You who are yet without Christ are not in a position of indifference, not in an in-between state. Some folks talk as though somehow sinners move from one place to another place to another place to finally come to be saved. If you're without Christ, you're right now under the wrath of God Almighty. You hang over hell by a thread thinner than you can ever imagine, the breadth of your nostrils, and it's in God's hands. You're guilty. You've broken God's law, not once, not twice, in every point, and not occasionally, but with every breath you draw. You live in utter rebellion against God Almighty because you hate him.

The carnal mind, what does scripture say, is enmity. It doesn't say it's at enmity, it says it's enmity. Enmity against God. And God, who is holy, just, righteous, and true, because he is good, must and shall punish your sins. He must and shall punish you for your sin.

Pay no attention to the hireling false prophets you listen to or hear and maybe have heard all your life on radio and television and other places. Pay absolutely no attention to them. Tell you God loves the sinner and hates his sin. No such thing taught in this book. No such thing. This is what the book says. God is angry with you. He has already bent his bow. He's already made it ready. He's prepared for you. His arrows for you, the instruments of your destruction are already set.

Listen to this. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. But don't you imagine he doesn't know what's going on. His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest. This shall be the portion of their cup.

I've come. This is what it says, Merle, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. A good God wouldn't send an earthquake and send a thousand people to hell all at once. Oh, yes, he will. You read your Bible, he's done it many times. He's done it many times. Good God wouldn't send a tidal wave and sweep off an island nation all at once. Oh, yes, he will. Oh, yes, he will. And that's just a foretaste. That's just a foretaste. And a good God will send you to hell. He'll send you to hell because the righteous Lord loves righteousness. Therefore, he cannot and he will not abide sin. He cannot and he will not tolerate your ungodliness. He cannot and he will not abide unrighteousness.

So I'm warning you. God help you to hear me. If you die without Christ, Your immortal soul will suffer the infinite, endless, unmitigated, relentless wrath of God Almighty in all the terror of his anger and justice in hell. Somebody says hell's gonna be like. You don't know what in hell hell's gonna be like. You ain't got any idea. You ain't got any idea. Fire doesn't begin to describe it. Worm dying, not tormenting your conscience doesn't begin to describe it. Nobody has any idea. It's called the second death. Darkness and blackness and torment forever. I don't know. I shudder at this thought. But you may be in hell before I get done preaching today. I pray God will let you hear it one more time. and calls you to hear the word that's being preached.

Let's begin in Zechariah, or Zephaniah rather, chapter one and verse 14. Zephaniah chapter one, verse 14. Here in Zephaniah one, the Lord God is speaking to a people just like us, a generation just like our generation, a nation just like our nation. He's talking about Biestas to you and me, to your children and mine, your neighbors and mine. The great day of the Lord is near. It is near and hasteth greatly. Even the voice of the day of the Lord, the mighty men shall cry there bitterly.

That day is a day of wrath. a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers.

I know you think everything will be all right. You've made a covenant with death. You've made lies your refuge. You got yourself fixed up. I'm okay now. I'm okay now. Well, God's gonna tear down your fence city. He's gonna tear down your tower. He says in verse 17, I will bring distress upon men and they shall walk like blind men because they sinned against the Lord and their blood Won't be worth anything. It'll be poured out like dust. Your life will be meaningless. Their flesh like dumb manure.

Oh, preacher, you shouldn't talk that way to people. Somebody needs to be honest with you. This is what God says to you. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath. Get all you can is not going to do you one ounce of good. But the whole land shall be devoured by fire, the fire of his jealousy, for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

But you don't have to die. You don't have to go to hell. You don't have to. How can you say that? Read the next line. This is God speaking now. Gather yourselves together. Ye gather together, O nation not desired. This same nation he describes in Isaiah 1 with nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores in the sole of the foot to the crown of the head. That nation that doesn't even know his master's creed. That nation that's worse than the ox or the ass. That nation that rebels against God. He says, gather yourselves together. All nations not desired.

