I'm going to keep you along tonight.
Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Beginning there. Verse 16 They provoked him to jealousy
with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils,
not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came
newly up, whom your fathers feared not. of the rock that begat thee,
thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them because of the
provoking of his sons and of his daughters. And he said, I'll
hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall
be, for they are a very frail generation, children in whom
is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy
with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger
with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people. I will provoke them to anger
with the foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine
anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume
the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundation
of the mountains. I will heap mischief upon them. I will spend my arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger,
and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction.
I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them and the poison
of serpents of the dust. The sword without and the terror
within shall destroy both the young man, the virgin, the suckling,
and also with the man of gray hair. I said I will scatter them
into corners. I would make the remembrance
of them cease. from among men. Were it not that
I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should
behave themselves strangely, lest they should say, Our hand
is high, and the Lord hath not done all this. For they are a
nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in
them. Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that
they would consider their latter I'm going to quit right there
and read verse 39. Verse 39 now. See now that I,
even I, am healed, and there is no God with me. I kill, I make alive, I wound,
I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven
and say, I live forever. If I wet my glittering sword,
mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine
enemies and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine
arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh,
and they and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives
from the beginning of revenge upon the enemy. Look at that
verse 39 now. See now, I read to you here of
their adverse ways, of their rebellion, of their stubborn
heart, of their unrelenting heart and spirit, their forgetfulness,
their waywardness, their depravity, wickedness in forming to themselves
gods made out of wood and stone, gold and silver. They have gone whoring after
other gods which he said, your fathers did
not fear them. So he says, see now that I, understand
this, hope that you can see this, see now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no God with me. There is none else. There is
none with me. I kill. I make a life. I wound. I heal. Neither is there
any that can deliver out of my hand." Now, let me make this
statement. He is not a made God. He is not a made God, nor a God
by office, nor by name or title only, but by nature. But by nature. The only true
and living God. and he is the sovereign disposer
of life and death and sickness and in health. See now that I,
even I, am he, and there is no God with me. That's what he says
about himself. There is but one God, in other
words, and Jehovah is his name, and that one God will endure
from what is said here. This one God will endure no rival. He will enjoy no competition
and endure no competition. Why should He? Why should He
endure a rival or competition? He hath made all things and he
sustains all things. Should a creature that God's
own hands have made, should that creature set up in rivalry against God? Should that be lawful and legal? Certainly not. I remember reading
there in the book of Daniel. There's a great man there whose
name was Nebuchadnezzar. And he got all swelled up and
puffed up with pride. And he said, Behold this great
Babylon which I have made, this great Babylon which I have built,
this great city. Well, God said that I'll change
your mind about this. I'll destroy your presumption
and your vanity and your pride. And God sent that man to the
grass and let him feed among the bullocks. And at the end
it says that God made him to know that no man is great in
his sight. He says here in our text, see
now that I, even I, I'm the great I am. I'm the great I am. There's
none beside me. I have certain prerogatives which
is reserved for me and me alone. I know men would desire and some
think Maybe that they have these prerogatives, but they don't.
God claims the sovereign prerogative of life and death. He said, I
kill, and I make alive. And you know and I know, if we
know anything of the Bible, we know that it's from Him that
we first receive all things. It's from God. And what he says here, I kill
and I make alive, that means that he kindles the torch of life. He kindles the flame of life. He gives life. It's by his hand
that life comes, life which is so precious, so precious. We're so taken up with life. Do anything to live, I told you
this morning. Man says, what will he give in
exchange for his soul? Taken up with life. God gives
life. God gives life. God's hand gives life. Gives the flame of
life. But God's own hand also quenches,
snuffs out the very flame that He gives. That's what He means
when He says, I kill and I make alive. God does it. Everything that we have pertaining
to life, we got from God. He gave us life and God will
take our lives. Whether we understand it, agree
to it or not, it's no matter with God. He said, I'm God. I'm God. Even I am He and there's
no God with me. I kill and I make alive." Well,
he can wound and he can heal. Is that what he says? I kill and I make alive. People
die out here, God killed them. That's the first cause. I know God uses means, and we
don't necessarily say that God killed him, but we know as we
trace it back, it comes from God. God kills and God makes
alive, and He says, I wound, I wound, and I heal. He says
in verse 42, I will make mine arrows drunk with blood. God
has a sack full of arrows. He has a quiver full of arrows.
