The Modern View of the Gospel 3

The Modern View of the Gospel 3

Colossians 1:6

Let’s start at Colossians Chapter 1 verse 6. It runs in a continuation of verse 3, “We always thank God” for you Colossians, and then in verse 5 to 6, “because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel (which is the subject) which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing -- so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

So he’s talking there about the gospel. You can see that’s the purpose of that whole verse: “the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing -- so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

So it sounds like a wonderful thing. Oh, that’s great! It’s in the whole world, and it’s bearing fruit, and it’s growing among them – right from the day they first heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. It’s all growing, and bearing fruit.

I just think that today people don’t think that way! They don’t think that, “Oh, the gospel! Oh, yes, it’s so wonderful.” Now maybe they do in some places, but I think in the West, they think this: “That sounds wonderful. ‘The gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing -- so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.’”

I think here in the West, people think, “Oh, the gospel! Oh, yeah, that’s that, ‘Jesus died for our sins.’ Oh yeah, and you have to get forgiveness for your sins.” Then immediately their dear minds go to the churches that exist, and all the activities of religion – Christianity. I’m afraid I don’t think they think of it that way!

They think of it a conglomeration of beliefs, ideas, ethics, behavior, and social groupings -- that somehow mean Christianity! They don’t think of it as the gospel that in the whole world is bearing fruit and growing, so among yourselves.

Now maybe in China they do. But I would suggest that in our Western world, it’s kind of complex what they think of it. I think some of them may think of it as abortion. Others may think of it as our attitude to ISIS. Others may think of it as daycare at church. Others of us may think of it as the noisy, charismatic churches. Others as the staid respected churches where people go with all their prejudices. But I don’t think people think of the gospel in that joyful wonderful way!

I think part of the reason is what Fromke pointed out in his book, The Ultimate Intention. He was one of those writers that we all got to know during the 60’s and 70’s. He made the point that the story of the gospel in our 20th century was a bit like somebody who had set out on the journey that had a plain and obvious ultimate intention to it -- but somehow lost its way.

If you remember, he had the famous diagram that he drew. I don’t have a board for writing on, but it’s easy to explain to you that the ultimate intention was here {pointing, and the starting point was here {pointing, and the journey stayed about there {pointing}. Then it was heading for something to do with God’s image and growing into God’s image. Then here it hit sin.

It began to be preoccupied with its own problems and ideas, and the road bent down from this straight road, and began to twist and turn among all the versions of the gospel, and the forgiveness of sins, and Christ dying for our sins, and what we had to do in repentance to get back to him. Then it slowly began to try to find its way back to the road that lead to the ultimate intention.

His suggestion was that in these days, it hadn’t found its way back. It was still on the detour, and that Christianity and the Christian churches were preoccupied with them being lost and trying to get saved from their lost condition – rather than ever getting up to what the ultimate intention was -- which of course was the image of God, and his fulfillment of his plan for us all in the universe.

So the ultimate intention was never reached. He pointed out that this was the great tragedy of Christianity. It was in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s that it lost its way! It forgot about the ultimate intention that God had, which is the one that is outlined in Genesis 1:26 – that we would be made in his image, like him.

I’ll elaborate it rather more than is there in that verse: we would be made in his image. I always think of him turning around to his Son, and saying, “Let us make man in our image – so that they can live with us forever in love – in the love that we have – and that you can make the universe through them what I had planned it to be, and develop it.” That was the simple gospel.

Of course, I think I’ve shared with you before – it seems to me there is something in that that speaks to man’s lost condition today. Because if anybody has any doubt about mankind in these days – it’s certainly not about their feeling that they don’t know where they’re going. There’s just a general feeling in the world today: “I don’t know what this thing is about! I don’t know where we’re heading!” The ISIS thing is only an obvious terror and panic for us. But the world itself is full of panic, disparate opinions, opposing views, and directions that are colliding with each other almost every day in life.

Most people have that attitude to life. There’s nothing very joyful or simply wonderful or delightful about it. I would suggest to you that quite apart from the difficulty in America that young men and women have in financing their education – I think most of them don’t know what they want to do! They’re not really clear in what they should be doing in life. Everything seems to be up for grabs. Everything seems to be going in all directions, and mostly in the directions that will bring you whatever money will get you through to the next week. 

 

So it seems to me that today we have a picture of a Christian gospel that has lost itself in an emergency salvation detour that has forgotten completely why we were created in the first place. So there’s great vagueness about the gospel, and about what it is. I think that’s the great need.

I would suggest again to those of us who are concerned with the Internet – I think there is a crying need for a plain simple explanation such as we have shared repeatedly. I’m sure I bore you with it! – that we are here because we have a loving Father who wants to live with us forever in love, and he wants us to live with his Son. For that reason he has actually made us part of his own Son.

I’ve said to you before, “I do not think for a moment that most people think that at all.” I think they would laugh at us. You know that we are God’s workmanship. You! You and I – God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that he, our Father, has prepared beforehand, that you should walk in them. {This is a slight paraphrase of Ephesians 2:10.}

“I think that’s a wonderful fairy tale. I have no notion – no idea at all – that the maker even knows me. In fact, I think he exists somewhere – but I don’t think he knows me. And I certainly don’t think he’s made me in his own Son, as you say. I’m in Jesus Christ? I, who use that name as a curse word – I’m in Jesus Christ? No. Don’t be stupid!” I don’t think they have any idea.

So I would suggest yet again to us that this outline of the gospel that we have in verse 6 is not a glorious thing for people nowadays. It may be talked about joyfully here. But I don’t think of the gospel as a wonderful joyful thing. I frankly think it would be refreshing if they thought the Maker of the world turned around to his Son and said, “Let’s make people like ourselves who can live together with us in love, and can develop this whole universe along with us.” I think people would go, “That’s a great idea! I’d love to be part of that.” But they don’t even know that it exists in the Bible. But even if they did, they have no notion that’s the truth.

So I would actually go the other way. I would say to you: if you forget what the gospel seems to me to most people to be these days – then actually the real gospel is just as wonderful as what is described here in verse 6. It’s a wonderful idea.

I think it would bring great relief – much the same as we were saying to each other – about the idea of everybody eventually getting the opportunity to come to God, even after this life. We thought -- that’s interesting. The normal attitude even at a Christian funeral is kind of bleak! People aren’t really absolutely enraptured about the idea of death. They think, “We really don’t know what’s there.” I think it’s very much like that with the gospel.

I don’t think they think of the gospel as a wonderful, joyful, delightful thing – because I think we have buried it under what Fromke said. I think we’ve buried it under the detour. I think that most people would say, “Oh, the gospel! Oh, yes, your sins can be forgiven because Jesus died for me, instead of me dying. Oh yes – I know that.”

