God Loves… Himself

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

You can count on it that it is very difficult to come to heaven, but the way to destruction is broad and easy. Take it to heart that you have a deceitful heart with you, a wicked devil close to you, and snares and hindrances around and before you.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the Gospel of grace alone at times makes the Gospel appear easy, but that is not correct. Christ prepares the heart for Himself to dwell in by taking out the things He is not pleased with and sanding and chopping at rough edges. Many say that preparation is a teaching that is opposite of the Gospel of grace, but it should be pointed out that Christ is the One who prepares the heart for Himself. After conversion it is Christ working in the heart to make it a more and more comfortable abode (so to speak). The holiness of God is such and His love for His people is such that He will work in them and on them to be holy. So while it is true that God declares sinners just and righteous in His sight in Christ, this does not take all the difficulties away.

The road to heaven for true believers is hard, but if a person wants to take things easy they may. If a person is tired of fighting the flesh and sin, that person has an easier way. If a person is tired of not doing what he wants to do, there is an easier way. The way to destruction appears easy and one does not have to fight with the sin and the flesh to take that road, but for eternity one will pay the price with a torment that never stops. Theological liberalism will allow people not to fight so much as there are so many people who will agree with them, but those errors reflect hearts that hate God and for eternity that God will pour out His wrath upon them.

Yes, it is a sure thing that you have a deceitful heart within you, so look to Scripture and know for certain that the gate and the way to hell is on a broad road and it easy to get there. If your heart longs for and will not settle for anything but ease, then know that you are on the way to hell. However, the gate and way to heaven is narrow and straight. The entrance or gate to the road (conversion) is very narrow and it does not allow you to carry the things of the world with you through that gate. That gate is so narrow that it will not allow you to bring love for the world and love for the pleasures of the world with you. If the Lord Jesus sets His love upon you and prepares your heart for Himself, you will have many hard things to pass through before you pass through the gate. He will bring hard things into your life that will strip you of your own righteousness, but He does this so that you will look to His free gift of righteousness alone. He does this so that you will learn of your ability which then takes your eyes off of yourself so that you will look to His ability. He will bring a trial upon you that you cannot handle and so you are left weak and helpless in realization of your insufficiency, but He will turn your eyes to His total sufficiency.

Jesus spoke of true conversion of a person being turned to being like a very small child. At the least this refers to those who are turned from their pride and self-trust and self-sufficiency and like a small child simply looks to the parent for what it needs, so those who have been turned look to their Father for all they need. This turning of the soul from its pride and trust in self does not happen in a moment, but instead this process is guided by the wise hand of the Lord Jesus who is forming His people like clay to be in accordance with His good pleasure. The Lord Jesus is not going to dwell in a proud heart and He will not give His grace to the proud, so He has to work the pride out of the soul and give the soul humility that He may give grace to it. When two pieces of wood do not fit together and yet they are part of what the plan calls for, the craftsman must work on the wood with saws and sandpaper until they fit together. So the Lord Jesus as a Master Craftsman works on His people to make them fit to be joined to Him and with Him.

It is so difficult at times to discern which gate we have been through and which road we are on. Our deceptive hearts want to go to heaven but love the broad path to hell. The devil wants all humans to be in hell with him. There are snares and temptations all around. All of these things are trying to keep us off of the narrow path and on the broad path. There is only One who can show us the true way and as such to keep us from a fatal deception. There is only One who is wiser than the devil and who alone can give us a wisdom greater than his. There is only One who can teach our hearts well enough to avoid the snares and temptations and to walk in Him and by grace. Christ alone can teach our hearts and He alone can prepare them for Himself. That is part of true faith.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

While sinners are saved by grace alone, it is still true that the more the unconverted sin the greater their hell will be.

Deuteronomy 4:24 “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

‘Tis the infinite almighty God himself that shall become the fire of the furnace exerting his infinite perfections that way. Jonathan Edwards

Another great error that sinners fall into is thinking that God loves them but hates their sin. This leads sinners into a great deception of finding comfort in sin and not seeking the Lord for a new heart. It is not sin that suffers the just wrath of God, but it is the soul of sinners that are under His wrath in hell. It is not the righteous acts of saved sinners that God has set His love upon, but the sinners themselves. While there is a place for making distinctions between the soul itself and sin in some way, we must know that it is the soul that sins. The Scriptures teach that it is the soul that sins that shall die.

