In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the human experience and the suffering and fear that people go through. They highlight the need for people to have power and peace, and the role of individuals in bringing about change. The speaker also discusses the perception of criminals and the need for empathy and understanding. They emphasize the need for trust and conviction in order to make a positive impact in the community. Overall, the sermon encourages listeners to have a compassionate and proactive approach towards others, and to seek goodness and love in their actions.

And he knew he was going to die, and it bothered him. It saddened him. It troubled him. You better believe it. He didn't walk around going, you see him going to die. He didn't do that, although we like to see that. We like to present Jesus that way. It's heavy. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and he sweat drops of blood, when it pained him, when it hurt him, when it tormented him, that presented Jesus none of us are comfortable with. Nobody likes to think of God suffering. Nobody likes to think of God weeping drops of blood, and sweating drops of blood, and being troubled. Well, if God's troubled, then he must not have everything under control. But they forget that Jesus was not only fully God, but also fully man, and that he had to go through the suffering and the fear so that he would understand what we go through when we suffer and have fear. He doesn't blame you for being afraid. He was afraid. He doesn't blame you for wishing it was different. He wished, God, if there's any other way, let this cup pass. The cross isn't easy. He didn't say it would be. He said you had to take it. Sure you can have your moment of doubt, your night of fear, that cup of pain. But then you need to say with Jesus, but nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. And go through it. Because on the other side of the cross there is a resurrection. And it says Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. He looked through the cross. He looked through the trial. He looked through the death to the other side of the cross. And for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Okay. That presents a Jesus none of us are comfortable with. Nobody likes to think of God suffering. Nobody likes to think of God weeping drops of blood, sweating drops of blood, and being troubled. Well, if God's troubled, then he must not have everything under control. But they forget that Jesus was not only fully God, but also fully man. And that he had to go through the suffering and the fear so that he would understand what we go through when we suffer and have fear. He doesn't blame you for being afraid. He was afraid. He doesn't blame you for wishing it was different. He wished, God, if there's any other way, let this cup pass. The cross isn't easy. He didn't say it would be. He said you had to take it. Sure you can have your moment of doubt, your night of fear, that cup of pain, but then you need to say with Jesus, but nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. And go through it. Because on the other side of the cross, there is a resurrection. And it says Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. He looked through the cross. He looked through the trial. He looked through the death to the other side of the cross. And for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Okay. The threat and terrors of hell and the guilt of sinners. Oh, this is a heavy subject. How we have made the gospel impotent. We often hear people say, I'm tired of hellfire and brimstone preaching. Well, I often reply to them, when was the last time you ever heard any? It is true that very few people preach on hell. It's no longer in vogue, you know. We shouldn't scare the poor sinners. No, that wouldn't do. They're just poor, unfortunate, misguided souls, right? Wrong. The Bible clearly shows that they're criminals who have robbed and dishonored the living God, infinitely offending him. They have no right to look at themselves in any other way. Listen, that's harsh, I got to admit. That's really harsh. That's black and white. It is. The law of God that condemns sin is harsh. The law is very harsh. You know, it says that there are two, justice and mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment. The law of God is black and white. The justice of God is black and white. The condemnation of the law is black and white. But the mercy of God is not. The mercy of God will reach out into the black to try to bring somebody over to the light. The love of God will go into hell. Remember what David said? David said, even if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. That's heavy. That means God is trying to reach people. Why did Jesus go to hell and preach to the sinners? In hell. It says he did. Because he had mercy. They were condemned. But you see, God's mercy doesn't mean a hill of beans to anybody out there listening to the gospel. Unless you show them what God needs to be merciful toward them about. What if the judge says to the guy who's guilty of murder, Well, I'd sentence you to death, but I don't want to freak you out, so I'm acquitting you. But, does that mean the same? If the guy is sentenced to death, and he's waiting two years on death row, and he's coming up to the last minute, and he's waiting, and he's praying God to have the governor or the president grant a stay of execution, and he's waiting, and he's waiting, and he's waiting, and he's sweating, and the priest comes, and he leads him