Going To Hell Is Difficult

GOING TO HELL IS DIFFICULT

Warsaw Christian Church, Richard Bowman, Pastor

In this sermon, I plan to give you clear directions on how to end up in hell. It is not an easy matter to go to hell, but it can be done. God has made it difficult to go to hell, but I will show you the way.

One of the most fundamental questions we ever ask is, “What is God like?” There are many facets to the answer, for God has many attributes. Today, I would like to focus on one of God’s attributes: his disposition toward the human race. The Bible tells us God is angry, and that’s because of the way we violate his holy will. But He also loves us with an everlasting love. Both sides of this paradox are true. It may confuse us in trying to answer the personal question, “What is God’s disposition toward us?” We may wonder if God wants to condemn us because of our sins or if he wants to save us because of his love for us.

John 3:17 helps us to answer the question with these words of reassurance. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. God might have sent His son into the world to condemn the world, but he did not. The Father might have said to the Son, “I am sending you into the world so I can prove once and for all how wicked human beings are. They will hate, reject, and crucify you, allowing me to condemn them all with perfect justice.” We could hardly object if that were God’s purpose in sending the Son. We deserve judgment and did reject and crucify the Son of God, proving that God is perfectly justified in barring us forever from the Kingdom of Heaven.

The good news is that God’s single reason for sending his son into the world was to secure our salvation. His coming was a mission of mercy from start to finish. The crucifixion that God foresaw became the means of salvation for the entire world. When man was at his worst, God was at his best. He demonstrated the magnitude of his love and mercy toward us. His disposition toward you and me is one of compassion. Since I spend so much time feeling unworthy and undeserving of God’s love, I find it comforting to know that God, who knows better than me, still desires not to condemn me. His only desire toward me and you is to pour his love and mercy on us, securing us a place in the indescribably beautiful Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever we feel discouraged and unworthy of even the lowest place in the Kingdom of God, we should read John 3:17. “God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.” These words were drummed into my mind at an early age because they were the words to a solo that I often heard my mother rehearse at home and sing at church. I need to remember this verse often when I am feeling unworthy. How can we ever condemn ourselves or anyone else when God’s disposition toward us is one of pardon, mercy, and love?

To me, this means but one thing. It means we have to work very hard at being lost. It is not easy to go to hell. It is not impossible, but neither is it easy. If God desired to condemn us, going to hell would be easy, and hell would be our fate. But since God’s expressed desire is that we not be condemned but saved, you must figure out how to get around God’s loving disposition toward you. How can I avoid God’s loving mercy for me? It is his desire not to condemn you. He does not want to pour out his final wrath upon you. How can you turn away from this great love? Perhaps God will demand things I want to avoid. I can be a friend of God or His enemy. Which shall I choose? It is much easier to be a friend of God than to be his enemy.

The reason for this is not difficult to understand. God, infinite in wisdom, power, and love, uses his resources to work for our salvation. To end up a lost and condemned soul, you must be stupid enough to think you are wiser than God. You must be foolish enough to resist his omnipotent power. You must be what the Bible calls a first-class fool to turn away from God and find yourself at odds with him on Judgment Day. You have to say, in effect, God may not want to condemn me, but I do not wish to submit to him. He wants to love and forgive me if I will trust in His Son. I am suspicious of His motives. I prefer to call the shots myself rather than trust in His Son.