Are all of those you love, your most dearest relatives, your closest friends, born-again believers? The answer is probably no, at least not yet, but hopefully one day soon, hopefully one day they will be. For those whom you know and love, it might be wise for you to step up your witnessing for Christ to them, it might be wise to forget the title they hold in your life, spouse, son, daughter, father, friend, acquaintance, and begin to see them as who they truly are if they are not a servant of Christ, one whom the wrath of God abides on, (John3:36) one of the wicked ones whose thoughts are even an abomination to the Lord. (Prov. 15:26) Difficult words, I know, but still the truth.
They may appear to the world as wonderful, caring people, with a heart for others that is rarely matched, they may be one of the ones that you love the most, but if they die in their sins, if they leave this earth without accepting Jesus Christ as Lord, they are going to suffer in the lake of fire for all eternity. Not a truth that many want to hear, and if you want to, you can just shuffle it from your mind and refuse to hear it, you can continue to believe that good people go to heaven, you can continue to trust in what the religious organizations teach, things that have no foundations in the Word of God, or you can get to work, continuously reminding them of who they are in the eyes of God while continuously loving them.
These can be difficult thoughts for some born-again believers, they fully comprehend that “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8) They understand that there is an eternal fire reserved for the devil, the demons, and the lost, but when they think of their loving mother, the one who cares for almost everyone, who donates her time to causes, who loves them no matter what, but thinks within herself, “All this Jesus stuff is nice, but it’s not for me,” when they envision her in eternal suffering, where the worm dies not, (Isaiah 66:24) they just can’t seem to grasp that truth. We like to think of hell as a place reserved for unrepentant murders, for child molesters, for Judas Iscariot and Satan, but not for our twenty-some year old son, not for the father who was a good man, not for that best friend who donates her spare time to the animal shelter, they are good people, they are loved by us.
It is easy to fall into the trap of salvation by works, almost every religious organization teaches it, and many churches have started to follow suit, good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell, and it is the morality of man that determines what is good and what is bad. This of course can be modified with time and the desire of the masses, man has always attempted to be the one that determines what is right and wrong in the eyes of God, it is one of the main reasons there are so many different places to go and worship whomever you have decided God to be. It is quite simple actually, just believe what you want, determine it to be the truth, and it will be truth to you, if you want to believe that when you die you will receive seventy virgins, be my guest, if you want to believe that you will be as God is now, that if your living relatives continue to give money to someone that can pray you out of purgatory, even that you might come back as a cricket or a better person, you go right ahead and believe that, you have every right to think anything you want to think and call it the truth, but it will not make it the truth.
It is Jesus Christ who is Lord, it is God who is Sovereign, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment,” (Heb. 9:27) but getting some people to understand and come to the revelation of these facts as the only truth is about as easy as trying to tell them that it takes more than just showing up to church on Sunday to prove your faith in Christ. We like to make up our own truths in this area, it gives us comfort to believe something that we ourselves have no proof of, we are easily deceived by our adversary and ourselves. How many times in your life have you heard someone say, “How could a loving God…..,” but how many times have you said to yourself, “How could a child of God….” Life is easy when we make up the rules, it is one of the reasons today’s Christians have almost nothing at all in common with the first century believers, I doubt they would even recognize many of us as fellow believers. “I’m good, God is good, everything is great.”
Good people go to hell, wicked people go to hell, saved sinners go to heaven, anyone who does not accept Jesus Christ as Lord, who does not willingly submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit of God in their lives is not going to enter into the kingdom of God. Period. There are no alternatives, there are no in between places, no holding areas for a man to be refined further, when you die you immediately will either be in hell or in heaven, any other notion is foolishness. Not too many want to hear these words, and not as many as you might think that have heard the words of Scripture are living them. Most believe that good enough is close enough, that Holy is what you will be when you get to heaven, I think the Scriptures command us to be Holy now, don’t they, (Lev. 11:44) are we not told to die to self, (Gal. 2:20) does not the wrath of God not only abide on the wicked here and now, but also for all eternity. (Romans 1:18)
There is only one definition of the word wicked to Almighty God, those who have not called His Son Lord, so all of those friends, all of those family members that you love so deeply, are wicked people, and if they do not accept Jesus Christ as Lord, they will spend eternity apart from Him, and from you. Perhaps you can visit them in hell, Isaiah 66:24 and Revelation 22:15 make it clear that we will be able to see that place of eternal torment. There is an eternal abiding love that awaits all who will but call on His name, who will recognize Jesus Christ as who He is, Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and there is an eternal damnation awaiting all who will not, this is the truth of the Word of God, all else is a lie. Sometimes we have to hurt those we love with these truths.