But I think it’s kind of a concept that they have – what John Wesley would have said, “a train of ideas in the head.” It’s not the disposition of the heart. The heart does not rise in joy to it. The mind kind of agrees with it, or considers it as a possibility – but not as a wonderful, uplifting thing.

But the reality is tremendous! It’s very exciting when you read the Great Commission there – have dominion over the birds of the air, over the fish of the sea, over everything! {This is Genesis 1:26.} It seems so exciting! It looks so exciting when you see that European probe riding on the back of that comet (as happened in 2014). You feel, “Boy! That is a wonderful universe! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be part of the people that develop that?”

It seems to me that’s uplifting. Of course, that’s the truth of it. But I don’t think they even know Ephesians 2:10. And if they know it, they do not for a moment believe it.

Why I’m enthusiastic about this verse today, to be able to say to you who are listening to this is: That’s what we need to get over to them! We need to have wonderful images that transmit to them the whole wonder and joy of what God has really called us to.

I think it would do the same for people as we were talking about in regard to: “Is there a second probation {after death}?” as one man suggested. Is there a second opportunity after death to eventually be conformed to Jesus’ image, and eventually because of God’s love, his steadfast love that never ends, and his mercies that never cease – is it possible that there would be that kind of lightness of heart for us in reality?

I think undoubtedly that is the lightness of heart that exists. I think that God is describing a party. I think he’s saying, “My Son, let us make man in our image, and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, over all the planets, over all the solar systems, and enable you through them to develop this universe in the way I have planned.” The Ephesians 2:10 verse follows from that, that “We are (God’s) workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” and that that was what God was describing in Genesis 1:26 -- that they would have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air.

God has planned all that. He has it all laid out already. He knows exactly what you will be doing forty years hence. He knows exactly what you’ll be doing seventy or eighty years hence. He has it all planned, and it’s ready for us. Of course that’s the gospel. But the world has no notion of that. So it’s left with this rather gray, bleak view of life after death.

Yet, we have a feeling that the people whose faith and life we’ve come to respect through the years – undoubtedly had only joy in their minds as they thought of heaven. I think of my grandmother – Salvation Army lady. Oh – they just looked forward to it. They were anxious to get there! Those who know God are people who are always looking forward to it. It’s not by any means a second best. It’s what we were looking forward to. It’s the purpose of life.

I would dare to say I look at it that way. I think it will be great!! I think this present life will be nothing compared with what is there for us. It seems to me that’s the gospel, and that’s the gospel that this dear guy {Paul} is describing here. That’s why he says it’s bearing fruit. It’s blossoming. It’s going everywhere! People are anxious to know it, are fired up by it, and are lifted and elevated by it. That’s what we have to put on the web.

I thought so strongly about it that we should each commit ourselves to writing an email to somebody every day, saying, “Send somebody a flower today. Do something creative today. Create order today. Put something right today.” We should actually take action, and take positive action to encourage other people and ourselves to do something beautiful today, to stop saying, “Stop ISIS,” and start saying, “Start joy. Start order. Start beauty. Start peace. Start generosity, and do something definite.” Because it is possible for man to be gripped by the negative, and to be gripped by the unreal and the untrue. It takes strong action to resist this.

If you say to me, “Where do all those ideas come from?” I thought -- we have to do something. We have to make a start on the Internet. It’s as if we’re gripped in the present situation. It’s gripped us! And each of us has the little things we’ve done on the Internet, and we think they are quite good and not bad. But we’re in a paralysis in a sense, and we need to break out of it, and tell people what the gospel really is. It’s utterly different from what is being shared.

You all probably know as well as I do: Arrrggh! It’s ordered all right – but dead order. There is a deadness to the Christian sites. There’s not a liveliness about them. I think our job is to express the joy and delight and the reality of what God has saved us for and created us for.

That’s undoubtedly what the world needs. It’s interesting, isn’t it? At a time when the world is full of new things – full of fiber optic communications that are faster than ever. Full of new gadgets – new smart phones -- it’s also a time where there’s kind of a tiredness in the air. Maybe not the malaise that President Carter talked about some years ago. But if not a malaise, there’s a weariness in the world that runs through many things. There’s a great need for the life of God.

So I think we should pray about it, and ourselves consider seriously doing something, and especially maybe sending an email to somebody every day. “Do something creative today,” or, “Create order today,” or, “Send a flower to somebody today.” But – something that would contain that fountain that is talked about in the song, “The peace of Christ makes glad my heart, a fountain ever springing.”

That is God’s norm as you see when you hear that bird welcoming you once more with his song in the morning. Or the birds that you see soaring in the air. Obviously his heart is that.

So we should pray that our websites will be that – they would stand out in what is a not too exciting scene, as you look around these days. Let us pray.

The Modern View of the Gospel 2

The Modern View of the Gospel 2

Colossians 1:6b

Colossians 1:6, starting with the last couple words of verse five, goes, “The gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing -- so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

I said in our last talk that today, the gospel is not doing that. Part of the reason for this is, the gospel today is so naked, so bare, and so lacking in the richness and the depths that God has put in it. Not least is the case regarding the last part of that verse – “from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

Of course, the dear souls today have no idea of the depth of the grace of God. We know a little about it when we “say grace” – “we’re saying grace.” And we know a little about it when we thank God for all that has happened to us. But to understand the grace of God in truth – they have little understanding of that. It’s a really “pat” little gospel that is preached today. “Jesus died for our sins, and so we’re forgiven. We’re going to heaven. Yippee! Now let’s get on with life.”

It’s very much that kind of attitude. It’s very much, “The grace of God is that at least my sins are taken care of now. I am not right, and I do not do the right things. But – thank God for Jesus! Because his death has been for me, then I don’t have to worry about these sins.” It’s the same as a friend of ours who says, “I know where I’m going!” A little bit of the feeling comes over, “The others might not know, but I know where I’m going.”

If it’s not that, it’s certainly a simplicity that is not good. It lacks depth and profundity, and really has not much idea of the grace of God. Part of it is that there’s very little interest in God’s heart.

Really, I’m ashamed of myself. But only on a rare occasion did I think of the heart of God. But through the City Mission I would end up places downtown {in Belfast where he grew up} that weren’t so savory. Often they were the dear Catholic places. Often I would go into a Catholic living room, and there would be the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the wall.

It made me sick of heart – but not in an encouraging way. I thought, “Uhhh! What a terrible thing to have – the heart of Jesus with his dear breast open.” But at least I saw some attempt to understand God’s heart of love. But rarely besides that did I think of the heart of God.

