The Gospel According to Jesus' Enemies

We're gonna read 2 2 chapters, tonight.

So I wanted to turn with me firstly, to the, book of ephesians in chapter 2. I'm gonna read the whole of that chapter. And then we're gonna read, Revelation chapter 20. I'm not gonna be opening all of those those passages, I'm gonna use them as a sort of, basis or a springboard into, some of the themes that we're gonna be looking at tonight. So we're gonna start off with ephesians chapter 2.

And then we'll read Revelation 20, let us read the word of the lord. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world, and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at 1 time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, god, who was rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions, It is by grace you have been saved.

And god raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness towards in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of god not by works, so that no 1 can boast for we are god's handy work created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which god prepared in advance for us to do. Therefore, remember that formally you who are gentiles by birth and could uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done in the body by human hands, remember that at that time, you were separate from Christ excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without god in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who wants far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the 2 groups 1 and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create himself 1 new humanity out of the 2, thus making peace, and in 1 body to reconcile both of them to god through the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access to the father by 1 spirit.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers but fellow citizens with god's people and also members of his household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him, The whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which god lives by his spirit. Words are there, mate. Well, let's see some more words in Revelation 20.

Hopefully, you'll still be alive by the end of this. And then we'll try and say some things. Revelation 20 says this. And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand the great chain. He sees the dragon that ancient snake who is the devil or Satan and bound him for a thousand years.

He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations any more until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge, and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of god. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessid and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of god and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the 4 corners of the earth, Gog, and Magog, and to gather them for battle.

In number, they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breath of the earth and surrounded the camp of god's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown, they will be tormented day and night forever, and ever. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

The earth and the heaven flared from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. So there are 2 chapters that hopefully will help us with what we're gonna look at now. Let's pray, for our time together, and then we'll have a a think about our topic tonight.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you, so much for your words. We thank you that it doesn't pull punches, that it tells us the things that we need to hear. And some of the things we may hear tonight may make us feel uncomfortable, may make us feel uneasy. They are hard truths in many ways, but we pray father that you'll help us to hear them.

For we need to hear them, and as we hear them, we pray that you will grow us in our love for the lord Jesus Christ. And our love for our neighbors and for those who do not know you yet. And so we do pray these things in Jesus' name, our men. Well, if you've been coming, for the last few weeks at Cornerstone, you'll know that we've been going through this series, the gospel according to Jesus' enemies. And it was kind of looking at statements that that the people that weren't for Jesus were making, and they were kind of slights on him, or they were mocking him, But actually, ironically, they were they were true.

But what we're gonna do, rather than think through a statement, we're now gonna flip this this sermon series title, and we're gonna think through What the gospel, what the word of the lord says about Christ's enemies? See, they said things that were unintentionally true. So where does that leave them? And what does the Bible say about these people? What does it say about those who are hostile to Jesus?

What does it say about those who are Christ enemies? See, when you're, when you study certain leaders, or when you teach about certain leaders that that were despotic, let's say, that were tie tyrants that that went to war with people, you wanna try to understand who they are. You wanna understand their ideology. You wanna understand why they came to where they they came to and why they decided to do what they did. Or or if you're a a a country that's at war with another country, You need to understand your enemy.

You need to understand them. I I used to teach, about warfare, at at school. And, after the Iraq invasion in 2003, the British Army and then the American Army had to deal with insurgents, people that were sort of working undercover. And what the SAS said is to understand and to combat them, they had to understand what it was like to be an insurgent what it was like to be an Iraq, Iraq citizen. We must know who our enemies are.

We must know their behaviors. We must know their tactics. We must know what type of people are. We must know what their leaders like. So that we're able to understand how to identify, to recognize, to to combat them, to defend them.

And that's what we need to do with the enemies of Christ. So who are the enemies? Well, my first point is the enemy. The enemy. Just as we said that you have to understand the leader.

Well, there is a leader of the enemies of Christ. There is 1 ultimate enemy. We're first introduced to this enemy in Genesis chapter 3. That is where this evil 1, the serpent, the devil himself comes onto the scene to oppose god, to oppose god's rule, he wants to be a usurper, he wants to be someone that has the power, and he wants to draw the people of god to stop listening to god and start to listen to him. And this enemy this evil 1 has been a real and constant threat ever since Genesis chapter 3.

