Jeffrey Dahmer’s sin compared to mine S31e115 Matt9:9

Jeffrey Dahmer did some evil, "unforgivable" things.  But what if he appropriately said he was sorry? Even more than that, what if he truly repented before the Lord.

Apparently, this really happened in 1994 about 6 months before his murder.

Will he be in heaven? Will I be with him there? Listen 7 minutes for the shocking answer.

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https://youtu.be/0VE0aDKijJg

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Morning, my brothers and sisters. Today we're going to ask and compare Jeffrey Dahlmer's sin compared to mine. We're going to do that by looking at the call of Matthew and comparing it to the call of Jeffrey Dahlmer. This is going to be from Matthew chapter 9, verse 9. So we're going to recall maybe our calls to faith. What was the story about how you came to faith? And today we're going to use Matthew and Geoffrey Dahlmer to inspire our conversation. Here's the story from Matthew chapter 9. As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, Follow me, and he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard this, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous but the sinners. So Jesus called sinners, and there's good news here. There's kind of two kinds of people. There are sinners who recognize their sin, and then there are sinners who deny their sins. There's only sinners. Now, a Jewish person who's collecting taxes, so you have to think about this. He's collecting taxes for an enemy government. It's a Jew who works for and supports organizationally and funds, even, financially funds the Romans and the Roman army and the Roman rule. Now remember the Romans, they're hated, they're idolaters, they're usurpers, they're rulers by force, they're conquered a land that's not theirs, at least as far as the Jews' line of thought is. So traitor doesn't even begin to describe describe this. The tax collectors, the people that supported them, were detestable pariahs in their own society. And to take that job is to lose all self-respect and every invitation you ever had to a Thanksgiving dinner, or probably even setting foot in the synagogue. So Matthew changed his teams to the Romans and then it and then exploits his people. So the sort of the job of the tax collector was to collect more taxes than was owed to the Romans, and then you keep the balance. So Matthew was likely not welcome in the synagogue on Friday night or at Thanksgiving dinner. And a lot of people's sins are sacred sins. You know, you kind of look all shiny and bright, but Matthew's sin, everybody knew Matthew's sin. The whole society agreed. Matthew the tax is Matthew a sinner? Yes. And that's why we don't eat with him. So why does Jesus eat with sinners? Well, here we have the so-called worst of the sinners. And why doesn't Jesus hang out with quality people, non-sinners? Well, because here's a fun fact there aren't any compared to his holiness. So Matthew arises, he gets he gets saved, he follows the Lord, and Matthew is found when he starts, is actually sitting at the booth, which I think is so cool. And then Jesus kind of reaches down to this bad position, this tax collector position, and calls Matthew, and Matthew follows him. So Jesus only calls sinners who recognize that they're sinners. And every townsperson probably helped Matthew and called him a sinner as he walked by. Now Jesus, holy and pure, reaches way down and condescends to come to the earth and leave some of his afterfruits behind and put on flesh and go save the sinful. Now the problem in our story is that there are self-righteous people, although that means people right in their own eyes, and you can't get their heads around the fact that Jesus saves sinners and Jesus saves Matthew the tax collector. All right, so there's a similar story in our modern days about Jeffrey Dahlmer. You remember him, murder evil, everybody knows him. In fact, we use him as an example in our society of like the most the most evil. So he goes to prison for his uh murders, and uh a minister by the name of Roy Ratcliffe, a minister from the Church of Christ, visits Jeffrey Dahmer every week, studies the Bible with him for a period of time. And then Jeffrey Dahmer becomes a Christian in prison, where he reads the Bible, and to make sure everybody knows, he was baptized May 10th, 1994. So he gets baptized in the prison whirlpool at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin. And in the end, Dahlmer maintains his faith for the rest of his life, which was only six months longer because he was murdered on November, in November of 1994. So this doctrine of grace maintains that Dahlmer expressed genuine remorse and extends even to the worst of the worst. So it's the parallel to the tax collector, getting saved and following Jesus. So are you better than Jeffrey Dahmer is a great question. Now, generally, we think too little of our sinfulness and its stain upon us. And we also think too little of God's holiness. So if Jesus saves the tax collector or Jeffrey Dahmer, he can save anybody. So why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Because there's no one else to eat with. The sick are the ones that need a doctor. So Jeffrey Dahmer, who may have come to the realization of his sinfulness, might be further along than a stiff-necked person who denies their sin, minimizes their sin, and says, Hey, I'm not that bad. I don't need a rescue. So I think we have something to learn from Jeffrey Dahmer and the tax collector in our story today. Have you sinned? Just say yes. Can you deal with your own sin? No, you can't. Just say no. If you could, Jesus wouldn't have to have a huge rescue operation that goes on for centuries that finally manifests in the New Testament. So I think we have something in common with Jeffrey Dahmer and the tax collector. And at least the bad thing, the evil, we have that compared to the holiness of God and how far sinful we are. And the question is do we have faith to get plucked out of our tax collector booth or out of the correctional institution in Portage, Portage, Wisconsin? I pray that we use the story of Jeffrey Dahlmer and the tax collector to have faith. Thanks for listening.