Okay, question three.
What about people who have never heard the gospel
or people in the Old Testament?
Will God send them to hell or hold them accountable
for what they don't know?
No, I don't believe they will.
Now, this is an important question.
There are many people who never heard the gospel.
And so, you know, people of all ages,
people obviously of the Old Testament,
there was no gospel.
In the Old Testament, I want to say my basic answer is,
can a person go to heaven?
Okay, I've got two parts of this now.
I want you to hear both of them.
Can a person go to heaven without hearing the gospel?
I mean, if they never heard the gospel,
can they go to heaven?
It's a qualified yes.
I'll finish this in just a minute.
So here's another thing.
Why should we preach the gospel
if a person can get to heaven without God?
It says that God prepared hell
for the devil and his angels.
And people who rebel against him will go there
only because they've formed an alliance
with the devil against God.
And we'll read the scripture here in just a second.
Who will be spending their eternity in hell?
We'll look down in Revelation 21 verse 8.
The Bible reads, "But the fearful and unbelieving,"
of course the unbeliever will spend eternity in hell.
It says, "And the abominable and murderers
and foremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars."
Well, that covers everybody.
"And all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,"
which is the second death.
Only two choices, heaven or hell.
God, we choose God, and heaven is where God is,
and hell is where God isn't.
And you can't make another choice.
There aren't three or four choices,
and you can't reject him and go to a good place.
Hell is not separation from God.
Now, a lot of people today, in their effort to tone down
and water down this doctrine of hell,
have tried to substitute the fires of hell by saying,
"Well, hell is actually just being separated from God."
That's all it is.
Well, turn, if you would, to Revelation chapter 14.
Go to Revelation chapter 14.
Not only is hell a place of literal fire,
hell is a place where people will not be separated from God.
Oh no, it's quite the opposite.
They will be in the presence of God.
Look, if you would, at Revelation chapter 14, verse 10.
The Bible reads, "The same shall drink
of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture
into the cup of his indignation.
And he shall be tormented," which means torture.
"He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels."
And in the presence of who?
The Lamb.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
which takes away the sin of the world.
The Bible says that they'll be tormented
with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels
and in the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever.
And they have no rest, day nor night,
who worship the beast in his image
and whosoever received it, the mark of his name.
The Bible is clear.
They'll be in the presence of God
and the Bible says in Psalm 139, eight,
if I ascend up into heaven, thou art there.
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Whither shall I flee from my presence?
God is everywhere.
The Bible teaches that God's on my presence.
He's present in heaven.
He's present in hell.
He's present anywhere you go on the earth.
You cannot escape from God.
And the Bible's clear that the torment in hell
is in the presence of the lamb.
So when I say heaven, a person going to heaven,
there's the heaven, which is the New Jerusalem, which
is the very presence of God that the church lives in.
And then there is the recreated earth,
where people go who don't go to hell.
And there are people who've never heard the gospel.
And I'm saying, it would be unfair for God
to hold them accountable for something they never heard.
There's only two choices, heaven or hell.
You can't make another choice.
There aren't three or four choices.
And you can't reject him and go to a good place.
The doctrine of hell is under attack today.
There are a lot of people who don't believe in it.
And increasingly, this doctrine is being questioned.
And a big reason why is that new modern Bible versions are slowly eradicating hell from
their Bible or removing this doctrine or changing this doctrine.
There's no question to a Bible believing Christian with a King James Bible, what hell is.
It's not a questionable doctrine.
But to those who are unbelieving, who don't have faith in the perfection and inerrancy
of God's word, this doctrine is up for grabs.
Now, I want to focus today on the Old Testament scriptures on hell for the simple reason that
the modern Bible versions, whether it be the ESV or the NIV or whatever the Bible of the
Month Club is signed up for this month, they completely remove the word hell every single
time it occurs in the Old Testament.
Did you know that?
If you have an NIV, the word hell doesn't even occur once in the whole Old Testament.
If you have an ESV, it doesn't even occur one time.
God has testified to every person in the history of the world that He is real.
He has testified to every person of His nature.
But there are people who have chosen not to retain God in their knowledge and reject Him,
and those people will go to hell.
But there are other people who have seen the same thing and lived the best they could according
to what they had.
They're not the bride of Christ, they will not live in the presence of God, but they
also won't go to hell, they'll come to a recreated earth.
Watch this now, and there shall in no wise, what's that mean, in no way, there shall in
no wise enter into anything that defile it.
Neither whatsoever worketh abomination, watch this, or make it a lie.
How many lies?
A lie.
I've heard people say, when I showed them that verse that said all liars are going to
hell, they said, well that's talking about a habitual liar, that's talking about somebody
who lies all the time.
I've been telling you, there are people who are saved who lie all the time.
I've known them.
I can tell you about them.
But he says you're no, even a person who makes a lie.
They said, why are the dead in Christ raised first since they're already in heaven?
So people like my dad, my dad died of cancer and he was 80 years old and we buried him
and so we buried my dad and so he's in heaven, I know my dad's in heaven, listen, every
time, my parents went to church here for years and every time we gave an altar call my dad
raised his hand.
I know my dad's saying, okay, I know my dad's saying, so only the church lives in the presence
of God forever, only the church.
So pray for God, pray for God, pray for God, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray,
just keep repeating that over and over, it's not biblical.
So let me go back 3,000 years, let me go back 3,000 years to jungles of South America and
let's say that there was a woman in the jungles of South America 3,000 years ago, obviously
didn't hear the gospel, there was no gospel, she saw the creation and she believed in God
based on that and she was a precious woman. She was a moral person, she was a giving person,
she was a forgiving person, she helped people, she was kind and gracious and based on what
she knew she did everything she could to live for God and so she died. And at the very end
of the millennium there's the great white throne judgment where she'll be resurrected
and she'll be judged according to what she's done. So she's brought before God. And let's
just say that woman who did everything she could to live right and to live morally based
on what she knew, would God send her to hell? I don't believe so. Will she come into the
new Jerusalem to live in the presence of God? No. No one comes to the Father but through
Jesus. So where will that woman spend eternity? So there's only two choices, heaven or hell.
You can't make another choice. There aren't three or four choices. And you can't reject
him and go to a good place. Now I'm not going to get dogmatic about this because I don't
know this is true. Then sit down and shut up and let's get a real man of God in the
pulpit who doesn't preach what he likes. He preaches what the Bible says, not what he
likes or what people like. Okay. It's my belief that those who are not Christians in a part
of the body of Christ, God will put them somewhere on the recreated earth so they can live, but
they don't have a perfect body like ours because they still have to be healed. The leaves of
the trees in the new Jerusalem are for the healing of the nations. Now these people never
die, but they evidently don't have the same supranatural bodies that we do. Let me say
this another way, it's really worth it to live for Jesus. You know that? So with every
head bowed, I just want to ask you, have you made Jesus the Lord of your life? Do you know
where you would go if you were to die today? Do you know where your eternity is? Because
it's the easiest thing to make that secure. It says in the Bible, the Apostle Paul says
very clearly that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, that means we surrender
to him. We make a confession. When you surrender, he takes it all away. The alcoholism, the
drug abuse, the abusive behavior, there's nothing that can stop you from entering into
God's kingdom. So I want to ask with every head bowed, every eye closed, that if that's
you, if you would come this morning and you would say, "I want to make sure that I have
surrendered my life. I want to make Jesus the Lord of my life." Will you just raise
your hand up real high? Make it proud. Real, real high. Raise it up. I surrender to you
this morning, Jesus. I make you the Lord of my life. I turn it over to you. And you know
what? I can stand here tonight and be humble and say, "My salvation has nothing to do with
any of my righteousness, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ." The righteous which is of God's faith and I am
not having anything to boast of tonight. Nothing. I'm not going to boast to you tonight about
how I gave up this and I quit this and I joined. No! It's all through Jesus, He gets all the
glory. I am nothing. I have nothing. Oh, I gave my life to Christ. No, He gave His life
for us. You got that backwards. I didn't give Him anything. I have nothing to give. You
can't come to Christ. Oh, if you give your life to Christ, you'll be saved. He gave
His life for you. Your life's not worth enough to get you in the door. And if you won't do
business with me because I speak in tongues, I say, Shandamo, goodness gracious, bye bye,
bye bye. What do you think about that, Dad? Bye bye. Get on down with your bad self. That's
not grace. You understand what I'm saying? So God says, if it's of works, if He has to
lift one finger for me in order to get that gift, it's no longer faith, grace, it's works.
And by the works of the law, shall no flesh be justified in His sight. So number one,
we saw the unbeliever will go to hell. Number two, the person who is trusting faith plus
works is on their way to hell tonight. I'm going to prove it to you again during the
relations chapter five. The person who's trusting faith plus works will split hell wide open.
Picture this. There's an airplane in an airport. The airplane is Jesus. Okay, this is an illustration,
a parable that I'm telling you. The airplane is Jesus. The destination is heaven. You get
on that plane, it's headed for heaven. What happens if you put one leg on the plane and
one leg on the tarmac? What happens when that plane takes off? You're not going anywhere.
You're going to split your britches. You're going to land flat on your face on that tarmac.
You're not going anywhere unless you get all the way on board. And it's just like when
Noah got on the ark. God shut him in. God shut the door behind him. You got to get on
board. Shut the door. You're in. You can't get out. You're on your way to heaven. That's
what salvation is. And here's the thing. A lot of people are trusting in works to get
them to heaven, aren't they? The Bible says, "For by grace are you saved through faith."
And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. So a lot of people are trusting their works to get them to heaven. But the sad thing
is that anyone who's trusting their works, the Bible's clear. They'll be judged by their
works. Do you want to trust in your works to get you to heaven? Someday you'll stand
before God. He'll open the books. He'll open the Bible. He'll judge you according to your
works. And let me tell you something. It isn't going to be good. You thought your good works
were going to get you to heaven? And he said, "Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy
name done many wonderful.' And the word echoes throughout eternity. And then will I profess
unto them, 'I never knew you apart from me, the workers of iniquity.'