Nowadays, what do you think the heart of God is like? Nobody thinks of that. We quote him madly – whether he’s for abortion or against abortion, or whether he’d agree with Obama on this. We say we’re interested in his opinion. But the heart of God? We’ve said it before – we have an idea why it is – because on the whole, we’ve inherited the idea of God as we get it from Lucretius, Livy, Julius Caesar and Virgil.

It’s the idea of the Latin and Greek god as an impassive person – hardly a person – an impassive being. We tend to tie him up with Mars, the god of war. We think of him as somebody who’s impersonal – certainly not a human being, and not a personable person. So we in a way don’t think of him having a heart.

If you press me and say, “But don’t we all talk about him loving us?” Yes, but who has any idea that he cuddles us? Who has any idea that he’s soft and gentle? We use the word gentle. We certainly wouldn’t use the word soft. We know he comforts you, “stands you up and gives you strength, and gives you backbone!” But we don’t have too much idea of a gentle, kindly, loving Father who really knows what I’m feeling. It’s not so much he’s not interested in what I’m feeling. He might be, but he doesn’t have time!

I think that’s an accurate description. I think that’s what the majority of people think of when they think of God – if they think as much of him in a human way as that.

To tell you the truth, I think they think of him as a bunch of beliefs -- about abortion, politics, this person who is bad, or this person who is good. But I don’t think for a moment they think of him as a person.

It caught you off balance, partly because the man was a scientist or a lawyer. He quoted Job: “He yearns for the creature his hands have made.” {Job 14:15} The man was a very successful lawyer. In his obituary, it said that this man, who was a Christian, was touched by this verse -- that God could actually yearn for the creature his hands had made.

But – who thinks that? They don’t think that. I’m not for abortion or for unwanted pregnancies. But the wee girl who finds she’s going to have a baby, and she’s not married. Why does she think of the waste basket? Why would she even think of putting it in a waste basket, of putting it in a bag and hiding it on a train after it was born? {As happened recently}. Because she is convinced that this person {God} would have nothing to do with her.

So there’s a tremendous need for you to spend your life, if necessary, on the Internet, explaining the heart of God, and convincing people that our God has a heart, and his heart is concerned with our hearts.

I was in the bookshop yesterday, and I saw this magazine on the shelf {holding it up}. I was looking at computer magazines, and this caught my eye on the shelf. “Jesus” Man of History, Figure of Faith.” It catches you. That picture on the cover is not the one I would necessarily have chosen. There are other ones inside that are alright, and there are a lot of other ones that we would agree are churchy ones. But the important thing is: why would they ever manage to get put on an ordinary magazine shelf? I think it’s the American Bible Society who publishes this magazine.

But that’s what we want to do – put something like this on the Internet. You can see, it’s not so offbeat that they are not able to think of putting it on an ordinary magazine shelf.

If you ask me, “Are people interested in God?” Of course they are. I think they always are. But what they’re not interested in is joining a mega church, or having someone try to persuade them to join a mega church. But I would say there are more and more people becoming aware that there is a huge universe out there – and it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that some of us might get out there some time. I think more and more people are aware that the universe is vast. In their minds is the thought, “Isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t it amazing? When God has us as the few human beings that we know of in the universe – isn’t it remarkable that he has us here, and that we have a life that will go on after this life? And I wonder what we’ll do there in that vast universe.”

So I think more than ever that people are interested. But I think what they desperately need, want, and miss, is the heart of God. I don’t think they have any notion.

There is one guy who emailed me, who has got the important question. He says, “I would be glad if you would elaborate on the phrase, ‘created in Jesus’” – which is the phrase of the central truth I’m trying to put over! That is the most difficult one! I’ve started an answer. Somehow he’s come across this phrase. {Part of Ephesians 2:10}

Of course it’s the central question of this whole gospel that I’m selling to you – because that’s the heart of it all: We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus {first part of Ephesians 2:10}. That’s the most difficult part. I wouldn’t mind trying to answer all the other questions, but that’s the most difficult one: “Created in Christ Jesus.”

But most people have no idea. I bring it before you again – they don’t even know that exists in the Bible. And if they knew – they’d just be the same as the person who asked me about it. “What do you mean? Created inside my mother, I know. But created inside Christ Jesus – what does that mean?” They have no notion that that’s in the Bible. And they have no idea that we have that degree of closeness to the Deity. None at all.

So I would bring it before you very seriously: the gospel that is missing in these days is: God’s heart is real, and that we are part of him and his Son. They have no idea of that. If you just state that, they will just say, “You’re stupid!” Or they will say, “I just don’t know what you mean.” So it takes elaboration and thought to make that clear to people.

But I’d bring it before you. Can’t you see how it would transform a little inferiority complex?

We know a little fellow that Irene has gotten to know in town here. He’s a dear fellow – an assistant. In the world's eyes he'd be thought of as a “little nothing.” Can you imagine how the truth I’m talking about transforms “a little nothing”? So – getting this truth out to people is worth it.

I think God has given us the beginnings of an insight into him that is what the world needs. I’d say to you all – thinking about that, making attempts at writing it yourselves, watching out for images that could get it over, praying that God could give you more light on it, spending the rest of your lives getting that over to people on the Internet – would be a wonderful occupation and wonderful thing to do.

Do they understand the grace of God? No idea! They have no idea that God has made us in his Son, and then has given us the freedom to do whatever we want to do, so that not even Marty can do he wants to do – but Hitler can do what he wants to do. Not only can Colleen do what she wants to do, but the guy who killed the people in the Boston Marathon – that he can do what he wanted to do. And it would all take place inside Jesus, inside our Father’s heart. He would bear that.

Not only would he bear it, but he would let it go on until that person determines to stop it. That’s it.

That’s at least what, “His steadfast love never ceases” means. We think it means more than that. But at least it means that. “His steadfast love never ceases.” He keeps loving the person, even though that person is killing his own Son.

Then of course the obvious corollary of that is: everything that we do, he feels. We are in his Son now. In that sense, we are in him {God the Father} now. In that sense, there’s nothing that we do that he does not feel.

You know what the normal view is. The normal view is, “Oh, of course God knows everything! Oh yes, he does know everything. He knows where all the winds are and all the rivers. He knows which nation is the strongest. He knows what’s happening between Germany and France. Oh yes! He certainly knows what I’m doing. He must be looking through his telescope and he sees this little beetle moving over here, and this little fly. He certainly sees me.”

That’s as far as it goes. “He maybe knows when my Dad dies. He maybe knows if I ever get married. Does he know what I’m going to do tomorrow morning? Well, I suppose he does. But I don’t think he’d be interested.”

But what the Bible says in Heb 4:15 was: “He was touched by our infirmities.” {Paraphrased} Maybe they’ll go as far as, “Well, that was Jesus. That was him as a Son of God and a Son of Man here on the earth. They don’t say he was play-acting, but they say, “He was being a human being. So of course he was touched by our infirmities. He wept when Lazarus died. He wept with Mary and Martha. Yeah.”

