day no. 17,228: bright dungeons and dark castles

“A dungeon with Christ is a throne. A throne without Christ is a hell.” — John Owen 

Eternal life is where Christ is. If allegiance to Him leads you to jail, it becomes the most celestial of cells. If denial of Christ leads you to prominence, it is the most infamous fame one can acquire.

"God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing." — C. S. Lewis

It is better to be with Christ wherever faith leads you than without Christ wherever you preferred to go. Christ transforms the hardest times with Him into the most glorious refinement and He transforms the best times without Him into the most regrettable misery.

A Christless cross no refuge is for me; 

A Crossless Christ my Savior may not be;

But, O Christ crucified! I rest in thee.

— B B Warfield

If Christ is not crucified for you, no throne can provide you wotj rest. If Christ is crucified for you, no trial can rob you of comfort. A love of Jesus leads to bright dungeons and a hatred of Christ leads to dark castles.

day no. 17,225: sin rewards loyalty with betrayal

“He served his god so faithfully and well

That now he sees him face to face in hell.”

― Hilaire Belloc

We become what we behold.

Psalm 135:15-18

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.

They have mouths, but do not speak; they have eyes, but do not see;

they have ears, but do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.

Those who worship idols become like the idols they worship, because we become what we behold.

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Those who worship God become like Him, because we become what we behold.

Everyone is becoming something and sooner or later they're going to be it. They will cease becoming and begin being. For those who worship idols, they will end as they are: dead, displaced, and under the never-ending wrath of God. For those who worship God, they will end as He does, unending in life, established, and under the never-ending waterfall of grace and mercy.

Isaiah 5:20

Woe unto them that call evil "good," and good "evil."

Sin is a cruel master. Demons do not reward "good" behavior. They can't and they wouldn't if they could. The devil does not have favorites. He hates his accomplices as much as they all hate God.

"In fighting those who serve devils one always has this on one’s side; their Masters hate them as much as they hate us. The moment we disable the human pawns enough to make them useless to Hell, their own Masters finish the work for us. They break their tools.” ― C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength

Faithfully following evil is rewarded with faithlessness and loyalty is rewarded with betrayal. In the end, we get what we want, but some get more than what they bargained for. Those who want a world without God get that, but it is not what they thought it would be.

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done. '" ― C.S. Lewis

Those who insist on their own way get way more than they wanted. Sin always Sin takes you further than you wanted to go faster than you wanted to get there and keeps you longer than you wanted to stay while costing you more than you wanted to pay.

Sin rewards loyalty with betrayal.

Down to Gehenna,

or up to the Throne,

He travels the fastest

who travels alone.

— Rudyard Kipling

A good way to go to Hell is to go it alone. Go to church, get some friends, and get back on track. You cannot serve two masters. If you are devoted to God, He will be devoted to you. If you are devoted to demons, they will divorce you.

If you align yourself with defiance, you will be crooked.

day no. 17,189: one man's Hell and a mosquito's Heaven

“A heaven for mosquitoes and a hell for humans can be accommodated by one place.” — C.S. Lewis

Some philosophical fussbudgets feel that the new earth will not be large enough to accommodate all the saints saved by grace through faith throughout the ages. These same neurological gnat stranglers find it hard to believe that all the matter that God has ever made matters somehow. Lewis here balances the books for them by suggesting that a Heaven for good mosquitoes and a Hell for bad people could fashioned out of one place. They could be roommates. 

day no. 17,166: heaven and hell how to's

"Salvation and damnation are in no way symmetrical. Damnation is a paycheck, accurately calculated down to the last penny. Salvation is the gift of God. Death and life are certainly not the same thing, but we also need to remember that wages and gifts are not the same thing either. Hell is earned, and Heaven is given. Hell is only earned, and Heaven is only given." — Douglas Wilson, An Open Letter to President Trump About Heaven

Hell is where everyone gets what they deserve. Death is a paycheck. Damnation is getting what it is due.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Heaven, however, is a gift. Life is a favor. Salvation is getting grace.

Hell is how God answers those who demand their due.

Heaven is how God answers those who beg for mercy.

Mercy is not getting something bad that you have earned.

Grace is getting something good that you did not earn.

Heaven is mercy and grace in one place. It is not sending you to Hell that you deserve and granting you access to Heaven that you don't.

John 1:16

And of his fulness have all we received, and grace upon grace.

day no. 17,083: not even a sliver of sin will make it in

"There is no heaven with a little of hell in it.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

The deadbolt on the door of devilry will fail and the gates of Hell will not prevail. They will give way before the glory of the Lord. The gates of gross will not be able to successfully keep any of God's goodness out. The darkness will not retain a corner of corruption so that not even a sliver of sin will make it in. Satan will not be able to smuggle any secrets into the open air of God.

