The Final Exit : Repentance In The Final Hour

I want you to picture a scene tonight. It's two

o'clock in the morning on an endless rainslick stretch of

eyeid sky's black as pitch. A headlights of an eighteen

wheeler slice through the heavy fog, illuminating the white lines

on the asphalt, one by one. Inside that cap, said

the driver. It's hand to sperm on the wheel, but

his eyes are heavy. It's coffee's cold. The diesel engine

comes a low, relentless rhythm beneath his boots. He's been

on the road for days, hundreds of miles behind him,

hundreds of miles still a head. He's missed, his family,

carrying a payload that has to be delivered on time,

deeper than the exhaustion, and his bones as a quiet,

aching solitude. A voice still list a sleeper cab, but

asked a question of every single human being, was eventually answered,

where is this road taken? What happens when I hit

the end of the line night? I want to speak

directly to you who knows the loneliness of the lone hall.

I want to speak to the men and women sitting

in the calves of eighteen wheelers marke at rest stops

sitting in diner booths with the mug of black coffee,

or driving down the long interstates of life. May not

wear a suit the church on Sunday mornings. Your hands

may be stained with grease, your knuckles callous from pulling loads,

and your heart weary from the heavy burdens you've carried

across this country. I have a message for you from

Almighty God. It's not a message of religion. It's a

message of redemption. It's not about church denomination, traditions, or

human riches. It's by a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

It comes with an overwhelming urgency because I came to

tell you tonight that the clock was ticking, The miles

are running out, and you and I are living in

with the Bible calls the last hour. The Bible says

in the Book of James chapter four. Come now, you

who say today or tomorrow we will go to such

and such cities, spend a year there, buy and sell

and make the profit. Whereas you do not know what

will happen tomorrow. For what is your light? Even a

vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

There is anyone on earth. Who understands the uncertainty of life.

The truck crocker. You see it every single day. See

the blue lights flashing in the dark. You see the

twisted metal on the median strip. You see how fast

a clear run can turn into a sudden pile of

and blinding snowstorm or a patch of black eye. You

can have a green light with thirty thousand pounds of

freight in that trailer, and clear weather forecast with five

hundred miles, and in five seconds everything changes. Every truck

in the world has an adometer. It counts every single

mile from the day it leaves the factory to the

day it breathes last breath on a scrapped art. You

can look at that dashboard and watch the numbers. But

God has an adometer on your life, my friend. He

knows the exact number of miles you have left to drive.

He knows how many heartbeats you have remaining. He knows

every exit, every way station, every hill you come in,

every valley you will descend. Tragedy of modern man is

that we all live as though the interstate never ends.

We push off the big questions of life. We say,

I'll clean up my act down the road. I'll make

things right with God. When I retire, I'll pull over

at the next rest stop. Right now, I've got to

load the hall. I've got money to make, I've got

life to live. The Bible warns us in Hebrews nine

twenty seven. It is appointed for men to die once,

but after this the judgment that is that word appointed.

You have an appointment with God. You didn't schedule it

on your smartphone, and you can't push it back. When

you're dispatch dog. You will keep that appointment. Whether you

are eighteen or eighty, whether you're in a hospital bed

or behind the wheel of a Peter built at seventy

miles an hour, you cannot outrun God. You cannot bypass

his way station. One day, the air brakes will set

for that final time, the engine will shut off, the

key will be turned back, and you will stand before

the creator of the universe. Question that will actively if

you eternity is not how many loads did you off,

how many miles did you lo? How good of a

driver were you? Question will be what did you do

with my son Jesus Christ. I want to take you

back two thousand years ago to a hill called Gogatha.

Outside the city walls of Jerusalem, there were three crosses.

A silhouetted against a dark, stormy sky. In the middle

lon Jesus Christ, spotless Son of God, dying for the

sins of the world. And on either side of him

on two convicted criminals, two men who had reached the

absolute end of their lung. They were not sitting in

a church building. They were not dressed in fine clothes.

They had no time left to turn their lives around,

no time to do good deeds, no time to join

a local assembly, no time to be baptized in water.

Their hands and feet were nailed to wooden beams, Their

breathing was labored. Death was staring them straight in the face.

They were in their final hour, literally their final minutes.

Criminal on the left, near to Jesus, he looked at

the savior of the world through bloodshot, bitter eyes and said,

if you are a Christ, save yourself and us. He

wanted an easy way out of physical pain, but he

had no sorrow for his sin. He died as he

had lived, heart hearted, rebellious and unforgiven, stepping straight into

eternal judgment. Just inches away, the Son of God look

at the man on the right cross. Something happened inside

his soul. As he looked at Jesus, he saw the

crown of thorns. He heard Jesus pray, Father, forgive it,

for they do not know what they do. He realized

that the man died beside him was not a common criminal,

but the Lord of glory. Listen to what he said

to his fellow thief. Do you not even fear God?

Seeing you are under the same condemn nation, And we

indeed justly, for we receive the due rewards of our deeds.

