Gospel—Mike Campbell
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Good evening, I see by the clock it's 7/15 time to begin our gospel meeting. I wanna welcome everyone here this evening we're gonna begin by singing hymn #25 life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheath The entire #25 life at best is very.
I don't know anything very blood cells any time that's reliable. I was doing things that are and thus there's no lying beside between you thighs and good evening you'll come to give me the power.
Of the boy's country that's probably free and umm.
Yeah, that's what we're going to do on the airway. Did you ever go back to 512? Umm.
Umm.
Umm, they're probably not doing anything.
Umm.
A lot of your heart is going to come back and we have been so hard to believe in time.
Uh, we're on our next game feel like umm, on Friday, it starts to be a good time for all the highlights, umm, and starts going to come through now, all right.
And, umm.
It's about.
Three days time for all of the boys and drinks the flow of nuclear.
Yeah. Can you change your lungs around the way it's a little bit. I do not follow up with you.
And you provide anything else you look like a.
Look to the Lord in the word of prayer. Our Father, we come now at this time.
Knowing that it's beyond our human inabilities to ever do anything that would point a soul to heaven, all we can do is preach thy word. It's thy word that has the power. It's thy Spirit of God which will come and convict and convince the Sinner of their need. Father, we think of that statement that Richard Baxter said a long time ago. I preach as I'll never preach again, as dying man to dying man. That's what we hope to do this evening to impress upon someone here that doesn't know Christ.
00:05:05
The seriousness and to be sure that they'll be in time. We thank thee for this wonderful message of the gospel that we have to preach. We thank thee for our wonderful Savior. Truly, we can say with the hymn writer, Hallelujah, what a Savior and how wonderful it is to preach about him this evening. We pray this in this precious and holy name, Amen. If you'll turn with me to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 3.
My text is going to be verse 7 but I want to begin reading a chapter or verse one just to give you the context.
And I want to look at flee from the wrath to come. Matthew chapter 3, starting at verse one. And those days came John the Baptist.
Preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. And the same John had his raiment of camels hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild hunting. Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism.
He said unto them, O generation of Vipers, who hath warranty to plea from the wrath to come, I want to read verse seven again. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism.
He said unto them, O generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the raft to come? Many years ago in an eastern state there was a railroad wreck. And this was account was given by Harry Ironside. And he said that back in those days they didn't have all the computer gizmos and machinery that they have today to warn. And they didn't even have, you know, the ability to call one another. What they had to do was they would have stations along the line and if there was a problem.
They would Telegraph that station, say you need to go out and wave the red flag to tell the next train to stop until we can get the other train going. And as it happened this fateful day, there was a train full of school children that had just come back from a trip and the train broke down on the track. And so, as was the emergency custom, they telegraphed the next station down the line. And because there was an incoming train to bring out the red flag and to wave it and to wave it and to wave it, tell that train to stop until they could get the other train going again.
And then it could go. Well, the man that was at the station ran out, grabbed the red flag and he waved the red flag and he waved the red flag. But the train kept coming and he's waving the red flag and he's getting more frantic waving the red flag and the train kept coming and, and sadly smacked right into that train full of school children.
Well, of course, the engineer of the train, he managed to jump out before it hits. And of course, trying to figure out what happened, they brought him into court. And so they put him on the witness stand and they said, didn't you see the the Plagueman waving the flag telling you to stop? And he said, well, I saw him waving, but he was waving a yellow flag. And so he said, I took it for granted that everything was all right. And the yellow flag meant that things are well, but you might want to slow down a little bit.
And he said, I slowed down. So they took the flag men, the guy that was waving the flag on the stand and they said, did you wave a flag? And he said, yes, what color of flag did you wave? He said, I waved a red flag. And he said the guy never paid any attention to and he kept on going.
And they said, Are you sure it was red? Because the other guy said it was yellow. And he said I'm sure it's red. And so both insisted that they were cracked. One insisted the engineer that he saw yellow flag, the other insisted he saw a red one.
Well, they tested both men. They weren't color blind, so they both saw saw a different color. And so finally someone had the wisdom to say, well, go get the flag and let's take a look at it. And so they hold it the proceedings and went and got the flag. And when they brought in court, it turned out that the flag was originally red, but because of exposure to the sun and everything, it was like a dirty yellow color. And so that man had been so used to that flag being read that he grabbed it, thought he grabbed the red flag and was waving it.
And in turn, he was waving a Yelp like saying go on, it's all right, go ahead.
And Ironside had these words to say about that incident. He said all the lives eternally wrecked by the yellow gospels of the day, the bloodless theories of unregenerate men that send their hearers to their doom instead of stopping them on their downward Rd. You know, the Bible tells us that there are two roads and two destinies for men, and that there is a road that's broad that leads to destruction, and there is a straight Rd. that leads to everlasting life. But you see the problem that we have today, as many are waving yellow flag of their good works. They're waving the yellow flag of their religion. Saints, all's well, head down that road. You're going to be all right.
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But they're heading to their destruction, just like that train was.
And John the Baptist here is preaching a message of warning to his listeners, telling them to repat John the Baptist is the forerunner, the one that was prophesied that would come and to preach, prepare the way of the Lord, make your path straight. And so he's preaching this message, but some individuals come that he gives this very powerful warning to when he asked them this question. A generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the rest to come This evening we want to give you a warning. We want to warn you and tell you what the Bible says about your faith and what will happen to you, dear friend, if you disregard.
God's Son, if you reject that One who loves you and died for you in the cross and shed His precious blood there, if you spur Him and go on your way into a lost eternity, what will happen to you? But you know, you don't have to do that. That's the wonderful beauty of this message that we share. Yes, it's a serious message. Yes, it's a sole message, but it's also a message of salvation for you if you will accept it. And I want to look at this question which John the Baptist asked the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
A generation of Vipers who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come. And I want to know five things about this question that, uh, John the Baptist asks. The first thing I want us to notice is that how he begins this question. And I call this a question of uncompromising honesty. Notice how he begins. Oh, generation of Vipers. Now that sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? That sounds like he's name calling or.
As some people try to do cast aspersions on the other person to make them look bad so you look good. It sounds like maybe he's vindictive that he has something against them, but in a rally he doesn't. He doesn't have anything against them. In fact, what he's trying to do is to call to their attention what their true character is like. And the reason why we know this is because the Lord Jesus and facing a similar group of individuals, specifically the Pharisees makes the same statement. Matthew chapter 12 verse 34. You don't have to turn there. I'll read it to you. Jesus says to the another group of Pharisees, he says, oh, generation of Vipers.
How can ye, being evil, speak good things? The abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the Bible is clear. He did no sin. There was no sin in him. He was without sin. And so Jesus when he said, oh, generation of Vipers was making a true statement about their character. And John the Baptist is doing the same. He's making a true statement about their character. Let's just consider for a moment these two groups. You have the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the most influential Jewish act.
They were very strict in their observance of the law. In fact, the Pharisees believed that their interpretation of the law was even as authoritative as the law itself, as the law given by Moses in the first five books. They believe what they added to it was just as authoritative. And so, for instance, they took the 10 commandments and made them 613 commandments. They added a whole bunch of things to the scriptures, and they were a very religious group. We read in the Scripture of the Pharisees who says, I thank God, I'm not like that man. I give all my money and I pray and I do all these things. They were very religious. They had this outward show.
I'm looking good.
Or at least what they thought to impress other people that they look good.
And then you have the Sadducees. The Sadducees were largely from the priesthood in the upper classes. They denied the truth of future punishment. They denied the truth of the resurrection. You may have heard that old joke that the Sadducees were sad, you see, because they denied the resurrection. And that is pretty sad when you deny something so clearly taught in the Scriptures.
But both groups were opposed not only to the Lord Jesus Christ's teachings, as we see later on, but they are opposed to John's teaching. Why? Because John is calling people to repent. He's calling them away from the systems of men, away from the ideas of man to what God has for the human soul in preparing for the Messiah. And they don't want to hear that. They don't like that. So they probably come to kind of check it out to see what they can do to throw the monkey wrench in to things or whatever.
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And you know in the scriptures the Viper or the snake is a picture of the lost person.
In Romans 313 it says their throat is an open sepulchre with their tongues they have used to see the poison of *** or snakes or Vipers is under their lips. And you might say well OK that's fine, that's the Pharisees, but that's not me. Wrong my friend, wrong because the Bible declares that the human heart apart from Jesus Christ is a lost, unregenerate, hell bound Sinner that you are.
