In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the impending judgment that will come upon those who have been indifferent and careless towards the things of God. He describes a day when souls will suddenly realize the truth they had ignored, and the consequences they will face. The preacher references the Bible, specifically 2 Peter 3:10, which speaks of the day of the Lord coming like a thief in the night, with the heavens passing away and the elements melting with fervent heat. He highlights the seriousness of neglecting the gospel and compares it to contempt of court or other dignitaries, emphasizing the authority and power behind the message of the gospel.

I know these are familiar portions of Scripture to all of you, but I do believe that there might be something in it all that will help both the saints as well as those who may not know the Lord Jesus yet. And so we go back to first things, foundation things in the history of this world and God's dealings with man. In this sixth chapter we'll read at the first verse, It came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also, that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, they bared children to them. The same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing and fowls of the air, for it repented me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And the Lord and God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them. And, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood, rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Now turn to the seventh chapter, and the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Verse 10, And it came to pass, after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. And in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day, were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark. They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth. And the waters increased and bear up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth. And the ark went up, went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth. And all the high hills that were under the whole heaven were covered, fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beasts, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And every man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven. And they were destroyed from the earth, and nor only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days." Well, may God bless this portion to our hearts tonight. You see, here we have a very dark picture of man's complete failure, and what God must do with it. He's going, he blotted it out. And dear friends, it's an awfully solemn thing when you think of it, that that's exactly what God is going to do again. He's not going to go on with the situation as it is today, forever. He's not forgetting to rule amongst the sons of men, but his plans and purposes allow for conditions to grow worse and worse. It's not his fault he hasn't started it this way. It's man's own choice, all the way down through man's history from the very beginning, man has chosen the exact opposite path to which God would have chosen for him. Garden of Eden experience is a picture, but it's only an isolated case, illustrated and repeated millions of times, all the way down. And so we find that the dispensations of the, of Earth's history begin with a bright morning and close with a dark evening. And this is the end of the first day. Shall we say the first day, or Earth period, which the scriptures allow us to call a day, although it's extended for about 2,000 years in lengths of time between creation and the flood. And that was the time when man was put under the auspices of his own conscience, without even one law. Nothing to say you must not do this, or must not do that, or thou shalt do something else. No laws were given to Adam after he was driven out of the Garden of Eden. In Eden he had one law, but after he was driven out of that, those garden gates, and the cherubim with their flaming sword guarded the way to the Tree of Life, to keep man from getting back into it, then there was no law but the conscience. The conscience, well people say today, go according to your conscience. Well you can tell them, well conscience led men to the flood. And what we've described here in these two chapters is just exactly where anyone's conscience will lead you to. Now that may sound strange, because so much has been made of people's consciences, as though they had a little deity within. And that that deity was always pure, always right, and would direct you always in a correct manner. But I say again, if you go according to your conscience, you'll land in hell. And it's well to realize that. And you might say, well why? I thought the conscience was the only thing that was of any good in a man today. Well you thought wrong my friends, there isn't even that much left that is right after the sin of man in the Garden of Eden. Man doesn't have a good conscience. The only one who has a good conscience is a child of God, and he only, when he is going according to the word of God, maintains a sensitive conscience, and is seeking to please God with his whole heart, soul, mind, and body. Even a Christian, the Bible says, can have a conscience, see it as with a hot iron. But it is possible for a child of God to have a conscience, as the scripture also describes, void of offense before God and man. But if a conscience can be so elastic, that it can be see it as with a hot iron, and also to the other extreme, under the power of the word of God, to be void of offense, it shows that it is not reliable as a guide for anybody. And only as a Christian goes on from day to day, walking in the fear of the Lord, does he have any safety in