Statement of Faith Article Ten – Response & Eternal Destiny

The majority of the world believes in life after death, so it's important to get that right. But the countries of 35 countries were surveyed from Pew Research. The country that leads the way is Indonesia. About 85% of people believe in life after death of some sort. Some other countries that have a high rate of believing in life after death are Kenya, Turkey, Philippines, Argentina, Mexico, and the U.S. is about 70% here in America, about 70% of people.

And that's broken down, that's spread across different religions. But I want to focus here on evangelicals. And we use that word a lot. And so surprise, if you consider Lake, Wisconsin, your church home, you are an evangelical. That's a theological persuasion that spans across denominations.

It's not just limited to just one church or one specific organization. But to be an evangelical means four things. It means historically, it's meant that we take the Bible seriously. And so we believe that the Bible is our sole or is our highest authority. We believe in sola scriptura, meaning the Scripture is our highest authority.

It's not our only authority, but it's our highest authority. It's the standard which we judge other standards by. We believe the Bible is inerrant. Another marker of evangelicalism, too is we believe that the cross and the resurrection of Jesus are the single two of the single most important events in human history. And so that's what being an evangelical means.

Three, it also means two, that we take our faith seriously and that we believe that it promotes us to care for the least of these, but also to share the gospel with people. And also two, it means we believe in having a personal conversion that it's not you can't inherit the faith of your parents, but we believe that it means that you have been converted and you are a follower of Jesus. And so that's what we mean when we say the word evangelical. And I'd be happy to talk more about that if you'd like. But it's helpful to know that word because we're looking at what do evangelicals believe compared to non believers and just those who don't, like, maybe are Christians, but don't believe exactly what we do.

Ligonier Ministries does a state of theology survey every year and just across America and just to see what do people believe? Evangelicals and non evangelicals, they ask questions like, can God make a mistake? Was the resurrection of Jesus a real historical event? People are people born innocent, and those sorts of things. And then question 35, which is their last one, reads this way, it says true or false.

Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their savior receive God's free gift of eternal salvation. 89% Of evangelicals agree with that statement. Still far too low, but we're doing pretty good. But at the same time, 68% of non evangelicals disagreed. So a pretty decent majority disagreed with that statement.

So there seems to be a strong disagreement between what we believe, what we know, the Bible to teach, what we know to be true from God's word, and what those who necessarily don't hold that same sort of position, what they believe. And so there's a strong disconnect. And I think two things seemed clear from that. One, we have a hope unlike anyone or anything. Our hope we have is foreign to the onlooking world.

And two, this hope should have real implications for how we live. This morning we're continuing our Communion Sunday series through our statement of faith. Each point of what we believe the Bible to teach to be true. Today we're looking at the need to respond to the Gospel and then also eternal destiny based on that response. So that's where we're going.

There are going to be a number of different passages to consider for each statement, but we'll read it. We'll read a line from the statements and we'll kind of exposit or just expose what does that mean? And we'll talk more about it. But let's read together what we believe. It'll be on the screen.

Would you read this with me?

We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the Gospel by turning to him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment, and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of his glorious grace. Amen. So that is if you are a member here or if you're a regular attender. This is what we believe to be true.

But the response of the Gospel and eternal destiny based on that response. So the first line, the first point we believe is that it applies to everyone everywhere. God commands everyone everywhere to believe the Gospel by turning to him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll get to those other statements in just a second, but for now I want to focus on this applies to everyone everywhere. Our scriptural support is found in Acts 17:30, 31.

Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. For each of these points, there's proof. So many different scripture passages we can point to, but we're just highlighting one or maybe a few. Let me just kind of explain.

What is this everyone everywhere means everyone everywhere at all times. Sometimes people oppose a hypothetical like, well, what if somebody's on an island and they never get the chance to hear? And they. They're totally innocent? There's no such thing.

Maybe there's somebody who hasn't heard, but there's nobody who's innocent. Romans 1:18 20 doubles down on this idea that nobody's exempt. For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. It means everyone everywhere, nobody has an excuse.

Everyone is a sinner by nature and by choice. But also, that's shamin, as we'll see several times throughout. We should work tirelessly to get the gospel to people. Simply put, it's helpful to know that God desires us for all people. Not just for those who have heard, but for those who have the possibility of hearing.

For me, for you, for your neighbor, for someone who's riding on public transportation in the country of Belgium right now. Look then at what God commands everyone everywhere to do. So this applies to everybody. There's no exemptions. There's no excuse.

