SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you all for singing incredibly beautifully and with passion.
SPEAKER_01: It's great to be in a church that sings, so thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, listen, um, we're going to start a new series today that we're going to go from now till Easter, and we're calling it uh Lessons from the Cross.
SPEAKER_01: And so last week we talked about Jesus teaching his disciples, this is how we're going to build the church, and I'm going to build it by building up and using you as those stones we talked about last week.
SPEAKER_01: And then he began to tell them, I am going to go to the cross, and there I am going to accomplish the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to die on the cross to pay the price for sin.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be resurrected again to offer salvation and forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: And so he started that.
SPEAKER_01: So we're now going to pick up and we're going to start each week here in Luke chapter 23, and we're going to use as a picture Jesus on the cross with those thieves on either side.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why are we doing that?
SPEAKER_01: Because of the salvation we've been singing about all morning and how people need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And last week, since we talked about the way Jesus builds his church, is he builds us as his body and sends us out to do that.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to work on that as a church and have an emphasis leading into Easter.
SPEAKER_01: So there are two things I'm going to want you to pick up out in the four-year area or out in the visitor area out there.
SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of them out there.
SPEAKER_01: There are two things.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing is a card for your love list.
SPEAKER_01: If you are not praying through your love list, then you need to get a card, fill it out, have it there where you can be praying on that.
SPEAKER_01: So what is a love list?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that is three people that God has placed in your life that you know need to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And you're praying for three people, and you're praying three things.
SPEAKER_01: And they are reminded here on the card, you are praying for an opportunity to invite them to church.
SPEAKER_01: You are praying for an opportunity to share your salvation testimony, and you are praying for them to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: So you have three people that you're praying three things.
SPEAKER_01: And it's great just to, you may know them, but it's great to write them down, to have it there.
SPEAKER_01: Say, Pastor, I struggle with that.
SPEAKER_01: Sharing salvation sometimes on the back of that card is a Q card QR code that will take you to the Evangelism Explosion online training that we made available to you back in the fall.
SPEAKER_01: And so as a reminder, it's there to help you and encourage you in that journey.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to ask everyone to pick that up, pick up your love lists, fill it out, and be praying for that.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to be focusing on especially inviting them to church for Easter.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to tell you, for all the rest of us, the student ministry is already ahead of us, and we're playing catch up.
SPEAKER_01: They have been working on their list and they have all laid out, starting with one person, that they're praying for, they're inviting.
SPEAKER_01: We've already had students who've brought people to church or on Wednesday nights.
SPEAKER_01: We've had some saved.
SPEAKER_01: Our students are doing incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to brag on you guys for doing that.
SPEAKER_01: And that means the rest of y'all, y'all got to get busy and catch up because they're ahead, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now the second thing we've made available for you, and we've had these requests, and so it's a great idea.
SPEAKER_01: So we've stepped into that.
SPEAKER_01: You'll find this little rubber band collection of, I think there are ten of these in each rubber band deal.
SPEAKER_01: And this has the theme for Easter Sunday on the front, and the theme is Resurrection Changes Everything Forever.
SPEAKER_01: And on the back is the information about our worship services for Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can hand these out just like business cards.
SPEAKER_01: When you invite someone, whether it's your love list or you just run into somebody in the community, this makes it easy.
SPEAKER_01: So I want everybody to pick these up, have these available, and use them to invite someone to church.
SPEAKER_01: Are y'all with me?
unknown: Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_01: You're thinking, Pastor, this is spring break.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody didn't tell you it's a vacation and you're putting us to work.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what we're going to do.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Why are we doing this and why do we have that emphasis?
SPEAKER_01: First of all, because we're commanded to.
SPEAKER_01: And this is how Jesus said he would use us as his body to go out and to spread the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But the second reason is because of the message of Easter.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus went to the cross because we are condemned to death and eternity because of our sin.
SPEAKER_01: We also are doing it because we have the antidote to that struggle, the victory over death and sin.
