(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right, Micah chapter 5, beginning of verse 10, the Bible reads, And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots, and I will cut off the cities of thy land and throw down all thy strongholds, and I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy hand, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers. Thy graven image is also what I cut off, and thy standing image is out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands, and I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee. So will I destroy thy cities, and I will execute vengeance and anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. Now we're going to focus there on the verse 15 where the Bible reads, I will execute vengeance and anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard. Before we get into the message, I want to kind of take a minute to just really look at that word, fury, and define it. So if you would, just bookmark Micah chapter 5 there and turn back to Genesis chapter 27. Genesis chapter 27, I'll be reading in verse 41, And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob. Verse 42. And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold thy brother Esau's touchingly doth comfort himself, proposing to kill thee. Now therefore my son obey my voice and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran, and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away, until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him. Then will I send and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? So we see here that Esau in this story is experiencing great fury, and that fury is something that stems from anger. He's angry about what Jacob had done to him in deceiving his father and taking the birthright and the blessing from him. And he says that he's going to slay his brother. He's so angry in this passage that he's gone so far as to say, I'm going to kill my own brother. He's going to kill his own flesh and blood. And his mother of course warns Jacob, and he flees, and she says in her warning in verse 44, until thy brother's fury turn away, until thy brother's anger turn away from thee. Now we would think when we read that anger and fury are the same thing, and in a way they kind of are, but I believe that fury is an expression of anger. That anger is something in and of itself. That you can be angry with somebody, but not necessarily be furious. Anger is something that results in fury, if I can say that. You see, because fury is a taking out of that anger. It's an expression of that anger. It's possible to be angry with somebody, but not express that in the form of being furious. Now fury is taking vengeance in a very specific manner. As we see here, Esau's intent was to slay his brother. He wanted to kill him. He was so angry that he'd become furious that it resulted in the action of him actually desiring to murder or kill his own brother to slay him. So you see that fury is taking vengeance upon somebody. It's a tense and extremely fierce emotion. It's something that would be defined as a violent or destructive rage. You know, if we were to come in here, you know, brother Nick, if you were to come in this morning in a fury, in a violent and intense rage, maybe he would have thrown the door open and just started kicking chairs and making all kinds of noise, right? That way he would say, well, he's furious this morning, right? We've talked about Jehu last week and how he drove his chariot furiously. What was he doing when he was driving that chariot? He was going to take vengeance. He's going to execute wrath and judgment. He was driving furiously. So we see that fury is an intense and extremely fierce, violent and destructive rage. Now furious vengeance is something that God carries out. Fury is something that God experiences. It's something that God does. He has a fury. He has vengeance. He has anger. And that's really what I want to talk about this morning because if you're there in Micah 5 10, it says in verse 15, and I, the Lord speaking, I will execute vengeance and anger and fury. So God is saying that one day, and he has in the past some of his own stories in the Bible, but even in the future, that God is going to execute vengeance and anger and in fury. Meaning God, that God one day is going to execute a fierce and destructive, violent rage upon the face of the earth. That God is not just a God of sunshine and flowers and puppy dogs and rainbows. God is good. We know that and we'll talk about that. But we have to also understand that God has another, there's a bigger picture to the nature of God. And part of the nature or the character of God is that He is one who executes furious vengeance and anger. That's the title of the sermon this morning. The fury of God. The fury of God. Now you say, that sounds scary. And it is. And that's really something we're going to talk about here because of course we're in the month of October and this is when everybody wants to celebrate all the fear and being afraid of things and the ghoulish things and all these things that would give children nightmares and all these kinds of things. Our culture treats fear or being afraid as a type of cheap entertainment. Being afraid of something or experiencing fear is just a cheap form of entertainment for many people today. And they don't have the proper respect of what it means to be afraid of something. You know I think, of course as we walk around today, if we were to go to Wal-Mart or any of the big stores where they're selling lots of goods, they would have all their Halloween decorations out. And they would have a lot of ghoulish things. I know that our apartment complex, they always make a big deal out of Halloween. It's the one holiday that they celebrate. They shut down the parking lot and they have all the kids come to do the trick-or-treating. And they've got the spider webs and the giant spider and they've got this ghoulish witch. I mean I'm walking out the other night to go get my soda pop, and I say soda pop because that way I can appease everybody, soda and pop, so I'm walking out to get my soda pop and I come around to the pool where it is and it's dark out and there's this fake witch standing about this tall, green face, long chin, the nose, the hat, this ghoulish looking witch. And I mean I'm about ready to draw on her, you know. I'm in South Phoenix and I don't want to be seeing that, you know, but I remember just walking about it and even as a grown man it gave me chills for a moment, you know, and it was kind of like, man what, and this is something that they want children to see. This is something that they want people to look at and to feel that fear. So we see that fear, that being afraid of something is just cheap entertainment today. And we can think of all the horror films, I mean we could sit here