Let us begin our study. Three
judgments experienced by all Christians. Those three judgments are judgment
of sin, secondly, judgment of self, and number three, judgment of
the world. The holiness of God demands judgment
on sin. We look to Calvary for that. Judgment of the flesh follows
the judgment at Calvary, or of Calvary. And the judgment of
the world follows that judgment. God is a God of order, and there
is order in the Christian life. This is a good lesson for all
of us as Christians, and it's a good lesson for those who are
present who are not Christians. One who claims he has embraced
the finished work of Christ at Calvary has accepted the Lord
Jesus first of all as substitute, mediator, advocate, and high
priest. Now watch the next statement.
If he ignores God's judgment of sin in the flesh. He does not actually know Jesus
Christ as Savior. And there are a lot of people, quote, churches, end of quote,
are literally filled with people of that caliber. The second judgment follows the
first. Jesus Christ has been judged
for His people. And I mean by that, the elect. And when He died for the elect,
or on behalf of the elect, He condemned And that's an ariest
active indicative verb in Romans 8 and verse 3. Sin in the flesh. The whole world order is under
judgment. I said the whole world system. The whole world order is under
judgment. Therefore, the believer must be separated. He is demanded
to be separated from the evil world system in which he lives. And that's going to cost. Since the believer's flesh is
condemned, God will not tolerate in the
Christian's life that which has been condemned by his death. He'll not tolerate it. I'm so tired of hearing people
make excuses for their sins. Let me make a few statements
at this point. You'll see why I'm getting into
this subject today. There's so much hypocrisy by
religionists today, in politics, in the area of religion, until
it is absolutely sickening. For instance, I was watching
a program the other night on Channel 8. Channel 8 is a good
news program station. You don't get a lot of other
things when you get the news on Channel 8 in the evening late. And they were discussing Rwanda.
At that time, they mentioned there had been over a hundred
thousand people slaughtered in Rwanda. I heard just last evening on
the same station some news that figure now, the number now is
more than 200,000. This program that I listened
to on Channel 8, they had a panel of people, and one senator and
some newsmen and others. that we should demand, America
should demand, that Rwanda stop the slaughter. Do you know what I'm going to
say now? That's just like a fornicator
telling another fornicator to stop his fornicating. While we are slaughtering more
than a million in America, who are we to tell Awanda to stop their
slaughter? Now folks, I could go on and
multiply this. Mr. Rockefeller made this statement last week.
I saw it in print. We will push the health care
through whether the American people want it or not. That's politics. Now I'm not
dealing in politics, folks. I'm simply relating these things
to show you that many of these statements are coming out of
people who are great religionists. I saw a map last night, getting
to our subject that we're now discussing, Israel in the Old
Testament. And we're not through with it.
We'll continue later. Maybe this evening, maybe not.
All depends on how far I get this morning with this subject. All of these things are so intertwined. I want to be practical as we
go along, and I'm going to be practical, as practical as I
can be. I saw a map this past week. I looked for
it this morning and found it. I didn't bring it to show you.
But I can describe it for you. You know that Israel is a very
little, little country, isn't it? So it had Israel in black. Then He showed all the surrounding,
and I'll name them, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco,
all those big countries, all the way around, and here was
Israel, just a little dot. You know, that's what God did
to begin with. He chose Israel as a nation out
of all the nations of the world, not because they were larger,
But he chose Israel because he chose to choose Israel. And I don't believe God's through
with Israel yet. God is on the throne. And folks, I am so grateful that
God in His grace has saved me. that God in His grace has taught
me some things. And I'm so thankful that we have
an assembly, that I feel is an assembly. And I hope it never
comes to the place when God will remove the lampstand. But He
could. We're not to boast. When Israel
became disobedient, what did God do? I can't think of anything worse
in the life of a Christian than to be without a place to assemble
to worship the Lord. Let's get into our subject. Let's
take it step by step. Without a view of the first judgment,
we're talking about Calvary. There is no peace. Now watch
what I'm doing. I'm making this practical. No peace unless you have been
able to see through God-given faith what Jesus Christ did for
you at Calvary. You don't have any peace. No peace. I'm still building
the foundation, and we'll start building on the foundation in
a few minutes. So without a view of Calvary,
there is no peace. Peace with God is the result
of having seen through the eye of faith, and that is God-given
faith. that Jesus Christ died for you
as a professing believer, and more than a professing believer,
one who possesses Jesus Christ, because you have seen through
the eye of a God-given faith what He did for you. You have
been freed from the condemnation of sin. You are presently being
freed from the power of sin. And I must not stop until I say,
and the prospect is we're going to be freed from the very presence
of sin. And folks, I'm looking forward
to that time. Secondly, without a view of the
second judgment, The believer has no joy, not until you realize that your
flesh is condemned and there is not one good thing in you except God's grace that God gave
you. So joy results from knowing that
the flesh has been condemned. Thirdly, without a view of the
third judgment, there is no testimony. Now you can see where I'm going.
