Was Anyone Created for Hell?

PRAY OVER THIS

For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

Romans 9:17-18

 

PONDER THIS

God does not create people in order to damn them. God does not create people in order to destroy them. God is a God of love. Now, if you think that God wants some to go to Hell, consider this Scripture, 1 Timothy 2:4. It speaks of God, “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

But you can harden your heart. The Bible warns against people being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Quoting Psalm 95:7-8, Hebrews 3:15 says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” If you harden your heart against God, you will crystallize in your sin, and God’s judgment upon you will harden your heart even more. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart after Pharaoh first hardened his own heart against the Lord, and God destroyed Pharaoh. In the long suffering of God and the warnings God sent to Pharaoh, Pharaoh would not accept those warnings. And he was made an example of God’s wrath. Remember this: God is going to get glory with those in Heaven, and God is going to get glory by judgment in those who go to Hell.

How might you discern if you have hardened your heart against God?

Is this hardening always total or can it happen in various aspects of our lives?

PRACTICE THIS

Read through Romans 9 today, asking God to open your eyes to see anywhere you might have hardened your heart against Him. Ask Him to help you repent and draw near to Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Sin, Satan, Sickness, or Sabotage

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:8–9)

Is the suffering that comes to the Christian because of persecution the same as the suffering that comes from cancer? Do the promises given to one apply to the other? My answer is yes. All of life, if it is lived earnestly by faith in the pursuit of God’s glory and the salvation of others, will meet with some kind of obstacle and suffering. The suffering that comes to the obedient Christian is part of the price of living where you are in obedience to the call of God.

In choosing to follow Christ in the way he directs, we choose all that this path includes under his sovereign providence. Thus, all suffering that comes in the path of obedience is suffering with Christ and for Christ — whether it is cancer at home or persecution far away.

And it is “chosen” — that is, we willingly take the path of obedience where the suffering befalls us, and we do not murmur against God. We may pray — as Paul did — that the suffering be removed (2 Corinthians 12:8); but if God wills, we embrace it as part of the cost of discipleship in the path of obedience on the way to heaven.

All experiences of suffering in the path of Christian obedience, whether from persecution or sickness or accident, have this in common: They all threaten our faith in the goodness of God, and tempt us to leave the path of obedience.

Therefore, every triumph of faith, and all perseverance in obedience, are testimonies to the goodness of God and the preciousness of Christ — whether the enemy is sickness, Satan, sin, or sabotage. Therefore, all suffering, of every kind, that we endure in the path of our Christian calling is a suffering “with Christ” and “for Christ.”

With him in the sense that the suffering comes to us as we are walking with him by faith, and in the sense that it is endured in the strength he supplies through his sympathizing high-priestly ministry to us (Hebrews 4:15).

And for him in the sense that the suffering tests and proves our allegiance to his goodness and power, and in the sense that it reveals his worth as an all-sufficient compensation and prize.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Psalm 92:15

    [15] to declare that the LORD is upright;

        he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Job 34:10-12

    [10] “Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding:

        far be it from God that he should do wickedness,

        and from the Almighty that he should do wrong. 

    [11] For according to the work of a man he will repay him,

        and according to his ways he will make it befall him. 

    [12] Of a truth, God will not do wickedly,

        and the Almighty will not pervert justice.

Job 8:3

    [3] Does God pervert justice?

        Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

Romans 9:14-16

[14] What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! [15] For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” [16] So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

Does God Hate Anyone?

PRAY OVER THIS

As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” Romans 9:13

 

PONDER THIS

In Luke 14:26, Jesus was talking about those who would follow Him, and He said this, “‘If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.’” Do you think that Jesus was teaching us to despise our fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters? Do you think that Jesus was telling us to despise our little children in order to be His disciples? No! Listen. I love my wife more than I could ever love her naturally because I love Jesus. I love my wife with a love I could not love her with if I did not love Jesus. The word hate, as it is used in the Bible, simply means preference. God had a preference—a sovereign choice—for this man Jacob, and He did not have a preference for Esau.

How does today’s devotion help you understand this difficult-to-understand verse?

How does the image of a husband’s love for his wife compared with his love for others help you understand God’s preference toward His people?

PRACTICE THIS

Take time today to reflect on the truth that God has a sovereign preference and affection for you, greater than even a husband or wife has for a spouse.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Radical Recompense

“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29–30)

What Jesus means here is that he himself makes up for every sacrifice.

If you give up a mother’s nearby affection and concern, you get back one hundred times the affection and concern from the ever-present Christ.

If you give up the warm comradeship of a brother, you get back one hundred times the warmth and comradeship of Christ.

If you give up the sense of at-homeness you had in your house, you get back one hundred times the comfort and security of knowing that your Lord owns every house.

To prospective missionaries, Jesus says, “I promise to work for you, and be for you, so much that you will not be able to speak of having sacrificed anything.”

What was Jesus’s attitude to Peter’s “sacrificial” spirit? Peter said, “We have left everything and followed you” (Mark 10:28). Is this the spirit of “self-denial” commended by Jesus? No, it is rebuked.

Jesus said to Peter, “No one ever sacrifices anything for me that I do not pay back a hundredfold — yes, in one sense even in this life, not to mention eternal life in the age to come.”

John Piper 

Bible Study

2 Corinthians 12:10

[10] For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Thessalonians 1:4

[4] Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

John 15:20

[20] Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Ephesians 1:21-23

[21] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. [22] And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, [23] which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

What Won’t God Give Us?

PRAY OVER THIS

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Romans 8:32

 

PONDER THIS

If you were to say to me, “Adrian, can I have your son? I want to take your firstborn, Steve,” I would likely ask, “What do you want to do with Steve?” If you replied, “Well, I want to lie about him, beat him, abuse him, strip him naked and nail him to a cross,” I would quickly say, “No! You can’t have my son.”

But suppose I loved you enough for whatever reason I said, “Yes, you can have my son.” And then you said, “And can I have his basketball and his bicycle and his blue jeans?” I’d say, “Are you kidding? If I’d give you my son, do you think I’d withhold the basketball, the bicycle, and the blue jeans?” Friend, “He who spared not His own Son, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?” If God gave the first gift, the best gift, everything else comes with Jesus. There is no deprivation in the gift of Christ.

When do you have trouble believing God will give you good things?

How does the reminder that He has willingly given His Son for your sake change your perspective?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of truly good things you desire and need from God. Take time to meditate on the truth that He has given you His Son and will not withhold any good thing you truly need.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers