The following sermon at Capitol Community Church is by Russ Andrews, Executive Director of Finding Purpose Ministry. Capitol Community Church is a people awakened to a holy God. If you are searching for a new church home or from out of town looking for a church to worship with, or simply seeking for answers. Please join us for worship at 9 o'clock a.m. every Sunday morning. If you have any questions, please email us at info at CapitalCommunityChurch.com. We pray this sermon will help you grow deeper in your walk with Jesus Christ. Good morning. It's great to see you all here this morning, and I'm honored to stand here in place of Grant and preach the Word of God. I would like to, as I always do, begin with a word of prayer. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You for this day. Lord, thank You for the beautiful weather You've given us. Thank You, Lord, that we can come to church this morning in freedom to worship You. And so, Lord, I pray now that as Your Word goes forth that You will You will convict, You will encourage, and You will draw us, Lord, into a deeper and more intimate relationship with You. In Your name I pray, amen. Well, if you don't have your Bibles turned there, I'd invite you to open up to Luke chapter 3. We're going to be looking at verses actually 1 through 17. And I apologize to you men who come on Tuesday night because this is the one that you heard about a month ago, but maybe you need to hear it again. So anyway, here we go. Niagara Falls is considered one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world. 540 million gallons of water flow every hour over the falls and drop 165 feet to the bottom below. And as the water flows towards the falls, it gradually gains speed, going from about five miles an hour to about 40 miles an hour once it gets to the fall. Locals consider the North Grand Island Bridge, which is about four miles from the falls, to be the point of no return. In fact, there's a sign there warning the point of no return. So once you pass this sign, the momentum of the river begins to hold you in its grasp And your destiny in that moment is sealed. One day not too long ago, six men from a foreign country who were not familiar with the Niagara Falls were floating down the river, enjoying the view and just having a good old time relaxing in the sunshine. And they were about five miles from the falls, so they had not gotten that sign yet, when they passed a man wearing a clerical collar. Now he grew up in the area and he was very familiar with the dangers that lay ahead. He had studied in detail. He had read all the material available about the river. He knew about the point of no return. Surprisingly, he looked out at the men and with a huge smile on his face shouted, enjoy the day men. God loves you and he wants you to enjoy your life. So go on your way. Have a merry old time. The men felt good about themselves after hearing this encouraging word from such a respected religious man. So they smiled and they paddled on down the river unaware of the danger that lay ahead. A few hundred yards down the river they passed another man. He was bald but quite good looking. What's so funny? He was from a little town nearby called Bethel. He did not have a smile on his face. In fact, he looked very concerned. And he ran to the water's edge, and at the top of his lungs, he shouted, don't go any further. Turn around. There's danger ahead. If you don't listen to me and turn around, you will go beyond the point of no return, and there will be no hope for you. Now the men were totally confused. They looked at each other. One of the men said, that bald man sure seemed intense. What's he so worked up about? I don't like what he had to say. I didn't like the way he looked. I don't think I like him. The minister seemed so nice and more caring. I say we continue on. Four of the men agreed with him, however, the sixth man did not. He said, I think we should listen to that last man. He seemed to be speaking the truth, even though it was not pleasing to hear. I think we should turn around like he warned. Sadly, the majority ruled. They paddled on. Gradually, the six men noticed the speed of the river picking up pace. As the momentum continued to increase, the men tried to turn around, but they could not. They had just passed the sign that warned the point of no return, but it was too late, and they were never seen again. The world is headed towards a great fall. The speed of our descent into rebellion against God is gathering momentum. There are competing voices out there listening who are saying, who are shouting different messages. One voice is proclaiming, actually many voices are proclaiming, God loves you and everything is going to be okay because in the end, love wins. However, there is another voice, seldom heard, turn around, go in the other direction, danger lies ahead, and that danger is the coming wrath of God. Yes, God loves us. However, His wrath will one day be poured out on an unsuspecting and rebellious world. So let me ask you, which voices are you listening to? One day, the Bible says, in the not too distant future, heaven will stand open, and the whole world will see a white horse whose rider is called Faithful and True. He'll be dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name will be the Word of God. The armies of heaven will be following him. Out of his mouth will come a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written, King of Kings and what? Lord of Lords. I want you to know