From His Heart

Announcer: There is a hell. But what's it going to be like? Here's Pastor Jeff Schreve.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: There's surely certainly going to be a resurrection of the righteous. And all the righteous are going to have to stand at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of their lives. There's also a resurrection of the wicked.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: What happens when a non-Christian dies? What happens when an unbeliever dies?

Announcer: This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve.

Announcer: And no matter how smart you are, how popular you are, or how much money you have, you cannot escape death. And though we don't know when we'll die, when is not the pertinent question as it relates to death. The important question for each of us is this: What's going to happen to me after I die?

Announcer: The message today from Pastor Jeff is appropriately entitled, What Lies Beyond the Grave? And it is the last from the timely six message series that we've been in this month called Life's Big Questions, addressing six of the most profound questions we know. This series and Pastor Jeff's booklet, The ABCs of the Christian Life, are our two special gifts to you for your support this month of any amount. You can find out more at fromhisheart.org, or I'll tell you more later.

Announcer: Hey, this is a great and encouraging message to end on. It's actually comforting. So, let's get started today on the broadcast. Open your Bible to Acts chapter 24 as Pastor Jeff answers the big life question, What lies beyond the grave?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: What happens when I die? Well, I want us to look at three discoveries to the question, what happens to you, what happens to me after we die? Because really, that is the critical question. Discovery number one, most religions teach of a life after death. Most religions do. The big ones teach of a life after death. Judaism teaches of a life after death. Christianity obviously teaches of a life after death. Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam all teach of a life after death.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: But has anyone ever conquered death? Well, you mark it down. There's only been one who has conquered death, and His name is Jesus. The tomb of Confucius is occupied. The tomb of Gautama Buddha is occupied. The tomb of Muhammad is occupied. But there's an empty tomb in Jerusalem that says, Jesus Christ has conquered death, hell, and the grave. And He is the only one that has ever done that.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: That's why you can't say that Christianity is just one religion among all other religions. Christianity is different from everything else. Why? Because the founder said He was going to die and rise again. And then He died and rose again and was seen by all sorts of people. See, only Jesus conquered death, and only Jesus offers true victory over death. And this Jesus, He is the one who is going to judge every single person.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You have believers and unbelievers, saved and lost, Christian and non-Christian. So, Paul said there will certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. So, let's look at discovery number two, the resurrection of the righteous. When a Christian dies, discovery number two, he or she goes to heaven. That's what happens to a Christian. You go to heaven. And the translation from earth to heaven is immediate.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You breathe your last in this life, and your first in the next with the Lord. You say, where do you get that from? Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8. The Bible says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But now, here is the truth for every believer. The judgment seat of Christ awaits every believer. The scripture says in Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: That each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. You know, some people say, well, I don't care. Just as long as I'm at the judgment seat of Christ, just as long as I know I'm going to heaven, I, it doesn't really matter to me about any rewards. Baloney, it matters because the Lord expects you to do something with what He gave you. And the scripture talks about when He returns, First John chapter 2, some are going to shrink back in shame at His coming because they're so ashamed of the way that they've lived.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: And some are going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. You know, He tests everything by fire. And if you build with wood, hay, and straw, it's consumed by the fire. And you have nothing to show for your Christian life. Whether you are a Christian 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, whatever it was, you have nothing to show for it. And you're going to have such tremendous shame before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Lord, I did nothing with my Christian life. Nothing with my Christian life.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: The scripture says in First Corinthians chapter 3, you're saved yet so as through fire, but you have no reward. You suffer loss of reward. Man, I don't want that to be true of me. You can build, I can build with gold and silver and precious stone. We can abide in the Lord because He said, apart from Me, you can do nothing. But with Him, we can do all things. And when we abide in Him, and we let His light so shine among men that that men may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven, when we do those two S words that we've talked about for years in here, when we shine for Christ, when we share His story, when we walk in the light with Him, then we earn eternal reward.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hey, there's surely certainly going to be a resurrection of the righteous, and all the righteous are going to have to stand at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of their lives. But He says, not only the righteous, there's also a resurrection of the wicked. What happens when a non-Christian dies? What happens when an unbeliever dies? Well, when a Christian dies, he goes to heaven. When a non-Christian dies, discovery number three, he goes to Hades. Hades, a terrible, horrible place called Hades.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: And remember Jesus said, I have the keys of death and of Hades. You say, Hades and Hell, are those the same thing? Very similar, but not the same. Hades is kind of like the county jail, and Hell is the penitentiary. You know, if you commit a terrible crime, they arrest you, and they put you in jail. And you're in jail until you appear before the judge, and then the judge sentences you, and then you go to the pen. And if you've committed a capital crime, you go to the pen for life.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hades is the county jail. It's very much like hell. It's a horrible, awful place. Jesus told a story about a man who went there. He's an unnamed man. We just know him as the rich man. He's called in theological circles dives because dives in Latin means rich man. But it says this in Luke 16, Now it came about that the poor man, Lazarus, died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom, and the rich man also died and he was buried, and in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Hey, just as the translation from for a Christian from earth to heaven in his soul, in his spirit, is immediate, so is the translation for the unbeliever. His soul, his spirit goes immediately to this terrible, horrible place called Hades, a place of torment. There've been some interesting things recorded by well-known atheists on their deathbeds. Sir Thomas Scott, Chancellor of England said this, Until this moment, I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Sir Francis Newport, who is the head of an English atheist club, he said this, You need not tell me there is no God, for I know there is one, and that I am in His presence. You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me. I know I am lost forever. Oh, that fire! Oh, that in, oh, the insufferable pangs of hell. The last words of a dying atheist. David Hume, the atheist philosopher, simply said this, I am in flames. That is what awaits every unbeliever. They immediately go to a place called Hades, and Hades has the soul, it's the the holding place for the soul and the spirit.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, the body, just like with the Christian, the body goes into the ground. But then the Lord is going to raise that up one day. What happens at the end of time? Well, you have the rapture of the church. That's what we're waiting for. First Thessalonians chapter 4. That's what we're waiting. When the Lord comes back in the clouds and we are taken up, raptured, snatched away, that comes before the tribulation period. And then comes the seven years of tribulation. And then there is the return of Christ. The rapture comes first and then the return.