off to the chamber, and he's got his last meal, and he's walking toward it, and at the last minute, the guy's about to pull the switch, and they say, Wait a minute, the governor just called. You're free. That's the gospel. The law has got to condemn. We're going to get to the law in a minute. We cannot remove the threat and terrors of hell. Jesus, oh God, Jesus preached about hell. He talked about, remember the sheep and the goats? He takes this almost awful picture of how the ones on the left are going to go to everlasting damnation. What about the guy in Matthew 24, where it says that this guy will be cut into pieces, and assigned to his place with a hypocrite? In another place, with the five foolish virgins, he says they will be kept out into the outer darkness, where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. He didn't rinse from talking about the penalty of not serving God, but we do. We need to have people see themselves as criminals, not poor, misguided souls. Now, we might be able to look at them as poor, misguided souls. We can go look at that poor sinner. He doesn't realize what he's doing. But you can never let them look at themselves that way. You know, you can't. A person needs to be convicted. Nobody can be convicted of being a poor, misguided soul. You know, poor baby, oh yeah, that really convicts me. I really am poor, misguided. Gee, I need to repent. When your little three-year-old boy does exactly what you tell him not to do, you don't pick him up and go, oh, poor baby, don't understand. Now, you might say, well, maybe he doesn't understand, or maybe he doesn't understand. But man, that'll help him understand it. He'll understand quick enough, a few of those. That's the law's way. Remember, there's a two-edged sword. Behold the goodness and severity of our God. I'm going ahead of the teaching. I just want to say that we don't have any right to remove what Jesus didn't remove. We don't have any right not to talk about hell, because I want to let you know Jesus talked about hell almost as much as he talked about everything else, if not as much. I haven't taken a scale and cut up the Bible and put this verse here and this verse here. But I can honestly say that when I read the Bible, there is verse after verse after verse about the threats and punishments of being disobedient to God. And I'm not talking about the law of Moses. I'm talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was scared for sinners. That's why he warned them. But we're scared of scaring, so we don't warn them. He was scared for their ultimate fate. We're scared for the instant fear that we might produce in them, and we don't care about their ultimate fate enough to be able to scare them a little bit. You know how you hate to go to the dentist? Everybody hates to go to the dentist. I don't want to go to the dentist, man. You might find I need a root canal, and I don't want a root canal. I know a woman who died of breast cancer. She wouldn't go to the doctor. She was afraid that she had breast cancer, and so she wouldn't go to the doctor until her chest was throbbing, and boils were starting to show up. It started breaking out and bleeding. And she went to the doctor, and the doctor says, You have breast cancer. And she says, Well, I didn't want to come to you because I was afraid that I had breast cancer. He says, If you would have come to me even three weeks ago, I could have saved your life. But I can't now. It's too late. She was afraid of finding out what was, because it was. And all the fear in the world that people have that they're going to hell won't keep them from hell. All the fear in the world that they need an operation. Now, he would have had to save her life by removing her breast. A horrible thought. But she had children, five, ten years old, and she died within six months. Some people are afraid, like I said, to go to the dentist because they're afraid they're going to have to get their teeth drilled. They can't think of anything worse than having their teeth drilled. So they don't go to the dentist, and then they lose their teeth. Fear of having something does not make you not have it. And our fear that we're going to hurt somebody isn't going to help them at all. I told my wife, I know there's a lot of problem with peer pressure today with kids, but my kids are going to have something stronger than peer pressure. They're going to have father pressure. It's going to be stronger than peer pressure because I love them more than their peers do. I love them enough to make them not like me for a little while so that they'll eventually love me because I watched out for them. And that's what God does. He'll hang you on a cross that hurts until you're squirming and screaming. But when he's done putting you through the washing machine, you're going to be clean. And part of that washing machine is saying, you need to get into that horrible machine called repentance for your sin and self-denial and being made into the image and likeness of Jesus. It'll spit you up and chew you out, and you will hurt. And part of it is first telling you that you're a wicked, rotten criminal. I love you, but you're a wicked, rotten criminal. It's that simple. I realize you may not even realize that, but you've had it unless you turn from your sin. Why is the Bible full of stories about hell? Because God cares enough to tell people the truth. If that doctor would have come over and the woman would have been having pain in her chest, he would have cared enough to tell her, look, you might have breast