Christ is Coming Back Angry

And there was one point there where he and I were talking and he was saying, when Christ comes, He is coming angry. And I got to thinking, he said it in such a way that it really struck me how angry Christ is. And that when He comes, He is coming angry. And you know, I've thought on that since Saturday or Sunday, whenever that was said. I just got to thinking, we're in Romans. We've been looking at Romans. Romans chapter 2 and verse 5. In the ESV it reads this way, But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath. And we've looked at that text. I've talked about it in these weeks past. But here's the thing. Today, I'm wanting to deal with Romans 3 starting in verse 9. And just listen to this. Back there you have storing up wrath. I started by talking about Don Johnson, talking about how angry Christ is when He comes. And then you have this here. The impenitent are storing up wrath. Who are the impenitent? Those are people that haven't believed. Those are people that haven't surrendered to Christ. They're impenitent. They haven't repented. They haven't bowed to Christ. There's been no surrender. And they're storing up wrath. Then you come over here. Chapter 3 verse 9. What then? Are we Jews any better off? Well, why would He say that? Because He was arguing back up in verse 1 of chapter 3. Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. And He says even though they have these advantages, they've been given circumcision, they've been given the oracles of God, which means they've been given the Word of God. He says they're not any better off. Verse 9, no, not at all. You know why they're no better off? Because no matter what light they've been given, they're under sin. That's what He says. We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin as it is written. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. No, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongue to deceive. The venom of Asp is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Well, here's the thing. None is righteous. By nature. Men are born bad. And you just start thinking, okay, that doesn't mean that there are none righteous if Christ saves them. People that have been saved are called righteous. This is talking about man the way he is born. So you think about this. We have 8 billion people on the face of the earth. Close, right? We haven't gone over that yet, have we? I think we're approaching it. 8 billion. Which is amazing, because I'm 46 years old. When I was born, what was it? It was like half that, right? I mean, it is going up incredibly fast. Do you know, I think this statistic is right, there are more people alive on the earth right now than have ever lived. In other words, because of the exponential growth of mankind, if you added all the people who have died up till now, it doesn't equal how many are alive now. There are that many alive on the earth right now. 8 billion people alive on the earth right now. And think with me here. By nature. Just think with me about this. Jesus said concerning eternal life, few there be that find it. Did He not say that? Okay, so you think with me. The only ones in this world that have any capacity to do good at all are the ones who find eternal life. Jesus Himself in Matthew 7 said, few there be that find it. Do you know what that tells me? Few people in the world have the capacity to do good. Do you know what that tells me? Of the 8 billion people, most of them have absolutely no capacity to do any good whatsoever. And do you know what? Because they're lost, they are storing up wrath. Can you imagine how much wrath? You just think of one sinner. Think of this. None is righteous. So you have these people, they're not righteous. There's no one that understands, so they're not righteous. You look at them. Lost people, even if you're sitting in here and you're exposed to the truth right now, lost people are not righteous. They are unrighteous. That means they are evil. They are wicked. They are bad. Men are bad. They have a bad record because they have sinned. They have a bad heart. By nature, they're descendants of Adam. All have turned aside. So none of them are headed in the right direction by nature. They've together become worthless. God looks at them and He takes the whole bunch of lost humanity and He says, I find nothing good in them at all. Not anything whatsoever. In fact, every one of these individuals, no one does good. Not even one. So as He looks through the vast majority of these eight billion people on this earth, He sees not even... Think with me. No one does good. Not even one. So He doesn't even find a single person in all that lost humanity that does any good at all. And in fact, it's not just that they don't do good. What it says is, back there in Romans 2, verse 5, is they're storing up wrath. So you think with me. The majority of the eight billion people are worthless. They're not doing good. They're not doing right. And every one of them is storing up wrath. So the wrath is getting deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper. And as I'm thinking about this, I'm hearing Don Johnson's words. When Jesus comes, He's coming angry. You say, somebody might be sitting here and say, you see, what you're saying, that right there, that's just everything bad about Christianity. Right there. Right there. You're talking about Jesus being angry. And you know what? That's what makes your Christianity bad. It's just got a distasteful message about it. That's why we like Joel