There's nobody who doesn't fit in this. God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel. We see this in Mark 1:15. Jesus says, There, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.

And in John 6:29, Jesus replied, this is the work of God that you believe in the one he has sent. And believing the gospel is absolutely and we're going to see this a bit later is absolutely more than just an intellectual knowledge. It's more than just cognitively believing that. But it's certainly never less than that. Believing the gospel always involves believing this message that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, that he lived a perfect life, died an innocent death, and rose again to pay for sin of those who trusted him.

It always involves believing that to be true. It can never be less than that. It can never say that's a false statement.

We are commanded by God if we want salvation, to believe that this is true. A really practical question to ask maybe if you're engaging in personal evangelism, that's just a way of saying sharing the gospel with others that might be helpful is just ask them if this gospel is true, would you believe it? Like if Jesus is the son of God, would you believe that to be true? And if they say no, you know, you're talking about a much different conversation. But if they say yes, you know you have some foothold, you know you have some ground there for what the conversation is going to look like.

But if they say no, I won't believe it even if it's true. That's a whole different pray about resources, pray about ways you can engage in that conversation. But if they say yes, if it is true, well then, you know, you need to work to prove that it's true to them.

Because, friends, this gospel is indeed true. And we could spend a lot of time. There's dozens of different arguments, there's people who are far smarter than you and me that have gone to great lengths to prove that this gospel is true. But plenty of thoughts rush in my mind for ways to do that. But let me just give you one.

I think it, to me at least, is the most compelling. And that's a historical person of Jesus. Nobody argues anymore if Jesus existed. It's an illogical, irrational statement to question if he was a historical person anymore. In fact, several different religious scholars have gone to say.

Religious and historical scholars have gone to say no scholar who's taken seriously denies the real person of Jesus. To me, that's incredibly compelling because we're no longer left to wonder if he existed. We just have to decide then what are we going to do with him? And that's the single most important question anybody can answer is who is Jesus? Do you believe that he is who he says he is?

Because no legitimate historical scholar would even argue that he didn't exist. Jesus of Nazareth is a Bible bona fide historical figure and that's affirmed by believers and non believers alike. So we need to consider the events of his life and the claims he makes. He claimed to be the Son of God. What are we going to do with that?

And I believe that's a strong case for the realness of the gospel. And there's so many more, sadly. We need to move on. If you have questions, please let us know But I think that's just one real good proof that we should believe the gospel because it is true. God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel.

He also commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to him in repentance. And we believe the Bible teaches the right response to the Gospel is to turn to God in repentance. It has to move from just being an intellectual assent intellectual knowledge to a real heart trust. In other words, it has to move from being just an idea to practically affecting how we live, turning away from sin and confessing to God that we need Him. Our scriptural support is found all over the New Testament, but just two places that will highlight one from the old one from the new.

Isaiah 55, 6, 7 says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call to him while he is near. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord so that he may have compassion on him and to our God, for He will freely forgive. Then also in Acts 2, 37, 38, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what should we do?

Peter replied, repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So what does it mean to repent? How do we do that? It's maybe helpful to think of it this way. All of our life before we know Christ is a walking away from God. Because in scriptures God says, if you're not for me, you're against me.

You can't be on the fence with Jesus. And so before you know Christ, you're constantly walking away from and your master is sin, self and Satan. And that's not to say there can't be perfectly nice people. Notice how I didn't say good. Perfectly nice people who don't know the Lord.

And so they're serving and walking away from God. And so to repent, especially in the Old Testament, means to turn away from that. Turning away from a life of serving yourself, sin and Satan, and turning to entrusting in Jesus, confessing that you believe that his ways are right, confessing that you're a sinner, confessing your need for him, and turning away from embracing him, trusting him for the unbeliever. This is a first time repentance because Ephesians 2 says by nature we're children of wrath or spiritually dead. And so it's a turning away from all that that we've Ever known, and turning to an initial repentance, saying, God, I am a sinner.

I do need you to take care of this. But a lot of times the word repent in the New Testament is used in the ongoing sense. It's a continual turning, turning away from what we previously knew to turning and trusting in the ways of Jesus. Our whole lives, up until we believe the gospel and repent is walking away from God. But then we repent and we trust him.

We turn away from sin and serving that as our master. And we confess our need for God and trust him. And we admit that we can't solve our sin problem. Which brings us to our next point. We receive.

We need to receive the Lord Jesus.

God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll notice here that it says receive. This is a passive. You receive the gift of Jesus. It's not work really hard to get Jesus.

No, receive Jesus by repentance and faith and then you will get him. We receive this free gift of God. We receive Jesus. We receive his gift, his life, counting for ours. In John 1:12 we read, but to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God to those who believe in his name.

Another way to think about this is maybe think about different masters. I said earlier that before we know Christ, our masters are sin, self and Satan, kind of all interchangeable, really. There we serve, they call the shots. And again you can meet people who are perfectly nice, but if they don't know God, that's who they're serving is sin, self and Satan. That's who's calling the shots.

Every single decision is made that way. But for when we do trust and receive Jesus, we are switching masters. We're receiving him and he calls the shots in our life now we receive him as Lord. He's now a director. He now decides how we spend our time, our money, our energy, what do we do with everything we receive Him.

He calls the shots.

Romans 6:20, 23 puts it this way. When you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification.

And the outcome is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. In Christ Jesus, our Lord Jesus gets welcomed in. We receive the free Gift of God's grace.

When we receive the Lord Jesus through faith and repentance and brothers and sisters, that is the heart of the Christian life. It is union with Christ. We are now in Christ. We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe in the gospel by turning to him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. We also believe that God will raise the dead bodily.

This is straightforward. It means what it says. God will raise the dead bodily. We see this in Isaiah 26:19, where we read, your dead will live. Their bodies will rise, awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust, for you be covered with the morning dew.

And the earth will bring out the departed spirits. And Daniel 12:2, many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life and some to disgrace and eternal contempt. Sometimes the eternal life, the afterlife, is pictured as like this. Babies on harps or babies on clouds playing harps. Disembodied sort of experience.

And it's true that yes, before we. Before the resurrection happens, we will, like those who die before the resurrection happens. Like, we will, you know, be in the presence of the Lord without our body. But ultimately our ultimate destination is going to be in a real body. That's just simply what the scriptures teach.

Every person, whether a believer or unbeliever, will be raised in a body. Everything we will experience will be real and physical. And God will judge the world, and he will judge us in our real physical bodies. Brings us to our next line. God will judge the world in our raised bodies, God will judge the world.

We read about this in Matthew 12:36. I tell you that on the day of judgment, people will have to account for every careless word they speak. And as you read through your Bible, you probably notice this idea of the day of the Lord, or the great and terrible day of the Lord, or the day of Judgment, is a prevalent theme throughout both the Old and the New Testament. And it always speaks to this judgment to come.

It's important to note though, too, that this judgment doesn't change things. I mean, it does. It's a fine. Maybe it's helpful to think of it. It's like a final, final.

But if you die in Christ, you're not going to be raised and then all of a sudden become out of Christ. No, he'll keep those who are his own. But if you die apart from Christ, it means that you don't get a second chance. Hebrews says that it's pointed to a man wants to die. So it doesn't change your final status.

It doesn't change your status once you raise, but it's like a final, final. Those who are in Christ will remain in Christ, but they'll get their final sentencing. And those who are apart from Christ will get their final sentencing too. And some of us might be quick to ask, well, who is God to judge? And that seems like an egotistical maniac.

Like, who is he to say, well, if you don't follow me, then you don't get eternal life. Like, that feels unfair, that feels unkind. That's a question that people have been asking for a long time.

You might even think that it's not fair of God to judge. And we'll get to more of that. A good response, but I think just right now, This J. Vernon McGee quote is helpful. He said, this is God's universe, and God does things his way. You may think you have a better way, but you don't have a universe.

When God judges the world, he will make two assignments. He will assign the unbelievers to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment, and he'll assign believers to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord. Let's look at that first assignment. God will judge the world, assign the unbeliever to condemnation, eternal conscious punishment, second. Thessalonians 1:9 says it like this.

They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord's presence and from his glorious strength. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, hell is described as place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, eternal fire, just in all ways, nothing pleasant. And sometimes progressive theologians, who are hardly even theologians because they've abandoned the Theos, they've abandoned God, will say, well, this is a modern invention. It's a modern convention. Hell's not a real concept.

It's a modern, modern thing to beat people over the head with. Except that's just not true. Hell is a radically biblical concept. It's taught throughout the Scriptures. And no one who talks about hell the most, Jesus and even, yes, we see a plethora and embarrassment, really, of biblical evidence of hell.

But then we could go back as far as like the early 80s 90s AD and consider church history. This has always been taught. This has always been an essential Christian doctrine.

We can go back as far as people like Justin Martyr, who lived in the early second century, and to see that hell has always been a part of the doctrine of the Church. Just a real quick correction, too. People will say that hell is the absence of God. And that's. That's not true.

That is just not true. I think we say sometimes because it's short and simple. Because God is omnipresent everywhere. But God is the one who carries out the punishment in hell. Satan's not the one who's punishing people.

No, God is the one bringing about the punishment. Maybe it's helpful to think of it. If heaven is God continually refusing to turn his face away from us, Hell is just the opposite. God continually turns his face away. We don't experience, or hopefully none of us experience.

But those who are in hell don't experience his blessing presence. Let's address two more common objections about hell. First comes from perhaps unbelievers. They'll say something along the lines of, well, how can God be loving and send anyone to hell? That's a fair question.

It's also not a new one. People have been asking this question for quite some time. How could a loving God send anyone to hell? That assumes that love and justice are mutually exclusive. But you can't really have love without justice.

Those of you that have loved ones, you have kids or people that are just really dear to you, if something bad happens to them, don't we want to see it be made right? Of course we do. So how could God be loving if he lets something terrible happen and then doesn't ultimately make it right one day? He couldn't. God would not be loving if he was not.

Also just. It also assumes too, when people say, how could a loving God send anyone to hell? It assumes too that humans are innocent or that humans don't somehow deserve this.

Maybe a better question is how could a holy God, a God who's never sinned, who can't be in the presence of sin, how could he dare let anyone into his heaven? That's the scandal of the cross, friends, that Jesus makes a way for that possible when we absolutely did not deserve.

Another objection raised today comes. It's called annihilationism. And it's not a heresy in that believing this will condemn you to hell. It's not as serious as getting the Trinity wrong. But annihilation is a heterodoxy.

It's a wrong teaching. Annihilationism basically teaches that you pay a certain amount of time serving for your sins and you just cease to exist. You're annihilated. And I think that's just an effort. Right?

We always want to assume that people are taking the biblical text seriously, but you kind of wonder if the thought is too. Maybe it's trying to soften the doctrine of hell. Because hell is a. It's a wicked place. It's A terrible place, nobody should want to go there.

But I think that an explanation is not only not biblical, it's ahistorical. The church has never really believed this. The Greek concept of the word destroyed or destruction is different than ours. It doesn't mean destroyed to the point of ceasing to exist. No destruction in the concept of the Bible's written in the context the Bible is written means to just continually make worse, continually ruin yourself.

Three other problems with this view. One, it assumes that sin can be adequately paid for in a set amount of time, and that's problematic when you have an infinitely holy God. And two, it assumes that people in hell stop sinning, which we know is not the case. It's not as if they're in hell and they immediately correct their actions. And three, this is perhaps most compelling to me is one way God maintains his love for people even in hell, is that he allows them to continue to exist because existence is always better than non existence.

God loves everyone enough to give them what they actually want. And if somebody doesn't want God, he's not going to force them into his presence. But at the same time, if someone does want God, that's what's going to make heaven so incredible is being in the presence of God. And so we keep moving on. Similar to how God allows a believer to have what they actually want.

He allows a believer to have what they actually want, which is life with him and eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord. Matthew 25:34 we read, then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. In John 14, Jesus promises a place that's being prepared for us. Heaven will one day be better than we can ultimately imagine. And this is again not a gift given by our good works, because nobody's worthy, but because of the finish work of Jesus.

Because we've trusted in Jesus and Jesus alone.

Believers. We also believe believers will enjoy the new heaven and new earth. The new heaven and new earth is described like this in Isaiah 65:17. For I will create new heavens and a new earth. The past events will not be remembered or come to mind.

And then Revelation 21:1 5 then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the Throne. Look, God's dwelling is with humanity and he will live with them. They will be his peoples and God himself will be with them and will be their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Grief, crying and pain will be no more. Because the previous things have passed away. And the one seated on the throne said, look, I am making everything new.

He also said, right, because these words are faithful and true. You've heard me say before. And we'll say again, I don't think that we think about heaven enough. I can't add anything to that. That's going to be a better description of what heaven will be like.

But maybe it's helpful just to at least identify some characteristics. What will make heaven so great? These are just a few. A few things. First of all, the personal blessing, presence of God also too.

We will be free from the presence of sin. What will that be like? To be incapable of sinning, incapable of offending our neighbo. We won't have to worry about our friend being mean to us or an estranged child not calling us back. We'll be free from the presence of sin and suffering will be no more.

No more children going to an early grave. No more tsunamis taking out entire cities. No more grief that keeps us to the point where we don't even want to get out of bed. Suffering will no longer exist.

