back to index2020-09-06 Not Erasing Hell
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Alright, Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26 through 31, let me read it in the NASB. 00:00:10.000 |
It says, "If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the 00:00:14.480 |
truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a terrifying 00:00:18.240 |
expectation of judgment of the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries. 00:00:23.040 |
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on a testimony 00:00:27.440 |
of two or three witnesses. How much severe punishment do you think we will 00:00:31.200 |
deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean 00:00:35.120 |
the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the 00:00:38.400 |
spirit of grace? For we know him who said, 'Vengeance is mine and I will repay.' 00:00:43.520 |
And again the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into 00:00:47.200 |
the hands of the living God." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray for guidance, 00:00:53.120 |
wisdom, spiritual soberness, that we may have the capacity to understand 00:00:58.400 |
not only your words but your very heart. May this time be glorifying to you and 00:01:03.440 |
sanctifying to the church. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 00:01:10.640 |
All right, so this text that we're looking at 00:01:18.320 |
is the fourth of five warnings in the book of Hebrews. 00:01:22.640 |
And it's probably one of the heaviest warnings in the New Testament outside of 00:01:27.120 |
Jesus' gospel itself where he is talking to the church and 00:01:33.920 |
you know like the encouragement to stay focused and not to drift. 00:01:37.360 |
But in between these encouragements and warnings, 00:01:41.680 |
he uh encouragements about Christology and about 00:01:44.720 |
supremacy of Christ above all the creation and all the old old system, 00:01:48.960 |
he always ends it by saying, "But if you do not pay attention, 00:01:53.040 |
if you hear my warning about uh about drifting 00:01:56.560 |
and you just kind of take it lightly," he says, "here are the consequences." And then 00:02:00.640 |
so this is the fourth and there's another warning that's coming up in 00:02:03.280 |
later chapter. But this is probably the heaviest one. 00:02:06.080 |
In fact, Jonathan Edwards, he doesn't base his 00:02:12.080 |
sermon, "The sinners in the hands of an angry God" on this text, but he 00:02:15.440 |
borrows the words in verse 31 where he says, "It is a fearful thing to 00:02:19.840 |
to fall into the hands of a living God." And you probably heard of that that 00:02:23.920 |
title even as a non-christian in high school. They study his sermon, 00:02:27.120 |
"Sinners in the hands of an angry God." So the words are borrowed from 00:02:30.880 |
this text, but the text that he was expositing is in Deuteronomy chapter 32. 00:02:36.560 |
You know, again, this is one of those texts that if you were preaching a 00:02:41.760 |
topical sermon, you probably would never hear. Because 00:02:46.080 |
this is one of those sermons that if you happen to just stroll into the church 00:02:49.680 |
and hear a sermon on this text, you say, "Ah, he's a another one of those 00:02:53.840 |
fire and brimstone preachers." In fact, I know some churches who have 00:02:58.240 |
openly said that they would never preach on this because they don't want to 00:03:01.680 |
discourage people. Life is hard enough as it is. We don't 00:03:04.960 |
want people coming into church and being down and feeling 00:03:07.680 |
heavy about their life and then going home discouraged. 00:03:12.080 |
In fact, some of you guys may know that there was a book written by a man named 00:03:16.880 |
Robert Bell, "Love Wins." Some of you guys may have heard of that book before, but 00:03:21.440 |
basically the book's premise is that hell does not fit into modern 00:03:26.720 |
Christianity. And so his whole theme is to erase hell. 00:03:31.280 |
That we should just get rid of that doctrine because 00:03:33.520 |
it is not palatable, it's not acceptable in our generation. 00:03:36.720 |
This is what he says, "Telling a story about a God who inflicts unrelenting 00:03:41.280 |
punishment on people because they didn't do or say or believe the correct things 00:03:45.680 |
in a brief window of time called life isn't a very good story." 00:03:50.480 |
And the point that he was trying to make in that saying that that story is just 00:03:53.680 |
not going to sell. You know, again, you and I live in a 00:03:56.640 |
generation where church growth movement, basically books and 00:04:01.680 |
articles and conferences have been given to how to attract the 00:04:06.160 |
maximum number of people to church and how to run a church in such a 00:04:10.720 |
way to keep as many people in the church as possible. 00:04:17.440 |
This type of teaching, this type of theology isn't going to be friendly 00:04:22.320 |
to people who are coming to church. He goes on to say, 00:04:25.600 |
"The belief that untold masses of people suffering forever doesn't bring God 00:04:29.600 |
glory, at least in his mind. Restoration brings 00:04:34.080 |
God glory, God's glory. Eternal torment does not. Reconciliation brings God's 00:04:40.960 |
return causes God's glory, God's greatness to shine through the 00:04:44.560 |
universe. Never-ending punishment does not." And again, the whole premise of the 00:04:49.040 |
book is because it doesn't bring God's glory in his mind, 00:04:52.800 |
therefore it needs to be erased. Now consider that 00:04:56.800 |
to the sermon that Jonathan Edwards gave which sparked a great awakening. 00:05:01.680 |
It brought revival not only to the United States or Europe, 00:05:05.120 |
