Hebrews tells us that faith is our conviction concerning what we hope for. What do you hope for? What do I hope for? What does the sinner hope for? The Bible says that God opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. We need to be careful what we are hoping for.

Do we really want the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God or do we want to keep on in our worldly, lustful, self-willed way and yet suffer no pain?

We really should be seeking righteous behavior. If we live in wickedness, Christian or not, we will be removed from the Kingdom when the Lord comes if not before.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:47-50)

The key to understanding the above passage is that it is referring to people brought in by the Kingdom net. At the end of the age the wicked will be removed from among the righteous and cast into the furnace of fire. This passage alone shows that the lawless-grace-rapture teaching is misleading.

Do you have Hell in your heart? If you do, Jesus is able to forgive you and remove the Hell from your personality. But don't think for one moment that Jesus is going to leave you in this condition. He wants you to obey His commandments and those of His Apostles so He can begin to make you a new creation of righteous behavior.

The question will arise, "What about the thief on the cross."

The thief on the cross was saved by the meekness, the humility of his attitude and speech, not by anything resembling the "four steps of salvation." In fact, whenever Jesus spoke of Hell or the Kingdom of God it always was in terms of behavior, never in terms of a theological stance apart from behavior.

The prostitutes will enter the Kingdom ahead of religious people because the prostitutes, realizing the shamefulness of their condition, will come to Jesus with a childlike heart asking His forgiveness. The Lord loves this kind of attitude and always will accept it.

In our prison ministry we find that the inmates are quick to understand the Kingdom teaching of righteous behavior. This is because they realize they have acted badly and desire to be reinstated in God's favor.

The rich man is not in Hell because he rejected Christ but because of his selfishness. The division always is between the righteous and the wicked, never between those who have made a mental assent to belief in Christ and those who have not.

God is looking for people of integrity who will recognize their own wickedness and come to God because in their heart they love God. It is not a case of a truly wicked person trying to escape punishment (God knows how to catch the wise in their craftiness) nor of a nominal church member who is trusting to be carried up in his carnality and self-will in a "rapture."

So it's back to the Bible, that is, back to godly living. And the sooner God delivers us from the "state of grace," "dispensation of grace," delusion the better.

To be continued.