-
Turn in your Bibles if you would
-
to John 3.
-
You know, balance -
-
we heard about it in the first hour.
-
Balance.
-
You know what we tend to do;
-
we tend to define balance by ourselves.
-
Because the truth is,
-
we do tend to look at
ourselves as being balanced.
-
Because the thing is if
you were really convinced
-
you were out of balance,
-
you would move that pendulum
-
to where you thought it was balanced.
-
We all have a tendency
to think we're right.
-
And because that's the case,
-
we all tend to evaluate
balance by ourselves.
-
And if you've ever said to somebody,
-
"They're imbalanced,"
-
what you were doing probably
-
was you were using yourself
as a reference point
-
when you said that
-
because you were using your own thought
-
about what balance is.
-
Now the key, we know that of a truth -
-
this is balanced.
-
This really is the only
infallible reference point
-
to what balance is.
-
So what we have to make sure
-
is that we're constantly fine tuning
-
our own thinking by this book.
-
But you know, balance is a funny thing.
-
For instance, if you listen to Della -
-
I'm going to put you on the spot -
-
all she talks about
is the crisis pregnancy.
-
I don't hear her talk
about other ministries.
-
But then if you hear James
talk about I'll Be Honest,
-
it's like, "get balanced, man!"
-
Why do you not talk like Della talks?
-
Well, because one of the things
-
is that we have diversity in the church.
-
We have diversity of gift
-
and diversity of strengths
-
and diversity of personality.
-
And so we need to be careful
-
that we don't take this concept of balance
-
and misapply it.
-
The other thing is,
-
balance is something that you see
-
in the big picture of things.
-
If you want to ask,
-
well, is the church balanced?
-
You don't look just at Della
-
or just at James,
-
you look at the big picture.
-
The same thing could
be said for preaching.
-
Can you imagine if you walked
-
into Jonathan Edwards' church
-
the day he preached
-
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"?
-
Now, maybe you've never read that message,
-
but if you have, you would say,
-
this guy's not balanced.
-
Well, that would be an unfair assessment.
-
You really need to hear
Jonathan Edwards preach
-
for a year probably.
-
I'm not saying that expositional preaching
-
is the only way to preach.
-
I certainly would not say
-
that a man cannot preach topical messages.
-
But, expositional preaching does help
-
to foster balance.
-
At least, it requires us to not pass over
-
parts of Scripture.
-
Now how a man preaches a
certain portion of Scripture,
-
that may be right or it may not be right.
-
It depends on how much he's
preaching his own opinion
-
or he's preaching exactly what God intends
-
to be taught by that passage.
-
I'm saying all this because
I'm justifying the fact
-
that I'm going to preach to you
-
a very imbalanced message today.
-
And if I didn't say anything,
-
after hearing James you'd say,
-
now that wasn't balanced.
-
But you see, one of the things is,
-
it was like Martin Luther actually
-
made a comment about
-
you can preach all the truth in the world,
-
but you know, if you
neglect that one truth
-
that's most under attack
in your generation,
-
you're being unfaithful.
-
And the thing is,
-
if a preacher's being faithful
-
and he's dealing with the very point
-
of Satanic attack in his day,
-
it may seem imbalanced.
-
Especially if you were to
read it 100 years from now.
-
You know sometimes, when we go back
-
and we read some of the guys from the past
-
we don't really recognize
-
why they're emphasizing
what they're emphasizing.
-
Now a lot of times it had to do with
the attacks that they were facing.
-
And it could seem imbalanced
-
till you recognized that the
pendulum in their day
-
had swung way over here,
-
and a balanced message was not
-
what their day needed.
-
They needed that pendulum hit
-
with a good crack
-
to send it back centerward.
-
Yes, I know, the message
that I want to bring today
-
is imbalanced.
-
But it is because it's
meant to be corrective.
-
John 3:16.
-
Let's look at it.
-
You see, we live in a day -
-
I don't know what comes to your mind
-
when you hear John 3:16.
-
I can tell you as a young believer,
-
if I would have sat down and somebody said
-
please open your Bibles to John 3:16,
-
I'd think I'm going to get a shallow,
-
typical evangelistic message today.
-
I would have cringed if I heard
-
John 3:16 was the text.
-
Maybe you don't respond that way.
-
But it has to do with the way
-
that I perceive the text is used.
-
Unquestionably,
-
this is the most well-known
biblical passage.
-
And I don't even mean to spend
-
the majority of my time here on it,
-
but let's read it.
-
"For God so loved the world
-
that He gave His only-begotten Son
-
that whoever believes in Him
-
should not perish,
-
but have eternal life."
-
I would challenge you,
-
go to your colleges;
-
go to your workplaces;
-
go up and down your street.
-
Quote John 3:16 to people.
-
You know what the truth is?
-
Most of the world yawns at that text.
-
I mean, it encapsulates the gospel
-
and the truth.
-
If it was even possible
-
that people in hell could be
-
partakers of that promise,
-
and you took that to them right now,
-
they would find that to be the greatest
-
imaginable news possible.
-
God redeeming sinners.
-
It doesn't seem to shock us.
-
America expects God to be merciful.