You'll see why I put it together in the manner which I have. No
testimony. Unless you and I, as recipients
of grace, are separated from the world, we do not have any
testimony for God or testimony to the world. I'm talking about separation.
I'm not talking about isolation. Not talking about hibernation.
I'm talking about separation. Years ago, I developed this in
my studies, and it came to my mind, but I'm enlarging it and
just working it up a little different. In the book of Genesis, I want
you to open your Bibles with me, please, to Genesis chapter 19. Genesis chapter 19. I want us to take time to read
verses 27 and 28 of the 19th chapter, then I'll take you to
the second step, and then to the third step, and we will reverse
those and study them in the reverse order because we have the New
Testament to back us up on this. Chapter 19, verses 27 and 28. I do not have time to develop
the context. of all of these things that I'm
going to give you, but chapter 19, verses 27 and 28. And Abraham got up early in the
morning, and this is associated with each of these three things
that I'm going to give you. Got up early in the morning to
the place where he stood before the Lord, Yahweh, the covenant
God. And he looked toward Sodom. What does Sodom mean in Hebrew? It means fettered, fettered. And Gomorrah. What does Gomorrah
mean? It means bondage. And toward all the land of the
plain. And beheld, and lo, the smoke
of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. What did he see? He saw God's
judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. The world under judgment. John
tells us in 1 John 5, 19 that the whole world, the whole world
system, cosmos is used in the sense of the whole world system
in that verse. is lying in the lap of the evil
one. And is lying is a present middle
indicative verb. Is lying in the lap of the evil
one. Folks, this whole world system
is lying in the lap of the evil one. That's what Abraham saw. I want you to turn next to the
21st chapter. We're not going to read all the
way through, beginning with the 8th verse through the 14th, but
I do want you to take those verses down. Notice the 8th verse. And the child grew and was weaned,
and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And then in verse 9, And Sarah
saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had borne unto Abraham,
mocking. Now drop down, if you will, to
verse 14. And Abraham rose up, once again
now, here's the second, rose up early in the morning, and
took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting
it on her shoulder. and the child, and sent her away,
and she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba."
So there had to be a separation. It was necessary. That had to
be. And then turn to the 22nd chapter,
and we find in the first 14 verses, especially the first verse. We won't read all the verses.
You're familiar with it, so we won't take time to read it all.
