Luke 6:24-26: How to go to Hell

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Well, it is very bad preacher form to get up and say you're sick, because that just means if the sermon bombs, there's a reason for it.

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But I want you to know the opposite is true today, because I went to bed last night at 8 .30, feeling great.

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Even though the leukemia drugs kind of wear me out these days, I'm feeling really good and refreshed in the

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Lord. And I was reading this morning a quote from John Stott, a preacher, and he said,

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When I enter the pulpit with my Bible in my hands and in my heart, my blood begins to flow and my eyes begin to sparkle for the sheer glory of having

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God's word to expound. That's exactly how I feel this morning.

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Start off with a question. Here's the question. When you go to visit someone who's dying, what do you say to them?

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Somebody's on their deathbed. Do you pray for them? Of course. Do you read scripture to them?

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But what do you say to them initially? And if you're like me, the first question I ask is,

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I say, Are you afraid to die? Are you afraid to die?

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And I say it both to believers and unbelievers. People are afraid to die.

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But what's behind that? Because most people, if their consciences are not seared, would think that after death comes what?

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Judgment. That there's something after death. It's one thing to agonize in death and be having pain and death.

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But then what happens after? People are afraid to die because they realize there's something after.

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As a matter of fact, our society, we can't even really say the word dead and death.

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We have all kinds of things from pushing up the daisies to kick the bucket, to giving up the ghost, to death is not a spectator sport.

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All these things we talk about because we're afraid. Because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living

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God. That's why I think people are afraid of death. And in generation before us, it was an all out assault to smear the name of hell.

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To somehow say hell couldn't be true. Hell was called by Newsweek magazine the

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H word. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said hell is an odious conception, blasphemous in its view of the creator.

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I mean, after all, talk of hell is rude. It's crude. It shouldn't be for today, say some.

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Christopher Hitchens said nothing proves the man -made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell.

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But in these days, I would say to you that instead of trying to smear hell, it's as one man said, hell has just disappeared.

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Talk of it is just gone. We might use it as a curse word, but people just don't talk about it heartily at all.

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One man said hell disappeared and no one noticed. But since the

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Lord Jesus taught that hell was true, Paul taught that it was true, John taught it was true, the triune

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God taught it was true. It's important for us to know. What is hell and how do

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I escape it? So if you take your Bibles and turn to Luke chapter six, we're going to talk about that today.

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And I would J .C. Ryle say to you, call it bad taste if you like to speak of hell.

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My notion of taste is to declare all the counsel of God. If I never spoke of hell,

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I should think I had kept back something that was profitable and should look on myself as an accomplice of the devil.

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And of course, their congregation, you know that all scripture is God breathed and is what profitable.

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And that means true or false. The doctrine of hell is profitable for you to know about.

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And of course, the answer has to be yes. We're in Luke six versus twenty four through twenty six.

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And I wanted the sermon title and I usually don't announce sermon titles. I mean, they're just basically the secretary wants a title.

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So I give her one. But I want it to be stark, startling and jolting.

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And of course, it's in your bulletin. How to go to hell. How to go to hell. Now, the answer might be do nothing.

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And that would get you there. But how to go to hell as we're going verse by verse to the scriptures and we come to these four woes from Jesus, four stark statements that are jolting by the

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Lord, in fact, and startling by the Lord. If you're an unbeliever today,

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I'm glad you're here because this message is for you, because unless you believe in the Lord Jesus, you're going to go to hell when you die, sadly.

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And if you're a Christian, I want you to think this way. I want you to think, praise God, I'm not going.

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I'm not going. No matter what else is going on in your life, whether you've got bills that are unpaid or health issues or relationship issues, at the top of the list, your biggest need has been taken care of, your sin has been paid and you get to go to heaven on the back of another by grace and grace alone.

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Today's a pretty good day. But I also want you to have, and I found this interesting that Steve said it because it's in my notes and it's the spirit of God's orchestration.

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I want you to have a real sense of pity today for those that are going to go to hell.

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Those that are rejecting the Lord Jesus, maybe they'll believe one day, but right now, could there be a more pitiful situation or circumstance to find yourself in as going to go to hell when you die?

