HELL & JUDGEMENT WITH RT KENDALL - Cynthia Garrett - Mini Sessions Episode 28

[Music] [Music] hi everyone i'm cynthia garrett and welcome to today's session now i got to tell you we're gonna be talking about a subject that just at the top you want to get a pen and a piece of paper and you really want to take notes because to me this is one of the most critical conversations that we should be having a lot more that we don't often like to have because it's awkward and it's uncomfortable but it's the truth and the truth always is a bit awkward and uncomfortable now I'm really blessed to get to have this conversation with today's guest RT Kendall who is really a man that needs no introduction you know that he's been the pastor of Westminster Chapel for gosh 25 plus years and he's written over 60 books he's got a couple more coming out even as we speak but before we get into the conversation I just want to preface this by explaining that my son who's 24 years old who walks in the gifts of the Holy Spirit who is in love with Jesus and has really and truly turned his university upside down and and a number of his friends lives with the truth of the gospel actually came to a surrender because he read a book about health and his understanding of judgment and hell is what really caused him to actually go wait a minute I need to actually ask some hard questions about whether or not God is real and judgment is real and Jesus was real and all of the above so today I think the best place to start is just if you would give us an understanding of judgment of judgment of judgment well jesus said when the Holy Spirit is come he will convince the world of sin righteousness and judgment and the nature of God is essentially that he's a God of justice and the reason Jesus died on the cross is that the blood that He shed satisfied justice now that's not talked about much nowadays and I'm sorry about that but this is the heart of the gospel and if I could just go from there to John 3:16 which Martin Luther called the Bible in a nutshell for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish and whatever does that mean not perish but have everlasting life and so you have in John 3:16 heaven and hell often forgotten but we're talking about the most crucial thing that could be said but why God sent his son to come into the world to die on a cross okay so if God loves us so much then why does he judge us or why will there be a judgment because he is true to himself he is by nature this is the way he is he is a God of justice and he doesn't try to impress us with being what we may want him to be we must not expect him to adjust to us we must adjust to him and this is the way he is and the God of the Bible is a God of justice it's a big problem though because I don't think people want to adjust themselves to God I you know I I often get told or asked you know well why should we have to live by a book of rules well a book of rules is not what we live by in order to get to heaven people get the cart before the horse they think that we must do certain things to appease God's wrath our works don't do it they don't even come close in fact they can even hurt us you say well how could they hurt they hurt if you think they help if people lean on their works is no good so all we can do is come to God or as Jesus put it in one of his parables the public and who says God be merciful to me a sinner and you might like know that the word merciful is the same Greek word in the family of mercy seat you see in the Old Testament inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant on the top was a slab of gold and once a year the high priest would enter into the most holy place sprinkle blood on the mercy seat and that is what appeased the wrath of God but that was all a formula it was foretelling the real event when Jesus himself would come and his blood be sprinkled on the mercy seat so when we say God be merciful to me it's the way of saying I'm pleading the blood that Jesus shed on the cross and that is our only hope of going to heaven only hope okay that okay so make sense for someone watching to understand I need Jesus he's the he is the the blood you know that covers my sin and for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so then there's got to be an incorrect understanding of what love really is in the world today that's got to be it because I think most people assume that love is about giving you what you want yeah well that's not the God of the Bible and I'm here to talk about the God of the Bible perhaps you will know it was a German philosopher in the 19th century Ludvig Feuerbach he is the forerunner of Marxism and he came up with this rationale for atheism he says that God is nothing more than man's projection upon the backdrop of the universe in other words we want to believe in a God a God who will look after us take us to heaven when we die and so it's nothing God really exists he exists in our minds that we project a God on the backdrop of the universe that's going to love us and take care of us now given that rationale let's assume that's a good way to look at it nobody would have ever projected the god of this book they would never have thought of a god like this for Ibaka is imagining a God that is just nice who looks after us we'll pay our bills and give us heaven look the God of the Bible that's not 40 bucks God at all nobody would ever have conceived of the God of this book and it's my job to represent him and I'm not trying to endear myself to people make them like God that's not my job it's to convey what God is really like what do you think is the biggest misconception about God in the world today in the world today yeah well the problem people have of the world today is that if there is a God why does he allow evil and this is a separate question to what you may want to go in today I've actually written a book called totally forgiving God when I was on your program before we talked about total forgiveness that I wrote a sequel totally forgiving ourselves and then a third totally forgiving God it's not that god is culpable of anything he's innocent he's pure he's just he's perfect but he does allow evil and the ancient prophet Habakkuk wanted to know why does God allow evil and suffering and we all want to know this and the bottom line is that God said to Habakkuk I will tell you the answer on the last day I mean the end of the world when Jesus comes Habakkuk might have said that's not good enough I need to know now sorry Habakkuk not going to tell you now you see if God were to reveal to us why he allows evil which he's going to do one day is going to clear his name if I may put it that way he will and when he does the most brilliant mind will say I hadn't thought of that it's kept from us from knowing and you know why it's kept in order that we might have faith hmm the just shall live by faith God has decreed we're to believe in him not because we have scientific proof but because we accept His Word and that takes faith that's the only way we can come to him and so Habakkuk you know he