Happy New Year!
Next week we begin our Ezra study, and I am very much looking forward to plunging into this OT book of the Bible.
This week, however, we look at “men come and men go.”
- In Mandela’s Way: Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage, his biographer, Richard Stengel, wrote this: I once asked him [Nelson Mandela] about his mortality while we were out walking one morning in the Transkei, the remote area of South Africa where he was born. He looked around at the green and tranquil landscape and said something about how he would be joining his “ancestors.” “Men come and men go,” he later said. “I have come and I will go when my time comes.”
And we, as people, not just men, come and then we go. The question is – Where do we go?
In his book – Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) – Brian Jones speaks of his sojourn of faith as a seminary grad and a pastor who just could not accept this teaching of the Bible. He lists all of his “good” reasons for not believing in hell, but what he couldn’t escape was the clear and abundant teaching of Scripture.
- Do you want to know what’s scary? When I confessed this, nobody really cared. In fact, the response from a man on my Leadership Team captured the response of just about everyone: “Oh, thank God. You really scared me,” he said. “I thought you called us together to tell us that you did something serious like have an affair.”
— Jones, Brian (2011-08-01). Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It) (pp. 26-27). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.
And as he noted, even the words of Jesus …
- Matthew 13:41–43 (ESV) 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
It is sometimes very hard to understand and accept that good people will go to the lake of fire. But God says it. We don’t have all the answers, but we do have some very important answers:
- God is love.
- God is just.
- God is light.
- God is merciful.
- God is holy.
- God is sovereign.
- God provided salvation through the death of his own Son.
Here are the handouts for this week.
Message Title: Men come and go … Heaven OR Hell!
Message Text: Psalm 90:1-12, Revelation 20:11-21:8
- PDF Men Come and Go : 010514 : FFC : Dave Scott : Psalm 90-1-12 : Revelation 20-11-21-8 : HANDOUT ONE
- PDF Men Come and Go : 010514 : FFC : Dave Scott : Psalm 90-1-12 : Revelation 20-11-21-8 : HANDOUT TWO
