Participants: Pr. John Lomacang
Series Code: ASHF
Program Code: ASHF000075
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00:19 Hello friends. Welcome to another Wednesday night Bible 00:22 study here at the 3ABN Worship Center where we open the word 00:27 of God together. We have a wonderful group tonight. The 00:30 weather has come to bless us, can you all say Amen to that? 00:33 And we're looking forward to spring. We heard that a few 00:37 weeks ago the ground hog had a bad day, he saw his shadow. But 00:41 we don't trust the ground hog. We trust the Lord Jesus. And so 00:44 thank you for tuning in to join us for this time in the Bible, a 00:47 thoughtful hour in the word of God. Tonight we're going to 00:51 continue our study on what the Bible says about the topic of 00:55 hell. And we'll mention more in just a few moments. So get your 00:58 Bibles, invite your family and friends to sit down. If you're 01:01 joining us from a church, welcome and in just a moment 01:05 after our prayer, we will let you know where you can get a 01:09 copy of the lesson to follow along with us tonight. But let's 01:12 begin with a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you 01:16 Lord for your word. David the psalmist says it so wonderfully: 01:21 It is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. And Lord in 01:25 this world today where tradition has taken the place of your word 01:30 where people are not searching the scriptures as they should, 01:35 pray Lord that You'll continue to work on their hearts. Tonight 01:39 come and stay with us and teach us and infuse Your word with 01:44 the power from on high. May we not only learn, but Father may 01:48 we come to know You better as our Lord and as our Savior. 01:52 Indeed we pray in Jesus' name Amen. Now if you'd like to 01:58 follow us go to this following website: ASF.3abn.org. Download 02:03 what lesson? Somebody tell me. Lesson number 24 entitled The 02:08 Truth About Hell. There should be three pages and I added... 02:12 Now some of you may say I already had that lesson. Well go 02:15 to download the new one because there's an additional page. 02:19 There are additional questions because what we're going to do 02:22 tonight at the end of this study we're going to go ahead and 02:26 tumble over into one of those topics that often causes 02:31 confusion - The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. People 02:36 often wonder is that a true story or is that a parable. 02:40 Is it about what happens when a person dies, when a person ends 02:43 in hell. What is it all about? But tonight we encourage you to 02:47 begin tonight by singing our theme song. Now what is our 02:53 theme song? There Is Victory In Jesus. Join us tonight as we 02:59 sing our theme song. ¤ ¤ 03:07 ¤I heard an old, old story, how the Savior came from glory¤ 03:14 ¤How He gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me¤ 03:22 ¤I heard about his groaning, how His precious blood's atoning 03:29 ¤And I repented of my sin and won the victory¤ 03:37 ¤O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever¤ 03:44 ¤He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood¤ 03:51 ¤He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him¤ 03:59 ¤He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood¤ 04:07 ¤I heard about a mansion He had built for me in glory¤ 04:15 ¤And I heard about the streets of Gold¤ 04:18 ¤beyond the crystal sea¤ 04:22 ¤About the angels singing and the old redemption story¤ 04:29 ¤And some sweet day, I'll sing up there a song of victory¤ 04:36 ¤O Victory in Jesus my Savior forever¤ 04:44 ¤He sought and bought me with His redeeming blood¤ 04:52 ¤He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him¤ 04:59 ¤He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood¤ 05:18 Amen. Now we are continuing on the topic of the truth about 05:23 hell. The truth about what? Now the reason why this is so 05:28 vitally important a topic... Some people may say what does it 05:33 matter what the Bible teaches about the topic of hell? 05:38 Everything the Bible teaches reflects on the character of 05:42 Christ. So if Jesus teaches something and we teach opposite 05:47 to what he has conveyed to us then we are misrepresenting His 05:51 character when we say what we're teaching or believing is the 05:56 truth. Not only that, it also puts into perspective the truth 06:01 about what happens when a person dies, when a person 06:04 eventually faces the judgment. By the way, one of the reasons 06:08 I kind of enjoy the study of this topic is because it does 06:12 not apply to me. Can you say Amen? If you know Jesus and 06:15 your life is in His hand, you don't have to worry about what 06:18 we study about the topic of hell. But so much has been 06:22 wrongly communicated about that... Matter of fact, there 06:25 was a time when preachers believed that if they didn't 06:29 preach about hell people wouldn't be converted. They 06:33 called it fire and brimstone preaching. Remember that? And I 06:35 remember one preacher saying well if I don't preach about 06:37 that, how will people come to accept Christ. They accept Jesus 06:40 because they love Him, what do you say? Amen. Not because 06:43 they're fearful of Him. Because here's the problem; accepting 06:47 someone because their fearful of Him, when the fear is gone 06:51 the connection is gone. I know many children learn to fear 06:56 their parents while they're learning to love their parents. 