“ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE?”
By: J.Farrell Fisher, September 5, 2014
Considering the title of this teaching, “Eternal Punishment Or Eternal Life?”, it’s not an easy thing to do because one is so involved in so many ways that consideration of eternal outcomes puts one on an uneasy street, especially if present time living has captured you but eternal punishment or eternal life you’d like to delay, cancel, put off, or face it wisely and courageously.
I don’t mind telling you that I consider my last years, or last months, or last days frequently because I know, my earthly departure is near.” At 78 years of age, knowing my “papa Fisher” died at 78 years of age, my father, James Emerson Fisher, died at 78 years of age – and I’ve at least wondered, “Is this my year of departure?”
In Genesis 8:21-22 God said in His heart (after the flood!), “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night, shall not cease.”
And the seasons are still with us, but there IS coming an hour or a time when God will arise from His throne, and He’ll say: “Gentlemen, IT’S CLOSING TIME FOR THE EARTHLY!” That will be “Hell” for some but “Heaven” for others!
Consider “LIFE”! Are you aware of some ‘achieving’ while others experience ‘failure’? Have you experienced “joy”; and then a cloud of sorrow moves over you? Does ten steps forward and five steps in reverse describe you at times in business, in studies, in work, in marriage? Have you known outstanding success but all of a sudden you experience defeat after defeat after defeat?
Think about your own “spiritual journey” of faith. Oh, I know there are some disciples of faith who move steadily along in their spiritual journey without ever experiencing an ounce of trouble, but for the majority of us as disciples there have been high mountains and low, low valleys, there have been phenomenal advances in the Word and the Spirit, there have been the “easy street” of soul-winning and discipling, but for some their faith-trip has been a lonely journey, often even isolated from a vibrant fellowship and having to “press in” alone, fearful, discouraged, and maybe even blind to the presence of God’s Holy Spirit!
Has ‘affliction’ ever hit you physically, morally, emotionally, spiritually, mentally – and you pause, reflect, question, hopefully even asking others for counsel and advice? Are you aware, having experienced it yourself, that there are times when up is down or down is up, when ‘normalcy’ becomes so abnormal, when all of a sudden your life, your situation, your walk, your experiences become some dark clouds of ‘my straying’?
I can’t even fathom a day without one resolving for himself/herself “eternal punishment or eternal life”! Life is so very uncertain! I can’t comprehend Godless sorrow, Godless lives, Godless futures!! Oh, and then, you try to understand Godless religions that have no hope, no precious promises, no power to implant “new hearts and new hopes and new futures,” and you paused and consider: ‘How could they miss Divine Revelation’? But they do.
What happens with unregenerate religionists is that they become devoted to ‘outward regularity’ without inward heart-change by the grace and mercy of God! But beyond deathly empty religions, there is the aching void and emptiness of, yes, a Godless life and one who is offended by anybody sharing “saving faith”!
Most ‘church folk’ have little, if any, understanding of the purpose of the law of God. Oh, they think they do, and, more than likely brag about not being ‘law-breakers’! But Jesus said, “Offend in one point and you’re guilty of ALL!!” Law-breaking is the exposure of guilty hearts that need Blood Redemption – Jesus’ only!
Look around your little world! You’re not aware at all of the manifestations of ‘sin’ that are so apparent? Your little world is a ‘jewel’ and ‘crown’ of godliness? How is your state’s divorce rate? Tell me about your schools where the majority of students have both parents for parenting nurturing! Is abortion a non-issue in your state and community? What’s your prison population like and what does it cost your state? “Sir, you may be a Christian, but I choose ‘my way,’ I chose ‘my pleasures;’ I’ll think as I want to think! Who needs the mind of Christ? I’m a promoter of self-aggrandisement and could care less about being ‘conformed to the image of Christ’!”
In Matthew 10:33 Jesus spoke ever so clearly: “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father in heaven.” ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE? And don’t take Romans 5:17-19 lightly! Examine your own heart, mind, and spirit! “For if by the one man’s offense [Adam] death reigned through the one, much more, those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
Each of us must deal personally with “offense” against God and His Word, the awareness of one’s spiritual death status before Holy God, the consideration of judgment, the matter of, yes, God’s condemnation, and the end result of disobedience. It must not be taken lightly or of no concern to you – you will stand before Holy God’s throne and give an answer of rejection or of the repentance and faith that gripped, graced, and birthed a “new life”!
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came “to seek and to save that which is lost.” In Luke 13 our Lord introduced “the narrow way.” Don’t miss His life-changing or life-condemning word! Verses 22-30 says: And He [Jesus] went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them,..
“Strive to enter through ‘the narrow gate,’ for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out…
They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
Did you catch it? Were you stopped in your tracks? Have you examined YOUR heart? Have you contemplated your ways or His will for your life? What did Jesus say? “Many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” He spoke of “the strait gate” – is Jesus that gate? John 10:9 says, Jesus speaking, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” SAVED? SAVED FROM WHAT?
Let’s look at the sad reality of “ETERNAL PUNISHMENT”! If you didn’t know, it was Cain who murdered his brother Abel! In Genesis 4:8 we read that “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” Deadly actions, deadly deeds, deadly choices, yes, deadly resistance to God’s Way always opens the door to one’s ‘eternal punishment’! Murder is violent but so is ‘murder’, not only as a deed, but as one’s self-determination of supremacy over others, even ‘killing’ by gossip, word, or deed!
Have you never considered that a man’s ‘fool-ish-ness’ is a deadly involvement? Have you never evaluated the price and extent of a man’s disobedience? I’ve already mentioned that the breaking of one commandment brings judgment as if I’d broken all the Law of God! Most men embrace the world’s godless ways because they have not, cannot, will not, separate themselves from that in which they believe that they are so much a part !
‘Attachment’ is a powerful persuader of devotion to godlessness! “They’re my friends – I can’t forsake them,” even if it costs them an eternal relationship with Christ! “It’s my religion for generations,” even if their ‘religion’ closes the door to oneness with Christ!
‘Similarity’ is a common excuse by a lot of fallen people! “Everybody labors and is heavily ladened; why should I look to one who says He’ll give me rest? Rest from what?” And they don’t even know that godlessness is like the full weight of the world itself crushing them to more and more death!
‘Paralysis’ spiritually is so similar to “spiritual blindness” because one has no desire to move toward God and certainly has no insight to sense Holy Presence before him with open arms – so he ignores a loving Savior and Lord.
‘Deception’ is a devilish tool with sad results. Satan lied to Eve and Adam and the experienced the reality of spiritual death! “You can sin and not die” – but they did! Have you read recently 2 Peter 2:1-3? Peter wrote: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction…
And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed… By covetousness THEY WILL EXPLOIT YOU WITH DECEPTIVE WORDS; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”
Oh, but then in 2 Peter 2:12-14 and verses 18-20 Peter exposes the spiritual hypocrisy that is SO DECEPTIVE AND DEADLY: Verses 12-14, “But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption,…
And will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you,…
Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children…
Verses 18-20, For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error…
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage…
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.”
But then we read a word of hope from Paul when he said in Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” It is so vital for you to know in the midst of even Satanic deception, GOD IS FOR YOU! He wants to see you overcoming in Christ Jesus – not by your own effort!
“Born of sinful flesh” is the reality of every human born into this world! Though we are not owned by Satan and his demons, we certainly were sadly influenced to devilish sins, vices, lusts, and choices that distress, disturb, demean, degrade, and destroy our very souls!
Satan isn’t out to heal you but to harm you; he’s not interested in binding up your wounds but cutting you deeper; he’s not out to encourage you toward a Godly faith but to decei9ve you into his ‘hellish’ fires!
And Satan’s greatest deception? Paul spoke about those who are “ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,” certainly in opposition to the call to submit one’s self to the righteousness of God! [Romans 10:1-3]!
God’s righteousness or your own righteousness? Pleasing self or pleasing God? Trusting ‘religion’ or His Divine Revelation? Obeying a surface, religious faith that has not, will not, cannot change your heart OR heart obedience in Christ to honor God Himself? Do you realize that there are those who hold ‘respect’ for religious activity but have not an ounce of commitment to obey God? Aren’t you aware of others around you, maybe even yourself, that ‘outward appearance’ has veiled, yes, a rebellious heart and mind? Religious but unregenerate, separate from most of the world but knowing nothing of justification, sanctification, or glorification? Outward allegiance to religious truths but no full surrender to Eternal Truth whose name is Jesus?
Oh, but I pray you clearly understand that there are those who never have and never will come to Christ in repentance and faith. But in this given moment I want you to consider, yes, defectors from the Faith! If you read John 6:66 His Word tells us: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” WHAT A SAD COMMENTARY!!
One of the most heart-rending moments a true church family may endure is not separation from a local body to another local body, but when there are those you’ve shared your life with who choose to walk away from the Redemptive Faith of Christ! John 6:67 then tells us Jesus asked His inner circle, “Do you also want to go away?”
You’ll remember that earlier in John 6, verse 56, Jesus said: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” And the response? Verse 60, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” And I believe the biblical demands of true discipleship become a hindrance and a stumbling-block because they were not willing to obey Him! Don’t you know and realize that personal prejudices, one’s own likes or dislikes, one’s devotion to his/her depraved life, can and does take precedence over the “I do it “I do it my way” crowd?!
In Spurgeon’s Sermons, [Memorial Library, Vol. 12, pps.293-309], the great preacher of England listed s number of reasons why some walk away and lose their souls!
- They depart from Christ because they cannot bear His doctrines.
- They depart from Christ for the sake of gain – money speaks loud.
- They depart from Christ because they’re afraid of persecution.
- They depart from Christ out of sheer levity.
- They depart from Christ tempted by evil companions.
- They depart from Christ for the sake of sensual enjoyments.
- They depart from Christ because their life circumstances changed.
- They depart from Christ because unsound doctrine led them to apostatize.
- They depart from Christ out of sheer laziness.
That should cover “A Mournful Defection” admirably! ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE?
In John 3:14-15 Jesus tells us: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him [trusts in, abides in] should not perish, but have ETERNAL LIFE.”
Paul laid it out for us in a clear and convincing way when in Romans 6:23 he wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Oh, but also consider what he wrote in Romans 6:22! “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”
Performance or Provision? By one’s ‘grit’ or by God’s grace? By our self-effort or Jesus’ ‘self-less sacrifice’? Look at Romans 5:15-18 which tells us, But ‘the free gift’ is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more, the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many…
And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification….
For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more, those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ…
Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous acts “the free gift” came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”
Have you come to a full understanding of this ‘gift’ God has given to us in Christ? We’re: “justified as a gift by His grace,” “free gift,” “the gift of righteousness,” “eternal gift,” “your own gift,” “a generous gift,” “a bountiful gift,” “an indescribable gift,” “the spiritual gift within you,” “the heavenly gift,” “the perfect gift,” “a special gift,” – Oh, yes, “The gift of Jesus Himself!!”
Do you understand “freely received” so we “freely give”? Have you experienced: “…such as I have, I give to you”? Have you discovered that it’s more blessed to give than to receive? And when one has received God’s greatest gift in true sacrifice, tell me about the pattern of YOUR “laid-down life” in service and ministry to others, yes, because of what God has given you, understanding He never gave gifts to “pump your flesh” but to service and bless others and His precious Body called the Church of Christ!
I remind you of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:3 when He prayed to Father-God, “And THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Yes, you do understand, you do know, but have you ventured your all in full surrender to His Lordship and taken “the sentence of death to yourself” that His Resurrection Life can be fully manifested in and through you?
I love what Oswald Chambers said in his “My Utmost For His Highest.” [p.74]. He said: “It takes omnipotence to live the life of the Son of God in mortal flesh.” And it’s so true, so necessary, and so fully available! We don’t ‘copy’ Jesus – we surrender to His resurrection presence in us: “Christ in you the hope of glory!” Stop being so determined and become totally dependent on Him because ‘He Is Able!’
In Acts 4:13 the Word tells us, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized [or took knowledge of] that they had been with Jesus.”
Hear me! WE WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST! If you didn’t know, when Jesus went to the Cross He took us all with Him! I want you to slowly, intently, passionately read over and over Romans 6:5-14!!
“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that OUR OLD MAN WAS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin…
For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,… knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him…
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord…Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts…
And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
This is why Paul could testify in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” You either are boasting in yourself or you’ve accepted your crucifixion with Christ, and you boast only in Jesus!
His death at the Cross and your identity with Him on the Cross tells me YOU ARE TOTALLY AWARE OF GOD’S JUDGMENT ON YOUR SIN – and you, yes, choose death to sin in you, death to a depraved world spirit, death to your own personal self-interest and ambition, and you passionately long for your own full awareness that the “old self” died with Christ on the Cross!
Receive I Corinthians 2:12! “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been given freely to us by God.”
Paul told the Roman believers, and us, Romans 8:15-17, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
His death on the Cross, your death with Him on the Cross, and you’re full awareness now that you are ‘joint-heir’ with Him in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, brings you to a confident, assured, blessed journey of faith and eternal hope. And you know it how?
Examine our Lord’s words for us in John 14:27! “My peace I leave with you, My peace I GIVE TO YOU; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Paul told the church at Philippi, [Philippians 4:7], “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
As you read this message, I don’t know who you are or where you are in your own spiritual journey – and you are in a journey of faith or a journey of faithlessness – I don’t know, but you know and God knows. In John 12:37 His Word tells us, “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.” Oh, and then follow carefully John 12:26-36!
“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him will My Father honor. Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour…
Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.’ Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.’ Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake…
Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die…
The people answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?’
Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
I pray you caught it as you read Jesus answering the people in John 12:30! Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.” Have you heard His voice? It was Him speaking to you “for your sake”! There is a “Voice” – and it will declare “Eternal Punishment” or “Eternal Life.” What is His “Voice” saying to you right now?