, look and live, my brother live, look to Jesus now and live. Why, you know, in this passage, the Lord's gonna compellingly argue with him and say, why will you perish? Why will you be destroyed? And he would say to us today, look, why are you going that way? Why are you letting that into your life? That destroys. And he would say to the unbelieving person that the end of your life is destruction, is the fires of hell. And again, we looked at hell this past Thursday night, what an awful place hell is. And the Bible says He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God's not clapping His hands and excited today that souls are being cast into hell. The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave an ultimate sacrifice to do everything He could to keep men from going there. And so the Lord would plead with them today to repent. with a man down below Edinburgh Castle on Monday as I pass out flyers down there and witness to people. I spoke with him and he was disinterested. He's my age, he's 40 years old. And I said, you ever get bothered? You ever get convicted about your sin? No. You ever think about heaven? You ever think about hell? No. I said, and I told him, I said, look, I'm just doing my best because it is so important that your spirit wakes up to the seriousness of what you're saying. And when I said, you know, that's really sad to me that you're not, you don't feel any guilt over sin or any remorse. And he said, you know, it probably is. And he's right. But you know, I can't help somebody like that. And God can't help somebody like that. Somebody that doesn't care. They think, hey, this is fine. It's okay. It doesn't matter. God can't help them. But there was another man I witnessed to this week when we were doing flyers in South Queensferry on Wednesday. Don and I, Pastor Dillman and I, were putting them out. And John is from Motherwell. And John was bagging up, you know, the foam insulation they put on the outside of houses, they put harling over it. He was bagging that up. And as I spoke with John and talked to John, John was receptive. He was in agreement. And when I gave him a John and Romans, he took it. And I look at John and I think, you know, there's a chance John could get saved. There's a chance that John's life could pass from death into life because he is going to listen to God. And I would just challenge us this morning, as we come to the Word of God, that it would be with that ideal, like I sensed in John, a receptiveness to say, OK, God, if there's something in my life and it's in all of our lives, it creeps into all of our lives. We talked about it in Sunday school. Sin in our flesh is so prone to sin. that we say to God, God, whatever it is that you reveal in my life today, whether it's salvation or whether it's sanctification, getting sent out of my life, God, by your grace, I'm gonna do that today. See, that would be the best thing we could do is we come to the word of God today because God wants to help us. God doesn't, He wasn't rejoicing in their destruction. He wanted to help them to get to a place of life. And so I want to look at what God said at the end of the passage to help them to get rid of the sin so that they could have God's blessing and keep their life from ruin, okay? And I may not have read that verse when I talked about ruins, but it's a word that the Lord used. And so, He said, repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. And it means be destroyed. It means a stumbling block to destruction. That sin, if it gets in, it destroys your life. And so God wants to keep us this morning from a life of ruin. And so ask the question, am I in danger of ruining my life by sin? If I'm not saved, yes, absolutely, eternally. But if I am saved, the same thing. that that sin brings destruction and God wants to help us to have victory. So four things primarily that we need to do so that we can guard our life from ruin and so that we can live as God desires us to. So the first one is to change your mind. These are all things that we need to change, change your mind. Okay, and obviously change your mind that has to do with how we think. And so the passage says in verse 30, it says, repent, And then it says, and turn yourselves, we'll look at that next, but repent from all your transgressions. That first word repentance, it has to do with a change of mind. Repentance, biblically, is basically to agree with God. To say, God, I'm in agreement with you. What you say is what matters, and God, I submit to you. But the problem is, as humans, there's a term that we sometimes speak about and joke about it a little bit, you know, well, they're just stubborn. We sometimes call it pig-headedness, bull-headedness, right? Hard-headedness? It's something that is stubborn. I mean, that's just rooted in our being, isn't it? But biblically, for us to repent, we've got to soften and let God have His way and say, God, you're right. I'm wrong. Before anybody can get saved, they've got to come into agreement with God that they're a sinner, that Jesus Christ died for them, that he rose from the dead, that he's the only way of salvation, and that they have to accept in their mind first that, yes, this is true, what God says, and I'm in agreement with God today. The same for anybody dealing with any sin in their life. They have to agree with God today. If I was a reporter and I had my camera and my cameraman or whatever, and I was interviewing people on the street, and I asked them the question, in a society that had a general belief that there is a God, okay, not an atheistic society like we might have here in Scotland, but in a society where there's a general belief in God, and if I asked them the question, are you a person that agrees with God? In a society that you believe in God, what's the response gonna be? Oh, yes. Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, that's just, that's us. I mean, that's, that's self-righteous man's pride. You know, I really feel like I'm a godly person. I really feel like, yes, I would say I do agree with God. And then I just say, well, can I ask you some more questions? And I'd ask him, you know, do you have a problem with anybody taking God's name in vain? You know, most of them are probably going to say, well, that's not a big deal. You know, Not a big deal if someone takes God's name in vain, but I was reading my Bible with my wife this past week as we read our devotions at night, and when God gives the law, it's interesting what he says. Do you notice that when he says, children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right, it does not say, for he will not hold them guiltless, that does not obey his parents in the Lord. And when it says that, you know, other things, other statements, not to take man's life or not to be a false witness, it doesn't say, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that does these things. But isn't it interesting? that Exodus 20 verse seven says, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. It's interesting because this, what is kind of one law that if you ask people, here's the 10 commandments, what one of those do you think is the, you know, just not a big deal? You know what they say? Probably taking God's name in vain. The giant swing at the Wilds, they put it up when I was there. What it is is these two poles, big old telephone poles, 60 feet tall, 70 feet tall. And there's these ropes that come down to a harness that you strap on your back. And there's a cable and a pulley and a machine that actually pulls you up to a release point. And it's called the Giant Swing because it's just like a swing, except when it releases, you free fall for about 20 feet before the slack catches you. And you're not by yourself. You're with somebody else to scream with. They got you strapped two by two in this thing. It's a lot of fun. But you know what they find over and over again as that releases is that kids take God's name in vain. It's sad. Why? Because he'll not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Do you agree with God today that taking God's name in vain is sin? See, because gosh is a euphemism of God. Gee is a euphemism of Jesus. Darn and dang are euphemisms for damn. Our speech gets pretty corrupt pretty quick. Do we really agree with God? See, the first thing God says is repent, think like I think about things. I could ask that person again, you know, that's my first question. My second question, what do you think about lies? You know, are you a liar? Oh, I just, they probably smile. They always smile. And they say little white lies, you know, just small ones. And I say, right, I said, but a lie is a lie, right? A lie is a lie. You think about what God says about lying. He says, you have your father, the devil, the lust of your father, you will do. He was a what? Liar, from the beginning. He says in Ephesians 4 25 wherefore putting away lying Speak every man truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another and then in a list of great sins against God revelation 21 8 but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and Idolaters and all guess what? What do you think liars? shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." God hates lies. Think about what a lie is, and let's just talk about it for a second. If I'm a liar, can I be trusted? No. If I'm a liar, who does it hurt? The person I lie to. Do you know what the Bible, that's why the Bible says in Proverbs, a lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it? That I hate somebody that I lie to, because my lie is going to hurt them. And so God says lies are not okay. God doesn't say little white lies. So I ask again today, do you believe that lying is a sin worthy of the lake of fire? Do you agree with God? See, God says repent. Think like God thinks about sin. So I could ask that person again. on the straight, you know, what do you think about homosexual marriage? What do you think about cohabitation? You know, just people living together, we got this nice term for it, we call it partner, you know. What do you think about that situation? You know, is that okay? And they probably invariably say, oh, I think that's fine, you know, I really think that's a nice thing, and people love each other, they can live together, and that's just fine. But you know what the Word of God says? Hebrews 13, verse 4, marriage is honorable in all. and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." That sexual sin is going to be judged by God. That God doesn't go, well, you know, the majority of people, and I really