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So I want you as a Christian to be super thankful and praising God, but I also want you to have pity for.

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I don't want you to think you're better. We're not better. We're just as sinful as they are, maybe more, but we've been saved. And along with that pity,

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I want something to be done regarding that. And that is for you to tell them about the good news, to tell them the good news that Jesus Christ saved sinners, that they don't have to clean up their lives in order to come to Christ.

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If you're not a Christian here today, it's not that you have to stop sinning in order to come to Christ. You can't do that.

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Jesus came to save sinners as sinners. And so when I think about the doctrine of hell,

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I think to myself, I'm very thankful I'm not going there. I also feel sorry for those that are, and then

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I want to evangelize. And so today, the four woes from the

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Lord Jesus himself, and if you think about his name Jesus, you ought to think about Savior.

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If you think about the name Savior, that means he's saving us from someone, and that is the

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Father's wrath. Now last week, we saw the four blessings, and I want to go over those blessings one more time in review, because it helps us to understand the woes.

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Four blessings, four woes, and the woes are opposite of the blessings. So if you understand how great the blessings are, you can realize how bad the woes are.

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In other words, if you want to be technical about it, this is antithetical parallelism. Parallel thoughts that are the opposite.

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So when you know how great the blessings are in Christ Jesus, the riches of his glory in the saints, then you realize how awful the woes of the damned will be.

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So let's go over first the four blessings, and we'll then get in to the four woes.

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As you know, Jesus is giving, as it were, an ordination sermon to his disciples.

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There were lots of disciples. He calls 12 from those disciples, and then we know when we put

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Matthew 10 and Mark 3 together with here Luke 6, here's the message to the disciples before they go out and get their nose bloodied for Jesus.

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That they're approved by God, and that's what blessing means. It doesn't mean happy. It doesn't mean circumstantial.

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It doesn't mean feeling. It means you know what God thinks of you in a condescending, gracious way, in a proclamation.

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You're blessed. So no matter what happens to you when you're out there ministering,

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I want you to know up front that you are blessed by God. You want to know what

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God thinks of you men? Here's what he thinks of you. You're blessed. And as he's working through these blessings, remember he's talking about the ultimate consummation, the ultimate end.

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While there's trials on this earth, don't forget about the end. Remember we talked about the paradigm last week, creation, fall, what's the third one?

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Redemption and then consummation. There's an end. And so have an eye toward your citizenship in heaven,

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Paul would say. Of course, that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did. As he's on the way to the cross, what is he thinking about?

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It says in Hebrews 12, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God.

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Jesus gives the first woe, and it's really, be dependent on God. Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

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Of course, Matthew said, blessed are the poor in spirit, and that's really the idea.

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If you want to take stark terms of poor on earthly terms, temporal terms, poor people in the

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Old Testament, poor people today, have nowhere to look, they don't have credit cards or resources or are lawyers, and they say to themselves, the only way

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I'm going to get temporal resources is from God. A poor person in the Bible, dependent on God, and of course, whether it's temporal blessings of food and money, or it's the ultimate blessings found in the righteousness of Christ Jesus, the blessed person realizes it's all been received, it's all gracious, and they're dependent upon the

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Lord. They rely on Him, trusting in Jesus, our great prophet, priest, and king. He goes on to say, what's real blessing look like?

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Here's what it yields itself in, trusting God for all provisions. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

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Related to the first one, but tied in, there's an ultimate satisfaction. God will, of course, supply all your needs on earth, but how much more in heaven?

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All your temporal needs, all your spiritual needs, right now on heaven, I mean, right now on earth, and then ultimately, in heaven.

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The consummation just reverses everything. I like the Belgic confession, thinking about heaven, and satisfaction.

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The faithful and elect shall be crowned with glory and honor, and the Son of God will confess their names before God, His Father, and His elect angels.

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All tears will be wiped away from their eyes, and their cause, which is now condemned by many judges as heretical, will then be made known to be the cause of the

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Son of God. And for a gracious reward, the

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Lord will cause them, you included, Christian, to possess such a glory as never entered in the heart of man to conceive.

