Save Yourselves

(Article for publication week of 5-1- AD 2013)

“…Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:37). There was never a generation of which this verse was any more applicable than the one in which you and I live. We live in an “untoward” generation, that is crooked, warped, perverted generation. A nation that condones and even promotes perversion is an untoward generation. A nation where roughly half the people being born are bastards is a warped generation. A society where the people go practically naked is a crooked generation. A nation that murders its unborn citizens is a perverse generation. A culture where the people live for carnal pleasure is an untoward generation.

What will God do with an untoward generation? Psalm 9:17 tells us, “the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” God has turned whole nations into hell, and He is set to turn such a one as our own into hell. Some learned men have estimated there may have been as many as three billion people on earth when God sent the Great Flood about 4300 years ago. (No one can prove that, but it is a reasonable theory. When men lived to be over nine hundred years it is a reasonable theory that the human race had multiplied exponentially by the time of Noah’s generation.) However many there were, God killed all of them except Noah and his family, and sent every last one of them down to hell. Go read II Peter 2, if you don’t believe me. God will send a crooked generation to hell. Think of it my friend, God sent the entire population of the world in about 2340 B.C. to hell, except for one clan of eight people. That untoward generation has been in hell now for over four thousand years, and won’t ever get out except for long enough to appear before God in the final judgment, and receive a condemned body fitted for eternal punishment, and then back down to hell forever.

Now that is where most of you are headed. Everybody that is outside of Christ is damned and doomed for the torments of an eternal hell. This untoward generation is headed for a Christ-less eternity. My friends and neighbors, if you are outside of Christ, you are part of this untoward generation.

Actually, the term ‘untoward generation” refers to the whole human race since Adam fell. Though there are times and localities where it is pronounced, the whole human race has been warped and crooked and perverse since Adam fell. We are condemned in Adam, and that in and of itself is enough grounds for God to send the whole human race to hell. You were conceived and born into an untoward generation. You immediately began to willingly practice sin. You are a fallen sinner; you are a natural sinner; and you are a practicing sinner. You are thrice unholy. God is going to send you to hell unless you save yourself from this untoward generation.

There is set before you two gates. One is wide and leads to the way to hell. The other is difficult, and leads to the way to heaven. There is set before you two ways one is broad, and the other is narrow. This untoward generation, the vast majority of you are in the broad way that leads to hell. Save yourself from this untoward generation by repenting of your sins and fleeing to Christ Who is the only Way to be saved from this hell bound generation. “Save your selves from this untoward (warped, crooked, perverse) generation.

There is somebody reading the Narrow Way this week that needs to get in you car and come see me so I can tell you how to be saved. If you will call me at 601-927-5070, I will tell you more of how Christ saves poor sinners.

Vile Affections

(Article for publication week of 4-24- AD 2013)

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet” (Romans 1:26-27).

Romans 1:18-32 reads like the news reports from modern day America. In this passage Paul begins his indictment of the human race with the filthy Gentiles of the Greco-Roman world. Thought they had the knowledge of God by the light of nature, and the conscience within (as all men have), they did not like to retain the knowledge of God, and so they became such fools that they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into images of created things, and worshipped and served the creation, rather than the Creator. And so God gave them up to dirty living, and such dirty living that they plunged into the filth of sodomy. When people reject God, He rejects them. And that is an awful thing, when God leaves you to yourself, and removes even the restraints of conscience and of nature itself.

Well, that is about where America is, and from what we read, most of the Western World. The European nations and their former colonies, which were once citadels of the Christian faith, are now anti- Christian. When a people have had as much gospel light as Britain and America, and then reject it, you can mark it down, they will be severely judged. And America is under the judgment of God for sure. When a nation has evil rulers as we have, it is God’s judgment on us. When a nation is perpetually at war all over the world, you can bet it is God’s judgment, for that is what war is, it is God’s judgment on a people who rebel against Him. Hell is popping out all around us as one calamity after another comes. Almost every day there is a mass killing, or a terrible fire, or an earthquake, or a flood, or a tornado, or a hurricane, or some other calamity. Have you noticed that the flags are at half-staff almost all the time lately? The wrath of God is being revealed (Romans 1:18) against America, and Americans who will not repent of their sins and acknowledge Him.

A nation that permits, endorses and promotes the filth of sodomy is a goner. You can mark that down. We are not going to politic our way out of this. Our text says that such vile people will receive the just recompence of their reward, and the passage ends in verse 32 by warning us that they who “commit such things are worthy of death.” And you really ought to go read the whole passage. God condemns not only the filthy sodomites, but also disobedience to parents. You see, sodomy is the last straw for a nation or a person, but all sin is worthy of death. That is a sober thought. Unless you repent of your sin, whether great or small, God is going to sentence you to eternal death. I tell you again, there is no sin so small that it does not deserve eternal damnation, but there is no sin so great that it will not be forgiven those who truly repent and believe in Christ. Poor sinner flee from the wrath to come. Save yourself from this untoward generation.

The Unrighteous Excluded from the Kingdom of God

(Article for publication week of 4-10- AD 2013)

“…Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind (sodomites), Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6: 9-11).

Those who live and die in their sins shall not enter into heaven. This text plainly says so. God is going to send all those who will not repent of their sins to hell. Now, you can mark that down. God only has two places He puts people after they die- Heaven or Hell.

The first thing I want to point out from this text is that the sins mentioned here are all transgressions of the moral law of God (see I John 3:4). The morality of the New Testament is exactly the same as that of the Old Testament. These things are all evil because God says they are evil. All the sins mentioned in this dark list are stench in the nostrils of a thrice-Holy God.

The second thing I want to point out is that all of the behaviour spoken of in our text are things that sinners willingly choose to do. To be sure, some people may have weaknesses in certain areas, but ultimately, sinners choose to sin. No one can say that God makes them sin, or that they are a certain kind of sinner because they were “born” that way. God is not going to send you to Hell for your weakness, He is going to send you to Hell for your rebellion, and that is what all sin is- rebellion against your Creator and King and Judge. Now that is true of the sodomite and the drunkard and the thief and all the other kinds of sins mentioned here, and every other sin not specifically mentioned here. If your particular sin is not in this list, it is somewhere else in the Bible. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Thirdly, our text tells us of the amazing grace of God! God can and does save the filthiest of sinners. There is no sin so small that it does not deserve eternal damnation, but there is no sin so great that it will not be forgiven those who truly repent and come to Christ for salvation. Paul writes to the saints in the Corinthian Church and reminds them of what they had been before they got saved. Note well, Paul says such “were” some of you. They were no longer living in these filthy sins because they were washed in the blood of the Lamb. They were justified by the righteousness of Christ. They were sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit. Friends, that is what God’s sovereign grace does, it changes the worst sinners and makes them new people.

Sinner, you do not need counseling. You do not need a twelve-step recovery program. You need salvation. You need Christ Who is mighty to save. None of the sins mentioned in my text are unpardonable. Paul plainly says that some of the Christians had formerly been filthy adulterers and fornicators and homosexuals, but Christ had mercy and saved them. Now He has promised “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). I beg you today to repent of your filthy sins and come to the dear Saviour of the chief of sinners. He can fix you up and save you from your sins. May the Blessed Spirit draw you to the dear Saviour now. If you will come see me, or call me at 601-927-5070, I will tell you more of the sovereign grace of God.