07:00 And I don't want to go down too much that category because even 07:05 in that context we should love our parents, not fear only our 07:09 parents. When the Bible says the fear of the Lord is the 07:12 beginning of wisdom, that means a couple of things. One of those 07:15 is if there's anyone that we should be fearful of it is the 07:21 Lord in this sense; that He's the only one who can give us or 07:26 take away our salvation, but not in the trembling sense. When the 07:30 Bible says the fear of the Lord it means the honor of the Lord, 07:35 the praise of the Lord. Also in Matthew 10:28, let's turn there 07:38 very quickly just to kind of give you a context of why we're 07:42 beginning our study tonight. Actually not why we're beginning 07:49 but how we're continuing on in our study. Matthew 10:28. One 07:55 of the reasons why the martyrs, and if you don't know what a 08:01 martyr is, a person who gives his or her life for the Lord. A 08:06 person who is not fearful of what may happen to him or her. 08:09 A person may be threatened with death. And you know the story, 08:13 many, many millions of Christians lost their lives, 08:16 many were threatened with death if they would not give up their 08:20 allegiance to Christ and many millions lost their lives. And I 08:24 believe the reason why they lost their lives is because they 08:30 loved the Lord more than they loved themselves. As they Bible 08:33 says, they loved not their lives unto death. We're going to see 08:39 this in just a moment here but look at Matthew 10:28, Matthew 08:44 10:28. Notice what the Bible says and this text is often used 08:48 in the wrong context almost to give the idea that the soul has 08:53 an eternal property, but notice it says: And do not fear those 08:56 who kill the what? Do not fear those who kill the what, body 09:01 but cannot kill the soul but rather fear Him who is able to 09:05 destroy both what, soul and body in hell. Now sometimes people 09:10 say Ah! There you go, you can't kill the soul. I beg to differ. 09:15 The soul can be killed, it can be destroyed in the fires of 09:18 hell. The reason why the soul can be destroyed is because the 09:27 the context if you were to paraphrase today, don't fear a 09:30 person who want to take your life, don't fear somebody who 09:33 says I'm going to kill you if you follow Christ because 09:36 you will have the joy of the resurrection. That's what the 09:38 Bible says in Matthew 5: Blessed are those who are persecuted for 09:42 righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So we 09:46 don't fear people because they may threaten us in our worship 09:51 of the Lord. But let's go ahead to question number 13 tonight. 09:54 Now I know we covered this but the reason I'm beginning here 09:58 is because the transitional question was number 15 is where 10:01 we ended last week. We would naturally start at 16, but I 10:04 want to go back just a little bit to lay some foundation 10:08 because what we studied was very important. We read earlier in 10:13 Ezekiel about the fate of Lucifer, about the fate of Satan 10:18 and we learned that Satan is not going to be around forever. 10:22 Can you all say Amen to that? I mean he's not going to be in 10:26 heaven. He's not going to be in the New Earth. The Bible says 10:30 that Satan himself is going to be destroyed. We learned about 10:34 that in Ezekiel 28:18. The Lord said He's going to bring a fire 10:39 forth from the midst of Satan and devour him and turn him to 10:43 ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who knew him and he 10:48 will no longer be a fear anymore forever. But here's the question 10:52 Look at question number 13. Question number 13. The Bible 10:58 says that Satan will become ashes, what about the wicked? 11:06 Let's go to Malachi 4:1 and 3. I'm encouraged that when I 11:14 share these lessons. Many of us may not know this here, but 11:18 there are a lot of people watching. I've been meeting a 11:19 lot of people in southern Illinois; just the other day 11:23 when I was at the hospital visiting with Glenn, one of our 11:26 members who's not here tonight because of a fall that he had 11:29 taken a few days ago. As I stepped out of the hospital I 11:33 met a gentleman that said what do you do and I said I'm a 11:36 pastor. What is your name. It's John. Well my name is John and 11:39 we began a conversation. Come to find out he knows about 3ABN. 11:42 And he says I enjoy the broadcasts that happen on 3ABN 11:46 like those Bible studies. And a few weeks ago, my wife and I, 11:49 when there was a lot of ice on the ground. We were on our way 11:53 to having lunch and I said honey I need to go to the hardware 11:57 store and she said can't you go to the hardware store after we 12:01 have lunch because I'm really hungry. I say well honey, it's 12:04 on the way. Let me just go to the hardware story, then we'll 12:07 go to have lunch. And she said oh are you going to be long? 12:10 I said, no but I think I need to go to the hardware store first 12:14 then we'll go to have our lunch at the Mexican restaurant. Well 12:18 I believe the reason why my passion was so great was because 12:23 when we got there, I was looking for a small screw and a bolt. 12:26 Couldn't find it but I left the store and as I was leaving a 12:31 gentleman said, I know who you are. You're that guy out there 12:35 at 3ABN. And he said, I love those Wednesday night Bible 12:38 studies. Can you all say amen? And I'm discovering people 12:41 that are all over the southern Illinois area are tuning in. If 12:44 you ever get the courage up come on and join us here at the 3ABN 12:48 Worship Center in Thompsonville. So many people are coming to the 12:52 knowledge of the truth of God's word by these studies. But 12:56 Malachi 4:1-3 in answer to the question what does the Bible say 13:02 about the wicked. Here's the answer. Malachi 4:1-3. Let's 13:05 read this together. 