All right, you guys ready?
All right, now before we go any further, as always, please help me welcome Peru and everybody online. Put your hands together for them. Yeah! Thank you for being a part of what we have going on here.
Now we're going to pray, and we're going to get right into it. So here we go.
Father, I thank you for each and every person under the sound of my voice. I pray that you bless them, touch them, minister life to them, have your way in each and every one of us. God, we love you, we thank you, and we honor your word today. In Jesus' name, everybody says, Amen.
Amen.
All right, so we're going to start a new series. And I actually was looking—this is something that's kind of been in my heart and been kind of rolling. It was actually rolling about, I'd say, last September, October. So I just started doing a bunch of studying and researching.
Typically, basically what happens a lot of times in my world is what I'm preaching is about 90 days from what I'm studying. You know, I'm usually studying stuff out and getting ideas, and then I let it sit in my heart, and then I let it bake.
Oh no, sometimes I bring it out too early, and it's not done. Sorry about that.
But the truth of the matter is this has been in my heart for a while to preach on because I wanted to do a series really on heaven, but I wanted to combine it with heaven and hell.
To be honest with you, I haven't done a series on heaven and hell for a long, long period of time. I was actually looking through my records to try and figure out when. I think 2012 was the last time I did a series on heaven and hell, and I think 2012 was the last time I even talked anything close to it.
But I do think it's an important subject, and hopefully, prayerfully today we're going to set the record straight and kind of get you going.
So we're going to start out talking about hell this week. Anybody excited? That's always a real burn burner. Come on!
All right, but no, I really do want to talk about it because I think there are a lot of misunderstandings— a lot of misunderstandings as far as what people believe.
And I'll be honest, we live in a time and culture where some things are getting kind of cloudy. So we're just going to make it real plain and simple today, and we'll see what we got.
So heaven and hell, let's talk about hell this week. First and foremost, I want you to understand there are three categories—or at least in my world, there are probably more.
This is Charlie speaking here. You know, there are three categories of unbelief when it comes to hell. And I'll kind of give you those.
Number one: that hell isn't real, that it doesn't exist. Okay. I think this is one of the greatest tools of the enemy. If he can convince you that hell doesn't exist, then obviously, you know, what good is it to try and stay out of it?
Okay, but the truth of the matter is—and here's the truth. And again, I've met some hardcore people that didn't believe in hell until they got sick, until they got close.
How many of you know it's very, very difficult to stare eternity in the face and say you don't believe in God? It's very hard— a lot harder than what people think.
Here's the next part. You ready? It's a big party. That's not what your Bible teaches.
All right, so if you got this understanding, you're going to believe in God. You're just going to be in you and all your buddies going to be having a great time. I got news for you. That's not what the Bible says. You're getting tricked by the enemy. Do not fall into that trick.
Here's the last one, and I believe this was probably the most dangerous, and I'll tell you why it's creeping in. But here it is: everyone is going there.
There's this idea that everybody's going to go to hell—or I'm sorry, not that everybody's going to heaven. All right? And there's a term for it. It's called Christian Universalism.
All right, and it's becoming popular. I'll tell you why it's becoming popular, okay? In the last 20 years, probably the greatest—I want to say revelation, but that's probably not the most accurate word. I'd say the greatest emphasis within the church as a whole—and I'm talking global church—has been the idea of God's grace, the grace of God.
And when you understand the grace of God, you'll know that you don't earn your way to heaven. It's simply the grace of God that you don't live under a cloud of God trying to get you. Come on, amen?
And I believe this is all true. But what happens is, just like in any generation and every group of people, when you take an idea and then you take it to an extreme, then you end up with what is called Christian Universalism.
And this is the idea that everyone's going to be saved eventually, that God has a plan, and that even though some may go to hell for a while—and there's all kinds of extremes of it.
And again, there are a couple of books I could recommend if you're interested in proving it or disproving it or whatnot. But the reality of it is, you know, there's everything from human beings will eventually be redeemed, okay?
So like even people that deny Christ and even people that are atheists today eventually will be born again or saved or have a relationship with God. There's that. That's kind of the entry level.
But then where does it stop? Well, there are people that call themselves Christian Universalists, and they believe that everybody's going to heaven, even the devil, and the devil's angels are going to be redeemed eventually.
So there's this path that gets really, really broad, and I will tell you what the Bible says about the path that goes really, really broad.
Broad and wide is the path that leads to destruction, and I believe that would all make sense.
So let's kind of make sure that we understand what these are. Here's one thing—another thing that there's a mindset out there that I want to make sure—and oftentimes this one, everybody's going to heaven, is linked to the idea of this: hell was just a way of religion to control people.
That's what people think. There are a group of people that say, "No, no, hell, the only reason the Bible even talks about hell is because religious people that translated the Bible were creating rules so that they could control people."
That's not the truth. That's not the truth in any way, shape, or form. Matter of fact, check this out. Preaching on hell is a scare tactic. I've heard that one too.
You're just preaching on hell to scare people. No, no, no, no.
No, why do we preach on hell, or why should we preach on hell? And I'll be honest with you. This is Charlie speaking. You ready? Most preachers don't touch this subject.
And when's the last time you heard or seen someone going, "Hey, we got a great message coming for you about hell this week?" You know what I mean?
It's going to say, "It's going to set you on fire. It's great." Oh, don't worry. I got all kinds of hell jokes. Don't worry.
But here's the truth. You ready? Listen to this. Here's what I believe. This is my personal heart and my personal opinion.
Preaching on hell is a part of loving people. It really is. Enough to warn them about living in eternity without God. Because that's really what it boils down to.
Eternity without God has to go somewhere, okay? Because—and I know we'll get into all the questions today, I promise you, all right? Here in a couple of hours, I'm going to answer them all.
But you have to answer the question: if people have free will and they don't want to live with God, where do they go? Where do they go?
There has to be a place. You can't make people. If you can, we don't have free will.
There's a vast, vast understanding about this whenever you break it down real simple. Check this out. Whenever it comes to the Bible, it is more loving to talk about heaven than hell.
Is it more loving to talk about heaven than hell? Do you believe that? People are like, "Well, yeah, of course."
Well, I got one for you. Jesus would contradict that.
This may come as a shock because I know people—and people would say, "Is it more loving to talk about heaven than hell?" People are like, "Yes, absolutely. Praise God. Let's talk about heaven."
Jesus did not talk about heaven half as—not even close to as much as he talked about hell.
Matter of fact, check this out. Just from—watch this, this is pretty powerful. Jesus talked about hell 42 times in the book of Matthew alone. 42 times.
Now watch this. I'll give you some more stats, but check this out. I'm going to give you every verse—every verse, okay? I'm not going to read them.
Some of you are like, "Oh, praise God. He can't get through three verses." But here it is. Look, I'm going to give them to you, and I'm going to give them to you kind of rapid fire.
Look at this. Matthew chapter three is the first one. So you have three, seven. Then you go all through. I put some little notes. Hell is fire. The gates of hell. Few that find it. You know, there's one.
Look at this. These are all just out of the book of Matthew. Look, Matthew—not everyone gets there. Not everyone gets there. It's outer darkness, destroys the body and soul. Uh, there's that.
We're not done. 12, 32, 12, 36, 12, 41, 13, 30. How about this? 13, 40, wailing and gnashing of teeth in hell. 13, 42, wailing and gnashing of teeth. 13, 48, 13, 49, 13, 50.
How about this? We still got two more slides. Everlasting fire, hell's fire. It goes on. 18, 21, 21, 22, 23, 20—almost every chapter.
All right, get this. 23, 33, 24, 51, 25, 30. Look at this. 25, 41, 25, 46. Are you getting the point?
Jesus talked more about hell than any place else. Check this out. Jesus' last words about hell in the book of Matthew: "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life."
You see what I'm saying? So in one book—so what am I saying?
Listen to this. This may come as a shock. There are 1,850 verses in the New Testament. Watch this: 13% deal directly with eternal judgment in hell. I did the math. It's about 240.