1 Peter 4:3-5

For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.

Do not daydream about the nightmare that was your life before Christ. Do not scrapbook your days in Egypt. Forget about the leeks and onions of your days in the dark. Nothing good will come out of providing quarter to yesterday's evils.

Revelation 20:14

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Death and Hell will someday be shut out from the light of day. They will be no more.

1 Corinthians 15:24-26

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

No enemies will remain. Some will be converted to friends while the others will be confined to the lake of fire, but none will retain any presence of power in the kingdom of Christ going forward.

Revelation 21:25-27

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

The gates of glory shall welcome in every repentant friend of God: every friend being a former enemy and every enemy being kept from coming in. No speck of hellish dust will find its away into the streets of Heaven. No pinch of impurity will linger in paradise. 

1 Corinthians 3:12-15

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

The gates of Heaven will burn away any dross that knocks at the door and all the chaff will be blown away so that only a harvest of pure gold will enter into glory.

Revelation 22:14-15

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

The tree of life was kept from Adam and Eve after they fell for sin will not live forever; but they were sent out from the Garden of Eden with a promise of a serpent-slayer who would someday secure for them safe passage back to the Tree of Life. In the end, sinners will be sanctified and the fruit of the Tree of Life will be enjoyed by His saints forever and ever, world without end. And amen.

day no. 16,815: those who chase the wind catch hell

Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind

Those who chase the wind catch hell.

You cannot outrun the spirit of the age. You will wear yourself out and end up empty handed. The zeitgeist can haunt you, but it cannot be hunted down. It is unreality. It is the fever dream of fanatical unbelief. In the effort to overthrow the reality of God, reality itself is rejected. It is better to hold on to a little bit of horse sense than to graduate with honors from Sodom State University.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

Any and every thing done under the sun without reference to that which is beyond its brightness is simply a lesson in futility. The pursuit of wind is an empty promise. Clutching at sand castles cannot keep them. The harder you hold, the more they slip through your fingers. The wish fulfillment of unbelieving man is an empty hand and a head full of nonsense.

day no. 16,770: even so, come

"When is sin ripe? When it is impudent, when men grow bold in sin, making it their whole course and trade of life. When men’s wicked courses are their common lifestyle, and they don’t even know how to do otherwise . . . The more sin, the more danger. When men are secure in their sinning, it is as if they are daring the God of heaven to do his worst.” — Richard Sibbes, Refreshment for the Soul

When men are given over to their sin, they are tempting God to get involved. While the wrath of God is observed in His removing His hand, the further the sin goes, the more it invites Him to become more hands on.

Romans 1:24-28

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.

God does not impute vileness to men. They pursue it on their own. God does not dangle disaster before them, they court calamity on their own accord. When God lets go of the leash, the lemmings head for the cliff. The grace of God is not giving us what we want, but in regenerating us to want His will above our own.

James 1:14-15

Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Sins do not get any cuter the more they grow up. In fact, they get grosser. To be clear, sins are never actually cute, but it is easier to construe them that way when they are still infantile. Tiny is cute. So, tiny sins committed by tiny people are discounted by the cuteness of the tiny offender. But grown up sins are gross. They corrupt their containers. Their skin cannot help but reflect the acidity within.

When sin becomes brazen, it begins to beg for a reckoning. It looks up, shakes it fist, and dares the lightning to strike. It mocks God and jaws at His judgment. It struts around asking to be struck down. That kind of cocksuredness cruises for its bruises and rides on its high horse without any worry of being knocked off. That kind of presumption, however, is often the final portent of what proverbially comes next:

Proverbs 16:18

Pride goeth before destruction,

and an haughty spirit before a fall.

“Consistent believers are not in that position. We do not want God to do His worst. We do, however, want God to do what it takes. Our prayer should be that God would do what it takes to bring us to the point of humble repentance. To want Him to do more than it takes would be vindictive, and we don’t want to be that. But we should want Him to do whatever it takes. As we watch the walls disintegrate around us, our prayer should be that this is judgment driving toward mercy, and not judgment as a harbinger of more judgment." — Douglas Wilson, Why Fox News Needs to Free Tucker. And Then a Word about the Gospel of Sovereign Grace

When God shakes, things begin to fall apart. The falling of things produces its own tremors. It is altogether unsettling. But the uneasiness of God's appearing is to be preferred to the ease of adjusting to His absence. 

Revelation 22:20

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

The future is Christian.

