This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 5/10/23. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Sam Rohrer: Well, if I were to ask you to describe God in one sentence, what would you say? Now according to my observation over 60 plus years now, and through various research things that I have looked at, the answer could range from, well, it just simply can’t be done. Two, there is no God. Two, God is love.
Now according to Romans 11 in verse 34, there is an aspect of God that certainly cannot be accurately described in a single sentence such as what it says, who hath known the mind of the Lord, right? On the other hand, if I were to ask you to identify in one word, as in God is, and then fill in the blank. God is, what would you say?
Now designers of our Declaration of Independence, for example, said, “God is our creator.” As in we are endowed by our creator. And then, they appeal to him later, that document as our judge of the universe. All right. When we pray the disciples’ prayer, we say, “God is our Father who art in heaven.” Right? But for most people who know God or even a little bit about God, the most common single word might well be God is love.
And of course, that would be correct since the Bible says that God is love in many places and describes the love of God from Genesis to Revelation, but it would not be complete. Few people would answer that question with what is in reality the primary, I would say, quality of God and that is that God is just, or God is righteous or that God is holy.
And in this day of apostacy and denial of the authority of scripture, the justice of God that demands payment for the wages of sin, which is death, is rather summarily rejected as too harsh, too controversial, and instead swaps the gospel for the social gospel and a feelgood version of God is love. Failing to understand that the love of God first emanates from God as just and holy and righteous in that he will not at all overlook the sins of the wicked.
All right. So today I’m going to tackle this aspect of God as just as part of our 10 part emphasis on biblical prophecy with Dr. Carl Broggi, senior pastor of Community Bible Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. This program series is entitled God Writing History Before It Happens, a Study of Biblical Prophecy. And you can find that on our website at standinthegapradio.com. Right on the front page there, all of the programs in the series.
Now the title I’ve chosen for this one today is When We All Stand Before Christ, Biblical Prophecy and God’s Judgment, plural. And with that, I welcome to the program right now, Pastor Broggi. Carl, thank you for being back here with us today.
Carl Broggi: Oh, it’s always great to interact over God’s word with you, Sam.
Sam Rohrer: Carl, last month in part eight of this series, you and I talked about the thousand-year millennial kingdom, Christ physical reign from a physical Jerusalem. I’m going there in a couple weeks. You’re going to be going there later in the summer. It’s a physical place. And with God’s help, next month we’re going to conclude this 10 part series with the new heaven, the new Earth, and a new Jerusalem. But the aspect of judgments with the great white throne judgment probably being one that most people are familiar with is not well understood. And there are several judgments, not just one. That may be a surprise to people.
So today, we’re going to identify ladies and gentlemen, all of these, the priority or the order of sequence, the people involved, the purpose and the place of the judgment. And Brother Carl, you’ve dealt with all of these in far further depth from your pulpit and people can find that entire long series much in depth, great work, searchthescriptures.org. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d encourage you to go there, searchthescriptures.org.
So with that, let’s get right into it. Throughout the Scripture, Pastor Broggi, the concept of God’s judgment on sin and people and nations is repeated over and over again. There’s the concept of accountability. Romans 14, we’re told that all shall stand before the judgment seat of God. Others refer to knees, will bow and confess. So with all this in mind, could you connect the pieces of God’s justice with God’s love and the many references to the coming judgments, answering the why part of judgment and why God has told us about it?
Carl Broggi: Well, Sam, the scripture says that God has written his law into our hearts. And so, in our spiritual DNA, there’s a sense of right, wrong, what’s just and what’s unjust. And people want justice. Well, God has made us in his reflection and one aspect of God’s justice is eternal retribution.
When I went into the ministry in 1978, only about 86% of Americans, which was pretty high then, but still believed that there was a doctrine called hell. In 2019, Pew did another survey that dropped to 54% with just 21% of millennials saying that hell is real and it gets lower with each generation. Though I suppose if you could survey the demons in hell, James tells us 100% believe, but not everyone believes in this aspect of God’s justice. The atheist says, “Well, there is no hell. There is no heaven.” The agnostic says, “I don’t know.” The Jehovah’s Witness says, “Well, the grave is hell. That’s it.” The Mormon believes in hell, but he believes in the end everyone will be saved and rescued. The seventh day Adventist say, “Well, lost people go to hell, and they’re just burned up and annihilated like straw.”