that when Jesus appears, and it says every eye shall see Him, there will be no second chances. There will be no more warnings. The world will have passed the point of no return. The day of grace will be over. And on that day, hundreds and thousands of millions of people who refuse to listen to the warnings will go over the falls and never be seen again. And that brings us to Luke chapter 3. So beginning at verse 1, I want you to see what Luke, who I believe is the only Gentile writer in the Bible, He writes, beginning with verse 1, In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Aeturia and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene. During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, this is John the Baptist, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. Notice, in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of what? Repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Now listen, from this passage, I want to answer three questions. How did John the Baptist prepare the way of the Lord? Secondly, why did John proclaim such a foreboding message filled with such dire warnings? And third, why do we not hear a similar message today from the pulpits of America with similar warnings of coming judgment? Well, I want to take these questions one at a time. So let's first consider, how did John prepare the way of the Lord? If you look at his message, he proclaimed a two-fold message. First, he preached the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And then he followed that with a warning of coming judgment and wrath. But before we look into his message, Let's consider these first two verses in which Luke, what Luke is doing, he's laying out the historical setting. He wants us to know the exact time period in history when this took place. Luke is not only a physician, but he is a great historian. And the reason Luke wrote such an orderly account, and we know this from Luke chapter 1, is he wanted to document what really happened. and to provide us with evidence upon which to build our faith because our faith is a reasonable faith. What do I mean by reasonable faith? First of all, it's not blind faith. God does not expect anyone to have blind faith. A reasonable faith is reasonable because you take the reason of your mind and you examine the evidence. said that what we believe is unseen, but it's not unknown. Did you hear that? It may be unseen, but it's not unknown. When John began his public ministry in the desert, Rome had in place several rulers, Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, his brother Philip, and Lysanias. And so it was from these pagan rulers, by the way, and they were evil. And so from these evil rulers arose a dark empire. And it was held in place by military power. Just think of North Korea. It's an evil regime. And there are a lot of them all over the world. And they're always held in power by military force. Not only was the political climate evil, but so was the religious climate, which was ruled by Annas, the high priest, and eventually by his son-in-law Caiaphas. In fact, in Matthew 26, we learn that Caiaphas was the high priest. Remember, they brought Jesus, they had him arrested in the garden, and they brought him before the Sanhedrin, which was ruled really by Caiaphas and his father-in-law, Annas. but it was Caiaphas who tore his clothes, accused Jesus of blasphemy, and ordered his death. So this is who was in rule at the time of John the Baptist. This is the atmosphere, and it's in this evil, dark atmosphere that God calls a man by the name of John to go and proclaim a message of what? Starts with an R. Repentance. and a warning of pending judgment. I want you to notice, too, that the Lord did not send John into the city of Jerusalem. See, that's where I would have sent him. But see, God does not work the way we do. He sent him out into the wilderness. I wonder why He sent him out into the wilderness. Maybe because that was a picture of the spiritual condition of Israel, like a dry desert, dead, no life. So let me ask you, do you come here this morning like a dry desert, needing to experience living water? Remember the woman at the well in John chapter 4 who was at the well trying to get some earthly, worldly water? Do you remember what Jesus said to her? I love what he said. He said, everyone who drinks this water, talking about the dry cisterns of the world, will be thirsty again, because they never satisfy. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life." See, when you try to satisfy the longings of your soul with the things of this world, money, sex, pleasure, vacation after vacation, they always leave you empty. They never satisfy. Do you know why? The things of this world cannot satisfy you spiritually. Once you decide to trust Jesus, then you will discover that He's the only one who can satisfy that longing in your soul for peace and joy and contentment. And it only comes when you have a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus. This is why we started the ministry of finding purpose. The only way that a man or woman can find their purpose in life is by a relationship with God Through His Son, Jesus. I love what Charles Spurgeon said. He said, I'm so thankful that I have a joy that the world cannot rob me of. I have a treasure that the world cannot take from me. I have something that is not in the power of man or devil to deprive me of, and that is the joy of the Lord. See, it doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter how egregious your sins are. If you come to the source of living water, He will strip away your guilt, your shame, your condemnation, and He'll replace it with a joy that the world knows nothing about. So that when you go to bed at night and you lay your head on the pillar, you can sleep guilt-free. The fact that I can sleep guilt-free at night is truly a miracle. But God is in the miracle business. Jesus is the living water. Now look at verses 2 and 3 again. Luke writes, ìDuring the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the Word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And then he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.