have it and turn to the book
of 1st Peter chapter 4, the book of 1st Peter chapter 4. I want to begin reading in this
fourth chapter of 1st Peter with verse 11 and read down to verse
19. If any man speak, let him speak
as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him
do it as of the ability which God giveth, that God in all things
may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and
dominion forever and ever. Amen. Think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange
thing happened unto you. But rejoice inasmuch as you're
partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory shall be
revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit
of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil
spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of
you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer,
or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer
as a Christian, Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify
God on this behalf. For the time is come, for the
time is come, that judgment must begin at the house of God. And
if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that
obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely
be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore, according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls
to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator. I wish to speak to you this morning
out of verse 17 and 18 primarily where we read, for the time has
come that judgment must begin at the house of God. For the
time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. Now
Peter has been talking to the Lord's people I think most of
us are aware that to be one of the Lord's children, we must
be born of the Spirit. We must be born of God. To be
one of the Lord's children, we must believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. We must have a heart faith in
Christ. We must trust Him with all of
our heart. We recognize when the scripture
says the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
The house of God is the church of the living God. The house
of God is the family of God. The house of God is the temple
of God. The house of God is the Lord's
living family. It's all of those who are the
elect of God from eternity past unto eternity to come. All of
those chosen of God. All of those that God has chosen
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. All those that are in the body
of Christ. All those that have been baptized
by one spirit into one body and have been made to drink of the
blessed Holy Spirit. All of those who are in a living
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. They make up the house of God.
Now also we read in verse 18, if the righteous scarcely be
saved. I want to couple these two things
together. You might ask, well, we know
now who the house of God is. We know that's the church of
the living God. And we know that's all of God's
people and all God's elect. We know that's all God's chosen,
but who are the righteous? And it says, and if the righteous
scarcely be saved. Well, the righteous are those
who are righteous in Christ. They're righteous through the
imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe
in the imputed righteousness here. The word of God teaches
that the doctrine of substitution, imputed righteousness, is the
very mera of the gospel. The Word of God teaches that
to be righteous, one must be in Christ. And that if one be
in Christ, that he is as righteous as Jesus himself is. Because
he has a standing in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Bible says in 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians 5 and 21, that
the Lord Jesus was made to be sin for us. He was legally constituted
to be sin for us, that we might be legally constituted to be
the righteousness of God in Him. Now if one, if Jesus has been
our federal representative before God, if Jesus has Answered to
God for all of our sins and the Bible teaches that he has if
we be believers Then beloved the righteousness of our Lord
Jesus Christ has been accredited to our account I want you to
keep your finger here in first Peter and turn back with me if
you will to the book of Romans the book of Romans chapter 4
and I'd like for you to listen carefully as we read a couple
of verses here and We're talking about the righteous. We're talking
about who it is that Peter is referring to when he said, and
if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear? We read here in verse 3 of Romans
4, For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness? Somebody said, how did Abraham
become a righteous man? Did he stop something that he
was doing? Did he begin to do something that he hadn't been
doing? The Bible says that Abraham, according to the scriptures,
he believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. The way one becomes righteous
before God is he believes the testimony that God has given
in the Holy Word and the Holy Bible about the Lord Jesus Christ. Him being God's son. Him being that one that God commissioned
and sent into the world. Him being that one that came
down from heaven. in order that he might do the
will of God, serve the will of God, and that he might redeem
his people from their sins, and that he might live out a perfect
life under the law, obeying every jot and tittle of the law. And
then that righteous life, which he needed not to save himself,
but that righteous life would be accredited to his people,
those that would believe on him. Listen to verse 4. Now to him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. And what this means is that if
an individual works for his righteousness, or if he himself provides it
for himself, then it's not of grace. It's not of grace, but
it's of death. In other words, if you work your
way to heaven, if you think you can, there's no man that can. Because the Bible says, by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. The
Bible says, Paul said, I do not frustrate the grace of God. If
righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. Beloved,
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. You wanna be righteous before
God? If you wanna be righteous before God, it's not through
your outward conforming to the commandments. It is to your believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe Christ? If we
believe Christ, then we're as righteous as the Lord Jesus himself
is. Listen to verse five. but to
him that worketh not." Now that's what it says. but to him that
worketh not." And what that means is the man that is not attempting
to establish a righteousness of his own by his own doing,
by his own strength, the energy of his own flesh, by his own
obedience unto God, that man who is working not, but the man
who believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Now, beloved, there is no way
for a soul to become righteous before God any other way. No
other way. You cannot be righteous before
God any other way except through the imputed righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you're here this morning
and you're under the sound of this gospel message. A man who
does not believe in imputed righteousness, he is in a hopeless state. God
demands absolute perfection. God demands that somebody produce
a righteousness that is absolutely perfect. Not one, listen, it
must be perfect to be accepted. God is not going to accept any
partial obedience to his holy and inflexible law. His justice,
being inflexible, demands that if you break the law in one point,
you're guilty of all of it, and it'll damn you to eternity. It'll
damn you to the lake of fire if you break the law of God.
