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Father thank you for this beautiful morning. Thank you for all the blessings that you have given us. For your word for the warnings it gives us. For the promises it gives us and for the hope it gives us.
Father. Would you bless our time this morning in Christ name we pray amen. You know I was I was thinking here, I guess probably it was last week I got into a deep discussion with Bruce Binney. We were talking about old Three Stooges movies and.
And I was just reminded how there's one. I think it's Snow White and the Three Stooges a classic and and the unfunny stooge the one of the unfunny stooges says you know that he wishes the witch would go to.
He double hockey sticks is what he said, and I and I just thought I was thinking about that this week. And I in light of you know teaching on hell, and I thought you know there. There's just a cultural lack of seriousness about hell, I mean what do people say you know how's it going my life is hell.
Well okay, tell me about your problems. I've been through hell. No you haven't. No you haven't. There's no such thing as heaven on earth, and there's no such thing as hell on earth whatever we think of as heaven is wrong.
It's not high enough and whatever we think about as hell is wrong because it's not low enough. It's not harsh enough. It's not brutal enough. There are songs. Somebody said you know my life is hell or whatever and I and I was reminded of a country song that says if you're going Through hell keep on moving.
And I'm going that's that's how I think people should think about it. You know my life is so difficult really. We'll just imagine eternity in hell, and I think all of a sudden your life is a whole lot easier.
But we started talking about hell Last week and one of the things we're going to get into this week. It's kind of the I I think why our society why our world has such a low view of hell. And it's a historical kind of decline in the way we view Scripture in the way we view God, and I think we're gonna see some of that this morning, but last week we began Talking about hell, and it's not you know it's not I haven't been feeling all warm and fuzzy while I've been Reading about it studying about it.
It is a terrible horrible Punishment and place of punishment and we talked about Several different things concerning it just kind of gave a little overview last week talked about some of the parables and whatnot but we're on page 40 and Number five just talking about the reality of hell and I Note here that when we turn to revelation the descriptions of this eternal punishment hell are very Explicit in other words.
It's not some kind of I You know just kind of vague idea that we really can't grasp let's look at Revelation 14 verses 9 to 11. That would not be in the concordance and who has that and would like to read it.
Go ahead Dave. Whatever the mark of the beast is I mean we could debate that at the moment.
It's really kind of immaterial. The point is not that it's when we think about the wrath of God Mixed in full strength. Well, how much dilution is full strength? You get the unvarnished pure undiluted full wrath of God and How long does it last verse 11 forever and ever no rest day and night.
It's not like you know, even in a prison camp or something like that. The guards have to sleep. God doesn't have to sleep. There is no rest day or night because God isn't slumbering. He isn't sleeping.
He is Constantly punishing those who defy him those who would worship other gods. Do you have something. I thought I saw a hand. It's those quick movements. Catch me off guard. I'm just a little jittery this morning.
Let's see eternal conscious punishment of believers. Absolutely, absolutely. So I just throw things on the floor, but if we must throw things on the floor eternal conscious punishment of unbelievers. Fully aware not Soul sleep nothing like that not annihilation ism.
With respect to the judgment of the wicked city of Babylon a large multitude in heaven cries. This is from Revelation 19 3. Hallelujah the smoke from her goes up forever and ever again this idea of an eternal punishment.
Again in Revelation after the final rebellion of Satan is crushed. We read the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur Where the beast and the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
This passage is also significant in connection with Matthew 25 41 in which unbelievers are sent into the eternal fire prepared for The devil and his angels. I mean we get this idea eternal fire forever and ever that it's Eternal number six.
The idea that there will be eternal conscious punishment of unbelievers Has been denied recently even by some evangelical theologians. It has previously been denied by Seventh-day Adventist Church and other various individuals throughout church history and Those who deny eternal conscious punishment often advocate annihilation ism which we talked about several weeks ago a few months ago a Teaching that after the wicked have suffered the penalty of God's wrath for a time.
God will Annihilate them cause them to cease to exist. Many who believe in annihilation ism also hold to the reality of final judgment punishment for sin. But they argue that after sinners have suffered for a certain period of time bearing the wrath of God against their sin.
They will cease to exist. The punishment therefore will be conscious, but it will not be eternal. I think that is explicitly Refuted by the passages even that we read in Revelation and in Matthew 25. It's forever.
It is eternal. Now we get into this morning's handout and I took a much of this from The first chapter of the book By Al Mohler. The whole book isn't written by him. It's kind of a Compendium of essays.
The first one is by Al Mohler. And he goes through and he just takes kind of a historical survey of the doctrine of hell and what has happened to it over The last Many centuries and it really has been kind of amazing.
To see is as we're gonna see this morning. This is Augustine from maybe about the 400s. This is what he said. Moreover, it is not folly to assume that eternal punishment signifies a fire lasting a long time While believing that eternal life or he says is it not folly?
Sorry. It's a question. Is it not folly to assume that eternal punishment signifies a fire lasting a long time while believing that eternal life is without End, what's he saying? That's somehow the idea hell comes to an end Doesn't really comport with the idea that heaven goes forever for Christ in the very same passage included both punishment and Life in one and the same sentence if both are eternal.
It follows necessarily that either both are to be taken as long-lasting but finite or both as endless and perpetual in other words You can't have eternal life meaning forever and ever and ever when we've been there ten thousand years.
We'll have no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun. You can't have that and yet say but I you know, I'd really like held to be I don't know three four weeks. Ten years ten thousand years if one is going to be eternal.
The other one is going to be eternal. And on the other hand We have origin and anytime you read now origin is spelled with an e by the way in case you're wondering did I misspell it? I do many things wrong, but I got that right Origin and anytime you're reading origin, you have to understand that 97 of what he says is wrong.
So, you know, I mean here's a guy who Castrated himself. I mean he was a very strange individual. So Origin denied that hell would be punitive that it would be punishment at least at the least in the end instead Hell would be purifying and thus temporal now.
What does that sound like hell is going to be purifying purgatory. I mean, you know talk about origins of Catholic doctrines no pun intended. I mean this this sounds like the seed of Roman Catholic purgatory.
This teaching was condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople now. Keeping in mind that every church council is absolutely perfect and that the church never changes its teaching. I always let what there was one in and I should bring this in because now I'm gonna like paraphrase it.
But anyway, it It was like a conference in Ireland and only good things come out of Ireland after all and this was about Late 500s and there was a council there and I'm forgetting the name of it but anyway, they said that basically anyone who says that Salvation is by any other means other than faith alone is to be considered a cursed No Council of Orange, thank you and and and so they basically If you read the Council of Orange you just go well this sounds like the Reformation and then you fast-forward on you know a thousand years and the council Trent comes along and Completely refused that I mean if you read the two documents side-by-side you'd go.
This cannot be the same church and yet the Church of Rome says we never change. We're always the same. Anyway, I digress. The Second Council of or as I was saying to Mike this week, you know because he does this often he takes excursus.
Excurses, what's the plural excursus? It just means you get off on a rabbit trail. And I digress again this teaching was was condemned to the Second Council of Constantinople. Listen, this is a quote from that Council if anyone says or thinks that the punishment of demons and impious men is Only temporary and will one day have an end and then a restoration will take place of demons and impious men.
Let him be Anathema let him be a curse. Let him be damned. So that was in response to origin Jonathan Edwards great British theologian who happened to reside in the States here. I say British because You know United States didn't exist yet.
Oh Sorry, Jonathan Edwards says this consider that if once you get into hell, you'll never get out. If you should unexpectedly one of these days drop in in there there would be no remedy. They that go there return no more consider how dreadful it will be to suffer such and I think that should be n because I didn't make typing mistakes and Extremity forever.
In other words such an extreme punishment. Forever, it is dreadful beyond expression to suffer it half an hour. Oh the misery the tribulation and anguish that is endured and we're gonna Go flashback here, but let's look a little more recently u .s. News World Report March 25th, 1991 by most accounts.
It's meaning the teaching about hell has all but disappeared from the pulpit rhetoric of Mainline Protestantism and it has fared only marginally better among evangelicals. Well, why is that? Don't want to hurt anybody's feelings.
Okay. You want people to come. I mean listen, you're gonna pack them in week after week after week, you know. You put out there on the sides, you know the fires of hell the fires of hell part 8. You know.
That is not you know, Pastor Mike's greatest hits, you know, and it's all you know, it's all about hell. That's that's not really what people want to hear. They want to hear you know. Practical stuff what's practical about hell?
Yeah, I would I would agree that Schuller Reverend Bob in our household Reverend Bob. Crystal Cathedral the hour of power. Yeah, moving right along. He said That their church their teaching emphasizes.
We're saved not just to avoid hell and this is exactly what he said. So it's in parentheses, but this is exactly what he said. Whatever that means and wherever that is but to become now listen to this and just try to Interpret it because I don't even know what it means but to become positive thinkers inspired to speak to seek God's will for our lives and Dream the divine dreams that God has planned for us.
And so I just asked the question what verse or verses speak of the divine dreams that God has planned for us. What is that? What's that? No man seeks after God. Yeah, that's only one problem there. I don't seek after God, but I mean what is a divine dream?
Pam says that the emerging Church talks about dreaming God's dream. You know finding God's dream of course we do have Churches that focus on dreams remaining remain nameless. But if we if we look for a verse that talked about that we would look in vain.
Now let's kind of do a proper development here. Historically al moeller says this so Sinian's and we're going to talk about What they believe in a second here. So Sinian's argued that eternal torment was an unjust penalty for temporal sins.
Eternal torment. Unjust for temporal sins. In other words, why would you be punished forever? For something that that's finite. That's something that happened in time and That the character of God would not allow such unjust punishments.
And I quote so I'll skip over it later. But I quote later on because this idea really takes roots and it even invades kind of society. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Gilbert and Sullivan show of hands.
Three of us, okay. They have a play called the Mikado in which there's a little refrain that says the punishment must fit the crime and that's kind of the idea. I mean we as We like that idea of justice, right?
I mean you don't go in for a traffic ticket and the judge says well you were eight miles over the speed limits. I find you guilty. The sentence is death. We wouldn't we would think that was a little out of control and Probably so but what does this say here eternal torment is an unjust penalty for a temporal sin?
In other words, you know, this is something that somebody did it was a slip-up. It was a mistake. It was eight miles over the speed limit. Why do you want to make a federal case out of it? Why are you gonna punish somebody forever?
What about that? Peggy Peggy says they're not rightly considering the holiness of God. She said if you have one glass of pure water and you just put one drop of poison in there. Pretty much infiltrates the whole cup.
And so what you know, would you drink it? Well, it's only got a little bit of strychnine in it. Okay, that's cool. I like a little almond aroma in my water. Anyway, I Guess I wouldn't be strychnine. What would that be?
That's cyanide. Thank you the poison expert up here.
Pastor Dave, yeah, if we break one part of the law, we've broken the entire law. It's not like.
And again that gets back to his justice we talked about his holiness so it's not like Our tendency as human beings as fallen depraved human beings is to kind of want to minimize what we've done. No child comes running up to their parents and saying this is what I've done and here are all the implications of that.
You know, I disobeyed your authority. I did it, you know and make a case against themselves. They don't do that and in the same kind of way we want to minimize as human beings. Our goal is to minimize the offense against the Holy God.
We want to minimize his holiness make it sound like our sins aren't so bad. We minimize the wrath of God all these kind of things. Listen to what the Sassanians believed for Wikipedia. The Sassanians believe that God's Omniscience was limited to what was a necessary truth in the future.
What would be or what would definitely happen and did not apply to what was a contingent truth? What might happen? They believe that if God knew every possible future human free will was impossible and rejected such a hard view of omniscience, so in other words.
They saw that some things would definitely have to come to pass or this is what God sees and so he knows that much. But he doesn't know all the contingencies that he's really not a god of the details because if he knew everything.
