Open your Bibles with me to the 16th
chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter
16.
I'm going to begin reading at verse 21.
This is a frequently observed passage of Scripture
because it's here in Matthew 16 that Jesus
declares his high purpose for his church.
And it's having declared the triumph that his
church would experience that he goes on into
further discourse with his disciples, explaining the price
of that would be the giving of his
life.
And that offended Peter's taste, and he speaks
what perhaps you or I might have been
tempted to say on that occasion.
And in the wake of those remarks, Jesus
speaks some highly important words, which are relevant
to the crux of what I have to
say this evening.
And if you have verse 21 placed there
in your Bible, would you hold your finger
there for just a moment and also open
your Bible to the 12th chapter of John.
And in a few moments we'll begin reading
from verse 20, and I'm going to read
a significant passage there that is significant of
length, 10-15 verses.
Now that you have the 12th chapter of
John, John 12, beginning at verse 20, now
hold that and return to Matthew 16, and
we'll read that first and then the other
passage.
Verse 21, Matthew chapter 16.
From that time Jesus began to show to
his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things from the elders and
chief priests and scribes and be killed and
be raised again the third day.
And then Peter took him aside and began
to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from
you, Lord, this shall not happen to you.
But he turned and said to Peter, Get
behind me, Satan, you're an offense to me,
for you're not mindful of the things of
God, but of the things of men.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, will you
read with me now?
If anyone desires to come after me, let
him deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me.
For whoever desires to save his life will
lose it, and whoever loses his life for
my sake will find it.
For what has a man profited if he
gains the whole world and loses his own
soul?
Or what will a man give in exchange
for his soul?
The twelfth chapter of John, beginning in verse
20.
Now there were certain Greeks among those who
came up to worship at the feast, and
when they had come to Philip, who was
from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying,
Sir, we wish to see Jesus.
Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn
Andrew and Philip told Jesus.
But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has
come that the Son of Man should be
glorified.
Most assuredly I say to you, unless a
grain of wheat falls into the ground and
dies, it remains alone.
But if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it,
and he who hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life.
If anyone serves me, let him follow me,
and where I am, there my servant will
be also.
If anyone serves me, him my father will
honor.
Now my soul is troubled, and what shall
I say?
Father, save me from this hour, but for
this purpose I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name.
Then a voice came from heaven, saying, I
have both glorified it and will glorify it
again.
Therefore the people who stood by and heard
it said it had thundered.
Others said an angel has spoken to him.
And Jesus answered and said, This voice did
not come because of me, but for your
sake.
Now is the judgment of this world.
Now the ruler of this world will be
cast out, and I, if I am lifted
up from the earth, will draw all peoples
to myself.
This he said, signifying by what death he
would die.
The people answered him, We have heard from
the law that Christ remains forever, and how
can you say the Son of Man must
be lifted up?
Who is the Son of Man?
And Jesus said, A little while longer the
light is with you.
Walk while you have the light, lest darkness
overtake you.
He who walks in darkness does not know
where he is going.
While you have the light, believe in the
light, that you may become sons of light.
These things Jesus spoke and departed, and it
was hidden from them.
The sin of suicide.
The selection of the title of this message
this evening is a very difficult one.
Difficult to select words that would sufficiently state
what I felt most needed to be said,
and so brief a statement as a title
allows.
But it is a rule in general of
preaching that what you have to say, if
it can't be reduced to a sensible title
and effectively set forth there, then you really
don't have very clearly in mind what you
want to say.
And I want to talk about that.
I want to talk about the sin of
suicide.
I could talk about any one of the
numbers of sins that characterize the race, sins
of which all of us are guilty in
different degrees.
And this evening, among other things, I'm going
to say that there's probably none of us
in this room that are not guilty to
some degree of even the sin of suicide,
but that waits to be elaborated in a
bit.
I want to begin by looking at these
two texts of Scripture and making just one
or two comments.
Before we do that, I would like for
you to understand my heart in speaking with
this title and on this subject.
The title needs to be what it is.
There is such a tendency in our relativistic
culture to justify almost anything because it suits
our tastes or our feelings.
The church is more threatened than generally realized,
the church at large, by the philosophical relativism
of our time.
That is only one of the forces that
threatens us.
The concept of relativism is essentially that there
are no absolutes, that every situation is different,
and so there cannot be a conclusive set
of guidelines that would dictate priorities and dictate
righteousness.
It essentially is a philosophy that flows from
the denial of the existence of an eternal
God and consequently the denial that there is
any revelation of that eternal God's will to
be found in any written material, such as
we do have the revelation of the heart
and the truth of the eternal God in
the sacred Scriptures of the Bible.
There are other forces that threaten us—humanism, which
makes man God, relativism, which makes man's reason
the absolute, which being no absolute justifies anything
to suit the convenience of the individual, hedonism,
hedonism, which is the pursuit of pleasure as
a God.
It's another terribly threatening thing in our culture.
All of them have to do with a
denial of revealed truth in the Word of
God.
And the great challenge that every believer has,
every thinking believer, is to heed the injunction
of Scripture, Romans the 12th chapter and the
first verse, where the Bible says to give
ourselves entirely to the Lord and don't let
the world shape us in its own mold,
to be not conformed to the world.
And then it tells us how to be
transformed.
And interestingly, it doesn't say by trying to
effect a new kind of conduct, but it
touches the place where we need first to
be transformed.
It says that you may be transformed by
the renewal of your mind.
Our problems are not simply emotional.
People live wrong because they think wrong.
They live crooked because they don't think straight.
And in order to walk the narrow way
that Jesus Christ has called us to, he
has not called us to narrow-mindedness, but
he has called us to clear thought.
In other words, it isn't a narrow-minded
bigot that makes a person who walks in
the narrow way, but it is a person
who is focused on one Lord, one Master,
and one revelation of his truth, and who
bothers to let that become dominant in their
life.
In the approach to relativism, there's flowed out
an entire ethical system.
That ethical system is called situation ethics.
And this evening, I want to say from
the onset that I am not going to
make any references in this message to any
specific cases, least of all to the most
recent very painful circumstance that happened in our
own congregation.
I'm not going to make reference to situations.
Every one of us, in one way or
another, have been touched by the impact of
suicide.
There are people that often we deal with
in private counsel whose lives were shattered by
the death of a loved one who took
their own life in suicide.
We so many times deal with people in
their grief who, if it's someone they work
with, they're shocked and amazed at what they
do feel as a result of having encountered
some expression of suicide.
Everybody is touched by it.
I'm going to talk in a little bit
about the temptation to commit suicide that, in
one time or another, I think approaches most
people.
At least it's been my experience in talking
with people that's so.
Sin of suicide is not being tempted toward
it.
Sin of suicide, as I'm going to discuss,
is not necessarily a damning sin that violates
some aspects of church tradition.
Doesn't violate the scripture, I wouldn't say it.
But as we come to deal with this
subject, I don't want to surrender to, and
I urge you not to, surrender to that
practice in the whole flow of the situational
ethic, which is the ethical and moral system
that flows out of relativism.
In other words, the situational ethic says, since
there are no absolutes and anything goes according
to what suits the situation, then the situational
ethic is there are no binding moral principles
in any given situation.
The situation will dictate what moral principles ought
to be observed.