13:31 Root nor branch. Now let's follow that carefully. I have 13:36 seen many fires. I lived in California where they said 13:40 there's a forest fire in southern California. The forests 13:44 are burning in northern California and Redwoods, in 13:50 Oakland right above the freeway. I mean I've seen a lot of forest 13:53 fires. Now follow this very carefully. If a fire burns in a 13:57 forest chances are even if it burns the tree down, give it about 14:01 a month, a few months or a year what happens? The tree begins to 14:06 sprout again. It has to be a pretty bad fire for it to burn 14:12 the roots of the tree. Am I right? Now if you don't have any 14:17 roots are you going to have branches, Yes or No? Because it 14:20 starts where? At the roots. Now follow this carefully. Jesus 14:25 says I am the Vine, you are the branches. So all of those who 14:29 are righteous are connected to Christ, it begins with Him. But 14:33 those who do wickedly are connected to Satan. He is the 14:37 root and they are the what? Branches. Now here's the point 14:40 if the roots are destroyed will the branches survive? Absolutely 14:47 not. And read that Satan himself is going to be ashes. 14:52 Ezekiel 28:18. If he is going to be ashes so therefore also 14:56 the wicked will... the day is coming that will burn them up 15:00 leaving neither root nor branch. Satan as well as those connected 15:04 with him will be destroyed. Can you say amen to that? And the 15:08 reason I say Amen is not that I am happy for their destruction 15:12 but because I'm glad that when we get to heaven and when there 15:16 is a new earth created, there will be no sin nor sinners in 15:20 the new earth. Our decision to be there is being made now. 15:24 You're not going to have to worry about locking your doors, 15:28 turning off your divine satellite dish. There won't be 15:33 any obviously in the new earth. But we won't have to worry about 15:36 any sin at all. Sin will not rise up a second time and I'll 15:40 give you the text to that in just a moment. But let's go 15:43 ahead and see them. Let me go ahead and continue the text 15:47 because it goes further, it goes further. It says... 16:05 So if Lucifer, if Satan's going to be destroyed and he's the 16:09 root what about the branches? There'll be no branches. Matter 16:13 of fact, David the psalmist says you'll look diligently for the 16:16 wicked and you won't even find their place. They won't be 16:21 found anywhere. Fret no yourself because of evil doers, he said. 16:24 You'll look for their place they won't even be found. Let's 16:28 go to the next one. So the answer to that is, the Bible 16:32 says Satan will become ashes. What about the wicked? They will 16:36 be what? Ashes also. Okay. Let's go to number 14, number 14. 16:48 Because there's a process of destruction, but how does the 16:54 Bible show that the results and not the process is eternal. We 16:58 have two texts that we're going to look at. The first one is in 17:02 Jude verse 7, Jude verse 7. There's only one chapter in the 17:09 book of Jude but for grammatical purposes I put Jude chapter 1 17:15 only one, verse 7. Let's look at Jude. Right before the book of 17:19 Revelation, right 17:22 before the big book of Revelation. Here it is: Jude 7 17:27 speaking about a 17:29 very famous city, about a formerly famous city. 18:00 Now I want to ask a question but I'm going to hold off because 18:04 the question is bubbling up on my heart. Okay, let me ask you 18:08 and give you some supportive scripture. Are Sodom and Gomorrah 18:13 burning today. No. You know why it's not burning today because, 18:18 it was, okay now let me jump ahead of myself, because it was 18:23 destroyed. The reason it's not burning today is because it was 18:28 destroyed. Go to the next text. So how does the Bible show that 18:33 the results and not the process are eternal? What was the word? 18:38 Eternal fire. Now what happens in a forest if they cannot stop 18:41 the blaze. What that is often referred to as? Well the firemen 18:51 will say it's an unquenchable fire, what do they say? 18:54 cannot be contained, out of control. So sometimes what they 18:59 tend to do is they tend to dig dirt trenches so that they can 19:04 direct the fire so that it can what? Burn itself out. Now how 19:10 does it eventually burn itself out? Someone tell me. Huh? 19:18 It consumes itself and how does the fire end. There you go. 19:25 Nothing else to burn. It burns until there's nothing else to 19:30 burn. Come on, you guys live in southern Illinois. Surely 19:34 somebody here has set a fire in their fireplace and if you don't 19:39 put new wood in there, what's going to happen? It's going 19:42 ...But as long as you keep putting wood in there it is what 19:46 eternal fire. If you don't stop putting wood, keep that thing 19:49 going and some people are really good at that. But the moment 19:52 you ignore that. I'll tell you my story about Weaverville. I 19:55 won't waste the time to tell you that, but the fact of the matter 19:59 is the fire continued to burn until there was nothing left to 20:04 burn at all in Sodom. Look at 2 Peter 2:6 to verify this point 20:10 even further and it says... 20:32 Oh I tell you if ever there was a time to have Jesus as your 20:37 Savior it is now. Because I want to tell you Sodom and Gomorrah 20:40 are not going... the fire is not going to be just in Sodom and 20:44 Gomorrah, it's going to be in New York, LA, Miami, Detroit, 20:49 can I keep going? San Francisco. Wherever immorality is glorified 20:55 Thompsonville, Lord have mercy. Wherever immorality is glorified 21:02 they are going to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire and 21:07 then all that's going to left is what? Say it together, Ashes. 