Al Whittinghill - Broken Before the Throne 2010 — Al Whittinghill

Thank you, Albert. Our speaker tonight is Al Whittinghill. I had a little bit of a delay getting here last night, but he's been with us, I believe, all four years he's been with us. Three? He's not a four-star.

He's just a three-star. Okay, but I have appreciated Al as he's been with us and so he'll be bringing our session tonight to lead us and then to take us into our prayer time. Al, God bless you, brother.

God’s Purpose in the Believer’s Life

Well, I want to commend you all for sticking with it. I'm always amazed and blessed when we come to this conference because I just know that the spirit is willing, but sometimes the body is weak and just even this afternoon I was bowing my head in the back to pray for John and a couple minutes later I said, where am I?

I remember. And so I want to commend you for sticking with it. You've been with this a lot of days now, really, and it's not the easiest thing, but the implications of this conference, though it looks small to some, are tremendously huge, and it's a blessing to me, to my heart, to be here, and I thank you, whoever invited me.

I don't know who did, but I appreciate it, and I counted a great joy to have you all as friends and blessed to be with you. It's a glorious thing the Lord is doing, you know. He is working in us to will and to do his own good pleasure, and we don't understand all that.

We have to work out with fear and trembling what he works in, in grace and mercy, and as we do that and find where he's really sending us into his purposes and his grace for this hour, it's a marvelous thing.

I think of each one here, and when you meet someone here, you know, they have a unique purpose that God has in this hour, just like Esther. I don't think she, even though she was queen, she probably didn't realize as much as we do for her, that she did have indeed that purpose, that really no one else could do that God had fashioned her.

It is true that God does have a plan for our life. It may be a guillotine to show forth his glory. It's not all that we crack it up to be sometimes on a human level, but he has a glorious opportunity for us to share who he is.

The King’s Coming and Readiness for Judgment

Now tonight, I just want to start off by saying we not long ago went to Fiji, my wife and I, and it's out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It's a little dot out there, just inside that little bump in the dateline, and the reason I want to tell you about this is because you'd think that out there, you know, it's the islands like on this, the beauty of the islands.

Of course, the city where we were, the capital city, is not like the islands. It's like a third-world city, and this is a pastor's conference for the pastors that are in that nation, and they picked as their theme this theme, the second coming of Christ.

Now, I thought that was pretty interesting that out there, separated from everything, they're sensing an urgency that the King is coming, and my particular responsibility was to, for my portion, there were several Australians preaching, and I had the privilege of preaching, and my particular assignment was getting ready to meet the King, and one of those messages that I brought is the one that the Lord, as soon as I knew I was coming here, I really tried to talk him out of having me preach it here, but could not do it.

I remember the night I preached this message. That night, a man who'd been preaching the Word for about 40 years went home, and the next morning, I did not know this till the afternoon, he came back, and he addressed one of the men from Australia, and he says that last night, after hearing that, I went home, and the Lord showed me that I was not really his, and I became a believer last night, and it was a glorious thing, and needless to say, made no small stir among some of the other pastors who looked up to this man.

It was a marvelous thing, and I think the reason these kind of things can happen is because we have neglected such a great salvation. We tend to humanize what God's miracle does in the heart, and we tend to let people get by with what looks like and maybe even feels like to us the real thing.

Reading 2 Peter on the Day of the Lord

So, I want to just read a few scriptures with you. I want to pray, and then I want to read some scriptures, and then we're going to dive in to a wonderful truth that I pray that you will stir up your heart and make yourself jot down these scriptures.

These are the kind of things that you're not to take my word for, but we're going to cover a lot of ground tonight. So, if you'd turn in your Bibles to 2nd Peter chapter 3, I want to just take you there, read a few scriptures, and set a few things before your mind and heart before we launch into the scripture.

Let's just pray, though. Father, we have nothing to offer to one another except for what you give to us. We live in a day of the opinions of man, and the assumptions of flesh, and so much going on around us, and many of your precious ones don't know what to believe.