SPEAKER_01: The good news of salvation that changes that eternal trajectory from judgment to forgiveness and salvation because of Jesus our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to look at some lessons from the cross that lay that out for us between now and Easter.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're there in your Bible in Luke 23, I want you to follow along with me.
SPEAKER_01: We are about to see Jesus in the Luke history description of it, nailed to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 32, two others, criminals, were also led away to be executed with him.
SPEAKER_01: And when they arrived at the place called the Skull, they crucified Jesus there, along with the criminals, one on the right side, one on the left side.
SPEAKER_01: Then from the cross, Jesus said, Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.
SPEAKER_01: And they divided his clothes and cast lots.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 35, the people stood watching, and even the leaders kept scoffing.
SPEAKER_01: So get the picture.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is hung on this cross.
SPEAKER_01: You hang a thief on a criminal on either side.
SPEAKER_01: And that word thief, we use that word.
SPEAKER_01: We think of two thieves on the cross, but the original word of that is a violent criminal.
SPEAKER_01: And so these criminals condemned to death are on either side.
SPEAKER_01: People are watching this because of the fame of Jesus, because of the work of the Pharisees and the Sadducees to accuse Jesus and all of that, try to end what they believed was his heretical ministry, claiming to be the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: They did not believe he was that one.
SPEAKER_01: And so now they're down there stirring up the crowd and they're mocking Jesus, scoffing from the ground, looking up at him on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He saved others.
SPEAKER_01: Let him save himself if this is God's Messiah, the chosen one.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, they do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: They do not believe his statements that he would be resurrected from the dead to accomplish salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says in verse 36, the soldiers also mocked him.
SPEAKER_01: They came offering him sour wine and said, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And an inscription was placed, a sign over his head on his cross.
SPEAKER_01: This is the king of the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: And so it is mocking Jesus in the way they did that.
SPEAKER_01: Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you the Messiah?
SPEAKER_01: Save yourself and us.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's mocking him.
SPEAKER_01: Now picture this.
SPEAKER_01: Here is a criminal, a hardened criminal, who's been nailed to a cross, sentenced to die there on that cross.
SPEAKER_01: If you know anything about that deal hanging on a cross, they drove those nails into your arms and into your feet so that you hung there.
SPEAKER_01: And in essence, when your gravity pulls your body down, one of the ways that you died, what contributed to your death was you suffocated because of all the pain and trauma that you're in, and then your body is collapsed, and so your lungs are collapsed on itself, and with all the other trauma and all that, you many times they suffocated there on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And what would happen is they would pull themselves up.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine the energy required to do that?
SPEAKER_01: The pain involved in that.
SPEAKER_01: You're fighting for breath, you pull yourself up, you gasp for breath, and then you fall back down.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've seen images of that, that's what that looks like as they pull themselves up, as they gasp for breath.
SPEAKER_01: And here is this man dying in that fashion, and he is so angry, bitter, afraid, whatever you want to attach to him, that he spends his last breaths mocking Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: But the other thief on the other side, he rebukes the other thief.
SPEAKER_01: Now again, picture all of this chaos going on around them.
SPEAKER_01: And this man fighting for his breath as he pulls himself up.
SPEAKER_01: He uses that precious breath to scream at the other man and to tell him, don't you even fear God?
SPEAKER_01: Since you're undergoing the same punishment.
SPEAKER_01: We are punished justly.
SPEAKER_01: And I imagine in a speech this long, he can't do that all in one breath because of the condition he's in.
SPEAKER_01: He falls back down and he pulls himself up again.
SPEAKER_01: We are punished justly because we're getting back what we deserve for what we did.
SPEAKER_01: This man has done no wrong.
SPEAKER_01: He falls back down.
