The Day the Demons Trembled, Part 1

Amen, that little phrase lest the rocks cry out, you know, you can better understand that When you go to the land of israel, let me tell you why There is a place in which they call a traditional place where christ makes his descent into the city It's a place where he would weep over the city And you know that they have traced the history back to a first century cemetery In the location where there is a present cemetery right now on the mount of olives And you know if you're jewish you don't bring flowers to a grave You bring rocks Did you know that?

You bring rocks and you set those rocks on top of those tombstones and those rocks sit there and when christ said When he tried to calm the pharisees down because they were so upset about people praising him that day saying hosanna Glory, blessed be the name of the lord, you know, their savior had come Christ said to them if they don't praise me These rocks will cry out which rocks were you referring to the rocks that people place on gravestones And so you can go to that place today and you can see that place and understand exactly what christ was referring to When he said that if these people don't praise me the rocks will cry out And they will Because everything was meant to praise our god Let's pray together our most gracious heavenly father.

We thank you for this day and we ask that lord today You would teach us about you in jesus name amen Turn with me in your bible to luke chapter 4 Luke chapter 4.

This is where we find ourselves in our study of this great gospel luke chapter 4 verse number 31 Is where we're at i'm going to read to you this little event that takes place in the life of christ It's really not a little event. It's a big event. Remember luke is very selective on the events. He chooses Remember he he chose the event of christ in the synagogue in nazareth as the first event of his galilean ministry To show you about who jesus christ is and what he came to do Well, the second event he chooses is just as important Luke has a a whole method to what he's trying to present to us He's already spent a great deal of time talking to us about the identity of the messiah Speaking to us specifically about who he is as a person And now he transitions to speak to us about the authority of the messiah to help us understand the power of this one The son of god, let me read to you the narrative and then we'll spend some time making some comments about it this morning Luke chapter 4 verse number 31 and he came down to capernum a city of galilee And he was teaching them on the sabbath and they were amazed at his teaching for his message was with authority And there was a man in the synagogue possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon He cried out with a loud voice.

Ha What do we have to do with you jesus of nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are the holy one of god and jesus rebuked him saying Be quiet And come out of him And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst he came out of him without doing him any harm And amazement came upon them all and they began discussing with one another saying What is this? message For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits And they come out And the report about him was getting out into every locality in the surrounding district this friday We will embark on the city of capernum And when we arrive in that city, we will stand in the location of the synagogue There's a synagogue there among the ruins.

It's a second century synagogue It's built on top of the first century synagogue and they have excavated that area and you can look down and see the ruins of that first century synagogue And when we go into that place we stand and we look at mark's account of this situation And it's only one aspect we cover on our study of capernum.

But this is where christ goes into great detail Helping us to understand or luke goes into great detail helping us to understand the power and authority of the messiah You know as we have studied luke's gospel we have seen that jesus christ is the messiah the son of god We have seen and luke has proven to us that jesus christ is god in the flesh We have seen all the testimony of those who spoke whether it be zacharias or elizabeth Whether it be joseph or mary the the angels or the shepherds or simeon or anna?

Uh the voice from heaven is father. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased We have seen all these events and we have seen how luke has proven to us that jesus christ is the messiah And at the same time luke wants us not only to understand his identity But he's his authority because if he is messiah if he is god in the flesh, he has all authority under heaven Because it's been granted to him And so luke wants us to see the power of the messiah We must remember that at the heart of the ministry of jesus Listen carefully is a ministry of deliverance He is a deliverer Turn back with me if you would to the book of exodus the third chapter exodus chapter three Something that we must never forget And that is to understand the memorial name of christ our god The ruler of the world Remember what it says in chapter three of the book of exodus When moses had his encounter at the burning bush It says this verse seven And the lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people Who are in egypt?

And have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters For I am aware of their sufferings so I have come down to deliver them from the power of the egyptians God says I have come down To deliver my people from the power of the egyptians This is a foretaste of the incarnation Remember that whenever god comes down he comes down for one of two reasons redemption or retribution That's the only reason god comes down And the lord god says now I have seen the affliction of my people and I want to let you know moses I'm coming down And i'm coming down for one specific purpose and that is so that I might be able to deliver my people from bondage Very important phrase Because our god is a delivering kind of god Now if you read on it says this not only am I going to deliver them from bondage But i'm going to bring them up from that land to a good excuse me A good and spacious land to a land flowing with milk and honey to the place Of the canaanite the hittite the amorite the parasite and hivite and the jebusite And now behold the cry of the sons of israel has come to me furthermore i've seen The oppression with which the egyptians are oppressing them God sees his people as being oppressed He sees them in bondage He sees them with great affliction So what's he going to do?

He's going to come down in order to deliver them Remember in luke chapter 4 we talked about it last few weeks christ says That the spirit of the lord is upon me And i've come to preach the gospel to the poor I have come To release the captives I have come to restore sight to the blind And I have come to help those who are downtrodden or in other words those who are oppressed That was the mission of the messiah That's the mission of god in exodus chapter 3 I'm coming down because my people are afflicted my people are in bondage.

My people are oppressed They need to be delivered. So i'm going to come down If you read on in the story in verse number 13 Then moses said to god behold i am going to the sons of israel I shall say to them the god of your fathers has sent me to you now They may say to me. What is his name? What shall I say to them and god said to moses? I am who I am and he said thus You shall say to the sons of israel. I am has sent me to you Now if you've been with us, you know that those four hebrew consonants that we pronounce yave That make up what is commonly called as the tetragrammaton Speak to us about the name of god.

This is who I am and then down in verse number 15 it says this this is my name forever and this is my Memorial name to all generations God says this is my name My name is yave I am And this is my memorial name.

In other words, this is the name that I am to be remembered by This is the name that every generation Is to remember me by and what is that name that name is the name of god that shows him as The rescuer as the redeemer as the deliverer of man Now we know that the messiah is god in the flesh. We know that the messiah is yave in the flesh We've spent a great deal over the years to study that and to help you understand that jesus christ is yave He is the great. I am that's why in john 8 58. He says before abraham was I am right now if he would have said before abraham was I was That would have been a great statement But he didn't say that he said before abraham was I am Not only to tell us that jesus christ is the yave of exodus chapter 3 But to show us listen, listen carefully to show us that he is the self-existent Immutable unchangeable god who exists perpetually throughout all eternity who exists in the past the present and the future all at the same time It's not that he existed in the past And that he will one day exist in the future No, it's that he exists in the past The present and the future all at the same time Why because he exists outside the realm of time and that's how john John the apostle on the island of patmas in 90 a.d Could be transported into the future to see the end of the world Why because?

because God exists in the future And we know that jesus said I am The light of the world. We know that jesus said I am the way the truth and the life I am the resurrection and the life. I am the bread of life. I am the vine You are the branches. I am the good shepherd. We understand that about jesus christ. I am the light of the world. That's who he is And what he said in john chapter 18 in the garden of gethsemane when the soldiers came to get him all he said was I am Whom do you seek? Well, we seek jesus the nazarene He says I am he didn't say I am he the he's in italics Meaning it's not there in the original.

He just says I am and they all fall over backwards. Why because he possesses all authority I'm having a hard time with my mic today I'm, sorry about that. I don't know what the problem is. It's probably me. I think my ears are getting smaller And so they all fell over backwards because he possesses all authority and all power Well all that sets the tone for luke chapter 4 verses 31 and following Because luke wants you to see that messiah is all powerful Now we've already gotten a taste of that right?

Remember on uh, the temptation in the wilderness for 40 days And christ was the sinless one who was not subject to fall in his sin because he is spotless He is pure. He is holy and in his conflict of satan. He showed himself to be superior He showed himself to be the perfect one But you see for jesus christ to save you From your sin It's not enough For him to prove that he is more powerful than satan on a one-on-one confrontation He has to prove That he can take the souls of man And rip them out of the clutches of satan and deliver them from satan's captivity He must prove that he can do that It's one thing to save himself.

It's another to save everybody else And so he wants luke wants us to see the power of the messiah and how he is the almighty one the all-powerful one who rules the universe so important You see we need to understand the identity of christ Because who he is Teaches us about what he can do if jesus isn't god. He has no power over satan If jesus isn't god, he can't control the souls of man But because jesus is god he can do all that So his identity is presented first and then his authority is presented second So we understand that the authority is based on the identity of the messiah that he is god in the flesh That makes sense Remember a number of years ago when when peter jennings did that series on the search for jesus Isn't it ironic that they spent all this money to search for jesus and never found him?

You know why they never found him it's because they searched everywhere but the right place the word of god So you can't find jesus outside the word of god. That's that's where he Relates to us that's where we understand who he is and what he did You can't spend your time searching for jesus without spending time in the word of god Your experience is not going to teach you about jesus. Only the exposition of the word of god will teach you about jesus And so when you come and you read the newspaper article and say we have found the lost tomb of jesus And everybody is captivated by that And so there's a picture of this tomb that's on the tv and everybody's we have found the lost tomb of jesus Now you see, you know, we're not morons.

We weren't born last night. We know what the bible already says We know about the death of christ We know about the place of his burial and we know about the resurrection of christ That's why we wrote that little booklet called the reality and the results of the resurrection And every year we go to israel We we we travel around and my guide always says, you know, don't you want to go to the church of the holy sepulcher? And i'm always like no, I don't want to go there And I always say because that's not the place he goes Well, you know There's a lot of evidence that proves that this could be the place and my response is I know it's not the place For certain because I know what the bible says about the place and the church of the holy sepulchre Is not that location And so when we get to gogetha and we sit around the empty tomb We help people understand why it is This is the place of the burial of christ And we know he's not there.

He's been resurrected So when someone comes on the tv and says we have found the lost tomb of jesus We're like man, you guys don't know what you're talking about You guys haven't read your bible Because the bible tells you everything you need to know And so luke wants us to see That our lord and savior jesus christ the messiah Is exactly who he said he was Therefore he was able to accomplish that what only he could accomplish twice in our text It speaks of the authority of the messiah Not only does he speak with authority But he acts with authority He's able to cast out the unclean spirit Of this man who was demon-possessed And we're going to help you understand some things in our text about demon possession what that means We're going to help you understand why it is a believer cannot be demon-possessed We're going to help you come to grips with all that.

We're not going to do it all today We'll do it in a week or so when I get back from israel But we're all going to help you understand those things because this sets the tone For the power and the authority of christ the messiah. That's why luke places it here You need to understand it need to come to grips with what he says now we understand the bible says over in second corinthians 4 verse number 4 That the god of this age or this world Has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of christ Who is the image?

of god we know what paul said in ephesians chapter 2 when he says and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you Formally walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air Of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience He says also or not not paul but John says in first john chapter 5 verse number 19 that the whole world lies under the influence of the evil one So we know that satan is active and satan is at work And satan is as second timothy 225 says holding the unbeliever captive The unbeliever is in bondage to satan That does not mean that every unbeliever is demon possessed But what it does mean is that every unbeliever is held captive is held bondage By satan listen to do the will of satan to live in sin to follow his father Satan that's why in john 8 christ said to the religious leaders.

You are of your father the devil You are children of your father who is the devil why because you are liars and you live lives of lies and so we we come to grips with the fact that Satan is active and that's why it's so important to understand what paul says in acts 26 Verse number 17 Or let me quote to you all that christ said to him beginning in verse number 15 when paul was on the damascus road and he was struck by by this great light and it was the The the lord god himself who came and transferred this man.

