DO NOT DECEIVE YOURSELVES
Sakkie Parsons
Some time ago, someone asked me if there really is such a place as hell.
In response to what I had written, a person wrote to me and made it clear that he did not agree with me, and among other things he wrote the following:
“I can go on, but let’s say what the Bible says. The Bible says God is love. Now I ask, do we really think there is a hell? I doubt it.”
My first thought when I read what he wrote to me was:
“Wow, the man must have forgotten a little about all the righteous judgments of our Lord that we read about in the Word.”
The examples I now mention are really only two among many that I could name:
Genesis 19:24-28
24 Then the LORD rained down brimstone (burning sulfur) and fire on Sodom and on Gomorrah from the LORD out of heaven,
25 and He overthrew those cities, and the entire valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground.
26 But [Lot’s] wife, from behind him, foolishly looked back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Abraham started out early the next morning to the place where he [only the day before] had stood [pleading] before the LORD;
28 and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of [the land] went up like the smoke of a kiln.
Did you see — not even Lot’s wife was spared, because she was disobedient.
Genesis 19:26 – But [Lot’s] wife, from behind him, foolishly looked back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience, and she became a pillar of salt.
Exodus 12:29-30
29 Now it happened at midnight that the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the cattle.
30 Pharaoh arose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry [of heartbreak and sorrow] in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not someone dead.
Did you see? Not even the firstborn of the prisoners, or even the animals, escaped.
Exodus 12:29 – … from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the cattle.
Because our Lord punishes sin with the full judgment of a righteous God.
In the Bible I read, no one speaks so much about hell as Jesus does. But to return to the quote from the writing to me, which says:
“I can go on, but let’s say what the Bible says. The Bible says God is love. Now I ask, do we really think there is a hell? I doubt it.”
I want to start by saying something about “God is love” that the man mentioned.
Oh yes! Our Lord is love.
1 John 4:8 – The one who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love. [He is the originator of love, and it is an enduring attribute of His nature.]
Just look at the next verse and see what an immeasurably great love this is that we are speaking about:
1 John 4:9 – By this the love of God was displayed in us, in that God has sent His [One and] only begotten Son (the unique One, the only One of His kind) into the world so that we might live through Him.
Our Lord is love. His love is as great as He is — infinitely great.
Think of your own child in what I am now going to say:
Our Lord is perfect. Therefore, only a perfect sacrifice could redeem you and me, and the only perfect sacrifice our Lord could find in the entire universe was His Son.
How great — how infinitely great — is the love for you and me, that compelled our Living God to send His Son to die in our place.
I do not think everyone always realizes what we are saying when we say that Jesus was crucified for us.
If I say to you that Jesus was crucified for us, I am saying to you:
That our Lord, who is Love, sent His Son to be cruelly murdered, and that He knew He would have to watch how it happened — and when it did happen, He looked on as they killed His Son without doing anything to stop it, out of love for you and me, so that you and I may stand spotless before Him.
Yes, so that you and I who have accepted His Son as our Lord and Savior will be free from our Lord’s righteous but terrible judgment.
John 3:16-18
16 For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him.
18 Whoever believes and has decided to trust in Him [as personal Savior and Lord] is not judged [for this one, there is no judgment, no rejection, no condemnation]; but the one who does not believe [and has decided to reject Him as personal Savior and Lord] is judged already [that one has been convicted and sentenced], because he has not believed and trusted in the name of the [One and] only begotten Son of God.
If you and I, who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, are not condemned and will be with Christ in heaven — but those who have not done so will not be with Christ — then where will they be, if you do not believe in the hell of which the Word continually speaks!
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 – Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate [by perversion], nor those who participate in homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers [whose words are used as weapons to abuse, insult, humiliate, intimidate, or slander], nor swindlers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God.
How absolutely wonderfully glorious to know:
Romans 5:18-19
18 So then as through one trespass [Adam’s sin] there resulted condemnation for all men, even so through one act of righteousness [Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross] there resulted justification of life to all men.
19 For just as through one man’s disobedience [his failure to hear, his carelessness] the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous and acceptable to God and brought into right standing with Him.
Our Lord will one day look at you and me — His children — and with that infinitely great divine love with which Jesus hung on the cross for us, He will invite us into His Kingdom:
Matthew 25:34 – Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father [you favored of God, appointed to eternal salvation], inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’
However, He will also with an infinitely great righteous but terrible judgment send away those who did not want to accept and follow Him — that is, Jesus — into hell.
Matthew 25:41 – Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Leave Me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels (demons).’
I end this writing to you with the following quotation from the Word:
2 Peter 2:9 – Then [in light of the fact that all this is true], be sure that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.
Sakkie