believe this to be the case, I'd be curious what the statistic is, but I would say, based on just conversations I've had, I would say the majority of people aren't married. That they're just living together. And God says that sin is going to be judged. And then about the homosexual marriage, God said in Ephesians 5 31, for this cause shall man leave his father and mother and she be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. We're not going to redefine terms today and say, well, he didn't really mean man. He didn't really mean wife. God made them male and female, male and female created he them. And so God today wouldn't ask you, do you agree with the politicians? Do you agree with popular culture or that? But do you agree with me? And if I agree with God, I say, you know, that's sin. It's sin to live together outside of marriage. It's sin to live with, even if you're married to somebody that's of the same sex, that that is sin in God's eyes. And so it is sin. Do you agree with God today? Most people say that pride is a good thing. So if I ask that person on the street, say, Sir, what do you think about pride? And they say, well, I think that's good. Self-esteem, we all need to have a bit of that pride in our hearts. But you know the Word of God says in Proverbs 6.16, These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are abomination unto him. You know what it says in the first part of that verse? The first one is a proud look. I heard a good message by John Getsch. I've just been listening to him lately. That's why I refer to him occasionally. But he was talking about, if I ask the average person coming out of a church, a fundamental independent Baptist church, sir, what is your belief about homosexuality, that they would say it's an abomination. But you know they probably wouldn't say that. He pointed out about pride. But God says pride is an abomination. Seven are abomination unto him, and it says, a proud look. I mean, we see that the sports tournament is taking place, and they're, I'm the best, we're the best, and people are, yeah, yeah, that's great, you know, and they're so full of themselves. And God says, that's pride. I hate pride. Do you agree with God today that pride's an abomination? Most people today, Say that good people go to heaven, and I know that we understand this as a church, but you do door-to-door, and just the first time you go, you're bound to hear it. You knock on somebody's door, sir, ma'am, why do you believe you'll go to heaven when you die? And they'll say, I'm a good person. And God's Word says, Romans 3.10, as it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. Galatians 2.16, For by the works of law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. The Word of God says, categorically, good people do not go to heaven. First of all, there's no such thing. And even if there was, there's no justification that way. By the works of the flesh, or the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. God will never look at somebody and say, based on your self-righteousness and what you've done, I'll let you into my heaven, never. And so again, I'd ask you, do you agree with God? We could go on and on and on and say, what does God say? because that's what that word means. The idea of repentance is that I will agree with God. Do you agree with God today? I mentioned that man from Motherwell that I was talking to, John, and I enjoyed chatting with him because he was just listening and taking it in. But he was bagging up that foam. And I said to him, I said, you know what? You're bagging up that foam if the people that told you to do this and gave you this position, if they said, John, the punishment for not bagging this correctly is hell. Are you gonna be very careful about reading the manual so that you know how to beg it correctly, so that you don't pay the punishment of hell? It's just a simple point, and the point is this. If I'm gonna agree with God, what do I have to know? What God thinks about it. How do I do that? I go to the Word of God and I say, you know, I don't care what society says. I don't care what my family says. I don't care what my church says. I just want to know what God says because I want to agree with God. Repent. You know, if right now in this message you're thinking, you're thinking this way, well, I don't buy that, I don't want to agree with God. You know what? There's no point to continue on, is there? See, God is making a plea for Israel and saying, Israel, I don't want you to go on, I don't want you to go the way of death. But He says to Israel, Israel, the first thing is repent. And so today, if somebody, you know, I want people to get saved as much as anybody else. I want people to yield to the Word of God as much as anybody else. I want heaven to take in as many people as anybody else. But if as I speak to them, they say, I reject that, well, God says, there's nothing I can do. There's nothing you can do. You might care deeply about somebody and really want them to Succeed, you know in finding God and following God, but if they won't agree with God, there's no point to continue And so that's the first thing is to change our mind. The second thing is change your direction Change your direction not what you think but as you change what you think it'll change what you do and so that's why speaking about here as it goes on in verse 30 to say repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions and So iniquity shall not be your ruin. Change direction, change what you're doing so that iniquity isn't your ruin. And so the first thing would be follow Jesus completely, follow him completely. And again, this wasn't written in the New Testament time. This is Old Testament. This is before the coming of Christ, but we're not living in that time. We're living in the time where Christ came. And so let me put it in a gospel context today. And that is, it could be as little as one thing keeping somebody from victory. We talked about that this morning as we're looking at Sunday school about the works of the flesh. It could be that one thing that you're allowing into your life that is causing everything to go wrong because you're not yielding to God's spirit on that one thing. And certainly we know this morning that maybe that this morning somebody is not saved because there is one thing that they refuse to let go of and yield to God. We just listened, as a family, to the testimony of a man that smuggled Bibles into communist countries. His name is just Brother Andrew. I don't even remember his surname because I always have known him as Brother Andrew because that's what he went by. Brother Andrew was challenged when he was unsaved. He was in the military. And, I mean, gruesome things that he was involved in before he got saved is they raided villages and things. And people died, and he was a part of that. But as he got wounded, he's in the hospital, and a nurse challenged him with a story. She says, you know how they trap monkeys? They'll take a jar, and they'll put something in it that you can't get out of it when your hand closes around it. And that monkey is foolish enough to reach in there, because it wants it so bad, grab hold of it. And then they can't get their hand out of the jar, because they're holding onto that thing that they refuse to let go of. And she challenged him and said, Hey, what is it in your life? What is that one thing that you refuse to let go of? You just won't yield that because that is to your destruction. All we got to do is let go. You know, the rich young ruler, when he came to the Lord and he made a bold statement that I don't believe was true. And I don't think Jesus believed it to be true. But listen to what he says. Luke 18 verse 20, Christ says to him, Thou knowest the commandments. do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother. And he said, all these have I kept for my youth up. Now maybe he had, to a large degree. And so he makes this statement. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, yet lackest thou one thing, Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And we understand salvation's not by works. We know that, we've preached on it recently, that it's not something that we do, but there are things sometimes in people's lives that is the one thing keeping them from coming to Christ. And the Lord knew, as He knows all things, as He looked at this man, that the thing that was keeping him from Christ was his love for things, his love for his wealth. Sad today to think that somebody could go to hell because of their love for money. The Bible says love of money is the root of all evil, which some coveted after. They have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows because that was their life wrapped up in things. What's the one thing, perhaps today, keeping you from following Jesus? And so as we look at this, change your direction. You gotta follow Jesus completely. That means that you can't let anything keep you from following Christ. But notice as well that the turning is not mental, which we already talked about, change your mind, but that this turning that it's speaking about now is physical. It's something, again, that you do. Turn yourselves from all your transgressions. A transgression is a trespass. We don't have trespass laws here in Scotland. We do in the States. And all the time you're driving down the road, I mean, you see it every farmer's field because of the hunters coming in and hunting. You'll have these signs every 50 meters or less. No trespassing. How do I know if I trespass? When I cross the line, right? I talked about my family traveling in the car out to Colorado in Sunday school. You know, you're trapped in this vehicle for hours and hours and hours. You're heading out there. And I remember sometimes we kind of had this unwritten law that, you know, you had this line. between your chairs, you know, in the bench seat that we're on, and this is my side, that's your side, and you don't cross it. You know, what your brother or sister does is reach across the line, and then the other kid says, hey, you know, they start whining and fussing, they trespass, they cross the line, they're on my side, right? We know what it is. No child does this. without knowing they did that. And that's the thing about sin. Sin isn't like, oops, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just kind of in sin. Sin is transgressing against God. It's violating God's law. It is stepping over the line. And so the Lord says, stop doing that. Put away all your transgressions. We've talked about it as we come to the communion service tonight, I might mention it again, that it's a memorial service and it's the memorial service of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is our sin is the murder weapon that put Jesus Christ on the cross. And how Paul warns us, he says, deal with all your sin. Deal with all of your sin, because if you keep your sin and you partake of this communion service, that you're guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. And we've talked about how it's like somebody coming in to a funeral for somebody that's been murdered, and pretending to weep while they hold the gun behind their back. They're the murderer, and they're acting as if, no, I'm so sad, I'm so sad, you know, that Jesus died, I'm so sad that He died on the cross for my sin, but I don't care enough to get rid of the murder weapon. And so God says, He says, get rid of it. Don't just change your mind, change what you're doing. Stop transgressing. And so first of all, change your mind. Second thing, change your direction. The third thing, change your possessions. Okay, we talked about what you think and what you do. Your possessions are what you have. Change your possessions. It says in verse 31, cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed. Okay, you've crossed the line, but why? What are the things that are in your life that you need to cast away, get it away from you, so that you don't transgress? I had a buddy that, all the guys I grew up with, we like to fish and do some things outdoors. And so we do that different times of the year. We get out together hunting or fishing, doing that sort of thing. We're on a canoe trip that we take annually, where we get our canoes, we get our packs, and we'd have a tent with us. We go down a river, the Knickknack River, near our house, and we'd ride the river probably, I don't know, 12, 15 miles. But in the middle of the river, at some point, we'd find camp. We'd make camp, we'd fish and stuff. Casting, when you're fishing, you want to cast away from yourself. It's never good to cast too close to yourself, as my buddy Jeff found out. Because Jeff, as he went to cast, he hooked himself in the back of his neck. past the barb, clear up to the bend, and there's no way out of the place that we're staying. He's either going to have to sleep with what we call a Rapala. It's a little fish-type minnow that has two treble hooks on it. He's either going to have to sleep with that, kind of like an earring back here, or he's going to have to get it out. I mean, he had to work and work and work all because he was casting not away from himself and it hooked him. See, the thing about sin, if we don't take sin and get it away from us, we're saying, God, I'm so sorry about my transgressions. Yeah, right. But get rid of that, which is a snare. or it'll hook you. You gotta get it away from you. And so, the Bible speaks very clearly about a change that needs to take place. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away. the old all things are become new. Partly the reason they're passed away is, yes, I'm changed by the Spirit of God, but I've also gotten rid of my old lifestyle. I've gotten rid of those things that had me in bondage to sin. Paul did that when Paul got saved. Galatians 1.23, they heard about Paul, that he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which once he destroyed. He cast away what he was before. He was no longer Paul the persecutor. He was no longer Paul, the one grabbing them and condemning them. He was Paul the preacher. His life changed. In Ephesus, when they got saved, Acts 19.18 says, and many that believed came, and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also, which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." You know, this community, I'd love to see it. This community had witchcraft. Guess what? We got witchcraft today. We've talked about it recently. Harry Potter is not a joke. Paganism is not a joke. It is prevalent in our society, but can you imagine what it'd be like in our society for people to do what these people did as they got saved, that they bring their books and they burn them, and the value of what they destroyed was 50,000 pieces of silver. Now, if you saw that take place, would you doubt that what they professed was true? They profess, I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I don't want that old life anymore. I don't want those old things anymore. And so they get rid of them to the glory of God. When somebody gets saved, there ought to be a change. When the Welsh revival, we've talked about this recently, 1904 and 05, the revival that took place in Wales. When it took place, it changed the community. The production in the coal mines went down. And Alec, this is before your day. I doubt you had mules down in the mine in your day. Did they have mules down there? Did they? All right. OK, the ponies. The production in the mines in Wales went down in 1904, 1905, because the miners got saved and they stopped cursing their animals. And they couldn't get the work out of them that they'd gotten out of them in the past, because rather than cursing them, they're treating them kindly. Okay, so that affected the production mines. The pubs were empty because so many people got saved. It