Many people do not like to think about hell.
It is unpopular. It is scary. It is so final.
Many people are mad at God that hell exists.
However, we have free will. The Bible says, "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Also, "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9
Contrary to what you may believe about God, it is not God's wish that anyone go to hell. In his perfect plan we would all still be living in Eden with him, forever, happy.
But Adam and Eve sinned. The premise of this argument is that if you or I were right there in the garden in exactly the same situation as them we would have done exactly the same thing.
So it is useless to blame them and say it was all their fault that hell exists; it is all of our faults.
God is a loving God, but he is also a just God.
He cannot tolerate sin. Therefore, he justifiably must send some people to hell. If you are reading this and this makes you mad, that is good. Anger calls us to action. Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus and you WILL be saved. That is the good news we are to preach.
"Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ." Rom. 10: 17
The message is this, we are all sinners and cannot get to heaven on our own. God says, "Your righteous deeds are like filthy rags," meaning no matter how good we think we look on the outside, God looks at the heart. If your heart is unclean, you are unclean.
So we are full of sin and unclean.
Jesus, God's only son, came down from heaven and died on the cross to be the final and only sacrifice needed for our sins. He then rose again because he was both fully man and fully God at the same time.
By him conquering death he conquered the bondage of sin in our lives.
If we believe ALL this, we will be saved. Saved means we are freed from the chains of sin in this life, and saved also means getting to spend eternity with God in the next.
Jesus said, "You are either for me or against me." You cannot be both or in the middle or undecided. It is yes or not, in or out.
"If you confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
At Mariners we often have the most powerful and unbelievable "I believe" services.
Perhaps if you decided to make that commitment from reading this you can come and stand up in one of those services and say it aloud!
Because scripture says, "If you acknowledge me before men, I will also acknowledge you before my Father in heaven. But if you deny me before men I will also deny you before my Father in heaven."
This is why baptisms are public. So if you have already made this decision to believe everything but have not been baptised, get baptised.
It is not necessary for your salvation because Jesus said to the thief on the cross, "I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise," and he was not baptized.
But it is still an important thing to do and crucial to your walk with God, because it is telling the world, perhaps everyone you used to hang out with, I am different now! I am not the same person!
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!"
Amen? So be new! "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Be "born again!" And rejoice in the Lord! For "the joy of the Lord is your strength."
Be blessed!
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