ADVENT
A CANDLE FOR TRUTH
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 18:37-38
DECEMBER 9, 2007
La Bocca Della Verita is the name of a famous and very ancient work of art. La Bocca Della Verita is a marble slab that portrays the image of a face with an open mouth. La Bacca Della Verita means, “the mouth of truth.” Scholars and experts in the world of art and historians believe that the face on this marble slab, this ancient work of art, is meant to be the face of a Greek or Roman god, perhaps Jupiter, Zeus, perhaps Mercury, Hermes, but they’re not certain. They don’t know for sure. They do know that it is very ancient. Today you can go and you can see La Bocca Della Verita in the Piazza of Bocca Della Verita in the city of Rome in the nation of Italy and you can find this work of art in the entrance to a Christian church there and it has been there since 1632 but the marble slab and the image of the face and the open mouth is far older. In fact, experts believe that it’s more than 2,000 years old and it dates to 2,200 or 2,800 years ago.
There’s a legend surrounding this piece of art that it kind of, for a period of time, functioned as a lie detector and so if you took an oath or if you made a statement the truthfulness of that oath or statement could be tested by placing your hand in the mouth. If you could pull your hand out, you’re telling the truth. If you couldn’t pull your hand out, you’re in a whole lot of trouble.
Scholars today wonder. They wonder, “Where was this work of art prior to the building of the church and the placing of the Bocca Della Verita in the entrance to the church in 1632? Where was it prior to that?” Some scholars believe that for centuries it was on the top of the Pantheon and it served as a drain spout and water ran through the mouth. Nobody knows for sure but we do know this. We know that when you go to the Bible and you look at what the Bible teaches us, the Bible is very clear. Jesus is La Bocca Della Verita. He is the Mouth of Truth. He is the face of God. He is the Water of Life. He is ALL OF IT—La Bocca Della Verita.
Today, as we light a candle for truth and as we continue this advent series, we begin by just focusing on Jesus, Jesus—the Mouth of Truth. The word advent comes from the Latin “adventus” which means, “coming” and as we approach Christmas, we celebrate the coming of Jesus into our world, His advent at Bethlehem. Of course, one of the advent passages is John, chapter 1, the Prologue of the Gospel of John, verse 18. “The Word became flesh. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.” So, this baby born in Bethlehem brought truth into the world.
You go to John, chapter 18, verse 37, our scripture for today, and Jesus makes His amazing statement to the Roman Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Jesus said, “For this I was born. For this I came into the world that I might bear witness to the truth. This is the purpose of My advent. This is the reason for My coming that I might bear witness to the truth and all who are of the truth. All who are of the truth hear My voice.”
As you look at the statements of Christ in the Bible, you marvel. Jesus said to His disciples, John, chapter 14, verse 7, “Ego emi he Aletheia.” “I Am the Truth.” He didn’t say, “I am A truth.” He said, “I am THE Truth”—Ego emi he Aletheia. Greek scholars tell us that the Greek construct, “Ego Emi,” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew name for God, the divine name. Many scholars believe that Jesus is saying something even more incredible, that He is saying, “I am God the Truth.”
If you look at Revelation, chapter 3, verse 7, you see the words of Jesus to the Church at Philadelphia. How does Jesus introduce Himself to that church? He says, ‘The words of the True One, the One who is Truth.” Again, an amazing self-claim, an amazing proclamation. Then in Revelation, chapter 3, verse 14, the words of Jesus to the Church at Laodicea, He says the words, “Amen.” Jesus says to the Church at Laodicea, “I Am the Amen.” It might make sense to take a few moments and just look at the meaning of that title and that self-claim of Christ. What does it mean when Jesus says, “I Am the Amen.”
Of course, Daniel Webster was a famous statesman, a famous lawyer, a famous orator. He died in the year 1852. Those who surrounded his deathbed said that his final words were, “Amen, Amen, Amen.” My guess is that most of us in this room will say the word “Amen” much more than three times. We say the word Amen whenever we conclude a prayer, right? We say the word Amen at the end of the Doxology. We say the word Amen sometimes at the end of a hymn. Sometimes we might say the word Amen in a moment of great joy. We might say the word Amen when we agree enthusiastically. The so-called experts tell us that the average Christian, the average believer in his or her lifetime will say the word “Amen” 30,000 times.