Whatever convulsions are required to cast the demons out, they are to be pursued and pleaded for rather than resigning ourselves to a regular roll in the fire. Christ will come and the correction might hurt, but it is better to be disciplined and spared than to be spared discipline and discarded. It is better to be parented by the rod than to be bastardized by God. Better to be His child with a sore backside than to be His enemy facing His wrath.

day no. 16,345: to remember is to resurrect

To remember is to resurrect... either to eternal life or death. When you recall something, you call it back from the dead and either by grace thank God for it or by bitterness curse Him for it. Memories are either brought back to life as glorious opportunities of praise and gratitude or hideous occasions of anger and ingratitude.

Daniel 12:2-3

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

Memories, like us, are resurrected either to everlasting life or everlasting contempt. And just like us, they can only be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone or they will be destined to live the life of death which is paved with guilt, shame, and regret.

1 Corinthians 11:24-25

And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

Resurrection requires remembrance. We either remember through the resurrection or we remember without it and the difference is as stark as day and night, light and darkness, love and hate, joy and grief, gratitude and regret.

Gratitude and thanksgiving are gifts of the past being remembered through the resurrection of the Son of God for our justification. Envy and bitterness are the curses of the past being remembered without God to intercede for them.

day no. 16,217: the eternal Fact will keep the cancelers in check

James 4:11-12

Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

Hell is full of fact checkers forever revisiting and re-registering their complaints.They will spend their respective forevers with clenched jaws and fingers feverishly resurrecting and correcting every perceived grievance they ever imagined experiencing. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth as they relive every intuited injustice. There will be hell to pay for making life a living hell. There will be everlasting judgment for those who set themselves above the law. There is one Lawgiver and one Judge who will in the end check the facts. The eternal Fact will keep the cancelers in check. He will cancel the cancelers and establish what they have concealed.

day no. 16,140: all the amusement without the park

“The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. He announces a Savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.” – A.W. Pink

Unbelief wants to be saved from the consequences of sin without being parted from the presence of sin. There are those who want to avoid hell while pursuing sin. They want to walk all the way down that road without having to walk through the door at the end of it. But salvation is not merely about locking the gate so that you don't have to walk into the hell you've aimed your life at, salvation is about saving you from wanting to walk down that path in the first place. 

Our biggest problem is not hell. Hell is the consequence of serving sin. Our problem is sin. Hell is the effect, not the cause. So to be saved is to be free from sin and hell along with it, but there is not a salvation from hell that permits one to continue to purchase tickets without requiring you to go on the rides. You cannot keep the amusement without going to the park. Salvation is finding satisfaction somewhere else and abandoning petty carnival prizes.

1 John 3:4-10

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

day no. 14,892: do not fish with mercy

Luke 16:27-31
And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Until someone hears the Law, they will not receive the Gospel. Until someone believes the bad news, they cannot embrace the Good News. The Good News is only good if that bad news is actually true. If everyone goes to a better place when they die, the Good News that Jesus living the life you should have led in your place for your righteousness and dying the death you should have died in your place for your sins is rendered unnecessary at best, overkill at worst. 

If someone will not listen to the Law of Moses or the prophecies of the Prophets, which are all bad news for sinful people (God has standards... and you haven't kept them; Only God can judge you... and He's most definitely going to) then they will not receive the Good News of the resurrection. The resurrection's appeal is that someone had to die for sin. If you don't agree that you deserve to die, the Good News that someone else died for you is meaningless. 

Do not lead with grace. 
Do not fish with mercy. 

Grace and mercy only make sense if they feel the sting of the Law hooking their lip.

day no. 14,872: everyone inherits his father's house

Matthew 25:32-34, 43
Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right,

‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'

41 Then he will say to those on his left,

‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'



Those who have been adopted as children of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone will inherit the world He died to leave them in His will. This plan was completed in the course of time in our world, but was concocted and committed to before the beginning of all time or our world even existing.

Those who have not been grafted in to the family of God will be sent to the eternal fire which was originally prepared for the devil and his demons - the third of the host of heaven who followed him in his rebellion.

Everyone inherits his father's house. The children of God, the world and everything in it; the children of the devil, fire and darkness and the utter absence of goodness.

To whom do you belong? Whose household are you in? 

day no. 14,666: not just any death will do

Hebrews 10:14
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified 

I had a thought the other night while listening to Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible while running on the treadmill: Jesus' death is the only one that can fully satisfy the wrath of God. 

