Flee the Coming Wrath

[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 3. We're going to read the first 12 verses. Matthew chapter 3, verses 1 through 12.

[0:10] In those days, John the Baptist came, preaching in the desert of Judea, and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, a voice of one calling in the desert to prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.

[0:31] John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locust and wild honey. People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.

[0:46] Confessing their sin, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

[1:02] Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think that you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham.

[1:15] The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.

[1:37] He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

[1:55] In the 1750s, whenever evangelist George Whitefield would preach for his friend William Grimshaw in Howarth, England, so many people attended that they needed to build a scaffolding on the outside of the building that could be reached through the window in the second story, where he could then preach to all the thousands who had gathered in the churchyard.

[2:25] And it was on one such occasion that Whitefield mounted that scaffolding, and after a brief prayer, he announced his text from Hebrews 9, 27.

[2:36] It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. And after a short pause, a terrifying shriek sounded from the middle of the audience.

[2:50] And Pastor Grimshaw hurried to the spot and then came back up to the scaffolding and announced to George Whitefield, an immortal soul has been called into eternity.

[3:05] The crowd was at once informed of what was going on, and after they had settled down, Whitefield again announced his text. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment.

[3:17] And another loud shriek came from another part of the crowd, and the horror soon spread over the entire assembly as they learned that a second person had fallen dead.

[3:31] And when the commotion subsided, Whitefield announced his desire to continue the service, and he did, as eyewitnesses recorded, and I quote them, all was hushed, not a sound was heard.

[3:47] And a stillness like the awful stillness of death spread over the entire assembly as he warned the Christless sinner to flee from the wrath to come.

[3:57] Now we hear something like that, and the unique timing of these events must not hide the fact that what happened there is something that is happening all the time.

[4:10] Immortal souls are being called into eternity. And in the two minutes that it's taken you, taken me to tell you this event from church history, no less than 200 have been called from this life and into eternity.

[4:29] An unchangeable eternity of either unending torments or unending joy. Because as a man dies, so he comes to the judgment. And as he leaves the judgment, he goes to spend an eternity either lost under God's wrath or saved under his grace.

[4:49] And it was that sobering reality of death and the judgment that caused George Whitefield to travel all over and to warn Christless sinners to flee the coming wrath.

[5:03] In 1980, as retired London pastor Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones drew near to the end of his life, Christianity Today did an interview with him in which he was asked, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, what parting words do you have for this generation?

[5:27] And he replied, flee from the coming wrath. Now, why am I telling you this? Well, number one, because you are dying.

[5:39] Ten out of ten of you will die. We don't know, but that it could be us before next year is out. And it is appointed, as the text says.

[5:55] It is appointed unto men to die once. And it's an appointment you can't break. You can break that appointment with the doctor. You can break that appointment with the dentist. But you can't break the appointment with death.

[6:10] And not only am I telling you this because you are dying, but secondly, because after you die, the judgment. The judgment. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

[6:34] And that's another appointment you just can't break. And if you're found outside of Christ at the judgment, then all there is for you forever is the wrath of God in a place called hell.

[6:49] And that's what moved the apostle Paul to go everywhere, preaching, calling Christless sinners to flee the coming wrath. Why? He says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

[7:04] We persuade men. So I'm going to be right up front with you. If you're outside of Christ this morning, Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior. I have one chief purpose this morning, and that is to see you flee from the coming wrath.

[7:21] Hell is horrible. Hell is eternal. But hell is avoidable. And that's the good news of the gospel.

[7:32] So my message today is just these five words, flee from the coming wrath. The phrase comes to us right out of our Bibles, the text that was read. It's found in chapter 3 and verse 7 of both Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel, the same address.

[7:48] Flee from the coming wrath. Now that message sums up the entire message of the Old Testament prophets. They were called by God to come to a rebellious people of Israel and to call them to repent or else God's judgment, God's wrath will fall upon you.

[8:12] It will find you out in a coming day of His wrath. So that was the summary of the Old Testament prophets, but those are the very words that come to us from the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist.

[8:28] And we see it as we had it read in Matthew 3 that as He called men to repent in the light of God's coming wrath and in the light of the coming Messiah that He was announcing that this one coming after me would baptize not as I do with water but with the Holy Spirit and with fire and His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will clear His threshing floor in judgment.