you know, basically the modern world where Christianity was being practiced. 00:05:09.200 |
The sermons that they were giving was indicative of the sermon that he gives 00:05:13.440 |
in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." So 00:05:15.280 |
many of you may have heard that or read that before, but it wasn't unique to 00:05:19.360 |
Jonathan Edwards. It was a type of preaching that brought revival during 00:05:22.640 |
that period. And this is what he says, "Yea, there is nothing else that is to be 00:05:28.160 |
given as a reason why you don't this very moment drop down into hell. 00:05:32.960 |
O sinner, consider the fearful danger you are in, 'tis a great furnace of wrath, 00:05:37.280 |
a wide and bottomless pit full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in 00:05:41.680 |
the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as 00:05:45.280 |
much against you as against many of the damned in hell. 00:05:48.560 |
You hang by a slender thread with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, 00:05:52.880 |
and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder, 00:05:56.160 |
and you have no interest in any mediator, and nothing to lay hold to save 00:06:06.000 |
ever have done, nothing that you can do to induce God to spare you one moment." 00:06:10.640 |
And his sermon goes on and on and on like this. Probably what I just read to 00:06:14.560 |
you is probably 1/20th of his sermon, and majority of his sermon, the content 00:06:19.120 |
is heavy like this. And they give credit to this sermon 00:06:24.320 |
that sparked the great awakening, a revival. Imagine if this sermon was 00:06:30.880 |
preached today, the response that would be given. 00:06:33.840 |
In fact, not that long ago I was trying to talk to 00:06:37.200 |
a non-believer, and I, you know, he's a guy who fell away from faith, and 00:06:41.120 |
and I asked him, "What caused you to fall, and what 00:06:44.320 |
keeps you from coming to church?" And he said, "You know what, I don't want to go 00:06:46.880 |
to a church where they're preaching condemnation and fire and brimstone. You 00:06:51.040 |
know, I hate that stuff, and so I'm not going to go, you know." 00:06:55.200 |
But sad to say that's a common sentiment of many people. 00:06:59.760 |
And even sadder, that's a common sentiment of many people 00:07:03.520 |
inside the church, where I've heard pastors actually say 00:07:09.040 |
that we would never preach this, that our sermons are always encouraging, 00:07:14.080 |
that our sermons will never feel cause you to be condemned or feel 00:07:17.840 |
feel heavy. We're always going to focus on you feeling encouraged 00:07:29.680 |
has not committed himself to an accurate teaching of the Word of God. 00:07:34.720 |
You cannot look at scripture and say, "I like this passage, and I don't like this 00:07:38.400 |
passage. This makes sense, this doesn't make sense. 00:07:40.480 |
This is going to cause the church to grow, and this is going to cause people 00:07:43.520 |
to move away from church, so therefore I will not do this or that." 00:07:47.360 |
That person is no longer serving God, but man, he's serving himself. 00:07:52.960 |
It is not safe nor biblical to skim over certain passages in the 00:07:58.720 |
scripture, because it is not palatable. Obviously, 00:08:02.800 |
the text that we are in is a heavy text. He has given warning, he's giving 00:08:06.960 |
exhortation, but he says the consequence of not 00:08:10.080 |
heeding the warning, he says this is what's coming. 00:08:14.240 |
Jesus himself said the severest description of judgment is given by 00:08:18.240 |
Jesus himself. In Matthew 13, verse 41, they said, "There 00:08:21.440 |
will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." In the book of Revelation, it describes the 00:08:26.160 |
second death as a lake of fire that cannot be extinguished. 00:08:30.160 |
You cannot accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and reject 00:08:33.520 |
condemnation, because that is not the gospel. 00:08:36.960 |
You cannot take certain parts of the scripture and say, "This is what we want," 00:08:45.760 |
So this morning, I want to jump into this text. I know it's a heavy text 00:08:49.360 |
for us to be in this morning, but it is absolutely necessary. I wish we, 00:08:55.040 |
I would be able to give more time to this, you know, 00:08:58.880 |
but again, I want to make sure that at least for us that we understand why this 00:09:03.600 |
is here and who this is speaking to. So there's three things that I 00:09:07.040 |
want to cover in this text. There's one, who is he talking to? 00:09:09.920 |
This is one of the harshest warnings that he gives 00:09:14.080 |
that who is he talking to? So we want to identify that. And second, 00:09:17.600 |
why is he giving this warning? Why was it necessary for him 00:09:21.120 |
to give this kind of warning? And then the third, what is the application of 00:09:31.440 |
practical application for us? So first of all, 00:09:35.520 |
the text where he says, where he ends by saying it's a terrifying thing to fall 00:09:39.680 |
into the hands of the living God, right? He's not talking to a non-Christian 00:09:44.000 |
outside the church. He's talking to people inside the church, 00:09:48.320 |
right? Because he's been telling the church who's been drifting, telling that 00:09:54.400 |
He's not talking to people who are outside who openly deny Christ. 00:09:58.720 |
He's talking to people who are drifting and just kind of 00:10:01.840 |
drifting back into the Judaistic and old system. 00:10:06.880 |
You know what's confusing though? In verse 29 he says, 00:10:15.280 |
He's warning these people, but he describes them at one point was 00:10:20.240 |
sanctified. So some people have confused this to say, 00:10:24.640 |
