The question isn't why would a loving God send people to Hell, the question is why would anyone choose Hell over a loving God? Jesus said the same thing in John 3, when he said the reason men won't come into the light is because they love their darkness more than the light. They love their sin more than God. In fact you can give up sinning with regards to anything in your life if you truly are willing to love God more than your sin. Then again there are incredible things people do just because they love God so much like commuting more than 3 hours each way just to attend a church that they like they are truly learning about God in and experiencing that kind of love God spoke about in that church. How far are you willing to go for God?
As Christians we need the daily reminder often at times that the battle we face each day is not a fleshly battle but a spiritual battle and we need to make sure before we even begin our days that we are making sure to put on the full armor of God as Ephesians 6 describes. We talked about this yesterday. To do that is by reading God's Word in the Bible, praying daily, attending church, fellowshipping with other believers, and ministering and sharing the gospel with others when we can. If you are getting beat up in your faith, you need to make sure your armor is on. We are all in a daily battle each day. We are not meant to be islands. If you are going to keep yourself guarded you will never feel the love of God. You will become a big nothing. You'll never experience nothing. You'll never take any risks. You'll never know the power of God. Satan is scared to death of the Word of God if you use it right.
When hell comes to earth, there will be a gross act of rebellion and man's willful independence. Just when you think based on everything we have studied up to this point, you would think mankind would be willing to turn to God and ask for His mercy. With all the stuff happening on the earth, don't you think that they would simply give up at this point? You go from rejecting God to creating your own religion. They say things like, "I don't believe in God, you know the more I think about it, there are more than one road to God anyways." This is true, all roads do lead to God! One day every single person will stand before God. All roads may to lead to God, but only one road leads to heaven!
Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father, except through Me." ~ John 14:6
So what is their rebellion? They are completely independent from God.
Revelation 9:20 ~ "The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood - idols that cannot see or hear or walk."
They have an independence from God and they lean upon demons. These people are deceived. What are you living for right now? "Oh if I just get this new job, or meet the right person and get married, if I live in a nice house..." What does all that imply? You are looking for fulfillment in the type of status you believe you deserve, or one that will finally make you happy. One that will complete the life you always dreamed of. You know what you are doing? You are leaning upon an idol without realizing it. We create our own idols and they don't have to be made out of gold, silver, wood or stone. An idol is anything that can not see you, hear you or walk to you or with you. What we spend our affections on, what is it? That is our idol. What occupies your brain the most? That's your idol. Is it God, then He is your God because He is real. Doesn't make Him an idol, it makes Him God! He's always real whether you believe in Him or not. When you yield to Him, He is your God. Personal relationship!
1 Corinthians 10:20-21 ~ "No, the the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons."
Man centered religion and false worship is what cults and the occult are all about.
Psalm 135:15-18 ~ "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them."
What are you trusting in? It is your health? Is it your position? Is it your money? It is your family? Is it your security? Is it your freedom? Is it America? It is failing! Our descendants fled from Europe looking for religious freedom, will you or your children flee from America to look for religious freedom?
Matthew 24:35 ~ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
There's an act of rebellion, mankind's ability to justify himself.
Revelation 9:21 ~ "Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts."
This is a tragic ending to this chapter. Never underestimate man's ability to justify himself. That is what the courtrooms are filled with. There were four things they did not repent of: murder, magic arts, sexual immorality and theft.
Murder is murder. It is a violent society in which murder is conducted in such a way that man will take no thought for human life. We see this happening even now. Remember that by the end of the world this will all be more demonically motivated, and look around now to nations that embrace cults that have a low regard for human life, people dying on the spot, throats are slit, on soccer fields, at half time on MSNBC, people taken out onto the soccer field before the Baghdad invasion in Baghdad, where a father was brought out to the field, on his knees, they slit his throat, threw sawdust over his body and continue to play soccer. True story! It's happening all over the world. "Oh, he offended Allah, cut his throat!" The Bible says its going to increase and we are seeing it happen more each day.
Sorceries, doesn't mean what you think it does. It is where we get our word "Pharmaceutical or Pharmacies from. You remember back in the day they used to be called drug stores, now they are called pharmacies. It is where drugs or pharmaceuticals are sold. The Bible says that in the last days, they will practice drug use to the point that it will open them up to sorcery, witchcraft, demonism. You might remember back in the 70's people were using all kinds of drugs, LSD, mushrooms, you name it, now today we have new designer drugs of choice.
Satan would say to you, "You know life is tough, you need a break, take some drugs, make you feel a bit better, you deserve it. Try some hallucinogenics because it lets down you will. While I'm showing you a sparkly show, I'm going to sneak into your life. I'm going to move in and take control. The first thing I am going to do is get your hooked. I'm not going to waste my time on you if I can't get you hooked. I need to keep you. Let me get you hooked. Now that you're hooked, let me play with your thoughts. Here's what we're going to do, as you continue to think these thoughts, I'm going to use this as a key to enter your life.
If you have ever talked to anyone who has been on a hallucinogenic trip, they will tell you that they remember seeing some weird stuff. Was it just the drugs or have you now created a gate and a key for the demons to enter your life? Many heavy drug users as law enforcement can back up are also practicing in the occult. Many of them are also possessed. It traffics in that world. By the way, pornography carries the same power.
Sexual immorality? The word is pornia in Greek. It is the disillusionment of sexual order ordained by God. It is a breakdown within the family.
Luke 17:26-30 ~ "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking; buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all."
Philippians 3:18-19 ~ "For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. Their mind is on earthly things."
1 Timothy 6:5 ~ "and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and think that godliness is a means to financial gain."
You've seen it all over TV, people of the same gender kissing one another, according to the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Remember the Bible is the one saying it, not me. I am not going to have culture dictate my theology. I'm going to have God's theology dictate my culture. My culture is where I live.
Romans 1:18-28 ~ "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorifed him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in their sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received them in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mine, to do what ought not to be done."
This is what the Bible says. What's the point? We can witness to the fornicator, the homosexual and to the adulterer. According to the true word of tolerance, we need to tolerate them. It means according to Noah Webster's dictionary of 1828, we disagree with them but we allow them to also disagree with us as they disagree with us, a mutual sign of respect toward one another. To mutually agree to respect one another even though we mutually disagree. To those living in those sinful lifestyles, we need to love them and reach out to them because God loves them. But remember Jesus said that all of these things will increase before He returns. We are living in those times where it is happening in our lifetime. If we see these things now, how much worse will it be before Jesus comes back or during the great Tribulation period where so many millions of people will die from their conduct.
It is interesting to note that when England was a Christian nation, it had a wonderful policy regarding those who were condemned to death. They preached the gospel every day for two weeks to that person, 14 days of pure gospel. On the day of their execution, they were asked if they wanted to be forgiven of their sins and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 ~ "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, ungrateful, abusive, disobedient to their parents, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them."
Jude 1:4 ~ "For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. "
Jude 1:11-19 ~ "Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm - shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted - twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars; for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones, to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him." These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boat about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage. But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit."
They had a false religion, false church, false worship and didn't see the need for repentance. "Why repent when I can keep on living the way I want to and cover it up with religion? Never underestimate man's ability to justify himself. People who try to justify that what they are doing is perfectly fine. A person who is caught, will try to go through all kinds of gymnastics to try to justify what they did. Someone who is trying to repent will come back with no conditions. Are you truly repentant or are you simply sorry you got caught?
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