Full Service | Sunday, October 11, 2020

well good afternoon anthony creek it's good to have you guys in the building with us we're grateful to be together and for those of you tuning in on the stream we're so thankful that you've um joined us at 12 p.m in westland and we're excited to just hear from the word and worship the worship of god together and would you guys just make your way into the sanctuary right now um we're going to take some time to just come before him and give him our praise and if you guys can all stand with us and sing out [Music] and are you hurting and broken within overwhelmed by the weight of your sin jesus is calling [Music] have you come to the end of yourself jesus is [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] jesus christ [Music] foreign the precious blood of jesus christ [Music] jesus [Music] isn't he wonderful seeing hallelujah christ is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] you come to the altar the father's [Music] arms [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] foreign a great priest whose name is love whoever lives my name is [Music] [Music] then [Music] [Music] but satan helps me to despair [Music] can't see him [Music] is [Music] [Music] my perfect spotless righteousness [Music] the king of glory and the grace [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] lift up your voice [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] hallelujah [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all things [Music] hallelujah [Music] oh [Applause] hallelujah [Music] [Music] praise the spirit three in one o praise him o [Music] praise [Music] our father who went heaven reigns how great and mighty is your name your kingdom come your will be done [Music] and keep is hungry spirits fed may all our satisfaction be and you [Music] thank you thank you father you are only [Music] forgive us all our trespasses as we forgive the evil seeks to hide your faith [Music] help us thank you thank you [Music] oh thank you thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] what is is [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] so give us hope give us faith help us trust in your guidance from the depths of your grace you have richly provided thank you thank you father you are father you are lord it's true you're the one that takes care of all of our needs lord you're the one who's faithful and we are thankful lord i pray that your congregation this morning would be even more thankful as we consider who you are what you've done for us lord i'm thankful to be able to gather with the people here in this room but also those that are joining us online lord just thankful to be able to circle around you lord and your word and learn from scripture today i pray for lord just that receptive heart to receive your word as it is in truth not the word of men but your word i pray that we'd receive it as that lord and uh help it lord to be that which makes up our minds lord that we wouldn't try to prejudge your word but let your word judge us so we pray your blessing now as we open our bibles we pray opening of our hearts and our minds that we receive the truth in jesus name amen amen and why don't you go and have a seat make yourself comfy and welcome it's good to see everybody here it's glad to have you here in the sanctuary live and in color how many of you guys is this your first time back raise your hand since uh you know the oh that's great well welcome it's good to have you all back in in business uh hey a couple quick announcements that you should know about um number one you know it's that time of year where normally i think we'd be talking about a harvest festival but uh it is probably uh not the right thing to do perhaps cramming thousands and thousands of people here in the building which we do normally on that uh evening but we've got we're gonna do kind of an alternative uh which is gonna be fun we're teaming up with lee farms great bunch of folks over there at leaf farms and uh and we're gonna do what's called the hootenanny it's a fall family event where um basically all day from nine o'clock a.m to six o'clock p.m it's all acey creek um where you're just uh welcome to bring your family and there's gonna be some fun stuff to do um and you know we don't really celebrate halloween we celebrate jesus uh we like to be thankful for all the great things jesus has done and so that's what we do this time of year so we're gonna make that the focus uh just rejoicing in the lord and his provision so uh join us uh that's october 29th from 9 00 a.m to 6 p.m more details are there on the website if you want to uh check that out and also wednesday night we'll be continuing through the bible verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book right through the scripture we don't skip a verse and we're looking forward to finishing up the book of isaiah can you believe that we're going to finish up isaiah lord willing this wednesday night second longest book in the bible 66 chapters in all so uh we'll be doing that wednesday why don't you grab your bible we take our our sunday morning text from our upcoming wednesday night uh through the bible study so would you turn with me to isaiah chapter 66 isaiah 66 we're not only a look at the last chapter but we're going to kind of focus on the very last verse of the last chapter of the book of isaiah isaiah 66 for today you're going to love this topic and you're going to be sad you brought grandma this morning we're going to talk about hell you guys ready strap on your safety belts here we go the uh the the topic of the day is hell you're like great this is gonna be encouraging uh well it is encouraging if you actually uh know the the whole story so we're gonna kind of take a look at that um it starts here in isaiah chapter 66 verse 22. it says in isaiah 66 22 for as the new heavens and the new earth which i will make shall remain before me saith the lord so shall your seed and your your name remain and it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another from one sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the lord now pause for a second before we finish this up what's that say well there's a new heaven and a new earth that's coming if you've been studying with us here through this book of isaiah it's given us an opportunity to sort of rehearse the way the whole thing's going to shake out long term what's the future of this world look like and we've seen how i believe the next thing on the list is the rapture of the church where the church of jesus christ is taken up to heaven after that there's a seven year period called the tribulation period seven years where wrath a judgment the wrath of god poured out on a christ-rejecting sinful world seven years and then after that is christ's return the second coming of christ his first coming was when he was a babe born in bethlehem riding on a donkey into jerusalem there that was his first coming uh his second coming is going to be at the end of the tribulation what about the rapture not a coming that's where we go to meet the lord in the air first thessalonians 4 tells us but after the seven years of tribulation of wrath the second coming of christ and that brings in the 1000 year millennial kingdom uh the bible talks about and some people have different views on all all this really shakes out but um i believe that that's a literal thousand years where christ will rule and reign on this earth then at the end of that thousand years there's a strange thing that's gonna happen where satan will be loosed just for a short season after the thousand years to deceive many more people um but after that then all the people who've been rejecting god not not following after the lord a name is not written in the lamb's book of life they're all at the end of the millennial kingdom they'll be brought to a place called the great white throne judgment where they'll be judged according to their works for their sins and they will be thrown into a place called hell after that you say what could happen after that well what about the people that went to heaven and what happens after that well the bible says after the millennial kingdom the lord's going to prepare a new heaven and a new earth and we don't know much about that the lord just says i'm going to make a new heaven and a new earth and and and i think we can say and we'll all live happily ever after after