Hell in the light of God's grace - Part 2

2/ The inexcusable

The  inexcusable will join the stone hearts in the lake of fire. I am not who calls them the inexcusable, but Jesus Himself.

One can hear a talk on the Bible and not necessarily hear the gospel. Having heard religious statements about Jesus is not having heard the gospel. A political or philosophical discourse does not introduce anybody into the presence of Jesus Christ, the Savior. At best it faces you with God's law whose purpose is to expose and condemn the guilty.

The true gospel does not condemn anybody but saves the guilty.

Do you know which name 2 Corinthians 3: 6 to 9 gives to the preaching of efforts to obey God's commands and the shame and danger of not doing so?

The ministry of condemnation and death. A very widespread preaching alas, which does not save or transform anyone but condemns and kills! God himself initiated this ministry at a time. The Bible tells us it was a glorious ministry, but it also says that it is now outdated, abolished.

2 Corinthians, 3:6 - He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

The preaching of the gospel, that of the new covenant, establishes a living relationship with Jesus Christ. The supernatural and ability to preach it comes only from above. It is a new ministry, a new way to deliver, the ministry of the Spirit. If the ministry of condemnation was glorious, this ministry of righteousness that gives life and not death is much higher in glory.

A heart that was not touched by the spiritual ministry has not seen the kingdom of God as only the Holy Spirit can make us see what is invisible and thist does happen when preaching is anointed and talks not about the Mount Sinai's stone letters and of all its requirements but about Jesus -Christ , the Savior of the world and His generously offered grace.

Only the Holy Spirit can open spiritual eyes and allow the listener to see and thus truly be able to make a choice of who (s)he wants to follow. All things have become new in Christ; even the way of preaching the Word of God has changed.

Anyone brought into contact with this living gospel enlightened by the Holy Spirit, having heard Jesus speak to his/her heart, so somehow having seen Him (God knows them), and having refused, becomes a no-excuse. A no-excuse for having rejected the Savior without cause for who could reject the Jesus the Holy Spirit reveals?

• A God who erases all faults and throws them into the sea, forgetting them for ever.
• A God who does not treat us according to our faults, who does not punish us according to our iniquities.

Psalms, 103:10 - he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

• A God who descended from heaven in the form of a man servant (Philippians 2:7) to be tortured and murdered by unrighteous men, in order to pay the high ransom of sin and redeem people who do not even care about Him.
• A God who, when invited, fills the heart with happiness, joyful hope and leads his sheep into green pastures, near peaceful and refreshing waters, promising an eternity of unimaginable beauty and fullness, without boredom or weariness.
• A God who, if we let him fully live in us, transforms us from the inside and fills us with strong desire and ability to live according to His standards.
• And living according to His standards is the opening door to continual flow of peace and joy by the Holy Spirit, a springing and constant stream of living water that quenches all heart thirsts and triggers down here, the answer of all prayers.

How many would refuse such a God when the Holy Spirit reveals Him in the heart?

Very few.

Some will, however, knowingly rejecting Him again and again. They are the no-excuse. We read in the Gospel of John:

John, 15:22 - If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.

John, 9:40 - Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, ‘What? Are we blind too?’
Jesus said, ‘If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

These men, religious doctors of the law, scribes, scholars of the Word of God were standing before the Son of God who was teaching them through the power of the Holy Spirit. They were hearing, they were doubly seeing, with the eyes of flesh and the eyes of mind, for the Holy Spirit was powerfully with Jesus to convince. So, they knew without a doubt who was in front of them. They were also seeing the works of the Father operated by the power of the Spirit. They knew, Jesus affirms it when he tells of them:

John, 15:23 - Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: “They hated me without reason.”.

Despite this, they intentionally hated and rejected this Grace, preferring the glory of men or for some other deep and mysterious reason. It is the mystery of iniquity, the same hatred which animated the fallen cherub called Satan.

A no-excuse is such because he has really been introduced into the presence of Jesus and has truly seen him or heard him as these Pharisees.