21:12 That's it, that's it. All that's left is ashes. Nothing could 21:17 survive, nothing could survive fire. I don't know of anything 21:21 that could survive fire. I've heard of fireproof suits but I 21:25 also heard of seven fire fighters who when they noticed 21:28 that they were trapped... It was a sad story, a few months ago it 21:31 was on the news, fighting a blaze out west. May have been 21:34 more than a few months ago but the timing is not exactly what 21:38 comes to my mind. But they played their last transmission 21:43 on the news. They said this is the last transmission sent by 21:46 these seven firefighters before they lost their lives to the 21:50 flames. And they had these space suits, they called them, 21:54 or those space blankets that they tuck into and usually it's 21:59 fire resistant like everything is water resistant. Now let me 22:03 make a point. Certain things are fire resistant but nothing is 22:08 fire proof. Right? Even your watch water resistant to 100 22:13 feet. Unless you have one of those special watches that you 22:18 can go down 6000 feet, but not even your watch will 22:21 survive. But the point of the matter is... Let's look at the 22:24 other one. So the answer to number 14 is how does the Bible 22:29 show that the results and not the process are eternal? What 22:33 happened? Ashes. What's that word, Ashes. They were destroyed 22:37 they were overthrown. Sodom and Gomorrah became ashes. But now 22:43 let's go to number 15. Let's go to number 15. All right? Number 22:48 15... 22:56 Eternal fire does not mean eternal burning. When you read 23:03 the story of the flood, it's a tragic story. My wife and I are 23:06 reading that story together. We just reading the account of the 23:10 flood, now we're reading after the flood. We also read in the 23:13 book of Genesis describing the world that then was overthrown 23:18 by the flood. The deluge was everywhere. Only eight persons 23:23 survived, only eight. Because as the world did not survive the 23:28 water this time it's not going to survive the fire. But it's 23:32 not going to be an eternal fire any more than there is an 23:36 eternal flood. Because the Lord doesn't make one temporary and 23:41 one eternal. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in 23:45 the days of the coming of the Son of Man. God does not deal 23:51 differently. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. 23:57 Let's go to the answer to number 15. How does the Bible show? 24:00 Luke 17:29. Look at this, look at this. So we get the final 24:03 text in the Bible about Sodom and Gomorrah, at least one of 24:06 the final ones. It says... 24:22 Notice the Bible, none at all. We talked about the flood and 24:26 in a few past lessons and when the waters came it destroyed 24:31 them all. The flood came and took them all away. And the very 24:35 same way the fire was rained from heaven. Now can you 24:38 imagine that. I don't think we think about that very much. But 24:44 that's a serious picture; fire? being rained from heaven? I mean 24:49 we get some heavy rain storms down here don't we, but can you 24:53 imagine if that were fire. What umbrella would you open up? 24:57 Where would you go? I mean the heat alone as you're running 25:02 across the surface of the ground We run across the surface of 25:05 water until we find a shelter. But you cannot run across the 25:09 surface of fire because it is so intense. And the fire that God 25:12 talks about, matter of fact, oh I tell you, it's a tragic 25:16 picture. But the fire's not going to be coming down, but 25:20 it's going to be what? Coming up. You know just like in the 25:24 flood. The waters came up, the face of the deep was broken up 25:27 the waters came up and the waters came down. In the very 25:31 same way the fire's going to be raining down and the fire's 25:34 going to be coming up and you know anything about the ring of 25:38 fire, about volcanos, about earth quakes, about all these 25:42 lakes of magma and these caldrons of magma. I tell you, 25:47 that's not a fire and brimstone sermon, but I want to be on the 25:50 right side. Anybody else. Be on the side where we will have 25:54 protection from all that destruction. Okay, number 16: 25:58 Let's go to number 16. So the answer to number 15- How do we 26:02 know the fire is not eternal? It destroyed them all. The end 26:05 result was destruction. And this is something you have to keep in 26:11 mind. The results are eternal, not the process. The results are 26:16 eternal not the process. Question #16: 26:39 Number 16. Let's start with Luke 3:17. One of the reasons I'm 26:48 glad to be teaching this topic is because I recall the story a 26:54 number of years ago when I lived in California. In a small 26:58 town of Vallejo, California we were doing an evangelistic 27:02 series. Actually Doug Bachelor was doing the series, I was the 27:05 singing evangelist and there was a gentleman that sat on the 27:07 front row every night and at the meetings he accepted Christ into 27:11 his life and was baptized and we said what particular topic 27:15 really brought you to the decision. He said it was the 27:19 topic about hell. Really!? He said because all these years 27:22 when I was out in the world my friend and I were involved in 27:25 a whole lot of things, he lost his life and he talked about the 27:30 way he did in crime in progress and he said all these years, 27:34 southern gentleman, all these years I used to think my friend 27:39 was in hell burning, but I finally found peace and that's 27:45 kind of God I want to serve. Amen? And the wrong picture 27:49 about God... Some people say it doesn't really matter. 