An unfathomable joy will be the unshakable standard. All of everything we experience always in heaven will be unfathomable joy. In fact, we'll be incapable of experiencing nothing but that unfathomable joy and so much more. But more than anything, heaven will be incredible in our resurrection bodies because we will be face to face with God. Yes, it'll be great to be united with family and friends who died in Christ.

But more than that, we will love to see God. Sometimes people will say, oh, I know that my Father or my so and so is watching over me. And friends, I promise you that if your loved one died in Christ and they're seeing God face to face right now, they're not. They. They love him more than they love you.

They're not going to take a look away from the incredible God. We'll be so consumed by that. Heaven will be incredible in our resurrection bodies because God will be there. Believers will enjoy this to the praise of his glorious grace. What perhaps the pinnacle of the new heaven and new earth is going to be is sharing in this with the Lord and those who are His.

And we just get A small foreshadow in Ephesians 1:6 and Ephesians 1:12 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the beloved one in Ephesians 1:12 and so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. Let's read this article that we believe again. Let's read again our statement of faith article 10 and then after that we'll get to some real practical application. Let's just read that statement together again. We believe that God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to him in repentance and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment, and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of his glorious grace. Amen. So we've covered a lot of ground this morning. We've talked about, we've covered a lot of what we believe about the response that we need to have and the eternal destiny based on that response. But you've heard me say before that good theology helps people.

Having right theology can only help, but bad theology can only hurt people. But theology is never meant to sit and be an ivory tower, 30,000 foot view. It is that, but it's never meant to just sit there as that. It should affect what we think about God. Should affect then how we live.

It must. What we think about God is at the core of who we are, what we think about God. It needs to affect every decision that we make. I think it'd be helpful to end our time together with some application because this is especially true when it comes to what one believes. But respond to Jesus and then an individual's eternal destiny, it's going to affect us really practically.

And so I'll read a few statements. They're kind of lengthy, but I think you'll get the cadence for this is what I believe to be true. This is what I've heard to be true. How should I respond? That's where we'll give you the application.

So one, because God commands everyone everywhere to believe the gospel by turning to him in repentance and believing the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what should we do with that? Well, I should be made right with God through faith and repentance, if I haven't already. But at the same time, if I do know Jesus and know this to be true, I should encourage others to repent and trust in the Lord.

Another application point, because God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assign the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment. Of course, yes, it means sharing, but means praying, getting on our knees and just begging. Have we ever begged for the salvation of somebody? Asking God? That is always the most?

Yes, we open our mouths, of course we must. But even more important than that, we have to pray. That's always the most important thing we can do for somebody. I should pray for those in my life who don't know Christ. Another simple thing we can do is because God will raise the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with the Lord in the new heaven and new earth to the praise of his glorious grace.

I or we should look forward to that day, shouldn't we?

This should be what we long for more than anything else. And this reward should spur me on all the more as I see the day approaching, as we see the goal on the horizon, we should look forward to that. Because we know our hope is not an if it's going to happen, it's a when. And we know that's coming. We should look forward to that.

We should be the most joyful people, to the point that it looks so strange to our onlooking friends, brothers and sisters, this is what we believe about the need to respond to the gospel and one's eternal destiny. As we get ready for our final song this morning, let's ask ourselves, how should this practically affect us? How do we let the gospel penetrate not just our minds but our hearts and affect how we then live? So just ask yourself, how do I need to respond? Ask God to help you sort out that question this morning.

If you'd like to talk more about that, there's gonna be people in the back with prayer team name tags on, and you can go ahead and find them during the last song or right after the service. But I'm gonna pray as we consider how do we respond to what we believe about the gospel and our eternal destiny. Would you join me now? God, thank you for this time with our body here. We pray that our time here would not be wasted, but we also trust that your word won't return void to you.

We thank you for gathering as a local body here. That is a gift. Let that not be lost in us. But now let us consider how this should affect how we live, how well we believe the Bible to teach. How should that affect how we now live?

So God, we pray that you would pester those who have not trusted in Jesus. We pray if there's those among us who have not trusted in Jesus, that your Spirit will not let them leave here without having trust in Him. And we ask for that God. And we want to see that happen. But for those of us who do trust in Jesus, we ask, how is this going to affect how we now live if we know that our neighbor doesn't know Christ, how should that affect us?

How should that affect our interactions? But also too, let us look forward to the day where our faith will be made sight and our resurrection bodies will be glorified. God, we look forward to face to face time with you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.