In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the Christian's responsibility to persuade men and women to come to Christ. He encourages believers to reach out in compassion and love, using various methods to get people's attention and share the gospel. The preacher also emphasizes the importance of pointing others to Christ and His love, urging them to come over to the Lord's side. Additionally, he highlights the need for believers to become new creatures in Christ, going through the refining process to remove impurities and appreciate heaven. Finally, the preacher discusses the responsibility of believers as ambassadors for Christ, emphasizing the importance of non-conformity and non-resistance.

Again, we want to extend Christian greetings this morning in the most precious name of our Lord and Savior. We're happy to be here, especially on this Resurrection Day, a beautiful day that the Lord has given us to worship. I believe there's no better place to be on such a beautiful day than sitting in the church and taking in what the Lord has for us, the Sunday school lesson, the singing, and now the preaching of the Word. Not necessarily because I'm here, but because the preaching should and will do something to us if we're open to it. And I trust this morning that we will do that, that we continue to receive the Word of God. The Christian's responsibility is somewhat the theme that we have chosen over these meetings. I'd like to look at something that's going to sound maybe contradictory, and yet fits well with what we've already been discussing this morning in the devotional meditation and the Sunday school lesson. I'd like to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and I want you to turn there a while. I'd like to start with a little story. I'd like to title the message this morning, Knowing Therefore the Terror of the Lord. Knowing Therefore the Terror of the Lord. We were talking about heaven this morning, and you said, well, something so beautiful, why didn't you decide to speak on heaven? Well, number one, I didn't realize what the Sunday school was. Number two, this is what the Lord laid in my heart. And I want to just share with you what the Lord has laid in my heart. Because in order to get to heaven, you've got to continually be prepared to go there. You have to continually be prepared to go there, and I trust that that is what you are doing in your life. I've said in these meetings that God does not play games. God is real. God is a real God. God is going to be, and he's going to be there. Come to judgment day, you will face, we all will face that judge, and then he will decide. Some he'll send to the right, some he'll send to the left. You know, where are we going to go? I want to take you back here to, oh, quite a number of years ago, maybe something like 35, 40 years ago, that really left an impression on me as a young man, and also my brother was along at that time. It was a cold winter day in Pennsylvania, and we come upon the scene of an accident. And there were a lot of cars lined up. It was very cold. It was very cold that day, and yet there we were. Well, my brother and I, being the type that we were, we were kind of nosy. We were just going to decide we're not going to just stay in the car. Maybe we can be some type of assistance, because as we looked, we could see flames coming in front of us. We could see the flames of whatever was right before us. We couldn't tell where that fire was coming from, other than we knew it was right in the middle of the road. But we were saying, why fire in the middle of the road? So we ran up there, and they had already cordoned down the area around that car, and they weren't letting anybody near the car. It happened to be a car, and this car was a total flames. And yet, in amongst that, all of a sudden, I'm standing there, and my brother grabbed the hold of my arm. He said, do you hear what I hear? I said, yes, I do. I hear somebody screaming. He said, and it's coming only from one area. It's coming inside the car. There has to be something that we can do. So my brother and I, we jumped over the cordon, and decided we're going to try to open that door. Well, we couldn't even get close to the car. Right then, people started yelling and saying, the car is going to blow up. Get out. But that wasn't what really impressed me, or left an impression. What left an impression was what I heard was coming from inside that car. And it was this, and I'll never forget it, where we heard someone screaming to the top of their voice, and it happened to be a female voice, and then she was saying, I'm not ready to die. She said, I'm not ready to die. Please give me a chance. Please give me a chance. She was saying, at the top of her voice. Now, who was she talking to? Who was she saying, please give me a chance? There she was. There she was. She knew that her time was not. She'd come to the end of time. And here it was. My brother looked at me, and I looked at him. Is there something? There was nothing we could do. We walked away from the car. It wasn't very long until we heard an explosion. But we still heard, one last time, I'm not ready to die. I'm not ready to die. Please give me a chance. Please give me a chance. Please give me a chance. I turned around and walked away from that car. One more person entering into eternity, and yet without God. Had to be. Why otherwise would they be crying, give me a chance? Give me a chance. Very solemn words indeed. Very solemn experience. One that, yes, did leave an impression. And this morning, as we go into the message, I just want to say this to each and every one of you. Now, you could never, when you leave here today, after this morning message, you could never say, you never knew. I'm holding you accountable before God. You will know. I am done with the message. What the terror of the Lord is. What the terror of the Lord is. One of the things, brethren and sisters this morning, we have to be real with God. We're talking about Christians' responsibility. And one of the things that God has put us on this earth is not that we rotted this earth, number one. It isn't because God wants us to accumulate big, over, if there's any such thing as an over stuffing a bank account. You know, that's not what God put us on earth. God put us on earth for a reason. Turn with me. I said, just hold your fingers in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 there. But I was reading about Jesus this morning in Matthew chapter 9. I'll just share a few