And the formulation, and it is a practice
among the relativists, the moral relativists, the formation
of moral or ethical problems in an attempt
to convince the person who holds to an
absolute system that his absolute system really won't
work.
But that formulation of problems for the purpose
of dissuading an individual from absolute convictions is
called casuistry.
Casuistry means that an individual develops a hypothetical
situation, or it can be a very real
situation.
But usually it's hypothetical and built on some
sort of thing that happened like that one
time, one place, somehow, somewhere.
They say that since you are challenged to
compromise the moral values you hold or the
ethical principles you hold in the face of
situation I propose to you, you are verifying
yourself the inadequacy of your system in its
absolutes to handle the changing affairs of a
world and all of its problems and the
complexities of the society around us.
I'll give an example of casuistry.
Casuist would present a situation saying, imagine now,
it's World War II, a Nazi soldier is
broken into a woman's home.
She has a young child.
At bayonet point on the neck of the
child, the soldier threatens the life of the
child to the mother and only if she
will submit to his sexual advances will he
surrender and allow the child to continue to
live.
A situational ethicist will say to you, that
what do you think about that?
And our minds all wrestle with that.
Everything in a person of any moral value
says the woman should not submit to immorality
on any terms.
The Lord didn't say thou shalt not commit
adultery unless your baby's life is on the
line.
But after all, isn't God loving and wouldn't
God make room for that possibility?
And so certainly the mother should sacrifice her
moral purity because she can be forgiven of
that in order that the baby's life may
be saved.
Or if the mother did go ahead and
do that, would you be the person to
stand in judgment on her?
And such situations are posed one after another
in order to challenge a person to come
to terms with the complicating difficulty of trying
to deal in absolute terms in a world
that has so many different situations.
When we come to the subject of suicide,
that's exactly what you face.
Inevitably, people will want to talk about their
specific situation that they know about.
They want to appeal, as every one of
us want to appeal, to the mercy of
God, to the forgiveness of God.
And I am not arguing for a moment
against that or else I would not have
made the remarks I did before.
We just sang the hymn that we did
and I selected the hymn we just sang
because I wanted us to recognize that God's
love and his mercy and his forgiveness are
at the heart of everything of the gospel
in the revelation of his word.
But there is a terrible, a terrible, creeping
paralysis in so much of the body of
Christ.
The paralysis is the result of a spinelessness
that is coming directly resulting from a lack
of principle of commitment to abiding absolutes in
the word of God and they're yielded to,
the circumstances are yielded to, and the absolutes
are required to bend in order to serve
our own concept of justice.
We say, for example, in the episode that
I just contrived from the casuist proposal, well,
certainly you wouldn't ask the mother to allow
her child to be killed before her very
eyes just so she could save some kind
of chastity.
It really isn't my call to solve that
situation, but neither is it that mother's call
to violate, if she has convictions about the
word of God, violate God's law on the
supposition that she is ever able to be
the final judge and preserver of the issue
of her life, the issues of her life.
The changing of values for the purpose of
suiting what would seem right to us inevitably
has to do with people taking the issues
of life into their own hands rather than
walking according to what God has revealed and
leaving the issues of life with him.
And when we come to the issue of
suicide, we're dealing with as consummate example as
there is of a person taking their life
into their own hands rather than, as Jesus
said, losing their life for his sake.
For I hasten to say, unless there would
even be one person, our having just read
this passage, who would through the subtle capacities
of the human mind to distort and pollute,
even unintendedly the truth, I hasten to say
that we have not read these words of
Jesus who said, he that saves his life
shall lose it and he that loses his
life for my sake.
That it's as though somehow the person who
took their own life has in some noble
way lost their life for Jesus' sake.
Because it is actually entirely the opposite.
They didn't lose their life, they saved their
life for themselves on their own terms.
And what happened is exactly what Jesus said
would happen when you take your life into
your own hands on your own terms, whatever
the situation, whenever you violate what is the
revelation of God for your own convenience or
for your own momentary comfort or self-serving,
no matter how pointed the situation may be,
up to the point of a bayonet at
the baby's throat.
Inevitably there is loss, not gain.
You save your life, you lose it.
But if you lose whatever it is a
person may clutch to for the sake of
response and obedience to what God has said,
the Lord says, you won't understand it going
in because human reason never can discern the
ways of God.
But he said, they will find something for
having done that.
They will make a discovery.
We have a society that is moving toward
euthanasia.
The essence of the acceptance of euthanasia is
that there are situations that are so desperate
and hopeless by reason of physical infirmity.
I'm not talking about pulling the plug on
someone that's already clinically dead and merely being
supported by systems.
I'm talking about a person who is still
very much alive but the situation is so
hopeless and the pain so intense that the
human argument is, well, let's put them out
of their pain.
It would be an act of mercy.
And I understand the pathos and the pain
of a loved one who is watching another
one suffering so deeply.
And I'm not heartless toward that.
But to take the issues of life and
death into our own hands is in direct
violation of the Word of God.
And the person who refuses to save life
and find that something's lost will, in denying
themselves that right, make discoveries that this room
is full of testimonies about.
And that's people who have chosen the harder
path of submitting to the absolutes of God's
Word in situations of their own life where
it would have been so much easier to
choose a path of least resistance.
But once having made that choice, where it
appeared it was the more painful of the
pathways to take, when they began to move
in that pathway of sorrow or pain, they
found a partnership and a fellowship with one
who walked the path of sorrow well before
us to a degree we cannot even fathom
at the cross and leading to it.
And they found a fellowship with Him and
a presence of Him they never would have
discovered and somehow discovered life in its real
power because they didn't opt for a simpler,
more convenient way.
And the call of Jesus Christ is to
come and follow Him and not to take
the path of lesser resistance.
Does the mercy of God cover people who
take the lesser path?
And that's the whole purpose of the message
this evening.
Is the sin of suicide one for which
there's no forgiveness?
For there are segments of the body of
Christ that hold that position.
And with that I hasten to begin by
saying no, I will not declare that dead
tradition as being truth because there's no place
in the Word of God that can support
it.
The line of reason goes something like this.
Since suicide, one's last act when committed, is
a murder, a violation of one of the
Ten Commandments, it is obvious then, they conclude,
that a suicide is an eternally damning act.
I hasten to say that is not conclusively
true on any scriptural terms.
I want to say it again.
Because a person commits suicide does not mean
that because their last act has been a
violation of the revealed commandments of God that
therefore conclusively and categorically they are damned and
they have damned themselves by that very act.
That cannot be verified by the Word of
God.
I'm going to take an extended period of
time now to say some things that are
so very basic that to some of you
it may feel that I am skirting the
issue and simply dealing with the obvious.
But it's amazing to me how many obvious
things aren't really that obvious anymore to people.
And how many fundamental points of truth, foundational
points of truth, aren't understood.
And until the foundation points are understood you
can't build a system of life.
So I want to begin by saying why
it is not true.
Why it is not true that a person
who has committed suicide is automatically automatically damned.
And I want to say before I go
any further that I am not saying that
a person who commits suicide is necessarily automatically
saved either.
First, let's look at the scriptures and the
Word of God.
I'd like to ask you at the very
least to jot down scriptures and you may
want to write down additional points of notation.
First, salvation is not based on our works
but on the work of Jesus Christ.
Romans chapter 3.
Over in the overhead screen we have the
text, salvation is not based on our works
but on the of Jesus Christ.
