Tough Questions II, Will Everyone Make It to Heaven?

This is the second in this summer series that we've entitled Tough Questions. Tough questions, things that people ask you about that just don't have easy answers. Last week was a wonderful celebration of our nation's independence under God, but also answering the question, will God bless America? And Pastor Day helped us to see what was at stake the issues of staying close to the blesser, being a flag. Remember that image of being a flag that God's spirit would blow through. Today I want to talk about this question, will everyone go to heaven? Say that with me, will everyone go to heaven? Now this may not seem like a tough question. In fact, I'm sure that a few of you already said, well, you know what, I might as well daydream because I already know the answer to that. Well, the answer is no, of course not. But friends, let me first of all begin by saying this. I'm not sure that most of the people that you rub shoulders with really believe that. In fact, the survey in Time Magazine just two years ago revealed this. Let's put that up. When asked immediately after death, which of the following do you think will happen to you? 61% of Americans believe they would go directly to heaven. Okay, so the majority do. And then another 15% believe that they'd make a stopover in purgatory where they would pay for their sinfulness. So do the math there. What is that? 76% of the people that you rub shoulders with, three-fourths of them believe they're on their way to heaven. Now the next line is actually wrong. That should be 1% believe that they're going to hell. Just 1%. 1%. These are pretty shocking statistics when you really think about it. So the majority of Americans think, I'm going to heaven. 1% believe they're going to hell. And you say, well, I don't know. I mean, is everyone going to heaven? And just in case you have taken a, you know, a rather spiritual scriptural smugness about this, try this scripture on for size, if you'll help me please. How about this scripture, Colossians 1, 19 and 20, look at this, read it out loud. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, that's Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Now does all things mean everybody or just some? Well, I mean, if you read it in face value, all things would seem to mean all things. And there's a doctrine out there called universalism, which means that in the end, God is going to use the sacrifice of Christ on the cross to eventually, we don't know how, but eventually bring everyone into heaven where they'll spend eternity with him. And verses like that one, there's about nine or 10 others that I uncovered in my study of scripture this week that seem to argue for that. So before you just throw this out the window, I want you to think for a minute, will everyone go to heaven? I want to tackle this issue head on and just to help facilitate your remembering some of the key points, look at your outline. I've done a little acrostic here. Okay, will everyone make it to heaven? And I've done the acrostic and I've spelled out the word, what? Heaven, A-T-A-V, how many points is that? Six. Well, that's going to be a long sermon. Well, I was going to do everlasting life, but I cut it down just a little bit for you today. Let's go right into it. Number one, what do I need to know about going to heaven? Well, first of all, you need to hope in Christ alone. Friends, every religion in the world asks the question, how do people like us, finite, frail, flawed people, how do we get made right with an infinite holy God who dwells in heaven? I mean, we know that something needs to happen, but how? Jews believe that if we keep the law and strictly follow his commandments, we'll end up in heaven. But who can do that? Buddhists believe there's an eightfold path of progress and spirituality, that if you follow all those steps, you'll make it to eternal bliss. Hindus believe that you need to strive to reach Godhood each time you reincarnate, which about three or four percent of Americans believe happens. But who has any guarantee that that's going to, maybe you have a bad life and you go down a couple of notches, you know. Maybe that ant you just sprayed was Uncle Charlie, you don't know. And there's 330 million Hindu gods that are worshipped. Islam, the Hindus believe this, the Muslims believe this, that if they please Allah, if they do the right things and live obediently towards Allah and constantly engage in self-purification, they'll end up in heaven. And by the way, if you've not noticed, a true practicing Muslim is a very devoted person and usually a very moralistic person. Why? Because they're trying to behave well enough to be pleased and accepted, pleasing to and accepted by Allah. But in none of these religions is there a specific quota defined for just how much good works is enough to be accepted. And that's the rub. You see, all of those people, billions of them, as defined by what I just read there, billions of them will live their entire life and not know what's going to happen to them until the day they die, because there's no assurance that they're going to make it. And I want to submit to you, that's not the way to live this life. That's not what God intended. Unless, of course, you're in America. You see, we here in America have pretty much eliminated the problem of uncertainty by assuming that we are just as fit as God to determine how well we're doing and keeping accounts of our good works. And if we think that our good works, our morality, our ethical behavior is enough, then God will certainly think it's enough. And if we believe we've done more positive than negative, more good than evil, that in the end, well, I mean, how many got a conversation with people that go something like this? I think in the end, if my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds, God's pretty fair and he's not going to judge me. Remember that conversation? Or, you know, someone like this, well, you know, I'm no saint, but I'm no axe murderer either. I've given to Salvation Army and other good, I mean, I've been pretty generous when people have asked me for, or some people say, I've done a lot of religious things that I've been supposed to do. I was baptized in my church and I was confirmed and I've been a good this and I've been a good that. And they give you some kind of answer related to what they've done. How many had a conversation with people like that? That is the common belief in the American culture. And it's usually qualified with something like this one. Well, it doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you're, come on, as long as you're what? Sincere. I mean, you ever heard that? I've heard that a thousand times. It doesn't really matter what you, as long as you're sincere. Some years ago, I was driving in a road down in Virginia, a four lane highway, divided highway, I assume speed limit was 65 miles an hour. I was cruising along at 70, enjoying grace. I got pulled over by an officer. He said, son, you know, when they say that, it really gets you, son, how fast do you think you're going? I said, well, you know, somewhere between 65 and 70, I guess, officer. He said, what do you think the speed limit is? I said, well, I believe it's 65, isn't it? He said, well, you're in a residential zone. It's 45 here. I sincerely believe, officer, it was 65. I sincerely believe that. And I was sincerely fined. You can be sincerely wrong. Make no mistake. The irreducible starting point, friends, for the discussion of how one goes to heaven is found in the words of the one person who claimed to be the son of God, who came from heaven, who verified his statements by living a perfect sinless life, performed miracles, taught truth, and most importantly, was raised from the dead. And that human being who was also the son of God said this. Look in your outline. I am the way, the truth, and life. Say it with me. No one comes to the father except through me. Friends, I didn't make that up. Christianity didn't make that up. Those are words from Jesus himself. I know those words are abrasive to people who want to be open-minded, pluralistic, tolerant. Those are not tolerant words, but that's the truth. Notice Jesus didn't say, I will show you the way to heaven. He didn't say, I am the signpost on the way to heaven. He didn't say, do what I do and you'll go to heaven. He said, I am the way. And it is only the Christian faith that can provide an assurance for you that the day that you die, you will know that you will spend eternity with God because you know the way, the truth, and life. You know the person of Jesus. It was through his sacrifice on the cross and his sacrifice alone that you receive payment for your sins. And you want to know what the real problem in this nation is and the world for that matter. It's the fact that we don't believe we have a problem. That's the real problem. The real problem in America today is denial. The real problem is people don't believe that they're really in trouble. Life is good. Things are going my way. I want to read a quote from Francis Schaeffer. Jump down a couple of spots if you're pleased guys up above there. Here's what Francis Schaeffer said when asked the question, if you met a really modern man on a train and you had just an hour to talk to him about the gospel, what would you say? He replied, I've said over and over, I would spend 45 to 50 minutes on the negative. Now that doesn't sound real endearing. That doesn't sound like the kind of thing that would get people to want to listen. But you see the issue is folks, most people don't think anything's wrong. I want to really show him his dilemma, that he is morally dead. And then I take 10 or 15 minutes to preach the gospel. I believe that much of our evangelistic and personal work today is not clear simply because we're too anxious to get to the answer without having a man realize the real cause of his sickness, which is true moral guilt. You know people say, well don't lay that guilt trip on me. You ever heard that? Don't lay that guilt trip. Guilt as a consequence of sin is a good thing. It's the Holy Spirit's way of reminding you that something's wrong in your life. You will find as people begin to grasp the significance of God as creator and man as sinful creature, that you can explain in most direct and powerful way who Christ is. You see once they're ready to hear, then the showing them the gospel is easy because they want the answer to the question. So friends I just want to say if you're here today, and I'm sure some of you are, and you've been on that religious treadmill, and you've been trying to be a good person, and you've been going to church perhaps, or you somehow believe that you know you're you're