I am going to speak about a very important topic in the Bible. All of the topics in the Bible are super important. When I read the Bible, one thing I have discovered is that there must be punishment for sin. Many people are up in arms over this new teaching in the Bible that God has made known to us about this five-month period.
If you are a child of God, if your sins are paid for, if you are on your way to spend an eternity with Christ, what do you have to worry about? However it is that God chooses to punish the unsaved, it is not going to affect the true believers. This is because God tells us that we pass from death unto life. We no longer stand condemned by God.
So we should not be up in arms over this. If the Bible teaches this, so be it. We should approach the Bible with an open mind. After you have checked this out in the Bible, if this is what God is teaching, if it be so, then this is what the Bible is saying. Remember that God clearly tells us in the Bible that we are not supposed to lean on our own understanding, that we are to listen only to the Bible.
As we read the Bible, starting right out in Genesis 2, we see that God tells us something important here. He was speaking to Adam and Eve and how they disobeyed Him, and it says in Genesis 2:16-17:
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Starting right out in the book of Genesis, God tells us that there is going to be punishment for sin. The only way around this is if someone becomes a child of God where Christ has taken the punishment on Himself for them; but the fact remains that there has to be punishment for sin.
Do you remember what we read in Romans 6:23? God says, “For the wages of sin is death.” God tells us that there has to be punishment for sin. As I said, the only way that we can get around this issue is if God makes someone born again, which means that He has paid the penalty for their sin through Christ. This is very important!
In other religions, people think that they have some means, or whatever they say, to appease the angry gods somehow. This is because they realize that there has to be punishment for sin. Because of this, they do this or they do that and then they say, “This is now going to satisfy God.”
Of course, this will never work; it will never work. There is nothing that anyone can say or do to make payment for sin. God had to do this on the behalf of His elect. The unsaved have to pay this penalty for themselves and they are therefore going to be cast out into hell forever, which means that God is going to destroy them.
Of course, many people do not want to deal with this idea. Many people believe that God is only a God of love, which He is, but He is also a God of judgment and His laws must be carried out; His Word must be fulfilled. So we are going to look at this a little bit today.
I am pretty sure that you may have come across some people who mock at sin. They laugh at sin. They think that sin is a joke. But sin is not a joke; sin is deadly serious. This is why we are in trouble with God. It is because of our sins. Our sins are sending us to hell [note: to destruction], and this is not a joke.
If you will look at Proverbs 14, God here is speaking to fools. When God calls someone a fool in the Bible, it means that they are not saved. In Proverbs 14:8-9, God tells us:
The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit. Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.
Do you see what unsaved man does? He makes a mockery of sin.
When someone in the public light commits a sin in our day, it is all over the newspapers; it is all over the TV screen and there are those who laugh about it. Fools make a mockery of sin.
I hope that none of us here are doing this same thing, mocking sin and not taking it seriously. Sin is deadly serious. It is disobeying God. It is breaking God’s commandments and it is sending you and me to hell [note: to destruction] forevermore; this is serious.
When we go back to the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve did not kill anyone. They simply ate of the fruit, and look at how God came down on them. God came down on them with an awesome penalty. It was very serious. Just a tiny infraction of the Law and God came down hard on them: “For the wages of sin is death.”
We could tell a simple little lie or we could commit murder or anything and everything in between. It does not matter because sin is deadly serious. You could tell a little white lie and yet God’s Law demands that you must be thrown into hell [note: destroyed]; sin is serious.
So Proverbs 14:9 said:
Fools make a mock at sin…
And “fools” in the Bible are those who are not saved.
There are many verses that we could look at in relation to this, but let us look at Psalm 5 where I will start reading in verse 5. Here God tells us in Psalm 5:5:
The foolish shall not stand in thy sight…
The foolish are the unsaved.
It continues:
…thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
God hates all workers of iniquity. It does not make a difference who you might be. He hates all workers of sin.
Psalm 5:6 says:
Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
Then in Psalm 5:7, we read:
But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
Let us now look at Psalm 5:10, which is still speaking about the wicked:
Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.
This is what God tells us about the wicked, about those who have broken His Law. They must be destroyed. God tells us that they are going to be “cast out into outer darkness,” which is language that the Bible uses to describe what will happen to the wicked, to those who are the unsaved. So sin is deadly serious.
We live in a society today that believes if it feels good, do it; just do it. Mankind today is doing what is right in his own eyes. Do you remember the language that God used to describe Noah’s day? Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. However, when mankind starts to do this, it brings God’s judgment, God’s wrath. This is something that we should never do.
If you are a child of God, God has given you an ongoing desire to do His commandments. You will only want to do what God has commanded you to do. You will now abhor sin. When you become a child of God, you will hate sin. However, if you are not, then you will still have that old heart within you that will still desire to sin. You can act one way outwardly; but inwardly, where no one can see but God, you will still love sin. Sin could still be there rooted in your heart if God has not given you a new heart.
Many people today are hypocrites. They act a certain way when they are around certain people. When they are not around people who know them, they act in a different way. But God knows all of this. We cannot be hypocrites.
We have to take sin very, very seriously, especially with our children. Children today, many children, although they were raised in Christian homes and know what the Bible says, they are not saved. They still have a heart in them that lusts after sin, but children are just the same as adults. If a child is not saved, they have a rebellious heart; if an adult is not saved, they have a rebellious heart also.
But God’s Law is for all of us; it is for adults as well as children. God does not have two different salvation programs. He did not give us two Bibles. All of us have to be saved the same way: God has to save this person, God has to save this baby, God has to save this teenager.
By God’s mercy, He has given me four children. I hope that these children today take God’s commandments seriously. Sin destroys. It destroys lives, it destroys marriages, it destroys families, it destroys everything that it comes across. Sin is deadly serious. It is serious and we should treat it as such.
Let us go on a little further. The question that we should ask ourselves is: how can anyone satisfy the demands of God’s Law? Remember that He tells us, “For the wages of sin is death.” God had told Adam and Eve in the Garden, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” So how can anyone satisfy this awesome penalty that God demands from us for our sin?
Humanly speaking, we could never do this. God in His great and infinite mercy, in His great kindness in deciding to save a people for Himself, took upon Himself this penalty for the sins of a great multitude through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only way that the demands of the Law can be satisfied, because the Law of God is accusing you and me of sin.
The Law of God demands perfection and none of us are perfect. All of us have broken God’s commandments, every single one of us. No, we cannot go around pointing our finger at anyone else, only at ourselves. All of us have broken God’s commandments, one way or the other. Because of this, God tells us that we must end up under the penalty of hell (note: eternal death) forevermore.
So this is a very important question. What are we going to do about this situation that each and every one of us is in? “For the wages of sin is death.” We are headed for hell (note: eternal death). Wonderfully, we know that God has provided a way. However, God’s Word, God’s Law, is an offense to mankind. The way in which He has provided a means of escape for mankind is the way that mankind does not like; they are offended by it instead.
Let us turn to Mark 6 where God is telling us some very important things. Mark 6:1-3:
And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.
Remember that Christ is the perfect teacher and He was speaking to the multitudes here, and yet there are many who were offended at what He was saying.
Then in Mark 6:4, it says:
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
We often read in the Bible that as Christ began to teach, many of the scribes and Pharisees were offended at Him. This is because the Gospel is an offense to many who hear it.
I have come across many people whom I try to share the Gospel with. From the moment that I start speaking to them about hell or that we are saved by grace and grace alone, they become offended. In this case, they are no different than these people whom we read about here. Christ was speaking to them about the Gospel and they were offended at Him.
This is because the true Gospel is an offense to us. We do not like it because we want a do-it-yourself kind of gospel. We like to bring God down to our own level. We want a God we can dictate to and demand things from. We want to snap our finger and have Him do what we want Him to do, but the true Gospel is not like that.
God has painted a picture of us in the Bible that is ugly. It is an ugly picture that He has painted of each and every one of us. In Romans 3, it says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” We are like an “open sepulcher,” and this is language that many of us do not like.
But we have to remember that Almighty God is telling us who we really are in our hearts. He is telling us who we really are and many are offended by this. We do not like it. We try to paint this picture, this image in our minds of the God of love, as if He is an old man somewhere who has probably lost control of the world, or whatever we want to believe; but this is not what the Bible tells us.
God is a holy God and He demands perfection. The Law of God demands payment for sin, but many do not like this; they do not like the true Gospel. However, God in His mercy and in His infinite wisdom, in spite of our sin, has decided from before the foundation of the world to save a people for Himself.