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Therefore, we look to that day with great anticipation. Blessing one, blessing two, now blessing number three, godly sorrow for sin.

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Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. He's sending the men out, gospel ministry, and He knows that they need to have a view of sin like He does, the

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Savior does. Sin ravages, sin destroys, people, nations, communities, marriages.

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When you go out there, you think about other people's sins, certainly you think of your own sin, but there's gonna be joy one day.

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And then the last blessing, if you remember, is found in verses 22 and 23. And that's, a real blessing is when you're persecuted for Jesus' sake.

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Blessed are you, 622, when people hate you, boy this sure seems upside down, doesn't it?

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When they exclude you, and revile you, and spurn your name as evil, on account of the

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Son of Man. Really, those words, Son of Man, drive this whole passage.

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It's all about who Jesus is, the divine Son of Man, Daniel 7, coming in the clouds. What do we do in response to such persecution?

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And again, it's counterintuitive. Rejoice in that day, leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heavens, and for so their fathers did to the prophets.

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Remember that man, I think it's Acts chapter 3, is it not? And he got up after God had healed him, and he went, he got up, and the only thing

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I know is the song. He went walking, and leaping, and what? Praising God.

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All the Sunday school teachers, and VBS teachers, and Juana teachers just smiled at me. So happy!

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Yes, I know they're spurning my name, but now we come to the woes.

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Four woes. It is important for me to tell you to whom these woes are directed.

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So take a look at chapter 6, verse 13, and let's just make sure we understand who the woes are for.

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They're not for Christians. They're not for believers. They weren't for those 11. And when day came, chapter 6, verse 13, he called his disciples and chose from them 12 whom he named apostles.

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Verse 17, and he came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people.

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So his disciples are there, broadly speaking. His disciples are there, capital D, are apostles, and a great multitude.

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When Jesus starts giving the blessings, verse 20, he lifts up his eyes on his disciples and said, so there are many, many people there.

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He's directing these four blessings to the disciples proper, the 12. And even if you look at verse 27, it helps, because after he gives these woes, he says, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies.

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And so Jesus is talking and preaching and healing to a great multitude. He then looks at his disciples and he tells them, these are the four blessings.

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There are other people now listening. He directs his attention to those who aren't trusting in him, the Messiah. And then he's going to turn his eyes back in verse 27 to people that believe.

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Maybe you're asking yourself the question, what does woe mean? Sometimes people are tricked because they think blessing is happiness, and even

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Bible translators are happy, are those. But what about woe? Do we have the same misunderstanding of the word blessing as we do woe?

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And I'm not trying to be funny here in any way, shape or form, but I just want you to know this isn't when you try to stop a horse, woe, stop.

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This is a word that's opposite of blessing, and if blessing is you're approved by God, what must woe be?

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You're not approved by God. This is a word that scholars have said means pain.

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Judgment is coming for you. Danger is imminent. Some have translated it, how terrible.

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Some have said, alas, for a definition. Others have said this is an inconsolable misery.

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And others talk about the word pity and compassion tied in there.

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And I think that is the best. There is a pity and compassion from Jesus, the one who's saying it, knowing that at the end there will be a misery, the ultimate misery, displeasure, horror.

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Judgment is coming. And if you're an unbeliever here today, I want to warn you that there is an inevitable judgment coming when you die one day.

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It's a warning. Luke uses the word woe other places, and I think it'd be helpful if you saw a couple of those.

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Keep your finger in Luke 6. Switch over to Luke 10. Before we're getting into these four woes in particular,

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I want you just to know what woe means. And you can get the sense of it when it comes from Jesus' mouth here in Luke 10, 13.

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Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

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There's inevitable judgment and lament and warning. The next chapter, you see all the woes to the

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Pharisees and to the lawyers and the leaders of Israel who are, yes, legalistic, but in addition to that, have not recognized the

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Messiah who sits right in front of them. And what does Jesus say? Certainly not bless you,

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Luke 11, 42, for example, but woe to you Pharisees. Verse 43, woe to you

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Pharisees. Verse 44, woe to you. Verse 46, woe to you lawyers also, for you load people with burdens hard to bear and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

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Verse 47, woe, verse 52, woe. But maybe the most insightful use of Luke's word woe is found in chapter 22.

