Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/bethelstl/sermons/26806/march-15-2020-kevin-stiles/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church, knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. Alright, good morning. Good morning.

[0:15] Our middle daughter last night, they were disappointed because they said they can't find a church in Minneapolis that's going to be open today. So that was kind of sad. I told them, start traveling. You should make it in time for me to hear me.

[0:30] So my prayer has been that, Lord, I don't know, maybe I know my wife and my daughter will be here to hear me today. Maybe no one else comes.

[0:42] So how many messages, how many churches that are open, or they're doing satellite today. Satellite, we're not quite there yet.

[0:52] I was thinking, Lord, what, I could be on the satellite, you know, get me on YouTube, whatever. What do you think the number one thing is being talked about today? Maybe, I'm going to tell you what I think is going to be talked about.

[1:10] Do you know since the virus started this year? There are over 8 million abortions in that same time.

[1:24] Over 8 million abortions. You guys hear any messages on it? I wanted to have a camp meeting because I think it's time to have a camp meeting.

[1:42] When's the last time you were at camp? And I'd like all the junior church kids, they can come and sit in the front row, all our junior church kids. Because I want them to maybe help me a little bit.

[1:57] Some of you have never been to a camp. Maybe some of you, it's been a long time. But today, we're going to look at Joshua and we're going to have a camp meeting. I love camp meetings.

[2:08] And so maybe it's a little more orthodox. Either right here or right here. Some over here. I know there's some more junior church children. Maybe put a couple over here so we kind of balance this thing out.

[2:23] Okay. Let's not balance it out. Let's tip this church over. This building. All right. You know what? You would say a lot of times if you do a gospel message.

[2:36] Eight weeks ago when I found out what my message is on, which is Joshua 10 verses 16 to 43. If you read through that, for those of you who are old enough, you would hear a broken record.

[2:50] Or a record with a scratch. Joshua went out, fought against this, and beat him. Beep. Joshua went out to this country and fought against this king and killed him. Beep.

[3:01] Joshua went to seven times. My sex. I'm like, Lord, what am I going to speak on? When it's seven battles that took place, people are obliterated.

[3:15] Or that means they were killed off completely. And so, I'm like, Lord, maybe this, in eight weeks, maybe I can do a gospel message.

[3:27] Because maybe in so many messages today, it's on coronavirus. It's on our fear. I want you, we're going to do a message on something to be more fearful of.

[3:39] And something for us to go share to the whole world, to our friends and our neighbor. Because as you look through Joshua, Mr. Frank will be sharing next week. People tend to say, I don't want anything to do with that God.

[3:53] If this is the God that you want me to talk, to live, and to put my faith in, he's killing all these people off. And maybe today, people will say, you know what, with that coronavirus, do you want me, how could God do this?

[4:07] How could he allow this? I'm telling you, there's a day that's so much more to be feared than what we're going through right now.

[4:18] And are you wanting to see what's behind there? Yep, it's behind there. So, it's still there.

[4:29] So, there's a box. We'll put the box right here.

[4:40] And if you've got your Bibles, you can turn to Joshua 10. And we're going to look at the wrath of God.

[4:54] The wrath of God. I had to borrow this rock from one of the parks near me. I got it late Friday. It was getting really dark. I'd never been to that park before by us.

[5:07] I found this rock. I found another rock. But I, Joe and I, it took Joe and I to put it up there. So, I figured I'll just keep with this one. Eli, can you tell me what's written on there?

[5:23] Yeah. Right. Thanks. Very good. Wrath. The wrath of God. We're going to look at that this morning. We're going to try to define that. We're going to find out what's this all about.

[5:36] Why is this hanging up here? Who's this pertained to? And you know what? I wanted our whole audience, the whole group, because there's going to be one of these cups that really tugs at my heart from a camp at one time.

[5:51] Someone who thought they were a believer. A camp counselor. One day they come to our meeting in the morning. And she said, I got saved last night.

[6:03] What? You were best camper. You were Mark Stevens' best camper when he was teaching. You were, you've been counselor down here. You've been. I got saved last night.

