Nearly Midnightt? - The End of the World as we know it

[0:00] Proverbs chapter 19 is where we're going to go. Talking about the king's wrath and the king's favour. And we read here in Proverbs 19 verse 12, it reads,! The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is as dew upon the grass.

[0:23] Wasn't it nice to get a bit of rain lately? Maybe there's a bit of dew on the grass this morning. There's a contrast here, the king's wrath and the king's favour.

[0:35] Wrath and grace, if you like. It's nearly midnight, I put to you, and a storm is approaching. In fact, he might have seen this on the recent news.

[0:45] It tells of the atomic scientists, they've got a bulletin, and they have a setting of a doomsday clock, they call it. And they've reset the doomsday clock just a few days ago, and they say, it's now at 90 seconds to midnight.

[1:05] The closest to midnight the clock has ever been. Well, since it was established in 1947. And they use this doomsday clock to gauge the global existential threats to the dawn of the nuclear weapons age.

[1:22] And the headline for this article says, Doomsday clock moves to 90 seconds to midnight as nuclear threat rises. And the article reads that Rachel Bronson, the president and CEO of this group of atomic scientists, says this, I quote, We are living in a time of unprecedented danger.

[1:45] And the doomsday clock time reflects that reality. 90 seconds to midnight is the closest the clock has ever been set to midnight.

[1:56] And it's a decision our experts do not take lightly. So these are worldly people. This is the secular world. They're saying that it's very close to midnight.

[2:08] It's imminent. The prospect of a nuclear holocaust on planet Earth. The Bible speaks about the return of our Lord as something that we've got to be alert to.

[2:23] He could come as a thief in the night. Maybe at midnight. Maybe just before midnight. Friends, like Noah, we're living in the midst of a society that is on the edge.

[2:36] It's ever increasingly faithless, isn't it? Immoral, violent. I put to you, we're witnessing a moral meltdown and we're at a tipping point.

[2:46] Think of the trashing of a nation. The Bible tells about nations and it tells this in Proverbs 29 verse 2. It says, When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.

[3:00] But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Now, we might have different views about who's governing us at the moment. But there's questions about the rule that we have over us can have an influence on us, can't it?

[3:16] For good or bad. And I put to you that it seems in this world that we're living in, the foundations are being destroyed, undermined, outright rejected. God-hating people rule over us, by and large, really.

[3:29] The wicked beareth rule. And the people mourn. This nation has forsaken God. Let's face it. Think of where it was, where it is now, where it's going.

[3:41] A cancer is eating away at the very soul of our nation. Think of things like virtues of honesty, of self-discipline, of decency.

[3:53] They're threatened. Listen. Australia has rejected a holy God. It continues this destructive slide to moral bankruptcy. In society at large, we're seeing an epidemic of AIDS and STDs.

[4:07] Love is exchanged for lust. As traditional marriage is replaced with something that's quite a poor substitute. And the Bible tells us this.

[4:19] It says, Woe unto them. Isaiah 5 verse 20. Woe unto them. That call evil good. And good evil. That put darkness for light. And light for darkness.

[4:30] That put bitter for sweet. And sweet for bitter. Here's a placard someone's raising. Abortion is healthcare. They're calling it something good.

[4:41] Which is really not at all good. And it's a pattern in our world, isn't it? Calling evil good. Good evil. We trace it through the systems that make up modern society.

[4:54] Think about the schools. The schools of our land. When we think of a child's mind, it's a fertile soil. And there's a potential there for an all-pervasive conditioning of thoughts and ideals.

[5:07] And in the school systems, there's a lot of risk there, I put to you, about who's teaching our children. There's an increased teaching of evolution. We've seen this corresponding decline of morality in the community.

[5:21] And if we just descended from apes or some pond scum, I mean, there's that thought. They're indoctrinating our children.

[5:31] That humans are evolved from some lower life form. And I've read this, that in effect, trees have the same rights to life as humans. So don't cut that tree down.

[5:44] It's got a right to live. The trees have got a right to live, but not the unborn. It's sick, isn't it? Really sad, isn't it? The target of the social engineer's agenda is still the children, as it was in Hitler's day.