Read aloud with me, will you?
The words are here behind us on the
screen.
But now the righteousness of God apart from
the law.
Let's start all over and read together.
But now the righteousness of God apart from
the law is revealed being witnessed by the
law and the prophets even the righteousness of
God which is through faith in Jesus Christ
to all and on all who believe for
there is no difference for all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God
being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Let's go directly to the next one and
read Romans chapter 4 verses 5 to 8.
Shall we read together?
But to him who does not work but
believes on him who justifies the ungodly his
faith is accounted for righteousness just as David
also describes the blessedness of the man to
whom God imputes righteousness apart from works.
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord
shall not impute sin.
In Romans 5 one and two, read with
me please.
Therefore having been justified by faith we have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
through whom also we have access by faith
into this grace in which we stand and
rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Simply three brief passages taken from one segment
of one New Testament epistle but the theme
could be pursued ad infinitum.
The revelation of the word of God concerning
this great principle that it is not within
the power of man to either initiate inaugurated
salvation or to perpetuate it by his own
works is perfectly established in the word.
We are saved by the work of Jesus
Christ on the cross and there are no
works that we contribute to that saving process
and since that's the case that there's nothing
we contribute to our salvation then the argument
can be extrapolated from that that there are
basically no works that can alter it as
long as abiding faith in Jesus Christ the
Son of God is maintained intact.
Now the problem with that is that there
comes the response of people who say well
then you mean you can put your faith
in Jesus Christ and live any way that
you want and that by reason of having
claimed faith in him that your works not
having contributed to your salvation and not perpetuating
and eventuating in your salvation that consequently then
it's up to you to do what you
want whatever you feel like and your faith
in Jesus Christ covers it all and theoretically
that makes a theological case a person can
argue but it doesn't make an operational case
because as we study the scriptures becomes very
clear that the person who truly has done
that who truly has put their faith in
Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit of God
has birthed something in them that renders them
incapable of indifferently pursuing sin on a relentless
continual basis that's why the Bible says in
1st John for example chapter 3 that he
that is born of God does not commit
sin because the seed of God is in
him I used to think in the old
King James where it said and he cannot
sin for he's been born of God I
used to feel embarrassed and frightened in front
of that passage of scripture because I thought
but I still do sin until I came
to understand the obvious thing that any thinking
person probably would have known but my fear
that I was violating a letter of the
word missed the spirit of the word and
the tense of the verb that is in
that passage essentially says the person who is
born of God doesn't keep on sinning I've
put it in these words in other times
and many of you have heard me say
it now once Jesus saves you have you
noticed how he he ruins you for being
a decent sinner anymore have you noticed that
it's just thought that not that you're incapable
of sin but you don't seem to be
able to sin with the same degree of
effectiveness fulfillment excitement or joy Jesus messes us
up for sinning right and people you find
who become indifferent toward their sinning then there
is reason for them if you find any
point of indifference toward sin self-justification of
a pathway of life that you select of
extremely common in our culture today is the
pursuit of sexual promiscuity or let's if promiscuity
is defined let me give it a definition
I'm going to define sexual promiscuity as any
sexual exercise outside of marriage and sexual promiscuity
some is the reason I give that definition
there are people that say well if you
just continue on with one partner a real
sense of commitment to them and even though
you're not married it's not promiscuous because you
are committed to one person even though you're
not living within well you know I I
mean the uh I know the bible says
this but I mean we feel so good
and we kind of joined hands before God
and said Lord kind of marry us and
all those sorts of things and and we
chuckle about it but the sad thing is
it's not really very funny because it's happening
all over the place among people who claim
Jesus Christ is their savior and somehow feel
that because they feel good about it and
everything's all right that it therefore is not
sin I'm going to tell you right now
that there's some kind of a spiritual time
bomb that's ticking in those people that their
conscience is being numbed by the spirit of
the world and they are headed a path
toward the loss of their eternal soul and
I'm going to talk about that in a
little bit people don't lose their soul over
a single act of sin or even some
particular ongoing continual sin they lose their soul
when their conscience their spirit becomes so numb
and neutralized by things they've surrendered to in
continuum that they finally reach a point of
of terrible terrible decision and I'm going to
talk about that later it's not suicide but
it is a very real spiritual suicide that
they perform salvation is through Jesus Christ alone
and a person who knows Jesus Christ who
takes their life for whatever reason has not
by that single act overreached the power of
the covenant of God to save their eternal
soul it is a violation of understanding of
misunderstanding a miscomprehension of the breadth of the
scope of what Jesus Christ has done in
the crowning work of Calvary there is nothing
in the cosmos that begins to approach the
marvel of what took place at Calvary we
cannot begin to lay hold of in our
minds that cosmic event that took place at
the cross where all the sins of mankind
and all the warpedness of the universe according
to the scripture for according to Romans chapter
8 there is something that will touch the
entire universe as the result of the cross
but the whole of creation has been groaning
and that something was released at the cross
and is intended by God to penetrate through
we who receive the work of the cross
affected in our lives there's something that's to
be worked in us that will have cosmic
implications in time there's something so magnificent so
magnitudinous we can hardly lay hold of it
and the pusillanimous peanut views of the cross
that would lock anyone into the chains of
eternal darkness because for one single act or
even a set of specific acts which as
violating of the principles of believing discipleship as
they may be that on the grounds of
those acts alone a person says they've lost
their eternal soul they don't understand the bigness
of the cross but i've always i've already
argued against the notion that on those grounds
we become indifferent i've had to deal with
in the years of my pastoral experience a
few cases not very many thankfully and i
think there's a reason we haven't had to
deal with very many and i don't say
this as credit to ourselves at all i
just simply think that when people understand the
redeeming scope of God's grace when they understand
the spirit of deliverance and the truth of
the word when they understand those things you
reduce the likelihood of people taking their own
lives but we will not take a position
of attempting to thwart people and indulging themselves
in suicide by suggesting something the bible doesn't
say that is to say to them you
will lose your eternal soul because you commit
suicide salvation is only secured then through Jesus
Christ the securing of salvation through Jesus Christ
is essentially an important point that needs to
be mentioned now because there is the such
deep emotion when a takes their own life
there are some who would argue other grounds
a good feeling their sorrow somehow finding a
way to hope they can neutralize the the
pain nullify the pain that's taking them over
and say well i i just somehow feel
God must have have received them have taken
them i i feel that something i i
just i just hope that you know God
God God is merciful isn't he pastor and
there are times that i have faced the
difficult situation of looking eye to eye with
a person that's left where a loved one
has committed suicide and there is no reason
whatsoever to believe that that person knew Jesus
Christ is their savior and you will never
find me say to that person no they
are not with God i will never say
that to anyone because i am not the
final judge but i will i will hold
before every honest heart the word of God
these words he that hath the son hath
life he who hath not the son of
God hath not life but the judgment of
God abides upon him neither is there salvation
in any other for there is no other
name under heaven given among men whereby we
must be saved God did so love the
world he gave his only begotten son and
whoever believes in him shall not perish but
shall have everlasting life but hear me loved
ones the inverse of that scripture is the
God who so loved the world and gave
his only son that people need not perish
if they believe in Jesus Christ that those
