"The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
to bring to dishonor the pride of all glory,
to bring into contempt
all the honorable of the earth."
Isaiah 23:9
This will happen to every proud and glorious man on earth when he leaves his lavish lifestyle and stands before his Creator empty-handed. He who enjoyed such honor will be brought into contempt. What a shock he has coming!
There is a passage in the Scriptures that says that all in hell await the mighty men of the earth coming into the place of damnation.
“Hell from beneath is excited about you,
to meet you at your coming;
it stirs up the dead for you,
all the chief ones of the earth;"
Isaiah 14:9
The great men of the earth lived in luxury, they were drunk and deceived by pride, they lived unrestrained from evil, their names appeared on the news media daily. The great men of the earth love the fame, they rejoice in the glory. Many of them actually think they are invincible. But they don't consider their end ...the grave is the great equalizer.
It's the same for all. The poor and afflicted go to the grave, as well as the rich and famous. There is no honor given them when the famous stand before their Creator, the one they scoffed at or ignored. They will descend in shame.
vs 10-11:
"They all shall speak and say to you,
‘Have you also become as weak as we?
Have you become like us?
Your pomp is brought down to Sheol…'"
Jesus said, "What will it profit a man
if he gains the whole world
and loses his soul? (Mark 8:36)
Think on this while you still have time. You don't know if you'll be alive tomorrow, many will die unexpectedly before the dawn of the next day. They will stand before their Maker, and many will discover the foolishness of the priorities they clung to in their walk on earth. But it will be too late.
What can be worse than finding oneself in hell? What can be worse than the shock and the regret?
Some say there is no hell, but they make Jesus a liar, because Jesus had a lot to say about the place called hell. It's in his Word. In many passages. He actually speaks more of hell than he does of heaven. Why? Because the “many” go that way. (Matthew 7:13-14)
As people age, they begin to realize how short this lifetime is. Some will come to understand that the wisest thing they can do with their short sojourn is to obey the command Jesus gave:
"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added to you."
Matthew 6:33
Does this mean that you quit your job and go hand out religious tracts? No, of course not - that is, not unless the Lord so directs you.
No, what it means is it demands a shift in your focus. We need to work, to do whatever we do to support ourselves and our families. The apostle Paul was a tent maker. The difference is in the attitude. The attitude in the world is to become someone great, to make a name for oneself, to rise to the top, to gain wealth. Not so the believer in Jesus Christ.
The believer's HEART is focused on his Lord and on whatever his Lord will direct him to do. The right attitude is to do what one has to do but to always be ready for the Lord to interrupt and send him on a mission, even if it's just to speak to someone, to bless someone, even to silently pray for someone when the Lord has pointed that person out to him.
It's the attitude of the heart, the willingness to surrender at all times from a heart that has been deeply touched by the love of God. Some of these people will never be known among men, but on arriving in heaven they will find that indeed the last becomes first. The most glorious words a person can hear upon leaving this world are:
"Well done, good and faithful servant;
you have been faithful over a few things,
I will make you ruler over many things,
enter into the joy of your Lord."
Matthew 25:23
Louie Giglio Speaks On The Subject Of Hell:
"For the message of the Cross is foolishness
to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved
it is the power of God."
1st Corinthians 1:18
One of the great frustrations of the believer is witnessing the attitudes of unbelievers and their reaction to the message of the Gospel.
When one is born again his whole nature changes under the living power of the Holy Spirit within. The Cross becomes the welcome focus of life, and the power of its salvation the driving force in all we do. We've witnessed it. We've experienced it. And we so appreciate it that we want to persuade all to come and experience it too. But when we try to bring to them what is so clear to us, their reactions are shocking to us. Our message is foolishness to them.
The born again person is like one who has discovered penicillin and rushes to bring it to someone with a bacterial infection, only to have that person think penicillin is powerless. The one holding the vial of penicillin is astonished at the unbelief, but is totally unable to persuade someone whose mind is made up.
Part of the cost of following Christ is the pain of rejection by "the world." A salesman once said that he must be willing to take a hundred rejections to get the one who will buy from him. And so it is with the born-again believer. He must learn to expect a hundred rejections in order to reach the one who will receive the message of salvation and its power to transform his/her life.
When the rich young ruler asked Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life, Jesus replied that he must go and sell all his possessions and give them to the poor, and then come follow him. The Lord doesn't ask this of all wanting to follow him, this was his answer to this one man because the man's riches were his security, his sole focus. The terrible part of this story is that when the rich man turned and walked away, Jesus did not run after him to explain further and try to convince him of the wonders and eternal benefits of following him, no - without a word, HE LET HIM GO. Jesus knew that when one rejects his message, it's no use to beg them to receive it.
Let this mind be in each one who is born again: the Lord will use you to reach many, but you must be totally prepared to receive rejection; and when that happens, you must be prepared to just let them go. On the other hand though, your message will bring life to many who are floundering, who have no hope in the world, and who will eagerly accept the lifeline you throw out to them.
Read the picture of this in the parable of the sower Mark 4:14-10. The sower sows the Word of God. There are four kinds of people representing the various responses to the Word.
1. Those who recognize it as the truth but are easily swayed and can be
deceived by Satan who comes to destroy the Word as soon as it's planted.
2. Those who do receive the Word, but when trouble comes it overwhelms
them and they turn away.
3. Those who do hear the word but the cares of their world, their busyness, and their desires for more and more things choke out the Word.
4. Those who hear the Word and receive it and stay with it no matter what,
going on to let that seed grow and prosper them.
Notice that only the few benefit. Keep that in mind and do all you can for the sake of the one perhaps in a hundred - who will receive it. That one - is worth it all.
"Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth... He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam' which is translated, "Sent." So he went and washed, and came back seeing.'" John 9:1, 6, 7 Sometimes the Lord just sovereignly heals a person or sets him free. But perhaps more often, he first requires an act of obedience. In this case, Jesus told the blind man to go to a specific place and wash. When the man did so, he who had been born blind could now see. As you seek God for solutions to the problems you face, be very attentive to whatever he tells you to do. Many times he requires obedience first, and only on your completion of the directive he gives - will the solution come. Be especially aware that oftentimes what he tells you to do will be something out of the ordinary. He told the blind man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Had the man gone instead to wash in the Jordan river, his sight would not have been restored. This shows us clearly that we must do exactly as the Lord directs. God raised up a man named Saul to be king in Israel. The Lord told Saul to go and destroy a very wicked tribe of giants called the Amalekites, who were haters of Israel. Well ...Saul did go and he destroyed most of this wicked tribe, but he spared Agag the king and furthermore, he took plunder from them. When the prophet Samuel confronted Saul for this act of disobedience, Saul first declared that he had completed what the Lord told him to do. But Samuel said, "No you haven't. You left Agag the king alive." And for that act of disobedience, Saul lost his position as king over Israel. He entirely forfeited his position because although he did "MOST" of what God told him to do, nevertheless he disobeyed by taking Agag alive. In the story of Jericho, the Lord told the Jews to march around the city and repeat this once for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day with the priests blowing trumpets. Can you imagine Joshua the military leader telling his soldiers something like this? March around the city? Blow trumpets? Imagine them scratching their heads wondering if this man was crazy or what. You wouldn't think this is the military way to take a city, would you! But God oftentimes directs something totally unusual, leaving us wondering if that was really God. One must ask God for confirmation, and when it IS God, he will confirm it to you, but then it is vitally important to do exactly as the Lord directs in faith that as we obey, God will act. Obedience releases the power of God. Another example of this is in the story of Naaman, in 2nd Kings chapter 5. Naaman was the military commander under the king of Syria. He was a mighty warrior, but he came down with leprosy. The king knew there was a prophet in Israel and he sent Naaman to the prophet Elisha, who told him to go wash in the River Jordan seven times. But Naaman was furious. He thought that was ridiculous. He refused to go because in his mind he could have gone to any other river, why this particular one? “'Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?' So he turned and went away in a rage.” 2nd Kings 5:12 In his pride and unbelief he went off in a rage. But his servant reasoned with him saying that if the prophet had asked him to do some great thing, wouldn't he do it? So why not just do what he said? What have you got to lose? And so ...Naaman went, feeling foolish, and washed in the Jordan seven times ...and came up clean. The point is that only by obeying to the letter the direction of Elisha was he made clean. The result was that now all involved knew that the God of Israel is truly God. Seek the Lord in your need. If he leads you to do something unusual, just do it. The most important thing to the Lord is obedience. Anyone who thinks he won't lower himself to do something deemed ridiculous …will simply lose out. Follow the Lord with all of your heart and you will see miracles.
Listen to pastor Jimmy Evans as he addresses this very thing. This is one of my favorite messages of all time.