Date: April 14, 2013
Bible Text: John 14:1-3 | Roger Voegtlin
Series: Transcribed Sermons
Did you know that there were over 300 prophecies of the Old Testament fulfilled by Christ’s first coming? Peter Stone, a California mathematician, conducted an interesting experiment concerning the scientific significance of those 300 prophecies being fulfilled. He had 48 students, and he gave each one a Messianic prophecy to study. He wanted to determine the statistical chance that it could have happened without God, and the answer was phenomenal. Now get this, because we won’t comprehend it. The chance that just these 48 prophecies could have happened without God was one out of one followed by 181 zeros.
Just visualize a tremendous, huge ball packed with electrons. Now the smallest entity that we know anything about is an electron, and I understand that it would take 2½ billion electrons lined up to equal an inch. The largest thing we know anything about is our universe, which is four billion light-years in radius. Our ball would have to be 500 quadrillion times the size of our universe. Now, I can’t picture our universe. But 500 quadrillion times the size of our universe sounds big, doesn’t it?. Mark one electron, of which it would take 2½ billion lined up to make an inch, and blindfold a man. Take this huge ball that would probably take many lifetimes to cross, and have the man pick out the electron that was marked. That’s the chance that these 48 out of 300 prophecies were fulfilled just by happenstance. How can anybody say the scriptures are not divinely inspired? Most scientific laws have been established on far less proof than this. There are many other prophecies, and these were only the Messianic prophecies saying that Jesus was going to come the first time.
People scoff at certain things the Bible said happened and say that history proves it wrong. But the longer we go and the more we know, we see that history proves the Bible. We could take science, archeology. It proves the Bible. But what I have said so many times in my latter years is that we don’t need these things. The thing that proves the Bible more than anything to me is the practical fact that if we follow it, we find that it is true. If we follow money, we are going to fail. If we follow the teachings of the world, no matter how wise the world is, we are going to fail. But I’ve never seen the Bible fail. The Bible tells us how to raise children. The Bible tells us how to have a marriage. The Bible tells us how to succeed in these areas. If we follow, we will succeed.
You say, “I know Christians who have failed.” No, that doesn’t mean anything. I know Christians who don’t follow the Bible. They break my heart. Maybe the majority of Christians don’t follow the Bible. But I’ll say again, and I’ll stake my life on it—I will quit the ministry if someone follows the Bible and fails. I don’t mean that lightly. The Bible proves these things. People say, “These Baptist preachers, all they want is money. They want your tithe.” You will find that if you take care of God and follow His ways, you will be much better off than if you follow the world’s ways—drinking, gambling, smoking, whatever it is. It’s a practical thing. We don’t need these other areas, but if you realize that the Bible is God’s Word and that the prophecies of Christ’s first coming have been literally fulfilled, it demands that the prophecies concerning His second coming also will literally come true.
Turn to John 14. We have a lot of sick people, we have people whose mates have died; and these are exciting scriptures for Christians. Consider what Jesus said to the twelve in the upper room in the first three verses. “Let not your heart be troubled…” They were hiding up there. They were fearful; they thought they were going to lose their lives. “…ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” He said, “Don’t worry about the problems of this world. I’m going to heaven. I’m preparing a mansion for you. And I’m going to come back and get you.” That’s exciting. The world can laugh all they want. The world can go on and have all their divorces and all their drugs and all their booze and all their sin. They can laugh at us and say, “Oh, what kind of life do they have?” We have a wonderful life! And when we die we are going to heaven. Jesus is coming to get us.
In Acts, we read what the angel said while they watched Jesus ascend into heaven. Acts 1:11.“…Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?” They were watching Jesus go to heaven after His resurrection. “…this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” He said, “What are you looking for standing there? Get busy! He’s coming back again, and He’s going to take you to heaven.”
Then over in I Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Christians in Thessalonica, chapter 4 verses16 and 17 he says, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,…” This is describing the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. “…with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Some people say they cannot understand the Bible. If you can read, you can understand the Bible. You can understand these passages. Paul is saying that Jesus is coming again. He’s going to appear in the clouds, and those who have died before—my mother, my father, others from this congregation—will rise first, and we which are alive will also meet Him in the air. You say, “Do you believe it?” I believe it. I’ve given my life to it. I believe it.
