• SOME THINGS WE CANNOT ESCAPE!
• No matter how much we try or wish we cannot escape these things.

• INTRODUCTION:
• Many today, including Christians, try to evade what they feel is an imposition on their personal lives.
• They either turn their backs on their responsibility and ignore such; or they try to get someone else to take care of it; or else they attack such as being an insidious effort to destroy some aspect of their personal liberty.
• Of course many people find other ways to get out of doing what is right.

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• God has ALWAYS held man accountable to Him…
• From the very first in the Garden of Eden...
• Genesis 2:15 ...Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• Our accountability always involves our responsibility…
• Our responsibility for our salvation is the reason why we are accountable to God...
• 2 Corinthians 5:10 ...For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• It is personal…
• The parent cannot choose for the child...
• Ezekiel 18:20 ..."The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
• Nor can we make an valid declaration of neutrality...
• Matthew 12:30 ..."He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
• Each person is responsible for his/her own conduct…

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• But mankind tries to shift the blame…
• Adam tried to shift it to Eve and God; and Eve tried to shift it to the serpent...
• Genesis 3:11 ...And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" 12 Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." 13 And the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• Saul tried to pin his sin on the people...
• 1 Samuel 15:15 ... And Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed."
• Preachers do it when they become too afraid to preach the truth...

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• 2 Timothy 4:1 ...I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• Parents are responsible for training their children...
• Proverbs 22:6 ...Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
• Not only to prepare them to earn a living, etc…
• But, foremost, to prepare them spiritually!
• Ephesians 6:4 ...And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• Bible study (home and at church)…
• Worship (not a playtime)…
• Give them an example to imitate in your own life...
• All saints are responsible for their soul’s salvation...
• Philippians 2:12 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY...
• Romans 1:14 ...I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. 15 So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

• NO ONE CAN ESCAPE GOD...
• Psalms 139:7-12 ...Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

• NO ONE CAN ESCAPE GOD...
• He is omniscient to know our weaknesses and that we need His gospel...
• Romans 3:23 ...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
• Ephesians 1:3 ...Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

• NO ONE CAN ESCAPE GOD...
• He is omnipresent to know when we do sin...
• Proverbs 15:3 ...The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Keeping watch on the evil and the good.
• Jeremiah 23:24 ...Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?" says the LORD; "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the LORD.

• NO ONE CAN ESCAPE GOD...
• He is omnipotent to be able to save all, unlike all humanity who cannot save one soul without Him...
• 1 Timothy 4:10 ...For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

• NO ONE WILL ESCAPE DEATH/JUDGMENT
• Of course, we are speaking of physical death.
• Hebrews 9:27…And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,

• CONCLUSION:
• We cannot sneak away and hide from the Almighty in some cave, forest, or building.
• We cannot hide from Him any of our activities, words, or thoughts.
• Hebrews 4:13 ...And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
• Since we cannot escape these things, we should embrace and respect them in our lives.

By Carey Scott from an outline by Ron Lehde

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