Saved from the Fire

Jude 1:23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

{NLT} Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives

I was talking to someone the other day about business. And he told me something that really disturbed me. He said that if I want to get on in the world I shouldn’t tell people that I’m a Minister or a Pastor. I should tell people that I’m a teacher, a coach or an educator. See, it was his opinion that that’s what it would take for me to ‘get on’

Now I’ve never sought to ‘get on in the world”. In fact I seldom if ever do things the worlds way. I’ve never set out to please people – some of you may have noticed! But I do honestly try to please God. I’ll be the first to admit that the parable of the talents peaks loud and clear to me. It resonates in my heart. I believe that it’s not just a matter of stewardship but that its an obligation to God himself that I maximize the resources he’s entrusted me with. I refuse to be that guy who buried his God given talent in the ground just to hand over to the master on his return. No, I want to be one of the other 2 guys, The guys who increased what the master gave them. And they got their reward when the Master returned. So that’s one reason why those who are close to me know that I’ve always got a project or two that I’m working on. Anyway that’s a whole other sermon.

So that guys words bothered me some and I cut the conversation short when I had the opportunity to do so'
And I guess we won’t be speaking again anytime soon.

SO I asked my self  how could it be that this country – which pledges itself to be one nation under God could now be so opposed to any kind of Christian evangelism? How could a nation founded on Judeao-Christian principles have drifted so far?

Churches the world over are supposed to preach truth but something seems to have changed. We’ve stopped teaching people that there’s only one way to get to heaven regardless of social standing, ethnicity or financial worth. Now, we seem to have been distracted by political correctness. And alternative lifestyles are becoming acceptable in church circles. And we seem to be more focused on prosperity than Gospel

William Gladstone was once the prime minister of Great Britain. He was also a prominent figure in the church way and Something he said way back then is so relevant to us in 2010:

“Hell has been relegated to the far-off corners of the Christian mind. There to sleep in the deep shadow as a thing needless in our enlightened and progressive age.”

So as I look around about me today, I have to ask the question, “Where has Hell gone?” And here’s the thing: once you answer that question properly, you’ll discover that that’s where the Church went as well . Because when Hell disappeared, the effective church disappeared too.

See, once Hell disappears - there’s no need for evangelism.Once Hell disappears - there’s no need for holiness.If Hell disappears – there’s no need for worship.If Hell disappears - there’s no need to confront the flesh.And if Hell disappears, there is no need for a true Church.

Now, Hell began to disappear in America the day that people began to question the voracity and the authority of the Scriptures As soon as a man begins to doubt the authority of the Bible things start to go missing in his theology.

And then there are those who don’t necessarily doubt the authority of the Bible but have chosen to get sloppy with their interpretations of Scripture.  In other words, they bend it and squeeze it and play with it until they get it to mean what they want it to mean – then go and act on the basis of manipulated authority . They’re just as guilty because before long Hell disappears from their line of sight too!

See, today we’ve learned to smile at the idea of an eternal hell because we don’t believe in awful, intolerable, eternal torture any longer. And now Hell has almost disappeared from our society and people have become ashamed of the gospel. Look at what Paul said to the Romans:

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.

But you see, I think a lot of Christians are ashamed of the Gospel.And I think that America is ashamed of a Gospel that demands the need to come to a blood soaked Cross, to seek redemption. Ashamed of a Gospel that demands repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost. Ashamed of a Gospel that calls for a radical separation from the world. And America is ashamed of a Gospel that says you’ll have to endure the punishment of Hell for your sins on this earth UNLESS that is you come to Jesus!.

Go to a Christian bookstore and see what the Top Ten Christian bestsellers are and you’ll see that some of the books cater toward self-help and self-improvement but with a kind of God “twist” on it. And apart form that the rest are designed to help you to limp through the struggles and catastrophes of life. And Christians spend millions and millions of dollars on books that seldom if ever generate any real lasting change(mainly cos you don’t do what the books tell you to do anyway. The reality is that most of the trouble that comes to our lives is self-induced . Its a consequence of the poor, ungodly choices we made in the past.

See, when you finally look at the inside of your soul and you get to the point of being real honest with yourself, what you find is that you don’t need comfort nearly as much as you need repentance. But that is a hard product to market in our consumer friendly country.

A number of years ago, a pastor was summoned to the bedside of a dying man from his church. When the Pastor entered the room, the man held out his hand and with a voice filled emotion he said,

“I am dying - and you never warned me of the state I was in. You didn’t tell me about the danger that I was going to face. You never told me I was neglecting the salvation of my own soul!”

The pastor was taken aback, and said, that’s not true brother. I took every reasonable opportunity to talk to you about spiritual matters,about the church and about the importance of living for God.”

The man replied back,  “Yes that is true. You did do those things. But that wasn’t enough. You never came close to me and closed the door and took me by the collar of my shirt and told me I where I would go if I died in this state that I would be lost, and condemned to an eternity in Hell. And now I am dying and unless you get real with me I’ll never get to heaven.

Just a story, but the point is well made. All of us will face death one of these days and there’ll be a final accounting take place.

See, here’s the reality of the situation:Despite the thought of Hell making us a bit uncomfortable. . . even though it Hell may have disappeared from some of our pulpits, most of our books and nearly all of our new songs it has never disappeared from the Bible or from the mind of God.

J. C. Ryle—
The watchman who keeps silent when he sees a fire is guilty of gross neglect. The doctor who tells us we are getting well when we are dying is a false friend, and the minister who keeps back hell from his people in his sermons is neither a faithful nor a charitable man.

The ONLY place to understand Hell is to look to what God’s Book has to say about it. The universities, the seminaries and the Bible colleges are NOT the authority on Hell. Neither are the “talking heads” on cable television or even the bloggers on the Internet.