You know dead and trespasses and sins that there's nothing good in you. In fact, let's read it. Turn to Romans chapter 3.
And we'll read it for ourselves in that section that we read one verse for Romans chapter 3, starting at verse 9.
Romans, chapter 3.
Some people call this section God's X-ray of the center because you see all the different body parts and things that are mentioned there. Uh, starting at verse 9 says what then? Are we better than they? No one know why.
For we have before prove both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. As 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 to do with good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have used to seed the poise of *****. Under their lips, as we've already mentioned, whose mouth is full of cursings and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery are in their ways, in the way of peace. They have not known. There is No Fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things so ever the law say that say to them who are under law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty for sure gone. Dear friends, that's God's description to you. You are guilty before God, and you will remain guilty unless you do something about it, and then the only thing that you could do is fly to the One who hung on the cross and died for you.
You can't do any good work. You can't go to any church service. You can't do anything like that. Nothing will save you. We sang that song this morning in high school. Weeping will not save me. Working will not save me. Nothing that you can do that man thinks is important will ever save your soul. But there is one that down in Calgary that can do that.
And as long as you're holding this pretense set, I'm better than everybody else, just like the Pharisees. Thank God I'm not like him or not like her. And you see, the problem that people have is they make comparisons. You know, if I compare myself to you, I could probably find something to make myself look good. If you compared yourself to me, you could probably find yourself to make yourself look good and to say, well, I'm not that bad because look at that character up here, He's pretty bad. But guess what, people? The comparison is not between me and you.
The comparison is between each of us and God's precious Son. And the Scripture says for all have sinned and come short. We missed the mark of the glory of God. And it's not like we missed the mark by a little bit, you know, and maybe we can make it and maybe we could get there. We missed it by an infinite degree. So great and so infinite is that one that loved us and died for us in the cross. We fall so far short. There is no way in 1000 lifetimes we could ever reach it.
That is.
Doing our own work that is trying in our own effort that is trying to be the best so-called that we can be.
But you know, we don't have to do anything.
You know why? Because he did it all. He came to that cruel cross, any blood for you, and he died for you. And he made it possible for you so that you don't have to have instead of you, a generation of Vipers, you snake.
But you can have it set of you that you're a St. not because of anything you've done, but because of all that he has done.
You know, many of us are like a man. His name is George Gordon. He was a well known preacher of his day and he tells about going across the Atlantic in a passenger liner.
And in those days, sometimes you had to double up in the cabin. So he ended up sharing a cab with somebody he didn't know. And the man he shared a cabin with was a crippled hunchback, uh, dwarf kind of guy. And he looked kind of sinister looking. And so the first thing George Gordon did was he took all his belongings and he went to the person and said, could you please lock these in the safe? And the person said, you know, that's funny. Your roommate came here just a few minutes ago and did the same thing.
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You know, we all think when we compare ourselves to others that we come out better. But remember, the comparison is not between you and me, comparisons between you and I and God's Son.
So we'll never come out of that comparison. We'll never fare well unless.
We accept Him unless we come to trust Him, unless we come to see that we are a lost Sinner, that we are a generation of Vipers, that we don't deserve heaven at all. But he loved me and gave himself for me. What a wonderful message it is. And so, first of all, we see this question and I have to move on. It's a question of uncompere. It's a question of uncompromising honesty. He's being honest with them, telling them exactly what they are. They're sinners. They're not as righteous as they think they are.
Well, let's move on next part of the question, he says to them. Oh, generation of Vipers knows the next part. Who hath warned you?
So we see, not only is this a question of uncompromising honesty, it's a question of uncomprehending motivation. He's saying to them, who told you to be here? Why are you here? Why did you come? And obviously he knows or has an idea why they came. Now, no one knows the motivation of another person's heart. I don't know your motivation, why you're here this evening. I don't know if maybe you've been invited and we're thankful if you have and you came because of that. Whatever the reason why you're here, I don't know. And John didn't know, but he had a suspicion that they were here for a bad reason and not a good one.
But you know, God knows why you're here this evening. God knows what's going on in your heart.
Sometimes we like to think that we can, you know, hide what we do and that no one sees but says the eyes are lower. Run to and throw over all the earth, beholding the good and the evil.
There was a man named Anna Nice and his wife, and they thought God didn't see, and they thought they could get a spiritual pat in the back for selling a piece of land. And, uh, you know, they'll give most of it away, but they'll keep apart by themselves and people will think, hey, yeah, and a nice and so far, what a great thing you've done. But when they came before Peter, Peter said, why did you lie to the Holy Spirit? How did Peter know that? The Lord showed it to him. And the Lord knew that Ananias and Sapphira died. And that day they both went out into their eternal destiny.
Because they thought they were hiding from the Lord.
And so you're not gonna hide from him?
Well, you can try it, but you won't be successful. But you know, even though we don't know why you're here this evening, and we, as we said, we're glad that you're here, there is one thing that is important for you being here and that is that this message that we're preaching, if you're here for any nefarious reason, why just like John suspected, these Pharisees for being there doesn't matter because the message we're preaching is more powerful than any evil motive that you might have or any reason that you might be here. This message can take and reach the hardest of hearts.
And turn them from a road leading to destruction to the road of life.
There's a famous atheist in the 1800s in America named Robert Ingersoll. And Robert Ingersoll would travel the country, you know, promoting atheism and trying to get people.
To turn away from the Lord. And Robert Inger saw a friend named Lou Wallace. And Lou Wallace was a well known lawyer. He was a good writer. And Ingersoll said, you know, Lou, you and I believe that there's nothing to do with this Bible thing. It's all a bunch of fables and fairy tales. But he said, you know, we've got to get rid of this whole resurrection deal. The problem is people still hold on to the Bible because they believe their resurrection is true. So he said, I want you as my friend and fellow atheist, to go out and to write a book showing that the reverend, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a bunch of hokum.
And Lou Wallace said, well, you know.
I could do that, but he said if I do it, I'm gonna be honest. I'm not gonna try to fake the evidence or anything. He said I'll honestly look at all the evidence. He said I'm a lawyer and I'm trained to do that. He said I'll do it, but he said I'm not gonna try to trick anybody. He said I'm just gonna look at it plainly and fairly. And Ingersoll said that's fine because you and I both know the resurrection is not real. Well, Lou Walsh went to all the great libraries in the United States, and then eventually he went over to the great.
Research libraries in Europe. One day in a lonely library in Europe, he bowed a sentence. Said My Lord and my God, because he realized that the evidence showed conclusively that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He couldn't deny it any longer. You see, doesn't matter why you're here, because God's word is powerful, can reach your heart. So we're glad you're here this evening. So this question that he asked him is a question of uncompromising honesty. It's a question of uncompromising.
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Motivation as to why they were there, but it's also a question of unparalleled urgency. Notice the next part of our question. He says all generation of Vipers who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Now when you tell somebody to flee, it's not just a casual walk down the street or a little stroll down the lane. When you say someone please, you want them to run. You want them to put all your energy into it to take off, to run as fast, as far and as long as you can.
You only say when the tower's twin towers were collapsing.
And they could still get people out of the buildings that there was a police officer and he was yelling to people as they were coming out of the buildings. He was saying, don't look up, don't look back. Run for your life. And that's what John said. Who told you to run for your life? Who told you to come here? This is a message of urgency this evening.
And we can mention many reasons why it's urgent, but let me just give you a few because I see my time is running and I still have two other points. Umm, first reason life is short. We know that there's that little beautiful little couple that says life is short. Death is sure send the cures Christ secure what a wonderful thing that is. Life is short. We know that it's a point unto men wants to die. But after this, the judgment David said there's about a step between me and death.
This James said. What is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanisheth away. That's why this message is urgent this evening, because you don't know. You could walk out into eternity this evening, and if you don't trust Christ, it'll be a lost eternity.
Life is short. Not only that, the second reason why this message is urgent is because hell is real. There is a literal place called hell. The Bible is clear about that. There is eternal destiny of men. And there are one of two places you will go. You will go to be with the Lord, or you will go to be in the place of punishment. That's it. And it's a real place of fire. The rich man lifted up his eyes. In hell, it says, being in torment, he felt the flame, He felt the the agony of that place.
You know, during the second war, there was a troop ship going over to one of the big battles and the soldiers asked the new chap and they said you believe in hell. And he said, no, I don't believe in that. And they said please resign. They said if there's a hell, there's no how, we don't need you. And he said if there is a how, we don't want to get misled because we might be facing that.
The people think there is no help, but the Bible is clear there is a hell.
It's a real place and your soul will end in eternity somewhere.
Where will you spend eternity? This question comes to you and me. Tell me, what will your answer be?
Where will you spend the last reason that I just mentioned why this is urgent? A message this evening. And of course, the Bible always offers salvation. Not as tomorrow or later or sometime when you feel like it. The Bible always offers salvation as now. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. God wants you to deal with salvation in the present moment, not when you feel like you're good and ready to do so.
But the last reason is that judgment is coming.
You know, there was a young preacher that was preaching to a group of people.
And a skeptic named Burr only came in. He wanted to have this argument with the preacher.
And he said, you know, he said you're a very good speaker. He said, but I don't believe what you say about the Bible. I don't believe it's infallible. I believe it's full of myths and fairy tales. And the young creature said it's a point unto men wants to die. But after this, the judgment.
But he said, I can prove to you that there's no such thing. Bert only said that you know that no judgment after death. And the preacher said, but people do die for it's a point and the man wants to die. But after this the judgment and Byrne only only said, wait a minute, that's no argument. I want to have a real genuine argument with you about these things. Let's get down to business and Scott the Scottish this properly. The preacher said, I'm not here to argue the word of God. I'm here to preach the word of God.
And he said it's a point in A man wants to die.
But after this the judgment.
And he said, you know what only said he got, He was getting annoyed this time, especially after hearing over and over against the point and the man wants to die. But after this, the judgment, he said, I bet you don't even know the Bible. And that's why you keep repeating that one verse that you know.
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And he said, well, the preacher, young preacher said, well, you know, you could be right, but it is a point and a man wants to die. And after this, the judgment and only said, well, I had enough of this. He said, obviously you're not very intellectual. And he he went down the road, he left to go to his house.
But only said that night that he said every step he took he heard the word judgment.
Every sound of the crickets in the evening seemed like they were saying judgment.
As he saw, as he heard the stream rippling past his property, it seemed like the water was saying judgment. Everything around him was saying judgment. He couldn't sleep that night. He couldn't rest. And finally went back to the preacher. And he said, I have to know, how can I survive the judgment? What do I need to do? And of course, the young preacher pointed him to Christ.
Well, sinners, seek His face, whose wrath you cannot bear. Fly to the dying Savior's wounds and find.
Salvation there wounded, weak and helpless worm on Christ's kind arms I fall. Be thou my strength and confidence, my Jesus and my all.
So that's the message we have to SharePoint. It's an urgent message, friend. You have to make a decision tonight.
Whether you think so or not, because you could put it off, yes, you could walk out of this room and walk out of this building and go off and do whatever you do from here on out. But the Bible says you have to be careful about that. You know why? Because the Scripture says that my Spirit should not always strive with men and that he is flesh. The Bible also says that God gives up people to a reprobate mind. That the Spirit of God will only deal with you so long, will only present Christ to you so long, and eventually he will rest off his head and say OK.
You want it that way, Go that way.
There was a young girl that.
In her area they were having meetings and she wanted to go to the dance and so she didn't want to go to the meeting.
And she said I don't want to have anything to do with the meeting. I'm going to go to the dance and stay.
But she felt conviction because she had been to a meeting or two and heard the gospel preached. And finally she said, leave me alone God, I want to have fun.
So she went to her dance.
And maybe she had fun, I don't know.
But a month later, she contracted some kind of sickness and was going to take her life.
And someone came to preach the gospel to her and she said, please leave me alone. She said, don't you see? I settled my fate a long time ago when I said, God, leave me alone. She said, I'm dying and I'm going to go to hell because I told God a month ago to leave me alone. See, friend, you don't know tonight. You don't know that this might be the night that you're making that decision. And you say, God, leave me alone.
If you don't say it in those words, but you say it by your choice of rejecting Jesus Christ.
