Heaven & Hell — Bill McLeod

We were praying down there, hoping I'd make it. Barbara and I would like to thank the church here for the group that came to our house and sang. When we tell people in Winnipeg this happened, what? They came from Selkirk?

This thing in your house? Yeah, that's what they did. Who did that? Grace Baptists in Selkirk. So thank you. We appreciate it very much. I've got some pictures. I don't know how good they are. Anyway, I've got a few.

They did a survey in the States. Oh, I should explain about this pulpit thing here. The Salem Church, there's a member in the church, his name is Pat, and he's a great... He works with metal all the time, building stuff for farmers, repairing instruments and stuff.

And he got this idea. And he just did it. I was telling him, if he sent a copy to the Southern Baptists, they'd likely order a thousand of them, you know. They've got the money. They like new things. Okay.

The New Jerusalem and the Hope of Heaven

I'd like to read a little bit in Revelation 21. Verse 2, I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. By the way, it says in Isaiah, these things will not even come into your mind.

The bad things that happen is meant in the context there. So he's going to wipe away all tears from their eyes. There'll be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

The Fearful and Unbelieving Face Judgment

I'll give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain and the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit all things. The margin says, all these things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my Son.

But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers, that's witchcraft, and idolaters. Covetousness is idolatry, the Bible says. A covetous man is an idolater.

And all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And notice in verse 8, the top of the list of those who will be gone, thrown into fire, and the lake of fire it's called several places in the Bible.

The top of the list, the fearful, the unbelieving, they're linked with the abominable, with murderers, with whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars. The people at the top of the list are the fearful and the unbelieving.

Many people are afraid to become Christians because they're just afraid. What will my friends think? What will my family think? What will my neighbor do? What will my boss think? The fearful and the unbelieving.

They did a poll in the States a while ago asking people, do you believe there's a heaven? Do you believe there's a hell? Eighty percent said they believed there was a heaven. Sixty-five percent said they believed there was a hell.

Now, that doesn't affect what really is. If there's no hell, there's no heaven. They're mentioned in the same context, well, even in the Scripture we read now. There's a heaven and there's a hell. And God made both of them.

In the Old Testament, Psalm 917, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the people will forget God. What many people are doing is simply forgetting God. No time for God. No place. No money for God.

Turned into hell because they forgot God. Proverbs 29 .1, He that being often reproved, somebody's been witnessing to him about the gospel, but he hardens his neck, he'll suddenly be destroyed. And that without remedy, which means no second chance.

The Bible never holds out the slightest hope of a second chance after we die. It's now or never. There's a verse in Hebrews that says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Have you an answer to that?

Neglecting, forgetting. Millions are doing it. And possibly even some here today. In the New Testament, John the Baptist, Matthew 3 .7, to the crowds that gathered to hear him, he said, Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

What's he talking about? Well, he called it the wrath to come. He's referring to the wrath of God on sinful men. People hearing the gospel and neglecting it. Doing nothing about it. There's a day coming.

It's called the day of the wrath of God. And we'll read about that in Revelation 6. John the Baptist again in Matthew 3 .12. He said that God's going to gather the wheat into the barn, but the chaff he'll burn with unquenchable fire.

Are you wheat or chaff? Where do you stand? We need to consider this. There is a heaven. Thank God there's a heaven. There's a hell. We shudder at the thought that there is one. The gospel doesn't make any sense if there's no hell.

Have you ever thought of it that way? Jesus said, Well, in Mark chapter 9, there are four references by Jesus Christ to the fire that will never be put out. He said never quench. Four times He said it.

For the loss. There is a fire. It will never go out. It's eternal in other words. These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. It's eternal for both ways. We must keep that in mind.

Condemnation, the New Birth, and the Kingdom of God

John 3 .18. He that does not believe is already condemned. You're already condemned. Not because you committed a lot of sin, but because you didn't believe. Now that's John 3 .18. John 3 .36. He that does not believe the Son of God, the wrath of God, is abiding on Him.

