I mean, like, it's pretty comforting just to think, like, well, let's say there's a
doctrine that just said everybody goes to heaven.
Everybody goes to heaven.
You know, you see these comics every once in a while, and they show, like, you know,
Prince died or something, and he's going to heaven, and Michael Jackson's there to greet
him, and Martin Luther King Jr. is there to greet him.
And it's like, you know, and then like, it's like Jimi Hendrix is there, and Jim Morrison
from the Doors is there.
It's just like all the singers, Elvis Presley's there, you know, and it's just, it's like,
you know, they're all getting there.
It's all these celebrities.
Robin Williams is just ready to receive him with open arms.
Who's seen comics like that and things like, when a celebrity dies, it shows them dying,
and then it shows all of these other, you know, just wicked celebrities from the past
that did not even necessarily profess faith.
You know, Elvis might be there, okay, you know, he, I've heard people say that he claimed
to be saved and everything.
Who knows?
But the point is, you know, a lot of these people are avowed atheists or they're Jews
or whatever, the pagan, unsaved, you know, and it's just this attitude that just says,
well, they're all in heaven.
They're all looking down on us and, you know, it doesn't matter that they didn't believe
that Jesus is the son of God, you know, God just loves everybody.
Everybody goes to heaven.
But you know what?
We just read it this morning in the scripture reading before the sermon, John 14, "I am
the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me."
Nobody.
It doesn't matter if it's, well, Gandhi.
You know, he gets a pass and Gandhi's like, you know, "Oh, welcome, artist formerly known
as Prince.
I'm so glad to see you now that you've died to be," you know.
It's like, no.
Now, Gandhi and Prince are both in the same place.
One of them's a Hindu, one of them's a Jehovah's Witness, and they're both in the same place.
Okay?
You know?
You know, the most famous Jehovah's Witness is Prince, okay?
I can't even name another Jehovah's Witness.
It's the only one I know of.
But the point is that, you know, I can see why, though, people would want to believe that.
You know, I mean, me in my flesh, in my own human understanding, you know, I would like
that.
I would like it if everybody goes to heaven.
I would say, okay, yeah, I'm okay with that.
I'm going to heaven, and so is everyone else.
Sounds great.
Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
I mean, does anybody just hate that?
Well, you know, I'm just thinking like, man, if everybody's going to heaven, sounds great.
But it's a lie, because everyone's not going to heaven, because you have to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, and if you don't believe on Jesus, the wrath of God
is abiding on you.
That's what the Bible says.
Now, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
You know what it means when it says he loved the world?
That's saying that he loved everybody in the world.
Everybody.
A lot of people say, "Well, he only loved the elect."
You know, "He only loved the people that are going to get saved."
But here's the thing about that.
No, because it says he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that
whosoever believeth in him, which is a subset.
Does everybody see that?
Two different groups here.
There's the world and then there's whosoever believeth.
Which one did he love?
The world.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believeth in
him would not perish but have everlasting life.
Does everybody see how that works?
I'm updating the language into our monovirnacular, sorry Patrick Boyle.
But anyway, the point is, you know, when the Bible says that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life, the word should there, that's a little bit
archaic because in our monovirnacular we would say he did that so that whosoever believeth
in him would not perish but have everlasting life.
That's the meaning.
That's what should meant 400 years ago, okay?
And we still get that thought just from hearing it in English.
It's the most beautiful, famous verse in the entire Bible, the most beloved verse of all
time, John 3.16.
We go out so many, we knock on people's doors, they can practically finish it for us.
You know, we start to give it to them and they finish it for us and then we ask them,
what do you have to do to be saved?
Oh, live a good life, go to church.
You just recited it.
How can you recite that verse and then tell me that salvation is because you have quit
sinning and you're living a good life now?
I'll tell you why.
Because it takes the Holy Spirit's guidance for the Word of God to actually sink in and
to actually understand God's Word.
It takes the Holy Spirit to do that.
That's why.
They can just recite that to you, oh yeah, I know.
And then their belief is literally the opposite.