When will this happen? Look over in Luke 17, a lengthy passage. You say, “I don’t know if I believe this.” If you live for God, you will believe it. If you don’t live for God, you will be skeptical. You go in sin, and you want to give yourself excuses. You destroy your family. You destroy everything until you are old, and you get more bitter all the time. But if you live for God, you don’t have these doubts. You see your kids living for God, really living for God. You have a wonderful marriage, not just putting on, but a really wonderful marriage. You see God blessing in your finances. You see your wonderful friends. Look at what Luke 17 says starting in verse 26. Jesus is speaking again. “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” In the days of Noah, why did God bring the flood? Wicked sin. But look at what it says also, “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” Noah preached for all those years saying, “There’s going to be a flood. You had better turn to God.” How many people followed? Nobody but his family. They just went on living.
“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot;…” Now what happened in the days of Lot? God sent fire and brimstone and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Why? What’s the word? Sin. But what did they do? Did they listen? No. They did eat, they did drink, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.” Just get out. “Remember Lot’s wife.” She looked back. “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.” What is it talking about? The saved person will be taken. The lost one will be left behind. Some people have scoffed at that, saying how some could be in bed, and some could be working. Yes, the earth is round. “Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” There will be sunshine for some. “Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”
It will be like the days of Lot and Noah, planting, building, marrying, eating, ignoring the things of God. But the thing that we know most about Sodom and Gomorrah and even Noah’s day is illicit sex, wicked sin. In fact, that’s where we get the word “sodomy.” That’s why God sent the fire and brimstone. You can disagree with me, but I believe the Book. Homosexuality is sin, wicked sin. If you read the Bible, it is the most wicked sin you could ever commit. You say, “The government is against your saying that.” Well, let them shut us down. We’ll go out in the field. It is wicked sin. When you think of those days, you think of wicked sin.
You say, “Do you think it is as wicked today?” As a teenager I used to listen to preaching like this and I would think, “The Lord can’t be coming now because I don’t know of any homosexuals or sodomites.” I went to school with 4,000 guys in the city of Chicago. I didn’t know of one. They were in their locker, I guess. They surely were not accepted. It’s different today, isn’t it? You talk about wicked sin. We have nudity. I’m not talking about Playboy. Just flip through magazines—there it is. Drive down Highway 94. There it is. “Come on, get off, go to this club, go to that club.” You don’t even have to go to clubs. Please don’t misunderstand me. I don’t go to these types of places, but the typical person who will be down on the beach in the next couple of weeks when it is warmer doesn’t dress any more risqué than when I was growing up in Chicago where people would peep through holes and cover their head to go see people dance. Tell me we don’t live in a wicked day.
There’s never been a more wicked day in America or any other place. Turn on your computer in order to work, and—boom! Nudity. But I say again, more than that, it is sodomy. You say, “Well, you are just prejudiced.” I am about that, but so is God. Even President Bush wouldn’t take a stand on sodomy. They were in his cabinet, his administration. The very thing that I thought proved that Jesus was not coming soon proves that He is coming now. It is everywhere, and it is accepted. The law says we’ve got to accept it, and I’m not going to accept it.
Turn to II Timothy. If you don’t like what I am saying, read about Sodom and Gomorrah and see what God says about it. Read the first couple chapters of the book of Romans and see what God has to say about it. It is sin, and it was not accepted in our country or in any place in the world for hundreds of years, until now. God says that is what it is going to be like. But He describes it more. God describes what it is going to be like. II Timothy 3:1-7, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves,…” Now isn’t that something today? How we love ourselves. “…covetous…” This is the greatest nation on earth. We’re not perfect by any stretch, but it is the greatest nation on earth and the most wealthy nation in the history of the world. Yet most people want more. That is covetousness. “…boasters, proud…” People used to at least put on some humility if they were on a platform or in a sports activity. They would say other people helped. Not today. They say, “I’m great.”