Okay? So here's my point. People say, "Well, it's loving to talk about heaven, but it's not loving to talk about hell." That's not what Jesus did then.
Jesus talked about hell more than heaven. He was trying to warn people. Why? Because he hated them? Wanted them to go there? No. He was trying to warn them. He loved them, and he wanted them to have a relationship with him.
Anybody picking up what I'm saying? Praise God.
And really, truthfully, we've got to understand that because I know—I know people think, "Well, it's unloving to talk about hell." No, it's loving to talk about hell. It's a good thing to talk about hell.
It's a good thing. If your house was on fire, it would be a good thing for someone to tell you the house is on fire. Amen?
It's not hate. It's not anti. It's love.
Whenever you think about it, these are just a few of the things that Jesus specifically said about hell. Hell is real. He talked about it in real.
And we're going to look at just one story in the Bible about hell. All right? Lazarus and the rich man, Lazarus and the poor man.
But here's my point. Hell is real. It is real. It's there now, right now. People are there now, all right?
Listen to this. It's the souls of the wicked. That's what the Bible calls it. It's a fiery furnace. That's what the Bible calls it. Unquenchable fire.
Do you know—I’ll show you here in a minute where it's at. It's weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is a place where there's no rest.
Listen to this: place of condemnation, always condemning yourself. Place of destruction, separation from God's presence. Outer darkness, lake of fire, eternal suffering.
Those are just a few of the things that the Bible says about this place called hell that Jesus did not want us to go to.
So whenever you think about it, let's just kind of say it this way. You ready? Where is hell?
Now, here's what gets confusing, and I'll give you this part. Hell currently—currently, currently, all right—is under the earth.
Now, the reason a lot of times people get confused about this is because hell will change position—places—in the future. It's not always going to be under the earth.
There's going to be a time where God actually does away with this earth, and we'll have a new heaven and a new earth, and it'll be in a different location.
But the reality is right now, if you die without Jesus, you're going to hell. And where is hell? It's under the earth. That's where it's at.
There was a study, I think it was in 1987, and they said that they found out that the center core of the earth, scientists estimate, is hotter than the sun.
Okay? And it's 12—I think it's 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit is what it is. Hot, hot. You don't want to go there.
Listen to this. Here's what the Bible says about it being under the earth. Listen to this. Isaiah—and I had more. I cut like five other verses because I just didn't want to wear you out with it.
The book of Jonah says it's under the seas. The book of Isaiah says it's under the seas. Isaiah 14 says this: "Hell is from beneath, is excited about you, to meet you in your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings and nations."
So hell is from where? Beneath. Look at this next one. "Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol."
Now, I don't have a lot of time, but I'm going to give you this. There are five under chambers of the earth, okay? Don't want to wear you out with it. I'm just going to give them to you. You ready?
There is what is called the pit. There is Sheol. There is Hades. There is Tartarus, and there is the lake of fire. Those are all classified as places of the underworld, okay?
Now, here's the one—in my world, anything going down, bad.
And I literally, in my message, I had it laid out to explain all five and what they do. Here's the point: don't go anywhere close to them, okay? Stay away from them.
But there are five. Now, we're going to talk about one here in a minute, and it'll make a lot more sense.
But the truth of the matter is, hell at this current time is underneath the earth.
So now, let's go into a story where it actually talks about hell because you're going to learn a lot from this story.
As a matter of fact, when I first wanted to study about heaven and hell, I went to this portion of scripture because this is going to tell you a lot about not just heaven, but a lot about hell.
Here's the truth. You ready? This is out of Luke 16, verse 19. Now, in this, go and read this on your own. I'm going to point out a lot of different things in it, though, okay?
First and foremost, Jesus says this: "How many of you believe Jesus?" All right. This is what Jesus said.
"There was a certain—come on, say it again—there was a certain rich man."
Now, here's what I want you to hear. Jesus says there was a certain. So guess what that means? There was a certain.
