I want to look at and continue a study that I started last month. I was looking a little bit at 2011. God in His mercy has opened our eyes to this in this day and we know that, according to the Bible, we only have a few months left. We do not have the luxury of time any more. But we never did because, at any moment, God could take any one of us in death from this life, but particularly in our day. There is a little over two years to go, and the weeks, the months, the days are quickly passing by.
If there was ever a time when we ought to be honest in looking at ourselves, “Am I born again?,” the important thing to me—and you have to do this for yourselves also—is today. Today, we have to honestly look at ourselves, “Am I born again?”
If you are born again and you are begging God for mercy, there is no damage done. But if you are not saved and you have suspicions in your life that you are not saved, today is still the day of salvation. God, as we know, is still saving. Right up until that last day, salvation is still possible.
But the thing is, you do not know whether or not today is your last day. You have no idea. God does not tell us. He does not tell us how many years He has given you or me to live. You could be perfectly healthy and going about your business and, suddenly, you are taken from this life. So you cannot rest in the fact that you are young and healthy. You run every day and eat right. You watch your diet. You watch your waistline and all of that, but that is no guarantee. You could have a terrible diet and live to be 100 years old. We do not know when the Lord Jesus will come for any one of us, not one of us.
It has been my experience when speaking to people about 2011, the kind of response that I get is that they look at me and say, “Yeah…right.” That is their response when people do not believe something. We all live in this world and this is the response, and then they give you this weird look, this crazy look, you know, like they would like to bump you in the head. I have heard this before, “What makes you so right? What makes you any different than the others who have made this prediction and it did not happen?”
This is the ridicule, the cynics, and all these different responses that you get, especially from your family members. I think those are the ones that hurt the most. When you speak to your loved one whom you care about and you desire the best for them, which is salvation, and they do not buy it at all, and you want to weep for them and literally cry. They do not understand and they go about their daily routine and have not heard a thing. It just bounces off of their forehead and they continue on with their everyday life.
And God clearly tells us in the Bible that, for example, in the days of Noah, it was business as usual. They were eating, drinking, marrying. People were going about their everyday life, of course, getting married. People were doing whatever they did, and suddenly the flood came and it was too late. It was too late. Salvation for them was over.
But there is a difference today. God has given us a little over three years for us to warn the world and to look at our own lives, “Am I born again?” And each day that goes by is precious. Each day we live is precious, because each day that goes by, every hour, is closer to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And my question to all of us is: “what is your response when you hear about 2011?” Are you angry? Many people are angry, you know. Or are you hoping that this information is wrong, that it is not so? Are you going to respond, “Not so, Lord! Not so! I am young. I have my life ahead of me.” You hear people use this comment, “Oh, you are young. You have your whole life ahead of you. Why do you want to tell me about this, that the world is going to end? I am only a teenager. What do you mean? I will not graduate high school? I will not go to college? I will not realize my dream? I am in college. What about my career? What are you talking about that the world is going to end? This cannot be!”
But it does not make a difference what you think. It is what the Bible says. What says the Bible, you see? It is God’s mercy that He is warning us. Why don’t you think that He would just come suddenly and it is the end of the world? Do you see God’s mercy, that He is warning us and giving us all this time? What are you going to do with it? Are you going to live as business as usual? Are you going to get caught up in your own life and bury your head in the sand like you have not heard a thing? The world does that, but what about us here who have heard the warning?
God tells us in Ezekiel 33—let us go there for a second—about the warning. The trumpet has been blowing in the land. We hear the warning of 2011. Judgment Day is almost here! What are you doing with this information? Let us start reading in verse 1. Ezekiel 33:1-3:
Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Here, now, we have information from the Bible that Judgment Day is almost here. It is almost here, you see. What are you doing? The enemy is coming. Judgment Day is coming. What are you doing? Sitting on your ear? Or you just do not care?
Many people’s response is like that. They just do not care: “So what’s new? What’s new? Well, Confucius said that and it did not happen. So what? The year came and went.”
Well, one of the examples that Brother Camping said was 1994, and it did not happen. “So do you think I am going to believe him this time around?” You see? Instead of being like the Bereans, “Is this so? Is this really what the Bible teaches?,” and you are checking it out. And if you see these Scriptures start to fit, what should you do? It should stop us cold in our tracks. And if you are not saved, you should cry for mercy. Beseech God for His mercy that He might save us.
