Only the souls who long after God will have any assurance of Salvation. Multitudes claim religion but the Lord Jesus is only a small part of their life. They know He is real and that He died for their sins but they have never experienced Him. If Jesus Christ ever steps into your life with resurrection power you will long and even “pant” for Him.“As the hart panted after the water brooks, so panted my soul after thee, O God.” (Psalms 42:1)To pant for Him is an extreme passion that consumes your life. He created us in His Image with a God shaped vacuum within the human spirit. When He is allowed to move into that sacred domain of your life you will never be the same.

Once He is Lord of all, and He will not be Lord of less, your passions are toward Him in every facet of life. You will literally fall in love with the Bible. The Book that was obscure in the past suddenly reads like a love story from the Divine. You could not understand it when you did not know Him. The moment He became real your Bible became real. You will no longer want some common language Bible, you will want a Bible that sounds like another world, because it really is from another world. Sermons that are tough and striking will be a joy and quickly become thrilling and sanctifying. These modern entertainers will be a joke to you.

Modern pastors have been trained to mesmerize you. They have created a mystic around themselves and the flock, especially the ladies, swoon to hear them and watch them perform. The whole mega-church world its last hour. It is blasphemy for men who claim to be from God to allow such worship of themselves and they will be consumed in the process of their folly. We have already viewed the shipwreck of many. Nothing has done greater damage to the church than these corporation style churches that offer thousands a religious hiding place and playground.

Sunday night church is almost gone because there is no passion to feed on the Word of God. A movie, television, or swapping tales with a friend is more enjoyable than fellowship from the Spirit world. A Sunday morning laugh-in has given them religion for the week. This level of Christianity is actually not even equal to the “lukewarm that He will spue out of His mouth.” At least that was called a church and this generation has rejected the very word “church.” Most churches have been remade into an entertainment center where they drink coffee and eat donuts while the laugh-in progresses.

The sanctified soul is repulsed by such cheapening of the lofty matters of our Great God. Where are the Saints that can quote the Twenty-third Psalm and experience wonderful Rapture just thrilling to such language. “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” (Psalms 23:1-6)

Such truth as this great revelation fills the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Our Lord was not any more real to the Old Testament Saints than He wants to be to you. Look at Isaiah’s great call for the saints to feast on the Holy Bible and the life of his Spirit. ” Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)

These Old Testament Saints lived in only the shadow of what we are privileged to enjoy. Apostle Paul made the Spiritual life that we can experience a beautiful life beyond measure. Millions of His Saints have walked with Him in His glory during church history. This generation has been the first generation since Pentecost to show the world so few real saints full of the Spirit. Listen to this mighty man of God: “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.” (11 Corinthians 3:6-10)

We are invited to sit together in Heavenly Places with our Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. Four times in the one book of Ephesians Paul spoke of sitting together in Heavenly Places. The Holy Ghost did not come to be an unknown presence in the midst of the church. The Tabernacle and the Temple of Soloman was filled with His Shekinah presence. Many times during church history His Saints have seen and experienced an even greater manifestation of His glory. It is going to happen again, but it cannot occur in dead churches where His glory is unwelcome. I am believing that we will see His Shekinah in our coming camp meeting. My soul longs for Him and for the fullness of His wonderful presence.

Joseph Chambers

jrc@pawcreek.org

Denying Eternal Hell is an affront to Calvary! (PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU CAN) Hell is a hot subject. In fact, it is one of the hottest subjects in the Bible and is used fifty-three times, not to mention its synonyms. David, by the Holy Ghost, said, “The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God.” (Psalm 9:17). He also said that the prostitute’s guests are in the depths of Hell. (Proverbs 9:18). It was Isaiah who proclaimed, “…Hell hath enlarged herself.” (Isaiah 5:14).The infallible Word of God has clearly revealed the mind and truth of the eternal God regarding the truth of Hell. To deny a literal eternal Hell of fire and brimstone is to blaspheme the Holy Bible. It also reduces the teachings of Jesus Christ to being riddled with error. It makes Him a fear monger to dare proclaim the story of the rich man that died and cried out of Hell. Such a story is extreme and misguided unless Jesus was indeed the spotless Lamb of God declaring the absolute truth.

Denying Hell is an Insult to Calvary! Our God so loved His beautiful world and His created family that had fallen into sin that He sent His only Begotten Son to be His sacrifice for their sins. Why would the Sovereign God of this universe offer His Son on a cruel cross if there was no eternal penalty for sin? Such thinking is insanity. The Son of God is eternal and has inhabited eternity forever. Yet, He stepped out of that realm to become the Son of Man. He is the “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8). He left eternity and descended into time and space for a short season. Hell had been created for the devil and his angels, but now God’s human family was in danger. Justice demanded that sinful men be given the same punishment as sinful angels. The Holy God is perfectly just and the penalty of sin had to be paid.

