The Last Sermon
Luke 23:26-31
January 17, 2021
If you’re studying Hebrews with us through the daily devotions,
Then recently you have been reminded of the story of
The failure of the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness.
The text that the writer of Hebrews cites comes from Psalms 95
Psalms 95:7b-11 “Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
The event alluded to there was the grumbling of Israel regarding water,
And God’s ultimate decision that an entire generation of people
Would not be allowed to enter the Promised Land.
Do you remember that proclamation by God?
Numbers 14:26-32 “The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? I have heard the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they are making against Me. “Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me. ‘Surely you shall not come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. ‘Your children, however, whom you said would become a prey — I will bring them in, and they will know the land which you have rejected. ‘But as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness.”
It must have been a horrifying day.
• God announced that if you’re over 20 you will not enter the Promised Land.
• YOU WILL DIE IN THE WILDERNESS.
THE POINT?
Because of a present decision, their future fate was sealed.
In a sense, they were dead men walking.
Like the famous signs along the river that lead to NIAGARA FALLS,
They had crossed the point of no return.
All that was left for them was to wait for the Lord’s judgment.
The writer of Hebrews referenced that story because
He wanted his audience to understand the importance of “Today”.
“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…”
• You can no longer trust Christ yesterday.
• You cannot yet trust Christ tomorrow.
• All you have is today, all you have is right now.
And the reality is that what you choose today
May very well be the decision that sets your eternity forever.
We saw that with Pilate last week.
• He had every opportunity to confess the Son of God, the Messiah, the innocent One (all things Pilate knew) and yet he didn’t.
• He washed his hands, but he would never escape the guilt.
It is a terrifying reality to think about
The children of Israel in the wilderness or Pilate in Rome
Who spend the rest of their days simply waiting for the judgment.
Habakkuk had a similar encounter with the Lord.
• Habakkuk was a man who was distressed by the wickedness of his society
and he asked God to do something about it.
• God affirmed that He was about to do something.
Habakkuk 1:5-6, 11 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days — You would not believe if you were told. “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs… “Then they will sweep through like the wind and pass on. But they will be held guilty, They whose strength is their god.”
• Habakkuk was terribly frightened when he heard the Lord’s plan.
• But God had already determined it.
Later in the book Habakkuk remarks about this coming dread:
Habakkuk 3:16 “I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.”
In short, we are dead men walking.
Now Habakkuk was a man of faith and he had determined to trust God,
but the dread of the coming judgment was still real.
IT IS THIS DREAD WE DISCUSS THIS MORNING.
We come to the last sermon of Jesus before He was crucified.
Only Luke includes it.
But it follows perfectly what we have been saying.
• We have seen Jesus stand before various courts and leaders and they all thought they were trying Jesus.
• IN REALITY, JESUS WAS TRYING THEM.
• And that goes for the crowd who yelled for Jesus to be crucified as well.
• They had rejected the Christ.
• And now they faced a sure and certain judgment.
And this is the sermon Christ is preaching on His way to the cross.
IT IS INCREDIBLY IRONIC.
We have here a Man sentenced to death, on His way to be crucified
And yet He is warning the crowd about their coming doom.
We would call it laughable if we didn’t have the rest of the story.
In 3 days Jesus will be back alive,
But the fate of Jerusalem would be permanently set.
And so we listen to this last sermon of Jesus
• And it simply reminds us that “Today” we are required to trust Christ
• For none of us knows when our final opportunity will have passed.
There are 5 points we can make in this text this morning, and several of them we’ll work through rather quickly.
#1 A CROSS IN TOW
Luke 23:26
Here we begin with an interesting account
That is included in all 3 synoptic gospels.
“When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simone of Cyrene, coming from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.”
This was not actually that unheard of.
• You may remember Jesus earlier teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:40-41 “Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”
• It was the prerogative of a Roman soldier to be able to enlist a Jewish citizen
into temporary service at his pleasure.
• And that is what happens.
We have a man here from “Cyrene” (northern Africa; Libya)
He has no doubt come to Jerusalem for the Passover
And finds himself “At the right place and at the right time.”
He is grabbed and forced to carry Jesus’ cross.
The reason I say he was “At the right place at the right time”
Instead of the opposite is because it is apparent that the event
Left a mark on Simon and resulted in his salvation.
Mark’s gospel reveals this:
Mark 15:21 “They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.”
• It is obvious that Mark had a personal connection as did the church to whom Mark wrote.
• His audience obviously would have known Alexander and Rufus.