And in Ezekiel 33:4, He says:
Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet…
You hear about 2011. Judgment Day is almost here.
…and taketh not warning…
Now, how many people say they are taking warning, that they are listening to the Bible? They are not. Ever since I have been sharing this information with people, I have not had one positive response. Not one. From my family members and friends and co-workers, not one positive response. I am not saying God cannot save them, but I do not see that concern on their faces, none. Speaking for myself, I have not heard one positive response, “What? Are you for real?” Nothing. They just continue on like they have not heard a thing. They are not taking warning. They are not listening to the Bible.
It goes on in verse 4, Ezekiel 33:4-5:
…if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet…
With his physical ears, he heard:
…and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him…
Do you see how God is repeating Himself there twice? His blood is upon his own head, you see.
…his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Here with this person, he heard it. He took it seriously. He started beseeching God for His mercy, and God saved him. His soul has been delivered from judgment, if God sees fit to save that person.
Is this your response? This is the question that all of us have to answer. Is this my response or your response when we hear about this teaching from the Bible, from the Word of God? Or is your response one of being in denial?
And there are those who get very upset about this. “Here it goes again.” People have all different reactions to it, but they are not spending their time to check out if this is really so, you see. They do not look at these verses. They do not pray God for wisdom. They just continue on with their daily life as nothing…they have not heard a thing.
But this ought not to be our response to the Bible, especially if it is coming from faithful teachers of the Bible who have proven to be faithful. You hear on the Open Forum, one night I was listening, somebody tried to pin Brother Camping down, “Are you the only one who knows this?” And he caught onto it, to what this person was trying to say to him to try to trap him. “You are the only one. You are the only one that God told this to.”
But you look throughout the Bible at how God operates, when He destroyed the world in Noah’s day, He told one person, one person throughout the whole world, one person and that was Noah. God has raised up a faithful ministry like Family Radio and I believe that He gave Brother Camping a platform to broadcast to the whole world. Those of us who are truly saved, we are going to look at this information and then we, too, are going to start blowing the trumpet and share this information with the rest of the world.
You look at also Sodom and Gomorrah. One person. One person who brought it to Sodom, and as we said last month in the study, when he went to his sons-in-law to tell them about this information in the Bible, what did they do? They laughed at him. Do you see the response, what man does when he hears about judgment coming? Most of the people of the world, they laugh. They laugh at this information, but it was true. It was true and God did destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, you see.
But as we warn the world of judgment, we also have to warn them about the escape route. We have to tell how to avoid this. Salvation is still possible. You tell them about coming judgment, but you also cannot be one-sided. You have to tell people that there is a way of escape, which is Christ Himself, you see. We have to flee from the wrath to come, as God wrote in the New Testament. We flee from the wrath to come, to Christ, because He is our only Savior. He is our only rescue. The only way that we are going to avoid that horrible time of judgment is if we are born again, and you cannot make yourself born again. You cannot give yourself a new heart. God has to do it, if He so chooses to do. You see, that is our only escaping of this horrible 5 months, which is approaching very quickly upon us. It is through Christ. He is the Savior. He is the One who we have to go to escape this horrible time.
Many people take comfort in the fact that “Oh, well, during those 5 months, I am going to just suffer for awhile and then that is it.” It is going to be horrible! It is going to be a horrible time during those 5 months, because, think about this. This is Almighty God who spoke and created the universe, Almighty God whose power is Infinite. He is going to so pour out His wrath upon those who are here during that time. It is not going to be a walk in the park.
I think when October 21st comes, I think mankind during that time is going to welcome death. Have you ever been in pain and you just wanted things to stop. You will take any pain medication. You might be scared of needles, but if that medicine or that needle is going to relieve the pain, you will gladly take it, just to get the pain to stop. I think during those 5 months when October 21st comes, they are going to look forward to the day when all of this is done. It is going to be over, you see.
So that time is quickly coming upon us. If you are not saved dear one, you are in terrible danger, terrible, terrible danger! Do not rely on your own wisdom.
If you turn to Proverbs, turn over to Proverbs 3, another familiar verse…Psalms…Proverbs 3. Do you remember that familiar verse there? Let me just read it in Proverbs 3:5-7. Many people have this attitude of trusting in their own wisdom and what they think. Here it says in Proverbs 3:5-7:
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart…
And the only way that we are going to trust in God with all of our heart is unless God has given to me a new heart. It is not an intellectual thing, you see.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
God has declared that judgment is almost here. Are you going to sit there and rationalize this out and kind of work this out in your own mind, you know, and “Oh, well, I think this is wrong. I think this, and I think that, and I think this”? You are leaning on your own wicked mind and what you think is right. We ought not to do that. We ought to listen to the Bible.