Then that would violate the concept of free will so they were willing to sort of bend things around so to preserve the notion of free will. Huh? What do you know? Still around today that that idea that concept because if God knows everything then Do we really have a free will?
Because we can't change what God knows. So Sinians held that Jesus Christ did not exist until he was conceived as a human being also. There there are others Aryans others who who would hold to that sort of thing, so obviously a pagan idea or One that is not biblical.
Muller and this is an email that pastor Mike sent out the other day that I just kind of slipped in here in his essay air-conditioning hell. Soon after the American Revolution. More organized forms of liberal theology emerged fueled by a sense of revolution and intellectual liberty.
Theologians and preachers began to question the doctrines of Orthodox Christianity claiming that the doctrines such as original sin total depravity define divine sovereignty and substitutionary atonement violated the moral census.
William Henry Ellery Channing an influential Unitarian Spoke for many in his generation when he described quote the shock given to my moral nature by the teachings of Orthodox Christianity that is you know that that's a shocking view, but it's given by a liberal, but I think we're gonna see some.
The development of I would say it's almost like the absorption of many liberal theological ideas. By those we would consider to be evangelicals. Hobbes who was not I Don't think a Christian, but listen what he said here.
Well known for his philosophy and writings. He said the fire prepared for the wicked is an everlasting fire. He grants that he says it is definitely an Everlasting fire like I. We're talking about the 18th century now.
Moeller says it was secular in spirit and destructive in effect. It proclaimed the autonomy of man's mind and his infinite capacity for progress and perfect ability. I should have included one word in there and that word would be Enlightenment the period of the Enlightenment this whole age is under the Enlightenment the Enlightenment.
It basically is the idea that the if I if I could shrink it all down to one sentence. I would say that this. The idea is that the man man is the center of the universe. It's oversimplification, but I think that's the inherent or the essential truth of that.
Hobbes says the fire prepared for the wicked is an everlasting fire. That is to say the estate wherein no man can be without torture. Both a body and mind after the resurrection shall last forever. And in that sense the fire shall be unquenchable in the torments everlasting.
But it cannot thence being Inferred that he who shall be. That he who shall be cast into that fire or be tormented with those torments Shall endure and resist them so as to be eternally burnt tortured and yet never destroyed nor die.
In other words. It can't really be forever that they're stuck in that Pit it can't be forever that they stay there. The fire might be Eternal but the punishment really can't be left out. That word there.
William Gladstone and I was trying to think of who he was the contemporary of said Movie where they sent the or set the slaves free in England. Who was that? Wilberforce, I think they were they were kind of same arrow.
Gladstone said this hell has been relegated to the far-off corners of the Christian mind there to sleep In the deep shadow as a thing needless in our enlightened and progressive era. We're smarter than that hell thing.
We've moved past that we don't need that anymore. That is so antiquated. That is so. Yeah, so yesterday Lewis Carroll who wrote. He wrote what? Allison Wonderland is correct. His name his original name was Charles.
Something-or-other. Dodgson. I didn't type in the something or other because I was tired of typing. He said this if the Bible really taught the doctrine of everlasting punishment and this is a quote I would give up the Bible.
He said verbal inspiration. Quote has been largely modified in these days. Again, this idea that we're just moved on we've moved on past that this whole idea that God's Word is inspired that it is Suitable for telling us everything we need to know about life.
And Godliness is just passe. FW Robertson one of the most popular Victorian area era preachers in Britain Said that his congregation had learned to smile at the idea of any eternal hell. How do you smile at that?
Well, did you are you just give me an amen back there? Are you? Okay. Well, what did well, let me ask you a question. Well, what are the psalmist say if he could ascend to the highest heaven? God would be there and if he could go to She'll he would be there.
I mean if God is on my presence Then is there some place where you can go where God isn't? What's that? He resides there. You mean he resides in hell, but he's not present there. I Don't know what that or maybe he visits hell every now and then kind of like, you know.
When I was working in the jail, sometimes I well, I mean I could tell a lot of stories about The way things weren't always done according to oil but You know, you're supposed to do a visual check of your dorm.