he must be talking to Christians that if they drift and they don't walk right 00:10:28.560 |
with God, that they're going to lose their salvation 00:10:31.040 |
because of the language that is being used here. 00:10:34.400 |
The language here, the word sanctified, is not referring to a Christian. In fact, 00:10:39.120 |
in other parts of the New Testament, Paul says in Corinthians 00:10:47.760 |
because he may be sanctified. And the word sanctified doesn't mean that 00:10:52.160 |
if a non-Christian, if you had two couples and one of them become Christian, 00:10:55.520 |
the other one will be saved. Clearly that's not what he is saying. 00:10:58.640 |
The word sanctified just literally means to be set 00:11:01.760 |
apart. Now when that is used for justification, we're talking about 00:11:06.240 |
salvation. But generally the term simply means to 00:11:09.440 |
be set apart. So the way that Paul uses it in Corinthians, 00:11:12.880 |
he's saying that if a, if a individual who wasn't a Christian becomes a 00:11:16.560 |
Christian, to not to simply walk away from an 00:11:19.440 |
unbeliever, because that unbeliever is set apart 00:11:22.960 |
because there's a Christian influence in the home. 00:11:25.920 |
Just like a non-Christian, if he enters into the church, 00:11:35.600 |
he is around, he's not like the unbelievers who are just walking around. 00:11:38.720 |
That because the church has been sanctified, has been set apart, 00:11:43.120 |
that it may become the body of Christ. So when an individual is in the church, 00:11:47.120 |
in a sense he is also set apart. So that's what he means by 00:11:51.120 |
sanctified. Somebody who is inside the church. 00:11:54.800 |
So this warning is given to those people who have the privilege 00:11:59.120 |
of being in the church, is hearing the word of God regularly, 00:12:03.360 |
has common experience with genuine believers, 00:12:06.960 |
maybe they even have gone out to missions and come back, maybe even 00:12:10.480 |
teaching Sunday school. They have common experience because they 00:12:14.800 |
are inside the church. That's what he means by sanctified. In fact, 00:12:17.920 |
a very similar idea is mentioned in Hebrews 6, 4 through 6. 00:12:23.120 |
"For in the case of those who have once been enlightened 00:12:26.160 |
and have tasted the heavenly gifts," right? Enlightened meaning 00:12:29.440 |
that they heard the gospel and they understood it. 00:12:32.720 |
"Tasted the heavenly gift," meaning that they were in the context of 00:12:36.240 |
of a body of Christ where God's blessing is surrounding them. So they tasted 00:12:41.440 |
right, the heavenly gift. They were partakers of the Holy Spirit. 00:12:45.040 |
They were partakers in the sense that they in the corporate body of 00:12:48.720 |
Christ where the Holy Spirit is blessing. Holy 00:12:51.840 |
Spirit mightily working and they're in the context of that. 00:12:55.360 |
Not that they personally have the Holy Spirit, but they are partakers of the 00:12:58.880 |
work of the Holy Spirit. "And have tasted the good word of God 00:13:02.240 |
and the power of the age to come and then have fallen away. It is impossible to 00:13:06.640 |
renew them and again to repentance." Meaning that they 00:13:14.240 |
given to them. They had pastors. They were inside the 00:13:22.080 |
away from God. So this is not somebody who is 00:13:28.480 |
verse 26, the word that they use for knowledge is "epinosis." The regular word 00:13:39.520 |
means knowledge. When you add the word "epi" in front of it, 00:13:42.480 |
it means to intensify. So when he says that this individual 00:13:46.880 |
received epinosis of the truth, meaning he's received everything that is 00:13:52.160 |
necessary, he's not the way he is because he had 00:13:55.920 |
partial understanding. He's not the way he is because he didn't 00:13:59.680 |
understand. He wasn't taught. There was a partial and misunderstanding 00:14:03.840 |
of the gospel. He said he has everything he needs to know 00:14:06.320 |
fully and yet he is willfully walking away from the truth. He chooses to go 00:14:12.560 |
down that path knowing that this is contrary. 00:14:16.640 |
He says that this is an individual who is living in sin, 00:14:19.920 |
not necessarily struggling with sin. Okay, so let me make that 00:14:24.400 |
distinction very clear. Living in sin and struggling with sin. 00:14:30.560 |
Because a lot of people who are living in sin 00:14:33.040 |
describe their lives as struggling. Struggle means 00:14:36.960 |
that there is a struggle. There is a wrestling to repent, 00:14:40.960 |
to put away their old life, to continue to walk in righteousness, 00:14:45.120 |
to openly confess. There is a struggling towards sin. 00:14:48.560 |
But there are people who are living in sin. They have embraced that life 00:14:53.120 |
and they see the grace of God simply as a free ticket to get out of hell. 00:15:02.800 |
one saved always saved. There's nothing you can do to please God because God 00:15:06.720 |
saved us by grace and grace alone. And it is not by words. So they have all 00:15:10.320 |
of these cliche things that they have memorized 00:15:13.040 |
and yet they are living in darkness. There is a great difference between 00:15:16.640 |
living in sin and struggling with sin. And 1 John describes 00:15:21.680 |
that in 1 John 1, 6 through 9. The whole letter is written to people who 00:15:27.040 |
are using their bad theology, wrong theology, to 00:15:35.120 |
1 John is written to people who have been influenced by the Gnostics. 00:15:38.560 |
The Gnostics basically taught that your flesh is evil 00:15:42.400 |
and there's nothing to be redeemed by your flesh. So when Christ came and died, 00:15:46.400 |
he saved us in our spirit but our flesh doesn't matter. 00:15:50.160 |
So therefore you can do whatever in your flesh 00:15:53.440 |
because God saved us in the spirit. And so they apply that to their lives to live 00:16:00.400 |
And so they say well one saved always saved. It's by grace so it doesn't matter. 00:16:03.520 |
And so John is writing to a group of people who 00:16:06.560 |
have embraced this kind of theology and this is what he says. "If we say 00:16:11.680 |
that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not 00:16:16.880 |
practice the truth." In other words, we deceive ourselves. 00:16:20.080 |
"But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have 00:16:23.280 |
fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus, 00:16:26.880 |
his son, cleanses us from all sin." So in other words, if you say that you 00:16:32.080 |
have fellowship with God and you continue to live in darkness 00:16:36.080 |
and you see the grace of God as just, you know, get out of jail 00:16:40.000 |
card, right? You know, remember when we were young, 00:16:43.600 |
you know, you would, you would, you know, cross your fingers 00:16:47.200 |
and as long as you cross your fingers back here, you can tell all kinds of lies. 00:16:51.680 |
You can do basically whatever you want because this is a get out of free 00:16:54.720 |
free card, right? You can tell all kinds of lies and at the end they say, "Hey, 00:16:58.560 |
you're a liar." Say, "Ah." Meaning that you're free from whatever it is 00:17:03.840 |
that you've done because I did this. For people who are living in sin are 00:17:09.760 |
living with their fingers crossed. Well, I made a decision. I said, I 00:17:14.720 |
believe and I crossed the line and I checked off the box 00:17:18.000 |
and they continue to live in sin. There is no struggling for righteousness. 00:17:22.880 |
It's not, their repentance is, all of it is, okay, I acknowledge that and they 00:17:27.040 |
go right back into sinning and he says, "If an individual is living in sin, 00:17:31.680 |
he's an unbeliever who's rejecting Christ." These are people again who have 00:17:35.920 |
convinced themselves that as long as they cross their fingers, 00:17:38.800 |
as long as they've got it, you know, checked off the box 00:17:42.320 |
and went down the aisle so many years ago and they got baptized that that's 00:17:46.640 |
their get out of get out of jail free card. So, the rest of it, it doesn't matter. 00:17:52.240 |
He says in verse 26, "If that's who you are, a willful sinner who is continuing 00:17:57.440 |
to live in sin," he says, "there is no longer sacrifice for 00:18:01.120 |
their sins," in verse 26. And what he means by that, he's not 00:18:04.800 |
saying that that person can't repent. That if a only way of salvation, only way 00:18:11.440 |
of receiving forgiveness is through the blood of Christ 00:18:13.840 |
and you've been taught all of that, you had every advantage 00:18:17.760 |
versus non-Christians and you choose to walk away from that, what he means by 00:18:21.920 |
that is there is no other way of atoning for your sins. 00:18:25.760 |
If you've rejected the only way of salvation, the only mediator between us 00:18:29.360 |
and God is the man Christ Jesus and you've heard 00:18:31.840 |
all of this and you superficially acknowledge it 00:18:34.960 |
and yet in your life you're continuing to live in sin, he says, "there is no 00:18:38.240 |
longer any sacrifice." There's no longer any hope for this individual. 00:18:43.360 |
It is a very dangerous place to be in, to be inside the church and to be fooled 00:18:49.600 |
all his life and then to meet a God who will judge. 00:18:54.640 |
And this is reason why the scripture is here and why he's speaking to people 00:18:59.280 |
inside the church because being inside the church 00:19:03.120 |
doesn't guarantee genuine faith. Being God, doing godly things doesn't 00:19:08.720 |
guarantee genuine faith unless all Christianity to you 00:19:13.840 |
is for this life. You have good friends, you live with purpose, have some good 00:19:18.560 |
morals, raise children in a nice nice culture. If that's all Christianity 00:19:22.800 |
means to you, then you're here and just out the door 00:19:25.760 |
and whatever causes you to be uncomfortable you can just ignore it. 00:19:30.080 |
But if we genuinely believe what we profess to believe, there are serious 00:19:33.440 |
consequences of not examining our life and being 00:19:38.000 |
certain that if we have genuine faith. Now he's 00:19:42.320 |
not talking about people who are struggling with sin. 00:19:45.200 |
In fact, he says in that same passage, 1 John 1 verse 9, 00:19:48.800 |
"if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins 00:19:56.000 |
See an individual struggling with sin because we still have our flesh, we still 00:19:59.920 |
wrestle, we still struggle, right? There are times we fall and we 00:20:04.560 |
repent, we get back up because the grace of God covers over us. 00:20:08.160 |
Our salvation is not dependent upon our righteous deeds but what he has done. 00:20:12.880 |
But there's a struggle for sanctification. There's a struggle and 00:20:16.480 |
there's a straining, there's pressing on toward the goal. 00:20:20.240 |
So he's not talking about that. He's talking about an individual who is 00:20:23.200 |
willfully and continually choosing to live in sin 00:20:27.760 |
while confessing that he's a believer. He said there is no 00:20:32.320 |
longer sacrifice for sins. He gives a reason why this is so 00:20:36.800 |
important because in Hebrews chapter 10, 28 to 31, this is how God sees 00:20:42.480 |
someone who is living in sin. "Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies 00:20:47.280 |
without mercy on a testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severe 00:20:52.000 |