might have said look here that's not good enough for me I want to know now why you allow evil well God wouldn't tell him but for some reason Habakkuk was okay because at the end of the book he said though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines though the olive crop fails in the fields produce no food though there are no sheep in the pan and no cattle in the stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will be joyful and God my Saviour and so Habakkuk said it's okay I don't know why God allows evil but I believe it him I love him I worship Him I will not apologize for him and Cynthia that's my task to this very day I don't apologize for the God of the Bible I just proclaim him unashamedly I think it's I think it's powerful what you say because I think you know I always say we live in such a PC culture like nobody really no one wants to say anything that makes anyone else feel uncomfortable or awkward and the reality is that Jesus Christ even set the table for us to understand that people were not going to like you in my name you know and so I mean so if we're not teaching people if leaders aren't teaching people correctly about judgment if people aren't being warned about a coming wrath then our leaders in the church failing in what should be a most important task do you know where Enfield Connecticut is have you ever heard of little town of Enfield Connecticut no small town just south of the Massachusetts Connecticut border my wife Louise and I have visited there four times in recent years whenever I'd come within a hundred miles of Enfield though it may take me two hours one way to get there I go there there is a vacant lot in Enfield Connecticut right across the street from the Montessori School you look at that a lot if you were a distance way you would know would not know of the significance but you go up to it and there is a plaque and there's little shrubbery around it somebody's kept it up it says on this site July 8th 17:41 Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon called sinners in the hands of an angry god it was at the height of the Great Awakening here's the story he took his text from a book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 31 it is mine to avenge I will repay in due time their feet will slide that was his text he started preaching he read his sermon he was not an orator he wasn't walking back and forth or shouting he read it and as he began to read people began to groan and moan and he actually costed them since please be quiet so I can finish my sermon the bottom line of the sermon this is a theme and you can google it today you can google it hmm it is by the very mercy of God you are not in Hell right now and you are hanging over the pit of hell by a slender thread and the death death angels waiting to sever that thread at any moment now people read that sermon today they laugh they nurse perked and smile listen no one was laughing then the Spirit of God came on the crowd and when he finished people were holding on to church pews to keep from sliding into hell men were seeing outside with their hands around tree trunks to keep from sliding into hell word of that sermon went all over New England in days it spread to England in weeks it has never been forgotten it was the high-water mark of the Great Awakening which gave America its soul and the reason there's a Bible Belt in America it goes back to that moment the preaching of eternal punishment God only did it once the funny thing is a lot of people don't know this Edwards preached the same sermon a few weeks later in Northampton Massachusetts no effect at all no effect at all it only happened once just to give people a taste of what is coming and so the reason that Louise and I Drive to Enfield we've been there four times I go and stand by that plaque I try to envisage what it was like was that the old meeting house is not there anymore and and the trees they're gone but just a vacant lot and I just go there to pray sometimes I stayed just a few minutes and go back wherever I'm going you just I say Lord do it again hmmm do it again because this generation has no idea of the coming wrath as well John the Baptist said who has warned you and it was an assumption and then when Jesus began to teach he didn't invent this idea it was an assumption it was already the case listen to these words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount you put it like this you have heard that it was said do not commit adultery but I tell you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart then he says if you're right I causes you to sin gouge it out and throw it away it is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell this is Jesus great you know people say they love Jesus they admire his teachings they don't like that you know you know there are people who say well I believe in heaven but I don't believe in Hell convenient I say who gave you the right to believe in heaven where did you get that the Bible speaks of heaven speaks about Hell Cynthia the Bible has more to say about Hell than it does about heaven but all quit to say I believe in heaven and we go back to for about man's projection they won a heaven God of the Bible no one would have come up with a god like that and this is why he's called terrible flee run there's it gonna be doing that one day well I love the scripture that says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom exactly we can and I don't III think that there's this thing in the world today that is like we don't want to fear God you know we want to love God and people need to know and experience his love and yeah that's true they do is love is amazing but in a certain sense I guess my question is have we just lost a reverence for God and have we lost wisdom because we don't fear God there's no fear of God in the church there's no fear of God in the land people thumbed their nose at the church we just take it Mary Queen of Scots said she feared the prayers of John Knox more than an army of 10,000 men who's afraid of us is because we've we apologize we don't talk about these things and you turn on the TV in many places it's all about nice God he will take care of you he will you'll be driving a BMW or Rolls Royce in the next 30 days if you send in your money that kind of thing and and God in heaven doesn't like it he is unhappy they have merchandised the anointing and somebody needs to to talk like this I didn't know that when I agreed to come on your show that you're going to be bold enough to bring up a subject like this you know I have to fight the Elijah complex because Elijah heinous that I alone am left it was not true he was not the only one man but sometimes I feel like no one else is talking like this I'm not the only one I know I'm not but it is so rare I'm sorry it's so rare yeah and but this is like I'll tell you another thing do you realize how often the Greek word Phobos from which we get the word fear phobia the Greek is full most is used in the book of Acts it's in in the Gospels when Jesus would speak great