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And if you turn there, I think it'd be important for you to see what does the word woe mean? Certainly you don't want

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Jesus ever to say that to you. Certainly you want him to say you're approved. And by the way, all

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Christians trusting in the risen savior, spirit of God implanted into their hearts, sealed to the day of redemption, having

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God as father adopted into the family of God because of Christ law keeping and bearing sins on the cross, rising in great triumph.

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We'll never hear the word woe. But here, Luke 22, chapter 22, verse 22, we get some insight into what really woe means and how awful it is.

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For the son of man goes as it has been determined, sovereignty of God, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.

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Not just human responsibility and sovereignty side by side, although that's important. But it would have been better for Judas if he had not been what?

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Born. Why is that? Because there's something worse than dying.

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And that's standing before God without a mediator, Jesus, in hell.

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If I could, let's go back to Luke six. If I could summarize woe, it essentially means this. When you reject the son of man, you don't believe in him.

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You don't think Jesus is true as preacher, as prophet. And you don't heed his words that say, come unto me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

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When you say, you know what? I'll just believe later. I don't want to believe now. It's all a myth. Then the

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Bible says, woe to you. For the many of these people, all these people here in the text,

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Jesus is right before them standing right there. And if you trust in me, you're blessed.

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If you don't, there's a woe. You're not approved by God. You're not right with God. You're still enemy of God.

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You're still in your sins. You're still a slave to sin. And there's going to be punishment for sins if you don't believe, if you don't repent.

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So Jesus warns them out of love, out of compassion, out of pity.

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This is not one of those hellfire and brimstone preachers who actually thinks it's funny for people to go to hell or they deserve to go somehow and he's better than they are.

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Of course, they deserve it, but we all do. And when we get into it, you're going to find out that the woes aren't what we might think they were for.

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Like you'd expect woe to you murderers, woe to you rapists, woe to you who commit incest, woe to you that make people slaves.

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He's not really talking too much about the righteous, excuse me, the unrighteous.

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He's talking about self -righteous. Woe number one that should drive us to thankfulness as Christians, a heart of pity as Christians, evangelistic as Christians, and for unbelievers here should drive you to the cross of Christ by faith alone.

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How to go to hell number one, be self -righteous. It's found in verse 24. Be self -righteous.

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Woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation.

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If poor meant I have no resources and I need God's help, then these people that are rich don't think they need any help.

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Of course, on earth, that's true. But ultimately in a spiritual sense, I'm fine as I am.

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I have plenty of self -righteousness. I have plenty of my own righteousness, and I'm confident

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I can withstand judgment day. And maybe it's just because in their minds they're thinking, well, you know,

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I've done more good than bad. That's even self -righteous. I have more self -righteousness than I've done self -wrongly, if you would.

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My own goodness, the self -righteous person says, will shield me from God's wrath, will protect me from the wrath of God.

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I have a substitute, and it's not Jesus, it's me. You're telling me,

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God, I need perfect law -keeping, perfect righteousness. You mean to tell me, Jesus, in Matthew 5, 48,

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I have to be as perfect as God is to get into heaven? Well, you know what? I'll just water down God's perfection a little bit, and I'll tune up my goodness a little bit, and so I don't really need the cross to bridge the gap.

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God's not that holy, I'm not that sinful, and the gap now that I need to break and to cross can be my own goodness, my own righteousness.

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Now, Joseph of Arimathea, he was rich, Job was rich, Abraham was rich,

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Luke was rich, a physician, Matthew was rich, a tax collector, Nicodemus was rich.

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He's not talking about if you're only rich, you don't make it, but he's saying, as on earth, rich people are self -dependent upon their own riches, they don't feel the need.

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It carries over into people who think they're rich in spirit. You say, I don't know about that, Pastor Mike. What is

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Luke really talking about when it says rich? Go to chapter 12, and I think we find the answer.