This man has done nothing wrong. Then he turned his

head towards Jesus, caught his eye and cried out from

the depths of a broken heart. Lord, remember me when

you come into your kingdom. That was a last hour prayer.

He had no church crudentials. He had a lifetime of crime, violence,

and sin behind him was filled with violations. If he

stood before a human tribunal, he didn't have a leg

to stand there. But he threw himself in the sheer,

unmarried at mercy of Jesus Christ. And how did Jesus respond.

Did Jesus say it's too late for you? Did Jesus

say you should have come to me ten years ago

when you were young. Did Jesus say, you haven't gone

to church, you haven't done enough good works, you haven't

paid your desk to society. No, Jesus turned his head

toward that young toward that dying man, and looked at

him and put his eyes full of infinite redeeming love

and said suradly, I say to you today, you will

be with me in Paradise. Halleluja. In a single moment,

in the dying hour of a ruined life, Grace reached

down and balk the center for the very brink of

hell and declared him the Kingdom of Heaven. That is

the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is

the boundless, reached down mercy of God. Now, my friends,

I must give you a solemn warning. Some people hear

the story of Thief on the Cross, and they say, well,

for sure, but that thief should get saved in his

final five minutes. And I'll just wait until my final

five minutes. I'll live my life my way, I'll enjoy

my sin, I'll run my own route, and right before

I breathed my last I'll call off. Forgot listen to

me very carefully. That is the most dangerous gamble that

human soul can ever made. One thief was saved at

the last hour so that no one need to spare,

but only one thief was saved so that no one

should presume. You do not know if you will get

a five minute warning. You do not know if you

have time to pray with death day. How many men

have stepped into their trucks on a Tuesday morning, fully

intending to come home on Friday, but never saw Friday sunset.

How many drivers are pulled out of a truck stop

feeling strong and healthy, only for a burst tenurism or

a sudden collision where a massive heart attack sweep them

into eternity any fraction of a second. Bible says in

Proverbs twenty seven to one, do not boast about tomorrow.

You do not know what the they may bring forth.

Every time you hear the Gospel preach and you say

no to Jesus Christ, your heart gets a little harder.

Every time you ignore the exit ramp of God's mercy,

your conscience gets a little dimmer, becomes easier to ignore

the warning signs in the trucking world. You ignore the

runway truck ramp when a steep six percent out in

grade you don't get another chance at the bottom. Speed increases,

the breaks, overheat, smoke, the drums expand. Soon you have

no air left in the tanks, no breaks under your feet,

and you are barely toward a catastrop crash. Sin is

like that runaway truck ramp, when a steep down grade

promises you freedom, but it deals your promise. Is you pleasure?

It takes you fashion and farther than you've ever intended

to go. If you keep ignoring the sign posts of

the Holy Spirit, you will crash your life into eternal ruin.

God says in Genesis six three, my spirit shall not

strive with man forever. Tonight, God's Holy Spirit is blowing

through your cab. He's speaking to you at this very moment.

You feel a tug in your chest right now. That

is not emotion. That's the Almighty God knocking on the

door of your heart. You're not hard in your heart.

What does God require you tonight? He requires one simple,

powerful thing, repentance. Some people think repentance just means feeling

sorry for your mistakes. Man can be sorry if you

got caught by a state trooper for speeding. That doesn't

mean he intends to drive the speed limit the next one.

He's just sorry about the Taking sorrow alone is not repentance,

Biblical truth. Repentance is not a religious ritual with a

one hundred and eighty degree you turn of the soul.

Imagine you're driving down nine ninety five north toward New York,

but your destination is Miami before they're traveling eighty miles

an hour in the completely wrong direction. You feel bad

about it. You can cry about it, you can sing

songs about Miami. You can discuss Miami with other drivers

on the Seabee radio. But as long as your rig

is head north, you will never reach Miami. What do

you have to do? You have to pull that rig

off the very next interchange. You have to slow down,

put your signalong, take the exit, cross over the highway,

hit the southbound lane pumpers, put on the accelerator. Heading

in the opposite direction. That is repentance. Repentance means admitting

to God Lord, I've been driving my own life. I've

been running my own route. I've been calling my own shocks.

I've broken your commandment. I've drifted into sin, loss, alcohol, anger,

to soon, sty and pride. I'm heading straight for destruction

to night. I'm taking the edge. I'm turning my life

completely around and given the steering will to Jesus Christ.

You see, Christianity is not about trying to be a

good person. None of us are good. Remen's eight three

twenty three says, for all of sinned and fall short

of the glory of God, we've all broken God's thought.

We all carry a heavy load of guilt. If you

tried to weigh your good deeds against your bad deeds

on God's eternal scale. Every single one of us but

failed that inspection. The way station of God's holiness, the

man's absolute perfection, and none of us measures up. That

is why God sent Jesus Christ two thousand years ago.

God took the entire great of humans, and every lie

you've ever told, every dirty thought you've ever had, every

broken promise, every selfish act, every mind driven in rebellion.