Jesus is today in heaven sitting at the right of the Father so we can't see Him anymore with the eyes of flesh. In Jesus time, crowds were seeing the righteousness of God, a man in the flesh walking on the dusty roads of Galilea. But now?

That’s why, when still on earth, the Lord Jesus had announced He would send the Holy Spirit to convince the world about righteousness because He was returning to the Father and would no longer be seen physically:

John, 16:8 - When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;

It's done. Today, the Holy Spirit palliates the fact that we no longer see in the flesh, Jesus, the righteousness of God, the image of the invisible God, the imprint of His Person. The Holy Spirit does this work of making the person of Jesus seen without physical eyes. He speaks directly to the heart and opens the eyes of faith through anointed preaching. The anointed preaching, that is to say inspired by and filled with the Holy Spirit opens, sufficiently opens the eyes of the heart so that one can see or foresee the kingdom of God and above all its King.

Religious and unanointed preaching brings a legalistic and repulsive speech that only conveys information, threaten and bad news. It's like the manna. A delicious and nourishing food yesterday but an infected one today, filled with worms and unfit for consumption. The religious discourse does not open the heart eyes. That is why it has no qualifying value, to lose or save. Many should think twice before declaring themselves preachers of the gospel.

The old covenant easy preaching is out of date. Anyone knowing biblical principles can share one's knowledge. But this is not necessarily new covenant preaching inspired by the Almighty Spirit, a quite different sort of preaching that produces life or death. Death for the no-excuse who do see and reject. Life for those who do hear, believe and invite Christ as the shepherd of their hearts.

2 Corinthians, 2:15 - For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.

You don't really speak from God unless you've been called, sent and therefore equipped. Transmission of commands and directives without setting them in the context of Christ new life is an old covenant practice, a dead product of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Everything has changed after Jesus Christ. The Father sent the Holy Spirit to proclaim Jesus, to reveal Jesus, to convince through a preaching carried by chosen and anointed clay pots and to fulfill the law in the heart of the believer.

"I only believe what I see" may say some. Well, this conception is outdated! Sight or hearing are no longer the only ways to be convinced. The Holy Spirit convinces your heart directly and you even see more than if you saw with your flesh eyes for it is not a view in the proper sense but an intimate conviction that quietly settles in you and is called seeing with the heart eyes.

Without being able to intellectually explain it or emotionally feel it, in spite of a few uncertainties still floating at the surface of your thoughts, very deeply in yourself:

• you know that when Jesus Christ died, He erased your sins from the eyes of the Father and that His Precious Blood poured onto the Cross was considered sufficient by the Father to make you completely reconciled with God.

• You know that the resurrected Jesus is able to communicate his righteous life to you, which makes you appear righteous in the eyes of the Father and gives you the power to live that same quality of life that He lived. He comes to live it in you, with your agreement.

• You know that this quality of life will produce happy and constant happiness if it has not already begun

• You know that He is sitting on a throne in heaven from which he sent the Comforter to dwell in you, for eternity, communicating you the will and ability to be wholly pleasing to God.

This is the gospel of glory, a communication of life, a revelation produced by the Holy Spirit beyond rational reasoning. You know it without explaining it and this quiet certainty is unemotionally just as unshakable as Mount Everest.

Once you know it, then you have freedom to entrust or not, in full knowledge of the facts, the direction of your life to the Lord and give your heart to this God full of love who wants to take you in His arms and desires so much to live in and unite to your mind. That's what preachers call giving one's life to Jesus. It's simple to say yes when the Holy Spirit speaks to you.

Workers of iniquity

The responsible for the unbelief and rejection of many of the true God and His wonderful living Son are all those ignorant speakers announcing on the net, on some evangelical TV and elsewhere, a weak and repulsive copy of the gospel which is not gospel at all, made of laws, bonds, outdated traditions, heavy rituals, sales disguised as blessings or healings and guilt sermons and sometimes ridiculous. People associate God with this disgusting spill and of course reject it. Unknowing it, they do not reject the true God but this pathetic parody that they are presented to.