[6:16] And so, if you're in, if you're in Joshua 10, I want to look at a couple things. And then we've got a little presentation here to go into on the wrath of God.

[6:32] So, Joshua chapter 10. And I want to, last week David did a nice job of setting us up for this week. And so, just in review, there was a battle in chapter 10, verses 1 to 15.

[6:49] There were five teams that got together. And they said, you know what, let's go get Joshua because he's killing off the armies. And we've got to do something about it.

[7:00] And they were afraid of him. And so, they gathered five kings, five countries together. And they said, let's go get him.

[7:11] Let's go get him. And we saw last week there was an amazing thing that happened. And Joshua said to the Lord, God, will you make the sun and the moon stand still so we can finish up this battle?

[7:24] And do you guys remember what happened? What happened? Yeah. They stood still. You know what? I don't even have enough faith to ask God that same thing.

[7:38] I don't. But Joshua asked the Lord. And the Lord God honored his request. He said he held that, the sun and the moon. And they fought.

[7:49] And they literally did what they were supposed to. They killed off all the people. And then it says, there were five kings and they got away. And that's where we pick it up in my section, verse 16.

[8:01] And so, I just want to kind of read a few of the verses, kind of highlight this section, and then take it from there. It says, in verse 16, Now these five kings had fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makeda.

[8:17] I need to lower this thing. And it was told Joshua, saying, the five kings have been found hidden in the cave at Makeda. Cave.

[8:28] How many people have gone in a cave before? Yeah. I remember when I was a young one, and we went in one where you had to kind of go down into the mud to get in because it was such a narrow opening.

[8:41] And so, you know, young guys, they love to get muddy and wet. Can you guys come up with some places in the Bible where it talked about caves and what they were used for?

[8:54] Anybody? Okay. It might have been thrown. You know what? I'm going to give it to you. Who?

[9:06] Graves. Very good. Yeah. In the Old Testament, Abraham, it said he bought a cave so he could bury people there. In the New Testament, you remember the Lord went in John 11, and it said that Lazarus was dead, and it said he was in a cave.

[9:23] And they removed the mouth of the cave, and he said, Lazarus, get out of that cave. Another one? Okay. Okay. I knew that might bring that one to you then.

[9:33] Where Jesus was buried, it said that on the side of a cave, there was hewn out a spot where they laid Jesus' body. Very good. And also, it was a good place to hide.

[9:45] In the Old Testament, we see that David hid there from King Saul, and he couldn't find him. Saul hid there from King David, but he found him, but he didn't kill him. And so, caves were a place, most of the time, where people go when they're scared.

[10:02] I wonder right now how many people are hiding in caves today. Scared at what's going on. They're afraid. We've got to get away. And so, these five kings, it says in verse 16, 17, they're hiding.

[10:16] But it's told to Joshua in verse 18. Look what Joshua said. Roll large stones against the mouth of the cave. Assign men by it to guard them.

[10:27] But do not stay there yourselves. Pursue your enemies and attack them in the rear. Do not allow them to enter their cities, for the Lord your God has delivered them into your hand. Wow.

[10:38] That sounds a lot like when they buried the Lord Jesus, and they rolled a stone against there, and then they assigned guards to watch over, so the dead body couldn't get out.

[10:49] And here, he said, so the kings can't get out. I'll deal with it later, those five people. And it said they went out, and they slew everybody.

[11:01] They killed off all their enemies. It said they got rid of them all. And then he came back to the cave. It said, bring them out.

[11:13] Bring them out. And then later on, it says he took the kings, and there's various things, what this actually means. But it said he had the men come and put their feet on their necks.

[11:29] And some said it was to show that, hey, you wanted to kill us. And it was like a thing of disrespect.

[11:39] You're kings, but now look at this. You're the one that's going to die. And he says, don't be afraid to do what the Lord has told us to do. Hmm.

[11:56] And look what it says at the end of verse 21. When he was done with that battle, they came back to camp. No one uttered a word against any of the sons of Israel. You talk about people being afraid.

[12:07] You've got people afraid today. There were people like, don't you say anything bad about Israel. Don't. Because he might come and get you, too. And so now Israel, they're respected.

[12:23] And then we've got, after he did this, that's when he killed those kings. And then if you go through the rest of it, six times. He goes to six cities.

[12:35] Six places. Some of them, I think three of them are those kings that had come out to battle. He goes and finishes off their city. Wipes them out. Kills them.

[12:49] Some of you guys, some of the ones here in the front, probably like, that's my kind of story. Yeah, I like watching those cartoons where, shoop!

[13:00] Or going, you know, because I've seen some of you guys go around, if you have a sword, act like, I'm going to whack you up. So you're probably like, hey, this is a bad story. You know what?

[13:12] Everybody's afraid. Everybody's scattering. It says in a couple of them, he kills all of them, but there were a couple that were able to get away. They're so scared. We've got to get away.

[13:23] We've got to flee. We're in trouble. Sounds like today. People, we're in trouble. We're scared. What are we going to do? Let me ask you today, are you depressed from what you're seeing out there right now?

[13:39] Let me give you a couple of suggestions. Turn off the news for a bit. Turn off. I know it's hard because it's everywhere. It's coming. And it's so easy to get that, wherever the iPhone is, pull it out and, uh-oh.

[13:57] Put it away just for one day. I'm not even going to ask you for the whole week. Just one day. Put it away. Has this driven you?

[14:08] How much more did you get into God's Word this week? Did it drive you and me to read the Bible? Because there are the answers to eternal life.

[14:20] There are the answers to when I'm depressed or when I'm scared. The Lord has so much in His Word for that. Has it driven you and I to our knees at all?

[14:33] Has it driven us any closer to the Lord? Because if it hasn't, we're no different than the rest of the world. At the bank this past week, like three times, I was able to share with some bankers.

[14:51] One lady, one banker, he would say, you know what, I had a dream about you last week. I was out of town. I was out of town. But I'm sharing.

[15:01] You know what? I'm not afraid. I may get it. I could even, they said, well, would you be scared? I said, no, no, maybe if I die. I said, but you know what?

[15:12] I'm not afraid because I know who's in control. And one lady, when I shared about the Lord, all of a sudden I found out she's a believer too. So this is a great opportunity.

[15:23] A great opportunity to let the world know. And we have battle after battle after battle. But you know what, boys and girls, I'm going to call you guys boys and girls too this morning.

[15:34] There is a worse day coming when God's wrath is going to come down on all mankind. And everyone who's under the wrath of God will be thrown into the lake of fire forever and ever.

[15:50] It says in the Bible, we were born in sin.

[16:01] Raise your hand if you've ever sinned. Raise your hand if you were born in sin. The Bible says we were. And so I've got some cuts that are going to represent who's under the wrath.

[16:12] These are just a few. Because everybody would be under this when they're born. They would be right under this. And if we cut this right here, boom.

[16:26] I'm going to read some off. Turkey Hill Ranch Bible Camp. I'll tell you what. Can you put those under there for me? Day Spring Camper.

[16:38] Where are you going now? Storybook Camper. Another Turkey Hill Bible Camper.

[16:57] Wow. Okay, Caleb, you want to put some under there for me, buddy? A Bethel Community Church member. Maybe that's you today. A junior church child.

[17:14] That's one of you, maybe. A neighbor's friend. Maybe it's one of your friends. They were born. They're born under the wrath of God because all of sin, it says, and fall short of the glory of God.

[17:29] Evan, can you put a couple under there? I'm saving this one. A baseball player. They may make all the money, but you know what? They were born under the wrath of God.

[17:40] Another junior church child. Believe it or not, Mr. Ed. Yes, Mr. Ed. Yes.

[17:53] Mariah, you want to finish? A fellow worker. Maybe this is representing one of your grandmas.

[18:11] Mr. Kevin. Yes. I was born with a death sentence over me. The Lord said you were born with sin, and if you died, you would bear my wrath.

[18:27] And last, I have this camp counselor that I was sharing about earlier. So we were all born under the wrath of God. It says in Romans 3.23, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

[18:42] And if you could pull this up. And hopefully my clicker will be working. I'll tell you what, can one of the young ones read that verse, stand up and read that verse really loud?

