Feeling God's Presence in Hell

Hell. Some people say a lot about it without saying much. Some people think they live there now. Some people say it's a place. Others say it doesn't exist. One famous man said it was a small location on the floor in a vast paradise. Another slightly less-famous man said it was a place where God doesn't exist.

Can you disbelieve something out of existence? No? Then if Hell is a real place, disbelieving that it is a real place doesn't shove it under any cosmic rug - at least not effectively, and not for long.

There are doctrines in the religion that follows the teachings of Jesus and his interpretation of the set of writings called the Old Testament (OT for short and Jewish Bible for the technical people). Doctrines are authoritative beliefs or systems of beliefs. Thus, the doctrines of which I speak are considered authoritative by those who follow in agreement and do the things that Jesus' words demand they do. They arise from the followers' understanding and application of the OT and the New Testament (Jesus' teachings directly to followers and indirectly through followers).

One of those doctrines relates to the character of God. The belief asserts that God is omnipresent. That mean that God is everywhere present, or everywhere all at once. Negatively, this could be stated as: there is no place where God is not. Why is this believed? Without expounding more at the moment, I will invoke the doctrine (authoritative belief) that the Bible, being the infallible, inerrant Word of God, must be our guide. As God can only be known by what He reveals about Himself, His words about Himself are doubly authoritative. And, this is what His Word says about Him in regard to His "present-ness:"

Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:24 ESV)

And

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
(Psalm 139:7-12 ESV)

As one can see from these words, the first passage coming as from God Himself through a prophet and the second passage as from one of His servants speaking about Him in thankfulness, God is everywhere at all times. Men cannot hide from Him. In the beginning He was everywhere when nothing was anywhere. And, what He created (heavens and earth) He filled. One cannot escape God. Ever.

In fact, all creation exists because God upholds it. He holds it all together. The visible and invisible things are His, and they wouldn't exist or be sustained if He didn't hold them together.

It might be said of a great athlete after a challenging victory that he "willed his team to win." The idea behind the statement is that the player did everything in his power to triumph. In a similar way (though such greater magnitude as to make dissimilarity the rule), without God's willing, there would be nothing, and it would be good - because that would be God's will. But, that's not God's will. God's will is that there be something, and that something is God's revelation of Himself. In that revelation is the triumph of God over evil. In that triumph, evil finds the abode God created for it: Hell. Is evil in the will of God? Yes, in so far that it is always His will to crush it.

What is Hell a demonstration of? God's will. How? God is just. That means that God is morally perfect. In decision-making, God chooses best. He does not treat anyone unfairly either by giving them more than they deserve or by cheating them out of what they deserve. And what do men deserve? Lots of things. What don't men deserve, universally? God's favor.

In the beginning, nothing evil had its way. The only one who understood what evil was was God. What is evil? It's whatever opposes God's will. Some have called evil the absence of God, but that's false. God is never absent, and yet evil exists in practice. Evil practiced exists in God's presence at times, and by His presence I mean that Jesus walked the earth among evil people. I mean that God sees all of it happening and has seen it all happen from the beginning. I say times because evil in not practice by everyone everywhere all the time, and not forever. In the beginning evil didn't have a say. In the end, it won't again.

Then what is Hell all about? It's about justice.

What did God offer His undeserving creation in the beginning? Everything good.

What did God deny His undeserving creation in the beginning? Everything harmful.

What was man's response in the beginning to God's protection and grace? A cliff-dive onto a jagged rock.

What's justice in this case? What's fair for the man or woman or child or wrinkly-man who says to God's undeserved offer of everything good - and offer of infinite proportions because God offers Himself as the little boy's friend, as His Comforter in all ways for all time, as His Lord and Counselor for everything, as His Savior Who suffered God-sized anger and fury for the boy's own rejection of that "everything good?" Logically, if God is fair, then it would have to be a "punishment meets the crime" situation. It would have to be of the same scope and of the same magnitude. It would take into account the facts that God was merciful in giving what that boy didn't deserve and whatever the boy knew or didn't know. And, the boy's account of even that wouldn't be the testimony accepted. God, because He knows everything, would provide the reliable testimony of what the boy knew or didn't know. And, God's decision would be right.