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Would you like to know what kind of rich person the writer

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Luke is talking about? The answer's found here in chapter 12, verse 15 and following.

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And Jesus said to them, take care, be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.

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And he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought of himself and to himself, what shall

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I do? I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I'll do this,

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I'll tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there, I will store all my grain and my goods.

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I'll say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Soul, relax, soul, eat, soul, drink, soul, be merry.

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But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?

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So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

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That's the kind of rich person that Jesus is giving a woe to. Rich is found in Christ Jesus by faith alone.

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People say, I don't need Jesus, I'm good to go on my own.

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James said in chapter 5, come now you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.

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In other words, don't trust in your own goodness, don't trust in your own righteousness. Why would

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Jesus come and live if you didn't need His righteousness? Why would He die if your righteousness could withstand the fury of God?

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Jeremiah 50, woe to them for their day has come, the time of their punishment. How scary.

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Back to Luke 6, what does Jesus say? Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

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In other words, you've been paid in full now. This is as good as it gets now.

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This is your best life now because it's hell coming later. This is all you're going to get when it comes to riches.

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For you have received your consolation. Ecclesiastes, naked a man comes from his mother's womb and as he departs, as he comes so he departs.

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He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. This is all you're going to get.

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If you're not a Christian, this is it. This is the best. John Rockefeller died and they asked his accountant, how much did

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John D. Rockefeller leave? And the accountant said, all of it.

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Exactly right. Now when

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I was growing up, my grandparents read the newspaper and I especially remember them reading obituaries.

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Now we don't have newspapers and I don't know how many people have read obituaries lately. We don't read them unless we want to learn about Chuck Strong and what he did in his life and what the

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Lord had him do. But I remember grandma and grandpa just reading obituaries, thinking about death.

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And I thought, you know what, there's something to be said, reminding ourselves about death. And now at 64, you know, to me death was always,

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I knew it was true, I knew it was theoretical. It happened to other people, but I've got a long way to go.

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And now I'm thinking, train's getting faster. Here we come.

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I might live another 30 years. But I've got less time on that side than I do on this side.

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And I'm thinking, death is real. I don't do this often. I'm not trying to say

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I'm such a godly guy, but I woke up this morning and I said, thank you Lord, I'm alive. I guess the mere fact of me waking up proves that point, but I still said it to him anyway.

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The other thing, I don't think we do much anymore, and if I was a younger dad, I'd do this. I'd take my kids to the junkyard.

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Sometimes we were kids, we went to the junkyard because there we can shoot our 410 shotguns at cans and nobody got after us.

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Everything we have. I mean, if you're going to put your trust in your own self -righteousness or the things that you have, it's over when you die.

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And by the way, I read that 95 million people die every year. One every three seconds.

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And the Lord Jesus, because He's kind and He's compassionate and He's a faithful prophet to the Father, warns people, don't go to hell, run, flee.

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Jesus said, it's better for you to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Jesus said, do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

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Fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. And since Psalm 16 is correct, in your right hand there are what?

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Pleasures forevermore. The exact opposite, the antithetical thing is true when it comes to hell.

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Of course, people think God isn't in hell, but God is everywhere. And a good way to think about heaven and hell is, heaven is being in the presence of a thrice holy

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God with a mediator and an advocate and a friend, Jesus. You can withstand

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God's holiness. And God is everywhere, including the sun, and to be in hell is to be in God's presence without a mediator or a lawyer or an advocate.

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It is God in hell who torments, who judges, and who is the eternal executioner.

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Christian, now can you kind of get a little taste of what was going on in Paul's heart in jail when he knew he was prosecuting

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Jesus by prosecuting Christians. And then on that Damascus road, God changes

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His heart and He humbles Paul. He grants him faith. And then

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He said, for Jesus' sake I have suffered the loss of all things.

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I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and to be found in Him. I can imagine

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Paul standing on his tiptoes in prison, not having a righteousness of my own that comes through the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.

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The righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, may share in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible

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I may attain the resurrection from the dead. No wonder Paul was so happy. He knew what he deserved.