[18:59] Who can read well for me? Anybody? Mariah, I know you can. Let's read it really loud, please. All right.

[19:22] We'll have everlasting life. And... Working? It was working good yesterday. Let's read this verse here.

[19:34] John 3.36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

[19:48] And maybe this morning you say, what is... Definition of wrath. You say, what is wrath?

[20:00] And for you young ones, that's a word that's tough. It means strong anger. It means... Mikey? You stole my toys?

[20:11] I'm mad. I know. That's Josiah saying it to Mikey. He's mad. He's got strong anger.

[20:22] He's got wrath. I'm going to get you. I'm not going to put up with this. The wrath of God says, I can't have sin in heaven. I won't have sin in heaven. And... My wrath is going to be poured out.

[20:35] But aren't you glad that a couple verses earlier, John 3, 16, it said that God loves us? And so the message we can share today is the love also of the Lord.

[20:47] We can share. There's coming a day. You guys haven't seen anything yet. I haven't seen anything yet. I don't know if anybody... The day we're living in right now, I have not experienced anything like that in my whole life.

[20:59] Frank, when was the Great Depression? It was a little before you. So you have not experienced... You know, that might have been... But we're not.

[21:10] And yet there's coming a day that's so much worse. God's wrath is going to come down. Jesus, it said, took the wrath of man, of God...

[21:26] Took the wrath of man and of God the Father for you and for me. You know what? Jesus took this wrath that God has... that it's abiding over all of us as we are in sin when we're born and we commit sin.

[21:40] And the Lord Jesus took that. And let's look at that here. In John 19.1 is where I want to start this last section here. Look what it says there.

[21:52] Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. So Jesus took the wrath of man. And you know what? We read over this. It says, Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.

[22:04] But as I like to show at camp, that was worse than you think. Because that meant that Jesus was probably put over some obstacle like this.

[22:19] His back is bare. It's open. And there were soldiers. And you know what? Matthew, come up here.

[22:33] Now, I'm not... You're going to... You're going to be the one whipping. No, Matthew's much too small. That soldier would... They would never have had one like this. They were like, Caleb, come here, buddy.

[22:45] Get up here. You think I'm your dad or something? All right. Well, I'm going to be the soldier.

[22:57] And it said that those soldiers took turns. There was one on each side of the Lord. And this is, you know, this is nothing. I'm sure what they had makes this like toy.

[23:09] Like children's toys. They had... They said glass, fishhooks, little bones in it. And it said that that soldier on one side, he went over, yes, I don't like you.

[23:25] And he came over and... And that... This whip would wrap around and he'd pull it that way. And then that went on this side.

[23:36] Oh, Jesus. No. It said that when the soldier saw blood, it made him thirsty. It made him like, oh, yes, more, we want more.

[23:46] And then he'd come over here, whip it, and rip it back. And then the other one, oh, that's nothing. You ain't seen nothing yet. And whip it, and back and forth, and back and forth. And it says the Lord's back is shredded.

[24:01] You. You. That's what a scourging is. It's a lot worse than that, what it just looks like there.

[24:13] And it said the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, put a purple robe on him. So they gave him a whipping.

[24:25] And they took that crown of thorns. And they plated it. It said, see, I don't have much hair, so it really does hurt me when I just set it like that.

[24:37] I can feel it. But it says they plated it. That means they, mm, mm. And blood's pouring out. You're a king, here's your crown.

[24:50] They put a purple robe on him, and they're mocking him. And they bring him back to Pilate. And Pilate's trying to free him because he thinks he doesn't deserve that.

[25:01] And yet people say, no, crucify him, crucify him. They don't want him. It's kind of like today. You may go and tell the Lord, people about the Lord. And they say, no, we don't want him. That's what they did with the Lord.

[25:14] It says, then finally, Pilate gave him, crucify him. And it says there, they took Jesus, therefore he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull.

[25:26] Why do you think they call it a place of a skull? Anybody know why? People got him. That's right. That's right. And there it is. Unfortunately about my, there was much more blood than what you will see in these pictures.