-
Have you ever noticed
-
when good things happen?
-
The media is not looking
for some explanation.
-
It's when a hurricane comes
-
and a bunch of people die,
-
or there's a tsunami in
another part of the world
-
and a bunch of people are drowned.
-
And then it's like the world
-
wants an explanation.
-
How could a loving God do this?
-
How can this be permitted?
-
This is how our world is.
-
You know it is.
-
We expect God to so love the world.
-
It's expected.
-
Oh yeah, well, that's nice.
-
God so loved the world.
-
But see, that doesn't
shake anybody's worldview.
-
Because typically, it's expected.
-
We're shocked and outraged
-
when God does the opposite.
-
And it does - it outrages people.
-
"How could God let this happen?"
-
How often do people in this world
-
talk that way?
-
What are they saying?
-
I'll tell you what, that's massive,
-
massive amounts of ignorance behind that.
-
I remember telling a family member -
-
because you know, after I was saved,
-
I came to recognize my Catholic
-
(horribly nominal Catholic)
-
pagan family -
-
I recognized my family members
-
who had died,
-
they perished.
-
And it's like I had family members say,
-
"Grandma in hell??"
-
You can have that God.
-
My god's not like that.
-
No, I remember a preacher friend saying
-
one time he was sitting in a Dairy Queen,
-
and he got to telling a woman
-
about the gospel,
-
and this woman was outraged.
-
She said, "My god is not like that."
-
And he said, "You're right, ma'am.
-
Your god is not like that."
-
See, that's the problem.
-
Our world expects John 3:16.
-
(Incomplete thought)
-
Listen to what's promised.
-
Whoever believes in Christ
-
should not perish, but have eternal life.
-
Eternal life.
-
It's precisely because we don't have -
-
this world around us
doesn't have eternal life
-
that's promised in this verse
-
that they miss it.
-
You say, what do you mean?
-
Look, if I took a survey;
-
if I took a survey here,
-
passed out a piece of paper -
-
but more than that,
-
up and down these streets
-
throughout San Antonio to take a survey.
-
Define for me what eternal life is.
-
Well, many would respond with the obvious.
-
To live forever.
-
But perhaps that begs another question.
-
Let me ask you this.
-
Do you those in hell live forever?
-
Sort of.
-
They exist forever.
-
They're conscious forever.
-
But an eternity of destruction,
-
an eternity of judgment,
-
an eternity of punishment,
-
an eternity of fire - all four,
-
which are plainly stated in Scripture,
-
eternally are the lot of the damned.
-
See, that's hardly "life."
-
The reality is eternal life
is not just existing
-
no matter what else is
true of our existence.
-
But here's the question,
-
what is it that really defines life?
-
What is it that really
defines eternal life?
-
And here's the thing,
-
we know the answer
-
if we know our Bibles.
-
But the thing is even knowing it,
-
because you know John 17:3,
-
it's incomprehensible
to the world at large.
-
You say, what does it say
over there in John 17:3?
-
Well, "this is eternal life."
-
This is eternal life. And what is it?
-
What is it?
-
Right.
-
It is to know You - God is being
prayed to by His Son.
-
Christ is looking to His Father,
-
and He's speaking to Him.
-
"This is eternal life,
-
that they know You, the only true God,
-
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
-
But the truth is, think about that.
-
To the lost world,
that's incomprehensible.
-
What?
-
Knowing God is life?
-
That's not the way the world thinks.
-
I mean, look, do you want
-
a deer in the headlights stare?
-
Just go up and down the street here
-
and tell men and women this reality.
-
Eternal life is knowing God.
-
It doesn't register.
-
Would it have registered with
you when you were lost?
-
If somebody would have
come and told you that?
-
This is what eternal life is all about.
-
You want to know what it's all about?
-
It's right here. It's knowing God.
-
You see what the apostle said?
-
"Without God in the world..."
-
Remember that from Ephesus?
-
We're going to get back to Ephesians
-
in a few weeks.
-
"Without God in the world..."
-
We like that.
-
You know, the apostle says the same thing
-
about the Galatians.
-
"Formerly, when you did not know God."
-
That's what lost people are like.
-
But you know what - we like that.
-
To us, any concept of living
-
when we're lost -
-
ah, that's living!
-
The further we could get away from God.
-
Which one of you when
you were lost thought:
-
"Going to church! Ah, that's living!"
-
It's like if somebody asked you to go,
-
it's like ugh... what excuse
can I come up with?
-
Because anything is better than that!
-
That's how we think.
-
That's how we were.
-
And you know the thing is,
-
that's life - knowing God.
-
Death - it's the opposite.
-
It's not knowing Him.
Isn't that interesting?
-
The apostle says both about
the condition of the lost.
-
Formerly when you did not know God;
-
also formerly, again, the
letter to the Ephesians,
-
he said, you were dead
in trespasses and sins.
-
This is the thing,
-
people who have not been saved
-
by the grace of Christ,
-
they don't live.
-
And the issue is they don't know God.
-
That's it.
-
Death is not annihilation.
-
Death is not ceasing to exist.
-
Death is simply living without God.
-
That's it.