The word is found in the Old Testament 24 times. It is found in the New Testament 126 times and the Bible ends with the word “Amen.” Revelation, chapter 22, verse 21. “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the Saints. Amen.” And yet the irony is, the strange thing is, that as a result of surveys administered to large populations, people have concluded that the average Christian doesn’t know the meaning of the word “Amen.” How can that be? We say the word 30,000 times in our lifetime, the word is all through the Bible and the word ends the Bible but most Christians, we’re told, do not know the meaning of the word.
So, what does it mean when Jesus said, “I Am the Amen?” Of course, the word “amen” is a Hebrew word. It was transliterated into the Greek, borrowed by the Greeks—translated into the Latin or the Roman, borrowed by them—transliterated into the English, borrowed by us. We just simply took our vowels in our language, our letters, vowels and consonants and we just transliterated the Hebrew.
Where did the Hebrews get this word? Where did THEY get the word “amen?” Etymologists aren’t sure but some etymologists believe that the Jews borrowed this word from the Egyptians because the Jews, for centuries, were in Egypt. During the period of the new kingdom, the god of Egypt was Amen, sometimes pronounced Aman, Aman Rah. Of course, whenever an oath was taken in Egypt, the oath was sealed with the word “Amen,” and that meant, “It is true.” Of course, we do not know whether the Jews really borrowed the word from the Egyptians but we do know this. The Jews did use the word in the same way and in Hebrew it does mean truth. The word “amen” means, “truth.” So, Jesus is saying, “I Am the Amen. I Am the Truth.” The Words of the Amen, the words of the Truth, the True One.” Of course, we can see this contextually in Revelation 3:14 because Jesus says to the Church at Laodicea the words of the amen, the faithful and true witness so Jesus is The Truth.
One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Revelation 19 where we get a glimpse of the Second Coming of Christ. We see the Second Advent of Christ in Revelation 19, verse 11. John writes, “And I saw the heavens opened and behold a white horse and He who sat upon it was called Faithful and True, clad in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which He is called is The Word of God.” Jesus, at His First Coming was Truth. Jesus at His Second Coming, Truth. He is now and forevermore the Truth and this is His own claim and it is the testimony of Holy Scripture that Jesus is the Truth.
Many of the titles that Jesus gave Himself mean truth. Even when Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World,” John 8:12, the primary significance of light is truth. When you look at the advent in chapter 1, the true light which enlightens every man was coming into the world. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness cannot overcome it is truth. Jesus is The Truth.
It’s kind of curious to see the response of Pilate to Jesus. When Jesus said, “For this I was born. For this I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. All who are of the truth hear My voice.” Pilate’s response was, “What is truth?” Of course, that same question is being asked by many people throughout our culture today. That same question is being asked by students at Harvard University, “What is truth?” Professors at Harvard University posing the question in their classrooms, “What is truth?” Of course, Harvard has entered the world of postmodernity and there’s a crisis in the very realm of truth. They have become pluralists and they have become syncretists. Theologically they believe that all religions lead to God if there is a God. You have your truth. I have my truth. He has his truth. She has her truth. Maybe we’re all wrong. Let’s just get along. Harvard University.
I think as the world looks at those kinds of statements it kind of makes some sense, let’s get along, maybe none of us knows what we’re talking about. But of course, to get along you just need to love people. To get along all you’ve got to do is just love people. Be people of compassion. Respect people but you don’t have to deny absolute truth. The irony is that the motto of Harvard University is Veritas and that means, “truth” and it means, “absolute truth” and the founders of Harvard believed that the truth centered in Christ and so their additional mottos were “Kristo Engloriam” and “Kristo Ecclessia because Harvard existed for the glory of Christ and for Christ and the church.
For the 1st century of Harvard’s existence, 53% of all of their graduates entered the Christian ministry. Incredible. Of course, their chapel today has inscribed “Kristo Engloriam, Kristo Ecclessia, Veritas but they have left their foundation. They have left their moorings and there’s a crisis in the very realm of truth.
Of course, that’s not just true of Harvard. Is that not true at most, in fact all institutions of higher learning across our nation today, a crisis in the realm of truth. The words of Martin Luther, the scholar, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, that great man—his words seem more relevant today than ever. When Martin Luther said, “I am much afraid that universities will prove to be the great gates of hell.” Martin Luther, centuries ago, made that statement.