verses there before we read out of 2 Corinthians. But in Matthew chapter 9, Jesus was walking the face of the earth. Jesus was a very, very busy man. And he went about, we say, doing good. And yes, he did, because that's what he came down to do. But he didn't come down just to heal people. He didn't come down just to feed people. He didn't come down just to take away leprosy from individuals. He didn't come down just for that. He came down for more than that. And we see that here. Let's see. Start and read verse 35. Let's read verse, starting there on verse 35 of Matthew chapter 9 says, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues. What did Jesus do? He taught. Why did Jesus taught? Because, number one, he knew his time was short. Number two, he knew that the Father is going to someday stop the clock of time. And he was going to be coming down. He was going to send his Son on earth. He said, Son, go down and bring my people up. Jesus knew that. Jesus didn't know when. So Jesus took the opportunity of every, or he took every opportunity he had to teach, it says, in the synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Notice the primary responsibility that Jesus had. Then verse 36, I really like it, it says, And when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. I make a distinction in the English language today between the word pity and compassion. I pity no one. That's pretty bold for a preacher to say, isn't it? I pity no one. No. If you know Renee and people know me, they will tell you that. Renee pities no one. I do not. I refuse to. I refuse to. Now wait a minute. There is a difference between having compassion. You know what the difference is? I believe compassion is that with inside a person who reaches out to other individuals because of the state in which they may be living or not living. That's the difference. To pity an individual, well, I would say, so what? You want me to pity you? Well, I'm not going to, but if you want me to pity you, that's your problem. I'm not going to say goodbye. But let me tell you, if I have compassion, like Jesus had compassion, it's going to move me. Compassion moves into action. I believe this is what Jesus was feeling as he saw the multitude. He was moved with compassion, it says. And you know, as Christians, one of your responsibilities is what? You've got to be moved with compassion. As you see the multitudes around us entering into eternity without Christ, are you moved with compassion this morning? And then it says, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, a sheep having no shepherd. A sheep having no shepherd. A scattered sheep. Let me tell you something, it's a lost sheep. It's a lost sheep. A sheep without a shepherd doesn't really know what to do. It just does not. We were, like I said, in Guatemala. And that was my first real encounter with the observation of a sheep. A sheep. I'll never forget. We had these children coming along with their groups of maybe 5, 10, 15 sheep. And maybe a group of about 10. And you had all these sheep, they're all coming together. And I thought, how in the world are these children going to tell which sheeps are there? So I would watch them. And it was rather interesting because the way they would call their sheep. So one day I decided, I'm going to go out there and call these sheep. How's that? So I got out there and I figured, well, I'm a shepherd. Shouldn't they listen to the shepherd's voice? So I got out there and I talked to these children. They all giggled. One of them said, go ahead. And he said, well, what are you saying? And he said, he made this sound. I said, do that again. And he did it again. And I imitated and he said, you're not too good. Well, I wasn't. I'm too good. So after a while I repeated it again. Yeah, yeah, now you're getting it. So I decided I'm going to give this a try. So I stood there and I belled this thing out. Those sheep just looked at me and they kept on doing what they wanted to do. I said, you sure that's what you said? He said, yeah. So I belled it out again. It didn't work. I said, now you do it. And he just very quietly, he just makes this noise. All of a sudden, about five, six sheep come right over to that shepherd. Why? Number one, they knew him. Number two, that shepherd took care of those sheep and they knew that they were supposed to follow that shepherd. See? And as soon as the first one come, he grabbed a hold of that sheep and just gave that sheep a hug. Well, I wasn't about to give a sheep a hug. See? But he did. Let me tell you something. As Jesus walked and he saw these sheep and they were wandering away, away from him, giving them their back. Jesus had to be moved with compassion. He called out and they rejected him. You remember how many times you rejected him? I do. And then, you know, when he knocked on our hearts door, what do we do? Oh, not yet. Not yet. Well, then verse 37. Because Jesus was so moved with compassion. It says, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few. Pray you therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that we will send forth labors into his harvest. It was 1989 when we came back from the mission field and I decided about 40, 45,000 feet up in the air, what are we going to do in the United States of America? There's too many people already. There's too many missionaries. They're all rotten. I'm not going to go into a beehive of Mennonites. Period. Yeah, that's what I said. Guess what? I'm still there. You know why? The Lord had a work in me. Six months later, I had a major stroke. 1989. August of 1989, I had a major stroke. And there I was. I was laying in that bed, looking up. I wasn't questioning God anymore. God, what is it? Not why, God. What is it, God? What are you trying to tell me? What are you trying to tell me? Then the Lord helped me see that there are those that need here, need help here in the United States of America. But the interesting thing was that we started the prison ministry. And I heard this. This is what I want you to get. I heard men and women on both sides of the house. They're in prison. And I get up and preach to them. And I just implore with them. And finally, a number of them would say, can we ask you a question here? Where have you been the last 10, 20 years? Where have you been? Well, it was easy for me to answer that. Well, let me tell you something. I was down in Guatemala. What were you doing down there? Well, I was down there saving people. Yeah, but why weren't you up here? Where are the rest of you all? I tell you what, I wish there was a hole that I would have tried to crawl in. I don't care how big it was. Yeah. I was ashamed. Where are the Mennonites? I heard that again and again and again and again. Everywhere I went, every prison I went. I visited about 17 different prisons just in Pennsylvania alone. Where have they been? Where have you been? Where have you been? Why are you scared? Yeah, we were talking about the city, the law of big cities. Some people, Brother Larry left us. No, he don't like the cities. I'm just the opposite. I came out of the city. I like to go into the city. My wife doesn't. But let me tell you something. Somebody has to do it. Somebody. Now, when we look at our message, now we're going back into the message. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord. That means you know now. Okay. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord. We must do something. What's the next words there? Three words. We persuade men. Let me tell you something. I'm talking about both sides of the house. You've got a responsibility, sister, and brother, you have a responsibility. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. There is something that we've got to do. We just cannot sit down and rot. God does not want us to do that. Jesus does not want us to do that. Now that we know, he wants us to go out and do our responsibility. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'd like to read the first 11 verses here. 2 Corinthians 5 verses 1 to 11. Interesting thing about 2 Corinthians is this is divided. It's this subject. Excuse me. This book is divided into actually four subjects. The first nine verses, we can title it, Life is not our final abode. This life is not our final abode. We see that in verses 1 to 9. The second subject we see, verses 10 to 13. After death, there is a judgment. I want you to underline the word is. After death, there is a judgment. We're not going to get away from it. We do not die. I remember, I think it was the first evening. We do not die like an animal. We don't just go and rot. We go to the dust. The body does. But the soul does not. The soul goes right back to him who made it. See. Thirdly, the first subject in 2 Corinthians is that is God's provision for sinful men. God provided. God provided. Now I'm glad this morning God's made those provisions. Are you? That's why you're here. God made the provisions. Satan does not make provisions. Think about that. You say, well, now wait a minute. No, Satan does not make provisions. He makes a lot of promises. Never keeps a one. You don't have to do a whole lot to get to hell. All you have to do is go contrary to God. Be rebellious. Be disobedient. Go lie. Go enjoy your fashions and do anything else. You go to hell. He doesn't make provisions. But you know, to be a child of God. It's much. You say, well, that, you know, you think of it. That is a lot of work, isn't it? What the blessing is at the end. At the very end. We look at the reward. Brethren and sisters, we talked about heaven this morning. The beautifulness of heaven. We can't understand it all. But one of the things, one question was asked in Sunday school about you think of gold usually being of yellow color. And someone said, well, they read, which is true. I've read that a number of times as well. In order for gold to really be pure, the more you process gold in a very extensive heat, it becomes clear of color. Let's take it like that to spiritual life. We have to go through the fire many times in order to put out the impurities in order to appreciate heaven. You see that? Brethren and sisters, that's life. We want that. Fourthly, the fourth subject is our responsibilities as ambassadors for Christ. Verses 18 to 20. Four subjects. And I can spend two hours on about each subject. I'm not going to do that this morning. So don't get scared. Let's read the first 11 verses. 2 Corinthians 5. For we know that our earthly house of this tabernacle was dissolved. We have a building of God in the house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon. Whenever we go after righteousness, we want to be clothed with that righteousness. That mortality may be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnestness of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we were at home in this body, we were absent from the Lord. We weren't there. We weren't in heaven. We're not in heaven now. See, we're here on earth. But someday that's going to change. Verse 7. For we walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labor that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. And I can just, I read that this morning. I had to stop there. And I've read this so many times. You know, you read the Bible and we all want to be accepted, don't we? But does that change after you're about 40 years of age? No, it doesn't. It changes maybe after 50. No, it doesn't. I'm there. It changes after 60. No, I don't believe it will. 70, 80, 90. I don't care how old you may be. Everybody wants to be accepted. But the question this morning, as we know the terror of the Lord, are we accepted of him? That's a pretty solemn thought. Just think about that. Accepted of him. Verse 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and let everyone receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. And we're going to stop there, reading there. I would love to read the whole chapter, but we're not going to do that at this moment. The title divides itself, first of all, in two groups. One is those who know the terror, and those who do not know the terror. And today, as I look in the United States, are there anyone in the United States of America that do not know the terror? I believe that there is. I've met some people like that already. I met them in prison. They'll say, I never knew this. No one ever told me about this. Where was my mama? Where was my papa? He never showed me this thing. I never set foot in the church. I didn't think that was for me. That's only for a select few. So we do know. So that's how the title divides itself. The basic thrust or purpose of the title is found in verse 9, to be accepted of him, remember? And verse 21, which I did not read, but the latter part of that verse says like this, that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. This morning, my desire is that you can understand the righteousness of God. That you can understand that you must come to this point. The Bible says again and again, started way back in the book of Leviticus, chapter 11. It goes all the way throughout the pages of the Bible. 