And so, there’s all these beliefs on hell, but all that really matters is what God says. So hell is real. God’s justice is real, but God is not only just he is love. And so, some Christians say, “Well, God predestined some to go to hell and predestined others to go to heaven.” And I would say, “Well, God doesn’t predestine anyone to go to hell and he doesn’t want anyone to go to hell.” This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, Paul wrote.
Peter said, “God is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” Ezekiel said, “As I live, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, sayeth the Lord.” So God doesn’t relish sending people to hell. And I think even in Matthew 21, when Jesus walked down the Palm Sunday road and the multitudes were shouting, “hail him. Hail him.” Before the week was over, they would say, “Nail him. Nail him.”
And in that same chapter, it’s one of three times Jesus weeps. He says, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how I wanted to gather your children together.” And so, Jesus takes no desire in judging people to an eternity without him, but that’s why he came so we wouldn’t have to meet God in that judgment.
Sam Rohrer: And that brings us right up here to the break, ladies and gentlemen, if you’re just joining us, the theme today is that this is our ninth in a series of 10 ultimate programs on biblical prophecy. And this theme today is when we all stand before Christ biblical prophecy in God’s judgment. Now believe it or not, the justice of God that leads us to salvation. And as brother Carl Broggi just said, “God did not make hell for us, it was for the fallen angels, but we will go there because of sin if we do not do what he has given us in his plan of redemption.”
Now we’re going to be speaking about on this program the various judgments and there are more than one that scripture calls out. That’s what we’ll walk through today. I think it’ll be a real education and very practical. Stay with us, please, and we’ll be right back.
Sam Rohre: Because God is holy and just and righteous, as Scripture says clearly, He alone is the law-giver and the king, the enforcer, and the judge, the determiner as recorded in Isaiah chapter 33 in verse 22. Therefore, in conjunction with being creator and the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, God alone is able to make the rules and enforce the rules. Those rules comprise an insight into his nature and they are recorded in the word of God. That’s how we know about who God is and what he does. These are clear and they’re very consistent.
They are written in the word of God so that we can know the will of God, the work of God, the way of God, and ultimately the Son of God and the son of man, which alone leads to eternal life. Now into this revelation of God, this broad all of scripture, this revelation of God has recorded many references to various judgments. Judgments from Israel as a nation to Israel, for instance, as individual Jews to gentiles and gentile nations, to believers in Jesus Christ and frankly to the devil himself.
So there’s a lot, there’s a number of different judgments. And Carl, in these next two segments now and tie in anything that you want to connect with what we talked about at the beginning, but let’s identify the various judgments described in the word of God, their priority, order of sequence, the people involved, the purpose and the place. Just walk down through all of that because they’re there. But I also want to throw this in here first because whatever you say, there’s an aspect of this according to scripture. How should people view, for instance, God’s maybe first level or demonstration of his justice?
I mean like reaping and sowing, is that a judgment of God? Go from that level and then build it up as you can. Lay that out, and then we’ll walk through it as time permits on the program.
Carl Broggi: Well, there are certainly aspects of judgment that we can experience today. Those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. Not to mention, as you just highlighted, there’s the law of sowing and reaping and so many of the consequences that people suffer are a result of the evil seeds they’ve sown. But in terms of future judgments, the next big one, of course…
Well, let me just say if someone died today, right now, one second or moments after they die, they would either be with the Lord, because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord or they would be in a place known as hades. Hades today is the current hell, so to speak. It’s not the final resting place, but the next event will be the rapture of the church. And when we’re raptured, all of the believers in the church age will be judged.
Second Corinthians five, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The only people present at that are believers. Like in Romans 14, each one of us, meaning believers, will give an account of ourself to God. And we know it happens then because Christ comes back having rewarded us. And so, that has to happen sometime in that seven year period.