[6:00] Still the children. They want the children. They want your children. The devil wants your children. And young people are being taught there's no right or wrong, no truth or falsehood. It's all grey.

[6:10] It's all... You define it for yourself. One choice is just as good as any other. As long as someone is pursuing happiness and the learning about God, it's been removed from the classrooms.

[6:25] And it's been replaced with sex education. I can remember when I was a youngster that we actually sang hymns in a public school. Who remembers those days?

[6:37] I actually used to sing hymns. Some of the hymns are in our book, in fact. When I was in a public school, a secular school in the UK. Now, it's a far cry from that, isn't it?

[6:47] We used to stand in Australia and salute the flag and we pledge allegiance to our nation. There'd be a bit of national pride. Now, it's national mourning, isn't it?

[6:59] In the universities, we see the same pattern of calling evil good and good evil. And it's like the universities are becoming a breeding ground for humanism. It's a kind of religion, really.

[7:11] Humanists believe that man is inherently good. Then you've got the New Age religion. The New Age of all kinds. It says that God is everything.

[7:22] A bit like the man that was talking at the door saying, Oh, the nature and this and that. Pantheism. Believe what you want. Nothing's real.

[7:33] Nothing's divine. All beliefs are right. Anything goes kind of idea, isn't it? I wonder what the point of view of God is of all of this.

[7:47] What is God's thoughts on such things? The king's wrath. The king's wrath. It's as the roaring of a lion.

[7:59] The Bible says that God is angry at the wicked, isn't he? He's angry at the wicked every day. The New Age religion says it's faith in man, not God.

[8:10] Man is viewed as some divine personage progressing towards some kind of godhood or divinity. And meanwhile, the media propaganda machine is pumping out such things, actively doctoring and manipulating the news and information.

[8:28] Woe unto them. They call evil good and good evil. I put to you that we really could do with being a bit like a guide dog. I read this just lately.

[8:40] If a guide dog judges that a command is unsafe, it will refuse the command. This is called intelligent disobedience. Now, if we could just get the dogs to teach humans this skill.

[8:55] We need to refuse some things. We need to say enough's enough. We don't go along with the narrative. We don't go along with it. We're not going to follow the lemmings off the cliff.

[9:07] And we see, as I say, evident in the schools, in the universities, in the media. The media is feeding this appetite for immorality, popular soapies, treating perversion as normal behaviour.

[9:21] The politically correct speak promotes so-called tolerance for everything but biblical Christianity. And so we're seeing this tolerance, this permissiveness, diversity.

[9:34] And it's leading to the breakdown of morals and accountability. We need to be like these guard dogs. Don't listen to the ones giving the orders that are wrong. But listen to the one.

[9:46] We don't want the wrath of the king. Biblical Christianity is mocked. Christians are stereotyped as bigots, as crazies, as deranged or worse.

[9:57] Hostility and hatred towards Christians is ramping up, isn't it? There's all these fake falsehoods, lies. The media is engaged in this all-out war against what we believe in, against the truth, isn't it?

[10:13] Everything is being redefined. There's godless agenda. It's anti-Bible, anti-God. And it's being foisted on the public. And people are brought up with this. They don't know any better.

[10:25] Fulfill yourself. That's the mantra. New age agenda is man at the centre. It's really a pantheistic paganism, isn't it? And there's a deliberate campaign.

[10:37] It's a war of competing ideas and world views. It's about right versus wrong. Truth versus untruth. Freedom versus slavery. And I'm quoting here, It's about the direction we want this country to go in in the future.

[10:53] The world that we leave for our children. What god we acknowledge or whether we acknowledge any god at all. And so people are following some of these things. And really the vast bulk of humanity is being subtly brainwashed and enslaved, misled and manipulated and distracted.

[11:12] Here's another recent example. In New York City, they've erected this eight-foot gold statue, this Medusa kind of statue, which is in homage to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her fight for abortion rights.

[11:30] And locals are calling it demonic and satanic. It's right there, front centre, in front of a New York City courthouse. And people are following this stuff.

[11:40] It's like an image of a demon god. And people are accepting this kind of thing. They'll pull down other things and they'll lift up statues like this one. And so we're living in a world that tolerates the killing of the elderly or sick and call it compassion.

[11:58] New ages teach moral relativism. There's no such thing as right or wrong, they say. Every person in their effort to achieve oneness must travel their own path, make their own decisions.

[12:09] And those decisions are never wrong, provided they're not wrong in the person's own mind. And we've seen this move as well in the arenas of government.

[12:20] As we talked before about righteousness exalts a nation, sin is a reproach to any people. We're seeing this world, the state, is going more and more hellwards as we're seeing these things.

[12:34] I don't want to labour some of the things I've touched on of recent times, but this new world order, this control system, a national sovereignty is being relinquished for global governance.

[12:46] So man has rejected God's word. And that's the heart of it, isn't it? The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion. I think God's angry with this stuff.

[12:56] I think God's angry. God's against it. I don't know if you've ever been down the zoo and had a lion roar at you or maybe watched something, some doco about lions. It's something that would rattle your nerves a bit, I think, wouldn't it?

[13:11] The roaring of a lion. We see our society. It's like there's a slippery slope. It's just getting worse and likely to get worse.

[13:23] And the Bible speaks of a sin that's called an abomination, that's loathsome and disgusting, something degrading and unclean. What the Bible specifically calls abomination is becoming more accepted and commonplace.

[13:38] We're seeing it. We've seen it full on, right in your face lately. Abomination. It's wickedness. It's evil. Cross-dressing.

[13:49] All these such things. They won't labour the point. You know what I'm talking about. In a way, I don't want to talk about it. But here's a quote. We would have been appalled, even outraged, by the decadence and debauchery that daily fills our streets, TV shows, movie screens, music and art, video games, businesses and political bodies.

[14:11] But today, we rarely give it a second thought. It is nearly midnight. Nearly midnight. God's judgment is closer and closer.

[14:21] So we see the Bible speaks of Romans 1. You can read the context. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

[14:35] God's judgment is imminent. Look at it in the context. All the evils there. We see it's modern society. It's corrupt. Sin more accepted and condoned and embraced, celebrated.

[14:51] Some would see homosexuality as an acceptable alternative lifestyle. We see an increase in promiscuity. We went and seen the demolition. It's a planned demolition of the family structure.

[15:04] See, broken and dysfunctional families. The authority of fathers being undermined. And at the heart of society's problems lies an innate apathy. An apathy. An apathy. A disregard for God and the Bible.

[15:17] And there's a massive conflict going on over beliefs and values. Over the ideas that will rule society. Here's a quote. Albert Einstein said this. The world is a dangerous place to live.

[15:28] Not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it. I think there's a bit of truth there. Apathy. It's one of the main problems is apathy actually. And then we see even in the popular church.

[15:40] It reads in Hosea 10 verse 2. Their heart is divided. Look at the church today. Often experiential, feeling centred. It's in a sad state, isn't it?

[15:52] There's a lack of strong Bible teaching and preaching. There's a death of discernment. And God-fearing people are becoming a rare breed. They're often derided as unloving and divisive.

[16:04] Where are those who will fear God and will value truth and honesty and justice? Many church folk are caught up in this compromise and convenience.

[16:15] And ignorance prevails. We see in the church setting a neglect of God's word. And then we have ecumenism, where it's all very fuzzy. A fuzzy kind of spirituality, ultimately interfaith, which is even worse than that.

[16:33] And so, friends, yet we have values and foundations that are true. Moral values. Biblical, Bible-based values.

[16:44] That will build strong lives. Strong faith. Strong families. Strong churches. Strong societies. Strong families. Now, when I hear of someone who might be leaving this church or considering leaving this church, you can go with my blessing if you go to a good church.

[17:02] But don't go to a flaky church. Don't go to a flaky church. If you're thinking of leaving this church, don't go and join the Pentecostals. Don't go and join the flaky prosperity gospel movement.

[17:15] Find a good, solid church. We can recommend one. I'd much rather bless you with a glad farewell as you go to a good church than to go to some flaky church.

[17:28] Yet there's this watered-down, non-offensive message that prevails. There's many wishy-washy churches where doctrine has been abandoned. Of course, we know doctrine matters. Romans 16, 17, it says, Mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which you've learned, and avoid them.

[17:46] We've got to be aware of such things, aware of doctrinal issues that is a toning down, a watering down of God's truth, but rather stand fast for the truth, to stand for the Lord, to stand against the idols and the errors and the falsehood and the relativism, and stand for the truth.

[18:06] Stand wholeheartedly for that. Not divided, but wholehearted for the truth. And be willing to sound a warning. It tells us that the wrath of God is like the roaring of a lion.

[18:23] There's this constant contrast, I'll put to you in the word of God, between this wrath and this grace of God. We want to make sure that we're standing for the right and not offending our holy God.

[18:39] In 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10, it talks about the deceivableness of unrighteousness. It talks about, they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. So those who perish are deceived in their sin.

[18:55] And the devil's always had this strategy, this program of misinformation and deception. Really another gospel. At the heart of the problem is that the authority has been spurned.

[19:06] See that, for example, as it reads, Isaiah 5, verse 24, they've despised the word of the Holy One. They've cast away the law of the Lord of hosts.

[19:17] It's like the Bible's been thrown out. But God helping us, we must see the Bible is authoritative. This is the authority. There is no other authority. Traditions might have some value, but you can't follow traditions of man.

[19:31] The Bible specifically tells us that. Some churches are built on traditions. That's the way we've always done it. This is the liturgy. This is the catechism. This is what you've got to follow.

[19:43] What's always been. But it doesn't match up with this. So what's old is not necessarily right either. It's got to be the word that is our foundation for what we do, what we practice.

[19:54] The Bible is our ultimate authority. We need to stand on this. The undiluted preaching of it, God's word. That it's central to us. God's truth. So we need to pray for our nation, for a spiritual awakening.

[20:05] We've just had Australia Day. Where are we as a nation? We pray for our nation, that there'll be a spiritual awakening, that there'll be a true revival of truth. God's word, of God helping us to be a biblical church, that will counter the counterfeits that are out there, and will stand firmly for sound doctrine, and against what is contrary to sound doctrine.

[20:32] The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion. God wants a holy people. He wants us to be holy, righteous, and there's a day of reckoning coming, a day of wrath is coming, but there is still hope for Australia.

[20:48] Thank God there's many scriptures we can find comfort in as we come closer to midnight. As we read in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16, it reads, Truly there's great comfort here in such scriptures as this.

[21:29] That soon coming event is the reason for readiness, restraint, and rejoicing. Readiness, restraint, and rejoicing. It tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5, 2, that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night, when they shall say, Peace and safety, and then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.

[21:54] So let me put to you there's three points to take home today. The first point, we've got reason for readiness.

[22:05] Reason for readiness. The world's saying it's close to midnight. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 4, as it reads on, But ye brethren are not in darkness, that that day overtake you as a thief.

[22:20] Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

[22:32] Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

[22:44] It's saying there there's reason for readiness. It's saying we should be ready, we should be alert. I know I've had a neighbour broken into lately. They were caught unprepared.

[22:56] The dog started barking and they just dismissed it. The dogs are barking. There's a closing of time. It's like a thief in the night, as it were.

[23:09] We must ready ourselves that this will come as no surprise. We'll be ready. We'll be ready. Prepared. It reads on, verse 8, But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and foreign helmet the hope of salvation.

[23:27] For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. God has not appointed us to wrath.

[23:38] The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is as dew upon the grass. His favour is as dew upon the grass.

[23:51] God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. We've got reason for readiness. The Bible tells us of our Lord's coming. We should be looking for it.

[24:02] That blessed hope, that glad, joyful hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ. So I urge you as a body of people, all of us, to be alert, to be ready, to be preparing, to be spiritually prepared, to be on guard.

