Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
allows us access to your presence, your powerful and holy presence, God. That can transform us in a moment, that can refresh and renew and revive and convict and and bring to repentance and and reveal things and do everything that you need to do or want to do in our lives, God. We pray today, God, in in our lives, your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray today, God, give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you, that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened. God, give us, oh God, understanding and revelation, God, that we may know you and hear you and walk with you. More and more and more. We need a revival. We need a move of the Holy Ghost. We need an outpouring of the spirit in Auburn and Opelika, in the church world, across America. We need a revival of truth and the true power of God. Father, we pray for that this morning. Jesus. Jesus. Praise you, Jesus. Let's keep your head bowed and your eyes closed for a minute. Just just worship him. He's here this morning. His presence is here this morning. Lord, we pray that old prayer that Steve Hill used to get people to pray. Lord, Lord, speak to my heart. Change my life. Lord, speak to our hearts. Will everybody just pray that to him? Just say, "Lord, speak to my heart. Change my life." In Jesus' name. Oh God, speak. Speak through your word. Speak by your spirit. Speak to us, God. Move in mighty ways, God. Father, I cannot wait to go out into this community, to go out on the university, to go out on the street again and preach the gospel. I pray for your power to fall when we go. Jesus' name. Shoo. Hallelujah. Somebody say praise the Lord. My God. I just sense his presence. I know he's up to something. Amen. Hallelujah. Let me just say this. Um we're getting armed. We're getting armed with truth to go out. You know, the Bible says in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is the power of God.
And then I hear these preachers talk about the gospel as good news as if that's that's the simple defini- definition they try to throw out there. But the gospel is in its end good news if received, if obeyed, if walked out with Jesus. The gospel's bad news if you reject it. And that is I think what God's been doing with us is is equipping us with the truth. And very soon um we're going to be going out again to the campus, to the streets, door to door. We're going to do all kinds of evangelism. And I am looking forward to it, and I hope you are. Amen. All right. And I know don't don't let the devil speak this little voice in your head, "Well, Pastor Dean, you said that before, and we've only done a little bit, and then we stopped." Let me tell you, the time is now. And the only thing delaying me at this moment is the walking part. I got to get that completely healed, and then we will be going. But this morning I want to speak to you about is this message this morning is kind of a convergence of things that have happened this week. Now, there may be some things that you hear this morning that I've already said, you've heard me say before, um but there's going to be some things that you haven't because God's just given me some fresh things. But this week has been interesting, to say the least. Um uh of course, you know that I've mentioned the Pastor Rob Bell, who's the pastor of Mars Hill Church up in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 10,000 member church up there. Um he's one of the leaders of what's called the emerging church movement. And just it just in the last week or so, he's put out a new book entitled Love Wins, a book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived. Um pretty much everyone in in Christian circles has has already known that that Rob Bell is a heretic, that he doesn't believe that the the scriptures or all of the scriptures are inspired by God. And uh he has ideas, strange ideas, about hell and and things. But what this book is about, and I've got the title up here, Christian Universalism. And I put Christian in quotes uh because they you know, Universalism has been around a long time. Now, the definition of Universalism is really simple. Universalism believes that everyone will ultimately end up in heaven. That no matter what your religion or your beliefs or how you live your life that you will ultimately end up in heaven. And And true
universalism believes that there's no hell at all or no eternal punishment. Okay? Um And so anyway, this book came out and I knew I was going to have to address these issues. And then of course there's the book or the novel that sold millions upon millions of copies called The Shack by William P. Young. Now, both of these books I've I've I haven't read through Love Wins. I've read some quotes from Love Wins that I'm going to put up this morning uh from some pastors across the country who have done reviews on this book and they've put up quotes. Uh just a few I I you know, everyone already knows um that Rob Bell is a universalist. He was interviewed on MSNBC not not too long ago right after the book came out this couple of weeks ago. And and the it was amazing. The interviewer for MSNBC now, not a conservative uh television network or news network. This the the person that interviewed him would not let him off the hook and called him on the carpet. Would not let him dodge and and exposed him as the universalist that he is. Uh and just told him you're you're redefining the gospel. You've created a gospel now that the culture will accept. And he just nailed him and this you know, it was it's an awesome interview. You can look it up on on YouTube. But in in just this week um I was I noticed on Facebook and I'm going to name names this morning because this message is going to go out beyond here. And I'm sick of not naming some names. But I noticed on Facebook, um, earlier this week or a few days ago, that Justin Eldred, the leader of the A Hop or the Auburn House of Prayer, which is a branch of Mike Bickle's International House of Prayer out of Kansas City, um, put two posts up about The Shack and and actually said it was the best book that he ever read, that that he was encouraging everyone to, um, to read the book, and that he was talking about that there's some interview or a possibly a movie coming out, based on The Shack, that they're going to watch and he's encouraging everyone to watch. Well, immediately when I saw that, having read The Shack, I have a copy of it right here. Where is it? Somebody's got it this morning. But, I've read The Shack. And The Shack, um, is clearly a novel that does present theological truth in it or tries to present what it thinks is theological truth. I should say that. So, the the excuses that it's fiction or that it's a novel or that it's a metaphor and allegory doesn't hold wind when the guy is talks about God and Jesus and theological things about heaven and hell and and sin and and and where people will spend eternity. When you start talking about that stuff,
you've moved from metaphors and fiction to trying to teach, um, trying to teach Oh, yeah. Trying to teach theology, trying to teach Christianity. So, anyway, I when I saw that post on Facebook, I said I said, "Have you lost your mind? The Shack teaches universalism, that everyone is going to eventually go to heaven, no matter what they believe, no matter what sins they've committed, no matter how they've lived. And um and it presents that argument in a very subtle and twisted way, but it's very clearly in there in chapter 11 as a matter of fact. In chapter 11 entitled here come the judge is what it's what it's entitled and I and I actually pulled the book out while he and I started this debate back and forth on his Facebook post and I pulled it out and I said I'm holding the book in my hand and I am rereading chapter 11 and cuz he said basically that The Shack or William P. Young is not a universalist. He does not teach universalism. I said here it is right here. And I mean and what we're dealing with nowadays with when I turn Christian universalism is we're dealing with Christians who will say to you they will teach universalism that everyone will ultimately end up in heaven no matter whether they believed in Jesus or not and I'm going to show you their quotes in a minute. But but that they're going to end up in heaven whether they believe it but then they'll say the words out of their mouth I'm not a universalist. Now this is going back I shared this earlier with with Nick. I said this is going back to the Clinton days. It reminds me you know, did you have sex with that woman and he goes it depends on what the definition of is is. I mean do we really have to go down this road? You know, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck and swims like a duck, it's probably a duck. Don't tell me it's a dog. Okay? I'm not stupid. We have definitions of words. We have definitions of theologies and beliefs, you know, how do we know what Buddhism is but what they believe? You say what they say they believe. You get what I'm saying? How do we know what Hinduism is or the New Age or anything out there? How do we know what Christianity is unless we can define clearly define words, right? So Rob Bell, William Young and a lot of these other emergent leaders like Brian McLaren and and on down on down the line even even Joel Osteen, Billy Graham, all of them are beginning to move into Christian universalism. Now, let me say this. The twist between Universalism and Christian Universalism is real simple. A Universalist will just say that all religions lead to God. Everyone's going to heaven or going to God when they die. It doesn't really matter. What the twist on Christian Universalism is they say that because Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood and became the atonement for all men's sin that all men, women, everybody, all men are forgiven whether they know Jesus or not,
whether they confess Jesus or not, whether they repent or not. And that is the beliefs of it's called um universal salvation. Um but anyway, it's it's the twist. This is what um Carlton Pearson, who used to be a a well-known charismatic leader in the in the Pentecostal world. He had a huge church in Tulsa. Matter of fact, it's where Carman used to go to church, uh the singer Carman. They were best friends, big church, ORU graduate. Um walked with had one of the biggest conferences for years out in in Los Angeles every every year called the Azusa uh conference about Azusa Street Revival. I mean, he was a he was a preacher and he preached the truth, but eventually, he began to fall away from the word of God and from the truth of God and fell into this Christian Universalism or Universal Salvation that everyone was covered by the blood of Jesus. Everyone