These self-proclaimed preachers and sometimes accredited by who knows who, do not fulfill the divine mission, they do not allow the Lord to add living members to His body, they do not give a chance to souls to make a real choice.

They make promises of healing with few effects, promises of wealth if you give them your dime or your offerings, they beat you by threatening you with hell or divine punishment. Some modern conquistadors even dare to use the second return of Jesus as a threaten to induce people to convert whereas it is the most wonderful and desirable event that can happen to our murdered planet.

Philippians, 3:2 - Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.

All this is disgusting, and Paul rightly speaks of dogs, of evildoers who announce another gospel than that which was transmitted in the beginning. The Holy Spirit clearly tells us to watch out. Watch out, exercise your discernment.

Galatian, 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

These people will be judged more severely and unless they change course, for them a place is prepared, a place that we don’t talk about much, a place that is neither Hades nor the lake of fire. It is only found in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus mentions several times ' outside, the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth'.

The darkness indicates that they will be far from the One who is light. Outside means that they will not be inside, in His presence, but outside the kingdom. The weeping talks about deep regrets and the grinding of teeth about intense frustration for having missed the goal, without possible rear machine. They were in first row for the wedding. They had a talent to grow, and they didn't do anything with it. They won't be part of the party and they'll weep and grind their teeth. They had been called to reign with Jesus. These sons of the Kingdom will be far from His light and presence, in the darkness of the outside. Called but not elected.

Matthew, 8:11 - I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew, 22:11 - But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” The man was speechless.
Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew, 25:26 - His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
“So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Do you realize that the people mentioned here are servants, sons of the Kingdom. Some had received talents, prophesied, made miracles, and even chased demons in the name of Jesus. They are not unbelievers, but servants!

Matthew, 7:22 - Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

Did they believe that exercising spiritual gifts was a proof they were endorsed by God? Had they not read Acts 3 and forgotten that a miracle or healing is not the fruit of any godliness or personal power but of faith in the power of the Name of Jesus.

Acts, 3:12 - When Peter saw this, he said to them: ‘Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?

Acts, 3:15 - By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Healings, miracles and even evicted demons are not proof of the faithfulness of a man towards Christ but proof of Christ's fidelity and mercy towards men whom He wants to heal and free. Power remains God's.

2 Peter, 2:15 - They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness.

Balaam was an authentic prophet of God. God was talking to him. (Numbers 22:9). He had received a talent but was seduced and prostituted it for money and human honors. He turned away from the right path and got lost. He did not, however, lose his gift as a prophet because God who does not repent of His gifts and appeal, did not withdraw what He had given. That can be misleading when such a man performs supernatural deeds in the name of God.

There are still such men, bad workmen.

Watch out those people who draped in so-called biblical knowledge and titles of prophets, preachers, doctors or even apostles, teach the biblical principles of seed, generosity and giving to open your portfolios. They twist and divert the Holy Word of God to their profit.

Their religiously disguise their appetite for money and honor. The Apostle Peter had prophesized on such people, saying that by greed, they would exploit you with deceptive words.

2 Peter, 2:3 And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced against them long ago, has not been idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

You recognize their endless calls for offering, their subtle condemning allusions if you don't give, their promises that you will receive from God a multiplied portion of what you have given them, the disguised threats of impoverishment if you hold the blessing. The Bible had announced these people who would deceive you.

Give to your local assembly according to what you have freely decided, without yielding to any ‘spiritual’ blackmail that never comes from God. Give God your dime or offerings with the joy that the Spirit inspires you.

2 Corinthians, 9:7 Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

God will not deprive you of ANY blessing for reason of money and He will never give you more if you give Him more so that He gives you more. These are impure and insulting motives because His blessing is already acquired in Jesus Christ, without consideration. The Lord will never deprive you of anything because you have not given enough.

Romans, 8:32 - He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?

May God open the eyes of these men on the poor and pathetic results, and even the damage that their human unanointed words produce and may they no longer deceive themselves by the few miracles and healings that may occur, which only prove the goodness of God.