But let's begin with the first verse again. And it came to pass
after these things that God did... Now what is the word in the King
James? Tempt. Abraham. What does the NASB say? Tempt. Folks, let me ask you
a question at this point. All of these King James lovers,
I want to show you how inconsistent and how foolish they all are. Now notice what I said. I said foolish. And I mean just
that. I just have to state the truth. Without any apology, I can remember
as a babe in Christ, When I read that, I didn't question it, but
I didn't know what it meant. And I'll tell you when it really
struck me one day, and I hadn't been a Christian but a short
period of time. When I was reading the book of
James, and I found that God does not
tempt anyone and neither can He be tempted, I said, wait a
minute now. Somebody made a boo-boo. Somebody made a mistake. God
didn't make it. So who made the mistake? The
translators made the mistake, folks. I have not found any reliable
Hebrew student or Hebrew work that translates the Hebrew word
here as it is in the King James Tempted. It's either tested or
tried. But you see, when you tell religionists
that they're wrong, you make an enemy. And so, folks, when
you get through speaking the truth, the whole
counsel of God, you don't have many friends. And those who have friends, they
have friends out of compromise. And here's why I mentioned Paul
as I did. And if I had time to develop
it this morning, I would prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt. The religionists hated Paul. The world hated Paul. A lot of ignorant Christians
disliked Paul. And even his comrades in the
ministry didn't stand by him before he was executed. Now those are facts that I've
told you. I'm not trying to put myself in Paul's shoes. But folks,
I've been preaching for a few years. I've had a few experiences. And every Christian will experience
the same, maybe not to the same extent. A public person is always
criticized more than a person who is not always in the public.
I. Now notice the 14th verse, rose
up early in the morning, took bread and a bottle of water,
and gave it unto Hagar. That's the 21st chapter and 22nd
verse. And then in the 22nd chapter,
what happened here? tried Abraham. God tested Abraham. God did not tempt him. And said to him, Abraham, and
he said, behold, here am I. Here I am. And he said, take
now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, get thee up
into the land of Moriah. And Moriah means, my teacher
is God. and offer him therefore a burnt
offering." Notice what kind of offering it is. A burnt offering.
"...upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of." And
once again we have this, "...and Abraham rose up early in the
morning." In all three instances, he got up early in the morning.
Nothing lazy about Abraham. Well, let's develop this. Let's
start now and develop this. In each of the three judgment
scenes, Abraham saw, he saw, he understood what was
taking place. He was the friend of God. He
was the friend of God by grace. The faith God had given him was
not natural but supernatural. Paul in speaking of Abraham in
Romans 4 verse 20 said, He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but he was strong in faith, giving glory to God, believing
what he had promised he was able to fulfill. Abraham's faith was vigorous.
I believe God-given faith is vigorous, folks. I'm telling it to you as it is
in the book. I believe that God-given faith
is active faith. His getting up early in the morning
indicated that he was not lazy. His faith motivated him. He was a man who was in earnest
about what he was doing. And there was a purpose in his
mind as to what he was to do. And there was a goal out there
for which he was striving. That's the life of the Christian.
Whatever one's age, he should be earnest, he should
have a goal, and he should strive toward it with such vigor that he will
continually strive to reach higher heights for the cause of Jesus
Christ. Now let's reverse these in Genesis
and take them in the order in which they're presented in the
New Testament as we experienced them. God spoke to Abraham and told
him to offer up his son Isaac Abraham's uplifted hand was stayed
by the sovereign God. And the fatal blow did not fall
upon Isaac. Now watch this. Isaac was not literally sacrificed,
but in Abraham's heart he was. The writer to the Hebrews spoke
as though the sacrifice actually occurred. Let me read it. By faith Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac, and he that
had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Hebrews 11, 17. This man of faith did not question
God. He was willing to give the best
that he had, his son. Abraham could do what God told
him, believing that God had the power to raise Isaac. That's why his faith was so strong. And we have in the 19th verse
of Hebrews 11 these words, accounting that God was able to raise him
up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in
a figure or type. Let's look at this for just a
little bit. There are two or three things that I think we
need to make proper connection with. Abraham offering Isaac in his
heart brings before us the greatest of all facts. And folks, that's what happens
to you and me when God-given faith embraces Jesus Christ as
Savior and Lord. Not a human faith, I said God-given
faith. Jesus Christ was led as a sheep
to the slaughter. and like a lamb done before his
shearing. So opened he not his mouth. In
his humiliation his judgment was taken away. And who shall
declare his generation? For his life is taken from the
earth." Romans 8, 32 and 33. Now watch. Paul was reminding
the Roman saints that God the Father gave His only begotten
Son for us, speaking to the Roman saints, the elect of God, if
you please, and also He sent His Son and anointed Him for
the purpose of being the Savior of His chosen ones. The supreme fact brought before
us is that He delivered Him up for us. As we consider the Father's side
of Calvary, there is the Father's side. On behalf of our sins, let us
not forget that the Son also gave Himself. Now watch this. The Father gave
Him, and the Son gave Himself. Therefore, He could say, My Father
loved Me. Because I lay down my life that
I might take it again, or I may take it again. No man takes it
from me. But I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.