God's anger is already on those of us who have not repented of our sin and turned to Christ. John chapter 3. Several verses. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Further in the same chapter, He reminds us, unless you're born of water and the Spirit, the water is the Word of God and the Spirit is the Spirit of God, unless you have this double-fold experience, regeneration, being born again, you cannot enter the kingdom.

You can't see it. You can't enter it unless you have this experience called being born again. When Jesus comes, I'd like to turn over to Matthew 13. If you have a Bible, please turn there for a few moments.

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

Verse 36. Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And the disciples came unto Him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He'd spoken his parable. They didn't understand it.

So they asked for clear understanding. He answered and said unto them, He that sows the good seed is the Son of Man. That's Jesus Himself. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom.

But the tares, the weeds, are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world. The reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world.

The Son of Man shall send forth His angels. They shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend. The margin says scandals. All things that offend God. And them who do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whose ears to hear, let them hear. In the same chapter, verse 49, so shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.

There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's very real. Very simple. Very powerful. Is torment real? People say, well, it can't be forever. If it's not forever, then neither is heaven. Because they are mentioned in the same context that way.

The righteous in their life eternal. The wicked into everlasting fire. In Luke chapter 16, let's turn over there. Scripture has chapter 16, and verse 19. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.

And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus who was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the doves came and licked his sores.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Angels were pallbearers. Do you have that? Will that be for you? Angels were pallbearers. But the rich man, he also died and was buried.

And in hell he lift up his eyes being in torment and sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things and likewise Lazarus' evil things. But now he is comforted and you are tormented. And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot.

Neither can they pass to us who would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee, therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham, if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them, If they don't hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded that one rose from the dead.

I was talking once to a communist and he was an atheist. But he said this, The poor man went to heaven because he was poor and the rich man went to hell because he was rich. And I said, My friend, you're wrong on both counts.

The poor man went to heaven because he repented. He saw that he hadn't repented. He wanted his brothers to repent. He didn't go to hell because he was rich. It isn't a sin to be rich. It's what you do with your money that really counts, you see.

And so the beggar died. He wasn't buried. He just died and was carried by the angels. That is his soul, the real person. The rich man died. He had a burial. Probably a fancy funeral. But he woke up in hell in torment.

The Bible makes it quite real that there is a place, a torment, that is eternal. And remember the great gulf that he said was fixed. Abraham said it's fixed. Nobody can pass from heaven to hell. Nobody can pass from hell to heaven.

There's a great valley between, a great gulf. In Revelation 6, let's perhaps turn there for a moment. The last book of the Bible, chapter 6. John the Apostle was the one who gave us the book of Revelation and some other books besides.

The Day of God's Wrath and the Second Death

He's talking about the end of the age. Verse 12, chapter 6,. And I beheld, when he opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.

And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it was rolled together. And every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman, every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of his wrath is come. And the question is, who shall be able to stand? That's what men are saying in that coming day. Revelation 2 .11 says, He that overcomes... And the Bible tells us that the one who overcomes is the one who has faith.

Through faith in Christ we overcome. He that overcomes, Revelation 2 .11 says, he'll not be hurt by the second death. Second death? Is there a possibility of dying twice? Yes. There's a physical death when we die.

And the body is laid in the ground. There's another death when you're thrown into the lake of fire. He calls it the second death. And if you overcome through faith in Christ, you'll not be part of the second death.

Revelation 20, 13 -15. Let's turn over there just a moment. Verse 11, chapter 20,. And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged over those things which were written in the books according to their works.

God is a record of all that was done. And the seed gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged, every man, according to their works.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. That's what He's talking about. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Dear people, it's a very, very serious matter.

It's nothing to joke about. And we should never think in terms of rejecting this because we don't like it. God is simply warning us. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

God wants you to be saved. Christ died for that reason. In Romans 2, 5, Paul spoke about people. He spoke about their hardness and their unrepentant hearts. And they'll be reserved to the day of wrath, that day of anger, when God will speak to the world in judgment.

Not until He spoke on Calvary's cross. It's called the day when God will judge the secrets of men, Paul said, according to my Gospel, Romans 2, 16. Please remember, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Sin, Substitution, and Salvation Through Christ

Do you agree to that? Have you sinned? Are you saying, I haven't sinned? Or maybe you're saying, I haven't sinned much. The worst sin of all, dear people, is to reject Christ or to neglect Christ, to forget Christ.