[8:58] What is judgment? It's separating the sheep from the goat, the wheat from the tares, and He will gather the wheat into His barns and He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

[9:14] And with such eternal consequences, John the Baptist called on all of his hearers to flee the coming wrath. But whether from John the Baptist or Jeremiah or Isaiah or Ezekiel or any other prophet, what we need to realize that a true prophet was a messenger from God.

[9:37] He did not come announcing his own ideas, his own message, but he came and he announced, thus saith the Lord.

[9:48] This is what the Lord says. So the prophet's word is God's word. And that's not ever more true than it is of our text today. It is God Himself who is saying to any rebellious sinner, flee from the coming wrath.

[10:09] So I've got two simple points this morning. Number one, there is a coming wrath. And number two, so flee it. Flee from it. All right? There is a coming wrath. That message will not be preached in every pulpit today in our land.

[10:26] For as long as man has been in rebellion against God, he's been trying to domesticate God, take out the claws of God's wrath, take out the sharpness of His threats, and to present a God that we have no reason to be afraid of.

[10:48] There's just one problem with this, and it's this book, the Bible, where God reveals Himself to man and tells us what He's like.

[11:02] And God's wrath is revealed in the Bible. And it's not in one or two obscure texts that might be misunderstood.

[11:13] No. In our English version, the word wrath is found 197 times and all but just a handful, three or four times, it's talking about God's wrath. God's wrath.

[11:25] That's how He's revealed Himself to us. Not just His wrath. We know He's a God of love and we just sang about it. And I wept to think that my God would die for me.

[11:39] Such love. But that's not all the Bible reveals about Him. He is a God of wrath. His own white, hot anger.

[11:51] And in the Bible, God's word teaches us several things about His wrath. And what it tells us about His wrath is that there's only one thing that provokes it.

[12:05] Just one thing. S-I-N. Sin. It's the only thing. So if you don't have any sin, you don't have to be afraid of God's wrath at all.

[12:18] Sin is what provokes God's wrath. Colossians 3, 6. It's got a list of sins because of these things. The wrath of God is what? It's coming. It's coming.

[12:30] There is a coming wrath. And it's because of sin. John Murray writes, the wrath of God is the inevitable reaction of God's holiness to sin.

[12:45] God is holy. He loves holiness. Therefore, He must hate all that is unholy.

[13:00] He loves righteousness and He hates wickedness. The two go together. They're just two sides of the same coin. And holiness, righteousness is part of who God is.

[13:13] And sin is the contradiction of who God is. And so, God's holy revulsion against that which is the contradiction of Himself is His wrath.

[13:26] It's His reflex response to sin wherever it is found. Furthermore, the Bible shows that this wrath of God is not merely an Old Testament thing, but is found in the New Testament.

[13:38] Many times people will say, oh, that's the God of the Old Testament. But the God of the New Testament is a God of love. Well, God's reflex reaction to sin does not change because He does not change.

[13:51] He's still as holy as He's ever been and sin is still as obnoxious to His nature as it's ever been. His wrath is still as great as the fear that is due Him.

[14:02] And then the Bible reveals that there is both a present wrath and a coming wrath. First, the present wrath. Psalm 711. God is a righteous God.

[14:15] God is a righteous judge. A God who expresses His wrath every day. Not only does He have wrath, but He expresses it.

[14:26] Now, God is slow to wrath. The Bible tells us that as well. But there's not a day that goes by that He is not expressing it. And that was written back in the Old Testament Psalms.

[14:39] And there's never been a day since then when God has not been expressing His wrath on the earth. Indeed, when Paul takes up the Gospel to the Romans, he writes the letter to the Romans, the very first chapter.

[14:56] 1 in verse 18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

[15:06] Again, we see what is it that provokes God's wrath? It's wickedness and ungodliness. But we also see that He is present tense expressing that wrath.

[15:17] The wrath of God is right now being revealed. Paul could say that in the first century. And it's still true in the 21st century. The Lord Jesus Himself said it in John 3, 36.

[15:30] Whoever believes in the Son has life. Eternal life. But whoever rejects the Son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him.

[15:43] There is an abiding wrath. A remaining wrath right now upon those who do not receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So says the Lord Jesus.

[15:56] So says the Apostle Paul. So says David. So the Bible does speak of a present wrath then that is a reality in God.

[16:08] His reflex, response against sin. But the Bible also speaks of a coming wrath. And John the Baptist warned people about this coming wrath.

[16:22] The Apostle Paul says in Romans 2, 5 that those who sin without repenting are storing up for themselves wrath for the day of wrath when His righteous judgment will be revealed.

[16:37] So when people sin without repenting, without coming to Christ and repenting and trusting in His blood to save them, God says they're storing up wrath for a coming day of wrath.

[16:53] Kids, maybe you get an allowance and you're storing it up. You put it in the bank or you put it in your piggy bank and you're saving it. You're storing it up for some later thing that you want to buy.

[17:05] That's what the sinner is doing every time he sins without repenting. What is he doing? He's storing up wrath for the coming day of God's wrath when His righteous judgment shall be revealed.

[17:21] There is a righteous judgment. Jesus is coming to judge the world in righteousness.

[17:32] So there is yet a day of wrath that is coming. It's not here yet, but one day what is coming will arrive. And when Jesus Christ returns to judge all men, it will be to punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

[17:51] Second Thessalonians one, and they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord. Why? Because they refuse to love the truth and so to be saved.

[18:03] And when he comes to judge, we're told that both kings and slaves, the highest and the lowest in the social strata, and everyone in between will be found hiding in caves and the rocks and the mountains and calling on the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us, hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand.

[18:41] That's what the Bible teaches us. There's a coming wrath. And what the Bible teaches us in the last place is that hell is the ultimate place then where unrepentant sinners experience God's wrath forever and ever, undiluted with any mercy, unmixed with any kindness at all.

[19:03] So if you're without Jesus Christ, that's the reality you're just a breath away from because it's appointed unto man once to die, then the judgment and if outside of Christ, eternal wrath.

[19:24] That's the bad news and no one ever appreciated the good news of the gospel that did not appreciate the bad news of God's wrath.

[19:34] wrath. It's coming and it will come. But secondly, you're urged in my text to flee from this coming wrath.

[19:46] There is a coming wrath and flee from this coming wrath. Do you hear the good news in that? Can you hear it? It's there. This coming wrath is not yet here.

[19:59] It's not yet arrived. So flee from it before it gets here. That's the good news. Hell is avoidable. The wrath of God is coming, but you can avoid it by running from it.

[20:17] Now, we've seen death and destruction from the forest fires in California, haven't we? and the winds, the dry weather, the landscape, it's proved that the fire can come upon you faster than you realize.

[20:32] So whenever there is an imminent danger of fire, people are told to evacuate, aren't they? What does that mean? It means run for your life.

[20:43] Flee the coming fire. That's it. That's exactly it. Get out of the way. It's coming. So run for it. And no doubt if you saw a forest fire coming up over the mountain in your backyard and moving directly for your house, you would flee the coming fire.

[21:04] And that's exactly the idea here. There is a coming wrath. It's coming. But there is this period of mercy when we are being told, run for it and escape.

[21:19] Run from it and escape. Now when running for your life, you don't procrastinate, do you? You don't say, oh, maybe later.

[21:31] You may be ashes later. So you run now, don't you? And when you're running for your life, you don't dally, you don't pack up everything and try to take it all with you.

[21:41] No, you're happy just to escape with your life. We've seen people. That's all they had left was just what they're wearing and they were happy to have that in the reality when others had perished in the flames.

[21:56] And you don't dawdle. You don't stop along the way to chat with your neighbors and talk about the weather and what you're going to do next week. You don't stop to shop. You don't comb your hair.

[22:07] There's one thing needful. It's escape. It's run for your life. And that's the thing that consumes you as you're running from the coming flames. But if we can use that picture of running for your life and running from the coming wrath.

[22:27] You know, running from the coming wrath is far, far more important than running from a forest fire. Isn't it? You only need to think just for 30 seconds to put that together.

[22:39] because if you stay where you are before an approaching forest fire, what do you lose? Well, you lose your life, don't you? Five years?

[22:50] Ten years? Twenty years? Some of you may be 50, 75 years, maybe with some of you. That's it. You come out the loser. But if you stay where you are, my sinner friend, when God's wrath is coming, you lose a lot more than 75 years.

[23:14] You will be in hell under God's wrath that has arrived for a billion years. And you will realize that we're just getting started.

[23:27] Eternity is just beginning. And it will never end. It will never end. And that's what causes men to weep and to gnash their teeth in hell.

[23:42] Yes, it's imperative that we hear this good news and run for our lives. Is it not an amazing kindness then to be told to flee the coming wrath?

[23:56] I think sometimes we hear a text like that, flee from the coming wrath and we think, oh, what a horrible text to preach from. Oh, what an amazing loving God to announce to his enemies.

[24:12] Hell is avoidable and I'm telling you to run for it. Run from it at once. Hell is horrible as the place of God's wrath.

[24:27] Hell is eternal. There are no breaks from God's wrath but hell is avoidable so flee the coming wrath. One minister was considered a wild-eyed religious fanatic for warning sinners to flee from the coming wrath of God in hell.

[24:45] And he responded, if as I was walking home in the dead of night I should find a house on fire with all the family asleep inside, no one would call me a fanatic if I was pounding on the door with all my might and yelling with all my breath, fire, fire, run for your life.

[25:05] They would rather be praising me the next day in the newspaper for my love of neighbor. But the reality is that people are spiritually asleep.

[25:18] They're asleep in their sins and as the fires of God's wrath are coming, is it any less loving for us to go to our neighbor and to call on them to flee from the coming wrath?

[25:37] Oh, there's much mercy in God, much love in God to send such a message that Jesus, God's Son, should come Himself to give that warning.

[25:51] And oh, He did far more than just warn against the coming wrath as we'll see. So, flee the coming wrath. Now, there's a question that comes to us out of this text.

[26:03] Well, where do you flee then to escape the coming wrath? Okay, it's coming and I'm to flee? Where do I run? Where do I run? Well, not to mere religion. People have been running to religion and religion is down more people than it's saved.

[26:18] Why? Because they think that by doing good, by trying harder to keep the Ten Commandments, the golden rule, that they can thereby escape the coming wrath.

[26:31] That's not the gospel, my friend. That's the gospel of Satan, the liar. And it's being preached all over the world this morning. No, you don't run to religion.

[26:43] You don't run to a mere religion of being at the right place, doing the right thing with the right people and so on and so on. And thereby, we escape this coming wrath. There was a whole lot of people in John the Baptist day that were doing just that.

[27:00] The scribes and the Pharisees and Sadducees and others with them. They came to be baptized by John. And they were thinking that they could be saved from wrath simply by this water baptism without the repentance that it signified.

[27:17] Or they thought that because we're Jews we'll be saved from God's wrath. We're physical descendants of Abraham. We're the religious group. The wrath of God is for those Gentiles.

[27:31] And John the Baptist said, who in the world warned you to flee from the wrath of God? Who was it that warned you to flee the coming? Because that's a lie. That's not the truth.

[27:41] You don't run to religion. You don't run to some privilege, religious privilege of being raised in a Christian family and doing so much better than many others in this life.

[27:55] And neither do you flee into the distractions of this world. And oh, how many in our nation in the West are doing just that. And so their conscience tells them what our text says.

[28:06] There's a coming wrath. But they're running to the distractions of pleasure after pleasure, thing after thing, keeping their earbuds in their ears all day long, not to let themselves alone with conscience that says, you know that you must give an account in judgment for the things done while in the body.

[28:28] You know that. And they play the music and they're involved in their activities and they're doing their things and they're seeking after pleasures and they're keeping busy and they're seeking to drown out the roar of the forest fire as it's approaching.

[28:44] That won't help you to escape it at all. And yet, millions respond to this message in that fashion. No, in the end the coming wrath arrives with your death and judgment.

[29:01] No, there's only one place to flee so as to escape the coming wrath. And we find it in 1 Thessalonians 1, 9, and 10 where the Apostle Paul is writing to the church there.

[29:14] And he's remembering their real repentance and conversion to Jesus Christ. And this is what he says. You turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead.

[29:36] Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. Now, that's as plain as we can get. Where do you run from the coming wrath?

[29:48] Well, you run to Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. That's the good news. He does rescue from the coming wrath.

[30:00] There's that coming wrath again. You see? It wasn't just John the Baptist. Now it's Paul. These folks were sinners.

[30:10] They were by nature the children of wrath. Their sin was obnoxious to God. Their sin was calling down God's wrath. And as long as they were outside of Christ, that wrath of God was resting over them like a thundercloud that's just waiting to open up and to drop upon them.

[30:26] And then Paul came to town and he preached the gospel. He told them about eternal life that's found in Jesus Christ. One that was crucified for sinners and rose again.