• By the point the gospels were written those two men had obviously become followers of Christ and were a part of the church.
Paul even references Rufus later:
Romans 16:13 “Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.”
• Paul even referred to Rufus’ mother as “his mother and mine”
It is apparent that Simon must have been moved by what he experienced
And that he led his family to know the Lord.
THERE IS EVEN GOOD REASON TO ASSUME
That Simon had a hand in the gospel reaching his home village of Cyrene
Because as the church is beginning to grow it is actually missionaries
That come from Cyrene who are among the first to preach to Gentiles.
Acts 11:19-21 “So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.”
Now obviously we don’t have the entire story, but being that Cyrene was in north Africa it is doubtful that the village would have known much about Christ.
It is more likely that Simon’s trip to Jerusalem
And this encounter with Jesus
Actually resulted in many salvations including that of Simon.
He was in the right place at the right time.
But more than that, I think there’s a reason why Luke includes this story.
By now you realize that Luke likes contrasts.
He likes to lay two players beside each other and to allow you to see the obvious difference.
WELL SIMON PROVIDES THE CONTRAST.
In verse 26 read about Simon and how he was selected
And “placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.”
He is quite the living illustration isn’t he?
Luke 9:23 “And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”
• I’m NOT insinuating that Simon was already saved at this point, or that he was here following Jesus in faith as Jesus spoke.
• But the scene is pretty illustrative of exactly what Jesus had proclaimed as necessary.
Simon will be saved, but here he is just a really interesting picture.
He will soon be CONTRASTED with other people who are following Jesus.
• They are not carrying a cross…
• They are not suffering with Christ…
• They are merely weeping for Christ.
AND THERE IS A GREAT CONTRAST EMERGING IN THAT PICTURE.
One is following Christ while bearing His cross.
The other is following Christ while merely lamenting His cross.
Simon provides for us a point of reference to view the rest of the crowd.
So we see A Cross in Tow
#2 A CROWD IN TEARS
Luke 23:27
Now we are introduced to the other part of the crowd.
• Two groups really emerge here,
• Though only one of them earns the attention of Jesus.
“And following Him was a large crowd of people”
• No doubt some of these were people who had been at the triumphal entry.
• Certainly most of these had been at His recent sentencing and even cried out for Him to be crucified.
• They are caught up in the moment and they are going to watch this blasphemer and traitor to Rome be executed.
But there is another group there that Luke really focuses on.
“and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him.”
THERE ARE TWO POSSIBILITIES HERE.
ONE IS THAT
• They are merely those professional type mourners
• That were often employed in Israel
• Who simply saw it as their job to put on a good show of grief and mourning.
THE OTHER IS THAT
• They were legitimately moved by the horror of what was about to occur.
And I don’t have a problem with either or both of them being true.
We don’t really know.
All we know is that they are behind Jesus
And they are really getting after it in their weeping.
THERE IS ONE OTHER THING WE KNOW AND THAT IS THAT
While they are weeping, they are NOT REDEEMED.
This is why they are good contrast to Simon
Who is also following Jesus while bearing His cross.
How do we know they aren’t redeemed?
Because Jesus is about to tell them to weep for themselves.
That is a different message than Jesus has for the redeemed.
Just a few hours earlier He had told the disciples in the upper room.
John 16:20-22 “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”
The message to the redeemed is that their weeping would be short-lived.
That was NOT the message to these women.
So what we have here are women who are following Jesus
And putting on a good show of weeping,
But they are not genuine followers of Christ.
It brings to mind:
Esau who did not receive the blessing:
Hebrews 12:17 “For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”
It reminds of the warning of John the Baptist:
Matthew 3:8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;”
We are reminded of the Rich Young Ruler
Matthew 19:22 “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”
DON’T LET THE EMOTIONAL DISPLAY FOOL YOU.
There is a drastic difference between following Christ
And simply being emotional about Christ.
There is an entire group of women who are just weeping like crazy
And it looks like they really love Jesus,
But the contrast is the one behind Jesus who is carrying His cross.
WHICH ARE YOU?
Again, Jesus was clear:
Matthew 10:37-39 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”
Matthew 16:24-27 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
When Jesus called us to follow He was calling us
to forsake this world and to latch on to Him.
• We were to embrace His suffering…
• We were to embrace His shame…
• We were to embrace His cross…
He doesn’t need more posts on Facebook…
He doesn’t desire more tweets on Twitter…
His call was for people to set their life aside and follow Him.
• To do that with cross on shoulder…
• To do that up the hill to Golgotha…
Don’t ever miss this.
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
I would remind you again of what we have said before.
Do not misunderstand the analogy.
1. You have a wide road with a wide gate and a popular following.
2. You have a narrow road with small gate and a scarce following.
But only the narrow road leads to life, the other leads to destruction.
And here’s the critical part.
People assume
That over the wide road hangs a sign that says, “The Road to Hell”
And over the narrow road hangs a sign that says, “The Road to Heaven”
But that’s not true.
The wide gate actually says “The Road to Heaven”
• The only problem is that it is mislabeled.
• It was hung there by the false prophets
• Who have deceived people into thinking that they can keep their easy life and all their friends and still go to heaven when they die.
Those people are just happily traveling that wide open road
And they don’t even realize they are headed to hell.
The sign above the narrow road does not say the road to heaven,
• It says, “The Road to the Cross”
• Which is the road we are called to walk.
• And that’s why so few travel it.
And the terrifying reality that Jesus teaches is that
Most people are on the road to hell and they don’t even know it.
Most people are headed to hell and don’t even know it.
The contrast is visibly clear here.
A Cross in Tow, A Crowd in Tears
#3 A CORRECTION IN THEOLOGY
Luke 23:28
Here Jesus turns and addresses especially these women,
AND HIS SERMON IS STARTLING.
“But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”
That is to say, “Boy, you’ve got it all wrong!”
You have assessed everything and you think I’m the One in trouble.
You clearly lack discernment.
You probably thought I was on trial before the Sanhedrin too…
You probably thought I was on trial before Pilate as well…
Here we have the Son of God being led away to be crucified
And the people watching think He’s the One in trouble.
Jesus says, “NOT SO!”
“weep for yourselves and for your children.”
Remember that little declaration before Pilate?
Matthew 27:25 “And all the people said, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!”
BAD IDEA.
• These people had just rejected the Son of God.
• They had willingly dipped their hands in His blood
• And they had acknowledged the effect this decision had on their children.
AND WE KNOW THE AFFECT AS WELL.
Israel would be broken off.
Paul said that as a result of their rejection:
Romans 11:7-10 “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.” And David says, “LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. “LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER.”
It’s as we talked about last week.
• They had chosen to condemn and innocent man!
• They had chosen to murder the Son of God!
Jesus wasn’t the One in danger here and Jesus clarifies that.
A Cross in Tow, A Crowd in Tears, A Correction in Theology
#4 A COMING TRIBULATION
Luke 23:29-30
I can imagine that as Jesus told these women to weep for themselves
• That there must have been an abrupt stop to the weeping
• And a look of bewilderment
• And perhaps even a chuckle or two.
WHAT?
So Jesus explains the situation that they had failed to see.
“For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’”
Now there’s more, but let’s STOP THERE FOR A SECOND.
In Jewish culture there was no higher calling or desire for women than to bear children.
• Think about Sarah…
• Think about Rebekah…
• Think about that feud between Rachel and Leah…
• Think about Hannah…
• Think about Elizabeth…
The greatest desire for any Jewish woman was to raise godly children,
Or even to be fortunate enough to be the mother of the Messiah.
Remember:
Luke 11:27 “While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.”
Bearing children was the goal and the desire.
It was absolutely unthinkable that any woman
Would consider a barren woman to be blessed!
That’s is just a strange statement.
• What do you mean “Blessed are the barren…”?
• What do you mean “Blessed are…the wombs that never bore…”?
• What do you mean “Blessed are…the breasts that never nursed…”?
That’s absurd!
No barren women would ever be considered blessed.
Well, they will on the Day of Judgment.
• They will on the day that the babies of Jerusalem are being slaughtered…
• They will on the day their children are dying…
It is the picture of a woman watching her child be slaughtered
AND ACTUALLY ENVYING A BARREN WOMAN
Who doesn’t know the pain of losing a child.
IT’S GOING TO BE BAD.
What do you mean?
(30) “then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, ‘FALL ON US,’ AND TO THE HILLS, ‘COVER US.’”
There is an Old Testament reference here.
• In Hosea 10 Hosea speaks of the northern kingdom of Israel and their terrible idolatry.
• And because of their faithless idolatry God has pronounced judgment on them.
• He is about to send the King of Assyria to destroy them.
Hosea 10:5-8 “The inhabitants of Samaria will fear For the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn for it, And its idolatrous priests will cry out over it, Over its glory, since it has departed from it. The thing itself will be carried to Assyria As tribute to King Jareb; Ephraim will be seized with shame And Israel will be ashamed of its own counsel. Samaria will be cut off with her king Like a stick on the surface of the water. Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; Thorn and thistle will grow on their altars; Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”
In other words the judgment of that day will be so bad
You will actually enter into caves and plead that the cave would collapse
Because that would be better than the judgment that is coming.
And that’s not the only reference to such talk.
• A few years later, after the northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyria,
• The southern kingdom of Judah was facing the judgment of God as well.
Isaiah spoke of their judgment.
Isaiah 2:12-19 “For the LORD of hosts will have a day of reckoning Against everyone who is proud and lofty And against everyone who is lifted up, That he may be abased. And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up, Against all the oaks of Bashan, Against all the lofty mountains, Against all the hills that are lifted up, Against every high tower, Against every fortified wall, Against all the ships of Tarshish And against all the beautiful craft. The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, But the idols will completely vanish. Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble.”
The judgment will be so terrifying you’d rather a mountain fall on you.
And of course we will see this same judgment occur during the tribulation.
Revelation 6:12-17 “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
YOU GET THE POINT.
These women are weeping for Jesus as though He is the One in danger.
• He’s fine, and in 3 days He’ll be alive.
The real danger is on the people who rejected Him.
• They have secured a judgment of such extreme horror that it would be better to
have a mountain fall on you.
Now do you understand the behavior of Jesus as He entered Jerusalem?
Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
• Jesus was referring to the coming destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 at the hands of Rome.
• Because Israel failed to see and believe in her Savior she had secured judgment.
• It would be a judgment so horrible that women, after watching their children slaughtered,
• Would wish they had never even had them
• And men would rather have a mountain fall on them then endure this horror.
IT’S GOING TO BE BAD.
And all this even pales in comparison
To the ETERNAL JUDGMENT they will receive.
It seems strange today that so many people have such a little fear of hell.
Some have even embraced it as a place of like-minded friends.
Can I remind you that when Jesus contemplated the wrath of God
That He sweat drops of blood?
Can I remind you also of what He said when contemplating hell?
Matthew 18:8-9 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. “If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.”
Jesus wasn’t advocating self-mutilation; namely since that won’t work.
• Sin resides in the heart, not the eyes
• And a man with no eyes can still have lust in his heart.
BUT YOU GET THE IDEA.
How awful would it be to right here gouge out your own eye?
How awful would it be to right here cut off your own hand?
IT WOULD BE TERRIBLE.
Jesus said that would be better than hell.
Hell is God’s eternal trash heap
Where the worm doesn’t die and the fire isn’t quenched.
Are you weeping for Jesus?
You’d be better off weeping for yourself.
Jesus will triumph, but sinners who reject Him will suffer forever.
A Cross in Tow, A Crowd in Tears, A Correction in Theology, A Coming Tribulation
#5 A CONDEMNED TREE
Luke 23:31
Jesus closes with an illustration.
Context allows us to understand it.
“For if they do these things…”
Who is “they”?
• Well “they” is the same “they” have been throughout the text.
• It is Israel.
• It is “they” who will bless the barren women (29)
• It is “they” who ask the mountains to fall on them (30)
And what are “these things” that “they” are doing?
• They are crucifying Jesus.
And they are crucifying Jesus “when the tree is green”
• That is to say when the fruit is obvious.
Jesus has lived among them for 33 years and ministered for the last 3.
His words and His miracles have been obvious for all to see.
His fruit was everywhere.
And even with such evidence they chose to condemn Him.
BUT NOW
• He looks vile and is identified with sinners.
• In the coming days He will leave.
• His works will not be so easily spotted.
• In that regard the tree will be “dry”.
AND THE POINT IS:
If they wouldn’t believe while I was right here in front of them,
They surely won’t when I am gone.
If they won’t believe while I’m working miracles.
They surely won’t believe when I’m hanging on a cross.
Remember this passage?
John 12:35-36 “So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them.”
The point is, the time is now.
• There will never be a greater opportunity.
• And in that sense, the decision you make today will set your fate for tomorrow.
Just like those children wandering in the wilderness.
• They were dead men walking.
So it was for those who crucified the Lord.
• Today, when it was easy and obvious, they rejected.
• Tomorrow, it will only be that much more difficult.
Now you understand why the writer of Hebrews said:
Hebrews 3:12-13 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
Or why he said:
Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”
Or why he said:
Hebrews 10:26-31 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Today is the day to believe, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow.
None of us knows what tomorrow holds.
2 Corinthians 6:2 “for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”
