Seven Mountains the Lost Must Climb Over 12-31-23

Overview: The speaker, Dr. Paul Welch, is addressing a congregation on New Year's Eve and deviating from the usual sermon topics. He talks about the importance of fearing God and how it is a sign of a healthy spiritual life. He also discusses why people should fear sin and the consequences of minimizing it. The speaker then addresses the question of why a loving God would allow people to go to hell, stating that it is not God's desire for anyone to perish but to repent and receive eternal life. He emphasizes that it is easier to find salvation and follow Jesus than to go to hell, as God has placed many obstacles in the path to hell, such as churches and biblical sermons. The speaker urges the congregation to consider their spiritual health and not be determined to go to hell. Transcription: Thank you so much. Thank you so very much. We have a special place in our heart for Kings Grove. And this is a unique occasion, you know, it's New Year's Eve. And all your life, you've heard sermons on this Sunday about, well, the blessings of the past year, right? And the opportunities and challenges of the coming year, correct? You hear that every single year. Well, we're not going to do that this year. We're going to preach on something that you probably have never heard preached on, on this Sunday. We're going to be talking about hell. That's right. Now, it may not be the type of sermon you're expecting. You know, whenever you say, I'm going to preach on hell, people say, oh no, fire and brimstone, he's trying to scare us to death. I don't believe in a religion of fear. Friend, I do believe in fearing God. The Bible teaches us to fear God. I'm glad I fear God. As a matter of fact, I think my fear of God is a sign of a healthy spiritual life. Oh, I know, preacher, where are you going with that, because I've read in the Sunday school lessons the word fear in Hebrew actually means awe, and reverence for God, to stand in awe of God and reverence for God. No, it doesn't. I don't care what you've read in your Sunday school lessons. It does not mean that. When I was in Hebrew class at Southern Seminary, our professor was Dr. J.J. Owens. He knew Hebrew. He wrote the book that almost every seminary in America was using. That was his book he wrote. He had taught more people Hebrew than anyone else in the whole world outside of Israel. Every seven years, he was invited by the Israeli government to come back to Israel and put new words into the Hebrew language. So when he told me something about Hebrew, I had a tendency to believe him more than the Sunday school writer. All right, I remember the day he talked about it. He said the word fear means fear. It's not awe. It's not reverence. It's fear. So why should we fear God? Why am I glad that I fear God? Dr. Carlyle Marney, great Christian writer and teacher, was at his school one day, and he was sitting in the student commons area and he was writing some things down. He was taking notes, had several books scattered in front of him. He was writing some academic journal thing. And about four or five students came up to him and said, Dr. Marney, can we ask you something? Yes. Do you know where the Garden of Eden was located? Yes. Went back to writing. I love that. They asked him a question. He answered it in one word. That's the way it ought to be, right? We don't need 12 sentences when we ask a simple question. Yes, I know. All right. They said, Dr. Marney, would you tell us where it was located? He said, yes. 215 South Elm Street, Knoxville, Tennessee. And went back to writing again. I'd love to see the look on those students' faces. 215 South Elm Street, Knoxville, Tennessee. Why do you say it was located there? He said, because it was there at 215 South Elm Street in Knoxville, Tennessee as a small boy. I stole some money from my mama's purse. I went to the store right down the street. I bought a bag of chocolate-covered peanut, the clusters. I ate them as fast as I could. I hid the evidence. And then I was so ashamed of myself that I went home and I hid in the closet. And when my mama found me, she said, why are you hiding? What have you done? Isn't that exactly what God asked Adam and Eve in the garden after they had sinned? Why are you hiding? What have you done? Adam and Eve had never experienced even a twinge of fear in their whole life until they sinned. Dr. Marney, that morning when he woke up, before he stole from his mother's purse, he went down to breakfast. I don't know what she fixed him. Cereal, eggs, bacon, pancakes. I don't know. But I guarantee you he didn't walk in that kitchen that morning afraid of his mother. It was only after he had sinned that he feared his mother. Friend, the reason I fear God, it's not about God, it's about me. Now I realize I'm redeemed and I'm saved by grace and I've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. But I'll tell you the truth, I'm still a dirty, rotten sinner. I still am. And when I try to minimize that, I don't want to fear God, I want to minimize my sin. I minimize the one who died for me. When I minimize the consequences of sin, I minimize the cost that was paid on the cross. Friend, I want to fear God because it reminds me of who I am before God. So I'm not trying to scare people, but I do hope you have a good, healthy fear of sin because if you don't, that says a lot more about you than it does God. And if you do, it says more about your spiritual health than it does about God. Now over the years, I've always had people ask, why would a good, loving God allow people to go to hell? And I've always been amazed at that question. It has literally always amazed me. Why? Because, well, basically what the Scripture teaches in 2 Peter 3:9. This is just one of many Scriptures, one of many. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promises, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. It says plainly, He doesn't want you to perish. He wants you to repent, get on the right road, receive Jesus Christ, and receive eternal life. That's what it teaches, that and many other verses. And yet people still say, why would a good, loving God let someone go to hell? You know, I've never asked myself that question a single time in my life. You know the question I've always asked, why are so many people bound and determined to go to hell? Why are so many people bound and determined? They are dead set on going to hell. You take a businessman, he produces widgets. That's an old term, isn't it? Some of you my age, you know what that means. You saw it in the cartoons, right? He produces widgets. And he finds a way he can produce that widget even cheaper than he's doing it now, and it'll be a better widget. What is he going to do? He's going to change his business model. He's going to save that money and produce a better product, right? And yet that same businessman who is so astute at business will never ponder the words of Jesus when Jesus said, what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul, Mark 8, verse 36. You take a wonderful mom. She'd do anything in the world to make sure her children are safe and happy. She wants them to be happy. She wants them to have good self-esteem. She definitely doesn't want them to be in any trouble. She wants them to keep them safe. She'll do anything. And yet she'll never take a moment and worry about their eternal life, their spiritual health, their salvation. Why are so many people determined to go to hell? Now, I could understand it. I could understand it if it were easy to go to hell. Friend, it's not. It's hard to go to hell. Hold it, preacher. There's something in the Bible about broad is the way and broad gate and narrow road and narrow gate. Is what you're saying scriptural? What you're referring to is Matthew 7, 13 through 14. Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction. And many will enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life. And only a few find it. Look at it carefully. It's talking about numbers. It's not talking about degree of difficulty. Many will go to hell. Only a few find Jesus Christ. It doesn't say which is easier. I want to argue this morning that it is far, far easier to find Jesus, yield to Jesus and follow Jesus than it is to go to hell. And the reason for that is God has placed so many mountains between you and hell that if a person goes to hell, they literally have to climb over mountain after mountain after mountain after mountain in order to go there. God has placed all these mountains in our path to keep us from going to hell and we climb over one after another after another in order to get there. The first mountain He puts in front of us is the mountain of the church. The mountain of the church. How many churches did you drive by in order to get here this morning? Think about the route you took. We drove by 11 churches this morning to get to Kings Grove. Eight of them we drove by the front door. Three of them we could see from the road. That's 11 churches we drove by in order to get here this morning. There are 3,732 people, I believe, that live in Pickens. 3,723, something like that. And there's 44 churches in Pickens. I'm not talking about Pickens County. I'm talking about the city limits of Pickens. There are 44 churches in Pickens city proper. Now, I don't want to go to hell under any circumstance, but friend, if I'm going to hell, I'd rather go to hell from a deserted island somewhere where the gospel has never been preached than to go to hell from Central or Six Mile or Pickens. Why? Because of what Jesus said in Luke 12:48. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. And from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. If I live and die and go to hell, I don't want to have to look back and remember every church I drove by every time in my life in order to get there. Because He has put a mountain of churches between me in hell and you in hell. Second mountain, mountain of biblical sermons. Do not ever, ever, ever refer to your church as hiring a pastor. A pastor is called. Your pastor did not choose to be a pastor. It's not a job, it's a vocation. God chose him. We don't do the choosing. God does the choosing. He calls the pastor to come and serve. We don't decide to do that, He calls. And He gives every pastor a message that people might hear and believe. Now, it's a physical person such as myself speaking, but the message is a biblical one. You cannot go to hell until you have climbed over every biblical message you have heard in your lifetime. Now, Jesus was the greatest preacher of all time and the greatest sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. Other great New Testament sermons, John the Baptist was a great preacher. The Apostle Peter at Pentecost, the Apostle Paul. And over the years, over the generations, there have been great preachers and a lot of good preachers and many, many average preachers. And let's be honest, there have been some preachers that are not all that interesting to listen to, right? But you know what? They all have