-
Without God.
-
Listen to Paul.
-
He says this to the Corinthians.
-
"Some have no knowledge of God.
-
I say this to your shame."
-
And you know what's
interesting about that?
-
He's not talking about
the pagans out there.
-
He's talking about people in the church,
-
and he says, "Some of you don't know God."
-
Now, look, if you would
have tagged those people
-
that he's talking about,
-
they'd have had plenty
to tell you about God.
-
You recognize that.
-
Just because you've got
a lot to say about God,
-
doesn't mean that you know God.
-
I find that, again, take the survey.
-
Go up and down the streets,
-
which a lot of us have.
-
Everybody's got their theories on God,
-
and that doesn't change in the church.
-
You've got people thinking
all sorts of things.
-
These people that he's talking to -
-
there's some among you -
-
they were denying the resurrection.
-
Very authoritatively could tell you
-
things about God, but they were wrong.
-
So the question is this: who is God?
-
Do we know Him?
-
I mean, when it says,
"God so loved the world..."
-
one of the problems is we
don't really even know
-
who that God is.
-
You know, if you understand
-
more thoroughly who that God is,
-
then all of a sudden John 3:16
-
becomes marvelous.
-
But the world doesn't know.
-
And the scary thing is
-
that we don't know in the church.
-
You talk about being balanced.
-
One of the most balanced realities
-
that we need to have in Scripture,
-
and I don't know if it's even balance,
-
is just we need to know God.
-
That's eternal life. We need to know God.
-
We need to delve in and dive in.
-
We need to know Him.
We need to realize Him.
-
We need the Spirit of wisdom
-
and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
-
We need to grow in that -
-
this Spirit working in us.
-
A greater, greater,
and greater perception.
-
This is why it's so important
-
to read all of the Bible.
-
Listen, if you've been in the Lord
-
for a number of years and you have not
-
read this book cover to cover,
-
no excuse.
-
Because you know what's going to happen
-
if you don't read it cover to cover?
-
It's kind of like if you walk in here
-
and you listen to one
sermon that's preached.
-
And you say, that's imbalanced.
-
That's right. You're going to end up
-
with an imbalanced view
-
of reality, truth, who God is.
-
Read all of your Bible.
-
Because it's all speaking to us about Him.
-
Who is this God?
-
Man thinks he knows.
-
You want to know why we need
-
to be soaked in this Word so much?
-
Because we have an image
of God in our minds,
-
and we need it corrected;
-
we need to see more accurately
-
who He is and dispel our own false notions
-
of who He is.
-
This is critical. Critical.
-
Scripture just tears away
-
these distorted images.
-
And I'll tell you this,
-
it reveals a God to us who is very much
-
bigger and greater and more fearful
-
than ever imagined.
-
And kind,
-
and compassionate.
-
I can remember one time years ago
-
reading Charles Spurgeon on John 3:16.
-
And he said when this verse is taken -
-
it's kind of like the rainbow,
-
against the dark storm clouds.
-
It's very vivid.
-
He was emphasizing John 3:16
-
is like that rainbow.
-
Very beautiful.
-
But it's when it's viewed
-
against this dark, stormy backdrop
-
that it becomes most vivid
-
and most beautiful.
-
See, I was all the more reminded of this
-
just in the last couple of weeks.
-
I've been moving through the Pentateuch.
-
I'm in Joshua now,
-
but just coming through -
-
especially through the book of Numbers.
-
That's where the Hebrew children
-
are in the wilderness.
-
I want you to turn there.
-
Numbers 11:1.
-
"And the people complained
-
in the hearing of the Lord
-
about their misfortunes."
-
I know if you've got the
King James Version,
-
it doesn't say "about their misfortunes,"
-
but I did see that in the Hebrew,
-
it's actually there.
-
"The people complained in
the hearing of the Lord
-
about their misfortunes."
-
The New American Standard says,
-
"about their adversities."
-
"And when the Lord heard it,
-
His anger was kindled,
-
and the fire of the Lord burned among them
-
and consumed some outlying parts
-
of the camp."
-
You know you read,
-
but sometimes you stop.
-
Sometimes you read parts of the Bible
-
and it's like, you know,
you're taking it in.
-
You're hearing it.
-
But then there's other
times where you stop
-
and some reality hits you.
-
And the reality of this hit me.
-
And I began to think,
-
what if your tent had been
-
in the outlying part of the camp?
-
What was that like?
-
It says (verse 2), "Then the
people cried out to Moses,
-
and Moses prayed to the Lord
-
and the fire died down.
-
So the name of that place
-
was called Taberah,
-
because the fire of the
Lord burned among them."
-
Taberah.
-
You have a place called Taberah.
-
Can you imagine?
-
You're driving down the interstate,
-
there's the sign: Taberah, next exit.
-
Dad, what's that mean?
-
Burning.
-
It was Calvin or Gill - one of them -
-
it means combustion.
-
Yeah, children, that's combustion.
-
Why?
-
Well, here's why.
-
Spontaneous combustion.
-
Now think about that.
-
Why?
-
They were complaining.
-
We'll talk more about that in a second.
-
You know, it doesn't say,
-
"the fire of the Lord fell."
-
It says that in some places.
-
At Sodom and Gomorrah,
-
fire fell from heaven.
-
It doesn't say lightning,
-
thunderbolt.
-
Just spontaneous combustion.
-
Sinners exploded in flames.
-
And you know, here's the thing,
-
God's anger -
-
we don't sense it.
-
We don't feel it.
-
Do you know
-
men and women and children in this room
-
who have heard the truth of the gospel
-
and still are not bowing
the knee to the Lord -
-
have not repented -
-
do you know God's anger with you is such
-
that Scripture specifically says
-
it's going to be more tolerable
for Sodom and Gomorrah
-
in the day of judgment than for you?
-
His anger burns against you
-
greater than it burned against them.
-
But you know what? We don't feel it.
-
There's no low rumble of thunder.
-
We don't feel it.
-
I mean, it's like that wind
isn't blowing in here.
-
There's no wind of vengeance.
-
I can't feel it.
-
I can't hear it.
-
And you know, because people don't,
-
and because they sin,
-
and the sentence against that sin
-
is not exacted immediately,
-
they just become real confident.
-
You know, there's a verse in the Bible
-
that says that?
-
Ecclesiastes 8.
-
The sentence is not
carried out immediately
-
against people's sin,
-
and what do they do?
-
They become all the more confident.
-
There's no sense of this judgment;
-
this anger, this wrath.
-
But you know what?
-
Here's a glimpse at a time
-
when sinners are doing what sinners do.
-
They weren't raping and killing children.
-
They weren't cannibals.
-
You know what they were doing?
-
Murmuring.
-
They weren't even
complaining directly to God.
-
Listen to how it reads:
-
It says, "the people complained
-
in the hearing of the Lord."
-
Complaining. What's that?
-
Certainly a small sin.
-
Not murder, not rape, not kidnapping.
-
None of that stuff.
-
What was causing the complaining?
-
We're told: misfortunes.
-
Their adversities.
-
Things didn't go just the way
-
that they wanted them to go.
-
After all, I mean, living
in that wilderness -
-
listen, living out in the wilderness
-
would not be nice.
-
No water.
-
I mean, the idea I get
about that wilderness
-
is that it was pretty much desert.
-
You're out there for 40 years,
-
you're probably not going
to be overly happy.
-
Didn't they have some
things to complain about?
-
God was listening,
-
and He incinerated a number of them
-
on the spot.
-
Can you imagine?
-
A sinner just exploding in flames.
-
You can't.
-
And because the reality of that
-
is so far removed from us,
-
and because sinners get
away with sinning so often
-
and they don't burst into flames,
-
we can get very casual about sin.
-
We can get very casual about grace.
-
We can get very casual about John 3:16.
-
But I'll tell you what you
get a glimpse of here.
-
You get a glimpse of the way
-
God feels towards sinners.
-
And it bursts forth.
-
They were dead on the spot.
-
Do you know the God of Scripture?
-
Do you really know Him?
-
Do you know that God is like this?
-
You say, like what? Like this!
-
Like we find here in this passage.
-
Provoked, angry, and ready
-
to break forth against sinners.
-
Do you know?
-
You can come across these things
-
in the New Testament.
-
You just kind of pass over them.
-
Like, "storing up wrath
-
for the day of wrath."
-
Do you recognize that
that's what's happening?
-
God is getting angrier and angrier
-
and His wrath is storing, it's building,
-
it's becoming greater.
-
That's what's happening to sinners.
-
That's what's happening
-
to men and women and children
-
who do not surrender to Christ.
-
It's just increasing.
-
It's getting bigger.
-
We find this very truth in John 3
-
where John 3:16 is.
-
You find this reality.
-
That "those who believe in the Son
-
have eternal life," but
if you do not believe
-
or you do not obey the Son,
-
"you shall not see life,
-
but the wrath of God remains on you."
-
It's on you!
-
If you're not saved here, it's on you.
-
The only thing that prevents you
-
from exploding into
flames like these people
-
is nothing other than God's kindness.
-
That's it.
-
Your sins deserve every bit and more
-
what happened to them.
-
And you think about this.
-
Just stop and think.
-
Because if you really
take yourself back there,
-
these were real people.
-
They had names.
-
They had faces.
-
They had feelings.
-
They had emotions.
-
They had families.
-
I mean, you get the feeling,
-
they burst into flames right along with
-
the rest of their family.
-
You can't do anything.
-
You burst into flames -
-
your husband, your
wife bursts into flame;
-
your children bursts into flame -
-
you can't protect them.
-
Have you ever seen
anything thrown in a fire?
-
It's not thinking about protecting
-
anything else in the fire.
-
It just yields to it.
-
It's gone.
-
Fire.
-
And I don't know where I saw it,
-
but some news clip or YouTube clip
-
or something -
-
some guy accidentally got fire on himself.
-
When you get fire on yourself,
-
you don't think about other things.
-
It's not: oh, I need to mow the lawn.
-
You've got fire on your leg!
-
Using starter fluid on the motor
-
and all of a sudden "poof!"
-
And your pants are on fire.
-
You're not thinking about lunch.
-
You don't think about anything else.
-
These are real people.
-
And the wilderness was
not a very friendly place.
-
They were unhappy. They voiced it.
-
They died.
-
It wasn't a peaceful passing.
-
Fire.
-
We don't live in the days of Smithsfield
-
when they burned Christians at the stake.
-
Can you imagine watching a person burn?
-
You know what happens.
-
It burns their hair off.
-
Burns their flesh.
Burns their clothing off.
-
God did this to sinners. Why?
-
Righteous judgment.
-
Righteous judgment.
-
This is not God overreacting.
-
These people were not innocent.
-
You know what they were doing?
-
They were openly manifesting
-
their hatred for God.
-
And you know what?
We don't want to admit it,
-
because if we admit that's
what they were doing,
-
we have to admit our own complaining
-
is just as wicked.
-
And it is.
-
Because when you complain,
-
you're saying to this God of Scripture -
-
who is holy, who is perfect,
-
who is righteous, who is good -
-
you're saying to Him,
-
"I want my own way!"
-
"I don't like Your ways!"
-
"And I don't like what You're doing!"
-
And you know you get somebody that says,
-
"I don't like how you act
-
and I don't like what you do
-
and I don't like your laws."
-
You know what you're basically saying,
-
"I don't like you."
-
And that's what they're saying.
-
And more than that,
-
if there was ever a
people not to complain,
-
here God comes along
-
and He's done so many kindnesses for them,
-
so many miracles on their behalf.
-
He's delivered them.
-
Listen, God is holy,
-
and there is nothing strange
-
about Him punishing sinners for their sin.
-
Nothing is strange about that.
-
But the reality is, what shocks
-
and offends us is the suddenness
-
and the violence of it.
-
We don't like it.
-
We don't like it.
-
And when we find these
kind of things in Scripture,
-
you know - people are always
looking for an explanation:
-
"Oh, that's the God of the Old Testament."
-
Listen, the God of the Old Testament
-
is the God of John 3:16.
-
It is the God who so loved the world.
-
It's the same God.
-
Sodom and Gomorrah.
-
Let's think about Sodom and Gomorrah.
-
Okay, that's Old Testament.
-
Yes, it is.
-
It is precisely that.
-
You know what we read?
-
You don't need to turn here.
-
It says, "The Lord rained
on Sodom and Gomorrah
-
sulfur and fire...
-
from the Lord out of Heaven."
-
It says this, "Abraham went
early in the morning
-
to the place where he had
stood before the Lord..."
-
Where he had pleaded with the Lord
-
not to destroy them
-
if righteous could be found there.
-
"And he looked down towards
Sodom and Gomorrah
-
and toward all the land of the valley,
-
and he looked and behold,
-
the smoke of the land went up
-
like the smoke of a furnace."
-
Again, this is not fiction.
-
Oh, the world would have us think so.
-
It's not a fairy tale.
-
And let me tell you something,
-
we have this idea:
-
oh, they're super sinners.
-
Yeah, you just remember what Jesus said.
-
He said if you heard this gospel -
-
my disciples go out,
-
they proclaim this gospel to you
-
and you refuse to hear it,
-
more tolerable for Sodom in that day
-
than for you.
-
Super sinners?
-
You know what Scripture says as well
-
in the New Testament?
-
You've got it in 2 Peter
-
and you've also got it in Jude.
-
You've got this reality.
-
"God by turning the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes,
-
He condemned them to extinction."
-
Now listen to this:
-
"...Making them an example
-
of what is going to
happen to the ungodly."
-
Do you realize
-
you can go to a hospital -
-
it might seem relatively quiet.
-
Our brother Kenny Lee might -
-
you work as a nurse?
-
People die.
-
It may be peaceful.
-
That body is now still.
-
No more heavy breathing;
labored breathing.
-
No more groans.
-
No more sighs.
-
From our vantage point,
-
the moment they pass away,
-
there's silence.
-
If you were in their shoes,
-
the moment they pass away,
-
they're met by the same thing
-
Sodom and Gomorrah
were met with in this life:
-
fire and brimstone.
-
It just bursts forth on them.
-
You see, when God brings
it this side of death
-
so that the fire actually falls
-
or the vengeance falls here,
-
we want an explanation.
-
Explain that hurricane!
-
Explain that earthquake that
took those people out!
-
We want God to explain Himself!
-
How could He be so brutal?
-
Listen, all God is doing in those cases
-
is He's backing this thing up
-
into this world
-
by just a few moments.
-
Because this is precisely what's happening
-
to the wicked the moment
they pass out of this world.
-
And it's what will happen to you
-
if you pass out of this world
-
without embracing
the reality of John 3:16.
-
Listen, the God of Scripture does not
-
mess around with unrepentant sinners.
-
There may be kindness.
-
Your death sentence
might be stayed for a time.
-
but your wrath is building up.
-
Do you know it is the New Testament,
-
not the Old Testament,
-
that says it is a fearful thing
-
to fall into the hands of the living God?
-
It is the New Testament, not the Old,
-
that says our God is a consuming fire.
-
Beware of the God of Scripture.
-
You do not want to play with Scripture
-
and get to the place where you can
-
yawn at John 3:16.
-
You do so to your own peril.
-
You do well to remember
-
that the term "perish"
-
is found in that verse.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
Listen, brethren, I can still remember
-
my own experience
-
as a young Christian,
-
first time through the Old Testament.
-
I came across such things
-
as I did not expect to find.
-
I came face to face
-
with the God I had not
known prior to that,
-
and I'll tell you, I was shaken.
-
I remember it still vividly.
-
I was in awe.
-
I kept asking:
-
Who is this God?
-
He was not what I expected.
-
Look, I'm not saying it was a bad thing.
-
I'm just saying it rocked my little world.
-
It rocked my small views of God.
-
God's bigness, His terribleness,
-
His holiness.
-
It broke forth in the pages of Scripture.
-
I was filled with fear.
-
The thing was, I wasn't repulsed;
-
I wasn't turned away.
-
I was drawn to it.
-
It made me afraid.
-
But you know what?
-
Over and over and over again,
-
I found that the God of Scripture -
-
this holy, holy, holy God of Scripture -
-
He does violent things to sinful men.
-
Violent things.
-
And it doesn't change today.
-
He has not changed today.
-
He is the same God.
-
Think of the flood.
-
Just think of the flood.
-
Again, we can get to
almost fairy tale status
-
on this thing.
-
God looked at mankind.
-
He saw that every imagination
-
of the thoughts of their hearts
-
is only evil continuously.
-
Now let me just remind you of something.
-
That is exactly the way He sees
unbelievers today as well.
-
Dead in trespasses and sins.
-
There is nothing in man
to comply with God's law.
-
He is just as embittered against God
-
and hostile to God
-
and fighting against God -
-
not the god of his imagination.
-
All you have to do -
-
go up and down the street again.
-
Describe the God of Scripture.
-
Describe what I'm saying to you.
-
See how well it's received.
-
People hate this God of Scripture.
-
They hate it.
-
They hate that there is a God
-
that is going to hold them
accountable for their sins.
-
The flood.
-
God sees the condition of man
-
and He says, "I'm grieved."
-
It says, "The Lord regretted
-
that He had made man on the earth.
-
It grieved Him to His heart.
-
So the Lord said,
-
'I will blot out man who I have created
-
from the face of the land.'"
-
All those people.
-
What about their feelings?
-
Do you realize if you wipe that family out
-
the children will not graduate
-
from high school and college?
-
They'll never get to be married?
-
I'm never going to get
to enjoy my grandkids.
-
See, that's how we think,
-
like we're entitled to these things.
-
And when God doesn't
let us have those things,
-
it's like, "Explain Yourself, God!"
-
"I want an explanation!"
-
There is such an entitlement mindset
-
in this country.
-
We think we are entitled to everything.
-
The flood.
-
You know, man just imagines,
-
God just wants me to be happy.
-
He'd never cast me in hell.
-
One of my close family
members told me that recently.
-
I told him,
-
you do not have the biblical grounds
-
to divorce your wife.
-
He said, "Tim, I think God just
wants me to be happy."
-
Do you know, we like to ignore
-
certain verses in Scripture.
-
But mark this:
-
those aren't my words;
-
those are God's words:
-
"Mark this,
-
you who forget God,
-
lest I tear you apart."
-
Wow.
-
God speaks like that?
-
Yeah. Psalm 50.
-
You want something from the New Testament?
-
Luke 19: "But as for
these enemies of mine
-
who did not want
Me to reign over them,
-
bring them here and
slaughter them before Me."
-
I can remember my first time
-
going through the Old Testament,
-
it's like you're going along,
-
and it's all new.
-
Here's Aaron.
-
God's got all the garments
-
and their vesture.
-
The sons - they have their assignments
-
and the offerings they need to make.
-
And they're going along and whoof!
-
Fire comes out,
-
and Aaron's two oldest sons are gone.
-
Can you imagine?
-
Can you imagine if you're Aaron
-
and you're looking
-
at what probably his two sons looked like?
-
I mean, you imagine enough fire
-
to come out from God to kill them.
-
How much fire does
it take to kill a person?
-
They got that dose and probably more.
-
And that's what they looked like.
-
Have you ever seen somebody burned?
-
Not just anybody.
-
This isn't a paramedic showing up
-
at a car accident.
-
These are your two oldest sons.
-
Do you know what it says?
-
It says that Aaron held his peace.
-
Why?
-
Because His sons were not innocent,
-
and that's the problem.
-
None of the sons of Adam ever are.
-
We act as though we have
a right to something.
-
Do we not remember?
-
"The soul that sinneth must die."
-
The first time we sinned,
-
we lost the right to everything.
-
We lost rights to mercy,
-
to grace,
-
to compassion,
-
to God's kindness.
-
We forfeited it all.
-
And yet we forget that.
-
And so when violent things happen;
-
when God breaks out;
-
when His providence takes -
-
we get shocked!
-
And sinners get offended.
-
That's what happens.
-
Do you know what Nadab and Abihu did?
-
They offered strange fire
in their censers.
-
Unauthorized.