punishment do you think he will deserve who has 00:20:58.800 |
Part of the reason why, especially in the western 00:21:02.400 |
world, the Christian world, where people don't have 00:21:05.440 |
a clear understanding of God's wrath and holiness is because we avoid it even in 00:21:10.160 |
our preaching. So a lot of people in the church have 00:21:14.000 |
this idea that God of the Old Testament didn't tolerate sin. It was no nonsense. 00:21:20.560 |
God gave laws. If you broke it, you died. That's the Old Testament God. But when we 00:21:24.480 |
come to the New Testament, he's like a, you know, grandfather that 00:21:28.240 |
always has candy in his pocket. No matter what we do, he's okay with it. 00:21:32.400 |
And so one saved always saved and then he goes. So the God of the Old Testament 00:21:35.920 |
doesn't fit the God of the New Testament. And so God of the New Testament is a God 00:21:40.000 |
that we would love to have. That's the God that we want to go to 00:21:43.520 |
heaven and see and be in his house. Because he 00:21:47.280 |
always wants to see us, no matter what condition we are in, 00:21:50.000 |
no matter what kind of life we're in. He's like a grandfather 00:21:53.200 |
who just doesn't care and he just he just loves us no matter what we do. 00:21:57.680 |
And so the God of the Old Testament just doesn't fit our culture. 00:22:01.440 |
So we have a tendency to kind of avoid that and then we kind of 00:22:05.120 |
hover around the New Testament where there's promises of eternal life, 00:22:08.480 |
promise of forgiveness. And so and then we kind of avoid 00:22:11.840 |
Revelation because that's kind of hard to understand. 00:22:14.240 |
And then we come to these passages and kind of like gloss over. 00:22:17.680 |
That must be talking to non-Christians. But look what he says, "How much 00:22:22.480 |
more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under the 00:22:27.280 |
footstool of God? He has regarded as unclean the blood of 00:22:30.640 |
the covenant by which he was sanctified and has 00:22:33.920 |
insulted the spirit of grace." See I think part of the reason why you 00:22:39.360 |
know when we drift and when we're lukewarm that we feel completely 00:22:42.880 |
safe and we have all the time in the world. It's like wow this is not where I 00:22:46.160 |
should be but you know that's just the way we are. 00:22:49.520 |
That's just Orange County Christianity and we just 00:22:51.760 |
we're okay with it. Well God is saying no he's not okay with it. 00:22:56.640 |
He said the way he sees an individual who had all the privileges 00:23:01.120 |
and willfully chooses to live a life that is contrary to the gospel that he 00:23:04.960 |
has heard. He said it is like trampling underfoot 00:23:07.840 |
the son of God. This is not just a casually drifting. 00:23:10.640 |
He says it is trampling, disrespecting, unclean 00:23:14.480 |
the blood of the covenant. Something that is very sacred 00:23:21.760 |
And it is an insult to the spirit of grace. The Bible says if there's one sin 00:23:26.240 |
that cannot be forgiven it is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. 00:23:29.840 |
And that's what he is referring to. An individual who professes one thing 00:23:34.560 |
but by his life he is grieving the Holy Spirit. 00:23:38.480 |
And he says for we know him who said vengeance is mine. 00:23:41.840 |
I will repay. That God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New 00:23:46.080 |
Testament. In fact the judgment in the New Testament is 00:23:48.640 |
much more severe. And the reason why it's much more severe 00:23:52.320 |
is in the Old Testament God would give promise of judgment but 00:23:58.720 |
but I will remember the remnant. My son is coming. 00:24:02.720 |
The Messiah is coming and he's going to forgive sins. 00:24:05.760 |
Yet in the New Testament when the judgment finally comes 00:24:09.200 |
it is the end. There is no hope after the white throne judgment. 00:24:13.440 |
There is no warning. There is there is no second chance. 00:24:17.920 |
Once the judgment comes from the second covenant 00:24:21.280 |
he says it is the end. There is no other Messiah that's coming. There's no other 00:24:25.920 |
crucifixion that's coming. That's why he says there is no other sacrifice. 00:24:30.800 |
If after hearing all of this and you choose to walk away. 00:24:36.320 |
Why does he say this? And obviously it is offensive to God. 00:24:40.560 |
But secondly ultimately it is to demonstrate his grace. 00:24:45.200 |
And you say well what are you talking about? Like there's nothing that I said 00:24:48.320 |
this morning sounds anywhere remotely close to grace. 00:24:53.040 |
You see God is being gracious when he says all of this because 00:24:56.720 |
his desire for this is for sinners to repent. 00:25:01.280 |
If God was done with us there would be no warning. 00:25:05.280 |
We would be gone. You wouldn't be hearing any preaching. 00:25:09.120 |
There is no warning in scripture. All this drama in the book of Revelation 00:25:13.840 |
is a warning for us to take heed. So it is his grace that causes us 00:25:21.520 |
to listen to this and be warned and to take seriously. 00:25:25.520 |
Not only for Christians to understand the urgency of this message 00:25:30.240 |
but for us to share it with urgency. God uses warning to wake up the church 00:25:37.200 |
so that we would be gracious as he is gracious. 00:25:40.560 |
So if you really see that from this perspective one of the most gracious 00:25:44.720 |
things that he can do to a straying unbeliever is to warn him 00:25:50.320 |
about the judgment that is waiting for him if he continues to drift down this 00:25:53.840 |
path. Second Peter 3.9 he says the Lord is not 00:25:57.040 |