who do not believe in Jesus Christ will
perish God did not send his son into
the world to condemn the world but that
the world through him might be saved and
this is condemnation that light has come into
the world and men love the darkness rather
than the light he that believeth shall be
saved he that believeth not shall be damned
my purpose in saying those words of absolute
revelation of the pathway of salvation the circle
of salvation being in Jesus Christ alone is
lest there be anyone who suppose that what
I've said by reason of suicide not necessarily
being a damning act is to clarify the
notion that anyone would have that in the
emotion the agony of living out there having
been the loss of someone a friend a
loved one who didn't know Jesus Christ and
we argue somehow with ourselves and plead plead
with God somehow after the fact is there
somehow can you make room for them almost
defying God to alter his provisions and his
revelation to suit the pain of our moment
I don't believe it is within the call
of any person in this room or who
hears my voice and certainly not within my
own it is not my call to take
the implications of the fact that salvation is
only in Jesus Christ and to press those
lovelessly against the heart of a person who
has a loved one who has died by
whatever means and never have received Jesus Christ
and somehow insist against their heart cry hoping
that God somehow has taken care of that
person I don't believe it's our call to
insist on some doctrinal purity at that juncture
and say I'm sorry they never received Christ
they're lost and they're in hell that isn't
our task but neither is it my call
when dealing in general like this to hold
forth some notion that there's some flexibility and
that you kind of can squeeze in that
God shoehorns people in at the last moment
because well he just kind of felt a
little different about it when they have been
defiant and indifferent toward God all their lifetime
we can create situation after situation let me
say one other thing about that however the
primary reason I think we need to keep
our mouths shut in those situations where we
deal with people where a person as far
as we know really is lost suicide or
not and they're gone is because neither you
and I know what last-minute negotiations may
take place between a human being and the
living God we don't know what's going on
I submit to you not because I'm trying
to concoct means by which we can shoehorn
people in but I submit to you between
the time that a person takes their overdose
of drugs and lays there in their groggy
stupor we not knowing what really has transpired
over the years or months of that person's
life that has brought them to that moment
we don't know in what way that a
living loving God may reveal himself to them
and deal with them in that moment we
don't know we don't know what may transpire
in those virtually eternal moments from the time
the person leaves the top of the bridge
and splatter their bodies on the water below
we don't know what may be taking place
in those moments we don't know so many
things we would be wise to say nothing
but to say nothing other than to be
loving receptive and comforting to people is one
thing and to attempt to compute our own
programs of salvation which have legal loopholes where
our emotions want one that's another thing we
must avoid too as surely as we must
avoid legalism we need to avoid the spirit
of liberalism that lets anything go that feels
better salvation is not an irreversible arrangement I
want to talk about delicate balance between two
things and I'm still dealing with this the
question if a person commits suicide or the
eternally lost I want to talk about how
people lose their salvation they don't lose it
by committing suicide salvation is not an irreversible
arrangement now first it is an irrevocable contract
from God's side when God offers us salvation
that is a contract that is not tentative
on his side here are two verses of
scripture John chapter 6 verse 37 Jesus said
he that cometh unto me I will not
cast out say that with me will you
he that cometh unto me I will in
no means let's read the verse the whole
verse is there all that the father gives
me will come to me and the one
who comes to me I will be by
no means cast out if it's true of
you turn to the person next to you
and say I've come to Jesus and he's
going to keep that promise to me go
ahead say it to somebody how you feeling
or we John chapter 10 verses 27 to
29 let's read those verses together shall we
my sheep hear my voice and I know
them and they follow me let's pause right
there read it again sheep voice and I
know them and they follow me and I
give them eternal life and they shall never
perish neither shall anyone snatch them out of
my hand my father who has given them
to me is greater than all and no
one is able to snatch them out of
my father's hand now that's the that's the
end of the scripture the next thing is
is what I wrote and I don't suggest
you confuse it with the eternal word of
God salvation is an irrevocable contract from God's
side no one can pluck them out of
my hand no one that comes to me
will I cast away but in contrast to
that irrevocable contract from God's side of things
there also is a timeless covenant of free
will that overarches that in other words that
God has made an irrevocable covenant of salvation
with all who come to his son Jesus
Christ that he has said no one or
no thing can take you out of my
hand that he has said that that Jesus
has said I will never turn any away
anyone who comes to me he doesn't say
on the basis of their merits their works
their accomplishments he doesn't say if they commit
suicide therefore I'm washed up with them it
doesn't say whatever they do that he's changing
his plan that is on his side but
that does not violate the fact that there
is a timeless covenant God also has with
all intelligent agents and that's free moral beings
myself and that's the power of choice and
he never rescinds that being saved does not
make you an automaton does not turn you
into a robot I'd like for us to
turn to the 10th chapter of Hebrews together
and I want us to read a demanding
passage of scripture that tells how a person
can lose their soul why are you doing
this Jack I thought you were talking about
people who commit suicide not losing their soul
I'm doing this on these grounds that I
want everyone to understand that it is error
to suppose that simply because a person commits
suicide they therefore have lost their eternal soul
that having said that does not mean it
is not possible for a person to lose
their soul when they've been saved but it
is an extremely demanding and difficult thing to
lose your soul if you want to you
can do it it can be done and
there are people that have done it and
in writing to the Hebrews in this passage
of scripture even where these words beginning in
chapter 10 verse 26 through 29 even in
writing these words which we're going to read
the writer concludes in verse 39 however that
those to whom he writes and including himself
he says but we are not of those
who draw back to perdition but of those
who believe to the saving of the soul
so that even the context in which we
addresses this is not a context in which
he is saying you did this he is
saying we are not that kind of people
but it would be meaningless to deal with
if they're not such people and it would
be meaningless for it to be outlined in
scripture if it were not possible for a
person listen to become so immune to the
deterioration of their spiritual life and their attitudes
toward the living God that they begin to
broach this frightening territory in which the Bible
says an individual may disannul the contract of
salvation that God has irrevocably provided for them
but by action of their own will they
are annulling and this is what the scripture
says in that regard verse 27 or verse
26 for if we sin willfully after we
have received knowledge of the truth there no
longer remains a sacrifice for sin the participle
that occurs there if we sin willfully the
participial form is in the present tense and
it means the same thing we're saying earlier
if it's a person who commits themselves to
a pathway of ongoing sinning with indifference there
is not any significant spirit of repentance i'm
not talking about the fact that every single
one of us in this room sin all
the time anybody here doesn't send i don't
know why you even bothered to come to
church we're not talking about the fact that
all of us and we're talking about people
who commit themselves to a pathway of sin
who sin willfully it says as a result
of this there what remains for them is
a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery
indignation which will will devour the adversaries that's
the same thing as satan and all of
his hosts anyone who has rejected moses law
died without mercy in the testimony of two
or three witnesses of how much worse punishment
do you suppose will be he thought worthy
who and with this point we sit on
an outline i want us to discuss a
few minutes read with me with you who
has trampled the son of god underfoot that's
number one say it again who has trampled
the son of god underfoot number two counted
the blood of the covenant by which he
was sanctified a common thing number three and
insulted the spirit of grace now those are
the three means by which a person may
dismantle the covenant of salvation what is it
saying it's saying that a person who in
the continuum of their apostasy that's a word
that has to do with it moving outside
the circle of covenant because of their willful
