The good news of Jesus Christ is a royal invitation sent from the King of Kings to every human being – no matter how bad or how good – to share His joy in heaven. They have only to respond, and they will have a glorious future of joy and celebration, a total absence of sorrow…for ever more.
Incredibly, there is a startlingly low take-up on the offer. The Lord Jesus speaks of this with a parable (Luke 14:15-24) where a King who is giving a lavish banquet, sends out the invitations and then says, “Come, for everything is now ready.” But those invited snub and insult their gracious host with their lame excises for not attending.
Here are just a few 21st Century excuses people give for choosing hell over heaven.
“There is no God!”
Some would rather cheerfully hide behind a Stephen Hawking theory which expects us to believe that everything came from a speck-sized particle (the origins of we simply have to accept). Many scientists who are not Christians find this all too much to swallow. One (Gerhard Kraus) in a rebuttal to Hawking wrote: “The idea that a speck of matter smaller than a dust particle on my table could have accommodated the condensed mass of the entire universe stretches credibility beyond its limits…the Big Bang theory must be seriously questioned” (Gerhard Kraus Has Hawking Erred?) 1.
Stephen Hawking says, “In the beginning was a cosmic egg, the size of a size of dust” (Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time ) 2.
The Bible states unapologetically, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) 3.
Why the readiness to accept an unreasonable theory rather than accept that there is a ‘beautiful Mind’ behind it all? The Apostle Paul speaks of those “who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them…For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” 4.
“When you’re dead, you’re dead, there’s no afterlife!”
God has placed within each of us an instinctive desire for justice. We watch the TV news and exclaim, “That’s not right! That’s not fair!” We make judgments using our inbuilt ‘moral monitor’ and are glad when the perpetrators of crimes are brought to justice. All this points to the day of perfect justice set by God – which all of us must fac
e. The Bible states: “Man is destined to die once, and after that is the judgement” 5.
“Life is too short, live it for yourself!”
The thinking of today which is preached at us wherever we turn is; “Your happiness is all that matters”. Lose your mind in drink or drugs, leave your partner and kids, pursue your dream, live recklessly [insert your own excuse here]! OK, others may get hurt…but as long as you are happy, that’s all that matters in the end. The Bible tells of a man who, having worn himself out in the selfish pursuit of his own happiness, came to the right conclusion that the purpose of life (and the way to discover TRUE happiness) was to: ‘Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.’ 6.
“I am spiritual, but I’m ‘sitting on the fence’ with the Jesus thing!”
The Bible speaks of only two groups of people – those who have repented of their sin and trusted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for forgiveness, and those who have not. We are in the kingdom or out, in light or in darkness, born again or not born again, on the road to heaven or on the road to hell. There is no fence.
The Bible states: ‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.’7
COME!
No more excuses. “Come, everything is now ready’ says Lord Jesus. “Come!” All are invited to share in God’s everlasting joy. Young or old, respectable or vile. Come with all your doubts and all your fears.
Come now, you don’t know if you have tomorrow.
The Bible says: ‘NOW is the time of God’s favour…NOW is the day of salvation’8
Mike Mellor
Listen to Mike’s message on this subject here
References:
1 .Gerhard Kraus: Has Hawking Erred? 2 .Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time 3. Genesis 1:1 4. Romans 1: 18-20 5 .Hebrews 9:27 6. Ecclesiastes 12:13 7. John 3:36 8. 2 Corinthians 6:2
The “vile” (in opposition to the “respectable” as you have put it) are the poor, the lame, the sinner etc whom among even they were ordered out from the wedding feast/banquet to be cast into outer darkness if they were found improperly dressed – an obvious reference to the unrepentant (all are invited and many will try/expect to enter).
We therefore must also warn people that they are to repent as part of their response to God’s call for God commands it. Jesus’ own words were, “why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I say?” Then would follow the same fate the unrepentant banquet attendee suffered, because they had not obeyed Jesus’ instruction.
See 2 Thess 1:8 for example (1 among many but one everybody ‘forgets’ about).
Thank you Gospelmaker. I do actually cover the ‘religous’ i.e. the nominal Christian who needs to repent in the sermon (online) Mike M.