[25:42] The Lord's blood was being poured out for you and for me. And it said that he, he carried his cross piece to the, to the cross. With that crown, he was dying there for you and for me.

[25:55] We've got a story to be able to tell the world. I tell you what, this, this is the best story ever. Because the wrath of God is coming. That day of judgment is coming.

[26:07] And there it is. Oh, he was put on he was carrying his cross piece. And then they put him, they nailed him. They took spikes.

[26:20] And they outstretched his arms on that. Boom. Boom.

[26:32] Boom. And they put his finger on top. Boom. Wow. He's going to die for you.

[26:44] And they jerk him into that hole. And they put it up. And it says they, they, the soldiers cast slots.

[26:57] And what it means, they, they wrote some dice so they could see, who, who, who gets this tunic? We don't, this is too, too good. We don't want to shred it. And it said that that prophecy was fulfilled.

[27:09] In the Old Testament, it was prophesied that this would happen. Wow. Look at the fun they're having. The Lord's dying to you and to me.

[27:20] And there's people coming, if you're Jesus, come down. Come down from there. If you, who you say you are, if you, you've been here for 30 plus years. Come on down.

[27:31] Come on, show us you to be the king. And yet it said he stayed there on the cross. Can you imagine this person?

[27:45] Ha ha, Jesus, you can't do anything. Notice how close he gets because he's like, he can't get me. He's nailed. I can say anything I want to. And there's people today, the world saying anything they want to.

[27:57] But one day, God's going to, he's going to say, it's enough. And the wrath of God, it's going to come down. It's going to come down. And there he was on the cross hanging for you and for me, dying for your sin, my sin.

[28:12] All these people represented here, all the people of the world, there he was. And it says in Isaiah 53, five, he was wounded or pierced through for our transgressions.

[28:23] He was bruised or crushed. He was crushed. God's wrath came down upon the Lord. He was crushed for you and for me. He was taking your sin and mine.

[28:35] It says, by his scourging, we are healed. And there were two men, one on each side, also crucified with him. And the one on the left, or we don't know what side, one of them on one side says, Jesus, whoever you are, if you're really the king, save yourself.

[29:02] While you're at it, save you. Spit in God's face, Christ's face there on the cross. Still reviling. No, nothing. He didn't think about his own wrongdoing and why he was dying.

[29:16] He was just wanting to see. It didn't yet the only other person. Jesus, remember me. Remember me.

[29:27] I'm dying. I deserve to die. I'm gonna die. I'm not gonna be able to come down from this cross. This is it. But I believe you. Remember me.

[29:40] Remember me. And it says, the Lord turns to him and said, today you will be with me. And you know what? As we go around sharing the gospel, I know, I've heard about it, Mr. Ed.

[29:58] He shares his testimony. And you know what? He talks about when one day he trusted the Lord Jesus. And you know what it says? He's not under the wrath of God anymore.

[30:11] He's not under the wrath of God. And you know what, boys and girls? In 1969, I placed my trust in Jesus Christ. He died for me. I'm not under his wrath anymore.

[30:25] And I know there are people that talk about junior church. Some of you have placed your trust in the Lord.

[30:36] I don't know which ones, but the Lord knows. He knows you by name. You're not under his wrath anymore. And it says, there are Turkey Hill, I hear about people getting saved at Turkey Hill.

[30:50] And you know what? They're not under the wrath of God anymore. And you know what? My grandma, she shared the word a lot with people. She shared it a lot.

[31:02] She told me how she got saved. And as a result, the Lord says, you are not under the wrath anymore. And you know what? You've got fellow workers and neighbors and friends.

[31:15] And you know what? I remember at a camp, a boy who said, oh, that would be down in Sooner Bible Camp. I don't have that, but I'm going to use this. He said, I don't want to be saved.

[31:27] Eight years old. I'm going to be down there in the lake of fire with my friends and we're going to have fun. And Mr. Linstead, oh, he was, Leonard Linstead, he said, no, you're not going to have to.

[31:44] And two days later, after he was watching us, listening to the gospel, I need to be saved. And that night, he put his trust in Jesus Christ.

[31:56] And so that boy went from being under the wrath of God to now, he's under no wrath. He'll be in heaven forever.

