They Call Christ a Liar, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Ephesians 5:8-14

5:8 For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light -
5:9 for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
5:10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.
5:11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
5:12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly;
5:13 but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
5:14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

There is a darkness, a heresy, reappearing and spreading once more, as it has down through the ages since Jesus Christ walked the earth. It just keeps popping up like the Whack-a-Mole game at the county fair, only under a different name each time. As soon as the truth of the gospel smacks it down under one name, it reappears somewhere else under a new name, in a new cause or a new book, with a new author using it to make his or her name, using it to make more money. And those who would keep up with the "latest thing", they lap it up and spread it around like some new dessert.
It is currently known as universalism, and what it claims is that we are all going to heaven. There is no hell, so no one is going there. No need for belief, for faith, for repentance, for redemption. Christ died for all, so all get in, regardless of their character or how heinous might be their sins against mankind, against God.
The argument is that God is love, and He would not condemn anyone to a hell such as described in the Bible. He is a God of love, and he is also a God of justice and holiness. But of course, those who have sincerely studied the Bible, and who have an actual relationship with Jesus Christ already know that God does not condemn them, they condemn themselves by their disobedience. For God opened the gate for them 2,000 years ago and, having given mankind free will, their eternal destiny is of their choosing, not God's. We have that privilege, but we do not have the privilege of disobedience.
Matthew 14:2,3 shows that man was created for heaven. He was not created to spend an eternity away from the God who created him. But we can choose that.
Both Matthew 25:41 and Revelations 20:10 point out that God created hell not for mankind, but for Satan and his rebellious angels. Mankind has no business there, unless we defy God, which then puts us in league with Satan.
If you claim to believe and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, then it would make sense to believe and preach what that gospel says. And in that gospel Jesus speaks of hell as a reality. He also says He was there, following His death, burial and resurrection. So, anyone who says there is no hell has just called the Son of God, our Savior, a liar. But if He is a liar, and hell does not exist, how can He be the Son of God and our Savior, and of what worth is the gospel?
Once again we hear the echo of the serpent from the Garden of Eden. "Did God really say that? Surely God didn't really mean that." Why are we still listening to the serpent, knowing he is the father of lies?
1st Peter 3:19-20 says that Jesus was there, preaching to the "spirits in prison." Scholars have twisted that verse every which way to say that Jesus didn't really descend into hell, but that's what the inspired word of God says. And there is that whispering voice again, "Did God really say that? Surely God didn't really mean that."
We find that down through the ages, even to today, the idea of "universalism," is mainly an intellectual idea, a belief relying on feelings, emotions and opinions. In other words, God is going to take us all to heaven, so why worry about it?
If those who hold to the idea of universalism turned it into functional universalism, we would all be confronting those who do not believe in Christ and spend the rest of our lives drawing them to the love of Jesus Christ.
However, intellectual universalism is so much easier to live with, and requires nothing on our part. We need not trust Him that He was telling the truth about hell or repentance, so I'm not sure how we could trust Him for anything else. We don't need to be His disciple or follow in His footsteps, or take on His character as the Son of God, so we'll just get on with our lives and we'll see Him in heaven.
But the Gospel does not rely on our opinions, our reasoning, our imagination, or our feelings. The Gospel is based upon the inspired Word of God Almighty. And He says there is a hell, that there is sin, and there is a need for redemption.
In the mid-1900's, that great Christian A. W. Tozer wrote, "I have a feeling that a notable heresy has come into being throughout evangelical circles -- the widely-accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need him as Savior and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to him as Lord as long as we want to!"
It wasn't for nothing that Paul urged Timothy in his second letter, 2nd Timothy 2:15, that he should study to show himself approved before God, a workman who need not be ashamed, "rightly dividing the word of truth."
If you know what the word of God says, and are guided by a relationship with Jesus Christ, you will recognize false doctrines and false Gospels as soon as they appear. Stick to what is "good and right and true."
But this is nothing new, friends. Paul, in writing to the Galatian church, in Galatians 1:8, warned them, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" So even as they call our precious Christ a liar, they have dangerously condemned themselves for all eternity, those who believe and preach this lie.
Listen closely and you will hear it, that echo from Eden, "Did God really say that? Surely God didn't really mean that."
Yes, God did say that, and yes, He really means it. Don't be led astray by those who would set themselves above Christ to preach what is not in the inspired Word of God. There's no future in it.
Amen.