Four Things Everyone Should Know About Hell

4 THINGS EVERYONE SHULD KNOW ABOUT HELL!!l

Luke 16:19-16:31

Introduction: Set off a smoke alarm

1. The sound you just heard is very unpleasant.

2. It is loud, it is annoying, and you probably would rather not hear it

3. Nevertheless, this noise can save your life because it comes from a smoke alarm, which is intended to make a clear warning of impending

danger so that you will take actions to save your life.

Read Luke 16:19-31

In this text I see four things everyone to know about Hell. The first thing everyone should know about Hell is that. .

1. Hell may be in your future even if you are presently prospering. Jesus is speaking to Pharises (note v-14)The first

spiritual truth we learn is that. . .

2. Hell may be in your future even if you are presently prospering.

Luke 16:19 19“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.

A. Jesus notes that the man who ended up in Hell was living the good life. He was wealthy, living in luxury, and eating the best foods, and according

to Jesus this went on "every day."

B. There was nothing in his life on earth that indicated the terrible future that he faced.

1. In that culture, the rich man would have been considered blessed, spiritual, and destined for heaven.

2. The people of that time reasoned that if a person was doing all right in this life, there was no reason to worry about the future life.

3. After all, if God was angry with them he would not prosper them.

People tend to think that way today. People think that if judgment has not come already, it will not come in the future. Let me give you an example of that type of thinking.

President Clinton named Kristine Gebbie, a lesbian, as the new AIDS czar. Four months later she spelled out her perceptions on traditional morality. She said, [The United States] needs to view human sexuality as an essentially important and pleasurable thing. [Until it does so], we will continue to be a repressed, Victorian society that misrepresents information, denies homosexual sexuality, particularly in teens, and leaves people abandoned with no place to go. I can help just a little bit in my job, standing on the White House lawn talking about sex with no lightning bolts falling on my head."

This lady reasoned that since she was doing all right at the moment, then everything must be all right. That’s the same thing the rich man in today’s story would have assumed, but Jesus teaches us differently.

1. Hell may be in your future even if you are presently prospering.

A. Today you may be healthy, prosperous, and Successful but that does not mean everything is ok with God.

1. You may live in a two-story house and go on extravagant vacations around the world but your final trip may still be to Hell.

2.You can be a member of the church, a deacon, elder, or even a pastor and still go to hell. Your present status is no indicator of your future

destiny.

B. Did the rich man and up in Hell because he was rich?

1. Abraham was rich and yet he is in heaven.

2. Then, why did the rich man end up in Hell?

Read Luke 16:20-22

20But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, 21desiring to be fed with £the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.

C. The rich man was in Hell because he was not right with God.

1.Though he was religious, and we know he was because he addressed Abraham as "Father Abraham", he still was not in a right

relationship with God.

D. We know he was not right with God because of the way he treated poor Lazarus.

1.The rich man ignored the hunger and hurt of Lazarus even though he was aware and able to meet his needs easily.

2.Nobody who is right with God would be so a loving toward their neighbor.

E. In a surprising twist, the poor beggar, who would Have been considered cursed by God, is carried to Abraham’s side which is a way of saying

that he went to Heaven.

1.Earthly status had nothing to do with eternal destiny.

Hell may be in your future even if you are presently prospering.

Look at Luke 16:23-24

23And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ 25But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented