Revelation 20:11-15 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Continuing this word study of darkness from a biblical perspective, the fifth definition of the English word “darkness” is: 5. Infernal gloom; hell; as utter darkness. (eternal damnation as the wages of sin and unbelief). French Theologian Blaise Pascal points out that we do not grasp the reality of just how great the “Fall of Man” was from original sin in the Garden of Eden. Jesus, the Savior of the world (John 14-17), tells us in John 3:18-19, 36 that “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.” In Matthew 10:28, Jesus explains, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in
hell”, meaning Hell is the natural outcome of our choice to sin and salvation is actually from the rightful wrath of God against our sin thought belief in Christ, our Savior.
Psalm 107:13-15 “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!”
In Matthew 8, 22, and 25, Jesus speaks three times to us about the kingdom of Heaven, and in each teaching, He tells us that the unprofitable servant is cast into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Matthew 5 and Mark 9, Jesus speaks to us about doing whatever it takes to not be cast into Hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched. My old mentor always said that you must know what you have been “saved from” before you can truly understand and appreciate what you being “saved to” – because of sin in our life, the default is Hell. Ephesians 2:1 says, “you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins”, making it clear that by our sins, we are already dead and need a Savior; destined for the darkness of Hell and need to be made alive by Christ. In God’s sovereign plan of Salvation, sin and unbelief leads to no repentance, no forgiveness, no redemption, no reconciliation, no regeneration, no life and no Heaven; just death, outer darkness, separation and perish in eternal damnation in Hell.
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Our sinful fallen flesh nature, the God-rejecting world, and the deceiving devil would have you believe that Hell is a party place, but that is a deadly lie. American Theologian Jonathon Edwards wrote: Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God’s restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of His providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God’s hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to His power and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell. If you are offended, it may be about you.
Matthew 22:14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The Lord Jesus proclaims in Matthew 7:13-14. “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it, [most don’t]. Jesus explains clearly in John 10:1-10, that He is that narrow gate, the door out of the darkness of Hell and into the light of Heaven. Romans 6:22-23 confirms to the Believer, “But now since you have been set free from sin and have become [willing] slaves to God, you have your benefit, resulting in sanctification [being made holy and set apart for God’s purpose], and the outcome [of this] is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God [that is, His remarkable, overwhelming gift of grace to believers] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let's consume this biblical word study on "darkness" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment