“Hell is No Joke”
Luke 16:19-31
INTRO: 1. Hell is a difficult topic to preach on. Like you, I take no pleasure considering that place called “Hell.” For that very reason I must tell you that Hell is real today and Hell is no joke!
a. Bible refers to hell 162 times – just that important.
b. Many have said concerning the idea of Hell:
“Hell is a wild nightmare of a disordered brain.”
“It is an antiquated, disapproved theory belonging to the age of superstition.”
“Hell is inconsistent with the nature of God.”
2. Recent ABC News poll says that 70% of Americans believe in heaven, but only 56% believe in Hell.
a. We can’t believe in a Heaven if we can’t believe in Hell.
b. You don’t have to believe it to go there.
c. Rich man was surprised to discover that Hell was no Joke.
3. Even among professing Christians, many doubt the reality of Hell.
a. ILL. Survey determined that
35% of Baptist,
54% Presbyterians,
58% Methodists,
and 60% Episcopalians don’t believe in a literal Hell.
71% of the nations leading seminaries in U.S. don’t believe in heaven or hell.
4. Today, in our world Hell has been reduced to a laughing matter. Jokes. Comic strips
ILL. In Gatlinburg, Tenn. they assembled a replica of hell and called it “A Journey through Hell” But it was so horrible and graphic that many people complained and petitioned to have it shut down. The Hell is Gatlinburg is shut down, but the real Hell has never gone out of business.
5. Those of us who believe in a literal hell is dubbed “old-fashioned, out-of touch, Hell-fire & Brimstone preachers.”
a. Not concerned with what they have to say – Jesus already gave us the final word on the matter – Hell is a Real Place of Real Torment.
b. A Real Place with Real People.
c. Sadly, Many that you have known and worked with are there.
d. Not a parable, Jesus uses names – this event really happened.
6. Jesus used a common example with the children of Israel of what Hell was like.
a. “Gehenna” place outside the city gate of Jerusalem where in their idolatry they gave their children up to the fire god Molech.
b. Drums & the shouts of the people drowned out terrifying screams of the children.
c. Since Josiah it had become a dump where human waste, corpses of animals and the poor were thrown, Brimstone kept the fire burning.
d. The stench and the smoke was unbearable. The worms and the maggots where everywhere.
e. A place of crying and screaming, continual fire, stench, uncleanliness, brimstone and worms.
7. Message of hell is not for lost sinners alone.
ILL. Dr R.G. Lee, one of America’s greatest preachers said he’d like to send the entire membership of his baptist church to hell for about an hour. He said they’d come back with their hearts fired up about winning the lost around them.
I. A PLACE OF TORMENT BECAUSE OF WHAT’S NOT THERE.
a. The torment of hell is not just found in the horrible things that await you there, but also the things that you’ll never find there.
A. NO LIGHT
1. Darkness so thick it covers you like a blanket.
2. Peter called them the “chains of darkness.”
3. Jesus called it “outer darkness.”
4. Where the sun never rises, where light is merely a memory.
5. Even most of the blind among us can sense light – we where not designed for such darkness.
6. ILL. I enjoy touring the caverns in the mountains. On almost every tour they turn off the lights for a moment and the darkness closes in around you. They say that if left in that darkness for an extended period of time one would lose their mind.
7. Oh, the terror of continual darkness.
8. ILL. Years ago there once was a young boy who had a terminal disease and knew that he would soon die. This young man was terrified of the dark and the thought of being buried in a box with no light, so he made his father promise to design his grave so there would be a window, so he could always have light. The heartbroken father agreed and kept his promise.
9. No window will supply light, if you die without Christ.
B. NO CHRISTIAN LOVED ONES
1. That godly mother or grandmother, that pastor or christian friend won’t be there.
2. Never know the unconditional love of God’s people again.
3. No one will love you in hell!
4. No comfort in the presence of others, who gnash their teeth on you.
5. If your loved ones are in hell their cry is the same as the rich man, “Somebody tell them about Jesus! Don’t let them come here.”
6. People in hospital and jails want visitors those in Hell do not.
7. Rich man didn’t ask for company in this terrible place.
8. No friendships in hell – every goodness of heart or character will soon wear away.
C. NO GOD OF GRACE
1. First thing the rich man did is the first thing every man or woman does when they get their – Pray.
2. Don’t wait for Hell to cry out to God.
3. Pray constantly, yet never receive an answer.
4. In my opinion, the worst of torments of Hell is separation from God.
2 Thess. 1:8,9 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
5. Never feel his touch again.
6. Never know his convicting power.
7. No mercy, nor forgiveness – only hear the cries of the millions around you.
8. Not only will God leave you there – he’ll forget you there.
9. Cause the child of God to forget you.
10. Your memory will not exist in heaven. You will not be missed.
D. NO RELIEF
1. “Torments” are plural – multiplied points of torture.
2. Hell is completely devoid of any joy whatsoever.
3. No laughter, no parties, no thrills – no moment of emotional rest.
4. Jesus encourages us in Mark 9: 43 that it is better to live maimed here than to go there.
5. Not even a moment of silence to collect your thoughts.
6. Forever conscience of the nightmarish things happening around them.
7. No pain killers – “wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
8. David often spoke of the “sorrows of hell.”
9. Nothing to numb the pain, to lesson the depression.
E. NO SATISFACTION
1. The rich man cried that his swollen tongue could receive just one drop of water – no satisfaction.
2. Hunger and thirst will continue but to no end.
3. Eyes heavy for sleep, but no sleep will come.
4. Drug addict will cry for his needle and the alcoholic for his bottle.
Rev. 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
5. Everything you’re going to have to give up to go to heaven, you’ll give up to go to Hell.
F. NO END
1. Cultist concocted a plan that would suggest that Hell is just temporary, or that we’ll be annihilated by the flames.
2. God has not sent you there to purge you, or rehabilitate you – hell is for eternal punishment.
3. The Rich Man is still there this morning.
4. Many in this life end the misery of life by taking their life, but there is no end to misery in Hell.
5. No hope left for you to hold to.
6. ILL. Dante: In his graphic poem called “Dante’s Inferno” imagined that over the door of Hell is inscribed: “Ye who enter here leave all hope behind.”