The Bible describes him and we saw it in ephesians 2 as the ruler of the kingdom of this air. The lord Jesus himself calls him the prince of this world. In other words, this is a real and dangerous opposition, enemy whose influence and power pervades everywhere that we see in this world. And we see from Genesis 3 onwards, the devil working throughout the Bible until we come to Jesus and we see him go full on the offensive when Jesus turns up. I mean, he tries to have him killed as a baby.

Using the means of herod. When Jesus is baptized, he's led into the wilderness, and satan comes to him to thwart his plan of being the perfect son of god by trying to tempt him to live for himself. He uses Jesus' own disciple, Peter. Remember when uh-uh, Jesus says, listen, lads. I'm gonna go to the cross, and Peter says, who what do you think you're doing saying that?

What does Jesus say? Get behind me, satan. And then in gethsemane in Jesus' greatest trial, he's trying to thwart and trying to stop him going through what he must go through. In the book of Revelation in chapter 12, The the the the writer John, goes through this, and he and he and he sets it up as this great dragon and a woman. And the woman's to give birth to an offspring in Satan's desire has this great beast is to is to stamp out Jesus.

And he tries everything that he can, and he thinks he's done it, doesn't he? You know what? You know when he's when Jesus is on the cross, he must be thinking I've done it. I've got rid of the son of god. Surely, this is it.

As Jesus hangs and across dead, he thinks I've won, but unfortunately, for satan, that's not the end of the story. The lord Jesus arises again, and goes and ascends to be reigning forever and ever. But Satan's not finished there. He's defeated there, but he is not finished, like a wounded animal. If you're wounded animal, they're the most dangerous they can ever be.

He's disarmed. Yes. But he is on a rampage. He is violently angry. And at the end of Revelation 12, it says that he goes to wage war with the rest of the woman's offspring.

In other words, the church. And so just as Satan attacked Jesus, He now goes after his people. In 1 Peter, chapter 5 and verse 8, it says this, the alert and of sober mind your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He's there. He's got these these these schemes and and and talks about flaming arrows.

He's there to attack you. Brothers and sisters, he's out to attack you to stamp you out to try and get you to stop living for the lord Jesus and proclaiming his name. But it's not always obvious. He's not always just gonna be like a bull in a China shot. Very obvious.

In 2 Corinthians 11, it says for such people of false apostles, deceitful workers masquerading as a apostle of Christ, talking about false teachers. And then it says there, so no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light, it is not surprising then in the if his servants also masquerades as servants of righteousness their end will be what their actions deserve. You see this? He he's he wants to deceive you. He's like that, I was watching a film that that played on those, you know, you're on your computer.

And suddenly you get a a thing pop up that says, oh, you have a a virus. You need to phone this number, and you phone this number, and there on the end of the phone is someone so helpful. And, they're there to help you as long as you just give them all the passwords to your your life then suddenly you give him the passwords and they're they're everything gone. But he was so nice. But that's how Satan works.

He's there to deceive. He's there to say I'm not really a problem. Some of you might have seen, a certain film. I can't remember the name of the film. It will come to me and I'll tell you at the end.

There's a great quote in it but, it says the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world. He did not exist. Thank you, brother. I knew you'd know. He's there to see even.

He wants to think that he's not as powerful as he is as he does his schemes in the background. He wants to deceive you to say, look, it's alright for you to do some of these things. That's exactly what he did in the Garden of Eden, didn't he? Oh, Eve. Did god really say it alright if you have a little bit of that fruit now?

In the Bible, he's known as a liar, a murderer. He sows seeds of doubt in our lives and says, is this real? Is this true? Does god really love you? In the Bible, he says 1 of his main his main sources, his main tactics is to accuse us.

So when you get it wrong, he comes to you and says, you're meant to be a Christian You're meant to be a follower of the lord Jesus Christ, and you're behaving like that. You're talking like that. You're thinking those thoughts. That's how the devil comes and accuses us. And so we must listen to what Port Peter was saying that, be on guard.

Be on god. You're in a battle. It's a war this. So be on like a soldier, be ready always alert and ready for the fight. In Ephesians chapter 6, it says, put on the armor of god and do what, stand.

Stand firm. Stand firm. It's like the the the Romans used to have these these uh-uh these sandals with like studded bottom so that that that they could stand and they could not be moved when they had a force against them. We must stand firm. Against the devil, we must be aware that he is real.

So often in our culture, we think the devil isn't really. He's not around. Listen. He's constantly at play. He has a demonic forces that are play.

Trying to distract you away from listening to the lord Jesus Christ and living for him. So, stand, be on your guards, but also be comforted. For the devil, it's not the most powerful being in this world. There is 1 who has defeated the devil, who has disarmed him of his greatest act of the of accusing. The lord Jesus Christ died on the cross.