going according to his conscience, because then that conscience is educated by the scriptures. It breathes the atmosphere of the mind of God in strict truth, while of course, it's really going according to the word of God, period. It's not a question of conscience at all. It's a question now as to our heart relationship with Christ. But enough of that. And so you see, man has been put on trial. After man was put out of the Garden of Eden, he was put on probation to see if there was any way, not that God needed to know, but that man might learn whether the conscience would help. In the next dispensation, after the floodwaters subsided and Noah opened the new dispensation with the burnt offering and claimed the earth for God, then it was human government that was the vogue under God. The policy of rule was under man's kingship, and the sword was placed in Noah's hand. He was the supreme judge of the whole earth, and he was to rule man with a sword under God, of course. And he was to execute capital punishment, execute all who shed man's blood. It is not one of the Ten Commandments given to the Jews. It has not been abrogated today. It is still the means that God would have justice carried out today, where there is premeditated murder on the part of man to man. And so we find that the principle, learn it, I'm going beyond it now a little bit, beyond the picture, a little bit of our subject tonight, but it won't hurt. Uh, the principle upon which man rules his fellow is that he is able to rule himself. If a man can't rule himself, he proves his inadequacy to rule his fellow man. And so early in history, of the period produced or begun by Noah, coming out of the ark in the newly clean, cleansed, and purged earth, there was at that time an earth in which there was not one single individual human being that was out of touch with God. And that everything was purged again. And that this burnt offering that Noah offered was, as it were, claiming the earth through the smoke of the sacrifice, that claiming the earth for God. And Moses was God's representative. And so there was a new morning, but oh how soon the night of that day fell. How soon the sun set, to speak metaphorically. And how soon did it set? Very, very quickly. Really speaking, although it took few about 256 years to reach the next night time, and that night time was at the Tower of Babel, when God divided the languages of men and brought one of the greatest curses upon the human race that has ever been pronounced. That men would have divided languages, for therein lay the basis for most of the wars, most of the irritations between a human being and another. If a person, you hear a person talking a foreign language, you'll hear others beginning to get riled up. And if they, in a few minutes, they'll speak out uncontrollably in protest against them talking any other language but the language of America, or something of that type. It is an irritating effect, and it's caused the greatest wars. And I know because of being a European, I know that main, the main hatred between the nations of Europe is the different languages. Well anyway, Noah couldn't control himself. How could he control his fellow? How do I know? Because he built a vineyard, raised grapes, drank, and got drunken, and was exposed to his children. Uncontrollably brought shame upon himself and his family. And the curse fell upon the human race. Ham was the one guilty and had to suffer. Canaan and all his progeny were the ones who were suffering and are to this very day as servants to others of Japheth and Shem. And so that we have today the evidences of this lifelong, world-long, global curse. The history-long curse of man as made a slave to his fellow because of his behavior towards his father. But his father was at fault. It was his own father that couldn't control himself. And so there we see the very heart of all human government you want to know why human people, human beings, can't rule others, rule themselves, rule the country. Why there's so much corruption in politics. You get it in the very heart of the thing. Because men cannot control themselves. They have a chance to make their bed of heavy with down and gold really, and gold finances coming in easy. They feather their nest as I wanted to say at the beginning. They feather their nest and they are comfortable and happy with everybody else's money. And that's a good opportunity. They can't control themselves and yet they are often the ones who make the laws that will legislate the thing to be wrong if somebody else did the same thing. And so that's what makes such disapproval and misery amongst men. And so how we see these things brought out at the very beginning in our book of Genesis. But nevertheless in the midst of all man's sin, thank God, grace works. God's grace begins to work. And so man is utterly lost and helpless in his own encumbersome, sinful state of soul, in his rebellion against God, in the conditions of his disobedience and his own chosen path of independency of God. Well man is going to feel the test, feel the result of it. He's going to put the thing to the test. And so he says in effect I'm going to go according to my conscience. I won't have any law telling me I can't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I'll choose my own path. And so God allows him to act according to his conscience. And oh what a miserable mess man has made of his behavior under conscience. Look at the people today who say well go let your conscience be your guide and there's no limit to what they will do when their conscience is their guide. And so that is what God is allowing my friend. He's allowing man to prove himself to himself. He's allowing you and I to witness it in ourselves and in the history of the world. You don't have to read very far back into earth's history among the various nations of the earth and you'll see just what I'm talking about and it's getting worse and worse and worse all around us. I don't mean to go into the sordid stories that comes to one's ears both through the newspaper as well as through conversation with one another and the terrible things that are being done between men and women, between children and infants. Our jails are getting full of juveniles and it's a shame and it's just because of this very thing. Parents are guilty and children take on the same guilt and the same behavior and the result is the mess, the chaos that has come about today and will continue to deteriorate and until it gets done and touches bottom. And only the cross of Christ standing in shall we say at the crossroads of life is going to make any difference to any one of us. Thank God we are not left without a remedy but will people heed it? Will people believe it? Will people trust it? No indeed. So few comparatively speaking. However God's grace shines out and so he picked Noah. He says but Noah and his family. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and then he speaks of his generation and then his son Shem, Ham, Japheth and their wives ate in number and they are told to prepare an ark. So we see that the Lord Jesus is being foreshadowed by God finding a resource in this one man who only was righteous and the benefits that the children of that family and the wives of that family enjoyed were because they were relatives of Noah. They each and every one were related to Noah and so in the antitype which of course we are so well aware of and the Lord Jesus himself in the New Testament, only those who are related to Christ will ever reach the place of safety. Only the Lord Jesus Christ is the true place of rest which the word Noah means rest or repose. In other words then if we want to know what real rest is we must know Christ who is the instigator of rest, the initiator of rest, the one who has purchased and made rest, made it possible to obtain and he's the only one that can give it and therefore we find that there's a divine verdict given in the 13th verse and what is that verdict? It says the end of all flesh is come before me. We turn to the New Testament in John 3, 6 and 7 and he says that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Now long before then in the 6th of Genesis he has said that the end of all flesh has come before me. Over there then in John he just corroborates what he said in Genesis. That which is of the flesh is flesh. Whatever is born of the flesh can't be anything better than the flesh. It can't lift itself above its own level. If only we could get that across not only to the unsaved but to the Christian. The flesh is always the flesh and it can't be improved upon. God has said as much through the scripture and so we find that the only remedy is in the next verse, 7th verse of the 3rd of John, marvel not that I said unto thee ye must be born again. That's why I want to take up these early chapters so that you can see that what we know so familiarly in the New Testament is really not new. It's something that has been prepared for and established through the histories of man from the very beginning. And that there is no remedy for the flesh. May I say this, a Christian is not an improved man or woman. There's no improvement by Christianity, strictly speaking. That person who is born again is a new person and that's the idea of birth. That there is no past and a newly born person, newly born again, he is beginning as a babe in the Lord Jesus Christ. A babe in the Word of God and begins absolutely new. August Ben Lines had one of his little infant babies in his arms one time. I expect he's mentioned it to you though. But anyway, he had one of these newborn babies in his arms one day and of his own and somebody came to him and said, well how old is the child? And in his own cute way he said, how old? Why, bless you, it's brand new. How old? It is no old about it. And so it's brand new. New birth, my friend, is not a patched up thing or an improved thing. That the man who's now newly born is going to be a better man. He's going to be a new man in Christ. He's going to live a new life. He's going to live after a new pattern. He's going to have a new standard. He's going to have a new textbook. He's going to have a new guide, a new path, a new position, a new destiny. He's going to seek to please not himself. The flesh can't do anything else but try to please itself. But now, when we are born again, we are, we forget to try to please ourselves. We want to please Him who has saved us and wonders for himself. And when a Christian continues to try to please the flesh, well you've got a mixed medley now. And I'm telling you, he's the one who's going to cause himself and a lot of others a lot more trouble. Because he's going to have a muddled up life. He's got new standards to live for, but he goes back to his old habits. And so he's going to be a bad testimony, to say the least. David is an example of that. When, as it says, when it was the time when kings should have gone to war, he was looking around at the people in his neighborhood and became envious of a man because of his beautiful wife. And then brought in sadness and sorrow for the rest of his days and all other people's days. The whole bible is a testimony against his conduct. And yet today, people always bring up David's character. But my friends, it was because David was then acting in the energy of the flesh. Seeking to gratify the flesh. Seeking to respond to the old nature. But David, on the other hand, like every child of God, had another nature altogether different. And that other nature he