“But, does he weep when I do something? Well, can you expect him – when he has so much to do?”

I think I’m right, and that you know that this is it. I think they have no notion and no idea that what they do hurts God. If you use that term, “hurts God”, they agree with the term – a metaphorical term that somehow or other the actions you do either forward his cause or don’t forward his cause. In that sense, they hurt his plan and spoil his plan. But mostly it’s that kind of thing. They upset his plans.

He’s thought of as a great chess player, who is moving the chessmen around. He’s not connected to the chessmen at all. He just moves them. He doesn’t feel bad when the chessman falls over! He just picks it up and moves it.

There’s no feeling for our Father, no sense that our Father has a feeling for them and loves them. Yet you know fine well, that’s the heart of the apostolic gospel. That’s why Paul says, “The love of Christ constrains us, because we judge that Christ died for all, therefore all have died.”{Paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 5:14} The love of Christ constrains us -- that is, drives us and motivates us to do what we do.

People have no feeling of that. If you say to me, “Now wait a minute. The leading commandment is, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and strength, and mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.’ That’s right! I believe you ought to love God. And I believe if I do that properly, I’d probably obey the greatest commandment. And I do love God! I don’t spend a lot of time saying, ‘Oh, God, God.’ But I love God. I mean, I have a respect for him. I have gratitude for him.”

Are you ever sorry for him? “No, I’m never sorry for him.” Do you ever feel that he would be heartbroken in this situation? “Heartbroken? No. I mean, he wouldn’t like to see all those people killed in that ferry in Korea that went down. Heartbroken? Well, maybe if a baby was floating in the water.”

But, has anyone encouraged them to think otherwise? Including my profession {ministers}. Who has encouraged them to think otherwise? Not many.

If you said to me, “Where does the hardness in the world come from?” Isn’t it obvious? It’s obvious. The great heart that loves it, and that so loved it that he gave his only begotten Son – nobody has any connection with that.

So there’s a burning need for us to preach the gospel. I hate the term – “to preach the gospel.” There’s a burning need that men and women would begin to know and understand the grace of God.

I put it to you. If you asked anybody, “Do you understand the grace of God?” They immediately say, “Grace is undeserved favor, his undeserved favor, his mercy, his forgiveness of us. Yes, I understand the grace of God. It’s his undeserved favor and his mercy.”

It’s so different from the dear man washing the disciples’ feet -- showing them real love, and not just “his undeserved mercy.” So – there’s a great need for people to hear about the heart of God.

So I would say to you: express and explain the real gospel. That is, explain and express the heart of God. Enable men and women to know that God feels everything we do, and everything they do, and that he knows what it is, because he has made them part of his Son, and he knows his Son very intimately. He doesn’t have to say, “Son, why is your foot sore? Why is that hole in your side bleeding, and throbbing?” He doesn’t need to say that. They are so close to each other. They know each other.

So it’s a great privilege we have. I’m sure you sense, “That’s right! That is where it’s at. That is where people are at. And that’s why the religious stuff that goes on today does nothing for them and doesn’t touch them at all. Because it has nothing to do with these things at all.”

And yes, they get harder and harder with every divorce, and with every separation -- because there’s no softening influence anywhere in the world now that is touching them. That’s why they like movies – because they see imaginary people who seem to have imaginary feelings for each other. So they kind of “wash out the inside part of themselves.”

Really they don’t. They fill their inside with all kinds of imagined feelings that don’t affect anybody’s life. But it kind of sublimates their desire to have feeling, which figures so little in their lives.

Of course, it’s why all the drugs are so popular – whether it’s anxiety drugs that people take, or worry drugs, or whether they’re “getting high” drugs. That’s why people take them – because they feel there should be more feeling in life! There should be more satisfaction in life than there is. There should be more excitement in life than there is! There should be more intimacy in life than there is. There should be more feeling for each other than there is.

That’s undoubtedly what drives them into the charismatic worship. You feel in church there should be something more than just mind! Something more than concepts. Something more than just people standing up and singing. There should be some feeling!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen two things more popular than they are now. One: the bear hug. It’s never been so popular as it is now. Two: the kiss-kiss. It’s never been so popular! And yet we all know – there’s something kind of strange about it. When we see some of them do bear hugs, we think: that isn’t natural to you. But you’re doing it, because, “That’s what the guys do! All bear hug.” Or kiss-kiss. Well that’s the European way. We kiss on each cheek.”

It’s a world that is pretty cold, and pretty unsatisfied. The only thing you still get on the Internet is the intellectual religion -- but what I mean is, the not really intelligent religion. I mean the mental religion – something that affects the mind and the emotions.

You can see it. It’s the whole game with the psychology, the whole game with all the trouble we have with groups. We laugh about the film Romantics Anonymous. But we know more and more that’s what people try to get into – get into a group that will encourage you to relate to other people, and to occupy your whole personality with people. It’s the desperate need of the day.

So I’d ask you to take seriously Colossians 1:6 – “from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.” Can you now share that with the world in ways that are understood, simple, and straightforward? I think there’s a great opportunity for us.

I do agree with you: “You have to think out of the box,” as they say. Really all you have to do is think straight, and think of some of those things that I’ve mentioned, and then get to work yourselves.

It certainly won’t all be solved with the right pictures. But undoubtedly, if you’re going to communicate on the Internet, it will have to be with good visuals and images, with music by all means, and with words. But it needs to be something pretty plain and straightforward. But I think there’s tremendous need to enable our dear Father to share his heart with the people that he has made. Let us pray.

Dear Lord, you know what runs through our minds as we each think, “Oh, but how could I do that?” We know that you have given us the answer: I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. Lord Jesus, it’s our time spent with you that will enable you to do these things through us.

We see, Lord, that it is just pride that makes us think of our own ability. We see plainly that we have no ability compared with you. But you do have ability, and you have said that you would strengthen us, and that your strength would be made perfect in our weakness.

So Lord, we would come to you, and ask you to help us here. Help us to work out websites, images, texts, and writing, that will enable people to know, dear Father, your heart, and begin to guide their lives by what you are feeling and thinking.

We know, Lord, that that’s why you put us each here – so that you, through your dear Son in us and his Spirit, could express to the world what you’re thinking and what you’d like done.

So Lord, we give ourselves to you anew this day. We ask you to lead us forward. We don’t know at all how we will do it. But Lord, we will present ourselves to you so that you will begin to do it through us. Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with each one of us, now and evermore. Amen.