It goes on in verses 6-7:
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes…
You see, God is repeating it. We ought not to be wise in our own eyes but:
…fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
Do not trust in your own understanding. Do not trust in your own wisdom, you see. We only have to listen to God’s Word, the Bible, because that is true. But if you do not believe the Bible, then you are not going to believe that it is true. But God’s Word is true. If you do not believe God’s Word, you are calling God, as God tells us in 1st John 5, you are calling God a liar, and it is impossible for God to lie to us.
What He has written within the Bible, He is going to bring it to pass. He is fully well-capable of doing it. He has demonstrated it in the past, you see. These things that God tells us in the Old Testament, He has written for our learning. We have to look back at the past, see how God operated, and learn from it. He is going to do what He has said He will do. And if you are a child of God, if you are truly born again, He is faithful to His Word. If you are born again, you are one of His children and your salvation is going to be completed on the last day, you see.
But this time which we are living in—a very, very important time—is serious because we do not know, whether or not, if you are not saved, whether you are God’s elect or not. You do not know that until God saves you, so we ought to beseech God for His mercy. Today could be your last day. It is a fact.
Let me tell you something that happened to me over this last week. This happened last week. Many of you know that I have worked in a local hospital for about 30 years. A co-worker of mine, we work together, every day he comes in, you know, bubbly personality. He is an older gentleman. He is 61 years old. He usually works the overnight shift: 11:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. But this time, he got some overtime, you know. He came in and I said, “Oh, you’ve got the time I start.” At the time, we were getting ready to clock in, “Hi. How are you?” This friendly guy, he talks, talks, talks, and he worked 16 hours that day. He got off at 7:30 the next morning. Then he went home and came back again at 3:00 P.M. He clocked in. He worked through a 16-hour shift and Thursday morning, 7:30, he clocked out and he was on his way home. He got on the local bus, and as soon as he got off the bus, guess what happened to him? The Lord took him out, just like that. A massive heart attack. I saw him the few hours before. He seemed healthy to me. He was a healthy guy. And as soon as I heard that—from what I was told, he got off the bus and he collapsed—the Lord took him out!
Did I know God was going to take him? I figured if he knew he had a heart problem as severe as that, I do not think he could work through an entire shift. But he had no signs of it. I work in a Cardiac Cath Lab, so I called the doctor. One of the things is that you can ask doctors questions and they will answer you. I said, “Doc, come here. Can somebody have severe heart disease and they do not know it?” He said, “Yes.” Oh…he did not know it. No signs. No symptoms. Nothing. He heard about the gentleman who worked with me who had died and he said, “What he probably felt just before he collapsed was a little sharp pain in his chest.” That is all he felt. Just little sharp pain and he collapsed. Just like that. They rushed him to the local hospital. He was dead on arrival.
Do you see how fragile life is? The Lord took him out just like that (with a snap of a finger). And it could happen to any one of us. If he knew he had the problem, why would he have worked 16 hours and come back and work another 16 hours? We talked and laughed…nothing…he did not complain about any pains or anything. The Lord just took him, and that is a warning to us.
I went to his viewing last week. I looked at him there and that was a reminder to me. I see death all the time…the young and the old…and it is a reminder to me. Am I ready to meet God? You know? If you do not really see this on a daily basis—and some people do not see this—but if you are a policeman or if you are a fire fighter or you go to accidents and you see shootings, when you are behind the scenes at the hospital and you work on the heart floor of the Cardiac Unit and all this, you see it.
God is taking tens of thousands of people every day all over the world. And if they are not ready to meet God when He comes and if He comes suddenly, just like He did for my co-worker, and if you are not born again, you are going to be tossed out of your grave on that day. Salvation is over, you see. Do you see how important it is, whether you are ten or twenty or thirty or forty or fifty years old, to make sure you are born again?
Remember the last example I used with this 14-year-old kid…another young lady that I know that works at a hospital…14-year-old boy…just before school started. And there are 14-year olds here. I have a 14-year old. One of the McCann kids is probably 14. 14 years old! And what are you doing just before September starts? You are making plans to go to school. You are buying books. You are looking forward to your new grade, new class. And the Lord took him. The Lord took this 14-year-old boy in death. Just like that, he was gone.