cancer. I've got a relative that's the same way, man. She will not go to the doctor unless she's near death. She is so scared of hospitals and doctors. She's had two husbands die in the hospital, and she's almost died two or three times. And the reason she almost died two or three times is because she got to the hospital when she couldn't stand to live anymore. It hurts so bad. If you wait till that long, you might lose your life. And we need to stop worrying about... Can you imagine if a doctor was squeamish about operating on people? I don't want to hurt the poor guy. I'd like to go home and die. I don't want to cut out your cancer. Man, that's going to hurt. No, he tries to make it feel as good as it can possibly feel. He puts you under, and he tries to take away the pain as much, but he's got to get down to the root of the problem. Okay. We, smart as we are, have decided to help God alone. He doesn't understand our generation as well as we do. The things Jesus emphasized in his preaching were all right for the Jews, but our generation needs a more gentle, loving tone. Tell them about heaven. We talk about heaven, about the rewards of being born again, but we completely neglect the other side of the two-edged sword. What right do we have to remove things from the gospel that Jesus himself gave great place to in his own preaching? The law of God preached to convict one of sin. Pages could be written on this, but there's only room for one brief example. When the rich young ruler came to Jesus, he asked a very direct question. Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Now, try to imagine what the minister today would say to him if he asked that question. Just admit you're a sinner, accept Jesus as your savior, go to church, pay your tithes, try to be good, and you're in. Right? I mean, really. But what would Jesus answer? You know the commandments. If you wish to enter life, keep the commandments. The commandments? Commandments. Isn't this the age of grace? Listen. Try to imagine your average evangelistic service. Okay? They're out there, guys preaching away. All of a sudden, the mayor of the city, the mayor of Atlanta, the mayor of Los Angeles, the mayor of New York City, the guy Billy Graham is preaching in New York, and the mayor stops him and says, Brother, I've got to repent now. I can't wait. What must I do to inherit eternal life now? That's what happened. Remember, Jesus was walking along, and the guy came running up on the road and got on his face and says, Whoa, I've got to get saved now. What do I do? All the people are watching. His disciples are watching. The multitudes are watching. The people are healed. The people are going to heal. And say, Billy Graham, he's in front of 70,000 people. It doesn't matter who it is. Some great preacher. Can you imagine somebody today saying, Have you tried the commandments? Can you imagine somebody preaching the do's and the don'ts of the Bible anymore? I just, it burns me up to think that we are so smart that we have removed, and we have all these stupid excuses. Well, you know, Jesus hadn't died yet, so he couldn't preach, you know, believing in the death of Christ, you know. That's called dispensational preaching, right? Well, you know, the Holy Spirit hadn't been given yet, so Jesus had to give him a different answer. But, you know, Paul and Peter and all the other people did a different. Well, listen, folks. It is no different when Jesus preached. Don't you remember? He also preached what Paul and Peter preached. Remember when he got the blind guy to see? He said, He says, Lord, what must I do? He says, Believe. What was the exact words? Oh, do you believe in the Son of Man? Right? The blind man says, Well, who is he, Lord, that I might believe in him? He says, He is the one who healed you and the very one who is talking to you. He says, I believe. Well, that was after Jesus' preaching, wasn't it? Jesus hadn't died yet, and he could preach that to him. Why didn't he preach that to the rich young ruler? Because the rich young ruler wasn't ready. Because the rich young ruler needed to have a little lesson in the law. He needed to have the scalpel of God, the master surgeon, apply directly at what would stop him from getting saved. But we don't have the eyes of the law anymore. We look at somebody, and we see them as a big fishy that we can mount as a trophy above our pulpit. You know, wow, man, the mayor of New York. This would look so good in Christianity today. When they talk, when they show this on TV, the mayor got saved. The rich young ruler, this guy was rich. He was young. He was a handsome ruler. The guy was probably well known throughout the land. He probably would have been a main speaker at full gospel businessmen luncheons from coast to coast if he would have gotten saved. This guy, this guy was a catch not to be let go. What he could have done for Jesus' ministry. Why his mailing list could have doubled. His reputation would have gone up so high if he wouldn't have just let the big one get away. His disciples were going, now we'll get accepted, right? Now they'll let us preach in the synagogue, man. We'll fill up the temple tonight. Then he preaches something that the guys at the seminary in Dallas would rebuke him for preaching because it would have been the wrong answer according to them. But Jesus used the law to dig down to the cancer that was in this man's heart. Now of course Jesus being God knew it was wrong. But probably wouldn't have taken too much to understand. He probably had a ring the size of a basketball on