changed the culture of drinking that was prevalent in the culture then just like it is now. Guess what? The sports stadiums were empty. It was a God back then just like it is a God today and I understand, I like sports, I like the idea of competition and there is something fun about it but it's not fun to watch a bunch of immoral people that are making millions and millions of dollars and can I honestly say damning many souls to hell because their God is sport. It's not fun watching that take place and that being a God to society. No, it's not fun. And so it changed that within that community as well. So as you think about it, and you think about, God, how can I honor you? And Benson, would you just help Bernard get his suitcase real quick so he's ready to go? Bernard, thanks for coming today. Glad you're able to make it. Is that what I'm hearing out there? Yeah? OK. When you think about this, and I don't want us to be too distracted here from what I'm trying to say, If I'm really sincere and I say, God, God, change my mind, and I ask God, God, help me change my direction, but I don't ever get rid of the sin that causes, or that which causes me to sin, I will never have victory over that sin. And so, what do I need to do? Take wicked music and get rid of it. If that means shredding it, if that means burning it, whatever, get rid of it. If it is mobile devices and SIN, because there's not proper protection on there, all mobile devices, all computers ought to have anti-pornography and filtering to protect our homes and to protect us from SIN. And so we do that, we get rid of magazines, get rid of wicked relationships, friendships, and friends that are constantly dragging us down and taking us into sin. Cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, pornography, environment, whatever it is, we need to say to God, God by your grace, I'm gonna get rid of that because that's the old man and I don't need that. And so God says, why will you die? So change your mind, change your direction, change your possessions, and then change your heart. It says, and make you a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel? Can I just say this? All these things we're talking about, change your mind, change your direction, change your possessions, that we can't do that without God. And God didn't expect them to do it without His help either. Because He says to them, if they'll do their part, they'll repent, they'll get rid of these things, and they'll do this sweeping out of their house that God says in Ezekiel 36 verse 26, a new heart also will I give you in a new spirit, will I put within you. I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh, I'll give you a heart of flesh. And see the man's problem, I spoke about that, was sitting there below Edinburgh Castle and saying he's got a stony heart. He's got a heart that doesn't care. He's got a heart that's insensitive. He's got a heart that's not convicted. He can have sin in his life. He can have those things that I just talked about, cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, pornography, and other things, and not be bothered about his life. But God says, if I deal with my sin, if I get rid of it, He'll give me a heart of flesh. He'll give me a new spirit. Do you know if you sit around in a filthy, dirty house that is dark and you got the windows closed and no fresh air and just closed in, guess what? You're going to be depressed. But if you open those windows, clean up the house and get everything in order, guess what? You'll be refreshed. Spiritually, that's what it's like when God takes in our heart, He cleanses us from sin, He gets the sin out of our life, that He gets us to the point where by God's grace, we live in victory. That's where it's at. Anybody that's gotten saved, they know the joy of that, the delight of that. God changed my life. When I accepted Jesus Christ, my Savior, it was a glorious thing because the sin was gone, the guilt was gone, and God changed me. You know, sin creeps back in. And that there's, for believers, we gotta say, hey, sin's got back in, get it out so that I can honor God. Please, God, have God's blessing on my life. And so God says, hey, change your mind, change your direction, change your possessions, change your heart. And you know what? If you do that, guess what? It'll change your life. That's where it's at. See, why will you die? Why will you continue down a path of destruction? The Lord is pleading and saying, look, just change your mind, change your direction, change your possessions, I'll help with that heart thing. But it'll change your life. You know, don't you wonder that story about the serpents that got into the children of Israel that we already kind of referred to when we talked about the song, Look and Live? When that took place and those serpents are biting people and they're dying of that, remember the Lord said, God said to Moses, make a bronze serpent and put him up on a pole. And if somebody will look at that, they can live. Can you imagine somebody getting bit and they don't care? They're gonna die. They get bit and they don't believe. They're like, what's looking at a bronze serpent gonna do? I mean, is it in the medical books? It's not in the medical books. It never says, hey, look at a bronze