Here we are in the world with good news. However, there is an element of the good news that is very, very bad news. In fact, the good news is predicated on an understanding of the bad news. The news about salvation is only good if one understands the bad news about what happens to those who don’t possess that salvation. In fact, part of our proclamation of the gospel is to tell people the worst news they’ve ever heard, the worst news there is, that God has created a hell, a place of eternal punishment for those who reject Him. And those who do not repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will spend forever punished in that place called hell. That is the bad news that is foundational to the good news being good news. True evangelism then, an accurate presentation of the gospel, must include the strongest negative reality as part of the motivation of the sinner, not just the attractiveness of heaven, not just the attractiveness of the love of God, but the fear of hell and the dread of the wrath of God. All faithful endeavors in giving the good news must clearly convey the bad news. It is not just the promise of heaven; it is the threat of hell.
This emphasis, which is very clear in the Bible, is being eliminated from most of contemporary, evangelical witness as we know it in our experience today. People don’t want to talk about hell. They don’t want to talk about judgment. They don’t want to give warnings to those who reject the gospel. In fact, they even begin to think that God is so loving He just wouldn’t really send anyone to hell. But that is not what the Scripture teaches. In fact, the Bible begins and ends with warning. You’re not very far into the account of creation in the book of Genesis until you hear God say, “But for the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it, you shall die.” And in that God promised both spiritual death, physical death, and the potential of eternal death. ~ John MacArthur
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” ~ Luke 10:13-16
People that live in the United States better listen to this.
Read / Listen
Deuteronomy 23:1-25:19
Luke 10:13-37
Psalm 75:1-10
Proverbs 12:12-14
New Testament
Luke 10:13-37
Summary
Woe to Unrepentant Cities
The Return of the Seventy-Two
Jesus Rejoices in the Father’s Will
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
Luke 10:16 KJV
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
The Good Samaritan Video – Click the picture to watch the Video
Overview: Luke 10-24 Click Here to Watch Video
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