piling up your works in a way that God's going to look at you with favor, I want to say to you in all love today, in all humility, please give it up. You can't make it. And open your heart today and receive the free gift of God in Christ Jesus, the gift of salvation. Admit your sin and you will find that God will rush in and fill your life with his presence. Second thing is what's at stake here? Eternity is at stake. One of the great deceptions of our day is that life is about today. You know go for it all. You know just live today to the max. Take these 80 years and just do everything you can to have an incredible life, and certainly that's an important thing to do. But some folks become so obsessed with this life and all that it can offer that they push into the back of their consciousness the reality that the last time that everyone checked the death rate in this nation was 100 percent. I find it really mystifying how intelligent people, educated people, as well as just common ordinary people, just suppress the idea of death. Like it's not going to happen to them. Financial planners tell us to start early to get ready for retirement. I'm going to get you know your financial planner say get going while you when you're in your 20s and say for a good 30 years or so. So by the time you retire you'll be in good shape. And so you do that you know you'll live another hopefully 15 or 20 years in retirement. But is there any sense of doing that and and living your whole life and not preparing for eternity? May the Lord give us some wisdom to understand what's at stake here. I want to share with you four statements, clear statements, that Jesus made about eternity. I didn't leave room for them in your outline and I apologize. Maybe you could put them on the bottom or note them on the side. They're important. Number one, see sometimes when I do messages the best stuff comes at the end and I've already done the outline. What do I do with that? I mean I can't erase the outline so you'll have to bear with me. Here are four things. Number one, write it down. Every single human being, Jesus said, will be resurrected immediately following death. There is no, I talk to people from time to time they say well yeah I guess some people live for eternity but I just believe. I had a friend at my last class reunion at college. I said well what do you think happens when you die? He said I just think your candle goes out. And that's a convenient thing to think when your life's a mess. Jesus said that's not the way it's going to be. He said every single human being is going to be raised up. No death sleep, no layovers, no jet lag. Close your eyes in death, open them in eternity. What did he say to the dying thief, the repentant thief on his side? He said today you'll be with me in paradise. What day? Turn to your neighbor and say today. It could be today for you. Today you'll be with me in paradise. Our souls, our personalities, our true selves would immediately gain consciousness in eternity. And you know that's another thing. People say the weirdest theories about the disembodied souls that kind of drift through eternal fogs and stuff. No, you know what? We're going to recognize each other. We're going to look at each other and say I know you. And we're going to be without the flaws and all the problems that we have. And our bodies are going to be glorified. What does that mean? I don't know, but it sounds good to me. How about you? I'll take one. Praise God. This one's just not all that glorified anymore. Second thing that Jesus said is the first scheduled event upon awakening is the judgment. Now I'm not going to try to go down this road too far to talk about the chronology of the great white throne judgment. But let me just say this. Jesus makes it very clear that every human being will stand before God. And if you have trusted Christ, you will pass right through that judgment to the judgment seat of Christ where you will be judged according to your faithfulness in the things of God. You will be saved and then God will bless you and give you crowns according to your faithfulness and being a steward of your gifts. But if you do not know him, there is a different destiny that awaits you. And that's number three. Jesus said clearly he will divide the human race into two camps. Just two. Two camps. All spiritual confusion will be cleared up. And may I say as a sidebar right here that many religious people are going to be shocked to the core of their being in that day when the unthinkable happens. When those who were Christian in name only, who sat in pews or churches and simply took up space thinking that they were fooling everybody about this whole thing about God, including God himself, when he knew all along it was in the heart. Friends, God is not dumb. Don't mock him. Don't play games with him. If you're not connecting with him, then tell him that. If it's not making sense to you, tell him that. But don't sit in church and go through the motions and put on the smile and expect on that day to hear him say, hey, didn't matter. Come on in. In fact, he said the opposite. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said, I'm going to say to many on that day, depart from me. I never knew you. The issue is relationship. And so there'll be two camps. Those who knew him, those who trusted Christ, who received his salvation as a free gift, and those who did not. What would their destiny be? Well, for those, and then this is the fourth thing he said, for those who had trusted Christ, and they're going to be called into heaven forever. They're going to be, and there's only two places. There's heaven and there's hell. Heaven is the place that God has for those who trust him, for his angels, where his presence will be the light of day, where his glory will shine in every creature, where joy and peace will permeate. The scripture I listed, Revelation 21.3, he will wipe away every tear from their eye. There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. What a place it's going to be. May I add, no harps. I don't think there's gonna be harps. This whole harp thing, you know, being on cloud, I mean, that is not my view of heaven. I mean, for eternity, I could, I think heaven's going to be purposeful. I think God's going to assign us great challenges, but in fairness, Jesus also talked about hell, and as heaven is indescribably glorious, hell is indescribably horrible, and I don't want to put some damper on someone's day, but I need some of you to know today the reality of what the Bible teaches. Jesus was very clear. He said, hell is a place where God is not. I mean, that's all you really need to know. God is absent, and the Bible says that it is the word of his authority that holds everything in order. If God is absent, I want to submit to you, the first mark of hell will be total anarchy, and I believe hell is probably a place, likely scripture would teach a place of darkness. What does darkness symbolize? Isolation. I've had people say, well, you know what, I don't want to go to heaven, and a bunch of weirded-out Christians, we're all praising the Lord together. I'd rather go to hell and party hardy with my friends. Well, you know what? Nice theory. It's likely in hell that you'll suffer and torment and hopelessness alone. Jesus said there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. You need to know that's what's at stake here. Third thing that everyone has to come to grips with is that all people have fallen short of God's glory. This is the difficult part. This is the part that people don't want to hear. You share with them Romans 3.10, there is no one righteous, not even one. You know, you share that with, or that they exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve created things rather than the creator who is forever praised, and people get a little pushy. They say, you know, who are you to judge me? How do you know you're right and I'm wrong, and those kinds of things, and you have to humbly say, you know, I am not judging you. I'm simply sharing with you the eternal word of God, and this word that's lasted 2,000 years in its form, this is the authority that's been breathed by God, and I mean, if you have a better one, and you know what you'll find is if you press people, why do you believe what you believe? They'll usually say, well, I read it in a magazine, or I read a book by someone I don't even know the name of, but it seemed right to me at the time, and friends, those are troubling things when God's given us his eternal word, and we need to know enough scripture to help someone understand the importance of what they're deciding. Sin is what causes people to be separated from God, and sin is not just the things that we do. How many of you know sin is our nature? I mean, we come into the world with it. How many of you have that little two-year-old that you know, I mean, that little two-year-old that for whatever reason, you tell them to sit down, and what do they do? They get right up, and they say, walk away from you, and just do what they want to do. What is that? Did you train them to do that? What is it? It's sin nature. It's that rebelliousness that's innately in each of us because of the fall of man, and it's that at the root of our problem. That's why we must share with people that they need to find the solution to that problem, and I have discovered over the years that people just don't want to face that. They say, well, you know what? I mean, it's not all that bad, and you know, and they get into this, all this rationalization, and they just drift away from God, and I want to say to young people, if you're here today, and you're a teenager, or in your early 20s, and you're undecided about Christ, I want to say, decide now. Make your choice today. Don't put off, and here's why. Between 85 and 90 percent of all people that come to Christ do so by the age of 21. The older you get, the more hardened you become toward God, unless something happens to you, and my 25 years of ministry experience, the exception is this. When somebody's life falls apart, they begin to crack open the hardness of their heart, and say, well, maybe, maybe I do need to investigate God, and I see that breaking coming in one of five areas. Marriage, family, career, finance, and health. When one of those five goes real far south, people say, wait, maybe I need to find out about God. Maybe I need him more than I thought I did. Maybe I can't solve my own problem anymore. Maybe it's bigger than me. Maybe I need the Lord. Can I say to you today, people need the Lord, whether they show it or not. Many of them wear wonderful masks at work, and in the neighborhood, but when you get inside their lives, they're hurting. They need the Lord. I want the