SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/12/2022 10:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Peril”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
13:50
Message of the verse: “50 and will cast
them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
We
continue to talk about hell, something that I would rather not do, but because
our Lord spoke more about hell then I have to talk about it too, knowing that
there will probably be people going there that I know or have known. John MacArthur writes “First, hell is a place
of constant torment, misery, pain. The
torment is often described as darkness (Matt. 22:13), where no light can
penetrate, and nothing can be seen. Throughout
the numberless eons of eternity, the damned will never again see light or
anything that light illumines. Hell’s torment
is also described as fire that will never go out and cannot be extinguished
(Mark 9:43) and from which the damned will never find relief. Hell could not be other than a place where there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
One thing that I have to say here is that I don’t believe that I have
ever known this and that is darkness will be in hell.
Here
is the second thing about hell as it will involve the torment of both body and
soul, for neither the soul nor the body is annihilated at death; nor will they
ever be. Now once again as mentioned
before I believe that when an unsaved person dies that his or her body goes out
from the presence of God and will go into everlasting torment, but not into
hell at this time as that will not happen until after the Great White Throne
Judgment spoken of in Revelation 20:11-15.
At that time all unbelievers will receive a new body that is fitted for
hell and for the torment that will happen there.
“Third,
the torments of hell will be experienced in varying degrees. For everyone in hell, the suffering will be
intense and permanent, but some will experience greater torment than
others. ‘Anyone who has set aside the
Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses,’
says the writer of Hebrews. ‘How much
severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the
Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he
was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?’ (Heb. 10:28-29). Those who willfully reject Jesus Christ and
trample, as it were, on the sacrifice He made for them with His own blood will
receive much greater punishment than those who had only the light of the old
covenant. An on the day of judgment it
will be more tolerable for the pagan cities of Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom than for
the Jewish cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum—who not only had the
light of the old covenant but the opportunity to see and hear the Son of God in
person and to witness His miraculous works (Matt. 11:22-23).” (MacArthur)
Here
is an example of what was just written which comes from a parable in Luke’s
gospel 12:47-48. “47 "And that
slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with
his will, will receive many lashes, 48 but the one who did not know it, and
committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who
has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of
him they will ask all the more.” Now
needless to say that this is not all of the parable, but just the part that is
needed to help explain different degrees of punishment.
John
Gerstner writes “Hell will have such severe degrees that a sinner, were he
able, would give the whole world if his sins could be one less.”
I
will continue quoting John MacArthur for this fourth point which will end this
section on hell, which I will be happy to stop writing about for now.
“Fourth,
the torment of hell will be everlasting.
Nothing will be so horrible about hell as its endlessness. Jesus uses the same word to describe the
duration of hell as the duration of heaven:
“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into
eternal life’ (Matt. 25:46). People in
hell will experience the total absence of hope.
“Although
God originally designed hell for the devil and his fallen angels, men who
choose to follow Satan’s way instead of God’s will also suffer Satan’s fate.
The
great Puritan writer and preacher John Bunyan describes hell with his customary
vivid imagery:
[In hell] thou shalt have
not but a company of damned souls with and innumerable company of devils to
keep company with thee. While thou art
in this world, the very thought of the devil’s appearing to thee makes thy
flesh to tremble and thine hair ready to stand upright on thy head. But oh, what wilt thou do when not only the
supposition of the devil’s appearing from the real society of all the devils of
hell will be with thee—howling, roaring and screeching in such a hideous manner
that thou wilt be even at thy wit’s end and ready to run stark mad again for
anguish and torment. If after ten
thousand years, and end should come, there would be comfort. But here is the misery: here thou must be forever. When thou hast
been in hell so many thousand years as there are stars in the firmament or
drops in the sea or sands on the seashore, yet thou has to lie there
forever. Oh, this one word—ever—how will
it torment thy soul. (New Cyclopedia of Prose Illustrations, ed.
Elon Foster [New York: T. Y. Crowell 1877], p. 450)
Spiritual meaning for my life today:
Knowing that I was born in sin, and am a sinner, and do sin, but knowing
that Jesus Christ called me by grace unto Himself to save me, makes me so very
thankful after taking these last three days looking at hell and what it will be
right. I know that I deserve to go there
but I also know that because of what Christ did for me on the cross that I will
forever live with Him and serve Him in heaven.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To live for Christ while here on earth, and
to serve Him here doing what He has called me to do.
5/12/2022 10:56 AM
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