that the lord's going to bless that but that's the sort of the high-level uh timeline of events so what isaiah is saying here is he's saying listen there's going to be at the end a new heaven and a new earth verse 22 and during that time all the flesh all people on the planet will come to worship the lord the way it's supposed to be it's going to be a good time when there's a new heaven and a new earth okay great breath that's what happens for the believer heaven salvation new heaven new earth uh worshiping the lord it's gonna be glorious but what about the unsaved well that's the scary part that's the horrifying part and it's the one that's mentioned here in verse 24 and it's how isaiah ends his book in kind of a brutal way check it out verse 24 and they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me for their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh boy that's not a very nice way to end your book isaiah we were doing so good with the new heaven and the new earth why don't we just leave it there and the answer is because hell is real it's funny how there's been movements heaven is real and that's a great truth but in some ways a greater truth is hell is real i mean i'm so thankful for heaven but i'm more thankful for heaven because i also believe that hell is real and here's the problem um there's a lot of people that don't take this isaiah chapter 66 verses 23-24 they don't really take it at face value of really what it what it's saying these little verses here are telling us there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth but isaiah verse 24 of chapter 66 is saying but hell is real and and there's a language here that is kind of weird you might say what's this worm thing what is isaiah saying when he says the worm shall not die and the fire shall not be quenched well the the jewish person of that day it was an idiom that they would say that sounds weird to us but it has to do with your inner man of your soul the part of you that thinks and feels it's like hardware and software the hardware is your body you know your bones and your skin and the tissue that makes up your brain but the software there's a part of you that's that thinks and feels and that's your soul and when it says here in isaiah when he says the worm shall not die it's talking about your inner person will not die did you know that the bible speaks of two resurrections there's eternal resurrection unto life and there's an eternal resurrection unto death um which one are you a part of see this is where this the discussion the topic of hell is of real importance and therein lies a problem there's three points i'd like to make about hell and it gives us an opportunity to talk about hell the first one is the problem when we talk about hell as christians we have a big problem today what's the problem well it's people's view on hell and what it really is and what it isn't and there's been a lot of i think misunderstanding again i don't claim to be the expert on this i i believe the bible gives us everything we need to know about hell um the first thing you need to know is it's real that's one of the things i think that's been sort of purported these last days that hell is not even real that it's a made-up thing of humanity but god wouldn't create a place called hell but he did the bible says he did and we even know why he did it the bible tells us all the details we went on so what's the problem well the first thing is i think we our culture we've made sort of a joke out of hell and out of satan himself you know it's it's a it's sort of a laughing matter in fact we diminish you know this idea of hell and the reality of hell by even using the word hell as sort of a derogatory term of a cuss word kind of thing um and and it's it's really it's kind of undermined the notion if hell is real if i'm satan i'd want to make people not really think hell's that big a deal so i'd i'd make it a bi word where people say man it's hotter than hell in here listen as your pastor no it's not hell is really going to be well torturously well i'm i get ahead of myself the problem is we've sort of made a joke out of it uh by the way i do kind of like this this one the joke of uh that i saw uh recently this one oh we got rid of the hot coals years ago and switched them to lego pieces so now he's got to walk barefoot on lego pieces uh or or maybe you think of satan as sort of a little guy in red pajamas like the emperor's new groove he's up on your shoulder with a pitchfork that that's satan or you can buy your children this little cuddly play toy this little uh fuzzy devil um uh and and that's sort of what we've done with this idea of satan and else becoming just the little red guy in pink pajamas running around with a pitchfork now if you ask me that's mission accomplished for satan because if people don't believe that hell exists or that it's bad or that it's real it makes people sort of cavalier about their future and eternity and and all that really matters if hell is real if what the bible says about hell is true you and i we should be feverishly concerned about hell and are we going to have anything to do with it and i hope that you understand i'm not just trying to freak you out for the sake of freaking out but i do want to freak you out i do think people should be afraid of hell if there's ever anything in the universe a person should be afraid of it's it's basically this concept of hell the problem is no one wants to believe in hell anymore the rationalist tries to say intellectually they sort of convince themselves you know how could a god of love uh you know send anyone to hell you know but the truth is hell it's not god sending people there i hope you know that but god allowing people to have their way when a person goes to hell it's god saying you want to go to hell i guess you really can if you want to it's not why he made it by the way god did not make his this place called hell for people to go there that's not why he did it i'll show you why he did it in a few minutes um you know but the truth is every one of us in this room and watching online is in one of two categories category number one those who say thy will be done and those who say my will be done the person who says lord i want to follow you and your plan and your purpose well that person is really going to be headed to heaven but the person says nope my will i want it my way and i'm the one who decides my destiny well the bible says that person is headed for hell well brett you're sounding like a fire and brimstone preacher talking about hell and stuff like that we don't like that um you know what's interesting about going verse by verse through the bible is it forces you to talk about things you know there's a lot of churches today you'll never hear a sermon about hell anymore joel osteen maybe you've heard of him one of the biggest churches in america he never talks about hell and he'll he'll never talk about how you got to repent of your sin and otherwise there's hell in store and but he with his nice smiley face and probably a nice guy and a nice mullet man he's just there telling you uh how you're going to live victoriously and you need jesus so you can have victory in your life but that's not the gospel the gospel of jesus christ is to say you're either going to go to hell or not and the gospel is the only way you don't go to hell and the problem is we've watered down the message that christianity means you're going to be healthy wealthy and wise if you read christian books you think it's all about your dating life being a christian or maybe your financial portfolio will be rich if you're a christian it's not what christianity is about christianity is about humanity's future is to go to hell because we've all sinned we've all fallen short of the glory of god no one is righteous not even one the bible says and that's why you and i need an answer we need the answer to keep you and me and us out of hell right you're sounding this is i brought graham on it and now i'm really bummed out oh i haven't even got it got started um speaking of fire and brimstone have you ever heard of this guy uh jonathan edwards um preached this sermon this little pamphlet was actually handed out shortly after he preached the sermon but edwards was considered and is considered one of the greatest american theologians in the united states history in the 1700s edwards was was brilliant and at the