- Good evening, everyone.
Welcome to Spring Crest Baptist Church.
I'll briefly go through the announcements.
I'm filling in for Pastor Reyes tonight.
He's in California, he's at First Works Baptist Church.
So he's preaching in Anaheim for Pastor Bruce Mejia today.
Their church is on a soul-winning mission trip to Belize.
And so Pastor Cobb will be preaching this evening.
So our Sunday morning service is at 10.30,
our Sunday evening service is at 4.30,
and then our Wednesday evening service is at 5.30.
Today's soul-winning outing was great.
We got 24 people saved in all, 24 new souls saved.
So that brings our count to 436 for the year.
Praise God for that.
If you would, grab your red hymnal and turn to page two.
We're gonna be on page two in the red hymnal.
We'll sing glory to his name, glory to his name.
Page two in the red hymnal.
His name, dear to my heart, was a lie.
So sweetly I swiped his name to this mountain that sleeps.
He's heard and he saves me and keeps me clean.
He came unto this mountain from the fifth and sixth.
Say, "Glory to him today," and he says, "His name, dear to my heart, was a lie."
Singing, everybody, it's singing.
Turn in your red hymnal to page 379, 379, "Bringing in the Sheaves," page 379.
After that, have Pastor Cobb come up and read for us.
We're going to be in Genesis 19, page 379, "Bringing in the Sheaves."
Bringing in the Sheaves, helping in the dreadful harvest for the Mass.
If they're already, please turn in your Bible to Genesis 19, Genesis 19, first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 19.
We're going to be reading from the first verse up through verse 28, Genesis chapter 19, Genesis chapter 19, 1 through 28, where we're going to be reading.
Genesis chapter number 19, Genesis 19, verse one, Bible reads, there came two angels to Sodom at even and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom.
Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face toward the ground.
And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you into your servant's house and tarry all night.
Wash your feet. You shall rise up early. Go on your ways.
And they said, Nay, but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly, turned in unto them,
entered into his house, and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread. They did eat.
Before they lay down, men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house out, old and young, all the people from every quarter.
And they called unto Lot and said unto him, Where are the men which came into thee this night? Bring them out unto us, so that we may know them.
Lot went out, door unto them, and shut the door after it, and said, Pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now two daughters which have not known man.
Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you. Do ye to them as is good in your eyes. Only unto these men do nothing. Therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
They said, "Stand back." And they said again, "This one fellow came into sojourn, and he will needs be a judge. Now will we deal worse with thee than with them."
And they pressed sore upon the man. Even Lot came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house to them and shut to the door.
And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they weary themselves to find the door.
And the men said unto Lot, "Hast thou here any besides, son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city?
Bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxing great before the face of the Lord.
The Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said,
Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. They seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law.
And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened, Lot saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of this city.
While he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, and the Lord being merciful unto him, they brought him forth and set him without the city.
And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, and he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain, escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my lord, behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life, and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die.
Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one, O, let me escape thither, is it not a little one, and my soul shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city, for the which thou hast spoken, haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do anything till thou become thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoah.
The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoah.
Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,
and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Abraham got up early in the morning in a place where he stood before the Lord.
He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain.
He held low. The smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.
Let's bow our heads and go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we thank you once again for gathering us here this evening.
We thank you for your word. We thank you for all the blessings that you've bestowed upon us.
Lord, we pray that you soften our hearts and give us ears to hear so that we may receive this message
and apply it to our lives and become more effective servants for you.
Lord, please fill Pastor Cobb with your Holy Spirit and allow him to preach with boldness and clarity from your pulpit.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Thank you, sir. Thank you for being here this evening and appreciate whether for reading the scripture for us.
And we're going to try to break some of this down for you.
I've been titled a message of fiery and we actually have about four that I'll be mentioning.
But our story begins with the 28th, 1983.
I'll tell you, you probably wouldn't remember what happened there, but it was on TV for several days.
I heard about the Waco Massacre or the Waco Tobacco. It's called a number of things, but it happened.
February the 28th, 1983 actually began the story.
Janet Reno, anybody remember her?
She was the Attorney General of the United States under President Bill Clinton.
She gave orders to attack a group called the Branch Davidians.
David Koresh was a leader of that cult.
She gave the orders for the FBI to go in and do what they had to do.
The thing is, if they did, they ought not to have done.
They went in shooting with guns in the so-called compound out here in Waco, Texas
of where the Branch Davidians were operating.
