WEBVTT 00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:06.799 So we've been going through Matthew chapter 13, which is this chapter on the parables, is the kingdom parables. 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:16.559 So it's it's different parables, different stories Jesus is telling, and he's telling one story to tell a truth about something else, a more profound truth. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.839 And so we've gotten ourselves to the last parable. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:24.320 Now, what I didn't highlight last week is what this parable is on, because a lot of you wouldn't be here. 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:27.519 Or perhaps if you brought a friend, you're already reading it in the bulletin. 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:29.679 You're like, oh dear Lord, what did I do? 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.000 He's preaching on hell this morning. 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:33.600 So glad I brought a friend. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.320 This is going to be so warm and fuzzy and wonderful. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.240 Well, I even have kind of mixed feelings this morning. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:49.600 On one side, I'm actually incredibly excited because it's so needed to have a thoughtful conversation about hell. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:57.359 And then on the other side, uh, it's so incredibly sobering that you just don't even want to come near it or talk about it. 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:03.520 So my hope is as a preacher, as a pastor, is just to lay it out there this morning. 00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:11.359 Just kind of lay out there what the scriptures say about hell, and we'll let that speak for itself. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:15.680 So our text is Matthew 13, starting verse 47. 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:21.359 We're going to work our way through this and we'll look at some other words that Jesus talked about when it comes to hell. 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:23.439 So Matthew 13, verse 47. 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:31.599 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:42.159 Now, this word net, and anytime I'll start to dig into a word, I only do that because it actually means something really profound, really great for us. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:49.280 And so this word net is sagani, and this is the only place in the Bible where this word is used. 00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:55.680 There's lots of other words for net, but this is the place that Jesus chooses this kind of net. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:02.959 And this is interesting because this kind of net is a net that does not discriminate against anything. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:06.079 It sort of just takes it all up. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:15.520 So here's what this means: it means me and you and this church and any church leaves no one out. 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:21.439 The seaweed, the old nasty boot, they all get caught up with the fine fish. 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:28.639 Like the little tiny, useless fish, it gets caught up with that fat, desired fish. 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:33.280 The kingdom, it gathers up everything in its path. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:36.319 And Jesus wants us to understand this first. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:39.120 That's why he chose this word for net. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:40.560 He could have chosen another word for net. 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:48.319 That's why he chose this word for net, is that at this point there is a great inclusivity here to the kingdom. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:03:03.120 Because it's for the religious fanatic, it's for the moralist, it's for the morally broken, it's for the messy, it's it's for the achiever, it's for the weary, it's for the proud, it is for everyone. 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:06.560 Then the parable moves on. 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:15.520 Verse 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers, but threw away the bad. 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:18.000 So it will be at the end of the age. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:25.199 The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:31.439 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:37.360 So it's pretty clear here that this is a parable about the end of the age and what God will do. 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:44.000 What's also really clear here is it's not our role to determine who is in and who is out. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:54.800 Because of what church they went to, or what church they didn't go to, or who they hang out with, or what their life looks like, or what they did with who, when, and what happened. 00:03:55.919 --> 00:04:05.759 We are greatly relieved from having to do this sort of sorting of our friends and our families and of human beings. 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:08.960 Because we are not the sovereign judge. 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:10.719 He is. 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:19.600 Now maybe you're here, and this idea of hell is just the reason why maybe coming to church is actually something that you've had no interest in doing. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:26.879 But you go, this is the sort of narrow-minded, antiquated thinking that has put me off for so long. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:30.240 And I would just say, well, hold on, give me a minute, let's flesh this out a little bit. 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:36.800 Or maybe you're like me, and growing up, you never heard an intelligent overview of hell. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:44.480 All you ever received was the concept of hell as a guilt producer to get you into certain behaviors. 00:04:45.279 --> 00:04:46.480 And I'm not gonna do that. 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:48.000 We don't do that. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:53.279 So, but I am gonna ask you to think as we go. 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:54.959 I would ask you to think with me. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:04:56.240 Here's the temptation. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:04:58.879 For me, it's the temptation for me, it's the temptation for you. 