commitment to that which is opposite to the
will and way of god they commit themselves
to sin i i i frankly wary of
the frequency thankfully percentage wise our pastoral team
pastors probably 10 000 people and on a
continuing basis and i weary of those few
cases you probably will hear in the course
of uh of a year of maybe 15
or 20 cases so that's a an infinitesimal
figure but it's it's rankling to me that
there's even one who supposes that because they
circle with a a group of people who
love love jesus and they go through all
the motions of certain things and have their
own emotions of feeling they they make the
scene whenever it suits them that that therefore
that because they generally identify with with jesus
stuff and if you ask oh yes i
believe and they may even be able to
spout scripture a yard long but the bible
says the devils even believe and tremble and
there's nobody that can even quote scripture that
should exceed the devil he'll win every any
bible memory contest you want to enter into
him with the ability of the person to
cite doctrine the ability of the person to
sound spiritual or talk religious or to go
through and that doesn't mean a thing bottom
line will be is that person committed to
jesus christ and when you hear of people
that live in outright ongoing sinning and generally
it has to do with moral sinning committing
themselves to moral sin to immorality sexual immorality
there are other expressions i've dealt with people
who the way that they treat their family
beat their wives the way that they handle
their business affairs they are anything but a
disciple of jesus christ and somehow do not
recognize their conscience is becoming numbed seared and
as a result of that they are in
a path which is headed down a place
that they cannot yet recognize but the bible
warns that people who continually sin willfully after
they receive knowledge of the truth that there
is an end to that path and it
comes eventually to this point and here's the
thing that they do first they trample jesus
underfoot what does that mean well the word
that is used there is an interesting one
it's the same one jesus used when he
was talking about being careful what you say
in front of people he says don't cast
your pearls before swine he was talking about
taking truth the wisdom of god and putting
it before people who will use it to
mock to deride and they'll just turn and
trample over that as precious as that truth
is he says there's wisdom and there's truth
that people just trample on don't bother to
put it out there it's the same verb
that's used but here people are not trampling
on pearls of wisdom they are trampling on
the pearl of great price they've demeaned the
son of god it comes a place of
i don't care what jesus says and they
walk roughshod over jesus say would they ever
just if he laid his body out there
and walked over it is that what you're
talking about oh there's no one that likely
ever had any history of association with jesus
that would exercise some kind of an act
on that fashion it has to do with
people running roughshod indifference over the things that
jesus has said and jesus has called them
to and his appeal to them to follow
him and they go indifferently toward it second
thing it says they esteem the blood of
the covenant unworthy in other words they devalue
that which is at the heart of a
person's ability to know the forgiveness of god
for it is the blood that has paid
the price of salvation and they come to
a point where the blood of christ is
considered a common thing it has no real
worth the beginning indication of that would be
when a person comes to the place that
there is not any serious concern about the
cleansing power of the blood of jesus as
it would work in their lives and bring
deliverance they regard the blood only as a
convenient rinse to be applied to some record
in heaven so that they can say i've
been justified by faith and i'm going to
heaven but the blood of jesus christ is
not something that they come and feeding on
regularly at the table of the lord allow
to minister the ongoing life and power of
the son of god it becomes common thing
to them and there comes a dangerous indifference
toward that which redeems and delivers and frees
and purifies thirdly they insult the holy spirit
how how do you insult the holy spirit
well there's a classic case when jesus spoke
about the unpardonable sin and while hebrews chapter
10 that we're reading 26 to 29 is
not discussing the unpardonable sin the the outworking
of the whole thing amounts to as much
for the unpardonable sin is eternal condemnation this
person who rescinds their covenant with god by
those specific steps they take has arrived at
the same place outside the covenant and therefore
eternal loss and so it's essentially the same
thing what is the unpardonable sin the unpardonable
sin when you read in jesus ministry had
to do with people attributing to to the
the lord jesus the works of satan those
works which really were in the power of
the holy spirit in order to justify themselves
they said what god is doing that's that's
really deception it's really the devil what was
happening is the holy spirit through the miracle
ministry of jesus he was casting out demons
the holy spirit was extending and establishing the
rule of the kingdom through him he said
if i by the finger of god cast
out devils then the kingdom of god has
come to you and the pharisees who became
so threatened by the manifest reality and power
of jesus ministry said that power which was
the power of the holy spirit working through
christ said that power is demon power it's
beelzebub power it's the devil jesus said you
be careful because you just came to a
line you'd better recognize you can speak against
the father you can speak against me and
be forgiven but when you come and begin
to blaspheme the holy spirit by attributing the
works of the holy spirit of god to
satan you're in the territory that there is
no forgiveness in this world or in the
next and there's something frighteningly sobering about that
and at the heart of it is the
very thing of this insulting the holy spirit
because it has to do not with these
i consider by comparison relatively petty issues i'll
have somebody come and say do you think
somebody that says that speaking with tongues is
of the devil is by committed the unpardonable
sin and i i think people get caught
up in little doctrinal controversies and take people's
points of confusion where they're not really talking
so much about somebody speaking in tongues as
they're talking about some bizarre behavior they've seen
in somebody who claimed to speak with tongues
and lived like the devil and so therefore
they attribute it to being one and the
same the real issue has to do with
lordship it has to do with whether the
kingdom is allowed to rule what you do
in responding to the holy spirit's insistence that
jesus is lord over these issues of your
life and when the holy spirit comes to
say jesus must be lord in this area
i will crowd out the works of darkness
in your life and there is a persistence
of indifference to the point that we finally
virtually say spirit of god never read it
in words spirit of god leave me alone
i will what i will to do that
a person then rescinds the arena into which
grace has ushered them the provision of salvation
you say pastor jack why are you dealing
with this i'm dealing with for two reasons
the first reason is that i have wanted
to make very clear that the issue that
suicide would eternally dam a soul is not
an issue that ought to torment or frighten
any person as though someone you know who
committed suicide is thereby automatically certain of eternal
loss and because that thought is prevalent enough
in the church at large and there are
people i suppose in our congregation that feared
that they they ought to believe it i
don't know people who would want to believe
it i can't imagine anybody wanting to believe
it but i can imagine people who felt
obligated to believe it because it seemed it
must be true murder self-murder last act
how can you stand before god and said
i violated one of your commandments and therefore
expect eternal hope but i'm wanting to make
clear that by the act of suicide a
person doesn't lose their soul but if we're
going to deal with that subject we've got
to go all the way and deal with
that a person can lose their soul and
we can't be indifferent to that truth but
it is a difficult thing to do people
don't do it by accident you don't do
it because you had a flash of temper
i hate to even concede this ground but
i've been pretty pointed about the sin of
immorality and its undesirability its unrighteousness and its
evil so let me go one step and
and say uh what is the truth of
the word i i don't even like to
concede this much but i've got to say
it because it's true no more than the
act of suicide is going necessarily damn a
person's soul who has struck covenant with god
and has not denied that covenant an act
of immorality isn't going to either but the
problem is that once people begin to presume
on the grace of god they get into
arena an arena where there comes a neutralizing
and a numbing of their heart and their
conscience toward god and that's what this willful
sinning of hebrews chapter 10 is talking about
people who in a continuum get in a
path where they're moving more distantly all the
time from true discipleship to jesus christ and
living under the delusion that they are in
fact disciples sufficiently to warrant their belief that
the covenant covers where they are and they
are effectively coming to the place the covenant