Every and you had four dorms, but every 30 minutes. So do you think that that's the idea that somehow, you know every so often God just has a little logbook. And he's gonna go to hell and go. Yep. Everybody here and president accounted for still suffering, you know.
Now I can go back to heaven, you know back to where I really want to be. Pam going to hell is Being face to face with God with no cross. I like that, I mean if Let's just let's just think about it this way.
I would I would say along those same lines that Hell is to be in the presence of God but to see none of the love none of the the tenderness none of the The Positive as well. I don't want to say positive negative but we when you're in hell you get the wrath you get the justice you get all those things that were poured out on Christ at the cross and those things will be completely absent from Heaven other thoughts on that.
Pastor Dave. Well, just even what you're saying there. Every knee will bow in every town will confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of.
God. How does that happen exactly? Well for us, you know, do we have to be forced to our knees in heaven? Are we gonna go? No. Will they I? Mean are they're going to joyfully fall to their knees and confess Jesus Christ as Lord.
I don't think it's gonna be joyfully Vida, yeah, he could see and and here he was in torment and he could see those in In Abraham's bosom in a better place. I don't know. I mean, it's hard to say exactly how that's gonna work I don't think.
I mean I hate to stretch what I what I believe is a parable too far because then You know logically if they can if the people in hell could see the people in heaven. Can the people in heaven see the people in hell and I we wouldn't see that anywhere.
So, I don't know if there's some kind of you know. But it's a one-way mirror, you know, you can only see. I don't know I don't know how that works but certainly the people in hell are going to Be in torment and part of that torment I think has to be the presence of God so Yes.
Yeah, there's a there's a chasm that cannot be crossed over. Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, I think that's clear. I think they could see it. Obviously, they can't get there and I would suspect and we're gonna see a quote from Spurgeon.
I don't know if I put it here this week or next week. I Think it's next week, but we're gonna see that. I I think there's a there's a reason.
That even if they wanted to get there, they couldn't get there Bruce. Yeah.
Yeah, so so in some sense and Don't know exactly how I mean I you know. Do they take shifts or are they do they just see it or I I don't know how that works exactly. But clearly they are the angels the lamb referring to Christ present there while they're receiving the fullness of the wrath of God and.
It's a horrible horrible picture and again, I think you know as we look at it and really I'm going to be talking about that next Sunday night. Going into 1st Timothy chapter 1 versus I think it's 12 to 17 just talking about Paul's it basically it is Paul's testimony and.
And I was just struck. I've just been studying this and just struck by the idea that here's Paul talking about the law. About how teachers of the law who want to be teachers don't really know what they're talking about it.
How they stretch manipulate fold spindle, you know destroy the law and he goes nevertheless the law is good and. Then he and then he starts talking about the grace of Christ to him and just struck me that what what happens in our lives is as we Contemplate the grace of God as we really understand where we were and in this case what we've been saved from.
When we understand the Torments of hell when we understand the wrath of God fully poured out on us in the presence of the angels and of the Lamb. When we understand how terrible that's going to be and we think but for the grace of God there we would go.
Well, a lot of things should happen to us. One is we should be renewed again in thinking about what a great salvation We've been graced with. What a great gospel we have to proclaim and how the message that we have is one that delivers from that.
I was just my friend Tony Miano was out doing some open-air preaching the other day at a place. I know and He was actually kind of I don't know if you want to call it assaulted but he was accosted definitely, which I thought was bad move on the assailants part, but.
But I was struck by a number of things one is, you know. These people who profess to be religious one woman said she had a degree in spirituality, whatever that means. You know one person said that they were a Christian and yet these are the people attacking him as he preaches the gospel.
And then a couple guys, I know I Don't know them. Well but they own a cigar store and they they profess to be Christians and. And I one of the things that always kind of struck me as odd as they sell lottery tickets there.
But anyway, they came out to Tony's rescue during this whole thing, but I digress I'm going on an excursus again, but there's definitely a sense in which Reflecting on hell thinking about hell reminds us again of the goodness of God.