Because of this, our trumpet is uncertain in many places. We have mixed truth and light and darkness in some places. So, I pray this night, this evening, that you will really lay down a foundation again in our hearts, and we might see something of who you are and the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus, the good news for bad people.

We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. We're in 2nd Peter chapter 3. Peter says, This second epistle, beloved, I now write to you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. This is not some theological, ignorant pool he's writing to.

These are pure minds, and God wants to stir us up to remember these same truths He's setting before them right here. We tend to forget these, and maybe it's because we might want to forget some of these things, but he says, that you may be mindful, verse 2, of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first of all, that there will come in the last days scoffers who will walk after their own pleasures or lusts, and they will say, 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. For this they are willingly ignorant of, that by the word of the Lord the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water, whereby the wall that then was, was overflowed with water, and perished.

Perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now by this same word, same word, are kept in storage, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and the perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not be ignorant of this very one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Here it is. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. Singular, His promise. But, as some men count slackness, but He is long-suffering towards us-ward, not designing. The word is bulome. He's not designing.

He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And there you have two possibilities. You have repentance or perishing. But the day of the Lord will come. That's His promise.

The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are in it, shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things are going to be dissolved.

What manner of persons ought you to be in all holy lifestyle and and godliness, looking for-this is the attitude, it's the, it's the appearance and the and the shape of our life and the attitude of our heart-looking for and hastening unto-we know we're moving quickly-to the coming day of God, wherein the heavens will be on fire, they'll dissolve, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat.

Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth in which dwells righteousness. All things new, all things righteous. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you're looking for such things, be diligent that you may be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless.

And count this, that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. He has a plan, and He has something in mind. Well, look at 2nd Thessalonians, and I'm reading several scriptures to just set the tone for where we're headed.

This may be akin to going to a dentist this session. 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 7, and to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them who know not God.

It's quoting from Jeremiah, that, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will be punished with eternal or everlasting destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.

That's quoting from Isaiah 2. When you, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all of them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day, in that day.

He's talking about a coming day. And then you read one of the first writers in the Word of God, who someone else wrote down, Jude, chapter 1, of course, there's only one, but verse 14 and 15 and 16. Well, we'll read just 14 and 15.

Listen to Jude 14. Enoch also, seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, and these refers to the false prophets and others who are giving an appearance, and it says, saying this, behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly, count the ungodlies in this verse, all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which the ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.

So it's clear evidence and clear prophecy, twice as many of the second coming as his first in the Scripture. Yet he fulfilled so all that we understand of his first coming, and so many loom before us of his second.

The Gospel’s Warning of Judgment

You see, what my job was in Fiji, was to, from the Lord, was to stir us up in way of remembrance, because, you see, the gospel in our day has become, for many, just a reminder of Jesus wants you to have a more meaningful life.

He wants to make you happy, as we just heard in that revival hymnal. It's more man-centered for many than as it is in the Word of God, truly for the glory of God. You see, not everybody's going to be on shouting ground, even in the church, when he comes.

We are not to be ashamed that his coming. We ought to be walking in the fear of the Lord, and in respect of what he's saying. And the world knows us not, because the world knew him not. Behold, beloved, what manner of men we ought to be, seeing how these things hasten.

Now, the fearful thing is, though, that as we talk about the coming of the Lord, and the church rejoices in that Jesus is coming for the wedding, the thing we often forget is, for the world, it's judgment time, and that it is not going to be wonderful.

It is going to be terrible. And this is meant to be a balance in our heart and mind, and there's a growing sense of urgency is to come to us. Just listen to what it says. I'll read you these, and you don't need to turn there, but Psalm 96.

Listen to what it says, beginning in verse 1. It says, Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, and show forth his praise from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, and his wonders among the people.

The Lord is great. He is greatly to be praised, but he is to be feared above all gods. Then in verse 8, it says, Give to the Lord the glory that's due his name. Bring an offering. Come to his courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Fear before him all the earth. Say among the nations that the Lord reigns. The world will be established, and it won't be moved. He will judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad, and let the sea roar in the fullness thereof.

