Dying In Your Sins

Of course, I tell them that, you know, we all have temptations, we all have problems in our youth, and you young people, you have a sinful nature. I know something about you because I was a young person too. We all have sinful desires, we all have sinful temptations.

I know as a young person I wanted to steal from my parents. I know as a young person I wanted to pound my brother with my fist in his mouth. But my mother taught me that even though I have certain temptations, it doesn't mean that I should fulfill those temptations.

And so my mother said, you don't do that, son. You don't hit your brother in the mouth. You don't steal from your parents.

It's wrong. Even though I wanted to, even though I desired to, I needed to resist temptation. There's a lie out there in our society, and it's going to be coming to all of you, especially young people, that I have these desires.

Maybe I have some sort of perverted sexual desires, therefore that must be who I am. I want to tell you ahead of time that's a lie. You're going to have a lot of perverted desires.

Not only sexually, you're going to have a lot of perverted desires in many areas of life. You're going to want to lie, you're going to want to steal, you're going to want to commit fornication. There's going to be desires in your flesh to do evil.

And what you need to do is recognize those desires are coming out of your fallen nature. And what you need is someone to say, here's what is right, and here's what you need to do, and you need to resist temptation. You need to not do that which is evil.

So just because you have a desire, doesn't mean that you ought to fulfill that desire. And so just to let you know ahead of time, there's going to be many different perverse desires that come up in your life. But know what God says.

By the way, God says homosexuality is sin. Men with men, women with women is sin. And so you say, well, I have feelings.

Well, I had feelings when I was a kid too to do a lot of sinful things. But my mother and father said, you don't do that, son. By the way, if you do some of those sinful things, you'll end up in jail.

And so, just because you have a desire, that's coming out of your sinful nature. It's coming out of the thing called the flesh in the Bible. And the only thing the Bible says to do about your flesh is to kill it.

Is to mortify it. That's where we get the word mortician. To put it to death.

So we need to understand. That's why you ought to be in church. You need to understand, young people, what's right and wrong.

So when you have these desires, you can say, oh, I have this desire, but that's a wrong desire. I need to put it to death. Oh, I have this desire.

It's a good desire. I can fulfill this desire. Well, man has been born into this condition.

And here's something that maybe you haven't thought about. But one of the reasons why God offers you here this morning salvation. And He doesn't offer the angelic world that fell.

By the way, did you know that a third of the angels fell? They also fell. You see, God is offering mankind a lifeline, but not the angels. And here's why.

Because the angels lived in the presence of God. They were all perfect beings. In the light of God's presence.

And they personally chose to reject the light and to follow the devil into darkness. However, you and I were born into darkness. We were born with a sinful nature.

And now God is trying to shine light into your darkness and give you an opportunity to be saved from your condition. And so you ought to take the opportunity. Maybe some of you are sitting here today and you're still not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We'll talk about that here in just a minute. And so we are born into sin. Therefore, we are tempted to sin.

And we choose to sin because we are bent in that direction. I'd like you to follow with me here and look at a couple of verses about the fallen nature of man. Look if you were to Romans chapter 3. Some of these verses are very familiar.

But I'd like to go through and just pick out a few in the Bible that help us to understand what this fallen nature is all about. Romans chapter 3 verse number 10 says this. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way.

They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. In other words, all of humanity is under this condition of being fallen, of being born into sin.

Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of ash is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

By the way, one of the clearest indications of the fallen nature is how we use the throat, the tongue, the lips, and the mouth. That's an indication of the nature, the fallen nature of man. Verse 15, their feet are swift to shed blood.

Destruction and misery in their ways and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. This is God's description of the fallen human being.

Not yours. We wouldn't look at ourselves that way. We'd put a little sugar on that, make us look a lot better.

But here's how God looks at us. I think it's amazing. Verse 11 says, there is none that seeketh after God.

Do you know in your fallen condition, when you come into this world, in the condition you're in, you'd never seek God. You'd never. The only way you seek God is for God to come and try to woo you to himself.

The Bible says that Jesus lights every man that comes into the world. He is trying to bring you to himself by the power of the Spirit of God, by the Word of God, by the Gospel. He's trying to bring you.

Truth of the matter is, if you were left to yourself without any influence from your Heavenly Father, we'd all be lost and damned. We'd all be going doing our own thing. We'd all be lost.

So the description of humanity, turn over to Ephesians chapter 2. Another example here. Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse number 1. This is describing the fallen condition of man in verse number 1 of Ephesians 2. And you had the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. That's your fallen nature there.

