Irrefutable Evidence, Part 2

It's possible for you to avoid God's judgment when you respond in faith to the saving work of Jesus Christ. I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins. A leader preached in Acts chapter 3 of the gospel in the New Testament air, he said, look, repent and be converted that your sins may be wiped away, expunged.

Isn't that great news? The good news of the gospel is that we can face death and the eternity that follows with the certainty that our standing with God is secure in Christ. Unfortunately, that's not true for the millions of people who continue in their unbelief. In God's courtroom, God will preside as judge, jury, eyewitness and prosecuting attorney and there will be no deliberation. The verdict for every unbeliever will be the same, guilty. Stephen is working through a series entitled, Is Hell for Real?

The answer is yes, it is, but it's also avoidable. Stay with us as Stephen explains more from God's Word. My friend, God knows the heart and he knows the motive behind the good things that unbelievers do and unbelievers do good things, but he knows their heart and he knows their motive. And at this point in time, he will pull the mask off motives on this judgment day and reveal to them that the good things they did were actually internally motivated to make them feel good about themselves or maybe even a little more superior than the people they helped. They wouldn't admit it, they wouldn't stop long enough while living on earth to think critically about their actions.

You do as a believer, why? Because the Spirit of God is within you and you have this ongoing conversation that says things like, Stephen, you did that, but what were you thinking? Or you said that, but you were proud. You did that, but you were condescending.

It looked good, but you weren't. Right? You have those conversations? The Spirit of God purifies motive. They don't have the Spirit of God, which means all their motives are impure and they won't admit it. But when they went to church or gave money to a good cause, it was to inwardly feel good, to look good to others, maybe to feel more confident about themselves. When they gave to the poor, they enjoyed most the fact that that made them feel better than the poor, superior perhaps even.

Or aren't I a good person that I care about the poor? God will pull away the mask of motives and reveal the heart. And when he does, people will recognize that the good they did, they did to feel good and to sound good and to seem good and to look good. Like the Pharisees who prayed long prayers, they were stunned that Jesus Christ would even suggest they weren't getting into the kingdom of heaven. The prayers they prayed, the fastings they accomplished, how they so carefully tithed of what they owned. And Jesus Christ said to them, you are whitewashed tombs. You look good, you're painted, you're clean. But I know the heart and underneath, it's rottenness and corruption and death and depravity.

You're just covering over who you really are. He will deliver that book and open it. Third, if that isn't enough, there is perhaps a book of words. In Matthew 12, 37, Jesus said, for by your words, you will be condemned.

Your words. Christ warned the unbelievers that every evil or idle word that men shall speak, they shall give a count thereof in the day of judgment. He's referring to the judgment of this great white throne. This judgment is so precise, so well-recorded, so exacting that every word uttered in violation to the holy standard of God is in a book and the books will be opened and every mouth ultimately will be stopped. Not only are actions and words weighed against the law of God, there's another book, number four. We could call this the book of secrets, secrets. In Romans 2, we're told that God will judge every man's secrets. In Psalm 44, 21, David writes, would not God find this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

You know what that means? It means on top of actions and words and motives, certain sins that nobody found out are secrets. The implication of this text is they're revealed then at the judgment, so they state a secret. Nobody knew. There are people who will go to their grave with secrets. Nobody saw and certainly the heart with all of its secret thoughts, all of its secret sins, all of its secret selfishness, all of its secret predicaments, all the secrets, they're opened to the horrifying understanding of the unbeliever. They had been seen. They got away with it on earth.

Nobody ever knew. I got away with it. No, the law of God says in Numbers 32, you can be sure your sin will find what?

You out. And this is when it happens. So why isn't the believer here at this judgment? It's possible for believers to have secrets. In fact, we all do. We would never want anybody to take a picture of our heart. D.O. Moody said that if there was a camera capable of taking a picture of our heart, no one would ever buy the pictures.

And the photographer would go bankrupt quickly. Haven't we sinned? Haven't we spoken words that violate the holiness of God? Haven't we done deeds and actions? So why aren't we here? Well, because God says, I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud and your sins like a heavy mist because I have redeemed you.

Isaiah 44. That's why all we like sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him. They were all paid. They were all judged every act for the redeemer in the body of Jesus Christ. Isaiah then could write, it is you, O Lord, who has kept my soul from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back. These here in Revelation chapter 20 in this final paragraph are condemned by the record of their sins that they are accountable to. They never gave them to Christ. The evidence against them is just then.

It's true. Christ was able for us, the redeemed, to pay an infinite penalty, being God, being man, he could die. He had to have flesh so he could die. Being God, he could pay an infinite price for our sins. And we in him are rescued. And our record has been eliminated with that one shout of Christ.

It is finished, paid in full. The ones who stand here will pay the penalty for their own sins. They have no advocate.

They refused to settle out of court. They are standing here because they have refused the gospel. You say, no, wait a second. More than half the world doesn't even have a Bible in their language. They've never heard the name of Jesus. How could God send them to hell if they've never heard the gospel of Christ?

It's a good question. Ladies and gentlemen, God will not condemn them to hell because they refused to believe in Jesus Christ. In fact, that isn't even brought up in the judgment. They are held accountable to their own works, their own secrets, their own sins, their own deeds. There's no mention in this paragraph of some time in their lives when they heard about Christ and said, no, I don't want him to be my savior.

Do you realize that most of the world has never heard that Jesus Christ is the savior? They are not judged here by the light they never heard or saw. They are judged by the light they were given that they rejected, the light they heard that they rejected. According to Romans chapter 2, there are two different kinds of gospel or I should say additional gospels to the gospel of Christ. One is the gospel of conscience. Every man has the law of God written on his heart and his conscience bears witness.

In other words, the unbeliever no matter where he lived or how much he knew about the Bible had this conscience. He had the possibility of having this ongoing conversation that condemned him. You know what you just did was wrong. He didn't have the law of God to tell him why. He knew it was wrong. Why would that come from the law of God written on his heart?

And what did he say to his conscience? Be quiet. You shouldn't do that. That's wrong.

Be quiet. You know if you go there, that's wrong. You know if you say that, that's wrong. You know if you do that, that's wrong.

You shouldn't steal that, think that. So they, over the course of their lives, learn early to silence their conscience, to sear it, to stab it, the gospel of conscience. And they do more than that.

They come up with their own standard and then they meet it and they say, see, we're doing just fine. But there's trouble in that logic. In fact, it was perfectly illustrated for me when I read recently about an armed robber named Dennis Lee Curtis who was arrested in Rapid City, South Dakota. He was a thief.

And they found in his wallet a sheet of paper and on that sheet of paper he had written his code of conduct as a thief. I'll just give you the bullets, the bullet points. I will not kill anyone unless I have to, that's reassuring. I will take cash and food stamps, no checks. I will rob only at night. I will not wear a mask. If I get chased in a vehicle, I will not put the lives of innocent civilians on the line. I will enjoy robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Last one. I will rob only seven months out of the year. That's pretty good, at least it's not 12 months out of the year. He had his standards.

He had his code. I'm not going to kill anybody. I'm going to take the summers off.

I'm going to try to give some to some poorer people than me. I'm not going to wear a mask. I mean if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. He had a sense of morality. He knew certain things were out of bounds, but his morality, his sense of morality was flawed. When he stood before the court, he was not judged by that piece of paper.

Now did you steal in the month of July or not? He isn't judged by his code, his standard. He's judged by a higher standard called the law. He can't steal anything, anytime, whether you wear a mask or not, whether it's at night or at noon. You see what happens, mankind, to salve and silence his conscience, he comes up with his moral code, I'll go to church two or three times a year, I'll give a little money to the Red Cross, I'll be a good employee, I won't take any paper clips home, I'll give my weekends to my yard and my family, not necessarily in that order, maybe golf.