and just list hundreds and hundreds of horror films that have been put out, you know, over and over again. They're even remaking these horror films, these ghoulish films that depict some of the most gruesome and violent acts against, even against children. You know I haven't seen it but I've heard a lot of people rail on this new movie, It, this remake of Stephen King's movie, where it's literally just this psychotic killer clown that is preying upon children. I mean what a, what a demonic thing, what a demonic thing that people would want to even go see that. I mean what's wrong with your heart and your head if you think that's something you should go look at. That you want to go and you want to feel that experience of fear from someone depicting violence against children. It's sick and disgusting. We could even think in even more, maybe even more, you know, less abrasive way that people are seeking to have fear and experience that fear and that thrill that comes with being afraid. Would just be these thrill seekers, you know, daredevils, people that are just taking foolish risks. Maybe they're not necessarily trying to, you know, watch things that they shouldn't watch or you know, decorate things with ghoulish, you know, ghouls and goblins. But they're doing things that, you know, on a day to day basis, and I think number one would be, you know, these guys on motorcycles. I see them every day on the highway, just, you know, go flying by. I mean I'm driving on a surface street the other day where it's 45 and I kid you not, this guy flew by me and I had to do an 80 on one of these little bikes, would zip it by. And I noticed as soon as he got out ahead of me, his head turned around like that and sure enough, about five seconds later, a police went by on a bike too and I thought to myself, get him. You know, I mean that guy, when you're doing 60 or 80 on a surface street, that's like, that's not a ticket. That's go to jail time. But why would somebody do that? Why would somebody take a risk, risk their life so much on a motorcycle? And why would somebody want to do that? Because it's a cheap thrill. You know, people like that, to be exhilarated, you know, and they do all kinds of things. I mean you think of the parachuting and the bungee jumping and it goes on and on today. I mean if you can, you can go on YouTube and watch people just do the craziest things. I mean you see all these kids over in Russia that are just doing like this free climbing and they're going up these un-roped, climbing up cranes and buildings that are under construction or going and hanging off some high precipice, you know, just dangling by one hand over a drop that's hundreds and hundreds of feet just to kind of show off and, you know, they get that 15 seconds of fame on YouTube. Not even 15 minutes, just 15 seconds, they do some blip and a compilation of some guy doing some crazy thing. Why is that people do that? I can't help but wonder why. I mean is your life that boring? Is your life that dull that you have to go do 80 miles an hour down the freeway on a, you know, I don't know how many people I've seen or heard of getting hurt or even killed on these motorcycles. I mean I've driven by them where there's some mangled bike on the side of the highway and, you know, there's some pair of sneakers sticking out from underneath the sheet on the highway because some guy got killed because some guy just wanted to experience some cheap thrill that he just wanted to feel that fear rise up in himself for a moment and it's terrible. And, you know, I don't want to go on and on about that but I want us to understand that, you know, the point I'm trying to make is that our culture takes fear for granted. It's something that they just think that it's a form of entertainment, you know, it's just some way for them to get their kicks, to be afraid of something. And it makes light of and ignores a very important aspect of God's nature and that God is someone to be feared. In 1 Chronicles 16, I'll read it to you, it says in verse 25, for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, He is also to be feared above all gods. And anyone who's read their Bible or any Bible preaching would know that I could spend the next few hours just reading all the verses where it says, fear the Lord, fear the Lord, the Lord is to be feared, and go on and on about how we are to fear God. And that's why I want to preach about this because we're living in a culture today that makes light of fear and I think they make light of a very important aspect of God, the nature of God and that He is something to be feared. It's said there in 1 Chronicles that He is to be feared above all gods. I mean God is to be feared and we live in a culture today, in a world today, that wants to fear anyone and everything but God. See it says there, it says He is to be feared above all gods and people want to be afraid of everything else. Romans chapter 3 verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one, there is none that understand it, there is none that seek it that for God, they are all gone out of the way, they together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no, not one, their throat is an open sepulcher, with their tongues they have used deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. And how does it end there? And there is no fear of God before their eyes. And that's the world we're living in today. That's the type of nation we're living in today. It's not a nation that doesn't experience fear. No, we live in a nation that wants to know fear. They're afraid of many things. They're afraid of the economy crashing. They're afraid of North Korea nuking, you know, somebody on the west coast. They're afraid of, you know, some pestilence taking over our land. They're afraid of the bird flu or the swine flu or whatever the next flu that's going to come out. And we're living in a fear-mongering culture and we're living in a culture that is entertained by fear today. But notice there, it says in verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. It's not enough to just be afraid. You need to be afraid of the right thing. And what we need to be afraid of today, what we are not afraid of today in this country is God, who is probably the most terrifying thing, you know, that we could even think of if we really thought about it. And that's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to look at why we should even be afraid of God. We have to understand, first of all, why are we preaching this? Because we are living in the midst of a nation that has no fear of God before their eyes. And we need to put the fear of God before some people's eyes today. And we need to understand, help people to understand that God is somebody that is greatly to be feared. And that fear is not just some, you know, trigger for you to get some adrenaline dump in