î I want you to notice that the Word of God came to John. Thus when John began to preach, it was the Word of God that the people were hearing. 2 Peter 1 verse 21 says, For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. You see, most people back then were illiterate. They didn't have printed versions of the Bible. So they depended on oral preaching to hear the Word of God. But what do we have today? We have the written Word of God. And this was written by the Holy Spirit as He guided 40 different men over the course of 1,500 years in three different languages to write this book, which we know that it's a miracle because it has one unified message. It doesn't contradict itself. How can that be? So this morning, when we read Scripture, we're actually hearing God speak to us. And I tell the men on Tuesday night, the reason we have the Bible study set up the way we with lessons and homework so that they will go home and they'll read their Bible and think God can speak to them. So the question is, are you reading your Bible daily? I mean, think about it. You get up in the morning and you get to go into your quiet place, open up the Bible, and let God speak to you. And guess what He does? I take my Bible and when I sense God really taking a verse off of scripture and speaking to me, I just put a date beside it and maybe a little note, what I heard him say. John preached the message of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So what does it mean to repent? What it means is to look squarely in the mirror at your sins. and then acknowledge them to God. Yes, these are sins, God. Confess them to Him. And then, with His help, you turn away from them and you turn to Jesus. Now listen, you can't turn to God until you've first turned away from your sins. And so if you haven't truly turned away from your sins, then I would argue that you've never really turned to God. And let me just say this. Repentance, I read this morning, I think in fact Grant posted it, Martin Luther said that repentance is the doorway to salvation. If you don't repent, then you cannot be saved. This is why John the Baptist began with a message of repentance. When you repent, what you're doing is you're preparing a straight way, a path if you will, a level way for the Lord to enter your heart. When you repent, you lower yourself in humility, which is an invitation for Jesus to enter your heart. When you repent, the rough places in your life caused by sin are smoothed out. God makes them level so that as you make Christ your home and He shows you the way, He becomes your shepherd. He's the one who guides you. And listen, when Christ lives in you, all those around you will notice the change in your life because you're a new creation. If people don't notice a change in you, then that's a huge red flag that you have never encountered the living Jesus, because everybody in the New Testament who encountered Jesus in a salvific way, they left changed. They were never the same again, and everybody could tell they had been with Jesus. Not only, listen, did John preach a message of repentance, what's the first thing John the Baptist preached? A message of repentance. What's the first thing that Jesus preached? A message of repentance. What's the first thing that Peter preached? A message of repentance. So why don't we hear a message of repentance anymore? It's not politically correct. That's one reason. In Acts chapter 3, Peter was preaching to the crowd and he said, I love this verse, verses 19 and 20, Acts 3, 19 and 20, repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, where? Into your heart, who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. See, that's the way it works. Repent, receive Jesus into your heart, and then times of refreshment become your experience. Do you want to experience having your sins wiped out? Who doesn't? Here's what happens. If you had a chalkboard back here, that one wouldn't be big enough for me. And from day one, all of your sins were listed from the time of your birth all the way to the time of your death. The moment that you first repent and ask Jesus to come into your heart, God takes an eraser and wipes them all out from beginning to end. How good is that? And so when he looks at you through the blood of Christ, he sees someone who is a saint, and he declares you in this courtroom before all of heaven, this man I declare righteous. That's what it means to be justified. It's a legal term that takes place in the courtroom of heaven when God lowers His gavel and He declares you innocent and righteous and just and holy. And once He declares you that, then you are a saint forevermore. So what happens when we sin? Does that mean we've lost our righteous standing before God? No. But you have lost your fellowship. A lot of Christians are living, you know, out there sinning repeatedly, and they're living with guilt and shame and condemnation. That's all coming from the enemy. But if they want to have fellowship with God, they've got to repent again and turn back to God. We should live, folks, in a constant state of repentance. Every night before you go to bed, Lord, forgive me for what I did today, even if I can't remember what I did that was sinful. Just ask Him to forgive you. And then you will enjoy peace like the world has never known. Romans 10, 13 says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Have you called on the name of the Lord? It says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Saved from what? I'll tell you what you're going to be saved from. You're going to be saved from His wrath. John 3, 36 says that if you believe in Jesus, I don't remember exactly how it goes, but if you believe in Jesus, God forgives you. But if you refuse to believe, The wrath of God remains on you. See, we're born under God's wrath. We're born God's enemies. But when you are saved, Jesus becomes your friend and He bears God's wrath in your place. That's the message of the gospel. God's wrath is coming upon the world one day. And if you have friends out there that you've never shared the gospel with, you need to think about that. They're headed over the great waterfall and they'll land in hell if they do not repent and turn to Jesus. So John's message was a message of repentance, but it was also a warning of coming wrath and judgment. Look at verses 7 through 10. He said, therefore, to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers. Can you imagine if you walked into your church? And that's the first thing he said, you're a bunch of vipers. It wouldn't be real popular, would it? He said, ìWho warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ìWe have Abraham as our father.î For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." And then the crowds asked a very important question that I want you to think about. What then shall we do? Pretty good question, don't you think? The Jews believed that they were God's chosen people. because they were simply the physical descendants of Abraham. And they pointed to circumcision as their identification as belonging to God's family. But don't we often do the same thing? We point to our good moral behavior? I was talking to a friend of mine 30 years ago, and I said, do you think man is basically good or evil? Good. I want to go, really? See, what he was basically telling me is that he was basically good. We point to our church membership. We point to our good works. However, the Bible says the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at what? He looks at the heart. He's concerned about your heart. The Jews were sinners and are sinners who need a Savior just like the rest of us. We're all sinners. This is why John the Baptist baptized both Jews and Gentiles, which is the Pharisees just could not get over. Notice that John did not mince words. He referred to his audience as a brood of vipers. So the question is, why did he call them vipers? Well, Kent Hughes says, he was saying they were like snakes fleeing a brush fire, trying to escape, but having no intention of allowing their evil natures to be changed. That's what a lot of people do when they hear the truth. They just flee. They don't want to hear it. It makes them uncomfortable. They don't want to be convicted. They want to go to church and hear a nice, pleasing message that makes them feel good. Then they go home and eat fried chicken and go play golf. Everything's fine. When a man truly repents, that is when he turns away from his sin, everybody around him will notice a change in his life. Someone once said that if you were put on trial as a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Would there? So why did John, this is the second question, why did John proclaim such a foreboding message filled with warnings? Do you know why? Because he loved the people. He loved them. Do you think he wanted to go out there and preach that message? I doubt it. Do you think Jeremiah wanted to go to basically the church and stand outside and say, woe to you shepherds who lead the people astray? Do you think Jonah wanted to go to Nineveh and preach that message? No, what did he do? He got in a boat and fled. It's a heavy duty for a man to be called of God to go and stand out and point a finger at the world, knowing that three fingers pointed back at us, and to warn the world that if they don't repent, they're going to face God's wrath. Nobody wants to do that. The reason John did it is because he possessed the heart of God. 2 Peter 3, 9 expresses God's heart. He says, God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish. Did you hear that? God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. I love what Charles Spurgeon said. He said, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. If they perish, Let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for." Are you praying for those people that you don't really like, who don't know the Lord? That's who you need to be praying for. Question number three, why don't we have preachers today who will stand up in their pulpits and warn people about the coming wrath of God? I believe that there are three main reasons. First, most ministers today don't really believe in a God of wrath. They're not going to stand up and say, I don't believe in a God of wrath. They won't say that. They're just not going to talk about God's wrath, which points to the fact they don't