every finger. He had a slave to carry his Kleenex. I mean the guy was probably a hot and cold running slave left and right and had the mansion of mansions. And loved pleasure and loved luxury and loved opulence. And it was obvious that his righteousness was that he did everything since he was a boy. I haven't committed adultery, I haven't stolen, I haven't murdered, I haven't done anything wrong. Man, Jesus knew what he'd done. Well the truth is that Jesus wasn't preaching the commandments to him as the way of salvation. He was using the commandments to specifically convict him of his particular sin. Read, that rich old boy loved the bucks and Jesus knew just how to flush them out of the bushes. Preach the law. And that's exactly what the law is for. As Paul said, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. I'll never forget the first time I saw that scripture. When I was reading a book called Today's Gospel by Walter Chantry. I couldn't believe it. I said, well I've read that before but I didn't know what the heck it meant. Through the law comes the knowledge of sin. I mean that just was one of those theological bye-byes, you know. The law must be preached. Not as the way of salvation. But as a searchlight put on the sinner's heart. So he can see how utterly rotten he is compared to the way God requires him to be. But today again we're wiser than God. Our preaching isn't filled with do's and don'ts anymore. No, we don't want to scare the liberated generation away. If we said that fornication was wrong or drugs or abortion or any other specific sin, people would feel all condemned and then how could they get saved? But that's just it. But that's just it. Jesus preached the law to the rich and rulers so that after feeling condemned about his greed, he could turn and obey Jesus and find, as Jesus said, true treasure in heaven. Go and sell all you possess. Give it to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Unless people are truly convicted of sin, if they do not fully see that they are totally condemned by the requirements of God's law, then it is virtually impossible to show them a need for a savior. So what would they need to be saved from? Fun? If nobody's convicted, like I said, the judge tells the guy, I would tell you that you've got to go to the electric chair but you feel bad, so I'm not going to tell you. If the guy doesn't see that he needs to appeal to the governor for a state of execution, then he's already let go. That's what we do. We tell people they're forgiven before they see a need for forgiveness. Now Jesus did that a couple of times. Remember the guy was laid down on the pallet and they said, is he going to heal on the Sabbath? And he bends down and he says, well, is it easier to say, tell a man your sins are forgiven or what? But that you know that I have the power to forgive sins. Now do you think Jesus, being God, didn't know the guy had a right heart? Do you think Jesus, if the guy was a swindler and says, boy, when I get healed I'm going to go out and find the first prostitute I can find, that he would have said your sins are forgiven? Do you think that when that woman who was caught in adultery, who was ready to be stoned to death and knew that she was going to be, she was already condemned by the law? Right? The Pharisees, the highest religious leaders in the land, had dragged her out of an adulterous bed, put her in front of the people, probably dressed in nothing but a towel, and they said, Jesus, what does the law of Moses say now? Are we going to do it or not? This girl had already died. She had written her life off. It was all over for her. She knew it. The law had killed her. Do you understand? She was dead. She had been sentenced to death. And Jesus, like the governor, the governor in heaven, granted her a last minute state of execution. And then he says, your sins are forgiven. I do not condemn you. Go and sin no more. But in this case, Jesus knew that this guy's heart wasn't right, and he wanted to convict him. Let's even say, condemn the sin in his heart so that he could feel that condemnation. And sure, he walked away. It doesn't say he never came back. He might even have been Nicodemus, for all we know. He could have been Joseph of Arimathea. He had some rich followers that later gave up some of their riches. Maybe he was even Zacchaeus, the guy that climbed up in the tree that later gave away his fortune. He was ready for him. Maybe he had fought it over. I don't know. And that is why our modern gospel must dwell on all the good things God will do for you if you just accept him. Because we can't convince a sinner that he needs a Savior by just getting him to admit that, well, generally, yes, I am a sinner. He must see how the law of God condemns him specifically as a sinner. And then the beauty of the gospel, the glory of the cross, the marvelous power of Christ's blood will all be able to penetrate his anxious, waiting mind and heart. Only by the preaching of the law can a man fully desire to be saved from his sin. For I would not have come to know sin except through the law. That's a separate scripture than the other one, although it sounds almost exactly the same. It's in Romans 7, versus the other one is Romans 3. It's in a separate place. So, for closing this first installment, I just want to say that there's no formula for preaching the gospel. This is an in-depth dissection of what Jesus preached. Now, Jesus didn't preach it all every time he preached. That would be impossible, wouldn't it? He didn't get up and say, you know, I