Wherein in time past, that's pre-conversion, you walked according to the course of this world. You followed everybody else. Listen, the world is filled with fallen people.

And fallen people are heading a certain direction. They follow their own lusts. That's why we tell you don't follow the world.

Because the world is following their own fallen nature. And there are billions of them going in that direction. The Bible says that wide is the gate.

And broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many go that way. So they walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.

So who's over this thing? The devil is. There's a spirit at work too. Also verse 3, among whom also you had your conversation at times past in the lust of your flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature, this is your nature, the children of wrath, even as others.

And so you have the world, you have the devil, and you have the flesh. And all these three combine with your fallen nature and leads you like a herd right into destruction. That's why I don't encourage young people to follow the world or any of us.

The world is billions of people in their lost nature, fulfilling their lusts, their desires for selfishness, and their heading for destruction. Why would you want to follow them? Well, it's a good example here of the fallen man. Look over at Ephesians chapter 4. It's another passage here that gives us some understanding of this old man.

In verse 22, he says that you put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lust. Chapter 4, verse 22. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind in that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Wherefore, here's the old man, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil.

This is the old man, lying, bitterness. Verse 28, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.

By the way, that word edifying means to build up, not to tear down, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

That's the old man. He is to be put away. Verse 32 is the new man, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

And so you have this old man, this old nature, and you have a new man. We're going to talk about him here in just a little bit. But God in many ways has designed this world to try to restrain the old man.

And he restrains the old man in many different ways. But one way he uses to restrain the world, for example, Weissman had a good example here this morning. You know, if human nature is left to themselves, there would be anarchy all over the world.

I mean, if there was no restraint on human beings. Some countries, there's very little restraint, and it's just anarchy. But man in his fallen state left to himself, this world would be chaos, literally chaos.

And you see some countries that are getting that way. But man, excuse me, God has, in his design, has made the world with restraints upon fallen nature. And one of them is authorities.

God gave authorities to restrain men. And so men don't go out and murder and rape and steal and do these things because the policemen might catch them. And they'll go to jail.

And so that's why God has ordained authorities. Children are to be restrained by spanking them. God has given a conscience that helps restrain man.

There's also the group mentality. For example, some of us don't do things that are maybe wrong because we want to fit into a group. This church group here restrains us in some ways, and that's a good thing.

Because I don't want to be a outcast. That's what church discipline is. And so it's restraining the fallen nature.

And I think of shame and embarrassment. A lot of people don't do things because, oh, I would be so embarrassed. And so that restrains them.

So there's a lot of restraints upon human nature. But if there was no restraint, the world would be a very wicked place to live in. And so this is the condition that each one of us are born into.

And you know how it is in religion. We can try to hide our fallen nature with many different things. This goes back to Adam and Eve.

What happened when they fell? Immediately, what'd they do? They tried to hide their nakedness. And they started to make fig leaves and an apron. I mean, it's almost like they've tried to make a bathing suit to try to hide their nakedness.

But their efforts at hiding their nakedness was not sufficient. And the Lord had to come along and He had to kill some animals. And that's a picture of the need of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The shedding of blood. There were animals that were killed. And God took the clothing or the fur of those animals and He clothed them properly.

He clothed them properly. And so you'll find human nature, when people are sinful, they try to cover that. And even religion, you try to cover it with many different disguises to try to cover the sinful nature.

But the old nature is still there. Romans 10.3 says this, The Jews went about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. In other words, they made their own aprons.

They made their own way to cover their nakedness and they did not submit themselves to God's covering, which was sufficient. Well, let's look here at John chapter 8 again. In verse number 21, we want to talk here about dying in your sins.

John chapter 8 verse 21, Jesus says this, Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way and you shall seek me and shall die in your sins. Whither I go, you cannot come. Now the Lord is about ready to ascend up here in about six months.

This is the Feast of Tabernacles. He's going to be crucified six months later at the Feast of Passover. But when he dies, he's going to ascend to his Father.

He says, I'm going to go back to my Father. But you, you are going to descend. You're going to die in your sins and you are going to descend into the lower parts of the earth.

And that's the thing that we need to all consider here. If we're not a child of God, you know, there's only two ways you're going to go at your death. You're either going to ascend or you're going to descend.

You're going to ascend or you're going to descend. And that beautiful thing in nature, God teaches us this, how he created. You look up into the sky and you see blue sky, you see the sun, you see lights, a beautiful thing up there.