We all recognize that there are many fine institutions of higher learning academically speaking and certainly Ivy League schools would be amongst those. We all recognize that there are brilliant professors and teachers at colleges and universities but it is also true across our nation and throughout our culture there are professors today attacking Christ and the credibility of scripture and denying the very existence of absolute truth. Of course, Jesus is the Truth. La Bocca Della Verita, The Mouth of Truth. Ego emi he Aletheia, “I am God the Truth,” Jesus said.
You might say, “Well, that’s not very politically correct. What about Muhammed? Can’t he be the truth? Why Jesus or maybe can’t they both be the truth? Why does Jesus have to be THE Truth? Why did He say no one comes to the Father but by Him?” Can’t people come to the Father through Muhammed?
Recently you’ve probably heard about what is happening in the Sudan, the woman, the teacher who was arrested and sentenced to scourging by the government of Sudan because she allowed a 7-year-old student to name her teddy bear Muhammed. For this she was incarcerated and crowds lined the streets protesting, asking that she be executed, that the sentence was too lenient and that she should be killed because she allowed this student to name the teddy bear Muhammed. If it wasn’t for a protest from the nations of the world, that woman would not have lived.
And you know at the same time in Saudi Arabia a woman protested to the authorities that she had been raped. She was apprehended by the authorities, sentenced to 6 months in jail and 90 lashes. That was increased with 100 additional lashes because she allowed herself to be alone with a man and then she said she had been raped.
The world looks at this kind of stuff and says, “Wow! What’s going on and what’s this all about?” I read an article in the USA TODAY. It was an editorial and the guy who wrote the article cited these two examples, these two incidents and he said, “The problem is not Islam. The problem is religion.” He said, “All religions are the same” and he said, “The problem with all religions are those people who actually believe the words of their sacred writings literally. That’s the problem. The people in the world of religion, the people of any religion who believe literally the words of their sacred book. That’s the problem.” I read the article and I became incensed. I became enraged. This is stupid. It means basically saying all religions are the same which means there is no theological truth. He’s also of course, equating every so-called sacred writing, and I would ask you… If you would sit down and read the Koran as I have… If you would study the Hadith… Compare it to the New Testament. Compare the words of Muhammed with the words of Jesus. Just do it. I would challenge you to actually do it, read the Koran, read the New Testament. Compare Muhammed and Jesus and tell me what you think. It’s like night and day. It’s like light and darkness. Why is the world so PC? Jesus would never say, “Convert people or kill them.” He wouldn’t even come close. Jesus is The Truth.
Of course, there is a second teaching this morning and it concerns scripture. As we light a candle for truth, we want to look at Jesus and we want to look at scripture. In the Bible Jesus is given the title, The Word of God. In the Prologue of John’s Gospel, Jesus is called The Word. “In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Word.
In the three languages of the Bible, the meaning of this term varies subtlety so when you look at Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic you see subtle differences. In Hebrew the word is “Dabar.” In Aramaic the word is “Memra.” In Greek the word is “Logos.” For the Hebrew people, the word of God was the creative power of God because by His word the universe was formed. He spoke the galaxies into existence. Dabar, The Word.
Of course, for the Greeks, the word of God was the mind of God. If you go back and you read the writings of Plato, you’ll see that Plato taught that the mind of God is the Logos, the word. For the Aramaic-speaking people and the Jews in the time of Jesus primarily spoke Aramaic, and for them Memra, the word, was a circumlocution for the name of God. They were afraid to say the Tetragrammaton. They were afraid to say the name of God and so they would just call God, “The Word.”
You look at the Prologue of John’s Gospel and see how amazing… Jesus is The Word of God. He’s the mind of God. He’s God. The thing that I can tell you with no doubt is that in all three of these languages each of these words, Dabar, Memra, Logos—in every case they mean, “the Truth,” the Word of God, “the Truth,” “the Word, truth. Jesus is The Truth.”
But of course, Jesus left our world. Almost 2,000 years ago He was crucified and died for our sins. Death could not hold him and He rose in power and glory and He ascended into heaven where He sits at the right hand of God in their seats for the Saints. One day He will come again. He is not here now bodily and yet Jesus was very concerned that the truth be carried on, that the truth be preserved as He had brought light into the darkness and he wanted the light and the truth to continue and endure.
You come to John 14 and in John 14 you see Jesus, in verse 17, saying to His disciples, “I’m going to be leaving but don’t worry. I’m going to send you another comforter, counselor. I’m going to send you the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. In that same chapter as you then move to verse 26, Jesus said, “I will send you the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, and He will bring to your remembrance everything I have spoken to you. He will bring to your remembrance every word I have spoken to you. I don’t want you ever to forget the truth.
