Heaven, Hell and Everything In Between (part 12)

Father, what a blessing it is to be gathered amongst your people to see the baptismal font open to just eagerly anticipate all that you're going to do today.

Father, I pray that you would bless our time this morning, that we might have a better love for you, a better love for all that you have accomplished for us through your son,

Jesus Christ. Lord, would your spirit attend our time this morning? In Christ's name we pray, amen.

Well, I have a question for you. What percentage of people do you think might go to hell?

99, I hear. 99 % of people are going to hell, Steve.

97 .5%. Would it surprise you if I told you that when surveys are done...

Well, guess what percentage of people think they're going to hell? Zero is one answer.

What percentage? I'll tell you this, it's higher than zero. 2 .5

% getting warm. Surveys, generally speaking, and this has been consistent over several decades, anywhere from 4 % to 6 % of people think they're going to hell.

Now, it's interesting. Guess how many people think they're going to heaven? 65 % to 75%.

And the rest are independent, I'll call them. You know, I'm going to hell,

I'm going to heaven, I'm independent. But I just, I thought that was interesting.

I was reading Blanchard's book about hell and he said that during World War I, the

British soldiers had a song that they would sing while they were marching around killing people. And basically, it said, it paraphrased part of 1

Corinthians 15, talking about death, where is thy victory? How's that go?

Yeah, grave, where is thy sting? And they had this little ting -a -ling -a -ling thing at the end,

I guess, so it rhymed better or filled out the verse better. But then they said, hell for thee and not for me.

You know, there's always this kind of thought process that it's really bad people who go to hell.

In fact, another survey asked people what sort of people go to hell. Unsurprisingly, murderers led the list, you know, 20%.

I was a little disappointed that child abusers only got 5 % of the vote. But, you know, they're all different.

Some people actually got it right. I think it was a little bit less than 20 % said people who sin go to hell.

And then, you know, the next question after that is, you know, are you a sinner? That should be the next question, but it's usually not.

But there's a real distorted view over heaven, hell, who's going to go there and who's not.

I mean, one thing, you know, they do it the way of the master. Other ministries is they give what's called the good person test.

Why do you suppose they do that? What's the value of a good person test? Anybody know what that is?

Yeah, right. Have you ever lied?

So you ask somebody, are you a good person? They say yes. And then it's have you ever lied? Have you ever stolen anything? Have you?

And you just kind of go through the Ten Commandments. And the answer is everybody's broken the Ten Commandments. And most people will eventually understand that.

But they'll still say what? I'm a good person. Here's God's law.

I violate it. Everybody violates it. But I'm a good person. Why? Because they think they're better than most.

I'd like to invite you to just open up your Bible to Luke chapter 12. I'm going to look at...

Now we've gone through... Well, actually,

I'm thinking of something else. But look at verse 32 in Luke chapter 12.

And I mean, we could kind of see a paraphrase in a lot of ways of some portions of the

Sermon on the Mount here. Luke chapter 12. Tell me if this doesn't sound like maybe

Matthew chapter 6. In verse 22 of Luke 12,

Jesus says, And he said to his disciples, For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life as to what you will eat, nor for your body as to what you will put on.

For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap.

They have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds?

And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life span? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters?

Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin, but I tell you, not even

Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown in the furnace, how much more will he clothe you, you men of little faith?

And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink.

And do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek, but your father knows that you need these things.

But seek his kingdom and these things will be added to you. Verse 32,

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.

Do not be afraid. Now, there's a little nuance there. Little flock, for God has chosen to give you.

You know, we never see Jesus saying, well, let me change that.

We often see a restrictive kind of view of who is going to go to heaven.

Let's look at Matthew chapter 7. We just talked about the Sermon on the Mount, so let's go there for a moment. And looking at, well,

I just can't pass this up. Let's go to verse 13.

Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction.

And there are many who enter through it, for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life.

And there are few who find it. Somewhat restricting view of who will get to heaven.

And we continue, verse 15. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits, that is to say what they produce. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

What does that mean? Why does he say that? No good fruit from a bad tree, no bad fruit from a good tree.

In other words, he's saying, look, he's comparing these false prophets, these false teachers to trees.

And he says, you would not expect a bad teacher to produce good fruit, nor would you expect a good teacher to produce bad fruit.