It's talking about in verse 13, in the presence of the Lord rejoice, because he is coming. He's coming to judge the earth. He'll judge the world with his righteousness, and the people with his truth. Psalm 98 verse 9.

Before the Lord again, he will come to judge the earth with righteousness, and he shall judge the world and the people with equity. The next Psalm says, The Lord reigns. The Lord reigns, and exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool, for he is holy.

We're called to give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness over and over and over again in the scriptures. So I want to go to one more scripture before I jump into my message. I know you say, that's a lot of scripture.

Well, I can't think of anything better to say. John chapter 3. Very familiar. You know the verse, but I want to read it in its context, because if you see in the scripture, when the scriptures say, when Jesus was begotten, it wasn't before the foundation of the world, and it wasn't at Bethlehem.

It was at the resurrection that he became the firstborn from the dead, and he was begotten by the spirit, by the resurrection, and we too enter that same experience. When you read these verses in John chapter 3, it says, As Moses, verse 14, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, this is the cross, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Then the familiar verse, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Begotten Son. See, the first verse talks of the cross. This one talks about the resurrected Son. You study that and see if it's not consistent.

And whosoever believes in to him should not perish, but have eternal life. And he's saying God sent his Son, not to condemn the world, but on that cross where he would die. And then you read verse 36, He that believes on the Son has everlasting life, but he that does not believe the Son will not see life.

But here it is, the wrath of God remains on him. Remains on him. In the book of Romans, and we'll go there in a little bit, it says that while the gospel is the power of God's salvation, God's wrath is presently at work.

The Wrath of God in Scripture

What we don't have to ask is, are we under judgment? Because the whole world is being judged, but it's reserved to a greater judgment that's coming. Now, in our day, now here we jump into it. In our day, it's very unpopular to talk about the wrath of God.

And this will be an excuse for some of you to go to sleep tonight. Say, I don't need to hear about that. But I just say, you see, it makes people nervous when you talk about the wrath of God. And you know what?

It rightly should make people feel nervous. How can a living God and a loving God have a wrath? If he's able to have all power, you hear it in theological circles. If God is all-powerful and God is loving, then how would he and why would he allow sin?

And how could there ever be a wrath? And so we get that confused. And so what happens is, we don't usually bother to do any deep scriptural study to answer that question. And we let other people answer it for us, you see.

Let me ask you something tonight. Young people, I can see that this is not your favorite subject. But you see, you're born for this hour. You're born for this hour. Let me ask you a question. As a Christian, as a Christian, what do you think of God's wrath?

As a Christian, do you realize that he has a wrath in the Scripture? Do you feel like, like some people feel like they must apologize for it? Like it is like a zit on the face of an otherwise perfect complexion of a loving God.

We don't like this part of him. And when it comes up in circles or discussion, we almost feel like sometimes we have to apologize to the people that are there for the wrath of God. I felt like that. Haven't you?

When you get in a forum on the internet, they're talking about the love of Christ, and it's way out of balance, you feel like you're just an ogre, you see. Maybe, maybe you have an uncertainty in your own heart as to whether the wrath of God is a little too severe.

I'm serious. I mean, and I see these are thoughts that people have. It's just too severe. Everlasting? Destruction? Away from the presence of the Father? That's just a little too severe. Even some very good theologians have come to say, hell doesn't last forever.

You know, they believe in the annihilation of the soul. Maybe you kind of feel like if you ignore God's wrath, it might go away. Do you think that God's hatred of sin has lessened since now Jesus has died on the cross?

Maybe that now that man's kind of on a probation since sin's been paid for so much since Jesus died on the cross, maybe he's changed his view of sin. Maybe that's kind of what some people think in the church, or maybe he's gotten more lenient since Jesus has done this.

Do you think that? It's easy to think that way, you see, but let me just say God's wrath, dear friends, is one of the clearest attributes in Scripture about Him. 580 times in the Old Testament and over 20 different words for wrath in Hebrew.

Did you know that? Over 20 different words, and it pervades the New Testament. We just read a lot of those as well, and do you realize that Jesus spoke more about hell than even heaven? He did, and why did he do that?

John the Baptist trumpeted, flee from the wrath to come. The day is coming, says Malachi at the end of the Old Testament. The day is coming that will burn like an oven, and God will appear, and all the ungodly will be like stubble, and it will burn.

That's the last thing he said in the Old Covenant, and Paul spoke of when Jesus, we just read it, would be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on all who know not God, and to show him synonymously those who obey not the gospel.

There's an obedience, a heart, and a response to what they know of God that's required. You see, with his mighty angels, he'll come and take vengeance, and so the day is coming. In fact, in Romans chapter 2, listen to what he says to people that know the truth, but don't bother to really ever really walk in the reality of it.

You see, in Romans 1, he condemns the the non-saved because of all their perversities, but in Romans 2, also, like religious people who don't really know Christ are condemned, and you see where it says in verse 3 of chapter 2, Do you think this, O man, that you that judge those other people that do such things, and you do the same things, that you will escape the judgment of God?

Do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance? See, he's suffering long, long suffering and holding back. Do you despise that, not knowing that the goodness of God, this forbearance, is meant to lead you to real repentance?

Listen to what he says, after your hardness and impentinent heart, you treasure up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every person according to his deeds.

Everyone, everyone, even Christians, will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, except for the fact that it won't be the judgment of a criminal like the lost. It'll be the discernment of a loving father, where there's still a lot of difference, but we are to have a given answer for the deeds done in the body and as even as a believer of those who have truth and long to walk in all the truth.

I can see some of you in your very eyeballs pulling back from this truth, but I'll tell you what, you do it to your own peril and to the lack of health of your own soul, you see. We've got to hear it clearly.

God's wrath is just a much a part of his divine perfection, as his love and as his faithfulness and as his power and as his mercy. In fact, he even swears in the scriptures by his holiness, but he swears by his wrath also.

Did you know that? It's such an unbreakable, unbendable reality about his very nature that he swears by it. He swears by his own existence, he swears by his holiness, and he swears by his wrath. Now, that's serious, you see, and so let me just say this and let this jolt you.

My readiness or my reluctance, whichever one it is, to think about and accept the wrath of God shows how I really feel about him. Whether or not my I'm really sanctified or just sentimental, because you see there's a lot of sentimentality that's not based on truth, but when I accept this and understand the beauty of what it really means with the cross as its juxtaposition, it makes the gospel precious like it's meant to be, to me as his child, you see.

The Bible says that the saints are to rejoice at the remembrance of his holiness, and you see in Revelation chapter 15, and you see in Revelation chapter 19, they are rejoicing as the judgments of God are made manifest in the earth.

You see, they're not reluctant to think on his wrath. In fact, they're singing around the throne about the answer for his wrath. When you see into heaven, and you see what they're really occupied with doing, and the fire and the furnace of their worship, it has to be that they've seen what we're talking about here first, and they've seen the beauty of the precious blood.

That's what they're singing about at the right hand of God, around the throne. They're singing about the blood of Christ. Well, the Old Testament and the New Testament unapologetically verify the terror of God's wrath, and we don't ever hear, when was the last time you heard a message on the wrath of God?

I mean, seriously, but you see, it's not the whole counsel of God, nor is it the whole being of his nature if we haven't, one of his attributes, set forth and kept it hidden. God's made no attempt to conceal his wrath in Scripture, has he?

Not any. It's right there, and it's clear, and so we must not apologize for it. The Apostle Paul said, knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Because we understand what we're really saying here, in the light of the whole Word of God, it gives an incentive.

Jude chapter, Jude verse 20 says, some save with fear, hating the garment, even spotted by the flesh. Others, you come in with the loving heart, because they've already been broken by God, but there, there's a need to have this balance.