-
They just simply offered something
-
that God hadn't told them to offer.
-
You say, ah, they were young,
-
they were being creative.
-
It's not like they were sacrificing
-
humans on the altar or anything.
-
You know what?
-
You know what the problem with sin is?
-
It falls short of the glory of God.
-
And what God said there
-
was, "I will be honored."
-
You see, sin dishonors Him.
-
Because sin says, "No, God! No!"
-
"It doesn't matter that You told me
-
that I should love my wife
-
and that I should not separate
-
what God has joined together.
-
You know what?
-
I want a God that I think just
wants me to be happy.
-
And I really don't care that God told me
-
that He hates divorce."
-
See, that's how man is.
-
You just create this god -
-
create this god...
-
God says, "I will be honored."
-
Such a measure of punishment -
-
it shakes us!
-
Really? God killed them?
-
God killed them on the spot!
-
But the case was clear,
-
and that's why Aaron was silent.
-
And I'll tell you,
-
I cannot tell you how many times
-
going door to door,
-
evangelizing on the streets,
-
probably even sometimes
people who visit this church -
-
they so boldly say,
-
"Well, when I stand before
God on judgment day,
-
I'm going to tell Him..."
-
Yeah.
-
All you have to do go read these accounts
-
and you know that's not going to happen.
-
They're going to be just like Aaron.
-
Because they're going to know.
-
That's judgment day.
-
Silence.
-
All these braggarts and boastfuls
-
who think they're going to talk.
-
They don't know.
-
Sinners are not going to have an answer.
-
You remember Korah?
-
Korah.
-
He had Dathan and Abiram.
-
Remember the 250 people?
-
250 men.
-
Prominent men.
-
They're saying, "Moses, Aaron,
-
who are you guys?"
-
These guys were of the Levitical line
-
saying, "We're holy too."
-
The ground opened up and
swallowed some of them.
-
Fire came out and consumed 250 of them.
-
But you know what, more than that?
-
You know what God said?
-
God said, "Moses, Aaron,
-
step aside from the whole congregation.
-
I'm taking them all out."
-
Have you ever noticed how many times
-
in Exodus and Numbers especially,
-
that God said, "Moses, aside.
-
I'm taking out all of them."
-
Moses played the intercessor.
-
Of course, there's Uzzah.
-
I know about Uzzah now.
-
Of course, I read R.C. Sproul's book
-
on the holiness of God
and he talks all about that.
-
But the first time I was
reading through my Bible,
-
I didn't know about Sproul's book.
-
I didn't know about that account.
-
And you're reading along -
everything's great!
-
They're bringing the ark back in
-
and David is coming to the throne.
-
The ark has been recovered,
-
and everything is good.
-
They're dancing and they're playing
-
all the instruments.
-
What happened?
-
I'll tell you what happened,
-
that ark was on an ox cart
-
and the ox stumbled.
-
The Ark of the Covenant
-
was in danger of coming off
-
or upsetting.
-
Something.
-
Something that caused
a knee-jerk reaction
-
on the part of Uzzah.
-
He put out his hand
-
and steadied the ark,
-
and God killed him on the spot.
-
What do you think? Overreaction?
-
The reality was
-
it was a death penalty
-
to even look upon the ark.
-
The ark was never supposed to be
-
transported uncovered.
-
It was never supposed to be transported
-
in an ox cart - only by hand
-
with poles through the rings.
-
The real miracle is
-
that God did not kill them all.
-
Because they all were guilty
-
of capital crimes.
-
But you see, it's Uzzah
-
that gets our attention.
-
That's how it is.
-
We read: "Jacob have I loved,
-
Esau have I hated."
-
"Ahh! God hates Esau!
-
I'm offended!
-
How could He do that?"
-
That's how we are.
-
It doesn't blow us away
-
that God would actually love a sinner.
-
If you really start thinking what sin is -
-
the crime that it is,
-
the wickedness that it is,
-
and how it insults this holy God.
-
Listen, God is not in debt to us.
-
Not to a single one of us.
-
Our right to life was forfeited
-
the moment we sinned.
-
We have a right to one thing: fire.
-
Destruction.
-
That's our right.
-
You see, the problem is,
-
we live in a climate today
-
where people demand a god
-
who is all love and all kindness.
-
That's the truth. You know it is.
-
And it affects us too in the church.
-
Now, the glory is
-
this God -
-
He does have such a love
-
that He would look at
the plight of sinners
-
and say, "I'm willing
-
at the price and the cost of My own Son
-
to save sinners."
-
But you see, that becomes so precious
-
against this black backdrop
-
of these storm clouds.
-
If you've ever taken a hose
-
and you know you spray it in the air
-
and you get the rainbow...
-
that's a clear blue sky.
-
And you try to look at that
-
against that backdrop.
-
It's not as impressive.
-
There's beauty there.
-
But when you look up
-
and the sky is black,
-
and there's this rainbow.
-
See, the beauty just becomes so vivid.
-
God killed Nadab.
-
He killed Abihu.
-
He killed Uzzah.
-
He killed Sodom. He killed Gomorrah.
-
He killed those people
in the outlying parts.