27:53 It does matter! It makes God out to be worse than the worst 27:58 tyrant on earth. What kind of God is there who would just 28:04 find joy in punishing people for ever and ever. And I think the 28:06 reason why people believe that is because they don't know how 28:12 long forever is. God is Love. 1 John 4:8 God is love. Do you 28:16 think about how long forever is (snorts). Let me just say it 28:21 like we used to sing in Heritage Forever is a long, long time. 28:26 It never ends. Well look at the answer. Luke 3:17. Speaking 28:31 about the Lord's judgments, it says: 28:53 What kind of fire! Unquenchable fire. Now let me go ahead and 28:58 explain this. Also we lived in Fairfield, California. My wife 29:02 always says remember to say California because there's a 29:05 Fairfield, Illinois. Brother Hutchison did too. 29:08 And after the harvest season driving down 29:12 Highway 80 or Highway 5 in the distance you 29:16 would see this billowing black smoke. And before I learned what 29:20 it was, I would think man it's like Sacramento is going up in 29:25 flames. What I discovered was is that after the harvest was 29:30 done all that's left is the chaff when they finish 29:35 harvesting the fields and there's so much chaff that what 29:39 they do, the farmers set a fire It's a controlled burn but if 29:42 you're talking about hundreds of acres, it looks pretty ominous 29:45 from a distance. I mean the smoke was just billowing up. 29:51 It burns and burns and sometimes if you're driving by you can 29:55 tell what used to be there. Because certain things have a 29:58 certain smell. If there used to be soybeans or corn, it has a 30:02 certain smell to it. You can say ah, smells like... And you see 30:05 the fire. But it continued to burn and nothing could put the 30:09 fire out until everything was burned. Well let's see why the 30:13 Bible uses the words unquenchable fire. 30:16 Okay. Let's go to the next text Jeremiah 17:27. By the way, as 30:22 your turning to Jeremiah, keep this in mind. I mentioned this 30:27 before and think it serves well to insert this back here. The 30:32 reason why it means unquenchable in the same way that men could 30:37 not stop the rain from coming down. I mean there was no place 30:42 that they could have gone to prevent the rain that God was 30:47 pouring from heaven during the flood. In the very same way, it 30:53 can't quench the fire that God will use to destroy sin and 30:57 sinners. Humans can't quench it. That's exactly right. Human's 31:02 can't quench it, so it is unquenchable. So let's go to 31:06 Jeremiah 17:27. The Lord spoke to Jerusalem in particular. He 31:13 says... 31:52 So was Jerusalem destroyed? Was the fire quenched? No not by man 32:02 Exactly. It's burned itself out. Nothing on earth has any eternal 32:11 properties. Nothing does. So the fire continued burning and 32:17 burning and burning and burning until there was nothing left in 32:25 Jerusalem to burn. All right. Let's go to question number 17. 32:30 You can tell we're getting a little closer to the warm season 32:34 It is a little warm in here tonight. Brother Dinzey is the 32:38 only one that's not. He loves the warmth. He's definitely from 32:41 a warm country. Okay. Number 17. 33:03 I lead out with this but now we're going to revisit this text 33:07 again. Doesn't hurt to hear the text twice. I think the second 33:13 time it will sink in. Matthew 10:28. All right. I'm trying to 33:17 move on at a good pace tonight so I can get to the rich man and 33:21 Lazarus. I want to touch on that tonight. We know we're not going 33:25 to finish but we'll go into the remainder of the topic next 33:29 week. Matthew 10:28. Here's what the Bible teaches: 33:51 I want to tell you a story. Our dear Pastor Brooks, I heard him 33:59 preach in a sermon and a gentleman was having a 34:00 discussion with son who was rebellious, rebellious. And 34:06 every appeal the father made to the son to give his life to the 34:09 Lord, his son ignored. And the father had one very heart 34:15 transferring conversation with his son. He said, Son I love you 34:21 and I will not want to spend eternity without you, but if you 34:28 do not choose the Lord, I'm going to miss you. But not 34:34 always. I'm going to be sad if you don't make it, but not 34:43 always. His father began to tear up. Why not always. Because 34:49 even death and sorrow, there shall be no more sorrow, no more 34:55 crying, no more death, no more pain. So the sadness of it is 35:01 the loss of those who could have been saved, what makes it an 35:06 eternal loss. You see if any of us die, and a lot of people have 35:11 died in fires, car accidents, buildings on fire. Just on the 35:16 news tonight in southern Illinois, two brothers, a sad 35:19 story, their trailer caught on fire about two or three o'clock 35:23 in the morning. They got the fire out in 20 minutes but not 35:26 before these two young men, these two brothers perished in 35:33 the fire. Sad, sad account; perished in the fire. Now they 35:39 can come forth in the resurrection, Amen. They still 35:43 have hope in the resurrection. But if that fire was the 35:46 destruction of the wicked there will be no redemption, there'll 35:52 be no second chances. As a matter of fact, let me go ahead 35:54 and give you something