Osteen. And I'm serious about that. But you know what? Let me tell you this. The Bible talks about the teachers that tickle people's ears. Do you know what tickling people's ears means? It means the thing that makes people uncomfortable, that unsettles them, that scares them. You don't tell them. That's what it means to tickle people's ears. You tell people what makes them happy, what makes them feel good. And I know more than jump into my morning devotions today in Isaiah, and I flip it open, and it just hits me right between the eyes. Listen to this. I open up my Bible this morning, and I read Isaiah 34. Draw near, O nations, to hear and give attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear and all that fills it, the world and all that comes from it. Listen to this. For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their hosts. And I read that and I thought, Don is absolutely right. He is absolutely right. Think of the words being used. The Lord is enraged against all the nations. Eight billion people making up these nations of the world, and He is enraged, and He is furious against all their hosts. And they are multiplying sins before Him. They don't understand. They don't seek for Him. And up it goes. Think with me. The Apostle says this. All, both Jew and Greek. Well, who's that? That's everybody. You say, well, how's that everybody? That doesn't sound like everybody. That sounds like just Jews and Greeks. Well, the reality is, that's Jews. It basically deals with the two prominent types of people in the world at that time. You had the Jews that considered themselves the people of God from which the prophets came and they had the Scriptures. And then the pagans, right? The Greek world. The pagan world. The heathen world. And they're all under sin. And what does that mean? What does it mean to be under sin? Under the power of it. It shows sin is like a slave master. Let me tell you, there are other things said in other places. How about over in Ephesians chapter 2? What does it say there? It says over there, we are dead in trespasses and sins. Dead. Spiritually, we don't have any life in us. We follow the course of the world. You know what that is? That's like you're in a river that is a river of scum and filth and cesspool and sewage and it's flowing and you're caught in it. Because you're a slave to it, you follow the course of the world. It means it's flowing in a certain direction, but you're dead, right? You're dead in trespasses and sins. You're dead in that muck and filth. You flow right with it. You follow the course of the world. And by the way, there's some other living creature in there with you. Who's that? The prince of the power of the air. You follow the course of this world. You're following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Isn't that interesting? You're dead. You're in this flow of filth. By the way, there's nothing good. It's total filth. Satan is guiding the flow of this current. And he's the spirit that is at work in everybody caught up in that flow of filth. And Paul calls them sons of disobedience. What's that? That means your father is disobedience. Who are you disobeying? Let me tell you something. If we go back to Romans, you can see something here in verse 9. Chapter 3, verse 9. None is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. It's a quote from both Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. And you go down to verse 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. You see, this is the real issue. You know what happens? People come along all the time. And they say, look, I've gone door to door in the east side. And on the south side. And out in Elmendorf. Down in Waterwood. Various towns around San Antonio. I've done lots of door to door. Gone down on the streets. You ask people. Some of you have seen Way of the Master stuff. How many of you have seen that? Where they ask the people whether they consider themselves to be good people or not. And here's the thing. All around us, we have this cesspool of the majority of 8 billion people that are storing up wrath. That are caught in this flow. And you know what? They're worthless. They don't do any good. But you pull them aside and ask them. Tell me. Tell me about your state. Tell me where you're at before God. Well, we're pretty good people. Pretty good people. And you see, these pretty good people love to go sit in front of preachers that are going to tell them that they're pretty good people. You're just pretty good. Why do you think that? Well, because I haven't killed anybody. And guess what? The truth is, most people probably haven't actually killed somebody. And so they say, I haven't killed anybody. Most people haven't actually raped. Most people haven't actually done such crimes as to require them to end up in prison or gotten caught. I mean, that's true. Right? But you've got these people that it says they don't seek for God. There's no fear of God before their eyes. Are you good people? Yeah, I'm a good people. Yeah, they're good people. They're good people storing up wrath. They're good people who don't seek God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. They're people who don't love God. They're just like the Pharisees. They would kill the very Son of God Himself given the chance. Oh, they're moral. They've got the law. They've got the religion. And they look good on the outside. But they would kill Jesus Christ Himself. Let me tell you something about these good people. And we could go up onto the north