your system and it feels some kind of a thrill. It's something that should strike terror into our hearts and motivate us to live for God. You see, we're living in a nation that doesn't know fear. This chapter here, or this passage in Romans 3, is a perfect description of our nation today. In Romans 3, verse 10, if you're there, it says that there is none that they do not understand. And that's the nation we're living in today. We're living in a nation today that does not understand. They can't even figure out what bathroom to go in anymore. They can't even figure out the difference between a man and a woman. I don't know how many different genders they define. They've come up with all these crazy ideas. They don't understand the Bible. They don't understand even the most simple concepts of a male and female. They don't understand. They don't seek God. That's why they don't have an understanding. If we had people today that would seek God and seek His Word, there's no part of our life, there's no aspect of our life that we can't receive wisdom and knowledge and understanding from God. Why don't they understand? Because they don't seek God. And that's the nation we're living in. We seek God. We say, well no, we seek God. We say, God bless America, America the beautiful, God shed His grace on thee. And we'll have these anthems and we'll have these moments in the nation where everybody just stops and pauses for a moment to acknowledge God. They'll never say Jesus Christ, they'll never claim the God of the Bible, they'll just say God in this kind of general sense. But when do they do that? They always do that after some tragedy. They do it after the Las Vegas shooting, they do it after 9-11, they do it after some massacre has taken place where everyone actually feels the type of fear that maybe they should have been feeling all along. And they pause for a moment to acknowledge God, to kind of tip their hat and say, oh by the way, God bless us, God take care of us, God comfort us now that we're afraid of something. But they don't seek God. I think about these guys, these football players are taking a knee and how everyone's just this outrage over these guys that are taking a knee. And I'm thinking to myself, this whole nation needs to forget about a knee. Everyone should just get on their face. I mean look what our nation is at today. It's terrible. And everyone wants to get upset because they feel like their race is being oppressed. I got some multi-millionaire out there talking about how oppressed everybody is, right? I'm not entirely sure what the whole thing is about but I think it's just ridiculous. That's what everybody's up in arms about. The NFL, the protests in the NFL, let them take a knee. I don't care. I don't watch that stuff anyway, it doesn't matter to me. I would like to see a whole nation get humble and bow down before something that matters like God, that they would seek God. That's what we need to do. When they don't understand, when they don't seek God, that's when we go out of the way. And that's what we see going on in our country. We see people who don't have no understanding because they don't seek God, and then they're gone out of the way. They're lost in the woods. I mean if God's Word is a light and a lamp unto our feet and a guide unto our path that guides us through life, and if we ignore it, is it any wonder that we would become lost in the woods, that we would just lose our way, that we would be gone out of the way? Our nation is one that does not understand, it is one that does not seek God, it is one that has gone out of the way, and it is one that is unprofitable to God. I believe that there probably was a time in this nation where we were sending out many missionaries to go out into distant lands and other parts of the country to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that's very few and far between today, and even the ones that we are sending out, they're doing such a poor job at it that it's a nation that's become unprofitable to God. There's no profit to God. Why would God want to even want to keep us around? It's of no use. Our nation does, if anything, is contrary to God, and it's taking away from the work of God, and it's hindering the work of God. It's a nation that is deceitful. This is the nation we're living in today, and probably if you could say this about most nations in the world, they would fall into these categories. It's a nation that is deceitful, that is using lies and deceit to prosper. It's a nation that is swift to shed blood. Ain't that the truth? I mean, we've got abortion clinics all across this land that are shedding innocent blood every day of the week. Thousands and thousands and thousands of unborn children slaughtered in our land every day. It's swift to shed blood, not to mention the wars of aggression that we do. So many Baptists want to get out and hoorah and wave the flag and pledge allegiance to the flag and get very patriotic about America, but let me tell you something. Our armed forces are over there shedding innocent blood, and you can lighten that or lump it. That's the fact. They've got people over there that are just bombing innocent women and civilians, and that's what's happening today. That is a fact. So we are living in a nation that is swift to shed blood, and they do not know peace, as it says here. They do not know peace. Is there any peace to our land? Look how many people are fretting. Look how many people are just pumping themselves with all kinds of drugs just to calm their nerves, just to get themselves to go to sleep at night. They have no peace. And why is it, why is that? I believe it's there in verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. We've made light of the fear of God, we've wandered out of the way, we don't seek God, they don't understand, they have no fear of God. And this should concern us because there's consequences. There's consequences when a person does not fear God. It's not just like, well I've chosen to ignore God, I've chosen to just not seek Him and go out of the way and to just not have any fear of God before my eyes, and that's it. You know, and we just suffer the consequences that come along with making such a decision. God is proactive in punishing people who would not fear Him. And if you don't believe, you turn over to Leviticus chapter 26, we'll look at that. Because this is an important dynamic that people need to understand. That there's consequences for not fearing God. More than just the natural consequences that come in and of themselves. You know, that if we don't fear God and we don't live by His commandments, you know, the ramifications of sin are going to be a form of punishment. They need to understand that there's this dynamic that God is going to proactively work against you if you don't fear God. Leviticus 26, let me get over there myself. Leviticus chapter 26, we'll begin reading Leviticus chapter 26 and verse 13. I am the Lord that brought you, I am the Lord your God which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt that you should not be their bondman and I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you go upright. But if you will not hearken unto me and will not do all these commandments and if you should despise my statutes or if your soul abort my judgments so that you will not do all my commandments but that you break my covenant, I also will do this unto you. So God is proactively going to do something to them. If they disobey God, if they have no fear of God before their eyes, if they don't seek God, if they don't have any respect for His commandments, He says, I also will do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague and shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart and you shall sow your seed in vain for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you and you shall be slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you and ye shall flee when none pursue with you. And if you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. So God just takes it to the next level. He starts out with this chastisement and when that's not enough, God says, you know what, I'm just going to bring up a notch. He's not just going to throw up his hands and say, well look, that's just the way they're going to be. No, He's going to continue to go after them. If you will not yet hearken for all this, verse 18, unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. Verse 19, and I will break the pride of your power and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass and your strength shall be spent in vain for your land shall not yield or increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if you walk contrary unto me and will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. So if God takes it on the next level, if they still don't get it right, He takes it up again. Verse 22, I will also send wild beasts among you which will rob you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you few a number and your highways shall be desolate. And if you will not be reformed by me by these things but will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary unto you and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant. And He goes on there. So we see here this concept, this dynamic, this principle in the Word of God, that there are, that the results of not fearing God, that not taking heed to God, that not respecting His commandments, that it's, it's that God is proactively going to come against you. It's, you know, as we read there, He's going to say, I'm going to do this to you. I will do this. I will walk contrary to you. And that ought to be a very sobering thought to us today because we're living in a country that is contrary to the Word of God, that has decided to go against the Word of God. And God's not just going to sit back and just act like nothing's going to happen. God is going to proactively, and I believe already is to some degree, begin to chase in this country and turn us over unto our own way. Now the fury of God is the results of man's disobedience. That's really what we're seeing here. It wasn't just God that was like, hey, I'm bored. I'm going to torture you. God isn't just some kid with a magnifying glass out there, you know, frying ants. I don't know if anybody's ever done that. Hopefully no one from PETA is listening, right? You know, who's ever done that? Anyone ever done that? Yeah, okay. You know, God's not that. God's not just trying to get some cheap kicks. God is doing this, bringing these judgments upon them. He's being contrary to man because man has been contrary to him. And that's what we need to understand. And people have an imbalanced view of God today. They don't want to acknowledge or understand this aspect of God's nature. They ignore it or they'll just deny it. They'll ignore or deny God's vengeful nature. God has a vengeful nature. And they'll say, well, God is love. And turn over to 1 John, chapter 4, they'll say, well, God is love. And that's true. God is love. I mean, that's what the Bible says. You can't deny it. But you also can't ignore the many, many, many, many, many, many other passages that show us that God is not just love. And they need to understand what that even means when God says that he is love. And we're going to look at that here because that's what you'll hear a lot today. Well, you know, just love everybody. Just be at peace and don't judge anyone. Just love everybody. And it's just a really nice, warm and fuzzy feeling and they think that's just the way God is. Like God is just some, you know, half-wit up in heaven, just some, just some father up there who doesn't really know what's going on. You know, his kids are running amok in the house but he's just some senile old man who doesn't really, just happy-go-lucky, some sappy old man who just doesn't get it. You know, God is love and God is also a vengeful God. He's a righteous and holy God that judges. 1 John chapter 4, beginning in verse 7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Verse 8, He that knoweth not, he that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. Now those last four words in verse 8 are, again, not a sign of a sappy, oblivious God. That's not what it says. It doesn't, first of all, it doesn't say God is only love. It just says that God is love, right? Meaning that there's more than one thing that God is. Now consider the verses that continue on in this passage. What does that mean when He says God is love? Well, He goes on to explain it. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world. So what is the love of God? How do we know what it means when it says God is love? It's because God sent His only begotten Son into the world. That's how we know that God is love. That we might live through Him, herein is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is why God is love. Because God sent His Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. Now that word, propitiation, that means a substitutionary atoning sacrifice. Specifically, if you look it up, it means to appease a holy or righteous God. If you're going to make a propitiation, it means you're going to substitute something to appease a holy God. That's what a propitiation is. So yes, God is love, but God is love in the sense that He sent His Son into the world. And what did Jesus do when He was here? He suffered torture, and shame, and death, and even hell. That's the love of God. It's not that just God is just going to turn a blind eye, and just turn the other way and ignore sin, it's that He came and punished His own Son for that sin. He made a propitiation for our sins. You see, the love of God is not Him just looking the other way. The love of God is appeasing Him through the righteousness of Christ. That's the love of God. And thank God for that, that we who are sinful, who have no hope without God in this world, have a propitiation through Jesus Christ. That is the greatest love any man can know. God commendeth His love toward us. Commendeth, meaning He lifteth up, and says it is greater than any other love you could know on this earth. My love towards you. But that love is expressed through the death and burial of His Son. Now if you want to turn to Isaiah chapter 53, and we'll look at this, because people need to get this in their heads that when they say God is love, they need to understand why God is love. It's because Jesus Christ died for their sins. As a holy and righteous God laid our sins upon His Son. Isaiah 53. Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor calliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire. Now this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ. This is who this passage is speaking of. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised, and we have seen Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. So that's the love of God, that God would come and be bruised, that God would come and take our transgressions upon Himself, and that He would be chastised and smitten of God. All we, like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth, He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep done before His shears is done, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And He made His grave with the wicked and the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. So we see here, from this passage about Jesus Christ, that we understand that yes, God is love in the sense that He poured out His righteous indignation on His own son. That's the love of God. The love of God is not just Him ignoring the sinful and wicked nature of man, it's Him dealing with it. Now dismissing God's holy nature leads to a people without fear. When we have people who don't want to understand God is love in the proper context, and they don't want to understand that God is righteous and holy and vengeful, and that He will execute vengeance and fury upon man, that leads to a people that have no fear. They don't fear God. And nothing can be more frightening in this world, I believe, than seeing and experiencing the wrath and vengeance of God poured out. We here at Faithful Word, we believe in the post-trib, pre-wrath rapture. We know that we're going to be taken out before God begins to pour out His vials of wrath upon this earth, and thank God, because that is going to be a time on earth like no other. You want to talk about a horror, you want to talk about a hell on earth, God is going to open up the literal gate to hell. He's going to open it up and there's going to be animals, you know, the locusts are going to come up out of hell and torture man. That's scary. That's God. That's what He's going to do. And thank God that we're not going to be here for that. But we know, and we're not to have a spirit of fear, but we have to exercise that and understand that we're not going to have any part in that. But leading up to that, those three and a half years, I believe we'll begin to see those birth pegs. We're going to begin to see God allowing wicked and evil men to wax worse and worse, and to see things start to happen in our world that could be quite frightening. We have to understand that whatever man can do, whatever fear man wants to put in our hearts, God is far more exceedingly fearful. And God wants to help, but God still wants His people to understand that He will judge. That is something that people need to understand today about God, that they need to recognize about the God of the Bible. And if you're going to claim the name of Jesus Christ, and if you're going to lay claim to believing the Word of God, you have to acknowledge the fact that God is a holy, righteous God who will judge the earth. And that's why there's so much scripture describing it. Let me read to you from Nehemiah chapter 1. The burden of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum, the El Coshite, God is jealous. The Lord revengeth, the Lord revengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries and He reserveth wrath for His enemies. Goes on and says in verse 6, who can stand before His indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by Him. But with an overrunning flood, He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue His enemies. That's God. That's God today. People say, well, that's Old Testament. Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today, and forever, amen. That's the God of the Bible. And you know, people say, well, that's Old Testament. If you ever read Revelation, that's far scarier than anything you read in the Old Testament. That's where God is at His most vengeful, is at the end of the New Testament. If you would turn to Isaiah chapter 34, if you're still there in Isaiah, Isaiah 34, beginning in verse 1, Isaiah 34, Isaiah 34 verse 1, the Bible reads, Come near ye nations to hear and hearken ye people. Let the earth hear and all that is therein, the world and all these things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations and is fury upon all their armies. He hath utterly destroyed them and He hath delivered them to the slaughter. You see, people want to say, well, not America. God bless America. You know, we're not going to experience any of that. Let me tell you something. I think the children of Israel probably thought the same thing. I mean, if anybody had any reason to lay claim as God's people or why they should be spared from God's vengeance, you would think it would be them. I mean, they were the ones that had the oracles of Christ given to them. They were the ones that had Moses deliver them. They were the ones that were given the law and the commandments directly. But let me tell you, we would not be the first nation to suffer the fury of God's vengeance. We wouldn't. We would just write about Nineveh, there's many other nations. I mean, the prophets in the Old Testament, it's nation after nation after nation that God is just proclaiming judgment upon it. In Ezekiel 5-11, Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord, surely because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thy abominations, therefore I will also diminish thee. Neither shall any man's eyes spare, neither will I have any pity. And he goes on and he says here in verse 15, Astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgments in thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes, I the Lord have spoken it. So another example of God that He's going to execute judgment in a nation, that He's going to do it with fury and in furious rebukes, and He says, I the Lord have spoken it. Jeremiah 21, I'll read to you, beginning of verse 