welcome to from his heart with pastor Jeff Shrieve who's in a powerful series today called the days of Noah that's when God judged with a flood we'll learn today that God will judge again but this time move from the flood to the fire [Music] [Music] Oh J Simpson is a household name Oh J Simpson was the great football star back in the day in the late 60s won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 had an NFL career from 1969 to 1979 he's the first man to ever rush for 2000 yards in a season others have done it but they didn't do it in 14 games like oj did an amazing athlete after his football career he went on to be a broadcaster and then an actor he was so beloved until 1994 when there was a horrific murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman and OJ was accused of that crime all the evidence as those of us who were around then watching him in the white Bronco driving away from the police on this wild goose chase with a gun threatening to kill himself all the evidence pointed to OJ being guilty yet he was found not guilty in Criminal Court found guilty in civil court in ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages in recent history we've had Casey Anthony in her case with the murder of her little baby and how did she die and she was lying this young mom lying to the authorities about her death and and what happened was she was accused of murdering her little baby two-year-old and she was acquitted the uproar hue and cry how does that happen by all means it looks like she did that all the evidence looked like she did that just like all the evidence pointed to OJ being the killer of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and you know we look at things like that and there's just within us that says where's the justice now you can argue with me about the guilt or innocence of those two people but here's the point as it says in the book of Malachi where is the god of justice there are people in our world and we see them and it looks like they're getting away with wrong it looks like they're getting away with sin it looks like in some cases they're even getting away with murder and for a person who has a sense of righteousness injustice is not tolerable we can't deal with that because we say there has to be a payday someday where is the god of justice we've been in a series in the book of Noah or in the days of Noah studying about Noah and what life was like in the days of Noah important days because jesus said that those days are coming back as it was in the days of Noah so shall the coming of the Son of Man be and we found out that the days of Noah were days of wickedness they were days of anarchy they were days of apathy they were days of apostasy as people jettisoned the true God for false gods and they blew the true God off as we talked last week in the book of Romans why judgment comes it's because people refused to acknowledge God they don't like to retain God in their knowledge and they begin to worship other things and God reaches out in mercy and grace as it says in the book of Romans the Lord says all day long I've stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people and God waited and waited and waited for the people in Noah's day to repent but they didn't repent and finally judgment came sixteen hundred and fifty six years from the time God created man judgment came came in the form of a flood wiped out everything and everybody except Noah and his family they were saved through the ark the god of justice showed up in the days of Noah and drowned that anti-dilution world well that was about 4,500 years ago and so we look today and we say alright our world is increasingly more wicked and it's getting more and more evil by the day and we say where is the God of justice is God going to show up and is God going to enact justice and the answer is yes yes Psalm 96 verse 13 says this for he is coming to judge the earth he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness he's coming to judge there is a payday someday and life wouldn't work and it wouldn't be right if there weren't justice if justice was never served you know sometimes in this life we say well then you're gonna get yours in the life to come you're not going to get it right now but someday some time there's going to be justice served I love the quote I ran across today by a man named Horace gray he was a Supreme Court justice in the late 1800s and he had a man in his court one day who was guilty yet he got off because of a technicality in the law and Horace gray said this to him I know you are guilty and you know you are guilty remember one day you will stand before a better and wiser judge who will deal with you according to justice and not according to law there's a righteous judge coming justice is going to come to Planet Earth how do we know it's because they came to the to the world of Noah and God destroyed that world with a flood and God has said that he is going to visit our world not with water but with fire from the flood to the fire says in 2nd Peter chapter 3 that the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men judgment is coming now that here's the thing about judgment and justice justice depending on where you are you either like it or you don't like it I mean when you are the perpetrator you don't want justice because then justice falls on you when you're the victim you want to see justice take place the Bible says this in proverbs 21 verse 15 the execution of justice is joy to the righteous but it is terror to the workers of iniquity well yeah right I mean if I'm living in sin I don't want God to come back in judging righteousness because then I have to say with scooby-doo ruh-roh I mean I'm in serious trouble right so the execution of justice is his joy to the righteous but it is terror to the workers of iniquity now Peter in 2nd Peter chapter 3 he