is being dismantled by their violation of it
at point after point after point after point
then are you saying jackson suicide does not
apparently constitute in the light of the word
of rescinding of the believers packed with god
that is the covenant of salvation that it
makes no difference but suicide may be committed
with virtual impunity and i want to say
and i think i've said that the text
we've read at the beginning demonstrates that the
issues of life are great greater than we
suppose that the issue of our eternal salvation
no matter how everlastingly consequential however does not
overshadow the fact that god has saved us
for his purpose and i want to talk
a little bit about the purpose of this
life i've already said jesus has called us
to follow him and he gave his life
he didn't save it this passage we read
in the came to him were men who
were looking apparently for jesus to come with
them jesus who had been rejected in general
by officialdom of those in israel might well
have thought oh why don't i go with
these who have come men who are seeking
truth and beauty and light and i can
go there are open hearts that will receive
the revelation of god he says father what
shall i say when these come say we
want to talk to jesus these grecians said
no one knows what their conversational approach to
him was but jesus response suggests to me
that they were offering him saying look people
apparently aren't really that open to you at
least at official level here we come from
a country where there are people that are
honestly seeking insight into what truth and justice
and beauty is about and you seem to
manifest it in a way why don't you
come with us jesus recognizing these people from
a pagan background that basically have some kind
of an openness toward him and they were
probably people committed to some degree of faith
in the jewish law but they also came
from a culture where there would have been
more openness without the religious resistance that he
was finding there jesus says father what shall
i say and he answers himself said no
said should i say save me from this
hour and all in the gospel of john
that phrase has to do with his going
to the cross the pathway of self-denial
the pathway of surrender to the will of
god and the purpose of god and he
says no for this purpose came i into
the world and then he turns around and
he says don't anybody that follows me go
about the path of taking your life in
your own hands no matter how reasonable it
seems no matter how dark they are no
matter how desperate the circumstance no matter how
apparently desirable the option don't take things in
your own hands the purpose of this life
let's talk about it a few minutes it's
a shallow concept that only sees this life
as being determining of our eternal salvation i
think the one thing that concerns me about
the run in the mill of evangelical christianity
and that includes most pentecostals charismatics the run
of the mill see what's out what what
salvation is about what this life is all
about is you decide whether you're going to
be saved or lost now there's no question
that that is the ultimate issue of this
life nobody can bypass that and a person
whether they're going to be in the presence
of god eternally or apart from god eternally
that is decided in this lifetime but jesus
christ did not come just in order to
make a way for people to get to
heaven forever i'm not minimizing that righteous provision
or the high joy of eternity with him
but what he came to do is to
bring life into the light he came to
begin to infuse people with the purposes of
god so that a purposeless world could begin
to see people who are moving toward something
in the face of an untoward world and
that the life of the kingdom would begin
to govern their life and their behavior so
that the power of the kingdom would begin
to encroach upon the darkness and they being
salt in the earth would take the decadence
of the earth and see it change because
of the purifying preserving penetrating power of the
salt and that they being light in the
world not lights shining forever in the star
affirmament though we shall shine as the stars
forever in some marvelous poetic sense of that
word but that they would be light in
the world and where they go that something
of the glow of god in them would
crowd out darkness the purpose of god in
believers is that life happen in them and
that that life take over a dead planet
but salvation is so perceived today by so
many believers the cheap shoddy tinsely tinfoil kind
of believing life that reduces to well jesus
is just for me and my fulfillment and
he does want to fulfill us he's for
me and my prosperity he does want to
prosper us he's for me and my emotional
satisfaction and he does want to heal and
fulfill your emotions but that isn't what the
sum and substance of his purpose is he
wants to get us together at those points
so that we can follow him and following
him will inevitably bring you to a place
that you begin to give your life away
not seize your life to yourself and no
matter how you slice it dear ones the
most conclusive demonstration of self-preservingness and i
hurt in saying it lest i would offend
some individual's memory of any other person and
you've had enough pain if you've been in
touch with a case of suicide that has
hurt you and i would not open that
wound i would not reopen it i would
not take and wave in front of you
some preacherly statement that would be unkind or
loveless but i submit to you the reason
for the depth of the wound and the
deepness of the pain is because what you
have dealt with has been a consummate act
of selfishness you say well i don't i
don't want to think of them as being
selfish they were dear and they were loving
and they were hurt and they were pained
and of course they were but so have
been multiplied millions who never inflicted on those
around them that degree of pain not to
mention the fact the multiplied millions who out
of their torment pursued with disciplined purity the
way of jesus christ and not only found
that they survived they found deliverance and a
way into light oh let us not submit
to the selfishness of a world that pleads
with us to concede to our own feelings
rather than to the revelation of god which
if this truth is imbibed it will take
over your system and it will make you
free but i have known pastor jack i've
known and our casuistry begins to work episodes
cases we can offer case but i've known
people who who they seem to have all
of that and loved ones i've had to
wrestle through the same thing in dealing with
cases myself but i finally came to the
bottom line that without disrespecting the memory of
those beloved ones without in any wise impugning
to them even in their last moments less
than what appeared to them at that moment
the right thing without impugning anything against them
i've still had to come to the bottom
line that no matter how they seemed it's
still only how they seemed it's not where
they were and i've had people say to
me over the years of pastoral experience if
they did that and they seemed so strong
and there have been very few cases that
i've ever dealt with where people seem strong
but you deal with one and it's enough
when you answer the question but they seem
so strong i wonder if the same thing
could happen to me well the same thing
could happen to any one of us if
we concede there's not a righteous one among
us that can save ourselves and there's not
a righteous one among us who can argue
preemption from the likelihood of surrender to ourself
at such point the reason for dealing with
this truth is to hold the starkness of
the sin of suicide in front of us
in a way we come not only with
the comforting truth because there is comforting truth
in this message and i hope you see
it there at places but there's demanding truth
also that calls us to discipleship because the
greatest comfort is walking the pathway of jesus
and watching him work deliverance i want to
deal with a very difficult point now for
a moment and it's a point that concerns
me very very deeply i want to remove
the notion that the person who commits suicide
leaves the distress of their present life and
suddenly is wafted into the joyous presence of
jesus say well aren't they with the lord
oh yes yes the bible says specifically to
be absent from the body is to be
present with the lord there is no limbo
where a soul kind of floats floats pointlessly
awaiting some eternal time of of accounting there
is no soul sleep to be absent from
the body the scripture says second corinthians chapter
five is to be present with the lord
paul says to the philippians in chapter one
he says when i face the impending execution
i think to myself should i say god
deliver me from the roman sword that's to
take my life should i say lord deliver
me for the sake of ministry or should
i just say it's been a long been
a long struggle all years i think i'd
like to go home he says sometimes i
wonder what you'd rather but he says i
get he says they made the decision right
there but he wouldn't have been wrestling with
the decision if there was some kind of
a soul sleep some kind of a limbo
some sort of an in-between he knew
he'd be with the lord he says i
wonder if it would be better to depart
with christ now but even there in that
soliloquy where he discusses would be better just
to not pray for deliverance from my impending
execution so that i could have extended ministry
or just say oh just gonna let events
take their course because i've worked a long
hard time here and serving the lord and
i'd like to go home i've taken enough