Here's the rub: God has already told us that justice is going to mean Hell for everyone who chooses against Him. How do we know that that's the fair decision? First, God decided. Second, He was merciful enough to tell us in advance.

This world isn't the best possible world. We know that because there still exists an active will at-large that opposes God's will. But, this world is the best possible world on the way to the best of all possible worlds. What's going to happen at the end, with that next world?

Evil won't be active. Evil will be a failure, a loser.

We forget that infinity is a lot longer than 100 years. Philosophers complain about God's goodness because bad things happen. It seems that they should wonder more about why bad things started to happen only after man was created, but that's another post. Nonetheless, God is good. And, He took it upon Himself to create a world where He could reveal Who He is in relation to things and ways that He is not.

God is not needy. Before He created, God needed nothing. Thus, the creation wasn't an experiment for Him to try and meet His needs.

Let's think of some characteristics of God that cannot be demonstrated - though still existent - without creation. I can think of two: mercy and wrath. God is not merciful toward Himself. He needs nothing He doesn't possess already. God is not wrathful toward Himself. His self-judgment entails praise. But, would God still have anger and wrath for all things that oppose His will (evil) even in the Trinity before creation? Yes, because God doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So, again, why Hell? To show His character. That He opposes with justice all things that oppose Him, and that He triumphs over those things and those people, forever. Such total victory is only fair.

What about God's presence and Hell? Is He gone from that place (putting aside the fact that if and since it's a creation, then it cannot exist without God sustaining it)?

It's where God's justice abounds - as does everyplace. But, in Hell, God's mercy and grace are absent. Why? It's surely fair, because mercy and grace are, by definition undeserved. Perhaps, the best answer is that the boy, the girl, the man, the wife, the grandmother rejected God's grace and mercy. They said that they didn't want it. Now how is God supposed to take that? He answers in accordance with all truth.

‘depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:23 ESV)

You can be sure that Jesus says that in a way that no one wants to hear it said of them. That it entails the loss of favor. That it precedes the subject of the declaration being in a far graver situation than he was before.

Perhaps it's uncommon knowledge that God is every man's worst enemy. That probably sounds crazy, but it's true. Outside of the free gift of salvation (that's what it is called when the enemy-status you have is changed to friend-status and even offspring-status in God's book of genealogical record-keeping), every man is God's enemy, because every man chooses against God's will (evil). Every man does that. We were all born with a propensity to do that. Our people have been doing that from the beginning.

Only one man didn't do that. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. He is God's Son. He came from Heaven. He made Himself be born of a virgin Jewish girl. He lived perfectly. He's the only man to not be God's enemy, because He lived as a Son of God should live. Perfectly. He never opposed His Father's will.

Then He chose to die, though He deserved to live. He suffered a brutal, horrible death. But, the physical torture he endured isn't what I'm talking about. He agreed with His Father that He would take the punishment that all men forever, before him and after him, deserved for breaking God's Law - for rejecting His grace since the beginning. Jesus agreed to suffer on their behalf and satisfy God's wrath against their opposing will (which rejected God's good gifts). You see, God had to punish men for that, otherwise, how could He be just? He knew the didn't choose right. He couldn't turn a blind eye. This is why it is accepted that Satan, the accuser, could accuse before Jesus came. It wasn't revealed that God was just and Justifier, because people did evil and it didn't appear that God punished them justly. After Jesus suffered for all men on that Roman cross, however, it was apparent that Jesus was God's display of justice in showing grace to all men. What men couldn't do to reconcile themselves to God, Jesus did. Thus, in a nutshell, that's how we can see that man is God's enemy unless he believes in Jesus - believing that Jesus did what the Scriptures testify to Him as doing, repenting (turning away from) of former opposing-will activities, and replacing such activities with obedience to His commandments.