slow about his promise as some count slowness 00:25:59.760 |
but is patient toward you not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to 00:26:04.960 |
repentance. He said the reason why he didn't come 00:26:08.160 |
2,000 years ago is because God is being patient with 00:26:14.800 |
passage, the reason why Revelation is in the New Testament is because God 00:26:20.240 |
doesn't want sinners to perish. He wants them to come to Christ. 00:26:27.200 |
The real judgment is going to come and when it comes 00:26:31.920 |
there is no second chance. You will not be able to cry out to God and say God 00:26:36.560 |
I'm sorry that I didn't pay attention. You're not going to be able to stand 00:26:40.560 |
under the judgment seat on the white throne and say 00:26:43.120 |
if you would just give me one more year or one more day. 00:26:46.960 |
You see white throne judgment when it comes it is the end it is finished. 00:26:51.360 |
So therefore he says if you are drifting and you are willfully living against the 00:26:56.000 |
will of God understand the real judgment is coming. 00:27:10.640 |
It is if we're not careful we can hear sermons like this or we can 00:27:16.560 |
look at passages like this and our first response is I don't want 00:27:21.440 |
this I don't know another fire and brimstone sermon. 00:27:24.400 |
Even if it is based on scripture I don't want to hear it. 00:27:28.000 |
There's things that I want to know things that I don't want to know and 00:27:31.200 |
this is one of those things that I don't think fits my life. 00:27:38.320 |
with words it means nothing right. I can say I'm six feet tall 00:27:43.520 |
no one's going to be convinced right because that's not the reality. 00:27:47.760 |
You can say that you're a believer in Christ and Christ is your Lord but if 00:27:52.880 |
those are just empty words. But if we're not careful 00:27:57.840 |
one of the wrong ways to respond to this is simply reject it because it doesn't 00:28:02.000 |
fit my reality it doesn't fit the kind of Christian life that I want. That's 00:28:05.520 |
that's one of the wrong ways. But another wrong way to accept this is 00:28:08.880 |
to say yes we need more of this. In fact I why don't you preach this 00:28:14.560 |
every week. In fact that's going to be the central 00:28:17.600 |
message that I'm going to be preaching to everybody that I hear 00:28:20.480 |
that I know right. Judgment, harshness, you know warning and if we're not 00:28:27.920 |
careful we can be more concerned about judgment 00:28:33.200 |
than they are concerned about bringing them to salvation. The reason why he puts 00:28:36.800 |
this in here is is not simply to say hey you're going to be judged and then 00:28:40.160 |
just walk away. It is a gracious God warning sinners to return. 00:28:45.440 |
It is for the purpose of restoration. You see the danger of misapplying the 00:28:52.400 |
judgment of God is that we can take people who are in dire 00:28:58.160 |
need of encouragement. It could be an individual who's been 00:29:01.440 |
trying so hard and is constantly falling short like 00:29:04.080 |
as an example if you have a child who's you know waking up early and trying to 00:29:07.920 |
trying to take the test and memorizing did everything that he or she could 00:29:11.040 |
possibly do but they just couldn't get the grade. 00:29:14.240 |
And they got a C and he said well you didn't get an A? 00:29:19.120 |
How dare you get out of my house. See we if we're not careful we can 00:29:24.720 |
misapply this to people who are in dire need of encouragement 00:29:30.000 |
and they they need to be reminded that we're not it's not by works it's by the 00:29:33.920 |
grace of God and that's why we're able to persevere. 00:29:37.520 |
So we can apply it in the wrong manner just bringing condemnation 00:29:41.200 |
to the wrong people but then the other end of application that we can get wrong 00:29:46.400 |
is say well if they say they're Christian let's be gracious and just 00:29:49.280 |
accept what they say and the consequence of that is we're 00:29:54.480 |
we're giving assurance to people so that we don't rock the boat so that 00:29:58.480 |
they they're not angry with us while all the while 00:30:03.520 |
that they may meet a holy God who's going to judge them for eternity 00:30:08.720 |
and giving people assurance that everything is okay 00:30:14.000 |
while they are day every day drawing closer to eternal 00:30:18.720 |
condemnation. So the consequence of both is severe so we need to be 00:30:25.040 |
careful that the way that we apply this that we 00:30:28.720 |
apply it accurately first and foremost we need to make sure that whenever we 00:30:36.800 |
not at either extreme right we don't simply reject it because it 00:30:40.560 |
doesn't fit fit what we want nor do we just think like okay now 00:30:44.320 |
everybody needs to be condemned nobody is a Christian 00:30:46.720 |
and so therefore you know the condemnation is upon everybody except 00:30:50.080 |
for maybe one or two people. Principles of how we ought to be 00:30:54.880 |
applying this one don't use your moral compass as a guide 00:30:58.240 |
to determine what is right and wrong right how it sits well sits with you 00:31:03.360 |
or doesn't sit well with you should not be the standard of what you 00:31:06.800 |
accept and don't accept. If it doesn't fit well with you why why 00:31:11.520 |
doesn't it fit well with you is it because of something that you know of 00:31:14.480 |
scripture is it contradicting certain doctrines 00:31:18.160 |
of the bible or just simply just the worldview or the 00:31:21.120 |
God that you desire isn't this God. Be careful not to use your own 00:31:26.720 |
moral compass as a guide to determine what is right and wrong look at this 00:31:36.800 |