was neglecting. But may God keep us from failing, from, from failing to see the lesson. Otherwise we'll fall too. It just isn't likely for a Christian to fall just like David today, as he, as he did then. And so it's well to realize that the end of all flesh has been brought up before the highest tribunal in the universe. God says I'm through with it. Now our best policy is to be through with it too. That's what this pool's for. In the picture of baptism, you are, you are burying that which is corrupt. And when a thing becomes corrupt, then it becomes violent. Corruption always precedes violence. People say, well, most of these people that are committing crime are mentally insane. And that's the way they try to get away from the guilt of it. Oh no. No. Violence is preceded by corruption of the mind, corruption of the heart, and of the thoughts, and of the life. And it, and corruption becomes, comes as a result of disobedience to God, and a turning away from his rule for life. There's a step, these are steps downwards. They're not all arrived at in the moment of time, and suddenly and uncontrollably possessed with a desire to kill. Oh no. It's a process. And so we find the scriptures here bring that before us in very, very clear style. Look in the twelfth verse. And God looked upon, this is the sixth of Genesis, looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. Same in the eleventh verse. The earth also was corrupt before God, and as a result the earth was filled with violence. They murdered them. Why? Well let's turn to what scripture says. Let's go to Job. Job is the oldest book in the Bible you probably know chronologically. And it describes the conditions of men's minds before the flood, at the time that we are reading about. So that we go to Job for information concerning the conditions existing in the minds of men, and God has not left us without a witness about it. He says, fifth verse, pardon me, thank you, the twenty-first chapter of Job. Thank you very much. Any time I miss that please, please call out. My wife isn't here, but she always gets after me after the meeting. That's too late. So call out please, I'm getting too old I guess. Some of these days I'll never be able to give my name and address at all anymore. But the twenty-first chapter of Job, beginning at verse five, mark me and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth, even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling take hold of my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked live? Wherefore do the wicked live? Become all, yea, are mighty in power. Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, this is before the flood, mind you, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and faileth not. Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance, they seem to be so happy. They take the timbrel and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment the floods go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit should we have if we pray unto him? Now that's the attitude of their mind, that's what they thought of God. They were atheistic, rebellious, consequently being corrupt, which that is why they became violent, murder, and every other kind of shameful sin was perpetrated in that day. And so we thank God that there is a remedy, don't we? He says that being born again, not of corruptible seed, 1 Peter 1 verse 23, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. Flesh, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The end of all flesh has come before me. Put all these scriptures together in your thinking, and you get a Bible-wide principle of truth that will sweep from one book to another, and then the testimony of the scriptures becomes a corroboration of the teachings of the gospel. Then you can stand on firm foundation and declare the truth that man, according to the flesh, is like grass. It grows up, it looks pretty, but before long the sun comes and withers it up, and the beauty of its flower is going to perish. There's nothing lasting, nothing of true value about it. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. So then in the 8th of Romans, so then they that are of the flesh cannot please God. Cannot please God in the flesh, but in, and in Isaiah 64, 6 we find this statement, we are all as an unclean thing, and our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do faith as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. And so unsaved man or woman, this puts an end to all so-called good life, being good. As we call it. How can an unsaved man be good, when it says the man in the flesh cannot please God? So it isn't on the basis of merit, this whole grand question. It's the question of God's plan of remedy. If I am in my dilemma, if I realize it, if you'll realize it, I have thanked God in a measure. But if you'll realize it, unsaved friend here tonight, I hope there's some here unsaved, because I'm anxious to be a help to you, to see the basis of the reasons that we state that you need a Savior for. You need Christ as your personal Savior, because you are hopelessly involved in a condition from which there is no escape, humanly speaking. You are born of a natural birth, you'll agree, and that natural birth of yours gives you no hope in yourself of attaining to heaven. You are already unfit for the presence of God. Flesh is what brands you so. You are born that way, and therefore it needs the remedy God gives. Now we see that after the divine verdict, the end of all flesh has come before me, now he gives us a divine plan in verse 14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Room shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. There's the remedy. God is gracious. He tempers his grace and mercy with his