And he goes on to say, so every tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

And he goes on and et cetera in verse 20. So then you will know them by their fruits. You'll be able to tell by what their ministries produce, whether they're a good teacher or not.

Verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

But he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, here's the many.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name meet at the fleet center on Friday nights and heal many and in your name perform many miracles.

Verse 23. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

So it's not a matter of those who say or think they're going to heaven, but it's going to be that there's a restricting to who gets in.

It's a narrow gate. And so this idea, you know, heaven for or hell for thee and not for me, really just kind of an absurd premise.

And based on the idea that somehow some group of people or some activity makes you better than others.

I know when, you know, obviously I spent 21 years as a police officer. I used to get stuff, you know, you send out these generic emails.

I used to get stuff from guys that were Christians who would say, you know, blessed are the peacemakers. And who's a better peacemaker than a cop, right?

And, you know, therefore, peacemakers are going to go to heaven because they're blessed.

All kinds of wrong ideas about heaven and hell. So we've been going through this history really of the decline of the importance of the doctrine of hell.

And again, I just want to stress that not every gospel message has to talk about hell.

But if you don't talk about the wrath of God, if you don't talk about the justice of God, if you don't talk about the exacting nature of what it takes to get to heaven, it's pretty tough to talk about hell.

Let me ask you this question. Are you more thankful that God has promised you heaven or that he's rescued you from hell?

Are you more thankful that God has promised you heaven or that he's rescued you from hell? Peggy says that she's been rescued from hell because then she'd be eternally separated from the

Father. Other thoughts? You can't have one without the other.

They go together. So I would say the answer is yes. You know, which are you more thankful for?

Yes. But it's an amazing thought. I mean, it would be enough, wouldn't it? To just know that you've been rescued from hell.

To know that you're not going to suffer God's wrath forever. But that's not where it stops.

Heaven forever and ever and ever. So we're on page 45 of our plunge into the pits.

And actually, I think we're on 46. But I want to just... I wrote a note on 45 because I decided to...

Charlie said something last week and I had to write it down because frankly,

I had to spend a week looking it up. He was talking about secular humanistic presupposition.

Who wants to explain that? Charlie's not here. He doesn't want to explain it.

See how that is. Secular humanistic presupposition.

Well, what's secular humanism? Man is the measure of all things.

Kind of the product of the enlightenment where we suddenly... I like that period. You know, the whole title for it.

Enlightenment. Like suddenly man realized he really didn't need God all that much. That was enlightenment.

Man is the center of all things. So secular humanistic presupposition means you look at the worldview or look at the world through a very humanistic, very man -centered perspective.

And in that sense, the idea of hell, eternal punishment is very what?

It's offensive. It is offensive. So we talked about John Stott and his kind of annihilationism.

We talked about really a shocking quote on page 45 from the Church of England. The mystery of salvation came out in 1995.

The mystery of salvation, it's a big mystery. Unless you open up the Bible and actually read it. But listen to this again.

It is incompatible with the essential Christian affirmation that God is love to say that God brings millions into the world to damn them.

Then they continue, Hell is not eternal torment, but it is the final and irrevocable choosing of that which is opposed to God so completely and so absolutely that the only end is total non -being.

Crazy. Okay. So reaction. Top of page 46.

Reaction. Or as I like to, you know, Mike used to say that all the time. Reaction. And I'd go redaction.

Who knows what redaction is? Redaction just means editing. So anyway, it's a theological numbskull term.

God does know everything. Isn't that true? Let's look at Job 37.

And when somebody has Job 37 verses 14 to 16, please raise your hand and I will call on you.

And at that point, you will be encouraged to read that. Okay, go ahead,

Brian. It's a great verse, but I don't.

Job 37, 14 to 16. Is that what you have? Okay. That should change things.

And what's the answer to those questions? The answer is ultimately, you know, man doesn't know these things, but God knows everything.

It says here that he is perfect. The implication, anyway, is that he is perfect in knowledge.

Is there anything that God doesn't know? And the answer is no. One commentator says it this way. God is the author, architect, and administrator of the cosmos, of all creation.

Perfecting knowledge is an epithet. Elihu, who's the speaker there in Job, applies to himself in 36 .4.