3, Then Jeremiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands. Wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of the city. And I myself will fight against you, with an outstretched arm, with a strong arm, even in anger and in fury and in great wrath. And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast, they shall die of a great pestilence. So that's God pronouncing judgments on Jerusalem itself, the city of David, you know, the city of the great king. That's where God is pronouncing wrath, and He's even saying, I myself will fight against you. You know, it's one thing when a nation begins to fall apart within and just devour itself within. When a city or a nation just begins to just eat itself apart, just pick itself apart amongst themselves. It's another thing when God decides, I'm going to fight against you. When God is going to go against you Himself. And we would not be the first nation, as Israel, they probably might have came to a shock of But we, you know, have we not, you know, done all these great works and these wonderful things and say, we have the temple and the sacrifices and the priesthood and what a great glorious city they would pay lip service to God. And that's the nation we live in today. We live in a nation that wants to pay lip service to God. You know, they want to sing the anthems, they want to sing the ballads, they want to wave the flags, they want to just invoke the name of God, but all they're doing is they're paying them lip service. And if they were serious about acknowledging the God of the Bible, there would be things that we'd be getting right in our land. We wouldn't see the homos running rampant, doing whatever they want. We wouldn't see the abortion. We wouldn't see the innocent blood being shed. We wouldn't see people just committing adultery and fornication in every term. We wouldn't see all the smut and filth in the media. We wouldn't see all the lies. I mean, this nation is turned against God. That's nothing to do with the commandments of God, but they want to pay lip service. He's still there in Isaiah chapter 29. Isaiah chapter 29 verse 13, Wherefore the Lord saith, forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. So God's saying here that there's a people that, you know, they're drawing nigh with their mouth, but their hearts are far away. And that's exactly what we see going on in our own country. But notice there he says that their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. Meaning that people aren't getting the fear of God and understanding of what it means to fear God for themselves. They're going to a man and allowing him to teach them what the fear of God is. And pastors today, that's what they're teaching their men. They're teaching people the fear of God as the precept of men. And what they teach is that, you know, the United States can do no evil. You know, it's your best life now. God is not angry with you. You know, you have nothing to worry about. God wants you to prosper and have money and just show up once a week and put your tithe in the offering plate and everything's going to be fine. That's what we see today. That's what we see at these liberal churches, these mega churches, these community-centered churches where it's just, come as you are, leave as you came. And it's just, you know, you come in the same, you leave the same. And you're just going to hear about the graves and, you know, you're going to hear 1 John 4, you know, God is love, you're going to hear that verse many, many times. But they're never going to turn to Isaiah. They're never going to turn to, you know, Ezekiel or Jeremiah or any of the prophets for that matter. I mean, you read the prophets, name a prophet who didn't pronounce the judgment of God on somebody. I mean, that was their whole point. That's why God sent them to pronounce judgment. And yet we have people today standing up and saying, not having anything to do. They resemble the prophets of old in no way, shape, or form. They don't look anything like them. It's all just love, love, love. That's what it's all about when you go to these churches today. And they teach the fear of God and you hear this a lot. Well, fear just means respect. Let me just respect God. You know, I have respect for him exactly. I have respect for my boss, you know what I mean? But to a certain degree I fear him because, you know, he could have serious repercussions on my life. You know, if he decided he got in a bad mood one day or I did something wrong or I made a big enough mistake, I'd probably lose my job. So it's not just respect. It's not just that I say good morning when I walk in and I have a good look on my face and try not to, you know, have a bad attitude. It's not, no, that's good to have that respect but there's a level of fear. That's just a man. That's just a man on earth. Think how much more God, that we should fear God. The pastors today, they just teach that, you know, the United States can do no evil. They'll acknowledge things like, oh, the abortion's bad and we ought to work to have legislation against it and this and that. They won't call it what it is. They won't stand up and say, yeah, you're a murderer. You know, if you go down there and have your unborn child, you know, torn out of your womb, you're a murderer. Or that doctor's a murderer. That they should, yeah, they should outlaw abortion. Yeah, they should outlaw abortion and then they should round up all these doctors and execute them. That's how you avenge innocent blood on a land. And if you don't do that, innocent blood, it's a stain upon the land and God doesn't forget it. He keeps track and he tallies it up and God is marking it down and he's going to execute vengeance and wrath because of that innocent blood. You have to appease a righteous and holy God by avenging innocent blood. That's how we would treat, that's how we would be treated. It wouldn't just be, let's go stand out there with a sign. It would be, you know, we're going to do, there would be some serious consequences for having done it. Now if you would, turn to 2 Peter chapter 2. So we see that to the problem of the day is that people have no fear of God. They don't want to acknowledge the furious vengeance of God. They don't want to acknowledge that God is one who executes vengeance and furious wrath upon the earth. That God is one who is vengeful. And they're taught that by the precepts of men. They're taught the fear of God is other than what it is. That there's nothing to worry about and that we're okay here. And that, you know, all these things that we've done, yeah it's too bad but, you know, God is very gracious and long suffering and that's true but they have to have an understanding that there's a point to which God, you know, He draws a line in the sand. There's only so much He'll stand. And these people that teach this, they're, you