God’s Hatred of Sin and the Call to Repentance

You see, well, who is God angry with? Who is, who is his wrath toward? That's what we've got to ask. Well, it is very simple. In the Scriptures, it says, in Psalm 7 and Psalm 5, that he hates our workers of iniquity, and God is angry with the wicked, or the sinners, every day.

All the time, every day, God has a plan for their life, and it is a serious matter. He's angry with that, and it clearly teaches that God hates sin. Now, it's getting heavy in here. I can sense it. But you see, there's something inside.

If you'll hang with me, hang with me. Our age does not like to talk about, or think about, the wrath of God. We do not like it, and so what I've heard so many times is, I mean, I don't preach on this a lot.

I preach on revival, I preach on the cross, but I hardly ever have ever gotten up and preached a word like this. This is unique. Say, we need to hear about the love of Christ. There's so many discouraged people.

We need to hear about the love of God. This wrath you mentioned will turn people away. So what happens is, we go with a lopsided message to a sin-loving, God-hating world, and we give them a message that says, God loves you.

That's all we say to them, and so the difference, what happens is, casual indifference, like an indulgent parent, like a child looks at a parent kind of indulgently, and just kind of takes advantage of them, and whatever else.

Well, see, God is light. He's consuming fire, as well as love. That's what makes His love potent and glorious, you see. So here's the thing, to warn about wrath to a man-centered, respectable, sophisticated-in-the-flesh generation, a society church that's concerned with nickels and noses, it is a tall order for us to come and give a contrary.

But you see, sin is rampant. Iniquity abounds. Truth has fallen in the streets. God's ways are being ridiculed. His commandments are being scorned, and His character is being assailed, and His promises are rejected, and His mercy is taken for granted.

All of this is happening, and His threatenings are being ignored. We dismiss them as natural disaster, or unfortunate person in the wrong place, or something, and we fail to see that God, He says, when these things are in a nation, prepare to meet God.

That's what He says in Amos, and when these things are happening in the world, and it's in line with Scripture, you need to have an urgency from the Holy Spirit of God that lets you understand what is really happening, that the end of all things is at hand.

Be sober. For the purpose of prayer, it says in 1 Peter 4 7, because the end of all things is at hand. Now, you know what? I would rather be mistaken, and have a hundred years, and be urgent in my day, and be ready, than presume, and sit around, and start taking my ease, and doing like it says in the Gospels.

He begins to eat, and drink, and be merry with all the servants, and the Lord comes and finds him in an hour that He's not ready. I don't think we are gonna have that long, but you see, sex, and greed, and pride, and selfishness, and immorality, the statistics on that stuff is even as equal in the church as in the world today, and the divorce rate among pastors is one of the highest in America.

In America. I gotta calm down, because y 'all are sympathetic people. I don't have to drive this in. We must boldly proclaim to our generation that the wrath of God is ready to be revealed. That it's just, as someone says, like a silk thread can be snapped, and there we are.

He's coming to judge the earth, so failure, I believe, the Bible teaches this, I believe, failure to preach this, or understand it, is precisely why there is very little fear of God in secular society, and the Gospel seems to have a take-it-or-leave-it impact on people who, and they think they can ignore God's call, because it's all for men, you see, but listen to what it says in Ezekiel.

He says this amazing verse in that famous text that talks about us being a watchman in Ezekiel chapter 3. Listen to what he says to people who see the evil coming, and see a day like the one we're moving into, and don't say anything about it.

Ezekiel chapter 3, in verse 18, listen to what he says. When I say to the wicked, you will surely die, and you don't give them warning, or speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life.

The same wicked man will die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. This is what Paul meant when he said, I declare to you, I'm pure from the blood of all men. I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

And then, if you were to read on there, and in chapter 33, you'd see the warning given again in chapter 33, but the Lord says in Ezekiel 33 11, say to them as I live, saith the Lord God, Ezekiel 33 11, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Turn ye, turn from your evil ways, why will you die? O house of Israel, people that were in the right place, that weren't real in their relationship with God. Now, I'm not preaching this tonight, because I think that there's a lot of lost people in here.