Just like for Paul when he started talking about the law how that just reminded him not of the onerous burden of the law. But that from which he'd been delivered when he talked about false teachers knowing that he too he was once somebody who took the law expanded it stretched it beyond recognition and now he is a recipient of grace and he rejoices in that and I think of the same way when we think about hell we should rejoice not because We look forward to anyone going into hell but because this is what we've been delivered out of by the work of Christ.
Kind of a summary statement here by historian James Turner talking about hell and the development of it. God had to be a humanitarian in the view of the Victorian era Church. What does he mean by that God had to be a humanitarian?
He had to see things our way the Enlightenment they reformed God in the You know in the shape of their own image in their own minds eye they took God from his throne made him into sort of a really-good guy who would act like they would act if they didn't have any sin and They completely lowered him down.
Now we advance to the 20th century. And I say this sometimes and I think you guys think I'm joking, you know, if it comes out of Germany After the Reformation, it's probably bad Bultmann and I can summarize some of his thinking here the Bible presents an Essentially mythological picture of reality that is incompatible with the modern scientific worldview.
What does that mean? Bultmann basically said look as we learn more about the world as it really is the Bible becomes less and less accurate. You know, there's some there's some truth to the Bible. But you know We kind of have to really strain all the nonsense out.
To get to the good stuff and that's what he what he goes on to say here. He was trying to save what was worthwhile about Christianity while Demythologizing it meaning something that would speak to modern humanity's Anxiety about evil.
They know that evil exists something needs to be done about it. But we just can't have this. Holy God who punishes people forever and ever. Theologians such as notice the Germanic name Reinhold Niebuhr Saw hell in the impoverished ghettos of inner-city America.
They're living in squalor. They're living in hell. The liberation theologians found hell in the situation of political and economic powerlessness and Oppression experienced by millions around the world.
If you study 20th century Roman Catholicism in places like El Salvador Nicaragua. If you study in these types of places what you're gonna find is that the Roman Catholic Church was wedded to basically communism because you say how can that be.
Because they were more concerned with the economic Well-being of people than they were with the spiritual well-being of people. They equated the two to be in poverty was to be in Hell. They were going through hell their life was a living hell.
Because their thoughts of hell had become too human Vatican to Said this and this is a quote from the document those who throw Sorry through no fault of their own Do not know the gospel of Christ or his church notice that the gospel of Christ or his church and Of course, they mean the Roman Catholic Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere Here or hearts as we like to say here in America.
Once again, I must fire my typist and Moved by grace try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience. These two may achieve eternal salvation. What does that mean break it down for me?
What is that? What are they trying to say? I'm sorry, John. You can get to heaven without knowing Christ. And you know how you do that. You just do your best. Yeah, you're Gilligan's Island of Righteousness, I mean this is like look.
Not everybody can make the Olympic Games. Let's say you run the hundred meter dash. I almost said a hundred yard dash, but we don't do that anymore. Hundred meter dash, you know, the world record is a little less than ten seconds.
But let's say you run it in like two hours. If that's the best you could do that's good enough just give it your best shot, you know. If you're really trying God God will recognize that. Now what are some theological problems with this Vatican to statement?
Pastor Dave. Come on, can you be a little bit more gracious? Well, and that's.
Spot-on. I mean just think about what this actually suggests that grace is. It suggests that grace is kind of like this Coach, you know, you're the two-hour hundred meter guy and he he's just go. Come on.
Come on. You could do it Steve. Come on, buddy. Come on get across the line. That's not God that is not God and I mean some other issues here those who threw no fault of their own. They're guilty. They are guilty.
I Mean you want proof? I think I cite this later. But let's look at Romans 1. We haven't gone to the Bible for a while. Let's look at Romans 1. I'll tell you what you should you should know this passage Romans 1 Verse 18, you should know it backwards and forwards because is one of my favorites.
Verses 18 to 20. Go ahead Becky. Wait a minute now this says.