That may not sound completely novel, but it hit me in a new way the other night. Death is a result of sin. And now the soul that sins shall die. Because of sin, someone has to die. But your death cannot satisfy the wrath of God for your sin. That's why when you die, your bill with God is not square. Hell exists as an everlasting death. It must last forever because sin is that serious and that costly. So Jesus' suffering and death in a few days accomplished what could never in any other way, given any amount of time, ever accomplish. His death was fully able to absorb the wrath of God and it satisfies the wrath of God. So much so that any who are in Him by grace through faith are fully free from death. It has no claim on them because it's cost has been fully paid. Only in Jesus can that debt be paid. No amount of time could ever do what He did in 33 years of life and 3 days in the grave.

day no. 13,443: maggot beds and worm sheets

Isaiah 14:9-11

9 Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. 10 All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ 11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.

I do not want to go to there.

Nope.

Not even a little.

This is the terrible end of all pride and grand-standing before God.

God humbles the proud and makes them lay down on maggots only to then cover them with worms.

The boaster's mouth is stopped; their imaginings vanish in the reality of their defeat in death.

day no. 13,378: two ways to serve only your self

"Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven."

 ~ John Bunyan from The Pilgrim's Progress

I just finished reading "The Pilgrim's Progress" again recently.

This is how the book ends reflecting upon the fate of Ignorance.

Bunyan points out two paths that lead to Hell:

1. making your home in the City of Destruction

2. making your pilgrimage to paradise on the merits of anyone other than the perfection purchased by Jesus' life, death and resurrection

Ignorance made it all the way to the gate.

From an earthly perspective, it seemed like he had his heart set on Heaven.

But Ignorance wanted paradise without the Prince, forever joy without temporal submission.

Both residing in the City of Destruction and striving for Heaven without Christ end the same sad way in Hell.

Rebellion or Religion: two ways that pave the way to Hell.

day no. 13,147: the scariest word

Isaiah 66:16

For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment,and by his sword, with all flesh;and those slain by the LORD shall be many.

The most terrifying word in the previous statement is not the fire or sword of the Lord, but the fact that the number of those who will be slain by the Lord is represented as "many."

That's a lot.

More the not.

Most will ignore this warning.

Most will not budge an inch.

But for the few that move:

Flee the wrath to come and run to Jesus.

day no, 13,063: battling with a brandished arm (and other Billy Bad Apple things God says)

Isaiah 30:31-33

The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

The breath of the Lord like a stream of sulfur kindles the fires of the place prepared for God's enemies.

That is tough beyond description.

His weapons are merely His arms.

There is nothing more deadly or powerful that He could employ than His own arms.

He is mighty to save and to destroy.

Every mighty blow He inflicts in justice on those who reject Him and His provision will be accompanied by the roars of crowds cheering Him.

The wicked may prosper for a time, but they will not ultimately succeed.

Their ways will not prosper before Him and they will be sent to the place prepared for them.

Jesus said that He was going ahead to prepare a place with Him for those that love Him.

He also has gone ahead to prepare a place of eternal punishment for those who forever oppose Him.

day no. 13,058: the day the dust will sing

Isaiah 26:19

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

The dead will live.
The dust will sing.

The dead will be born anew.
The dead won't stay dead.

The voice of the Lord will call and the dead will listen.

Some to everlasting life.
Some to everlasting destruction.

For some, death will never again be tasted.
For the rest, death will be drunk deeply for eternity.

day no. 12,986: you will die in your sins (unless...)‏

John 8:21

 

Then He said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

 

Repeated phrases are things to key in on when reading your Bible. Jesus here repeats this phrase, “die in your sin.”

 

John 8:24

 

Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

 

The fact that He reinforces this sentiment verbatim should cause you to pause and absorb the weight of what He is saying.

 

If you do not have Me, you only have your sin.

If you have Me, you no longer bear your own sin.

 

You are in sin already.

 

Without any rebirth, redirection, regeneration, repentance, you will die in your sin.

day no. 12,895: tormented with fire and sulfur in the sight of the HOLY angels and in the sight of the LAMB‏

Revelation 14:9-11

⁹ And a third angel followed them and spoke with a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,¹⁰ he will also drink the wine of God’s wrath, which is mixed full strength in the cup of His anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the sight of the holy angels andin the sight of the Lamb, ¹¹ and the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or anyone who receives the mark of his name.

 

Who rules over hell?

 

Most people think that the Devil was cast out of Heaven, so he now rules over Hell as sort of a silver medal.

 

He doesn’t.

 

Jesus rules over hell.

 

Hell is not the absence of God’s presence.

 

It is the presence of His wrath without His mercy and grace.

 

It is not a place with less God.

 

It is a place with all of God’s wrath.

 

Forever.

 

And ever.