one thing in common, and that is their message. Repent from your sins. Receive Jesus Christ not only as Savior, but as Lord. And receive eternal life. And if I climb over every sermon I have ever heard, and I go to hell, I will remember every sermon I ever heard. And the preacher pleading with me to give my heart and life to Jesus Christ that day, and whether it be pride or stubbornness or whatever, self-will, whatever, I refuse to do so. I will remember that throughout all eternity. Now, how do I say, I'll remember that? Again, what Jesus said, John 14, 26. But the Counselor of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. People talk about fire and brimstone and the heat and thirst and all the pain and the alienation from God. I think one of the curses of hell will be our memories will be intact. And I think we'll remember every single opportunity we ever had and every mountain we climbed over in order to get there. Third mountain, mountain of God's Word. Every Bible stands in the way between a person and hell. You cannot go to hell without climbing over the teachings of the Word of God. Now, I realize some people approach the Bible with skepticism and questions, you know, trying to find contradictions or mistakes in the Bible. If you want to read the Bible that way, I promise you one thing, you'll never find Jesus in it. That's not honored by God. But, if you'll read the Bible honestly, seeking truth, you'll find Jesus because that's the reason the Bible was written, to point us to Jesus. In 2 Peter 3, 16, Peter says, Now, he's talking about the Apostle Paul. He's referring to the Apostle Paul. He, the Apostle Paul, writes the same way in all his letters, speaking to them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do all the other Scriptures to their own destruction. The Bible teaches us to follow Jesus Christ. But those who search for it to find truth, they will find Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3, 15, And how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Let's be honest, almost everyone here has been taught that from this height up, right? Every one of us. That's just another mountain that God has placed between us and hell. And I don't want to look back over my life and remember every time I ignored the Word of God. Number four, the mountain of conscience. The mountain of conscience. Now, everybody here knows that you can deaden your conscience. Of course, all of us do it. You got that pet sin, that sin that's lingered on for 40 years. You ain't got rid of it yet, right? It might be gossiping, it might be pride, whatever it is. That sin is still there. And to be honest with you, you don't think about it all that much because you've taught your conscience to be dead to that sin. Other things may bother you, but that one you can get away with. But if you have an alive, alert, healthy conscience, it's there for a reason. It will remind you of when you do things wrong and will help you do things that are right. In 1 Corinthians 2:10, but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. If a person dies and goes to hell, they'll look back and they'll say, I climbed over my own conscience. And if my conscience was deadened by the way I lived, I did that too. You see where we're going with this? God in this way, and in this way, and in this way, and this way, and this way, is trying to keep us from going to hell. Why do people say, why would a good, loving God let people go to hell? He's putting mountain after mountain there to stop us. But people are bound and determined. The mountain of good judgment, that's the fifth one. You can call it reason, logic, common sense, good judgment. They all tell us the same thing, that we need Jesus. Because we know that one day we will all die and we'll stand before the judgment seat of God. There is nothing about our life that would encourage us to believe that when we die, there's nothing. It's all over with. What's the use in living? Intuitively, we know that there is life after death. People all over the world, even in every religion, have understood that basic fact. There is life after death. And there will be a judgment. And anybody with one ounce of common sense knows that heaven is better than hell. You know, it's amazing what an ounce of common sense can do. A while ago, I was talking about fear of the Lord. And I said, some people say that we ought not to have fear because the word fear means awe. Can I give you one ounce of common sense on that? Just an ounce. Every time the Lord appeared as an angel or a messenger or the Lord Himself, whatever, when He appeared to somebody, the Bible says the same thing. They had great fear. They quaked with fear. They were fearful. Think about it. Did the angel ever say, do not stand there in such awe of God? Do not stand there with such reverence for God? What did the angel say? Do not be afraid. If you want to know the answer to these things, look through the Bible. It tells us. It's a good judgment thing. I've always admired Joshua from the Old Testament. A great man of faith. But Joshua just had some common sense as well in Joshua 24, 15. But if serving the Lord seems desirable to you, and he's speaking to people in Israel, they're grumbling, they're fussing, they're complaining, they're griping about the Lord. He says, but if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourself this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served before the river, that is, the gods you all worship back in Egypt, or the gods of the Amorites, the gods you want to worship here in this land, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Doesn't your better judgment teach you the importance of Jesus? Because when you die, and if you go to hell, you'll say throughout all eternity, I knew better. I was told better. But in my heart I knew better. The sixth one, the mountain of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit stands between you and hell. And He's doing His very best to keep you from going to hell. Have you ever been here at this church and music was sung or played and it spoke to your heart? Have you ever heard the preacher preach and suddenly you felt that tugging at your heart? Have you ever sat through an invitation and felt like, I really need to make a decision today. I need to do this. Where does that tug come from? Where does that sense of need for Jesus come from? Oh, that's just emotion. No, that's the Holy Spirit. He speaks to us all the time, trying to lead us in the right direction. He tried to convict us of sin, of righteousness and judgment. In John 16, 13, these are the words of Jesus, but when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak to you on His own. He will speak only what He hears. And He will tell you what is yet to come. And then in John 14, 26, but the Counselor of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father has sent in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Many years ago, the Lord called me to the ministry. I didn't choose it. He chose me. I've often wondered why, honestly. A number of years ago, now listen, He called me to be interim at this church. I don't believe that I am here today because your pastor needed a supply. I believe I am here today by divine appointment. And furthermore, I believe that you are here today by divine appointment. I don't know why God laid it on my heart to preach this message. I don't know why He wanted you to hear this message. But I do know divine appointments are real and God has a purpose in everything He does. And you are here for a reason and I am here for a reason and God is here for a reason. And the Holy Spirit is at work in all of that. And I don't want to die and go to hell and remember for all eternity that I ignored what the Holy Spirit tried to say to me time and again. One last mountain. Mountain number seven. The mountain of Calvary. The mountain of Calvary. On that mountain is the crucified body of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the final analysis, it is Jesus who stands before me in the horrible, horrible ordeal of hell. He is the last mountain that a person has to climb over in order to go to hell. And the only way to go to hell, you must say no to Him and you must reject Him. Today, He stands at the door of your heart and He knocks. Isaiah 1:18. Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are as red as crimson, they shall be like wool. Today, He says in John 3:36, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him. God has placed mountain after mountain after mountain between us and hell. And yet, so many people are determined to go there. Why? It may be pride. I've been a church member all my life. I'd be so embarrassed to walk down there and admit that I'm not saved. Friend, even that pride tells you the Holy Spirit is trying to work. Even that pride is trying to help you admit something that's the truth in your life. Even now, you know that I'm speaking truth into your heart. I'm speaking truth into your life. If you don't know Jesus Christ, if you are not positive that if you die today, you'll go to heaven, something is not right. Why do you think God brought you here this morning? Why do you think God brought me here this morning? Because mountain after mountain, He's speaking to you. Come, join Me. 1 Corinthians 2.9. And remember, as it is written, no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, nor mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. God has said in a thousand, trillion different ways, I have something better for you. Break the path of where you're living and come to the path of life. Leave the past behind. Walk into a new light. An eternal light. This life is going to end. That next life is eternal. If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior this morning, if you cannot honestly say, if I were to die today, I'll be going to heaven, you need to recognize what's tugging at your heart right now. That's the Holy Spirit. The Bible has spoken. God has used His message, one you've heard a thousand times, even if you may be hearing it in a different light this morning. Receive Jesus Christ. That's what He's calling. Father, You are in our hearts. Help us to accept with humility Your truth. Help us to understand that You speak to us in truth and in righteousness. And that You've given us an opportunity that is so precious, more precious than anything we'll ever have on the face of this earth. Lord, if there are those here today who do not know You, and not claim You as Lord and Savior with assurance, help them to make that decision today. It's the decision that has to be made. Because Lord, we would not want to see anyone, You do not want to see anyone climb mountain after mountain to go to hell. You've placed all these obstacles in our way. This is yet another one. Help us not to say no. In Jesus' name, Amen. If the Lord has spoken to your heart, if you've felt the Spirit tugging at your heart, won't you make that public this morning? Won't you yield to the work of the Spirit today?