Okay, he isn't saying heaven is like unto. How many of you know if he says, "Heaven is like unto," or "there was," it's like unto something, that means he's not saying it may exist exactly that way.
But when you say there was a certain, guess what that means? There was a certain. That means it's a literal fact that this actually happened.
So here it is. "There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, all right, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores."
How many of you know that's just gross, but whatever.
All right, look at this next part. "So it was that the beggar, he died, and, watch, was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom."
Okay, so a couple things you need to know, or a couple things you should know. For a believer to die, you are not lost. You're saved.
All right, you can't hear me. You're saved. All right, as soon as you breathe your last breath here, you are going to be escorted to heaven, praise God.
Some men won't take directions. Don't worry, the angels will tell you where to go. All right, God doesn't fix that, all right. In eternity, he's got it square.
But the truth of the matter is, okay, as soon as you breathe your last breath, if you're a believer, angels will take you to heaven.
All right, and that's what's going on with this beggar. Now, watch this next part. He says, "And this Abraham's bosom, we're going to get into that, and I'm going to show you where it's at, and what it did, and how it got there, but here it is."
"So it was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried."
Boy, that's a fact, Jack. Notice it doesn't say anything about angels escorting him. He died, he's buried.
Watch this next part. "And being in torments in Hades." All right, Hades, Sheol. Hades is the Hebrew, Sheol is the Greek. It's the same word for hell. Guess what? That's where you don't want to go.
Okay, all right, now watch. "And being in torments in Hades." Notice the verse. The rich man died and was buried. Guess what? "And being in torments in Hades."
Yep, that's exactly how it happens. There is no go between. There is no stop. There is no collect $200. No free parking. Terrible.
He lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom.
Now, let's talk about Abraham's bosom because sometimes we don't understand exactly what it's saying, but I'm going to give it to you this way. You ready?
And I found this on the web, and I thought, "Oh, that's great." Listen to this, everybody. And those of you in Peru and online and everybody, check out this.
Before Jesus died, people could not go to heaven, okay? Because the blood of Jesus had not been shed. Heaven had not been cleansed. The blood of Jesus had not been paid for, or he had not given it as a payment for our sin.
Does that make sense, everybody? So what did God do with the Old Testament believers who were qualified to go to heaven, but Jesus had not come yet to the earth to die?
They went to a holding place called Abraham's bosom. How many of you know Abraham is the father of the faith?
He's the first man who believed. He's the—listen to it—he is the first man who believed in a death, burial, and resurrection.
Remember, he thought his son was going to be killed. He thought that God would have him kill his son, and God would—he said he thought that God would raise him from the dead.
And Abraham—and when Abraham believed that, God said, "Pooh, he believes what I can do. He is a faith man."
Does that make sense, everybody?
Now we—see, in the Old Testament, we don't believe in the Old Testament. We don't believe in the Old Testament.
I'll use the stage as an example. Let's say my podium here is time, all right? And this is past time. For 4,000 years, everyone was looking forward to the Christ to come.
Does that make sense, everybody? Everybody's looking forward to it. So Abraham was looking forward to Jesus coming. Everybody's looking forward, but they can't go to heaven yet.
Why? Because Jesus had not died. So they had to go somewhere. They went under the earth in a place called Abraham's bosom.
All right, now watch. After the cross, as soon as Jesus died, was resurrected, they saw people alive that had been dead.
Why? They were on their way to heaven. Abraham's bosom was emptied at the moment of the resurrection, and they were allowed to go to heaven because the ransom had been paid.
Does that make sense, everybody?
So now, forward in time, using my podium as time, now watch. We as the saints, 2,000 years later, we look back to what Jesus did, and now since we look back, watch this.
The same faith they had is the same faith we have. They believed it was going to happen. We know it did happen, and all those people that believe in Christ go to heaven.
As soon as they die on this side of the cross. Making sense, everybody?
Okay, so now, so now, watch this. This is literally what happened.
So it says right here, Old Testament—and I thought this, I don't know who made this one. I thought this was fantastic.