age of six years old this guy learned uh complete and perfect latin you know the the academic language of latin he entered yale when he was at the ripe old age of 13 and graduated from yale at the age of 15. it would be shortly after that he was ordained at the age of 19 as a minister and then taught as a professor at yale by the age of 20. but later he became the president of princeton harvard granted him both bachelor and master's degrees on the same day the guy was brilliant but he was best known and famous for maybe what could be argued as one of the most famous sermons for sure in american history and it's this sermon called sinners in the hands of an angry god does that sound like a fire and brimstone sermon well it was but see that was uncharacteristic of this guy uh jonathan edwards he preached the sermon sunday july 8 1741 while he was ministering in a tiny little tiny little church uh in connecticut by the way a group of women were praying in that region for revival in their land because things were bad things weren't bad in 19 or 1741. well if you know your american history did you know that if you know your american history some of the most evil sinful days of our nation or even before we were a nation the history of this america um was the worst at the early 1700s did you know that like you know some people think we must be the worst today with all our things that we're doing and sinful stuff that the world's into well the early 1700s were horrible and all you got to do is kind of read the history of the 1700s so this preacher comes along and he preaches this sermon and and you know when as edward he rose to speak that morning he quietly announced that his text would be deuteronomy chapter 32 35 that says their foot shall slide in due time the idea of the wicked their foot is slipping toward hell and he preached this kind of horrific scary sermon now what's interesting even though it sounds very fire and brimstone um for this uh you know he he was famously he'd written and there were thousands of sermons you can read of edwards and he wasn't normally this this fiery but even when he delivered this um he spoke simply and softly he didn't wave his arms or jester you know or yell or any pound the pulpit he didn't do that he just quietly spoken and he he said that the unsaved the sinner he said you are hanging over the fire of hell like a spider on the web and then he then he continued he said oh sinner consider your fateful danger uh he said the unconverted are now walking over the very pit of hell on a rotten covering and there are innumerable places where this covering is so weak that it will not bear your weight and the the places are not seen he said now by his t as he was teaching about hell and everybody slipping into hell you could hear cries in the congregation people started weeping uh of just kind of feeling convicted of their sins and he even had to pause and appeal for calm calm down everybody and then he concluded he said let everyone that is outside of christ now awake from the wrath to come the wrath of the almighty god undoubtedly hanging over the great part of this congregation he said let us all fly out of sodom well as it turns out um the people that were there they write about it they said there were strong farmer men you know clinging to the pews like they were slipping into hell they were like grabbing on others were crying uncontrollably in the sanctuary and and um and and as it turns out by the end of the day they started going home and telling everybody their neighbors about the sermon by the end of the day more than 500 people repented of their sins and confessed christ as their savior it would shortly be after that they took these pamphlets and started passing them around and the americas you know with all the people in the colonies and what have you and thousands and thousands of people converted to christ because of this one sermon on hell it was called by the way the great awakening in america and it was at that point in the mid 1700s that there was a real revival and a return to christ and most attribute it to this single sermon on hell from jonathan edwards you know we we look at our ancient guys you know the 1776 founders of this nation the signing of the declaration the constitution um the bill of rights and we see sort of a the fingerprints of god on all that stuff but you have to understand there was something that brought those men to a godly perspective our nation was much more dialed in at that point than they were in 1741. the reason i share that with you is i believe the united states we need another awakening just like they had back in 1741 we need that today as we have pretty much you know embraced a very godless society in a godless world now some of you might say well brett i don't know if i like people who preach on hell did you know that one of the most loving compassionate kind-hearted people that ever walked this earth liked to talk about hell he did it a lot his name jesus christ the messiah did you know that jesus preached on hell more than he talked about heaven check it out don't don't just take my word for it but if you read the gospel narratives you see jesus talking about all all the time in fact once you turn with me to mark chapter nine flip over keep your finger at isaiah and go over there to mark chapter 9 and i want to show you one of these places where jesus preached and was a scary one and he actually even is going to quote isaiah 66 24 the text that we've chosen for our topic today jesus is going to quote that now here's an assignment and this is a trick question how many times is jesus going to quote this in the text that i'm about to read how many times is he going to quote isaiah 66 24 let's take a look it says here in isa pardon me mark 9 verse 42 is where we'll pick it up red letters where jesus was preaching in mark 9 42 it says and whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me it is better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck that he were cast into the sea does that sound like a bad day having a millstone what's a millstone look like well jesus said this in a place called capernaum and in capernaum in the new testament did you know what they were famous for if sort of beaverton is famous for nike and if hillsborough is famous for intel capernaum was famous for millstones when they dug up capernaum archaeologically they found hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millstones in fact i got a picture of one of these millstones uh there from capernaum last time we were here and that stone that's on the top is the round part that they would grind over that center piece pouring the corn in and it would grind it to powder and what have you but jesus was standing there probably pointing to millstone saying it'd be better if you'd have one of these millstones tied around your neck and have you thrown into the sea than to offend one of these little ones and by the way i'm so deeply concerned about our culture right now because we're offending little ones all the time we're doing it with our curriculum in our public schools it's crazy what we're teaching our kids we're offending little children with curriculum today and we can go on and on the things we're doing for little children but what about abortion abortion is offensive to a little one who's unborn well brett i don't believe it's a person i believe it's a piece of fetal tissue well that's not being honest look at the scans look at the little life that's within the mother's womb that can kick and interact with the mom the prenatal influence that's going on and you know these people that just say it's a ball of tissue they're not being honest god the reason we christians are pro-life is because god in his word says that that's a person being formed in the mother's womb it's not the mother's body it's a whole other person that god calls a person that's why we have a problem when a woman says it's my body you can't say anything about it no it's another life that you were bringing into the world but if if somebody wants to take that life we call that murder so we're pro-life well i'm pro-choice no that's just a nice way of saying pro-death pro-death of a little child that's horrible you're talking about hell now you're talking an abortion well the thing is here's jesus saying it's better for a person to have a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into the sea than to offend one of these little ones i think there's going to be a lot of people who have to answer for all the the millions of aborted children but it only jesus is only getting warmed up here in mark he goes on by the way and and says this as we keep reading in verse 43 and if thy hand offend thee cut it off it is better for them to enter into life maimed than having two hands and go into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched excuse me verse 45 excuse me and if thy foot offend thee cut it off it is better for thee to enter into enter halt or lame into life than having two feet to be cast into hell and into the fire that never shall be quenched where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched and if thy eye offend thee pluck it out it is better for them to enter into the kingdom with one eye the kingdom of god with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hellfire where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched question how many times did jesus quote isaiah chapter 66 verse 24 three times now some of you are not so confident that you're like uh i only saw one and that's if you have the niv the nearly inspired version no just kidding i'm messing with you niv is a great translation of the bible but why did the niv leave those out in fact you're missing verses in your niv bible like for example look up um you know mark you know chapter 9 verse 44. go ahead you niv people um do you find it it's there's no verse 44 there if you have an niv most of yours um there's also not a verse 46 it goes uh verse 43 verse 45 verse 47 verse 48. why is that the case don't be freaked out by this it's okay don't be mad at your niv bible um here's what it is the king james text the those that translated in 1611 the king james bible used a different manuscript from the greek language to translate theirs where the niv used a different transl or a different manuscript to translate an niv and he said but that bothers me that there's a difference here's the good news in all the real translations of the bible they're translations in all the real translations you're still going to get the gospel and everything you need to know for solid doctrine and a good legitimate translation like new american standard the niv the esv there's good ones now there's fake ones there's fake translation so-called and that's where like colts will write their own version of the bible watch out for those for example i'll name them new world translation run for your life that's that's some boys in brooklyn that work for the watchtower society that sort of re-translated the bible to fit their weird religion called jehovah's witness but you're just being okay abortion jehovah's witness hell you're just hitting on all cylinders today i'm just being honest with you so be careful but the reason that's that's not in all three mentions in the niv is because it wasn't in that manuscript that was used um but it wasn't the one that the king james guys used either way jesus quoted at least once probably three times he quoted isaiah 66 verse 24 saying it'd be better for you to cut your hand off and enter into eternal life with just one hand than to go to hell with two hands where the worm doesn't die and the fire does not there's not quenched where he quotes from isaiah speaking of hell in other words he's saying better now now some of you are saying brother are you talking about how we ought to cut off our hands and our feet and poke out our eyeball um does anybody remember if you're old enough little house in the prairie the episode where carolyn ingles she got this fever and she had this eye something going on with her eye where she was totally hallucinating remember this and she opens her bible and reads mark chapter nine where she's supposed to cut out her eyeball with a knife and she takes it literally and so she gets her knife and she's like shh get ready to cut her eye this was little house on the prairie like this is like horror show you know you know you're supposed to be a family show now thank the lord charles showed up just in time just before she sticks the knife and pokes her eye out charles comes up and saves her and gets the fever to go down and then she comes to her senses but but pastor brett what is the bible saying here why should you poke your eye out or cut off your hand it's not a literal thing that you're supposed to do it's something that jesus is using drastic language to say this it would be better for you to enter into you know heaven with one eye than to go to hell with two eyes uh if your eye is that it's talking about what you see your hand speaks of that what you do your foot speaks of where you're going any place you're going what you're doing what you're seeing if it's going to lead you to hell it you've got to deal drastically with that that's what jesus is saying deal drastically with your sin and and make sure that you're not messing around because nobody should go where the worm doesn't die that's your soul and the fire is not quenched eternal torment in hell jesus was preaching here about hell that's what's going on so that's why i think we got to be careful when people make a joke out of hell or try to diminish hell by the way one of the things people try to argue uh today you'll hear people say is hell is a place of annihilation if you go to hell uh you'll just be destroyed never to cease or never to uh live again you just cease to exist in all the cosmos that's something that some people do and they take that from a phrase in the bible that says it's everlasting destruction and so that's the kind of language they use but i'm going to show you today that the bible doesn't really use that language as much as it uses language of eternal torment and i'll show you what i mean there but to reject the dualistic outcome of heaven or hell is to really reject what the bible says and i believe it misrepresents who christ really is and what god says about sin and salvation death and hell or eternal life to say there's no hell leaves gaping holes in any pretense to understand the justice of god or the righteousness of god to say there's no hell is to say that god is condoning a rebellious sinful world and it's no big deal to say there's no hell um says that you know god doesn't care that people have been murdered and beaten and raped and killed and pillaged and plundered throughout the history of the ages and god's just indifferent toward that if you don't believe there's punishment of death in hell is to say that god has no justice and no sense of right or wrong it's important for god's people to acknowledge what god says there's a wrath that's being stored up from god to be poured out upon a christ-rejecting sinful world and that's what the bible teaches hell is real and i believe hell while some people try to rationalize well if god is love then he wouldn't send people to hell hell is the ultimate expression of a just creator um you know i don't believe the lord wants to send people to hell that's one thing you should know if you read what peter writes in his epistle he says god would that none should perish but that everyone would have eternal life that's what the bible says um ezekiel 33 11 the lord says i take no pleasure in the death of the wicked and here's the lord who lovingly wants to see the whole world save for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever that's anyone who believes in me will not perish but have everlasting life that's the opposite of hell everlasting death that's hell everlasting life that's heaven and so jesus taught about this and uh and man how thankful i am for uh for the fact that there is heaven and hell and i'll show you more about that now who goes to hell let's talk about the number point number two the people who are the the people that are going to go to hell is that something we should be concerned about who goes to hell i think it's important um and there's really two separate sort of groups we could say that goes to hell first of all the devil and his angels go goes to hell um i hope you understand that and you can jot down this scripture uh that kind of explains this and this tells us also why god created hell it's matthew chapter 25 verse 41 it says and these are red letters again jesus preaching once again on hell he says then shall he say unto them on the left hand depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels jesus is telling us why why hell was prepared or invented or created it was a place where the devil and his angels would be placed for all of eternity in everlasting fire that's matthew 25 verse 41. but you know when you're by the pool on the summer day and about your friends start to push you in you may know you're going in but do you want to go in alone all your buddies do you want them just have a clean free shot just push you in the pool and have them all laugh or are you going to be like me and take as many of them as you can with you man if my buddies are going to push me in the pool i'm taking i'm going to grab hair and shirts and toes and whatever i can find to make sure that as many of them go in with me i believe that's what satan wants to do i believe satan is not stupid and he knows that he's doomed to hell but one of the things i think he's alive and well wanting to do as he's called the prince of this world right now the god of this world right now he's called that in the bible i believe he wants to drag as many people into hell with them and the problem the sad truth is he's going to be certainly successful with that who else goes to hell number two on our list is people whose names are not written in the book of life you see the narrative is clear and i should say it's clear it's a little confusing if you don't read your whole bible and kind of put it all together but if you've spent some of your life reading the bible this all starts to come pretty clear and i want to help help us see this as clearly as possible how do we know people are going to go to this place called hell well you can keep your finger and isaiah still if you want and go with me to revelation chapter 20 and 21. um there's a narrative of how hell the final place of weeping wailing gnashing of teeth outer darkness but eternal fire and burning loneliness but eve like just the evil place that hell is um who goes there well let's read from revelation chapter 20. i already told you the timeline remember it's all going to come down at the end of the thousand years called the millennial kingdom and we'll pick it up in revelation chapter 20 verse 7. it says in revelation 20 verse 7 it says and when the thousand years are expired satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth gog and magog to gather them together to battle to number the number of whom is this the sand of the sea now for you prophecy buffs that's not the gog and magog invasion of ezekiel 38 different whole different deal there verse nine so they went up to the breadth of the earth encompassed the camp of the saints around or about and the beloved city which is jerusalem and fire came down from god out of heaven and devoured them and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone whether where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever does that sound like annihilation to you no they're going to be tormented night and day forever and ever they'll be cognizant uh conscious uh the they're gonna be aware um that's uh the horrifying part of hell it's eternal torment is what it's called well let's keep reading verse 11. and i saw a great white throne in him that sat on it whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them there's a great white throne and there's people that are standing there that they'd love to run and flee but there's nowhere for them to go they're stuck at this place called the great white throne and verse 12 i saw the dead small and great stand before god and the books were opened and another book was opened which was the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things written in their books according to their works and the sea another way of saying in the book of revelation the nations of the world gave up the dead which were in it and the death 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 and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire now this is where some people get kind of confused um and we'll clear up these confusions here in a second but you need to understand after satan at the end of the millennial kingdom deceives more people it's at that point he and his fallen angels will be thrown into the final place we know as hell shortly thereafter there's the great white throne judgment where all people who've ever rejected jesus the messiah who've ever rejected god in this plan of salvation and they're the ones who are saying not you know my thy will be done but my will be done the people we talked about earlier who don't want anything to do with god they will stand before god and be judged according to their works by the way this is where confusion comes where people think i go to heaven if i have good works and you go to hell if you have bad works it's not the way it works we all have bad works we've all fallen short we've all sinned we all if you put it on the scales we'd lose that one no matter who you are the difference between the saved and the unsaved if you're saved you're not going to get to heaven by your good works you're going to get to heaven by his grace undeserved unearned favor that god says i'll give it to you it's free for the taking if you accept christ you get to go to heaven because of him not because of you but if you go to hell that's because of you not of him a person who stands before the great white throne judgment and says i'm a good person i gave to the united way and i paid my taxes and i didn't you know put my garbage on the neighbor's lawn that's not going to help you the bible says we've all sinned so much that even our things that we don't even think are sin are sinful and if you want to stand before god and gamble and say i think my righteousness is going to save me from from the fire of el the bible says no one's going to be saved unless you go through jesus christ who's the perfect one who was the way the truth the life the savior of the world so this great white throne judgment these are people whose names are not written in the book of life they're people that say i reject god i reject the cross of jesus christ i'm going to do it by myself you're going to go with frank sinatra and say i'll do it by way but that's only going to lead to this place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth eternal fire and torment so who goes to hell the unbeliever the unrepentant the person who doesn't accept christ and ask for forgiveness of their sins they're on their own that's the place uh the people so he got number one the problem nobody believes in hell anymore you got the people the devil and his fallen angels and people who've rejected christ number three let's talk about the actual place hell and here's where a lot of confusion lies because here's how this shakes out the bible has a bunch of different words if you go back to the original language of the greek new testament or the hebrew old testament there's a bunch of different words for the word hell in english we just clumsily say it's like hell it's like the word love there's only one word for us in our language of love and so we use it very clumsily the bible has four maybe five uh good words for the word love um when i say i love my wife that means something but i also could say i love hot fudge sundaes is that the same love well no yeah i mean the love for your wives hopefully is a little different than the love for hot fudge sundae i love puppies or i love this or that or i love you you know you you could you could even say to a friend man i love you but that's a different kind of in the greek there's the you know uh eros love which is like an erotic love there's phileo love which is kind of a brotherly kind of love there's agape love i mean we can talk about all these different loves but it's it's different words in the original language same thing with the word hell we use the word hell but there's a bunch of different words let me show you some of those words number one you can jot it down sheol there's a there's a word that is used in the bible all the time called sheol and when that word is used it's it's it's often translated as word hell but technically the definition of the word sheol is better translated as the grave six feet under in a hole in the ground in a box pushing up daisies that's that's really what the word sheol means but the word sheol is often coupled with the word hades and that's the second word you should jot down sometimes they're the phrase sheol and