side. We could go up into the Dominion. We could go to the Stone Oak area. We could go through those neighborhoods. And you know what? They don't have just the outright in-your-face sin a lot of times that you can see out here on the east side by where I live. That's true. I mean, you go there. We give to United Way at Christmastime. We try to help out. You know what? Are you good people? Yeah, we're good people. We donate to the charity. I haven't slept with my neighbor's wife like some other people that I might know. I'm an upstanding person. I am involved in the parent-teacher deal at the schools. I'm involved in politics. I basically try to live an upright life. But here's the thing, and this is the point that's being made here, they don't seek for God. You know why? They don't love Him. They don't have any attraction to Him. You know what you seek in life? You seek what you love. You seek what attracts you. You find a guy, he seeks a wife. Why does he seek a wife? Because he desires a wife. He wants a wife. He's attracted to women. He would like to have a wife. He would like intimacy with a wife. He would like a wife to bear children with. He would like that companionship, that camaraderie that comes with marriage. Why does a man seek something? Why does a man seek for treasure? Why does a man seek for peace? Why does a man seek for riches? Because he desires it. You know why nobody seeks for God? Because they hate God. They don't admit that they do. But the God of Scripture, it's just like Pat Horner, a pastor that I used to have told me, he said one time he was in a Dairy Queen or something, and there was a woman, and it was obvious she had been in church that morning, she was a religious, she had a Bible belt, probably Southern Baptist, and he came over, I think he may have heard her talking about the Lord, but anyways, he got telling her about the God of Scriptures, and she said, my God is not like that. And he said, that's right ma'am, your God is not like that. Because he was describing the God of the Scriptures. And you know what? Yes, men, they come along, okay, they're good, they're upstanding in the community, and they are mounting up piles of wrath, because ultimately their problem is not that they're serial killers. They aren't that. And I'm not going to make them out to be that. And if we did, if we tried to do that, they would know that it's not true. But you know what the problem is? The problem is that these people can live with their riches, and live with their cars, and live with their sports, and with their entertainment systems, and with their new houses, and with their looks, and with their exercise, and with their green lawns, and with their manicured trees, and they can say, that's what I want, that's what I'm content with. And all the time, they are guilty of the most heinous crime of all. God made us in His image, God made us to worship Him, God is by far the most supreme being, and worthy of our attention, our worship, our adoration of everything. He is worthy, absolutely beautiful, He is the most admirable, the most astonishingly glorious being of all. There is such beauty, and such glory, and such perfection, there is such attraction. And what man basically does, is he looks at any bit of that attraction that breaks through, it breaks through in creation, it breaks through in his conscience, and he says, I hate it. And he seeks to suppress it. And in all of his goodness, there he is, you have man in all of his goodness, that can't stand his Creator, who is the very center of all that is good, and yet man looks at it, and he says, I don't want it. And so he tries to create every kind of false religion, every kind of other image of God. It's not that people don't have a concept of God, and seem like they're seeking God, it's that they don't seek the God of the Scriptures. They come face to face with Him, and they say, I don't want a God like that. I'll take a God like Allah. I'll take a God like one of the many multitudes of Hindu gods. I'll take a God like Buddha, but don't give me the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want Him. And I don't want that Christ. And don't tell me He's God. I'll take that Christ as long as He's a baby in a manger. I'll take that Christ as long as He's one of these subpar prophets, or as long as He's a good man. But I don't want the Jesus Christ, who is God Almighty, and I don't want His Father. I don't want that Trinity you guys talk about. You see, that's where man is. And you can see Him. When it comes to this God, there's nothing righteous about Him. Brethren, we don't understand. We don't understand. And even though I'm the one talking, I don't understand. Because I have not seen hell. And I've not seen the fullness of the consequence of even one sin. So I don't know. But I know this, that God is so magnificent. And man just habitually despises that magnificence. And he chooses what is dumb. You see, when the Apostle Paul has his eyes open to what glory there is in God, he looks at everything else, and he says it's dumb. It's excrement. You see, that's what it is compared to this God. And man is running around all over this world, and he just steps and suppresses on everything that reveals this God. He doesn't want to see. He doesn't want to know. Brethren, can you imagine? Can you imagine? Jesus, it says in the Psalms, He is the most handsome among men. Grace flows from His lips. They heard Him speak such words as no man ever spake. They saw Him. Jesus had such tenderness. Son of David, give us our sight. Even when you have ten lepers, and Jesus knew only one of them would be thankful, He healed them all because they sought it. Such tenderness. And the very heart of man is seen. They killed Him. Brethren, they killed the man who never did wrong. They killed Him. They were Jews. They are the ones that had the law. They had the light. They had the prophets. They are representative of the best that man has in all of his privileges. Are they not? You give man the most privilege, the most light, and you set Christ Himself right in front of them, inches from their face, where they can behold Him, not through the words on a page, but living. They represented us all. This is why it says, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. Who was under the law? The Jews. So that every mouth may be stopped. Wait, why does it stop every mouth? For this reason. If you take people and give them the greatest light, the greatest privilege, the greatest blessing, the greatest advantage, and they refuse it and reject it, it closes all of our mouths. Because what it says, is man given the greatest privilege, he kills God. And listen, you better believe that's exactly what their intent was. Why do I say that? Because Jesus said, if you have seen Me, you have seen My Father. The writer of Hebrews says, He is the radiance of the glory of God. Brethren, let me tell you this, when they crucified the Son of God, they were killing God. They were venting their venom in a way that showed, if they had the capacity, they would kill God Himself. That's what man does. And you know what? Whether the man is smoking his crack, down here, and ignoring God, and pushing Him out of his mind, having no fear of Him, or whether he's up in Stone Oak, right now on the internet, checking the status of his stocks, whether he's bowing down to the crack, or bowing down to the dollar bill, he is wholeheartedly rejecting this God. And his crimes are infinite, and he is storing up wrath, unbelievable wrath. And when you multiply that times 8 billion, he is angry. You say, what does this look like? Brethren, look at it. You want to know what being under the power of sin looks like? It looks like no capacity to do good. But you can see it in man's mouth. Look at there. Their throat, their tongues, their lips, their mouth. Four descriptive terms in verses 13 and 14. You want to see man's depravity? When people can't talk, they can at least hide it to a degree. But when they can talk, you know what the thing is about the tongue? It gives immediate window to the heart. You see, the heart is what's bad. But the problem with the mouth, bang, it's out. The tongue is like a fire. You see that, James tells us. It's like an animal that can't be tamed. It's like a fire, a forest fire, that just sets the world on fire. It's like a hell of fire. It's like this member that has the capacity to just ignite all of hell. Men can't bridle it. And so it's just, it's always there. It gives you quick insight into what men think, into what men love. And you see it four times. Their throat is an open grave. Anybody know what the Proverbs says about the tongue of the righteous? Choice silver. It also says it's life. Have you ever seen that in the Proverbs? When you have somebody who is righteous and they can speak truth and they can speak the Word of God, they are people whose tongues, whose lips, whose mouths are life. When they speak, there's that which is good that comes forth. Folks, let me tell you something. You say, this just sounds negative. It's all negative. The Gospel is supposed to be good news. But you have to remember this. Just like we said in the beginning. Paul comes out and he sets forth a Gospel that in it the righteousness of God is set forth, it's declared. But you know what he's doing first? He's showing us how badly we need the righteousness of God. You know what? You don't want to go to the doctor when you come to him and you say, Doctor, tell me, what's wrong with me? And you know the kind of person. He won't look you in the eye. He's like, well, you know, you've still got pretty good health. He won't look you in the eye. Well, Doc, tell me, how am I? I mean, you examine me, I'm wondering about this lump I have. Well, you know, your feet look like they're in pretty good shape. You know, you can go out and run. If that doctor tells you, you know what, live it up. You're okay. I mean, yeah, you've got that lump. Don't worry about it. You're okay. You'll be all right tomorrow. You know, if that doctor tells you you don't have cancer, but you actually have a form of lymphoma, his telling you you don't have anything to worry about, that does make you feel good right now. It does. Because it relieves you. You can put the worry away. And that sounds good today, and it sounds good tomorrow, but you know what? In five months, it all of a sudden doesn't sound so good, does it? You know what? What would you think of a doctor who you had cancer, and today it was treatable, but he told you you didn't have any, and you didn't find out you did until it was untreatable. Would you consider that kindness? Listen, folks. I know I've thrown out at our church many times. The church of Jesus Christ is the light of the world. You know what light does? It makes manifest. You know what that means? It makes it apparent. It brings things to light. Let me ask you this. Can anybody quote to me 1 Timothy 3.15? What does it say? What is the church? It is the pillar and buttress or the pillar and ground of truth. And I can tell you