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:08.480 The temptation is for us to redesign God as we want him to be and not accept him for who he is. 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:11.920 So, I mean, all of us remember this guy, right? 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:13.839 Y'all remember him? 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:20.160 If we can just break this down as simple as possible for us all to get on the same page, we can start with Mr. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:21.040 Potato Head. 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:22.160 I might be able to use Mr. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:26.319 Potato Head in so many different places throughout sermons because it's so fantastic, right? 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:32.160 We all remember this guy, whether it was years ago in your house or right now, or you're gonna have him in the future. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:48.319 He's gonna be in your house, you're gonna find the ear in the couch, you're gonna get up in the middle of the night, you go to the bathroom, you step on the mustache, and it hurts so I mean, how does a mustache in the bottom of the foot in the middle of the night cause so much pain, or maybe you have boys, you got little micro machines and you you go down. 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:49.680 But anyway, so Mr. 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:58.800 Potato, isn't it cute when your two-year-old puts the mustache on top of the head and the ear is in place of the nose? 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:00.000 It's just so cute. 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:03.839 You also have to remember that two-year-old can't use the restroom, okay? 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.519 So let's be realistic here. 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:07.120 That's a two-year-old. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:12.480 It's not so cute if a grown, mature, intelligent person does that. 00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:13.040 Mr. 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:17.360 Potato Head looks like a certain thing, and this is it. 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:19.279 It starts this way, right? 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:23.199 This is the way he's supposed to look. 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:28.000 This is what the way a potato head looks. 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:32.639 But the temptation is to do this, to redesign, right? 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:33.519 This is what we do. 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:35.920 And we do this with jobs. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:38.879 We we do it with friends. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:44.079 We do it with girlfriends and boyfriends. 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:59.199 You ever done that with a girlfriend or a boyfriend because you were just determined that she was gonna be it and you knew all about her, but really you had replaced different things, or you did it for that boy because he was gonna be so great, but really you had just redesigned him. 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:04.160 You had put the mustache up on the head and the ear in front of the nose, and that wasn't who he was at all. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:10.879 And when we do it to God, it serves us a great. 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:16.560 But it, you know what it does is it forces us to living in falsehood. 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:23.199 And when we live in falsehood, we live in less truth, and when we live in less truth, we live in less freedom. 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:29.519 And when we do this toward God, the big word for it is anthropomorphism, in case you're wondering. 00:07:29.600 --> 00:07:41.279 It's the process that we will come to God and we will redesign him based on what we want him to look like, not based on what he has revealed himself to be. 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:51.439 Now, God has revealed himself in history through the person of Jesus, and Jesus comes, and Jesus speaks more about hell than anybody else in the scriptures. 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:58.959 Throughout the New Testament, Jesus speaks more about hell than any other person in the New Testament. 00:07:59.120 --> 00:07:59.759 So that's interesting. 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:01.920 Here are a few things that Jesus says about hell. 00:08:02.079 --> 00:08:05.680 Matthew 25, 41 and 46, you can just listen. 00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:15.839 It's Jesus speaking of the eternal fire and punishment as the final abode of angels and human beings who have rejected God. 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:19.360 Matthew 5, 22, and also Matthew 18, 8 and 9. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:28.079 Jesus says that those who give their lives to sin will be in danger of the fire of hell. 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.399 Now, this word hell is Gehenna. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:34.080 So Gehenna was a valley outside of Jerusalem. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:42.960 And so this valley, at first in the Old Testament, we see sometimes where some different cults would go and they would sacrifice children into this valley. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:50.080 In the New Testament, we see it's almost become this closed-off area, and it's the area where they throw the trash, all the refuse. 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:54.320 And maybe if somebody dies and they don't have family members, they throw the corpse. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:09:00.960 It is a place that is it is nasty, it smells, and it burns forever. 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:05.360 You go, well, you know, well, does hell actually have like fire? 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:07.440 I mean, is that that's kind of the imagery throughout the scriptures? 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:10.639 It's like hell's fire and hell's gnashing of teeth. 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:13.120 Is this actually what hell is? 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:20.720 Well, almost all scholars agree that no, it's probably not actually fire and actually gnashing of teeth. 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:32.799 It's probably more metaphorical language talking about something that could be much worse, and it's talking about the separation we feel when we're apart from God. 00:09:33.440 --> 00:09:38.559 The isolation, the disintegration of the human being. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:48.080 To choose to be isolated from God is to put yourself on a process of the soul being disintegrated. 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:53.200 And anybody who's choosing that path, they want that path. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:56.639 They are self-choosing that path. 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:01.039 And we all feel this in ways now, right? 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:13.120 We all feel this, and people in this world feel this, but still, people in this world today, they still feel the common grace of God drawing them, even though they may be resisting it. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:19.279 To resist this grace is to determine to be your own deliverer. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:25.519 It's to say to God, I'm good, I'll go my own way, the way of grace, your work for me, no thank you, don't need it. 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:31.279 I will base my life, my identity, my righteousness, my forgiveness, I will base it all on my work. 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:39.120 And that kind of life is a life of isolation and disintegration, and it is a path toward hell. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:42.879 It's a hell now, and it is a hell forevermore. 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:54.320 Hell is the constant, continuous, intensifying feeling that without any relief, and it's the thing that a person has wanted the most. 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:57.840 They've always wanted this because they've wanted to be their own deliverer. 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:13.200 And they get it, and they realize that they aren't what they were created to be, because you were created by God, for God, to enjoy God, and so they're realizing they're not what they created to be, but yet they're so addicted to being their own deliverer. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.879 There's no other path. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:28.399 Yet the further they go into it, they would want nothing more than to be their own deliverer, and it's more and more self-addiction, and it's darker and lonelier and more isolated and more disintegration. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:31.279 Maybe there's not fire, but that's hell. 00:11:33.679 --> 00:11:36.559 Now, people think that good guys are in heaven a lot of times, right? 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:44.480 I mean, if you go out and just kind of like do sidewalk survey, think, well, people who do good are in heaven, people who do bad are in hell, and that's not true at all. 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:47.200 Good guys aren't in heaven, bad guys are not in hell. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:48.480 That is not how it works. 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:55.679 Who's in heaven are forgiven, messy beggars, sinners are in heaven. 00:11:56.639 --> 00:12:07.440 And who's in hell might be the great white, shiny moralist who self-delivers themselves their entire life. 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:12.399 Or it could be the secular guy who's pleasing himself his entire life as well. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:15.279 Still self-delivering himself. 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:20.720 Now, in verse 49, Jesus intensifies this language at the first. 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:24.480 In verse 48, he uses this word bad to talk about people. 00:12:24.559 --> 00:12:30.480 And then in verse 49, when it comes to the judgment, he intensifies the language and he uses the word evil. 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:38.320 They will separate the evil from the, and the word there is kala or righteous or beautiful. 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:41.120 So it's it's it doesn't that's a deep word. 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:47.279 You're fair, you're not just good, you're fair, you're beautiful, you're righteous. 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:57.279 But what does it mean for someone to be willfully evil if the definition is not narrowed to behavioral morality? 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:00.320 Because it's deeper than that, it's more profound than that. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:04.240 Well, it's speaking about those who are committed to refusing the grace of God. 00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:05.919 They're refusing help. 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:08.159 I'll make it on my own. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:12.320 That's the ugliest, most evil of things. 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:17.679 And it might be in churches or it might be the most hideous of abusers. 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:24.080 And yet we have the gospel, which is wonderfully inclusive of all these people. 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:34.480 All the broken, ugly screw-ups of the world get sorted up in that sagani net. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:39.440 It's available to them all, and God says, Let me scoop you up in that net. 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:41.279 I will make you kala. 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:48.879 I will make you righteous, I will make you beautiful, and it's going to be by my work, not by your work. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:53.600 See, this means good people don't go to heaven and bad people to hell. 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:54.960 That's not what it means. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:57.120 It means forgiven people go to heaven, right? 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:05.039 Love the bumper sticker, and stubborn, self-saving people go to hell because that's exactly what they've always wanted. 00:14:06.960 --> 00:14:15.519 Years ago, Christy and I got the chance to hike in Volcano National Park in Hawaii, and so we park the car and we walk out in this huge lava field. 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:22.320 Massive, massive lava field where the volcano had erupted years and years ago, and it's just stark. 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:24.399 I mean, there's nothing. 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:26.240 Walk down and hike through a crater. 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:27.440 There's just nothing. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:35.279 It is so stark and it's beautiful and it's a little scary and daunting. 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:40.639 I've slept below two other volcanoes. 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:42.720 Have you ever slept below a volcano? 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:43.679 Anybody? 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:51.440 Anyone neurotic enough to confess, like me, that you went online before you went to kind of like do the monitoring, like who's monitoring this? 00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:52.960 And none of you. 00:14:53.039 --> 00:14:53.679 Yes, you have. 00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:54.879 Some of you have. 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:10.320 And so I've slept below a couple other two other volcanoes, and uh I know they're monitored, there's people monitoring, there'd be announcements if something's gonna happen, but still in the back of your mind, there's this fear. 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:17.600 Like if this thing goes, I have no shot, I have no chance. 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:22.080 It will wipe away anything in its path. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:25.360 It will cleanse this area. 00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:29.279 Now listen to this Romans 5, 6 through 10. 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:34.799 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:35.120 Right? 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:37.840 We memorize that one a lot around church, if you've been around. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:50.720 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:52.639 Now listen to this. 00:15:52.720 --> 00:15:54.879 A lot of times we we we just leave it there. 00:15:55.120 --> 00:16:08.240 Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:22.240 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:28.159 So this week I'm just like soberly thinking about this, thinking about hell, and then a great week. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:38.399 Just thinking about this, reading, listening to sermons, and Wednesday morning, I'm in the shower and I'm thinking about this, shampooing, I'm thinking about, and it just sort of clicked, it clicked. 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:49.039 And it's this is that hell will be so horrible because of the wrath of God, but heaven will be so incredible because of the wrath of God. 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:51.519 You go, what does that mean? 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:52.799 How in the world could heaven be worried? 00:16:53.039 --> 00:17:04.079 Because the perfect justice of God demands the wrath of God to go and eliminate every ounce of wickedness from our existence and our experience. 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:06.319 So we will have heaven. 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:13.359 A place where there's no fear and no anxiety and no comparison and no judgment and no abuse and no manipulation. 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:18.319 A place like that gets created because the justice of God and the wrath of God. 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:24.640 Hell is so horrible because of the wrath of God, and heaven is so wonderful because of the wrath of God. 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:29.599 And so maybe you don't like the wrath of God, but you love the idea of heaven. 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:36.720 And I would say if you love the idea of heaven, then you're at least agreeing that the wrath of God exists. 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:43.359 Now let's put all of this sort of in the context of the last few weeks, because the last few weeks we've been talking about these kingdom parables. 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:48.240 So we've been talking about how God's about God's power coming into this world. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:17:55.759 We've been saying how this is about the forgiveness of sins, the taking away of condemnation and shame, how all things will be made right. 00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:01.599 And we've been saying that this is about what it means for God to reign in you, to control your life. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:07.519 Uh last week we talked about how what it would mean if we sold our attempt to rule. 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:12.799 And if we actually understood and rested in, if that we are the pearl. 00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:22.079 The week before that, we saw that the work of the kingdom, the spirit in you, is the fact that the spirit is in you, creating thousands, remember this? 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:28.480 Thousands of tiny air pockets of life inside your heart and soul. 00:18:29.519 --> 00:18:32.480 The week before that, we saw that life's hard. 00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:36.720 And we have wheat and we have weeds, we have zazania. 00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:40.640 And then here we have judgment and we have hell. 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:41.039 Why? 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:46.799 Well, because the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of this world is a foretaste of hell. 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.599 Hell is this grumbling feeling. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:53.039 It's growing, it's shifting, it's moving. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:56.880 Here, great thinker and author C.S. 00:18:56.960 --> 00:18:58.960 Lewis and The Great Divorce, here's what he says. 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:02.079 Hell begins with a grumbling mood. 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:06.400 Always complaining, always blaming others, but you are still distinct from it. 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:14.160 You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it, but there may come a day when you can no longer. 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:25.519 Then there will be no there will be no you left to criticize the mood or in to even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.880 It is not a question of God sending us to hell. 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:36.400 In each of us, there is something growing which will be hell unless it is nipped in the bud. 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:40.799 Now, one more, I think this adds to it. 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.839 Tim Keller, pastor author, all-around smart guy. 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:45.599 Here's what he says. 00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:54.000 Even in this world, it is clear that self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness makes you miserable and blind. 