When he comes back to the earth, he will be leaving people who survived the great tribulation. Two groups, Gentiles and Jews, each of those groups will be judged based on whether or not they exercised faith in Christ. At the second coming, the antichrist and the false prophet will also be judged. These two men who led an evil movement for seven years. In fact, they will be the very first two people ever to go into the lake of fire.
Sometimes Christians say, “Well, the devil’s in hell.” The devil has never seen the inside of hell or hades. He has freedom right now to wage war and to roam the earth. But the first two recipients will be his two men in that unholy trinity. And then, at the end of the millennial reign of Christ, there’s the final judgment of all time. It’s called the great white throne judgment. The only people who are present are the lost.
So the first judgment when Jesus comes back to the earth, concerns the judgment of the nations. And it’s basically two groups of people who are subdivided, sheep and goats. People can read about it in Matthew 25:31 through the end of that chapter. Those who are saved are the sheep, those who are lost are the goats. And they show whether or not they are sheep by what they do. A person is saved by grace alone, but the grace that saves is never alone.
Titus 1:16 speaks of those who confess to know the Lord, but by their deeds they deny him. And so, the Lord will say the righteous will answer accordingly and they will demonstrate by the way they treated the least of these, his brethren and sister and Jewish people, will determine whether or not they were true believers or not.
Some will say, “Yes. We took care of the Jews and welcome into my presence.” Some will say, “No. We didn’t do that.” Though they called him Lord, “Lord, when did we not do this?” And he said, “To the extent that you didn’t do it, to the least of these, my Jewish brethren.”
So there’s the Jewish people that are in view and there are these gentiles, and the gentiles are separated based on how they treated Israel because that will prove and demonstrate their salvation. And I should say parenthetically, this is another argument for a pre-tribulation rapture, because if the rapture and the translation of the church occur when Christ comes back to the earth, then there’s no need for a separation.
And so, the reason there’s a separation is because the church has already been raptured. The rapture will separate at that point living saints from all the lost. But at this time, when he comes to the earth to rule and reign, he will judge the nations based on how they treated Israel. And this will be the highest point of antisemitism in the history of the world. The Jew will be the most hated person on earth and only true believers will distinguish themselves.
Now, in addition, there’s a judgment of living Jews. It doesn’t mean that just because you’re Jewish that you will be saved at the second coming. People take a verse out of context. They’ll look on him whom they pierce. That’s not when their conversion takes place. That would one contradict other scripture. It’s not like, “Well, when Jesus comes, then I can decide.”
No, they’ll look on him whom they have pierce and because they have been converted, they’ll mourn for him like an only son, because they have had a new regenerative heart as the gospel has been preached through 144,000 Jewish evangelists. But not all will respond. Two-thirds of the Jews perish during the time of the great tribulation. One third are alive and those who are alive, Ezekiel teaches, will be separated.
I will make you pass under the rod, the prophet says, and I’ll bring you into the bond of the covenant. And I’ll purge out from among you the nation, the rebels and those who transgress against me. And he said they will not enter into the land, into the kingdom. So not all Jews will be converted, only true Israel as Paul will say.
So then, there’s the judgment also simultaneously with his second coming of the antichrist and the false prophet. And there again, the first recipients in the lake of fire. And that would bring us to the final big judgment, which is the great white throne judgment. And the only people who are present at the great white throne judgment are unbelievers.
Now it’s interesting when it takes place, he sees heaven and earth flee. And then 21:1, he sees the creation of a new heaven and a new earth. So between the destruction of this current earth and the creation of the new earth, somewhere in outer space, there’s this great white throne judgment and it speaks of God’s holiness as being a great white throne.
You say God is love, he is. God is light, and in him there’s no darkness at all. And at the great white throne judgment, it’s going to be the one judging will be the Lord Jesus. We know that it speaks of him who sits on the throne, but scripture defines to him because Jesus said not even the father judges anyone. But he’s given all judgment to the son.
Peter likewise said that, and he ordered us to preach to the people. I just opened to Acts 10:42. He ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the one, speaking of Jesus, who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. Paul likewise [inaudible 00:16:48] says, “God has overlooked the times of ignorance and he’s declaring everyone everywhere that they should repent.” Why? Because he’s fixed the day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man, speaking of Jesus, whom he has appointed having furnish proof to all men by raising him from the dead.
So the great and the small, no one’s overlooked. There’s not like, “Well the big shots, the prime ministers and the kings and the presidents, you know that they get a pass.” It doesn’t matter how well-known you are or how unknown you are, how well-educated or uneducated, how cultured or uncultured, how rich or how poor, no unbeliever will miss this judgment and they will stand face-to-face with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sam Rohrer: You’ve taken and laid out, we’ve got about a minute left here. I’m going to take and just do a brief summary a little bit, and then ladies and gentlemen, we’ll go into further depth. Now ask some questions about these various items. You basically identified six future judgements when someone dies right now, believers during the tribulation, there’s a judgment of gentile nations who survived the tribulation. There’s a judgment of living Jews who survived the tribulation. There’s a judgment of the anti-Christ and the false prophet, and then the one you just described, the great white throne judgment that is after and at the end of the millennial kingdom.
It’s interesting, Carl, that with these six, there is no one who’s going to miss out on at least one of these judgments, is there?
Carl Broggi: That’s right. No one will escape. And when Christ fulfills his promise for his kingdom, the only people who will be able to enter that kingdom are believers. And that’s why you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God, not only the future eternal kingdom and the new Jerusalem, but his literal reign on the earth and the kingdom of God within you. And so, he is doing a time of separation at his second coming. And of course that’s our next focus on the next broadcast.
Sam Rohrer: All right. That is excellent. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, stay with us because we’re going to walk through now in a bit more detail in some questions that may have come up probably to your mind is relative to these six. Because we are alive right now. Those who have gone, they don’t have a choice, what their decision is made. Those who are yet to be born will have to make a choice, but we will all stand before Christ. All right. We’ll be right back.
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Sam Rohrer: All right, Carl, as we continue on that these six judgments that you laid out, future judgments, beginning with the fact of anyone who is listening to me right now and has breath in their bodies for them potentially there are six that are before. Those have already passed away, I’ll ask you a question about them in a little bit later. But that being the case, you were spending some time on what many people would probably know more about than any other and that’s the great white throne judgment appears at the end of the millennial kingdom.
So go back and complete what you were saying about that final judgment, white throne judgment.
Carl Broggi: So again, it takes place after the millennium, right before God creates a new heaven and a new earth. Somewhere in outer space, that’s the place. We saw the person doing this judgment to whom all judgment has been entrusted by the Father is the Lord Jesus, which again is an affirmation of his deity. And we saw that the only people who are present at this judgment are lost people. There are no believers here, only lost people.
And so, then we need to think about what basis does God judge them. And so, let me just read here from Revelation 20. And I saw the dead, the great and the small standing before the throne and books were opened and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in them according to their deeds.
And then, he says the sea gave up the dead, which where there. Death and hades gave up the dead that were in them. And again, every one of them were judged according to their deeds. So death in the King James, new American standard, most English bibles is capitalized, because it’s here a synonym for the grave.
And so, death has the body. Hades right now has his soul, just like a person in heaven appears to have a temporary body awaiting his resurrection body. The person in hell, like the rich man has a temporary body awaiting his final body suited for the lake of fire. But God will bring them together and they’re judged according to their deeds, for two reasons.
One, their deeds will demonstrate that they never knew the Lord. You’re saved by grace through faith not of works, but were saved to do good works. Ephesians 2:10 says, and secondly, they’re judged according to their deeds because God is just, and He will bring the Scripture which says every deed is brought into judgment. Even the secret things. Paul said, “God will judge the secrets of man through Jesus Christ.” Jesus said, “Every careless word that men will speak, they will give an account on.”
And so, somehow in the perfect justice of God, just like heaven is a marvelous place for anyone who goes. When it’s explained in broad terms, it’s not the same for everyone, because there’s degrees of rewards for God’s people. Well, hell is an awful place for anyone who goes. But somehow in the perfect justice of God, it’s not the same. Some people will somehow experience greater judgment than others.
And so, Jesus told his disciples when he set out the 10, if they don’t receive, you shake the dust off your feet, and in that day of judgment, it’ll be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah for those people. He spoke of the scribes who abuse widows and so forth, and he said, “These will receive greater condemnation.” So somehow in the perfect justice of God, all lost people will be miserable in hell, but not all lost people will be equally miserable and only God will work that out.
And then, finally they’re thrown into the lake of fire. And it’s a place of eternal retribution. The word that’s used for eternal life and eternal punishment in Matthew 25 is the same word that’s used to modify eternal God. So to say that God is not forever is to say that heaven is not forever, to say hell is not forever, but it is.
And again, no one has to go there. If someone dies and goes to hell, they will have no one to blame but themselves. And people today, some don’t even want to talk about it. That’s because they’re suppressing the truth of God that he has written into their heart and written in their creation, but that’s their choice. And some because they won’t respond to the revelation they do have and won’t be given more revelation, even the gospel. But the lake of fire doesn’t mean annihilation, it doesn’t mean, well, you’re there for a period of time and your later restored. It’s a time forever and ever and ever that never ends. Even the first two recipients who are there are described a thousand years later as still being there, the false prophet. And so, it’s forever. Scripture is very, very clear.
Sam Rohrer: It’s very, very clear. And ladies and gentlemen, just think about this, there are two choices. A forever with the God of heaven without any sin or forever in hell, which is real. Wow. What a motivation for us. We’ll talk about that motivation and what it should do in our life in the last segment. A couple questions just to clarify here and go back on some of this, Carl. And here was a question that some people may have.
All right. If believers will be judged by God during the tribulation period, logical question, are those believers, at that point, the believers as of the church in the church age now or the believers that also believed and died during the Old Testament time prior to Christ, who are those who are going to be judged and what will be the determination, the result of that judgment?
Carl Broggi: Well, the first resurrection includes a series of events. Christ was, of course, the first one. A handful of Old Testament saints immediately after he was resurrected, they walked around Jerusalem were obviously taken to heaven. Then, the rapture. And then, the final gleanings of the second coming.
So Old Testament saints today, they will be raised physically at the second coming of Christ. So it appears, letting scripture interpret scripture, that the judgment seat of Christ only involves the church. So not only do we come back rewarded, the scripture also teaches He comes back to reward. And it appears at that time that Old Testament saints who are raised and tribulation saints who died as martyrs are raised, that they will be rewarded accordingly before they enter into the kingdom.
Sam Rohrer: All right. So that judgment will be for determination of reward. Scripture refers to it as crowns being given that which we can cast back at the feet of Christ, which is why we should desire them. It’s not for whether or not we are there, we’re already in Christ. So I want just make sure that’s clear in people’s minds.
The other thing that people may have been thinking about was I never thought about the fact that nations can be judged. That’s a concept that’s hard for many people to grasp. Individually, we can grasp that. How and why does God judge nations when in fact, is it just nations that will be at the end of the tribulation or is God reaching back in pulling up nations that have the historically stood against Israel or for Israel? How does God judge a nation and will judge a nation at that point in time?
Carl Broggi: No. So currently, obviously God is judging nations today and he gives a warning. Those who will bless Israel, he will bless. And whenever the United States of America has been supportive of Israel, God has blessed our nation. When we’ve gone against Israel, we’ve seen immediate judgments in the physical realm, the economic realm and other realms that the two are linked together. But in this future judgment that’s described in Matthew 25, it’s the word ethno. It can be translated Gentiles or nations.
And so, God will gather all the Gentiles of the world and they are evaluated individually. So it’s not like God is raising up all the gentiles in the United States of America. He’s raising up all the ethno, all the Gentiles across the world, and they’re separated as sheep or as goats based on their confession of what they did with the Jewish people. Those who are kind and compassionate and loving during this seven-year period, because these are people who are converted during the tribulation period. That mass number that John sees, these are converted Gentiles but not all believe, the majority reject. And you will see their conversion is true or false based on how they dealt with Israel.
So he’s dealing with individuals, every tribe, tongue and nation is at that judgment of the sheep and the goats. But we stand before the Lord as individuals. But again, that separation has to take place at that time because he can’t have unbelievers going into the kingdom. But there’s a reason why God waits till the very end of time to do the final judgment at the great white throne.
Hugh Hefner’s been dead for a while, but the evil that Hugh Hefner propagated still goes on and God will hold him accountable for everything that he has done and even the influence that he continues to have, though he is dead. And so, at that final judgment of all time, God will add it all up and man will go to the lake of fire according to their deeds in a perfect just system of righteousness.
Sam Rohrer: Okay. We’re just about out of time but a clarification, again, you’ve said it before in another program, we’ve talked about it. Why can only saved people go into the millennial kingdom, why is that?
Carl Broggi: Well, simply for the reason that that’s what the Lord Jesus revealed. When we speak of the word ‘kingdom of God’, it’s used in different ways in Scripture. God’s sovereign rule today over the nations, God has a kingdom. It speaks of the kingdom of God within you. When we’re born again, we become, we’re transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. There’s the literal kingdom that God promised in the Old Testament whose length is revealed in the New Testament and only believers can enter that because Jesus said, “You must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.”
And so, initially he’s going to show us what God intended, and he’s also going to reveal the depravity of man during that time because not everyone who’s born through tribulation saints who enter in their natural bodies will respond in faith.
Sam Rohrer: So ladies and gentlemen, how do we know all these things? Because God has told us in his word. It makes a difference that we understand these things. When we come back, we’re going to say right now, what difference should this make in our lives today?
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Sam Rohrer: All right, today, this program is number nine in a series of what will be 10 programs dealing with the theme. We call it God Writing History Before it happens, a Study of Biblical Prophecy. Now if you go to our website at standinthegapradio.com and you open that up, you will find on that front page a number of things. You’ll find cover to the book, America’s Roadmap to Renewal, which I encourage you go to Amazon and order. It’s God’s principles for the development of a nation. Interestingly, it is what God says, if you want a nation to be blessed, you will do what God says.
These principles are in this book. Taken right off the pages of scripture, but also espoused by our founders here in our country. And as long as we did it, God blessed us. But God also says, you deny me and walk away from it, then judgment will come. Well, that’s the theme of our focus today. The judgment of God, because he lays out exactly what will happen and he wants to bless us if we keep his commandments.
Fear God and keep his commandments. It’s Ecclesiastes 12:13. Fear God and keep his commandments. You want to be blessed? Keep God’s commandments, fear him as a holy God. If we want to have the judgment of God in this life, as we’ve talked about on this program is one form, we just simply do what we want.
All right. That’s clear. But you can find this entire series, we started from the beginning and I encourage you to go back, go on the website, standinthegapradio.com. On your app, you can access it. And walk through from the beginning. It gives you a condensed, very practical overview of all of prophecy, and therefore that is the point.
Now as we always do on the program, we don’t try to raise questions and not resolve them. We don’t try to highlight some aspect of truth from the scripture but not apply it. So Carl, as we’ve done many times on this program, and you’ve made so clear in your preaching to your people and people can find all of the sermons you’ve done, very excellent. They can get it by going to searchthescriptures.org. But you’ve said, I’ve said, and our listeners have responded to me, they’ve caught this. And that is that the study of biblical prophecy is not designed by God to scare us and we should not be afraid of talking about what God talks about, but it’s done to prepare us.
Now that is the key. So in that light, looking back here, now as we talk about judgment and wrapping this up, I want you to make application, because very clearly all people who have already died, they can no longer prepare for judgment, too late. For all those who are yet to be born, they’re going to have to make the same decisions that people listening right now and that is, are we going to heed the word of God and do what he says or are we going to spurn and do what we want?