He notches that arrow, and when the arrow leaves the string,
many times it finds its mark. And it wounds the object of the
aimer. It wounds him. God said, I wound
people. And I heal people. God wounds
not everybody. He doesn't heal everybody. But He wounds some and He heals
some. For instance, There is Saul of
Tarsus. Now, who would have ever thought
that that proud rebel would ever have been brought to his knees
and stripped of his pride and brought down to his nothingness?
Here he is on the road to Damascus with a list of names. and he's on the road to Damascus
to get these people that he's got rolled down here, to kill
them and put some of them in prison. Now who would ever think
at the start of Saul of Tarsus' journey towards Damascus that
God would let fly an arrow and that arrow would find its mark
and down old Paul, or down old Saul of Tarsus. Just shoot him
down. Shoot him down. And there he
is in the dust. And humble that man. And make
that man cry out, What wilt thou have me to do? See, God wounds
people. He wounds even the most unlikely
people. He wounds them. He wounded Saul
of Tarsus. And you know what? It took three
days to get that air out of old Paul. Three days! And finally,
the Bible says the scales fell off of his eyes, and his eyes
were open. It took three days to pull that
air out. Oh, the Lord God Almighty let
that air fly, and down went old Saul and wounded him. He has,
as I said, a bundle of arrows which he shoots at different
times. And I've shot these arrows lots of times. I've shot these
arrows and do so about every time I preach. And sometimes
it pleases God to direct one of these arrows into the heart
of one whom God has foreknew, and prepared, ordained, and they
wounded. Now, let me just, just let me mention to you here
this evening, three or four or five arrows that God lets fly. And if they ever find their mark,
they'll wound you. But the same God that wounds
you will heal you. And I pray this evening As I
make mention to you of these arrows, that God might be pleased
in His mercy and in His grace and in His wisdom that some poor
heart might be the recipient of one of these arrows. The first
arrow is this. God's angry with the wicked every
day. That's an arrow. God's angry. if this truth would go home to
some of us here this evening, that God's angry with me, if
it just wouldn't be a statement or a sentence, just wouldn't
be a fact of the Bible that we've heard time and time again, but
it would actually, in reality, be the error that staggers us,
that wounds us, that causes us to believe, that causes us, brings
us to reality, and causes us to consider what God has said. Oh, listen now. God's angry. That's what the Bible says. God's
angry with the wicked every day. Every minute of every day, God
is angry with the wicked. That means every man and child
and woman. Everybody. outside of the safety
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every man that has not joined
to God in His Christ, every man that has not been subdued and
brought under new management, every man that has not had a
change of mind and a change of heart, every man that has not
been brought to love and bow to and rejoice in God's Christ. He's an enemy of God. He's an enemy of God. And God
says He's angry with me. I don't know where we got this
business that God loves everybody. That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says that God hates the workers of iniquity and says
that God's angry with the wicked every day. That's an error, Bob.
That's one of the bundle of arrows that's in God's quiver, and He
shoots them if they ever find their mark. That never hits a
man's heart right there. And he comes to the realization,
the awful, awful, terrible realization that God is angry with me. I read to you where it says,
they're not two or three gods or a half a dozen gods or four
or five gods. See now that I, even I, am He,
and there is no God with me. I have the sovereign prerogative. I take this claim, this right.