Jesus had a whole lot to say about Hell. Strangely enough, a chunk of it was in His first sermon. So, the Sermon on the Mount is where we begin to get a taste of what Hell was going to be like. The the last thing that Jesus was interested in doing was merely telling people what they wanted to hear. No, He told them what they needed to know. His authority came from another world and when your authority comes from another world, you find that you’ll not bound by what men approve of ..or disapprove of..Jesus loaded up His first sermon with such statements like:

Matthew 5:22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell

Now this is what he said to all those who play around with immorality:

Matthew 5:29-30 So if your eye—even your good eye — causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand—even your stronger hand —causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell

Later on in His ministry, He went on to say. . .

Matthew 18:8-9 So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell

When He gave his disciples their commission, He knew that they would be under incredible worldly, pressure  to give in and quit but He warned them that they had the fear of God to be concerned with . .

Matthew 10:28 “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell

Jesus was saying this: you have to understand just how important it is to do Gods will. . . no matter how hard it gets or how difficult your life circumstances seem to be . Any discomfort you feel here and now is only temporary and it’s a whole lot preferable to the permanent judgment that’ll come to all those who prove themselves to be unfaithful.

Jesus also said something about all those people who opposed Him. He said their origin is in Hell.

Matthew 23:15 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn that person into twice the child of hell you yourselves are!

Paul had a lot of things to say about Hell. They’re scattered s throughout the Epistles But if you really want to understand what hell is about and iof you want a crystal clear understanding of who’se gonna be there, you need to look at the Revelation of Jesus Christ as given to John,

Revelation 14:9-12 Then a third angel followed them, shouting, “Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand must drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.”

This means that God’s holy people must endure persecution patiently, obeying his commands and maintaining their faith in Jesus.So here, we have a graphic picture of the wrath of God being poured out. And whenever God’s wrath is poured out, people have to deal with extreme suffering.

To get a picture of the wrath of God you have to put three Old Testament passages together. . .

Psalms 75:8 For the LORD holds a cup in his hand that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours out the wine in judgment, and all the wicked must drink it, draining it to the dregs.

Jeremiah 25:15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled to the brim with my anger, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.

Jeremiah 51:7 Babylon has been a gold cup in the LORD’s hands, a cup that made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank Babylon’s wine, and it drove them all mad.

Now, if the effect of Babylon’s wine was intoxicating, it is nothing in comparison to God’s wine. Babylon’s wine was mixed with water and diluted.Babylon’s wine made the nations submissive to her for a time.But the effects of Babylon’s wine will wear off.

But God’s wine on the other hand will cause the ungodly to get drunk.God’s wine won’t be diluted with water, It’ll be effective to accomplish His purpose. God’s wine won’t be temporary either. . . it will never wear off.God’s wine will make the nations submissive to His judgment forever.

Most sinners are like a drunk man that’s fallen into the fire. He’s about to get burned and he doesn’t even know it. He’s literally in the suburbs of Hell and doesn’t know it.He can’t even help himself because he’s not aware of his spiritual situation

So, we all need to stop and think. We need to take stock and understand our responsibility to the least, the last and the lost. Those people around us. . . We hang out with them every day. See, if we really understood our responsibility to them then our churches would be standing room only every time the doors are opened

Remember that phrase in Revelation 14:10. . . And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb.

All through Revelation Fire is used to represent judgment.  Believe me, there will be intense suffering associated with the judgment of Hell.

Picture in your mind of a volcano in the process of erupting. Picture the molten lava running like rivers. . Picture people you love rolling about in that lake of fire. . . bobbing up and down. . . sinking and then coming back up. . . nnd then there’s the screams…

But then you have to add in the word “tormented” See that word Tormented puts spiritual and psychological suffering into the mix along with all the physical pain. It comes with weeping and mourning.

Guys its just not worth going to Hell. . .

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos you got offended by someone

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos you like that lustful activity.

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos you’re holding a grudge over something.

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos you choose to ignore the commandments of God.

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos you like walking around with the slime of sin covering your life.

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos you like being a covenant-breaker.

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos you like being full of yourself.

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos your too proud to kneel at an altar.

Going to hell is not worth it –  just cos you like that lustful activity.

Going to hell is not worth it – just cos you choose to keep hold of that un-confessed sin in your life.

Several months ago, I read the story of a man called Mr Sanders and he was talking about some of his experiences as a firefighter and he talked about some of the fires he had been involved in putting out. He wrote about a time when he tried to help a guy get out of a fire.

A fire had broken out in a large building  and the Air Force firemen showed up to put it out. When they got there, a portion of the building was engulfed with fire. They soon discovered that there was an airman trapped in the building - his only escape route was blocked by the fire.


So the airman turned and started running toward the other end of the building desperate where to find another exit. The bad part was that there weren’t any alternative exits. He ran to a window. Mr Sanders saw him coming and tried to break the window so the guy could escape. The only problem was there were bars covering the window and Sanders couldn’t rip them off.

As Sanders tells his story he said that he could see the fire racing up behind the man - but the man couldn’t get out and no one else could do anything to get him out either.

Mr Sanders wrote that in just a few seconds he could see the man’s ears literally melt off the sides of his head. He could hear his screams

But this is the part that still haunts him to this day – 45 years later. Rarely does a week go by that he doesn’t see that man’s eyes. . . . hose terror filled eyes.... those pain-filled eyes pleading with him to get him out of that fire. . . . .

Jude. . . said it like this. . . . Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment

Now imagine your loved ones in that picture. Then let me ask you this:

Are your children worth it?

Is your unsaved spouse worth it?


Is your mom or dad worth it?

Because if anyone you know is worth it you’ll stop at nothing to get them to the House of God this coming weekend

So I guess we’ll see just who you think is worth it.