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: And the return of Christ, Jesus comes to the earth, and He does battle with the antichrist, and He wipes out the antichrist and the false prophet, and He takes the the devil, the dragon, He's called, and He binds him with a chain, and He puts him in the bottomless pit, and He sets up His kingdom, the millennial the reign of Christ, and that lasts for a thousand years. And all those people who rejected Jesus, they're all their souls and spirits are in Hades, their bodies are in the grave. And at the end of it all, Jesus takes Satan, and He puts him into the lake of fire. The beast and the false prophet are in the lake of fire. Hell is described as the lake of fire. That's the penitentiary. That's the the place where they go forever and ever and ever.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: And then the scripture talks about the Great White Throne Judgment. It's the final judgment. And it's for every unbeliever. The Great White Throne awaits every unbeliever. This is what the scripture says about it. Revelation chapter 20, verse 11, And I saw a great white throne. And Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. You don't want to be anywhere near the Great White Throne. It's just pure holiness and justice at the Great White Throne. No grace, no mercy.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: And I saw the dead, the great and the small standing before the throne. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. That is the scariest judgment.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, everyone who stands at the judgment seat of Christ, you stand there as a believer. Your citizenship is in heaven, but you are being judged based on your works as a Christian to determine reward or loss of reward. Unbelievers, they go to the Great White Throne Judgment. And at that judgment, all that's determined, everyone there goes to hell. Everyone there goes to hell. And all that's determined there is how much punishment you're going to receive in hell.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, some people say this, well, I don't like the concept of hell, and I don't think hell is right because you say, Jeff, if you don't trust Christ, that you're going to be at the Great White Throne and and what about the people in Africa? What about people out on the outskirts that have never heard the name of Jesus? Remember this about judgment. When the people stand before the Great White Throne Judgment, this is how they're judged. They are judged on the basis of what they knew. What did you do with what you knew? Because it's all based on revelation.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: How much revelation did you have? You know, some people, they don't have much revelation. All they have is general revelation. And Romans chapter 1 says that uh that they are without excuse. Why? For ever since the world was created, His invisible attributes, His eternal power, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. God gives every single person two witnesses: the voice of conscience and the voice of creation. If you don't have anything else, you have those two witnesses. And those two witnesses tell you there is a God. And if you respond to that little bit of light, what does God do? He gives you more light. And you respond to that more light, He gives you more light, more light, more light until you come to a place where you see that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and you can put your faith and trust in Him.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You say, well, I think there are people in some remote area that they've never heard of Jesus. Let me tell you something about the people in the remote area. You don't know them. You don't know what they know. You don't know what light they have, but He does. He does. God is not unjust. So don't ever get the idea that you're going to throw something in the face of God and say, well, you're unjust because you're sending somebody to hell. God doesn't send anybody to hell. People send themselves to hell.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, here's the thing. God made you and He made me and He made all of us with a free will. And God doesn't make you believe in Him, He invites you to believe in Him. And if you say, well, I'd rather not, no thank you. I'm going to do my own thing, I'm going to go my own way, I'm going to earn salvation my own way. You can do that if you want. But if you do that, you're going to end up at the Great White Throne Judgment. And you're going to be judged. Books were opened. What are those books? The book of all your deeds, book of all your sins. God's keeping meticulous records on every sin that you've ever committed.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: And if you reject what Jesus did on the cross, see, He paid for all those sins. And if you reject that and you say, well, no, I'm going to get to heaven by my good works, then He's going to open the books, and you are going to be judged based on the standard of perfection. Let's see how you measure up with that. You're going to fall woefully short. That's why the Bible says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, remember this, it says, books were opened, and another book is opened at the Great White Throne, which is the Book of Life. And if your name is not found in the Book of Life, you were thrown into the lake of fire. Now, why does God do that? Why does He open up the Book of Life at the Great White Throne Judgment? The only people there are people whose names aren't in the Book of Life. He opens the Book of Life for this one reason, to show every single person at the Great White Throne Judgment that I had a place in my book for you. I died for you. But just as Jesus prayed in the garden, as He sweat drops of blood, not my will, but thine be done. He is going to say at the Great White Throne Judgment to every single rejecter, not my will, but yours be done.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You didn't want me. You didn't want to receive me. You didn't want to bow your knee to me. So, not my will, but yours be done. Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. Now, you mark this down. Eternal hell is not God's will for anyone. For anyone. He didn't make hell for people. It says in Matthew 25, He created hell for the devil and his angels. Although people go to hell, but it's not because God wants them to go there. He he hung naked on a cross so that no one would have to go there. But when you reject Him, and you reject His love, all that's left is a Christless hell.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: It's a horrible place. Hell is so terrible, it's beyond description terrible. There was a man in England in the 1800s. His name was Charles Peace. He was a robber and a murderer and a terrible human being, the things that he did. On the day that he was being led to his execution, a pastor came and he began to read to him the Word of God. And he read to him about heaven, and he read to him about hell. And Charles Peace said this to him, Sir, If I believed what you say you believe about hell, I would walk across England on my hands and knees and consider it worth my while to save one soul from that hell you so glibly talk about.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You know, what's wrong with lots of us as believers? We don't look into the faces of people and say, that person without Christ is one day going to stand before the Great White Throne. They're one day going to be cast into the terrible, horrible place called the lake of fire, the second death, separated from God forever and ever and ever and ever, where the fire is not quenched and the worm dies not. Place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And how come we not think about that place and break down because we have friends and neighbors and loved ones, and they're on the highway to hell? It should hurt us at the core.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I like what John Hagee said one time. He said, well, you know, you can't be too strong with people because you're going to scare them off. He said, scare them off where? To hell number two? I mean, there's no other they're on the highway to hell. Where are you going to scare them to? You need to scare them to to get them to think, I'm in trouble. You know, when I got saved as a 17-year-old high school senior, you know what God used to show me that I needed Him? He showed me that if I died, I'd go to hell. And I deserve to go to hell because I was a sinner and I had sinned against a holy God. And when I understood, I'm in trouble here!