00:19:54.240 --> 00:20:03.359 The more self-centered, self-absorbed, self-pitying, self-justifying people are, the more breakdowns occur relationally, psychologically, and even physically. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:08.079 They also go deeper into denial about the source of their problems. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:15.920 On the other hand, a soul that has decided to center its life on God and his glory moves toward increasing joy and wholeness. 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:21.279 We can see both of these trajectories, even in this life. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:30.559 But if, as the Bible teaches, our souls will go on forever, then just imagine where these two kinds of souls will be in a billion years. 00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:35.839 Hell is simply one's freely chosen path going on forever. 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:38.400 So I'm a visual person. 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:41.440 I was just trying to think conceptually, what does this look like? 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:49.920 So this week I kind of came up with how it, and I know some of you aren't gonna be able to see this, so bear with me, come by to see this wonderful artwork after we finish. 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:51.440 It's just gonna be so wonderful. 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:57.279 But this is how, for me, how do I conceptualize how do I conceptualize hell and heaven? 00:20:57.920 --> 00:20:59.920 How do I process this now? 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:04.720 And so for me, this is I'm reading these quotes, I'm thinking about these passages. 00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:15.759 Uh for me, it's to understand the kingdom of hell, which we we all experience partially now, and some people fully live in because they don't know the grace of God and the rescue of Jesus. 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:26.880 So the kingdom of hell in partial now and in full later, it is this process, it's never any process of seeing your brokenness and your sin. 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:49.920 And yet what you're doing is you're turning to be your own savior, and then you see your own sin, and then you be your own savior, and then you're gonna see your own sin, and then you're gonna be your own savior, your own sin, you're gonna self save, your own sin, self save, your own sin, self save, and it gets tighter and tighter and tighter and lonelier and lonelier and darker. 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:55.200 And the kingdom of heaven works quite the opposite. 00:21:55.920 --> 00:21:59.440 Because you see your own brokenness. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.319 And you don't turn to self-save. 00:22:02.640 --> 00:22:07.759 You receive Jesus' work for you to be your Savior, and then you see your own brokenness, as we do. 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:08.559 We're not perfect. 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:11.279 This doesn't all of a sudden you become perfect here. 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:20.960 And then you turn to the work of Jesus, and then you see your sin, and you turn to the work of Jesus, and you see your own sin, and you turn to the work of Jesus, and you see your own sin, and you turn to the work of Jesus. 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:25.680 And this is a process that doesn't end, it goes on forever until glory. 00:22:25.920 --> 00:22:39.200 But in this process, the spirit is breathing, like we talked about, breathing thousands of tiny air pockets of life into your heart and your soul. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:44.400 This is this is the foretaste of heaven and hell. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:45.839 This is what Lewis is saying. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:47.759 This is what Keller is saying. 00:22:47.920 --> 00:22:51.440 See, Jesus on the cross saved you from hell forever. 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:55.039 His work on the cross saved you from the hell forever. 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:58.319 And Jesus on the cross is saving you from a hell today. 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:01.440 He is that good and he is that sufficient. 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:04.799 You do not have to save yourself. 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:13.200 You don't have to save yourself from your own sin or your own shame or your mess-ups or your failures. 00:23:13.599 --> 00:23:16.400 You don't have to save yourself from God's wrath. 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:20.960 By his work, he saved you from his own wrath. 00:23:22.480 --> 00:23:26.880 And so you don't have to rely on your busy Christian record or effort or whatever. 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:29.920 You are saved only by his work. 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:39.359 So, church, may you know this and live and rest in this good news that Jesus is just and good and he's saves sufficiently. 00:23:39.599 --> 00:24:06.640 May you allow him to make you cala, righteous and beautiful, so that you will know the kingdom in you, that you will know the life the Spirit is wanting to speak into you, those thousands of tiny air pockets of life, the foretaste of heaven, that you would taste the sweetness of heaven here and now, and we will know it forevermore. 00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:08.160 Let's pray together. 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:16.079 God, thank you for your grace to us. 00:24:16.160 --> 00:24:30.000 We thank you that you are a just God, and while it is incredibly scary to us because we fall short, thank you for your grace, that you have saved us by your work from your own wrath. 00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:49.759 Thank you that you are preparing a place for us one day that will not have any of this frustration, this weariness, this exhaustion, brokenness, this sin that's in us, that's in others. 00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:55.839 We pray for those who don't know you, who are self-saving. 00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:00.960 Would they come to the end of themselves? 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:11.920 Would they see your grace not as a challenge, not as an opposition, not as an enemy, but would they see it as their rescue? 00:25:13.359 --> 00:25:18.559 Thank you that you have overwhelmed our disbelief and drawn us to yourself. 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:21.359 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:22.400 Amen.