lumps taken enough beatings been through enough shipwrecks
had enough hell boiling around me serve god
faithfully enough i want to go home to
my reward and he well might have but
here's the decision he makes he says but
i've decided to stay here as long as
i can because it's better to be serving
people than it is to serve my own
convenience and go with jesus he didn't have
that choice he wasn't about to commit suicide
that wasn't the issue at all it's not
a hamlet soliloquy it's a godly soliloquy the
man saying i'm going to get my head
cut off because i served jesus should i
pray for deliverance from this or not we
don't believe in purgatory the bible doesn't teach
such a thing what do we believe in
somehow there exists in the body of christ
the idea that a person who commits suicide
has suddenly left whatever it was of the
turmoil and the difficulties they had and been
automatically released where now they just went from
whatever it was the bullet through the skull
whatever it was of the loss of their
life by whatever means and now suddenly the
next instant they're with the lord life is
beautiful and they're singing in the heavenly choir
and we're with jesus and i'm not being
funny please because there are people i don't
want to evoke don't be embarrassed if you
chuckled a bit there i'm not trying to
evoke anything at all there's nothing facetious in
what i'm saying and there are people who
right now are on a thin edge of
pain because of things that well then if
they're i'll tell you what they face no
limbo no purgatory but they do face a
moment of accountability before the throne of jesus
christ their lord who died to give them
life and i want to submit you to
you that that standing before jesus christ and
accounting for what we have done with our
life is not some little juicy moment of
ecstasy where we start practicing with the heavenly
choir the bible puts it in terms like
these that everything that we have been and
done as a redeemed child of god is
marshaled into the presence of the lord and
it is tested by fire and it says
that it's possible for everything that a person
did with their life as a believer to
be lost they will still be saved but
i want to ask you the question as
to how readily you're likely to tune your
soul to an eternal choir the instant that
jesus said i love you and i receive
you from the pain of your failure and
you are forgiven and you may enter into
the presence of the father but everything you
were to be for me has been lost
and i call you to account to me
how my child my having shown you my
love and forgiveness could you waste it in
a moment and please no one laugh i
don't see a person spinning from that moment
and joining in some grand hallelujah course for
the lord god omnipotent reigneth i'll tell you
an opinion that is merely that though it
is shared by other commentators that i've preachers
that i've conversed with not in the least
bit legalistic way and they've said this when
the bible says god shall wipe away all
tears they said i wonder if there shall
not be in the moments of awareness when
we stand before god and see how we've
wasted the marvel of the grand salvation he
gave us that there shall not be not
a time of self-flagellation of a purgatory
of trying to earn god's pleasure not a
lack of understanding his love but being so
overwhelmed by the love that received you in
spite of how you wasted everything the love
that even in that moment does not condemn
you but embraces you in total receptivity but
nonetheless your soul bows in that moment and
says oh i wasted it all and i'm
sorry who can suppose that a person can
take the gift of life dash it to
destruction and go singing into the presence of
the living god i plead with you loved
ones be gone with the foolishness of a
world mind that fills us with such ignorance
in the name of theology in the name
of a notion that salvation preempts responsibility we
are called to eternal salvation called by a
love that embraces us with such depth we
can't fathom it and even in that moment
of recognized wastefulness still that prodigal shall enter
into a time of feasting there shall be
a clothing with that prodigal with righteousness we
shall experience the ring of redemption being placed
on our finger in the presence of god
and there shall come the time of joining
an eternal song but i think not that
it springs from that first moment of passage
with relative indifference and consummate selfishness out of
the pain of the moment trying to escape
responsibility when god has called us to it
and we are accountable oh that hurts me
to deal with that truth situations come to
mind and i've said i will not deal
with them what are the person who took
their life in a drunken stupor in a
moment that they were so high on drugs
they didn't even know what was happening what
of them let me ask a question even
more penetrating than that what of this person
the person whose self-centeredness is breeding a
slow suicide what have we who continue drinking
liquor caffeine who feed our bodies in a
way that it is not a moment of
abandonment of casting our life away in an
instant but casting our life away by little
and by little who inhale nicotine to the
point of a cancer that takes our lives
20 years ahead of time i ask you
loved ones what will be the scene in
the presence of christ what have you done
with the life i gave you of the
young person who drives recklessly and hangs themselves
around a pole not the victim of somebody
else's foolishness but the victim of their own
recklessness and they lose 40 years of committed
service to jesus christ what of that kind
of suicide what are the kind of suicide
of overeating to the point of a body
whose heart cannot sustain itself and we lose
years time that might be given in faithful
service of overwork because we're driven by some
self-induced ethic that requires of us to
attain some degree of success that god could
give by grace without our degree of works
if we would let him but we ruin
ourselves stampeded by fear what of that that
results from immorality i thought of what kind
of suicide is this an idle reckless moment
of indifference the conception of a child and
then the instance of abortion what kind of
suicide on their own soul is a person
been working that which nags screams and hollers
inside them that you have violated life and
what sort of suicide is that that has
numbed the mind of a man who doesn't
even seem to bear that much of sense
of responsibility for what he has begotten and
now what is lost or say well it
wasn't aborted it was born and now it's
being raised someplace the person squanders life somehow
now the whole thing smacks to me as
the very thing of what the bible says
it has to do with defiling the temple
of god the word thyro that is used
there has to do with anything that involves
the out of orderness of the temple and
the jews order of things if even one
thing was out of order the temple the
temple was defied it was a word thyro
was used to describe the violation of a
marriage contract that a contract that that in
marriage contracts in the ancient day that verb
was used when we describe a marriage where
it said the person shall not become a
spendthrift they won't be a wastrel of what
resources have been given them and that figure
struck me so powerfully when it talks about
not wasting the temple of god which is
your body it struck me so profoundly when
i realized that what jesus has done is
our heavenly bridegroom has said i want your
body that's what he said but he doesn't
want it in the carnal lewd way that
we think of it in this culture he
wants to fill us with his spirit and
his life that our body being a temple
of his spirit may be a center of
ministry of light and health and strength and
a testimony would net result of our lives
because of that temple invested by the holy
spirit he says i want to indwell you
says so don't violate that marriage contract my
bride don't violate it don't become a spendthrift
a wastrel of what it is that that
i've given you of life the word of
god calls us to be to be people
who come to an accountability with our life
and all of its detail your body's his
temple don't use it for yourself don't violate
redemptive purpose all of us are plagued by
different things this is not intended as to
be funny cute or anything there is a
specific sort of sweet that i personally feel
i am not to eat more than once
a week i ate it three times last
week does god love me less no am
i suffering anything no not now but the
lord who dealt with my heart he didn't
write it in some table of stone saying
thou shalt not eat that kind of good
he's to to my own spirit seemed to
nestle an idea an understanding as the holy
spirit whispers things about my life he didn't
say if you do that i'll send you
to hell just said that that's going to
weaken you in the long run generally i
observe that that once a week but last
week and through the course of our vacation
far more frequently this particular kind of sweet
and it's not making any difference on this
my 50th year and very likely won't in
my 55th and possibly not my 60th you
see i've got i would like to have
a lot of years to serve jesus and
i don't know but that the holy spirit
has said i know your frame i know
your dust you've been made this way and
i've designed for you in the 78th year
of your life something that will be of
special purpose of mine don't abort your life
in its 77th year by what you're doing
now in your 50th all of us need
to come under the judgment of the holy
spirit not the damning judgment but the discerning
purifying judgment of the holy spirit to account