So, what's worse? Knowing that your worst enemy (God) is leaving you alone forever? Or, that your worst enemy (God) is coming after you? Justice demands the second to be true, as the first would be merciful and therefore unjust (having none to deserve that justice - whereas Jesus earns the mercy of salvation for those who trust and believe in Him so they may be counted just). Whew!

Hell: a place where God continually shows His triumph against the opposing forces with a strong hand that never grows weary, where God is ever-present with unlimited and indefensible justice, justice that's ever fresh and sweet for His people and ever lamented and bemoaned by His foes, where God's face in Christ shines so bright in fury that it explodes with intensity against the ungrateful, like a scorching east wind that never dies. As it it written:

And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
(Revelation 14:9; Revelation 14:10-11 ESV)

For those who say that Hell is where God's presence isn't, they don't understand justice.

Here is this morning's message (not all the particulars, but the main portion)

UPDATE: I now have the audio version available. If you would like a copy, post a comment to let me know. You cannot be anonymous for me to send you a copy. I will try to post it if I can.

Our text is Mark 8:34-9:1. This text comes immediately on the heels of Jesus’ questioning Peter about who the people said Jesus was and then Jesus asking Peter who Peter thought that Jesus was. We know from another Gospel that Peter’s revelation that Jesus was Messiah came as a gift from God. Then Jesus tells the disciples about how He must suffer, die, and rise as Messiah in order to fulfill Scripture. This teaching is in order to adjust the people’s understanding of Messiah. Like the blind man who just a few verses before Peter’s confession had to be healed twice so that he could not only see, but see clearly, Jesus was opening the people’s eyes to know Him as more than the Messiah who has the power over all things in life, but He would be known as the Messiah who suffered and died and rose again. At this, Peter rebukes Jesus, and the word rebuke is ep-EE-tay-mah-O, which means to both tax with fault as well as to show honor or “raise the price of.” The idea is that Peter tells Jesus something likely in reference to Jesus’ worth being greater than he thinks Jesus realizes, and that Jesus is too great to fulfill such debased prophecies. Then Jesus rebukes Peter for not valuing the things of God highly enough. Think about that. From that situation, Jesus calls his other disciples and the rest of the crowd to him.

³⁴And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

³⁵For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.

³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

³⁷For what can a man give in return for his soul?

³⁸For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

¹And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death

until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

Prayer

³⁴And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

In order to understand this passage, we must understand this verse clearly, for the statements following it add support and expand upon it and its implications

· The first phrase to examine is “would come after,” which implies a coming into, or going unto, or going after Jesus. The idea is of following with an implied desire, that is, He calls out to come, and if you want to come, here is what must take place.

· We next follow with a brief explanation for the word “deny.”

o The word “deny” = Ah-par-NEY-oh-my

o Meaning

§ to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's own interests

o Idea – Quit-Claim Deed…divesting yourself of any and all interest….you are no longer your own

o Thus, the statement simplified is “if you will follow Jesus, you have to stop following yourself.

· AND begins the next two implications of being allowed to follow Jesus.

o In denying yourself, as in not following yourself, as in not doing what is right in your own eyes, you must take up your cross.

o Thus we come to the question of what does he mean by “the cross.” His hearers would not have associated the cross with his later crucifixion in this instance. To them it would have been the most shameful form of execution…to be associated with the scum of the earth…can you find yourself associated with those people? This doesn’t mean bearing up under your struggles in life as if you’re pious for doing so. This is about associating yourself as the Apostle Paul did with the most wretched of men and seeing himself as the chief of sinners. Perhaps you think yourself too good for that, and think too highly of yourself?

o Once when Jesus was at a Pharisee’s house a sinful woman came in and poured expensive ointment on Jesus’ feet, wetting his feet with her tears and wiping them clean with her hair. The Pharisees looked down on this woman while she looked up upon Jesus. Jesus told the hypocrites, “her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

Until you realize the sheer magnitude of the debt you owe, you will never appreciate the debt you’ve been forgiven in Christ. Thus, until you know this truth, you will remain thankless to God, ungrateful, and forever blinded to how wretched we as men really are.