Here and more, here and more properly, it describes God. He doesn't just know everything in the sense of collecting all information like an intergalactic internet.

That's my writing there. I mean, imagine that, you know, this idea, again, that somehow

God is learning things, or just that he's some massive hard drive, you know, in the sense that he knows everything.

It's so important to wrap your arms around this, because the difference is between having a passive God who's just kind of observing things, the

God of Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, this kind of deistic

God who just sort of wound things up and now watches, observes, like it's some kind of a chemistry set or a physics lab where he's just watching and kind of learning and seeing how things go and, you know, making little adjustments maybe on the fly.

But that's not the God of the Bible. He decrees all things. Everything that God has decreed from the beginning of time is coming to pass now.

And you say that's kind of shocking. Well, it shouldn't be shocking if you've been listening. God is sovereign, 100 % sovereign.

And we have some other verses to establish that. In fact, let's look at one of them,

Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10. And, you know,

I don't know anyone who, when difficulty comes in life, doesn't say, you know, why is this happening?

But on the other hand, I don't know anyone who is consoled even remotely by the idea that there's some

God out there who's just gathering information. You want to be able to pray to a sovereign God, a

God who is able to control things. Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10.

Who has that? Go ahead, Eric. You know, if this was contract, if this was a contract, you know, you just kind of look for a loophole there.

My purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. Sounds pretty much like all of it.

Declaring the end from the beginning. In other words, from the beginning of time to the end, he has declared everything that's going to come to pass.

Even things that seemed unlikely. In fact, I bet if you went to the Hittites, Jebusites, what are some other ites?

See, I want to, if you went to the termites and you said to them way back when, you said, you know what?

All of your civilization is going to disappear. But one day the

Jews who will have been carried out of Israel will be carried back in.

I don't think they would have believed you. And yet, you know, it was in the second century

A .D. that the Romans finally had had enough of the Jews. And I'm not just making this up.

They got tired of the rebellions and they went in there and they just dragged them all out. Talk about a dispersion. They took everyone out of the land.

And, you know, from that point forward, you would think the odds of there being a nation called Israel again, of it being a sovereign

Jewish country, that could never come to pass. And yet it has. Okay, we talked about men being without excuse,

Romans 1, 18 to 20. This is such a common fallacy.

And we talked about it a little bit last week. This is a diversion. Unbelievers throw this up, you know, God isn't fair.

What about, you know, the proverbial moron in Pasadena, you know, who never...

Whatever. I mean, people are always looking for an excuse. And really, what is it? If somebody says that there are people out there who don't hear the gospel or people out there who don't have a chance, what are they really doing?

Well, they're deflecting their own depravity. But ultimately, what are they doing? They're kind of lowering their head and saying, it's his fault.

It's God's fault. If there are people in hell, it's God's fault. Great passage to know and to apply often.

Look at creation, tells you that there's a God, you have no excuse. Number three, today is the day of salvation.

Let's read 2 Corinthians 6, verses 2 and 3.

Again, this kind of response to what people say about hell.

And this declining value, really, that the evangelical world has placed on it.

2 Corinthians 6, verses 2 and 3. Who has that? Bruce, I'll get you next time.

Listen to what Kistemacher says. He says, the urgency of repentance is due to the time limit that God has set.

For us, that time limit begins at the time the good news of salvation is heard and ends when we die.

We know the time when we first heard the gospel, but we do not know when we will leave this earthly scene.

God has set the date of our departure. The call to repentance goes forth within the limits

God has set for us. Beyond death, there is no salvation. I was watching a movie last night, which

I can actually recommend. It was never in theaters. It was really good, though.

We liked it. We watched it last night, and it's called No Greater Love. And a friend of ours produced it.

And one of the heroes of the movie, one of the main characters of the movie, basically, is an unbeliever.

And to make a long story short, he's kind of confronted, not with the gospel so much, which was a little bit disappointing, but he's confronted with the changes of people around him.

And he says, I want that. You know, I want that sort of life.

But his initial response is, you know, good for you. I'm glad that works for you. You know, maybe someday

I'll think about that. And a lot of people think like that. The problem is, we don't know. Nobody knows.

