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I have a very solemn message for you

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today, friends, and it lays heavy upon my

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heart.

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I believe a thrice holy God has to

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give an evangelist a burden for souls.

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It's not a natural thing to care about

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someone dying and slipping into hell.

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I believe that burden comes from God.

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I believe God has a burden for souls.

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The apostle Peter tells us so.

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The Lord is not slack concerning his promise,

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as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering

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to usward, not willing that any should perish,

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but that all should come to repentance.

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God's burden for souls is evident in Calvary,

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where his only begotten son hung naked on

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a bloody cross as a substitute for sin.

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I believe God's heart broke that day, if

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I may so speak, when God had to

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turn his face away from his bloodstained son,

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as he became a curse for us.

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And I believe, friends, that God's heart breaks

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every time he has to send one of

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his creation to a smoking furnace of hell.

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And I believe you are breaking God's heart

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right now by your rejection of his son

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and by your willful slavery to sin.

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By his grace, the Holy Spirit has been

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wooing you in answer to someone's prayers, and

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you still strive against the Spirit because of

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your love for self and sin.

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Peter said that God wants all to come

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to repentance.

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Maybe you're a good church member who has

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never repented.

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Repentance means that the love of sin dies.

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Maybe you're sitting in the presumed safety of

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a church sanctuary, but your legs dangle over

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hell below.

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Like I said, I believe God gives grace

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to an evangelist to have a burden for

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souls.

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I've spent entire nights out of bed on

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my knees, crying out to God with tears

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streaming down my face that God would break

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some hardened sinner's heart in the morning service

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where I was due to preach.

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And God did just that.

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He answered that prayer as a young man

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came bounding down the aisle, jumping up and

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down, exclaiming, God saved me.

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He really saved me.

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God saves man because he has a burden

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for souls.

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It broke God's heart to kick Adam and

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Eve out of paradise, but they had become

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unfit for it because of sin.

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And man today is unfit for heaven because

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of the very same thing, sin.

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God had such a burden for souls he

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sent his son to suffer and die in

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the stead of sinners.

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Amazing love.

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Oh, what a burden for souls.

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And Christ Jesus was obedient unto death on

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a bloody cross because of his burden for

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souls.

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I have one verse today, friends, from a

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message, and one verse alone, and I believe

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this verse says it all.

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In Ecclesiastes 1.4 we read, one generation

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passes away and another generation cometh, but the

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earth abideth forever.

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This tear-soaked earth abides forever as one

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generation comes and lives and dies, and another

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generation follows after it.

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If you want a reminder of the brevity

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of life and the people who have walked

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this earth, go take a stroll through your

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local graveyard and read the names on all

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those headstones from past generations.

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Death, friends, is no respecter of persons, for

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all men die.

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There is a calendar up in glory, with

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a certain date circled in red, and that

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day is your red-letter day, friend, when

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it is your turn to die.

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God knows the end as well as the

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beginning, and he knows the exact date of

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your impending death.

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Death can come to you quite suddenly, without

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any notice or advance warning.

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For man also knoweth not his time, as

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the fishes that are taken in an evil

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net, and as the birds that are caught

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in the snare.

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So are the sons of man snared in

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an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon

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them.

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Last December, I was at my daughter's college

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graduation, and afterwards we went out to celebrate

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at a local restaurant, and the very next

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day I was lying in an ambulance on

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my way to the hospital with a sudden

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heart attack.

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All four of my arteries were blocked ninety

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-five percent, and I was a ticking time

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bomb ready to explode.

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I didn't know previously I had heart trouble

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until then.

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Well, I lay in the hospital for the

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next sixty days, while I had quadruple bypass

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surgery and a pacemaker put in me, and

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I say all that, because life is short

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and unexpected.

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For one day I was celebrating a thing,

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and the next day I was standing on

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the verge of eternity.

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One generation passes away, and another generation cometh,

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but the earth abideth forever.

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It is my prayer, friends, that the Holy

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Spirit would speak to hearts through this message

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and disturb someone, that God would take your

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blinders off and show you where you were

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going, that the very devils in hell would

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jump up out of those twisting flames and

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make a grab at you to get your

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attention and show you that you deserve nothing

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but to go to hell.

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You are guilty of breaking God's strict holy

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law, and God says he will in no

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wise clear the guilty, that there are chains

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awaiting you in that prison of outer darkness,

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where the screams and shrieks of the damned

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will so unsettle you that terror will be

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your only companion, like Charles Dickens' three spirits

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that visited Scrooge.

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I pray that your sins will now rise

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and appear before you and haunt you and

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disturb you and bring conviction to awaken and

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alarm you to your present danger of dying

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in your sins and being thrust into a

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Christless eternity, God could remove you, friend, from

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this earth quite suddenly, especially with a plague

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in the air.

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Turn to God and become a seeker of

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him, and pray that you will receive a

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revealed Christ for forgiveness of sin.

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Jesus is the only remedy for sin, but

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he can't save unless that remedy is applied.

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I know I'm a sinner, and the only

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hope for pitiful little E.

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A.

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Johnston is when Christ's life is laid down

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and applied to me.

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You must get to Christ, friend, and get

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under his blood.

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Oh, friend, I hope you don't hear only

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this poor preacher's shaky voice, but that God,

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in his mercy and by his grace, that

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you will hear his voice of authority as

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it comes in power and majesty to you.

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Only God can raise a dead man to

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life, but you have to hear from him.

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God says in Isaiah, Look unto me, and

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be ye saved, all the ends of the

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earth, for I am God, and there is

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none else.

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And Jesus said, I am the bread of

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life.

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He that cometh to me shall never hunger,

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and he that believeth on me shall never

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thirst.

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The gospel is for the hungry, the weary,

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and the thirsty.

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Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry

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for God?

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Are you weary of your sins?

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Are you thirsty for Christ?

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Then come to him, and believe on him,

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and own him as your Savior and Lord.

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Throw down your shotgun of rebellion at his

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nail-pierced feet, and surrender all you are

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to all he is, and he is Lord.

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He is Lord.

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I don't want you to go to hell,

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friend.

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I'm being true to your soul.

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Repent of your sins, and lay that sin

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burden down, and come clean with God, and

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come to that bloodstained Christ who is the

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only refuge and remedy for sin.

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Get serious with God, friend, and he will

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get serious with you.

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God has a burden for souls.

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Let us pray.