"The Last Ten Words" - Ronald L. Dart

Sermon delivered by Ronald L. Dart - 2/5/00
https://www.borntowin.net/audio/the-last-ten-words/
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Do you know the last ten words of the Old Testament? Here they are: “...lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4:6) The Hebrew word for "curse" is *cherem*, which means "a doomed object; abstractly: extermination, utter destruction".

The reason I am calling it to your attention is because it lays out starkly what the stakes are in this game we are playing. The only people I know who are making much of an effort to get us to think about this are the movie-makers. Crises make good drama, and the extermination of all life on the planet is the ultimate crisis. But Malachi is not talking about a movie. Neither was Jesus when he said, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. ... For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened."

There are three important things that come to me from these passages. One is the very real possibility of utter destruction in the future. Two: the very real fact that destruction can be avoided. Three: It is obvious that God must take a hand if we are to avoid it.

The world is becoming a very confusing place. Churches are changing before our eyes in ways we never imagined possible. The old ecumenism seems woefully out of date as we watch developments in Christian communities. Doctrines of an eternity in hell that used to scare people in the ancient world don't really work anymore, so preachers are having to reconsider. I don't think we have seen anything yet.

The result of all this is a kind of confusion, and the most common response to confusion is inaction. When you don't know what to do, it is not entirely irrational to do nothing. It may not be irrational, but it *can* be fatal. And that is the warning of Malachi and Jesus. Utter destruction is in our future. Unless... And it is the "unless" that I want you to think about today.
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