deals head-on with the fact that Jesus Christ is coming again to judge he is coming to execute justice upon the earth and he talks about the days of Noah and he uses that as an example just like he did in Noah's day he's going to do it in our day hey is the king the Lord Jesus Christ is he really coming back to judge the world and the answer is yes now I want you to see from 2nd Peter chapter 3 that there are two ways to look at this there is the way that the unbelievers look at the second coming of Christ and there is the way that the believers look at the second coming of Christ so let's look first at the unbelievers unbelievers hate the idea of the second coming of Jesus Christ 2nd Peter chapter 3 I'll begin reading in verse 3 the verses there on your notes from the easy-to-read version it says this it's important for you to understand what will happen in the last days people will laugh at you they will live following the evil they want to do they will say Jesus promised to come again well where is he our fathers have died but the world continues the way it has been since it was made unbelievers hate the idea of the second coming they hate the idea of justice why because it's terror to the workers of iniquity and that's exactly what it says about these these people that laugh at you the mockers and the scoffers in the last days since they are following after their own lusts they are following after the evil that they want to do they're going after their own sinful desires and so they don't want there to be a second coming they don't want there to be a God of justice coming because they would stand guilty and they would stand condemned Aldous Huxley was a noted atheist he wrote this and he was honest enough to write this he said speaking of his atheistic friends and kind of his generation and his cronies we objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom so they balked at that at the at the mores of the the church and they said no we don't want that we object to that we want to live how we want to live we want to have sexual freedom scoffers in the last days mockers following after their own lusts they don't want there to be a second coming so they laugh and they mock at the return of Christ now no doubt that went on in Noah's day the whole world is wicked except for Noah and his family and knowing his family are building this huge vessel and they're laughing at Noah and they're mocking Noah's preaching he's a preacher called a preacher of righteousness and they said well Noah first of all you are ignorant you're ignorant because don't you know you're talking about God bringing judgment on the earth don't you know theology 101 god is love God is love there's no way that God would ever destroy us He loves us is he gonna bring a flood no he's not gonna bring a flood he's just gonna bring another pat on the back because he's so proud of us and we're the apple of his eye and he's just so in love with us and and the people of Noah's day much like the people of our day they get the love of God twisted and they get it to where that's all there is of God God's just a big ball of mushy love and he has no standards and he has no holiness and he has no righteousness listen if all you see of God is love and nothing else you don't see the true God God is love infinite love but God is also holy and God is also righteous and God is the king and God is sovereign and God has commanded us to live a certain way and has set up parameters in which his world is supposed to function and if you start going against that there are going to be consequences associated with that and so here's no and he's preaching and they're saying Noah you're ignorant you don't even understand God and number 2 Noah you're an idiot you're an idiot because you're talking to us about rain and we don't know what rain is because the Bible indicates that it had never rained at that time you know when God created the world he created it out of water and he then he took the water and he separated the water and he put water below and water above and then out of this water he created dry land and then he began to create the world that way and so there was water above the earth in the heavens a canopy of water like a storehouse of water and water on the earth and water under the earth he there was water everywhere God had that stored away and so the way that the earth was irrigated was not through rain it was through a mist that would come up out of the ground and it would keep everything very lush and because there was this water canopy over the earth the harmful rays of the Sun didn't come through to the people on the earth therefore they live to be eight nine hundred years old nine hundred plus in Methuselah space 969 so we read that and we say well that there's no way that people can live that long that was in an old world that's a world gone gone by that world doesn't exist anymore we live in a different world where there is no water canopy where we do experience the harmful effects of the Sun where we live to be 70 80 90 maybe a hundred years old much much different so here's know and he's talking about rain and they didn't know what rain wasn't so they say you're an idiot Noah and they began to laugh at him and they began to mock and to scoff and to deride him it happened to Noah and it happens today when you stand up for the word of God when you stand up for the standards of God when you stand up for the fact that the Lord is coming back and there is going to be a payday someday people will laugh at you people will make fun of you and it's an effective argument it's an emotional argument it's an argument that doesn't really have any substance but it has power because nobody likes to be laughed at nobody likes to be called an ignoramus and an idiot right you know if if I tell you and I see people do this to me I say you know I believe in the book of