Man was created below the angels and the higher order. Since man was created on a human level and the angel Lucifer had wrought this terrible fall of men, God provided mankind a sacrifice. Calvary is God’s wonderful plan to save the human family from sin and Hell fire. To speak of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ on any other level is to insult, even blaspheme, the greatest love story of this universe. How could God create us in His own image if we are not eternal for good or bad

But, Calvary was not just a picture of love, although love was at its very heart. The angels do not fly around His throne declaring love, love, love; they declare holy, holy, holy. Calvary was certainly the ultimate picture of love, but what it really proved was holiness. God is holy and His Son hanging on a cruel cross is God’s greatest example of His holiness. His Son had to become sin for us. He, who knew no sin and existed in the divine without even the possibility of sin, had now taken sin upon His own soul as a human substitute. That substitute is now man’s escape from a burning Hell. Every soul that clings in faith to His shed blood is washed from sin and all its power to damn. You cannot deny Hell as long as you stand in the shadow of Calvary. The person that denies Hell fire has forgotten or never knew the heavenly joy of being washed from all their sins. The hope of Calvary demands the hopelessness of Hell to justify its cost to God and His Son.

Calvary was a living hell! Calvary was the closest thing to Hell any man had ever experienced without going there. The Son of God had an equivalent experience of being totally forsaken by God as a person cast into Hell experiences. That’s the meaning of His heartrending words,“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). For three hours He hung writhing on His cross with a total sense of separation from His Father. It’s impossible for us to understand or know the union with the Heavenly Father that the Son of God knew. They were one from eternity, inseparable, until the Father smote Him in death and let Him hang there as a sin sacrifice for three dark hours. It was Hell for the Son of Man to be so utterly forsaken. Maybe He will explain to us in eternity the price He paid for our salvation.

But, it doesn’t end there. While the Son of God was on the cross, He uttered “seven statements” that actually define the depth of His death. The first three reveal His undying love for humankind. The second two reveal the Hellish experience of His suffering and the last two reveal His glorious triumph. One of the two that reveals His horrible death experience is the quote regarding being forsaken. The other is more revealing than I ever before imagined. He uttered a breathtaking expression which appeared to arrest those individuals that were beneath His cross. These individuals were the ones that had nailed Him to the tree and were waiting to finish their dark deeds. It appeared that He suddenly proclaimed, “I thirst.” Those words have intrigued many readers and writers, but we have missed their utter significance. Jesus told of a rich man that went to Hell and begged for Father Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue. There is no question, but that the cry of Hell is, “Water, water, water.”Up and down the corridors of that horrible place, men are begging and screaming for water.

When the Son of Man was experiencing the throbs of His horrible excruciating death and was forsaken by His God of which He was One, He cried out, “I thirst.” Hell is indeed a real place, but it is more than just a place, it is a state of existence where all things beautiful and satisfying are lost. The Son of God so experienced the penalty of sin for us that He suffered the pains of being completely emptied of all that makes life bearable. He experienced the utter emptiness of a man lost and desperate for the most basic need of water. It was as though His cry, “I thirst,” was an echo of the rich man’s cry for “water.” He was on that cross for us that we might be “forever saved.” I believe His Words, “I thirst,” can be called, “Sounds from Hell.”

The Rich Man and Sounds Out of Hell! Jesus told this vivid story that was mentioned above of the rich man that died and went to Hell. Jesus gave him no name because his name had already rotted, but the poor beggar in the story was named Lazarus. Jesus said, “… the rich man also died, and was buried; And in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” (Luke 16:23-24). This story is above all an effort by the Son of God to give us a clear picture of eternal torments for the wicked. When, at the beginning of this article, I said,“Hell is a hot subject,”it was meanst to be literal. It is not imaginary or some unconcious state. Hell is full of misery and torments so breathtaking as to cause a constant chorus of miserable sounds. Nothing describes misery more than the sounds which misery creates.

Visit a hospital where desperate men and women are patients. Their appearance may be extremely sad and even depressing but their cries and screams can be utterly terrifying. There is no question but that the screams of suffering individuals are more overwhelming than other aspects of their pitiful state. The screams of Hell are enough to make this eternal destination of the wicked the most horrible place in God’s universe.

The rich man was in torments, and his cries and requests reveal just how real the place really was. Look at this list of words which Jesus stated that came from His lips. Jesus said, “He cried.”.” Abraham responded to him by saying,“Son, remember…” The rich man said, “I pray thee,” and then showed “compassion” towards his lost family. He was clearly a different man than the one that refused to even provide the crumbs from his table for the beggar. Hell had stripped him of his arrogance and rebellion. The sounds of his words make unprepared men with an honest conscious tremble. What our world needs is for the church and the praying saints to get a fresh vision of the horrors of Hell until we are terrified by these words from the lips of a damned man.

Joseph Chambers

jrc@pawcreek.org