There is no such thing as sin apart from a rational and moral being (a soul) that sins. An animal cannot sin because it is not rational or moral. An inanimate object cannot sin because it is not a rational or moral being. A rock can be used to attack and/or kill a human being and that is sin, but the sin is that of the moral and rational being that used the rock in a way to attack and/or kill. What is sin apart from a moral and rational being that sins? There is no real answer for that. It is true that Paul speaks of sin in the human being and of the power of sin, but that does not mean that there is such a thing as sin apart from the desire of a soul for sin. The power of sin is an attraction that a fallen human being has for sin or the enmity in the heart of a fallen human toward God. We can broaden the power of sin to include the devil and demons as well as they are rational and moral beings who tempt and deceive others to sin.

The danger of thinking that God loves me and yet hates my sin (though not all in our day thinks that God even hates sin) is that this would remove sin from us and leave us thinking that we may be converted when we are not. If God separates sin from the soul in some way, then we can deceive ourselves into thinking that our soul will indeed escape the wrath of God apart from a real conversion and having Christ Himself. It is like thinking that our acts make no difference in how God views the soul in one sense, or in another sense it is thinking that the soul has little to do with our acts.

Mark 7:20 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.
21 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 “All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Sin is of the heart first and foremost. It is out of the heart that evil thoughts come and it is out of the heart that external sins come as well. The things that proceed from the heart are what defile the whole person. What is needed, then, in order to be converted and live a holy life, is a new heart. What must happen for sin to be forgiven is for the soul to be forgiven of committing the sin. It is not sin that Christ paid a ransom price for, but it was for souls that He redeemed by His ransom. Christ did not die in the place of sin, but He died in the place of sinners who are sinners and so they sin.

The soul must look upon itself as vile and wretched from the inner man and that Christ must suffer and die for it. The soul must know that it does not just need just a moral reformation, but instead a new heart. Christ alone can teach a soul these things in the innermost being. A soul does not just need to know about these things, but the conviction for the sins of the soul must be from the depths of the soul. The soul did not sin without feelings, so its convictions for sin should be with some feeling as well. Christ called weary and heavy-laden sinners to Himself, which should teach us that those who feel the weight of their sins are those who come. He alone can teach us this.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

While sinners are saved by grace alone, it is still true that the more the unconverted sin the greater their hell will be.

Deuteronomy 4:24 “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

‘Tis the infinite almighty God himself that shall become the fire of the furnace exerting his infinite perfections that way. Jonathan Edwards

One way (perhaps the best) for sinners to take a first step at understanding how valuable their soul is to them is for them to understand the terrors of hell and the eternity of the wrath of God on them for their sin. If a person is not awakened to understand his or her plight and how helpless s/he is in sin, that person can be persuaded that an easy prayer or a simple stopping of external sins is enough. It is quite shocking for the careless sinner (including those who profess to be Christians) to come to grips with the hatred and wrath of Almighty God. Oh how they have been taught that God loves them and will never stop! What a profound error that is and the devastating effects it has to put sinners to sleep in their sin. How devastating it is for a sinner to be awakened to the fact that God Himself is a consuming fire and it is that consuming fire that will never be put out if that sinner enters eternity without Christ.

Perhaps it is as great a shock to then discover that each sin will increase the torment or level of torment in the damned. It is bad enough (they think) to be so rudely awakened to the fact that God loves no one in hell and that His wrath will be upon them for eternity and instead of it being lessened, it will be increased. Hell is not tolerable in the slightest, but instead it is far more hellish than the fallen human mind can comprehend in this life. But then to realize that God is a perfectly just God and that He will and must (because of His perfect justice) punish each sin, that should take all the life and strength from any hope that a sinner has of escaping the eternal flames apart from Christ Himself.

Jonathan Edwards explained it something like this. Each sin deserves an eternal hell since each sin against an infinite Being is an infinite wrong. Since human beings are finite beings and cannot satisfy for an infinite wrong, they must suffer for an infinite time (eternity) which is to say that their sufferings will never stop. But again, one sin deserves an eternity in hell. The point, then, in this context, is that a second sin that would be committed is worth another eternity of suffering. But obviously a finite being cannot completely satisfy one eternity, so a second eternity is not possible. This means that it is not the duration of the suffering that is increased, but it is the intensity that is increased. So a second sin will have to double the intensity of the suffering for all eternity. This is not getting into the issues of the gravity of sins being greater or lesser or things like that, but simply trying to give a mental conception of how things are. Each sin brings more punishment upon the sinner.

Luke 12:47 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

The Lord Jesus Himself must open the eyes of sinners to the reality of these truths. Those who go on drinking iniquity like water do not really believe this teaching. Those who go on in open sin may say they believe this, but Christ has not taught them this in their inner person. A person that has any sense of the value of his own soul and of where it will spend eternity will be in inner agony if Christ teaches him or her about this in the inner person. It is an awful truth, but having it sink into the depths of the soul will be more than a person can bear up under and go on just sinning and think nothing is going to happen. Each sin a person commits will be punished forever in hell and there the soul will learn how God Himself is the fire of hell and know the awfulness of His wrath.