was saved whether they knew it or not, whether they believed it or not, whether they confessed Jesus as Lord or not. And and that he did he didn't believe any longer that anybody was going to go to hell or that there even was a hell. Okay? Now, this is where we're headed. Now, the problem is like I mentioned to Nick before the service, we've always had Universalism. Universalism has been around a long time. What is the difference now? The difference now is that we have mainstream quote evangelicals, Pentecostals, charismatics, mainstream mainstream Protestant preachers and denominations and churches and people that are accepted like Rob Bell and William Young, they're accepted by mainstream evangelicals and promoted like Justin Eldridge of IHOP. Now, Justin is a sincere guy. He loves the Lord. I have no doubt of that, but he is is misguided. And let me just say this, when you promote somebody who is teaching error, they Now, listen, no deceiver is going to be all error. They're always going to mix in truth with a lie. This is the same trick that Satan used in the garden. God told Adam and Eve, you don't eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The day you eat of it, what? You will die. You know, you you just don't do it, right? Well, well, Satan came along and said, you know, you know, if you come if you eat this tree, your eyes will be opened. You will know good and evil. Well, that's true. Their spiritual eyes would be opened, but opened a way God didn't want them opened. See what I'm saying? And the devil mixed that in. And then the devil said what? You will not surely die. So, he always mixes in truth, a little truth, with his lies or it won't work on us, guys. Why has this book sold what, 6 million copies or whatever it is, maybe 3 million, I can't remember, but into the millions of copies. It's endorsed by Michael W. Smith and uh Pat Robertson and and and many people across the body of Christ that that I used to think at
least had some sense. Okay? But here's the problem. Do I think Pat Robertson is a Christian? Do I think that that that um Michael W. Smith a Christian? Do I think they're sincere? Yes, I think they're sincere. Um Mike Bickle and other people, do I think they're sincere? I think they're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong about promoting people who teach error. And it just grieves me to no end. And there's a story, and I'm not going to have you turn to it right now, but there's a story, if you go to 2 Chronicles, about 2 Chronicles 18 through through 20, or there. There's a story of King Jehoshaphat. You ever Y'all remember the story of King Jehoshaphat when all the armies came against him and he got the people together and he got everyone together and they fasted and they prayed and and God delivered them. I mean, you remember the story, right? But what you don't remember is what happened What most people don't remember is what happened before that. What happened before What got him into that trouble? Well, it says it in chapter 18 and 19 there, it talks about how Jehoshaphat, who was a godly king who loved God, he was sincere, he was real, he he wanted righteousness, he wanted to do the right things, but he joined in affinity, or he came into agreement, and some uh scholars believe that he allowed one of his his sons either to marry one of Jezebel, you know, Ahab, King Ahab was king over Israel. Jehoshaphat was king over Jerusalem, and to marry, I think it was his son to marry one of Jezebel's daughters, one of Ahab's daughters. But there was a treaty, a unity between the two. Now, Ahab was a wicked, ungodly king of Israel. He was an idolater, and and his wife was Jezebel, okay? Couldn't get much worse. And what happened was they he joins with him to go to battle, and Jehoshaphat's almost killed in the battle, but escapes, goes back to Judah. Uh Ahab goes back to Israel. He's He's wounded in the battle, and it's the battle that that Ahab ends up dying in, okay? But here's the story. A prophet shows up when Jehoshaphat gets back, a prophet shows up when Jehoshaphat gets back from this battle and says, "Because you went to help the wicked, the ungodly, because you joined up with this man, wrath is now upon you from the Lord." And only because there's some good things in you, you have not been destroyed, basically. But an army of 1 million or so came against Judah and Jehoshaphat and threatened to annihilate it. And had not Jehoshaphat humbled himself, and all the people humbled themselves and repented before God and cried out to God, they would not have been delivered. It is dangerous who you associate with,
who you promote, who you unify yourself with. And I want to say this, God is watching. He's watching these Christian leaders unifying with Rome, unifying with Yeah, with Roman Catholicism, unifying with these universalists and these false prophets and these and he's watching. He's watching to see how far it's going to go. Um some serious stuff. You will be held accountable. I will be held accountable by what I promote. You know, guilt by association is bad enough. Guilt by promotion is a whole other level of sin. Amen? Somebody might accidentally be associated with somebody and not be fully aware what they're into. But if you go from just maybe being around them some to promoting what they teach, you've moved into a whole different realm. Okay? Now, another thing happened, not just Justin Eldridge, the leader of IHOP here in Auburn, promoting The Shack, but then I'm on Facebook and I see a a friend of mine from years ago who actually attended my church in in Montgomery when I was pastoring there, who is now a Methodist pastor and a doctoral student. Okay, he's he's working on his doctorate. Um I saw him post, okay, on his Facebook how that this Sunday, right now, he was going to be preaching on the scope of salvation using The Shack. And I quote. So I said to him, I commented, I said, "Hmm, let me guess." I said, "The scope of salvation and The Shack, I would have to say that's Christian universalism." He came flying back at me, right? Cuz I mentioned Rob Bell also. He came flying back at me and said that William P. Young, author of The Shack, and Rob Bell are not universalists. Really? So I quote Rob Bell and William Young to him and I said, "If that's not universalism, please tell me what it is because obviously you have another definition." Okay? So anyway, needless to say, he didn't answer me back. But here we go. And I asked him, I said, "Let me ask you something that to which he didn't answer." I said, "Do you Do Do your church members know what you believe? Or I mean, are you subtly trying to subvert them to your post-modern emergent beliefs, your liberal theology, or your universalism? Or Or do they know where you stand? Because uh Nancy just had an article sent to her online uh this this week
Um, about a United Methodist pastor that made some post on Facebook and his congregation had just had it and they found out that he he basically he endorsed Love Wins by Rob Bell and and basically which denies hell and and says everyone will be saved. Um, so he endorses that and so he got fired. His people had finally had enough. And he got fired and I said, "Praise God." Some some church took a stand against this tide of deception and error coming into the church world. I'm going to give you some quotes here. Let's Let's just look. Here Here's a quote uh, from Rob Bell. Now, I'm I'm not going to quote um, too much of The Shack. The entire chapter 11 presents this, but here's a quote from Rob Bell's Love Wins that just came out a few weeks ago, maybe 2 weeks ago. This is in the preface of the book. He says, and quote, "The plot has been lost. And it's time to reclaim it." Now, here's the quote. He said, "A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus' message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs. Do you see that? And yet, I'm told Rob Bell is not a universalist. All right? Let's keep going. Bell argues, this is on page 136 and 137. Bell argues that the historic understanding of God's character and salvation, that eternal punishments awaits those who reject the gospel in this life, is quote, "devastating, psychologically crushing, terrifying, and traumatizing, and unbearable." Now, let me just say this. Let me just say this. If this is the way he feels, right? Why is he even preaching Jesus? Listen, the same Bible that preaches that tells us about the cross and about Jesus shedding his blood and about Jesus being risen from the dead and gives us the message of of the possibility of forgiveness of sins and atonement and eternal life in heaven, the same Bible that gives us those basic truths, of which some of they present some of, also talks about God's judgment and wrath upon those who reject Jesus Christ, those who live in sin and wickedness, and and it tells us about hell, and it tells us about punishment that is eternal and forever, and that after it
there is no hope. The This same Bible Where do they get off thinking that all of a sudden, after 2,000 years of Christianity and and the established doctrines of the church of Jesus Christ, where do they get off thinking that they can come along and go, "No, no, no. We take this part, but we don't take this part." I don't even get that. Go be a Buddhist. Go be a Hindu. Go be a Muslim. Quit saying you are a Christian and you don't believe the whole Bible. Stop it. Quit using my Jesus' name to promote your false teaching. BUT, WHY DO THEY DO THIS? Because they're demon-possessed and the devil knows I've got to talk about Jesus to and then twist the scriptures and twist the truth to get people away from the real Jesus and the real Bible and the real truth. Right? So, listen, let me just say this. It is satanic. William P. Young, you know you know what I said about I wrote down in in the computer the other day. I'll just say this. William P. Young was was abused as a child. He was molested. He was He was abused by his father. I mean, he went through some bad stuff, okay? But, what he is now, he is simply a psychologically wounded, deranged man who has created a god and a reality and an eternity that helps him cope with his own pain. Instead of Instead of accepting the truth, instead of getting healing from the real Jesus and deliverance from the demons he got from all that, the demons that he has now controls him and uses him to spread deception to the world. The Shack is a brilliant demonic deception. It's brilliant. But, isn't it interesting that it's it's all this theological deception is shrouded in a novel? And it's exactly what God told or or what Paul told Timothy that the Holy Spirit through Paul told Timothy. He said, "For the time will come." This is 2 Timothy 4. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But, after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned unto fables or myths, fictions." This is not surprising. Okay? Let's keep going. Um just to give you just to give you another Here's Here's one of the leaders of the emerging church. Just to give you another quote, his name's Dallas Willard. And also, he's a big buddy of a guy named Richard Foster and Rick
Warren. Okay? This guy's a graduate of Tennessee Temple University, is a professor at the University of Southern California, and a Southern Baptist. And here's what he says, "I am happy for God to save anyone he wants in any way he can. It is possible for someone who does not know Jesus to be saved." Whoa. Right. Amazing. This is Dallas Willard the Cutting Edge winner 2001. Let's go to another one. Here's one. Uh how many of you ever heard of Henri Nouwen? Anybody ever heard of Henri Nouwen? He's a Roman Catholic priest. He passed away a few years back. He's a Roman Catholic He was a prolific writer. Uh wrote many books like the the Way of the Heart, um Clowning in Rome, um just a bunch of books. Um Anyway, he was a He was a disciple of Thomas Merton, the Roman Catholic priest. Anyway, I've I've done a lot of study on Henri Nouwen. He He was also He also had um homosexual tendencies. Um anyway, this is what he said, and this is from his book or his last book, The Sabbatical Journey. And this is what he says, and quote, "Today, I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know Jesus or know about Jesus or not. Today, I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God." Now, here's what's devastating about this individual. This individual is promoted his books, his teachings. He is promoted by Mike Bickle who runs IHOP. The International House of Prayer in Kansas City. I know this for a fact. Do you know why? Because I went to Mike Bickle's website and went to their bookstore and looked at the books and went through all the books that they encourage people to read, that they encourage these thousands and thousands of young people and people that they have influence over and several of Henri Nouwen's books are promoted on there. And this is what they're promoting to these young people. So, when you think about it, as as sincere as Mike Bickle may be and some of the truth that he preaches, promoting this guy, and this is not the only guy he promotes on his website. He also promotes um a guy named uh Father Thomas Dubay who promotes contemplative prayer, meditation, uh all kind all types of errors from Buddhism and Hinduism and Roman Catholicism. And this and he and this is
Mike Bickle these books it says on Mike Bickle's website highly recommended by Mike Bickle. Matter of fact, the book Fire Within by Father Thomas Dubay that he promotes on there that promotes all this Roman Catholic and Buddhist mysticism, that actually he says he wants that book to be the manual for IHOP. Guilty, my friends, guilty. Folks, if I tell you you should listen to somebody and you should read their books and you should listen to somebody, I just made myself a partaker of that man's sins, no matter how sincere I am. Right? Let's keep going. Let's look at this question. So, with all that happening this week, there's a guy that's a friend of mine from Montgomery who goes to Fresh Anointing over Montgomery, good guy, his name's Jeremy Kelley. Now, he sometimes shoots me these questions, you know, he he's just a fired up young man and I love to see fired up young man. But, he shoots me these questions every now and then and and he shot me this question this week and and when he shot me this question and I started answering him, the spirit of God just came all over me and just inspired uh an answer that I think we need to look at more closely, okay? Um and he asked me, he said, "I've been reading Romans 1 through 4." And he said, "I've been reading Romans 1 through 4." And he said, "I got a question for you." He said, "Do What do you believe about people who have never heard the gospel and never heard about Jesus? Do you believe they will go to hell?" Okay? He said, "You know, some people try to use a verse out of Romans 2 and say that if they knew the law, if a gentile of gentile who doesn't have the law does by nature those things written in the law, um that that they're going to be saved and they're going to make it to heaven." He said, "But, I don't understand that because I know that the scripture says that unless we confess Jesus is Lord, uh unless a man's born again, you know, there's no other name given under heaven." And he goes, "I'm just, you know, basically I'm kind of confused about this." So, I want you everybody this morning, we're going to answer this question. We're going to look at this more than because if you if you go down this road, if you begin to say that people who have never heard the gospel, if they live a pretty good life, they're going to end up going to heaven. Um you're you're headed down the slippery slope to universalism. Now, how many of you've heard that? I mean, this question comes up, doesn't it? I mean, have you ever had an unsaved person or a backslider or someone that's got this attitude toward God? And one of the first thing they'll say "Well, what about those You you start talking about hell and eternity." The first one of the first things they say is "Hey, uh you know, what about the people who never heard the gospel? They going to hell?"
Immediately accusing the justice of God, right? The fairness of God. And most Christians do not know how to answer that and stumble around dab dab dab dab dab dab, right? But folks, there is an answer. Okay? I'm going to give you one that will silence their mouths. Okay? Let's look at it. Romans Are you with me? Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2. Let's go down. Let's see. Oh, we'll just go down to verse Y'all need Bibles, go ahead and get them. We'll just start at verse 11. Verse 11. Everybody there? All right, here we go. For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law. You see that? I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I want you to see it. Just just make a note of that. For as many as have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law. And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature those things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Now, there are people who take this and try to say that a a person who's never heard the gospel will go to heaven if they live according to the law. Maybe they're not an adulterer and they don't steal. And because the law's written in their heart and they keep the law, that they will go to heaven whether they know about Jesus or not. This scripture, let me just say that, does not say that. Okay? Does anybody think it says that? Just nod if you think it does. Okay, and and even if even if somebody wants to take a little bit of a stretch and go, "Well, kind of maybe." Bottom line is we can't on we can't and this is what I told my friend Jeremy. I said, "We can't on things of doctrine, we cannot speculate and we cannot go beyond scripture. Okay? We have to go with what is clearly revealed. What is not clearly revealed, we leave that to God. Okay? Here in this passage, it is not clearly revealed. The only thing that's clearly revealed is that when a Gentile or an unsaved person or someone who's never heard the gospel or or any part of the word of God, when they do things that are according to God's law, all we the proof we have is it shows it proves that God did write his law on their hearts. But he's written the law on the hearts of
every man, woman, boy, and girl. Now, let me ask you a question. Does not the Bible teach us in Romans that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, right? So, if all have sinned, then all have broken the law. So, no Gentile or unsaved person or person who's never heard the gospel, they have all sinned. So, they're not somehow super we're going to find some some tribe out there who's super righteous. You get what I'm saying? They're just all of a sudden super righteous. Now, before I get into this, let me say this. There have been stories, many stories where missionaries have shown up to to people groups that have had no contact with the civilized world and they've shown up and found where Jesus has appeared to like the the the tribal leader or the witch doctor and Jesus has appeared to them and taught them the truth about his his crucifixion, his resurrection, that he's the way, that these other gods are are false and to leave those things and they've got there and found these people to be worshipping Jesus, to even have a church going. With no Bible, with nothing, just with what Jesus appeared to them gave them. So, within that God can do what he wants to do. All right? That's the good note. But, let's take it a little further. All right? And here's what I told my friend Jeremy. I said, you know, bottom line on us is we have to preach the gospel. Now, let's look let's look at a few let's look at a few verses, right? Turn to um turn to John 3:36. John 3:36. And here's what it says. Everybody with me? He that believeth on the son has everlasting life and he that believeth not on the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Do you see that? Now, what of course what is the word believe mean in in the Greek? It means to rely on, to trust in, to cling to and to stay constant in that profession and that that walk, that belief system, right? So, it says very clearly, "He that believeth on the son has everlasting life." And that's a present tense Greek verb there, believeth. So, it means an ongoing action taking place in the present. So, he that believeth on the son right now and continually has everlasting life, and he that believeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Back up to verse three. What did Jesus say in John 3? He said what? "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Is that in your Bible? Is this the same Bible that tells us that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of mankind? All right? All right, let's keep reading. God wants you everybody to go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I'm sorry, chapter 1. Let's do chapter 1. I don't know why I have chapter 2 on my mind. 2 Thessalonians chapter number 1. Everybody look up when you're there. All right. Are we there? 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Let's look at verse number 6. He says here, "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power." Do you see that? Let's read this part again. It says that God is coming. When Jesus comes, he will take vengeance in flaming fire taking vengeance on them who who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it says they will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. Do you see that? Everlasting destruction. Turn to the book of Jude. Let's see what the book of Jude says is the everlasting destruction. The book of Jude we're going to go down to verse 7. Verse 7. And I'm I'm I'm going to actually I'm going to back up because what's beautiful about Jude is the context in which he says verse 7. Okay? Which is what Pastor Dean's doing this morning. I'm earnestly contending for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. So, we're going to back up. Let's read Let's start reading at verse 3. Jude verse 3. Beloved. Everybody there? Y'all still turning? Right next to Revelation. Jude verse 3. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write into you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write into you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. So, right here he's saying there are people who are trying to change the way of salvation. He said there are certain men crept in unawares who are turning the grace God into
lasciviousness or a license to do whatever you want to do. You don't have to believe. And let me just say this, I've taught on once saved, always saved, and I don't believe you're once saved, always saved, no matter how you live. That's turning the grace of God into a license to sin, that you can just live the way you want to and grace covers it. Well, the ultimate turning of grace into a license is saying you don't even have you know, God's atonement through Jesus Christ covers everybody. You don't even have to believe it. And you're still going to be saved. Is that not twisting the message of the grace of Jesus Christ? It's there, but it has to be what? For by grace are you saved. What is Ephesians 2? Through faith. What is faith? It is action. It is your action. It is you believing. It is you repenting. It is you following. It is you becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. Faith without works is what? Dead, being alone. Right? We just We just got to preach the Bible. But look at verse 7. Here's what he says. Speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah, he says, "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." The people of Sodom and Gomorrah who were into fornication and pedophilia and homosexuality and every other perversion, it says are suffering the vengeance of eternal fire and that they are an example to us. Is that your Bible? Bible said in in 1 Thessa- I mean, 2 Thessalonians 1, right? In flaming fire taking vengeance on those. Punished with everlasting right? Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. One more in regards to this. Go to Revelation 20. Just got to establish this and then I'm going to try to shut it down quick. I'm going to give you an answer. Show you where God blew my mind. Revelation 20, let's let's just read verse 11 through 15. All right? 11 through 15. And I saw a great white throne. And him that sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away and there was found no more place for them and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to his
works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Do you see that in the Bible? Okay? How do they preach this stuff? I will never understand how they preach this stuff. Okay? Hell is a real place and the only way to be saved is what? Through Jesus, right? What does Romans 10:9 say? Everybody turn to back to Romans. Let's look Let's look at a few more verses before I get into this other stuff. Romans 10. Cuz this is kind of important here. Romans 10. Verse 9. We'll read a few verses here. It says, "For if you" Everybody there? "For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Believing, confession, something we have to do, right? For the scripture saith, "Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew or the Greek, between the Jew or what? The Gentile." For the same Lord over all is rich unto all them that call upon him. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Then he goes on, "How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?" Right? Then he goes on, "And how shall they preach except they be sent?" Now, I'm going to stop right there. How shall they "hear without a preacher? And how shall they believe How shall the they the preacher go unless he's sent?" Now, here's where it gets interesting. Okay? The Bible says in 1 Peter that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Now, the Calvinists teach predestination and election like this, that eons in the past, before God created the heavens and the earth or maybe even before he created the angels, that God predetermined who would go to heaven and who would go to hell and it's predetermined and there's nothing that we can do about it. Okay? But that is not the biblical view of salvation. The scripture in 1 Peter chapter 1 says this, that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Now, what they say, what Calvinists say is that free will doesn't exist, meaning that God just chooses you and that's it.
It's not the way it works. Here's how free will, man having free will, being having the ability to choose and yet God's plans, ultimate plans still being done, his sovereignty, this is how these things work together. He says He says, "We are elect or chosen or precious to God according to his foreknowledge, which means that God didn't predetermine that Dean will be a Christian. But what he did was, according to his ability to see the future, saw the choices I would make when I heard the gospel. And when I repented and made Jesus Lord of my life, he knew the choice that I would make and therefore from eons in the past, he predetermined certain plans for my life. But it's still up to me whether I submit and follow those plans to see them come to pass. Or else, why would God have us pray if his will was always going to be done? Why would he have us pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?" Why did Jesus pray in the garden, "Father, your will be done, not mine." Jesus did not want to go to the cross. It was going to be excruciating, painful beyond words. But he said what? Not my will be done. So, he submits to the will of God and God's plan is done on the earth. We know what? God God's will is not always done on the earth cuz people what? Choose to do the opposite. Right? Now, knowing this, that God, our God, knows the the end from the beginning, right? He knows He's omniscient, he's all-knowing, he's omnipresent, he's he's beyond time. He created time for us. With him, time doesn't exist. That's why he can make statements like the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. With him, inside of him, it's all done. And he knows exactly everything that's going to happen. The the the prophecies, the the hundreds of of prophecies that he gave, and all that shows that he knows everything that's going to happen, right? Well, here's what God just gave me about what you know, what about the people who've never heard the gospel? They're going to go to hell. Well, here's what I asked Jeremy. I said, is it possible, or isn't it possible, that God knows exactly who's going to accept him and who's going to reject him, and he has just chosen not to send a messenger? Why should God send a godly missionary to give up his life, to suffer, to
possibly die, to a group of people or to a nation of people whom God already knows will not listen to that man or that woman and kill him? Now, granted, does God send missionaries to people groups, and do they die, and does he send them there knowing they're going to die? You know the famous story of Jim Jim Elliot. God does send missionaries and prophets and pastors to places that that are going to reject them and are going to kill them. But, he doesn't have to, and this is what we've got to get in our minds. God is not obligated to send them. You understand what I'm saying? God is not obligated to send He He's not obligated to do anything. See, this is This is where it gets it gets wild, okay? Let's go You You could go back to Romans chapter 9. What did God say about Pharaoh? Now, granted, my Calvinist friends out there get this confused, but God said, "I raised up Pharaoh to show and hardened his heart to show my glory and my power." Right? What is he talking about? Well, God didn't predetermine that Pharaoh would be evil. Pharaoh made those choices. You know what I'm saying? But God saw ahead that Pharaoh would harden his heart, and Pharaoh would resist Moses and Aaron and the truth, and would not let the people go, and God said, "I'm going to use Pharaoh I'm going to use the choices Pharaoh's made. I'm going to use him to show my glory and power in the earth." And then God makes the statement, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have judgment and wrath on whom I will have judgment wrath." Why? Because God is unfair? No, because God knows the choices we are going to make. Let me Let me Just let this one thing sink down in your heads. God's purposes are eternal. No one is getting into heaven that could ultimately one day cause a rebellion there. God's already had a rebellion in heaven with Lucifer. He's already told us in the book of Revelation that there's going to be another rebellion on the earth after a thousand year millennial reign of people seeing Jesus face-to-face. BUT HE WILL HAVE no more in heaven. So let me just say this to you right now. No one is getting into heaven who will ultimately choose to sin or rebel again. And let me just say, God knows who will do that. To let everyone into heaven would be to let Hitler into heaven.