Let's know what it says I am jesus whom you are persecuting but arise and stand on your feet for this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen But also to the things in which I will appear to you Delivering you from the jewish people and from the gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so they may turn From darkness to light and from the dominion of satan to god in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me Paul was called to preach the gospel so that people can be delivered from the domain of darkness That they might experience the light of christ That is our ministry.

That is our mission that as the people of god We are the ones who are called to proclaim the glorious gospel so that those people in chains in darkness Held captive by satan to do his will Will hear the truth and be delivered from that bondage so that they might experience new life in christ that they might be set free from the bondage of satan from the bondage of sin That's why first john chapter three verse number eight says these words about christ in his arrival.

It says The son of god appeared for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the devil Jesus christ came to earth in order that he might destroy the works Of the devil and what are the works of the devil? Well, the works of the devil is to hold you in bondage hold you captive let you Be deceived to disbelieve what god says to doubt what god says so you remain in darkness not in light christ came to deliver you from that darkness Christ came to destroy the works of the devil.

That's why in hebrews chapter 2 It says this in verse number 14 Since then the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise also partook of the same that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death That is the devil and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives So christ comes he dies so that he can deliver us not only from death But from the fear of death because satan has held us captive to that fear all our lives That makes sense Now you understand why jesus christ came to earth.

Now. You understand why jesus had to die on the cross He had to destroy the works of the devil And so when you come to luke chapter 4 you begin to see that work happening Now, please remember That just because someone is an unbeliever it does not mean They are demon possessed Are they held captive by satan? Yes Are they in bondage to satan? Yes Does that mean they are demon possessed? No Because demon possession is different than just being held in bondage to satan Demon possession results in bizarre behavior But also you will recognize in this study and throughout the gospels that whenever someone is demon-possessed That person demon-possessed might have a behavior.

That's bizarre But the demon is always rational And always speaks intelligently The demon never mumbles and the demon always speaks intelligently Intelligently Throughout the scriptures That's the testimony. You must also remember that there is no account in the old testament of demon possession You must also remember that there is no account in the epistles of demon possession and yet in the gospels We see people demon possessed all the time In the acts of the apostles when the apostles were proving their credentials.

There was demon possession all the time That does not mean listen carefully that does not mean that people weren't demon-possessed in the old testament And it does not mean that people were not demon-possessed in the epistles and it does not mean that people are not demon-possessed today But it does help us understand the ministry of christ and the apostles That when jesus christ came to this earth Those demons Were in tremendous fear In fact a characteristic of a demon Is that he lives in constant fear?

Did you know that? And on top of that you Never have to fear them Never have to fear them, you know why it's because they fear you Now i'm going to share some things with you that you're not going to read in in books you're going to find your christian bookstore You know, we're a little confused today about demonology people have a fascination with demonology Demon possession and harry potter books are going off like gangbusters, man People are into those things like wildfire You know You can go to a christian bookstore and all kinds of guys are into the the deliverance movement and casting out demons and all kinds Of work.

Let me tell you something. You were never called to cast out a demon You weren't called to preach the gospel Listen carefully because the preaching of the gospel terrifies demons In fact, you're going to see in this text that the preaching of the gospel the purity of the son of god the purpose Of the son of god as well as the power of the son of god cause demons to fear Fear james 2 19 says That the demons believe in god yet they tremble They believe in god yet they tremble in other words they shake in fear See demons know their end.

They know their doom They know their time is short They know that jesus christ is god Isn't it interesting that the demons know but peter jennings didn't know Oh, by the way, peter jennings knows now Right Because he has since died But you see it's important to realize listen to what the demon said And remember christ wasn't going there to do anything but to preach in caperna And we know nothing about this man at all The man listen carefully Wasn't even saved And didn't get saved But he had the demon cast out of him That too is important to understand We have no identity as to who this man is But jesus christ is just preaching the gospel and as he is preaching the truth of the gospel It says that this demon cried out with a loud voice What do we have to do with you jesus of nazareth Have you come to destroy us?

See, they know they're going to be destroyed They know they have no future. They know They're asking us now the time And then he says this I know who you are the holy one of god The demon says jesus of nazareth is the holy one of god. I know who you are Have you come to destroy us? See whenever demons speak in the scriptures they always speak with rationality They know They understand And when the gospel is preached they live in fear You know why? Because the gospel is the only thing that delivers the demon possessed The gospel is that which they fear because demons are holding on to that individual so that they don't leave the kingdom of darkness and enter the kingdom of light And that's why the bible says That when a man goes into the kingdom He goes in violently.

We'll read about that later on He goes violently into the kingdom. Why because all the powers of hell are fighting against him leaving The domain of darkness and entering into the kingdom of light And so luke wants us to come to grips with the fact that what is happening here is absolutely astounding You see demons know Their doom is for sure. They just don't know the day nor the hour But they know it's coming And they are afraid of jesus and they are afraid of the gospel And they are afraid of those who have jesus in them and preach the gospel You see we tend to believe what tv says we tend to believe what the books in the bookstore say We don't tend to believe what the bible says But demons are fearful of you If jesus is in you And you preach the gospel That's important to note And you also need to know that demons do not like to reveal themselves They like to act in subtlety Now they have a time hard time when jesus is around They have a hard time being quiet when jesus is around because they're scared They're in fear.

They don't know if this is their time or not They don't know what's going to happen to them and they're afraid that their destruction is right about to happen And they are scared to death But for the most part people who are demon possessed you don't even know it Because demons do not listen want to manifest themselves. Why that's why the bible says that satan disguises himself as an angel of light Right and his emissaries are like ministers of righteousness, but they're really unrighteous You see demons would much rather work in a liberal church with a liberal pastor preaching that Homosexuality is okay See they would much rather work in that kind of atmosphere because you see it's a church-like atmosphere It sounds good and you have a man of a position of authority preaching so-called preaching and telling people that Homosexuality is an accepted lifestyle and okay Demons would rather work in that kind of environment.

They don't want themselves to be manifested. The same would be true on the liberal college campus And the liberal college campus there the demons would much much prefer to work through a a professor Who doesn't believe in the inerrancy and in the authority of the scriptures and allows his students? not to believe in absolutes Worked on the college campus for 10 years I was at one of those so-called christian colleges Okay, and while I was there the biggest battle I had to face was the liberalness of these so-called christian professors Who did not believe in the total inerrancy of the scripture who had a hard time believing that jonah was swallowed by a whale Who had a hard time believing that the earth was covered with with with water in a flood?

And so they would instill in the minds of students doubt See demons would much rather work in that kind of atmosphere Because it's subtle it's not abrasive and people tend to accept those things you see And that that's why we tell you it's it's so important to listen to what the word of god Says and to examine everything in light of the word of god Just don't take it at face value because you heard it on tv or because you heard it on the radio Unless of course you heard on living word radio, then you can take it as truth But you got to make sure that you you understand what's being said so that you can examine it in light of what god's word Has already spoken That's important And we need to come to grips with that But let me begin with our first point this evening or this morning so I can at least Say that we attacked the text I want to begin with the message preached the message preached The bible tells us that he left nazareth and he went to capernum Capernaum is some 680 feet below sea level nazareth is some 1300 feet above sea level And the bible says that he went down to capernum that is a true statement He had to go down to get to where capernum is And there he entered a synagogue, you know, if you go to capernum today, it's a it's a it's a city of ruins It's quite a remarkable.

Um excavation that's taken place there to be able to see all that's that's going on But to realize that it's in ruins And i'm going to tell you why in a moment why it's in ruins But that's where christ went and that's where he was going to preach The bible says Number two not only the town but the time Is that it was a sabbath as was his custom member luke chapter four earlier as was his custom He entered the synagogue again.

This is his custom This is what he's in the habit of doing Evidently you are here today. It is your custom to be here on the lord's day It was our lord's custom to be in the synagogue On the sabbath. It was our lord's custom to go and teach in the synagogue Because that's where people would gather and he'd be able to preach to them the gospel So the time was the sabbath the topic was of course the gospel. Jesus was a preacher Above everything else. He was he was a preacher. He came to preach the gospel He said that earlier in luke 4.

We saw that when he went to nazareth The spirit of god has anointed me to preach the good news To the poor the blind the imprisoned and the oppressed He was a preacher You see we forget about the power of the gospel. Let me tell you something No man has any power you go to church or sometimes say oh man that guy did you hear what he said?

That guy is so good. No, he's not He's not that good It's the gospel that's powerful romans 1 16 paul said I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of god And his salvation to the jews first and also the greeks You see it's the gospel.

That's powerful There are a lot of good orators. There are a lot of good communicators There are a lot of people who can say it right, but if they don't say the right thing Doesn't help You see it's the gospel that's powerful And our lord was committed to preaching the gospel because the power of the gospel saves lives The preacher himself saves nobody How he says it saves nobody And there can be guys who have all these fancy stories humorous stories great illustrations that cause people to cry That doesn't save anybody It's the gospel itself that saves the soul And so when christ went to capernaum on this day, he went to preach the gospel He went to share the good news to the poor to the blind to the imprisoned And to those who were oppressed The bible says in luke 4 Verse number 43 I must preach the kingdom of god to other cities also for I was sent for this Purpose And then I want you to also notice what it says In verse number 31 and 32 As he was teaching them on the sabbath And they were amazed at his teaching for his message was with authority It's a word that means to be dumbfounded They were actually stunned They were shocked It's a word that means to be out of oneself They were flabbergasted At the authority by which he preached You see the truth is that way The the truth is that in that that that is so forceful and so powerful That it comes with clarity and conviction And christ was a preacher of the gospel and because he was a quintessential preacher Everything he said was absolutely perfect because they were his words.

He is the god of the word And so he would begin to preach the gospel and as he was preaching this demon could not contain himself any longer What are you here for jesus of nazareth is it time to destroy us is this now the time He could no longer contain himself because the truth was so forceful and so Convicting and yet I want you to know something about capernaum And the truth they received Capernaum became the home base of the ministry of christ peter's home Was in this location. We'll see that in our further study of luke 4 You go outside the synagogue you go there today you exit the synagogue and you Go right into peter's home.

It's no further than the parking lot is from where i'm standing So you can begin to understand how he would lead the synagogue and then he would immediately enter into peter's home but the bible says that capernaum Would be destroyed Turn back with me if you would to to matthew chapter 11 for a moment verse number 20 Then he that as christ began to reproach the cities In which most of his miracles were done because they did not what Repent remember miracles don't save anybody The preaching of the gospel saves people miracles don't save anybody It says in verse 22 21 woe to you corazon and woe to you beseda For if the miracles had occurred in tyre and sidon which occurred in you they would have repented long ago In sackcloth and ashes nevertheless.

I say to you It shall be more tolerable for tyre and sidon in the day of judgment than for you and you capernaum Will not be exalted to heaven. Will you? See capernaum thought they were pretty good because jesus had made his home base there And they were safe Because jesus was there And they felt that they were an exalted city because jesus Had his home base in their little town Verse 23 you shall descend to hades For if the miracles had occurred in sodom Which occurred in you? It would have remained to this day nevertheless I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of sodom in the day of judgment then for you Now do you understand what christ is saying here this is an amazing thing Let me further explain to you by taking back one chapter to matthew chapter 10 Matthew chapter 10 and as christ is giving instructions to his men as to what they should do when they go into different cities and they cleanse the lepers and cast out demons and and do that which is Honorable to the god it says in verse 11 into whatever city or village you enter inquire Who is worthy in it and abide there until you go away and as you enter the house?

Give it your greeting and if the house is worthy let your greeting of peace come upon it But if it is not worthy let your greeting of peace return to you And whoever does not receive you nor heed your words as you go out of that house or that city Shake off the dust of your feet Truly I say to you It will be more tolerable for the land of sodom and gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city christ is saying Something very profound like he always does but something I think that many of us have missed That we need to come to grips with the fact That he says caperna Caperna What has taken place here and christ did many miracles in caperna?

But you know caperna never ran christ out of the synagogue caperna never became angry as a town against jesus of nazareth In fact caperna had no problem with jesus at all and yet christ says Because you did not repent of your sin It will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for sodom and gomorrah Than for you What is worse Than gross sexual immorality that's unrepented of on the day of judgment What is worse listen carefully Is to go to church Live a good clean moral life And never repent of your sin That's far worse Because that's the sin of indifference That's the sin of complacency And christ makes it very clear caperna.

You've heard the messages. We haven't repented. You've seen the miracles, but you haven't repented So I got news for you on the day of judgment sodom and gomorrah will have an easier time in hell than you Now hell is a bad place no matter what okay. It's always a place of eternal torment But there are degrees of suffering when it comes to eternal judgment And you know one of the worst places in all the world to be Is to be in a marriage As the unbelieving spouse Married to a believing spouse That is the most dangerous place to live Because if you don't repent on the day of judgment Your suffering will be worse than sodom and gomorrah One of the worst places to ever be on sunday morning is in church With an unrepentant spirit This is the last place you should be The last place If you're not going to turn from your sin And repent of your sin and to keep coming to church on sunday morning Your judgment will be so severe So bad it'll be worse than sodom and gomorrahs on the day of judgment But You see god is opposed to those who are indifference to the truth To those who will not repent And to those who think that they're okay.

They're not as bad as those in sodom and gomorrah They're not as bad as the murderers. They're not as bad as the fornicators. They're not as bad as the swindlers They're not as bad as the adulterers. Why because we go to church Or we're married to somebody who loves the lord And why the bible says that yes that person to some degree while they're on earth is sanctified is set apart is protected If they die in their unbelief Their judgment is so severe If you have an unbelieving spouse you need to give them this message They need to know their eternal destiny They need to know the travesty that awaits them Unless they repent They need to turn from their sin And there's only one person who can deliver them That's jesus christ our lord He's the one with all authority He's the one with all power He's the one who can save their lives And if you're here today And you're in church And you've yet to repent of your sin I want to let you know you are still being held captive by satan He's got you right where he wants you He doesn't want you to repent He doesn't want you to turn from your sin.

He doesn't want you to believe the gospel He wants you to remain in the kingdom of darkness When you hear the call of god you need to respond You need to come to christ with a repentant spirit And say oh god, I believe help thou my unbelief Lord god, I want to turn from my sin. I want to follow you. I want to serve you my life All my lifelong It's so important for us to get that message out Because people tend to think that because they're married to a believer or because they go to church and they do good things They're going to be okay But they're there at the worst possible place they could be according to what the word of god says Will you tell them?

Will you please tell them the truth That they might know what the bible says Let's pray Father god, we thank you for today and all that you've done We thank you for the power the message is preached The truth is there For the ministry of christ our lord Father we thank you for the ministry.

You've called us to in your kingdom May we be fervent preachers of the gospel So those that we know and love Who are so far from the kingdom? Would know their end and that they would repent of their sins That they might be set free from the kingdom of satan and his darkness to enter into the kingdom of light the glorious kingdom of our god We pray for those who are here today, maybe there's one individual or more Who is still captivated by satan to do his will? We pray your spirit would convict them of their sin Turn them towards your kingdom That they might feel the power of being set free from the bondage of sin and satan We pray in jesus name.

Amen