It's kind of, it's kind of inviting. Ascending. We all want to ascend.

But then you look down and you look down into the heart of the earth and you look down into the darkness and the heat and the furnace and the lava. And my wife and I were on our honeymoon. We were out in Maui in Hawaii and they took us up to the top of this volcano and we did this bike tour and we got on the bike and you basically coasted for six or seven hours down this mountain and it's an incredible journey.

But up there at the top volcano, there's lava. And that lava is coming from somewhere. It's coming from down in the hearts of the earth.

And so naturally speaking, when we think of ascending, we think of good things. We think of the sky and the sun and some beautiful clouds. We think of descending.

We think of darkness. We think of the heart of the earth. You think of the molten fire and lava in the heart of the earth.

And God has made this whole thing to teach you you don't want to descend, you want to ascend. You don't want to go down. You don't want to die in your sins and descend.

Jesus said, I'm going to go back to my Father. I'm going to ascend and you are going to descend. Now God gives us a lifetime to decide on whether we want to be rescued from this fallen condition or whether we want to die in our sins.

Whether we like sin and its pleasures or whether we prefer holiness. And here's the beautiful thing. We were born into sin.

And Jesus said in John 3, you must be what? Born again. You must be born again. You know, some people have a hard time with this idea of being born again.

What does that mean? You were born into this world into sin. You have a nature that's at enmity with God. And if you don't change that nature, if something doesn't change, I don't care what religion you're a part of.

I don't care how you dress. I don't care how many times you go to church. I don't care how much money you give to the church.

I don't care how many prayer meetings you're at. Unless that nature changes, you're going to die and descend. Jesus said you must be born again.

You have to be born into the family of God. You have to be born into the Spirit of God. If you were born with a fallen nature, you must be born again with a new nature.

That which is born of the flesh, this is John 3, is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again.

Some people have a hard time with that born again. Listen, it's very simple. You were born into this world a fallen creature.

If you do nothing, you're going to die and descend into hell. It's very simple. You're going to die and descend into hell.

I don't care what kind of religion you're a part of or how much you've done. You're a fallen creature. And if you die in that condition, you're going to descend into hell.

The only way to be rescued is to change that condition and get a new nature. That's why you must be born again. The nature of God must be imparted to you.

You must be born of God. You must become a child of God. Now I know many of you here are children of God and I know and I experience this, that even though I have a new nature, I still have to deal with that old nature.

Amen? The Bible says the flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. These two are contrary one to the other. It used to be there was no contrary.

Now it's a contrary. It's a war between the nature of the flesh and the nature of the Spirit. It's my old nature and the new nature.

That's why the Bible says in Ephesians and Colossians, put off the old man and put on the new man. I like this story. There was a missionary one time, he was a missionary to the Indians.

And he led an Indian to Christ and he was a new convert and the missionary had to leave for six months or so, a year. And he left and after he returned, about six months later, this missionary came to this young convert and this Indian convert, I think he was a chief. He said, sir, he said, how is your Christian life coming? And this Indian said, well, it feels like I have two dogs in me, a white dog and a black dog.

And the missionary asked the Indian, well, which one of these dogs? The Indian said there are two always fighting with each other. The white dog is fighting with the black dog. The black dog is fighting with the white dog.

And the missionary asked, well, which dog is winning? And the Indian, in his simplicity, gave a very wonderful answer. He said, whichever dog I feed the most is the one that wins. Isn't that the truth? You know, when we feed our minds with the carnal, fleshly things of this world, you'll tend to see that black dog be strong and full of energy, and he'll devour that white dog.

And if you fill your heart and mind with the things of God and the Word of God and prayer and let the Word of God dwell in you richly, you'll find that white dog is ferocious and he'll devour the black dog. So these two are a part of us. Now look at verse 24 here in John chapter 8. Here's what Jesus said.

I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins for if, here's a condition, if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins. Now here's how you get out of this condition. And it's very simple.

Believe in Jesus. Amen? If you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins. Verse 25, then said they unto him, Who are you? Obviously, they didn't believe who he was.

Who are you? And so that which gets you saved from your sin and your fallen condition is simply this. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The Ethiopian eunuch there, when Philip went to the chariot and they rode for a while and Philip told him about Isaiah there, Isaiah 53, I believe it was. And the eunuch said, Hey, here's some water. What does hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you may.

And then the eunuch said, I believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The Philippian jailer, there's many examples of this.