that we didn't read before. We read it 35:56 before but I'm going to go ahead and give you this piece. Go to 36:00 Revelation 20 because there are those who may be tuning in to 36:04 this broadcast that didn't follow along in the early stages 36:07 of the lesson. You see everyone who has ever been born and lives 36:16 a certain amount of years eventually dies. In fact, the 36:26 oldest recorded life span was 969 years. I can't fathom that. 36:31 I mean we talk about 69's really old. Add 900 to that. That's 36:37 serious. I mean that's really 900. Now we say how old are you 36:41 man. I'm going to be 60 next month. We're getting old. Add 36:45 900 to that. I mean that's hard to fathom. Adam lived to be 930 36:53 and then he died. Methuselah 696 and then he died. But look at 37:02 Revelation 20:6. Good I'm not running into myself. We covered 37:11 this earlier. Revelation 20:6. And the reason I said there are 37:14 many who have died. Everyone who has died has an opportunity 37:19 again in the resurrection. The Bible says, Blessed, and what 37:25 else holy who has part in the first resurrection. Over such 37:32 second death has no power. They shall be priests of God and of 37:38 Christ, and shall reign how long? A thousand years. Longer 37:43 then Methuselah. That is in heaven, when they ascend to be 37:48 in heaven they're going to reign a 1000 years. But the sin 37:52 problem has not yet been completely dealt with. It's at 37:55 the end of the 1000 years that New Jerusalem comes down to 37:59 earth. The saints come down and enter the New Jerusalem and the 38:03 second resurrection takes place. Then the Bible makes it very, 38:07 very clear, look at verse 9. We covered this in a prior lesson 38:11 so I'm giving you some background that fits at this 38:14 particular point. The Bible says speaking about the second 38:18 resurrection, And they went up on the breadth of the earth and 38:23 surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And 38:27 what happened? Fire came down from God out of heaven and 38:32 devoured them. Now go down to verse 14. Then death and Hell 38:42 (that is Hades) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the 38:49 what? Second death. See everybody suffers the first but 38:53 because of Jesus you don't have to suffer the second death. Can 38:56 you say Amen to that? Jesus is an answer to prevent us. 39:01 Sometimes people ask me on the plane what do you do? And I get 39:04 tempted to say... I'd clear it up later... I sell fire insurance 39:08 and life insurance. Because in fact if you work for the Lord 39:12 you're preaching the Gospel you sell fire insurance. If you 39:15 accept this message this message of salvation, you are prevented 39:20 from the fires of destruction. And also life insurance, eternal 39:23 life insurance. And the premiums have been paid by Jesus. Can you 39:27 you all say Amen? So that's what the beauty of this 39:31 is. We will not be hurt at the second death. Even death itself 39:35 will be cast into the lake of fire and death itself is going 39:38 to be destroyed. There'll be no death in the New Earth. There'll 39:42 be no death after sin and suffering have been dealt with. 39:45 And the reason is clear. We'll get to that in just a moment. 39:49 But the question that we just answered, Question number 17, 39:52 Does the Bible teach that eternal fire means that the soul 39:55 could be tormented forever? Yes or no? No it doesn't mean that. 39:59 Because the Bible makes it clear the soul that sins it shall die. 40:03 Ezekiel 18:4. Go there. I don't have it in the lesson but I know 40:07 you want to see it. I got a phone call from a guy that said 40:12 you quoted this verse but where does it come from? Here 40:20 it is. Ezekiel 18:4: There is no mention of an eternal and 40:27 immortal soul anywhere in the Bible. I'm always amazed where 40:36 the ideologies come from. Okay Ezekiel 18:4 This is a powerful 40:43 passage. Behold the Lord says, all souls are mine, the soul of 40:50 the father as well as the soul of the son is mine. The soul who 40:58 sins shall die. It's a sad reality, but that's the truth. 41:04 The soul that sins. Sin equals death. There'll be no sin in 41:10 heaven. There'll be no sin in the New Earth. There'll only be 41:14 righteousness. That's the kind of earth we're looking forward 41:18 to. That's the kind of kingdom that we all want to reign with 41:22 Christ in. Matter of fact, the devil won't be there. His angels 41:26 that followed him in rebellion won't be there. They got evicted 41:31 a long time ago. Heaven is a righteous place and the New 41:35 Earth will be that place of righteousness. Now Question 41:40 number 18: Here it is. Okay... 41:59 Okay. Is there a teaching in the Bible that the soul cannot be 42:03 destroyed? Ezekiel 18:4. So ignore the passage on your 42:08 lesson, that's another passage I'm going to add to it. That's 42:11 another passage, but I want to first... We had Ezekiel 18:4 42:15 right now. Am I correct? Okay. So let's go ahead and look at 42:19 this one together. We're already there. Then we're going to go to 42:22 Matthew 25:46. I was intending to include both of them when I 42:26 included Ezekiel 18:4. So we just read it. But once again for 42:29 those who are watching the program here's the text on the 42:31 screen... The Bible says... 42:44 Now what we need to understand as we talk about this topic that 42:51 does not apply to those that have accepted Jesus Christ. 