Of all the books ever written, there is only one that is utterly infallible, timeless, and completely trustworthy—the Bible. But is it merely a collection of ancient men’s words or is it the revelation of the living God?
Dr. Charles Stanley: What are
your convictions about
the Bible?
What do you really believe is
true of the Word of God?
Maybe you’ve owned one for
years, but haven’t read it
too much.
Or maybe you’re one of those
persons who reads it every day,
but you never thought really
about where it came from,
what it’s about.
So what are your convictions
about the Bible?
So, to clarify what we mean by
conviction, listen, having
a conviction is being so
thoroughly convinced that
something is true that you’ll
take a stand for it regardless
of the consequences.
Now, a preference is something
you believe and believe
strongly, but you would
change your mind under
certain conditions.
But that’s not true of a
conviction, thoroughly convinced
that it’s true to the point that
you are willing to pay the
consequences of believing
the Bible.
So, if somebody says to you,
“What is the Bible?”
Well, lots of people believe
that the Bible is a book that
was written by many different
men over a long period of time,
and therefore because they
weren’t perfect, there must be
errors in the Bible.
And so, they will tell
you that there are.
And they will say, “You know,
some parts of the Bible are
outdated now, because
after all, this is the
twenty-first century.
And you mean to tell me that
there are not errors in
the Bible?”
I mean to tell you there are
not errors in the Bible.
Listen, the God who gave us His
Word knows how to keep His Word
true no matter who
is recording it.
And once in a while somebody
will say, “Well, men
make errors.”
They certainly do, but let me
ask you a question: what error
does God make?
And anything as important as
God’s message to the whole world
for all time and eternity, God
knows how to protect the truth
of His Word.
So, when people tell you that
the Bible is only partially
true, you can forget it.
The Bible is the story of God’s
redeeming love for mankind.
That’s really it in a nutshell.
It’s the story of God’s
redeeming love for mankind.
Now, watch this.
It started in the garden of Eden
when God forgave Adam and Eve.
And we are living today, and
God is still forgiving us.
It is about the awesome love of
our awesome God who loves us and
wants the best for us, and for
those who do not believe the
Bible for whatever their reason
may be, mark it down.
That’s your belief,
but it is not the truth.
This absolutely awesome, holy,
righteous God would not give us
a book full of errors or filled
with errors and then expect us
to live a godly life.
So, when people tell you, “Well,
it’s outdated,” ask them where?
Where is it outdated?
What principle in the Scripture
has He given us that’s outdated?
Not a single one.
It’s all the truth
of the Living God.
So, think about it in this way.
Somebody says, “Well, it’s
something that men wrote.”
Now, watch this.
First of all, man
did not write it.
God wrote it through men
and controlled them.
If man could have written it,
he wouldn’t have.
I’ll tell you why.
Because it condemns him
in his sin.
Nobody’s going to write a book
that condemns them in their sin.
So a man couldn’t write it if he
would have, and he wouldn’t
if he could have, for the
simple reason it’s all about
righteousness and holiness.
And God stands for His Word.
I want you to turn, if you will,
to Isaiah sixty-six.
I just want you to read a couple
of verses here, and then I want
to turn you to Psalm one
nineteen and a couple of
verses there.
But Psalm six, I mean,
Isaiah sixty-six.
There’s one part of this verse
that we need to look at,
“Thus saith the Lord,” verse
one, Isaiah sixty-six verse one,
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Heaven is
My throne and the earth is
My footstool, where then is a
house you could build for Me?
And where is a place
that I may rest?
For My hand made all these
things, and all these things
came into being,’
declares the Lord.
‘But to this one,'” to this
person, “‘I will look, to him
who is humble and contrite
of spirit and who trembles
at My word.'”
Understanding that this Book is
so holy, the truth is when you
and I begin to understand the
truth of it, we do tremble.
When we think of eternity in the
future and the past and how God
has kept clean and pure His Holy
Word, telling us how to be
saved, telling us how to live in
difficult times, it is a book
that makes us indeed tremble.
Then I–the hundred and
nineteenth Psalm, just one
simple verse there, that’s that
long Psalm, Psalm one nineteen.
Look there for just a moment,
and I want you to look at it
because I want you
to remember this.
Psalm one nineteen,
verse one-oh-five.
Listen to what he says, “Your
word,” that’s the Bible,
the Scripture, “Your word is
a lamp to my feet and a light
to my path.
I have sworn and
I will confirm it.”
It’s a lamp to our feet
and a light to our path.
God has given us the Bible to
give us instruction how to
live our life.
And it’s more than simply
a trustworthy guide.
It matches every single
experience that we face in life,
God has an answer that explains,
oftentimes, what He’s doing.
So, when I think about the
Bible, I think about it has
four purposes, really.
And that is to reveal the
one true God to us.
To tell us how to be saved,
how to live a godly life,
and how to serve Him.
It’s all found in
the Word of God.
Now, what is the truth
about the Scripture?
People have all kind of ideas.
So, what I want to do is simply
do this: I want to tell you the
truth about the Bible.
And you think about it, you
decide whether it’s true or not.
It is true.
And what I want to show you is
with all of this being true,
when somebody tells you the
Bible’s full of errors, it’s
this, that, and the other, it’s
outdated and so forth, they do
not know what
they’re talking about.
So, I want to give you
the reasons that the–I believe,
that the Bible is absolutely the
Word of God, beginning with
it’s timeless.
It’s never outdated.
You can’t outdate
the Word of God.
It’s timeless.
It fits in any generation.
It’s infallible.
That is, it is without error.
And in Second Peter, if you turn
to Second Peter, listen to what
he says, verse one of chapter
two, of Second Peter, “But false
prophets also arose among the
people, just as there will also
be false teachers among you, who
will secretly introduce
destructive heresies, even
denying the Master who brought
them, bringing swift destruction
upon themselves.
Many will follow their
sensuality, and because of them
the way of the truth will be
maligned; and in their greed
they will exploit you with false
words, their judgment from long
ago is not idle, and their
destruction is not asleep.”
That is, people not believing
the Scripture didn’t
start today.
There’ve always been people
who did not believe it.
But what I want you to see
is it is the revelation
of the one true God.
That is, when God provided us a
Bible, He provided us a book by
which you and I could live and
face every single situation
in life, no exception.
God has His answer for us
and His support to us.
It exposes man’s sinfulness
and his hopeless condition.
This is why people don’t
want to believe it.
If I wanted to live in sin, I
certainly wouldn’t want to read
the Bible, because the Bible
says, “The wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is
eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.”
And that, “We will give an
account for all of our sin.”
I’ll tell you why they
don’t read it.
Because the Word of God will
convict them of sin and they
don’t want to be convicted of
sin, so their excuse is,
“Well, it’s not true.”
I’m here to tell you that will
not work before the judgment
of God.
Then of course, it’s a
trustworthy guide for
our daily life.
I think about all of you who
are watching and listening:
do you read the Bible every day?
It’s a trustworthy guide for
our daily life; and in every
circumstance of life,
God has an answer.
Only God could have written,
could have penned through men
the answers to all the
things that He answers
in the Scriptures.
Then of course, it pictures for
us the consequences of sin.
And think about this, God in His
wisdom in providing us a Bible
over these years, He started
where He knew we needed to
start, and that is man will fall
into temptation and disobey God,
then what?
And one of the things that He
wanted us to learn very early
in life is: there are
consequences to sin.
God told Adam and Eve the truth.
He said, “If you disobey Me,
here’s what’s going to happen.
They disobeyed Him and
that’s exactly what happened,
what He said.
God never misleads us.
He tells us the truth
when it’s good.
He tells us the truth
when it’s painful.
There are consequences to sin.
Watch this carefully.
God knew the kind of society
we’d grow up in, the kind
of life we’d have to live,
and He’s provided us all the
warnings that we need.
And He says there are
consequences to sin.
On the other hand, He reveals
His unconditional love for us.
Watch this, God’s love for you
and me is not conditioned upon
whether I’m obedient or not.
The principle is there.
If I’m obedient,
I’m blessed of God.
If I’m disobedient, watch
this, I’m disobedient, I pay the
penalty; but I don’t, listen,
God doesn’t stop loving me.
Your children, for example,
disobey you, do you
stop loving them?
No.
Are you greater than God?
No.
The forgiveness of God, the love
of God is the message of
the Word of God.
It explains, for example, how
we can be saved from our sins.
Where would you ever find a
verse that contains what
this verse contains?
You could take every word
and preach a message on it.
“For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in Him,
would not perish but have
everlasting life.”
Period.
How could only God put so much
in one verse of Scripture
to explain all of redemption
in one verse of Scripture?
Had to be from God.
It declares who Jesus is
and why He came.
He–He’s the Son of God.
He came into this world for the
purpose of dying on the cross
and paying our sin debt in full.