really believe the Bible. If you believe the Bible, you'll know that God is a God of love and a God of justice, a God of holiness and a God of righteousness. And He hates evil. Second, these same ministers are more concerned about pleasing man than pleasing God. Thus their sermons fall right in step with modern culture. Whatever the world says is good, they repeat it. Whichever direction the cultural wind is blowing, that's where their church is headed. I read about a seven-page document that somebody sent to me that's single-spaced about this church here in Raleigh that wants to indoctrinate from the elders all the way down to the children about CRT, critical race theory. They're more concerned about the social gospel than they are the true gospel. No one can change racism except Jesus. He is the only one who can bring down the dividing wall of hostility between rich and poor, black and white, Jew and Gentile. And so the only message that needs to be preached anywhere in the world, particularly in our country right now, is the gospel of Jesus Christ because it contains the power to change a man's heart. And that's what brings black and white people together. Third, the people who attend these churches, for the most part, just want to hear a short, pleasing message that does not rock their world. The last thing they want to hear is what I'm saying. They don't want to hear somebody talk about sin and repentance and judgment. And Paul points to this sad reality in 2 Timothy chapter 4 when he instructs young Timothy to preach the Word. Timothy because he knows you this is his last word to the world is second Timothy It's his last word to Timothy and he's leaving Timothy in a dark world Paul's in prison and he sells Timothy Timothy preach the word Why? Verses three and four in second Timothy for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine instead to suit their own desires They will gather around them a great number of teachers and preachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn aside from the truth and turn aside to myths, like critical race theory. But see, here's the problem when people don't hear the truth. When they don't hear the truth, there is no way for them to be set free from their sins. No way to be set free from the guilt and shame. No way to really have lasting joy and peace. So let me ask you, that bald headed guy that was standing by the river shouting at the men to turn around, compared to the clerical minister, who was loving those men in the boat? Thank you. Jeff, I want to ask you a very important question. Was he really good looking? Come on now, okay. Well, at least my wife thought I was a long time ago. Listen, the greatest chapter in the Bible on love is what chapter? 1 Corinthians chapter what? 13. Do you know what it says? I think it's in verse 6. Love rejoices with the truth. Why is that? Jesus said, When you come to me, you'll know the truth, and the truth will what? Set you free. Jesus said, I came to set the captives free. They can't be set free unless they hear the truth. When you go to a doctor and you've got cancer, you can't be free from it if he tells you everything's okay. No, he gives you the truth. Why? Because he loves you, he cares about you, and then he's gonna give you some tough medicine to take care of it. The gospel is the tough medicine. When the people listening to John heard this strong warning, many were convicted by the truth. Great! I heard Charles Stanton this morning saying that conviction is pressure. It puts pressure on you. God is trying to press you to do something that's good. And so they ask the logical question, what then should we do? And so John proceeded to tell them, produce fruits in keeping with repentance. So if that was all we had in the Bible, I said, well what he's saying is go out and be a good person, produce some good fruits and you will be saved. Is that what he was saying? He told them in verses 11 through 14, that they should be generous and be honest. In other words, he was basically telling them to live by the golden rule, that is to do unto others as you would have them to do unto you. Can you do that naturally? No. None of us can. We have to have a changed heart. So what did he mean by produce fruits and keep it with repentance? Well, let me tell you what he did not mean. He did not mean that salvation comes by your good works. The Bible makes this very clear. This is what the Reformers were all about. Salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone, in who? Christ alone, according to Scripture alone. Salvation comes by faith, not by works. Good deeds are simply the byproduct of genuine faith. When you repent and turn to the Lord by faith, The Holy Spirit begins to change your life. He takes away your old desires and begins to give you new desires so that you actually want to go do something to help others instead of helping yourself. The good works are the result of repentance. And this is what John was trying to explain. Repent. Come to Jesus. He'll remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh so that you begin to see the world from the lens of Scripture and it just changes who you are and how you want to live your life. Isn't that right, George? That happened to you, didn't it? Happened to all of us if we're in Christ. He wanted to warn them that if their lives did not reflect good works, that is a changed life, that meant they had not truly repented. And then judgment was coming upon them. Look at his strong warning in