mean, he didn't get up and say, you know, well, you want to get saved? Well, first you have to tell about the blood. I'm going to die in blood, and then there's going to be a cross and everything. He didn't go through step by step by step, but with the mindset of knowing his Father's view of sin and salvation, he gave the explicit and specific directions for the person to come right to God. Jesus didn't have to talk about the blood, or talk about the cross, or talk about sin with the guy in the pallet. That guy had been so whipped to a wet noodle by his state, and had heard that Jesus had come to town, and probably just cried to God, God, if you just get me out of this deathbed, I'll serve you the rest of my life, please. I've been a filthy rotten sinner my whole life, fought in bitterness, blame you for me being this way. You understand? So Jesus just had to give him the right word at the right time. What I'm going through here are the things that we have removed, and remember, whenever you remove something that's necessary, you always have to replace it with something else, or else the whole building is going to fall down. If you take this wall out of here, you better put some pillars up, or you're not going to have a room. Okay, we'll go to part two in a while. In our last session, we got as far as, we didn't get to the fear of God and the judgment seat of Christ, that's what we're going to start with. Just by way of reminder and review, we've already gone through three or four of the removed parts of the gospel. We're going through what's wrong with the gospel, section one, the missing parts, and we've talked about the blood of Jesus, the cross of Jesus, the threat and terrors of hell, and the guilt of sinners. We didn't really go over the guilt of sinners that much, but that's what leads to the threat and terrors of hell, is the guilt of sinners. We really need to not, as we said, look at them as poor, misfortunate, misguided souls, unfortunate, misguided souls, but as people who have offended God. That's the guilt of sinners. We talked about the law, the rich young ruler, and how his case would not be the case for today, but his case was a case that Jesus pointed to his sin, and today we would point exclusively to Jesus, without pointing out why he needed Jesus. That's like going into a hospital and all of a sudden the guy takes his scalp out and says, well, you need an operation. He starts operating on you. First they have to counsel with you, sit down and explain why you need an operation. Maybe you need a second opinion. God never rushes anybody into a decision, ever, although we Christians and evangelists and so on are so excited to see people saved, either for wrong motives, like we want to report how many numbers of people got saved in our newsletter or whatever, or possibly for right motives. We're just so excited. We don't want to see anybody get away that will pull a fish in before they're really hooked and they'll fall off eventually. Or you ever heard about the guy that planted his garden and he went out every day and dug up his seed to see if they were growing? Didn't get much fruit from that. In our zeal or in our misguidedness, we cannot go ahead of the Lord in the plan for salvation. God was so patient with me. Two years he waited. He waited my whole life, but I prayed to him in 73 and almost two years to the date I got saved. I surrendered. He didn't push me. He didn't send people along to prod me. He waited. He waited until I was ready. Can you imagine if you went up to some girl and took her by the neck and said, you're going to be my wife? Took her by the collar. I love you. I love you. You better marry me or I'll knock your head off. God doesn't do that, but we Christians, man, we just punch people out for Christ. I used to do that when I was a brand new Christian. Just say the prayer. Just say the prayer. You can be a Christian. Jesus never did that. Somebody wasn't ready, he left them alone. Today evangelists would think that was stupid. That doesn't mean he became unconcerned. Remember when the rich young ruler went away, Jesus wept. No, his heart went with him. But he didn't stop and say, you know, wait a minute. I've got a special deal for you. Salvation at a discount rate today. Okay. The fear of God and the judgment seat of Christ. These two things have been removed from the gospel. Of course you understand why the fear of God has been removed. Because the God that we believe in isn't awesome anymore. Instead of the awesome majesty of Jehovah, today the Lord is presented as sort of an ice cream man Santa Claus. And the church is the candy store where you can get every good of your heart desires. Jesus himself is portrayed as a sweetie pie. So good, so loving, so forgiving, and so gentle that you can almost hear the preacher whisper, aw, he wouldn't hurt a fly. But what happened to, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Or the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. At the bottom of the page, under footnote 10, you will see just a few of the scriptures on the fear of God. And these are the heavy ones. I didn't put in, I mean that's not every scripture. I didn't just go through my Straus and Cordens. I read every single one of these things. And only picked I'd say about a third of them. That was in the Concordance. Because these are the ones that just, that you never hear preached on today. You just don't. You know I always, I give a test, a comparison test sometimes in concert. I said, you realize the church loves to preach on the