Beat The Heat Series

Sunday Morning July 1, 2001 Bel Aire Baptist Church, Hobbs, NM

Series: Out Of This World [#2]

BEAT THE HEAT

LUKE 16:19-31

Introduction:

1. I really enjoyed our vacation a few weeks ago, but I was also glad to be home. If there were one thing I could change about Hobbs, It would be the heat. You know in the mountains it was so cool and it even snowed on us in Colorado. Snow in June!

2. Although I am complaining about the heat, I do know that in January I will be complaining about the cold.

3. But, imagine never being able to beat the heat. Never able to cool off!

4. This morning I am going to preach about a place that will never cool off. If you remember from last week, I told you that when you die you would either go to heaven or hell. If you died with Jesus as your Savior you go to heaven and if you died without Jesus as your Savior you would go to hell.

5. Although I don’t enjoy it, I must tell you about this terrible place called hell. I want us this morning to look at two views about hell.

I. Satan’s Words

[Introduction] Of all the many doctrines in the Bible, undoubtedly the very first that the unbeliever will deny and the weak believer will question is the doctrine of hell. Satan has accomplished this goal through three methods:

A. Rationalism

1. Some would say, “There is no God, and therefore there can be no hell”.

2. These people try to use science as their evidence usually, which does not work.

B. Ridicule

1. They would say something like this: “There may be a God, but it is silly to speculate about multitudes of disembodied spirits frying in some literal lake of fire somewhere.”

C. Religion

1. “There is a God, but He is a God of love, and therefore would not and could not send anyone to hell.”

[Conclusion] Satan could care less, which one of these three you might go with as long as you go with one of these thoughts, but this is not what the word of God teaches. We have seen Satan’s deceit, now let’s see what God says about hell.

II. God’s Words

A. Gehenna hell

1. In Revelation 20:11-15 we are told that following the tribulation, all the unsaved dead will be resurrected from Hades to appear before the great white judgment throne. They will then be cast into Gehenna hell forever.

2. Gehenna is a New Testament word with an Old Testament background.

a. In the Old Testament, a wicked Israelite king named Ahaz forsook the worship of Jehovah and followed the devil-god Molech. In trying to please Molech, Ahaz actually sacrificed his own children in the fires as burnt offerings (2 Chronicles 28:1-4; 2 Kings 23:10).

b. This all took place in a deep and narrow valley called the Valley of Hinnom (Jeremiah 7:31-33).

c. In Jesus’ day, this was the location of the city garbage dump.

d. In A.D. 70, the fighting between Jews and Romans ended here with as many as 600,000 bodies of dead Jews.

3. If you put all of this together, what you have is a place of filth and sorrow, of smoke and pain, of fire and death. This is the word the Holy Spirit chose in describing the final destiny for the unsaved.

B. Nature and Characteristics of hell.

[Introduction] What will Gehenna really be like? Read Luke 16:19-31.

1. Hell is a place of unquenchable fire.

2. Hell is a place of memory and remorse.

3. Hell is a place of thirst.

4. Hell is a place of misery and pain.

5. Hell is a place of frustration and anger.

6. Hell is a place of separation.

7. Hell is a place of undiluted divine wrath.

8. Hell is a place originally prepared for Satan and his hosts.

9. Hell is a place created for all eternity.

C. Occupants of hell.

[Introduction] Who will be someday confined to Gehenna forever?

1. Satan.

2. The antichrist.

3. The false prophet.

4. Fallen angels.

5. Judas Iscariot.

6. All unsaved people.

Conclusion:

1. Look at the occupants of hell. As bad as Satan, the antichrist, the false prophet, the fallen angels, and Judas Iscariot all were and are; the unsaved people will too suffer in hell for all of eternity.

2. You say, “That’s not fair.” Yet it is. Actually if God was giving us what we deserved, we would all go to hell.

3. God tells us that as a just and righteous God He has to judge sin, but He has made a way for us to beat the heat in hell by trusting in Jesus as our Savior. If we do not, then we go to hell.