know, that God is just this, you know, just as not to be feared, that they don't, they teach the fear of God by the precepts of men. They remind me of these guys in 2 Peter 2 verse 17. These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the midst of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity. Words of vanity, words that have no meaning, they're empty, they're hollow words, there's no depth, there's no power. They're just swelling words, they just puff you up, they swell you up, they make you feel good. They allure the lust of the flesh through much wantedness. They say, oh you can drink, you can be a drunk, you can get divorced, you can commit a fornication, it doesn't matter, God understands, God knows. That's what these people are like that teach the fear of God by the precepts of men. Those that were clean escaped from them who live in error, well they promised them liberty. They themselves are the servants of corruption. So they had promised them liberty. Is that what we see today? We see people, that's what a lot of these preachers and these pastors out of these churches say, that's what they do, they promise liberty. Oh there's no condemnation of those that are in Christ Jesus. You know Romans 8 man, Romans 8.1, and you think this is, I'm making all this up, I've seen it. I remember before I got, you know, locked into a good baptist church, I went to a kind of ecumenical like youth bible study in this people's house. And there was this guy, this girl that came, and she showed up just all immodest, and we'd all play the guitar and wave our hands, and then we'd talk about the bible a little bit and go play Uno or something. But sure enough it wasn't long, a few weeks into it, you know, they're holding hands. Then they're dating. Then you see them out in public just, and they're just carrying on. And I remember confronting this guy about it, like, don't you know that's a sin? And he said, well I talked to my pastor about it, and he said it's okay for me to fornicate because there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8.1. Yeah, to them who walk in the Spirit and not after the flesh there is no condemnation. I mean we know that we're free in Christ, you know, that we have liberty in Christ that in a sense that we don't have to worry about going to hell when we die, that we receive the free gift of salvation, that we become God's child. But if you even as a child of God are to go out and walk in the flesh, there's condemnation. There is judgment that will come. And that's a whole other servant. But that's what we see today. That's why there is no fear of God before people's eyes today. Because they have men that are standing them up and promising them liberty when they themselves are the servants of corruption. And people need to be taught that God can become furious in vengeance. And that's the point of this sermon today. To show you from the scriptures and help you understand that the God who we serve, the God of this Bible, is a God who can become furious in vengeance. And it's a frightening and sobering truth and it's unpopular. That's something that needs to be taught and understood. It's something that we need men to get out behind the pulpits and just thunder forth across this whole land. That God is holy, that God is righteous, and that God will execute vengeance in wrath. That God is not just some halfwit in heaven who's just going to look the other way. That God is keeping track and that God will repay. That vengeance is His. Hebrews 10 says, I'll read for you in verse 30, For we know Him that has said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge His people, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And people today, they want to be afraid. They want to experience fear. They want to feel that rush, that adrenaline of when they parachute. They want to feel that chill run up their spine when they go to the movie theater and watch some wicked, ungodly horror film. They want to put fearful and frightening thoughts into the heads of children by showing them ghouls and images that are just demonic on every house and every store through Halloween. And they need to understand something, that it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You want to be afraid of something, ponder falling into the hands of the living God. If you are there, if you could turn to Matthew chapter 25, now if there's people out there that want to be afraid, they want to fear something, let's talk about probably the most fearful moment in all of existence. I mean if there was one moment you could say, where is the one place and one time when people are going to be more afraid than they've ever been in their life? I mean if the goal is to scare somebody today, to feel that cheap thrill of fear, let's go ahead and talk about probably the most frightening thing that will ever happen. Matthew 25 verse 31, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all his holy angels with him, then he shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and beforehand shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divided the sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on his right hand with the goats on his left. Matthew 25 verse 41, then shall he say to them on the left hand, depart from me ye cursed and the everlasting fire prepared the devil and his angels. Yes friend, God is love, but it says there that the everlasting fire that God is going to condemn people to was something that was prepared, meaning God created it, that hell is something that God devised in his own mind as a way to execute vengeance and wrath upon his enemies. It says it's prepared for the devils and his angels and when man fell, man now has to take part in that vengeance and wrath. That's frightening. That's a sobering thought. That's why it says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of living God. You see those who treat fear as entertainment, they need to consider the reality of the great throne judgment. That one day God is going to judge this entire world and that there are going to be those that are told, depart from me ye cursed and the everlasting fire. That's frightening. Revelation chapter 20, we're almost done. Revelation chapter 20 verse 11, we'll see more about this fearful moment in time called the great white throne. Let the thrill seeker, let those who want to have the cheap thrill of fear take note of the most fearful time in all of existence. Revelation chapter 20 verse 11, and I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now this scene here is frightening, and I believe that we're all going to behold this scene, and it's sobering. But consider what's taking place here, this isn't just people going to hell, this is when death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. This takes place after the thousand year reign of Jesus Christ, at