And every one of us here have. And we cannot render unto God
a perfect obedience to the law of God. Jesus did. He did. Now, beloved, we do not
make void the law of God. Nay, he says we establish the
law. Now how do we establish the law?
By preaching faith, righteousness. We establish the law. by preaching
faith in one who obeyed the law perfectly. Never, never did the
Lord Jesus Christ sin. He had no sin. And in order to keep God's holy
law in a holy and perfect way, one must never sin. He must not
sin. The Bible says cursing is everyone
who continue, if not in all the things of the law, to do those
things that God has commanded. And so, beloved, if you want
life, If you want to escape the curse, if you want to have the
everlasting and eternal forgiveness of your sins, and if you want
to live with God throughout eternity, if you want to be blessed in
the Lord, you must believe in imputed righteousness. A man
who does not believe in imputed righteousness has no hope. There
is no hope. The law is a one-way street,
and you're on that street, and it'll condemn you to hell. You
can't come before God and plead innocence. You've broken the
law, and you must get into somebody that kept it and believe on him
and trust him with all of your heart. And if you'll trust him
with all of your heart, it's to him that worketh not, but
to him that believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. Are you a believer? Are you a
believer? Are you believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ? Now you say, I'm religious. I'm
not interested in your religion. Is there a living union between
you and the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know him? Are you a believer? Well, now let's get to the message
here this morning. I've established then that the
house of God is the Lord's people and that the righteous are not
those who quit going to the movie theater. quit chewing tobacco
and spitting on the sidewalk. It's not those who have started
some religious training, but it's those who are believing
with a true heart faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are righteous. died to death and paid the penalty
of our sin. He died for our sin, the sober
sin of If God is dealing with his people
and if he's bringing judgment upon his people And God is dealing with his people
now beloved this is as it ought to be that God would judge And so they ought to be more
than other people. Here's a man, he says, I'm a
believer. He says, I know Christ. The Bible says the foundation
of God stand assure having this seal, the Lord. Let him depart from iniquity.
Let him live a life that is to the glory and praise of God.
Let him serve God. Let him walk in faith before
God. Let him observe the precepts and the teachings of the Word
of God and obey them. He professes to be a child of
God. Should he not live? I mean, where
is the Master's honor if we say that we know Him and if we say
we belong to Him? Should not we live so as to show
forth? that we belong to Him and that
we're His. The children of God are regenerate,
they're newborn, they're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And they're
to walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. They're
a holy people, separated, sanctified. And that's what the word sanctified
means. They're set apart unto Christ. Christ loved them, he bought
them, he paid for them, and they're not their own, they belong to
him. Their bodies and their soul,
their spirit, they've been purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ, and
they're set apart unto Christ. They're to live for his honor,
they're to live to his praise, they're to live to his glory.
Ephesians 1 and 4 says that according as we were chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Where there's a high calling,
there should be a life proving that calling. Walk as He walked. The Bible says if you say you
know Him, then walk as He walked in this world. Attempt to live
like the Lord Jesus Christ and glorify Him. Now then, walk worthy
of that high calling. We've been chosen of God. The
Bible teaches over and over that salvation is a calling from God,
that we must hear from God, that God must speak a word in our
hearts and raise us, as it were, symbolically from the death of
sin. There must be a translation out
of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son.
