Believe It or Not! - Part B

He's saying, let's play this way out into the future. Here's the consequence of faith. It's called everlasting life. Here's the consequence of unbelief, not everlasting life, judgment. You say, yeah, but Skip, he just said he didn't come to judge. You're right. The first time Jesus came to this earth, he came to die on a cross, not as a judge, but as a savior. But I got to tell you something.

The second time Jesus comes, he is definitely coming as a judge. Welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. People love shortcuts. We all want a faster, better way to get from point A to point B.

And with GPS and mobile apps like Google Maps, shortcuts are available to all of us, except for when they don't work out like we planned and we end up lost looking for a local to help us out. You know, getting to heaven is pretty simple. There's one way and a local came to earth to give us directions, and his directions are absolutely correct. Let's find out more about that as we dig into the conclusion of this message, believe it or not. But first, let's see what's going on in the Connect with Skip Resource Center this month. Israel at War.

That's the title of a new book by Skip Heintzing. Modern Israel has been at war from its very first day of existence, as Skip points out. On the day after Israel became a nation, that was May 14th, 1948. On May 15th, virtually every Arab neighbor attacked Israel to destroy it.

Israel had been a nation one day, they didn't have an organized army. Israel at War is up to date concerning current events in the Mideast and includes Skip's comments during his December tour of the Gaza border and a video link to Skip's interview in Jerusalem. The new book Israel at War is our gift to you this month to anyone who encourages the growth of Connect with Skip with a gift of $50 or more.

Make your financial vote of support at connectwithskip.com or by calling 1-800-922-1888. Israel at War will give you Skip's insight from over 40 trips to Israel and decades of Bible study. I know the Middle East seems like a very complex situation.

It's actually pretty basic. One side wants the other side dead. On one side you have a Jewish nation, a Jewish state called modern day Israel. Israel wishes to exist as a sovereign state living in peace. Most Palestinians and other Arab nations, not all but many of them, deny the right of Israel to exist. Receive Israel at War by Skip Heitzig with your gift.

Go to connectwithskip.com or call 1-800-922-1888. So we've got directions on how to get to heaven. Will we follow them?

You'll want to open to John chapter 12 as we join Skip Heitzig for today's message. If you put all believers in the world together into one group, it's estimated that one out of every 200 people can accept the opportunity to be martyred in his or her lifetime. Okay, now we're dealing with something that for us is just philosophical. If we rein it in, we don't see that kind of persecution, that kind of martyrdom in our country. I mean, you believe what you believe in and most people will leave you alone and say, good, put a bumper sticker on your car. I don't care.

I'm not into that. But I do think that is going to change in this country. I think we're already sensing that. Not long ago, there were 11 people in Philadelphia arrested, including two women in their 70s, two women in their 70s, along with nine other people, arrested in Philadelphia for sharing the gospel on the street, street witnessing. They were arrested.

And they face imprisonment in the long-standing Pennsylvania hate crimes law. Okay, now I want to get to the real crux of this and that is the danger of believing. And this is foundational to us as human beings.

If you are a human being, and I know you are, you'll all be able to relate to this. We have a fundamental desire as human beings to be accepted, to be loved, to be liked. Nobody likes to be unpopular. It goes out of their way to get people to hate them deliberately. We all want to be liked.

We all want to be loved. So here's the temptation. Faith is dangerous simply because it places me in a position to want to compromise what I believe in in order to get other people around me to like me. So I might not be as strong in my faith for Jesus Christ because they will say bad things about me and they won't like me and I'll be shunned, or in this case put out of the synagogue. Paul the apostle asks a question and then he answers it. Let me read it to you in Galatians 1. Paul says, am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? For if I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I'll paraphrase what he says. I think he's simply saying, I don't really care what anybody thinks about me or my life. I care about the approval of one person only and that's Jesus Christ.

What he thinks about me is infinitely more important than what anybody else thinks about me. So that's the idea here. So this group in verse 42 and 43, they're trying to pull off something impossible. You know what that is? You know what that is? Secret discipleship.

Did you know that's impossible? Secret discipleship is a contradiction in terms because what will eventually happen is the discipleship will destroy the secrecy or the secrecy will destroy the discipleship. If you're a disciple, you won't be secret. They tried to do it for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. I think you know, if you don't, you should know what Proverbs 29 says, the fear of man brings a snare.

Or in a more modern translation, fearing people is dangerous as a trap, but to trust the Lord means safety. Back in 1871, a song was written. You'll recall it, some of you. Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war.

How many of you ever heard that song before? With the cross of Jesus going on before? Somebody suggested perhaps that could be rewritten as such. Backward Christian soldiers fleeing from the fight with the cross of Jesus nearly out of sight. Christ, our rightful master, stands against the foe. Onward into battle, we seem afraid to go.

