Sunday Evening March 10, 2002 Pleasant Green Baptist Church, Hobbs NM
WHAT’S IT GOING TO BE?
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Introduction:
1. Life is full of decisions. Each day we make decisions, some important and others not so important.
2. At times we allow all of the little decisions to “stack up” and lose focus on those things that really matter.
3. This illustration may sound familiar.
Illustration:
Let me set the scene for you. You and your spouse decide that you are going to “go out” to eat. As you are driving down the street you say, “Sweetheart, where would you like to eat?” and she says, “I don’t care, you pick”. He says, “No, I picked last time, you choose”. She says, “I don’t care, just pick somewhere.” He says, “Fine, let’s go to “so and so restaurant”. She says, “I hate that place”. So as you are “peeling out” of the parking lot you say, “Well then where do you want to go?” and she says, “I don’t care”.
Choices
Description
1. When I am making decisions (especially when money is involved), I want to “weigh out” my options. I want to know what my choices are and what the consequences are to my decision.
2. With every decision comes consequences- some good and some bad. For example: Making the choice to rob a bank will result in negative consequences while working hard at your job to earn that money will result in positive consequences.
3. While some decisions like not robbing a bank are simple, other decisions like which college to attend or should you get married are not as easy.
Deuteronomy 30:11-15
1. As we look in our text we find Moses at the end of his life. He is giving final instructions to the people that he had led around in the desert for many years. Here we find a man that had made many decisions, some good and some bad. Moses is sharing with these people the things that are important. There was no time for “small talk”. At this point, Moses had figured out what really matters.
2. In verses 11-14 Moses tells them that the choices they are going to be given are not difficult to understand and are easy to obtain.
Read Deuteronomy 30:11-14.
3. In verse 15, Moses gives them their two choices: Life and prosperity or death and destruction. Each one of us this evening is also given these two choices. These choices are spiritual choices that will last forever.
Choosing
Description
1. Moses proceeds to tell them what is involved in each choice and what the outcome of each is.
Deuteronomy 30:16-18
1. Choice #1: Life
Requirements:
1. Love the LORD your God.
2. Walk in His ways.
3. Keep His commands, decrees, and laws.
2. Choice #2: Death
Requirements:
1. Hearts that turn away.
2. Not obedient.
3. Worship other gods.
3. Notice that there are only two choices and both choices are simply based upon whether or not you have a relationship with God.
Chose
Decision Time
1. Moses has now given the people their two choices and explained what each choice involved and each choice’s ending. Now it would seem impossible to me that any of those people would not choose life, but unfortunately I am sure some did not.
2. Why do I know that? Because people die everyday in our world having not chosen God.
3. Just as Moses said, “This is not hard to figure out”. Let me tell you right now how this works: Jesus as Savior=Life and Jesus Not as Savior=Death.
4. Tonight I give you two choices: Choose life through Jesus Christ or choose death. Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”(John 14:6). Jesus also said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”(John 10:10).
Descriptions
The Bible gives us information about the outcome of these decisions.
1. Eternal life in Heaven:
Revelation 21:3-4
1. The best part of Heaven is being with God forever.
2. No tears.
3. No death.
4. No pain.
5. We will spend all eternity worshipping God.
2. Eternal death in Hell:
1. In Revelation 20:11-15 we are told that following the tribulation, all the unsaved dead will be resurrected from Hades to appear before the great white judgment throne. They will then be cast into Gehenna hell forever.
2. Gehenna is a New Testament word with an Old Testament background.
a. In the Old Testament, a wicked Israelite king named Ahaz forsook the worship of Jehovah and followed the devil-god Molech. In trying to please Molech, Ahaz actually sacrificed his own children in the fires as burn offerings.
b. This all took place in a deep and narrow valley called the Valley of Hinnom.
c. In Jesus’ day, this was the location of the city garbage dump.
d. In A.D. 70, the fighting between Jews and Romans ended here with as many as 600,000 bodies of dead Jews.
3. If you put all of this together, what you have is a place of filth and sorrow, of smoke and pain, of fire and death. This is the word the Holy Spirit chose in describing the final destiny for the unsaved.
4. What will Gehenna really be like?
a. Hell is a place of unquenchable fire.
b. Hell is a place of memory and remorse.
c. Hell is a place of thirst.
d. Hell is a place of misery and pain.
e. Hell is a place of frustration and anger.
f. Hell is a place of separation.
g. Hell is a place of undiluted divine wrath.
h. Hell is a place originally prepared for Satan and his hosts.
i. Hell is a place created for all eternity.
5. Who will be someday confined to Gehenna forever?
a. Satan.
b. The antichrist.
c. The false prophet.
d. Fallen angels.
e. Judas Iscariot.
f. All unsaved people.
Conclusion:
1. Look at the occupants of hell. As bad as Satan, the antichrist, the false prophet, the fallen angels, and Judas Iscariot all were and are; the unsaved people will too suffer in hell for all of eternity.
2. You say, “That’s not fair.” Yet it is. Actually if God was giving us what we deserved, we would all go to hell.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20
3. What’s it going to be for you tonight? I plead with you if you do not know Jesus as your Savior that tonight you will choose life.
