Understanding Salvation: Truths and Misconceptions Explored

Tex you see my brotherr it is like if I were to take you to my farm if I had a farm and I would say to you now here you will find apples and peaches and grapes and here are watermelons and cantaloups and sweet potatoes and I would name 15 or 20 edible fruits over vegetables or grains and say now this is all yours take over now would come back a month later and find my guest P star and when I would say to them what's the matter you look under marage they would say well we are under marriage because we have found a plant that we can't identify there is a plant behind the old oak stump back there in in the near the end of the far field just over the hill and we have spent one month trying to identify this plan but I would say you're starting you look sick you you you'll get TB what's the matter with you and they would say well we uh we're worried about this one verse this one plan and that's exactly what a lot of God's children do they starve themselves to death KN deep in Clover because there's one little old plant back of a stum in the rear end of the field that they can't identify and Heretics always starve you to death while they worry at death about that one obscure passage of scripture so I'm going to ro out this passage in order that nobody will come and uh worry you with it and say that they know what it means and therefore try to prove that you're wrong [00:12:31]

now what this verse doesn't teach or these verses does do not teach they do not teach universalism you know universalism is the belief in the restitution of all Fallen beings to a state of blessedness some of them believe only in the restoration of all human beings to blessedness not only Christians but all human beings finally the blessedness then there is another kind of more exhaustive universalism which teaches not only the restitution of all human beings but the devil and all the Fallen Angels they're very generous and take in everything every human every human and every creature that has fallen and sinned against God now this is a dream born of desire and this universalism the teaching that every moral creature would finally be saved is a dream born of Desire and it Springs from humanitarian motives no doubt humanitarian feelings within the breast lead us to desire the salvation of all but it is not taught in the scriptures the Bible specifically states that except we repent we shall all likewise perish and it pictures us a hell for the brother and his angels are and for all that are not found in the Book of Life are finally consigned so the teaching of the Bible is definitely not universalism and whatever this passage teaches which I have read in your hearing it does not teach universalism [00:14:28]

and second it does not teach a second chance now the russellites I do not call them Jehovah Witnesses because I do not want to soil that Holy Name by identifying it with any false teachers but the russellites teach te that there is a second chance they say that everybody that dies will have a chance in the future world and then if he turns down that chance he will be annihilated he will cease to be when a sinner dies he sleeps in the earth body and soul in a state of deep unconsciousness and then when the Resurrection comes he will be raised and given another chance if he turns down that chance then you will be annihilated and cease to be and there will be no hell now that's what the russellites teach and of course they will hold up in passages like this but this error thrives on difficult texts it cannot stand before outl of the Bible it cannot stand the teachings of Jesus it cannot stand the book of Romans it cannot stand the book of Hebrews it cannot stand the Book of Revelation it cannot stand in the four gospels this this heresy cannot possibly stand up under all the life of the Bible it is a night blooming plant and blooms in the shadows of human thought but as soon as we turn the whole Bible loose on it it wers and dies [00:16:15]

now what it does mean means that there are lost souls which the scriptures call Spirit in prison then with are dead and some of these in the passage are identified as being the earth population at the time of Noah's flood they heard the message preached and they denied or refused it rejected it and the result was that they perished along with their evil Deeds at the coming of the flood and it teaches us that these all went to the place of the Dead Hades in the new has to men in the old the place of the dead and the Christ's body when he died lay 3 days in Joseph's new Tomb but that his Spirit was not in his body but separated temporarily from his body and in that Spirit he went and preached to the spirits that were in Hades the spirits in prison you remember the apostles cre that we used to quote it around here sometimes but we sort of quit we all believe in the Apostles Creed it says this about our Lord that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried and the third day he rose again from the dead now that's the way the Protestants had it but the old Apostles Creed reads like this that Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary Mary suffered under pontious pilate was crucified dead and buried and descended into hes and the third day he arose again from the dead now that was only saying what Peter said here and what Paul said as we'll notice later that when Jesus Christ's Spirit was free from the crucified body that Spirit did not like Cresent or hover over the tomb Jesus Christ the Eternal son in his Spirit had a work to do and so the work he had to do was to go descend into hell that is descend not into the fires of hell for punishment but descend to the place of the dead and there preach the word to those that had died and whose Spirits were confined there so he preached the soundness of Noah's position and he told them why judgment had come and he justified the ways of God to man and explained what had taken place in order that they might know that they were being treated as intelligent beings always remember Brethren that God treats every human being as an intelligent being you may not be B his Einstein but you're morally intelligent and God will never at your intelligence and he never means that you should simply shut your eyes and d and swallow what's ever given to you he means that you're an intelligent moral being and therefore he will not violate your intelligence nor will he treat you like a moral as a certain healing evangelist goes up and down the country and when anybody comes he says they're fil they' got a demon in them and he wants to pray for the demon to God out he tells everybody in the congregation now don't you open your eyes and look but if you do the demon will go on you that kind of intimidation that kind of trickery why the average magician who does tricks for money on a stage wouldn't be so cheap that if Jesus Christ is casting out devils and Healing The Sick I don't dare look lest the demon will jump on me where do you find that in your Bible where is that in the New Testament where is that any place within the confines of the word of God nowhere that's cheap tricker and I'd have no hesitation to look in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus said I never did anything in a corner I never did anything with people of AA I never had to do anything in hi all religious activity should be an open book everything from the treasur receip book up and down the scale in the Church of Christ should be open to the eyes of mankind and there's never any place in the Bible where God preached me uh as if I didn't have good sense so that even the spirits that were in prison even those who died and are in the place of the Dead our Lord went to them in his spirit and preached to them and explain how things were in order that Justice might be done you take in the ordinary English or American Court something like this goes on the evidence has been heard the jury goes out and deliberates they come back in they pronounce the defendant guilty and the judge says will the defendant please rise and face the court the defendant Rises and the judge says something to this effect Mr s the evidence has been heard and a jury of your pear have decided from the evidence that you have been guilty of such and such a crime before you are sentenced you is there anything you want to say in other words we're about to sentence you but we're not have getting your intelligence we're not treating you like a robot you are an intelligent human being and you're able to judge us and if we as a judge and jury along you you judge us therefore I want to clear this whole matter up have you anything to say usually they don't have but if there was anything that this intelligent sinner could say to the judge the judge would give it respectful consideration for in theory at least American and English courts are not going to roll man to the elected chair or the prison they're going to do it according to the rules of Justice with all the gear showing and all the processes open before the eyes of mankind so God says that all the Wicked Will Swept Away by a flood and hold to the place of the dead and they will never see the blessedness of heaven or no God but we're not simply going to sweep them out as if they were ner bits of fth they're human they're intelligent they're moral creature they're capable of exercising judgment on their own right therefore the Everlasting Son of God went before the spirits in prison and preached to them there preached to them though they were living and because they were Spirits they were alive in their Spirit they had sinned In the Flesh and they were to be judged for the days they lived in the flesh and their whole heart said amen to the Judgment of God now my brother if you don't believe this let me give you some scripture to show why Christ descended into the place of the dead and into hell as it says Ephesians 48 to 10 turn to that if you will for a moment it says therefore he said when Christ descended up on high we LED captivity captive and gave gifts un man now that he ascended what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth he that descended is the same also that ascended a far above all things that he might fill all Heavens that he might fill all things we are told here that when Jesus Christ body lay in the grave his Spirit went to those captives in in the place of the dead and preached with relas to them and when he arose he took with him all the redeem spirits of lansom men that had been trapped in the place of the bed haers you remember Jacob said I will go down unto sh Hades down unto sh mourning for my son and when Samuel the dead man came back from the dead he came up out of the Earth but after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and after Christ had taken the redeemed ones with him to heaven to the place of paradise Paul said I was caught up into Paradise to the third heaven was no longer down but up the Lord himself the Lord of life and Glory have taken his ransomed wors out of the place of the dead but that place of the Dead contained not only the redeemed ones but it contained also those that were not redeemed separated however by a gulf a great Gulf that was fixed Lazarus and the rich man explain that when the rich man died he went to the place of the dead and when Lazarus died he went to the place of the Dead this time Abraham's bom with a great G fixed between so when our Lord descended descended after his death he descended into hings he took all of ab Boos him with him up to heaven and left the rest there but in doing it he explained it and preached in his Spirit to all those that were in the place of the dead now if that isn't enough let me give you Philippians 2:9 and 11 wherefor God also have highly exalted Jesus and given him a name which is above every remain that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father so that not only those in heaven and those on Earth but those in hell are forced to confess with their tongue that Jesus Christ is Lord and this they do to the glory of God the Father so you see my brethren that passage that Peter gives us here doesn't teach universalism it teaches only that Jesus Christ Our Lord while his body lay in the grave went in the spirit to Shield the place of the Dead there he preached Deliverance to The Ransom and judgment to the Lost took his ransomed ones with him and left the Lost for the Judgment of the great day but everyone those under the Earth and those on the earth and All Creatures everywhere admit that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father this Jesus Christ Our Lord is not going to rule over any that do not willingly submit to his rule he will not enforce his rule over one human being or one Mor creature but he will force from the unwilling tongues of even lost Ones the fact that he's right true and righteous are thy judgments oh Lord will be the only text in Hell the only text in hell and I'm not sure it won't be cut against the Ines of that terrible place to and righteous are thy judgments oh Lord in order that that might be known to all the three words above and on the earth and beneath there had to be a declaration of the whole just plan of God those that are dead as well as those that live but there is not one sentence not one phrase not one word not one letter in the Bible it teaches that Jesus ever preached the gospel to the dead and said come unto me he said come unto me to the living but he never preached the gospel of redemption and gave an invitation and said come it is appointed unto men wants to die and after that the Judgment the preaching to the dead was done in order that the dead as well as the living lost as well as the saved might know how true and just and righteous our God is and how impeccable is his character how holy are his ways and that he doeth all things well now I admit that this is not the kind of a message to send you out with moist eyes but you need to hear this we needed to know this so the next time someone comes pushing your doorbell with a phonograph record to prayed to you you'll be able to smile and say I know what the Bible teaches thank you goodbye quietly close never slam it don't slam it that's not nice Christians never slam doors but close it rather [00:18:40]