scriptures that are nice, and are easily swallowed and feel good as they go down. They love the hot fudge of the scriptures. But man the ones that got bones and grizzle, and you know they're hard to swallow, the liver and onions of scripture, you know, they don't like that. So how many of you have ever heard a sermon on this scripture? Those who endure to the end shall be saved. And usually out of maybe 5,000 people, maybe 5 people raise their hand. Now, to show you that the gospel is being manipulated, the Bible is being torn apart, and they're placing the good stuff on the plate, and the other stuff they're throwing out to the birds. How many of you have ever heard a sermon on this scripture? God loves a cheerful giver. And almost everybody raises their hand. I said, which one of those statements are more true than the other? You know, aren't they both just as true? Then why do we choose the second one? Because the church loves fearful givers more than they love faithful endures. They're looking more for the financial security rather than the true eternal security. They're looking more for financial stability rather than spiritual stability. Because if your church is financially stable, we'll deal with the spirit later, but let's get to the meat of the problem. We need money. Sound familiar? Phew. Wise new editors of modern preaching rhetoric have conveniently wiped out every reference to the almighty's severity while emphasizing only his kindness. This they do, ignoring the balanced biblical view of Paul. Behold, then, the kindness and severity of our God. Two-edged sword, folks. The gospel definitely has a balm of love. It has a sweet, honey-like, loving substance that God pours in before he applies his razor blade to cut out the cancer. And afterwards, too. And in the midst of it. Sure, the love of the gospel, the love and mercy is the weightier thing than the law. I agree. In my blindness, I have been guilty in the past of overlooking that because the other had been so misplaced and so abused and so overlooked that I would overlook the other to make my point. And I don't want to play the game on the other side of the fence. Yes, the grace of God is the most wonderful thing that he's ever done for me. But I can tell you this. It's better for somebody to be afraid that they're not saved than truly be. And for somebody to think they are saved than truly aren't. Everybody is so afraid that you're going to condemn somebody into thinking they're not saved. Well, that is a sorry state. I've seen people that are really Christians that are under condo. Condo-bondo. They're walking around, they're afraid of their shadow and are terrorized of God. That's a bad state to be in. But if they're authentically saved, I would still rather have that than to walk around going, hallelujah, praise God, I'm a Christian, and inside you're a ravening wolf and you've never been converted at all. And you have all kinds of security, but it's false security. It's better to have a bad marriage than to commit adultery. It's better to have a bad marriage, to have a marriage that's lots of friction, than to commit fornication. It's better to have a commitment that you're having trouble keeping than to just enjoy the pleasures of sex with no commitment. It's better to have a salvation that you're doubting than to have no salvation that you're sure of. Don't you agree? You've got something, at least. You've got something to work on. You've got something to be assured of. The other thing is made out of cotton candy. You put it in your mouth, it just melts and turns to nothing, except a nice little sweet taste that doesn't do anything for you. Repentance, this is one of the things removed from the Gospel. Repentance is necessary for forgiveness. It is always amazing how the Church could have evolved in such a state as it is in now, with such clear, direct teaching from the Lord Jesus as to what is necessary to be right with God. Please read the first five verses of the 13th chapter of Luke. We better do that. Luke 13. Luke 13. Now, on the same occasion, there were some present who reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered and said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this horrible fate? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. When he says you will all likewise perish, that doesn't mean that you will perish with a tower falling on you. It doesn't mean you will perish with Pilate mingling your blood. It means you will die in your sins the way they died in their sins. And they didn't die in their sins because they were worse sinners than you. They died in their sins because that was the time God took their souls. Remember when God said to that rich guy who was building bigger barns? He says, you fool, tonight your soul will be required of you. There comes a time for everybody when God takes out the sickle and says, let's pick this one. Okay, in the first, please read the first five verses of the thirteenth chapter of Luke. Here Jesus is told the news about some Galileans who were executed by the Romans. He then says, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Using another example, he then repeats the same exact sentence. I cannot conceive of conversion without repentance. And yet, today, that's what's being preached. You can be saved, but you don't need to repent. God's already forgiven you. A friend of mine, a famous preacher, says that people are coming forward to the altar and they're not receiving forgiveness, they're forgiving themselves. Because if you don't repent, you