People who argue about the
Bible, they don’t even have
any–they don’t even have
an idea why Jesus came.
They’ll say, “Well, I know Jesus
was born and this, that, and
the other; but He was
just another man.”
No, He was God walking in human
flesh among men in order to die
on the cross and pay
our sin debt in full.
That’s who He is.
And that is the message
of the Word of God.
It explains, for example,
why He was born of a virgin.
Because remember this,
virgin-born meant that Jesus
had no sin.
If Jesus had been a normal man
and had sin in His life,
He couldn’t have died on the
cross for your sin and mine.
So that–watch this, God’s whole
redemptive plan is based on the
virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
And when somebody says, “Well,
I believe in Jesus, but I don’t
think that virgin birth’s
all important.”
It is extremely important.
It’s essential that Jesus Christ
was born of a virgin, no sin.
He wasn’t paying for His sin.
If not born of a virgin, He’d
have been a sinner like
any other man.
The only reason He could die for
your sin and mine and pay our
sin debt in full is He
was absolutely pure.
He was God in the human flesh.
And then, of course, it explains
why He died on a cross.
Why did Jesus die on the cross?
All through the Old Testament,
people said, “That Old Testament
is so–that’s just–I
don’t get that.”
You may not get and may not
understand why so many times
the Bible talks about
the sheep, the lambs.
Because those lambs were symbols
of the Son of God who would one
day lay down His life on the
cross, and shedding His blood,
would take care of our sin debt
in full all of our lives and
for all eternity.
So, there’s nothing in the
Bible that’s unimportant.
And just because you don’t
understand all those sacrifices
doesn’t mean that there’s a
mistake or that there’s error
or that there’s anything in
here that’s unimportant.
God wouldn’t place anything in
the Bible that’s unimportant.
You come to a book like
Leviticus, for example,
and those passages of Scripture
that talk about building the
tabernacle and they say, “What
in the world’s all of that?”
All that is about symbols of
the Lord Jesus Christ,
it’s all important.
God gave us a book to guide
us, to enable us to live
a godly life.
And so, what you may consider
unimportant is very important
in the eyes of God.
Then of course, it describes
His resurrection.
And you know that people talk
about their god this,
their god that.
Jesus was born of a virgin,
the perfect Son of God,
God in human flesh.
They crucified Him.
He was dead.
There’s no question about
the fact He was dead.
They sealed the tomb, and in
spite of sealing the tomb,
the tomb was broken and
Jesus Christ was resurrected.
He’s the resurrected
Son of the Living God.
And therefore, He beat death.
And so, Jesus Christ, listen,
He didn’t just die on a cross.
He rose from the dead.
And the Bible says He’s seated
at the Father’s right hand,
making intercession for us.
That’s where He is now.
He’s seated at the
Father’s right hand.
Where is God?
He’s in the holy temple
in heaven.
And so, the Scriptures
are complete.
It tells us, for example,
how to handle temptation.
You look in First Corinthians
ten, thirteen and you listen
to Paul talk about how we’re
to respond when tempted
and so forth.
It identifies the person
of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the third
person of the Trinity.
And Jesus said to His disciples,
made it very clear.
He said, “I’m going away,
but I’m not going to leave
you alone.
The Spirit of God
is going to come.
He’s going to be your helper.
He’s going to be in you, with
you, and upon you and He’s going
to–” watch this, “He’s going
to seal you as a child of God
unto the day of redemption,”
which means when you were
saved–for example, I was saved
at the age of twelve.
At the age of twelve, not only
was I forgiven of my sins
and saved, but I was sealed.
I was sealed forever as a child
of God and cannot lose my
salvation like you can’t lose
yours, if you’ve been saved
by the grace of God.
And so, the work of the Holy
Spirit was not only to seal us,
but to inhabit us to live
the life of God through us.
And so, He’s the one who helps
us interpret the Word of God.
He’s the one who enables us
to live a godly life.
We have Him as our
great Enabler.
So, God didn’t–He didn’t
leave anything out.
It wasn’t that Jesus left, died
and went to heaven, but what?
He says, “The Holy Spirit’s
going to come.
And when He comes,
you’re going to be filled.
That’s what Pentecost
was all about.
So that every single person
who is a believer has the
Holy Spirit of the Living God
who is the third person of the
Trinity: God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit,
living on the inside of you.
Listen, He’s with you
every day, every night.
He’s with you all the time.
You can’t be separated from
God once you’re saved
by the grace of God.
Somebody says, “Well, I believe
that you can be saved and lose
your salvation.
I grew up believing that, that I
could lose my salvation,
that’s what I was taught.
Did that bother me?
Sure, it bothered me.
And I think, “You mean I’ve
got to give an account
for all of that?”
And I was sitting in a Greek
class in seminary translating
the book of First John when I
finally realized that I am saved
and was saved, am saved forever
and no sin can separate me
from Almighty God.
That’s the grace of God.
And so, He didn’t say, “I’m
going to save you, but you
better keep saved.”
If I had to keep saved, that
wouldn’t be possible because
we live in a fallen world and
we’re going to make mistakes
and we’re going to
sin against God.
That’s the awesome grace of God
the world doesn’t understand.
That, listen, whatever, God’s
forgiveness took care of every
single solitary sin of
every single person.
That was the power of the cross
and the evidence of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And when people tell you,
“Well, I don’t know about that
Bible business.”
You better know about it,
because there’s going to come
a time when you’re going to
have to give an account.
And the Scripture teaches us,
for example, how to face trials
and difficulties in our life.
Look at the Apostle Paul.
The life of the Apostle Paul,
look at all these epistles he
wrote in prison.
What was God doing?
It looked like Paul just had
a terrible time and God
wasn’t very fair to him.
You know what God was doing?
God chose that man, miraculously
saved him on the Damascus Road,
and allowed him to suffer and
suffer and suffer and go from
one prison to–they all knew
about the Apostle Paul.
And what did he do?
He listened to God
while he was in prison.
And he wrote, he penned these
awesome epistles by the hand
of Almighty God.
No man could have
thought up all of that.
And what did He do?
He gave us, through the Apostle
Paul, all of these epistles
to help us know how to live and
face every kind of situation you
and I could possibly face.
That’s the grace and
goodness of Almighty God.
There’s nothing missing in
this Bible, not anything.
And when people tell you there
are errors, just hand them
your Bible and say,
“Okay, point them out.”
They can’t point them out
because they’re not there.
Listen, if I wanted to live in
sin, the last thing I’m going
to do is open this Book.
If I’m going to live in sin, the
last thing I’m going to do is
to listen to your testimony.
Because, listen, the Word, watch
this, the Word of God, the
Scripture says, “The Word of God
is sharper than any two-edged
sword, going straight to
the heart, straight to the
conscience, straight to the
mind to convict us of sin.”
Naturally, the unbelieving
world doesn’t want to believe
the Bible.
Because it is the law of the
Living God and it is His Word.
It’s a fountain
of encouragement.
Notice what Jesus
said many times.
He said, “My peace I give unto
you, let not your heart be
troubled, neither
let it be afraid.”
The Bible is full of
encouraging things.
You say, “Well, I don’t
understand some things
in the Bible.”
Well, you know what?
Join the crowd.
There are things that all of us
have to read several times,
and then you think, “Well
now, Lord,” watch this.
Are you listening?
Say amen.
Real, real loud, amen.
If God had made the Scriptures
as simple as you want them,
we would read it once
and lay it down.
But He made it difficult
enough to do what?
To send me back over and
over again, and I love it.
In other words, Lord,
now what did You say?
Let me see if I understand it.
Oh, that’s what You meant.
Oh, that’s what
You meant.
Hallelujah that’s
what you meant!
Because God made it
difficult enough to do what?
To draw us back.
What did He mean by that?
“For by grace you’re saved.”
What in the world’s
that grace business?
And so, when it comes to
forgiveness, what are
the verses?
“If we confess our sins, He’s
faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.”
Hallelujah!
I don’t have to wonder
whether I’m forgiven or not.
You don’t have to live in doubt.
You believe the Word of God,
there’s going to be
a blessed assurance.
And we sing that song, “Blessed
assurance, Jesus is mine,
oh what a foretaste
of glory divine.”
And on and on we go.
It is not a book of errors.
It is a book of absolute truth
to guide us and to lead us
in every single
situation in life.
You can’t name anything that
God’s left out in His Word.
Well, it explains what
happens at death.
And for example, if you’re one
of those persons who doesn’t
believe the Bible,
let me ask you this.
Do you believe
you’re going to die?
Well, if you don’t,
you’re really fooled.
But you’re going to die
one of these days.
So, since you don’t believe the
Bible, what do you think is
going to happen to
you when you die?
And most of the time people say,
“Well I’m just going to–
that’s going to
be the end of me.”