There's no worse sin than that. There's no such thing as polite sin as far as God is concerned. To say it again, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The glory of God is heaven. He's called us to His eternal glory.

But we've come short of that because of our sin. So all have sinned and come short. The wages of sin is death. Jesus should not have died because He never sinned. So why did He die? The wages of sin is death.

He died in your place and He died in mine. So we wouldn't have to go to hell and die that second death that's spoken of there. If you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you'll be saved.

We're told that clearly. Romans 10 .9. 1 Corinthians 6 .9 -11. The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. There are many people I've met, son, who think everybody's going to go to heaven. And maybe they may get spanked before they get there, but they'll get there.

Don't you believe it? That's the devil's lie. If we're not born again by the power of God, we can be a church member. It still won't help. It isn't belonging as a church member that saves any soul. It's good to be the member of a good, vital preaching church.

But don't ever depend on any church membership or any good things you've done to get you there. I met a man one time. He'd been a friend of my brother's. And he wanted to meet me, he said. And so I phoned him and went to see him.

Very wealthy person. He had just sold 600 lots to the city of Winnipeg. You can imagine how much money he had from that. That was just one of his deals. But he wanted me to see his house. He called it my shack.

So it was quite a shack. He had a swimming pool. And then behind the shack he had some, oh, tennis courts. But I must say, you know, it was quite a shack. The kitchen, you wouldn't believe it, ladies.

And the basement, it wasn't a basement, it was called the lower auditorium. Quite a place. He saved the best for the last, and he led me into a room. It was a huge room, bigger than this room here. And all the inside was decked with stones of various kinds, precious stones and stuff.

And so we sat there, and then he turned to me and he said, What do you think of my shack? I said, Do you have a shack in heaven yet? He said, I haven't made arrangements. I said, Elmer, you better go ahead and get it done.

He didn't like it. And he left me sitting there and took off. He went upstairs and I heard him say to his wife, Bill is trying to convert me down there. She said, Well, I know you well enough to know that you need to be converted.

And he didn't like that. So when I got upstairs, then she says to her husband, Well, show him the rest of the house. And he didn't like that. Well, he's seen everything. No, she said. There's a room over there you haven't shown him.

Well, he wouldn't want to see that. Well, I'll show him, she said. So she takes me over to this room. His office, pictures of naked women on the walls everywhere. It was a beer den. He didn't want me to see that.

I wish I could say to your people that he died a believer. I don't think he did. He was giving a lot of money to the British and Foreign Bible Society, and had been doing that for years. He called it a large bit.

You know, maybe he sent a few thousand dollars or something. He was depending on that to get him there. Christ loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. There's no other way. If you're not washed in the blood of Christ, dear people, you'll never make it.

You don't have a chance. It's now or it's never. In all the parables Jesus told about His second coming, His return, not one of them suggests that anybody will be saved after He returns. There is no second chance.

Don't you believe it? It's now. Now is the day of salvation. Today is the accepted time. Now. Not later on. Paul spoke about this in II Thessalonians 1, to you who are troubled. The church was going through a lot of persecution at Thessalonica.

Christ's Return and Everlasting Destruction

And so Paul wrote this letter to encourage them. And so he said to you who are troubled, rest with us. For the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, inflaming fire, taking vengeance on those that do not know God, and that do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints.

He was saying to the Christians, the persecution will end. You'll be forever with Christ one day. Be patient. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. But His coming notice, it says, well, there's a verse in Hebrews, Christ died for our sins.

He died for our sins. He can't do it again. Nobody that dies unconverted, dear people, will ever be converted. It's appointed unto men, once to die, and after this, the judgment. And remember from Revelation 20, we read, we'll be judged according to the record that God has, not the record that you have.

That's not important. His record is very important. Judgment, Peter said, will begin with the house of God. And if it begins with us, what will the end be of those that don't obey the gospel? He says, as the righteous scarcely be saved.

The word scarcely means with great difficulty. If the righteous are saved with great difficulty, He means those who became righteous through their faith in Christ. If this is with great difficulty, worse will the ungodly and the sinner appear.

People, we can't possibly make it in any way, but through Christ. Christ also has once. It means once and for all. This man, after he had offered one offering, one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.

One sacrifice for sins forever, 2 ,000 years ago, on the cross, in your place, dying for you, on the cross he cried, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They know not what they do.

We were not there, but we know about it. We've heard the good news that Christ suffered. Do you understand this? That when Christ suffered on the cross, He was suffering for you. He died for you. He was there because your sins nailed Him on the cross.

He went there willingly. He didn't have to remember, as we said before, He had never sinned in thought, word, or deed. In the 33 years He lived on this planet, nobody ever lived that way before or since or ever will.

The Righteousness of God Through Faith

But He carried your sins in mind. Christ was made to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So when we receive Christ into our hearts by faith, we receive the righteousness of Christ and eternal life.

But, dear people, only through what He did. Have you seen it? Do you understand it? Are you saved or are you unsaved? Where are you this morning? Where are you this minute? You should be able to say, Thank God.

I'm saved by the grace of God. But there's no other way. By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gifts of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. No boasting in heaven.

That's why Paul said, God forbid that I should glory, that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because He died for you. He died for me. Father, for sending Your Son, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

The Invitation to Receive Christ

Thank You. Thank You for those in this room, Father, who have received You as their personal Savior. And perhaps, I do not know, Father, You know, there are some who have never received Christ. For such we pray, dear God, they might see Him and understand, as John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Now, just remain in the attitude of prayer. Don't be looking around. Let me ask this question. If you have received Christ as your personal Savior, you're sure about it, you know you've done this, would you just quickly raise your hand?

Yes, thank you for the hands we see. Thank you. And there were some that could not and did not raise their hand. Why don't you take care of it today? This morning, maybe we could sing that song again, Pass Me Not.

Oh, gentle Savior, hear my humble cry. And while the song is being sung, if you want to receive Christ, just get up, come and sit here at the front. There's an empty queue here, lots of room. Feel free to come.

Christ, remember now, He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, the sinless for the sinful. Then He might bring us to God. All right? I'm not sure of the number of the song. And let's stand together.

If so and so goes forward, I'll go forward. Or maybe they'll say, if anybody goes forward, I'll go forward. Don't bargain with God. If God is speaking to your heart, you come. You may not have another chance.

None of us can say that we'll be here tomorrow. We can't say that, no matter what our age happens to be. He's calling. He's calling you. As we sing the second verse, respond to His call. Many times before, maybe you're saying, as people have told me, they've been saying for years, I'll do it someday.

I've talked with a man, age 14, he first heard the Gospel. When I talked to him, he was 85. And all those years, he's been saying, I'll do it someday. People, he never did. He died unsaved. He never got around to it.

Do it now. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Do come. Don't wait. I say again, don't bargain with God. He's calling. He said, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Before he said that, he said this, As many as I love, I rebuke and chase and be zealous, therefore, and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will fellowship with him and he with me. That's his promise. He'll certainly keep it to any who do what he's asking them to do.

So come, as we sing this next verse. He will come to help you, show you what to do, pray with you and so on. And I'll be closing in prayer in a moment. And could I say this? Even as I'm closing in prayer, feel free to come.

I've been in meetings where sometimes 30 people came forward while we were closing in prayer. Feel free to do that. Father, we know we're saved by grace alone, not of works. Walking the aisle doesn't make me a believer.

It's just a matter by which we can get others who know you and so we can get help. Thank you, Lord, for this church, its witness in the community and beyond. And dear God, continue to work mightily and give us, Father, one of these days, a great harvest of precious souls, O God, a great awakening with Jesus on the throne of many, many hearts.

Well, thank you, Father, for this day, for this service. Dear God, it's just a privilege to be here again and to know that you're here. Thanks, Lord. Bless us as we leave. Continue to speak to us. And bless Pastor Ernie in a powerful way and others working with him.

It's my daily prayer in Christ's name. Amen.