1 Peter 1, 15-16. You've heard us say again, be ye holy. For what? Oh, can any human being be holy? Can you really be holy? Let me tell you something you and yourself cannot. But heaven is a holy place. Was prepared by a holy God. For who? Holy people. Verse 21 of Revelation. No, chapter 21, verse 27. No unrighteousness there, no uncleanness there. So it has to be holy people. And this morning, may we have that ever before us as we go through the subject. All right, I like to look first of all, what constitutes the terror of the Lord? What constitutes the terror of the Lord? I was going, I didn't find, I was going to write terror here, because one of the things, we live in a society today, soon the people hear of the word terror, if I can say it in English now, terroristic. Did I say that right? Okay, you understand what I mean? It's so much easier to say terror than terroristic. I don't have to roll my tongue around there. When we think of something as terror, terroristic, right away a red flag goes up. We think of what? When you think of terror, what do you think of? When you think of terroristic, what do you think of? Tell me. Fear? Ah, what else do you think of? Death? Yes, those are things that come up to our mind. And you want to say, well, I don't want to think about it. But let me tell you something. The Bible says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. You're going to have to understand it. You say, now wait a minute, if God is a God of love, how can God be a God of terror? It's a paradox, isn't it? But yet, if we understand, as we go through and understand what constitutes, it's going to help us to understand what God expects of us. All right, what constitutes the terror of the Lord? Number one is the certainty of assured judgment, verse 10. The word must, M-U-S-T, must. The certainty of assured judgment. There is going to be no, you might as well underline that, capitalize that, no escapes. There's going to be no bypasses. There's going to be no detours. There's going to be no excuses. There's going to be no excuses. We must appear. There's going to be no one left out. Back in the book of Revelation, chapter 1, verse 7 says, and all eyes shall see him. I don't believe there's going to be a blind individual in the last day. I don't believe that. I believe those that did not see and yet rejected God, they're going to see him. They're going to see him. There's going to be no blind people in hell. Those that were blind, rejected God, they're going to see the flames. And I believe that if that individual is a faithful individual, it will see the eternal glories of heaven as well. Yes. But let me tell you something. The certainty of assured judgment is going to come. You and I don't like to appear in court today. I just got a call here this past week of a certain brother. His wife has to go to jury duty. And they wrote a letter and they rejected it. They said, why do we do now? That's in another state, the state of Missouri. They said, what do we do now? And I said, what have you done? And he said, well, the preachers wrote a letter. I said, that's not enough. I said, your wife has to write a letter. And I asked him, I said, why don't you want to go before court? He was quiet for a little bit, soft-spoken individual. Well, he says, we don't want to go to court, do we? Well, do you? I said, do you? I've been in and out of courts. And I guess I'm not intimidated by them. But this sister is, and rightly so. My wife wouldn't want to go either. But let me tell you something. There is coming a day where you're going to have a trial. You will. You will. Believe me. Revelation chapter 20, nobody's going to escape that. Nobody will escape that. You're going to receive your sentence. Matthew chapter 25. There's going to be a separation. So there is the certainty of a sure judgment to come. Secondly, what constitutes terror? The universality of it. The universality of it. Verse 10, again, it says, uses the word all. All appear. All appear. No one will be left out. No one is going to be excluded. No one. Everyone will appear. All will appear before him. And like was mentioned in the Sunday school class, there are those that make light of hell. Let me tell you something. You're not going to make light anymore. They will not make light anymore. All of a sudden they will find themselves. Right? In the terror of the Lord. Right in that judgment seat of Christ. And there's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And they're going to judge all. Everyone. That makes my hair stand. Because I have dear family, loved ones that are very dear to me. That they're going to appear too. They're going to appear there. At that judgment seat. You will be there. You will be there. It should behoove each one of us this morning to take a real, we call it a Shepherds Fold DMI. Daily Moral Inventory, we call it. That's a personal inventory. It should move us to take a daily moral inventory every day. My men do it every day. Every day. When was the last time you took a daily inventory of your life? When was the last time you were really real with your life? I'm talking to all of us this morning. I don't care who you are this morning. When was the last time? You know, as a preacher, of course, I was going to preach the message. I better take an inventory of my life this morning before I came before you so I can say I did right and wrong. We have to do this daily. The Bible talks about taking the cross of Jesus how often? Once in a while when you feel like it. You know, that morning when you have another beautiful day. Is that what it says? When should you do it? Take the cross of Jesus daily. Right? Daily. Because we know that there is sure judgment to come. The daily personal inventory of our life. How do we level? What would be our percentage that God would give to us if we took that DMI? What would be the percentage? I tell the residents this all the time. I tell the staff this all the time. If you cannot rate 100%, there is something still wrong. Now right away you may look at me and say, now wait a minute. Are you saying that you've become perfect? I'm not saying that. But as I look at my life and as I do a daily moral inventory, if you do not possess or average that 100%, look at your life. Be serious with it. And do something about it. Thirdly, another thing that constitutes terror of the Lord, is the judge we must face. Verse 10 again. The judge we