this, that when people have problems with drinking and they go to Alcoholics Anonymous, listen, listen, we had people visiting our church with AIDS, and they went to an AIDS help program put on by our city. And you know what happened in that AIDS program supported by your tax dollars? They began to lose a number of the participants in the program. I mean, they were dying. And the lady that headed it up felt like she didn't have any answers. And in her desperation, she had a friend that thought she could maybe help heal these people. So, we had one of these ladies that was in this program, and one day I was looking at her, and I said, so and so, I said, do you hear voices? And she said, yes, I hear voices. I said, well, tell me about this. Because I mean, that's demonic activity. And she said, well, I was in this AIDS help program, and people were dying, and the leader of it sent us to a cuandera friend of the leaders, which is basically a witch. And she said she put us in these bathtubs, and she did incantations over us, and sprinkled leaves on us, and I've been hearing voices ever since. Brethren, that's what the world has to offer. Or you can turn the news on. What do they have to offer? I mean, what hope does the news have to offer? Listen, the church of Jesus Christ, we are the lights of the world. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He left us. He said we would be the witness bearers. If we don't tell the world the truth, I'll tell you this, the imams in Islam are not telling the truth. They're not. The Buddhist monks are not telling the truth. And look, I'm not here just to seek to offend people, but Catholic priests are not telling people the truth. And the Pope is not telling people the truth. They're not. And brethren, if we don't tell people the truth, and the truth is, by and large, this world is building up wrath. God is not pleased with them. He is furious with them. Whether they're out here ready to sleep with a prostitute on the east side tonight, pay $20 for a little bit of fun, or whether they're up there with their stock portfolios, worshiping that, ready to go to work, workaholics, so that they can get the next and latest BMW. Brethren, I'm telling you, they are building up wrath. And God, there is a fury there, and He is coming in anger. He is coming in fire. He is coming with His mighty angels. And He is going to take vengeance on those who know not God. And they are in bad shape. And their mouth, by and large, gives them away. And if we don't stand up and tell people, you are not well. And people can look and say, yeah, but that just scares us. That's not what we want. We want the Joel Osteen. Because we want to feel good. Brethren, I'll tell you what. It's just like with the cancer doctor. He can make people feel good. But I'll tell you what. What you want to do when you find out somebody's got cancer, and you believe it's still in the curable state. You know what you want to do? You want to warn them. You want to jump up and down. And you want to scare them thoroughly. Why? Because you want them to take it dead serious. And you want them to get that cancer taken care of. I'm telling you what. This is bad news. But it's followed by all sorts of good news. Paul goes on for chapters to tell us the good news. He is going to tell us for chapters about how people can be cured from this state. So we don't tell people about this bad news and just leave them there in their depression, discouragement, and despair. We tell them this in hopes that they will see a need of the doctor above all other doctors. The greatest of doctors. And they will flee to him for healing. And I'll tell you this. People don't flee to the doctor until they realize they are sick. And you can see the sickness. What Paul is telling us is if you want to see their sickness, look in their mouth. That's what he says. Look in their throat. Oh, they are not like Christians who are witnesses for Christ. And when they speak, they speak life. When you look in their throat, you find death. You find an open grave. That's where death is. They use their tongues to deceive. Men are liars. They are liars. The venom of Asp is under their lips. So I mean, you have a picture of death. You have a picture of deceit. Think about, we don't see this for what it is. Their throats are an open sepulcher. It has the stench of death. My own mother when I was a child, Mom, what do I need to do to get to heaven? Just keep the commandments. As though that's possible. There was a stench of death. Folks, except for true Christianity, all the ways man speaks of, and a lot of that comes, not all of it is Islam and Buddhism. It comes in the guise. The Methodist Church has not had the Gospel, by and large, for a hundred years. Lutheranism, by and large, there may be a more conservative branch that I've heard of, but by and large, it doesn't have the Gospel. By and large, there are some strains, but by and large, the Southern Baptist Church does not have the Gospel. Folks, much of what goes under the guise of Christianity does not have the Gospel. The Word of Faith Movement, by and large, does not have the Gospel. The Pentecostal Charismatic Movement, by and large, brethren, when you listen to T.D. Jakes, his mouth is an open sepulcher. It is a mouth of death. When you listen to Joel Osteen, it is a mouth of death. It is death. It is destruction. And people that listen to it, their sin ever mounts up with the wrath of God and His anger and His fury. Why? Why? Because Catholic priests tell you to bow down to Mary. That is a stench of death. Because the Health, Wealth, Prosperity is wanting you to bow down to dollar bill signs. That's a stench of death. Because by and large, Methodism and Lutheranism and Catholicism are having you bow down to your own works. And it's a stench of death. They would have you bow down to your goodness and to your works. And it is a stench of death. And oneness denies the Father and the Son and the Spirit. And it is a stench of death. Anything that would have you turn to worship which is not the true God, it is a stench of death. And it is in this stench of filth that follows the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air. It is air, it is hell bound, it is horrible, it is stinks of death, it stinks of deception, it is wicked. Brethren, men lie. They lie all the time. They say, well I'm not like this chronic liar who just goes out and lies for no purpose. Brethren, every time man portrays God wrong, it's deception. Listen, they are like their father. And he is the father of lies. We are so deceived. We want to constantly put our sin in the light of how we treat each other. The father of lies did not come along and lie. His first lies were not about deception among man. His first lie to man was about who God is. About what God said. Do you remember what his first lie was? He put God in this light that well God just knows that if you eat of this fruit, you are going to be like Him. Insinuating He is withholding something from you. He is suspect. He really doesn't have your good in mind. Isn't that what was behind that lie? You shall not surely die. You won't really die. He is just trying to hold back some good from you. Right there is where man's perverseness lies. Our lies by and large, the lies that so characterize man, is how he talks about God. Man's sin that God is most angry with, is by and large not how we treat each other. It's how we treat Him. It's how we treat His Son. It's how we talk about His Son. The venom of ass. An open grave. Deception. They are like a snake. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. He goes on to talk about their feet. Their feet are swift to shed blood. You say, well, by and large, we don't run around and murder like that Norwegian guy that just killed almost a hundred people over there in Norway. You know what? Change the laws so that abortion is permitted. And watch how many serial killers come out of the woodwork. How many babies have we slaughtered in America since 1970? Anybody know the number? Not one million. Or two. We are in tens of millions. Times tens of millions. Our country slaughters 4,000 children a day. All you have to do is change the laws to make murder permissible and man will kill without reserve. Man will slaughter one another. You just make it legal and there is no end to the blood man will shed. Brethren, you know it is true. We just went through Huntsville on the way to this conference. Huntsville is where they execute criminals. There are laws that forbid open outright murder. I mean, you know the truth is, murder is not like petty thievery. If you murder somebody, they are going to bring an investigative unit from the police and they are going to try pretty hard to find you. More so than if your house gets broken into and you call the police. They may come around and do a little fingerprinting. But if there is a murder, they are going to try to get you. And you know what, most people know it. Most people enjoy their freedom. But you know it as well as I do. All you have to do, do you know that the Nazi, often times concentration camp guards, the doctors that did the experiments, they would go home at night and listen to classical music. They weren't Jeffrey Dahmer types that would go home and eat human parts out of their refrigerator. They would go home and listen to classical music. But here is what happened. They were involved in a government that gave them freedom and liberty without punishment to kill at will, and they did. And that would happen in our country. Listen, in countries where Catholicism gets in bed with the government, and Catholicism begins to control the law making processes, and makes it legal to kill the heretics, they kill in unbridled fashion. And if you tell me I am not telling the truth, I've got history to bear witness against you. And it's not just Catholicism, you show me a government that gets in bed with Hinduism, and they make it legal to kill the heretics, or Islam, and they make it legal to kill the heretics, it happens in every one of those governments. Brethren, all you have to do is have legislation that allows murder, and people will kill indiscriminately. And even in our own country, when you get in a situation where law breaks down because of storms like Katrina, have you ever heard the stories about what went on inside the Superdome, when there were no police officers, nobody was armed, and law could not be kept? Have you heard what went on in there? Have you heard what went on in New Orleans, when all law broke down? And if you think that only happened there, because well that's New Orleans, you've got another thing coming. If law breaks down, brethren, this is mankind. Mankind is bad at heart. And given opportunity, man will let go, he will let loose. And this is our state. And God is furious against the nations. He is furious. And He is going to come, and brethren, let me tell you, judgment day and coming before God is going to be so real, and being cast into a lake of fire is going to be so real, and the gnawing of