Crucifixion was never a private event. It was always raw, and searingly public, because its purpose was to terrify the masses into submission to the authorities. Crosses often lined the main roads into cities, holding the broken writhing bodies of the condemned, or displaying the rotting corpses of the dead. The Romans even scheduled public crucifixions to coincide with religious festivals, insuring the maximum number of people present to witness the horror. Murderers, robbers, traitors, and slaves were crucified, brutally, by the thousands all over the empire and always deliberately in full public view. The horror of the cross was inescapable, and the Romans intended it to be that way.
Greg Gilbert

Now And Then

Now And Then 65 B9-30-4P.P1 NOW AND THEN Mal. 3:13-18

INTRODUCTION: “Now and then Christians”

  1. Attend “then” but not “now”
  2. More “if…” and “then”
  3. The “then” that I have in mind is in ETERNITY
    1. Things are not so fine NOW
    2. But everything will be satisfactory THEN
    3. AS THINGS ARE “NOW”
  4. The world says,
    1. “You can’t live for God”
      1. “You will miss all of the fun of life”
      2. “Everyone sins anyhow, so enjoy it”
    2. “It doesn’t pay to live for God”
    3. Verse 14, “Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance”
    4. Verse 15, “And NOW we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, that that tempt God are even delivered.”
  5. But the WORD says that we should have “tasted that the Lord

    is gracious” (1 Pet. 2:3)

    1. Verse one tells us to live NOW with respect for THEN
      1. Lay aside all malice (feelings of hatred)
      2. Lay aside all guile (deceitful talk or conduct)
      3. Lay aside all hypocrisies (pretense of virtue)
      4. Lay aside all envies (jealousy)
      5. Lay aside all evil speakings (“talking about others behind their backs,” Living Bible)
    2. Verse two says to desire the milk of the word & grow
    3. Verse four says to take all our problems to Christ
    4. Verse five says to offer up “spiritual sacrifices”
    5. Verse nine says to show praises of God for our deliverance
  6. All of this is “now”
    1. “Now” some wicked may prosper, but I will still live pure and lay aside all malice, guile, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speakings.
    2. “Now” I may not have a lot of expensive “things” but I will offer up “spiritual sacrifices” and praise God for being free of guilt from sin

II. “THEN” THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT

  1. By the definition of the word we are unsure of the time
  2. When it does happen, it will be too late to switch sides
  3. Mal. 3:16-18 has a beautiful promise (but in past tense)
    1. “They that feared the Lord spake often one to another”
    2. “The Lord hearkened, and heard it”
    3. “A book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.”
  4. The promise is valid NOW
    1. “They shall be mine… in that day when I make up my jewels;”
    2. “I will spare them as a man spareth his own son”
    3. “THEN shall [Christ] return”
    4. “THEN shall [Christ]… discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.”

ALTAR CALL

  1. Read Revelation 22:6-7 & 10-17
  2. Live today for the time when you will face judgement
  3. THEN is far too valuable to wast NOW for