Old Testament saints upon the death waited to go to paradise, but as soon as Jesus died, boom, they were gone, all right, or was resurrected.
Old and New Testament believers go here upon death—or I'm sorry, did I say unbelievers?
Unbelievers. Old and New Testament unbelievers went to the place of torment. Hades, hell, Sheol, however, Greek, Hebrew, whatever, all right?
Here it is. Unbelievers throughout history until the great white throne judgment go to a place of torment. That's what your Bible teaches.
Now watch. Here's what you also need to know. In the book of Acts, I believe it is, it says that whenever heaven—whenever this place of torment, the place of torment, the place of Abraham's bosom was released because the saints went to heaven, the Bible says that hell was enlarged.
So the part that used to have Abraham's bosom in it, now hell has taken literally over that space under the earth.
Am I making sense, everybody? Okay, so that's why there are no saints in Abraham's bosom anymore. That's now hell.
Okay, that's what's going on. So now let's go back to it, and let's just kind of keep going.
So this—now let's go back to this. So the rich man died and was buried, and being in torments in Hades, under the earth, he lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus at his bosom.
This is why in the Old Testament there was a gulf. We don't know what it was. We don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us what this was.
Could have been water. It could have been space. I don't know, but there is a gap, but they could see each other. They could literally see each other.
Okay, so now I got you up to speed. Let's look at the next verse.
Then he cried out—this is the rich man—cried out, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip his finger in the water and cool my tongue."
Now I've said this before, and I'm going to say it again. The audacity of this rich dude still trying to control poor Lazarus.
You know what I mean? Like Lazarus ain't got nothing else to do but wait on your tail. Come on, man.
Look at this, all right? And it just shows you his heart, really. Are you all seeing that? That even in hell, he still thinks somebody should serve him.
You know what I mean? There's something wrong with that heart.
How many of you know, those of us—everybody in here that's saved and born again, you know that you're here to bless and serve other people, right?
Okay? This man still doesn't get it. Look at that. It goes on. "For I am tormented in this flame."
He's tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, "Son, you can interpret that a thousand different ways."
When I was a kid, that sounded different. "Son, let me tell you something, all right? Son, remember in your lifetime."
That man, we don't know his name, he was a rich man who's in hell. Do you know he's still in hell to this day? And he remembers his lifetime.
Think about that. He remembers his lifetime.
Let me explain something, and I've had many people ask me this about heaven.
"Pastor Troy, when we die, will we know people?" You'll know people. You'll know everybody that's ever been in your life.
Listen to this. When you die, you're going to know people faster than the speed of thought.
As soon as you think, "Who is this?" you'll know who they are. You will get information directly downloaded from Jesus himself.
Listen, we think when we die, we think when we die that suddenly we become dumber, or we're less intelligent, or we have less memory, or we have less of this and less of that.
What if I proposed to you—and I believe I'm right. I believe I can show you this all throughout the word.
What if I told you actually what you're living in is the limited part, and when you cross over, it's unlimited?
Greatest illustration I've ever heard of this. It's actually in this book that I'm going to show you here in a minute.
He said this, and I thought it was phenomenal. He said, "Imagine living in a picture your whole life, in a picture, a picture frame. Imagine living there.
Then one day, your death, you jump out of the picture, and now you're alive."
He said that is what it's like when you go from living in this earth to living in the eternity of the future.
You're jumping off the picture, and now you can see it. This is why you can see what the picture is so much clearer than what you see here.
Come on, that's good, y'all. It's pretty good.
Listen to this. It goes on to say, "He said, I am in tormented in this flame, but Abraham said, 'Son, remember in your lifetime, you received the good things, and likewise, Lazarus the evil things. But now he is comforted.'"
That's what heaven is all about. "And you are tormented."
Now watch this next part. And what's interesting is notice that Abraham didn't say it's unfair.
The justice of God is perfect. Come on, talk to me, everybody. The justice of God is perfect every time.
I'll show you that here in a minute, and it'll be shocking to you.
Listen to this. It goes on to say, "And besides all this, between us and you, there's a great gulf fixed."