Let us look at another familiar verse in the Bible in Ephesians 1 and we will see how God lays this out. Remember that salvation, the payment for sin, must be made by God if we are going to enter into the Kingdom of God, else you will have to pay for your sin on your own. As we know, if this is the case, we are going to be destroyed forevermore. In Ephesians 1:3-6, we read:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
This is God’s doing. He alone has made the necessary preparations to pay for the sins of those whom He has elected from before the foundation of the world. He did not pay for the sins of everyone, as some might believe. God came into this world to pay for the sins of His people, not for everyone.
In that great day, there are going to be multitudes of people who are going to be destroyed. Multitudes, multitudes of people are going to be destroyed who thought that their sins were paid for, and yet, indeed, they were not paid for.
This is so important! Are your sins paid for? Are they? This is a personal question. Children, you cannot look at Mom and Dad or to anyone else. They cannot pay for your sins. Your parents cannot even pay for their own sins, much more yours. Salvation is an individual thing. God saves us one-by-one. Children, you also have to answer to God for your own sin. You have to go to God and plead for mercy. Your parents can pray for you. They can teach you the Bible. They can do all these things for you; however, one thing that they cannot do is that they cannot save you from the wrath of God. They cannot do this. You have to go to God, children, on your own and plead for mercy; plead and plead for mercy on your own.
But here God tells us in these verses that He has saved a chosen people for Himself, those whom He has chosen. God decided to pay for their sins, to pay the penalty for their sins alone.
In the Old Testament, God gives us types and figures of Christ. There are many verses in the Old Testament that we could look at, but let us look at some passages in Job. We know that Job is a great type of Christ. It is important to note that all of the Old Testament is pointing to Christ. As I read more and more through the book of Job, I see Christ through this whole book. Let us turn to Job 16:1-2, and then we will go down to Job 16:9-22. You will be able to see that the language here is pointing to Christ when He went to the cross. In Job 16:1-2, we read:
Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
Now let us go down to Job 16:9-22. There we read:
He teareth me in his wrath…
We see this language, and we are going to see that it is pointing directly to Christ when He went to the cross.
He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me. God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark. His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust. My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death; Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure. O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
This is language that is pointing directly to Christ going to the cross.
Let us turn over to Job 19 where we will see this more clearly. This is language that I believe is pointing directly to Christ going to the cross to pay for the sins of His people [note: we now understand that Christ paid for the sins of His people before the foundation of the world, and made this manifest by demonstrating it to us on the cross]. In Job 19:6-17, we read:
Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment. He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. He hath stripped me of my glory…
We can tie this into Philippians where we read of Jesus emptying Himself of His glory. So we see here:
He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath against me…
Jesus Christ came under the wrath of God for the sins of His people.
…and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.
God just goes on and on to speak about how awful it was that Christ came under the wrath of God.
Now look at Job 19:19-25:
All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
Is this not language that is pointing directly to the cross? [Note: we now understand that Christ paid for the sins of His people before the foundation of the world, and made this manifest by demonstrating it to us on the cross].
Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
God is speaking here about this awful punishment that Christ would come under for the sins of His people. When you read through the book of Psalms, you can also see clearly how God had already written about this awful penalty that Christ would come under for the sins of His people.
When we now start to think about this period of five months beginning on May 21, it is going to be a horror of horror stories for those who are left behind on this earth. They are going to have to face this awful punishment that Christ came under when He paid for the sins of His elect. This is the horrible punishment that those who will be left here during that time period will have to face. How horrible it is that many will have to face this angry God during this time period. How terrible this is.
When we think about this and when we think about our loved ones who are not saved, oh, how our hearts go out to them! And this should be our reaction. Our hearts should really be stirred for them because they do not realize what is coming. It is only a few months away, only a few months, a little over three years. Time is quickly, quickly getting away from us now. We do not have the luxury of time anymore to sit back, “Oh well, I am ten years old right now, so I could live another seventy years or so.”
No, time is quickly coming to a close and all of us should examine ourselves to see, “Am I ready to meet God?” Is this not the question? Are you ready to meet God? If not, this awful punishment that we are reading about here in the Old Testament in the book of Job is going to be poured out upon the unsaved. It is going to be poured out. I do not know how else to put it. Time is really, really coming to an end.
As I speak to my children, I try to emphasize to them that time is not going to just keep going on and on and on, that it is not some day in the light blue yonder when maybe the Lord will return whenever. No, it just so happens that God has all of us here to be living at this time when we are so close to the end of the world. Yet wonderfully, God’s mercy is still among us and He is still saving a great multitude.
We just started this year, and now we are almost in the middle. Time is quickly going along. We only have a few years now, and yet we know that tomorrow is not guaranteed for any one of us. Any one of us could die tonight. We just do not know. Am I saved today? Has this penalty here that we are reading about been paid for me by Christ?
Christ is the only way of escaping this terrible punishment. There is no other way of avoiding God’s wrath to be poured out upon you. You cannot wish this away. I have said this many times. You cannot wish this away. You cannot hope that this is not going to happen. This is going to happen. Judgment Day is going to happen. Whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or not, this is going to happen.
If we are not saved, the best thing that we ought to do while today is still the day of salvation and the blood is still warm in our veins is to plead for mercy. We already know that God is saving a great multitude. This could include me; this could include you. If you are not saved, should it not? You should just pull out all the stops and then say, “Maybe, maybe, He might save me.” You do not know, so start with pleading, start with reading the Bible.
Children, this is for you also. I am not just speaking to the adults. Children, you will have to face an angry God during that time if you are not saved. What if your parents are caught up to be with Christ and you are left here? It is quite possible that parents are going to be leaving their children here on this earth during those five months. Mommy and Daddy will not be here to comfort you. God will not save you during that time. What are you going to do?
Before that time comes children, plead for mercy, read the Bible, and put away those video games; put them away; you are just wasting valuable time. What I see with children is that they can play that stuff for hours and hours and hours on end. But put it away. Get serious about begging God for mercy. Spend time reading the Bible. What more could you do with your time than to spend it reading the Bible?
You know, wonderfully, God has given us the Internet. You could get on the Family Radio website. I am currently listening to the “Biblical Timeline of History” study and there are six hundred plus studies there, more than six hundred. You could go there, click on it, walk away from it, turn it up and listen to these studies. Brother Camping has hundreds of studies that you could listen to, hundreds; you could just listen; listen to it all day long.
What parent who loves the Lord would not love to see their children listening to a Bible study on their own? I have four teenagers; I know. As parents, we encourage our children to read the Bible. What joy it would be to my heart to see my children simply pick up the Bible and as I peek into their room, see them sitting there reading the Bible or praying. Oh, what joy that would be to my heart! I know that children are going to be children and they are going to play, but they need to just refrain from all that stuff and just simply listen to the Bible. Please, just read the Bible. Please, just read the Bible; read the Bible.
Let us look at another verse. There are many, many, many verses that God has written in the Old Testament that point to the fact that God was going to take on a human flesh, the God/man Christ, “Emmanuel…God with us.” These Scriptures tell us that God Himself would become a man—the God/man through Christ—and make payment for sin. We see John make the announcement of Christ, “Behold the Lamb of God”; here He is now. We see many figures and pictures and types all pointing to Christ. We see that when John the Baptist made this announcement, all of the Old Testament verses were now being fulfilled in Christ and were pointing to this Lamb.
But John did not see a lamb coming towards him. John saw a man. He saw the God/man, Christ, and Christ would then begin the task of bringing the Gospel. He is the Gospel and we see Him fulfill all of these types and figures in the Old Testament that were demonstrating His payment for the sins of His elect, for the sins of His people. The Law of God demands payment for sin, which was made through Christ on the behalf of His people.
So the question that we must ask ourselves over and over again is, “Am I one of His?” This is the all-important question, is it not? Are you one of His? Are your sins paid for by Christ? The Law of God demands this. There is no other way around it. He demands payment for sin. The Law of God demands a payment.
It is not like man’s law where you can stand before a judge and you might get off with a technicality. I do not know anything about the legal system, but anyone could get off if they had a clever-enough lawyer. He could be guilty and yet he could, so-called, get away with it because he stood in front of a human judge where someone did not follow some procedure and so he walks and gets away scot-free.
But this does not happen with the Law of God because God is all-wise. He is all-knowing. He sees all things and nothing escapes His eyes. He knows the hearts of every man. He knows everything; even the very hairs of your head are numbered. He knows it all and you cannot escape.
So you see, those who will be left on this earth are those who never became saved. Therefore, they are going to have to satisfy the demand of the Law on their own and they are going to be here facing a most-awful thing, the most horrible thing, and the only escaping it is through Christ Himself.
Let us go on a little bit further and change the tone here. God gives us a command in the Bible. If we are truly saved, we should have a love for our fellowman. This is because the only way that we can love our fellowman is when God truly saves us. If God has truly saved you, then you will begin to love your brother as God has commanded you to.