And my attitude constantly is, with people who reject the gospel, those in my family, those

I have friends and family members of friends, and, you know, extended people that I know where I'm just going,

OK, I know from a worldly standpoint, we would look at this person. Maybe this person is living with his girlfriend.

This person is a homosexual. This person is in prison. There is no way that that person will ever come to know

Christ. And what's the message? You know, last Sunday night, my message from First Timothy is this.

If you look at Paul said that he was the foremost or the chief of sinners. And really, the way

I put it was he was kind of the poster child. Why? Because he goes, listen, in light of everything that I did, and, you know,

I was a false teacher and a blasphemer. And, you know, I persecuted the church and all these horrible things.

I mean, he literally beat people up. He went out and, you know, participated in murder. I mean, he was as anti -Christian as anyone could be.

And his message there is, if I could be saved, anyone could be saved. There is never a time where you can just say, you know what,

I'm going to stop praying for so and so. Why would you do that? Until they die.

Or until you die. One life, then judgment.

That's what we have. And that's what we preach. You have to go to people and, you know, they might say, well, that's interesting.

I'll hear from you later about that. OK, but now's the time to get saved. One never knows.

I mean, think about your own life. I don't know about you guys, but I haven't always had a dramatic life. But I've had a few times in my own life before I was saved, where, you know, it was the grace of God preserving my life.

I think of one time where I was driving like a dope. And it doesn't really matter why

I was driving like this, but I was angry. And I was on this road. And it was kind of a real small road with a really nice twist in it.

And, you know, I had a real sports car. I did. And I hit a hit.

There's a little turn on the road. And I hit this patch of sand. And, you know, the car started spinning around.

And I thought, well, I'll turn into it. I'll do this. I'll do that. And all of a sudden, you just realize, I mean,

I'm turning the steering wheel. It's doing absolutely nothing. I'm on an e -ticket ride. Never mind.

I'm on a real, you know, fun ride. I might as well just let go. And, you know, but here's the thing.

This road on one side, there was about a 30 -foot drop. OK, and on the other side, it was much better for me because there was a concrete flood control channel.

And it was a two -lane road. My car stayed on that road.

Didn't have to. Could have gone either way. And I don't know. In that car, I don't know how I would have come out.

Probably not too good. God preserves those whom he set his affections on in spite of their stupidity so that he can save them at the appointed time.

You need to just keep praying. One life, then judgment. That's what Hebrews 9 .27

says. It is appointed a man once to die and then judgment.

We're going to talk about judgment in the weeks to come too. But listen what it says, Bible knowledge commentary.

With this observation, eschatological realities come into focus, meaning end time realities come into focus.

We often think of end times just being, you know, the rapture or non -rapture or whatever.

But it really involves judgments. Humans are sinful creatures destined to die once and after that to face judgment.

But this danger is turned aside by the fact that Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people.

The recurrence of once and once for all stresses the finality and singleness of Christ's sacrificial work in contrast with the repeated

Levite ministrations. In other words, the priests had to minister daily. They had to do all these sacrifices, all the time, and Jesus did it once for all.

Now, it's interesting because how many people will there be in heaven? A few or a lot?

A lot. But wait a minute, I thought you just said, you know, all these surveys, all these people think they're, you know, not going to hell and there's going to be...

How can that be? I think unborn babies definitely going to be a large number.

Does that mean we should kill them? No. You know, in this country alone, what is it?

How many tens of millions, 50 million is that? How many people in heaven?

Millions and millions and millions. We don't even know how many millions. Like the sands of the sea.

How many people in hell? Millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions.

There could be a lot of people in hell. I'd like you to turn to 47.

I love this quote from Spurgeon. In fact, I love it so much that I just practically want to do a whole sermon on it.

Just contemplating this truth, talking about hell.

Now, do not begin telling me that that is a metaphorical fire.

Who cares for that? What does metaphorical mean? It just means that Jesus, when he's talking about hell, that he's just kind of making a story.

It's a parable. It's not a real fire. It's just kind of a symbolic fire. Now, listen.

He says, who cares for that? Who cares about the symbolic fire? If a man were to threaten to give me a metaphorical blow on the head,

I should care very little about it. He would be welcome to give me as many as he pleased. And what say the wicked?

We do not care about metaphorical fires. But they are real, sir.

As real as yourself. There is a real fire in hell. As truly as you now have a real body.

A fire exactly like that which we have on earth in everything except this.

That it will not consume, though it will torture you. You have seen the asbestos lying in the fire red hot.

But when you take it out, it is an unconsumed. So your body will be prepared by God in such a way that it will burn forever without being consumed.

It will lie not as you consider in metaphorical fire, but an actual flame.

Did our Savior mean fictions when he said he would cast body and soul into hell?

What should there be a pit for if there are no bodies? In other words, why would hell exist if nobody was going there?

Why fire? Why chains if there be no body? No bodies. Can fire touch the soul?

Can pits shut in spirits? Can chains fetter souls?

Can you bind souls with chains? No. Pits and fire and chains are for bodies.

And bodies shall be there. You will sleep in the dust a little while and then.

Hell, that's

Spurgeon. That's 120 years ago. Listen to this interview here with between,

I almost said Don King. Only in America.

Don King. No, Larry King. Larry King live. And John, not

Claude Osteen. Who knows who Claude Osteen is? A great pitcher for the Dodgers way back in the day.

Okay. Larry King. But you're not fire and brimstone, right?

You're not pound the decks and hell and damnation. Osteen.

No, that's not me. It's never been me. I should be smiling while I do that. Your best smile now.

I've always been an encourager at heart. And when I took over from my father, well, he came from the

Southern Baptist background. I'm back 40, 50 years ago. There was a belief should be belief. Or there was a lot.

Oh, there was a lot more of that. But you know, I just don't believe in that. I don't believe.

Maybe it was for a time. But I don't have it in my heart to condemn people. I'm there to encourage them.

I see myself as more of a coach. As a motivator to help them experience the life

God has for us. Larry King, but don't you think if people don't believe as you believe, they're somehow condemned?

In other words, if they're not Christians, if they don't believe in Christ, as one would presume Osteen does, aren't they condemned?

Osteen. You know, I think that happens in our society. This condemnation kind of thing is what he's talking about.

But I try not to do that. I don't want to condemn anybody. I tell people all the time. Preached a couple

Sundays about it. I'm for everybody. You may not agree with me. But to me, it's not my job to try to straighten everybody out.

The gospel is called the good news. My message is a message of hope. That God's for you.

You can live a good life no matter what's happened to you. And so I don't know. I know there's condemnation.

But I don't feel that's my place. Larry King, you've been criticized for that, haven't you?

Oh, I have. I have. Because I don't know. Good news guy, right?

Osteen, yeah. But you know what? It's just in me. I search my heart and I think,

God, is this what I'm supposed to do? I made a decision when my father died. You know what? I'm going to be who

I feel like I'm supposed to be. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Not the end of the world if I'm not the pastor.

Well, that's pretty much what Paul said, right? To the Ephesian elders when he said, I did not shrink from declaring the entire counsel of God to you.

Day and night, I labored with tears. Same kind of thing, right? This is from the

Saddleback Community Church, What We Believe page. Saddleback Church being where Rick Warren is the pastor.

Just took this about a week ago. Man was created to exist forever. True. He will either exist eternally separated from God by sin or in union with God through forgiveness and salvation.

True as far as it goes. To be eternally separated from God is hell. To be eternally in union with him is eternal life.

Heaven and hell are places of eternal existence. Okay. Number two.

Salvation is a gift from God to man. Salvation is a gift from God to man.

Man can never make up for his sin by self -improvement or good works. Only by trusting Jesus Christ as God's offer of forgiveness can man be saved from sin's penalty.

This is kind of an interesting one here. Eternal life begins the moment one receives Jesus Christ into his life by faith.

What do you make of that? Okay. God told us before the foundation of the world that he had chosen some for salvation.

True. Receive sounds like something a man does instead of God.

I think that's true. Yep. In John 1, 12.

But if we read verse 13, it's not according to the man who will. You know, it's not according to our will or whatever.

But yeah, that's all true. But I think just in terms of hell, what kind of a view does this give us of hell?

Yeah. I agree with Pam right there. She says kind of like it's just not heaven. Like there are two places you can go.

Heaven, which is really good. And hell, which is not really good. I don't think it's wrong.

I don't think there's anything really horrible here. I just don't think it really kind of explicitly tells us the gospel.

