Will God Send People To Hell? Series

OPEN: Calvin Coolidge was known for his dry wit and the fact that virtually nothing seemed to upset him or disturb him. Before Coolidge became President of the United States, he was a senator in the Massachusetts State Senate. Apparently one of Coolidge’s responsibilities was to decide which bills would be presented to the Senate… and in what order. Another senator from Boston was very insistent that a bill affecting his district should be called for a vote immediately. Coolidge told him he didn't think the bill was that important. Coolidge’s refusal and his manner so infuriated the other senator that he angrily told Coolidge "You can go straight to ****" and he told him exactly where he could go.

Unperturbed, Coolidge looked up at him and responded, "Senator, I've looked up the law on that… and I don't have to go."

(http://www.calvincoolidge.us/humor.html)

Our sermon series this month is entitled: “Hard Questions”.

And our question this morning is: “Will God Send People To Hell?”

And the answer is: yes.

In Matthew 10:28 for example, Jesus says: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One WHO CAN DESTROY both soul and body in hell.”

In other words: God will send some folks to hell.

In fact, in our text this morning, we’re told of two distinct created beings that God will very deliberately send to hell:

1st – there are angels God sent to hell. They are often called Fallen Angels or Demons.

2 Peter 2:4 tells us that “… God did not spare angels when they sinned, but SENT THEM TO HELL, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment”

Jude 1:6 tells us essentially the same thing:

And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home— these HE HAS KEPT IN DARKNESS, BOUND WITH EVERLASTING CHAINS for judgment on the great Day.”

God sent them to hell!

But what had these fallen angels done wrong?

What had they done that was so evil - so wicked - that God came down in righteous judgment upon them?

ANSWER: God had trusted them with His most precious possession. Their job had been to protect the world He’d created, and especially Adam and Eve whom He had created in His own image.

But they had betrayed that trust.

They had joined with Satan to take possession of that creation and to destroy the man and woman with whom God had shared His special gift of life.

They CHOSE to follow Satan and so they shared Satan’s fate.

Isaiah 14:12—15 (NKJV) speaks of Satan’s condemnation by God:

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!…For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.”

The Bible tells us that Satan’s objective (and the reason why he would fall) was that he intended to destroy and damage people like you and I, because we were made in God’s image.

In fact, Revelation 12:10 tells us that “…the accuser of our brothers (the devil), who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.”

Now notice that the promise in Isaiah 14:15 said that

“(Lucifer) SHALL be brought down to Sheol…”

It hadn't happened yet.

Well if Satan hadn't been cast out in the days of Isaiah, when DID it happen?

Well, it happened when Jesus died on the cross.

Hebrews 2:14b-15 says that Jesus “shared in (our) humanity so that BY HIS DEATH he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

When Jesus died He destroyed Satan and his power.

Then Revelation 12:7-9 tells us of a battle that took place following Jesus’ resurrection…

“…there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels (God’s angels) fought against the dragon, and the dragon (the devil) and his angels fought back.

But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”

So II Peter is telling us that God deliberately SENT the fallen angels to Hell.

God sent them there because they chose to rebel against Him.

He sent them there because they deliberately hurt his people and His creation.