for our lives before the lord do you
agree with that what are the state of
the person that commits suicide who knows christ
and is with him i i don't know
in first corinthians 5 1 to 5 it
describes paul saying that fornicator that's fornicating all
the time in the church violating the body
of christ violating their own body and the
body of the one with whom they participate
that fornicator deliver them over to satan for
the destruction of the flesh so the spirit
can be saved that's a frightening passage it
essentially says pray that there will come something
that will destroy them before they lose their
soul because they're going that way now he
says pray something will happen to them that
they will lose their physical life so that
at least their spirit will be saved now
as a matter of fact they repented second
corinthians tells us and so that never happened
but the question comes what would happen that
person whose life is shortened by reason of
their sinning stands before the lord but what
will happen they will have to stand accountably
before the lord not the question of their
eternal soul hanging in the balance the question
of accountability before god i want to reach
a quick conclusion if suicide is a scripturally
unacceptable handling of life and its problems what
should we do these four things say these
four words with me will you release recognize
no these four words release recognize first release
all that has gone before to god the
first thing that we need to do is
to ask the question what about the places
where you feel guilty say could i have
made a difference would the person not have
taken their life if i had been there
if i had been more sensitive if i'd
been in touch if i had made that
call if i had loved ones you cannot
flip your soul around from now through the
balance of your life release everything into the
hands of god and his mercy his ability
there are people who are angry because they've
been hurt emotionally by a suicide that needs
to be released the anger needs to be
released there are people here who are ashamed
because of attempts you've taken on your life
and the enemy uses that against you i
ministered to a woman in the northern part
of the nation sometime back god gave me
a word of knowledge and i said there's
someone here in this service right now and
you always wear a long-sleeved blouse i
said it's a woman and it's because you
wear that blouse to cover the scars where
you once attempted to take your life and
jesus wants you to know that he is
delivering you today from that shame of that
past failure of that attempt and it was
a mighty moment and afterwards a woman came
up and she unbuttoned the sleeve of her
blouse and rolled it back and tears were
rolling down her eyes and she was radiant
with that sense of release she wasn't proud
of that but neither was she bound by
the shame of it any longer the guilt
and the shame the anger needs to be
cast down the accusations of the devil release
all that's gone before to god secondly recognize
the thought or the thought or the temptation
to commit suicide is not sin it is
not sin jesus was tempted to suicide the
devil took him up on the pinnacle of
the temple says jump off it's a good
way to verify who you are he was
tempted to suicide he wasn't being driven by
some sense of remorse or some self-centeredness
or some fear or some darkness of his
soul but he was being tempted to suicide
listen to this statement recognize the thought of
temptation with the thought or the temptation to
commit suicide is not sin but it is
demonic it is satanic need to get that
pin down every approach of the adversary john
10 10 the thief comes to steal and
to kill and to destroy jesus satan is
the one who suggested suicide to jesus judas
committed suicide and the bible explicitly says only
hours before satan entered him saul committed suicide
and the night before made a visit to
a necromancer or sorceress the witch of ender
was dabbling in the things of satan every
time you encounter suicide in the scripture it
has not every time there's one other case
that it's it's a person who in their
their despair ahithopel took his life but it
essentially is manifestly an activity of satan and
i'm not arguing against it even being the
devil in ahithopel's case it just doesn't specifically
say it and he went out and he
hanged himself suicide is satanic that tells us
something temptation to suicide it tells us that
there's deliverance from it it tells us there's
victory over it we can tread underfoot all
the works of the devil somebody say hallelujah
here's what you do resist the devil and
resisting the devil has to do with taking
a stance on the grounds of the scriptures
it has to do with taking a position
on the grounds of the cross it has
to do listen closely now it has to
do with a retreat into the fortress of
god's provision which is the precise inverse of
the dismantling of covenant we described otherwise people
trample underfoot the blood of christ or the
they trample underfoot the lord jesus christ they
esteem the blood of the covenant unworthy and
they insult the holy spirit now if those
are the things that dismantle a salvation think
of the things that are the inverse of
that and their power to resist satan and
the fortress it brings to a human soul
instead of trampling underfoot or discarding the merit
of the power of jesus begin to exalt
jesus in every detail of your life circle
yourself in the spirit of praise move into
the arena where you begin to plead the
merciful provision of the blood join with people
who honor the power of the cross the
redemptive work of christ lift up jesus and
let the blood have its power take the
power of the blood and the bible says
that put on the helmet of salvation and
i can remember being tormented by terrible thoughts
of lost sense of worth sometime back and
i've told this in an entire message of
how satan demeans and beats on you and
the key to my deliverance from that was
standing one day and consciously saying lord i
put on the helmet of salvation by placing
the power of jesus blood from his cross
around my head right now lord begin to
dissolve that fly-like buzzing that comes against
me and constantly harps on my worthlessness and
over the ensuing days it wasn't in an
instant but the presence of that crown that
helmet of salvation began to dissolve the powers
of hell you honor the power of the
blood and it works deliverance but that resistance
that is exercised by retreating into the fortress
of god's provision that resistance is something that
often is a wrestling match we're wrestling and
it's an ongoing match but i'll tell you
this with the resources of jesus the blood
of the covenant and the power of the
holy spirit of god's grace not my works
but his grace satan can't pin you hallelujah
and you will move into the dimension of
his victory and there's one other thing to
do circle yourself with saints get around with
the brothers and the sisters anytime that the
works of darkness begin to haunt you torment
you tell you anything that would at all
begin to breach your sense of of responsibility
with the life that christ has given you
come before the lord and begin to exalt
his name come and begin to appeal the
power of the blood and enter into a
wrestling match and when you begin to get
weary i'll tell you we need a lot
more spiritual tag team wrestling you need to
get with the brothers and sisters have about
taken all i can get and you've all
seen those wrestling matches the guy struggles over
to the side of the ring slaps the
hand of a partner and they come in
the ring and carry it for him a
while and the lord has given us each
other and i'll tell you folks there will
never be one suicide in the body of
christ when the brothers and sisters link themselves
together stand together and move in the resources
that are given to us in jesus christ
do you need to be freed from anger
or shame or pain from a past if
someone touched you by suicide jesus is present
to heal tonight do you need to be
delivered from recurring lies of the adversary saying
that's the way your life will count most
if you throw it away and he so
blurs the distinction of your accountability before christ
who has given you life to give it
away to people who need life and whose
plight loved one is multiplied times worse than
yours and who needs someone who will love
them and reach them with christ love and
life and you become so blurred in the
midst of your own torment and sorrow that
satan begins to succeed saying this is the
way out this is the way out and
you heard pastor jack said you won't necessarily
lose your soul and that's true you also
heard pastor jack say that jesus has a
much better plan for you oh hallelujah he
has so much more for us and god
god deliver us from anything that would persuade
us with the notion that anything less than
following jesus in this way giving our life
for his sake is the way because what
happens is whatever you're going through you will
find what your life is about why miss
the greatest discovery of your life why miss
the greatest discovery of your life by ending
it why miss it because the person that
stays in jesus says but if you'll lose
taking your own life for your sake and
lose it for my sake says you're going
to find what i had for you you're
going to find purpose i'm so tempted to
cite an illustration from a case a painful
case of suicide that happened in our congregation
one time but i've chosen this evening to
cite no cases we deal with the truth
let jesus teach us we hope you have
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