What I Really Meant to Say

Hebrews 9:27

English Standard Version (ESV)

²⁷ And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes love,

Now it doesn't take an expert in theology or hermeneutics to recognize what is wrong in the above scripture. But for the sake of those who are young in the faith, I'll give you a few more seconds....

Got it yet? Of course you do! Judgment has been replaced by the word love. That little four letter word makes all the difference in the world in that verse. Wouldn't it be great to die and then just be loved? Unfortunately, God's Word does, in fact say judgment in Hebrews 9:27. The Greek word used here is krisis. It means: decision(subjectively or objectively, for or against);by extension, a tribunal; by implication, justice(especially divine law):-accusation, condemnation, damnation, judgment.

No love to be found in this verse no matter how much we want it to be there. R.C. Sproul has a great quote. “You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true.” Why all the fuss you might ask? Well more and more the gospel message is being watered down with a "love only" message and a "Love Wins" mindset. This dangerous line of thinking erases words like judgment and hell from peoples thoughts, cares, and fears. Granted, many get carried away with wrath and judgment, all the while ignoring love and grace. Of course there has to be a balance. But listen, if your child is running towards a speeding bus, you will not calmly say "Stop. We love you. Come back to us." I hope that you would run, frantically screaming, warning the child about the bus and their imminent death. I would. Charles Spurgeon said, "If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."

And that's what we have to do with lost sinners. Implore them, warn them, pray for them. There is no reason to run from love to love. There is plenty of reason to run from judgment under the Law of God into the loving arms of Jesus Christ however. Let's look at another commonly overlooked verse in the gospel of John. See how fast you can spot the error.

John 3:36

English Standard Version (ESV)

³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the love of God remains on him.

The love of God does not remain on an unregenerate sinner no matter how much we want to believe that. The verse actually says that it is God's wrath that remains. How the church body has gotten so far away from the actual message is beyond me. We broke God's Law, Jesus paid our fine. False gospels abound in spite of the actual biblical message. Yet none of these false gospels do anyone any good for they are no gospel at all(Galatians 1:5-7). If we go around not giving people the whole story, we are no better than the cults, who by the way, are way more obedient to spreading their news than the church is of sharing the good news of Jesus.

People love themselves enough to last them a lifetime. It's part of our fallen state. To reinforce that they are loved by God in their current condition could only serve to uphold their own self-righteousness. Sinners need to be brought to conviction under God's Law so that they will be humbled and broken by their sin. They need to see their need for a Savior. They need a reason to run. Telling them that God loves them the way they are encourages them to nestle comfortably in their sin. It allows them to continue enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season. If they die in that sin, whether we want God's Word to say it or not, these sinners will end up in Hell. For an eternity they get to think about the person who told them that God loved them as they burn continually. Wow. What a thought huh? We don't have a lot of time on this Earth. For the glory of God, let's at least get the gospel right while we are here. The bus is coming. It's out of control. The child is running. Your choice. Tell him he's loved or tell him he's about to die an awful death. Think about it.

Hebrews 9:27

English Standard Version (ESV)

²⁷ And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

3 Questions

Two Fridays ago, our Kindred outreach went to the Gardenwalk out here in Anaheim California. This is a great place to witness because it has a sidewalk near the street that is public property. This means that we are able to freely hand out tracts, have great one to one conversations, and even do some open air preaching without getting chased out by security. I got to speak to a man named James who had been, as he called it, "out of the game" for a while. The conversation went really well. I also got to talk with David, who believed but wasn't quite living for the Lord. That also went pretty good. There were a few others that I talked to but one person still stands out to me. A big teddy bear looking guy named Sean. As I saw him walking towards me, I handed him a million dollar bill tract. He looked at it and knew what it was. He informed me that he had rejected the message on the back of the bill some time ago and that he was in a hurry to meet a friend for dinner at a nearby restaurant. So I asked him if I could as him three questions before he ran off. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Would you consider yourself to be a good person?
Sean: Yes
Me: Have you ever told a lie?
Sean: Yes

Timeout. So at this point I realized I only had one question left. I then told him that it might be more like 6-8 questions, to which he said, "hey now you're lying!" We both started laughing and I reiterated that I would stick to my original three questions, as promised.

Me: What do you call someone who tells lies?
Sean: A liar

Me: Ok Sean, the Bible says that all liars will have their part in the Lake of Fire. It also tells us that if you try to keep the Law but stumble at one point you are guilty of breaking all of it.

I proceeded to tell him what God did so that did not have to happen. That Jesus Christ lived a perfect life but took our sins on Himself and died on a cross. Three days later He rose again, defeating death so that if we repent and trust in Him we won't perish but will have everlasting life.

Sean did not start weeping over his sins but he did shake my hand, thank me, and even folded the tract and put it in his front pocket. I wanted to share this with you guys so that you will have a way to get the good news to a person who is in a hurry and even use the Law to show them their need. The conversation lasted literally no more than two minutes and Sean was able to meet his friend at the restaurant right after we talked.

Final Thought: Why does lying make me a murderer, adulterer, blasphemer, idolator, and covetous person? How is it fair that if I break one commandment, it's like breaking all of them? Well Greg Crouse, fellow team leader, said it best during his open air preaching. Imagine hanging over a pit of fire from a chain made of ten links. Your handle is hooked to the bottom link. Does it really matter which one you cut? No! Any of the ten links of the chain, if broken, will make you fall. And that is the point. We are all sinners in God's eye and apart from repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, God's wrath abides on us. Some of you are hanging over the Lake of Fire today. Which link(s) are gonna cause you to fall into it? You don't have to fall. Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself because God doesn't want anyone to perish. He will catch you. All you have to do is ask. Repent and trust in Jesus. Get down from that chain today and fall into the hands of the loving savior.