Branch Davidians, they called themself, was a split off, the seventh day had finished.
The government was on them, they didn't like them, and anyway, they came in on them with guns.
In February, a lot of the FBI agents were killed.
Naturally, that made the government alarmed over what had happened.
The next thing that happened was on the news, world observed going on in Waco.
A lot of the Davidians were holed up in the compound, and they refused to come out.
Any of you all remember any of that? Any of you perhaps old enough to remember being on watching television, seeing it?
I had at least a couple here that would remember it.
Waco, matter of fact, it got to be showing on TV all the time, and everybody was expecting to hear the news about what was going on in Waco.
Naturally, that made our government look weak or bad, so the ultimate way was they attacked the Davidians.
The Davidians holed themselves up and were not willing to come out.
They all made fun about it in those days.
They said, "Do you know what Waco stands for? We ain't coming out."
Basically, that's what they said.
Fifty-one days, they battled each other, and it came down to a showdown, a shootout.
And everybody saw it in horror as flames engulfed and burned all those people up, a bunch of children when that happened.
Everybody just, themselves, as they looked, it unfolded as those people that were dying.
That was about 82, I think they said, that died, 82 people.
They came to a fire end, but the Waco event took the lives of 82 people who weren't coming back.
They were burned to death, whoever went into the compound.
We don't know for sure all the names and what have you of the people that did that.
They were guilty, but they were. Fast forward now two years to the day.
By the way, today, April the 19th, is the anniversary of the shooting in Waco.
It's also the anniversary of the shooting in Oklahoma.
My oldest sister sat at her desk where she worked in Oklahoma City.
When all of a sudden, she said the whole world sounded like it was coming to an end.
Called her the chain of events in Waco.
Man by the name of, I don't even think of her name right now.
But Terry, anybody want to help me? Timothy McVeigh.
And the other guy was Terry that helped build it.
Okay, well I've got it written on my other notes.
Thank you so much.
But my only sister sat there when the storm clouds fell out.
Actually, they blew the place up.
Timothy McVeigh and his buddy Terry Nichols got together and made a huge bomb.
They set it in the door of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building.
It killed 160-some-odd people.
It happened two years exactly at 9 o'clock in the morning, April the 19th, 1983.
They were literally executed by the Feds.
We don't know. That's an argument.
I'll put a little check mark by that that I said it, but question mark on it.
We don't know for sure exactly what happened, do we?
But we do know that it happened.
We know that Timothy McVeigh was put to death in 2001 because of what he had done.
He was executed by the feds.
Naturally, talked to yesterday and here in the building, my niece came and we met them here.
We hadn't seen them in about 10 years.
They came down from Oklahoma City, Yukon, Oklahoma.
Those of you that were here the other day when our missionary was here, where they came from, sister, her daughter.
My sister was once sitting at the desk next to the Oklahoma building when he was blown up.
But I want us to fast forward to the city that our brother just read to us about in Genesis 19.
About Sodom and Gomorrah, and we've all heard the stories about them for years and read the scriptures.
God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. He literally burned them up.
Well, he asked a question. Scripture says God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but he also knows where sin leads.
Sin grows and grows and grows. It had undated the people seeing that.
As plain as the Scripture is, homosexuality had crept in and destroyed that generation.
God had all he could take. When God gets all, he can take you in trouble.
People in Sodom and Gomorrah were in trouble. They were wicked.
But again, let me remind you, God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, does he?
But if we ponder and look over what happened in Waco and Oklahoma, think about those innocent children.
I want to focus on that a moment, so you're one of my main thrusts here.
Those innocent children had done nothing to deserve what they got.
Somewhere or another there was a breakdown. I can tell you where it was.
The breakdown was with the parents that didn't take care of the children or didn't watch over or teach them.
And a lot of those children, we assume, especially if they rejected Christ, we know that they didn't make it to heaven.
And they're going to be where they're at for an eternity.
It broke my mind, Christ, and I've stood here for 50 years basically trying to proclaim Christ as our Savior and our Lord.
We've challenged the people over the period of time, their parents, to take care of their children and raise them up in the right way.
If they don't, they're going to die and go to hell.
Don't think about it. Children that die before the age of accountability, don't go to hell.
God washed their sins away. See what you want, but that's a fact.
I want to read to you about another fire furnace and if you turn to one scripture or two scriptures,
2nd Peter chapter 3 verse 10, "But the day of the Lord will come."
Stop right there. The day of the Lord will come. Going to come. Period.