I kill, I make alive, I wound, and I heal, neither is any that
can deliver out of my hand. Now if we ever get a hold of
that, or if that ever gets a hold of us, if the arrow ever hits
that God is angry with me! I'm not worried about you. I'm
not worried about the drunkard out there. I'm not worried about
that fellow that kidnapped the general over in Italy. I'm not
worried about that. I'm worried about this! God's
angry with me! Me! As God lives and moves and has
His being, He is angry with me. I don't like anybody to be angry
with me. I really don't. I can't stand
for someone to be angry with me, be mad at me. I can't stand
that. It makes me miserable. I've got to somehow make my way
to that man or that woman. I've got to talk a little bit,
find out what's going on. If there's a reason or what's
the reason is, let's try to either smooth it over or let's repent
or let's do something. Let's get it out here and let's
change this thing. I don't want you to be angry
with me. And I'm sure that most of you
feel the same way. You don't like anybody to be
angry with you. But to have God angry with me,
that's something else. I can live with you being mad
at me. I don't like it, but I can live with it. I've put up with
it for about 30 years now, some people being mad at me. And I
can put up with it from now on, I believe. I believe my height
is just as slick as anybody else's. My head is just about as hard,
and my heart is about as hard as my head. And I think I can
endure, and I think I can make it. But I don't think I can make
it if I knew that God was angry
with me. God was angry with me. And it
would be with Him that I had to do it. God's angry with the
wicked every day. Now, I know that it's not easy
for you to hear that. It's not easy for me to say it.
But if you'll once hear it, if you'll once hear it, if you really
hear it, Martha and I was talking about somebody today, forget
who it was now, somebody, oh, Well, I wouldn't mention no names.
Someone's name was brought up. I said, well, yes, I know. Used
to come to church there. Used to come to church here.
Young lady used to come. I said, she come real regular
there for a long time, didn't she? Three or four months or
something like that. But she never did hear. She never did
hear what I said. She never did hear. God never
did make her to understand. She never did realize her responsibility
before God. She never did here. And she went
her way. And she's just as happy now as
she was when she was here. Never did here. I talked to a
fellow one time who just throwed it all in. Just tossed it all
in. And I said, well, how you doing
now? He said, I'm happier now than I ever have been in my life.
I chucked it all. I don't have anything to worry
about now. Don't have to worry about whether what you think
or what anybody else thinks, whether I go to church, whether
I don't go to church, whether support, don't have to worry
about any of it. I'm happy. Happy right now, the
happiest I've ever been in my life. Right now. Chucked it all. You know what his problem was?
He never did hear. He never did hear. He never has
found out the reality of the truth that God is angry with
the wicked every day. Oh, if we ever find that out,
if we ever hear it, if we ever really hear it, ah, it'll tear
at a man's heart. It'll tear at a man's heart and
it'll give him no peace and he'll groan down deep in his loins
and cry out for mercy. If a man ever, ever has this
arrow hit him in the heart and wound him and bleed and bleed
And sometimes it'll fester up into a sore. But there's no ointment
in the world that'll help him except God who wounds him. He's
got to heal him. Well, that's one error. And there's
another error. It goes like this. It says, He that believeth not
is condemned already. He that believeth not. Doesn't
make any difference how nice a fellow he is. Oh, isn't he
a nice person? Isn't he a good husband? Isn't
she a dutiful daughter? Isn't he a loyal, obedient son? It doesn't make any difference
how good they are outwardly. If they don't believe the report,
if they don't believe on God's Son, if they haven't responded
to the message, the Scripture says, he that believeth not,
he's condemned already. That's what it says. He's condemned
right now. You see, a man who does not believe,
he's not in a state of probation. He's already been proved. He's
already been tried, and he's failed the test, and right now
he's walking right here upon the face of the earth, and he's
a convicted criminal before God. Right now. He's not going to
wait until he dies and find out if there's some mercy then. There's no mercy then. God doesn't
show mercy after a man dies. No mercy then. We'd like to believe
that somehow there's going to be mercy then, but that's just
a figment of our imagination. He that believeth not is condemned
already. We've been tried and we've failed
the test. It might have been a True and false. I don't know,
but whatever kind of a test it was, the test of perfection.