you know we have the world pounding for justice but what justice what is just 00:31:40.560 |
what is just for one person is unjust for another person 00:31:45.200 |
we have to make sure that we do not conform to this world but be transformed 00:31:48.560 |
by the renewing of our mind that the word of God 00:31:51.200 |
is going to dictate what is right and wrong and if I if 00:31:54.480 |
something that I sense that I hear the word of God and it doesn't 00:31:58.240 |
sit well with me the problem is with me not the word of God 00:32:03.120 |
so do not use our moral compass as a guide to determine what is right and 00:32:07.040 |
wrong secondly whenever these things are taught and 00:32:10.640 |
we we learn do not turn this around immediately to 00:32:14.000 |
other people say yes you know like my my brother 00:32:18.400 |
needs to hear this so I have a friend my co-worker that church 00:32:21.760 |
that pastor they need to hear this they need to preach this 00:32:24.880 |
first and foremost we we need to take every part of the word of God and 00:32:29.440 |
examine ourselves the word of God is given to us to judge 00:32:34.560 |
the thoughts and intentions of our own heart just like the second 00:32:38.160 |
corinthians 13 5 test yourselves to see if you are of the faith examine 00:32:42.240 |
yourselves so first and foremost when we hear these things is our life 00:32:50.880 |
is there evidence of self-righteousness versus righteousness 00:32:56.400 |
if we're not careful we can take the word of God and easily 00:32:59.600 |
feed our self-righteousness it becomes not a lamp as a guide for our feet it 00:33:05.280 |
becomes a flashlight to point out other people's darkness so first don't 00:33:10.560 |
use your own moral compass as what is right and wrong secondly make sure 00:33:14.320 |
that we examine ourselves first what is our motive 00:33:18.160 |
if we're going to teach this if we're going to share this is our motive just 00:33:21.680 |
to tell them they're wrong or is it to bring them to Christ 00:33:26.560 |
how we preach about the judgment of God to the people that we love and care 00:33:34.160 |
about is night and day our tone you may be saying the same thing 00:33:39.520 |
but our tone and our motive is to bring them condemnation versus 00:33:48.000 |
that all that the scripture says about the condemnation it is a holy God being 00:33:52.320 |
gracious to sinners warning them to return check our motives 00:33:57.760 |
and make sure that we watch our lives and our doctrines carefully 00:34:02.160 |
that we take it seriously that that when we see these things 00:34:05.760 |
that we have a sense of urgency there should be a heaviness when we think 00:34:11.760 |
about the judgment of God you know I think again the part of the 00:34:16.000 |
reason why there isn't a sense of seriousness in 00:34:20.000 |
the church in our generation is because of the lack of understanding 00:34:24.000 |
of the judgment of God it's not because we are not passionate 00:34:28.560 |
people think about what's going on outside the 00:34:31.680 |
world today we have people who are so impassioned because there is a 00:34:37.120 |
perception that there is injustice to a group of 00:34:43.760 |
what I'm talking about they are willing to march they are 00:34:47.600 |
willing to go to jail they are willing to commit violence 00:34:55.360 |
because they have compassion because they feel sorry for people 00:35:00.400 |
because they're not getting the job that they need because it's they're 00:35:04.800 |
being treated unfairly now I can understand that from the secular world 00:35:09.520 |
because this is all they have but I do not understand this from the 00:35:14.560 |
Christian world where we are so lackadaisical about 00:35:18.880 |
people who are suffering and dying going to hell 00:35:21.840 |
and we proclaim this gospel we sing about this gospel 00:35:25.600 |
and yet when was the last time the church cried out 00:35:30.560 |
for people who are going to hell people are willing to march 00:35:35.520 |
and give up their comfort so that they can have an 00:35:38.640 |
equal footing to get jobs to buy houses when was the last time the 00:35:45.920 |
church got on their knees crying out for people who will be in 00:35:49.600 |
hell for eternity if they do not turn from their sins 00:35:55.040 |
how can a church be so lackadaisical about the judgment that is coming upon 00:36:01.440 |
mankind and be so impassioned about a temporary 00:36:06.640 |
injustice no one is saying don't get me wrong 00:36:11.360 |
I'm not saying that it's not Christian's responsibility to speak up for injustice 00:36:15.680 |
to fight for those who don't have voices but when our priorities are mixed up 00:36:20.880 |
when we don't understand the heaviness what the gospel preaches 00:36:25.920 |
where we put all our eggs in this basket and yet 00:36:29.120 |
we don't think twice about the songs that we sing 00:36:35.120 |
about the gospel that we proclaim to know and to love 00:36:40.080 |
knowing that we have a generation of souls who've never heard the gospel 00:36:44.480 |
we are surrounded by people who don't understand the gospel 00:36:48.080 |
we have a churches filled with people who have been attending all their lives 00:36:52.160 |
cannot articulate how they get saved yet we don't grieve for that we don't 00:36:58.240 |
march for that we don't cry out for that we preach on it 00:37:02.560 |
we memorize scripture but we're not anywhere near that passion as what we 00:37:08.720 |
are seeing outside I understand the world but the 00:37:18.160 |
we need to make sure that we have our priorities straight that there is a 00:37:23.360 |
sense of urgency and that's why this is here not only to 00:37:27.680 |
