Psst! Have You Heard?

Here's the best kept secret in the whole world.  People talk about the love of God and the God of love, but have you rarely ever heard anyone say, "God is really angry at you for your sins."  Human nature doesn't think about God being furious or wrathful.  This is Satan's strategy – Satan doesn't want you to find out that you are in serious trouble with God, because then you just might cry out to God for mercy and pardon.  There is a danger facing all of humanity - it is the wrath of God.  There is a side of God Himself in the Bible that people would rather not discuss - is the severity of God.  God is a God who loves; He is also a God who hates.  While He is a God of mercy; He is also a God of justice.  God created an eternal Heaven and an eternal Hell.  Hell is selfishness on fire.

American society defends sin and the sinner; it applauds deviant behavior; it brags about tolerance for perverse acts; it justifies inventions of evil; it encourages manifestations of pride and ego; it gloats about infidelity, selfishness, and brutality; it says greed is good and deceit is acceptable, as long as you do not get indicted; it encourages materialism as the new religion and makes possessions the new gods made of wood, stone, plastic, chrome, and steel.  But whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  Sin always brings consequences, and there are severe, eternal consequences for those that continue in sin.  The soul that sinneth, it shall die an eternal death.

The lost sinner that has never heard the Gospel Message will still stand condemned before God.  The unbeliever that has rejected or neglected the Gospel will still stand condemned before God.  The moral man who has heard of religion and believes that he is somehow impressive to God because of his works, nevertheless, he will also be condemned.  Somehow moral men think they are good enough to get in and stand before a holy God, but they are deceived, they will be condemned.

There is none righteous, not even one.  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.  All of humanity is condemned and defenseless before God's wrath and His righteous anger and His terrible fury.  The furious and holy God of the Bible is a rather unpopular subject today here in the 21st century.

The world's gospel today is, "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," or "Come to Jesus, and He will solve all of your problems."  Today, the world's religions try to woo sinners in with their 'incentive' programs.  You will get this and that if you will only come to Jesus.  Today's religions adapt their message to the needs of the audience.  They are more sensitive to people's felt needs, rather than their deepest need – salvation from the love of sin and the wrath of God.

Many so-called preachers today believe the people in the pews are sovereign, and that the Gospel Message can be changed to suit their needs.  The most important thing is the Gospel of Christ, not you.  The most important is not relating to the audience, but the most important thing is that the audience relate to Jesus Christ.  The important thing is not that I know a lot about you; it is that you know a lot about Jesus Christ.  In Christ all your needs are met, you just don't know enough about Him to satisfy your needs.  Jesus suffered the wrath of God for you.

Satan seeks to silence the truth of the Gospel which is first, "Bad news," before it ever becomes Good News.  Unless you understand God's holy justice, you will never need a pardon.  Until you understand God's holiness and righteousness, you will never understand your unrighteousness.  The Gospel Message is first that you are a sinner condemned to an everlasting Hell, because of the penalty of your sins.  BUT if you will come to Jesus Christ as a sinner begging for mercy and trust alone in His Precious Blood, He will freely pardon you by His grace. Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, was crucified and bled for your sins. Christ bore all the penalty of God's wrath, Christ paid the penalty of Hell on behalf of you personally.  The fury and holiness of God doesn't hinder evangelism, it enables it.  Only the Blood of God can save you from the wrath of God.

The nature of man does not want to hear of the wrath of God because man wants to be able to behave in any way he wants.  In the same way, the religion of man does not want to hear of the wrath of God because man wants to believe anything he wants.  In other words, people want to behave any way they want to behave, and believe anything they dream up from their vile imagination.

If you talk of judgment today, this means that you imply the existence of a Judge.  So men think it is better not to believe in a God that is a Judge, otherwise He might do what a judge normally does, that is, render a verdict.  So religions today instead talk about the love and compassion of God alone, they emphasize the positive parts of the Bible.  Let's memorize the golden rule, let's memorize the Lord's Prayer, but they will never mention Revelation 20:15, "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."  This is a horrible verse about God's judgment and wrath.  There is a coming judgment by the way.  Hebrews 9:27 says, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."

So men today try to get rid of God, if they can get rid of God, they can get rid of God as a Judge, and if they can do that, then there is no enforcer of their sins.  And if there is no enforcer of their sins, then there really isn't a real standard of truth, and if there is no standard of truth, they can do whatever they want.  There is no right, there is no wrong.  You can do what you want to do, and whatever is truth for you is truth.  Man wants to get rid of God's judgment, sinful man desires to get rid of God as a Judge, as a Holy Judge, as a furiously angry Judge over his sins.  If they can do that, then they can ultimately land where they can live any old way they want to live.

But the honest sinner knows he is guilty by his conscience - the intuitive, God-created knowledge of good and evil.  However, enslaved sinners cannot admit that they are anything other than free, lest their guilt should penetrate their shield of unbelief. Their guilt cannot cause them to bend their knee before a Creator God who will judge them. The world is running at a frantic pace of unsatisfying sin, and as they rush into more and more sin, it only produces more and more guilt and shame in their souls.

Remember, if you have never received Christ as your personal Savior, you are lost and ruined; ruined utterly, helplessly, and hopelessly. So far as you yourself are concerned, there is no hope of your salvation.  But there is HELP for you only in One Person and He is mighty to save, even Jesus Christ the LORD. Look completely out of yourself to Him alone, and you are saved.  Cast away all your self-confidence and repose and rely on Jesus and your soul shall live eternally.  The soul-quickening gospel words are “Believe and Live.”

Oh! Trust Jesus and you shall be saved.  The minute you look to the Bleeding Incarnate God on Calvary's Cross alone for forgiveness, the sin-covered black and heavy garment that covers your soul will be cut loose and cast away by God’s free mercy.  The lost sinner that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, but he that believeth not on Christ  shall be damned eternally.  Christ died for the ungodly, not for the good and honest.

The Gospel is a matter of life and death.  Come now, as guilty as you are, and rely upon God’s Blood to take away your sin and its guilt.  Confide in Jesus, and in Him alone.  He died in your place, trust in Him, and you shall never die.  Christ gave up His life and poured out His blood for your sins — it is His blood alone that gives pardon and peace to lost sinners.  If you will but look to Him — you can have a free pardon now, complete pardon, pardon for ever.

Look away from all other confidences, and rely upon the sufferings and the death of the bleeding God-Man, who has now gone into Heaven, and who lives today and is willing and able to save you to the uttermost.  Come to Him now, just as you are, and seek His mercy, plead His most-precious blood.  If you feel your need of Jesus, if you are “weary and heavy-laden with sin,” take the Savior even now, and He will be yours forever.

You have a personal right to JESUS for you are a sinner, bring nothing with you, simply come and take Him, His grace is as free as the air you breathe.  Take the Water of Life, drink of Him, no one can deny you, drink even to the full and be satisfied forever, and you will be saved immediately and forever.  Trust in the bare naked promise of God – Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.