That's what it was. The test of perfection. We failed
it. We failed it. All we like sheep
have gone astray. Every man to his own way. We've
sought out inventions of our own. We've strayed away from
the God who made us. There's no hope for us. We've
been tried and put in the crucible. Brother, sister, here tonight. You're here, and that describes
you. May this arrow, fired from the hand of God, pierce your
heart, make you realize that where you are right now, you're
sitting there as a condemned criminal before God. He that
believeth not is condemned already. God's angry with the wicked every
day. Here's another arrow. You ever
read this in the Bible, where it says, The wicked shall be
turned into hell with all nations that forget God. These, he says,
go into everlasting punishment. If this arrow ever finds its mark,
it will wound you. It may kill you. I believe it
will kill you of all vain hopes and pretensions and presumptions,
I believe it will do that. God's going to turn the wicked
into hell. Well, there's no hope. And fourthly, here's another
one. You're dead in sin. Dead in sin. Listen now. Number one, God's
angry with the wicked every day. Number two, he that believeth
not is condemned already. Number three, the wicked shall
be turned into hell with all nations that forget God, and
they shall go away into everlasting punishment. Number four, you
are dead in sin. You have destroyed yourself.
You have destroyed yourself, but you cannot save yourself.
Now, if this ever gets a hold of you, if this ever gets a hold
of a man right here, that he is dead in sin, that he is He
is active in the physical realm. He can smell, He can see, He
can converse, He can eat, He has passions. He is alive physically,
but where it really counts with God, He is dead. He is dead in
sin. Dead in sin. Not to sin, but
in sin. He is dead. Dead towards God. Can't move a finger. Can't move
a finger in assistance with making a step towards God. Can't do
anything. He's dead. He's as dead spiritually
as the deadest corpse is in the funeral home tonight. He's that
dead before God. Dead in sin. And I said, if it
ever gets to a man, It might make him mad. It might make him
mad. But I'll tell you this, if it
makes him mad and his attitude is, I'll never come there again,
I'll never hear that again, he'll be back. He'll be back. It's just like a fish with a
hook in his jaw. He may pull out a lot of line
off the reel, Pat, but sooner or later the truth will hold
him. The truth will hold him and bring him back and he'll
come back and he'll bow to that if that arrow which is fired
from the hand of God ever strikes his heart. Oh, dead to sin. God has a bundle of arrows. He
said, I'll make mine arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour
flesh. I'll wound you. I'll wound you.
I'm healed. He said, I'll wet my glittering
sword, my hand will take vengeance, and I'll render vengeance to
my enemies. Oh, not only can he wound, but
he can heal too. I kill, I make alive, I wound,
and I heal. Bless God he heals. If he wounds
us, he'll heal us. If you're wounded by God, oh,
you can have hope because he'll heal you if he wounds you. He
can heal you, I'll tell you that. How I know? He healed me. He
wounded me? He wounded me, but He healed
me. I know He'll heal you. He healed me. How did He heal
me? I'll tell you how He healed me. He sweetly whispered to my
soul the story that we sang in this last hymn. The wonderful
story of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me the story. of Jesus. God whispered that to my soul
by the Spirit of God through the Word of the Gospel. He whispered
to my soul and said, that one covered with a bloody sweat,
that one that's put to death, He is your substitute. He whispered that to my soul.
He said, He bore God's wrath against you. He bore God's wrath
against you so you might not have to bear that wrath. He whispered
that to my soul. He said, Come to me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He said,
Come, poor sinner, come. And I come, and I found rest. He wounds and He heals. How do you know He healed me? He healed me. I run away from
home. That's what I did. I run away
from my father's house. I did some things that was wrong. Wrong and grieved my father. Grieved my father to no end. And I run away from home. I run
away and I wandered and I wandered and I wandered and I wandered.
