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 Judgment has been replaced by the word love.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,

Share the Gos Today

The title is not a misprint. It's half of the word Gospel. It's the Gospel message that most people are given today which is exactly half. Gospel means 'good news' but there's a bad news side to it too that is consistently left out with the modern Gospel message. People want to share John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" but not tell them John 3:18 which says,"Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. They want a Romans 6:23 that tells us, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" and then leave out the first part of the passage that says, "For the wages of sin is death," Christians do this in an effort to not be judgmental or condemning and ultimately think they are being loving. Jesus loves us of course but every mention of Jesus' love correlates directly with the cross of Calvary and His death on it. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Notice that it doesn't say, "while God was pleased with our current lifestyles and wanted to be our friends, Christ died for us." We can share the Gospel biblically without ourselves being condemning. I know that it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict the world of sin but it is our job to share the Gospel message in it's entirety. That message is that our sin is what separates us from God and the Jesus died for those sins. It is not that "Jesus has a wonderful plan for our lives" or "just accept Jesus and ask Him into your heart". Those phrases are nowhere to be found in the Bible. Repentance of sins is taught throughout. Luke 24:45-47 says, "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. ⁴⁶He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." The message is and always has been that we broke God's Law and Jesus paid the fine. Our sins put Him on the cross but His love for us held Him to the cross, not the nails. Paul consistently preached the full Gospel throughout the New Testament without compromise and he even instructs us in Galatians regarding there being no other Gospel. Chapter 1 verses 6-8 read, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" I don't know a better way to share the Gospel than to prepare the sinner's heart for good news by sharing the bad news first. It's super effective and the people that I've witnessed to are always receptive and even happy that I've shared. The only people who this seems to upset is other Christians who don't share regularly or don't biblically share the Gospel with people. For more info on how to witness biblically, listen to the Hell's Best Kept Secret or True and False Conversion sermons. Both are available to listen right here on this blog on the right side of your screen. If you have questions regarding biblical evangelism, my email is virgil@digoutreach.com or simply visit wayofthemaster.com.

Mark 13:10 (New International Version)

¹⁰And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.

Jesus Loves You! The Gospel in Reverse.

The following is an example of what can happen if you start your Gospel presentation by shining the light in someone's eye who is living in darkness. He can easily make you backpedal if you go into it unprepared. Remember that the Gospel of John says that "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. John 3:19

"Jesus loves you" says the Christian.

"Why" says the non-believer.

The Christian replies, "Well He died on the cross. Romans says that God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

"Ok, so why did he do that? What sin have I commited?"

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!"

"Ok, ok I've sinned so now what?" asks the non-believer.

"Well eternal separation from God"

"What does that mean?"

"Um, well a Christ-less eternity"

"Where would that be?"

"Not a nice place" replies the Christian.

"Like where?"

"Hell"

"What are you talking about I'm a good person and if Jesus loves me why would God send me to hell!?!"

You can see that ultimately Jesus' love doesn't make sense because you have to go back to the cross, then after the cross you need to explain why the cross and then finally the punishment for not believing what happened on the cross. So basically you started out with a message of love and have to end up talking about hell, damnation and punishment. You've already established that Jesus loves them so the idea of hell is now unreasonable and doesn't make sense to them. They never shed an ounce of self-righteousness and it is probably worse now. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. 1 Cor 1:18

To make the cross make sense, start with God's Law. For those not familiar with biblical evangelism, a conversation with a reasonable non-believer would go something like this.

"Hey nice day huh?"

"Sure" replies Don TneedGod

"Hey you know of any Churches around here?"

"I wouldn't know!"

"Oh ok, do you have a christian background?"

"No way!"

"Really? Gotcha. Well would you consider yourself to be a good person?"

"Absolutely"

"Let me ask you this, have you ever told a lie?"

"Well, um, ya"

"What does that make you?"

"A liar"

"How about stealing, ever stolen anything?"

"Yup"

"What do you call someone who steals?"

"Steeler, no wait a thief"

"Ok ever take God's name in vain?
"Sure who hasn't"

"Well Don, that's called blasphemy and by your own admission you are a lying thieving blasphmer and you have to face God on Judgment day. These are just 3 of the 10 commandments. Do you think you will be innocent or guilty on that day?"

"Guilty"

"So do you think you will go to Heaven or Hell?"

"Hell I guess"

"Does that concern you?"

"Yes"

At this point you presenting what Jesus did on the cross for the non-believers sins will make sense and he will see that Jesus died on the cross because He loved us. Don't start with the modern gospel and backpedal the rest of the time. Use God's Law lawfully and go on the attack, stepping around issues that aren't relevant and keep your eyes on their conscience. Their conscience is our ally, or spy if you will, inside their camp. Inside their heart. Go for it, appeal to it. Use it to show them their need for salvation. Don't just shine the light in their eyes. Witness the way Jesus did it. Look to the examples Jesus gave us with the woman at the well and the rich young ruler. Jesus used the commandments to show those people their need for Him. Ultimately we are supposed to walk in His ways including the way we evangelize. A good way to start this is by listening to Hell's Best Kept Secret or reading Way of the Master by Ray Comfort. For more info check out DiGoutreach.com, needGod.com, or wayofthemaster.com. If none of these seems to make this click, the following verse about men and women of faith should tell every reason why you shouldn't tell people that Jesus loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life as the main draw to follow Christ.

Hebrews 11:36-37 (New International Version)

36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—

Stickers as Qualifications???

I'm sure we've all seen the NOTW stickers on cars. To assume that the person driving is a repentant born again believer of Christ is about as reasonable as believing that everyone with a TapOut sticker can actually put you in a choke hold. Now would you really throw a UFC sticker or a the previously mentioned TapOut sticker on your car and then go fight Brock Lesnar or GSP? Absolutely not! If you had a love of MMA fighting, you would train, workout, and put in all kinds of effort into achieving your goal. Otherwise you would most definitely be fighting a losing battle right from the start. Christians have a bigger enemy than Lesnar or Mir or BJ Penn. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. That's right our fight is with Satan yet some want to go out and fight him without training, without a solid workout and with no effort on their part. What I'm talking about is being repentant, spending time in prayer, time in God's Word(the Bible), and having times of fellowship with other believers. We have to train and excercise in these areas to adequately contend for our faith. The problem is people slap a Not of this World sticker on their car and don't spend time training to live up to the claim. I would encourage whoever reads this to do what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and make sure you are in the faith. Slapping a sticker on your car means nothing without backing it up. Just like a TapOut sticker doesn't make someone an MMA fighter and a Roxy sticker doesn't guarantee the person is wearing Ugg boots and a jean skirt(well this one might be true lol), NOTW stickers don't ensure that the person driving is saved and really means nothing if the person is not loving God with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

1 Samuel 16:7 (New International Version)
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."