You see? He comes for the young. He comes for the old. It does not make a difference how healthy you are or your age. It does not make a difference. Salvation is of the utmost importance for all of us, because if you leave this world without Christ, all the possibility of salvation is over. Salvation is gone.
But while the blood is warm in our veins, what should we be doing? Worried about this or worried about that? What ought to be our number one priority? Salvation. It is my relationship with Christ, because He can come at any time, without warning, without notice. He can do that.
You see, I have seen many, many, many, many, many people die, many people. I even know where the morgue is in my hospital. When you walk past it, it is a stench. Do you ever smell the rotting bodies? It is a terrible smell, you know, but my point is salvation, salvation. If you are born again, although God may have taken you suddenly, you leave your body and you go home to be with Christ, you see.
So we ought to be crying to God for His mercy, but life is not a bowl of chocolates. We have to face these serious issues in life. Am I ready to meet God? And if you are not, then today is still the day of salvation. Christ, the Gospel call is out. The warning is there. Judgment Day is almost here, and we should begin to take seriously this warning from the Bible that Judgment Day is almost here.
Let us look again at the book of Jonah. This ought to be our response. We read it the last time. This is a passage that has been…you have Obadiah and after Obadiah is Jonah…you see, our response to the Gospel call, you know, should be as these people here. In Jonah 3, this ought to be our response to the Gospel, not to make light of it or just to dismiss it, but this is what the majority of the world is going to do. They are not going to listen. They are not going to listen, because their life and their future and their world is right here in this life.
You know, the more you read the Bible, God tells us, “Love not the world nor the things of the world.” Look away from it. These things are temporal. It does not last. It decays. You could lose it in a moment and it is all gone.
When I looked at my co-worker in that casket, what did he leave this world with? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. All he had is now for his wife. He left this world with nothing, you see.
And here we read in Jonah 3:1-2:
And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
You see, when we are bringing the Gospel, we are bringing the Gospel from the Bible, the Bible. We do not make anything up. We share the Bible with people, what God’s Word says, not what we think but from the Bible.
Jonah 3:3-4:
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
What if God had only given us a 40-day warning? What if he only gave us 40 days or 7 days, a week? He has given us a little over three years, this warning. Do you see God’s mercy to give us three years to get our house in order, so-to-speak, if you are not saved, and start crying for mercy?
What did he say here in verse 4?
Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
He is going to destroy it!
Jonah 3:5:
So the people of Nineveh believed God…
They believed God because God was moving Jonah to say these things. They believed God. When you see information from the Bible that this is going to happen, do you believe the carrier of that message? No, we believe God, the Bible, you see, the Word of God.
…and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
Do you see the response…brokenness…humility. They were broken before God when they heard this information. What does the world do today? Pride. They are going about their daily business, you see.
Jonah 3:6:
For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Do you see where it started? From the top down. From the top down, the king. He was humbled when he heard this information. Did he stand and argue with Jonah, “Oh, this cannot be so; it cannot happen,” and start to philosophize about this or that and why it cannot happen or this or the other thing? No. Look at his response. He was broken before this. I do not know if they had the Bible there in Nineveh. I know that it was a wicked city, and yet look at the response. By God’s mercy, we have these Bibles right in our eyes, right in our lap, and we live in a very literate world. Most of the people of the world can read. And here we have the very Word of God in our hands, and He says in Jonah 3:7-8:
And he…
The king. This is the king. Now, look at his command:
And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God…
Wouldn’t this be something if the world would react this way to this warning? Wouldn’t it be something if the city of Wilmington or Philadelphia would react to the warning that Judgment Day is almost here and start crying mightily unto God for His mercy? But we know it is not going to happen. Man in this day is going to continue in his rebellion, right up until May 21st and Judgment Day begins, except God is saving a great multitude. We do know that they will react to this warning, because God is moving in them, His elect.
It goes on here in Jonah 3:8-9:
…yea, let them turn every one from his evil way…
Repentance.
…from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
Here, we hear the warning that Judgment Day is almost here. You do not know whether God is going to save you or not, but one thing I can do is start begging for mercy. I do not know if He is going to save me or not, but I can start right where I am and take seriously the warning from the Bible and start crying to God for mercy, because God works through the Bible.
