Heaven - or Hell?

I had an interesting conversation at Liberty Community Church this morning, prior to the Communion Service.  One of the members had been asked to conduct a funeral service during the week, and I had inquired as to how he had coped.  He explained that, with the exception of one lady in the group of mourners who had gathered at the local crematorium, he was unaware of anyone who has a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.  However, he was able to use the opportunity to present the Gospel message - not just that Christ died for our sins in order that we might have the opportunity to gain eternal life; but that to reject the salvation that was won for us at Calvary, is to assure us of an eternity separated from God, aware of our mistake, and unable to do anything about it!

It is true that the church, at least in the so-called developed world (in which we have developed increasingly sophisticated methods of destroying our fellow-man; in which rights are considered to be of more importance than responsibilities; in which materialism and consumerism appear to be the religions of the majority; etc) seems, in the main, to have forgotten about that particular side of the coin.  It is also true that Jesus spoke more about hell than He did about heaven!

The Gospel message is not being presented in all of its fullness if we fail to warn people of the consequences of their rejection, or even neglect, of the salvation that was purchased at the cost of the very blood of the Lord Jesus.  Some weeks ago, I was preaching before one particular fellowship on the question that even the Omniscient (all-knowing) God is unable to answer.  It's found in Hebrews 2:3 and it asks, simply, "... how shall we escape, if we neglect such a great salvation?"  The answer is that there is, in fact, no escape!  By the way, a recording of that whole message may be found at www.revcbross.blogspot.com under the heading The Unanswerable Question.

Many years ago, there was an open-air preacher who kept telling people to "Turn, or burn" - a reference to the choice of turning one's life over to the control of Jesus; or burning in hell.  It's a message that, today, would probably be considered not to be 'politically correct'.  However, it's the Gospel message that we ignore at our peril!