fear would come on the people right on the day of Pentecost it says fear came upon every soul Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit they were struck dead on the spot great fear came upon the church and some would say well that's gonna run everybody away no they grew all the more they grew all the more and what if anything could bring about an explosion in the church is a restoration of the fear of God I've got a friend Bobby Connor do you know that name now oh yeah prophetic man okay he's been saying lately the fear of God is coming back to the church Wow and I hope so and if I could have anything to do with hastening that moment I'm I'll be 82 years old in July I don't know how many years I've got but when somebody like you invites me to speak like this I'm gonna take it with both hands because this is the message of the New Testament totally forgotten can I say one more thing of course you can't well why do you think of people people should be Christians do you do you believe Cynthia everybody should hear the gospel yes I do do you believe your loved ones should be saved absolutely yes yes why because I don't want them to die and go to hell good well that's the right answer I'd like to think no because what look really there's no other answer Oh Artie if we're gonna just live forever and it's all okay then why do you cry be a Christian why not just go do what you want to do you take Paul Paul in Romans Roman he says in verse 16 chapter one I'm not ashamed of the gospel he might have said I'm not ashamed of the gospel of the kingdom now that's the the new language today mm-hmm people are talking about the kingdom mm-hmm that's not what Paul said he might have said I'm not ashamed of the gospel of healing Paul believed in healing mmm Beth not what he said he might have said I'm not ashamed of the gospel of signs and wonders Paul believed in the signs and wonders but that's not what he said he said I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God for salvation and then he tells us why people need the gospel and he says in verse 18 because the wrath of God is revealed that's the reason right there at the beginning of Romans you know so much is said today about judging others we shouldn't judge others we shouldn't judge and and I think that's where the PC thing comes from you don't ever want to be seen as judgmental and you don't in the wrong way of course right but but God will judge us he will judge the living and the dead he will judge the sinner so I guess the next question would sort of be why did he create a hell in the first place why do we have hell util B except that we get one hint of it in Matthew 25 that hell was created for the devil and his angels that's the nearest you come now but they're the devil and the angels won't be the only beings that go there because in you just you know I just quoted from Matthew 25 I brought my Bible but I don't have everything ready Matthew 25 that's where we're told that heaven was created for the devil and his angels and then we're told that there will be those that join him namely those that reject the gospel and it's all summarized in verse 46 of Matthew 25 then they will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life so there are two destinies for all people men women whatever race color political party all people that ever lived one of two destinies at the end of every life heaven or hell heaven or hell I was invited to meet Yasser Arafat some years ago and I had actually been praying for him for a long time I never thought I'd meet him it just worked out canon Andrew white former Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy's of the Middle East invited me to go meet Josh Arafat well I thought I'll never see him again and so I'm just going to go for it and so within a couple of minutes thinking that we're only going to be there 10 or 15 minutes I said raw isse which is the Arabic word for president the most important question that needs to be put to you is where will you be 100 years from now you where will you be the question then you won't care whether you've got Jerusalem Palestinians get Jerusalem well these Raiders get Jerusalem the question that will matter is where will you be 100 years from now I thought he would throw me out you know I visit him five times and we became friends and I presented the gospel to him I prayed for him but the question is where will you be and I would ask anybody that's watching now do you know for sure if you were to die today would you go to heaven do you and if you were to stand before God and you will and he were to ask you he might why should I let you into my heaven I just have to tell you a most important question that anybody can put to you what would you say to God if he did say to you why should I let you into my heaven and there's only one answer give the wrong answer you have to go someplace else don't go there you don't need to go there what would you say would you say well I've tried to be a good person would you say I was baptized would you say I joined a church would you say I was brought up at a Christian hope these things don't help at all I'm sorry I've got one hope one hope and that is Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins so if we were to say to me why should I let you in a I've got one hope the blood of Jesus he died for me that's my hope and that is your hope and if you don't have that hope I wonders all right if I yeah great look here wherever you are wherever you are at this moment pray this prayer just just say these words Lord Jesus I need you I want you I'm sorry for my sins wash my sins away by your blood I welcome your Holy Spirit into my heart as best as I know how I give you my life in Jesus name Amen so you've been watching another session I'm Cynthia Garrett with RT Kendall heaven or hell question is simple I'll see you next week [Music] [Music] you I really hope you enjoyed this week's session and I can't wait to be back with you next week so I just wanted to pop in really fast and remind you to pick up a copy of prodigal daughter a journey home to identity it's my first book and it goes through my life and all of the things that God taught me through applying the Word of God to challenges and situations and all kinds of experiences at the end of the day it's about finding my identity and at the end of the day it's from my heart that all of you would find your identity in Christ and this book I really believe will help you find your identity and own your identity and walk powerfully in your identity because it's time for you to take a victory lap with Jesus as the guide so I will see you soon you can pick it up everywhere online booksellers and retailers and I hope you'll be blessed

Channel: Cynthia Garrett Ministries

Views: 627

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: hell, judgement, heaven, eternal life, eternity, cynthia garrett, mini sessions, faith, Christian life, walk show, God, Jesus

Id: mBYvnnq1Sek

Length: 28min 12sec (1692 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 13 2018