But for now, it is Christ alone who can truly teach the soul this teaching. For those whom He does teach, however, they will flee from the wrath to come. They will find that Christ and His suffering on the cross was a perfect satisfaction for that wrath and that He did that in their place. They will find the glory of a free-grace instead of a free-will and that all the praise and glory is His. Those who truly find Christ will find that in heaven God is an infinite source of perfect joy and love. Eternity, eternity, oh how we must gain an understanding of the weight of eternity.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

Deuteronomy 4:24 “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Hebrews 12:27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. 28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

‘Tis the infinite almighty God himself that shall become the fire of the furnace exerting his infinite perfections that way. Jonathan Edwards.

God is the fire which burns in hell that words can never convey—much less exaggerate—the terrors of the damned. John Gerstner

If ever a soul wants to know how valuable eternity is to that soul, it should take a look at Scripture and the words of men who wrestled with what those words meant. The words of God in Scripture are so glaringly obvious about the nature of eternity that the reason people close their eyes to it is that they hate it so much and do all they can not to believe it. People fight and resist things that they hate and they don’t want to believe something that is so frightening and so threatening to the ways they live now and then for eternity. The soul must be taught by Christ the reality of these things or the soul will go on in a careless manner. Souls must have the spiritual realities and verities of eternity impressed upon them or they will go on living as if these things are not real.

In the modern day unbelievers fill the pulpits and hell is not set out in truth. We are told that hell is the absence of God, but that is good news to sinners who hate God. But the fire that will not go out is the self-sufficient God who is life Himself and is eternal by nature and as such when we see texts of Scripture teaching us that our God Himself is a consuming fire, we should come trembling to Him and cry out for mercy. God Himself is a consuming fire and God Himself is the fire of hell. Sinners do not have a miserable existence in some part of the universe where God is not, but instead sinners will have an eternity in the presence of the God they hate and the God who is the very fire of their hell.

Oh how sinners must be taught this and this is one way Christ prepares the heart. If the fire of hell is God Himself, then who can put the fires of hell out? The omnipotent God reigns and no one can change Him or change one thing He has decided to do. Who can overpower omnipotence? Who can outsmart infinite wisdom? Oh how sinners must be awakened to spiritual realities and how they must see these things are more real than earthly reality. Every sinner that dies without Christ, regardless of age, will open his or her eyes in hell and be beneath the eternal and omnipotent wrath of God who is the very fire of hell and that fire will never be put out. Ever member of a church (or non-member) regardless of profession or claim will enter into the eternal flames of hell in which God Himself is the consuming fire unless that person has Christ. Every minister and every college or seminary professor, whether liberal or conservative, will fall into the hands of the living God who is a consuming fire if that minister or professor does not have Christ in truth and in reality.

We can go on doing our religious things in a sleepy way and go on into eternity where God Himself is a consuming fire and is the fire of our hell. We can go on preaching conservative sermons urging men to pray prayers and walk aisles and all we are doing is giving them sleeping potions that numb them to the eternal flames that they are headed to. How men and women must have Christ by His Spirit teach them these things. But if so, they should seek Him to teach them. He alone can teach the inner man and He alone can awaken the inner man. Sinners are walking in their sleep to eternal hell while trusting in ministers, good works, sacraments, and being members of churches while millions are already in hell who have trusted those things. They must be awakened to spiritual realities before they die or they will awaken in the flames of God who is a consuming fire and they will never have a drop of water to cool their tongue or the least drop of mercy from God, angels, damned angels, or another human being.

Each soul must be awakened to see how valuable his or her soul is to him or herself and seek the Lord. The living God who is a consuming fire and the fire of eternal hell will pour out His wrath upon all those who do not have Christ in truth and reality. Over and over Scripture tells us not to be deceived, yet so many are deceived by scholars and ministers who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. If you value your eternal soul, seek the Lord Jesus to teach you and to open your blinded eyes to the truth.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

While it seems that the vast majority of modern professing Churches want to hide this enormous reality from people in order to get them in the doors and make extractions from their wallets, this is a truly vital point that cannot be forgotten or ignored. It must not be diminished and it must not be ignored. Jesus was quite clear when He said that we are not to fear those who can only kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but instead we are to fear Him who can utterly destroy both soul and body in hell. It might be good for preachers to spend a fair amount of time stressing that verse to their people, but then again it would be a good idea for something to stress that great truth to preachers themselves.