Genesis I believe that God created the world just like he said I believe he did it in six days I believe he's spoken it was done and people look at me Christians look at me and they roll their eyes and I was like Jeff's an idiot how does he believe that does he not know anything about science yeah you know not everybody that studies science believes it took billions of years there are a lot of smart guys that believe in the book of Genesis that God did it just like he said he created the world in six days just like he said and he rested on the seventh day and to emphasize that he tells us hey six days you shall labor and on the seventh day you rest this is in the book of Exodus and he said because that's how I did it in six days you the Lord your God created the earth and on the seventh day he rests now if those are geological time periods and I got to work 6 billion years and then I get a rest I mean it doesn't work six days you shall work and then you rest on the seventh day that's the way God set it up because that's what he did but we have people today and they laugh if you believe the things of God and it and people will back down people will shut up people say well I don't want people to laugh at me I don't want people to think I'm stupid so I just will clam up Noah didn't know I kept preaching and Paul and Peter and the Gospel writers kept standing up for truth even if it cost them their lives so what do you have you have people today hate the idea the second coming in the last and they'll mock and they'll scoff the idea and then secondly he says they are willingly or they willingly reject the evidence for the return of Christ so they laugh and mocked the idea of the return of Christ and they willingly reject the evidence for the return of Christ he says for ever since the father's fell asleep verse 4 err all continues as it was from the beginning of creation hey where's the promise of his coming you guys have been talking about the second coming of Christ well my great great great grandfather was talking about that I mean Jesus was here 2,000 years ago and where is he he says he's coming back well it's been 2,000 years I think you ought to give up on the fact that he's coming back right I hey it's been too long where is the promise of his coming and so they say it's been too long so it's not gonna happen and secondly they say ever since the father's fell asleep all continues as it was from the beginning of creation now this isn't an emotional argument this is an intellectual argument this is an argument that says well you know there hasn't been a break in moral law or in in natural law I mean the world just it can't have this kind of cataclysmic event that would be required for the Lord to come back again and so all continues as it was from the beginning of creation ever since our fathers died it's just been going on the Sun comes up the Sun Goes Down the seasons the years everything just keeps going as it went and Peter says when maintain this verse 5 it escapes their notice King James says they are willingly ignorant of the fact that by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water through which the world at that time was destroyed being flooded with water there willingly ignorant of the fact that God created this world out of nothing creation there willingly ignorant of creation they don't want to look at the facts when it says that it escapes their notice or their willingly ignorant in the Greek that literally means they shut their eyes to the facts they purposely ignore the facts and if you watch the documentary Ben Stein put together called expelled no intelligence allowed it's all about the fact that if you're a scientist who believes in intelligent design that the earth is too complex and people are too complex for things just to happen by random chance by macro evolution that if it's a if it's an intelligent the complex thing that it had to have some kind of intelligent designer as I told you last week everybody knows that a watch just didn't come into being if you have a watch that means you had a watch maker if you have a complex world that means you had an intelligent designer if you hold to that and you're a scientist you're booted out you're considered persona non-grata they're like you get out of here you're you're one of those religious nuts well listen an honest scientist has to look at the evidence and say well of course there is an intelligent designer that designed this of course it didn't just all happen there's no way as I shared with you last week if you look at evolution from a mathematical equation it's a mathematical impossibility there are too many things that have to come together in just the right order for you to have life for you to have one cell it will never happen as one person put it he said it's about as likely as shooting a gun from one side of the galaxy to the to hit a postage stamp it's never going to happen it's a mathematical impossibility but what a the scientists say what are the Richard Dawkins of this world the eminent British scientist what does he say well he says there's no way that there's God Ben Stein says we'll put a number on it what would you say how sure are you he said well I don't know I'm 99% sure he goes you 99% sure why aren't you 96% sure he said oh I don't know I'm uncomfortable putting a number on it you're making me put a number on he goes why isn't it 49% he said no I can tell you with certainty that it's way more than 50% I'm more than 50% certain there is no God he doesn't want there to be a God why because he's a mocker he's a scoffer he's following after his own lusts he doesn't want God to show up because if God shows up then he's accountable to God as one person said evolution is the anesthetic that dulls the pain for the person who refuses to believe in God so the they're willingly ignorant of the fact that God created the