Modern World View of the Gospel No. 1

Modern World View of the Gospel No. 1

Colossians 1:6a

Last night wasn't just a bad night. It was a nightmare. It was wild. Somebody (who will remain nameless) made a deal to buy all the property, Garden Court, on Fourth Street. This wasn't years ago -- it was in my dream. So they moved right in and leveled one room after the other. I watched the restaurant being bull dozed off. Then they must have had more land next door because they proceeded to build a huge manufacturing operation. So they leveled everything and I walked in and they treated me as nothing. This was now their property. The building was all gone and Campus Church was all finished. So the dream finished pretty much there.

It was interesting because I saw, “That's it.” It was just a moment. It was just a second and whatever God did he did. That was it and it was now gone. No big deal in a way. It's still a big deal for me. That's the way life is passing in this world. Everything is eventually gone. That was the dream and I awoke knowing that's the situation. I began to gather myself together and think about the things. I began to think especially about what one was to do now -- what life was to be now -- what was worth doing and what was real and true. That's pretty much where the dream finished, not on any great note, but just here I was with no church now and probably saw the passing nature of it. That it all was a moment in time and it was gone.

So I thought of what am I going to say here today. I knew what I should be doing but it was such a task that I thought, can I push out in this direction? I was helped a bit by the fact that Chris, the realtor, said to me, "I saw you on YouTube." He wants to know more about O'Neill because he's going to sell something to him. So he looked up Ernest O'Neill, I looked up too, and you see all kinds of things. There's this corny operation that collects sermons, they’re no dummies, they were bright kids, I hit my picture and see what I am doing. It was a long sermon and they knew YouTube, which I don't know, took only a certain length of video, so they cut the whole sermon into 4 parts. It's a great sermon, Cheap Grace. It's plain as a pikestaff, very clear.

Then I knew I didn't have much option with you lot but tackle what I was going to tackle when I saw what the next verse was. Cheap Grace is dead straight. I'm blunt, plain and simple in it. People think God once had the Ten Commandments where he said you have to obey. Now he saw we couldn't do it so he's changed his line now. He says, "Ok, if you believe my Son died for those of you who don't obey the Ten Commandments, you'll be saved by that." So I said of course lots of people believe that and think Yippee, good, it doesn't matter whether we obey those or not. It depends only on whether we believe Jesus died for us. That's how we get in.

That's cheap grace. So I draw it out clearly and it's very plain that even I can understand it. Then I knew I had no option but to tackle today's verse. It's Colossians -- one that we have partly tackled before. It's Colossians 1:5-6, "Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the Word of the truth, the gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing -- so among yourselves, from the day you heard and understood the grace of God in truth.”

I thought, the sceptic that I am, in the whole world is bearing fruit and growing? I know in a general kind of way you can do that but, boy, here in America it's not exactly doing that. The gospel is not bearing fruit and growing amongst ourselves, it's probably at an all time low. So many guys that are supposed to be ministers running after other people's wives. So many people doing all kinds of illegal acts under the name of Christianity. I wouldn't say it's bearing fruit and growing. I hope it is among ourselves. In general in the world, I would say ISIS is bearing fruit and growing.

Of course the reason is the very thing I was preaching a sermon about. It is cheap grace. Most people don't see a challenge in the Gospel, much deliverance in the gospel, they see something that prompts them to argue about abortion or argue about whether they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but not much about being delivered from themselves and living a different life. I wouldn't say the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing.

Of course what I was thinking of stepping back from was doing the same thing I have done with you for what seems a thousand times, saying to you that the gospel most people think about is “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” It's believe that Jesus died for your sins and you'll get into heaven. Most people think of that as the gospel. If you ask them, what do you think the gospel is, they would say it is something about how Jesus died for our sins. I think that's what people think of. I think the moment you mention gospel on the internet, I'm sure that's what they think of. If they are people who are brainwashed with it, they slot right in there, ready for the whole story of sin and confessing their sin. Really that's what they think.

Like the ordinary guy, Robin Williams, a supposedly 'with it' guy, slick, modern fellow thinks, “don't give me that.” That's those guys that are always crying at you, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” There's little sense, what a wonderful idea; what a wonderful truth. No one thinks of that. We like to think it is; we like to think there are all kinds of people who are sinning like crazy and under terrible guilt. They are looking for some way out of that guilt. They're not, they're not! People are not conscious of their sinning or that they are under their guilt. When you come to them with this medicine, they say, “I haven't got that disease. You are coming to me with something I don't need.”

I'd say to you we need to waken up and see that. The real gospel is far better than that. Paul ends with "that you understand the grace of God in truth." They don't understand the grace of God in truth; even we are just beginning to understand it. I don't think people do. If you ask, do you understand grace, they would say it's God's undeserved favor. It's God forgiving us our sins. Of course the grace of God is far, far more than that. So again today I would remind you, the grace of God is -- our Father has a dear Son whom he loves and they are living together in peace, love and happiness. They have created a whole universe and they want others like themselves who they can share their love with and share their universe with. That's why they made us.

They knew we would never be able to share their love unless we were able to love ourselves. That is, we ourselves would be able to love other people. We could never do that unless we were free not to love because love means your own goodwill going out to another person because you choose to send it out to them. You can't love unless you are free not to love; unless you are free to do whatever you want. They therefore determined that we would have that choice. They had to allow us to choose whatever we want. They knew there was nothing that existed outside them. There is nothing outside God. So they knew they had to let us choose nothing if we wanted to. So they did that.

So our Father put us in this world and his Son could live in us to develop the world the way he planned. He gave us the freedom to say yes or to say no to that. If we wanted, to develop the world whatever way we wanted, so that we would be able to see what the alternative to him was. That is the only way we could have free will -- if we were free to choose something other than him. It wasn't free will if he said, “I'm here and I'm the only one you've got; now use your free will.” He had to give us an alternative to himself and that's how they did it. They allowed us to make the world whatever way we wanted; to develop it whatever way we wanted and to do that freely so that we would see there is a choice.

There is a choice here; we have to choose this way or that way. That's the situation we are in. They have given us the freedom to choose.

That meant, of course, that we would be nothing because there is nothing out there. If we chose nothing we would be nothing. So for that reason God made us inside his own Son. It's unthinkable. It's absolutely unthinkable. Who would ever dream of doing that, knowing these people might choose all that you weren't. They might choose everything that you are unlike; might choose nothingness; choose the very opposite of what you are like -- opposite of every virtue you have -- they may choose. You make that person inside your own Son! It's like making a person capable of getting cancer and then putting that person inside your own Son. That's what he did.

He made us inside his own Son so that we would have life -- we would have eternal life -- yet be able to make the choice. That's what happens at the moment. We choose whatever we want but we do it inside his own Son and his Son has to bear that sin and bear it and bear it. Our Father committed himself to doing that forever.