James 2:10

English Standard Version (ESV)

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

Lime in the Eye!!!

For those that haven't seen it, there is a Corona beer commercial where a couple sits on the beach. A woman walks by and the man stares. He keeps his stare on her across the screen. When he turns back, his significant other squirts lime right in his eye. Of course, they ended up making one where the female casts a lustful glare at a passing man. In comes the third commercial in the series that I just saw while watching the World Cup. In the final installment of this 7th Commandment Trilogy, the man watches a group of females pass. As he looks back to his companion, he squirts the lime in his own eye! This immediately reminded me of the Bible verse Matthew 5:29. "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." So I got to thinking, "I guess the world understands that concept." The guy knew it was better to burn his eye with lime juice than to be in trouble with his partner. What I still don't think that the world gets is the verse before that one. Matthew 5:28 says a lustful look is the same as adultery in the eyes of God. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."Now I've heard every excuse or reason from "I'm not gay to it's only looking to I'm only human" when it comes to this topic. To me it just seems better not to take the chance with my eternal destination because of an extra look or too long of a look. Averting my eyes seems a way better option than gouging out my eye, burning for eternity, or even getting a lime in the eye. Maybe you can look without lusting. I don't seem to have that ability so I do my best to look away when at all possible. It's worth it to me because I know that when we are judged by the 10 commandments that God will judge our thoughts as well as our actions in this area. He tells us specifically that adulterers will not inherit His kingdom and I definitely don't want to store up wrath for myself on the day of wrath, do you? Don't forget this is just one of the Commandments we will be judged by. Maybe it's the only one you're guilty of. If you're guilty of one, you've broken them all according to the Bible. So, if you're reading this and you've found yourself guilty against God's Law, repent and trust in Him today!

Romans 2:5 (New International Version)

⁵But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

God has a wonderf.....EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

So I'm cruising the internet today waiting for my beautiful bride to bring home my copy of the new Transformers game when I stumble across a link that says "Who is Jesus?" Knowing who He is I clicked just to see. Lo and behold the first thing that it says was that God has a wonderful plan for your life. Ever since taking the Online School of Biblical Evangelism and the Ambassador's Academy these words are like nails going down a chalkboard to me. Jesus never said this to anyone, anywhere in the Bible. In fact He says just the opposite in John 16. "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."What He did do while witnessing was to use the 10 commandments. Examples would be the woman at the well and the rich young ruler. He never promised any wonderful plan. He simply showed them their need for salvation by showing them that they'd fallen short of God's Laws. I think Ray Comfort's analogy for this is great so let's bring it more current for you with a horrific event most of us were around to see. If you were to get to go back in time to Sept, 10 2001 and share the Gospel with those who worked in the World Trade Center, would the "God has a wonderful plan" message be approppriate? That question leads to this one. If it's not the right Gospel message in all situations, can it be the biblical message? That is why biblical evangelism is so important. It appeals to the sinner's conscience, which everyone has. Now back to the woman at the well. She was enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season. Telling her God has a wonderful plan for your life may reenforce her current lifestyle. She might have even said something like, "ya He sure does!! Hehe wink wink." It may cause her to think "what could be better than what I'm doing now?" One of the functions of the Law is to stop the sinners mouth. No justifications. No excuses. Using the Law when witnessing is biblical guys. It works on the homeless, millionaires, and everyone in between because of their God given conscience. Please, don't just listen to what I'm saying here. Be like the Bereans who tested everything they heard against scripture. Also, listen to Hell's Best Kept Secret and read God has a Wonderful Plan. I'll leave you with a few compelling verses that show the importance of using the Law when witnessing.

Galatians 3:24 (New International Version)
24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.

Romans 7:7 (New International Version)
7What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

Psalm 19:7 (King James Version)
7The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul:

Romans 3:19-20 (New International Version)
19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

A Night Worthy of Being a DiG Game Night

Last nights DiG game night was just an amazing time. It wasn't only because of the great fellowship and the fun gameplay, or even seeing all the DiG clan tags lined up six deep. It was how many people received the Gospel message in some form or another. Just as Ben, who is Death is Gain on Xbox, sent me an invite to join the DiG room, I was just finishing up a one-to-one conversation about Jesus with another player. That seemed to fire both Ben and myself up for making it a witnessing night on Call of Duty. Not only that, but Ben had already told me earlier in the day that his goal was to read the Gospel from the back of a Way of the Master tract during an intermission. I wanted to do something similar which is called "stoplight" preaching. That usually takes place at a stoplight(duh lol). But another reason it's called stoplight that you usually have about 40-60 seconds at a red light to tell the waiting pedestrians about the Law, sin-transgression of the Law, future Judgment, punishment, then finally God's grace and what Jesus did to save us from Hell if we repent and put our trust in Him. This is a great fit for Modern Warfare 2 lobbies between matches because you have about a minute while everyone reorganizes there weapon loadouts. On top of these two times preaching the Gospel, Ben helped me get through a one-to-one conversation with a fish who wouldn't quite bite on the bait of the "Good Person Test". Nevertheless, the Gospel was put out there and the others in the room got to hear it as well. Then to top it all off, we sent out a good 100-150 witnessing messages to our recent players which is like handing out 50 tracts at a time. Praise God for the technology that enables Ben and I to encourage each other to keep using our Ambassador's Academy training and for us being able to use it to share with this lost generation of gamers!! Use any and every method you can to witness to someone this week! God bless, SaulBecomesPaul/Virg.