“…proud, blasphemers…” How could we have more blasphemy than what comes out of our radios and televisions and everything else today? Even nice little old ladies and nice housewives break the Ten Commandments and use the Lord’s name in vain. Everybody does. They say, “I would never swear,” but they all do. “Oh, my—.” That’s blasphemy. That’s not me saying it; that’s God saying it. It is one of the Ten Commandments. Yet it is accepted. “…disobedient to parents…” What a description of today. “…unthankful, unholy…” I don’t have time to go all into it. We have a very unholy society.
“…Without natural affection…” What do we mean by “without natural affection?” Let me be blunt—having sex with an animal, men with men, women with women—that’s unnatural affection. I’ll tell you something else that is unnatural affection. How many thousands and tens of thousands and maybe millions of kids today don’t even know who their father is. That is unnatural affection. Dumping kids off. Little babies just born, just a day old, being flushed down the toilet. That’s unnatural affection. Parents killing kids, kids killing parents—that’s unnatural affection. There’s never been a time in the history of this country and in the world where this is more true. Unnatural affection. I’m telling you this description of what it is going to be like is becoming so vivid today. If there were no prophecy, how could the Bible say this was going to happen? It wasn’t even happening when I was a young person. “…trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good…” As I already just said, I don’t think President Bush was perfect, but he was hated by Europe and by many people in our own country. Do you know why he was hated? Because they were afraid of him. They called him a Bible-thumping fundamentalist. He was not, but they hated him because he believed the Bible. “…despisers of those that are good…” Our church is despised by this community, and every other Bible-believing church in America is despised. Why are we despised? Because we bring kids to Sunday School and tell them about Jesus? Because we try and help the poor? Because we help the mentally retarded? Is that it? Because we work with the Jolly 60’s, because we have a Reformers ministry, is that why we are hated? No, because we are Christians.
Verse 5, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof…” That’s what most people have today—a form of godliness. You go to church, and you don’t even know who sits in the pew next to you all year. You go home; you’ve gone to church, but you deny the power of God, His saving power, His justice, His wrath. You get mad when the preacher talks about sodomy. Go home and shake your fist at God. “…from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,…” and get this, “…Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
You say we have such an educated society. Well, I would not say we are so educated. The common man is going downhill. When our country was founded, people knew four or five languages. How many do you know? We have lots of knowledge. Praise God for medical knowledge, for instance. People float around in space. “…Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” It seems like the more people learn, the more they turn on God. That’s a description. Now again, take it home. If you are not saved and you disagree, study it. That’s why I keep giving you Bible verses. Write it down.
Matthew 24:5-14 talks about false teachers, wars and rumors of wars. Wow, does that describe today! Not only wars, but rumors of wars. We hear of more wars today because of television. There are wars going on right now in Africa that we don’t even know about. Most of us do know about Rwanda. A million were killed and we hardly even thought about it. A million! Right now, we are still getting killed, in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are talking about Syria. North Korea is rattling its nuclear sword. There has never been a time of more wars and rumors of wars. Earthquakes are more frequent. That’s a fact. The Bible says that it will happen. The rise of Satanism. You think witchcraft is in Africa and South America and these backward continents where people are just ignorant. Witchcraft is right here in Chesterton. The lady who ran for sheriff in Porter County was trying to offset the witchcraft in Porter County. She told me that with her own mouth. Witchcraft, drinking blood, slitting cats’ throats—witchcraft. Jesus is coming.
Turn to Ezekiel 36. Everything has happened; the stage is set for Jesus to come again. Everything has been fulfilled that is taught in the Bible. The one thing that had not been fulfilled until almost 1950 was Israel becoming a nation, Israel back in the land. We could do a whole hour’s study on this, but I would just read one verse, Ezekiel 36:24, “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.” Read the whole passage; I’m not pulling it out of context. There is no doubt that God said that before the end time, Israel would be brought back in the land. They had not been an independent nation for 2,500 years. They had been scattered for 1900 years. That’s a lot of time, all that time after Christ, and now they are back in the land. It has to be soon. But remember, we can’t know exactly when because the Bible says one will be taken and one will be left.
We know that it will be before the tribulation. Because if it were after the tribulation we would know positively that He’s coming. It’s before the tribulation. II Peter 3:10, “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 fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” You say it has always been like this, preaching that the Lord is coming. When this Bible was written people didn’t realize that our earth was a big sphere with lava and fire on the inside. When the Bible talks about hell, the people in that day didn’t know that. But the scriptures warn in the same passage here in II Peter 3:3-4 about people saying it’s always been like this. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And 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.” The Bible prophesied that is what people would say.