42:55 We need to understand a very important thing about hell and 43:01 Jesus discussed this topic in detail. Matthew 25, go with me 43:09 there, Matthew 25. All right. Matthew 25 and let's look at 43:21 46. Okay. Look at this verse. I would like to go even maybe a 43:33 verse back, a verse back. Because the comparison is as 43:39 many of you know the Lord talked about there'll be weeping and 43:43 gnashing of teeth because the Lord says that if you've done 43:46 this to the least of these my brethren you've done it to 43:48 me, but if you have not, you've not done it unto me, you've not 43:50 paid attention to their needs, that means you've not paid 43:56 attention to me. I am represented in those who are 44:00 less fortunate than you are. Look at Matthew 25:46. The Bible 44:05 says on verse 45 then he will answer unto them saying 44:09 assuredly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the 44:16 least of these you did not do it to me. That is, you didn't feed 44:21 the hungry, you didn't help those who were naked, those who 44:25 were destitute, those who were in prison, those who were sick, 44:29 You didn't visit them, you didn't feed them, you didn't 44:30 clothe them, you ignored them, and then He says in verse 46, 44:45 So the question we've got to ask ourselves is who was hell 44:51 prepared for. Go a few verses earlier, verse 41. Who was hell 44:57 prepared for? Okay. My wife is telling me the answer. Matthew 45:05 25:41, here it is: Then he will say to those on the what hand? 45:11 left hand, Depart from me you cursed into the everlasting fire 45:17 prepared for the Devil and his angels. You know what the good 45:23 news is? God did not prepare hell for any of His children. 45:29 Amen? From their rebellion, from them being cast out of heaven 45:34 God determined that Satan and all of the angels that followed 45:39 him in rebellion must be destroyed. When I read that text 45:43 years ago, I've read it a number of times, but once I read that 45:47 text and I said why should I join them in a party that I was 45:52 not invited to? The devil and his angels. Why should I break 45:56 into an event that I am not invited to? The righteous are 46:00 not invited to that event. That's only for the wicked, 46:05 that's only for the devil and his angels. But God did not 46:08 even prepare the hell fire for the wicked. He prepared it for 46:11 the devil and his angels. Unfortunately, those who follow 46:14 the devil and his angels in rebellion must also follow them 46:19 in destruction. That's the unfortunate reality of it. So if 46:22 you look at question number 18, What phrase did Jesus use to 46:24 describe the destruction of the wicked? What phrase did he use? 46:29 Everlasting punishMENT. Now let me make a difference here. When 46:39 you get an assignment, it's different from an assignING. 46:46 I don't assign you eternally. I assign you once and then you 46:52 have an assignment. And the same thing, punishING is the 46:57 process. PunishMENT is the result. PunishING, the fires, is 47:03 the result. PunishMENT, the ashes, is the result. And how 47:09 long is the result going to last? Tell me, look at the text 47:13 everlasting. Everlasting meaning there is no reprieve from the 47:17 destruction of the fires of hell no reprieve at all. Number 19: 47:26 Let's go right along. We may get there. Okay. Number 19. Why 47:34 does the Bible use eternal and forever... I think I may have 47:42 covered that. I did. Let's go to number 20. Those who are 47:46 following me on the truck appreciate that. Go to number 20 47:51 Number 20. Here it is... 48:10 I know your answer. But don't tell me. Let's go to Matthew 13 48:17 We're already in the book of Matthew. Matthew 13 and this 48:25 by the way is the parable of the wheat and the tares. Now this is 48:34 a fairly long parable. It's broken down into first the 48:38 parable and then the explanation First the parable and then the 48:45 explanation. All right? No the explanation in verses 39 and 40 48:52 but let's go ahead and start with the parable. Can we do 48:54 that? Because this angels is very symbolic. It's good to 48:57 understand the language as it unfolds. Let's go to verse 24. 49:01 Go to verse 24 and begin with the parable. The Bible says 49:05 another parable he put forth to them saying, The kingdom of 49:09 heaven is like a man who sowed what kind of seed, good seed in 49:14 his field. The Gospel is good seed, right, good seed. Nothing 49:20 that Jesus sows is bad seed. But while man slept, his enemy 49:25 came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. That's 49:31 how the devil does. He comes in, starts trouble, then leaves. 49:36 Next verse: But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop 49:42 then the tares also appeared. So the servant of the owner came 49:49 and said to him, sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? 49:56 How then does it have tares? Then he said in verse 28: He 50:02 said to them, what does he say? An enemy has done this. The 50:06 servant said to him, and I like this part, Do you want us 50:10 then to go and 50:12 gather them up. Very powerful lesson. But He said in 50:16 verse 20, But he said to them, What did He say? No lest while 50:21 gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with the tares. 50:25 You know when we look at people we cannot tell whether they are 50:29 wheat or tares. Amen to that. Because we do not have the 50:31 discretionary ability to read a person's heart. Because from all 50:38 outward appearances the Pharisees looked so righteous. 