Verily, verily, I say unto you ,Hethat heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hatheverlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. John 5:24
This will be a continuation of the studies started earlier, about the rich man and the poor who both died. I trust that God will use his word to impact your life tremediously. Before, you read on, make up your mind that you will share this message to at least five(5) people, and that you will encourage them to join this blog and be a regular follower of its publications. By this you’ll be saving souls- one of the primary reasons why God has kept you till now.
This man not only experienced his awful aching memories of opportunities missed and sins committed, but he experienced loss. He is alone. He sees these other people at a distance, that old smelly beggar that lay at his gate. He sees father Abraham, but he can't really know them and commune with them - and most of all, he is cut off from God. Then he remembers his brothers, and what we have here is one brother in hell and five on the way - and that troubles him, because there he is with a wall of sweltering flames around him, and chains on his soul on which are stamped the word 'Forever', and he knows that his brothers are headed there too!
It is a one-way ticket, therefore - like this man, all who get there never get out. I think he was trying, at least, to get out, in a sense get out of the pain by asking Abraham - but he was not only praying too late, he was praying to the wrong person. Abraham couldn't get him out. If he had prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ when he was on the earth, he could have got out, for He is the one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That name is not 'Mohammed', that name is not 'Mary' - and whilst that is very un-politically correct, that's what the Bible teaches. There is only one Saviour, one Son of God, one Man who died on the cross for all men's sins. There's only one who rose again from the grave, there's only one who has promised to come and judge the world, and that is Christ. If he had prayed to Him, he would have been saved, but now he's crying - at least to one of God's servants - but it's too late.
I rejoice in God's word today, that I can reach out to you a gospel that is alive, a gospel that is free, a gospel that is real. The offer I give you today is authentic.
'Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved', 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved' - but there's a day coming when you will cry on the name of the Lord, and you might even believe on the Lord Jesus, but it will be too late! Proverbs envisages that day in a sense, and God says: 'Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD'.
Don't think on that day that you can point the finger and say: 'God, You're a wicked God, sending me here'. Why not? Because you're here today, and you're reading God's word, you're hearing the warning perhaps that you've never heard in your life - and are you going to heed it? Not only will you be on a one-way ticket, but you will be conscious of your need of conversion as I've said. You will value a meeting like this then, the precious blood of Christ then, the Bible then - and you will be desperate that others turn back and do not go to that place. Maybe you'll cry through all eternity for those you know are headed there. You could have done something about it if you had believed before the grave, you could have pointed them to the Lord Jesus - but then it will be too late. Maybe - and I don't want to be insensitive, but we're being real today - maybe there's someone you know in hell just now crying out for you. They would love somebody to come back and tell you to believe, and not go to that place. I want to say to you: there's no way I can describe what hell is like. There is nothing in this world to compare, there's no idea that any mad man in an asylum could articulate, there's no delirium that the human mind and spirit could know that could compare to it, there is no nightmare in the depths of sleep that could be described like hell. The artist struggles, the writer fails, and even human words are insufficient - but can I say to you now: all you need in order to be saved, you have now.
That's what's beyond the grave, let's leave that for a moment and talk about what is here now in this second, because that's all you can be sure of. Now God's Spirit is here, He speaks to men and women through the word of God just like Abraham said to this man in hell: 'You have Moses and the prophets, I'm not going to send somebody back from the dead when you've got a Bible'. He had a witness, he had Lazarus the beggar at the bottom of his driveway, at the gate lying there day after day - he stepped over him, I'm sure, many a time, a believer in God. The Lord Jesus, apart from anything else, has given you a guided tour of hell through His word - are you going to believe Him, or are you going to just rubbish it?
The Lord Jesus, apart from anything else, has given you a guided tour of hell through His word - are you going to believe Him, or are you going to just rubbish it?
One has come back from the dead, the same Jesus who shows you today from the scriptures the horrors of hell, is the same Jesus who has defeated hell, and the one who had the power of death, that is the devil. This Lord Jesus who teaches hell here, and teaches it more than heaven throughout the Gospels, is the Lord Jesus who went to a cross, and was nailed to it, and experienced hell for you and the world. I think He's qualified to talk about it. The Bible says that hell is the place of weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and there on the cross the Lord Jesus experienced, in a sense, all that. The rich man in hell cries 'I thirst', and Jesus thirsted on the cross, His tongue cleft to the roof of His mouth. The Bible says hell is a place of darkness, and when Jesus was there being crucified, darkness came over the whole land for three hours as He was judged for sin. The Bible says hell is a place of separation, and there on the cross Christ cried 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?', 'My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?'.
Hell is a place of torment, and there the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, His soul was made an offering for sin, He is the Lamb of God slain to take away the sins of the world, offering Himself up in love for you, that in grace you might never go to hell but experience heaven for all eternity. Just as they slew those lambs, poured out the blood, burned them on the altar - the only difference is that that lamb on the altar was consumed by the flames of the sacrificial fire, but there on the cross of Calvary the Lord Jesus, in His own body on the tree, completely exhausted the judgemental wrath of God in hell in Him. He extinguished those flames in His own heart, He devoured the flames. He took it, He bore it.
That's why He died - do you ever wonder? You see these crucifixes about the place, and maybe children's books about Jesus dying at Easter time and all the rest - do you ever wonder what it was all about? That's what it was about, for you anyway, that's what it was about: so that Martin Luther could say, 'If one drop of Christ's blood should fall into hell, it would extinguish the fires for all eternity' - that's what He was doing for you! Some people say, 'Ach, hell's on earth' - well, I'll give you this, that day, on that centre cross at Calvary, hell was on earth - it was in the heart of a Man becoming sacrifice for sin and for sinners. Jesus gives you this vision of hell not only to know what's ahead of you, but to know what He went through for you, so that you might flee from it and shelter in His bosom from the angry fires of God. This Bible says there's a great gulf fixed between heaven and hell and you can't transfer from one to the other, but the only way you can get out of that place now, in time, is to walk across the bridge of the cross.
Settle the issue of eternity today by completely surrendering to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Then find a bible believing church and start fellowshipping with them. you can reach us through our mail adrresses: christonear@yahoo.com, chrisogbebor@gmail.com
This will be a continuation of the studies started earlier, about the rich man and the poor who both died. I trust that God will use his word to impact your life tremediously. Before, you read on, make up your mind that you will share this message to at least five(5) people, and that you will encourage them to join this blog and be a regular follower of its publications. By this you’ll be saving souls- one of the primary reasons why God has kept you till now.
This man not only experienced his awful aching memories of opportunities missed and sins committed, but he experienced loss. He is alone. He sees these other people at a distance, that old smelly beggar that lay at his gate. He sees father Abraham, but he can't really know them and commune with them - and most of all, he is cut off from God. Then he remembers his brothers, and what we have here is one brother in hell and five on the way - and that troubles him, because there he is with a wall of sweltering flames around him, and chains on his soul on which are stamped the word 'Forever', and he knows that his brothers are headed there too!
It is a one-way ticket, therefore - like this man, all who get there never get out. I think he was trying, at least, to get out, in a sense get out of the pain by asking Abraham - but he was not only praying too late, he was praying to the wrong person. Abraham couldn't get him out. If he had prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ when he was on the earth, he could have got out, for He is the one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That name is not 'Mohammed', that name is not 'Mary' - and whilst that is very un-politically correct, that's what the Bible teaches. There is only one Saviour, one Son of God, one Man who died on the cross for all men's sins. There's only one who rose again from the grave, there's only one who has promised to come and judge the world, and that is Christ. If he had prayed to Him, he would have been saved, but now he's crying - at least to one of God's servants - but it's too late.
I rejoice in God's word today, that I can reach out to you a gospel that is alive, a gospel that is free, a gospel that is real. The offer I give you today is authentic.
'Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved', 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved' - but there's a day coming when you will cry on the name of the Lord, and you might even believe on the Lord Jesus, but it will be too late! Proverbs envisages that day in a sense, and God says: 'Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD'.