world just like he said and they're willingly ignorant of the flood the flood that the earth was formed out of water and by water through which the world at that time was destroyed being flooded with water did you know that if you study the geologic geological record you will find that it's hard to explain unless you believe in the flood unless you understand there was a flood and every civilization every ancient society they had a flood story why because it really happened and they heard about their flood story from their ancestors who ended up being Noah and his three sons ham Shem and Japheth and their three wives that populated the whole earth well they told their descendents about a flood now the flood story gets really weird in some different civilizations but it's still a flood story that really took place but it escapes their notice they're willingly ignorant that God destroyed the world with a flood they say that that ever since the father's fell asleep all continues as it was from the beginning of creation no no God stepped in 1656 years after he created everything and destroyed it with a flood with a cataclysm and the Greek word for flood where it says in verse six being flooded with water that word is the word cat ACLU's mo from which we get our word Cataclysm and that word Cataclysm means a sudden and violent upheaval in the natural world well this can't happen they say because that would mean there would have to be a cataclysm and there's never been a cataclysm and it's baloney there has been a cataclysm and there was a Cataclysm in the days of Noah very interesting how God uses specific words in the Old Testament when God talks about the flood of Noah the worldwide flood he uses a specific hebrew word that is only used to talk about that flood it's the word and Mabel Mabel when God ever talks about a rain coming or a localized flood never uses the word may bull because Mabel is the cataclysmic flood Mabel is the word that's just reserved for that flood in Genesis chapter 7 in the Greek when he talks about the flood of Noah are you that word that we get Cataclysm from that's reserved for that particular flood so we have floods today we have you know areas little flood we had Albert Pike that flooded but God would never call that um a bull he would not call that a cataclysm no that's a localized there's a different word for that in the Hebrew in in the Greek but here it's a word that's separated because this is something that happened where God intervened in the natural world in the natural scope of things and he brought about judgment so they don't like that idea and they bought emotionally and they bought intellectually and they say no this can't happen but you know deep down they know they know deep down the judgment is coming how do I know that because you read in Revelation chapter 6 when the Lord begins to pour out his wrath on a godless unbelieving world and he begins to open up the the scrolls and break the seals on the the seals of Wrath and it says when the sixth seal was broken I'll read it to you because it's very frightening it says and I looked and when he broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth made of hair and the whole moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind and the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and Island were moved out of their places and the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains and this is what they said and they said to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand see they know deep down in their hearts that one day the Lord is going to come and he's going to come and judge so they hate the idea of the second coming of Jesus one man has a t-shirt out and it says this if Jesus returns we'll just kill them again I think not so that's the unbeliever how about the believers the execution of justice is joy to the righteous so believers they love the promise of the second coming of Jesus it's called in the Bible the Blessed hope that the Lord is going to return again 2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 1 this is now Peter says beloved the second letter I'm writing to you in which I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles all Peter's reminding them did you know that preaching and teaching a lot of it is just reminding you of things that you already know but you might have kind of put it on the back burner somewhere and you need to be reminded you know what I was reminded about today as we were singing how can I keep from singing his praise I know that I'm loved by the king it makes my heart one of saying I need to be reminded about the fact that God loves me every single day because I can easily forget as I go along life that God really does love me that God really has a wonderful plan for me and so some of the best truths you ever learn are just simple truths and you need to be reminded of those all the time and preaching is not something necessarily coming up with some new thing that you've never heard before it's reminding you of things that you know but you put on the back shelf and you kind of got out of your mind and you need to get them back in the forefront of your mind and Peter says I'm reminding you these things that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets who are the holy prophets the Old Testament prophets remember what the holy prophets of the Old Testament said and remember the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles remember what it says in the Old Testament remember what it says in the New Testament and what does it say in the Old Testament and what does it say in the New Testament it says that the Lord is coming again it says that the day of the Lord will come Daniel talked about it Joel talked about it Isaiah talked about it Amos talked about it Zephaniah talked about a Zechariah talked about it Ezekiel talked