the end of the millennium. Meaning people that are dying now, they're going to hell. But at the great white throne they'll be resurrected, they'll stand before God, they'll be judged according to things written in the books, and then they'll be cast into what's called the lake of fire, prepared to the devil and angels. So imagine if you're one of these lost people, imagine you're one of these people that rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ, decided not to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, decided not to accept the free gift of salvation, but rejected it your whole life. And one day you die, maybe you were that thrill seeker on some motorcycle, and you were the one that went out for cheap kicks, and you got in a wreck and you died, and you found yourself, you woke up in hell. And you're there, let's say this happened right before the millennial reign, something like that, you're there for a minimum of a thousand years in hell, a place of fire and heat and torture and torment. It's a terrible place to be, it's frightening. And then after a thousand years, all of a sudden you're resurrected and you have a moment of relief. You have a moment where you're standing before the great white throne of God, and you're there with everybody, the small and the great, the dead, all that have existed. What a scene that will be when we see all that have ever lived, gathered before the great white throne. And you're there and you have that moment of relief. And then he starts to dawn on you, what's happening, as you see person after person cast, and it says cast, meaning it wasn't just that God said, you know, go to your room and they trotted off. I think that they will have to be taken and drug, kicking and screaming and cast in the lake of fire. That they're going to be thrown against their will in the lake of fire, I mean, would you want to go there? That's what's going to happen. They have that moment of relief and they stand before a holy God and they realize they're guilty. They're judged by the things that are written in the book. And they see these others that are beginning, that are being cast in the lake of fire, and they begin to understand your faith. Can you imagine the fear that would set in on somebody at that point? And it wouldn't just be some cheap thrill, it wouldn't just be you taking in some horror film. It wouldn't be something that you could walk out an hour and a half and go back to your life. It'd be something that you're facing down that is going to happen to you. What a fear that would be, what a fear that would sink into that person's heart. And then finally they're cast in the lake of fire forever, never to escape again. That's the God that we serve, that's the God of the Bible. That's a God who executes vengeance and fury and wrath upon sinful man. And people don't like to hear that. It's a hard and sobering truth. Now thank God that's not going to happen to us that are saved, those of us that have recognized that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins. They died for our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world. So those of us that have that truth, what is it that we should do? You know, it's sobering to think about that we know those that might go to that, that might take place in that scene one day. Maybe we'll be there, maybe we'll see somebody that we know being cast in the lake of fire that we didn't bother to tell. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I'll read for you, Wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we will be accepted of Him, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We need to come to terms with this. We need to let this sink in. Not just people that are saved and just looking, I mean they're just like dumb sheep. They're just catalytic, ignorant. They don't know. They need to be warned. They need to be told. Those of us who understand the vengeance and the fury of God, those of us who know, as it says there in verse 11, the terror of the Lord, that have come to terms with this sobering truth of the great white throne, we need to go out and we need to persuade men. That's why we go soul winning. It's not so we can raise our hand and report a number. It's so that we can spare somebody from that fear of going out or standing before God knowingly about to be cast in the lake of fire. That they won't have to know that fear. They won't have to know that terror. That's why we go. That's the motivation. That's why we need to do it. That's what we need churches in America to do today. It's not so that we can pat ourselves on the back and feel good about ourselves. It's because people, that's the heart of God. That's what God wants. You think God enjoys casting people like a fire? I don't think He takes some kind of sick pleasure in it. But it's something that a holy and righteous God must do. That He will execute vengeance throughout because people need to understand that God is not somebody to be trifled with. That He's holy, that He's righteous, and that He does judge and He does execute wrath and judgment and vengeance. And He does it in fury. That is the fury of God. So now that we understand that, let that sink down in our hearts and let's go out and let's persuade men. Now if we need to, as the Bible says, saving some with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. Don't be afraid to tell that person at the door, hey you're on your way to hell. I hope you know that. I hope you come, you know, if they reject the gospel, kindly and gently remind them, but firmly, you know the Bible says, if you reject Christ, that you're going to have your pardon linked with fire and brimstone. And people will scoff and mock at that until that day comes. So let's go out and let's persuade men because we understand the terror and the fury of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, thank you for the Bible, thank you for, Lord, even these hard truths, Lord, that we could sit back and we could cower from them, we could ignore them, we could try to explain them away, but Lord, I believe that you've given us these truths that we would be motivated, that we would be moved with compassion to go out and do all that we can to reach others with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you that you've made salvation free, that you've made it simple, that you've made it easy to simply put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That we could go out and we could tell people about the true love of God, that there's a God who loves them so much that He came and took their place, that He suffered all those things willingly, Lord, of His own will, to come here and make that atonement for us. Help us to carry that truth to others, Lord, that we might see them spared from that day of vengeance. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.