Effect This Should Have on Believers, Part 1

Introduction: The Doctrine of Hell and its Connection to Easter

0:01 This is Easter morning, according to the church calendar, but the fact of the physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is continually asserted from this pulpit as part of the biblical gospel. The Christ preached is always the crucified but now exalted Lord of glory. Because of this, I have felt no particular constraint to bend the regular course of ministry to the man-made church calendar. I do that not to be a non-conformist for non-conformity's sake, but because I do believe that these themes are woven into the fabric of the regular ministry, and for one to simply get up an Easter sermon when some aspect of the resurrection has not gripped the heart of the servant of Christ is to turn preaching into some kind of a mimicry of the biblical standard, and this I do not want to do. And so I am going to continue in the regular course of our studies for the past seven Lord's Day mornings, and this will be the eighth, that subject that has been an awesome one to consider for me as I have prepared, that one that in some measure we have felt has been awesome as we have handled it here in the pulpit and in this assembly of God's people, namely our Lord's teaching on the subject of hell, and if someone is so disappointed

1:29 that they have no Easter point of reference, I would suggest that this is not removed from the message of Easter, for one of the pivotal doctrines of the resurrection, according to Paul in Acts 17.31, is that the resurrection is proof and assurance to all men that there will be a day of judgment and subsequent consignment to bliss or to everlasting perdition, for the apostle Paul says, God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world by that man whom he hath ordained and hath given assurance unto all men in that he raised him from the dead. And so the message of the open tomb is in no little measure related to the theme that we have been studying in these past weeks. What we have done is to collate all of our Lord's teaching on the subject of hell under five main headings, in which the question is answered, what is the future of impenitent sinners? And the answer of the teaching of our Lord, and we have only gone to the other biblical writers to confirm the teaching of Christ, the teaching of our Lord explicitly and implicitly comes under these five headings, and I shall merely give them to you and then move to our study for the morning.

Review of Christ's Teaching on Hell

2:57 Our Lord taught that hell is the future of all men. Our Lord taught that hell is a place and a condition of unspeakable misery, torment and woe. He uses often the figures of outer darkness and of fire, both of which will produce wailing and gnashing of teeth. Secondly, our Lord taught that hell is a place and a condition where soul and body shall suffer for sin.

3:24 It was our Lord who said, fear not those which kill the body. But fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Thirdly, our Lord taught that hell is a place and a condition of divine retribution. He uses the terms, how can you escape the judgment of hell?

3:47 The figure of fire which he often uses is the figure in scripture of the positive infliction of the judgment of God. There is nothing in the teaching of our Lord. You infer in the slightest measure that hell is a place of instruction, a place of trial, a place of sanctification. It is a place of pure, unmixed retribution.

4:12 Hence, John in writing in the Revelation can say that the cup of God's wrath is a cup that is unmixed, undiluted, and it shall be poured upon the head of the wicked. Fourthly, our Lord teaches that hell is a place of trial. It is a place and a condition where there shall be degrees of punishment. It is our Lord who uses the words, it shall be more tolerable for some in the day of judgment than for others.

4:43 And it's our Lord who teaches that the extent to which men abandon themselves to sin, the extent to which they cause others to sin, and the extent to which they abuse light and privilege will be the measure of punishment. Of the extent of their punishment in hell. All will be perfectly miserable, but some will have greater degrees of capacity for misery in the pit of the damned. And then the fifth aspect of our Lord's teaching on this awesome subject is that hell is a place and a condition of conscious and unending suffering.

5:23 It is our Lord who says in Matthew 25, 46, that the righteous shall go away. into everlasting life, but the wicked into everlasting punishment. And he uses exactly the same word to describe the nature and extent of the life of the redeemed as he does to describe the nature and extent of the punishment of the damned. Then we looked at two denials of this fifth aspect of our Lord's teaching, perhaps a teaching more hated with the exception of the doctrine of the absolute sovereign.

5:59 The teaching of God than any other teaching in Holy Scripture. The teaching that hell is a place and a condition of conscious, unending, eternal torment, misery and woe. And you have on the one hand universalism and on the other annihilationism. Two great denials that have plagued the Christian church, but denials which cannot stand before the clear teaching of Holy Scripture.

The Doctrine of Hell as a Motive for Mortification

6:25 Now, this morning, I want you to consider with me. The place which this doctrine should have in our lives, particularly in the matter of our motives as we live as believers, and then a word to those of you who are outside of Jesus Christ. As with all the doctrines of the Bible, this too has its practical bearing. And if we profess to accept the doctrine, we must not be content until the facts have reached out their tentacles and hold us.

6:59 Where we live, where we think, where we act, where we pray, where we play, where we witness, where we seek to live out our lives to the glory of God. And I've been struck in preparing these messages with how often our Lord himself brings this doctrine into focus as a motive for certain aspects of Christian experience. We generally relegate this doctrine as a motivating force. The motivating factor to the lost, and we say, in the light of the coming doom of all who are out of Christ, flee the wrath to come.

7:40 And in conclusion, I will deal with that motive. But may I suggest that the Scripture is far more heavy in its emphasis upon the motivating power of this doctrine to confess disciples than to non-believers? And this comes out very strikingly in the teaching of our Lord Jesus. And so consider now the motivating power of the doctrine of hell in the lives of the children of God.

8:09 And I would suggest in the first place that our Lord teaches that this doctrine should move us to determination and desperation in the duty of mortification. And I'm not multiplying words, I spent a long time trying to reduce that statement, but I've got it to the ear. And so I will give it to you and then explain it. The doctrine of hell, in the area of motivation, should cause every professed disciple of Christ to be in a state of determination and desperation in the duty of mortification.

Understanding Mortification and the Spirit's Role

8:50 Now what is mortification as a duty? It is that process of putting to death the remaining sins in the life of the believer. It's the duty set before us in a passage like Colossians 3.5.

9:05 Put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, etc. The King James has it mortified. Put to death. Now, this is not done by sheer self-effort.

9:24 In the work of mortification, the Holy Spirit is the animating, enabling agent. Romans 8.13 If ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. The believer mortifies.

9:41 It's a conscious activity on his part, but it is by the Spirit. The enabling, quickening agent is the Holy Spirit. But, the Holy Spirit does not work in us automatically. In all the operations of the Spirit in the life of the believer, apart from that initial operation of regeneration in which the sinner is, as far as cooperating with God, he is utterly passive.

10:10 It is God who quickens the dead. Paul says, You hath he quickened, or made alive. But in the subsequent operations of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit does not bypass our faculties as true human beings. Rather, he possesses them and captivates them, and works in them.

10:31 And through them. So that the pattern of the Spirit's working is Philippians 2.13 God worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He doesn't work in us in such a way as to bypass my conscious willing and my conscious doing.

10:49 He works in me in such a way that his working comes to light in my working. So Paul can say, I strive according to his working which worketh in me. Well, who works, Paul? You or the Lord?

11:04 He says, Well, the Lord does and I do. Well, is it you or is it the Lord? It's both of us. Well, that's bragging, isn't it?

11:15 Well, Paul says, Just let me finish. Through Christ who strengthens me. Well, who does it, Paul? Does Christ do it through?

11:21 He said, I didn't say that. So don't you say it. Don't you talk about Christ living through you. That's a terminology not found in Scripture.

11:29 He says, I do it. But it's through Christ who strengthens me from within, who indynamites me. It would be a transliteration of it. Who strengthens me in the inner man.

11:41 But when I've done it, I say, Thank you, Lord. It was your grace and your power. Now, this is true in the realm of mortification. It is by the Spirit that we put to death the doings of the flesh.

11:55 But it's by the Spirit that we put them to death. Paul says to Christians, You mortify the deeds of the body. He doesn't say, Pray that the Holy Spirit will do it. He says, You do it.

12:05 Now, Because we do it. By the energizing grace and power of the Spirit, yes. But because we mortify sin as conscious, volitional creatures, God takes into the scope of His working the whole matter of motives. Now, follow me closely.

Christ's Teaching on Mortification in Mark 9 and Matthew 18

12:25 Motivation is no little part of the Christian life and experience. And if the motives are right and deep, then there is far more chance, but the life will be strict and one that is pleasing to God. Now, will you turn to Mark chapter 9 to see the place that the doctrine of hell has in our Lord's teaching to disciples in this whole matter of mortifying sin.

13:01 Now, to get the context, remember, to whom our Lord is speaking, verse 33 of Mark 9. And they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, he asked, he asked them, that is, the disciples, what were ye reasoning on the way? And they held their peace, for they had disputed one with another who was the greatest. So he's sitting with the twelve, verse 35, and he sat down and called the twelve and said unto them, etc.

13:30 Now, in that context, the Lord is with His disciples. John asks a question, verse 38. John said unto him, Teacher, we saw one casting out demons in thy name, and we forbade, him because he followed not us. But Jesus said, forbid him not, for there's no man who shall do a mighty work in my name and be able to speak evil of me.

13:51 For he that is not against us is for us. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink because you are Christ's, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. And whosoever shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it were better for him that a great millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand, now who is he talking to?

14:15 And if thy hand, he's talking to disciples. Now notice. And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off. It is good for thee, my disciples, to enter into life maimed rather than having thy two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.

14:38 And if thy foot cause thee to stumble, cut it off. It is good for, cause thee to enter into life halt rather than having thy two feet to be cast into hell. And if thine eye cause thee to stumble, cast it out. For it is good for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.

15:07 Do you see the context of our Lord's dealing with the subject of hell? He says to his disciples, Your dealings with sin must be prompt, resolute, and full, or you run the wishing in hell. I suggest that there is nothing so calculated as to put determination and I use the word carefully, determination and desperation into the duty of mortification as the doctrine of hell. If I believe, no matter how strong no matter how strong no matter how strong no matter how strong the power of temptation, no matter how activating the seducements of the world, the flesh of the devil, if I really believe that to gratify that course of passion and sin and wickedness is to run the writhing in hell forever, before me, do you see what abases passions which may rage like a fire?

16:27 I shall only expose myself to the fire of eternal torment for I am not a man. for I am not a man. When a man or woman believes that, it will make him determined and desperate in the duty of mortification.

16:46 But if in your mind you've got any little that sense of damnation, you've left all flesh in the devil to utterly enmesh you and ensnare you in your sin.

17:11 Jesus said that the issue in mortification or indulgence was a matter of rewards and said it was right.

17:27 I may say by way of testimony, there are times when I don't need that motivation. The thought that the sin that passes before my mind is something that opened up the wounds of my Savior is all I need to make me turn away from it in horror. There are other times when the thought of temptation comes and I think, God, how can I? There are too many people who take their bearing spiritually from my life.

17:54 I can't betray my wife, my children, my flock, and all the other circles of influence you've given me. That holds me. But I tell you, dear ones, there are times when those motives don't prevail a bit. And the main thing that worries me is this.

18:10 Shall I run the risk of burning forever? And I'm able, by God's grace, to put off right hands and pluck up. If that motivation doesn't get hold of you, my friend, you'll make poor work in the duty of mortification. Oh, but someone says, are you inferring, pastor, that a true disciple can perish?

18:35 I'm not inferring anything. I'm just telling you what our Lord said.

18:40 And our Lord said, that no one believes more, more firmly than I, that all who are savingly joined to Christ will endure to the end. They cannot give themselves up to a course of perpetual indulgence in sin. 1 John 3, 9. He that is born of God cannot practice sin because his seed remaineth in him.

19:13 But follow me closely now. The fact that it is certain that they will not doesn't make it any the less necessary that they shall not.

19:25 Follow me. The certainty that Jesus, Christ, would die didn't make it any the less necessary that he had to die. Was it certain that Christ would die? Yes or no?

19:37 Sure it was certain. Decreed from eternity. Though it was certain that he must die, did that make any less real the agony and the suffering of Gethsemane where he actually chose death? Did it make any less real the terrors of Golgotha when the heavens were shrouded in blackness and he tasted death?

19:56 I ask you, did the certainty of the event make any less terrible and real the actual working out of the event? Of course not. And my friend, listen. The God who says it is certain that his true disciples shall persevere in holiness and obedience is the God who says persevere in holiness and obedience.

20:19 And mortification, the putting to death of sin, is one of the aspects of that working out of God's purpose and the doctrine of hell. Holds no little place in the motivation.

20:35 You find this again in the 18th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Let's look at it for just a moment. This is not isolated to the incident here in Mark. But we find in Matthew 18.

20:48 Again, the context is his disciples. Verse 1. In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And he called unto him a little child and said, Let them in the midst of them and said, speaking to his disciples.

21:06 Now, verse 7. Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling. It must needs be that occasions come but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh. And if thy hand or thy foot causes thee to stumble, cut it off and cast it from thee, for it's good for thee to enter into life maimed or halt rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into thee, eternal fire.

21:33 And if thine eye causes thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from thee. What is that? That's dealing in this area of mortification with determination and desperation, striking to the root of sin, not dallying with it, not playing with it, not courting it, but striking a death blow to it.

21:57 What are we to conclude from these words of our Lord? I believe we're warranted in concluding that the doctrine of hell should be a great, great factor of motivation in the life of the believer as he faces the duty of mortification.

Paul's Example and Encouragement for Mortification

22:13 I believe this is exactly what the Apostle Paul was talking about when he said in 1 Corinthians 9, and so we turn to him for a confirmation of the teaching of our Lord, for an illustration of it.

22:29 He's giving the illustration from the Greek games, and he says in those games one man out of the whole crowd that enters the race gains the prize, but he said in the Christian race everyone should run as though only one will gain, for each one must gain the prize individually. And so he says by way of application to himself, verse 26, I therefore so run not as uncertainly, so fight I as not beating the air, but I buffet my body, and I don't believe he's speaking literally, he uses a strong word here, I bruise myself, I beat myself till black and blue. He's talking about a man who is determined and desperate in bringing himself into subjection, and bring it into subjection. Why? Lest by any means after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected, and he uses the Greek word abdakimos, used eight times in the New Testament, and every time it means reprobate, cast off, as one unworthy of the presence of God. The idea that he's meaning here I'll just be put on a shelf is something read into the Scriptures.

23:47 It is not something deduced from the language of Holy Scripture. Paul is saying, if I turn aside from this race, even though it means extreme self-discipline to the bruising of my body, to turn aside and to give reign to my passions and lust and to my flesh, is to be abdakimos. I dare not. The issue with him was life and death.

24:14 Life and death.

24:16 Oh, I say to any of you who are toying with sin, and yet professing to be the children of God, you need to meditate long upon this biblical doctrine that the course of perpetually indulged sin is the course that leads to destruction and to destruction alone. I speak to some of you who are weary. This matter of mortification, is the thing that you know something about by experience. You know what it is to wrestle with indwelling sin.

24:47 And there are times when you feel what in the world is the use. May I remind you of the words of Hebrews 12, For ye have not resisted unto blood striving against sin. Has the wrestling ever been so real that blood has been shed?

25:07 Then weary pilgrim, wrestle on. It won't be long before the struggle will be over. Before the Lord will call you through the portals of death or at his glorious second advent and the struggle will be done forever. No more remaining corruption.

25:27 We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. And dear child of God, when you grow weary and the tempter comes and says, what's the use? Look at all the battling. Look at all the striving.

25:37 Look at all the wrestlings. Look at all the falls. Look at all the wounds you've borne. Why not just quit?

25:43 You say, I cannot. To quit and to go back as Bunyan's Christian again and again when he was tempted to do. He says, to go back is to do what? Is to go back to destruction.

25:54 And so when he faces hill difficulty, he says, I don't know what I'm going to face there. It doesn't look too good. But I don't care because I know the only thing back there is hell. So I'd rather go on up the hill difficulty.

26:04 So up he went. Up he went. Ah, dear weary pilgrim, wrestler on the way to heaven, remember when tempted to turn back, to turn back is to go back to destruction. If I'm speaking to some who may be relatively free at this moment from any conscious wrestling with indwelling sin and areas of defect in your character that cause you to groan before God, may I remind you again as Bunyan has it so beautifully in his Immortal Pilgrim's Progress when he's in the house of the interpreter and at that point everything is wonderful.

26:44 Because he's learning all these lessons and he's just about to go you remember and the interpreter says I want to show you one more thing. One more thing. And he takes him to the man in the iron cage and he shows him that and he says how did he get to this place? He said I once was a fair and flourishing professor but I laid my reins upon the neck of lust and I gave up to watch and to pray and this is where I am.

27:06 But then he goes on to say now I have one more thing. He says it twice and he takes him to the man who had a dream and you remember what his dream was about? The day of judgment had come and he was unprepared to meet that day and to hear the sentence depart from me and then the interpreter says to Christian and I'm paraphrasing now because I left my book in the little room in there I brought it in my briefcase but I didn't bring it to the pulpit. He says in essence these words let these thoughts be as golds as you make your way to the celestial city.

27:41 Bunyan captured this biblical principle that one of the great motivating factors motivating factors in the life of the child of God to produce determination and desperation in the duty of mortification is the realization of this doctrine kept fresh in the mind by the power of the Holy Spirit. I am not saying this is the sum and substance of the motivation. There are many other motives that enter and there are times as I indicated earlier when the only motive that is needed is sheer love to the Son of God. But you know and I know there are times when His face is clouded and you are enjoying very little conscious fellowship with the Lord Jesus.

28:23 True?

28:25 When the thought of pleasing Him or displeasing Him is a pretty distant motivating factor isn't it? My friend it's times like this that you need to have this doctrine firmly fixed in the heart or God knows where you'll be.

The Doctrine of Hell as a Motive for Unflinching Stability in Persecution

28:43 I'll have time to only touch the second and that's only the first third of the sermon. I don't know what I was thinking.

28:52 This doctrine is calculated by our Lord to produce unflinching stability in the face of persecution. Again two passages of scripture parallel passages Luke chapter 12 Luke chapter 12 and here again there's no question that our Lord is referring this doctrine to His own for He calls them His friends. Notice carefully the wording of verse 4 of Luke 12 and I say unto you my friends be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him are not five sparrows sold for two pence and not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God but the very hairs of your head are all numbered fear not you're of more value than many sparrows and I say unto you every one who shall confess me before men him shall the son of man confess before the angels of God but he that denieth me in the presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God and in the parallel passage in Matthew 10 our Lord is speaking of the same problem of the opposition which His own

30:21 will face in the midst of the world He begins in verse 24 of Matthew 10 by saying a disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his Lord it is enough for the disciple that he be as his teacher and the servant as his Lord if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more of them of his household fear them not therefore for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known what I tell you in darkness speak in the light and what you hear in the ear proclaim upon the housetops and be not afraid of them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul but fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them shall fall then down to verse 32 everyone who shall confess me before men him will I confess before my father verse 34 think not that I came to send peace I came to send a sword he that loves his life more than father loves his life is not worthy of me he that loves father mother etc. do you see what the whole context is it's the context of the opposition that will come to the people of God who dare to identify themselves with the son of God just as the people of God have a common savior a common faith a common destiny so also do they have a common opposition all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution

31:50 granted in different periods of the history of the church in different places of the world there will be different forms degrees of the church degrees of the church degrees of intensity but the mark of the people of God among other things is the opposition of the world now in the midst of that opposition what should motivate God's people to unflinching stability even in the face of physical death well the fact of our Lord's intercession should enter in I pray for them that thou will keep them the fact of the brevity of the pain Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 17 our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory granted those should be motives but according to our Lord this doctrine of hell should be a very stabilizing factor in the face of persecution to deny my Lord under the pressure of opposition is to have him deny me in the day when I need him most when do you need your Lord most in that day my friend when you face the God before whom everything is naked and open if you cannot have the Lord Jesus to be your advocate in that day to plead your cause and to say enter thou into this kingdom prepared for you from the foundation

33:19 of the world life has been vain and eternity will be one unceasing horror our Lord says those who deny him here under the pressure of opposition he will deny there not the denial of the weakness of a moment as we find in Peter who later in the face of that same opposition confesses his Lord and is willing to go off to prison and to death if necessary not the denial of a moment but that resolute denial of the heart that is a reversed confession of Christ I don't know what else to call it let me explain what I mean Romans 10 9 and 10 says that true faith in the heart will always give birth to confession of the lips if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved so likewise there is a repudiation of Christ from the heart that expresses itself in the mouth that is a deep and final repudiation of Christ it's that denial that our Lord speaks of in this passage and he says whoever denies him here will be denied then well what should keep us then all these other motives I've mentioned yes but our Lord puts this one central as the pressure mounts and I believe we see the mounting of it here in western civilization in our own day and I believe it's going to get

34:47 more intense and more clear and more open as the pressure mounts what is the thing that makes us flinch in the face of persecution well isn't it this that we all shrink from pain physical or emotional isn't that what puts the rub in opposition we don't like pain when people threaten us with a rack the thought of being put upon a rack and stretched the thought of being starved the thought of being beaten we don't like this and there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing sinful in the aversion to pain that's just human it's not sinful you'd be less than a true human being if you didn't shrink from the thought of pain the thought of physical pain the thought of emotional pain the thought of having your wife or children taken from you and brutally treated before your very eyes this thought is a terrible thing to us if we're human beings the thought of pain and aversion to pain is a very normal natural and it's not at all a God displeasing thing God made us that way but and here's the crux of the issue if the fear of that temporal physical pain if the aversion to that temporal anguish of heart should lead us to repudiate Christ and our attachment to him which has brought the pain upon us or which is about to bring the anguish upon us listen

36:16 to avoid that temporal pain and anguish at the price of denying Christ is to leap into the pain and anguish of eternal torment that's what our Lord's saying don't be afraid of those that kill the body does he mean that? absolutely that if someone came in here this morning and pointed a gun at me and said preacher you deny Christ or I'll shoot you that I should just smile at him and look like I'm going to a picnic no our Lord's using a figure of speech he says don't let your real dread be physical death oh sure you'll have some of that you're human beings I know that I made you that way but never let your true dread be what man can do to the body let your dread ever be of that God who if you deny him has the authority not just to put you upon the rack or at the firing pillar but he has the power to cast your soul and body into hell I was just reading re-reading last night or early this morning John Hooper one of the English martyrs and it was he who when faced with the pleas of a man who had been converted by his severe and faithful rebukes in early life

37:43 now coming to him the thought of his spiritual father dying and going to the stake was more than he could bear and he pled with him to exercise a little expediency and to back down from his confession when he said to him ah but Mr. Hooper life is sweet death is bitter Hooper's famous reply was ah yes but eternal life is sweeter and eternal death more bitter

38:15 what kept him there's the thing that kept him that's what kept him you tell me to avoid the pain of the stake in the fragments no no not at the price of going into the pains of hell that's the teaching of our Lord and oh my dear fellow believers if I rightly perceive what we see in our own day where there shall be increasing and open opposition to the truth we better have our spirits marinated in this biblical doctrine so if the hour comes we shall not we shall not deny our Lord we shall count no physical pain or suffering in any measure to be equated with that awful eternal pain and suffering that comes to those who repudiate their Lord again someone says are you teaching that a true Christian can be saved no I'm not teaching that at all I don't believe the Bible teaches it I believe the Bible teaches all whom he justifies who glorifies but he doesn't do it up here in the realm of the fairy tale it's down here on earth where there's suffering and opposition and persecution that he brings his people through and purifies them as gold is tried in the fire and then lands them in his presence made like unto his own beloved son

Application to Young People and Adults

39:43 and in that process down here he uses motives to keep them as the old bishop was kept ah yes death was bitter death was bitter but eternal life more bitter to the stake to the stake and they took him and they took him while he beat his burning arm upon his breast crying Lord Jesus have mercy upon me until the arm dropped and he breathed his last his words have come down and given strength to the people of God eternal life more sweet eternal death more bitter may I say by way of application in closing a word to you young people and then a word to the adults some of you have begun to perhaps hesitantly but with some sense of God's grace and mercy to you you've begun to openly confess the Savior and you've already found oh how hard it is to be different to make any kind of a consistent confession of Christ in your generation and in mine it means you've got to be different even in your dress when the standards of society become such that they violate the moral principles of the word of God a Christian's even got to be different in his dress when the Bible says that my dress is to be such as becomes as befits someone professing godliness when styles are dictated

41:10 by those whose minds and hearts are steeped in anti-God and anti-biblical standards some of you girls have found this more so perhaps than the fellas you find that the music you listen to your attitude to your parents your whole attitude to work to school work to cheating not cheating every way you turn it seems you've got to be different doesn't it huh you've got to be different anybody here likes being different anybody people that like to be different for the sake of just being like they have problems they need professional help and yet that's what the Lord calls you to he calls you to a life of adherence to his principles and to his ways in every strata of society in every area of life so that the issue with you is not what is the Christ saying is right or the in thing what does my Lord tell me and once I know what he tells me I go straight on if they snicker too bad if they clap not going to affect me their smiles or their frowns don't alter my course my course is dictated by the word of God I don't have one ear to my friends and another ear to Christ and try to find a middle point no no my sheep hear my voice with both ears

42:38 and I don't have one ear to my friends and I don't have one ear to my friends and I say lovingly because I know something of the struggle that you young people face remember God saved me as a senior in high school I'm not talking from theory I didn't like to be different oh I hated to be different but oh how wonderful to be set free from jumping every time the crowd frowns to be set free to be God's man God's woman to do his will I plead with you young people as you weigh these issues remember there's a God to whom you're accountable the God who can destroy both soul and body and hell and if the thing that is keeping you from a full and unfettered abandonment to Christ is the frowns and the smiles of the crowd may God help you to look up beyond them and see the great God whose smile alone matters and whose frown is dreadful I say a word to you adults it's come such in our society now that there's very little common grace opportunity at our place of business there is an increasing hostility to every principle of Christian morality and ethics at work at home in every single aspect of our life the anti-God philosophy is increasing

44:07 in its boldness and to confess Christ may very well mean for some of you the loss of your job for to confess Christ means that if the boss insists you be dishonest you say I cannot be if he says you must be then you're willing to get your pink slip and take your walk it's come to that in our society where there are very few places now where the man who's going to operate in his place of employment on strict scriptural principles is really wanted anymore confess Christ may mean lose your job may mean you'll lose your security it may mean you'll lose a lot of things well it's confessing him or denying him and you can deny him subtly by compromise here and compromise there and compromise in the other place isn't it wonderful that the very context in which our Lord warns about this denial he reminds us of the father's concern he says the hairs on your head are numbered and with some of you that means God's got to do new arithmetic every day the hairs on your head are numbered he talks about the sparrows he's encouraging you to confess him no matter what bitterness it may seem to bring the loving father is there to care for his own some of the most precious stories of the miraculous provision of God for his people have come out of the periods of the most intense persecution when God's people have risked life and limb

45:36 for the sake of confessing the Savior isn't this true maybe God's going to write some more chapters in that history in our own generation I submit that these are two only two I had three more that I wanted to cover this morning we'll have to leave them for next week God willing of the motivating power of the doctrine of hell in the life of God of the life of God in the life of the believer it should be that which along with other things creates in him determination and desperation in the duty of mortification sin must be destroyed or it will destroy me it's just that simple and secondly stability unflinching stability in the face of persecution and opposition men may destroy the body they cannot destroy the soul so if in the course of confessing him they destroy my body it shall only be to release me to wake up and look upon the face of Jesus but to deny him is to have both soul and body experience the anguish and the pains of hell and if you're here this morning a stranger to God's grace what I wanted to say but couldn't get to is that this doctrine should be the motivating power to get you into the way of seeking God's mercy and grace and keep you in that way against every difficulty until you know that your sins are forgiven that you've been thoroughly and genuinely converted

47:05 and that you are savingly joined to Jesus Christ let us pray