The Greatest "Crystal Ball"

The Greatest “Crystal Ball”

A Sermon by Keith D. Wallace

People today are always trying to see the future. We are bombarded by TV, newspaper, magazine and radio ads for psychics and tarot card readers and crystal ball mystics. I recently did a search on lycos.com on the word “psychic”, and got 4 million hits. Can you believe that? People are obsessed with knowing what will happen in the future. And most importantly, people want to know what is going to happen in the future in their own lives. We are going to take a look now into the greatest “crystal ball” ever. This “crystal ball” has never been wrong on any of the hundreds of predictions it has made. This “crystal ball” is God’s Word, the Authorized King James Bible.

The first thing we need to get straight here is that every human being on this Earth is a sinner. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: Romans 3:12b there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Not sure what counts as a sin? OK, here’s a list of them. Revelation 21:8a murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers (interesting coincidence with this message huh?), and idolaters, and all liars. This is a pretty nasty list, that is until we get to the last one. Liars. Hmm, God considers lies to be sins. Uh oh, that means we’re all in trouble. I know that I have told a few lies in my day, and I’ve never met a person who will honestly say they have never told a lie. Let’s see what the future has in store for sinners according to God.

The future of the sinner

The first thing we find when looking at the future of the sinner is found in Romans 6:23a. For the wages of sin is death. “Well big deal, we’re all going to die” you might say. True, but this verse is not talking about the physical death where our earthly bodies stop functioning and then are buried. Psalm 9:17a The wicked shall be turned into hell. Many places in the Bible, God has linked the word wicked with sin (Prov 10:16, Prov 21:4, Ezk 33:14). So we can see that sinners will die and be cast into Hell.

The next thing we need to find out is the future of the sinner in Hell. What exactly is Hell like? We hear a lot of people today talking about how they want to go to Hell because they’ll get to party with all their friends and have a good time. Let’s see how accurate that is according to God.

The Bible has a lot to say about Hell. Jesus preached on Hell more than any other subject while He was on this Earth. And do you know why? Because Hell is an awful place of pain and torment that lasts forever! Luke 16:19-25 tells the story of a man who went to Hell. This account gives us a description of Hell that uses the word torment 3 times in 3 verses. It also describes Hell as a place of sorrow and as a place that cannot be escaped. Matthew 13:50 calls Hell a furnace of fire where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus spoke more about Hell in this passage; Mark 9:43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Jesus gives a pretty clear warning here of Hell. He is saying that it is better to live without part of your body and not be in sin than to have that part of your body, live in sin, and then be thrown into Hell. He keeps talking about the fire in Hell that never shall be quenched, and he keeps saying where their worm dieth not. What he is talking about here is the person’s soul. The soul of the sinner in Hell will never burn up in the fire. The fire will continue to burn the sinner’s soul forever and ever. “This is awful, why would anyone choose to go to Hell?” you might be saying. You’re right, it is awful. That’s why Jesus took so much time to warn us of Hell. But we’re not finished.

2 Thess 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

There will come a day when Jesus comes back to have his vengeance on those who did not trust Him. These people will be sent to Hell forever to be tormented with everlasting destruction. Just imagine yourself being in constant destruction. The only thing is, there will never be a time when you are completely destroyed. You will be in constant pain and torment and destruction but will never actually be destroyed to the point where you don’t exist anymore. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you will be separated from the presence of the Lord and His power forever. That may not seem like such a big deal to you right now, but it will. You can either be in His presence forever or separated from His presence forever in torment. You don’t have to know much about anything to see that one of these choices is clearly better than the other.

Many people believe that after they die they will get a chance to stand before God and explain why they should be allowed into Heaven. Well, they’re right. Heb 9:27 it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: Everyone who dies in their sins will stand before God at the Great White Throne Judgment. This is where they will get their “second chance.”

At the Great White Throne, the sinner’s life will be judged by God. 2 Tim 4:8 calls God the righteous judge. No judge on Earth can give a 100% unbiased and perfect judgment because he is also a sinner, and is not perfect. However, God is perfect and sinless. God will judge based upon the sinless and perfect life of His Son, Jesus. Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. It doesn’t matter who you are. From the bum on the street to the richest and most powerful man in the world, if you die without Jesus you will stand before God and be judged. The Bible has already told us the outcome of this judgment. Nobody will get into Heaven based on the works they did in their lifetime. No amount of donating to charity, no amount of feeding homeless at Christmas, no amount of sacraments, no amount of hail mary’s will get you into Heaven! All our righteousnesses (works) are as filthy rags as we are told in Isaiah 64:6. Matt 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. All that matters is if your name is in the Book of Life. There is no other way to Heaven. How do you get your name in the Book of Life? Trust Jesus as your Saviour. That is all. No matter what your “church” tells you, the Bible (God’s own words) says to trust Jesus. That is all. When you stand before God at the Great White Throne it is too late. You’re a goner; on your way to the Lake of Fire talked about in Revelation. This could be your last chance, right now. What are you waiting for? Still not convinced? Keep reading then.

The future of the Christian

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name

When a person believes on Jesus and becomes a Christian, he then becomes a son of God. There are a lot of bad parents out there today. Parents that don’t take care of their children’s needs. But there are a lot of good parents too. Parents that provide for the needs of their children and take care to raise them right. Our Father in Heaven has promised to take care of His children.

Matt 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

God tells us that our parents here on Earth give us things. Things like food and clothing and a place to live, and our parents are sinners just like we are. And then God asks us if our earthly parents, who are imperfect sinners, meet our needs then don’t you think that God, who is perfect and sinless will take care of us so much better? He promises to give us what we ask for if we truly need it. God did not promise us a life without problems. He did not promise us that we will be filthy rich or that we would never have to worry about anything. He promised to meet every need according to His perfect plan for us.

Jesus tell us, John 10:10b I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Jesus came to give us eternal life. Without His payment for our sins we would never see eternal life. We would see eternal damnation. But He came and died on the cross for us that we could have eternal life. And that the life we have would be more abundant. People always automatically assume that when you say abundant life it means monetary riches. But that is just not the case. The abundant life Jesus has promised us is that He will be guiding us through this life on Earth. He will be holding onto us, protecting us, providing for us, and guiding us through the tough times. You WILL have tough times on this Earth. Saved or unsaved, there will be tough times. The difference is that the unsaved has to go through their troubles by themselves. The saved has Almighty God to guide them through. I don’t know about you, but I know that this life can be cruel at times and I don’t want to try to go it alone. Especially when I can have the God of all creation helping me through!

Here’s another prediction in the Bible for the Christian. John 10:28a And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish. When a person accepts Christ as their personal Saviour, they have just received eternal life. Eternal life does not start upon death. Eternal life begins the moment you accept Christ. This verse also tells us that Christians will never perish. You may say, “That’s silly. If you never perish, then why aren’t people living eternally here on Earth.” Well that’s because Jesus is talking about the soul perishing into Hell. You are not your body. You are a soul living inside of a physical, earthly body. Your body will die someday but your soul will go on forever somewhere. That somewhere will be one of two places. Heaven (for those who have eternal life through Jesus) or Hell (for those who do not have eternal life through Jesus). Once you have eternal life, that’s it, you’ve got it. There’s no going back. You will never perish.

“Well I have heard that you can lose your salvation if you sin after you get saved.” Well, let’s see what Jesus has to say about this. The rest of John 10:28 says, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Are you greater than God? Is any heretical charismatic preacher (who would have you believe this lie) greater than God? I don’t think so. So if you’re not greater than God, and this verse says that no man is able to pluck you out of Jesus’ and God’s hand, can you lose what God gave you when you got saved? No. Once you have eternal life, you’ve got it, whether you want it or not.

OK, so we know that the Christian is a son of God. We know that God will carry us through the troubles on this Earth. And we know that once we have eternal life we can never lose it. Are there anymore predictions in the Bible about the future of the Christian? You’d better believe it, buddy.

The Christian is saved from the wrath of God! John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. Rom 5:9b being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Think about this for a minute. This is talking about the God that created the Heavens and the Earth. The same God that killed every human being on Earth except 8 in the flood. The same God that sent the plagues on Egypt because the Egyptians wouldn’t obey Him. The same God that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness. The same God who is going to pour out plagues and famines and diseases and floods and earthquakes on the people living on Earth for 7 years during the Great Tribulation. The same God that is going to throw the Devil and his demons into the Lake of Fire for all eternity. This is the wrath of God. You may be thinking, “Well I don’t want to follow a God that would do these kind of things to people.” But think about this, as a Christian, you are saved from this wrath. God is only going to pour our His wrath on those that do not believe on Him and His Son. Do you want the wrath of God on you? I sure don’t.

When you get saved you become a son of God, with abundant life that lasts forever. You are saved from the wrath of God and are going to live with Him in Heaven forever. This is what the Bible says is in store for every person who accepts Jesus as their Saviour. What are you waiting for? What more do you need to convince you? There is one last prediction we see in our perfect “crystal ball”. If you’re still not convinced, I pray that this will do it for you.

Rom 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. This verse is referring to the people at the Great White Throne Judgement. Every knee shall bow to me (God). If you get nothing else out of this study, please get this. You WILL worship God. As long as you are still living on this earth you have a choice. You can choose to worship God now and accept His Son’s payment for your sins. Or you can choose to wait until it is too late, and you are standing before God at the Great White Throne and worship Him there, just before you are cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity. The choice is yours. I just pray that you choose to accept Jesus now before it is everlasting too late.

All of the prophecies and predictions you have read here come straight from the Bible which was inspired by God (2 Tim 3:16). Please believe them now while you still have a chance. Don’t wait until they are happening to believe them when it will be too late.