Don't think on that day that you can point the finger and say: 'God, You're a wicked God, sending me here'. Why not? Because you're here today, and you're reading God's word, you're hearing the warning perhaps that you've never heard in your life - and are you going to heed it? Not only will you be on a one-way ticket, but you will be conscious of your need of conversion as I've said. You will value a meeting like this then, the precious blood of Christ then, the Bible then - and you will be desperate that others turn back and do not go to that place. Maybe you'll cry through all eternity for those you know are headed there. You could have done something about it if you had believed before the grave, you could have pointed them to the Lord Jesus - but then it will be too late. Maybe - and I don't want to be insensitive, but we're being real today - maybe there's someone you know in hell just now crying out for you. They would love somebody to come back and tell you to believe, and not go to that place. I want to say to you: there's no way I can describe what hell is like. There is nothing in this world to compare, there's no idea that any mad man in an asylum could articulate, there's no delirium that the human mind and spirit could know that could compare to it, there is no nightmare in the depths of sleep that could be described like hell. The artist struggles, the writer fails, and even human words are insufficient - but can I say to you now: all you need in order to be saved, you have now.
That's what's beyond the grave, let's leave that for a moment and talk about what is here now in this second, because that's all you can be sure of. Now God's Spirit is here, He speaks to men and women through the word of God just like Abraham said to this man in hell: 'You have Moses and the prophets, I'm not going to send somebody back from the dead when you've got a Bible'. He had a witness, he had Lazarus the beggar at the bottom of his driveway, at the gate lying there day after day - he stepped over him, I'm sure, many a time, a believer in God. The Lord Jesus, apart from anything else, has given you a guided tour of hell through His word - are you going to believe Him, or are you going to just rubbish it?
The Lord Jesus, apart from anything else, has given you a guided tour of hell through His word - are you going to believe Him, or are you going to just rubbish it?
One has come back from the dead, the same Jesus who shows you today from the scriptures the horrors of hell, is the same Jesus who has defeated hell, and the one who had the power of death, that is the devil. This Lord Jesus who teaches hell here, and teaches it more than heaven throughout the Gospels, is the Lord Jesus who went to a cross, and was nailed to it, and experienced hell for you and the world. I think He's qualified to talk about it. The Bible says that hell is the place of weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and there on the cross the Lord Jesus experienced, in a sense, all that. The rich man in hell cries 'I thirst', and Jesus thirsted on the cross, His tongue cleft to the roof of His mouth. The Bible says hell is a place of darkness, and when Jesus was there being crucified, darkness came over the whole land for three hours as He was judged for sin. The Bible says hell is a place of separation, and there on the cross Christ cried 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?', 'My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?'.
Hell is a place of torment, and there the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, His soul was made an offering for sin, He is the Lamb of God slain to take away the sins of the world, offering Himself up in love for you, that in grace you might never go to hell but experience heaven for all eternity. Just as they slew those lambs, poured out the blood, burned them on the altar - the only difference is that that lamb on the altar was consumed by the flames of the sacrificial fire, but there on the cross of Calvary the Lord Jesus, in His own body on the tree, completely exhausted the judgemental wrath of God in hell in Him. He extinguished those flames in His own heart, He devoured the flames. He took it, He bore it.
That's why He died - do you ever wonder? You see these crucifixes about the place, and maybe children's books about Jesus dying at Easter time and all the rest - do you ever wonder what it was all about? That's what it was about, for you anyway, that's what it was about: so that Martin Luther could say, 'If one drop of Christ's blood should fall into hell, it would extinguish the fires for all eternity' - that's what He was doing for you! Some people say, 'Ach, hell's on earth' - well, I'll give you this, that day, on that centre cross at Calvary, hell was on earth - it was in the heart of a Man becoming sacrifice for sin and for sinners. Jesus gives you this vision of hell not only to know what's ahead of you, but to know what He went through for you, so that you might flee from it and shelter in His bosom from the angry fires of God. This Bible says there's a great gulf fixed between heaven and hell and you can't transfer from one to the other, but the only way you can get out of that place now, in time, is to walk across the bridge of the cross.
Settle the issue of eternity today by completely surrendering to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Then find a bible believing church and start fellowshipping with them. you can reach us through our mail adrresses: christonear@yahoo.com, chrisogbebor@gmail.com
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