And so, beloved, let us walk worthy. If we're children of
light, let us walk as children of light. this world now you
see there's many imperfections in us that is in our flesh many
imperfections now our position is one thing and our state is
is another there much sin in the world but we know that in
our flesh Paul said there dwelleth no good thing and so judgment
must begin at the house of god because we do not always walk
as we are we do not live as we are we do not glorify god as
we are in these bodies which belong to him and so there is
a discipline that god brings upon his people sometimes these
disciplines come from uh... those around us in the world
and sometimes we're subject to much Abuse in the world because
of our faith in Christ and because of our obedience unto his name
Many times we suffer because the chastening rod of the Lord
is upon us God chastens his people and he deals with these people
and this word in verse 18 if the righteous Scarcely that word
is with difficulty with difficulty be saved Now we have a considerable
amount of difficulty in this life. God's people, as we said,
are afflicted. The Bible says many are the afflictions
of the righteous. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. We know,
beloved, that God means to clear away the dross in our lives.
He means to do that. We read this morning out of Malachi
where the refiner is going to come and purify the gold and
the silver. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the head of the covenant. and he's coming to the house
of God and we're going to be dealt with by the Lord as a God
who loves us as a God who is merciful and a God who intends
to bring good in our lives now I want to read to you out of
Hebrews chapter 12 here's a companion verse we're talking about the
Lord judging his people we're talking about the Lord Saving
his people, but they being saved with difficulty scarcely being
saved Notice if you will here in Hebrews 12. I want us to look
beginning with verse 3 It says for consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against him He didn't faint in your minds
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Nobody here has shed their blood
trying to get away from sin, trying to get away from those
things that are wrong in their lives. And ye have forgotten,
in verse 5, the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children.
You see, we're children of God. My son, my son, that's the relationship
that God has with his children. We're his children, sons and
daughters of the Almighty God. Despise not, don't look down
on the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you're rebuked
of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now, if
God saves you, if you become a believer on the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord's gonna deal with you as with a son, as a
man would deal with his son, as a child would be dealt with
in a devout home, in a home where things are right and where things
are proper. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chasteneth, and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. He does this by bringing trials
into the life. He does it by bringing situations
into our life wherein he hymns us up. and where he fixes it
so that our attention is drawn to him and drawn to what's wrong
in our lives. If we've sinned against God,
if we have lived contrary to his mind, contrary to his word,
the Lord reminds us of it. The Lord shows us that in our
lives. The Lord brings his word judgment
upon us that we might judge ourself because the Lord has no intention
of condemning us along with the world, but he is going to deal
with us here in this life. Listen to what he says, if you
endure chastening, in verse 7, God dealeth with you as with
sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement,
oh, if God leaves you alone, if you can go ahead in your selfishness,
in your pride, and in your unbelief, and God never deal with you about
it. Then my friend, the scripture
says, all are partakers that are the members of the house
of God. All are partakers that are righteous
in Christ. All are partakers of chastisement. But if you be not a partaker,
you know there are, I think there's at least three strengths of the
flesh. The first one would be pride.
Here's a believer, and a believer's got the old proud flesh. and
he doesn't want to humble himself. God says, you'll be humble before
me. And so God sends affliction into
his life. God sends business crisis into
the life. God sends affliction in the marriage. God sends some kind of a problem
and he'll humble your soul if you belong to him. If you belong
to him, God is going to humble your soul. There'll be something
God's own choice, and he's an all-wise God. He never errs. He never makes a mistake. And
God knows just exactly what to send you to get your attention
and to bring you down and to break down the old pride of your
heart. And then there is that pride
of selfishness. Man says, I just want to live
for myself. I don't want the Lord touching
my life. You're a believer. That attitude
there, the Lord will take out of you. He will whip that out
of you in just a little while. Man says, I'm just going to do
what I want to do. You will find out that you're
going to do what God wants you to do because He's going to deal
with you in such a way that you are going to do His will and
you're going to bow your knee to His will. God knows how to
raise children and judgment must begin at the house of God. God
is not going to have any of His children running around in this
world doing whatever they please. We've been called of God, chosen
of God. Jesus invested His life in us
and we'll do His will. We'll follow Him. We'll do what
He wants us to do. He has first claim upon our life
and He calls upon us to deny ourself And to take up our cross
and follow Him, we must bow our knee to the Lordship of Christ. And selfishness has got to go. It's got to go. And then another
strength of the flesh is unbelief. Unbelief stamped upon every individual
in this world. I'm trying to tell you why judgment
must begin at the house of God. Unbelief. This generation can
be characterized as a generation of unbelieving believers. Oh,
we believe something. We believe a little bit of something.
