Dragnet

The casting.

The gospel is available to the entire sea of humanity, people of every kind. Nobody is so high the net cannot reach them, and none are so low that the net cannot descend to them. None are so small that the net cannot embrace them. None are so big that the net cannot wrap around them. None are hopelessly lost.

William Colgate founded his company over 100 years ago. He was an avid

Christian, and his church one season was praying for souls to be saved, and for

church growth. A poor woman had been attending and came forward for membership.

Churches in those days would take a vote on receiving someone new into the body,

and someone voiced opposition to the poor woman joining. Colgate stood and said,

“we need to go back and re-make our prayers.” He elaborated, “we have been

praying for God to save sinners, but we need to specify what kind of sinners we

want Him to save!” The congregation got the point and the woman was added to

their number.

THE CHURCH-This is not a social club. This is a hospital for sinners, not a display case for saints!

Titus 2:11

For the grace of God that bring salvation hath appeared to all men,

2 Peter 3:9

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but

is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all

should come to repentance.

1 Timothy 2:4

Who desires all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

In each of these parables Jesus tells us about three realities:

1. There is an end to the present world order when Jesus will return to earth.

2. There is a time of judgment before which each of us will stand.

3. There is a separation of the good and bad, and the good take their place in the home of God, as the bad are consigned to a place of eternal separation from God.

These are harsh realities that our current culture likes to downplay or outright ignore.

The devil has some success at convincing people there’s no hell, some he

even has believing there’s no heaven, but his best tool he whispers in the most

ears is not that there’s no hell or no heaven, but that there’s no hurry!

Daniel 12:1-3, Rev. 21:6-8

There are two truths I want us to consider this morning as we attempt to understand the reality of hell in light of the character of a loving God.

The first is this: Free will makes hell necessary. Hell is God’s great

compliment to the human race — by it he is saying, “If you do not wish to live

with me, you don’t have to ” And if people do not wish to live with God, there

must be a place where they can be away from God.

Because we have free will, that is, the ability to freely determine our own actions and form our own destiny, it means that God sends no one to hell, you send yourself. It is a

choice that people make.

No one wind up there by accident, or mistake, they wind up there because they rejected Jesus!

There are people you know who are living in hell right now, but who refuse to do anything to get themselves from the hell in which they are living.

If they would turn from the destructiveness of their choices and their sinful lifestyle, they would not go through the hell they are living in — but they will not turn.

Luke 16:19-31-What is interesting in the story is that the rich man does not ask to get out of hell. Neither does he request to go to heaven. This is the place that he has chosen.

He does not like it there, but he has no interest in heaven. He does not want out of hell; he only wants a little relief. He does not seem to regret the things he has done, nor does he repent.

We see this all the time. People all around us are living in hell, but they

would rather remain in their hell than come to God. To be sure they want a

little relief now and then, but they have no desire to turn their lives around.

These people are dead to what their lives could mean if lived in a relationship

with God.