the tongue, and the gnashing of teeth, and the weeping, bitter weeping, the punishment and the sorrow, brethren, this is real. This is not fake, this is not fantasy, this is not fiction. And He's coming, and He's going to come, and He's going to take vengeance. And so when the Apostle Paul comes along and says, But wait, this condition is healable. This condition, there is hope. There is a gospel. There is righteousness. There is a way for all this guilt, all this horrible guilt to be washed away. There is a way for the tongue to be set right, and the feet to be made straight. There is a way. There is a way to be healed. There is a way for this record to be cleansed. You see, brethren, we've got this sense that, well, I'm not like these guys in prison. I'm not like guys that have gotten caught. I'm not like guys that are on death row. Don't you realize? You are on death row. Just because you're not in man's prison. God says, John 3.36, You are under the wrath of God now. It's not you just will be. He is angry with you now. You are under His wrath now, and you only sit on death row. All you await is execution. And the only reason the execution is being stayed right at this moment is giving you opportunity to repent. That kindness God is showing you in staying His hand of execution is giving you opportunity to repent. And if you will come to Christ, it is utterly, we can't even hardly describe it to you, those of us that have come. You come to Him with all this filth, and all this guilt, all this record, all these crimes. And you lay Him out there before Him. And He will look you straight in the eye with a look of love, and pardon, and forgiveness. And He will wash all that sin away. And He will impute perfect righteousness, Brethren, do you understand? Nobody has cost God what man has cost God. No one. We have had such spent on us. We have had such a price paid that is unspeakable. That is what the writer of Scripture says. The unspeakable gift. Brethren, can I tell you this? When He comes, can you imagine how His fury is multiplied if He comes to criminals who had pardoned? I mean with the severity of the crimes. And He came to them at the expense of the blood of His Son. And He said, I offer you pardon freely. And if you spit in His face and say I'll have none of it. People have this idea of a God of love who because He is a God of love must be incapable of fury, and rage, and wrath. Don't you believe it? In fact, what Scripture teaches is when His gestures of love are despised, it only fuels that rage. And rightly so. Rightly so. Can you imagine if somebody killed your son and you went to the prison where he was incarcerated and said I forgive you. You looked through the little slot like Mark was telling me he did when they visited the prison this last weekend. And you were looking through there at the murder of your son and you said I forgive you. And he just spit at you through that crack. If you walked out of there full of indignation, would that not be righteous? And how much more to despise God Almighty when He gave His Son. Folks, the news is bad. And if you despise the remedy, it is going to be so bad for you. It is going to be so full of terror and horror. Outside of Christ, God Almighty is an infinite terror to you. Listen, don't you believe calamities, hurricanes, or even the devil himself is your worst nightmare. It is not. It is God outside of Christ. He is your worst terror, your worst nightmare. And He will come upon you and He will have you. And we cannot speak the terror that will be. But right now, this God has done an unspeakably loving thing with all the crimes while you were yet in your sin, weak, in hatred. Isn't this what Scripture says? It says this, it says, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us. Even when we were yet dead in our sins, folks, that is the amazing thing. Even while we were dead in our sins, just totally living in rebellion to Him while we were like that, because of His great love with which He loved us, because of His great mercy. He had mercy upon us. He sent His Son to die. What a thing. What a thing. Brethren, we've got to tell men the bad news. We've got to tell them they're sick. And that there is a remedy. There is a healer. There is a great physician who beckons them to come. But brethren, if you're going to be faithful to proclaim the Gospel, listen, you are not being faithful. You are not being like Paul or like Christ. You are not being like God. You are not being faithful if you will not tell men the bad news. You are not. You're not being faithful to the Word of God. You are not being faithful to what the church of Jesus Christ ought to be. Because if you are going to be this pillar, this stay, this ground, this buttress, this bulwark of truth, then how are we being faithful if we don't say this part of the truth? Every one of the New Testament writers tells us the bad news. Every one of them. We're not being like them if we don't tell men. If you want to be like a lot of these TV guys who say, I don't want to talk about sin, I don't want to talk about repentance, I don't want to talk about hell, then do you want to be like them? Then you will not be like Christ. Because Christ was not like that. Christ told men the way it was. And you know what? Just like I said about cancer. If you have cancer, you want the doctor to shoot straight with you. You do not want to sit down in front of a man full of teeth who smiles at you and will not look you straight in the eyes and say you have a terminal sickness.