We say we believe on Christ, but most of us are unbelievers
when it comes to God being a faithful and wise creator. And when it
comes to us accepting from the Lord His chastisement and His
dealings, we're full of unbelief. We think God is out trying to
ruin our lives. And when God crosses our path
and brings us into afflictive circumstances, we believe that
the Lord is trying to ruin us. And we judge God. And we sit in judgment on His
providence and on His way. Unbelief, it can be stamped upon
every man's temple, the temple of unbelief. Our hearts are full
of it. and God must get it out of us. And the way the Lord does that
is by trials, by tests, and by bringing into our life things
that we can't get out of our lives. Oh, we may run to the
counselor, and we may talk to people, and we may try to find
a way, and we may have a crutch or two to lean upon, and we'll
lean upon them until God takes them out of our lives. And then
we'll come to a place where we have to trust Him. Trust Him. The Bible says the righteous
shall walk by faith. They'll trust God and walk by
faith. Walk by faith. And that's the
way we live. We live by what we believe. Not
by what we see. Not what we can figure out. We
live by what we believe. And we believe the Word of God.
And we believe in a God that cannot err. A God that cannot
do wrong. But the Lord chastens His people.
And the Lord will bring judgment upon his people. And then we
find also, as he goes on and explains here, he says, furthermore,
he said, if you don't, if you're not a partaker of this, this
chastening of the Lord, if the Lord never comes and crosses
your path, if he ever disciplines you, then he said, you're an
illegitimate, you're an illegitimate child. You're not a child of
God. The Lord is going to leave you alone. If He leaves you alone
and you go on in your own merry way all your life, you're a bastard
and not a son. That's what the Bible says right
here. It says you're an illegitimate child. You don't belong to the
Lord. You're not the Lord's child. He's not your father. He's not
your father. The devil is your father. The
Lord is not your father. You're not his son. Furthermore,
in verse 9, it says, we've had fathers of our flesh which corrected
us and we gave them reverence. Well, of course, you know, that's
an old-fashioned thing, somebody says, for fathers that correct
their children. It may be old-fashioned, but
it's still the right thing to do. Absolutely the right thing
to do. This generation of rebels that
we've got living on our streets now, this generation of rebels
in our schools, all of this is because the fathers did not correct
their children. Most of the problems in America
can be traced back to the home and to the fathers who did not
correct their children. And I'll tell you what we had.
Thank God some of us had fathers of our flesh which corrected
us and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the father of spirits and live? Well bow your
knee. Our unique judgment must begin
at the house of God. For they barely for a few days
chastened us after their own pleasure. But He, for our profit,
they wanted us to be certain kinds of children. They wanted
us not to be backtalkers, sassing back. And they had their own
agenda of what they wanted us to be like. And brother, sister,
they laid down the law and they maintained the law and they brought
it to fruition. You're gonna do what they wanted
you to do. That's the old fashioned parents.
Well, for their own pleasure, they chastened their children.
but He for our profit. You see, the Lord's got your
profit in mind. That you might be partakers of
His holiness, that you might become more like Him, that you
might walk more circumspectly in this world, that you might
walk a better life and live a better life to the glory of God, that
you might have more respect unto His word. Now, no chastening
for the present seems to be joyous, but it's grievous. Nevertheless
afterward, after the Lord is through correcting us, it yields
the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. So the Lord then is going to
lead us into straight paths. The Lord is going to judge his
people. Now then, he goes on to say this. He says, and if it first began
at us, And if the righteous with difficulty, struggling, having
trials, some of us shut up into situations that we cannot absolve
ourselves from, having crooks in our lot, having rocks in our
beds, having difficult situations to live with, God dealing with
us and with our unfaithfulness to Him. We're living in a time
of broken vows and unfaithfulness. We're living in a time when God
is putting great afflictions upon his people and we're being
tried. The Lord's people are being tried
and with difficulty the righteous are being saved. Now it does
not mean that there is anything wrong. Listen, the fact is stated
here and there's an inference that is drawn here from this
fact and that is that if the righteous with difficulty are
saved, it's not to say that there is any deficiency in Jesus Christ,
our Lord and our Savior. Any lack of efficacy in His atoning
sacrifice or in His intercessory prayers for transgressors. Jesus, He bore our sin, He bore
our guilt, He fully suffered, perfectly atoned for all the
sins of His people. He has discharged all of our
sins. He'll remember not one sin against
us. Every debt has been cancelled
by Jesus and paid. Well, there's no deficiency in
Christ. The difficulty is in the struggles
on the road, in the trials, in the problems that we face. Here
in Peter, he talks about saying, let none of you suffer as a murderer,