7. Of all the questions asked he never asked “When will this end?”
8. Never asked “When will I get out?”
9. ILL. As I visit many in the hospital struggling with unbearable pain, they hold to the hope that this will soon end – not so in hell.
10. Hell is God’s penitentiary for the wicked – sin carries with it an eternal sentence.
II. A PLACE OF TORMENT BECAUSE OF WHAT IS THERE.
a. Language can hardly describe the levels of torment that awaits the lost soul.
b. Hell was a place God made when he was angry – in his wrath.
c. Designed to be a place of ultimate punishment for the devil and his angels.
d. You don’t belong there, never designed for you!
A. UNQUENCHABLE FIRE
1. Real fire that continually burns us.
2. Fire produces the greatest possible pain known to mankind.
3. John Wesley: “Put your finger in the candle. Can you bear it for one minute. How then will you bear having your whole body plunged into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.”
4. It is unquenchable in that it is unstoppable.
5. It is unquenchable in that is is unbearable.
B. UNDYING WORMS
1. Worms consuming you like a corpse, yet you feel them.
2. Many can’t stand a bug crawling across us, but there the crawling never stops.
C. WORST COMPANY IS THERE
1. Yet the bible says that Hell is never full – no matter how many go it is never satisfied.
2. There’s room for you in Hell – but there’s also room for you in heaven.
3. I feel insecure in the wrong crowd – in a part of Columbia the other day and told Michele I was ready to go.
4. If you go to hell, you’ll share it with the rapist, the murder, the serial killer, the perverse, history’s sickest characters – no prison is equal to the prison called Hell.
5. ILL. Many years ago a Methodist preacher was called upon to visit a dying girl who lived in the worst section of the red-light district. At first he was hesitant to go, but realized that this young girl needed Christ. He asked a older deacon from his church to go with him, this deacon’s daughter played the organ in the church. As they walked among the boardwalk prostitutes stood half dressed while drunks staggered in the streets. They finally reached the house, a filthy hovel and met this girl so weak she couldn’t lift her head. After hearing he story of shame they led her to Christ and watched the joy of the Lord fill her soul. On the way home they passed through more filthy scenes on the streets. The pastor looked at the older deacon and said “How would you like your daughter, the church organist, to hang out with people like this?” “What do you mean by that?! The older man protested. “Well, I talked with her last week and found she doesn’t know the Lord and if she would die she would go to a company of people far worse than this.”
D. OUR MEMORIES ARE THERE.
1. Like a constant nightmare, our memories will haunt us through eternity.
2. Impossible to escape the shame and guilt of our sins – ever before us.
3. Hell is often called the “Asylum of the Ages.”
4. Every sermon preached will echo in our minds.
5. May quickly leave this place and push these words from your mind, but one day you will remember every word with crystal clarity.
6. Remember every mother’s prayer.
7. Remember the tearful plea of your christian friends.
8. Remember every sin that dug your grave.
9. Remember every soul you influenced – maybe there beside you condemning you eternally.
10. Remember a life that “might have been.”
11. Even the happy memories will torment you.
III. A PLACE OF TORMENT BECAUSE WE NEVER HAD TO GO THERE.
a. Greatest torment will be the realization that we could’ve so easily avoided that place.
A. TORMENTED BY THE GIFT WE REJECTED.
1. If you go to hell you’ll go over the will of God, and over the blood of the lamb.
2. Oh what great depth, He’s gone to pull you from the mouth of Hell!
3. God doesn’t want you in hell, he wants you in heaven.
4. If you go to hell it won’t be because He sent you there – but because you chose to go!
5. But even God himself can’t keep you out of hell if you refuse His Son.
B. TORMENTED BY THE SIMPLICITY OF THE SOLUTION.
1. The rich man never asked for a better plan of salvation, a simpler one.
2. Nothing negative spoken about this rich man – wasn’t a great sinner.
3. This rich man went to Hell because of neglect.
Heb. 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; …
4. Your eternity will be tormented by the fact that you turned down the simplest solution to gain heaven and shun Hell.
5. It’s as simple as stepping out this morning, repenting of your sins and committing your life to Christ – and eternity will hold no regrets for you.
C. TORMENTED BY THE MULTITUDE OF MESSENGERS
1. The rich man cried for father Abraham to send someone from the dead to warn his brothers, but he responded
Luke 16:29 …They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
2. God’s not going to send you a sign from heaven – but he did send me to warn you.
3. You are without excuse this morning, God has sent a multitude of messengers to warn you.
4. If you’re on your way to Hell, this is a wake-up call.
5. Message of hell is not for lost sinners alone.
CONCLUSION: Where Are you Going?
ILL. One morning, a 4-year-old boy Kevin, and his grandpa went out to buy donuts. On the way, Grandpa turned to Kevin and asked, "Which way is heaven?" Kevin pointed to the sky. "Which way is hell?" Kevin pointed towards the floor of the truck. Grandpa continued, "And where are you going?" "Dunkin’ Donuts," Kevin replied.
Will we go on our way and forget about our true destination this morning?
You can’t live wrong and die right. Start today.