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We know what we deserve. And he knew what he got based on grace, and we know the same thing. How do you go to hell?

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Just be unrighteous. That's true. But be self -righteous is just as bad, maybe worse.

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The second found in Luke 6, not just self -righteousness, but spiritual contentment.

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Spiritual contentment. Ah, who cares? No big deal. I'm fine. Related to the first, but a little bit different.

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Verse 25, woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Matthew 5,

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Jesus gives us insight. Hunger for what? Righteousness. These are people, and if you're an unbeliever, this is you.

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You don't hunger after God. You don't hunger after Jesus. You're not desiring to learn more and earnestly seeking

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Him. You're not hungry after understanding grace and how wonderful it is.

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Your appetite for God is nothing except maybe you come today because your parents made you, your spouse wanted you to.

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No appetite for God. No appetite for God. This is language of Isaiah 65,

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God saying, you shall be hungry, you shall be thirsty, you shall be put to shame, you shall cry out for pain of heart, and you shall wail for breaking of spirit.

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These people are so full of self, they don't think they need God. It's me, myself, and I.

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It's not theology, it's me -ology, as some people say. Just everything revolves around me. I'm the center of the universe.

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Look at those, so tragically, they're full now. See, you get everything now, not later.

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There's a later. Remember, the fool says, there's no big deal, no tomorrow, I'm not going to think about heaven and hell.

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I'm just going to drown myself with hedonism and pleasure and everything else because if I think about hell, then it's hard to fornicate with pleasure.

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It's hard to be an idolater with great joy. I'm going to push that all to the side, and Jesus said, you ought to be hungering for righteousness sake and for righteousness.

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And I look at these people that think this way, I was that way. And I think to myself, certainly not

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I'm better. I think to myself, could there be a more pitiful position to be in? You don't know what's coming.

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You don't know the Damocles of judgment, it's sure. God's justice grinds slowly at times, and it grinds always finely.

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The unbelievers so caught up in everything else, they're just content with themselves.

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And I think probably what the bottom line with all this is, they don't understand God's view of sin.

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Because what we do is we say, well, you know, this is something people say all the time, my life's messy. No, your room's messy.

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Your life is sin splattered, Adam's in your own. Did you know you could probably describe sin in many ways?

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Cosmic treason, an atrocity to God, lawlessness, unjust, unjust,

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I mean, think of the angels in heaven in Luke chapter 6. They're completely pure and holy, and they cover their faces in the presence of a transcendent

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God. Habakkuk said, your eyes, God, are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on wickedness with favor.

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And so, dear unbeliever who's listening today, while you might have syndromes and diseases and illnesses and boo -boos, and your life is a mess, you're a sinner.

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You're a sinner. The good news is Jesus came to save sinners.

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We agree, we're sinners. We confess Jesus as the sin bearer. There's hope.

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Jesus didn't die for diseases and illnesses and all that stuff, excuses. I mean,

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I don't know if you've ever thought about this, dear unbeliever, but there's no cruel and unusual punishment in hell.

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It's deserved. Everyone in hell deserves exactly what they'll get.

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God will never compromise with sin. And let me tell you what a little bit of judgment will look like, dear unbeliever.

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And believers, be thankful this isn't for you. I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it.

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From His presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.

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That's for you, unbeliever. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. That's for believers.

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And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. Unbeliever, what have you done?

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Have you perfectly obeyed God, perfectly loved neighbor? Loved God with heart, soul, mind, and strength?

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Loved your neighbor as yourself? And the answer for everyone, including Christians, is no. But for Christians, they don't get judged by what's in the book.

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They get judged because their name's in heaven. Jesus has paid in full for all the

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Christian sins. Here's what's coming for you, unbeliever, if you won't repent and believe.

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Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

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Now, society says we don't want to talk about hell. But Jesus, the

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Savior, the kind Savior, is what people call the theologian of hell because he talked about it more than anyone else.

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And when I read that and I realize I'm not going because of grace, then

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I say to myself, when I wake up this morning and I say, Lord, I'm glad to be alive, I then remember these words.