He has commanded us to love one another. Therefore, we see the sword coming, the judge is coming, we know that this time is quickly approaching us and God has given us this command, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel.”
If we are a true believer, we will be looking for ways to share this with our fellowman. We will be looking for a path, for God to open doors for us to share this Gospel. When we do this, we are showing great love to our fellowman. This is because the only way of escaping this is hearing the true Gospel. If God in His mercy applies it to the heart of that person, then they will become saved.
So if we are truly saved, we will be looking for ways to share this Gospel because that is how we show love to that person. We are all brothers here, the human race, no matter where we are from. Wherever we are from, we are all brothers and sisters, humanly speaking, because we are all from Adam.
If God has saved us, He commands us in Ephesians 5:1-2:
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us…
He is speaking to the true believers:
…walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us…
He gave Himself for His people:
…an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
So it says:
…walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us…
How has Christ loved us? He laid down his life for us. Christ became sin for us. He did not have any sin within Himself. He became sin for us, and God has commanded us that we ought to walk in love. Christ is our example. He is the essence of what love is and He is telling us that we are to walk in love and that we ought to also lay down our lives for our fellowman.
If God has truly saved you, He has not saved you to sit there. He has not saved you to go live on a mountaintop, or whatever. He has given you a command to share the Gospel. This is because the only hope that there is for the human race is through the Gospel, the true Gospel.
Let us look at 1 John 3:10-13 where God tells us:
In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
How are we going to show love to our fellowman? We are going to do this by sharing the Gospel.
He goes on:
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.
The world will hate you. You are not going to be loved by the world when you go out there with the Gospel. The true Gospel is speaking about sin, righteousness, and judgment to come. Because of this, the world is not going to welcome you with open arms. You are going to be hassled. You are going to be persecuted one way or the other. You are going to be laughed at. Most of us here hand out tracts and we get all types of reactions. Many accept it, but many do not want anything to do with it.
It continues in 1 John 3:14-16:
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Christ is our example. He:
…laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
How do we do this? We do this by sharing the Gospel, by giving of our time and our monies to get the Gospel out to our fellowman.
Then we read in 1 John 3:17:
But whoso hath this world’s good…
God is hitting a very important point here:
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
This is a fair question, is it not? If God has given you much and you say you love the Lord, what should you do with your money? Should you buy an IRA? Is this money given to you for the purpose of seeing your bank account with a bunch of zeroes behind it?
No, no, no. We are to share what God has given to us in order to get the Gospel out. We can share with Family Radio, we can print tracts, we can do this or the other, and this is what we ought to do with what God has given to us. What God has given us is not for the purpose of storing it up, like the parable of the rich man. What was he thinking about? He was only thinking about himself. But Christ was not thinking about Himself when paid for the sins of His people.
So God gave us this example. If God so loved us that He laid down his life for us, we also ought to do the same. We ought to do the same because if God has saved you, you are rich beyond measure, are you not? If God has given you eternal life, you are going to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. What more could you ask for?
The things that we see with our eyes are only temporal things, are they not? When you die, you cannot take anything with you. So what should you do with your time and your monies, with whatever God has given to you? You are to share the Gospel. You are to get the Gospel out.
Turn over to 1 John 4:7. We read there:
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
How are we going to demonstrate this love? We are going to do this by sharing the Gospel. This is what God has commanded.
It continues in 1 John 4:8-9:
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son…
God is getting back to this same point. He is pointing to Christ:
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
This ought to be our mindset. We need to always be thinking about how we can share the Gospel with others. We need to ask ourselves, “How can I use my life to the fullest to share God with my fellowman?”
Then we read in 1 John 4:10-11:
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us…
In what way did God love us? He loved us by laying down His life.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
As we share the Gospel with our fellowman, we are showing them love. The world sees a physical need, but we see a need that is greater than the physical need, which is the spiritual need. We see this because mankind is headed for hell [note: eternal destruction]. The Law of God demands payment. The only way of escaping hell is through the Gospel. By sharing this Gospel with others, if God sees fit to save that person, God will apply the Word of God to the heart of that person and save them.
Time is quickly running out, is it not? We are quickly coming to the end of the world. If there was ever a time when we need to put feet under what we say, it is now. We need to share the Gospel today because Judgment Day is quickly coming. Judgment Day is almost here. As we know, this judgment process has already begun. We are just waiting for that time when God will return to take the true believers home, and then His wrath is going to be poured out upon those who are left behind.
Let us close.
(There was no question/answer session pertaining to this study.)