hades they're used together it's when you die and get put under the ground but then your soul goes to hades if you're an unbeliever now is hades hell well there's kind of a yes and no here but i'm gonna say no because it's a different place we all think of hell as this one place and there is a final place that's called hell and we'll get to that in a minute but hades might be something that if you haven't read your bible and don't know the details you might have missed the memo on this one there's a place that the bible speaks of that's sort of hades it's it's like a temporary hell and uh it's the whole thing is called abraham's bosom and there's two sides of abraham's bosom one side is called paradise and the other side is called hell brett you're making this stuff up nope read luke chapter 16 this is where jesus explains this remember there's the rich guy who's living sumptuously pigging out has a rich table and he's got a purple robe and living large you know mr bling but then there's the homeless guy that's got scabs and wounds all over his body and he's just lying at the foot of the guy's table just trying to get a scrap from his table and the dogs are coming and licking on his wounds it's a pretty horrible picture but that's the picture jesus tells in luke 16. well those two guys lazarus who's the poor guy and then the rich dude they both die they both go to abraham's bosom one the one guy the poor guy who's got the scabs of the wounds he ends up going to paradise side the good side but the rich guy he ends up in the hades side of abraham's bosom and if you recall the guy is tormented the rich guy is tormented in that place let me read to you what he says there and again jot it down luke 16 and i'm going to pick it up in the story in verse 20 23 and it says um the man was uh put in hell is the word there and the greek word is hades and he lifted up his eyes being in torment he saw abraham and lazarus so far off in abraham's bosom and so this rich guy cries to abraham have mercy on me and let lazarus come that he may dip his finger in water and dip and put the tip of his finger on my on my tongue to cool the tongue he says for i am tormented in this flame but abraham said son remember that thou in thy lifetime received the good things you had but lazarus evil things but now he has comforted and you are tormented all this beside there's a great it says between us there's a great gulf that's fixed a wall and he says so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot so the guy cries and said well then if if if he can't come and give me a dip of water then go and tell my send lazarus to go tell my brothers i have five brothers so that they don't come to this place of torment go tell them abraham says they have moses and the prophets let them hear them what's moses and the prophets well in those days of jesus time to say moses and the prophets the law and the prophets that's the bible the jewish hebrew bible the old testament he's saying the old testament has told you of this and you should have read about this and your brothers need to read about this from the bible and he says no abraham if one goes from the dead and tells them they'll believe and repent and abraham said if they hear that if they hear not moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded even though rose from the dead jesus tells this story about these two guys and one goes to hades and one goes to paradise by the way in this time period and before that in the old testament when a person died where did they go well the answers from this luke 16 is pretty clear if you were a believer in god you'd go to paradise the one side of abraham's bosom if you were a unbeliever and a sinner you'd go to the haiti side now question what about you when you die well the story's a little different right now and i'll tell you why jesus did something he died on the cross was buried and rose from the grave and ascended into heaven that changed some of the stuff part of abraham's bosom has been put out of business no more open what's what part of that it's remember when jesus died on the cross he with the thief next to him the thief that believed remember what he said today you will be with me where in heaven no in paradise that's a different place it's the good side of abraham's prison well jesus went to paradise abraham was with him yes and he did there to do something that i'll show you here in a second he went there with a real purpose but the idea is when you died before jesus died on the cross when you died you would either go to hades or paradise that was the way it worked out but after jesus died on the cross he went to paradise with the thief on the cross but he did something there that ephesians tells us and there's other places in the bible that talks about this too but ephesians jot this down in your notes ephesians chapter 4 verses 8 through 9 it says this it says whereofs he saith when he ascended on high speaking of jesus he led captivity captive now that's a king james way of saying people that were in captivity in a certain place he set them free who did he set free he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men now verse 9 says he that ascended into heaven jesus what is it but he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above the heavens that he might fill all things huh what does the bible tell us here's how this shakes out when jesus died on the cross he first descended and he went into abraham's bosom where the people in paradise were old testament saints along with the thief on the cross that died next to him all those people were there and he led them free he set them free from paradise and brought them to a place that we would now think of as heaven eternity with christ so paradise was shut down heaven's up and running now and that's good news if you die as a believer today i believe you go straight to heaven now some of you went to churches that taught about soul sleep don't send me letters on this i've already got hundreds of them um from people that are seventh-day adventists or others that say soul sleep is the only truth in the bible nope i believe when you die you are not in a soul sleep until the resurrection and there's evidence of that like the thief on the cross jesus didn't say today with me today you shall fall asleep for a couple thousand years until the resurrection no he said today you'll be with me in paradise and then he led those people into heaven to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord um you know uh david when he talked about his his little child that died remember the baby he said i will be with you soon when i die i will be with you not in some soul sleep state that's just i think something that people have come up with uh for their to match their other doctrines so when you die as a christian today i believe you are one who goes straight to heaven to be with the lord and with all those who are in heaven and i won't even start on the eternal now and time and space and all that and who's going to be in heaven when you get there we're not going to go there but the idea is when you die as a christian you go to heaven today but this is where it gets a little weird if you die today as an unbeliever you go to this place called hades to this day it's that bad side of abraham's bosom a place where there's you know like luke 16 said the guy said it's torment my my tongue is you know i need water and i'm this tormenting heat it's it's really like a little place called hades that's kind of like hell that's why people get confused about these things so you've got sheol you've got hades number four word you come across as far as hell translated and i'll do this one really quickly tartarus second peter chapter two verse four i'll read it to you it says for god spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down into hell greek word tartarus and delivered them into chains and darkness reserved unto judgment and spared not the world but saved noah and the eighth person um who who are these demons that were particularly disobedient you got to read genesis 6 to hear that story there was a bunch of demons that did some stuff that was extremely bad and the lord said because you guys have done this you're being locked away in a place called tartarus and they're going to be loosed by the way again someday at the tribulation period there's going to be some demons that were particularly