SPEAKER_01: He pulls himself back up, and this time he screams to Jesus and he says, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And he falls back down.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible says, Jesus, fighting for his own breath, pulls himself up.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: An incredible picture on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of the most powerful images in my mind and heart.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I look to and go to is Jesus hung between these two men, pronounces forgiveness on everyone for what they're doing to him.
SPEAKER_01: And this man hanging on this cross, again, another hardened, violent criminal, sentenced to death, dying in this moment, when he looks at Jesus, he doesn't see Jesus riding on a donkey into the city on Palm Sunday with branches and shouting crowds and all that.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't see Jesus at his greatest and at his strength when he says, Lazarus, come forth, and he calls him out of the tomb and brings him back to life.
SPEAKER_01: He sees Jesus dying.
SPEAKER_01: He sees Jesus from a human perspective failing.
SPEAKER_01: He sees Jesus, Jesus' enemies have accomplished their purpose of lying about him, having him convicted, hung on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: They are finishing him and his threat to their view of Jewish religion and power and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: What he sees is Jesus and everyone else is mocking him.
SPEAKER_01: And this man is so moved by how Jesus has gone through this process of being crucified that it calls him to the person of Jesus as his savior.
SPEAKER_01: In the moment when you think Jesus is failing, this man sees Jesus as his savior.
SPEAKER_01: And isn't that true?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' greatest strength and victory and work for us was that he took that man's sins, the sins of the soldiers who nailed him to the cross, the sins of the other criminal who is mocking him, my sins, your sins, the strength of Jesus spiritually and physically to take our sins to the cross and there die in our place.
SPEAKER_01: So his death could be a substitute for ours.
SPEAKER_01: In that moment, Jesus is focused on his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Father, forgive them.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know what they're doing.
SPEAKER_01: There on that cross, he went to that cross to save that criminal from his sins.
SPEAKER_01: And to save us as well.
SPEAKER_01: And he speaks in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Today you'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: What is it that calls to us out of this passage of Scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the first thing I want you to see, the first lesson that we're going to look at this week, is about judgment, death, and hell.
SPEAKER_01: This man is hanging there on that cross with a clear sense of guilt.
SPEAKER_01: He hollers to that other thief in front of witnesses and everyone, we deserve to be here.
SPEAKER_01: He has got the regret of a life not well lived.
SPEAKER_01: He has got the guilt of what he's done to other people.
SPEAKER_01: He has an understanding of his failure as a man and his sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he understands that I am in this moment because of what I've done.
SPEAKER_01: He says very clearly, I am being judged for what I've done.
SPEAKER_01: But here's another deal.
SPEAKER_01: Whether it is hanging on a cross or whether it's in a hospital or whatever the situation may be, when we face the end of our physical lives, there is always a question of what happens next.
SPEAKER_01: In every culture that has ever lived or built a civilization on our planet, on any continent, in any epoch of time, there is always the question of what does death mean and what happens to us when we die and what happens after that.
SPEAKER_01: If you go study archaeology or go to a museum or however you want to do that, every culture, they do things like bury them with food and resources for the afterlife.
SPEAKER_01: And they sacrifice things in order for them.
SPEAKER_01: They try to find ways to do penance for the sins and the misdeeds of the one who died to try to figure out a way to project something forward into eternity that would help them in some way.
SPEAKER_01: Every culture in every epoch of time has always dealt with this existential question of what happens to me in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: And in this moment, we see that question raised in this man's life.
SPEAKER_01: And it is no different today for anyone else facing the finality and the eternity and the reality of death and of judgment than it was for this man hanging on this cross.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation 20, and we're going to see what it means.
SPEAKER_01: And while you're turning, I just want you to listen to this verse.
SPEAKER_01: We uh, as happens in our church life, we've recently had some wonderful saints who love Jesus who've gone to be in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And recently, in one of them, a family member shared this testimony.
SPEAKER_01: The person who was a part of our church, who loved the Lord, had a great testimony, served in church.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you were even at this at this ceremony, facing death, understood it was coming, talked to his family member, and he said, This listen, I want you to know, because I know Jesus, I've got no fear.
SPEAKER_01: I've got no worry.
SPEAKER_01: And then he shared this verse from Hebrews chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Since the children have flesh and blood in common, since we are flesh and blood human people that live and die, Jesus shared in flesh and blood with us, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, what we're about to talk to about with judgment and hell and all of that, listen, Jesus came to bring an end to the fear of these things.
SPEAKER_01: We have to talk about them because they are the reality, and God's word tells us that it is real, that there is judgment for sin.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_01: Death happens physically because of sin, but it happens spiritually because of sin, and there is an end.
SPEAKER_01: And there is a move all over culture today, as it has been in many generations, to try to eliminate hell or make it less than what it is, or say there's not a hell, or say that because God is so loving and he sent Jesus, you know, you you have a chance here to get saved and you blow it and you don't get saved, but there'll be some other opportunity because Jesus is not gonna lose, you know, because he's Jesus, and so he's you're gonna get another opportunity to get saved, and everybody's gonna get saved, and you have all this kind of weird, aberrant theology from what Scripture says.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want you to see this morning the reality of judgment and hell.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 20, beginning in verse 10, tells us what the final judgment looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10 says this the devil who deceived them, who deceived all these people and all that, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Then I saw a great white throne and one seated on it.
SPEAKER_01: That is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them.
SPEAKER_01: No one can hide from the judgment that Jesus ultimately will stand in.
SPEAKER_01: I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
SPEAKER_01: Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what the man on the cross said.
SPEAKER_01: I know what my deeds are, and I'm being punished for those.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, then the sea gave up its dead, and death and Hades gave up all their dead, and all were judged according to their works.
SPEAKER_01: Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: This is the second death, the lake of fire, and anyone not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 21, if you'll just turn over a page there, verse eight.
SPEAKER_01: The cowards, unbelievers, unbelievers, vile, murderers, sexual immorality, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
SPEAKER_01: That is the clear speaking of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And so what he says is listen, there's no second chance.
SPEAKER_01: There's no everybody wins and there's no hell or anything else.
SPEAKER_01: He paints a very clear picture of the reality of judgment and hell.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first truth I need you to see this morning is that is just that.
SPEAKER_01: How many times do you see the word all, all, all, all?
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says in verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: I saw the dead, the great, and the small.
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 15, well, let's look in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Hades, death, and Hades gave up their dead, all were judged according to their works.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15, and anyone not found written in the book of life was thrown in the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: It is a reality that people die, and it is a reality that they will end up in one of two places.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 21, which we'll look at next week, when Jesus said to the man, today you'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to look at heaven in chapter 21 of Revelation next week.
SPEAKER_01: But you first have to understand that all of us are sinners by birth, by nature, and by choice, and a holy God must judge that sin.
SPEAKER_01: Here in this life, we have an opportunity to find the means of salvation that Jesus has provided when he died for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And make no mistake, Jesus took the full wrath and punishment of God on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: He paid the full punishment and price required for every person who would face this judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And then when Jesus rose again, conquering death and sin, what happens is you come and you trust in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, and you repent of your sin and you acknowledge that you are facing that judgment, and you place your trust in Jesus and what he did on the cross to pay the price for your sin.
SPEAKER_01: And salvation is a spiritual exchange where I have given him my sin and he has given me his righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens is I am acknowledging him as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and He is God, and He is the creator God, and He has the right to make the rules, and He has the right to judge sin, and He sits in that position and will judge.
SPEAKER_01: But I am also acknowledging that He is gracious and went to the cross and took His own punishment for me, which is why I like beginning this with Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: So you never forget that Jesus did this Himself for us.
SPEAKER_01: And then when our bodies physically die, we face a spiritual judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Who is going to pay the price for our sin?
SPEAKER_01: Have I given my life to Jesus and trusted Him to do it?
SPEAKER_01: Or am I going to do it?