must face. The judgment seat of Christ. God will be there. God will be there. Jesus will be there. The all-powerful, the all-knowing. He's omniscient. He's omniscient. Psalms 139. And not only is he omniscient, let me tell you something about that judge. He is a just judge. You know why? You can go to court today. I'm talking about courts in the United States of America. And you have what they call this under the table thing going on. You know, you can actually buy your way out of a system. Yeah, you can. You're smart enough, you can do it. But you know, when you come before the judgment seat of Christ, there will be no bargaining done. There will be no bargaining done. The just judge will receive nothing from under the table. They will receive nothing. You know, we have, when you're in court, I've been numerous times, the judge will call me. He says, let's come up here to my, they call it to the bench. So you come up to the bench right in front of the judge's seat there. And then you converse. And some of the judges will ask, they'll say, Mr. Rivera, or Reverend Rivera, they usually call me. And they said, what can we do here? What bargain can we make? Oh, so we can bargain now, huh? I see. So, you know, I get my voice ready, and then I start bellowing, what bargain we ought to make? But you know, when you come before Jesus, that's not going to work. Jesus is not going to ask what bargain can we do. You know, He's going to pass the judgment once and for all. He's just God. He's going to go by the book, yes. He's going to go by the book. He's going to know because the Bible says that God is truth, right? He's all truth. In Him, there is no lie. So He doesn't have to be a bargaining table. The judge we must face. How does that make you feel about Judge God? I'll never forget. I was up in, what was it, the state of Michigan? Yes, it was the state of Michigan. And one of my residents was there. He was calm. And he had trials of two different courts. And when we got there at the first court, which was a very large courtroom, and I'm going in there with my, what do you call that thing? A briefcase, you know, I'm looking very professional. And I had all his papers there and everything else that I thought I was going to need. And I walk in there and the judge wasn't in yet. And there was my man right beside me. He's sweating. And it was air conditioning. I had my suit coat on. I felt just comfortable. He's sweating. And I said to him, what are you sweating about? He said, Brother Rene, did you forget where we are? Oh, yeah, we're in the courtroom. Only? He said, you know, my neck's at stake. And without thinking, I said to him, oh, well, you're the one that got in trouble, not me. I said, why did I say that for? He grabbed ahold of my hand. I know. I looked at him with all the love. I said, Brother, I'm with you in a pain today. I want you to know that. He said, well, I'm glad you're here. But anyhow, to make long stories short, this judge came in. She was a she. She was judging. It was about this high, 4'9", I think she measured, you know, and about 90 pounds. And then she goes up there. Everybody stands up. We stand up. And of course, she caught me right away. And now they're looking at that man. I'm looking at her with a big smile on my face, you know. I said to the man, when we sat down, I said, what are you worried about? Her. I said, you don't know what her nickname is. That's why I said, I don't want to know either. Not right now. Later on, I found out what her nickname was. I said, ain't you afraid of that? 95 pound woman, 90 pound, whatever she was. And I wasn't ready for what took place. This woman started talking. She had a deep voice. No wonder they're afraid of her. And one after another, she sentenced. One after another. Man, this was a no-nonsense individual. A no-nonsense individual. And there we were. We're about the last minute. We're about ready to recess. And I thought, oh, we had to go to second court in the afternoon. We're stuck. But the judge wondered what we wanted. She pointed to me. She wondered if I was a councilman. I said, no, I'm here in behalf of, well, she'll take us. I said, we are going to another court this afternoon. And she took us in. But to make a long story short, the interesting was, she called me and said, can we come up to the bench? So I came up. And she wondered who I was, what I was, and what I represented and everything else. I said, I represent God today. You what? I said, I'm just here, you know, in behalf because God has been doing the life of men today. Of men like this man. Really? Yeah, really. She says, you know this man? And she showed me his folder. His folder was about Yehi. Yeah, Yehi. She says, you know what this man has done? I said, I would love to compare your folder with my folder. So I took out my folder. My folder was Yehi. Oh, she says, I believe you know about this man. A little bit. She asked for the folder. Here are the folders. She says, oh, looks like he's been rather open. And then she did give a sentence that he go along with me. But let me tell you something. The difference between that judge and God, God already knew. God didn't have to look in the book. God didn't have to look in the folder. God looked. Yeah, and I can see this just God looking right at me in the eye and not taking his eyes off of me. And saying to me, Renee, you do. And he just goes right through. And just tells me about my life. How would you feel about that? Oh, God, well, listen, just you can tell. But don't go. And all of a sudden he goes there. And then you say, well, look, don't go any further because he goes there again. That's a just judge. Fourthly, what constitutes a terror of the Lord? The recompense to be received. The recompense to be received. And again, verse 10. And the latter part of that verse says, according to what he had done, whether it be good or bad. The recompense that you will receive. Every one of us. Whether it be good or whether it be bad. You are going to give. People are going to give. A count of that for everything that's ever done. Everything that's ever done. You know, we read in the book of Revelation there are going to be books. And then there is the book of life. And there is the book of life. Is your name found written in the book of life? There is another book. There are about three different books found in the book of Revelation. And one is not just with their name. But one is with the acts. What you have done. And if he would open that book and read your