That, in a nutshell is what is wrong in many of our modern churches. Too many people want to come to church to be entertained. The Bible mentions nothing about being entertained but it does warn that in the last days people will flock to hear messages from those who will "tickle their itching ears". Take a look at 2 Timothy 4:3 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." This ties in to my previous post on sound doctrine.
Ok, getting back to talking about Hell. God has two major qualities... Love and Holiness. Most modern churches do a bang up job teaching about the love of God. That is why so many just don't believe a God of love would send a person to Hell. However, they fail miserably in teaching the Holiness, the Justice and the Wrath of God. As I have said before, if someone teaches the love of God to the exclusion of the Holiness and wrath of God they are teaching a half truth and when a half truth becomes the whole truth it becomes and untruth.
The message Sunday was dead on. God is Holy and Just and He requires payment for sin, no one is immune from this. No one should ever get the false idea that being a "good person" will get them to Heaven. There are two flaws in that way of thinking. First, no matter how good a person may think he or she is they are not good. Romans 3:10 says there is none righteous, no, not one. The second flaw is that even if a person could somehow be "good" goodness doesn't earn your way to Heaven. Heaven is not something a person can achieve (earn). Heaven is not a reward for the righteous, but a gift for the guilty. As the pastor said yesterday, the good do not go to Heaven, only the forgiven do.
As I think of it, the holiness, wrath and judgment of God only goes to show His love even more. Contrary to what Whitney Houston might think, the "Greatest Love of All" was God sending His son to die on the cross to satisfy the payment of sin that had to be dealt with. We as mere humans can not comprehend the amount of love it took for God to do that for us. Romans 5:8 says "But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." That was truly the "Greatest Love of All".
The question we should try to answer is not why does God send so called "good people" to Hell, but how is it that a Holy and Just God could allow sinful man into His Heaven. Actually, God does not send people to Hell.. people send themselves their by their own free will. As it is written in Deuteronomy 30:19 "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live".
The only thing I would have like to have seen added to the message yesterday would to have a reading of the account of Lazarus and the rich man as told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke 16:19-31
Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.
And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'
But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'
And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house for I have five brothers in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.
But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.
But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.
Some have mistakenly believed that this is a fictious event or a parable, but Jesus never calls this a parable. Also, in all of the parables Jesus taught on He never used a person's name. Here he names Lazarus by name. No my friends, this was a historical account because Jesus wanted us to have a glimpse of what Hell would be like. In fact, Jesus taught more on Hell than He did Heaven because He did not want us to go there.
As I told a few people at church yesterday, while the message was being given it was one of the few times I REALLY felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in the building and at work. This was reaffirmed when a young lady made the decision after the message to be baptized in the 2nd service. That is what church and christianity is all about.. building the Kingdom of God by adding believers to the Body of Christ. This is producing fruit.
So if you are not a believer in Christ the question still remains... will you choose life or death? There is no alternative. It's Jesus' way or the Highway (to Hell). Those aren't my rules, those are God's Holy rules. People need to stop playing the game of church and do business with God for real and accept the free gift He is offering. All it takes is faith and belief. Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." So as Bill Clinton once said "It depends on what the meaning of the words 'is' is" only this time we are refering to "it" not "is". In this verse I believe the word "it" has a double reference. I believe the gift of God is both grace and the faith to believe and accept that grace.
I urge anyone reading this who has never truly and faithfully accepted Christ as his or her savior to do so now. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:2 Behold, NOW is "THE ACCEPTABLE TIME," behold, NOW is "THE DAY OF SALVATION".
Our life is nothing more than a vapor that can fade away in an instant. We never know when we are going to leave this earth so it is imperative that if you do not know Christ as your savior to make that decision NOW. When you die, it will be too late. Don't go to hell... you don't have to. Jesus is providing the way out of eternal death and offering eternal life. You'd be VERY wise to take Him up of on that offer.
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