SPEAKER_01: But all of us face the reality of death and judgment.
SPEAKER_01: When you have that sense of guilt that occurs in your life, a conscience that happens, God has built those things in us as a part of that calling for us to understand that this matters, it matters ultimately, and it matters eternally.
SPEAKER_01: In today's world, we talk about death and hell and Jesus conquered that and all of that, but I also want to make sure that we understand that hell is real, and these are not euphemisms.
SPEAKER_01: It's not pastor talk.
SPEAKER_01: That it's real.
SPEAKER_01: It is real.
SPEAKER_01: Truth number two.
SPEAKER_01: Then what is hell?
SPEAKER_01: The reality of judgment is hell.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a couple of terms in here I just want to run through really fast.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of theology in this, there's a lot to unpack in all these things.
SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, what I'm trying to get to is the same existential question that we all ask that that thief on the cross asked.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to die, and I know there's judgment for what I've done.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, can you forgive me?
SPEAKER_01: And so what Scripture teaches us is that the reality of judgment is hell.
SPEAKER_01: Now that word is a very specific word in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Now we all live in a time frame.
SPEAKER_01: We have a yesterday, a day, and a tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: We have a back in the past, we have a now, and we have in the future.
SPEAKER_01: So we live in things like this.
SPEAKER_01: We love the days when the Razorbacks used to play basketball and they won national championships.
SPEAKER_01: We live in the past.
SPEAKER_01: We try to avoid the current, and we look forward to the day when we will get back, right?
SPEAKER_01: We have a yesterday, a today, and a tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: And as we're trying to unpack these things, the scripture tries to teach us how this works.
SPEAKER_01: And so he uses the idea of Hades as, if you will, a picture of what happens to someone who dies before Jesus comes back again.
SPEAKER_01: Now, again, it's very complicated.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of theology to this.
SPEAKER_01: What you know is if you are saved, the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians this to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And if you know Jesus as your Savior, you know you will spend an eternity in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And if you do not know Jesus as your Savior and you die before that happens, you know that you will face this judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And hell represents the eternal judgment of being separated from God forever.
SPEAKER_01: And so what he says is listen, no one is going to escape this moment.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be physically alive in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: If you died beforehand, death in Hades gave up.
SPEAKER_01: The sea gave up its people, and everyone is judged.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we need to understand ultimately and most importantly is that there is that final judgment, and there is one question.
SPEAKER_01: Who's paying for your sin?
SPEAKER_01: And the only way to get into heaven is when you say, Jesus paid it all.
SPEAKER_01: And all to him I owe.
SPEAKER_01: I am not entitled to be in heaven, but Jesus has paid the way for me to be in heaven, and I've made him my Lord and my Savior, and so I get in because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Hell is that ultimate separation from God that is the ultimate judgment for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible's very clear about that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what is hell?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean for us?
SPEAKER_01: Well, there are several things that are pictured here for us.
SPEAKER_01: It is the complete absence of the presence of God or of hope or of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: They are thrown into the lake of fire, and then in chapter 21, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down on heaven from God, prepared like a bride, adorned for her husband.
SPEAKER_01: And so what happens is, we'll see next week this picture of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: What happens is you are separated from God forever, and you are sent to what he calls the lake of fire, or what we would say is hell.
SPEAKER_01: And your judgment is forever you are separated from the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: You are separated from any hope that you might find forgiveness or comfort or grace.
SPEAKER_01: We talk about being without hope or hopelessness, but we do not understand what that truly means until for all of eternity we are ultimately separated, that this horrible condition will always be and will never change.
SPEAKER_01: No one can buy us out of it.
SPEAKER_01: No one can come get us.
SPEAKER_01: No one can do something that we are forgiven and it changes.
SPEAKER_01: We are not given a second choice.
SPEAKER_01: We are cast away from the presence of God forever.