And again, we don't know what that is. We just know it is there. It says, "So that those who are wanting to pass from here to you cannot, and they can, nor can those from there pass to us."
Then he said, "I beg you, therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house."
He remembered his father's house. Watch this. "And for I have five brothers."
He remembered his brothers, remembered his family. He loved his family.
"That you may testify to them, lest they come to this place of torment."
Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them."
Watch this. "And he said, 'No, Father Abraham, but if one goes from the dead, they will repent.'"
What do you think the answer is to that?
If one comes back from the dead, they'll repent. Do you believe that?
But he said to him, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, listen to the wording, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead."
And that is so true. If you go back and study the history of Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection, it is a historical fact.
This is not fiction. This is for real. It happened. Now there's debate about who Jesus was. You can debate that all day, but there is no debate from a Roman, from a Jewish, and from literature that you can go back and prove when he split time in half, y'all.
We measure time by Jesus coming. If you didn't come, why did we change the calendars?
Y'all getting what I'm saying? And I could wear you out with it.
Do you see what I'm saying? And yet we stand up here and we say, "There is a heaven and there is a hell, and you got to accept Christ. And without Jesus, you're not going to spend eternity with your family and your loved ones. You're going to be in torment and be like, 'I just don't know if I believe all that hooey, booey, stewey stuff.'"
Are y'all getting what I'm saying? It's like, "No, man, it's for real. It is for real."
Listen to this. Four great questions come up. Have you guys noticed tonight I'm having trouble talking? I promise. Not too much communion, I promise.
And for some reason, my words—I don't know. Here we go. Check this out.
Four great questions arise any time I'm talking to people about hell. And not that people ask me a lot.
Actually, I can't remember the last time someone's asked me about hell. It's just not a subject people talk about.
I've never heard a large church talking about hell. I grew up in a small church as a kid going to a small Southern Baptist. You heard about hell every weekend.
Come on. Come on, somebody. And we're going to do just as I am until somebody comes out of hell.
And if not, it's going to feel like hell because we're going to be there all day. Just saying.
Here are four or five things I want you to hear. Listen to this.
Why did a loving God create hell? I want to answer that for you.
How can a loving God send people to hell? There's another one that people ask.
Is there another chance after we die? Why to go to heaven instead of hell?
And here's the last one. Can I know for sure that I'm going to heaven?
And if you as a believer, you should know the answer to all four of these like that. You should know them quick.
Was that four? One, two, three, four. Yeah. You should know it that quick.
All right. You should know it that quick. You should know the answer to every one of those.
So let's talk about it and just really give you the answers quick. Here's number one. What's the answer? Great question.
Why did a loving God create hell? Here's why: to deal with the devil and his angels and all disobedience for rejecting his son.
All right. Listen to what the word of God is very, very clear about. It says, "Then he will also say to those on his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, this is God speaking, into everlasting fire.'"
Now, listen, those people online maybe, or maybe that come to church or whatever, and you don't believe that eternity has hell in it, what do you do with this?
Everlasting. Guess how long that is? Forever.
Everlasting fire, prepared for—here's who it was made for—prepared for the devil and his what? And his angels.
Hell was not made for you. This is why it's so bad. It was made for the devil and his angels.
You say, "But Pastor Charlie, I don't want to go to heaven, but I don't want to go to hell."
Where else are you going to go? There is no other place if you don't want to be in a relationship with God.
Listen to this. This is 2 Thessalonians 1:8. "In flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes in the last day to be glorified with his saints."
Come on, somebody, that's us, right? And to be admired among all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed.
You see it? How about this? Here's the second one. So there's the first answer.
First answer is it wasn't created for you. It was made for the devil and his angels. Now, if you agree with them, where else are you supposed to go?
Here's the second question, all right? How can a loving God send people to hell?
Well, the answer is very simple. God doesn't send people to hell. He doesn't.
If a child—a child dies, they go to heaven. Why? Because they've not decided not to have a relationship with God.
It would be unjust for a loving God to send little kids to hell. It would be not right.