50:41 From all outward appearances the publican's and harlots and 50:45 sinners looked so wicked. And Jesus said the publicans and 50:49 harlots and the sinners will end up in the kingdom before you. 50:52 And He said to them it was so bad, these righteous-looking 50:55 men, He said, Except your righteousness exceeds the 50:59 righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you're going to 51:04 perish. So never judge a book by its cover. Don't look and say 51:08 Ah that guy's going to hell, Ah that woman's going to hell. 51:11 Oh let's not do that. The disciples thought they could 51:14 differentiate between the saved and lost. Don't do it. What did 51:19 He say then? Verse 30: Let both grow together until the harvest 51:26 and at the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, first 51:32 first gather together the tares... This is powerful, this 51:35 is along the lines of the answer. First gather together 51:38 the tares and bind them in what? bundles to do what? 51:41 burn them. But gather the wheat into my barns. When the tares 51:49 are gathered what's going to happen to them? They're going 51:51 be what? Burned. But now let's answer the question. Go to verse 51:56 let's go to verse 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went 52:01 into the house and the disciples came to Him saying, Explain to 52:07 us the parable of the tares of the field. He said to them, 52:12 verse 37: He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The 52:17 field is the world. The good seeds are the sons of the 52:22 kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. And 52:27 here's the answer to number 20. The enemy who sowed them is the 52:33 devil... 52:56 I used the King James Version, New King James uses age, King 53:01 James uses world. As the tares are gathered and burned in the 53:06 fire so shall it be at the end of this world. So here's the 53:12 point to the question. Are sinners in hell burning now? 53:17 Not at all. Will there be a fire Yes, but it's not going to 53:22 happen now and here's the reason why: The righteous don't 53:26 go to heaven right away and the sinners don't go to hell right 53:31 away. Matter of fact, go with me to John 5. Then we'll look at 53:36 Romans 6. John 5: This fits right here. And you know 53:45 sometimes in the former, in the prior study, we covered this but 53:49 this is where the point comes in very, very clearly. It's going 53:52 happen at the end of the world. It's not going to happen before 53:55 then, and here's the reason why. There's something that's going 53:58 happen at the end of the world that determines which category 54:03 you're in. John 5:28, 29. Here it is: The Bible says, Do not 54:10 marvel at this for the hour is coming in which all who are in 54:17 graves will hear his voice. If you die righteous or wicked, 54:22 all in the graves. Now look at verse 29. And come forth those 54:27 who have done good to the resurrection of life. Those who 54:32 have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. 54:35 There are going to be two assignments: On the right hand 54:38 the righteous. On the left hand the wicked. The right hand the 54:44 wheat, the left hand the tares, the right hand the sheep, the 54:49 left hand the goats. Everything about the right hand. God 54:54 doesn't have a left hand... The right is on the right, the wrong 54:58 is on the left. Light on the right, darkness on the left. 55:02 Let's go to Romans 6:23: Do the wicked begin burning in fires of 55:10 hell at death or at the end of the world? And here's the 55:15 reason why this assignment comes at the end of the world: Here's 55:20 reason: Roman's 6:23- We all know that by heart. I think we 55:25 do, most of us do. This is like a second John 3:16; there are 55:30 many of those passages in the Bible. Let's read this together. 55:34 Are you ready? Here we go... 55:46 Now let's not run past that because this is such a familiar 55:50 passage. Sometimes people miss what it means. Let me ask a 55:53 series of questions to just nail this down. What's the wages of 55:58 sin, together? What's the gift of God? What? What kind of 56:01 life? Eternal life. Now here's the next question: Who receives 56:08 eternal life, the wicked or the righteous?. Okay, you're good so 56:15 far, you follow me very well. So here's the point we've 56:18 discovered so far. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is 56:22 eternal life. We've discovered also, the wicked receive death, 56:26 the righteous receive eternal life. Powerful thought coming to 56:30 me right now. How can the wicked burn eternally if they 56:37 don't receive eternal life? They cannot. The wicked cannot burn 56:47 eternally because only the righteous receive eternal life. 56:52 Is that clear? So let me ask you the question: Do the wicked burn 56:59 eternally, Yes or no? Who burns eternally. Nobody. Who's going 57:05 to burn the longest. Satan is going to because he began this 57:12 whole push of rebellion. In the summary point, because if I go 57:20 to the next question, we're going to really unpack the 57:22 parable of the rich man and Lazarus on next Wednesday. 57:24 But here's the encouraging news. For God so loved the world that 57:29 He gave His only begotten Son, together, that whosoever 57:32 believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life 57:37 If you want anything everlasting or anything eternal, you got to 57:42 accept Jesus Christ. If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and 57:47 Savior, let's represent Him in the things that we believe and 57:50 the things that we teach. There's nothing eternal, but 57:52 eternal life. The only thing eternal about death is that it 57:57 will never come back again. So keep studying God's word and one 58:01 day it will come into a sharper focus. God bless you. 58:06 ¤ ¤ |
Revised 2019-07-16