Before the decree bring forth, before judgment comes. Before the day passes the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you, seek ye the Lord. Seek ye the Lord. And that's your duty. And that's your responsibility.

I thought you believed in predestination and divine sovereignty. You can fuss, you can argue about theology until you go to hell if you want to, but I'm going to tell you something. It's your business, your responsibility to seek the Lord. I guarantee you if you staggered in here out of a of a desert place. You just saw this place standing here and you just, you came in here and you had any water to drink in two or three days and it's been 90 degrees outside and been nothing around to give you your sweat has just completely dried up and you're dying of thirst and you saw this glass of water sitting here. I'll guarantee you, you wouldn't ask yourself, I wonder if it's predestined for me to drink that water. I wonder if I was elected for that water. I wonder if that water was meant for me. Man, you just grab it and gulp it down because you're thirsty. And your problem is not wrestling with election and predestination and God's sovereignty. Your problem is you don't have any desire after him. You have no thirst for him.

Seek you the Lord. That's your responsibility. And that's your blessed privilege. Oh, seek his mercy, yes. Seek his favor, yes. Seek his grace, yes. Seek his pardon, but above all else, seek him. Seek ye the Lord. Seek the Lord himself. Everybody wants his blessing, not many folks want him. Everybody wants his salvation, not many folks want him. Everybody wants his grace, not many folks want him. Seeking the Lord will not save you, but seeking him is your responsibility. And if you seek him, you'll find him. And that is salvation.

In seeking the Lord, we are specifically told here to seek two things. You see it there in verse three? He says, seek righteousness. That's what you need. That's what you need. That's what you stand in need of before God. You don't have any of your own. You don't have any ability to produce any. You can't even think righteous. Your imaginations are all corrupt. Your thoughts are all corrupt. Your heart is totally corrupt. You're vile, vile at heart. That's the nature of all men. Don't have any righteousness.

I hear these imaginary theologians, they get up and they try to make what's called Calvinism palatable to unregenerate men so they'll accept, et cetera. When we talk about total depravity, we don't mean man's as bad as he could be. Oh, yes, you are. Oh, yes, you are. God just won't let you behave like you want to. God just got a lion caged up in a cage. Turn the lion loose, see how bad he is. God's providence, his goodness keeps you from behaving and giving vent to what's in your heart. A man's as bad as he could be, seek righteousness.

What do you mean, pastor? Seek to have the righteousness of God in Christ by faith imputed to you. What is righteousness? It is a right standing with God. It is to be without sin before God. not only without sin, so that your debt has been fully paid by the blood of God's dear son, but to be righteous before God is to stand before him as one who not only has no debt, but who has perfectly obeyed God's will in all his being. The only one who ever did is Jesus Christ, the son of God. Seek righteousness. Seek to have it imputed to you and seek to have it imparted to you. Seek that God may be pleased to grant to you the very nature of his darling son.

Look at the next line he says, seek meekness. Meekness. I wish folks could find out something about what meekness is. Meekness is not something you can give yourself. You can fake it. You can walk around and look meek and You know, folks try to act humble and eat humble pie and dress humble and just shy and humble folks. That's just pride putting on a meek show. That's all it is. That's all it is. I don't care who it is. That's just pride putting on a meek show.

What's meekness, Gary? Meekness is the knowledge of who and what you are before God Almighty. There was never a man who walked in the Old Testament like Moses. Somehow, I've got a notion if you used to see him walk in the door, you wouldn't think he was a real meek man. I have a notion if you were to see him standing before a choir of Dathan and Abiram, you'd think, man, that proud man, that arrogant man. But the scripture says he's the meekest man who ever lived. How come? Because he knew, Skip, what and who he was before God Almighty. And you will never, ever seek the righteousness of God in Christ until you're made to know that you don't have any, and you're nothing but sin before God, just corruption at heart.

Well, preacher, what encouragement do I have to seek the Lord? Look at this. Here's your encouragement. It may be. What a word. Judgment's coming. You deserve it. Judgment shall fall at God's appointed time. And when God sends a man to hell, it's altogether right for him to do so, no matter who the man is. It's right. It's right.