In Matthew 16:2-3 Jesus “…answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?” Sea captains and farmers can look at the sky and know that it will rain or if there’s going to be a storm. Why can’t we be ready, watching, and know? He says, “Just read my Book. If you can tell a storm is going to come, why can’t you know? Read my Book. I’m coming again.”
When we think of this, it should make us want to work, Christians. It should make us want to give our lives to Him. Last week I preached on, “You reap what you sow.” Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” II Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” We’re all going to stand before God, Christian. What kind of husband are you? What kind of wife? What kind of child? What kind of soulwinner? You would think it would really make us work. You would think we would really be serious. I Corinthians 15:58, listen to this, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” The fact that we know Jesus is coming again just adds to the reasons to live for Him.
But then one last word to those who don’t know they are going to heaven. As I preached, maybe you worried and said, “Wow, if He’s coming, I’ll be left behind.” If you are left behind, the Bible says you will be blinded. You’ve lost your last chance; it’s over. And this tribulation time is terrible. The Bible talks about people being so afraid that they want the mountains to fall on them. Turn to Revelation 20. Again I would ask, are you ready? If He came today, would you be left behind? Would you be left to go through that tribulation time? But it’s not only that, you are not promised another heartbeat. None of us are. I could die just like that. In either case, the Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. We are all going to stand at the judgment.
The judgment event described in Revelation 20 starting in verse 11 is for the unsaved. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Verse 15, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Be honest, sometimes we wonder what people will think. “I’ve been a member of a church, I’ve done this, I’ve done that, I’ve been baptized, I’ve been confirmed.” Ask yourself; be honest. Is your name written in the book of life? “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
One last passage in John 3:17-18, Jesus is speaking again, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” People will say, “I don’t believe that God would send us to hell.” That’s what this passage is saying. This is what Jesus is saying. He didn’t come to the world to send people to hell. He came to the world that you might be saved. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” He didn’t come to send you to hell, but think about if you reject Him. God Almighty, Whom we cannot comprehend, sends His Son, one of the Trinity, His only begotten Son, to die for you. And you say, “No”? You won’t stand making any argument at this judgment time. You said, “No.” He sent His Son to die. He was crucified. He was mocked. They said He was beaten so badly He didn’t look like a human being. And you said, “No.” Forget your argument.
Praise God, “He that believeth on him is not condemned…” All you have to do is believe. It would be something so different if you had to give Him a million dollars, or if you had to be a member of a church, or take communion, or be baptized. This is all good, but you don’t have to do anything. In fact, if you are trusting in those things you are going to go to hell. “He that believeth on him is not condemned.” It doesn’t say he who is baptized, etc. “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already…” You sit here in your seat, you are condemned to hell right now, “...because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Are you saved? You might say you don’t understand it completely, but it is simple. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” We are all sinners. “For the wages of sin is death…” The Bible says there is gnashing of teeth and fire that won’t be quenched. Hell is a terrible place. The Bible explains it, trying to warn us. Don’t go! The wages of sin is death in hell, “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It’s a gift. It’s free. “But as many as received him,…” It’s free. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
“So you guys think you are something?” No, we don’t think we’re anything. If they are right with God, Christians don’t think they are anything; just sinners saved by grace. We think we have a great God. We think we have the answer to life and eternity, but we don’t think we are anything. We’re just sinners. If you could strap a lie detector on me, you’d see I don’t think I’m any better than you are. I really don’t. But I’ve got the answer, and you can have it, too. All you have to do is admit, “Yes, I’m a sinner.” It doesn’t take much, does it? Turn from your sin; repent. Repent is a big word. It’s turning from your sin and turning to Christ. There is an example of a guy in the Bible, a sinner who said, “Save my soul.” Have you ever done it? I’m not asking you if you believe in God. I’m asking has there ever been a time and a place. Can you think back and say, “I remember reading this tract, or reading the Bible, or being in church. There was a time and a place when I said ‘Yes, I am a sinner. Please forgive me of my sins and save my soul.’”
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