Philippian jailer came to Paul and Silas, What must I do to be saved? How can I get out of this condition I'm in, this fallen condition that I'm going to descend into hell when I die? And Paul and Silas said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. John 9. Turn over to John 9. I love this story. We're going to talk about it here in a number of weeks, but this is a blind man who the Lord healed.

We're going to jump in here at the end of the story in John 9 verse 34. People are questioning this blind man. The blind man, let's go to verse 33.

The blind man says, If this man were not of God, he's speaking about Jesus, he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. And Jesus heard that they had cast him out.

And when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, I love the simplicity here. Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe.

And he worshipped him. Well, that's pretty simple there, isn't it? That's called simple faith. Who is he? So I can believe on him.

It's me. I believe. And he worshipped him.

Well, I've told you numbers of times as we've been going through the Gospel here of John that in John chapter 20, John says, I wrote you this Gospel, these things that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and believing you might have life through his name. Let me ask you something here. Let's make some application.

You know your heart. This is important. Can you honestly say in the depth of your heart, men, women, children, this morning, I can say this in my heart.

I believe and am sure that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That he died for my sins. He was buried and three days later, he rose again from the dead.

In my heart before God, I don't have any doubt that that's truth. There's no doubt about it. How is it in your heart this morning? Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ is who he is? Do you believe that? Do you know as God looks upon your heart, he either sees faith or doubt or unbelief.

And what he sees upon your heart is going to determine whether or not you die in your sins or you die and ascend into his presence. You know your heart this morning. Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he is? That he is the Savior of all men and especially of you? Do you believe that? Well, it's that faith, Jesus says here in John 8, that will give you a new nature.

Faith. That faith, believing, causes God to forgive you and give you his Holy Spirit. You become born of the Spirit.

You get a new nature. You get the nature of God in you. That's the Holy Spirit coming to you.

Go back to Ephesians again. We're going to look. This is the last time I'll have you turn.

Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, verse 12. I'm going to jump in here in the middle of his letter. In verse 12 of Ephesians 1, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom also you trusted after that you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.

See what happens there? When you believe the Gospel of Jesus, God seals you with the Holy Spirit. And you take upon yourself a new nature. Born of the Spirit of God.

A new nature. Notice what it says over in Ephesians 2, verse 8. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

This is not about works. It's about faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's about believing who He is.

This new nature comes to you because of faith in Jesus Christ. You know, if you don't have faith in Jesus Christ and you don't have a new nature, every work that you do is called in the Bible a dead work. Dead.

It may be religious, but without faith in Jesus, it's coming out of a dead nature. And it becomes a dead work. You know why it's a dead work? Because it's coming out of that selfish nature.

And it's all tainted with selfishness. That's why the Bible says of the Pharisees, all their works they do to be seen of men. It's all about self.

Their whole system, their whole religious system is about me. Look at me. And it's not done from a new nature.

To please Him. Well, let's keep reading in verse 10. This nature comes by faith.

But look what it says in verse 10. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, leading to good works with God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. This faith, let me ask you something.

How can you and I be here and in our hearts believe that Jesus is who He is, the Son of God sent to redeem humanity and you believe that you've been redeemed and forgiven and God has then given you His Holy Spirit to dwell in you and your life not produce good works? How is that possible? It says here, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, leading to a life of good works. And so that true faith in Jesus will produce a life of good works. Titus chapter 2. Christ gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.

Now, works do not give you a new nature. They don't save you, but they are the fruits of a new nature. You know, all of nature teaches this.

We get confused a lot of times, but just look at nature. God has made this world and all that He's made to teach all these principles. Nature teaches you this.

Let me give you a question to think about. Is an apple tree an apple tree because it has apples on it? Is an apple tree an apple tree because it has apples on it? You go to the nursery this spring and say, I'd like an apple tree. And the guy takes you over to the trees and says, here's an apple tree.

And you say, it's not an apple tree. It doesn't have apples on it. He looks at you like, what? It doesn't have to have apples to be an apple tree.

An apple tree is an apple tree because it's nature. Its DNA is an apple tree. Now, that apple tree will in time bring forth apples.

But the apple tree is an apple tree not because it has apples on it. It's an apple tree because its DNA, its nature is to be an apple tree. So if you have a little sapling here that's about that tall, and I know the DNA, and I say, that's an apple tree.

Doesn't have any apples on it. But it's an apple tree. And if you know anything about fruit trees, you might buy a fruit tree and it might be five years before that tree ever produces an apple.