judgment. He tells that sin has brought man to absolute violence. He's not going to do with flesh anymore. He's not going to deal with flesh. He doesn't deal with you as a man in the flesh. He wants to deal with you in the person of Jesus Christ. He wants you to come to him and find in him that new life by new birth that will begin to live for him and serve and glorify and honor him. And thus we see that this wonderful plan of salvation is so beautifully presented in the New Testament. The antitype of this ark. Look at it this way. If God doesn't provide himself, if God himself doesn't provide a remedy for the situation, then even nor will have to perish. Do we get the importance of that thought? Because if God doesn't provide a remedy for our condition today, then all of us are lost. For there is not two remedies, there's only one. And that one is through the person of Jesus Christ and his provision made by his death and vicarious sufferings and shed blood on Calvary's cross. Apart from that, we'll all be hopelessly lost. There is no other way. Not by being good, or being a member of a church, or turning over a new leaf, as we often say. Nor keeping the Sermon on the Mount, or the Ten Commandments, or the Golden Rule, and what have you. Put it all together and it won't give you one ounce of satisfaction, not one moment's peace, not a moment's rest of heart before God. You're guilty, sinful, unfit for the presence of God, and it's good to know it. It's like going to a diagnotician, a doctor who can diagnose your situation, your physical condition, and he gives you the answer. Like I heard a friend, in fact it's my own son-in-law, said that in a letter that he was going this evening to hear the verdict. He'd had several x-rays and the searching of the doctor and his physical condition and various analyses of his body, and now tonight I'm going to hear the verdict. And so he's going to hear what he expects to be the truth. Though it may be painful, it may be unpleasant, it may be something he's dreaded, but nevertheless he's going to hear the verdict. But nevertheless, my friend, that's a friend. He, if he can possibly be successful in discovering what's wrong, and faithfully and honestly tells you what it is and doesn't deceive you, there is a slight hope of recovery, so that you'll recover your strength and health again because he told you the truth and applied the remedy. And so God has been faithful in giving the verdict. I've got no use for the flesh. I won't deal with the flesh. There's no hope in the flesh. I'll have to introduce something altogether new. And so make thee an ark of wood, and pitch it within and without with pitch. And so he did. God gave them 120 years to build the ark, and while he was building the ark, to preach, preach righteousness, and declare the gospel of the grace of God at that day. That there was going to be a structure here that was going to rise above the waters. Now, of course, doubtless, people appealed to the best minds of the day and said, well, what do you think of Noah's project down there? Don't you think, well, what do you think? I'd like to know your opinion. You're a skilled man, a scientist, or whatever it might have been. Do you know what he's doing? Yes, I know what he's doing, all right, but I think he's plain crazy. Why, there's never been a drop of water fall from heaven, and the idea of enough water to raise that thing up on the top of the water seems out of all proportion to sense and sane thinking. Ah, but then God had spoken, and that makes all the difference. Though there had never been a drop of rain up till this time from heaven, and no flooding, but just the atmosphere rises like it does in Florida, with a heavy dew in the morning, saturates everything, and I'm not saying we don't have rain, but I mean that that's the way oftentimes we get our moisture for months on end. Because in the morning there's that moisture rising out of the ground, covering the whole area like a thick fog, and then leaves beads of water on things within reach for half a day. And so we see then that God has given a remedy here, and it's a remedy that is practical. You take your hammer and saw and build an ark, and then when it was finished, it says, and the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. Now we get the divine invitation. Come, come. He wants us to know that that's the invitation that stands upon his lips all through this dispensation since the death of Christ. Since God has a foundation upon which he can build hope for you, for salvation, in the person of his Son he says now, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So it's pictured for us here. Come thou, and notice, all thy house, for God saves in families. That's his desire. He wants to save the whole family. And so that's the picture here, as it is in the 12th of Exodus, a land for a house in Exodus for Israel. So here, Come thou and all thy house into the ark, for thee only have I seen righteousness before me in this generation. And so it came to pass after seven days the waters of the flood were upon the earth. Never mind what scientists said about it being ridiculous. It never has happened all through the 2,000 years that man has been on earth. It's never happened before. But that's no proof it's not going to happen. God said that he's going to burn this earth up with a fervent heat. And people have been saying, Well, that's impossible. You can't burn the earth up. That's ridiculous. Now they find they can. Even man can. They tell us that the hole that last hydrogen bomb created where the island was, the hole in the bottom of the sea, is something beyond description as to its size. They've been over it in a helicopter, as you probably know. And so it can obliterate