bad that are going to be released again and that's a place called tartarus again i'm not going to spend a lot of time on that one but you bible prophecy buffs should look into that one that one's strange the fourth word here that is translated from the word you know or to the word hell is the word gehenna now let me just say this when we all traditionally talk about hell that's an everlasting place of fire and brimstone and lake of fire that's gehenna that's the one we traditionally think of if you didn't know about hades and you thought we were always just generally talking about hell this is the hell we're thinking of most of the time gehenna matthew chapter 23 uh verse 33 sort of gives us a little bit of that when we when we look at the word ghana it's translated let me just read this to you matthew 3 33 it says you serpents you generation of vipers how can you escape the damnation of gehenna that's what jesus said and when we first read that word ghana it starts to make sense of the confusion when i read to you the revelation 20 account do you remember when we were reading in revelation chapter 20 talking about how you know death and hell will be cast into the lake of fire it's almost like when you read the english translation of revelation 26 and hell in hell was cast into hell and you're like i don't get it but what what the greek new testament says when you read it says and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire it's saying that after the the great white throne judgment sheol and hades is the words used there will be cast into gehenna are you starting to see what's happening here right now if you're not a believer you go to hades but after the thousand-year millennial reign there's going to be people that'll be brought out of hades out of death in hell hades and shul they'll be put before the lord on a great white throne judgment and judged according to their deeds which are sinful and when their names are not found in the book of life the final destination will be genna where they're cast with satan and his fallen angels into the eternal place called ghana which is an eternal place of torment um let me show you some scriptures real fast here about ghana and you can jot these down if you want to um you guys that are at home you can pause if i'm going too fast but tough if you're here uh everlasting punishment matthew chapter 25 verse 46 it's not everlasting annihilation it's everlasting punishment also gehenna is described in the bible the greek word used there eternal condemnation mark 3 29 aren't you glad that there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus hell is a place of eternal condemnation um it's also eternal judgment hebrews chapter 6 verse 2 and this one eternal destruction now some people say see this is annihilation you're destroyed forever and you cease to exist i believe that the other descriptions of gehenna don't fall in line with this first thessalonians 1 9 and so the idea is a life destroyed that once was viable is now destroyed the uh the destruction of one's life uh man we can keep going eternal fire uh matthew 18 8 through 9 matthew 20 5 41 also that gehenna is an unquenchable fire and that fits with our isaiah 66 scripture where the the fire will not be quenched it's it's a eternal fire and also eternal torment uh revelation 19 20 revelation 20 10. um all of these describe this place called genna you will not be playing cards with your buddies drinking beer in gehenna that's the cartoon version of hell you're not going to be stumbling on legos it's a place of outer darkness total isolation you won't be with anyone except for your own condemnation it's like the most horrible thing how could god send people to hell a place like this well i don't remember where i got this this statement i got it years and years ago and i wrote it in my notes but i didn't say who it was so whoever said this good for them but think think of this with me hell is the chosen place of the person who loves self more than god who loves sin more than his savior who loves this world more than god's world judgment is that moment when god looks at the rebellious and says your choice will be honored do you see that god's not sending people to hell we send ourselves there by our own actions by our own behaviors and by us living a life of sin we're the ones who said and god is saying i i would that none should perish i want everyone to be saved but it's up to you god leaves it up to you he gives you a free will and if you want to use your free will to go to hell you can and sad to say there's going to be millions of people who choose that option i'm not going to repent of my sin i'm not going to you know you know i'm not going to be one of those dupes that believe in the cross of jesus christ and the truth is if that's your position according to the bible your destination is gehenna and it's going to be horrifying and bad speaking of using the word hell in a derogatory context some of you are like bro are you trying to scare the hell out of me pretty much i really would love to do that i would hope that i i could scare you guys just like jonathan edwards because you need that to be something if it's real you should be scared well bro i don't know if i like that doesn't matter if you like it or not if hell is real and true it's something worthy to be afraid of but the idea is not to be afraid without any help the idea is to say um then i need an answer and i'm here to tell you what the bible teaches about hell is so powerful and real but so what do we do with this what do we do with this concept of hell man the answer is so beautiful it's so beautiful but it's also simple the idea is simply this to repent just repent the word repent means change your mind do an about face and change your mind so i'm going to choose god remember i said you're either one who says thy will be done god or my will be done and repentance is to say okay lord i changed my mind thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven man you've got to be saved see what do we do now there's there's um three words that i'd like to kind of consider with you first of all consideration consideration consider which way are you going do you know where you're going to go do you know for sure if you're going to go to heaven or hell if you've repented of your sins and confessed with your mouth that you believe that jesus christ died for you and you accept that he his penalty of death on the cross satisfied what you owed and when you accept that and believe in christ the bible says you will be saved save from what that's where so many pastors saying becoming a christian will make you happy or wealthy or your marriage will be better oh it might be those things it might not be but that's not what you're being saved from you're being saved from hell and you're being saved to heaven when you accept and believe in jesus christ we need to see the urgency of what i'm preaching today and hopefully as you consider where you are that you'll believe and accept christ consideration number two compassion i'm a little weary of seeing a lot of us christians going around being frustrated with godless people and unsaved people i can't believe antithon and i can't believe this and that and marxist and blah blah blah and and we get all upset and i understand and i'm there sometimes too i get frustrated but do you have a heart of compassion because you know truthfully there's a lot of people that are headed straight for hell when jesus rode into jerusalem he didn't say losers he could have he had every right to say that because they were but instead jesus rode into jerusalem and he wept and he said oh jerusalem jerusalem he wept over jerusalem with compassion are you weeping over portland with compassion are you saying man those losers maybe we should send them to hell just a little quick a little earlier there's this attitude of christians that's kind of not very christ-like honestly where we should have compassion that people might be saved because that's what god says oh i would that nun should perish i think in this day of politics and sides and people with with real strong opinions we forget as christians we have a higher calling i'm not saying that what those people are doing is right or okay i'm just saying that you and i have a job to do and what is that job jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel making disciples and