But that tree is as much an apple tree all those first five years as the sixth year when it has apples on it. So the apple tree is an apple tree because of its nature, not because of its fruit. You are a Christian because of your nature.

You're a Christian because by faith in Jesus Christ, you have received the Holy Spirit of God. And because you have a nature of a Christian, you're producing Christian fruit. Or at least you should be.

Brother John and I are doing a house down here not too far from here, and it's an apple tree on the property. Go down right now, some of you who don't know much about trees, you wouldn't know it's an apple tree. Doesn't have any apples on it.

Winter time, it doesn't have apples. But it's the same apple tree. The apples actually attest to the nature of the tree.

And that's why the Bible says that our works attest to our nature. And so the works of your life are a testimony of the nature of your life, whether or not you're a fallen or a redeemed individual. I want to look at one more passage.

I told you this in Ephesians would be the last one, but I'd like you to turn to 2 Peter. One more here. 2 Peter, and then we'll close.

2 Peter chapter number one. Here's an admonition for those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Peter chapter one and verse number two.

I'll start back here in verse two. He says this. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.

Here's the nature that you want. Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now notice verse five.

And beside this, giving all diligence add to your faith. Now that's where everything starts. It starts with faith in Jesus Christ.

That's where the Christian experience begins. That's where the new nature comes. But now Peter says add to it.

And here's why. Add to your faith virtue. To virtue, knowledge.

To knowledge, temperance. To temperance, patience. To patience, godliness.

And to godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, charity. By the way, charity is the end goal.

Now look at verse eight. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. Now here's something that's very important.

You get a new nature by faith. And one thing that Peter is saying here is that you need to now start adding to your faith and give diligence to it. To add to your faith.

Because here's what oftentimes happens. Just like the seed in the ground. You know, the seed that fell into shallow ground.

That stony ground. It shot up. It had life.

It had a nature. But because it had no depth in its commitment and its belief, it fell away. And so Peter says here, add to your faith these things.

Because what's going to happen is verse number 10. Wherefore, the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall.

In other words, if you grow in grace, if you add to your faith, you will not fall. But if you don't add to your faith, you're tempted to fall away. The Bible talks about that in Hebrews chapter 5 and Hebrews chapter 6. Adding to your faith is very important.

You know what? Extended, listen, extended immaturity leads to falling away. Extended immaturity leads to falling away. I heard a story one time, a little boy visiting his uncle.

He had a habit of falling out of bed. And he told his uncle about it. His uncle said, well, listen, I've got the answer for you.

He says, you're sleeping too close to the edge. You know, if you sleep too close to the edge of the bed, when you roll over, you'll fall out. You know, the Bible says if you come to Christ by faith and you enter in, you need to add to your faith and grow, right? If you stay right here next to the edge, there's going to be a potential for you to fall away.

Many Christians today, they enter into the straight gate and they don't go anyplace else. They stay right inside the gate. And Peter says, if you don't move on and mature, you're going to be tempted to fall away.

So this is an exhortation Peter says here for maturity. Don't be asleep close to the edge of the bed. So if you don't want to fall out, get over toward the middle of the bed.

So when you roll, you won't fall out of the bed. So many Christians enter into the faith and they don't add to their faith. And after 5, 10 years, they're still babies, immature.

And then you hear they've fallen away. Add to your faith. It says here, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

And then verse 11, and I'll close with this. For so an entrance, if you give diligence, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now our burden here at this church is that every one of you in the line at the final time, at the judgment when we get our rewards, that all of us can come through that judgment and have an abundance of reward.

Amen? All of us. It's not going to happen unless we get diligent about adding to our faith. You come to Christ a year ago, two years ago, three years ago.

You made a profession of your faith in Jesus. I believe in the son of God. I believe.

What have you done in the last two or three years? Are you adding to your faith or are you simply asleep on the edge? It's not a good place to be. So let me close with this. Don't die in your sins.

If you're here today and you don't have a new nature, you're on the verge of dying and descending. You don't want to do that. Right? Don't die in your sins.

That's why the Bible says today is the day of salvation, because if you're here and you're still in your fallen nature, if you die today, you're going to descend into hell. There's going to be no hope. Secondly, if you're here today and you've been converted, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.

Add to your faith. Add. And you can study those words.

Add to your faith. Well, those people that Jesus was talking about in John chapter 8, most of them died in their sins. He warned them, don't die in your sins.

You don't believe that I am He or die in your sins. Nobody here today should die in their sins. You should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's close with a word of prayer.