[24:23] We see increasing apostasy, the Bible tells, of evil men, seducers, they're going to grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. I've heard that the Church of England has officially apologised to Charles Darwin for rejecting his theory of evolution.

[24:42] The Church of England have apologised to Charles Darwin. We see the persecution of Christians. It's an ongoing reality.

[24:53] We heard reports tonight that I just read. In what would seem a fairly moderate nation, they're bashing up Christians that give out leaflets to tell others about the Saviour, the Gospel.

[25:05] And it's escalating in many countries around the globe. There's growing cause for a new global financial order. Something big is about to happen. Sending tanks over there, aren't they?

[25:18] What do they think is going to happen, honestly, really? Australia is sending munitions. We're in the target sites.

[25:30] Something big is going to happen and a lot of people aren't going to be ready for what's going to hit. Friends, 2 Timothy 4 tells us that Paul writes, there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.

[25:43] And not to me only, but to all them that love is appearing. Do you love his appearing? Don't you want to see Jesus? See our Lord? Are you ready? Some people are watching for him.

[25:56] Some are watching TV. See? We've reason for readiness, people. We've reason for readiness. Secondly, we've reason for restraint. Reason for restraint. It says, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love for helmet, the hope of salvation as we've read before.

[26:14] For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Wouldn't you rather have the Jew upon the grass? The Jew upon the grass and the king's wrath like the roaring of a lion?

[26:28] Wouldn't that be better? Much better. We've got reason for readiness. We've got reason for restraint. It's saying we must be sober. We've got to sober up, people. We've got to sober up.

[26:41] Sober up. Keep sober. In these days of perilous times, keep that restraint. Keep wearing the armour. Something should set us apart from those who sleep and who are drunken.

[26:54] From those who are in the dark. We should be in the night, in the day. We've got a bright hope. Amen? We've got a bright hope. The light of the world is coming. We are the light of the world in these days of darkness and despair.

[27:08] You that believe, you're shining his light. Sometimes without you even realising it. And there's a brighter day ahead. There's brighter days ahead.

[27:19] As we get to that midnight hour, there's a brighter day. A brighter day. But meanwhile, there's some heady days. Days of looseness and levity. People are without restraint. They're busy partying their way to hell.

[27:31] The devil's hell. And he's a great DJ. But the party's over soon. Amen? The party's over soon. These are days that call for restraint. People are lapping it up.

[27:43] They're not sober. Most people are drunken. Aren't they? Really? They're not sober. They're drunken. And our world is increasingly unrestrained. Like a drunken sailor. And we need our wits about us.

[27:57] The Rolling Stones said, I'm free to do what I want any old time. That's what they'll say. The King's wrath. The King's wrath is coming.

[28:09] Many people are buying into this philosophy of this freedom, of anything goes, do what you want. Some people are blindly groping in the dark.

[28:20] They don't even realise they're blinded. It's taken over their thinking such that their minds are blinded. Some people are drunken, reeling like in a stupor. And that's how the enemy of your soul wants you to be.

[28:32] He wants you to be drunken. He wants you to be intemperate. He wants you to be sleepy, paralytic, like a druggie, like a drunkard, dizzy, deluded in the gutter.

[28:42] We need sharpness and awareness today because we're in a campaign where the devil is warring a campaign against every man and every woman, every family today.

[28:57] So we've got reason for restraint. Here's a scripture that says just that. Philippians 4 verse 5, Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

[29:09] We've got need of moderation. In other words, we should have modesty. We should have strength. We should have forbearance, temperance.

[29:20] It says the Lord is at hand. It's got that sense really it's any time soon, isn't it? As Matthew 24 reads, it says when you see these signs, these things, know that it is near even at the doors.

[29:37] It's almost like the door's just starting to open. It's just, it's kind of the thought that comes to my mind that the door is opening. It's like, one day he's going to swing them wide open.

[29:48] We need restraint in such a time as this. We need to know, we need to have moderation. In other words, we should be temperate, we should be resistant of the evil. We shouldn't be going along with the crowd.

[30:01] The Lord is at hand. We need to be a restraining influence ourselves in society to act like salt. So, we've reason for readiness, number one.