Right? What about the man that molests little child after little child after little child and never repents? Or tortures and kills little children. Or the Satanist out there kidnapping people and and sacrificing them to the devil. No, friends, there's a hell. Right? And the majority of people are going there. But do you get what I'm saying this morning? God is not obligated and let me just throw this at you. Maybe just maybe and I say that with a smile on my face because this is what I believe. Maybe just maybe that the people who have not heard the gospel that God didn't send a preacher to because he knew they were already going to reject him and go to hell. Maybe he's using them as a stumbling block to those who have heard the gospel but are looking for reasons to accuse God's fairness and justice. See, here's the thing. If if people believe God's letting people go to hell that have never heard and they start believing God's not fair. And then they start changing the gospel to suit them and to suit the world. They have ceased to trust what? That God's love and his goodness and his fairness They've They've ceased to trust him. See, the thing about it is me I maybe I'm getting too complicated. But the thing about it is me is if it if there's a tribe out there in Africa or the jungles of Mexico or if there's a tribe out there that hadn't heard the gospel and they're dying they and they die and they go to hell. Is that God's fault? But this is where Rob Bell William P. Young, emergent church people are coming from. God They say the God of love wouldn't let that happen. So therefore this thing about hell can't be true. This thing about having to believe in Jesus can't be true. You see the logic. You see where they go. But if you understand that God knows the beginning from the ending and that if he knows those people would reject even if he sent
someone and he decides not to send them he is still fair. You get what I'm saying? And here and here's the truth. Anyone who goes to hell for eternity, anyone who goes there, it will either be because of the choices that they made in this life or the choices that God knew they would make. So, it's still on us, not on God. Phew. I'm going to say that again. If anyone dies in their sins without knowing Jesus, without being born again, and even if they never heard the gospel, if they go to hell, it will be because of the choices they made in this life or the ones God knew they would make, whether they got a messenger sent to them or not. Therefore, we can stand firm on the scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ that unless you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, who died on the cross, rose from the dead, that only his blood will wash away sin, that you have to call on his name, that you have to repent, and that you have to follow, we can stand firm and say, "Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven." And if you don't believe that, if you don't submit to that, if you don't follow that, you are lost for all eternity. You will spend eternity in hell. We can stand firm on that truth and preach that truth knowing that God is love and just, and that he knows everything from the the end from the beginning, and that he did the right thing. See, this is the bottom line. What did God ask Abraham? Will not the judge of the whole EARTH DO RIGHT? I say he will. Rob Bell, William Young, these universalists, the world out there that's lost, they want to try to accuse God of being unfair so that they can have an excuse to stay in their sin. And not deal with their sin. Fired up about this this morning. And I'm giving y'all the short version. I don't have to be ashamed of the gospel. I don't have to be ashamed that my Jesus taught about everlasting punishment, a place called hell. I don't have to be ashamed that Jesus made it a requirement that you had to be born again, that you had to believe, that you had to repent, that you had to live a holy life, an obedient life. No. This truth, or these truths, are what some of us will be called to
lay our lives down in the days ahead. Amen. Rob Bell says love wins. Let me tell you something, yeah, it does. But that love, what was that love? What's John 3:16? I love it. For God so loved the world, that means everyone, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, trusteth relies on, clings to, right now, and continuously, should not perish, but have everlasting life. What's the scripture say? He who has the son has life. He who has not the son has not life. That's the facts. He that professes that he knows Jesus but does not what? Keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Can somebody say amen? And let me say this. We want to talk about those who've never heard about Jesus. Boy, if you have See it See this is Do you see that just the shift in mindset? If you've had the privilege of hearing the gospel one time. Does that not show the mercy and grace of God? Shoo. Right? One time. How many of us heard it multiple times before we before we got our life right? Amen. I'm going to stop. There is a place called hell. And it's a place of torment. A fire that's never quenched and a worm that never dies. And Jesus said the majority of the human race would spend eternity there. That's a sad truth. But that's not because of of the meanness of God. It's because of the choices of every person. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you loved us so much that you became a man and died on that cross. That you shed your sinless blood.
To wash sins away. Lord, we thank you Jesus.