So the real application, I suppose, of this entire series on prophecy and today’s focus on judgment, Carl, would be that we will all one day stand before God as judge, or we’re going to stand before Christ as believers, however, that’s going to be as we’ve talked about that. So would you make application now to those who have ears to hear, scripture says, those who want to know the truth. How then should we then live now in light of the reality of God’s judgment, his holiness, his righteousness, his justice?
Carl Broggi: Well, first, I would say, Sam, God said in Leviticus, and in Exodus, you’re going to be holy because I’m a holy. Peter quotes that in first Peter one, we should be moved to holiness when we think of God’s coming judgment, because it’s not our likeness to the world that gives us a platform and a testimony to speak to people about the Lord. That’s what the seeker sensitive movement has convinced pastors across America to do.
And so, we’ve become like the world to reach the world, but Jesus taught it’s our distinctiveness from the world. And so, if hell is offensive, it should remind us of how offensive sin is. Just as we can’t, we have trouble looking upon the horrors of hell, God can’t look on the horrors of sin. And hell revolts us just as sin is revolting to God. And he’s called us to a different lifestyle, we’re to be like salt and light, and if we’ve lost our seasoning and our light, we become ineffective.
Second, it should definitely make us more passionate in our witness. You see, the sad thing is that the doctrine of eternal retribution is very rarely preached today, because it’s too offensive. But that’s why our nation, among other reasons, is going down the tubes. And so, a lot of Christians aren’t gripped by the fact that their loved ones, their neighbors, their co-workers, their sons, sometimes their daughters without a saving relationship with Christ are going to a place of eternal retribution.
It was the founder of the Salvation Army who said something, I’m just paraphrasing him, but he said, “I’d rather than send someone to a three-year seminary program if I could take those who work with me and put them in hell for 30 minutes, that would create more evangelistic zeal than any other single thing.”
Well, I don’t have to go to hell to know what it’s like, but I do need to read the Scriptures and meditate on it. So it should lead us to holiness and it should prompt us to compassion as we reach out. I told our people last Sunday. I said, “Look, we can’t reach everybody, but there’s someone this week that we can care about, some encounter somewhere on some level where we can reach out.”
And then, I would finally say, “If I’m not sure that I’m saved, I need to make sure that I’m saved.” It’s not that we, as saved people, didn’t have all these sins and deeds and thoughts. The difference is we’re forgiven. And so, Isaiah the prophet, reminds us that God will wipe out your transgressions and he’ll remember your sin no more. And the writer of the Hebrews highlights that same truth. It’s not that God has a case of divine amnesia, but he doesn’t hold them against us anymore. He wipes them away because we’ve received the substitute who bore that judgment.
He was perished for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And when we understand that an innocent sinless substitute took our place, that the one who deserves, the one as I deserve to go to hell, he provided a way of escape. And so, I’m not going to hell because by God’s grace, I settled my case out of court when I was 18 years old, and I called upon Christ for his forgiveness. I trusted that his death and resurrection, what the Bible calls the gospel, the power of God to save you was sufficient so that my name could be written in the lamb’s book of life and that I could not only know him in this life and the rich relationship he offers, but I can know him through all of eternity.
Sam Rohrer: Carl, thank you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, for me, my encounter with Christ when he saved me was when I was seven years old. Now how about you? You’re listening to me right now, was there a time in your life that you know that you came into the presence of God and sensed the gravity of your sin and accepted Jesus’s payment on the cross and fulfillment of the promise to justify, declare us free from death? Have you done that? That would be my prayer, because in these days when this world is, well, we say falling apart, but really falling into place, if we know it prophetically.
It’s becoming more treacherous. It’s an evil world, but we who know Christ, we should have a hope. Does the world see that hope in us? Well, if we have the hope within us, then I submit that the world will see that hope within us. There’s never been a greater time, in my opinion, to share the gospel with people than it is today.
May you who are listening to this program and all of our Stand in the Gap audience be more motivated than ever because of what God tells us has happened and will happen to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Live for him. Stand, as we say, in the gap for truth. Dr. Carl Broggi, thanks for being with us. His website, searchthescriptures.org for far more detail and whole series of sermons that he’s preached in on our website, standinthegapradio.com.
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