There may be one or two, there may be some of you, but I'm preaching this because I believe we have left this out of, unconsciously perhaps, but we have not allowed the balance of this to come into our gospel message.

And make no mistake about it, it is the message of the gospel that is the real issue of the hour. In the church, it is not just that we're not preaching this or that, it's the whole understanding of what the, who God is, and what he has done with the Lord Jesus, and his timeless, wonderful, glorious revealing of himself, and coming to die, and then going back as Lord of all, and coming again soon.

That whole good news of who he really is, has been misunderstood. And therefore, we don't really preach with power. So, the fear of the Lord, remember that, is the beginning of wisdom. And so, let's quickly add, before we lose everybody here, that God's wrath, the reason we have a hard time thinking about it so often is that his wrath, we tend to project our own wrath as his wrath.

And see, God's wrath is not like man's wrath. Man's wrath is fleshly, and vindictive, and full of revenge, or it's unpredictable. But you see, God's wrath, it says he is righteous in all of his ways, and he is holy in all of his works.

Psalm 145, verse 17. God's wrath, you see, get this, now here we're getting down to it. God's wrath is his expression, or his response to sin. That's what it is. He hates it. You see, sin is not just a thing we do.

Sin is a condition. It is independence from God. It is man going his own way. It's man acting like God, and not letting God be God. And it's transgression of what God has made as a revelation, his law.

And I think I can shoot past the mark, or fall short of what he wants, or let my perverse nature come out, and no one's going to, I won't surely die. It's just one big picture, you see. It's independence from God, and selfishness, and pride.

So what is wrath? Here's what wrath is. It's God's holiness, his nature, stirred into activity against unholiness. That's what wrath is in the scripture. And it's, wrath is the disposition of God against that which is contrary to his nature.

Is this too theological for you? It's God expressing himself against that which is against his nature. One old Puritan said it this way, it's a settled disposition, his wrath, a settled disposition toward all moral evil, and it arises out of his nature.

Do you see that? It arises out of his love, and his goodness, and his awesomeness, and his holiness, you see. And it's being revealed even now, because you can't go against God. You can't live and depart from him, because in him we live and move, and have our being.

Even the lost man, when he shakes his fist at God, God keeps those atoms going around. His fist could fall off, you know. God's mercy is upon this whole earth. The earth should have been destroyed, but he didn't destroy all the earth.

He's long-suffering, you see. So here's the bottom line, and where we're talking about his wrath. God must destroy all that is contrary to himself. So this helps us understand what it means in Revelation chapter 6, when it talks about the wrath of the Lamb.

Infinite holiness stirred into activity against unholiness. The great day of the wrath of the Lamb has come, and who can stand? Fall on us mountains, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, because even as the mountains are shaking, and the islands are removed out of the sea, and there's a great awareness God is coming to do exactly what we're talking about tonight.

People say, I don't want to face it. That's how perverse. Yet they repented not, it says. But God waits, and soon there comes a line that you cross. This old world, and there's a day, he's reserved it, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man that he has ordained, by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the quick and the dead, not just the dead without Christ, but even his own will give an account by the holiness of his indwelling life, and all that he's done, and there'll be rewards. We don't ever hear that preached much, and there'll be loss.

Some will have their whole life work. It'll just disappear as by fire, and they will enter heaven with a smell of smoke, and then God will wipe away tears. But there are going to be differences in heaven, friend.

Don't think that the casual, indifferent, carnal, take-it-or-leave-it person that's kind of coasted along, and kind of had to always be an isle athlete. I call them always running down, the isle athletics, you know, just always down doing, you know, aerobics, going down and rededicate.

Not even in the Bible, you know, the word rededicate. It's not even in the Bible. That person's going to have the same reward as someone like a martyr who gave everything in his family, like Adonai Judson or something, who went to Burma and lost his wife, and lost his children, and said, this is just incredible.

Yes, there'll be great reward, but you see, here's the thing. No one will ever taste God's wrath who does not completely deserve it, and he has all the facts, and he never makes a mistake, and he's absolutely just.