[30:13] We've reason for restraint. Thirdly, we've reason for rejoicing. Reason for rejoicing. The king's wrath is not against us.

[30:25] The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion, but his favour is as due upon the grass. Think of the favour of God to the people of God over and over.

[30:38] It's right through Genesis, through Revelation, isn't it? The favour, the grace, the mercy, the kindness, the long-suffering, the goodness of God. 1 Thessalonians 4.18 says, there's going to be a shout and the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.

[30:57] Wherefore, it says, as we've read before, the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first. It says that we're going to be caught up. It says, comfort one another with these words.

[31:11] So, in days of darkness and despair, discomfort, we've got reason for rejoicing, people. You that know the Saviour, you've got a reason to rejoice. You've got a great comfort and joy, heart deep and overflowing from the inside out of you.

[31:25] The reason for rejoicing is that we're going to meet the Lord in the air. We're going to meet Him in the air. And it says that we should comfort ourselves together, edify one another, build each other up.

[31:38] Wow, we've got a story to tell, haven't we? Wow, we've got a blessing to share. Wow, we've got a grace of God to delight in because the Lord is as the Jew.

[31:50] upon the grass, His great favour. And there's a great joy, a great satisfaction, a heart deep joy that you can know as saved people today. It tells us, He's the God of hope.

[32:03] Fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. He's the God of hope. It says you should abound in hope.

[32:14] We've got the blessed hope. Wow, we're hopeful people, aren't we? It's got that sense of expectancy. It's got that glad expectancy, that confidence of her hope is the sense of it.

[32:25] There's a confident hope that we have and it's found in believing. As believers in Christ, we've got a true joy and peace in believing.

[32:37] A true peace. It tells us of an everlasting hope that we know as saved people today. And so there's an uplift for you. It's the favour of God, isn't it?

[32:49] It's like dew upon the grass. This is something precious. This is something glad and joyful. He's preparing a place for you. And you've got his promise on that. The promise of one who cannot lie.

[33:02] And you have the word of the king. It says where the word of a king is, there is power. The king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion.

[33:16] You don't want that. But his favour is as dew upon the grass. And he's got his word. He's given it here in black and white and red.

[33:28] The word of the king. There's power here. This is powerful. Powerful. Take time with the book. I've been encouraged lately to spend more time in the book. More regular time in the book.

[33:39] More determined time in the book. Get the book before breakfast. Get the book before you turn your computer screens on. Amen. Get in the book. There's power in this book.

[33:49] The word of the king. There is power. His word is dependable. He says he's going to come. He says he's going to descend. He's going to come. And it says the dead in Christ are going to rise first.

[34:01] And it says you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire saying vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[34:16] It's saying that he's going to take vengeance on them that know not God. That's where the wrath will come. The wrath will come on them that know not God. You want to be sure that you're one who knows God.

[34:28] You want to be sure that you're not in that number because the wrath of the king is against some. But for us who believe there's grace revealed.

[34:40] So this coming event will either be reason for joy or great despair It says he'll take vengeance in flaming fire on them that know not God.

[34:52] And it says verse 9 it reads on who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day.

[35:10] So this event this coming event will be either wrath or favour. He's going to come and he's going to bring vengeance he's going to bring destruction he's going to bring wrath and for those that believe he's going to bring glory and blessing and favour and grace.

[35:31] For some it will be cause for comfort and joy for others it will bring judgement and loss. Friends there's a day of wrath coming I know we all like to have our calendar where we write things down I know some have got special calendars they've got for all the special things coming up I know there's some people who've got a wedding on their calendar there's something good coming up there's some good things coming up there's things that you plan to do who knows what day the day of wrath will be maybe it's I don't know we could set some dates we could say Mark's the first December the second we don't know what day it's going to be we don't know what month it's going to be but one thing is for sure the day of wrath is coming the day of wrath is coming and God's already got the date he's got the calendar written out the day of wrath is coming friends and the bible says for the great day of his wrath is come the wrath of the lamb it talks about revelation 6 the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand some are going to be punished some are going to see