about it Obadiah talked about it in the New Testament twenty-seven books in the New Testament and in those 27 books twenty-three of them have references to the second coming of Jesus Christ two hundred and sixty chapters in the New Testament three hundred times you have references in those 260 chapters of the second coming of Jesus Christ you take the New Testament and what it says about the second coming of Christ and you put that together with the apostles and know what you find in your Bible one out of every 25 verses talks about the second coming of Jesus Christ about the king about the day of the Lord when God shows up and when there is payday someday believers who they love the promise the Lord tells us that he will come again he tells us over and over and over and over and over again hey I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming you know why the the Jews had such a time such a problem with the first coming of Jesus because he didn't come the way they thought he was supposed to come they thought man when he comes he's gonna rule with a rod of iron and he's gonna man israel's gonna be the the government of the world and and the messiah is gonna take over and they missed his first coming because there's so many references in the bible to his second coming and they didn't see that there was a first coming and the first coming he comes not as the land of the lion of the tribe of Judah he comes as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world he doesn't come to a throne he comes to a tree he doesn't come to a coronation he comes to a crucifixion but when he comes back that's when he comes as a lion that's when he comes dealing out retribution the scripture says to those who do not know God to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ so the Lord tells us he will come again and the Lord tells us when he comes again he's gonna come with fire and he's going to judge with fire from the flood to the fire 2nd thessalonians chapter 7 the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire comes back and fire he judges with fire now water the first time in the days of Noah water cleanses fire purifies fire the second time now you remember God promised Noah put his rainbow in the cloud his beautiful rainbow and that was a promise I'll never destroy the world again by flood but he didn't say I'll never destroy the world again he is going to destroy the world again he's going to destroy the world with fire purify the whole thing with fire Morris Chapman the singer he used to have a song out that says there's going to be a fire one day that Fireman can't put out that's true and the scripture says that the present heavens and earth by his word are being reserved for fire that word for reserved is where we get our English word thesaurus they're stored up with fire and God just like he stored up the water in the ancient world that he used to destroy the world he has our world stored up with fire fire somebody said you know if you look at the earth the earth is just kind of a thin skin of crust that is over a boiling molting molten lava molten rock it's just hot down there you keep drilling down and you find out how hot it is at the core of the earth the Sun is a big ball of fire stars are fire God says hey when I destroy I'm just gonna let the fire go from the flood to the fire Jesus was described by John the Baptist this way he will baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire you know you're either gonna be baptized by the Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit or he will baptize you in fire and fire you don't you'd you want the Holy Spirit you want him to baptize you in the Holy Spirit you don't want to experience the fire of his judgment but that's what the scripture says he'll come with fire he will judge with fire and it says that the Lord is patiently waiting what's the argument where's the promise of his coming I mean he it's been so long Peter goes on to say but do not let this one fact escape your notice beloved that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day the Lord is not slow about his promise as some men count slowness but he's patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance now we look at the time between Jesus dying on the cross rising again ascending into heaven and we say well you know it was about 32 and man it's been a long time you know we say roughly 2000 years it's been roughly 2,000 years and he hasn't come back he told those guys that he was coming again and just the same way he went up you know he went up on the Mount of Olives and he says is he's coming back in just the same way those angels said he's coming back to this mountain the Mount of Olives but and all the the New Testament writers they thought the Lord was coming back in their lifetime and he didn't come back and so psyche well maybe we missed it maybe maybe he's not coming back he is coming back do not let this one fact escape your notice that with the Lord he doesn't see time the way you and I see time one day as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day God is is separated from time so if you ask God how long has it been lords from the time you promised until Jesus comes back he said it's been two thousand years it's just a couple days to me one day there's a thousand years a thousand years is one day a couple days to the Lord it hasn't been very long to the Lord been long to us why so long for us because God is patient that's why God is patient that's why hey I came to know Christ in 1980 January of 1980 let me tell you something I am so glad that Jesus didn't come back in 1979 because I would have missed out but he he delayed his coming so a guy like Jeff Shrieve could put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ he's delayed his coming so that you who are here today and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus so you can respond to him he's not willing that any should perish he doesn't want that God is not a God who as I told you he's not a God who likes to judge he's a God who likes to redeem who likes to save that's why Jesus came into this world John 3:17 not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him he came to redeem the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many and the Lord hey I'm waiting for you to respond just as it says in first Peter chapter 3 that when Noah was building the boat for 120 years the patience of God was waiting during the construction of the Ark and Noah was preaching about judgment that was coming and about the Ark of safety and how people could get on the ark and be saved and they laughed at him and they blew him off and the patience of God was waiting and waiting and waiting and the patience of God today is waiting for you who have never responded to the gospel and it's he's waiting for what he's waiting for repentance repentance the repentance is so critical because repentance is to turnaround repentance is to change your mind change your mind about sin and about self and about the Savior and in repentance is I'm going in the wrong direction and I need to turn around and start following after God and putting my faith and trust in God some people think you can get saved without repenting you can't Jesus made that clear unless you repent you will all likewise perish you have to repent and put your faith and trust in Jesus you have to do those two things those two things are critical I think the prodigal son pictures at best when he left his father he picks your sin and he left the home of the father and he took his inheritance and he wasted it on wine women and song and loose living ends up that he runs out of money and he hits a famine and and he has nothing and he ends up at the pigsty and it says that he was so hungry nobody was giving anything to him and he was in such need that he was longing to eat the slop that the pigs were eating and then it says he came to his senses he says hey wait a minute wait a minute don't my my father's hired men they're not starving to death they're not eating pig slop I know what I'm gonna do I will get up and I will go to my father and I will say father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son make me like one of your hired men and then it says this and he got up and he went to his father that's repentance not just saying oh yeah that's right I'm I've sinned but it's making the choice to turn from the pigsty and go to the Lord the Father is obviously a picture of God it's the unless that happens to you that you leave the pigsty and the filth of your sin you'll never be saved you'll never go to heaven because you will never repent that's why I've told you it is so critical that we still call sin sin it's so critical that we don't let people change the boundary markers of what's out of bounds it's so critical that we still call fornication sin and adultery sin and homosexuality sin because you'll never leave the pigs die unless you understand that that is sin and God is not willing he's not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance he said well hey I mean if if God's just gonna wait on me I'm gonna just have I'm just gonna continue having my fun and sowing my Wild Oats and and just be like the prodigal where I just waste my wealth on wine women and song cuz hey after all God's waiting for me he's like Billy Graham says hey the busses will wait for you and so you're like okay well I'm just gonna hey you know I'll just get around to it when I'm getting around to it because I'll just Wardle wait on me but the day of the Lord will come at the end of 120 years God put Noah in the ark he shut the door seven days later the rain came and the day of grace was over and the day of opportunity was over and you don't know when that is and I don't know when that is he doesn't tell us he just says you'd be ready and when the day of the Lord comes it will come like a thief in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will melt with intense heat the Lord tells us that he's coming and he's coming one day ready or not he's coming ready or not so he's giving you time right now he's giving us time right now to be ready what are you doing with it patience of God was waiting in the days of Noah but nobody responded other than Noah and his family can you imagine Noah preached for 120 years how many converts did you have Noah how many to baptize Noah why had ham Shem and Japheth and their wives and mrs. Noah that's it man after 120 years you just had seven yeah that's the only those were the only ones that responded you know when I preached I want people to respond but I can't make them respond I has to be God's thing as Adrian Rogers used to say I can preach truth but only the Holy Spirit can impart truth and even when the Holy Spirit imparts truth you have to say yes to the Holy Spirit and if you don't say yes to the Holy Spirit then nothing's gonna happen you know you can resist him you can say no to him just like the people of Noah's day they said no just like the people of our day they say no to God's invitation to say them or later I'll do it later I'm having too much fun now living my own life doing my own thing the day of the Lord will come and it'll come like a thief and there won't be any warning you know Jesus said in the book of the revelation one of the last things or the last thing that he ever said I'm coming quickly quickly I was on a radio program the other day the Bible answer man program and somebody called in and they said well I don't understand that the Lord says he's coming quickly but it's been 2,000 years I don't think he's coming quickly and I said well that's the two things you got to see it from God's perspective one day as a thousand years and a thousand years is one day and I said number two the word for quickly in the Greek that is used there in Revelation chapter 22 means suddenly I am coming suddenly and when the Lord comes he comes rapidly and you don't have time to get ready you have to be ready and you don't know when he's coming but when he's coming it'll just be like that you know the thief when he comes to your house to rob you then didn't send you an email says hey you know I'm gonna be there in about 30 minutes and he's not you're not like the repairman that says I'm coming to fix your cable I'll be there between 8:00 and 5:00 you know have you ever noticed that just stay home all day if I don't get there I'll be there tomorrow between 8:00 and 5:00 just take the week off I'm gonna come sometime no offense to anybody it works for the cable company but but they don't do that the thief he didn't tell you when he's coming the Lord says he's coming like a thief he's not gonna tell us and no man knows the day or the hour that the Lord is coming we know the season and I believe that we're in that season but we don't know when it's gonna be that's why he said you be ready to for the Son of Man comes out a day you do not think he will can't presume upon God's mercy you can't presume upon God's patience because God's patience doesn't last forever and the fire is coming I'll close with this story all of us know about the greatest maritime disaster in the history of our modern world that came in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic on her maiden voyage this ship that was made that was touted as the unsinkable ship she set sail for New York in April on April 10th 1912 she had twenty two hundred and twenty seven people on board everybody was so excited to be on the Titanic and the captain said well I am sailing the unsinkable ship and they encouraged the captain hey full steam ahead because let's make a record to New York and set the record and everybody will be so excited about this ship this wonderful ship well they were warned repeatedly of icebergs in the in their path and the captain said icebergs what do we care we're on the unsinkable ship they had the audacity to say this not even God Himself could sink Titanic really the day that Titanic hit the iceberg at least four times the radio operator was told there are icebergs sighted your pathway you be careful we saw icebergs finally the last warning came through and Jack Phillips the radio operator responded to the Californian with this response shut up I'm busy I'll have time to hear about some dumb iceberg I got other things going on I got bigger fish to fry and at 11:40 p.m. on April 14th Titanic hit the iceberg ripped the hull all the way down water began pouring in and in two hours and 40 minutes the unsinkable ship sunk to the bottom of the ocean fifteen hundred and twenty two people lost their lives only 705 were saved although they had room on the lifeboats for hundreds more oh this will never happen this ship won't ever go down you think your life is going to be just hunky-dory nothing's gonna happen to you as I told the students I said hey you don't know when you're gonna die you can be 16 17 18 years old and feel like man I'm gonna live to be 100 but you don't know when you get out on the freeway huge somebody some drunk comes and hits you head-on and you're dead or as it happened in my high school one of the sweet girls in my high school she was involved in a terrible accident and from that accident has been a vegetable ever since she's still alive but she is can't communicate at all you don't know what's gonna happen in life so there's not time to get ready you have to be ready you have to respond to the love of God and the mercy of God in the grace of God and God is waiting but one day the day of the Lord is gonna come and it's gonna be a day of judgment and where's the god of justice the god of justice is coming and he's gonna deal out retribution to those who do not know God and he doesn't want to do that he wants to save he doesn't want to judge but if you blow him off then comes the judgment and I don't know who I'm speaking to today that this is the day for you to get right with God because you may not have another time to do it so I encourage you I urge you with all my heart today is the day of salvation today if you hear his voice harden not your heart behold today is the day of salvation our friend the way you prepare for the coming of the Lord is to make certain that you're right with him that you have a genuine real personal relationship with Jesus if you're not sure about that today is the day for you just pray this simple prayer say Lord Jesus I need you I know that I'm a sinner and I'm lost and I can't save myself but Jesus I believe that you are God in the flesh I believe you died on the cross for my sins and you rose again from the dead on the third day and right now lord I opened my heart to you I ask you to forgive me of all my sins I ask you to come into my life and be my Lord and Savior I ask you to save me I surrender my all to you and I promise to follow you all the days of my life my friend if you'll pray that kind of prayer and mean it the Lord will come in and your life will never be the same I'd love to hear from you to know that you're watching to know that God is using this broadcast to make a difference in your life to know that you just prayed that prayer to receive Christ as Savior and Lord please call the number on your screen write me email me let me know what's going on and how we can pray for you you really are important to God and you're important to us and we're here for you thank you for watching from his heart today the viewer supported broadcast outreach of dr. Jeff Shrieve who believes that no matter how badly you may have messed up in life God still loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life find out more go to from his heart dot o RG [Music]