SPEAKER_01: Even in this life, if you're sinning, if you're doing whatever you're doing, there is still somewhere in the back of your mind that this could change, or I could make a decision later, or I could do something different.
SPEAKER_01: There is still this chance of hope, this chance of grace.
SPEAKER_01: There is the illusion that I can be in control of my life and I can change this and I can make things better, I can do whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Man, when you are in hell and you are separated from the presence and the person of God, there is no such thing as hope, there is no such thing as grace, and there is nothing but separation from God and fear and hopelessness and failure.
SPEAKER_01: If you think about what the Bible tells us in Genesis, God made Adam and Eve in a special way, and he made us in his image, and he made this beautiful garden for us to live in.
SPEAKER_01: And our purpose was to walk in the presence of God, to love him and to receive his love, to enjoy what he had created for us, to be fruitful and multiply and accomplish through his grace and to return to him as a gift.
SPEAKER_01: And all of this is what God created.
SPEAKER_01: We are created to be in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: And immediately when Adam and Eve sinned, you know the story, they're cast out of the garden, and death entered into the world, and they died, and their children died, and all of us faced death because of that sin.
SPEAKER_01: But when God made this, there was this joy of being with him and purpose and accomplishing who we were meant to be by being in God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: My incredible lack of eloquence to try to explain the horror of hell, the best I can do is this.
SPEAKER_01: If you take the opposite of being in the Garden of Eden and being in God's presence, and the joy of being in his presence and fulfilling the purpose for which we were created, and all of that, when you are judged to hell, you are confronted with the reality that you were wrong in your life, and you will never be in his presence, be who he had created you to be, or do what he had designed for you to do.
SPEAKER_01: You're separated from God, and it is an experience.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what the Bible says, it repeats in verse 10 the devil who deceived him was thrown into the lake of fire, and he describes it here as a picture, fire and sulfur.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have been to Yellowstone?
SPEAKER_01: And you go there and you get the geysers?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, who wants to live that way forever?
SPEAKER_01: It's awful.
SPEAKER_01: It's caustic, it's terrible, it stinks, it's all those things.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_01: He is describing for us a picture of he's trying to communicate in ways that words only create a faint understanding of how terrible it is.
SPEAKER_01: The lake of fire and sulfur.
SPEAKER_01: And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Again in verse 21, how he repeats it in verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is a second death.
SPEAKER_01: And so what he's trying to explain to us is there's an experience.
SPEAKER_01: You know, pastors have been being asked these questions for years.
SPEAKER_01: Is it actual fire?
SPEAKER_01: Is that an illustration or whatever?
SPEAKER_01: And I was listening to my pastor where I grew up, Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Aegan Rogers, this week, and he was describing this, and here's the illustration he gave, and I thought it was incredible.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Listen, the painting is never as real as the reality.
SPEAKER_01: You paint a picture of a sunrise because you want to capture the beauty of it, but you can never capture the fullness of it.
SPEAKER_01: You paint a picture of Niagara Falls, and it's incredible, and you see, and the artist tries to capture the mist and the power and the majesty and all of that, but the painting never reaches the reality.
SPEAKER_01: God is trying to paint a picture for us here, and whether it's actual fire or it feels like burning in the torment, the picture never can capture the full reality.
SPEAKER_01: It is an experience for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says forever.
SPEAKER_01: It is an experience itself, day and night, forever.
SPEAKER_01: You are aware in heaven of what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: How else could you be tormented and understand what was happening?
SPEAKER_01: How could you understand the loss?
SPEAKER_01: You have to be aware to understand the nature of that judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And it is one of torment.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to explain it any more clearly than Scripture itself.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality of judgment is an eternity spent in hell as described in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You'll hear things like there's a theory called aneneism, where some preachers have decided that this is just too awful, and so they try to manufacture some deal that when we die and there's judgment that you're done away with, like that you're ended forever.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible describes it as an experience that lasts day and night forever.
