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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/stanley-wells/what-shall-the-end-be/
1 Peter, please, chapter 4. This is the closing message of this session, and if the Lord helps me, we'll be out of here before 4 .30. I just want to read part of a verse here. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse number 17.
One question is asked here in this verse. Please look at it. Peter asks, verse 17, 1 Peter chapter 4, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
The Lord will bless everything that has been said at this conference from Friday night to now. I want to take this opportunity to express appreciation for being here this year at the Blue River Conference.
The Lord will bless you and continue the work in this particular part of the country. I want to speak a simple word for a few minutes before we rise and go away on this question. I want you to think of what I'm going to say.
You ever notice there's three simple thoughts in this question. What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? Number one, the gospel. Number two, the response. Number three, the end. Please think of that.
The gospel, the response, and the end. When we come to the Acts, one of the greatest preachers was a man called Peter. He preached on the day of Pentecost, and about 3 ,000 souls were saved. Philip the Evangelist was a mighty preacher, and Paul the Apostle was number three.
I want to suggest to you that Peter knew what he was talking about, the gospel. We'll borrow what we were at this morning from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. The gospel is God's good news. It surrounds the tree.
Christ died for our sins. It surrounds the tomb. He was buried. It surrounds the throne. He was raised on the first day of the week and later ascended and sat down on the throne. What about the gospel?
We start at the tree. That's Peter's word. Who his own self bear our sins and his own body on the tree. If you're an unbeliever here today in this company, whatever age group you're in, if you're going to be in God's fair heaven, you'll need to visit the tree.
Paul's word is the cross. That's where we start. Have you ever thought in your mind what happened to the Lord Jesus when he died on the tree? Now I'm going to suggest to you that Peter was likely there.
And before the darkness fell, he was likely near enough the cross to watch the event. How do you know? 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 1, he was an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ. I saw one hanging on a tree in agonies and blood who fixed his languid eyes on me as near as cross I stood.
Do you think if you were Peter, you would ever forget the sight of the tree and the Savior dying there. Dying crushed beneath the load of the wrath and curse of God. At 12 noon local time on that memorable day, darkness covered the sea, likely the earth.
There was no activity. There wasn't a sound. Nobody moved. And if Peter was there, he likely heard that cry at the end of the darkness, my God, my God, why didst thou forsake me? You see, here's the gospel message.
Heaven is a holy place. Not that the fileth, not that the fileth shall ever enter in. But creatures of a day, you and I, we are unholy. The Bible declares we're sinners. We're transgressors. We have iniquity.
We're not ready for heaven. Dear soul, as you have listened to the conference from the very first night and you're here without the Lord Jesus Christ, will you listen to the gospel message of the grace of God?
I have come to tell you in a very simple way how you can be saved. Several examples. I'll just take one. The man in charge of events, his name is not given, but he's called a centurion. He's in charge of a hundred soldiers.
He was there for six hours at least. And he watched every move. And he heard the seven cries from the cross. And when the whole six hours were history, he looked at the person on the center cross and he said two things.
Truly, this is the Son of God. This is a righteous man. He understood at that very point that the Lord Jesus Christ was dying on that cross. He was paying the price for sin. He had no sin of his own, so he's dying on behalf of others.
If you're from a Christian environment, you're absolutely convinced that what God says about the world is true about me. I'm just a poor sinner on the way to eternity. And I need the Lord Jesus. I want to suggest to you that every soul that understands in a simple way that when the Savior died on the cross, he died for sinners, and I'm one of them.
Therefore, Lord, for me. Somebody says, now, how do you know that a person understands the moment they pass from death unto life that they're saved? Well, I'll just give you my own experience. Sixty-one years ago, last June the 2nd, when an outstanding evangelist was preaching, I understood for the first time that when the Savior died on the cross, he died as my substitute.
He died in my place. He died in my stead. And I knew right there, in an instant of time, that I'd passed from death unto life. I can remember saying to myself, I'm telling nobody about this. I'm just going to wait and see.
I can remember that night so well, when I shook hands with Brother Harold Paisley, and he looked into my eyes, and he says, young man, while this meeting was going on tonight, you were saved by the grace of God.
I was absolutely astounded. How did he know? There was something about that beloved servant. He could detect it. He could see it in the countenance of an individual. I was saved by the grace of God. Is there someone here simple enough right now to take the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior?
The hymns come to mind all the time that help us. Was it for crimes that I have done? He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree. I remember one day, I was asked by a mother to go and visit her boy in a maximum prison.
He had transgressed the law, and he was doing time. I went to see the dear man, and between the two of us was proxy glass. I could only talk on the phone. He told me all kinds of things, and the bell went.
They had three minutes to get out, and I looked into his eyes. He was a rascal raised in a Christian home, and I quoted him that verse. Was it for crimes that I have done? He groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, grace unknown, and love beyond degree.
That hardened sinner, it touched him. The tears run down his face. The next time I saw him, he was in a casket. He's in eternity today. Hear the news, sinner. Free, free, free. Why not believe it? It's good news for thee.