You come to John 16, verse 12-15 and Jesus again speaks to the disciples of the Holy Spirit and He says, “The Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth and He will take what is Mine and deliver it to you.” So again, Jesus wants the Apostles to know the truth will be preserved.
You come to Revelation, chapter 1, and Jesus’s final post-resurrection appearance to John. “Write.” He said, “what you see in a book. Write what I’m saying in a book. Write the truth in a book.” There is no doubt that Jesus Christ intentionalized the writing of the New Testament. This was His plan. This was ordained of Him. This was foreknown by Him and indeed foreordained by Him.
So, we have the New Testament as the Apostles provided, through their own words and through their influence, the books of the New Testament and therefore the Bible is the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God living, the Word of God incarnate but the Bible is also called “The Word of God.” It is The Word of God written. Do you believe that? Do you believe the Bible is truth?
Of course, a lot of people today want to muddy the waters and so last year, the year 1996, the National Geographic Society released an English translation of the Gospel of Judas, an English translation of a 4th or 3rd century manuscript in Coptic of the Gospel of Judas. That brought to the attention of the world the Gnostic Gospels made famous somewhat by Dan Brown of the Da Vinci Code as he advocated Gnostic Gospels as an alternative to the New Testament. You began to see articles in newspapers and magazines about the Gnostic Gospels. “Maybe the New Testament isn’t true. Maybe the Gnostic Gospels are true. Maybe they are a better testimony to the truth.” You begin to see college professors and university teachers talk about the Gnostic Gospels.
The assumption was often out there, “Wow! The Gnostic Gospels must deny the deity of Jesus Christ,” but it’s not true. I’ve read most of the Gnostic Gospels, many parts of them. They do not deny the deity of Jesus Christ. The Gnostic Gospels deny the humanity of Jesus Christ, that Jesus was ever material, that Jesus was ever a man. The cosmic Christ could not have been corrupted by flesh and so the Gnostic Gospels and Gnosticism in general affirmed the deity of Christ but not His humanity. The Gnostic Gospels are tragically anti-Semitic. You’ll never find anything more anti-Semitic than the Gnostic Gospels because they teach that the God of the Jews, the God of Israel, is a fallen God and that the Old Testament is a lie. You can’t get any more anti-Semitic than that.
The Gnostic Gospels and the whole of Gnosticism is elitism. It’s elitist. They divide humanity into the Hillock, the Psychic and the Pneumatic and only a very few people have a divine spark. The Imago Dei is not universal amongst mankind. Only a few have the divine spark and the hope of the Gnostic Gospels is that some people might be reincarnated and come back and then get the divine spark. Theologically bizarre and of course, it’s historically bogus.
The Gospel of Judas was written, we know, sometime between 150 and 180 and it’s one of the earliest Gnostic Gospels. The Gnostic Gospels were written 100, 200, 300 years after the New Testament books. You see, the New Testament books are 1st century writings. The only book in the New Testament that might be in doubt is the Book of Revelation and it was probably written in the last decade of the 1st century at the close of the 1st century. Many of the books in the New Testament were written in the middle of the 1st century. They go back to the testimony of the Apostles.
People just want to muddy the waters. It’s not that there are newspapers or magazines or even professors who believe the Gnostic Gospels. They just want to muddy the waters. They just want to confuse people and they kind of want to deny that the Bible is Truth and that Jesus is who the Bible says He is. Now Jesus is Truth and so the Bible is the Word of God. It was planned by Jesus that we would receive The New Testament.
In Hebrew the word truth is “emet.” It can refer to moral truth. It can refer to theological truth. In the Greek the word for truth is “aletheia” and it can refer to moral or theological truth but the Hebrew word emet normally refers to moral truth and the Greek word aletheia normally theological truth. When we say the Bible is truth, we’re saying the Bible is truth morally and theologically. Where do you get your morality? Where do you get your world view? How do you know what God is like? How do you know what man is like? What is the means of salvation? How shall we live? All of that concerns truth and it is in the Bible. The Bible is moral and theological truth. I don’t think Jesus came to give the world scientific truth. I mean it is true Jesus didst found the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of His hands. It is true that He changed water to wine which would have involved incredible action at the molecular level. It is true that he raised the dead and Lazarus had been dead in the tomb for four days and had already begun to decompose. That would have involved amazing activity at the cellular level, but Jesus didn’t come to give the world scientific truth. I don’t even think He came to give the world historic truth although ultimately as many have said, history is His Story and He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning, and the End, the First and the Last, the Author and Finisher. He will consummate history but, you see, He came to give us moral and theological truth.