And what does He tell us in Romans 10:17? “Faith,” which is Christ, “cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” We start seriously prayerfully, obediently reading the Bible. We start reading the Bible, because that is how God operates, you know. That is the way He works. He works through the Bible. He applies the Word of God to the heart of that person whom He chooses to save and He saves that person. We have to start seriously turning from our sin. We know these things will not save us, but it is a start to show that we are serious about this, you see.
Let us turn over to Luke. In the book of Luke, chapter 18, God gives us a little information of how we ought to come to Him. And, you know, it is God’s mercy that He allows us to approach unto Him. God is Almighty God and who am I? Who are you? We are nothing. We are nothing, and yet His Majesty, King of kings and Lord of lords, which is God Himself, He permits a sinner like me or you to come and plead for mercy, anytime, day or night.
That boggles my mind, that God would allow sinful man to approach unto Him, but He does, and we see another attribute of God. He is busy doing whatever He is doing, and yet here for this little person down here, He will stop.
Do you remember when blind Bartimaeus, the blind man was crying out to Christ? It never ceases to amaze me where Christ is busy doing this or the other, and all of the people were saying, “Be quiet!,” and yet Christ stopped what He was doing. God stops what He is doing—He is governing the universe—and He is listening to this little peon down here pray to Him. And if it be His will, He will give this person salvation.
Here Christ is busy doing what He is doing, and yet these two blind men over here are crying out to Him, and Christ stopped doing what He was doing and He walked over to them and said, “What can I do for you?,” and He granted them their request, you see.
And that is a wonderful picture of what salvation is, isn’t it? God stopped doing what He was doing and He comes over to this person and He gives this person salvation. Wow! It just boggles my mind.
But here, in Luke 18, we will start reading in verse 9. Here God says this is a parable. We read in Luke 18:9:
And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves…
Do you see who they are trusting in?
…that they were righteous, and despised others:
Pride all the way. They think that they are better than somebody else. “Look at me. You know what? I am doing the right thing and look at all of these scallywags over here. Look at me.”
We ought not to approach unto God that way. All of us are in the same boat. God tells us that we all are sinners. We all deserve the same punishment, you see.
But here is this person. Here, you know, he is looking down his long nose. He is going to come before God. He is trusting in his own evil works, his own wicked thoughts, you see, and then it goes on in verse 10, Luke 18:10-11:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself…
Do you see how God emphasizes it is himself? He is praying to himself, “thus with himself.” You know, he is better than everybody else.
…with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are…
He is better than everybody else. You know, he does not sin like this person over here, you see. And what does the Bible tells us? Christ came into the world “not to call the righteous.” He thought he had all this self-righteousness in him, and, you see, right there, He came to call “sinners to repentance,” you see. He is beginning now to list what he is not, you see.
…I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Do you see what he did? “I am not like them over here. God, look at me. I am a decent, moral human being, you know. I do all of this and all of that.” But you see how wicked he is. You see? And he is going to go on in verse 12 to list his good works. “Look Lord, I have handed out a thousand tracts. I give my money to get the Gospel out. I do not commit adultery. I do not steal. I do not lie. I am an outstanding citizen. I am recognized by my fellowman how nice I am.”
You get the people who get worried, you know, and they say that you are a nice guy and they pat you on the back. But God knows your rotten heart, you see. That is something that you cannot hide from God.
So here is this person here in verse 12, Luke 18:12:
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Talk about a self-righteous, conceited person, and many are like that. Conceit, you see.
And verse 13, Luke 18:13-14 says:
And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Do you see in verse 14 how we ought to come before God? We come with no preconditions. We come admitting our sin. We come before God and just simply beg for mercy. We simply beg for mercy, because we deserve to be punished. We deserve that, so we do not come before God like this Pharisee does. We come in humility, recognizing that we do not deserve anything. God says in Isaiah, “But to this man will I look.” Do you see which man He looked at? He looked at the Publican. He did not look at this other guy over here. A person who has a broken and a contrite spirit, that is the one whom God delights in. He does not delight in these people who are coming like this Pharisee did. We come before God recognizing who we really are.
Look at another verse. In Matthew 9, we will start reading in verse 10. Matthew 9:10-13:
And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Do you see whom God associates Himself with? Sinners. And that is how we humbly come before God for His mercy.
Look also at Lamentations, right after a familiar verse there, in Lamentations 3, and I will start reading in verse 22. Lamentations 3:22-26:
It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Do you see how we come before God? We are beseeching Him for mercy, and we wait. We wait for God to act, if it be His will. And we wait. We cannot bribe God in any way. We cannot do anything. We simply wait for God to save me, if it be His will. We do not come in our own wisdom, our own pride, like the Pharisee did. We come broken before God, and He tells us, as I said earlier, that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
Is it really so? We see that in Acts 10. God gives us a little taste of this in Acts 10, that it is a true statement. Christ cometh to us by hearing the Word of God. That is how He works. We have to put ourselves under the hearing of the Gospel, you see, by reading the Bible or listening to faithful teachers teach the Bible, and if God saw fit to save this person, He will do it.
Remember in Acts 10? Acts 10, starting at verse 43. Here is God, the Holy Spirit, moving Peter the Apostle to write these things, this sermon that he is preaching, and here we read in Acts 10:43-47:
To him give all the prophets witness…
He is speaking about Christ.
…that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
We have to be careful with “believing.” Faith is a gift.
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Here, as God, the Holy Spirit, is moving Peter to preach these things, God had elect there as he was speaking and God saved these people. He gave them the Holy Spirit. So “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” If you are reading the Bible and if you are one of God’s elect, God will make you born again. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, you see.
Look at another verse. Turn over to Acts 13. This is the same thing. Acts 13:42. And there are other verses we could see. The thing here is that Paul the Apostle, as he was preaching the Gospel, God saved His elect. In Acts 13:42-44, we read:
And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words…
What “words” were they? The Word of Christ. Here are the Gentiles:
…besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
Wouldn’t that be something in today’s world if we saw a whole city come out to hear this warning that Judgment Day is almost here and hear the Word of God? The whole city came out and what happened? Acts 13:45-48:
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad…
Do you see their response? They were glad to hear the Word of God.
…and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
God gave them the faith to believe. So, you see, God tells us that “faith cometh by hearing.” They were hearing Paul and Peter preach the Gospel, as God the Holy Spirit moved them, and God saved a great multitude.
And so it is in our day. We put ourselves under the hearing of the Bible. You spend time reading the Bible and pray that God might have mercy upon you, and if you are one of God’s elect, He will save. He will save. And you know, wonderfully, in our day, this wonderful salvation, this great thing is still possible. We are not at the end of the world yet. We are headed there pretty quickly. You know, a little over two years is not a long time. It is not a long time. It is what? Less than a thousand days now? Then, it is going to go down to it. It is slowly going down. Next year at this time, there will be another year that goes by and you are going to be looking at 12 months and then 6 months. And before you know it, we are at the Day of Judgment.
Where do you stand before this warning? Remember, we heard the trumpet warning. We are being warned that Judgment Day is coming. Are we going to just blindly go on and end up at the Day of Judgment, when it could be avoided? It could be avoided, you know, by pleading God for mercy. It might be that He might save me, just like the King of Nineveh and those people there. They did not know whether God was going to save them or not, did they? No. They had no idea, but yet we saw that God showed great mercy. And yet in our day also, this mercy of God is still possible. Where do we stand? Where do you stand? Where do I stand before this warning of God that we are almost there? Are you ready to meet God?
Let us close. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You, O Lord, once again for the warning from the Bible. It is not from any man’s mind. This warning is from the Bible that Thou hast given to us. Many say they believe the Bible, but they want to believe what they were taught by some people or what they believe, but they are not listening to the Bible. We know that you will end this world. That is a given. But there are many, many people who are ignorantly turning away from this warning. They do not want to hear it because deep within the heart, they have a love for this world. They do not want to let it go. O Father, we pray for those of us who are saved, that You will open the door for us that we will be able to share the Gospel with our loved ones, wherever You see fit for us to do so, the people we work around, and, O Lord, have us not to tire, because we see the danger of leaving this world without Christ. If Judgment Day comes and you are not ready, all hope is gone. Dear Lord, we pray also for whatever was said, in the morning study and in this study, which is not faithful to Thy Word, O Lord, we ask You to correct us from Thy Word and that You might forgive us. And we thank You Lord for this day and pray for all those who might be listening over the Internet, that You would bless, O Lord, Thy Words to their hearts. And we thank You Lord for this privilege that You have given to us, that we could fellowship together around Thy precious Word, the Bible. We ask these things in Jesus Name. Amen.
(There was no question/answer session pertaining to this study.)