Oh, no it’s not.
Not going to be the end of you.
You’d like to think it is,
but it’s not.
Now, for all of us who are
believers, we say, “Praise
the Lord.”
We don’t have to worry about
death because here’s what
God said.
“Absent from the body,
present with the Lord.”
The Bible has the answer for
every single question that
I need in life to live it
or to die by it.
And, for example, there are
people who believe in purgatory.
That you die and then you go
somewhere and you suffer until
finally you’ve paid
for all of your sin.
If you die, saved by the grace
of God, you’re not going
to be in a purgatory.
You want me to tell you why
you’re not going to purgatory?
Because there’s no such thing.
It’s nowhere in the Bible, watch
this, because if I believe Jesus
and trust Him as my Savior,
then I have to go suffer, then
something happened, or was
missing, at the cross.
The cross took care of our sins,
all of our sins: past, present,
and future.
There is no room for purgatory,
none whatsoever.
You trust Christ as your Savior,
His sacrificial death at the
cross, being born again, the Son
of God, sent Him for the purpose
of dying, paying your
sin debt in full.
If it’s paid in full, there
can’t be a purgatory.
So, “Absent from the body,
present with the Lord.”
But listen to what
the Scripture says.
It assures us, for example,
of the return of Christ and
our future rewards.
Somebody says, “Well,
Jesus died and is gone.”
Well, here’s what He says.
He says in the fourteenth
chapter of John is a beautiful,
beautiful passage, and we–most
of us probably know it by heart,
but you–if you’re having a
little problem, that–you might
look at that.
He says, “Do not let your
heart be troubled.”
He says, “You believe in God,
believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house
are many mansions.”
Listen to this, Jesus, wait a
minute, who died on the cross,
rose from the grave, seated at
the Father’s right hand said,
“In My Father’s house are many
dwelling places, if it were not
so, I would have told you.
I’m going to prepare
a place for you.”
And, “If I go to prepare a place
for you, I’m coming back
to receive you to Myself.”
Now, He’s going to come back for
this one, that one, this one,
that one, that one, and one of
these days He’s coming back
to wrap up all of civilization.
You don’t know Christ as your
Savior, you don’t have any hope.
The worst thing that could
happen to you is to die
without Jesus.
And you’re, listen, you’ll be
a fool not to receive Christ
as your Savior.
You’re hearing the truth of
the Word of the Living God.
And He’s the one who said, “I’m
coming to receive you to Myself,
that where I am, there
you may be also.”
If you’re one of His children,
if you’ve trusted Him to be
your Savior, if you recognize
what He did at the cross
also included you.
Well, it also warns those
of coming judgment.
“It is appointed unto man
once to die, and after this
the judgment.”
Listen, watch this carefully.
Many people take the Bible
and they want to use it like
salt and pepper.
I like this part,
I don’t like that part.
I’m–I believe that part,
I don’t believe that part.
And they give you all these
reasons why they don’t–
they believe parts of it.
You can’t pick and
choose with the Bible.
You don’t have to
pick and choose.
If you’re trying to escape
judgment, I’m sorry.
“It’s appointed unto man once
to die, and after this
the judgment.”
That is, we’re going to have to
give an account for our sins.
If you’re saved by the grace
of Almighty God, and the
Spirit of God is living within
you, you’ve been sealed as
a child of God, it’s
already taken care of.
But every person, watch this,
judgment for the believer is
the judgment of rewards.
Judgment for a person who’s
rejected Christ is a judgment
of eternal punishment.
I can hear you now.
You say, “Well, I
don’t believe that.”
Let me ask you a question: do
you think that your disbelief
changes the Word of God?
No, it doesn’t.
And one day you’ll wish
you had believed it.
God loves you.
He wants to forgive
you of your sin.
He wants you to go to heaven.
He wants the best for you.
But if you push away the
Word of God, then there
are consequences.
The Bible tells us
of future events.
Read the Book of the Revelation.
We think all those things.
You say, “Well, I don’t
understand all that.”
Well, you know what?
Watch this carefully, if I
understood everything about God,
I would be equal to God,
and that ain’t gonna happen.
And so, what happens?
We’re driven back to read and to
pray and to read and to pray and
to search and to pray, and all
of that draws us closer to God.
He doesn’t tell–He tells me
everything I need to know,
not everything I’d like to know.
It’s the indestructible
Word of the Living God.
For example, I think about
people who’ve mocked it, scoffed
it, blasphemed it, burned it,
denied it, attempted to destroy
it, done everything possible
to get rid of the Book.