He laid it on the shoulders of his spotless son,

Jesus Christ on the cross. When Jesus died on Calvary,

he shouted in his finished in the original Greek language. That

phrase was a commercial term used by merchants. It literally

means paid in full. Your bill has been paid, Your

debt was settled in blood. Jesus cleared your log book.

He took your punishment so you could go free. Three

days later, he burst forth from the grave, triumphant over death.

Fell in the grave. He's not a dead historical figure.

He's a living, reigning president. Lord tonight, he stands beside

your rig, knocking on your door, offering you a clean

record of fresh start in eternal life. I want to

speak directly to your heart right now. You may be

sitting in the driver's seat of a sleeper cab, or

parked as a dark trust stop in Ohio, Excess California,

or Georgia, or wherever. You may be listening as a

message on a radio broadcast, a phone or a tablet.

You might be a driver who has been on the

road for thirty years, or a young kid just starting

out on your first cross country run. You look back

over your life and you see a trail of records.

Maybe you've ruined the marriage, Maybe you haven't talked to

your children in years. Maybe you're struggling with an addiction

to drug, alcohol, or pornography. At every rest stop. Maybe

you've put on a topy stereor in front of the

other drivers. When you lie down on that sleeper at night,

set off the engine. You're terrified of dying. You lie

awake in the dark, wondering where you will spend deturneys.

I have good news for you tonight. It doesn't matter

as far down the wrong road you've driven. God's grace

can turn you around right now. You don't have to

clean yourself up before you come to Jesus. You don't

have to wait to fix the engine before you bring

the truck to the mechanic. You bring it broke down,

just as it is. Jesus said in John six thirty seven.

The one who comes to me, I will, by no

means cast out if on the crosspit and clean himself up.

Became the Jesus leading dying, guilty and dirty, and Jesus

received him instantly. Night is your last hour opportunity, this moment,

right now, that's your excellence. God brought you to hear

this message at this exact hour, on this exact day

because he loves you. He saw you when you were

crying alone in your cab. He saw you when you

thought nobody cared. He knows your name, he knows your pinion,

and he set his precious blood for you on calbary

and when to ask you to do something bold. Right now,

I'm going to ask you to make a decision that

would change the entire trajectory of your life and your eternity.

To park safely in a cab, at a restop, in

your home, or wherever you're listening. I want you to

bow your head right now. If you're driving on the highway,

keep your eyes on the road, surrender your heart to God.

It's very second Bible says in Romans ten nine, if

you can pass with your mouth, Lord Jesus, and believe

in your heart that God has raised them from the dead,

and it will be saved. It's that simple. Not religion, relationship,

not church membership, salvation. Will you to pray this prayer

from the bottom of your heart you said out loud

in your cab or sat quietly in your spirit for God.

God doesn't look at the perfection of your words. He

looks at the sincerity of your heart. Lord Jesus. I

know that I'm a sinner. I've been driving my own

life down the wrong road. I've broken your laws and

I've run from you. But tonight I believe you died

on the cross from of my sin. I believe you

rose again from the dead right here, right now, in

the last hour of my self alliance, I turned away

from my sin. I take the excer. I ask you

to forgive me of every sin I've ever committed. Come

into my heart. Lord Jesus, take the will of life,

save my soul, clean up my record, and got me home.

From this day forward, I belong to you. Thank you

for saving me. In Jesus name, I pray Amen. You

pray that prayer sincerely from your heart. I want to

tell you the authority of the word of God. You

have just passed from death into eternal life. Your Lord

book has been white clean. The blood of Jesus Christ

has washed away every stain of your sin. Your name

has been written in the Lamb's book of life. Your

heart stops feeding ten minutes from now or fifty years

from now. You don't have to here's the dark highway

of death. You have an eternal destination reserved in heaven.

Now listen to me. When you get back on the

road tomorrow. Things are going to be different. You're not

driving alone anymore. The Almighty God is in that cabin.

Here's some things you need to do. Number one, pick

up the Word of God. Open the Bible every day.

Start reading in the Gospel of John. Let God's Word

be the GPS for your school. Number two talk to

Him daily. You don't need fancy religious prayers. Talk to

Jesus while you drive like you would talk to my

best friends sitting in the pastors. Number three. Connect with

other believers when you're home or on layovers. Kind a

good Bible, believing, non denomination of local church or truck

stop chapel. Fellowship with many and women who love Jesus.

And number four be a light on the highway. You

don't not seebee radio or talk to drivers in the

truck stop dinner. Tell them what Jesus did for you

in your cabin. I tell them, if God can save

a driver like you, he can save anybody. The hours late,

the night is far spent. The day of the Lord

is at hand. Keep your rig on the straightened arawpad,

keep your eyes on the cross. Remember Jesus has bared

your road all the way to glory. God bless you

keep shining side up and your rubber's side down. Made

the Lord hold you in the palm of his hand

until that glorious morning when we all reached the final destination.

Amen and Amen.