life. What would be found there? What would be found there? You are going to be recompensed. Fifthly, the last one here. What constitutes a terror of the Lord? The uncertainty of life. Verse 1. The uncertainty of life. We know, I'll read that verse again. For we know that in our earthly house of this tabernacle will dissolve. We have a building of God in the house. And that made with hands eternal in the heavens. The uncertainty of life. Life is brief. Life is but a moment. I preach a lot at funerals in my time. Especially as a young preacher. I preached, I'll never forget the first one I preached in. And I said, well I'm not ready to preach at no funeral. Why would I want to preach at a funeral? But life is brief. Do you believe that? It is going to be six years in this July. We have a son that was buried at the age of 20 years old. He'll be 26 years old. Soon, he'll be able to live. Did he know at the age of 20 that his time was going to be cut short? No, he didn't know that. But let me tell you something dear one. None of us know that. Recent in Pennsylvania, there have been quite a few motorcycle accidents. Young people. There was a young man killed. 20 years of age. 21. Something like that. Recently, someone we know. A family that we know. The very next day, another 20-year-old young man was killed in a motorcycle. And then another one. You read about all these. It becomes real to you. These young men losing their lives. Young women losing their lives in accidents. Accidents. The uncertainty of life. Some will make it 20. Some will make it 90. I've heard preachers being behind the pulpit and all of a sudden drop dead. My wife had an uncle that did that. While preaching a sermon, all of a sudden he was no more. He dropped. The uncertainty of life. The uncertainty of life. Knowing the terror of the Lord. We know not when our time. When God is going to say, it's enough. Come on home. The question is, are you ready to go? Secondly, what do men have? Why do men lose sight of the terror of the Lord? Why do men lose sight of the terror of the Lord? Let me name just a few of them. You can keep adding on to this list. First of all, men lose sight of the terror of the Lord because of carelessness and sin. Knowing what they are to do, but doing it not. It is in the book of Romans chapter 7 and verse 13. The Bible says that we must come to recognize that sin is exceeding what? Sinful. No, sin is sin. We don't believe in a black or white or gray sin. Sin is sin. We believe before God and rightly so. But let me tell you something. We must come to the point that we look at sin as exceeding sinful. As exceeding sinful. If we can do this. If we can have that in our mind. Young people, let me tell you something. As you look today at what is happening with the fashions of the world today. And where this is leading. There is only one road. There is only one way. And that is right direct to the pit of hell. That is where it is leading to. Can you see this? You know you go to the supermarket today and they have all these magazines and all this. And these scant dress individuals today. And you know right now what is happening in the world that we live with. Even with many of our plain churches. It is slipping in. It is slipping in. And we don't want to go to that magnitude. But we are seeing it. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Let me get that to get that right. It says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For any man that loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world, what? Passeth away. And the lust thereof. For he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. What is going to happen to fashions? Did all these movies start? You know where they are headed? Right down to hell. Why do we want to become careless and have sin in our lives? Why do men lose sight of the terror of the Lord? Secondly, it is because of the busy schedule. And I am talking about daddies and mommies. And I am talking about young people. The busy schedule. We live in a go, go, go, go world. I am raising my hand first. My children keep reminding me of that. Now where are you going to go to preach? Over there. What do we do? Then we have individuals. And I get these calls. No, it is not. I get these calls about individuals that have all these kinds of physical infirmities. And what can we do to help these individuals? I said we will bring them into office. And doctors want a second opinion. So they will send them over to me. And I am listening to the story. And so I just can't hardly go anymore. I am a nervous wreck. And I can only work maybe six hours a day. Sometimes four. And I said well how many hours have you worked before this all showed up? Anywhere from 60 to 80 hours. What? I said well Brother Nate you just don't understand. Oh well I do not. Please help me to understand. And they go on to explain. And the more they explain the worse I don't understand. Yes. Well you see I bought a farm. I am paying a million dollars here. And I bought a second farm a million and a half here. I have all this debt. No wonder they have to work 60 to 80 hours. Because we live. What did I say yesterday? Be still. Just relax. We get ourselves in such a frenzy of time. I tell young people that are getting ready to get married. You know the first question they ask. Should we go buy a house? Well can't you find one to rent? Well yes. But you know. But the status is. Buy a house right? How do you know the Lord is going to keep you there at that place for the next 20, 30 years? How do you know the Lord is not going to say hey go somewhere else. Go into the mission field somewhere. Or busy schedules. People. You know what? Then we focus so much on these earthly things that we forget the terror of the Lord. Thirdly. Why do people lose sight of the terror of the Lord? Is because they are earth bound. They are earth bound. Verse 1. Instead of heaven bound they are earth bound. They are stuck here. The Bible says that we are in the world. But what is the rest of that? But not of. You are in the world but not of the world. Do you remember that? This earth is only for a moment. And one day this earth is going to get all burned up. You know Jehovah's Witnesses. They love to come and talk about that. I like to rub my hands and here we go. I love to open my Bible. And go into the discussion with them. But let me tell you something. I believe that this world will be no longer. They have nothing on for me. I am looking for a better heaven. And a better earth. The