as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's
matters. Yet, if any man suffer as a Christian,
and will suffer as a Christian in this world, and will have
difficulties, steep hills to climb, very difficult lives to
live in this world. But beloved, listen to what it
says. It says, and if it first began at us, and if the righteous
were difficult to be saved, what shall the end be of them that
obey not the gospel of God? Other words, if God's disciplining
his people in this life, what's gonna happen to the ungodly and
the wicked when they die and go to hell? What's going to happen
to them? He says, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear? If God tries his people and if
the Lord brings a rod upon his children that are not obeying
him and not walking as they ought to walk, keeping them in line
with the rod of affliction in this world, what's going to become
of those who obey not the gospel of God? And where is the ungodly
and the sinner appear? Where's he going to appear? Well,
negatively, Let me hurry here and say that he is not going
to appear in heaven. Those who obey not the gospel
of God. You know what it is to obey the
gospel? It's to believe the gospel. I challenge any man or woman
to prove to me where that obedience to the gospel is anything other
than faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told that this
is the work of God, that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that
we trust Him. Obeying the gospel is believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear? They're not going to appear in
heaven. They're not going to appear in heaven because they're
unbelievers. Listen to what this verse says,
John 3 and 18, He that believeth. is not condemned. He that believeth
not is condemned already, because he believeth not in the only
begotten Son of God. Negatively, that ungodly and
the sinner and those who obey not the gospel of God, they are
not going to appear in heaven. They will not be able to live
for eternity with the holy angels and with the thrice holy God
upon the streets of gold in eternal glory. They'll not be able to.
They'll never see the king in his beauty. They will never,
never, never hear, well done thou good and faithful servant,
come in to the joy of the Lord. They'll never, negatively, they
are not going to come to heaven. They're going off to that place
that we read about over in the book of Luke and I'm going to
hurry here to a conclusion but turn with me if you will to the
16th chapter of the book of Luke and I want you to see this Here
we have the words of our Lord Jesus Christ about our an ungodly
man, about a man who lived in this world, about a man who prospered
in this world, who lived in this world and enjoyed the good things
of this life, and he died. And the Bible tells us here what
happened to him. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now listen to me. These are the
words of that meek and lowly one. These are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and meek and lowly as he is, he gives us these words. It says
in verse 23, or in verse 22, it
came to pass that the beggar died. There was a beggar and
then there was a rich man, and was carried by the angels into
Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, there
he is, he died, and was buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes,
being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus
in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus, he may dip the
tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I'm tormented
in this flame. But Abraham said, son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things. Likewise, Lazarus
evil things. Lazarus was tested. He lived
in poverty. He didn't have this world's goods,
the means of this world, and he didn't have them. But old
Lazarus, The Bible says he had evil things, meaning that he
just barely existed in this world. He didn't have the luxury and
the finery of the rich man. He wasn't clothed in purple and
fine linen like the rich man. But the rich man died. He went
to hell, Lazarus. He went to heaven. Now the Bible
says you, he's comforted, Lazarus is, now are tormented. That's
where the ungodly and the sinner are going to appear. That's where
those are going to appear that obey not the gospel of God. That's
where those are going to appear that God is not dealing with
the sons in this life. That God is not chastening and
exercising discipline over their lives. They're going to end up
in hell. That's what the Bible says. That's
where the sinner is going to appear. The sinner is going to
appear at the judgment. He's going to come and stand
and the books are going to be opened and all that they've ever
done in their lifetime, contrary to God, contrary to God, and
the thing that you've done that is most obnoxious to a holy God
is that you have refused to believe on His Son. He that believeth
is not condemned. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. And if
you don't believe on God's Son, the Bible says you're condemned.
You're condemned and you're going to hell. That's where you're
going. That's where the ungodly and the sinner appear. The Bible
says the sinner shall not stand in the congregation of the righteous.
There's no lost unholy sinners that's going into heaven and
live in the presence of God forever and ever because the wicked are
not going to be in heaven. They're going to be in hell.
The Bible says the wicked shall be turned into hell along with
all the nations that forget God. Men are saved one at a time.