[32:07] this camp counselor, as I told you, she told us, I thought I would save, but I wasn't.

[32:18] And she realized, oh, one day, I'm going to die with the wrath of God on me. And that next morning, she was 18 years old. She'd been in camps, Sunday school, model student, and yet, she said, I've got to be saved.

[32:36] And her mom and dad were actually embarrassed for her. She said, no, we remember you saying a prayer when you were three or four years old. She goes, no, no. And that day, she put her trust.

[32:50] But then there's people that say, no, I won't. I won't listen. And the story here continues. It says, now we have the wrath of man, and in the end here, we have the wrath of God.

[33:02] It says there was the sixth hour of the day, which is noon. It's almost this time, right now, to the three o'clock. It said that the Lord, his father, turned his face and said, no, I can't bear to look on you anymore.

[33:16] You're judging sin. You're dying for the people. And there he was, separated from the father. And then it said at the end, Father, why have you forsaken me?

[33:33] Why? I've bared your wrath. I've bared people's wrath. And it said that into your hands, I couldn't let my spirit.

[33:44] He died. He died. And all it was said, his mother, the women, they went away sad. The Lord Jesus, he's gone.

[33:56] And it said that Joseph of Arimathea came and he said, I want to bury him. Oh, I want to give him a good burial. And they let him and they wrapped him. And they put him in this cave.

[34:09] It was a little opening, probably not near as big as that. And they rolled the stone. Because these leaders said, they came to the king.

[34:19] Hey, they said, this is going to rise some weird wacko guy. We got to do something about it. And he said, you seal that cave. They put the stone against it. They put guards against it. They put a seal on it.

[34:31] No one's going to get in or out of that cave. All right. And yet, three days later, the stones rolled away. The grave is empty. Jesus is gone.

[34:43] He is risen for you and for me. Look what it says in 1 Corinthians 15. He says, I deliver. This is the gospel, boys and girls. Jesus was buried.

[34:55] He died for our sins according to the scripture. He was buried and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. That's our Lord Jesus. He's not in that grave anymore.

[35:09] He's alive. He's been raised. He paid the punishment for your sin and mine. And now look what this. Instead of wrath, the opposite is the peace.

[35:20] It says, therefore having been justified or saved by faith, we have peace with God. These people all over here, everyone who's put their trust in him, have peace. And you know what?

[35:30] There's no greater thing than have peace. You know what? We can share with the world today so that they, instead of fear, they can have peace. Oh, it might be sorrow.

[35:41] It might be sadness. We can have peace. Peace with God. And there's nothing better than having peace with God. It said, he who believes, this is the verse we looked at, in the sun, has everlasting life.

[35:53] Has everlasting life. Look at this. They have everlasting life. And yet, these here, people, it says, but those who don't believe in the sun, the wrath of God abides on him.

[36:07] And one day, he'll say, enough, you're going to be thrown into the lake of fire forever. So, I ask you, there's no greater story.

[36:22] I can't think of anything greater than this, this morning. And I, I want it even, the older ones to hear, because I think about Julia, Juliana, who I remember that day very vividly.

[36:36] I got saved last night. I know I'm a counselor. I know I'm sharing the gospel with them. But I wasn't saved. And last night, I needed Jesus.

[36:48] And now I'm saved. And maybe that's an older one today. You need to put your trust, your faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ for a young one.

[37:00] We have musicians come up. And I'll just say, today is the day. Don't wait another day.

[37:11] He wants to save you. Father, I thank you just that we can have a camp message of sharing the gospel.

[37:23] And I think about the passage in Joshua. And there, it's a lot of gory things going on. Sick, or death, and sad things.

[37:34] And the world says, you know what, I don't want anything to do with a God like that. And yet, there's a day coming that will make this seem like nothing. The day we're living in.

[37:46] And so, give us, give us the courage to go and share that with people. We thank you for this opportunity. Lord, if there's someone here that's struggling, because even I, if I have the news on all day, I will be depressed, Lord.

[38:04]  And yet, my hope's in you. So, help us to turn our eyes upon you. And the things of this earth will grow strangely. The End