Now that stops a person in their tracks. Nobody knows that -- I agree with you -- nobody knows that. We all know fine well; we all know God and Jesus; in our own minds we know what we need if we are bringing somebody into our family. It is a dreadful blindness that prevents people even imagining this. It's all plain sailing if you let your mind move along. It's obvious this is what happened. It's obvious this is what they have done because it is obvious to all of us that there is no alternative to God. There's no alternative to him. There's only God and not God. So he has allowed us to do that.

It is staggering when then you take the next step, and you point out: when is that going to stop? When is he going to pull the plug? When is he going to stop this madness of committing himself to this kind of torture? Because, of course, it is obvious that the death of Jesus was him expressing that in a temporal life here. He was expressing in a life of Jesus of Nazareth what he endures eternally. So, when is he going to pull the plug? That's where the whole truth is: his steadfast love will never cease; his mercies will never come to an end. Then that's what you are faced with, that he is going to put up with my choices forever? Or for a long, long time if you want. That is grace beyond anything.

It seems to me that in some way you have to present the heart of God. You have to take the plunge. I'm not bringing up the old argument of how long is forever -- that's for everybody to decide. Certainly in the Bible it is the ages of the ages. That's the term that is used. It seems to me that you have to try to get that over. You have to sometime stop playing the game. Stop playing this forensic game which everybody is playing, even the guy in charge of the Genome Project. I can't guarantee that he thinks it. But I do think most people are caught in the normal interpretation that if you believe that Jesus died for your sins you are forgiven. That's God's grace.

There's really no understanding of God's own pain. We often talk about it. What the Catholic saints were trying to do -- I joke about my stigmata -- the saints tried to dwell on the death of Jesus that they would start to feel some of that. Of course that was almost a psychological experience and not a spiritual experience. What I have outlined here to us is far nearer the situation than this little forensic equation that we worked out that everybody talks about -- do you believe Jesus died for your sins -- yes, you're in, no, you're out. That's terrible. It's dreadful. In every way an insult; it's not just an insult, it's inflicting more pain on our dear Father. In some way, however big the task is (I don't minimize it!) we have to start thinking through it.

Don't get tied up on how long is forever. Talk about the ages of the ages if you want. Don't get distracted by technicalities. The important thing is, we know fine well that that is the truth. We know that every little girl that becomes pregnant, we know what God's heart is doing. He is touched with our infirmities. He is touched with our tears. We remember the shortest verse in the Bible: "Jesus wept." [John 11:35] We know fine well our Father is a tender Father.

So in some way you have to start expressing that. God has brought it to our attention irrespective of how long that is going to go on. He undoubtedly feels the pain of sin. It seems to me that the sheer facts of what I just outlined which seem to me as plain as a pike staff, that is what happened, they plainly set forth the pain of God and what He is faced with. Equally important is that it sets forth what we all talk about. "God is love, God is love." Do you think people think God is love? Do you think anybody is very concerned about God being love? They may use the term but do you think they believe that God actually loves them? They know he is kind and has given us loving gifts including the world. They know there is love in this world. But that God is love and that God loves them? I don't think for a moment they think that.

There is need. What is our job? Our job is to preach the gospel. What is the gospel? Surely the good news is that we do not have an impassive hope. We do not have a classical, Greek or Latin God who doesn't care for us and who is way up there distant from us, knowing nothing about us. But surely our gospel is our God is the Father of Jesus. He loves us the way he loves his own Son. He feels our pain. He feels our suffering because he has made us inside his own Son and he has done this all because he wants us to live with him forever in love. I think that is why we are here.

I don't underestimate the difficulty of the task and how you have to think outside the box. You have to start thinking of images of all kinds, words and illustrations of all kinds; ways of setting it forth on your website. We cannot continue in this gospel that makes it even, however critical my comments seem to be to you, you know that I am dead right, the gospel is winning its way wonderfully, especially here in America. It's not bearing fruit everywhere. It was, in those days, because the gospel they preached applied to the great need they had at that time. The overwhelming need of the Jews was forgiveness of their sins. Undoubtedly that was the emphasis. You cannot say that was the only emphasis in the New Testament.

Again and again is expressed there the closeness that Christ is to us and that we are in Christ a part of Him. God and Jesus are very aware that we all are part of them and part of their family. They want us to be. It seems to me very important that we take the bull by the horns. That's what I was looking at with this verse -- taking the bull by the horns -- this is a big one. I know your dear hearts believe what I say but we are all caught in the same thing when you preach the gospel -- how do you preach it? You preach it the same way everybody else is preaching it, even though it is equally ineffective. We all come out with, “You are alright; Jesus died for your sins.”

In truth he did die for our sins. That isn't the heart of why he died. He died because we are in Him. He bore in a practical, realistic way every day of his life and our lives. He bears our sins. He bears them inside himself. Every time we do something insensitive to God, insensitive to somebody else, he feels that pain. He puts up with it, if you like. Except, the dear Loved One never uses those words. But forbearing, that's what it is. Forbearance is putting up with things. We put that meaning as a reluctant 'putting up'. 'Hupomenai' is the same -- it's the Greek word for patience -- "hupo" is under and 'menai' is to remain -- remaining under. Forgiveness is remaining under the thing even though it is hurting you like crazy. You stay -- you bear it.

That is what God is doing with us day by day. I do think it isn't right for us to cover that up. It isn't right for us to pretend. Even more than that, you know what people are concerned with. You know fine well why the social media is so popular because somebody knows what I am doing. If I say yesterday I went to the circus or yesterday I played tennis with so and so. Or, I just had a wonderful ice cream. Isn't it pathetic? You put it on your Facebook page because you want somebody to know what you've done. You want somebody to know what your life is -- how you think and how you feel.

It's what we are dying for. In a way we are dying for love. It's really more than that. We would be amazed if we thought the Maker of the universe knew what we had done today. That's right. They would be amazed if they knew the Maker of the universe knew what they did today. Of course they wouldn't believe it. That's the situation. It's not only the true gospel; it's the gospel people are dying for. They are dying to know that somebody knows they are here. Then if they thought the Maker of the universe put them here to express himself through them in a way that he could express himself through nobody else. “AGH! Don't tell me lies!” That's what they would say. You know I am right. They'd say, “Don't tell me lies. That's impossible. My nose isn't right -- I don't like my hair -- my body isn't great. No -- no, he does not express himself through me in a way he can express himself through no one else.” How could I put it more strongly? It's what people are dying for. It is the true gospel. We have the wherewithal to express it.

No, I agree you are not brilliant website makers. I'm not a brilliant website maker. I understand that. We are not as brilliant at any of those things as we need to be. But we do believe that God is gracious and that God will help us. He will give us the ability to do the websites.