So two dangers so far. The danger of unbelief, and that is unbelief is progressive. And number two, the danger of believing is that persecution can lead to compromise. Now we close with the words of Jesus in verse 44 through 50, and he shows us the difference, and he too holds out those who believe and those who do not believe, and he's weighing them in the balances and showing us what the consequence will be of one or the other. Verse 44, then Jesus cried out, and he said, He who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

And he who sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my words has that which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the father who sent me gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.

And I know that his command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the father told me, so I speak. So here's Jesus, final words before his public ministry ends and his private ministry begins, and he holds up faith, and he holds up unbelief, and he compares the both of them, and he says, now here's the consequences of one or the other.

Number one, faith honors God, unbelief dishonors God. That's the point, when he says, he who believes in me, believes not in me, but him who sent me. In other words, in other words, if you believe in me, you're not just believing in me alone, but also along with believing in me or believing in the one who sent me. In other words, we are so together on this.

There is such a partnership that my father and I have on this thing that you can't separate the purpose one from the other. Now this is important, because in effect, there's a crowd of people around them, Jewish people who are saying, we believe in God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus is saying, you say you believe in God, but if you reject me, you reject God, because it was that God that sent me into the world for you. That's the point. Belief, faith honors God, unbelief dishonors God.

Now here's the larger point. If you place your faith in Christ and you trust him and you follow him, you will honor God, because that is the whole purpose, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Listen to this, the writer of Hebrews, chapter one, verse one, says this, God, who at different times and in different ways, communicated to our ancestors through the prophets, has in these final days spoken to us by his own son, Jesus Christ. In other words, everything God ever wanted to say to people on planet earth, he said finally through Jesus Christ. That is God's answer for humanity. The world will not honor you, but if you live to honor God, as we have already read in John a couple verses back, him my father will honor. So here's the choice we have to make. If you're going to follow Christ as his disciple in this world, understand the world won't love it, the world will persecute it, the world will persecute you, so you have to decide which row am I going to walk, which side am I going to be on.

Let me give you a little encouragement. In the book of Revelation, Jesus wrote seven letters to seven churches, remember that? I call them postcards, they're just little few words to each church. The second postcard he writes is to the church of Smyrna. They were being persecuted simply because they loved Jesus and followed him and were vocal about it. They started losing their job so they became poor, many of them lost their lives because of it, so Jesus writes them a letter. Dear Smyrna, I know your works, I know your tribulation, I know your poverty, but you are rich.

You see the difference between the world's evaluation of that church and Jesus' evaluation of that church? Yep, you've been beat up and boy are you poor on a human level, but I got to tell you something, you are so rich because you've honored God. You can be either a wealthy poor man or a poor rich man. I've met a lot of rich people, I look at them and go, poor thing, so empty, so vapid in their life.

I've seen people who have nothing but they're so rich, same with this church. So number one, faith honors God, unbelief dishonors God. Second, Jesus speaking, faith brightens your life, unbelief darkens your life. One verse, verse 46, I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. Now you know this, we've covered this, this is a dominant theme isn't it in the Gospel of John.

Comes in the first paragraph, the first introduction to the book. In him was life and that life was the light of men. Then we come to chapter eight, one of the seven I am statements of Jesus. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.

In other words, faith brightens your life, unbelief darkens it. I'll never forget when I prayed to receive Christ back in 19, not long ago. I remember distinctly feeling something, it's not like the ground shook, it's not like angels went but I felt like the room was brighter. I felt like I could just see things clearer.

I felt like I could walk on air, it's just I knew this was right. My life was so much brighter. What do you do when you come home and it's dark, you open the doors dark in the house, what's the first thing you do?

Flip on the light. Well you live in a dark world, what do you do in a dark world? Flip on the light, follow the light, walk in the light, follow Jesus Christ because I got to tell you something, like a flower in darkness can't ever become what it should until it's brought into the sunlight where it blossoms. Human beings can never become what God wants them to become until they step into the light of Christ. I've said it before, medical science can add years to your life but only Jesus Christ can add life to your years.

So that's the truth, baby Ruth. Faith brightens your life, unbelief darkens it. Here's the third thing Jesus would say about faith and unbelief as he's showing us the difference.

Faith will open your door to the future. Unbelief will close that door permanently. Verse 47, Jesus continues, if anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him. Now before you get all excited and go, oh I love that verse, I don't judge him, I'm going to circle that. Hold that thought because what he means is the first time I came to this earth, which is what we're reading about, I didn't come to judge but that's the first time. I do not judge him for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. That was his purpose as a savior. He who rejects me and does not receive my words has implied already has that which judges him and the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority but the father who sent me gave me a command what I should say what I should speak and now I know his command is everlasting life therefore whatever I speak just as the father told me so I speak. Here's our Lord, it's simple.

He's saying let's play this way out into the future. Here's the consequence of faith, it's called everlasting life. Here's the consequence of unbelief, not everlasting life, judgment.

You say yeah but Skip he just said he didn't come to judge. You're right, the first time Jesus came to this earth he came to die on a cross not as a judge but as a savior but I gotta tell you something the second time Jesus comes he is definitely coming as a judge. Revelation 19 John the same author looks up and sees a vision of Christ coming he writes in Revelation 19 I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him is called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war and what is the standard by which Jesus will judge humanity and he says he will in other places it's the word his words so take all of the red words in Matthew Mark Luke and John that have been translated and re-translated into 2,223 languages and dialects for the last 2,000 years and distributed around the world and that will be the standard of truth by which Jesus Christ will judge a person. Now let me boil it down to the irreducible minimum the bottom line to receive Jesus Christ is to refuse judgment to refuse Jesus Christ is to receive judgment he says I didn't come to judge I'm not doing that now I've come to save but if you refuse that there will be judgment. There's something that was startling to me as I read this it's as if I read it for the first time and that's in verse 50 notice and now or and I know that his command is everlasting life. Isn't that interesting? We've always think that it's an invitation he invites you to have everlasting life and he does behold I stand at the door and knock that's an invitation but it's also a command you say why would he give us a command well if you're a parent you know the answer to that I remember as a kid my mom would say Skip it's time for dinner I wouldn't go I wouldn't come in I'd be playing I'm not going to drop I'm playing this is fun I'm with a friend I don't want to go and eat dinner no if I don't eat dinner I'm going to die I don't care so my mom would have to change from the invitation sometimes to speaking my name my full name first middle and last name in a certain kind of a commanding pitch that I knew I better get inside this is not an invitation this is a command and it wasn't because she didn't love me it's because she loved me I had to eat food to survive God invites God commands and Paul stood on the Areopagus Mars Hill in Athens and he said to the people of Athens in the past God has overlooked all such ignorance but now he commands that all people all people everywhere repent so God gives an invitation and a command to come step out of the shadows step into the light to believe in Christ thus honoring God thus brightening your earthly existence and thus opening the door for your future it's dangerous to believe you might be hassled you might be persecuted it might tempt you to compromise but it's far worse to not believe that's far more dangerous it closes the door to any kind of hope forever I close with this years ago in the shipping industry there were two compasses aboard ships one on the deck and one far above on the mast there was a passenger aboard the ship who noticed this noticed that a sailor would have to climb all the way up to the mast and give the reading and shout it down below so he said why do you have two compasses the sailor smiled and said let me explain something to you this is an iron vessel it creates its own magnetic field so the compass on the deck is good for general observation so the captain has the idea of where we're at and where we need to go but he said the one on top of the mast is above the influence of what's going on down here and he said I tell you this we always steer and direct our ship by the one on top I suggest you live your life that way because I got to tell you something your compass in this world is going like this you're out in the world and they'll tell you to live like this believe this do that don't do that no matter what you see or where you turn on television or radio your compass is going go for the one on top that god's truth would direct your life because it's still true father knows best you know god's truth will always be the best guide for our lives what great encouragement from Skip heitzig in this message believe it or not and today we have a special treat for you Skip and lania are in studio so let's check in with him lania Skip today you are talking about jesus returning to judge those who don't believe and I you know I know we love for god so loved the world and he's merciful and he was compassionate and he healed people and gathered up children and we forget sometimes that jesus is also judged at his knee at his feet every knee will bow every tongue will confess why does god judge unbelievers and why can't he ignore sin that is a great question and every time I hear it asked I can only infer that the person asking that question doesn't understand how great an offense sin is to a perfect holy god I mean it's so offensive to him because he is so holy and so unique and so perfect and separate from that that he sent the best his son to take care of that problem to make all of our punishment put on him and he would die a gruesome death so when you when you study that you can only then surmise that sin is greatly offensive to him it's like cancer I mean to try and put it in a different word picture we have these lovely bodies that god has given us and they function so elaborately and beautifully but if a doctor discovers cancer you know all bets are off they're going to do everything in their power to remove it and you know I think if they would look at sin like cancer yes god's going to judge it quarantine it try and remove it from your life because it's deadly jesus did say that he didn't come to condemn but he came to save people I've never come to judge but I've come to save people but that was his first coming he also said the father has committed all judgment to the son and he said he who does not receive my words the words that I have spoken will be his judge so to receive jesus christ is to refuse judgment to refuse jesus christ is to receive judgment and you're either going to be judged for your own sin or you're going to let him take your sin and be your savior so those are the only options that god has given to us sin separates us from god well thanks skipp and lenya we always appreciate connecting with you and as we wrap up for today I want to let you know that you can get a copy of today's study when you call us at 1-800-922-1888 it's available on cd for just four dollars plus shipping when you contact us at 1-800-922-1888 or when you visit connectwithskipp.com what makes a moment unforgettable find out with more from the gospel of john next time right here in connect with Skip weekend edition a presentation of connection communications connecting you to god's never changing truth in ever changing times