Bible says. Earth bound. Fourthly. What constitutes the sight? Men lose sight of the terror of the Lord. That is the religious deception of the day to day. Verse 12. Talks about glory and appearance and not in the heart. I believe that there are those individuals. That would like to go through a form. Or a practice of religion. And that is about all they are doing. Is religion. But they do not have Jesus. Inside of their heart. Inside of the heart. This morning. Let's take a real good look at this. The religious deception of the day to day. Today if you just belong to a church. It is sufficient. Well they preach the word of God over there. Oh do they? Do they open up and really teach the word of God? Do they really do that? Yes. I meet people like that. All the time. I have met preachers in airplanes. We sat beside some of them. And they introduced me. My name is Reverend so and so. And I just said well I am just Rene. Just call me Rene. Well they said. One particular that I remember. I like to discuss religion. I told him I said I don't. Oh you don't? Well he thought he was going to get a star on his crown. Well he said let me tell you about Jesus. I said you didn't ask me that. I said you asked me if you wanted to discuss religion. I said I don't. I said you want to talk about the Bible? Oh yes. I guess there is a difference isn't there? Is there? Five minutes into the conversation. He looked at me and said are you some professor or something? I love that. No. I am just a Christian. I am just a Christian. I just love Jesus. You know what they do? They don't want to talk about Jesus anymore. And I love it. I said yes. Tell me about your experience with Jesus. Well I have been a preacher. I didn't ask you that. I didn't ask you that. I want to know your experience with Jesus. What has your journey been like? I will tell you about my journey. They start all of a sudden to get sore throat. Let me tell you something. Today. There is a lot of religious deception. And they will go into famous phrases. Oh we may differ in some things. But we are all going to go to heaven. Right. Wrong. I remember I said that that way in that airplane. Anybody look. Because I meant what I said. I meant what I said. Wrong. It is He that does the will of my Father. Jesus said. Jesus said I am the way the truth and the light. No one comes unto the Father but by me. That is the only way. That is why I believe. In separation and non-conformity. That is why I believe in non-resistance. That is why I believe the word of God. And I am convinced of the word of God. This morning. Alright we must hasten on. Fifthly. Why have men lost sight of the terror of the Lord. They are battle-worn. The effects of the labor. They are battle-worn. Remember we talked about giants. It was yesterday. They see the giant. There is no way I am going to go against that giant. We see the storms approaching. I am so tired of storms. We see the enemy. We say. I can't go any further. I can't do this anymore. Dear ones. Dear ones. We have got to fight the battle. Verse 9. The last part of that verse. Why we may be accepted of Him. If you want the victory. Remember what I said. There has to be the battle. Are you fighting the battle? Yeah but you don't understand. You don't understand. My setting is different than your setting. You don't come from any different world than I do. I come from a world called the United States. Are we here? Right? What makes it so different? But we get battle-worn. And we want to take the arm. And we want to put it down. And then we want to close it. And say well I have had enough. Let me tell you something. Every time you let your arm down. The enemy has you. Every time you give up. Every time God requires of you something. And you say you can't do it. You already are losing the battle. You will not ever win the battle. And I mean just what I said. You will not. Because you are no match for the enemy by yourself. Sixthly. It is failure to sense the brevity of time. Failure to sense the brevity of time. Read Psalms 103. I'm not going to turn to that verse. What is it 15 and 16? The brevity of time. Who will be next? Who will be next of those we know? We hear. We have an older brother right now. He's in a home. He had been in the hospital. He's been in and out of the hospital the last number of weeks. A man that was very healthy in his time. And very active in his time. And all of a sudden. He's had a massive stroke. Left his left side paralyzed. And there's just not much to the brother anymore. The doctors have said there's not a whole lot. The family has called me a number of times. I don't think daddy is going to make it anymore. He's still around. But the brevity of life. It wasn't very long until that man was just full of strength and full of youth. And he isn't there no longer. It could be you. It could be me. Lastly. It's because of the permissive society in which we live today. The permissive society in which we live today. We live in a society that permits and tolerates anything and everything. Correct? Yes! Yes we do. And it's creeping so much inside the church. Well we have to permit this because if we don't we're going to lose them. Right now the divorce and remarriage issue. And I can spend hours just on that. I wonder where the rain is at. I'll tell you where I'm at. I don't believe in divorce and remarriage. And because this thing has come to a point where we're trying to question that there has to be a way that we can have these people in as member of MAMDUG you can compromise with sin. I'm very strong and I have two dear brothers that have been divorced and married a number of times. Can't compromise with sin. And you know what my brother's telling me? He said the day you do and one of them actually heard where there's a Mennonite church. He said I heard there's Mennonite churches are accepting divorce and remarriage. I said yeah. He said what's the matter with you all? He said where you at? That's where I always was. Okay. I never changed. I don't plan to. I don't plan to. But we live in that permissive age where you have to give in so people can come in. Oh? Give Satan, remember what I told him, give him your finger. What happened? He takes your hand. Give him your hand. He takes your arm. Give him your arm. And then you just that's just the way it works. That's just the way it works. Lastly, here what is the Christian's responsibility in all of this? I'm going to share with you about five different things and then we're going to close our message this