It may be, however, that you shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. You say, well, that's not much encouragement. It's a heapsight more than you deserve. It may be. You shall be here to the day of the Lord's anger. That's not enough for good, proud, self-righteous folks who don't need mercy. But it's all the encouragement a poor, naked, helpless, starving beggar needs.

It may be. You shall be here. Head in the rock, head in the refuge, Christ Jesus, head in the Son of God. It may be you shall be head in the city of refuge in the day of the Lord's anger. That's enough for me. The very possibility of grace, the very possibility of salvation is enough to cause needy sinners to seek the Lord.

Now, the key operative word is needy. If you're a needy sinner, the Lord God has made you to know something about your depravity, your guilt, your sin, your helplessness before his august holy law and justice. And if you ever come to know the terror of the Lord, the terror of his justice, if you ever come to know your own condemnation, you'll need nothing more than a maybe to cause you to see Christ.

Those brazen, cocky, arrogant, Fellas who drugged that black man to death in California a few months of back. Oh Big big big You watch him try to wiggle out of death You watch him try to wiggle out of it watch it Anything. If there's just the slightest possibility of a tinge of being spared, knowing the day of execution approaches, they will not give up until death is taken and life is taken from them in their utter death. They won't dare give up because they know they're condemned. They're condemned.

And I'm telling you, If ever God makes you to know your certain and just condemnation, you'll say in your heart, I must go to Christ. I must seek mercy at the throne of grace. I love the way the hymn writer put it. He said,

perhaps he will admit my plea.
Perhaps we'll hear my prayer.
But if I perish, I will pray
and perish only there.
I can but perish if I go.
I am resolved to try,
for if I stay away,
I know I must forever die.
Ah, but if I die with mercy sought
when I, the king, have tried,
this were to die, delightful thought
of sinner, never die.

Nobody ever perished at the throne of grace. It was only a baby that inspired Esther to approach King Ahasuerus. contrary to the law. You remember the story, we won't turn there and read it, but in the book of Esther, Esther and her people had been sentenced to death. And she had no right, buddy, under law, she had no right to come to the king. Anybody who came to the king without a direct invitation from the king was to be put to death on the spot. She had no right to go in. But Mordecai said to her that, honey, if you don't go in and approach the king on our behalf, we're all going to die. And Esther said, I'll tell you what. You tell all our people, fast and pray for three days. Don't eat any food, and don't wash your faces for three days, neither by night nor by day. And I'll go in to the king. And if I perish, I perish.

Why would she do that? Because she's going to perish for sure if she doesn't. If I perish, I perish. And she went in and the king stretched out his golden scepter. She touched the top of the scepter. And he said, Esther, what did you come for? He said, I'll give you anything you want. And she obtained life for herself and for her people because she said, He'll let me come in.

Jonathan was caught between a rock and a hard place, where just a maybe, just a maybe, encouraged him to single-handedly attack the garrison of the Philistines. Over in 1 Samuel 14, he said to his armor bearer, he's looking around, he says, he says, well, boy, where's the pickle now? We're in a jam now. We're sure enough in a mess. If we stay here and the Philistines find us here, they're going to kill us. And we can't get out of here without them spotting us. And I'll tell you what, if we're going to die, let's at least die trying to live. What an attitude. What do you want to do? He said, let's you and me attack the whole garrison. You? You and me? What have we got to lose? We're going to die anyhow. This is what it said. It may be. It may be. The Lord will work for us. For there's no restraint with the Lord, whether it is saved by many or by few. And they walked away victors. Just on a maybe. Just on a maybe.

You remember when Shammai came out to cuss David? 2 Samuel 16. His son's driven him from his throne. He's turned the hearts of his people against him. He's taken David's wives to be his own mistresses before the eyes of all Israel. He's seeking David's life, and now this son of Saul, Shemai, comes out and calls David everything under the shining sun. Everything imaginable except David. And Abishah, David's servant, I believe was his name, he said, he said, why don't you let me go and lift his head off his shoulders? And this was David's response. It may be. The Lord will look on mine affliction and requite me good for his cursing this day.