Jesus spoke of a rich man (while on earth) who died and then lifted up his eyes in hell. It seemed that he was immediately aware of being in a fire and of having a great thirst in which he longed for one drop of water. Jonathan Edwards spoke of those who would pour alcohol down their throats in this life and yet would have fire and brimstone for their drink in hell. Do we even begin to think like that today? It may be that our doctrine of God cannot handle such a theology, but it is the true God who has revealed this. It may be that in order to teach the doctrine of heaven and hell to people that we must start with the nature of God.

Deuteronomy 4:24 “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Hebrews 12:27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES. 28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

We can see from the texts above that the Bible speaks of God Himself being a consuming fire. It is not just that He gives fuel to a fire, but He is the fire that we should fear. It is not that God will deliver us from a fire that is somewhere else, but that He is the fire that consumes and torments the damned. We must drive this point home to people if they are to see how valuable their soul is to them. This point must be driven home to them so that they can see how utterly terrible hell really is, yet how great the Gospel of Jesus Christ is who suffered that torment in His soul for sinners.

‘Tis the infinite almighty God himself that shall become the fire of the furnace exerting his infinite perfections that way. Jonathan Edwards.

God is the fire which burns in hell that words can never convey—much less exaggerate—the terrors of the damned. John Gerstner

The two quotes from just above should serve as reminders from the Scriptures to drive this great truth into our hearts. Sinners need to be awakened to the terrors that are ahead of them if Christ does not save them. This great and awful truth is one means by which Christ prepares hearts to seek Him rather than the world. This is a truth that Christ opens souls to and opens their minds to and shows them the terror of the Lord that they may seek Him. A heart that is not prepared in this way is simply unprepared. How can a person be saved if s/he does not know what s/he will be saved from? What do preachers do when they ignore this great truth and preach only with soothing words upon doctrines of love? They are not used of Christ to prepare souls for Himself, they are used to prepare souls for damnation.

“Beloved, doctrines of terror God hath more sanctified for the conversion of souls, than any other doctrine in the world…Those that have cried do much to have preaching upon strains of love, and free grace, I am sure, as some manage the matter, they have hardened more souls, than every they hath been converted by these new teachers, that pretend more light than their brethren…Sermons of terror have gone more good upon unconverted souls, than sermons of comfort have ever done; sermons of hell may keep many out of hell.” Christopher Love

In the last post on this subject the point was made that the basic truths of Christianity must be taught to people. This cannot be said too strongly as it is the truth that God uses to renew hearts and bring people to Christ. The modern professing Church seems to be consumed with everything but truth itself. When it does that, it ceases to be the pillar and support of the Truth and to cease doing what a true Church does. Part of what the true Church should do and part of the truth it should teach is that each soul will spend eternity in one of two places.

Be persuaded that your soul is far more valuable to you than the whole world and there are only two places (heaven and hell) that you will spend all eternity in.

The unregenerate soul spends its time in vain things pursuing what seems to be good for it, but it is only good for this world. While it is true that many unregenerate souls seem to be pursuing God and eternity, their hearts are really set on this world. The soul that fails to be persuaded and convinced that it will only be here for a very little time (even if it is for 100 years or so) and then will enter eternity where there are only two places for it to be, fails to come to grips with reality. The soul that fails to see that if it is not born from above and joined to Christ (the only way of salvation) that it will perish forever in eternal torment, has failed to see or refused to see what is clearly evident. The soul that fails or refuses to come to grips with the torment in hell is living in deception.

While souls waste enormous amounts of time in seeking the things of this world, they are closing their eyes and hearts to what they are doing with their precious souls. The soul has been made to glorify God, but the soul wants to live for self and do the things for self. People are commanded to redeem the time rather than waste it on the pleasures of the world while they are treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath. It is incumbent upon the true churches to press upon people their souls are the most valuable thing to them and that they will either spend their precious time seeking things that will increase their damnation or they will spend that time seeking salvation or the Christ of salvation. There are only two locations in eternity and every person will spend eternity in one of those two locations. Not just a lifetime, but eternity.

Yes, this type of thinking will not draw huge crowds to buildings that have the title of church, but it is faithful to Christ and to the souls of human beings. It is not the type of thinking that will make men famous or popular in our day, but it will be part of enabling those men to seek God and His glory in truth. As long as people do not see the eternal value of their souls to themselves they will not seek eternity but will seek self in this world. This is to say that they will be deceived and so will walk around as if they are asleep or drugged regarding reality and will spend their time with vain and empty things and without being cognizant of it they will be treasuring up wrath for the day of wrath. But again, they will have a huge treasure of wrath for that day.