I believe that when you go to the scriptures and you exegete the text of scripture properly, looking at the original language, looking at it in the Hebrew or the Greek or in those rare instances the Aramaic and you then look at it contextually, looking at each verse in the light of its context to understand its meaning and you honor the literary genre in that portion of scripture that God is using whether it’s parabolic, allegorical, apocalyptic or historical narrative, you take of this into consideration and you properly divide the Word of God… When you do that properly, you understand its message. What you have there is inerrant. What you have there is infallible. Morally and theologically, you must bend the knee. I must bend the knee. I believe this with all my heart.
You say, “Well, Jim, why do you eat pork? Doesn’t the Old Testament say, ‘Don’t eat pork?’” I will admit that I do on occasion eat pork. Barb made me a little bacon this morning. Thank you, Barb. But of course, the admonition to not eat pork was not part of the moral law. It was part of the Levitical Dietary laws which were repealed in the New Testament and God had given the Levitical Dietary laws to the Jews for a season for the sake of their health and safety. Over a period of time, you could cure and prepare meats better but, you see, it was never part of the moral law and Jesus said with regard to the moral law, “Not one jot or tittle will ever pass away.” It’s timeless. God is immutable. God doesn’t change. What was morally or theologically true 2,000 years ago is true today.
When you look at our culture, you kind of want to weep because we’ve denied truth. If you look at the view of sex in our culture, you kind of want to weep. Our culture endorses, condones premarital sex. The Bible says premarital sex is wrong and in the sight of God it’s a sin. The Bible tells us that we have been given this beautiful gift of sexuality by God and it’s a gift meant to be opened only in the context of marriage. On the physical level, it’s the highest expression of the marriage union and commitment and precious to God. If you take sex outside of marriage, you taint it and you corrupt it but our culture will never understand that truth.
You say, “What about homosexuality?” I think, “Oh wow! What a tough subject today. I think we all know what a sensitive subject this is in our culture. The Bible does, in the moral law, say that “the practice of homosexuality, the living out of homosexual activity is wrong in the sight of God.” That’s clear and consistent Old and New Testament. I know that’s a hard, hard message to our culture. I think for many of us it’s toxilogical. It’s self-evident God designed our sexuality to be between and male and a female. That’s how our bodies are designed. I suppose some could say that’s how the parts fit. That’s self-evident but some of you would say, “Well, what about our genes? How about genetics? How about our biology? How about nature? How about nurture? Isn’t our sexuality formed out of a complex interaction of nature and nurture? I think so, and shouldn’t we study our sexuality in terms of science and psychology and in terms of nature and nurture?” Yes, I think we should. We should study it and examine it and discover scientific truth and psychological truth but, you see, all that just leads us to compassion. Does it not lead us to compassion? We need to love people. It was Jesus who told us to love people. Jesus tells us to have compassion on people. We’re supposed to love everybody. “By this all men will know you are My disciples if you love.”
Jesus is also truth and He has given us the truth in scripture. He wants us to embrace His truth. He doesn’t want us to crater to the culture. He wants us to live the truth in love and speak the truth in love, caring for people. I know that this is a tough subject. A lot of subjects are tough.
I get a lot of e-mails. It seems like I get e-mails from a lot of angry people, angry at me. Sometimes I don’t understand it. Why are people mad at me? Sometimes I’ll give an e-mail to Barb and she’ll kind of stomp around and be more upset than I am but I think I kind of… I mean some people say, “Jim, you’re soft.” Other people say, “Jim, you’re too tough.” I think I kind of understand. I think there are folks in our congregation and in our culture who are really kind of hurting. They know that they’re kind of messed up and I understand because I’m messed up. They feel like their friends are messed up; their family members are messed up. They know that they’re struggling with addictions and desires and suffering tragedy. I understand that because I’m messed up too. The Bible says we’re born messed. We’re all born messed up. Even our genetics are messed up. Our cells are messed up. That’s why they mutate. Nothing is as it was. Everything is fallen and we need compassion. We need great mercy.