So that's it. Be glad you weren't in a nightmare. But I think it is worth saying. I probably know in my stupid self – no, I'm not stupid -- I know in my stubborn self that I'll keep on blasting. I do think that is why the Father has given us a little life together to do something that will undoubtedly give you a great joy in your heart and above all will give him a release of his love in this world. And in that way, enable him to fulfill the travail of his soul.

Let us pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us. We thank you for the things that you make clear to us. Then we pray, Father, if we are wrong, you will reveal that to us as we go forward. If we are right, give us the grace and ability to express the truth and ability of your heart in a way our brothers and sisters will understand. An understanding that will bring deliverance to many of them who feel unloved and misunderstood.

We pray, Lord, that you would oversee us, correct our foolish mistakes or our wrong conceptions and enable us to use the words that express most clearly and concisely the truth and your heart. We pray, Father, that you would bless and prosper the work of our hands in this regard. Enable our work in these websites to express these truths.

We thank you, Lord, that you understand we are grass and we do not have all the abilities to do these things but we believe Lord you are able to impart to us the ability of Christ within us. You, Lord Jesus, are able to do these things through us and are able to correct the movement of our hands, our eyes, our ears and minds so that we are able to transmit your love to those who come onto our websites. We pray, Father, for these things so that you would be glorified by our lives and may receive some satisfaction by our wills being one with yours and our hearts being close to yours.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us now and evermore. Amen.

Is There Salvation After Death?

Is There Salvation After Death?

Colossians 1:5c

Please turn to Colossians 1:3 in your Bibles. "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel." That's it there: "because of the hope laid up for you in heaven." That's about as much as we can do today. It looks as if "we always thank God because we have heard of your faith because of the hope laid up for you in heaven." It looks like that because of how the English grammar runs. It's the hope laid up for you in heaven.

I don't know where I got it from -- was it Abraham hoping against hope? Abraham hopes against hope that he would have a son. I don't know if I got it from that or the ordinary use of hope -- I hope -- well, I hope. I' m not sure but I'm hoping -- hoping for the best. I think that's where I caught it from. Hoping for the best. Even when the Bible says in Corinthians [I Corinthians 13:13] “faith, hope, charity”, I still felt hope is something you hope may happen but you are not really sure of it. Probably the whole idea of the last hope seemed to cling to it in my own mind. Hope was something you weren't absolutely sure of. It was the best thing you could do in circumstances that augured worst. That was the best you could do. That was hope. It was something that you did but you weren't terribly confident. It was the best outcome you could think of in the situation.

You are right if you say you are wrong in that. I'm sure it is wrong to think that is all hope is. But that was my vague notion of hope. Even in the Bible we were hoping for something. I had no thought of Calvin's statement, "Hope is the constancy of faith." Sometimes we Antinominians think Calvin can say nothing. This is pretty good. The best I have seen about hope. Hope is the constancy of faith. I'm touched by it because the guy had deep understanding of God's heart. I had no idea of that, none. I didn't think that was hope. I thought hope was what I expressed earlier -- your belief in the best outcome you could expect from the situation. Indeed it was something that comes along and delivers you from otherwise what seemed to be a hopeless situation. Of course it was utterly and absolutely wrong.

It's stated here so clearly. “I give thanks to God for you because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” -- the hope laid up for you in heaven. Partly what began to open my eyes, quite reasonably in a way, was: can the Europeans do any good thing? Well, they sent up the probe. After ten years and five billion miles, it has landed on a comet! I can understand the Americans how they might do that. But the Europeans who could hardly understand each other that they could do it! It was a great achievement.

It landed 3 weeks ago. They had sent this probe ten years ago. It's been travelling for ten years and after five billion miles it has landed on the comet they had planned it to land on. The comet itself is moving.

For me, it brought into reality and the presence what we knew. I know what you all know. It's a big universe, isn't it? How many solar systems there are? How many planets and it is still expanding? I knew that. There in my little head. But when this thing travelled for ten years and they showed us a picture five billion miles away, it hit me strongly. This universe is huge. It's absolutely huge. For me, it made me realize, wait a minute, God must have some plans for this. He must have something far beyond another planet we might be able to spend another few years on. This is big!

That's where I started on the whole thing. I don't feel I'm going tomorrow so I don't think “I'm a little older than I was” makes a difference. I don't feel I'm going anywhere fast. I think I am here for another twenty years. But for whatever reason, it makes you think, now what happens next? My what happens next isn't tied to other planets but maybe some other locality. It is not the whole universe. That's where the idea of hope began to become real to me. God has something far, far, far beyond what we have envisaged and what we have imagined.

Of course it ties up with where we all go and what happens to us all. How long are we there? It comes into all kinds of verses. One baffling one, certainly, is Romans 14:11, "For it is written, 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.'" It's one of those verses that along with early verses in the Old Testament states David's throne will last forever. This one is a plain one. Every knee shall bow to me; every tongue shall give praise to God.

Of course, it tied up in my mind with other statements that implied everyone would bow to God and everyone would worship him; everyone would eventually see that he is true and real. At times I was touched by the statements that Jesus made which were very real. "In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you may be also." [John 14:2] I was always sceptical of the interpretations that maybe the Muslims and Hindus would be in some of the mansions. Because I believed strongly in the statement that Jesus made in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God."

I believed that strongly. I thought the idea of universalism [everybody will get into heaven whatever they are like] cannot be right. Certainly there were words like those talking about a lake of fire [Revelations 20:15] that implied there is a place that is different from heaven and not everybody will be in heaven. It did give me concern – wrongly -- about my mother. My mother was a Christian and took communion and so forth. But I thought of others who never professed Christianity; never professed any faith and yet they were relatives of ours or people that we were close to. It was difficult to think that when they passed away. We've seen them here and that's it, we won't see them again.

So those ideas have been in my mind down through the years. I thought it was very important to be true to Scripture and to hold to every indication of the truth that the adulterers, the fornicators and murderers will not be in heaven. But it was quite difficult for me to sort out what will happen to the people who were not truly Christian, or not really Christian. What would happen to people like my brother who never professed anything at anytime? It always touched it a little with melancholy. As I would meet other people, I would wonder.

There were statements too from very intellectually balanced and intelligent people like Barth [Karl Barth, Swiss Reformed Theologian, 1886-1968] who said God does not destroy anything he has created. He does not destroy what he has created. I could see how precious human life was and how unique it was. We were made in his image. What would God do? Would he destroy all that? I always desire to hold on clearly and strongly to separation from universalism. I would hold to the normal interpretation of that.