baptizing people that's our number one job not to complain that's not one of the c's conversion compassion complaining no it's not that consideration compassion and then conversion that people be saved go from hell to heaven death to life and that's what you and i have to offer people well but that's your job that's what we pay you for man you're the pastor you're here you're the preacher but do you understand i get to preach to the choir here you know preaching to the choirs i did him uh there was a bulletin in a church uh church bulletin that said um sermon on hell um what's hell like and then the next thing said come and hear the choir rehearse before service it's like it's like a little typo or whatever in the bulletin that didn't come off very well but the idea for you and me is you and i are to preach the good news of the gospel and it shouldn't just come from me the pastor it's got to come from you guys to your neighbors and to the people that you work with because there's a lot of lost people that are truly headed for the most horrific place where all of eternity they will stay and that's why we are compelled by the lord to share the good news of the gospel so what do we do now be saved make sure you're a christian share the gospel with the unbeliever and that's how isaiah ends his book talking about the new heaven and the new earth that's coming but also hell that's real where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched pretty heavy stuff would you bow your heads please with me lord how thankful i am [Music] that we don't have to be afraid those of us who've repented of our sins not that we're perfect lord we don't pretend to be perfect or sinless but we know that you take our sins and you forgive them and anyone who wants to be saved lord there for the taking you just give us a free gift of salvation where you take our sins and put them as far as the east is from the west where you remember our sins no more where you will say to us at the gates of heaven enter in now good and faithful servant lord we we know we didn't deserve any of that but it's because of your amazing grace that saved our lives lord saved wretches like us lord we we know that you are the one who did all that and we applaud you we thank you lord it gives us joy to know that we get to go to heaven by your grace but lord i also pray for those who may not know you personally have not had their sins forgiven that have not yet repented of their sins i pray as they might be listening to this sermon that the the truth the reality of hell would be a splash of cold water to wake people up to repent of their sins and to be saved by your grace lord tap them on the shoulder right now that they would just sense their need for your love and your salvation your mercy lord i want to see people saved even right now we know you do too so lord for those hardened hearts would you cause their their heart to be re re-sensitized to the truth whatever predisposition they have about heaven and hell and god and the reality of all this lord i pray that you would just give them a sense of the truth of what we've been talking about today and christians with that attitude of prayer right now just stay in prayer and be praying but if you're not a christian whether you're here in this room with us or you're out there on the internet watching with us i want to invite you to accept the work of salvation it's there for the taking nothing you deserve nothing you earn that's why it's so easy to be saved god made it easy because he did all the work when god sent his only begotten son to die on the cross a horrible torturous death to an innocent man the only guy that never sinned was jesus and he's the guy that died on the cross so that you wouldn't have to go to hell and that's why it makes it clear there in romans chapter 10 verse 9 and 10 that says if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart the lord jesus christ that god raised him up from the dead it says you will be saved what a glorious truth i'd like to lead you in that confession of faith right now if that's you um i'm not going to embarrass here make you stand up or do anything weird but right where you're sitting if you're here and you want that you want to confess that confession of faith to be saved um that's what makes you a christian not going to church or you know giving money or you know being good all the time that's not what a christian as a christian is someone who repents of their sins and says i want to be saved by the grace of god and they accept the work of the cross if that's you would you look up at me right now and give me a quick wave so i can acknowledge you just want to give you a nod see you in the back yes good let me just look around i don't want to miss anybody awesome good see you there man the message of heaven and hell is so powerful i see you in the back that's great anybody else yes cool good i'm gonna pray this prayer of confession and by the way if you're out there and say man i wish i could raise my hand in the sanctuary um you you can in fact uh if you're watching online there's a number on the bottom of the screen you can text it right now and we'll get it right here uh at the church to know that you're raising your hand just text and say new believer and we'll know that you're out there right now we'll pray pray for you and you can you can confess christ right now with all of us in this room and so i'm going to pray this prayer and i'm going to ask the whole church to pray this out but those of you that raised your hand this is a serious thing the lord sees your heart and he's going to honor your desire to be saved because he's just that good that gracious let's pray dear father in heaven i believe in your son jesus i believe that he died on the cross for my sins and that he rose up from the grave and then i'm saved help me to walk with you thank you for your forgiveness in jesus name lord what a joy it is to be able to be a part of salvation that you've done in people's lives and i pray that you would just bless these folks may they be confirmed in their heart knowing that your grace is sufficient for them no matter how bad they've been no matter what sins they've done lord you're able to wash us clean and give us a brand new start and when we make mistakes even in the future you died for those sins as well once for all and for that we're thankful give us that hope of heaven no matter how bad it gets on this earth lord we know that as christians we can always look forward to the glory of heaven to be with you for all eternity and so we pray lord as we go our way that you just honor the people with joy give them the peace that passes understanding we pray blessing upon them lord here and online we commit them into your hands in jesus name we pray amen amen let's stand together we're going to close here in a second but man may the lord give you that peace and the joy of heaven and and i want to challenge you to share the good news with people this week joey's going to lead us in one final song and then we'll be dismissed god bless you nothing i can do [Music] couldn't make your love for me change there's no place i can run and die [Music] then you won't be right by my side [Music] because it's grace grace god hearts grace it's grace that's greater all than sins [Music] nothing i can't do or say couldn't make your love for me it changed there's no place i can't run tonight or that you won't be right by my side [Music] because your love is it's grace that's greater than all our sins it's grace grace god god's grace is grace that's greater than all our sins [Music] there ain't [Music] there is [Music] it's great grace is god's grace it's grace that's greater than all our sins [Music] [Applause] it's grace that's greater than all our sins [Music] and it's grace that's greater than [Music] grace god creates [Music] grace god's creates grace that is greater than all [Music] but we do thank you for that grace that's unexplainable that's unearned by us or that hope of heaven that was preached about today we thank you for that we left your name up high and in jesus name we pray amen amen and to the online church we'll see you guys next time [Music] you

Channel: Athey Creek

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Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: 57_wNXNDxzw

Length: 91min 42sec (5502 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020