-
When they didn't trust Him,
-
He said every one of you,
-
20 years old and up
-
except Caleb and Joshua,
-
you're dead.
-
Your bodies are going to
fall dead in this wilderness.
-
And they did.
-
They did.
-
God punishes sin.
-
We are on death row.
-
Our time here - short.
-
What you need to remember is this:
-
The very fact you can sin
-
and you're not consumed by a ball of fire,
-
it's God's kindness.
-
But you need to read that kindness right.
-
That kindness is not meant to tell you
-
that God has forgotten your sin.
-
Or that He doesn't mean to deal with it.
-
That kindness is for one reason.
-
It is meant to lead you to repentance.
-
It is meant for you to look and say:
-
"Oh... God has spared me
-
when I don't deserve to be spared.
-
That is a good indication
-
that He will receive me
-
and forgive all of my sin
-
if I embrace this Christ - His own Son,
-
the Son of God, who He didn't spare,
-
but He offered Him up."
-
Listen,
-
God did it.
-
God killed these people.
-
And God will kill us.
-
We look at ourselves and we feel like -
-
we love ourselves.
-
We want to preserve ourselves.
-
We want to protect ourselves.
-
We don't like to imagine
-
that God is going to do
terrible harm to us.
-
We tend to like to imagine that He won't.
-
Somehow He must like us.
-
There's only one way
of acceptance with God,
-
and that is under the blood
-
of His Son Jesus Christ.
-
It's embracing Christ.
-
No confidence in anything else.
-
It's embracing Him.
-
God so loved... but listen.
-
Perishing is in that verse.
-
And if you do not believe in Jesus Christ,
-
you perish.
-
That's the reality.
-
There's one way of escape.
-
Only one.
-
I'll tell you, grace should surprise us.
-
And one of the things,
-
when we think about the wrath of God,
-
the fury of God just exploding,
-
don't miss it
-
that there at the cross,
-
we see the most violent expression
-
of God's fury ever known.
-
Listen, it shouldn't stagger us
-
that Uzzah reaches out, touches that ark,
-
and drops dead.
-
What should stagger us
-
is that an innocent Man -
-
do you know what happened with Him?
-
God's wrath exploded on Him.
-
An innocent Man.
-
He was accursed
-
because He became sin;
-
because He became sin.
-
Sin. Sin. Think with me.
-
It causes God to incinerate sinners
-
on the spot.
-
What do you think happens to Christ
-
when He becomes sin?
-
God incinerated Him on the spot.
-
You read Psalm 22.
-
He melted. Melted.
-
Isaiah 53.
-
God laid into Him. Struck Him.
-
Smote Him.
-
An innocent Man. Why?
-
God's justice must be satisfied.
-
There was no mercy on the cross.
-
No mercy.
-
That's how hell is.
-
There is no mercy.
-
That's what sin deserves.
-
Hell is going to be a brutal awakening
-
for millions and millions
-
of human beings
-
who are going to be
unspeakably wretched forever.
-
Hell - we are so humanistic;
-
so man-centered.
-
Hell tells us there is a holy God
-
in whose eyes we are dreadfully guilty.
-
And we do forget.
-
We so easily forget
-
that when we committed our first sin,
-
we just forfeited every right to anything.
-
Listen.
-
God is saying to us:
-
"Don't take My grace for granted.
-
Don't take My Son for granted.
-
I have such a love
-
that I crushed My own Son.
-
I was willing to do that for sinners.
-
But if you despise Him,
-
oh, it will not go well with you."
-
Listen.
-
"God so loved the world
-
that He gave His only begotten Son,
-
that whoever believes in
Him should not perish,
-
but have eternal life."
-
Just cast yourself wholly on Christ.
-
If you're not saved,
-
this verse - this whole book is a lie
-
and God is a liar.
-
But that can never be.
-
God is no liar.
-
The reality is God is kind
-
and He is willing to save.
-
He is willing to not spare His own Son.
-
This is the sort of God that we have.
-
This is the sort of God
-
who though His anger burns
-
ever so fiercely,
-
there's also a love that designs
-
a way for that wrath to be satisfied
-
in just fashion.
-
For God to be just and yet justify you.
-
And everything is good.
-
Whoever. That's what it says.
-
Whoever believes.
-
You can't be too old.
You can't be too young.
-
You can't be too wretched.
You can't be too sinful.
-
You can't have sinned for too long.
-
Whoever believes
-
should not perish.
-
It's all gone.
-
But, have eternal life.
-
Not just to live forever,
-
it's to be swept into
-
the very intimacy of God.
-
Knowing God.
-
Beholding His face.
-
All the tears wiped away.
-
All the sins wiped away.
-
And coming to know Him
-
through all these coming ages.
-
You think about it.
-
That truth there.
-
Do you remember it?
-
Ephesians 1.
-
"That through all the coming ages,
-
He might show
-
the unsearchable riches of His grace
-
in kindness to those in Christ Jesus."
-
Father, that You would do
such a thing for sinners.
-
Just think with the songwriter,
-
what language shall we borrow
-
to thank Thee dearest Friend.
-
Thank You.
-
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
-
we thank You. Amen.