islands. It can remove whole areas. And now they tell us tonight that the H-bomb is powerful enough to blot out New York metropolitan city area. Blot out the whole city and everybody in it, seven million people. Oh, folks, it makes one tremble, though I'm not trying to scare. I'm just trying to show you the pointed facts that God has long since said he would do. He will burn the earth with a consuming flame. But you can write over all the buildings everywhere, no matter how beautiful they are, you can put a sign in your mind on it, reserved unto fire. Everything you see built in this world by man's hands, you can paint that sign on it in your thinking. Reserved unto fire. What a day it'll be when God takes over with atomic energy and hydrogen explosions. And so it's nothing for God, for that's just about what happened, must have happened, before Adam was brought into the world. A cataclysmic convulsion of the whole earth, and therefore the conditions are quite easily reproduced. And so we find that this is an apt picture of God's greatest provision. Here's something that as the waters increase, this thing will float on top of it. So that the very judgment upon the wicked who reject the opportunity to come into the ark as they were invited, that very judgment that will judge them, is salvation for those who are in the ark. Well that's exactly what the scriptures tell us with reference to the death of Christ. His death on the cross is the means of the salvation of everyone who puts their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, that very death on Calvary's cross is the pledge that God will judge the earth by that man whom he hath appointed, in the which he will judge the world by that man whom he hath ordained, and is given assurance in that he raised him from the dead. That's the pledge that he's going to judge. And the man who will judge is the man who hung with a crown of thorns upon the tree. Oh what a picture we see here. He is the ark. As we go to him and find our refuge in him, when he judges the earth, we will be saved out of that judgment at the same moment. What a wonderful thing. And so God has given us these things, these pictures of things in the word of God, to lead us on. Why doesn't God judge now? Because of his patience. He says my spirit shall not always strive, but it has been striving all through the centuries, the millenniums since then. All the way down since man corrupted his way on the earth and became intensely violent. Turned his back upon God and says, I desire not the knowledge of thy way. You stay up there in your heaven and I'll run this earth. And man is saying it still. If God were to come into this scene today, the whole scene would go to pieces. All its commercial structure, its politics, its finance, its science, everything would go to pieces, would shatter. It's only those who know Christ and are seeking to live in some sense in his presence that would stand the test of God coming back to this earth again. Are you secure in this place of refuge? And so we find therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed, in the second of Hebrews we're told, to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip, or we should slip by them, that we should pass them up in passive neglect. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, that's the ten commandments, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also bearing them witnessed both with signs and wonders, and died with miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. Did you notice the deity mentioned there? The deity is mentioned in that verse. He says that the gospel was spoken by the Lord, confirmed by his apostles, then God also bearing them witnessed both with signs and wonders, and died with miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. Now that is to impress upon our minds the highly holy God-inspired authority or power that accompanies the gospel. That God himself and his Son and the Holy Spirit are conjointly bringing the gospel before men, and if you neglect it, you're going to be chargeable for, well, what do they call this thing? Contempt of Congress, contempt of court, and contempt of this and that and the other dignitary. All right? There is a serious offense if a person doesn't meet an appointment at the investigation committee of the Congress. If he doesn't appear, it's contempt of that committee, contempt of the government, contempt of the United States court, contempt of this and that and the other. All right? If you don't accept the gospel of the grace of God, which God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been actively engaged in bringing to your attention, you will be charged with contempt of deity. And say, friends, are you here today? Perhaps you're thinking of somebody else, but you I'm talking to. Young lad, young lady, you are guilty of showing contempt against God. We desire not the knowledge of his wife. That's contempt. And to think of it being true today as it was then. But thank God he still is patient. Look at this wonderful scripture. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts. The lusts means their desires, doing their own will, pleasing the flesh. Saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. That's denying all miracles, all changes of action in this world. They've continued the same as they were from the very beginning. I don't believe in anything contrary to the laws of nature. And this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished. They won't believe it. I don't believe in the flood. I don't believe in miracles. I don't believe anything that would upset the laws of nature. That was one of the things that was remarkable with the Lord Jesus. And that is that he could do things, change the whole law of nature entirely. For instance, he could tell the servants to fill the six water pots full of water, and then all of a sudden it's wine. Crossing, going right across all the laws of nature in turning water into wine in the processes from spring to harvest. And so that's what people stood in amazement at. I have a letter that Caiaphas, High Priest Caiaphas wrote after Jesus was risen from the dead. And he summoned the disciples before him, and it gives an account of their testimony concerning their knowledge of Jesus while he lived. And they walked and talked with him. And Caiaphas sought by investigation to find out more about this mysterious person who claimed to be the Messiah. And this letter tells, in the end of it, by Caiaphas in his report to the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, that Jesus appeared to Caiaphas in his home when he was so scared of everything that he had the doors locked, and barbed and vaulted, and a guard standing outside to keep people from annoying him. And he was busy inside studying the Old Testament prophecies. If you like, I can give you, I think I've got a few copies I can give to some of you, and you can pass them around if you want them. I don't want to bother you with anything like this unless you want to read it. But he told of the story of Jesus appearing to him. And Peter, in his testimony anyway, he said that the marvelous thing about Jesus was he could just ride right across the laws of nature without any difficulty whatever. He could stand up in a boat when the storm was raging, and the lightning was flashing, and the thunder roaring, and the whole turbulent sea looked as if we would be engulfed any split second. And he stands up and says, peace, be still, and reduced the waves and the winds, and they are calm as a baby in its crib in an instant of time. And my friend, that's what these people are denying. They won't believe in any ability, in anybody, to cross the laws of nature. They don't believe in the flood therefore. These are the modernists of that day, and we have them with us today. But, says he in the eighth verse, beloved, that Christian people, you're different. Be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Well then, bless your heart, we haven't been in this world, this world hasn't been running more than about five days yet. You know, it's rather interesting. God said to Adam, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And people wonder, well why didn't he drop dead that very day? Well he hasn't, he didn't live a day. He didn't live a day according to this. A thousand years is one day, in God's economy. Methuselah, well he almost lived a whole day, but he didn't quite. 969, he must have had health treatments and, and uh, sought baths or something, and all kinds of careful training and care of his body. And he, he nearly made it, but he couldn't go across God's verdict. The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And no one of the human race has ever lived a day, yet. One thousand years is one day. Something to think about, don't you think? And so he says, for the day of the Lord, but the day of the Lord will, no, I want to read verse nine. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise. He isn't a slovenly God, but as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us, Lord, not with it willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But, listen, if you think he's dragging it out too long, the day of the Lord will come, and if you're unsaved, it will come to you as a thief in the night, just suddenly appear and snatch you away in judgment. What a day that'll be, when souls that have been so careless and utterly indifferent to the realities of their own soul's welfare, and just carefree indifference shown to the things of God, will suddenly find that what they thought was not true is too terribly true, altogether too terribly true for them, and they've got to suffer the consequences like the man we were reading of the other night in hell, looking up, lifting up his eyes. And so he says, seeing then, oh here in this tenth verse, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat. There's your fusion, if you like, this atomic fusion, and the elements shall melt, that's the world, the earth, the ground upon which we stand, with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, whenever the pronoun changes to we, it's referring to Christians, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless, and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. And so in closing, I remember, it comes to my mind as I read those last words, of God's patience, but that he will come. Someone said in a condition of suffering and pain, oh, if only the Lord would come. I'm listening for the shout, I wish it would be heard today. Yes, he is coming, he's not slack, but let us account that it is God's longsuffering towards a poor, Christless world. Because when he does finally come, there's no further hope, no second, third, or last chance. You're getting your chance now. And if you reject it, dear friend, yours will be the responsibility of it. I've sought, in a feeble way, to discharge my responsibility tonight, as the opportunity provided itself. But if you don't yourself take hold of your own condition, and look at it fairly and squarely in the light of the scriptures we've read, you're going to have to suffer the consequences of your neglect throughout eternity. You might say, suppose you're wrong. Well, all right, suppose I am. I'm having a happy time being wrong. But suppose I'm right. You'll have an awful time being wrong, for all eternity, with no escape. So the argument is always on my side, as far as favor is concerned. Shall we bow in prayer?