I met two people this week, an older lady and a younger. I didn't meet them. They're friends of mine. I've known them for years. Both of them just found out they have cancer. I said to both of them, in your darkest trial, Hope in the Lord. Look to Him. Lean on Him. Trust Him. Resign yourself to Him like David did to God's goodness. He will require you good, I promise you. Find your comfort in Him. Well, I got a good doctor. There's not much comfort there. I'm going to the best hospital there's not much comfort there. Where is it? The will of my God. He will do me good.

It was just a maybe, just a maybe that calls those four desperate lepers to enter the camp of the Syrians. Turn over there if you will. Second Kings chapter seven. Let me show you. Second Kings chapter seven, verse three. There were four leprous men at the entering end of the gate. And they said one to another, man, there's famine all around, death all around. These leprous men. I mean, wait a minute, they can't go in there, they're unclean. Yeah, but they're dying, so the law didn't much matter to them. But the law says you can't walk in that gate. But the law gonna kill us anyhow. We don't. They said one to another, why sit we here till we die? There's bread right over there. There's life inside those gates. There's plenty to eat in there. If we say we will enter into the city, then famine is in the city, and we'll die there. But we know there's famine out here. And if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, Let us fall under the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, all they can do is kill us. We're dead men anyhow. Let's go to the city.

And this is what I'm telling you. The wrath of God's on you. You're a dead sinner. Dead before God. Hell is your portion. So I'm afraid to come to the Lord. I wouldn't be near as afraid of coming as I would staying away, no matter what I thought of it. Look at these lepers and lay to heart their action and venture your souls on Christ. Venture on him. Venture wholly. Let no other trust intrude. None but Jesus, none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good.

It was just a maybe, just a maybe that caused the king of Nineveh to call on his people to turn to God in repentance. Jonah came with a message of judgment. God's going to kill you 40 days and God's going to kill you 40 days and judgment comes 40 days and God will send this nation to hell. And this is how the king of Nineveh reasoned. Who can tell? Who can tell? If God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not. And he did. And he did.

But I'm going to tell you this, with regard to this business of salvation and seeking the Lord, there's more than a maybe here. You turn to him and he says, seek and you shall find. The Lord God himself declares, seek me with all your heart and you shall find me. What does he say? What does he say? Old Samuel Rutherford, that Scottish Presbyterian who lived a long time ago, he said, our hope is not hung on such untwisted thread as I imagine so, or it is likely. But the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor is the oath and promise of him who is eternal veracity. Our salvation is fastened with God's own hand and Christ's own strength to the strong stake of God's unchanging nature. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let me offer a suggestion to you. You follow the example of that pagan, pagan king, Ben-Hadad. Ben-Hadad and the armies of the Assyrians, armies of Samaria, they thought Israel's God, he's the God of the hills, let's fight in the valley. And God told old Ahab, now Ahab, he was not exactly what you call an example of godly gentleness. He was a reprobate, ungodly wretch of a man, one of the worst kings Israel ever had. But God told Ahab, since they said I'm the God of the hills and not the God of the valleys, you're gonna kill them all. You're gonna whip the daylights out of them. And Ben-Hadad's gonna come bow before you. And when they got done with the day, Ben-Hadad was in hiding and his servant said, Listen, we have heard, now we just got it on hearsay, but we've heard, we've heard that the kings of Israel are merciful. We've heard that, we've heard that. And if he gets you, he gonna kill you. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, if we act right and go to him and surrender to him, In totality, surrender to him. He may give us life. What should we do? They said, man, put on sackcloth and ashes. Make yourself a noose and tie it around your neck. And go to the king of Israel and say, let me live.

You know what he did, Rex? Ahab said, I'll send you a day with a covenant of life. I send you away this day. You fall down at the feet of Christ Jesus, the Lord on the throne of grace, and you will obtain mercy and grace to help right now in your time of need in God's everlasting salvation. This king, I tell you, not only hearsay, but experience will take you into his arms and send you on your way to glory with a covenant of life. made before the world began. Amen.