[30:40] And they grabbed hold of him. They trusted in him to save them from all their sins. And then they not only did that, they turned to God from idols.

[30:53] That means they abandoned their idols. And idols are just things that we live for instead of Jesus Christ. They're God's substitutes. And they turned to God in faith through Jesus Christ.

[31:05] And as they turned to him, they renounced their idolatry. They renounced that lifestyle of being content to live without Jesus. Whatever it is that's giving them the buzz of life without Jesus.

[31:18] They turned from their idols and they served the living and true God. They lived for him instead of for their idols. And they were waiting for his son from heaven.

[31:32] Jesus who saves us from that coming wrath. That wrath that is coming. They ran to Jesus and they found that he indeed does rescue from the coming wrath.

[31:51] He did. He rescued them and he always does to anyone who runs to him. He turns none away. So whoever believes on him with that saving renunciation and throwing themselves upon Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life.

[32:12] The apostle Paul speaking of Christ says in Romans 5 9 since we have now been justified by his blood how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him.

[32:23] There it is again. There is a wrath of God and we're saved from it through Jesus Christ who shed his blood. So where do we run?

[32:34] We run to a person. The safe refuge and hiding place it's a person. It's the living once crucified but now risen Jesus. He is the Savior.

[32:45] He's the only Savior of sinners. He's the only safe place to run and actually escape the coming wrath. Well another question that then comes how does Jesus rescue from the coming wrath?

[32:58] I've heard you say that we're to run from the coming wrath and now you've told me I'm to run to Jesus who saves me from how does he save me from the coming wrath? We're not left to guess at that either.

[33:11] The Bible tells us it's by way of substitution. substitution. On the cross. I'm talking about the crucifixion of Jesus 2,000 years ago on the middle cross outside of Jerusalem in space time history.

[33:24] He's being crucified and Jesus the eternal son of God become man is on that cross and he is standing in place of his people.

[33:37] He's standing in the place of every single boy and girl man and woman who during their lifetime will put their faith in that savior turning from their idols to the living God.

[33:49] He's standing in for them. And he's bearing our sins in his body to the tree and there he received God's wrath that we should have and would have suffered for all eternity.

[34:04] And by taking it upon himself he turns it away from us. a newlywed couple on their honeymoon went snorkeling off the great barrier reef.

[34:17] And as they were enjoying their time a shark appeared and circled and made his way straight for the bride. And right at the last minute the bridegroom was able to swim in front of her and took the full force of the shark's attack taking his life but saving hers.

[34:41] That's what Jesus is doing on that middle cross. This wrath of God that was settled upon every one of us for we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[34:52] Jesus stood between that wrath that was falling and he took the full brunt of it on the cross for his bride the church.

[35:04] And we we experience salvation and everlasting life because he experienced the wrath of God that would have ended our life.

[35:18] Would have meant everlasting destruction. He became sin for us. He took the blame for us. He bore the wrath for us. So we stand forgiven at the cross.

[35:30] Rescued from the wrath of God because he took it in our place substituting for us. That's what the Bible calls propitiation. It's a big word but it's an important word because it's a biblical word.

[35:44] Jesus propitiated the wrath of God. That is he satisfied it. He pacified it. And how did Jesus satisfy the wrath of God?

[35:55] By taking it on himself. And all of God's holy revulsion of his holy nature against my sin. It fell on Jesus and it was perfectly satisfied.

[36:10] For my sin. It fell on Jesus. And Jesus taking it was turning it away from me. So there's no more condemnation for me if I'm in Jesus Christ.

[36:24] You may remember that on the night before Jesus died he prayed to his father in the garden of Gethsemane. Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me.

[36:36] Yet not my will but yours be done. What's he talking about this cup? There was no physical cup. No he's talking about what he is about to experience the next day on the cross. This wrath of God.

[36:50] This coming wrath falling on him. And he sees it as a cup. And in the Old Testament it was the cup of God's wrath that was being passed around to the nations when God was dealing in judgment upon those nations.

[37:03] And Jesus sees that cup and he sees the wrath of God in it. You see the cup that was put into Jesus hands had the wrath of God in it. And that's why he prayed and sweat as it were great drops of blood.

[37:16] Father if it be possible let this cup let the experience of your wrath on me not happened. And the father says I'm sorry there is no way for you to save sinners without experiencing my wrath.