These hymns are vital as we proclaim the gospel. Jesus dying on the tree means the sentence passed on me has descended on his head, and that he has died instead. Would you accept him today? Accept God's gift, and be one for heaven.
There's all kinds of other things we talk about, but that's the gospel. I want to talk about the response. See, it's inferred in the question. I want to first of all talk about the positive side, the response.
Will you obey the gospel? All kinds of examples in the Bible. Again, we'll just take one sample. Here's a man. He attempted to commit suicide, but the preacher was wise. He didn't preach to him at that point.
He said to him, do yourself no harm. Now, you all know us, Acts 16. And whenever he got him face to face, and he listened to his question, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
That was the response of that man. And the chapter shows that he was real. Sinner, hear and obey. It is the voice of the Spirit that cries. While he strives, yield to him. Do not quench the convictions that rise.
Now, notice what I've suggested to you. If you're a child here tonight, this afternoon, or an older friend, the moment that you're saved, you will know it. Now, here's the response on the negative side.
You see, people that hear the message, they can disobey. Book of the Acts is full of it. It was one day, the preacher was face to face with a liberated slave. And he had a young wife beside him that knew the gospel, and knew about Christ.
He was a Gentile. And he listened to the preacher rising to his subject. And as he preached of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, he trembled. There's something, friend, about the gospel that has power behind it.
It's the mighty dynamite of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. That dear man was close, but he said, I'll hear it some other time, not right now. He disobeyed the gospel. See, chapter two in the same book, here's a monarch listening to the preacher.
And Paul stood in front of him, and he likely remembered the words of Ananias, that one day, a chosen vessel, he would bring the gospel to Gentiles, the nation of Israel, and monarchs. He looked at the man that day, and he said, believest thou the prophets, Agrippa?
He answered his own question. He says, I know that thou believest. He knew the Bible. The man was interested, seemingly, but he disobeyed. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. He turned away. I would like to ask this audience, before we leave in a few minutes, what's your response going to be to the gospel?
We have seen it again and again and again. People come into the very point of salvation, and they weighed up the cost, and they turned away. They disobeyed. I've been asking myself over this weekend, what's your response going to be?
Well, look at the next we thought, the end. See, now, in application, Peter has quite a number of things to say about the end. He knows the gospel. He's experienced in people who respond one way or the other, but he has a lot to say about the end.
I understand the context, but here's an application. He says, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Dear soul, if God has been talking to you at this weekend or recently, and the work has begun in your soul, I hope on the positive side, the end will be.
That by faith, you'll receive God's gift and be saved in an instant of time. Now, watch. He has a lot to say about the negative side. What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? I'll just take one simple example.
It's in chapter three of 1 Peter. There was a famous preacher many years ago, a man called Noah, and he preached to the Antediluvian world, and he told them about the judgment that was coming. And Peter says, they were disobedient to the preacher's message, and they are now in the prison house of hell.
That's the end for them. It says in the Genesis chapters, everything that had breath died. Dear soul, as we leave, will you think of the end? The end. We think of what happened just recently on Friday.
The dear brethren are all burdened about it, and well might we be. But that dear soul, I never met him. But in a very sudden way, he came to the end of life. Only God knows where he is today. But I say to you, dear people, life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheep.
Be in time. Since I was here last in this part of the country, there's a number of dear people that we have preached to in other countries of the world. And even friends that we know personally, they got a sudden call.
One dear soul, on one Monday morning, nine o 'clock in the morning, he has said to walk from one side of the street of a village to the other side. In the garbage can, the garbage truck was there lifting garbage cans, and the driver was so high that he couldn't see them.
And he walked right in front of the truck, and in seconds, he was knocked down and in eternity. I've come to ask you today, will you think about the end? As we face the end and the world that's ahead, we have come to tell you, dear soul, there's only two places in that world that's coming.
Dateless, timeless, shoreless, fathomless, eternity. If you leave the conference today, saved by the grace of God, heaven. If you leave without the Savior, and you have no more opportunity, and you leave the world the way you were born, and the way you've lived without Christ, the Lord said, if you die in your sins, where I am, you cannot come.
Oh, could I touch someone here today? Eternity, time soon will end. Its fleeting moments pass away. Oh, sinner, say, where wilt thou spend eternities on changing day? People ask all the time. We were in the Far East there just last month, and dear souls that I've never met before, they said, why do you preach like that?
Why do you talk about eternity? Because very soon we'll be in it. And if you leave this life, you'll never return. And whenever you arrive in that coming world, it's forever. Dear soul, time to go, because we leave the building.
Will you ask yourself the question that Peter asked, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? Now, get the message. The gospel, God's good news. The response, that's your choice.
The end, that's eternity. The Lord uses word today. We might never all meet here again. God help you. Take it in right now. I seek no other argument. I want no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and rose again for me.
See that clock there? Time to go. Thank you for listening.