Listen to it. God doesn't send people to hell. They choose separation from God. Therefore, hell is the only place for them.
Listen to this, everybody. Hell is about not wanting a relationship with God. That's why it's so bad, okay?
It's a place where there is no justice. There is no mercy. There is no love. There is no light.
Why? Because God is light. Everything that we have as far as light is because of God.
And I'm talking about that in the spiritual and in the natural, okay?
When we get into heaven, you're going to be amazed by the things about light with God.
But check this out. You ready? So listen to this verse. Deuteronomy 30:15. "See, I have set before you." This is God speaking. "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his judgments, and that you may live and you may multiply, and that the Lord your God will bless you in the land for which you go to possess."
But the key part of this is I have set you. And now Deuteronomy 30 goes on. Verse chapter 31 says, "I say, choose life or choose death."
And then it goes on to say, "Choose life that you may live."
Okay? So we get to choose. We get to choose.
Here's the last verse on this answer. 2 Peter 3:9. "Count slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering towards us."
Help me with this part. "Not willing that any should perish."
It is God's will to save everybody. Jesus came and died for everyone. Amen?
What do you do with people who say, "You know what? I don't want your gift."
Well, the only place left is a place called hell. And it isn't God sending you there. It's you choosing to go there.
Okay? Here's the second. Here's the third. This is good.
Is there another chance after you die? No. No.
And listen to this. Next week, we're going to have a sign-up list if you want to get one of these.
I read this book back a few months ago. I finished it in December, and I thought it was really good. It's called "Imagine Heaven," okay?
Now, again, guys, I read a lot of books. I read books, you know what I mean? There isn't any book out there probably that I agree totally with, but I'm getting meat out of anything and spitting the bones out of everything, okay?
Does that make sense to everybody? But this book had some great insight on heaven, and it has a lot of insight on this question right here.
Is there another chance after you die, and why did God create hell and all this?
I'm just going to read a portion of this, and I think it'll be very, very good for you.
So listen to this. And I thought this is—he, the author is a pastor, and he asked a question, and he gives the answer, and I think it's pretty good.
Listen to this. "Why would a loving God punish people for eternity for a limited number of earthly offenses?"
This is on page 232, if you want to read it. It says, "That's what makes no sense to people, but I don't believe that is what's happening.
When we think that we are temporal creatures being punished eternally for finite offenses, we are wrong. We are, in fact, eternal creatures like angels, but unlike angels, we are given many, many finite, temporal chances on the earth to choose life instead of eternal death."
Here's the next question. "Why would a loving God allow so much evil, pain, and suffering in the earth?"
I think this is fascinating. Because it is a warning and a chance to choose him.
There's something much, much worse whenever we choose to follow ourselves and we reject him as God.
Hell is God giving free, eternal creatures what they want: freedom from him.
All the suffering and evils—all the evils of earth are meant to warn us, okay?
Jump over to the next page halfway down. It says this. In the title of this, it says "Hitler's Heaven."
It says, "What would God do with Hitler or anyone who really did not want to submit to God's rule?
Force him, take away his free will, but then he'd be a slave, a prisoner of heaven, not a loving child.
If left with free will, it would only be a matter of time until he would choose eternally his will over God's will, and he'd be cast out of heaven just like the angels.
God knows all this, and this earth is perfectly suited to shape us into eternal, free, loving children of God."
And I thought that was a fascinating idea. Like, what do you do with the Hitlers who don't want God and don't want to have any relationship with God?
You can't allow him into heaven. He's going to spoil heaven. Come on, for real.
You know? So I thought it was really interesting. I thought it was really interesting. It was really, really good.
So is there another chance after you die? The Bible's very clear.
Jesus said unto him—or I'm sorry, is there another chance? The answer is, oh, I got messed up. Praise God.
Here we go. Is there a chance after you die? What's the answer? No, no, absolutely not.
You breathe your last breath, it takes you into eternity.
Here's the final one. Praise God. Here's question four. Can you know that I'm going—can I know that I'm going to heaven?