To say you cannot accuse my loved ones for I have died for them, and I have shed my blood for the things that you now accuse them of. So that is the great enemy himself, the devil. But secondly, we have the enemies. We have the enemies. See, it's not just that satan is 1 enemy, but also there are many enemies of the lord Jesus Christ.

See, those people that reject the person of Jesus, that reject the words of the lord Jesus Christ, that says he is not who he says he is, that he didn't do what he said he says he was doing, They are the enemies. They stand in opposition to Christ. There's not there's no neutrality here. You know, there's no Switzerland when it comes to the matters of god. And satan.

You can't just be on the fence. People. This is not a position. You're either in god's kingdom or you're not. In fact, Jesus goes so far to say, you're not if you're not in my family, you're in the family of the devil, John chapterades.

He says that to people that were religious blokes. And he says, look, you think you're good and they say, they're like, well, we're our fathers, god, our fathers, Eve. No. He's not. Your father is the devil.

In ephesians 2, you'd have seen that you were dead in your transgressions and sins. And you used to live for the the the the the kingdom, the rule of the kingdom of the air, the spirit. You live to gratify the cravings of your flesh following its desires and and and and like. You were alienated from god because of your behavior and your thoughts and the fact that you said that I don't want the rule of Christ. I wanna rule my self, but by saying that I wanna rule myself, brings you into the kingdom of Satan who rules this age.

In Revelation 20, you would have seen that those who do these sort of things bear the mark of who. Well, it's not the mark of the lord Jesus Christ. The mark of the beast. On the forehead or on the hand, they stand with the devil. They are those who stand against the rightful rule of Christ.

Jesus is the king of the universe, my friends. And if you're gonna reject the 1 who created and sustains all things and who wears the crown whose head is the only 1 strong enough to wear the crown. If you reject him and says, I'm gonna wear it, you stand against him. You are a traitor. You have waged war against god or mighty.

And as you've waged war against god or mighty, you have attacked the people of god, and that happens in a whole host of ways. Has this series not prove that? Yes. They've made statements that were true, but they weren't statements of encouragement to Jesus. In 2 Corinthians, you saw that those that say to masquerades in the angel of light, and those who follow him masquerades as the angel of light, yes, were good people, but they want nothing to do with Jesus and his way of salvation and righteousness.

There are many walking around us, and there may be some in this room right now. I do not know your heart, who stand in direct opposition to the lord Jesus Christ. Now that might be you. Some of you might think I am a Christian. I look like a Christian.

I go to church like a Christian. I do some good things like Christians do. But it may be that when you come to Jesus on the final day, he says I never knew you away from me. Or maybe you just know I am openly rebelling. Against Christ.

Well, let me go to my third point as a way of warring. The third point is the end. The end. See, if you're guilty of committing war crimes, Then you are deserving of of judgment, aren't you? It's interesting, me and Jerusalem in Cambodia, and, we saw the the killing fields for those who know about the killing fields in Penong Pen, where, Paul Part and the Kemer Rouge slaughtered millions of their own people.

4 people, I think, were put in prison at the end of that. 4. Where's the justice? We need justice for crimes against humanity and for war crimes. And god is a god of justice, and so he must meet it out.

Justice must be done. And that, hopefully, you saw that in Revelation 20. Revelation 20 promises that the devil, the great enemy, is gonna be cast down. And it promises that those whose names are not written in the book of life will also be cast out. See, those who are opposed to Jesus will be judged to an internal hell.

Did you hear that? Not just not just any not just a temporary hell, but an eternal hell. In ephesians 2, we said that that that that we are all deserving of the wrath of god. And how is it it I don't know if you've thought about hell, but if you listen to What the Bible says, Jesus himself talks the most about hell out of everybody. He says it is a place of outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

It is a furnace of conscious torment where the fire never goes out. It is a place of excruciating misery where the worm does not die. It is a place of agonizing thirst that can never be quenched. That is just the lord Jesus' words. But the Bible goes on in the new testament.

It says, hell is a prison of everlasting chains from which there is no hope of release due verse 6. It is a lake that burns with fire and soulful we saw in chapter 20 of revelation. It is a place of black darkness in 2 Peter 2 17. This is not a a place to be trifled with. You you talk to some people in this world and and they say, oh, I'd love to go to hell because all my friends will be there, and all the fun people are there.

You think, no, you've missed completely misunderstood. This place is not a place where you're having fun. This place is of of unbelievable pain and torment. This is a place of eternal suffering. This is a place where you will be brought to justice for all the treasonable acts that you have done and thought and said, this is a place where god is present by the way brothers and sisters.