serpent. But anybody that obeyed God and went and looked by faith, guess what? They were healed of the bite. If it was somebody you loved, wouldn't you plead with them, look, just go look and live, go look and live, go look and live, please go look and live. Wouldn't you? Because why will you die? And that's what God's saying. The Lord's saying to him, look, why will you die? Why will you let it destroy your life? I don't know if you know the name Jonathan Goforth. He was a missionary in China and Jonathan Goforth, and his wife, they had a neat ministry. They would just let the Chinese people into their European house and walk through it. They didn't worry about things getting stolen. It happened all the time. They'd have him come through and they'd have him sit down and they'd teach him and preach to him, but it was just getting overwhelming. They really needed somebody to tell the Bible stories and things. And so they're praying, God, give us a storyteller. God, give us a storyteller. God, give us a storyteller. And this man Wang came and Wang's life was at a very low point. His life had basically been destroyed by sin. And this is what Wang said. He said, I started smoking the opium pipe. The smoke hurt my throat, keeping me from speaking loud enough for the large numbers of people to hear my stories. I lost my job and needed money. That's when I started gambling. When I believed in the one true God, I stopped gambling and smoking the opium pipe. But to pay my debts, I had to sell everything. I had no food. I had no place to live. After they heard his story, they saw why God answered their prayer, bringing Wayne to them. He was a gifted storyteller who could share what God had done for him. And so they asked him, Wayne, would you please help us on a regular basis? Why was Wayne's life destroyed? By sin. Yeah, he's going to hell because he's not saved, but physically even his sin was bringing death. It brought him to pennilessness, debt, had to leave everything, but he got saved and God changed his life. He became a great storyteller. I shared the gospel with many, many people as they heard his story. No doubt many of them got saved. You know, today, as you think about that, God would say to us today, why will you die? Why follow that? Why live that way? Why go that way? Why go with those people? God would say, look, change your mind. Agree with me. Change what you think. Stop defending sin. Stop disagreeing with God. Change your mind. God would say, change your direction. What you're doing, stop trespassing. No, stop that. Stop crossing over the line. You know what it is? Stop doing that, God's saying. Change your direction. He said, change your possessions. Take the things that are sinful that you might have at home, nobody else knows about, and take those things and get rid of them because they destroy. Cast them away. And He said, change your heart. What you love, and it's partly God, it's partly us, that affectionate change of heart and spirit that God does. Cause I look at castles and I hope you'll think about this as you see castles, as you drive across Scotland, you look at it and go, that's a beautiful ruin. But then think about what God said in this passage, don't let your life be like that. Don't let your life be ruined because that's the result of sin. And so God would plead with us today, please, please pass from death unto life and let's live for Jesus. Let's pray and ask God to bless his word to our hearts this morning. Father, I praise you that you love us enough to confront us. And Father, you don't go. It's okay that you don't think like me. It's okay you don't do what I say you should do. It's okay that you have those ungodly things, that you have that wicked heart. It's okay. Father, you lovingly say, look, change your mind, change your direction, change your possessions, change your heart and spirit so that it'll change your life. Father, it's in our hands today. We can't complain someday as we stand before God and say, God, you wrecked my life. No, Father, if our life is wrecked, it's by choice. It's by disobedience or rebellion against you. And Father, I need this as much as everybody in this room needs this. We need to live for God. And so I pray, Spirit of God, apply your word to our hearts. If there's a decision that needs to be made right now, then Father, I pray that it would be made. Father, I pray for the convicting power of the Spirit of God. I pray that you would not let us go. Lord, don't let anybody in this room that's against you, don't let them go. Lord, sadly, it's either hell or death. And I pray by your love for them that you just wrestle with them. Even now in this time as we're praying, I pray, Spirit of God, that they feel compelled in their heart to yield to the authority of God. And so God, guard your word. Satan would seek to snatch it away. But Father, you're greater than the devil, and I pray in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, you guard what's been sown in our hearts today. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Let's stand, please, and sing a hymn of invitation. Again, I'd encourage us, if God spoke in your heart, don't delay. I mean, if there's a decision that needs to be made for God, do that today. 639, turn your eyes upon Jesus, 639.