[36:43] God glorified what makes the difference depends what side of the wrath it depends what side of his wrath you're on I like to put it how there's like a shadow side of the cross and a sunshine side the shadow side is our sin that took him there it's our sin in all of its ugliness and shame and degradation the vileness of our sinfulness of our rejection of Christ it's the shadow and then we see the sunshine side where he became sin for us he knew no sin but he is our sin he became sin for us he is the one who took our sin and you can know the sunshine side you can say yes I received Jesus as my saviour of my sin or you can stay in the shadow side where your sin is still there and judgement is still upon you but if you stand on this side grace is upon you he sees the blood when I see the blood

[37:47] I will pass over you when he looks at you does he wear the blood coloured spectacles as it were and he can't see your sin because when he sees the blood he's going to pass over you but if you're on the shadow side you haven't applied the blood you haven't trusted Christ you're under his wrath you're under his wrath friends the day of wrath is coming who's going to be able to stand some are going to be punished and some he will be glorified what makes the difference which side of the wrath are you on the Bible the Bible tells us of the day of his wrath Romans 2 5 it says of some they're treasuring up wrath unto the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God they've got wrath upon wrath upon wrath and then ultimately the day of wrath or we can be on the grace side we can be on the favour side we can be like Noah he found grace in the eyes of the Lord God saw Noah and he saw him with the eyes of grace he saw him with the eyes of love of favour many tell of God's righteous anger many verses it's a constant contrast

[38:58] I put to you through the word of God for example Nahum 1 verse 6 through 7 it says who can stand before his indignation the wrath of the king as a roaring lion it's going to be a day of indignation of fury poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him but then it says in contrast it says this the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him so on the one side you've got his indignation the fierceness of his anger his fury poured out like fire then on this side you've got those who say Jesus is my stronghold he's my refuge God is my refuge and strength I'm under the cover of his wings I'm under his refuge I'm in his hands and I'm his and he's mine and he can be a stronghold in that day friends it depends which side you're on doesn't it wrath or favour wrath or grace friends who can stand the day the day of his coming the day of wrath and revelation friends his fury his anger his wrath his judgment or his grace his favour his mercy his goodness his refuge will you face his coming knowing him as saviour as saviour or as judge thank God if you're saved your judgement has already been made he's judged you he's judged that Christ is your righteousness he's judged your sin paid for he's judged your sin in Christ at the cross paid in full every measure of payment was made for you that believe we started with this scripture that the king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion but his favour is as dew upon the grass will we see wrath or favour as it was in the days of Noah

[41:06] Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord friends the return of our Lord is called the blessed hope and there's great reason for rejoicing for you that believe you've got reason for joy for joyfulness you've got that glad happy hope the blessed hope of his returning and it's reason for our comforting and encouraging and edifying one another so I urge you it tells us comfort one another with these words there is actually comfort for you that you are saved by his grace that trust him you have grace and your God looks upon you with grace he looks upon you with favour and his favour is as dew upon the grass what a refreshing we can know let us pray Lord we thank you that it's entirely of grace that we can even call upon you that we can dare to call you father lord that you would even welcome us such as we by the virtue of your shed blood that you see the blood and you pass over the judgment of us your wrath does not fall upon us yet we know the wrath the day of wrath and revelation is coming for those who know you not and they will be as the roaring of a lion it's going to be a fearsome thing it's going to be a terrible shocking grievous thing it's going to be a cause of trembling of fearfulness of despair of utter despair in those who know you not yet for us that know you lord we know your revelation is a cause of great rejoicing and lord that your favour is as due upon the grass we pray each one might know that the grace of god that saves that faith that you bless us lord to have such a heart to hear your word and to act upon it to know your saving love that you should give us such mercies lord we thank you pray each one might have that heart's trust today each one might know your favour not by virtue of anything we've done not something we earn but yours in the granting of it lord and ours is simply the simple receiving of it in humbleness lord that such a gift could be housed by faith praise you lord we thank you that we have reason for rejoicing and reason for great joyfulness today in jesus name we pray amen