Well, I have to move on. So we see, it's not only this question is a question of uncompromising honesty. It's a question of an uncomprehending motivation. It's a question of unparalleled urgency. But it's also a question of undoubtable fierceness. Notice the next part of our verse. A generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath. From the wrath.
Scripture is clear, Jesus said in John 336. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but what but the wrath of God abideth on him?
Right now, in this room, in your lost state, the wrath of God abiding on you.
Because unless you accept that one who took God's wrath and you're sad, the wrath of God will continue to abide on you right now.
John Owen said, don't deceive yourself. It's not an indifferent thing whether you come to Christ upon his invitation or not, a thing that you may put off from 1 occasion into another. Your present refusal of it is a high active enmity against God as your nature is capable of.
You know, dear friend, I wish that I had the ability to communicate to you.
What that statement means? The wrath of God.
I wish I could explain it in such a way that you would understand it to make it clear.
But no, I I don't have the capability. It's so solemn, it's so awesome. It's so terrible to think that the wrath of God abides on you and that you could go out into a crisis, eternity lost forever. I wish I could put it in some way that I could get you to understand how serious this business is of your soul. Tonight could be the last night. Tonight you could drop into the pits of hell because you reject God's Son.
00:35:28
And I trust the Spirit of God will do that work for me.
Even though I can't do it adequately.
But you know, the wonderful thing is you don't have to know the wrath of God abiding on you. You don't have to spend an eternity in hell. You don't have to know this question of undoubtable fierceness.
Because Jesus died for you.
During the Watts rides, there was a preacher named Evie Hill, and he would often get threatened because he would preach against the riders and tell them they need to stop their foolishness and so forth. And one day he got a call and the caller said that they're going to put a bomb in this car. Well, the next day he got up and he went to get to his car. His car was gone and he couldn't understand what happened. And finally, after hours, the car came back and his wife had driven his car off. And he said, he said, honey, why did you take the car? Didn't you know that they threatened to bomb it?
And that I, you could have been dead. And she said, I know that, but she said I wanted to make sure that I was the one that got constant of you. You know, it's a beautiful picture of love, isn't it? The love that a husband and wife have for one another. But there's a greater picture of love. And that's the love the Savior has for you and for me. That's the love that he had when he came down to this earth and went to that cruel tree and suffered and bled for you and me. That's the love that is truly.
Beyond description.
I love that little poem that says with the ink of ocean made, and every blade of grass to quill, and every man ascribed by trade, and the sky, a a partial may to write the love of God on high. The scroll could not contain the whole Those stretch from sky to sky. That's how wonderful and beautiful the love of God is.
And dear friend, Jesus took your place so that you wouldn't have to know that wrath, so that you wouldn't have to go through that.
But it said that you could have a home in heaven tonight.
Lastly.
Come to the last part of this question. No, first of all, it's a question of compromising honesty. Generation of Vipers. It was a questioning of uncomprehending motivation. Who warned you? Why are you here? It's a questioning question of unparalleled. Certainly flee. Who wants you to flee? And it was a question.
Of undoubtable fierceness from the wrath. And lastly, we see it's a question of undeniable certainty. Let's read our text again. A generation of Vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
Notice he doesn't say who wanted to flee from the wrath. That may happen. It'll be bad if it does, but it may happen. He didn't say that.
He didn't say, well, there's a bad thing that possibly could come your way if you don't listen to me. No, he said. Who warned you to flee from the raft to come?
He said it's certain it's going to happen.
And who warns you?
And it's certain because the Scriptures are certain. It's certain because the Bible is God's word. And we don't have the time, but we could discuss with you.
All kinds of different evidences and proves that we have that we know the Bible is true. And Saint John, I mentioned the word Bible is an acrostic and I said that we can know the vows, the word of God because of the three C's because of its consistency and its continuance and its claims. We can know the Bible because of of the insurmountable resurrection of Jesus Christ and the wonderful evidence that we talked about there. We can know the Bible's true because Bible prophecy and we could spend a whole message on that alone.
We can know the Bible is true because of the legacy of history and all the historical documented evidence that we have that proves the Bible to be true.
And we could know the Bible is true because of the evidence of change lives. Only this book can take a person down and out in the gutter in the dregs of life and turn their life completely around and make them a person that is on the road to heaven. And like I say, we could spend a lot of time doing that. But we don't have a lot of time this evening because I have about 5 minutes and.