team to come up right now, because I believe it's important that we all know this point, that we own it together. Whether or not people show it, in their hearts, they need him. They desperately cry out for him, but they need someone to show them the way to Christ. Let's stand together. Joanne's going to lead us, and we're going to join in singing, but it's going to take more than just nodding acknowledgement. It's going to take our lives to help others. People need you. Amen. Let's be seated. I'd like you to look at the last verse in the front of the outline. Look at it. Look at it with me. Would you read it out loud? The last verse in the front of your outline. Read it with me. For no one can ever be made right in God's sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying it. So what do you do? Well, number four, turn your outline over. Volition is critical. You choose your destiny. You see, in the fabric of all of this incredible truth about eternity and God's sovereign will, God has imbued us because we are designed and created in his image, his glorious image. Part of the being created in the image of God is the fact that he's given us a free will. We are what Baba calls free moral agents. You are not a puppet on a string. God says, if you're going to love me, you're going to choose to love me. I'm not going to make you love me. And so that is the miracle that God presents us with, is the fact that we choose our destiny. You see, heaven and hell really, when you think about it, are just an extension of the choices that you make in this life. Now follow this because this will help you in some of your discussions with people. Believers, if I were to ask you today, what do you enjoy the most in this life? And if you're a true believer in Christ, you'd probably say something like, well, you know, one of the things I enjoy most is just being in the presence of God. I just, I love worshiping God. I love being with him. I love to know his presence is near me, you know. I love to be with his people. I love to be in fellowship with other believers. I love to know the fact that God's directing my day and gives me purpose and meaning. And you know what? Heaven is simply going to be those same things you love to do magnified thousands of times over. That's what heaven's going to be like. Heaven is just, you know, God more and more, worship more and more, God's people more and more, God's purpose alive in us. Similarly, hell is the playing out of your choices in this life. Have you ever had someone say this to you? How can that loving God of yours consign people to hell forever? Anyone ever had that question? Am I the only one that gets these questions? Maybe it's because I'm a pastor. I've had that asked me a lot. How could a loving God consign people to hell? And my response is this, well, excuse me, didn't you tell God all along that you didn't want him in your life? When you were presented with the truth of the gospel, when you heard people declare what Jesus was about and what he came to do, you said, thanks, but no thanks. I'll chart my own course. I'll do life my way. I'll make my own decisions. Thank you very much. I will be the captain of my own destiny. I'll do it my way and all this rest of those different cliches. And God just simply says, after you die, you know what? That's the way you wanted to do it. And that's the way you're going to do it. You can choose to live life without me. And the consequence is you will live eternity without me as well. So I'm just giving what you wanted. I'm just letting you have it that you can't have it both ways. You can't have it without me in this life and with me in eternity. And someone would say, well, well, wait a minute. I mean, that's a little extreme, isn't it? I mean, I mean, I didn't know. I didn't realize that all eternity was at stake. Oh yes, you did. You heard it. And someone's got to be thinking, well, I mean, it seems reasonable. How about 10,000 years of cleansing and then let me into heaven? Well, look at this. Here's an interesting verse. It's one of a number of similar verses. Look in your outline. I want you to read this one with me. This is descriptive of people who are under God's judgment. Look at the bottom of number four. Revelation 16. Men nod their tongues in agony and curse the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refuse to repent of what they had done. And I will submit to you that even on that day, men's hearts will continue to harden and they will reject God even though it means eternity. And so I say to you, dear ones, if you're on the fence, choose Jesus today. Don't risk the possibility that your heart will grow harder as you go down through the pathways of life, but receive him today. Make your choice today. Number five, knowing what's at stake, knowing what's involved. Listen, what then should we do? Well, number five, each one should reach one. Each one must reach one. I tell you, we as a church family, friends, we have to recommit ourselves to this, to the mission of touching this world with the truth of the gospel. The move in churches these days, listen, is to just sort of enjoy the prosperity of God's blessing in this nation and to kind of, you know, kind of round ourselves up in holy huddles and just have tons of food and fellowship and just party together as Christians and hang out and just sort of eat, eat, eat. And I want to say, you know, there's nothing wrong with having fellowship, nothing wrong with eating together. In fact, it says in the book of Acts, we should break bread together. But can we have some balance in this and realize that we have a mission, that we have a city here to reach, that we have students all around us who are ready to hear the gospel if someone will take it to. And beyond that, we have the nations of the world just waiting with countless millions of people who need to have the privilege of choosing. How can we be indifferent toward the lost? How can we not care when we realize what's at stake? Paul the apostle, when he realized what's at stake, wrote this in the book of Romans. This is out of the message translation. He says, Romans At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. I love these words. It's an enormous pain deep within me, Paul writes, and I'm never free of it. I'm not exaggerating. Christ is the Holy Spirit of my witnesses. It's the Israelites, the Jews, my people. If there were any way, even if it meant that I were cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I'd do it in a minute. I just want to submit, who's the person today that has that much passion for the lost that they would even wish their own curse if that was what it would take for a loved one to come to Christ? Paul was passionate. He cared. Do we sacrifice for others, really? Do we pray for them, really? Do we give our resources as if it really mattered? Do we serve? Do we work together to try to make an impact? Did you know that 95% of the people that will come to Christ will do so because of the ministry of the local church? A lot of these media evangelists don't get all the attention, but it's the church that really does the work of discipling and the work of evangelism. It's the church. When the local church is working together in community, when people are serving and giving, when they're creating together, when they're doing presentations, when they're just caring, when they're coming alongside of people in need, it's then that the church is at its finest and the church is the agent of the gospel. I know it can seem overwhelming to win people and talk about thousands and millions of people, but in the end, it's each one must reach one. Say that with me. Each one must reach one. Even in the nations, it's that way. Even in the masses of China, the billion-plus people, it's one person reaching another one. I want you to hear the story of just one person. You say, I'm awfully busy. I don't know if I can be involved in reaching another person. We're all busy. I want you to hear the testimony of a person who's very busy like you. This person happens to be a medical doctor, works with children who have cancer, pediatric neuro-oncologist, but she made time in her life to share this glorious news of the gospel with people in a far-off land. It touched her life. Would you welcome Dr. Reggie Giacacchi as she comes to share? Let's give her a hand. What does Reggie stand for? Regina. Regina. Good. I was going to say Reginald. I said, that doesn't sound right. Regina. Good. Doctor? First, I'd like to thank everybody who prayed for me. It was very effective because I had such a good time that I really didn't want to come back. I spent two weeks in China and Tibet. I'll tell you that those were times that touched me more powerfully than any other two weeks of my Christian life, really. Now, I can hear you all saying out there, well, she's a doctor. It's easy for her to go and help these people. I don't have a skill like that. I got to admit to you that I planned to go over there and do medical care, and I had this wrong mindset thinking that I really needed to be able to really help people and to make a difference. I needed to bring my medical skills and to do that kind of thing. But God, out of his grace and his mercy, decided I needed a revelation about what helping people really meant. So he decided he was going to not let me do much medicine at all. In fact, he even tried to warn me the night before I left. Charlie Beck called and said he'd been praying for me, and he told me that he had heard God tell him to tell me that I really wasn't going as a doctor, that I was going as an intercessor. I looked at the suitcase that I had spent four hours trying to squeeze all this medication in and had laid on to try and get that zipper across the last three inches, and I thought to myself, you've got to be kidding. I thought, I hope he's wrong. Fortunately, he wasn't. Although I didn't really get to do much medicine, in fact, I ended up taking all my medicine and putting them in little bags. I outlined in specific detail, with notes inside each one of them, how this medicine was to be used. I ended up giving them to people who weren't doctors, who might be able to give them away to people who needed them if the need arose. But despite that, God showed me that I could really help people in an even more powerful way. He showed up in so many ways. He worked through me, and in me, and around me, and sometimes even despite me, that it really was a miraculous thing to be a part of it. We had the privilege, or a few of us had the privilege, of going to a house church in Chengdu. And keep in mind that house churches are illegal, and in fact, you're not allowed to meet outside of the government church setting. And in fact, a w