The day of the Lord shall. But it's going to come as a thief in the night.
I'm not looking for it. Folks, I've got to tell you, thank the Lord for you folks that go out and went out today
and go winning and not only today but yesterday.
And you've saved people from that awful pit, that awful place that we're reading about in the scripture.
Let me finish 2nd Peter 3 verse 10.
So the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night into which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.
And with the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
I just read and said the earth, the people that are there are going to be burned up.
It doesn't matter because it's going to happen. We've got the future recorded already in the scripture because what God said is going to be.
Whether you like it or not, He's not going to change His plans for you and me.
I get amazed at people who think that they're in control when we're not in control.
I listened to the news back a moment ago and they were talking about all the stormy weather that is brewing out there
and across the screen that a truck driver was killed today by lightning.
Say what you want. God knew where the lightning was coming and the guy sat when lightning hit him.
It didn't do that. God did. God knows what's going to be unfolded down the way.
One told me they got a little child they're going to name Joe Si.
Here Brother Kevin's got a boast a little bit, don't blame him, but he's going to have a little boy pretty quick.
He's going to name Joe Si. You know what was great about Joe Si?
What the Lord said to how great a man of God he was.
He's one of the few that you don't read any negative apart.
About eight years old when he began to reign as a king.
And God took him 38. He reigned 30 years.
The Lord said he took him so he wouldn't have to see the judgment that was coming on that nation.
Went to a better place. When you leave this old earth you graduate.
Go to the place that we're all looking forward to.
Where our loved ones, you know I'll share this with you a little bit.
I remembered what happened here at Waco '83.
And the reason I remembered, my son was a member of this church.
Stood behind this very stand here. But he died in 1983.
The guff down here at Surfside came for me that night, July the 28th of '83.
Guy comes along with us looking for a ride.
My son was on the beach there. He and another fellow there were training.
And my son lay there and came off the street running from the laws.
And he sees my son sleep on a sleeping bag, takes a club, takes my son's life.
At the time we had a wife and two little kids. I would say two. Two-year-old boy.
Your parent will come with that tonight. Y'all forgive me for sharing it with you, but that's my privilege.
Consequently, my grandson had to be raised by whoever while he was growing up.
Remember the church here, he doesn't come as often as he should, but he's a member.
But my son stood here and gave parts on Sunday evening, especially we had a course called Baptist Training Course.
He came and took part and was active. Get to my closing remarks.
Alright, read the scripture. The scripture tells me there's a lot of people going to be saved.
Be one of them. If you trust the same Lord that I have, that's what he would have for you is turn to him and be saved.
Read a while back about a guy that was a Baptist. He was talking to an atheist. The atheist kind of scolded him.
He said, "Felon, if I believe like you do that somebody's going to spend hell and eternity," he said, "I'd be down on my knees calling and telling everybody I met,
'Trust the Lord Jesus Christ.'" He got it right on, and I thank the Lord. I appreciate so much what this church is doing now as soul winning.
That's the business of the church. That's why the Lord set the church up, was to win souls. You're proven it. You're proof of it.
Over the 63 years that I've been a pastor and knocked on doors and visited with people, we didn't call it soul winning, but in essence that's what it was.
We weren't as successful, and the reason being, I guess we thought we had to baptize all of them, and I thought that. But thank the Lord, baptism is not going to save you, is it?
It's for saved people, people that have already trusted the Lord. Once your life is fulfilled and you've got what God wants you to do, you'll be baptized after you've trusted the Lord Jesus.
Folks, that's my thoughts to you this evening. You don't want anybody to have a fiery end, do we?
For that reason, yesterday there were 28 souls saved to folks that went from here. Today there's 24 more.
Isn't that wonderful? Some of them may never walk the doors of the church. I don't know. We don't know that either, do you?
Thank the Lord they on the right start. The Lord for you that's willing to have doors stemming in your face.
Hear a lot of unkindly remarks. Folks, I've been there. You can hear it.
Pastor Enrique and I were out down off a guest room one day knocking on doors and got an old fellow, Pastor Enrique, tried to tell them about the Lord and they got it.
He said, "I don't care where I go." He had to let him go. It's a choice that a person makes.
Folks, you're making a choice one way or another because when it comes to the Lord you can't be renewed until you're far mere against me, he said.
I challenge you this evening to the Lord in your life or whatever you do because he's there.
God bless you and add to the blessing. Brothers, come lead us in the song and stand together.
Go ahead, brother. Good serve.
[Music]