morning. Number one. Verse 11. We persuade men. We persuade men. We do all we can to win them over to Christ. We keep busy. You reach out in compassion. You reach out in love. You reach out. When I think of this, I've given a number of messages and taught a number of classes on reaching out for the lost. That's one of my favorite subjects. How do you do this? How do you get people's attention? What you want to do is take a large the biggest bottle you can find and then just drop it on their toes. You'll get their attention. Then you can preach to them. That's not the way it works. Jesus didn't go around hitting people on the head with scrolls. I never read that. But there's this one thing that Jesus did do. You know what Jesus did? Jesus reached out to their heart. Zacchaeus is a good example of this. A very rich man. What made Zacchaeus seek Jesus? It could be because of what he heard, what he saw, how he reached out to the multitude. This is what we must do today. We must persuade men. Secondly, what is a Christian's responsibility? Letting ourselves be controlled of God. Verse 13. I'll read that this time. Whether we be sober it is for your cause. Letting ourselves be controlled of God. Do you have a message in your lips to give to Jesus? Do you have a message, dear sister? When people ask you, why do you wear that fishnet up on your head? That's the way I asked him the first time I ever saw him in and out with him. I told him, fishnet. I used to tell him, we use that in fishing out in the ocean. That's not fishnet. Then what is it? Can you explain? Are we ready to let others know that we are in control by God? Letting ourselves be controlled. The Holy Spirit in the life, in your life, in the life of each and every one of us. Can people see that we have a changed heart? One. Can people see that we have, because of a changed heart, a changed mind? Transformed. Renewed. The Bible says back in the book of Romans chapter 12. We must have that. Our thought life because it's controlled by God and the Holy Spirit is not the same. You know, you're hearing people, oh, I fall, I fall again and again in impurity. How can I get over that? Let's talk about your relationship with God, first of all. Then we'll soon find out where you are at. Let yourself be controlled of God. Thirdly, what is Christian responsibility? Verse 14 to 16. Point men and women of Christ and his love. This can correlate with my first point of persuading men. We are to try to convince men and women to come on the Lord's side. You're going to have to do that. I'm going to have to do that. Come over to the Lord's side. First Kings chapter what? 18. There was Elijah. Who's in the Lord's side? Come over here. Point men and women to Christ and his love. Fourthly, fourth thing that you are to do in verse 17, be and help others become new creatures. Verse 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. All things are passed away. When I became serious with God, I had to let my old life go. People ask, how did you do that? How did you come from a life of such depravity and such debauchery? How did you change? I had to be convinced of the product. Somebody convinced me that life with Jesus was worth living than the life I was living. The life I was living was going to soon take my life. But the life in Jesus was not. New creature. We are to influence. We are to motivate. We are to impel. What does Jude 23 say? It says something let me read that. I can't get it right. It says verse 20 let me back up to verse 20. But ye beloved, building up yourself in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourself in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. That's your responsibility. We are talking about Christian's responsibility. Then it says in verse 22 and of some have compassion, making a difference and others say with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. That in Spanish makes it even a little stronger. I like to think of somebody that's right at the edge of a precipice and as you look down, you can see as it were, hell itself all in flames. There it is. You know, there's that individual just about one more step. Just one misplacement of that step. He's or she's going to fall right in. But there you come along. Here comes the Christian. And right in the hollow of that individual. And it says to that individual, it's not worth it. Let's get out of there. Because at the end thereof, we persuade men. We help men to become new creatures. We pull them out as it were, out of the fire. We pull them. Some we can, some we cannot. But let us not get weary in well doing but to press on. We are convinced that we This morning we don't look at the terror of the Lord as something that turns us off but we look at the terror of the Lord and we do like in Revelation chapter 22 where it says even so Lord Jesus come. We look at it that way. Lastly, what is a Christian's responsibility? Verse 20 is remember we are not of this country. One of the reasons my dear one, that we lose sight of the terror of the Lord is because we become so complacent in where we are presently. You know we tend to sit in a high chair. Not high chairs. Easy chairs. Whatever you call them things. High chair, easy chair, whatever. And we'll fold our arms. We tend to do that and just relax. We're so complacent. And we have good what do you drink down south here? Tea? Some kind of tea? Not sugar? Cold sugar tea? We sit there in the hammock. And the world is going by and we say this is life. Let me tell you something. We're not of this country. My citizenship is not here. What about yours? My citizenship is not here. I was born in Puerto Rico. Oh so I'm a Puerto Rican. Yes. But I have a green passport which makes me a U.S. citizen, right? Yeah. But that's only temporary. That passport is going to burn. But my citizenship in heaven will not. Will not. This morning the challenge I want to leave with you is remember you are not of this country. Verse 20 says, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We prayed you and Christ said be ye reconciled to God. Be ye reconciled to God. This morning if you hear the sound of my voice and you are not living a life that's bringing honor and glory to God then knowing the terror of the Lord it will terrify you. But knowing the terror of the Lord to the Christian again we look at it and we just anticipate that day. Anticipate that day when we will see our maker. No, nothing to worry about but to see him. May that be our portion. Let us kneel for prayer.