Let me ask you to think about something for a moment. You see me up here and I’m speaking to you about the Bible. The pastors have allowed me to share with you. But don’t think that it’s so because I have attained to some spiritual level. If you’re looking for someone with a secret to listen to, you might as well leave. I’m just another failure where it all counts. Don’t discount what I just said. I can honestly tell you that I know more about myself than you know about me. Thus, you should believe me when I say you don’t know how wicked I am. Some of you might be thinking, “What’s he talking about? Is there some dark secret he has, something he’s done in his past that I we don’t know about?” Let me remind you quickly, I’m not evil or sinful because I’ve sinned. I do wicked and heinous things because I’m a sinner. If I could play my life backwards on a screen before you today, if you could watch my thoughts like a tree growing from seed to sapling to full growth, what would you see? You would see unspeakable things. You would be appalled, and I wouldn’t remain here to watch in my shame. How strange is that, that I would be ashamed to let the truth be known though you are no less sinful yourselves? [Move through Sermon on the Mount “you have heard, but I tell you” statements]. If I asked you if you have ever committed adultery which is no less evil if it’s in your heart, or if you still do, would any of us still be armed with stones to throw at the man in the newspaper or the politician on television? If I asked if you had committed murder, no less vile in the sight of God because it was in anger toward your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, your enemy, would you still find yourself to be better than the criminal who had taken life? Surely I don’t say those things are good, but that’s the point, they’re not good. I have said nothing about your lying, stealing, and coveting. And how bad they are, well do we recognize how bad they are? The Scriptures say before Christ we are lost, condemned, under the wrath of God, dead in our trespasses and sins, and possessing desperately wicked hearts.

Have you pleased God in obeying the first commandment?

An old man once replied to a young man who asked him what the greatest sin was with the answers à disobeying greatest command (heart soul mind strength)

We have never obeyed that command, He has never failed to love His Father fully

Additionally, do you know how good your goodness is? Do you know what the Scriptures tell us about our goodness? When we attempt to do good things, it’s utterly disgusting and gross to God. Pastor Bob has spoken about sins as your attempt to restore your perishing self, but attempting to clean yourself and stop your bleeding with such will only speed up the process and ensure you become infected worse, grow more sickly, and radically increase your need to be saved from death.

But for you who say, stop telling me all this, I know how wretched I am. I know that I deserve nothing but God’s wrath. I know that I am but a worm and have nothing to offer God. Hear me, for you are the man or woman or old man or child for whom Christ came.

The sick need a doctor, not the healthy. If you’re a good person, you don’t need Jesus. The only problem is that there are none who are good. Not a single one except Jesus Christ. He alone is the remnant who followed God. To Him alone are all of the covenant promises and blessings. He did what no one else could do. That is why I showed you the good and holy law which holds you condemned, that you might not try to stand on legs you do not have. That way, you might give God the credit.

Hear this, Romans 3:11 teaches us that no one seeks God. Your friends don’t seek God, your parents don’t seek God, your neighbors don’t seek God, your bosses don’t seek God. Luke 19:10 tells us that that’s why Jesus came, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost, not that men would find what they were looking for, but that He would find those who weren’t looking for what they needed most. “All are like sheep gone astray, each to his own way. But God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” God seeks and He finds. Pray to God that He would seek, because if He seeks, He will find, and they will know Him.

This is the way of the Christian life. It’s repentance. Repentance acknowledges that God’s way is right and your way is wrong and that you are ashamed of following the wrong way, and that you see how good God is, though you were His enemy. This is why God’s mercy teaches us to fear not, because we ought to be in fear, knowing how wicked we’ve been, living as if God has not provided us with life and breath and everything else. We live as if God has not given all good things. We try to live independent of God, not only sinning, by also offending his majesty. Being infinitely worthy, we ascribe Him no value, demonstrating that our hearts hate Him and believing and living that way is worthy of a punishment of equal degree, eternal damnation. When you realize how evil you have been and God shows you how good He has been despite your wickedness, THEN you can appreciate His love – knowing that Christ was damned upon that tree becoming a curse. He drank down the cup of God’s wrath until no drop was left. Do you see that? He bore the curse you deserve. In light of such incredible mercy, repent and take joy. That turn of heart is repentance and it bears true fruit of faith. Faith without works is dead. Faith that is rooted in the Truth bears fruits of His Spirit. Christians live lives of repentance, growing more and more mournful of their sin over a lifetime and more and more thankful for God’s grace toward them and the world. Christians grow in thankfulness and joy when they grow in repentance. You are not yet freed from the presence of sin, you may be free of its curse, and you may be justified in God’s sight, but you still contend with sin. Grow in the knowledge of the Lord and the sinfulness of sin so that you can hate sin more. In hating sin more, love God more.

And so I entreat you to “test yourself to see if you are of the faith,” and to “work out your faith with fear and trembling.”

Verse 35

³⁵For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel’s will save it.

This proposition supports verse 34

• Would - implies desire, and pleasure.
• Save - the word is “sowed-zo” and it means to keep from perishing. It does not mean to just hold on to, but to hold onto because it is in danger of being taken away. It’s diseased and is in need of healing or rescue
• Lose - refers to putting out of the way entirely, often by destroying, or the declaration of death on something.

OPPOSITE

• Loses
• Sake of Jesus and the Gospel
• Save

Think of the statement, therefore like this:

· If you find pleasure in your diseased life, and try to keep the disease from destroying it, you will fail. In fact, your attempt is itself a declaration of death upon your life.

But

· If you put your life, that is, all that is you, out of the way entirely (recognize that you have no value on your own) for the purpose of valuing Christ and the Good news of what He came to do and did do, your life will be healed, and you will be rescued.

In 2 Corinthians 5:15 Paul writes of Christ, “and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

That said, we move on to Verse 36

³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

This proposition is a question establishing the truth of Verse 35 with an expected answer in the negative.

Jesus asks, does a man do well to acquire the whole world if he has to suffer the loss of his own soul in the process? Is such a man acquiring something of greater worth in that exchange?

The answer is expectantly “NO!” Such is demonstrated in the next verse, with a question compounding the strength of this position.

³⁷For what can a man give in return for his soul?

Jesus presents a question which forces one to ask: how valuable is a man’s soul? This presents us with a problem. We know that outside of Christ man is of no inherent value, that is, man is worth nothing in relation to the worth of God. And the worth of God is the standard by which all things must be considered. Thus, the question here ultimately draws us to think about the necessity of Jesus Christ as propitiation for our sins. What can a man give as to one asking for his soul? If you stand outside of Christ, you should tremble. Because no account you can offer is good payment for the heinousness of your crime against the Lord’s name. If you stand in Christ, no payment ought to be good enough for you to delight in any other god besides Him.

Both of you, sinner and saint, turn away from your idols. Acknowledge the goodness of the Lord. We spend more time lauding the feats of men on floors of wood and synthetic grass that we laud the Lord of Glory. We speak more of money-lovers than the God Who is love. We spend more time devoted to questioning how far we can step outside of the will of God before we will lose His benefits, than we spend praying and seeking the inside of the encampment that we might delight more in God Himself. It’s a true saying that everyone wants to go to heaven, except most people don’t want God to be there when they arrive.

What will you offer for your soul?

This culminates in Jesus’ next statement in Verse 38

³⁸For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Ashamed - there is a familial bend to this….in Hebrews it is used to demonstrate that Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren and that God is not ashamed to be our God

Why? Should God be ashamed? God in His holiness will not permit sin into His presence, thus He crushed His Son Jesus Who bore all sins on our behalf. If God were to allow sin into His presence and not destroy it, He would be acting unjustly. If God were to act unjustly, God would be sinning against Himself and in need of shame, but God is Just, and all His ways are right. He will not be ashamed of those whom He has redeemed. He will honor Himself is justifying sinners, showing how great and mighty He is. Thus, He need not be ashamed, but rather He glories in Himself and what He’s done.

THEREFORE, if you would not attribute to God such value. If you would say that Jesus ought to be ashamed and that His words require shame on His behalf, as if God has done something sinful, you should quake where you sit. Is this not what you do when you do not exercise all effort in magnifying Christ? When you are unwilling to show Him forth for as great as He is, you effectively say He is not worth it. If you say He is not worth such acclaim, and He says He is, and you act upon your words and understanding rather than His, beware. Beware. We have not followed cleverly crafted tales. This is reality. Wakeup.

The final verse of this short engagement with the crowd is Jesus’ statement

¹And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.”

Here Jesus is referring to what happens six days later. John Mark writes that after six days Jesus went up on the mountain where He was transfigured in glory before Peter, James, and John. Thus, the “some” in Verse 1 refers to those three disciples standing there, who saw Jesus Christ, God’s promised King of God’s everlasting Kingdom, and were witnesses to His power, and now to His visible splendor.

I hope you realize that this ought to change your life. If you walk away from these words today and go about your life as if these words had not been spoken, or as if you were sanctified enough that these words are just something to think about but not act upon immediately. Beware. I don’t say that to scare you as if I take joy in making you afraid. Be assured, I don’t. But if you retain any impurity in your vision, and I have the opportunity to offer you clarity of which I myself am undeserving, well I ought to be ashamed.

Thus I ask you, do you treasure the Gospel? Do you treasure it so much that you also offer it freely, as freely as it has been offered to you? Do you relegate that to others, as if it’s a chore to be done? Do you take no joy in glorying in Christ before the world?

Maybe your life is just so busy and you have so many mouths to feed, and you know, God wants you to be a good steward of that time and family…is that supposed to be an excuse to not find all joy in Christ? Such relationships only have eternal value when associated to the command of loving God with all of your being, and outside of that association they only serve to condemn you.

I’m going to close here in a minute. But first, know that faith is not a worked disposition.

The true follower bears fruit. You will have works of faith, works which show God as glorious and not yourself, works which admit that God provided all the evidence for why you are obeying Him, and that you are not obeying as if what God promised is still uncertain, and therefore you are the one giving Him grace. Be assured, you are not. His faithfulness is the hardest fact this creation has ever encountered.

How hard is it for you to sit down? Should you receive an award for sitting down, expecting the chair to hold you up, as if it might not, and its faithfulness still unproven? How much less should you receive an award for doing what God commands, as if His covenant promises are potentially unreliable? Thus, you follow out of an overflow of joy, not being compelled by guilt because you actually hate those things. See this clearly. The true follower does not hate the things of God. He grows in love of them. If you find trouble with your flesh and that you do hate to obey. Pray to our Father in Heaven, Who sits on the throne of grace that as He has given you breath to breathe, that you might also be given understanding of His Good News, and that you would value and delight in Him more, so that you would love righteousness and hate unrighteousness.

My final word to you is to reflect on how you have lived toward God. And because you have never done what is commanded of you, and are without excuse, repent. Repent and live for God in thankfulness of what He’s done. You have no hope outside of Him, dead in your sins, and doubly dead in your self-righteous deeds. Repent and cling to Christ. He is your only hope. You cannot earn what is only His, but He can pluck you from the fire. Fearing the wrath to come upon you, Call upon Jesus’ name and believe and you will be saved, and then fear no more. Having heard this news of what Christ has done, shouldn’t you be joyful?

Jesus said that Kingdom of heaven advances because of violent people taking it by force. Like the man thrashing in the water as he drowns and will grab and hold with a death grip anything thrown to him so the Christian will believe in Christ’s rescue and will cling to Christ.

Therefore,

Rejoice and keep on rejoicing. Why wouldn’t you. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow Him. For He took up His for the joy set before Him. Take up yours for the joy set before you, namely Jesus Christ the Lord.