[37:34] And Jesus submitted to the father not my will but yours be done. And the next day he took the cup on Calvary and he drank it and he experienced the full wrath of God that would have fallen on me forever and ever.

[37:50] forever and by him drinking it there's no wrath in my cup. There's only favor and love and mercy and grace forever and ever.

[38:03] That's how Jesus rescues us from the coming wrath. He stands in and takes it himself. The early Native Americans taught settlers how to survive in a forest or a prairie fire.

[38:19] something that was common on the plain. And I've told this story many times before but it does help us understand how does Jesus rescue us from the coming wrath.

[38:33] Well the American Indians they would go out from their settlement their camp and they would start a controlled fire the way that the farmers used to do when they burned off the fence road.

[38:46] Not letting it get too big where they couldn't control it. So they got their brooms and their rakes and they're keeping it under control and they burn off a huge area.

[38:58] There's nothing left that's combustible there. It's all just charred scorched earth. And then they put out the fire. It's gone. And they do that when they see the fire coming in a distance.

[39:12] So there's the coming fire. fire. And it makes them start a fire and then put it out. And then they get their wives and their children and everything that's valuable and they put it inside the center of that circle of charred earth.

[39:27] And that coming fire just keeps coming. And they stand there on that charred earth and they know that though that fire is threatening it will not touch us.

[39:38] And sure enough when it comes to that little circle of burnt off area it goes right around them. Why? Because the fire's already fallen here and it's already burned up that which is combustible.

[39:51] There's nothing there so it goes around and they escape the fire. When we see God's wrath coming we're to run for it.

[40:06] Where do we run? Well we run to the charred earth. We run to the one place where the fire of God's wrath has already fallen and totally punished sin.

[40:18] Only one place. It's Calvary's cross. You say well I know that the wrath of God fell on Sodom. In fact the wrath of God fell on this whole world and in the flood. Yes that's right but that wasn't the final punishment of sin.

[40:31] That didn't do away with another punishment in hell did it? But there is one place where the wrath of God has been perfectly endured and satisfied.

[40:42] And it's at the cross of Jesus. That's the charred out area. So sinner friend you see the flames of God's eternal wrath approaching. What should you do? Flee from them.

[40:53] And where do you flee? To Jesus Christ. Well what do you mean? Well I mean get into him. And you get into him by faith because he's the only place where sins have been fully atoned for.

[41:05] Where the wrath of God has already been suffered. And if God's wrath has already been suffered then there's none left for you to suffer. That's why the Bible says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

[41:23] You're in him. And that's why there's no wrath. There's no condemnation. There's nothing to fear in God anymore if you're found in the one safe place of his son.

[41:38] But outside of Christ the wrath of God remains on you. It's coming for you and it will surely find you out. There is a hell to pay for sin. And no one will be exempted outside of the circle of Christ.

[41:55] Yesterday I read of a young lady and some folks had been sharing the gospel with her and she'd been listening very attentively and so at one point in their relationship they asked her are you ready to receive Jesus Christ?

[42:13] And she responded no I'm pretty content with my life right now. Is that you? No everything's not perfect.

[42:26] Nothing is. But you're pretty content with your life right now. You wouldn't say that if a forest fire was coming would you?

[42:39] Then why would you say it when a far worse fire of God's wrath is coming? I'm pretty content where I'm at in this life.

[42:50] I'm afraid many sinners don't have a clue why they need Jesus. Why do you need Jesus this morning? Have you thought about that? And perhaps some of that is our fault in the way that we present Christ and the gospel to them.

[43:10] We say you need Jesus in your life because things go better with Christ just as they go better with Coke. That marriage goes better with Jesus and family goes better with Jesus and jobs go better with Jesus and work and everything goes better with Jesus.

[43:29] And those of us who have Christ know the truth of that. It's true enough our marriages are enriched by Jesus Christ a hundred time fold and our family life and our jobs and our relations everything is enriched by Jesus Christ.

[43:49] Nothing's the same with him but sinner friend that's not the reason you need Jesus. And church listen many of them are saying well I'm I'm content with my marriage and I'm content with my family and my job and my financial status and I'm pretty content right now.

[44:07] You need a you need a better reason than that. And so we say well you'll need Jesus to help you through life's trials. And we go through some of those life's trials and we honestly say I don't have a clue how people make it through that without the Lord Jesus as their friend.