They should stop opening their mouths to proclaim a so-called gospel that was not been able to free them from the vices and passions of the unregenerated nature: jealousy, desire to be recognized and famous, love of money, impulsivity, intemperance, fanaticism, legalism and search for the glory of men.

These modern scribes and Pharisees do not communicate the word of life, the word of righteousness. They might mention it but have never experienced it.

Matthew, 23:13 - But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.

Without the anointing of the Spirit and the experience of the word of righteousness, speeches are fountains without water, clouds without rain, inefficient, flashy religious spill to impress the crowds, a replacing of the power of God by the noise of screaming and loud volume of sound systems.

In the end, it does not only make God's kingdom not go forward, but it displays our magnificent and full of love God as a religious manipulating, repelling, noisy, difficult, sad and powerless system. What a huge responsibility!

2 Peter, 2:17 - These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm; for them the deepest darkness has been reserved. For they speak bombastic nonsense, and with debased desires of the flesh they entice people who have just escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, for people are slaves to whatever masters them.

The darkness of the outside is reserved for those who will persist in these bad practices. Jesus is gentle and humble of heart but He took the whip with the temple merchants and did not chew his words towards the religious who veiled the true God to the languishing and slaughtered crowds without a shepherd.

John, 2:15 - Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, with the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

The Word advises you to avoid these bad workers. Boycott their tweets, their channels, or their TVs. They preach not by the strength of the Holy Spirit but by means of psychological human manipulation.

2 Timothy, 3:5 - holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!

They have the appearance of godliness, but the Holy Spirit of peace, sweetness, love and true liberating power is not with them. Like the wild virgins, they brandish the lamp of the Word without the oil of the Holy Spirit to make it shine and enlighten.

Psalms, 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Nourish, strengthen yourself with the living and encouraging message of the new covenant gospel, with the living grace of Jesus Christ. It is the only one than can truly strengthen in Christ and make us walk as He has walked with all the blessings that consequently flow and are numerous and real.

I invite you to listen on this blog the article 'the gospel explained' and do everything to get into this rest of the splendid gospel of Jesus Christ. Understand how much God is willing to dispense generously, abundantly His transforming grace provided by His living Son and only Him.

Let the Word transform the intelligence of your soul because it is with your soul that you live on earth and it is by your soul, fortified by the Spirit, that you will be able to transpose the living principles of Christ in your daily life with joy and in peace. Save your souls!

Jacques 1:21 - Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

Run away from the bad workers and feed yourself with the simple and powerful message of the Grace in Jesus Christ, the pure gospel that cannot be mixed with old covenant and legalistic principles.

Are you looking for faithful ministers of the gospel to listen on Internet? I recommend one I very recently discovered: Joseph Prince. (He doesn't know I'm talking about him. He preaches the true gospel, these same verses, the same doctrine, sometimes with the same expressions). We don't know each other but hearing him confirm all what is written on this blog strongly encouraged me and I guarantee that his inspired instructions will nourish you, will help you grow in Christ and trigger abundant blessings in your life. Search and listen the message of grace!

2 Timothy 2:1 - You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,

As for the other venerable preachers we have mentioned above, if they read or hear these lines, they will recognize themselves. The Lord of grace keeps calling you: It is not too late to come back to common sense and stop leading His thirsty sheep into the sterile lanes of your misdirection.

It is not too late to let the true gospel transform you too, and free you. You will then be able to grow the talent that Jesus has entrusted to you by announcing a powerful gospel and see Him confirm His Word, for He always confirms His Word, not the human one. And you will not face a permanently closed door on that day.

You are destined to bear a fruit that remains and to be glorified in Him.

The fruit of a man of God are the Christians whom He will have strengthened, trained by means of sound instructions, facilitating their communion with Jesus Christ who frees from the power of the unregenerated nature, who transforms from glory to glory, who makes able to be fully pleasing to the Lord, serving Him with joy, in rest, loving him with whole heart, strength and thought. This fruit is worth more than billions!

On that day, you will hear the Lord say to you: Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have been trustworthy in a few things; I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.

Ephesians 4:11 - He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

To be followed : the blasphemers of the Holy Spirit