verse 9, even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. What fire was John referring to? Look at verses 15 through 17. Luke writes, as the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ, John answered them saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." So they're actually, he's talking about two baptisms here. John's baptism was simply an outward baptism by water. It was only symbolic of a man's decision to repent and turn to God. But it didn't carry with it the power of the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life. Jesus' baptism is an inward baptism of the heart by the Holy Spirit. And it came with the same power. Think about it. The Holy Spirit, if He is in you, you have the power within you, the same power that raised Jesus from the grave. That's the power that you have available to you to live the Christian life. But it has to be daily feeding upon His Word, and pray unto your Heavenly Father. Prayer and the Word are two tools that God has given us to live this life. Verse 16 says, he, he's talking about Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. So I think the fire here has two meanings. The fire of the Holy Spirit burns away the sinful draughts in our lives as he begins to sanctify us and purify us from the inside out. And that's when people begin to see this change in you, as the Holy Spirit's working in your life. This baptism by the Spirit occurs, listen, this is so important, at the moment a man is born again. It's not a second event. See, the Holy Spirit is a person. I used to think, I used to grow up, I grew up in the charismatic, but I thought you get saved and then you get baptized by the Holy Spirit later. That's not correct teaching. Because, you know, the moment you get saved, according to Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, you are sealed with who? The Holy Spirit. Well, you don't get part of the Holy Spirit. You can't divide the Holy Spirit up. I mean, think about it. I don't know why these people were teaching that. You get all of the Holy Spirit when you're saved. And then, as you begin to yield yourself to Him, you can have more and more of the power of the Holy Spirit working through you. So, this is the important thing to remember. If God does it, listen, salvation is not about church attendance, even though I highly recommend coming to church. It's not about baptism. It's not about good works. When you get to heaven, there's only one ticket that will get you in the door. That's when Jesus looks into your heart and He sees who? He sees Himself, but it's the Holy Spirit. It's the Spirit of Jesus in you. It's the Holy Spirit that identifies you as belonging to God. That's the only baptism you need. It's called circumcision of the heart. Romans 8 and 9 makes this clear. You have our control not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of God, Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Notice the Holy Spirit there is called the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, three in one, the Trinity. So what should you do? If you're not sure if you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, this is something I want some of you to really think about hard. Have you really been indwelt by the Holy Spirit? Acts 2.38, Peter says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit coming into you follows repentance. In closing, I guess it sounds like I've already given you some warnings, but I want to close with a very serious warning. There's a second fire that John was referring to, and it's reserved for the end of the world. It will be the fire of God's final judgment against all evil. A lot of people say, well, a lot of people don't believe in God, at least they use this reasoning. Well, if God is all powerful, then He could destroy evil. If God is all good, than he would want to destroy evil. Therefore, since evil exists, God must not. So the question is, why doesn't God destroy evil? Well, if he destroyed evil, what would he have to do? Bring the world to an end. What would happen to salvation in that moment? to the people that might tomorrow be saved. They wouldn't be. So God, listen, we don't see hardly any evil compared to what God sees. He sees all the evil that's taking place 24-7, the rapes, the murders. He was there watching the Holocaust. He sees the genocides. He sees Christians being persecuted and crucified and burned and imprisoned. He sees it all. Why does He let it go on? Because He's patient. But one day his patience is going to run out just like it did in Genesis chapter 6. In that moment the Lord is going to return and those who have never repented will face God's wrath. Look at verse 17. His winnowing fork is in his hand. What's he going to do with a winnowing fork? He's going to divide the world. To clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So when Jesus returns, can say it any way you want to, he's going to separate the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, and believers from unbelievers. That's what John was warning about. And I want you to I want to leave you this morning with a warning, because I love you. I love the men that come on Tuesday night. I do not believe that every man that shows up on Tuesday night is saved. So I want them to hear this message. Several weeks ago, it's probably been five or six weeks at least, my wife and I traveled up to Charlottesville, where my oldest son, Rushman, lives, with his family, and I've challenged both of my older grandsons, Smith, who's here in Raleigh, little Smith, and Cabell, they're both eight, I said, if they will read through the New Testament, that Big Pop will take them on a very special trip. It's always fun to travel with Big Pop. I'm Big Pop. So Cabell, Rushman's oldest son, has been reading the New Testament to Rushman out loud every night. They're just reading through the Bible, and this is so fun. I've been trying to get Rushman to read the Bible since he was born. He said, Dad, isn't it great that God's got me reading the Bible now, but it's my son reading it to me. God works in strange ways. So when we were up in Charlottesville, Rushman asked me to let Cabell read his nightly Bible lesson to me. And so Cabell read from Acts on both, we were there from Thursday through Sunday, so three nights. So he read from Acts with me, and I loved it. Thursday and Friday night, then we talked about it, then we prayed. So on Saturday night, Rushman said, Dan, why don't you see if Cabell's ready to pray to receive Christ? Rushman just wanted me to do it, because Rushman did it with me when he was 11. And so I said, he's ready to invite Jesus into his heart. I said, okay. So I sat down with Cabell and he did his lesson. And then I said, Cabell, we talked about repentance and sin. I made sure he understood that for boys, sinning is when you don't obey your parents or you tell them a lie or you take something that doesn't belong to you. I said, have you done any of those things? He said, yeah. So he recognized he was a sinner. I said, would you like, to be saved, you need to invite Jesus into your heart. Would you like to do that tonight? He said, yes, I would, Big Pop. And so by this time, the other two boys were down. Creasy and Rushman and Neil, Rushman's wife, they'd all come back in the living room, and they were kind of listening to me wrap up the conversation. And so they're sitting there, and I said, Cowboy, do you want to say this prayer right here in front of your mom and your dad and Cece, or do you want to go with Big Pop back into your dad's study and pray there? He said, Big Pop, I want to go in the study with just you and me. Good answer. I said, so we went back in the study and we literally, we got down on our hands and knees. I mean, it was the cutest thing you've ever seen. I wish I had a video. I'm on my hands and knees. I'm looking at Campbell. He's got a big smile on his face. So I walked him through it again, and then I actually prayed out a prayer with my eyes open to explain to him. When I prayed the prayer, it's basically the sinner's prayer, I said, does that express the desire of your heart? He said, yes, Big Pop. I said, okay, well let's just bow our heads and you say it. He couldn't remember it. So I went phrase by phrase, and at one point he chuckled during the prayer. We got through. He said, Big Pop, was it okay that I chuckled during the prayer? I said, yeah, because you were just happy with what you were doing, and God knows that you were joyful. I don't know who was more joyful. Cabal or his dad, Rush, but I was very excited. And so the next morning we're having breakfast and I said, Cabal, I want to explain to you why the decision that you made last night is such an important decision. I said, one day Jesus is going to come back and he's going to separate the sheep from the goats. I said, Cabal, before I read in the text, would you rather be a sheep or a goat? He said, a goat. I said, wrong answer. So then I read this to him. Now this is Jesus speaking, Matthew chapter 25, verses 31 through 46, if you want to turn there. I'm going to close with this. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations, I believe this is going to take place on earth, all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed, that's verse 34, come you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. Let's skip down to verse 41. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil. Notice that. Who's hell prepared for? The devil and his angels. Did you know that? Not human beings. But if you don't repent and turn to God, you're pushing God into a corner and he's got no choice. but to put you in the same place with Satan and his demons. Look at what Satan has done to this world. Hell will be infinitely worse. And then it says, then they will go away to eternal punishment. How long does that mean? Forever. But the righteous to eternal life. Listen, if you believe in, see a lot of people say they don't believe that the punishment in hell will last forever. Well, if you believe that heaven's going to last forever, then hell is going to last forever because it's using the same word here, eternal for both of them. Now listen, I've thought about this before. What, Russ, if you died and somehow you missed the boat and Jesus tells you to depart, I never knew you. I can't imagine what that's going to be like. If you get cancer, you know you're going to at least die and it's going to come to an end. Hell does not come to an end, ever. So, I don't know how to say this more clearly. Just as heaven is real, hell is real. And Jesus is the only way to heaven. And so in order to be saved from the coming wrath of God, you must come to Jesus while the door to heaven remains open. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 1.10 that Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath. How does He do that? Because He stood on the cross and He bore the wrath of God in our place. Thanks for listening. 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