In fact, you can read their whole page. I just took an excerpt there. You can read the whole page. And I'm going, it really does what was sin kind of minimizes it.

Doesn't talk about the affront it is to God. Doesn't talk about how it affects all of our capacity to do anything.

And this idea of, you know, being eternally separated from God and hell. Well, I think there are a lot of people who would think that doesn't sound so bad to me.

How about to be eternally tormented by an all powerful God forever? That would be a little bit different.

And it's true enough what they say here. Man can never make up for a sin by self -improvement or good works. That's all true.

Only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God's offer of forgiveness. But what does that mean? What does it mean to trust in Jesus Christ?

And then I find this a little bit troubling too. Eternal life begins the moment one received Jesus. Eternal life begins.

I don't know. Does it? That we have received eternal life. Does that mean we're in eternal life right now?

I like to think of eternal life basically as heaven. I don't know. That's just me. I don't think I'm in heaven. Let's look at what the

Seventh -day Adventists say here. And again, this is from their website. Death and resurrection.

The wages of sin is death. True. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to his redeemed.

Until that day, death is an unconscious state for all people. Soul sleep.

When Christ, who is our life, appears, the resurrected righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their

Lord. The second resurrection, the resurrection of the unrighteous, will take place a thousand years later.

They give all the scriptures there. Millennium and the end of sin. The millennium is the thousand -year reign of Christ with his saints in heaven.

Between the first and second resurrections during this time, the wicked dead will be judged. The earth will be utterly desolate without living human inhabitants, but occupied by Satan and his angels.

Wait, what? During this time, the wicked dead will be judged. What time is this? Oh, between the first and second resurrections, the millennium is the thousand -year reign of Christ with his saints in heaven.

I don't know. That doesn't sound like Isaiah 2. There are a bunch of scriptures that doesn't sound like to me. But listen, during this time, the wicked dead will be judged.

The earth will be utterly desolate for a thousand years, but occupied by Satan and his angels for a thousand years.

At its close, Christ with his saints in the holy city will descend from heaven to earth.

The unrighteous dead will be resurrected, and with Satan and his angels will surround the city. But fire from God will consume them and cleanse the earth, etc.,

etc., etc. It's very interesting. And we have some other views of hell coming up.

But I think primarily what I wanted to just stress, we've seen from the early church how they held to an eternal place of punishment and how it kind of descended from the time of the

Enlightenment, really, this idea of an anthropocentric, whatever, man -centered worldview,

Enlightenment. Step by step by step, even most of the church has decided that hell is just too bad of a place for people to go.

They shouldn't have to go there. And God wouldn't be love. He wouldn't be fair. He wouldn't be right. He wouldn't be just if he actually sent people to go there.

But the Bible doesn't allow us to change our minds based on what we like, what we don't like, what we think

God should be like, and what we don't think God should be like. We have to declare the truth to people.

It is not a bad thing. It is a good thing to warn people about the judgment to come.

It's a good thing to warn them about eternity in hell. And it is a great thing to tell them how they can be rescued from that, and not just rescued out of that.

I mean, it would be, and you could use the orphanage analogy, because it really stands up in light of Scripture when it talks about our adoption.

It isn't like, you know, God somehow went into the orphanage, picked out some really swell kids and adopted them into his family.

He went into the orphanage that was run by Satan, took those kids out, took the worst of the worst, and he adopted those into his family.

And instead of poverty, we now have riches. Let's go ahead and pray.

Father, we know that there are many of our friends and family who seem, humanly speaking, inexorably marching, as it were, toward hell.

Lord, we take no delight in that. Father, I pray that you would make us just infinitely more aware of the peril that these people face each and every day, knowing that they are truly sinners in the hands of an angry

God. And at any moment, you could allow them to slip into eternity in hell.

In light of this, how much more ought we preach the good news of Jesus Christ?

How much more ought we stress a life surrendered to you, a life devoted to you, a turning from reliance upon goodness, at least self -goodness, repentance, and utter dependence upon the

Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work? Father, would you give us an ever -increasing desire to preach the good news, to tell people how they might be rescued from the pits, and how they might be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light by the power of your

Son, by his work, and by your Spirit. In Christ's name we pray, amen.