[44:27] And we mean that with every fiber of our being. How do they go through that without Jesus? And yet Christian friend the fact is they do.

[44:41] They are. They're somehow slugging it out. They're somehow pulling themselves through it. They're still they're still going on.

[44:52] They found relief somewhere. They found help somewhere. And they're making it through the trials of life. Well you need Jesus to die.

[45:03] You come to the last the last day the last moments and you're lying there on your bed. You'll need Jesus then. Yes we know the truthfulness of that and the difference that Jesus makes in the valley of the shadow of death.

[45:21] but the facts are lost sinners are passing out of this life very peacefully very at ease very happily.

[45:37] Why do you need Jesus Christ? Why do you need him to give significance and purpose to your life? And Jesus does give far greater purpose than what the world lives for.

[45:50] They live for themselves. What a tiny little orbit to be surrounding. The living for self. I'm living for myself when to live for Jesus is to be a part of the biggest thing happening in the universe.

[46:02] That God is restoring a new humanity to live in a new heaven and a new world forever and ever under his love and care. Oh does he ever give us purpose?

[46:14] But the facts are people are finding enough purpose in their jobs in their marriage in their relationships in this that and the other little trinket and toy and recreation to give them purpose to get out of bed and live another day.

[46:31] But when we come to the Bible every one of us are confronted with the greatest reason we all need Jesus and it's because the wrath of God is coming.

[46:49] It's because of what happens after you die and you come to judgment. You must face your maker and if your sins have not been forgiven you'll be punished for them forever under God's wrath in hell.

[47:08] You see some may somehow make it through the trials of this life even through the last trial of death some might find enough purpose in life without Jesus. They may be content to live their whole life without Jesus 80 years without Jesus but you have an appointment with death and judgment and no one no one in that day will escape the coming wrath without Jesus.

[47:32] That's why you need Jesus my friend. Because only he can rescue you from the coming wrath. Oh but pastor isn't that just scaring people?

[47:46] Well perhaps but there's good reason to be scared when it's the eternal wrath of God that's coming. Oh but isn't that an unworthy motivation for them to come to Christ?

[48:02] No it's not. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men. Knowing what's coming I'm trying to persuade you.

[48:14] And if it scares you to think of facing the wrath of God forever and ever may it be that I chase you and scare you right into the hands of the only one that can rescue you from it.

[48:26] Even Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. The wrath is real but so is the rescuer. there is a rescuer from the coming wrath.

[48:38] That's the good news of the gospel and you'll only appreciate it if you understand the bad news. The wrath of God is coming but there is one who rescues from the coming wrath and that savior Jesus will do you absolutely no good unless you run to him.

[48:54] So I'm telling you this morning run to him. Flee to him. Turn your back on your way. Renounce the whole business of living for yourself and your idols and throw yourself upon the mercy of God and Jesus Christ trusting in him alone to atone for your sins.

[49:16] Hear it from himself. Come to me. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. all that the father gives me will come to me and I will in no way cast them out.

[49:37] You come to Jesus he's giving you his word. He'll not chase you. Run to the safe refuge. You've been warned. Evacuate. It's coming. Now run today.

[49:48] You don't know that you have tomorrow. Let's turn to number eight in our grace hymns and sing of the power of the cross. It was at the cross that we see this power to save not just one or two sinners but but to save a whole mass of sinners more than can be numbered.

[50:07] It's because of what Jesus did on the cross. Our grace hymns number eight and it's the power of the cross. Stand with me as we sing. nothing you do today my sinner friend is more important than coming to this rescuer and being saved from God's wrath forever.

[50:34] Nothing you do the rest of your life is more important than that. Seek him. If we can be of help come to us but you don't find rescue in us.

[50:46] You find it in Jesus. Just pour out your heart to him and then go and tell somebody. Then come and tell us. I'm trusting in Jesus to rescue me from the coming wrath.

[50:57] Let's pray. thank you Lord that these things are true. Thank you that you didn't just surprise us a half second after our death to find ourselves under your wrath forever but that you would warn us and you would provide a rescue in Jesus Christ and that we would have these very words that have come from your heart longing to see sinners run to Jesus.

[51:29] Make it to happen this day not only here but in every place where the gospel has been preached that in every place from the place where the sun rises to the place where it sets your name would be great on the earth.

[51:45] We ask it for Jesus fame and in his name. Amen. Amen. Man.

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