And I have kept my code, judge me according to that and see if I don't come out with an A plus. No, he's going to stand before God with the highest code of law and he'll be judged against that. And to his horror he will discover his little sheets of paper were indeed meaningless. The gospel of conscience, which he denied, God will also reveal on this day that the condemned refuse to listen to the gospel of creation. The heavens are telling the glory of God and the expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day after day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge.

There's no speech that is audible words but their voice is not heard. I love the paraphrase of these verses from the message. Listen to how he puts it, God's glory is on tour in the skies. God's crafts are on exhibit across the horizon.

Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Knight lectures every evening. Their words aren't heard, their voices aren't recorded but their silence fills the earth. Unspoken truth is spoken everywhere. These unredeemed may not have believed the gospel of Christ but the truth of the matter of this judgment is God will show to them that they did not believe the gospel of conscience and they refused to believe the gospel of creation. The gospel of conscience and the gospel of creation are not enough to save. You must have the gospel of Christ but what God will do at this judgment is reveal that they denied the gospel they had been given.

The light they had been shown they wanted nothing to do with it. God's verdict will be just in its delivery. This is the gospel of creation, let me make a comment or two on this. Paul wrote in Romans chapter 1 for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse. In other words if you're old enough you're mentally capable of understanding conscience and determining from what you can see in creation that there must be a creator then you are without excuse.

Obviously the aborted, the miscarried, the mentally handicapped I believe are protected. They weren't able to listen to the gospel of Christ or creation or conscience. Those who can will stand before him here and they will be without excuse. We must come up with something so that we can get around the creator because if there is a creator who made me I might have to give an answer to that one. Charles Darwin was raised in church but he pursued anything other than Christianity because primarily of the doctrine of hell. Described by the God of this world he came up with this particular origin and it allowed him to circumvent what he knew must be true if there was a creator. Let me read to you a quote from his own autobiography which isn't going to be in your public school science book, quote, I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true for if it is the plain language of the biblical text seems to show them that the men who do not believe will be everlastingly punished and that then would include my father my brother and almost all of my friends. He evidently had a Christian mother because she's not mentioned in the list.

You see Darwin's inward motive was fueled by a desire to come up with an answer to origins apart from a creator God because Darwin was at least intellectually honest enough to know that if this book really did describe to us the creator then what it described to us in terms of condemnation would be true as well. He said the text plainly says it. You say I didn't know that.

He said that. Well I didn't either until recently but listen this courtroom will explode open the secrets and motives of hearts and minds and everything will be revealed for what it truly is and no one will have an excuse. What about the religions that believe in creation and conscience the largest religions on the planet believe in a creator and in the concept of sin and conscience major world religions like Islam and Judaism even the lesser known religions the cults of Mormonism and and Jehovah's Witnesses but these are all the very same religions that borrow from the Bible who understand them who have heard and have read of Jesus Christ and they then have denied the deity of Jesus Christ they have denied the gospel of Christ and their denial of the gospel of Christ will be revealed in their actions their deeds their words and their secrets. So then understand this every person standing before God at this great white throne will be condemned by their failure to meet God's standard as evidenced in the books that reflect their own lives their own words their own heart and every one of them every one of these people will be shown to have rejected the light they were given whatever that gospel was to them it was the gospel of conscience the gospel of creation or for some the gospel of Christ and they rejected it. There's a fifth book and I'll give it to you quickly that possibly could be opened here and it just occurred to me as I was studying that it could very well be this book the Bible forever settled in heaven God may very well pull the text out and from his own inspired eternal inerrant word pull texts out to apply it to that condemned individual who stands before him. Now I'm going to say one thought here we're going to deal with it at length in our next session but you need to know that this courtroom and these books being opened are not determining whether or not that person goes to hell they are there because they are going to hell.

By all of the evidence certainly to prove the justice of God's eternal verdict there's something else it is to determine the level and the degree of their punishment which Jesus Christ so clearly preached while he was on earth. And we'll look at that together when we're out of time and put your things away I'll tell you something that happened this week and then we'll be done. I happen to take our trash to the neighborhood recycling and garbage center it's behind a big tall fence with barbed wires if anybody would want to steal trash but at any rate it's behind those gates and I take our trash which can multiply over there they have they have several huge green containers down below and they open these big metal gates and you toss your trash bags into those containers taken my trash there saves me twenty five bucks a month. But I got to be honest with you and tell you it's fun it's just I enjoy it it's fun. I have I can stand I can open the door that goes out into my garage and with a bag of trash and I have learned how to with with quite some expertise I must humbly admit I can throw that bag of trash out in and landed squarely in the back of my pickup truck.

I don't get out much this is my fun OK let me it's the one sport I have time to play and I'll go once or twice a week once I get you know some bags and I'll drive over there and it's actually an interesting place over time I've gotten to know some of the men who work there by name one of the men to believe her and we've had a chance to talk so every time I go even if it's for 60 seconds we just have a couple of sentences and it's communion between two guys who know Christ. This is a place that is frequented by some rather rough people some rugged people a lot of construction workers who come to unload their trash I pulled in just this week and I pulled up next to a construction crew when I got out of my truck they were about to leave and one of the guys was saying to the other crew guys crew members he said Well you know our bodies are just going to be like all that all that trash we're going to be eating my worms and that's it that's the end. And I could tell I had I had arrived at the tail end of a theological discussion and I was really upset I'd missed it. So I tried to extend it I quickly said Well what do you mean by that looked at one of the guys who's what do you mean by that he said what I said Well what do you mean by what you just said he said Well he said our bodies are going to be like that trash we've thrown in that green thing there and it's going to be eaten by worms and that's it it's all over it's the end. And I said No it didn't it is not the end.

He said it didn't. They all stopped. Crews stopped to listen workers stopped to listen.

Birds flying in mid-air stopped to listen. And I realized what I just thought I just stepped out there and I'm about to tell these guys who are a lot bigger than I all about this place called hell we didn't talk long but I can tell you they listen to everything that I was able to say in fact the final comment we had to leave people are waiting but I directed it toward the construction crew guy that seemed the most interested and I said then look I said go go home and read Revelation Chapter 20 and he looked at me and he said Revelation Chapter 20 I'll do it. And as he got into his truck he said I got it and I've already been praying for that guy that one day I'll see him in heaven you know why. Because Revelation 20 is enough.

It's enough to save in. I want you to know that I have already prayed for you too. Not by name but for Christ's spirit to work and every person is seated here.

I have prayed that this study would be enough. Listen I don't know what your record of sin is I don't need to know I don't I don't need to know anything in those books but what I do know is that you can't go back you can't you can't go back and start over. You can go back but you can make Jesus Christ your living Lord today and start over.

In fact it's really better than that. You can't go back and start a new beginning but you can come to Jesus Christ by faith and make a new ending. You can't create a new beginning but you can have a new ending right. Your beginning cannot be changed no matter what you do. But your ending can be changed from a never ending hell to a never ending heaven.

This is wisdom for the heart. Stephen Davey is working his way through a series entitled is hell for real. He's called this lesson irrefutable evidence. During the month of June we have a free resource to equip fathers who want to lead their families in godliness. Stephen has written a book called the Enoch example.

It's a book that explores the life and legacy of Enoch. Everyone has a legacy. So the question for you fathers is this. What will your legacy be? Will your children say that you walked with God or that you ran from God? Will your grandchildren receive an inheritance of earthly riches or heavenly riches?

Learn how your walk with God can impact your family for generations. This is a free digital download that you can access from our website right now. Go to wisdomonline.org for information. There's a link on the home page that will direct you. We do have a print version of this booklet as well.

But the digital resource is free today and is available at wisdomonline.org. We have staff and volunteers on hand to take your call right now. Our number is 866-48-BIBLE. Once again that's 866-48-BIBLE. Stephen has one more lesson to go in this current series. We're going to begin that next time. Make plans to join us then right here on Wisdom for the Heart.