And I was tattered and torn. Hopeless and helpless and forlorn
and grief stricken and there was pain in my heart. And one
day I read An ad in the newspaper, and the ad in the newspaper said,
come home, come home, come home. And I said, that's my father.
He's put that ad in the paper. He's put it in the paper, wanting
me to come home. He invites me to come home, but
I've wronged him. I've wronged him. What must I
do to be right with my father and the Spirit of God? sweetly
whispered to my soul, go home, my son, go home. Go home to the
father that you've wounded and the father that you've provoked
and the father that you've beaten. Go home, go home. And so I went
home. I went home. What must I do to
be right with my father, this poor, wandering, wayward, worthless,
helpless, lost boy, went home to my father. Go home to your
father. Well, we've all left our fathers,
haven't we? We've left our fathers, every
one of us. Everyone turned to his own way,
forsaken the fountain of living water and hewing out broken cisterns
which can hold no water. We've all We've all left our
father's house. We've all done wrong. We've all
went into the far country. And we'd never get right till
we get back to the father from whom we've gone astray. Ah, listen,
he'll never cast out what someone says, well, I'm so bad. Or I'm
not so bad. He won't accept me. How do you
know he won't accept you? I just know he won't accept me.
Go anyhow and try. He won't accept me. Go anyhow,
I dare you. Go anyhow and try. All the Father
giveth to me will come to me, and him that comes to me, him
that comes to me, poor, wayward, wandering, hopeless, helpless,
lost boy, him that comes to me, him that returns to the Father
from whom he went astray, him that comes to me, I will in no
wise cast out." Isn't that right? That's right. He kills, he makes
alive, he wounds, and he heals. The balm of Gilead is poured
into that wound. The sweet gospel story that Jesus
Christ, God's dear Son, the beloved of the Father, has left his bosom
and took upon himself the passion of a man, and established a righteousness
which God's law requires of me, and paid the debt which I owe
God as a sinner. And the Spirit of God sweetly
whispered to my soul, He who you see with the bloody sweat,
whose Nailed to that cruel cross, He is your substitute and your
Savior. And I believe it. I believe it. And I've had peace
of heart and mind ever since. That's been a long, long time
ago. And I'll tell you this, the way grows sweeter as the
days grow longer. Has God wounded your
soul? Has one of these Arabs? God's angry with the wicked everyday. Dead and sinned. The wicked shall
be turned into hell and all the nations will be forgiven. I'm healed. There's none beside
me. None with me. I kill. I make alive. I heal.
And I'm alright. The Lord bless these faltering
staggering remarks of His honor, His glory. We'll leave it in His hands.
May God be pleased to use it. Let's stand and we'll sing a
verse, some old hymn, and we'll go our way and meet again this
Wednesday night. In the meantime, we'll pray one
for another, certainly, pray for our missionaries, Pray for
our friends everywhere. Pray for those that are sick.
Sister Grace Westfall in the hospital, we remember her and
others who are sick, confined to nursing homes and all, we'll
try to remember. And in particular, we'll, one
more time, we'll ask God, Lord, save that man, save that woman.
Lord, save that child. Save that boy. Save that girl. Lord, make them to see. Wound
them. Wound them, Lord. Wound them
so you can heal them. May that be our prayer. Oh, that
we might cry out like Abraham did. Oh, that Ishmael might live
before me. Might live. Might live. They're
dead. They're dead. These people that we love, our
loved ones, Our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, our sisters,
our children, they're dead. They're dead in sin. God's angry
with them. They don't realize that. Be patient
and long-suffering and kind to them. But pray for them. They don't understand. They don't
understand. They're willfully, certainly
willfully ignorant, but they don't understand. Only God, only
God can make them understand. he did with Saul of Tarsus. Sometimes
he wounds the most unlikely candidate that is, as far as we're concerned,
for his salvation.