Are Certain Sins Judged More Severely than Others?

The Bible refers to hell as a real place of punishment, but is the average unbelieving person going to be judged the same as the most immoral person who ever lived? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

We'd love to hear from you. Here's our phone number, 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

You can also email us your questions at this address, questionsatcorechristianity.com. Well, it can be pretty frustrating to pull up to your local McDonald's, order a milkshake, ice cream sundae, or McFlurry, only to learn that their ice cream machine is broken. Well, now you can consult the website mcbroken.com which tracks McDonald's restaurants so you can learn which ones have out of order machines. The site was built by 24-year-old software engineer Rashik Zahid.

Green dots show McDonald's restaurants with working machines, while the red dots show the ones with broken ice cream machines. Zahid said he built the site for fun after traveling to Germany and twice failing to get his ice cream sundae. Wow, what a service he has provided for the rest of the world. And this is going to save me a lot of heartache because, Bill, I've been in that situation where I request my McFlurry, I get the Oreo one, and things aren't working. So praise God.

Praise God for this guy. I can think of many times late at night when I've pulled into a McDonald's and really wanted that chocolate shake and oh, sorry. I'm all about, I'm all about, Bill, the salty french fries.

I mean, if they're anything better than, back in the day, when I was a kid, they used to have, it was called a bucket of fries where you could get like the extra, extra large cup, the supersized cup, and just fill it with french fries. Wow. And that was, that was just, they don't do that anymore.

How do you keep your svelte figure? That's just amazing. Well, they stopped, they stopped offering the bucket of fries, so that's why. Well, let's get to our first question of the day. This one is a Facebook post from Kevin.

He says, Hi, Pastor Adriel. I'm naturally interested in studying the Bible and theological books. I always have been. I have a young family and my wife is not interested in these things. I know it wouldn't be ideal for us as a family to read and discuss the type of things I'm naturally drawn to. I think it would be too much for them and unhelpful. What are ways that I can better help my family learn about the faith together?

Wonderful question. A really important one for all of us, and for all of us fathers wanting to lead our family in the ways of the Lord and teach our family the Scriptures. I mean, it's what God calls us to do. I would say, one, don't underestimate the power of prayer and songs. You know, throughout the history of the church, one of the primary vehicles for communicating good theology wasn't just, you know, reading books and studying tomes of systematic theology. It was prayer and music. In fact, did you know that some of the earliest doctrinal debates in the church had to do with lyrics of songs? There was a song, the Gloria Patri, or the Lesser Doxology, it was called.

It was really simple. The words were just glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen, Amen. Well, there was actually a controversy about those lyrics in the ancient church. And so there was this whole debate about it, but it just highlights the fact that good theology is rooted in worship, our songs, our prayers. And so I would say, you know, go through some good songs with your family, sing together and teach your children the songs of the faith. You could get a wonderful hymnal, but there are other, you know, just great resources that I'm sure your kids would love. And then prayer, teaching your family to pray by praying together with them consistently.

Pray the Lord's prayer together every single night. I mean, really, really a wonderful practice to build into your family devotions, Bible reading as well. I found that, you know, that can be intimidating, at least with young children.

Our kids are eight, six, five, and about to be two. And, you know, you sit down and you try to read the Bible with everyone and you got the two year old running around trying to body slam the five year old brother, that kind of a thing. It doesn't always work, but being consistent and coming together and opening up God's word, I think that those are wonderful habits to build. And as you're reading the stories of the faith together with your family, what you'll find is that the Bible really is a captivating book. I mean, there are so many wonderful stories. I remember reading in First and Second Samuel with our children, our kids just being so riveted by the story of Saul and David and the sort of controversy there.

I mean, it's amazing to see so open up the scriptures with your children. And there's also a book that you can go through with them. It's called The Big Book of Questions and Answers.

I think it was written by Sinclair Ferguson. It was meant for young children. It has all these great resources inside and ideas for projects you can do with your kids together as a family. You find that you'll learn a lot of things going through that as well. And maybe the last thing I'll mention is another thing that's really sweet to do with family is scripture memorization. My wife has been taking our kids through First Corinthians 15, where Paul talks about the centrality of the gospel.

What is the gospel? The death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and just memorizing portions of scripture, trying to get the faith once for all delivered to the saints into our hearts as we study the word of God together, as we pray together, and as we sing together. So commit to those things, brother, and also don't beat yourself up, right? I know that I just gave you a lot of different things that you could do. Sometimes it's helpful to start small. Maybe you just say, hey, we're going to every night pray together. We're going to start with that and then work your way up from there.

And may the Lord bless you as you seek to grow together in the grace and knowledge of Christ together with your family. You know, Adriel, I'm thinking back to when my kids were younger. I think they were three and five, believe it or not. We sat down and we started reading C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. And each night, I would sit there on the sofa with my three year old on one side and my five year old on the other and read all about Aslan.

Now, at that age, they weren't able to comprehend the symbolism. But now that they're older, we've had many conversations about that. And those are just riveting books to go through with your kids. That's such a great idea.

Yeah. I mean, those those kinds of books where you can sort of bring in Jesus and the gospel as you think through the story. I think that that's a really neat way to do it as well. We just started reading some stories from the Fox's Book of Martyrs. I mean, thinking about these Christians who have lived throughout the history of the church that have given their lives for Jesus, just wanting to try to give our children that sort of global perspective. And the sense of the fact that, you know, like the Christian faith here in the United States, as we experience it and live it, it doesn't always look the same in other parts of the world. There are some people who really suffer intense persecution because they follow Jesus, but Jesus is worth it. There really are so many wonderful resources out there, Kevin.

And I think we've given you quite a few that you could potentially try out with with your family. So may the Lord bless you. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez and Adriel, here's a call that came in from Andre in Tennessee.

Hello, guys. I enjoyed the way I dig into the word. So now would it be wrong or would we be out of order praying to Jesus or is Jesus the gateway to the Father? When we pray, even though we pray in His name, if we're praying just to Jesus and not to the Father, would that be out of order the same way someone would be if they were praying to the Mother Mary, even though we know Jesus is our intercessory, but He's our intercessory to the Father? So could you explain that to me?

I appreciate it very much. Thank you, guys. Hey, Andre, that's an excellent question, and yes, we can totally pray to Jesus. Jesus is the second person of the Holy Trinity. He's God. He hears our prayers. He's omniscient.

He knows all things. And so we can pray to Jesus. Now, ordinarily in prayer, we pray to the Father, through the Son, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And I think what that highlights, you know, we always end our prayers, as Jesus told us, in Jesus' name, praying to the Father in the name of the Son. And that does highlight that Jesus is our mediator, that we only have access to God through the Father. If you think of what Jesus said in John chapter 14, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And then you have the entire book of Hebrews that talks about the boldness, the confidence that we can have when we approach the throne of grace, when we come before our Father in prayer.

Why? Because we have a great high priest, a great mediator in Jesus Christ. And so ordinarily, yeah, that's how we pray. And that should also give us confidence when we pray, because we recognize that it's not our perfect obedience or righteousness that causes God to hear our prayers.

It's the fact that we come in and through Jesus Christ, the perfect and holy one. But you can also pray to Jesus. In fact, in John chapter 14, verse 14, Jesus talked to the disciples about asking him anything in his name. Also, in Acts chapter 7, you have the account where Stephen is stoned to death, and as he's being killed, as he's being martyred, he's crying out to Jesus.

He's praying to Jesus. The earliest Christians from the very beginning of the life of the church prayed to and worshipped Jesus. Now, I mentioned how there was some controversy about some of the song lyrics to what we call the Gloria Patri back in the ancient church.

Well, one of the things that these ancient songs in the history of the church teach us is that the early church prayed to and worshipped Jesus. One of the earliest images, if you will, of the crucifixion that we have is actually this graffiti piece that was meant to mock Christians. It was a picture of this man carved into the side of the wall, bowing down before a crucified person with the head of a donkey. It was someone trying to mock Christians, and it was depicting this individual. There was this writing at the bottom of the image, Alexa Menos worships his God. Well, the world recognized Christians worship and pray to the crucified one, Jesus.

And that was a scandalous thing. You have to imagine, because crucifixion was just the height of shame. And yet, the Christians prayed to and worshipped the crucified one.

Why? Because he's God. And so, Andre, we can and should pray to Jesus.

There's nothing wrong with that. And even to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. But ordinarily, the structure that's given in the New Testament is that we come to the Father through the Son, through His work on our behalf, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. So I would say pray in that way, but don't feel bad or think that there's anything wrong with you calling out to Jesus and praying directly to Jesus because He hears you.

And so we ought to pray to the Father, the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. God bless you. Andre, thanks so much for your question. Great hearing from you. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And if you're a regular listener to this program, we'd like you to know that we are listener supported, and we count on people just like you to make donations to keep us on the air. One of the ways you can do that is by joining what we call our inner core. What a joy it is for me, and I know also for Bill, to be able to answer questions about the Christian faith.

Let me just say it's a sobering thing as well. I know James 3 verse 1 says, Don't let many of you become teachers knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment. So I pray for wisdom and ask God for His mercy answering these questions about the faith. But we know with all of our hearts that the world desperately needs the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that we as followers of Jesus need to grow in our understanding of the core truths of the Christian faith. And that's why we do what we do, because we want to help you grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And if you've been blessed by this program, encouraged, I want to ask you, would you consider joining the inner core? For a monthly donation of $25 or more, you can help us continue to get the word out and to spread the message of Core Christianity.

Ultimately, the message of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins, people all over the world are connecting with this program, Core Christianity, which we're just so excited about and grateful to the Lord for, and we want to see it continue to grow. So would you partner with us by heading over to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core to learn more, or give us a call at 833-THE-CORE. And if you call us or go on our website and join the inner core, we will send you the book that actually kicked off this program. It's called Core Christianity, Finding Yourself in God's Story by our founder, Dr. Michael Horton, who's a respected theologian and a really good guy. So we'd love to send you that book, Core Christianity, just by joining the inner core.

Call us again at 833-843-2673. Adriel, here's a question from Brian who emailed us and said, recently I had a mini debate with some followers and disciples of a very intense charismatic leader. In our conversation, they used Acts 2, 17 to 18 as their self-defense on personal revelation or dreams.

What do you think would be a good response to these interpretations? Well, I'm always a little bit uneasy when I hear of intense charismatic leaders who are creating followers for themselves. You know, a little bit later in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 20, a really kind of gut-wrenching passage, it says the Apostle Paul is speaking to the Ephesian elders and he's leaving them.

And he says something that I think should cause all of us to really be sober-minded. He says in Acts chapter 20, verse 28, Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears. And try to get a picture in your mind right now of the Apostle Paul there for three years, day in and day out in their homes, with tears in his eyes, admonishing them, warning them, saying, watch out. People are coming. Wolves are coming. They're even going to rise up from within the church. And you know what they're going to try to do? They're going to try to get the disciples to follow them instead of following Jesus. And so anytime I hear about followers and disciples of a very intense, charismatic leader, whoever that leader might be, again, I get uneasy because what we should be doing as pastors, as quote unquote church leaders, is making disciples of Jesus. It's not about me. It's about Jesus. And so I would say that's the first thing, really.

I mean, peel it back a little bit and just say, look, this right here is a problem. And not just maybe their interpretation of Acts chapter 2 verses 17 and 18, but just even the way they function. If what they're doing is creating, or if what this individual is doing is creating disciples after himself. Now, Acts chapter 2 verses 17 and 18, this is Peter on the day of Pentecost quoting the prophecy of Joel. In the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. Now, the ultimate revelation that we have right now is the Holy Bible. The problem I often see today is people claiming to have revelations that actually don't line up with what the scriptures think. I don't care what you think God told you. If it contradicts what he's already said in his word, you're deceived.

And so brothers and sisters, we need to watch out for people who are saying these kinds of things, and we need to watch out that we don't fall into this trap as well. I heard a popular television pastor say that God told him that Donald Trump was going to win by a landslide this election, that everything was going to change and be different. You have these people that get out there and say things that they have no business saying, and they're claiming to speak on behalf of the Lord, but they're not teaching what the scriptures say. Now, Acts 2 was the fulfillment of Joel 2. The same Holy Spirit that was poured out on Peter and the disciples on the day of Pentecost is also in us by faith in Jesus, but that doesn't mean that we should expect the same revelatory experiences that Peter had. In fact, many of these miraculous experiences were primarily about advancing the gospel proclamation.

I think this is made really clear in a place like Hebrews 2, verse 4. Listen to what the author of the Hebrews says there as he's writing to this church, wanting to establish them first and foremost in the gospel. He talks about how they heard the gospel, and he says, verse 4 of chapter 2, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. What was the goal of those revelations, of those miracles that they were experiencing? It was the advancement of the gospel. People oftentimes today will focus on the miraculous, on these signs and wonders, and take their eyes off of the main thing, which is the forgiveness of sins, and any ministry or minister that wants to focus your eyes on that, your healing or your special blessing or your wealth and prosperity, whatever it might be, but take your eyes off of sin, righteousness, the forgiveness we have in Jesus, what it means to be faithful, walking with the Lord.

Oh boy, I will say, turn and run from that person. Watch out for the abuse of people who are saying, I'm the anointed leader who gets revelations from God, and so you need to listen to me. No, Jesus is our great high priest, and pastors should be fixing our eyes on Jesus and on the blessings of the forgiveness of sins.

It sounds to me, Brian, like this person is trying to take Acts 2 and say, I have this revelatory power, you should follow me, and I would just say, no, no, no. If you want to know God's revelation, open up the scriptures, study them, get into a good church where the Bible is being faithfully taught and where your eyes are being fixed on Jesus, not some charismatic leader. We really need to get away from that fixing our eyes on charismatic Christian leaders. They're going to let us down, but Jesus won't. We can trust him.

We can trust his word, and that's where we need to focus our attention, Brian. You know, Adriel, when I was in college, I experienced the lighter side of this personal revelation issue. I had this female friend, and she was quite attractive, and one day after church, this guy walks up to her after the service, who she's never met before, and he says to her, God spoke to me and told me that we are to be married, and without batting an eye, she said, you know, I just talked to God a half hour ago.

He didn't even mention your name. Well, that was the right answer. I love that story, but the sad thing is, I've heard stories that aren't so light, where an individual says, God revealed to me that we're supposed to be together, that kind of a thing, and it just is, oh boy, it's so destructive. We really need to focus back on just the basic teachings of the Bible, because I think we've really lost our way, and it's evident through some of these movements, these quote-unquote revelatory movements that are taking our eyes off of Jesus. Let's get to one more question here on core Christianity. This person says, does everyone that goes to hell suffer equally? Would someone like Hitler suffer more than an ethical moral person who's never been exposed to the word, or perhaps kept off putting a decision, or someone who was led astray in some way?

Very good question. There are actually, I think, a couple of questions here, like, is all sin equal in God's eyes, and what does the experience of hell look like for different people? And of course, you know, we have these descriptions of hell in the Bible, but we don't know exactly what it's going to be like, just like we don't know exactly what heaven is going to be like, except for the fact that it's going to be above and beyond anything we could ever imagine positively.

But I do believe that there are degrees of punishment and judgment, even in hell, and I think there are a few passages of scripture that seem to indicate this. For one, I think of what Jesus says in Luke chapter 12. There, speaking in the context of the coming of the Lord, we read in Luke chapter 12, beginning in verse 41, Peter said, Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all? And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom his master will set over his household to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all of his possessions. But if the servant says to himself, My master is delayed in coming, and he begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and drink and to get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him. And in an hour, he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful and that servant who knew his master's will, but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating.

But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given of him much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

I think the focus there is on the fact that, you know, some people do have more and are going to be accountable for more James chapter three, it says, you know, don't let many of you become teachers knowing that we're going to receive a stricter judgment. And so I think for some people, right, who knew the truth, who experienced even perhaps the grace of God in the sense that they had heard the preached word, they had seen the changed lives, and yet they said to themselves, those Christians are just drinking bathwater. They don't really know God.

Is there even a God? They know the truth, and yet they reject it. I think for them, the judgment is going to be worse. And again, I don't know how exactly that's going to look, but I do think that you do have this sense of these degrees of judgment or of punishment. Not all sins are equal, right? Like all sin is damnable, meaning it merits God's wrath and curse, but some sins in and of themselves and, you know, by reason of several aggravations, meaning we do the same thing over and over again, some sins are more heinous in God's sight than others. And so we have to understand, it's one thing to look lustfully at a person, and that's a sin, Jesus says. It condemns us. It's another thing to commit adultery, to do the actual act. The fact of the matter is that we all sin and fall short of God's glory. Our sins merit God's judgment, hell. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus has taken our sins upon himself. We have the hope that Jesus took the punishment that we deserved so that we might have eternal life. Let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.