Through no no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his church. In other words, there is an excuse. But the scripture says there is no excuse. Why. Because. You're not without knowledge of God you look around at the world and you can see the hand of God.
You can see his handiwork. And what does it say that you do with that that you pursue it that you enjoy it that you think what a great loving? God I have look at all that. He's given me look at the order that exists in the world.
Look at the beauty of creation. No. Says they suppress that truth and unrighteousness. I was just talking with Janet on the way in this morning. You know what if you're talking to somebody who is committed to evolution.
Are they open to discussion about it. Are they open to the idea of a creator? Are they open to debating the nuances of? Evolution they might say they are but the truth is. They have that their presupposition is that God does not exist that he did not create anything that everything came out of nothing.
And it doesn't matter what you argue with regard to that. They are not going to bow their knee to anything else. The only thing that can pierce their heart is scripture so you can debate them all you want.
But you're gonna find out that only the Word of God can change their hearts. But again look at this Past the part where it says moved by grace trying their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience as if somehow man apart from God or maybe with the Assistance of kind of coach God, you know who's kind of urging you forward a little bit.
That man apart from God will seek after God that he will want to do his best that he'll know that. Because of his conscience what does his conscience do by the way Romans 2 tells us about the conscience.
What does it tell us? I'm sorry. It accuses and excuses us that we have the law of God written on our hearts in Romans chapter 2. We have that law of God in our hearts and it accuses us when we sin excuses us when we don't sin but it is not something that.
It is something that would be that can be used. I think by God to Change our minds about things, but it is not kind of this thing where? Okay, my conscience is afflicting me. I'm gonna try to get better and God will accept that we don't see that anywhere in the Bible Christianity is not get better do better run faster jump higher.
It is not that. It's not come on. Just get across the finish line. You can do it Vatican to that whole statement there is Another gospel and it also talks about a God not only as pastor Dave was saying who's kind of Hapless ineffective powerless to save.
But who also has not chosen a people for himself does not send preachers Missionaries Workers of the gospel to go forward and preach Christ. So the people can be saved. It's just kind of like well, you know what men are left to their own devices and sometimes by their own devices.
So little bootstraps, uh, they will make it into heaven because they will be good enough they can reach that level and Again, and again and again the Bible doesn't talk like that. And this is all of this this morning all these ideas.
Whether it's Bultman or whether it's Vatican to whoever it is. They're extra biblical. They're outside of the Bible. They set aside the Word of God because they don't like it. It's not Sufficient for them.
It doesn't work for them. It's outdated. It's outmoded or in this case the church knows better. I'm gonna close with this quote from Pope John Paul a second on page 43. He says hell is not a punishment imposed externally by God.
But the condition resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life. Hell is not a punishment imposed externally by God. What was that verse that we opened up with this morning? Revelation, I mean you read that you just go the full cup of unmixed Wrath of God, you know in the presence of the Lamb the angels all that stuff that is Imposed externally by God as opposed to what he says here, but the condition.
What is a condition by the way, I think it implies kind of a temporary situation Resulting from attitudes and actions which people adopt in this life. In other words, he says hell is Here on earth your life can be hell right now.
You may be going through hell and my message to you and the Bible's message to you is no you're not. No, you can't you have if that's how you think about hell. You have no idea what hell is really like.
Let's pray father what a terrible Topic it is to consider terrible in the sense That we would never want to face your wrath Lord, there are many in our community many in our Close circles of friends and family who if you did not intervene Lord would be Vessels of wrath Lord we would pray for the salvation of many Lord we would pray that you would make us those whose Feet would be called blessed as we go and proclaim the great tidings of good news that Jesus Christ has come To save sinners and to save them from a literal hell a literal place of torment That goes on forever and ever.
Father, would you make us? Winsome attractive Ambassadors for Christ evangelists in the best possible sense that we would live out and That we would proclaim the truth that Salvation is available. Lord, would you even correct our thinking in terms of how we view hell how we view life and Lord?
Would you just allow us cause us to cling? To the hope that lies in front of us and not to the difficulties that we suffer through in this life in Christ's name. We pray amen.