Some of you want your pastor to be a guy, a person, who seems loving and compassionate. I understand that. I know there are others of you in the congregation who are kind of angry at the culture and you believe in Judeo-Christian values and you see the erosion of Judeo-Christian values and the denial of the truth of Christ everywhere and you read article in magazines and newspapers and you become kind of indignant and you want a pastor to stand up here and kind of rant a little bit. You want a pastor who will have some indignation.
Some of you are upset on one side and others of you are upset on the other side. I know pastors are supposed to be priests and prophets and that’s a tough combo. It feels kinds of schizophrenic. You know? But it really doesn’t do any good to get mad at me. I’m just a bozo on the bus. The truth is Christ. Jesus is the truth. His Word is truth. My call is to be a steward of the Word and faithful to it. That’s your call. Let’s live for Christ together. No matter how hard it is, let’s life for Christ and honor His Word no matter what the culture says.
Of course, our church is part of a denomination called the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and, in this denomination, we have checks and balances. We have a system of courts. We have standards of ordination and it’s all good. Because our church is evangelical and historically and morally our church is orthodox. Orthodox simply means “right thinking biblically.” Throughout Christian history, scholars and church leaders have tried to determine and form a consensus about what the Bible says morally and theologically. That’s orthodoxy. When you leave the walls and boundaries of orthodoxy you are disciplined by the church, certainly in our denomination. Just recently we had a pastor who was removed. He was a friend of mine and he was removed because he had left the boundaries of orthodoxy and he had preached to his congregation that hell is temporary and temporal, remedial and redemptive and that ultimately everybody is saved and there’s universalism. The problem is the Bible clearly doesn’t teach that and Jesus clearly doesn’t say that. It’s not like we’re judging this guy and condemning him. I know he’s my brother in Christ. I don’t doubt his salvation but you’ve got to stand for the truth of the scriptures and take action. Our denomination does that.
I know some of you have heard of a movie that just came out called “The Golden Compass.” This movie is controversial. It’s fantasy genre, kind of for kids, and written by Philip Pullman. Philip Pullman is an atheist, a guy who kind of grew up hating C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, a guy who hated fantasy genre stories for children that advocated the existence of a God. He hated that stuff and so he’s written his own trilogy and he kind of is anti-God. The movie, The Golden Compass, has kind of been cleaned up by Hollywood. Nicole Kidman who’s in the movie says she would never, ever make a movie if she thought it was anti-Christian. I don’t know. I think she might look back and look at a few of her movies.
I think what the Christian community in general is concerned about is that people will go see that and want to read the books. They will go and read The Golden Compass. They’ll read The Subtle Knife and they’ll read the Amber Spyglass and they’ll go through the whole trilogy and they’ll see Philip Pullman speaking about the death of God and the creating of the Republic of Heaven. But of course, you see, God is never going to die. He’s eternal, omnipotent, and heaven will never be a Republic. The word Republic means that your leaders are elected by the people. This country is a Democratic Republic and our leaders are elected by the voice of the people. That’s never going to be the case in heaven. It’s a theocracy. It’s a Christocracy. Christ rules and Christ reigns. There’s never going to be a Republic. There’s not going to be a vote of who’s in charge around here.
The truth is there are some people who don’t want to go to heaven. They don’t want to live for Christ. They want to be in charge of their own life. There are a lot of people like that. The devil is like that. The devil thinks like that. God’s not going to force angels or men into heaven. God’s not going to violate free will and so there are people who are forever and ever going to live for themselves and that’s called hell. God’s going to give them that eternal privilege. They can live for themselves forever and ever and ever. Hell is called… It is described as a place of misery and suffering because when you live for yourself forever and ever and ever it’s vacuous. You just live for yourself and when God says, “Hell is exclusion from the presence of the Lord… ” When God vacates the premises, that’s really got to be miserable but it’s true. People make choices and God honors them.
We need to close. I would remind you of II Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16, “All scripture is inspired of God and it’s profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness.” These words, “didaskalia,” epanorthosis, elegmos, paideia, those are the words used in II Timothy 3:16 and they all refer to doctrine and morality, theology and morals, teaching, reproof, correction, training. That’s why God has given us the book, so light a candle for truth. Light a candle for Jesus for He is the Truth. Light a candle for scripture despite what the culture says. The Bible says, “In the last days, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” The Bible says that the days are coming when “people will no longer endure sound teaching but having itching ears will accumulate teachers who suit their own liking and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.” Don’t let that be true of you. Let’s stand together for Christ and let’s stand together for the benediction.