What's the answer to that? Absolutely emphatically.
And listen, I don't know about you, but here's the truth. I don't know of anybody who really has a relationship with God that don't at one point or time go, "Am I really saved?"
Come on. If we're all honest in here, there's always that.
I know I love God, I think. And I know I'm saved, I think.
Listen, the enemy hits anybody with that. He never beats anybody that—he never tells people that aren't saved, they're not saved.
He don't want to even talk about salvation to people that don't know Jesus.
He don't even want to bring the subject up, okay?
But to us who are saved, it is emphatic that we know we are saved, all right?
Listen to this, listen to this emphatically. John 14:6, how do we know?
We acknowledge Jesus is the way. Jesus is the answer.
John 14:6, Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Now watch this, everybody. Check this out.
Whenever you deal with false religions, cults, they will always—they will typically—they will err in a few ways.
They will err in the idea of hell. They will err in the idea of Jesus is the only way, or they will err in the idea—watch this—of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And I'm not saying that every religion that don't believe in the Trinity is a cult, but what I am saying is that if there's false teaching, it's going to usually be in those three, all right?
It's going to be in those three. But nevertheless, no one goes to the Father except through me.
Do you believe that? It only makes sense. If Jesus paid the price for people to get to heaven, how can you believe that?
If Jesus paid the price for people to get to heaven, how are you getting there without him? You can't, okay?
Here's the next part. "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
You say, "Okay, Pastor Charlie, but how do I know?"
And here's where I'm going to land the plane. Listen to this. You ready?
Romans 10:9 and 10. I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but I want to come back to it, and here it is.
"If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe that God, in your heart, God raised him from the dead, you will be what?"
That is crystal clear. You can't read into that.
So here's the deal, everybody. Everybody goes through the idea of, "Am I really saved? Am I really going to go to heaven?"
You have to anchor yourself in the word. What does the word say?
The word says, "If I confess with my mouth and I believe my heart, God raised him from the dead, I am saved."
But I don't understand everything about the Bible. Welcome to the club.
Say, "But I don't really know if I'm saved." No, no. What's the word say?
"If I confess with my mouth, Lord Jesus, I believe God raised him from the dead, I am saved."
Anytime the enemy hits me with it, I go, "Listen, here's the deal. I believe with all my heart that God raised his son from the dead, and I confess with my mouth, and I believe in my heart, and guess what? I'm saved. God stuck with me."
All right?
Listen to this next part. "For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be what?"
That's crystal clear. "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
So here's my deal, and here's where we'll go with this, you know?
If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, hey, praise God. Continually confess with your mouth, believe in your heart. Stir that up all the time.
You can never say that enough, okay?
If you don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, here's your opportunity.
We don't want anyone to go to hell. My goodness. I think for a preacher, I think the saddest thing for me would be like me knowing someone that should be in heaven that's not.
It's like, how could you be around me all that, and how could you listen to me preach and never choose God over the world? What were you thinking?
Now, obviously, I won't get the opportunity to say anything to them, but man, what a sad day that would be for me. Amen?
Listen, what a sad day it would be for God. To think he sent his son, and they didn't accept.
That's terrible. God didn't want anybody to go there, for sure.
Wasn't made for you. It was made for the enemy, all right?
So if you don't know Jesus, maybe you're online, maybe you're watching, maybe you're in Peru.
Listen, everybody here in Kokomo, listen, why don't you pray this with me?
Pray with all of your heart, and I believe with all my heart, you'll be saved and born again.
And if nothing else, if you are like saved, but you're like, "Man, I just need to be reminded."
Listen, say it. Say it. You can't say it enough, say it enough, all right?
So if you would, bow your head, let's pray.
Say this with me. Say, "Dear Heavenly Father, I believe with all my heart, you sent your son Jesus to die on a cross. I believe he died for me. I believe he rose again.
So therefore, I put my faith, I put my trust in you today. In Jesus' name, come on, everybody says, Amen.
Would you give the Lord a big clap? Praise God. Praise God.
on Jan 23, 2025