warn the non-christians who are in the church who are deceived 00:37:32.000 |
but also to wake up christians so that we recognize the seriousness 00:37:37.360 |
of what it is that you and I profess to believe 00:37:43.920 |
so that we can continue to live our lives the way we desire it is the power 00:37:47.520 |
of God unto salvation to everyone who believes 00:37:49.920 |
and it is the only power of God to salvation to everyone who believes 00:37:55.200 |
thirdly do not judge from a distance whenever we we apply this we can easily 00:38:01.120 |
look at people as well they're not doing this they're not doing this and 00:38:04.000 |
a good christian should be doing this and not be doing that 00:38:07.920 |
you can't ever know what's going on with individuals from a distance 00:38:12.480 |
people have struggles and that person may need our encouragement and we apply 00:38:18.720 |
condemnation and we've we've done disservice we've 00:38:23.520 |
crushed somebody who needs grace and then you have people who are outright 00:38:28.400 |
living in sin and rebelling against God and have no 00:38:32.240 |
evidence of the holy spirit in him and we constantly tell them say hey don't 00:38:35.360 |
ever question don't ever question don't ever examine 00:38:38.880 |
and we're giving them assurance as they are drifting to hell 00:38:42.800 |
we cannot judge from a distance we need to be careful we need to examine 00:38:46.880 |
and then fourth and finally always give the full counsel of God and not just 00:38:51.440 |
what seems palatable always give the full counsel of God the 00:38:55.840 |
bible says that we cannot bear fruit unless we abide in Christ you cannot 00:39:00.080 |
abide in Christ if you hold on to certain things and 00:39:02.640 |
reject other things either you embrace the whole counsel of 00:39:06.080 |
God or you embrace you reject all of it you cannot pick and 00:39:10.080 |
choose what you want we must teach the full counsel of God 00:39:16.400 |
God is giving this warning because he is generous in his grace 00:39:22.320 |
he's not simply slapping us he's just he's causing the church 00:39:25.920 |
to repent and come to him again as I said there is no warning after the 00:39:30.400 |
white throne judgment it is the end do not neglect to warn 00:39:36.880 |
because if sinners do not come to Christ because of his tremendous grace 00:39:42.160 |
they need to at least come to Christ because of fear and trembling 00:39:46.480 |
however they come to Christ they must come to Christ 00:39:53.680 |
so this text is here not simply put a damper on our day 00:39:58.480 |
not simply so that we can go off and feel guilty it's like oh my gosh what 00:40:01.840 |
am I doing with my life but understand this as God's grace 00:40:07.520 |
it is his grace that causes sinners to wake up it is his grace to bring 00:40:12.160 |
revival into the church so that we can be what God has called 00:40:15.840 |
us to be to be a light in this dark world it is 00:40:19.920 |
not enough that you and I just make it to the end 00:40:23.840 |
it is not enough for you to for you and I to just live our life comfortably 00:40:28.400 |
and then get to the end part of our life and say whew I made it now I get to go to 00:40:35.760 |
why the day that we were justified that we didn't die and go to heaven for 00:40:39.040 |
eternity why cause us to suffer here why cause us 00:40:42.880 |
to be here you know I I've been I've been saved over 00:40:46.720 |
35 years the 35 years I could have been in heaven why 00:40:50.400 |
did he leave me here why did he leave you here because he 00:40:58.880 |
he doesn't want us to come by ourselves because there are people in your lives 00:41:04.400 |
that you are the best person to share the gospel with them 00:41:08.320 |
you are the best person and you are the nearest person 00:41:11.840 |
to warn them about the judgment that is coming 00:41:15.760 |
to tell them about the hope that we have in Christ 00:41:19.680 |
that's why we are here so if our lives in anything that we are doing does not 00:41:25.040 |
align with that commission that God has given 00:41:27.920 |
the church this text is here to get us recalibrated 00:41:34.480 |
does our life fit in is it consistent with the gospel that we 00:41:40.560 |
profess so again my prayer is is the same thing 00:41:45.280 |
every single week that as we hear this and apply this that 00:41:49.040 |
we would live up to the gospel that we profess let's pray 00:41:54.720 |
heavenly father we thank you for your constant grace and love 00:42:03.440 |
you know lord god that we are weak sinners who are absolutely dependent on 00:42:11.520 |
lord help us lord god to see the reality of the spiritual battle that's going on 00:42:16.320 |
that we would not chase after things that the world is chasing after 00:42:20.320 |
knowing father god that at the end that there is judgment i pray that within 00:42:27.040 |
our church that if anyone who's willfully sinning 00:42:31.520 |
and has rejected you by their life bring them to repentance 00:42:36.720 |
cause them to see lord god if there's any bit 00:42:40.160 |
or even a tiny bit of faith in them bring them to repentance 00:42:45.360 |
i pray father god for for us who are striving 00:42:50.080 |
and day to day even struggling help us lord god to cling on to the grace 00:42:55.840 |
that we would not drift away from christ that we would not go from day to day 00:43:00.400 |
just nonchalantly being fully satisfied that we're okay 00:43:05.360 |
help us to recognize the temporary world that we're in that is under condemnation 00:43:10.560 |
that we would be sober bring revival lord god to our church 00:43:15.120 |
that we would be a church that is a light in this dark world 00:43:18.880 |
so i pray father god that you would help us and guide us and renew us