Baby It's Cold Outside

Heavenly Father, I come before you by the blood of thy dear son, Jesus of Nazareth, who hung on Calvary's cross as a bloody sacrifice for sin. I pray that you will come and work in hearts today, that you will disturb the false peace of the devil's own children who are here today as they sit on a rotten plankboard of an empty religious profession, that you pull the grave clothes off their legal righteousness, that you grant grace to someone here and awaken them out of their lethargy and show them their danger, bring holy ghost conviction, and hold some sinner over a hot hail to alarm him. I pray these things in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen. When it's cold outside, snakes are in a state similar to hibernation, a state of lethargy or torpor called brumation, whereby a cold snake is a lethargic, sleepy snake, less likely to bite or sting, but go throw a little sunshine on them and warm them up and they soon will stir and hiss and sting. Men are like snakes in a state of brumation.

They lie in a spiritual torpor as Satan keeps his goods in a sleepy spiritual state, secure and at peace. It takes a great deal to make a man sit up and notice the danger he is in, the danger under the horrible wrath of God hanging over him like the sword of Damocles ready to descend at any moment. A lost man lies in a spiritual torpor of stupidity and ignorance to his great danger of dying in his sins, and he can be a lost religious man as well, thinking he's all right when everything is all wrong, but they are oblivious to the coming storm of God's wrath on their heads, so they never will seek refuge from sin in the shelter of Jesus Christ.

Like a cold snake, they sleep in their sins, clouded with lethargy, and only a strong, violent, piercing alarm will awaken them. God must come and flash hellfire upon their soul and open their ears to hear the cries of the damned laced with horror, blood, and fire. A man's hearts are so stout and their conscience so asleep they will never yield by small measures.

A dead man has no movement. A sleeping snake will not stir. It is ludicrous to think an evangelist's emotional appeal will stir men to Christ.

All it does is pull a little sleep off their eyes to comply with a nod of the head, but the conscience is left untouched and the heart is left unchanged. God must first awaken them by his grace and then disturb them by his spirit. Otherwise, men will never awake and cry for a pardon.

But dangle a snake over a fire and it will fast come to life, hissing and writhing and biting anything near. When, by grace, the spirit of God works regeneration in the heart, then men will begin to squirm and see their danger. Dangle them over the smoking pit of hell and watch them fast come to life.

We don't get men saved today because we don't get them to the fire. One must preach hell and its torments and expose a sinner's heart to the flame. I can hold in my hands a nest of cold snakes and they won't bite me.

But hold them over a bonfire and watch all hell break loose. Hold a sinner over the smoking pit of a devil's hell and watch him go into a Saint Vitus dance. He will get the heebie-jeebies for sure.

No one is crying out in our assemblies today, what must I do to be saved? Because no one is preaching hellfire sermons full of blood and fire and horror and doom. Men enter this world with a ruined nature and bent towards sin. They can't get enough of sin.

In fact, they drink sin like water. Job declares, how much more abominable and filthy is man which drink the iniquity like water. That means you are not satisfied looking at one picture of a naked woman on the internet.

You need to drool over a thousand. Men lie under the condemnation of a holy God. But because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Men love darkness more than light. But sudden death hangs all around you friend, especially in this time of a pandemic. You can be removed from this world without warning and you can be plunged into another world quite suddenly for man also knoweth not his time as the fishes that are taken in a evil net and as the birds that are caught in the snare.

So are the sons of men snared in an evil time. When it falleth suddenly upon them, you could be snatched from all your comforts, taken from your family and friends and thrust into a region of outer darkness that has such a vast expanse it's called a bottomless pit. That hell is full of demons is a fact for sure seen from second Peter.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. Listen to me friend, salvation is in the hands of God and not men. If you get saved friend, it's because God gave you saving faith.

Unless God works grace in your heart, you will remain unconvinced, unconcerned and unmoved in regard to things of eternal worth. You will remain in your lethargy and your soul will not warm up until it is thrust into the very bowels of hell. Only God can awaken you to your lost condition.

I can only point out your danger and warn you, God must take over and accompany his word with his spirit and alarm you. But I can promise you this friends, if you are thirsty for Christ and see your need of him, then there is hope for you because you can be saved. Because the gospel is for the hungry, the weary and the thirsty.

Christ's reception of sinners is a certainty for he declares, all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. But you must get to Christ friend for forgiveness of sins. This may be the last sermon you ever hear before you leave this world.

In John we read, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Are you thirsty friend? Then come to Christ and own him as your savior and Lord.

Give all you are to all he is, for he is Lord.