SPEAKER_01: The idea that somehow there is another opportunity to get saved at this moment is foreclosed in this scripture.
SPEAKER_01: There are only two categories, heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we deal with the reality and judgment of hell, as depressing as that is to hear that, it is the most loving thing we can do to explain the reality of it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people will say, you know, it just can't be that bad.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we've just read Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the other truth.
SPEAKER_01: What we know about Scripture is that God speaks to us and warns us and tells us of it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus spoke about hell and described it in these same terms, and he warned us about it because he wants to save us from it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came and he died on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Again, start with the picture of the man's fear of death, his understanding of guilt, and this is the end, and I'm facing this.
SPEAKER_01: And he turns to Jesus, who is dying for him on the cross, and says, please forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Today you will be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus went to that cross for that man.
SPEAKER_01: So the fear that he faced would not be realized.
SPEAKER_01: And he could spend an eternity in heaven instead of hell.
SPEAKER_01: And so God has explained to us in Scripture how it works and what it looks like and what it is because he is calling us to a response.
SPEAKER_01: And so let me give you just quickly three responses.
SPEAKER_01: They're obvious and simple.
SPEAKER_01: The first is repentance and trust in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That man repented of his sin on the cross and he said, I deserve to be here, and I know I need to be judged for my sin.
SPEAKER_01: And he turned to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And with all the faith that he could muster, as a man who had lived the life that he had lived, he looked at Jesus and he said, No one has ever looked like that.
SPEAKER_01: No one has ever died like that before.
SPEAKER_01: No one has ever hung on that cross and taken that abuse and said, Father, forgive them.
SPEAKER_01: He saw something different in Jesus that he had never seen before or heard of in his lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: And he turned to Jesus and he said, Please remember me.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Today you'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died for us and he explained the gospel to us so that you could be saved.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people will ask, trying to fight against the truth of these things.
SPEAKER_01: How could you say your God is loving if he's going to judge people and send them to that horrible of a description that you just described?
SPEAKER_01: Listen, our sin sends us to judgment.
SPEAKER_01: In his holiness, he has to accomplish that judgment.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what the Bible says Jesus himself said this to you.
SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will never perish.
SPEAKER_01: But have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: And I plead with you, if you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, trust him as your savior.
SPEAKER_01: The second response: if you know Christ is your Savior, sometimes we get comfortable in life and we're doing what we're doing, and we're working through the tyranny of the urgent and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And we forget that we have been radically and graciously saved because of what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus experienced the full wrath and punishment of God so that we would not have to.
SPEAKER_01: And when you gave your life to Him, you were saved from hell.
SPEAKER_01: As he says in Hebrews, you were saved from the slavery of the fear of death.
SPEAKER_01: We live a life that is filled because of what Jesus has done and the magnitude of his grace.
SPEAKER_01: We got to live differently.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot go about life as the rest of everybody lives it.
SPEAKER_01: If you have been radically saved by Savior who went through what he went through.
SPEAKER_01: You picture yourself hanging on the cross for your sin next to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus there dies in front of you, but before he does, he says, You are saved and you will be with me in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That has got to call us to a different level of faith and living.
SPEAKER_01: Do we give?
SPEAKER_01: Do we serve?
SPEAKER_01: Do we pray?
SPEAKER_01: Are we involved like we have been graciously saved from an eternity in hell?
SPEAKER_01: And it challenges us to different.
SPEAKER_01: And then we must share good news.
SPEAKER_01: This love list.
SPEAKER_01: These are folks that God put you in their path.
SPEAKER_01: Our guys went to an evangelism conference.
SPEAKER_01: Our staff guys went to an evangelism conference put on by the Arkansas Baptist Convention a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: And one of them, just to paraphrase a story as we were talking about this, reminded me that one of the guys shared a story about someone he worked with.
SPEAKER_01: And he he got all excited because his friend found Jesus and his friend got saved.
SPEAKER_01: And they're celebrating, and it's like a, I got a new brother in Christ, and I'm excited, and this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: He got saved.