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I wish I could spend that time with you. It would be profitable for us to think about some of these things. But the Bible is the word of God. The Bible is the truth.
You know, Robert Ingersoll that we mentioned earlier that try to get Lou Walsh to write the book against the, umm, the umm, resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Lou Walsh realized that the Bible clearly is true about it. But anyway, Robert Inglesaw, one time in his life he held up a Bible. He said to everybody, He said, in 15 years I'll have this book in the morgue. 15 years Robert Ingersoll was in the morgue and the Bible is still here.
Men have downs for the years have tried to wipe out and destroy this book, but the Bible still here. This is a certain message. It's the wrath to come. There is a time of judgment coming. In fact, the Bible declares some very important certainties that we'll just touch on right, uh, briefly. First of all, there is the certainty of the uncertainty of life. It says boast not thyself, but tomorrow. Proverbs 27 one for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. The Bible saying you can't be certain about life. Fortunes have.
Have been won and lost within a matter of minutes your house you could be thinking you're a perfect help and go to the doctor in a few minutes find out you have cancer. You know life is uncertain That's the reality We can't pretend that we can guarantee or that we can say we're gonna do this or that the other thing because it says boast not thyself of tomorrow. I know it's not what another day may bring forth We've already talked about the certainty of death. Roberts uh 927 and as there's a point and the men wants to die but after this the judgment and the only thing that is.
That can change that certainty of death that we know, as the Scripture tells us there is an exemption to that.
And that is if the Lord returns for his bride to call up his people to go to be with him, that's those that are alive or make at that time will be transformed. But that is the only known exception that we have to the fact that disappointed as a man wants to die, but after this the judgment.
That's it. That's a certainty.
George Bernard Shaw said that the ultimate statistic in life is that one out of every one people die.
That's true, like I said, there is an exception we know in the Scripture, and maybe some of us here will live to see that. Wouldn't that be glorious? And then there is the certainty of judgment. Want to reach you? Acts 17, verse 31 knows what it says, because at the point of day into which He will judge the world of righteousness by that man whom He ordained Speaking of Jesus Christ, knows what He says, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead. God is guaranteed to you.
That you are going to face judgment one day, of course, that is unless you are in the sun, and then you won't face that judgment because he's already bore the judgment for you. But God is guaranteed that you will face judgment because He rose Jesus up from the dead. It's guaranteed. That's what it means. They're what it says. He's given assurance as a guarantee from heaven, and there's no guarantee better than that. It's unbreakable. He says every human being is guaranteed to stand in judgment.
The only way that you can be safe in that judgment is to be in the one who bore the flames and the wrath of God and your sin.
And there's another certainty in the Bible, and I'll end with this one.
And that's the certainty of a sole Savior. Tonight. We've been trying to point you to Calvary, pointing you to that one who died for you there. Here's what Acts 412 Says. Neither is there salvation in any other. And that means there's not salvation in any other. Doesn't matter what you name, doesn't matter what you call upon. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It's the name of Christ alone. That's where salvation resides.
In his name alone.
This is certainty of a soul saver. Isn't that a wonderful certainty? Tonight you can be saved because there is a Savior. You cannot know the wrath of God because there is One who bore God's wrath for you. You can have heaven tonight if you'll just trust in Him, the One who died for you there.
Let me close.
My time's up.
In the book 13 Days, the Glory tells the tale of the Alamo.
On March 3rd in 1836, two hours before dusk, the Mexican gun stopped firing and William Travis had all the men that were still in the floor line up in single file. And he said to them, Manny, he said, I'm not going to lie to you. Argue, miss certain. Those were the words he used. Our doom is certain.
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But he said if you'll stay and stick it out and fight, I'll stay and stick it out and fight. And he drew a line in the sand.
Cross that whole assembly and he said if you don't want to stay, stay where you are. But if you'll stay, step across the line. Every man, the animal stepped across the line, even Jimbo, he was injured. He said tear me across. And they all stayed and paw. But tonight we're not asking you to step across the line to die. We're asking you to step across God's line and live.
But you have a decision to make, dear friend.
And God has asked you a question.
A generation of Vipers who hath worn you to flee from the wrath to come, and have a word of prayer. Then our meeting will be over.