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Oh God, have mercy on me. Jesus, save me! And He did. He'll do that with anyone who puts his faith and trust in Him. The Bible says He's not willing, He's not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. A forgotten word in so many churches, repentance. But what did John the Baptist preach when he came on the scene? Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. What did Jesus preach when He first came on the scene? Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Jesus said, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. What is the message we have to share with the world? Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We turn from sin and from self, and we turn to the Savior and we give Him our lives. And when you do that, you're saved. And you go from darkness to light, from a child of the devil to a child of God, from an unbeliever to a believer, from the wicked to the righteous, and all that happens just like that.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: When the Lord comes in, the light comes in, the life comes in. He came that you might have life, and that you might have it abundantly, that it would be full, and that it would be eternal. Hey, if you're not sure about your relationship with Jesus Christ, you're not sure that you have really given your heart to Him. You've turned from sin and turned to the Savior. Today is the day to make sure. Life is short, death is sure, sin is the curse, and Christ is the cure.

Announcer: The Bible tells us that when we repent and believe, we become a child of God. And to that end on From His Heart, we've created a special section on our website designed to give you the proper, practical, and powerful information that you seek about who Jesus is and what He means to your life for now and especially for eternity. You'll discover what it means to have a personal relationship with God who created you for a purpose and how to fulfill that purpose and find meaning, love,