SPEAKER_01: And as his friend began to understand more what happened to him when he got saved, he comes back and he says, Hey, listen, I've learned, I mean, I'm really understanding now.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus hadn't saved me, I'd have gone to hell.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, hell is it's like really that, right?
SPEAKER_01: And guy says, Yeah, it really is.
SPEAKER_01: You knew I was going to hell?
SPEAKER_01: When were you gonna tell me how to be saved?
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians chapter 5 says this.
SPEAKER_01: Just listen.
SPEAKER_01: Write it in the margin if you want.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians chapter 5, if I can find it in my Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all find it faster than I will.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about this process of dying and living.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says in verse 10, for we must all appear before the tribunal of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's what was just we just read about and was described.
SPEAKER_01: So that each may be repaid for what he has done in the flesh, whether good or worthless.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, therefore, because of the existence of the tribunal of Christ, because of the existence of that judgment, because of the existence of this question that everyone has to face.
SPEAKER_01: Have you trusted Christ or are you going to hell?
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we seek to persuade people.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, if we are out of our minds, he's saying, look, people think we're crazy because of how we're living.
SPEAKER_01: If we are out of my minds, it is for God.
SPEAKER_01: If we have a sound mind, it is for you, for Christ's love compels us.
SPEAKER_01: That original word is a word picture that means gripped.
SPEAKER_01: We are gripped.
SPEAKER_01: Since we have reached this conclusion, if one died for all, then all died, and he died for all, so that those who should live no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and raised and was raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is from God who reconciled himself to us through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, as he had committed the message of reconciliation to us.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Certain that God is appealing through us.
SPEAKER_01: We plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't spend an eternity in hell.
SPEAKER_01: He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_01: If we are saved, and we are cognizant, truly aware of what we have been saved from.
SPEAKER_01: It should compel us, grip us to spread the good news of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It comes through Jesus Christ that rescues us from hell and promises us a relationship with Him here and an eternity in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Safe to come back to church next week.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But it's vital that we understand the reality of both.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you bow your heads where you are?
SPEAKER_01: If you're watching online or on television, I can't, I can't explain it any better.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry I don't have the eloquence.
SPEAKER_01: But listen, it is clear in Scripture, and the best thing I can do is point us to Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: All of us have sinned.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus died for your sins on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to plead with you to trust him as your Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Surrender your life to him.
SPEAKER_01: Acknowledge your sin and that Jesus paid the price for your sin and surrender your life to him and trust him for his death to pay the price for yours and walk into that relationship with him as he removes that sin from us, as Paul described in 2 Corinthians, we just read, he became sin for us so that we could be reconciled to him.
SPEAKER_01: And he removes that sin from between you and him, and you enter into that relationship.
SPEAKER_01: And just like that man hanging on that cross facing those questions, Jesus says, You are mine.
SPEAKER_01: You are forgiven.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven is yours.
SPEAKER_01: If you're watching, please, in your den, your home, wherever you are, right now confess your sin to Jesus and surrender your life to Him.
SPEAKER_01: It is what happens in your heart, the words, there's no magic words, there's no incantation.
SPEAKER_01: You just give your life to Jesus because of what we've talked about and seen in Scripture today.
SPEAKER_01: And then you call us, email us, let us walk with you and answer your questions.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here in the room this morning, I'm gonna invite you to come.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_01: God's people are gonna stand and sing a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: If you need to be saved, you come.
SPEAKER_01: We've got someone in the balcony.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to come all the way down here.
SPEAKER_01: We got someone here.
SPEAKER_01: You come.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we thank you that you love us enough to teach us the reality of hell.
SPEAKER_01: But we thank you that you loved us even more and you stepped out of heaven and you created salvation for us and gave us a way to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, today as a church family, as your body, we are pleading, as Paul said, for folks to give their lives to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It is in the saving name of Jesus we pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.