You think, for example,
in Russia alone, they did
everything they could do to get
rid of, destroy the Word of God;
and it’s all over Russia.
And that, listen,
it’s all over China.
Why?
Because that’s the
power of the Living God.
And God wants His message
of love distributed
all over the world.
People give their lives just to
translate a portion of a book
of the Bible to somebody, for
example, does not have a Bible.
And so, it’s still rolling off
the presses every single day.
And we are to love it,
obey it, and to share it.
So that’s the Word of God.
And so, the Scripture says in
Matthew twenty-four, “Heaven and
earth may pass away, but My
words will not pass away.”
That’s what Jesus said.
Heaven and earth may pass away
in the future judgment, but My
words will not pass away.
Then Isaiah forty, verse eight,
one of my favorite verses, “The
grass withers, and the flowers
fade, but the Word of our God
stands forever.”
Believe the Word of God.
Live it out.
Practice it.
Obey it.
Let’s just say, for example,
you’ve closed the Bible
in your life.
you just don’t want
that in your life.
Let me ask you a question.
Let’s say that you’re one of
those multi-multi-millionaires
or billionaires.
You got billions.
You own stuff you can–you
hardly–you’ve almost
forgotten it.
You’re coming to your
last day of life.
Ask you a question: what will be
more valuable to you on the last
day of your life with all your
billions: your money or
the Word of God?
And listen carefully.
Your money can’t buy
you into heaven.
You can’t give enough to any
church, any organization to pay
your way into heaven.
Salvation is by the grace, the
undeserved love of Almighty God,
provided for you through
His Son, Jesus Christ.
When Jesus went to the cross,
that’s not just the Easter
celebration.
That’s a celebration of the
death of the Son of God, not
somebody, the Son of God, whose
death was so powerful, it atoned
for the sin of all mankind:
past, present, and future.
What a fool you’ll be to die
without the Word of God.
How foolish to live your life
thinking that somehow you’re
going to pay your way through.
Or some way, I haven’t
been all that bad.
That’s from your point of view.
Think about this, if you reject
the Son of the Living God,
whom God sent into this world to
reveal the truth, who went to
the cross, died on the cross,
to reject the Son of God is not
some simple decision you make.
It is a horrible
decision you make.
You think that somehow, you’ve
been good enough to be saved.
How good have you been?
You can tell me the good things
you’ve done or how much
you’ve given, that’s
not the issue.
“For by grace are you saved
through faith, that not
of yourselves, it is a gift of
God, not of works lest anyone
should boast.”
It is the result of
the grace of God.
So, you either believe the Word
of God and get ready to meet
Him, or you just turn your
back on it and say,
“Somehow I’ll make it.”
Watch this, that’s
your false opinion.
That is the devil’s lie.
That’s the way you would
like for it to be.
That is not the way
it’s going to be.
“The soul that sinneth, it
shall die,” for all eternity.
You can either live your life
without God and stand before the
judgment and be eternally
separated from God, the Bible’s
crystal clear, eternally
separated from God.
I know you don’t like
the word hell.
And the way people use it
here lately, you don’t know
what it means.
I’m talking about
scriptural hell.
Jesus used the word.
He didn’t promote it.
He says, “This is the ultimate
of separation from God.”
And my plea with you is, number
one, you can’t show me a bunch
of errors in the Bible.
The Bible is God’s inspired,
divine, accurate Word in order
to show us His love for us, and
that Christ died for us, and
that you can be forgiven of your
sin, and it can be true of you,
“Absent from the body,
present with the Lord.”
Or absent from the body and
forever separated from the Lord.
You say, “Well now, that’s
just what you believe.”
No, no, no, no, no.
That’s what God says.
I plead with you in
Jesus’s name to think.
The Word of God, penned by those
men whom God chose to write
truth by which you
and I are to live.
Wouldn’t you agree that living
by love is the best way?
Not only that you can live, but
you can leave this earth
with blessed assurance.
“Absent from the body,
present with the Lord.”
Present with the
Lord Jesus Christ.
That is my plea for you.
And Father, we know that
everybody has a choice to make.
But I pray that every person who
hears this message will
ask themselves the question:
how am I living?
How am I going to die?
What is going to happen
to me after death?
What is the wisest thing
for me to do?
And I pray, God, they’ll
understand that it’s receiving
Jesus Christ as their personal
Savior for all eternity.
In Jesus’s name, amen.