It did concern and trouble me. Especially meeting loved ones like you -- there are many of us who have fathers and mothers who haven't apparently walked the Orthodox, Protestant or Catholic route -- aren't avowedly Christian in their minds and others’ minds. It would create in me at least a sorrow. Then you come to these other verses like “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.” You come to Jesus and “in my Father's house are many mansions.” Then, of course, there is 2 Corinthians 3:18, "And we all, with unveiled faith beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." I always knew that verse but it gave me some light.

Then there is 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." It seemed to me that there's going to be movement and development after this life is over. There is going to be a change from glory to glory. There is going to be a seeing him as he really is so that we ourselves are changed by that light.

I thought this vast universe of thousands of us is going to be destroyed because of our attitude to the gospel here. The whole universe is going to go on forever and they’re going to have no part in that at all. I had difficulty seeing that God would actually do that especially in this verse which gave me the greatest pause. I shared it with you some time ago, maybe months or years ago. It's a powerful statement. It's water to those of us who have done something wrong. Lamentations 3:22-23, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him.;" I have dealt with the steadfast love because I felt it expresses God's continued mercy to people like ourselves. As an English teacher I had trouble with 'never' because that implies more than just his present patience with me or with others. It is never. Of course the verb you can't get rid of is -- ceases; never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.

More as I saw the size of the universe, it 'jumped' me out of my previous attitude. It kind of shocked me into beginning to see some of these verses that imply God is far, far greater than us and has far more patience than we have. He has far greater love than we have and has far more planned for his universe than the little few years we have here on earth. As I saw this emphasis of moving from glory to glory and we are becoming more like him than we are now. I saw that we are made in his image so we could be his children; so that we would be able to love him and he is able to love us. I put it to you to think through it yourself.

It seemed to me he must have glorious life for us and glorious things to achieve and experience after this life is over.

I knew we weren't going to play harps but I did wonder at times what we were going to do. I have to admit the old probe thing brought it home to me; even if all we see with our telescopes; even if it isn't true or real. Even if it is some other realm than spiritual and physical. Maybe it can have all kinds of forms. Maybe it is nothing compared with the spirit world that is so much vaster but certainly there is a lot out there that is far, far beyond the little piece we have here. Our Father must have all kinds of plans for that.

Of course it began to come home to me that hope is not something to compensate us for the bad things that are happening. It is not some little thing on the margin of life that will help us to get through the present experience. I began to see that hope is what he says in that verse, "because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven." That there is a whole life planned for you way beyond this one.

If you say to me, where does it tie up with my father or mother, or other relatives or friends who have died and seemed to have no interest in Jesus? If his steadfast love never ceases, it seems to me as we move from glory to glory, he doesn't give up. He keeps working on us. If you say, well, do you think it's so? Well, it fits in more with what he has been so far. It fits in more with why he has made us. He has made us all to be his children and to come to love him willingly ourselves because we want to. Maybe he has cut off the possibility after seventy years here; maybe he has. But maybe he hasn't!

I'm as critical as anybody here of purgatory [Catholic theological meaning of: A place between Heaven and Hell, where the soul is not bad enough to be sent to an eternity of damnation in Hell, but not good enough to go to Heaven, so it is sent there temporarily where the person suffers, and is purified so that it can be sent to Heaven.] and some kind of punishment that will pay you for what you have done or will be used to make you better. But I can see a Father whose mercy never ends and whose steadfast love never ceases.

Can I see such a Father continuing to work with us? Well, I can. I can't pontificate and say that is so but it seems to me very reasonable to see that our dear Father has one thing in mind and that is to have children like his Son who love him freely because they want to. It seems to me that no, there won't be a Hitler marching destroying and hating through heaven. But can there be one who millions of years later comes through all kinds of experiences and eventually gives in to the Savior's Spirit? I don't know.

Certainly if you say, “No, there will be no place for anybody who is not a Christian as I am a Christian” you have to face the fact that there is a wonderful life for us out there. There is a huge universe. We have had the narrow verse that has been applied primarily to the Jews. We have taken that as our best hope. We, as Christians, will rule over something. Maybe we will but maybe we will do much more than that. Maybe we will develop a universe. Maybe we will be years by our Father to do something with this vast universe that He has created.

When the Bible talks about hope, it's talking about something far more concrete than hope has been to me in the past. It seems to me that there is a whole new world as the Bible says -- a new Jerusalem - a whole new earth and a new heaven as it says. There will be a whole new existence for us; I dare to say for those who we thought may not be there. You have to think through this yourselves.

The whole objection to this in evangelicalism is universalism. That's it. The objection is not what I have described here. It is the idea of universalism. The idea of universalism is all kinds of people will get into heaven whatever they are like. Heaven will be a mixture and there will be people there who don't believe in Jesus and won't come to believe in Jesus. Where what I am saying is, will God continue? Will that steadfast love ever cease? Will it ever come to an end? Or will it keep working even with the ones we know? The other big argument which evangelicalism holds on to, the other belief, is: we better get out there and save them from the fire!

That's not why God wants them -- to save them from the fire. He wants them because he loves them. The only legitimate attitude to witnessing or evangelicalism is because of God's love in your heart for everyone and your desire for them to enjoy what you enjoy. That has not always been the attitude of the narrowly based evangelicalism that we often have been involved in. But whatever you do with that end of it, the other is the great truth that there is a wonderful life that will begin for us after this life is over with; a whole magnificent universe that we have not seen at all. God has something for us to do in bringing this universe into harmony with himself.

I'd encourage you to think and pray about those things. Let's continue to study His dear Word to see what light he has for us. For me, it brought a much happier, a much lighter feeling about heaven and of course, especially about the people who up to now I thought might not be there. Now I think they will be there. Let us pray.

Dear Lord, we thank you for your great wisdom and we thank you for your face which we have seen in Jesus. We thank you for the unending mercy and understanding that you have shown through Him to us. We thank you for his loving attitude to the people who were looked down upon. We thank you, Father, for your apparent endless forbearance with people like ourselves. 

 

We thank you finally, Lord, for your dear Word that points us to a life of beauty and peace and joy in your company. We thank you, Father, for giving us each one abilities and characters that are capable of being like you and doing your will.

Now we pray, Lord, for all the dear hearts that we love and are concerned about, especially those who don't seem to be Christians today. We pray, our Father, that the love you have put into our hearts for yourself and for them may manifest itself to them and the sheer magnanimity of your own heart and character may come over to them through us in such a way that they will be stirred themselves.

We pray, Lord, that you will enable us to walk in the bigness and greatness of your vision and your plan for all of us. Even as the years go by in our lives here on earth, we may see the future as greater and bigger than anything we have ever thought before. That hope is the constancy of faith and it is the reality of life beyond this earth which is going to be far, far bigger and better than what it has been here and you have us on track to be part of that along with those we love. We thank you for your goodness to us; for this day and for your dear Word and Spirit.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each one of us now and evermore. Amen.