People waste their time with various kinds of books, television, and movies. They waste their time on magazines and all kinds of electronic devices. They waste their time with sports and many seemingly non-sinful things. But how many people will go to hell or heaven and wish that they had spent more time reading books of no real value? How many people will enter eternity thinking that if only they could have watched more television? How many people will enter eternity wishing that they could have watched more movies? How many people will enter eternity wishing that they had spent more time on their electronic devices? How many people will spend eternity wishing they had played more sports and have spent their time on seemingly innocent diversions?

The vital importance of how we spend time on this earth and how valuable each soul is to itself should be stressed over and over again. Sure enough a soul is saved by grace alone and quite apart from works, but still a soul that has been delivered from the dominion of darkness and evil and translated into the kingdom of the Beloved Son should have a totally different view of eternity and how to spend time than others. Watching the television shows and movies that stream out of Hollywood is a way to have the thinking of a person conformed to this world and give a totally false view of the world. Is this saying that a Christian can never do those things? Not, but it should awaken us to how we spend our time. How many hours do people spend in front of a television each day? In contrast to that, how much time does the average person spend in prayer, the Scriptures, and seeking the Lord? Do we really believe that each soul will spend eternity in hell or heaven? How do we show that by how we spend our time?

1. The heart must be convinced of the basic truths of Christianity and of the reality of heaven and hell.

While a person is not saved by the amount or degree of knowledge, one cannot believe in God and in His Son Jesus Christ apart from knowing something of them. A person cannot trust in one that is not known. The truths of Scripture must be taught to us or read by us, but it is the teaching ministry of Christ (as Prophet) to teach the inner man by His Spirit. Jesus gave the Great Commandment to go and make disciples of the nations, and His disciples went out preaching and teaching. In other words, they went out proclaiming the truth of God and of His Messiah. It is through and by the preaching of the Word that Christ prepares the hearts of men and then gives them life.

In the modern day it is thought that men, women, and children can go our and give a simple message (virtually devoid of truth at all) and all a person has to do is to repeat some words (called a prayer) after another. But Jesus did not say go out and get people to say words, but instead He commanded His apostles to go make disciples. He then went on and said that they were to teach that disciples all that He had commanded His disciples. Now that is a rather tall task, but He did command it. The hearts of people must be taught the basic truths of Christianity and a person must believe those basic truths. This is not to make an argument about how much a person must know, but it is to say that the people must be taught.

We are told over and over again that people must believe in Christ. Without going into what it means to believe, surely people must believe something about who Jesus is in order to believe in Him. If one is going to believe in order to be saved, one has to know certain things about salvation. One must know what one is being saved from and saved for. One must know something of the sin of the heart in order to know with some degree of depth that part of salvation is to be a new creature in Christ. There are basic truths of the Gospel that a person must know in order to be saved because we are commanded to preach the Gospel. Paul also said that the Gospel was the power of God unto salvation.

It is true that people do not like the word “prepare” in terms of the Gospel, but we should take great notice that it is Christ who must do the teaching in the inner man and it is Christ by His Spirit that must prepare the heart. While the word may be disliked, it is also quite descriptive. We are told in Scripture that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. This should at least teach us that sinners must be brought down from their pride and that their hearts must be humbled before they receive saving grace. No, this is not to say that in our pride we can kill the pride in our hearts, but we should seek the Lord in our teaching that He would humble the pride of the hearts of those who are listening. A proud heart will always be at enmity with God over who will rule it and a proud heart will always be opposed to the Gospel of grace alone.

Matthew 18:1-4 is so clear that a heart must be turned and a person must become like little children to enter the kingdom. The text is also clear that it is God who must turn the heart since “turn” is in the passive. God alone can take a proud heart that has a fortress of pride around it and break down that fortress and make that heart like a little child who must receive all from the hand of another. But these things do not happen in a vacuum, so these things must be taught to people. People must come to know who they are and they must come to know what it will take for them to be saved and they must know the Gospel of grace alone rather than just asking them to say some words that some think of as a prayer. Jesus said a person must have faith as opposed to just saying a prayer.

Hebrews 10:26 tells us that “if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” Surely this at the very least teaches us that men and women were being taught the truth. People are so ill taught in our day that they don’t know what they think they are praying for when the say what they think is a prayer and others have no idea what they are rejecting. People are joining a professing church without knowing what a church is and are having no idea of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have many methods and formulas for getting people to say a prayer and to join the professing churches, but people must be taught the truth if they are going to be really and truly converted. James 1:18 tells us that “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.” If we are not teaching people the truth, are they being brought forth by the word of truth? No, they are deceived.