cannot be forgiven. Jesus says, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. That's the truth. So when you get out of the altar and the preacher says, oh brother, now you can have forgiveness. Just believe. What did Peter say? Repent and believe. No, we just scratched that out. That's too hard to explain. We don't have the time. We've got all these big campaigns. And we've got to reach 40 million people this week. So just take out the repent part because you have to explain that. The believe part is really easier because people believe in astrology and they believe in tarot cards and they believe in Ronald Reagan or they believe in Rona Barrett. So tell them to believe in Jesus. Just have them replace all their other idols with Him. Put Him on a pedestal and then go to heaven. That's not our computer game. I cannot conceive of conversion without repentance. The teachings of Jesus and the apostles are full of commands to repent and be saved. Repentance is not merely being sorry. It's not just being sorry. That is only conviction. Repentance is not merely a change of heart and a change of mind. It is a change of action. Of course, it is a change of heart and mind but then produces a change of action. God requires that if we are sincerely convinced that sin is wrong then we will turn from it to God and commit ourselves to not take part in sinful deeds any longer. God blesses such decisions and commitments with abundant grace. And it is by that grace that we can fulfill the desires of the spirit within us. It's like a partnership, folks. God can't forgive you until you see you need forgiveness and are willing to turn from your sin. Then God, through the Holy Spirit, will help you to turn and will bless your decision. You take a step toward God, He'll take 20 toward you. That's the way it works. Now God... Well, we'll get to this first. Let's read the last verse in this part here and we'll go back. It is true that without God loving us first we could not be saved. He made the first move. He always does. But He will not do what He requires of the sinner himself to do and that is to repent. In other words, God made the first move. He gave us Jesus before we were even born. Jesus died. Do you realize that God has done everything that He possibly can to save the whole world? The work is finished. Jesus said it's finished. It's done. It's like a husband who gives his wife shampoo and a shower and clothing, clean clothes and soap and hairbrush and says, dear, here's all your tools. Be ready. I'm coming back tonight. We're going to the ball or whatever. Be ready. We're going to a wedding. And she sits there and she ain't ready. And He comes back and says, why aren't you ready? And she says, well, you know, you didn't help me. Well, I gave you wisdom. I gave you the tools and I gave you a mind and so on and so forth. Why aren't you ready? Jesus gave us His blood. He gave us the cross. He gave us forgiveness available to us upon repentance and faith. And there's nothing more God can do except rule us. Come on, come on, come on, come on. I can't walk for my little boy. I can coax him. I can pick him up when he falls, but I can't walk for him. I can tell him when he makes a wrong decision, but I can't make the right decision for him. Let's go back and read that other verse. But because there is so little real conviction of sin brought about by the preaching of our modern gospel, we cannot truly require repentance anymore. This is very important. Let's read that again. Because there is so little real conviction brought about by the preaching of our modern gospel, we cannot truly require repentance anymore. If we did, no one would come forward at all. Because, remember, what produces conviction? The law. What makes people want to repent? Conviction. If we don't preach the law, people aren't convicted. If they're not convicted, they've got nothing to repent for. If they have nothing to repent for, they can't be converted. Therefore, we have to invent a whole new system based on gooey, sticky, kindly preaching that doesn't produce repentance and I don't believe really produces salvation. If we did, no one would come forward at all. For repentance is easy to him who sees how ugly and horrible sin is. But repentance is impossible where the law does not convince the sinner of his wicked heart, compelling him to turn from his sin into the arms of a waiting, compassionate God. You see, in all these removed parts of the gospel, you see that all these removed parts of the gospel are connected. In God's wisdom, every aspect of the appointed way of salvation is irreplaceable. You take out one car from a train and the rest of it just stays in the station. They all follow the other. Okay. God's sorrow and broken heart over sin. Now, this is, I think, the most neglected part of the biblical gospel. I don't think it's the most important part of the neglected part. I think that most likely repentance and the cross and the blood is the most important parts that are usually neglected. But this is universally neglected. Nobody preaches about a tearful, sorrowful God. I don't think I've ever heard one sermon in my whole life in the traditional church or from a TV or radio preacher on this subject in my whole life. In the church, I got saved and I never heard one sermon on it. The first person I ever heard that talked about this was a guy named Winky Prattney. And then I went to the Bible and I started reading other people and I went, where have these preachers been? Don't they see that God is broken hearted over sin?