People think, oh, god's not there. God is there. But it's not god with his his his his love and his and his comfort. This is the god of complete judgment and wrath. The Bible uses the words gehenna.

The word gehenna means the valley of Waling. This is not a place that we wanna go to. There's a a a a sermon by a a a bloke called Jonathan Edwards. It's called sinners in the hands of an angry god. It is a vivid, and I I mean, I should have just read that to be honest.

It would be much better for you all. He he he paints the picture of what hell is. I'll I'll give you a a couple of quotes, and hopefully they're helpful. It says unconverted men walk over the pit of hell in a rotten covering. And there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen.

The arrows of death light unseen at noonday. The sharpest sight cannot discern them. Do you see this? There are men and women, girls and boys walking around in this world, just treading on on places where the the the the floor may give way, and they'll find themselves in a pit of complete despair. Completely oblivious.

It's like, we were we were sorry. I'm I'm telling you about my my my, holiday highlights, which are a bit odd, because one's killing Philton, one's a Vietnam War, but underneath the in the Vietnamese War, they put down land mines. And you think I'm just walking around thinking I'm gonna be okay, and then you step on 1, you're blown to some other reins. Men and women are walking, they think they're safe, and they think they're okay, but but 1 false step. And 1 moment where god says, actually, now is your time, they're gone.

He goes on to say your wickedness makes you as as it were heavy as lead and to turn downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell. And if god should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf and your healthy constitution, your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Sorry. That that last bit goes from the other bit. Do you see that?

You you talk to people, don't you? You know, you die today, what stops you getting into hell? Oh, well, I'm a good person. I'm not as bad as him. No.

Your righteousness that you think you can rely on to get you away from hell is it's like a spider web. And as the rock comes down, the spider web does have no chance to stop it. And and and and when that time comes, if you're his enemy, and you get sent to hell, you you can try and grasp at the air, but the air won't hold you up, you're gonna go down. That is a destination for you if you are Christ's enemy. And that brothers and sisters is a destination of our friends, of our family, of our colleagues around us.

Let it sink in. I I might not be painting a good enough picture, but hopefully god's word can. But here's my fourth point. The end is nigh. But it is not now.

The end is nigh, but it is not now. See, that day is is surely coming. It is gonna come. And for some, It's already too late. They're dead.

They're gone. But the day of judgment, as as much as it is coming, it is it is not here yet. And so today is actually the day of mercy. The day is the day of mercy. See, we're not to to to feel pleasure that people are gonna go to hell.

We're not to feel like this is a good thing and be uncaring. Now, it reminded me like the lord Jesus. His his heart was for who his heart was for his enemies to become friends. That isn't that 1 of the best things about Ephesians 2? You were deserving of wrath.

You deserve to be in hell. Yet Christ by his blood and by his grace and by his mercy shed his blood to do what to reconcile you to to get rid of the dividing wall of hostility between you and god, but not just between you and god, but between you and god, but between you and and Jews and gentiles can be together. I mean, you listen to to Jesus' words about his gospel. We listened to the enemies. Well, the enemies said it by accident, but Jesus came and said, listen.

I'm not here for the righteous, but I'm here for sinners. He's the 1 that said I'm not here to be served, but to serve and to do what, to give my life as a ransom for many. I've come to to save people out of their their sin, and their enmity towards god, and their hostility, and the rebellion, and the treason. And the 1 who's the light of the world, and if you believe in me, you'll no longer be in darkness, and the 1 who can give you life abundantly not the death that you deserve. I'm the 1 who's come to seek and to save the lost.

I'm the 1 who says, the Christ must suffer. And on the third day, rise again, but those who who find repentance And forgiveness in my name, that should be proclaimed to all and of all nations. The 1 that says in John chapter 3. For god, so love the world. So love the world.

This is Jesus's heart, that he gave his 1 and only son, the lord Jesus said, I'll come, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. That's Christ's heart. Romans 5 verse 8. God demonstrates his love.

In this, whilst we were still sinners, Christ died for us. What a verse? When you were an enemy, when you were rejecting the lord Jesus Christ. Pete prayed it so so helpfully at the start of the service. We mocked him.

We smoked him. We slung him on across. And on that cross, he says, father forgive them. That's Christ's heart. And if you're an enemy today, Christ says, I'll die for you.

He did say that. And so will you trust him? Will you know his reconciling love? Will you know that dividing wall that separates you from the god of love and unholiness, and will you know that Christ can be the bridge to bring you across into him and be his friend and not his enemy? Trust him.

And like Christ's heart, let us have the same heart. Christians. See, it's we shouldn't have pleasure. That people or Christ's enemies and are destined for hell. We're not to be like Jonah.

What a book Jonah is, but Jonah's an absolute tow rod, isn't he? Jonah, the 1 that got told to go to Nenevah because god's gonna judge him. 40 days, and Nenevah will be judged. And Jonas says, I want them to be judged. Well, not to be like Jonah, But what to be like our lord, Jesus Christ, who says, who who weeps over Jerusalem, who who who sees people as sheep without a shepherd, they're just running they're just lost and and broken and and desperate.

And and and we want them to come and to know and to trust the lord Jesus Christ so that they may they may be spared from the hell that they are so so desperately plummeting towards. And we want them to join us into this new creation that we're promised, if you were here this morning, was it not great news to hear about the glory that is to be in store for us you trust in the lord Jesus Christ? A place of complete security and safety, as as my dad was saying that he can put a child can put his hand in the cobra's den without fear of harm or pain or suffering, a a a world where there is no evil and no suffering and no and no violence, and no pain, and and the lord will wipe away the tears of all who trust in him, he will love his children, he will be their gods. Do we not want that for the people around us? That should be our heart.

Now you might be like me and you might find this quite convicting. I've been convicted by this because I find myself often like Jonah. I'm lethargic. I'm a total coward. Easier to join them and to stand out and tell them where they're going.

I'm apathetic for my needs are greater than theirs. My comfort is greater than their discomfort. That they will experience. And so I need to be rebuked for the times that I just don't comprehend both the glory and the pain. That is gonna be installed in the next world.

And so I must pray with with Paul at the end of Ephesian 6 that I will go and proclaim this word without fear. I want a heart like Paul in Romans chapter 1 where he says I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, but it's the power of salvation first of the Jew, then for the gentile. Father, I want I want our hearts to understand what we were saved from praise god for saving us from it, but I want a heart that under stands that that is the destination of my loved ones and those around me so that I then may go and proclaim the glorious gospel news that there is a way of salvation from this world and into a greater 1, a new home. Spurgent says this.

This is an apt if you're a if you've honestly come back with me and look at this spurgeon quote. If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees imploring them to stay, If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not 1 go unwound and unprayed for. That's what we want. That's what we want.

Let us have that heart spurgeon. Got it. Let us get it. So where are you? Maybe maybe you're an enemy of Christ today.

But why not today? Take the opportunity of the day of mercy. Edwards goes on to say because he wasn't just talking about how he wants people to come to know Jesus. He says, now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners. A day wherein many are flocking to him and pressing into the kingdom of god.

Do you see Jesus? His arms are wide open. He says, come. Come my enemy and be my friends. Be my friend today.

Trusting me today. Know what it is to be in my glory. He goes on to say therefore that everyone that is out of Christ, not a Christian now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of the almighty god is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. He was talking to a church at the time.

But everyone fly out of sodom haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you like lot's wife, but escape to the mountain lest you be consumed. If you're an enemy, if you're an enemy watching online, if you're an enemy here, take this opportunity now. Take the opportunity of mercy now. Listen to the lord Jesus Christ who, without stretched arms, hung upon the cross, but without stretched arms says my blood can reconcile you to be with the lord god almighty and be his friend, not his enemy, not to face his judgment, but to face his glory. See, this morning, We were given a glimpse of glory.

Tonight, we've been given a glimpse of Gahanna, the place of Waling. Let 1 show you the glories that you can have and let the other 1 cause you to flee from it and Christians Get these 2 things into your heart. Your eternal future and the eternal future that you've escaped must be burned into your mind and into your hearts. So that you can praise god more fully for the lord Jesus Christ, but also so that you can take this glorious gospel message to a world that so desperately needs it. Let us pray as we close.

Father, we thank you again that you give us vivid imagery, to show what it is to be an enemy of you. And we pray father that you will help us to treat it seriously, with somberness, so that we may flee from that. We pray father that you will help us as Christians to understand the fresh, the horrors of hell. So that we may do all we can to spare some from that. And we praise you that we have been spared.

And we praise you that you have given us your glory. Though so undeserving. And so we pray father that both the morning sermon and this evening sermon will have grown us in our love and our appreciation and on our faith and it will inspire us and give us vigor to go and to witness to a world that is so in need of the savior the lord Jesus Christ. And we pray these things in his name.