John 10, 17 and 18. Now this is typified, watch this,
this is typified in Genesis 22 verse 8. Here it is. Look at this. Make
the comparison. Look at your Bible. And Abraham
said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. That's Genesis 22, verse 8. So
they, notice this, they went both of them together. Now keep those words in mind
please. Abraham and Isaac. went both of them together to
Mount Moriah. The father sent the son, gave
the son, and offered up the son. But the son went with him and
was in agreement with him. So they went both of them together. Hence, the father could say,
I give my son and the Son could say, I lay down my life. Two things made Calvary's scene
of judgment necessary. Two things. Number one, the holiness
of God demanded that there should be a judgment upon sin. No peace without understanding
that, folks. No peace. That judgment is behind
you and me and everyone who has, with a God-given faith, embraced
Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. That's behind. Secondly, sin
must be judged. God is so holy that He cannot
even look upon sin, we're told. This is the reason that three
hours of darkness covered the earth during the time that Jesus
Christ was being made an offering for your sins and mine. Thus he cried, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And did you know the answer to
Christ's forsakenness? is given prophetically in Psalm
22, verses 1 and 3. Listen to it. This is Psalm 22,
1 through 3. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the
daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and
I am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel. A psalm of David speaking of
a greater David. The psalm is prophesied of the
greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we're talking about
an awakened conscience. An awakened conscience could
never have peace apart from the knowledge of the fact that sin
has been dealt with in righteous and holy judgment. No peace,
folks, unless you understand that. No peace. The average church member today
knows nothing about it. Nothing about it. The Lord Jesus
was delivered for our offenses and He was raised for our justification. Thus God has provided a person
capable of bearing our sins and their judgment in such a way
that the holiness of God, instead of being against us, is absolutely
in our favor. That's our only hope. That's
what gives peace. The Lord Jesus Christ did for
us what we could not do for ourselves. That true Isaac has been offered
up and by his death sins have been purged. I said sins, plural. Sin in the
flesh has been condemned. I'm looking now at the second
point. And thirdly, The power of the
devil has been annulled. John 12 and 32. Thus this believer
has been perfected forever by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We come now to the second judgment
scene, which is a believer's judgment of his flesh. And folks,
most so-called church members today have never understood the
first and they've never gotten past it. Never gotten past it. Sinful flesh came under the judgment
of God at the cross, but it must be judged by the believer. Your
flesh must be judged by you. By you. Christians can and do
judge flesh within by the grace of God. Without this judgment, a believer
has no grace. I defy anybody, I challenge anybody
to disprove it by the Scriptures. And if they're honest, they certainly
cannot disprove it by their experience. I said, without this judgment,
there is no grace. If a church member who claims
to be a believer has not judged his flesh, it is because he doesn't
have grace. It is impossible to think that
God, having condemned sin in the flesh at the cross, will
ever tolerate sin. in the flesh, in the life of
a believer. He won't tolerate it in your
life or mine. He may have to take us to the
woodshed, but he'll sure do it. That's what the Scriptures teach. First Corinthians 11, 32. The
incorrigible badness of Ishmael had to be proved before Abraham
was prepared to expel him. And you have to see what your
flesh is before you will ever seek to expel it and to put it
down. Same thing is true with me, anyone. The spiritual application of
this is that Ishmael lives in one's life and dominates There
is no one but Ishmael until Isaac is born. Now think about the two natures
for a moment. Until you were born of God, there was nothing
but the Ishmael nature in you. But when you were born again,
there is a new nature. There is Isaac. Ishmael represents the flesh
and that which is born of the flesh is flesh and will never
be anything but flesh. Flesh never improves. Your flesh
has never improved. It just has to be crucified constantly,
constantly crucified. It remains the same as before
Jesus Christ came into the life of the individual. The only good
that can be said about a Christian at his funeral is that he was indwelt by God's grace. That's
all. One of the greatest snares is
the pretension of the flesh to be good. That's your religion
today, folks. That's your religion today. Now
I want to read you something. This is Baptist. Folks, I don't
have anything in common with the Southern Baptists as a whole
or with their teaching, their Arminianism, than I have with
Communism. Have I made myself plain? You
see, that language is too strong. I just made it. Now I want to
read you something. This is a Baptist paper. I want
to test you now. A letter to Molly. Here's the
way they express themselves. And oh, this, they love this
kind of language. Here's a father whose child gave
her permission for Christ to come into heart and life, and
so he writes her a letter. Now listen to it. It takes a
whole bottom page and it's shaded here in gray so you'll be sure
to see this in this paper. Listen to this. Dear Molly, that's
the father writing to his daughter Molly, as you stepped into our
church's baptismal pool Easter Sunday, my mind raced back to
the cool November morning when you were born. That doesn't seem
so very long ago. And yet it was forever in light
of the decision you have made to be a Christian. That's step
number one. Listen closely, folks. The day
you popped into this world, you were pink and wrinkled and you
wailed at that first breath of air fill your lungs. I'll never
forget how tiny and fragile you felt the first time I cuddled
you in my arms. as if you would break if I squeezed
you only a little too tightly. Even in that moment, your mom
and I knew we could never care for you and raise you by ourselves. We knew we needed help and we
turned to God. We asked the One who is perfect
love to surround you with love and that never quits. We asked
the One who is the perfect parent to guide you every minute. We
came by that decision quite naturally. I expect to see some smiles. You ought to smile. And it's not the smile of acceptance,
it's a smile of pity. Generation of Knox's and Jar
cows their maiden names and other family Have turned to the Lord
for help in raising their kids doing their jobs and living their
lives Watch this so your decision to follow Christ came naturally
to Folks that's humanism If that's
a testimony of salvation, I'm 180 degrees. Of course! No one who understands what has
happened to him would ever word it like that. Let me read it again. So your
decision to follow Christ came naturally to. In a sense, You were born into
this family of faith. Ah! Don't you get amused that
these Baptists, all their kids, they prayed for all their kids.
They just do it most naturally. They're all saved. Every member of your family is
a Christian. Most of the other important people
in your life have been members of our church. And it seemed
natural that you also would follow Christ. But you had to make that
decision for yourself. Neither mom nor I could make
it for you. Not even granddaddy, a preacher,
could do it. You had to decide for yourself,
and you did. As you get older, you'll understand. That's part of being a Baptist,
and that's what it means. Folks, what I'm preaching this
morning, if I were preaching in a church where this is believed
and taught, I'd be tarred and feathered, or they'd like to.
The hatred would be as severe as the unregenerate Jews manifested
against our blessed Lord, and those who manifested their hatred
against the Apostle Paul, and those who rushed on Stephen and
stoned him until he died. Do you believe human nature has
changed? Folks, the more I read this kind
of stuff this last week, let me pick out something else here.
Now what are they doing? Baptists are joining up with
the Catholics. You hear what I said? The Catholics. What do the Catholics believe? Well, I'll have to say what Catholics
believe, what Baptists believe. I can see why they can get together. I can certainly understand. Let me drop down here. As evangelicals
and Catholics, we pray that our unity in the love of Christ will
become even more evident as a sign to the world of God's reconciling
power. We do not deny, but clearly assert
that there are disagreements between us Misunderstandings,
misrepresentations, and caricatures of one another, however, are
not disagreements. These distortions must be cleared
away if we are to search through our honest differences in a manner
consistent with what we affirm and hope together on the basis
of God's Word. Doesn't that sound good? That's
as pharisaical and hypocritical as anything I've ever read. The
statement carries no sanction from the Southern Baptist Convention
or any religious body, but is identified as the opinion only
of the signers. The statement notes the discovery
of common convictions about Christian faith and mission between evangelicals
and Catholics. Some of the areas of agreement
cited include Jesus Christ as Lord, Justification by grace
through faith because of Christ. Now these, the head of the foreign
mission and also the home missions, sign this. The authority of the
divinely inspired and infallible Bible. Notice what is being said
here, folks. Notice this. A hope that all
people will come to faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. The document hones in on the
social issues both conservative Protestants and conservative
Catholics have been fighting for in what has been called America's
cultural war. Declaration of such a common
agreement isn't surprising to sociologist Nancy Ammerman. I imagine not. While signers have found agreement
on these social issues, they admit differences still exist
in some doctrinal issues. And though Baptists in the past
have railed against the ecumenical movement, this new trend is a
form of ecumenism. Now folks, I got paper after
paper here. I'm not going to read you all
that stuff. But I'm going to read you a little bit. Holy Week 1994 felt holier than
usual for millions of Christians. New hope and irony gave it rich
texture. Five days before Easter, an informal
coalition of Catholic and evangelical leaders released a landmark document
pledging to reduce conflicts and increase cooperation between
these Christian traditions. Evangelicals and Catholics together
The Christian mission is the third millennium. You get that? Third millennium. The Christian mission in the
third millennium cites doctrinal positions the two groups hold
in common. delineates areas of disagreement,
and outlines a conservative social agenda for reforming the nation. This statement marks a milestone
in the history of Christian faith in America. All this I'm reading
now from their own works. Numerous historians and observers
of religion and society have begun to describe a realignment
of religious groups, folks, not me. Not one foot, not one inch in
that direction. For example, the 40 signers of
the Catholic Evangelical Statement agreed to disagree about doctrinal
differences. Folks, I'm not going to agree
to disagree when it comes to the fundamentals of the faith
with anybody. With anybody. The document was signed by two
Southern Baptists, Richard Land, Executive Director of the Christian
Life Commission, and Larry Lewis, President of the Home Mission
Board, who have stood at the forefront of the Convention's
conservative movement. Folks, if they have stood at
the forefront of the conservative movement, then I'm just as far
removed from the conservative Southern Baptists as I am the
liberals. The document presents Southern
Baptists with a hopeful irony. Isn't it ironic, listen to this,
isn't it ironic that this agreement between divergent strands of
faith has been formed even as brothers and sisters within the
same Southern Baptist denomination continue to bludgeon each other? That's a lie. That is a laugh. Can we find
hope in the recognition that, while they still hold serious
doctrinal differences, fervent Christian believers can accentuate
common beliefs and rally around common concerns so they can work
together for the common good? Maybe the polar tugs of social
causes are stronger than denominational beliefs and identities. Folks,
nothing is stronger than the true faith that God has delivered
to his disciples. Maybe the lines drawn by conservative,
moderate, and liberal ideology are sharper than common doctrine
and church practice. Maybe the blood of politics is
thicker than the water of baptism. Are you listening? But is not
the cause of Christ more important than them all? If conservative
Baptists can embrace Catholics over the cause of school choice,
can they widen the denominational tent for the sake of evangelism? And if moderate Baptists can
applaud this newfound ecumenism for the sake of interfaith dialogue,
can they shake off political division for the sake of mission? All right, let's complete. One of the greatest snares in
the Christian life is the pretension of the flesh to be good. But there is a difference between
flesh that is religious and that which is irreligious. Tell you the truth, I'd rather
talk to someone whose flesh is irreligious than with someone whose flesh
is religious. Galatians, and I've asked you
to study this book because we'll be going into it in depth in
our study of Israel. Galatians deals with religious
flesh. Romans deals with irreligious
flesh. Galatians is Ishmael, as it were,
with his face washed and professing to be very good. Self is ever seeking to have
a place and do something. But this can be only at the expense
of Jesus Christ our true Isaac. Self wants some status in the
home. But Ishmael must be cast out. A day came when Abraham declared
Isaac and not Ishmael as heir. Declared Isaac, not Ishmael,
as heir. Self-importance is our greatest
hindrance as Christians. Self-importance. A man who wants to have credit
for himself is not honoring Jesus Christ. I don't care who he is.
Whether he does something in the church, or for the church,
or for Christ, desiring recognition of it, he is not honoring Christ. He is seeking personal recognition. The flesh has been condemned.
And what has been condemned at Calvary cannot be condoned in
Christians. Let's look at the third. The
third judgment scene, beheld by every true believer in Jesus
Christ, is the judgment of the world. And that's Solomon Gamara. That goes back to the 19th chapter.
Solomon and Gomorrah are typical of the world. The whole world
is lying in the lap of the evil one. You can translate I John
5, 19 in that manner, the last part of it. And the man of faith sees them
under the judgment of the sovereign God. What is the world? What is the world? What is this
world system? Let's look at this. I call it
Vanity Fair. The world is Vanity Fair. Let
me give you a Biblical description, several Biblical descriptions. Vanity Fair presents the endless
diversity of things. For example, you may have self-gratification
and self-display in things mechanical, commercial, intellectual, political,
social, scientific, artistic, or religious. And folks, that
just about covers the gamut. So I can't make many friends
in presenting the truth. The whole circle of things live
and move in a distance from God. Let me give you an example. I wasn't surprised at our governor
coming to the opening of the racetrack. Probably went to church today. May have taught his son a school
class, I don't know. I said, it all moves. I heard
something else last week. Boy, we're really coming up in
Houston. This area, we're really coming
to the front. Got dog racing. Now horse racing,
an old jumping jack, I want to save you money. He's going to
build a big casino. You know who I'm talking about?
The fellow out at Gallery Furniture. Save you money. Going to build
a casino. And I've heard people say, what
a great fellow he is. He's always giving people furniture.
He's always doing great things. All the movement, folks, all
the movement is away and far away from God. So the whole system is in the
grip of the evil one, 1 John 5, 19. Abraham saw the smoke of Sodom
and Gomorrah. When you started the 19th chapter,
when we grasp earthly things, we embrace nothing but smoke, which brings tears to our eyes and soon vanishes into nothing. Listen to this. Embracing the
things of the world is to embrace a fading flower, Isaiah 28, 1
through 4. It's like embracing a fading
flower. I'm not through. Paul represents
the world as a passing fashion. What is fashionable today will
not be tomorrow. Passing fashion. 1 Corinthians
7, verse 31. So what is fashionable today
may not be tomorrow. The Hebrew epistle presents it
as the pleasures of sin that exist only for a little time. A little time. Fading flower,
smoke that brings tears to the eyes, but soon passes away. Abraham's
sight of the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah should cause you and
me to look at the world from the perspective that it is under
the judgment of God. We are looking this morning at
the hole from which we have been digged. Are you with me? Yes, we are looking at the rock
from which we have been hewn. And then we ask ourselves the
question, why am I not there? Why am I different? And I say
gladly, happily, rejoicingly, grace is what made the difference. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. I didn't earn it, and I can't lose it. Christians today are living in
Sodom and Gomorrah. We're living in Sodom and Gomorrah. This is the evidence for the
type of entertainment propagated today. that Christians must view the
whole world system as being in the grip of the evil one who
is under the judgment of God. I close with this. Without a
view of Calvary, there is no peace. I have a peace that passes
all understanding. without seeing what was accomplished
at Calvary concerning judgment upon the flesh, there is no joy."
Folks, I do have a joy. My joy I give to you. That's
what Christ said to His disciples. Apart from viewing the world
under God's judgment, and our separation from it, not isolation,
separation, there is no testimony. Now anyone who is foolish enough
to think that he has to join up with false religions and everything
and compromise truth in order to have a testimony, folks, he
doesn't even know what truth is and that takes in Billy Graham
and a score of others. I have absolutely nothing in
common with them. But I'm not asking anybody to follow my teaching unless my teaching is biblically
correct. I'm not interested In political
correctness, I'm not interested in religious correctness. I'm
against both of them. I'm for the faith once delivered
to the saints. And by His grace, I'll not compromise
it one iota. Let's stand.