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Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the

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Lord will not count his what? Sin. Not counted against you because it's counted against Christ.

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And you simply accept that truth. You receive that truth. You rest in that truth. You believe that truth.

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You realize sin is what it is and you don't want that anymore. You turn to the Lord Jesus. Number three, the third woe is found in Luke six as well.

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Number one, be self -righteous. Number two, be spiritually content. Number three, scorn God. Scorn God.

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Laugh it up. Woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn and weep.

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Laughing off spiritual things. Laughing off end time judgment. Laughing off Jesus is the only way.

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Laughing it up that the heaven and hell are real. Laughing it up that Jesus somehow was a real man in the middle of Palestine and the middle of Israel rather and died on the cross.

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I think it's true that some people use God and his name and Jesus as kind of a punchline in comedy routines.

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That would count here. But it's really the person who just says, maybe even without an outside external laugh, just you laugh off sin.

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You laugh off judgment. You're like, it's not that big a deal. And what's the text say? While you should be mourning about sin now in you and in others and in the world.

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That's a blessed person. You shall, you shall mourn and reap. You will one day mourn and weep.

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And so here the Savior, a compassionate Savior, one that comes to rescue sinners, wants them to know.

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People say, well, you shouldn't ever make people afraid of hell when you evangelize. Who came up with that idea?

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Not Jesus. Not Jesus. If you never talk about relief and forgiveness and everlasting life, shame on you if you only talk about hell.

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But there's a blessing and there's a woe. There's a blessing and there's a curse. And so you tell them both.

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That's what Jesus did. And if you're laughing it up now about your sin, there's going to be eternal weeping and mourning and gnashing of teeth.

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This word used in the Old Testament Greek version is tied to boasting.

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It's tied to condescending, like, who are you, God? I'm above you. I don't care about you.

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I don't need you. I'll boast in my own goodness and pleasure. But later, there's laughter, no, only for the saints.

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It's interesting. For the saints, look at end of verse 21, blessed are you who weep, now for you shall what?

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Laugh in heaven, joy in heaven, thrill in heaven, blessings in heaven.

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But for those that will not bow the knee by faith to the Lord Jesus, this is your end. And you could laugh at me.

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You could scorn me. You can say all kinds of things about me. It matters not. Truth is truth. This isn't my truth.

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You can't be beholden to your own truth. That will deceive you. That's a modern satanic deception.

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Well, that's my truth. No, no, no. This is the truth. Some of the descriptions of hell that you'll be going to, unrepentant, unbeliever, punishment, torment, fire, destruction, second death, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, and the pit.

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Do you want to go there? Dear believer, do you want any of your children, parents, friends, neighbors, or enemies to go there?

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And they will, unless they hear the gospel. Calvin said, there can be no doubt, but that by such modes of expression, the ones

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I just listed, the Holy Spirit intended to confound all our faculties with horror. So the unbeliever might turn and run to Jesus by faith.

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And so the believer might say, I'm so thankful, and I better tell others. I better go tell it on the mountain.

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And the thing is, if you're an unbeliever, you might be sitting there thinking, in all other areas of life, it's transactional, and I have to do this so someone else has to do that, and I want you to know when it comes to saving faith,

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I want you to know when it comes to God, there's nothing you could do. What you do is you cry out like the tax collector,

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Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. The Bible teaches if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

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Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you'll be saved. No transformation of life, although God will do that for you when you believe.

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No stopping sins, although God will help you stop sins when you believe. And then lastly, how do you go to hell?

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Well, seek man's approval only. Seek man's approval only.

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Just be cared about what people think of you, yourself, what you think of yourself, and what other people think versus what does

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God think. Verse 26, woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

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This kind of person that's going to hell is concerned about their own name, their own fame, their own applause to be received, their own reputation, and I don't care what

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God thinks of me. He might approve other people, but I don't really care. It doesn't matter to me what

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God thinks. And these kind of people that are going to hell are just like the false prophets.

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So their fathers did to the false prophets. The Old Testament is replete in Micah and Isaiah 30 and elsewhere.