The wicked are bundled up in bundles and sent to hell in bundles. God's going to send the wicked
away and they're going to be on the other side of that great
gulf. That's where the ungodly and
the sinners are going to appear. And so those of you that God
is dealing with and you say, I'm scarcely saved. I'm saved with great difficulty.
I've got to pray all the time. I've got to keep my heart right.
I've got to deal with these afflictions and these trials. And I have
various weaknesses and frailties. And it's no small thing that
God keeps his people in this world. I mean in this world of
wickedness and in this world where in this great great sin
abounding and where the love of many waxes cold that God keeps
his people. I sometimes think of a poor child
of God walking through this world and picture him if you will and
here he's walking through this world in his pilgrimage and he's
got a huge knapsack on his back And that somebody asked him,
said, what is that on your back? And he says, that's dynamite,
is what it is. And I'm walking through this
world, and there's fire on every side. And here the child of God
is walking through, the old lust of the flesh, and his old nature,
and his old, you know, all of that which he has in him, the
corruptions of flesh and nature, ready to explode any time. And
God, he doesn't take him out. As soon as he saves him, he leaves
him here, and he carries that gnat sack on his back all the
way through the fire and the brimstone of this world and God
keeps him, God keeps him, God keeps him and he's kept safe
in this world. You know I kind of picture a
child of God like old Paul when he was in that boat in Acts chapter
27 and there was a great wind came up and they were sailing
heading toward Rome and This great windstorm came up and the
ship was caught the ship was being driven here and there they
couldn't control it and there was a lot of souls on the ship
and Paul Says the scripture says in verse 20 and when neither
sun nor stars in many days appeared No small tempest lay on us all
hope that we should be saved was taken away But after long
abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said sirs
You should have hearkened unto me and not of loose from Crete
To have gained this harm and loss now exhort you to be of
good cheer for there shall be no loss of any man's life among
you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night
the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear
not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar, and, lo, God hath
given thee all them that sail with thee." God said, Paul, I'm
going to deliver everyone on this boat. Looks like there's
no hope, but I'm going to deliver everyone on this boat. Poor afflicted
children of God tested and tried, blown by the tempest of life.
And you say, there ain't no hope I'm gonna make it. There ain't
no hope. There's too many troubles, too many trials, too many difficulties.
There's no hope I'm gonna make it. Well, I want you to see what
he says. Wherefore, be of cheer. He said,
sirs, be of good cheer. For I believe God, it shall be
even as it was told me. God said, nobody's gonna lose
their life. And he said, I believe it's gonna
be just like it was told me. And then, We see in this story
where they're blowing upon the rocks, and then they put out
their anchors, and they were about to flee, and they let down
their boat into the sea, and they were trying to escape out
of the boat. The soldiers planned to kill
everybody, all of the prisoners. But the soldiers cut off the
ropes of the boat and let her fall off. And when the day was
coming on, we read in verse 37, and we were all in the ship,
200, threescore, and 16 souls. And when they'd eaten enough,
they lightened the ship, cast out the wheat into the sea. And
then they came to the place where the ship was broken up. And the
ones that could swim jumped in the water to swim to shore. And
the ones that couldn't swim, they got on pieces of boards
to drift to the shore. And it says, but the centurion
willing, in verse 43, to save Paul, kept them from their purpose
and commanded that they should swim, should cast themselves
first into the sea and get to the land and the rest, some on
board, some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to
pass. And beloved, here's the story
at the end. Here it is with the children of God that are being
afflicted and chastened in this life. Here it is that they escaped
all safe to the land. They, everyone made it. and all
God's children will make it home to glory. Every one of them. And regardless of the storm that
we have to endure in this life, if we're righteous, if we're
God's children, if we're undergoing the chastening of the Lord, if
the judgment of God, if we know God's dealing with us in this
life, we're all gonna make it to the shore. It may be on a
plank, but we're gonna make it. God's people are gonna make it.
They're gonna be kept. and preserved in this life. And
so I say to you today that those of you that know that you're
not a Christian, that you're not a believer, that you're not
a believer in Christ, I say to you, your end is coming. The end is coming. The end of
all things is at hand. The end is coming. And you are
going to face God one of these days and you're going to live
for eternity separated from God and the holy angels, lost forever
if you're not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, in
the name of Jesus, we give thanks. for this privilege of preaching
your word this morning. Grant a blessing to be given.
May this group be encouraged and may lost sinners be brought
under the saving knowledge of Christ. We pray it in his name.
Amen.