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Everybody's talking about how great the false prophets were, because false prophets said, peace, peace, even though there's going to be judgment.

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Oh, if I could just be popular, if I could just have so many Facebook friends. The list goes on and on and on, from sublime to mundane.

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I just want to be liked in this world. That's my main goal. Jesus said, if you were of the world, the world would love its own.

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But because you're not of the world, and I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you.

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Not hatred because we're dumb, but hatred because of the Son of God, the

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Son of Man. Moody said, this life is all heaven the worldling has, and all the hell the saint ever sees.

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Did you get that? When you're in heaven, you're going to say the best things that ever happened to you on earth.

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What were some of the best things that ever happened? These days for me, it's being a grandfather. The best things in life now will seem like a veritable hell when

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I'm in heaven, because heaven will be so great. And you're like, I can't get my mind around that. I know. But if you will refuse to bow the knee by faith and trust in the

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Lord Jesus, the worst things on this earth, sickness, cancer, loved ones dying, and more, you'll yearn for those days, because you'll think those are like heaven compared to the torment of the damned.

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Books start off with once upon a time. And we like it when they say at the very end, what?

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Happily ever after. For you, saint, secure, sealed by the

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Holy Spirit to the day of your next sin. No, no, to the day of redemption. Guaranteed, those who trust in Jesus are going to make it.

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You will live happily ever after. But for the unbeliever, may

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I remind you one last thing about living after? There's no end to the after.

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It's after and after and after, because as heaven is eternal, so too

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Jesus teaches that hell is eternal. John Gershner said the tendency of modern times has been to take punishment out of eternity or eternity out of punishment.

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Jesus called hell the unquenchable fire where the worm dies not.

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He said the punishment in Matthew 25 was eternal. The destruction in 2 Thessalonians was eternal.

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In Revelation 20, day and night, forever and ever. One writer said, oh, but this word eternity, this word everlasting, this word forever.

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This word will even break the hearts of the damned in 10 ,000 pieces. Impenitent sinners in hell shall have end without end, death without death, night without day, morning without mirth, sorrow without solace, and bondage without liberty.

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The damned shall live as long in hell as God himself shall live in heaven. When Jesus meets a sinner who is an unbeliever, how does he act?

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Let me give you an illustration and it will help you know how to respond. Jesus said to Nicodemus, a religious person who thought he needed not

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Jesus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

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For God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only, what, begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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Don't somehow say, you know what, I can trick myself out of this. I can flatter myself that I'm not going if you're an unbeliever.

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If God the Father didn't spare his son on the cross, he surely won't spare you. And your response is to believe on the

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Lord Jesus. And if you're a Christian, I hope you're thankful that you're saved.

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I hope you like to be with the other saints, to sing at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light.

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It's sovereign grace that you saw it. I hope you think to yourself, I'm going to heaven one day, even though I don't deserve it,

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I get to go. I get to go to a heaven that's eternal. And I probably, here's convicting to Mike Ebendroth, now you too,

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I should probably as a Christian complain a whole lot less. Are you a complainer?

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Did you know the answer to your complaints is found in the doctrine of hell? How could we complain?

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How could I complain? Who in your life, dear

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Christian, needs to hear about hell and heaven and Jesus? Your mom, your dad, your children, your friend, your neighbor?

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Do you think this week might be a good week to tell them about it? And tell them about Him? Or at least pray for them?

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Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you. Even though sober words, solemn words, words that are true.

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And in my mind, Father, if we don't tell people about hell, certainly TV isn't going to.

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The internet's not going to. Father, we're thankful for the saints that have gone before us, who because of your work can actually rest in peace.

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When we bury them and we say rest in peace, it's true. For unbelievers here today, Father, I pray that you give them no rest,

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I mean no rest, until they find their rest in you by faith. And for Christians, Father, I confess, and I'm sure on behalf of the congregation, we don't praise you like we should.

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We're not thankful like we ought to be. We don't evangelize like we should either. And we complain way too much.

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We're thankful that we rest in a risen Savior who evangelized enough, never complained, prayed enough, and is our all in all in Jesus' sake.