WHAT IN HELL DO YOU WANT?
Luke 16: 19-24
Intro: People have got a serious misconception of Hell. Though they believe it to be a place that’s hot, they also believe it to be a place where they will spend the rest of their existence living in any way they desire. After all, they’re dead. They’re in hell. What more can happen to them? They believe that they’ll be free to fornicate, cuss, prostitute, shoot up, drink up, and downright party up for all eternity. Hell, in their minds, will be the ultimate party place. How so wrong they are. Like them, our misconceptions of hell or our lack of urgency about leading people from hell has made us apathetic toward the destiny of the lost, and has made the lost ignorant about their own destiny.
People say, “I sure do hope I don’t go to Hell when I die,” yet they live like they can’t wait to get there. Killing themselves with drugs, alcohol, illicit sex, and guns, and that’s not mentioning suicide terrorists. Or you might hear people say, “I don’t want to go to hell when I die,” but they don’t do anything to prevent it while they are living.
In this sermon, I hope to provide some illumination about a very dark place. Hell is not a place to aspire to but a place to flee from. This life gives each of us an opportunity to make our reservation in Heaven so that we will not be given accommodations in hell.
I. Characteristics of Hell
a. Gehenna. Usually when Jesus speak of hell, He uses the term Gehenna, which means the Valley of Hinnon. When He used this term people understood what He was referring to because it was a place where everybody went. Gehenna was the city dump. Like Gehenna, Hell is the eternal dumping grounds for refuse souls, a holding place for the lost, until Judgment Day. It was created for the devil and his angels (minions).
i. Hell is hot. Gehenna was the place where people took their trash. Dead carcasses of all kinds were there. Because it was the area for refuse, there were perpetual or continual fires that burned. Day or night people could take their trash there and throw it into the pit, into the valley, where eternal fires burned.
ii. Hell is eternal. The continual burning of the refuse was a perfect description of the continual fires of hell. When Jesus told them that the fire is not quenched, Jews understood what He meant because the fires of Gehenna never went out. There were people who saw to that.
iii. Hell is a place of misery and pain. As in the case of the rich man, people in hell will be in torment-agony. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
iv. Hell is dark. Hell, in contrast to Paradise, is a place of darkness b/c there is no light there. Jesus said that the lost will be cast into outer darkness. Though there are flames there, there will be no light in hell. The reason we see flames now is b/c of the oxygen in the environment. There is no oxygen in hell. Therefore, there’s no light.
v. Hell is a place for the gone and forgotten. Just a people don’t think about the trash they threw away, they will also forget about those who lanquish in hell. Revelation 21 says that Jesus will wipe away their tears. I believe with those tears will go the memory of every person who has ever lived that didn’t make it to Heaven. How can Heaven be paradise while we have knowledge of loved one in torment?
b. Knowing the conditions of hell and the fate that awaits our loved one, no Christian should ever have a loved one in hell because they were never told about it or about Salvation in Christ. Hell is a place of eternal torments, eternal fire, no hope, no escape, no deliverance, eternal regrets, eternal loneliness, eternal separation from God and the Saints, and eternally forgotten.
II. Occupants of Hell
a. Jesus said, “For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.” There will be many people in hell. They will fall into many categories but most of them who will be there will be sinners who:
i. Rejected/mocked Christ and the Cross (John 3: 36).
ii. Had insufficient self-righteousness-(Matt 5:10).
iii. Failed to find another way into Heaven (John 14:6).
iv. Waited too long to accept Christ.
v. Sided with Satan against God.
vi. Were unrepentant in life—the cowardly, the unbelieving, abominable, murderers, liars, adulterers, fornicators, dogs, sorcerers (Rev. 21:8, 22:15). This Was Your Life! track.
III. The Misconceptions of Hell
a. There are some misconceptions about hell. Most, if not all, of them are lies of the devil to desensitize people about it or people’s abject desire not to believe therefore they can continue their lifestyle without fear of repercussion. Some misconceptions include:
i. God is a god of love and He would not create a place like hell.
ii. Hell isn’t a literal burning place (fairy tale to scare children).
iii. Hell is a place of partying without God.
iv. You’ll go insane after a while.
v. You’ll be released after a while (purgatory).
vi. You’ll be consumed after a while (annihilationism).
vii. Reincarnation, no afterlife, etc.
b. Billy Joel has a song called, “Only the Good Die Young.” In that song he has some lyrics that say, “They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait/Some say it’s better but I say it ain’t/I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints/The sinners are much more fun...You know that only the good die young.”
c. Neda Soltan, the Angel or Iran, was an aspiring pianist and tour guide. She was opposed to the ‘fixed’ re-election of Mahmood Ahmadinejad. As she approached to site of where the mass protests were to be staged, she was gunned downed by the basij (Iranian militia). Her dying words, as reported by several witnesses gave hint to her final destination: “I’m burning. I’m burning,” she cried.
d. I’ve heard tales of many pastors and doctors who have been by the bedside of people who have died. They have reported that when saved people die, sometimes they report seeing Jesus. But when the lost die, they sometimes report being on fire.
e. Don’t you, too, be one to stand before Jesus and say you were a fool for putting off till tomorrow what you could have done today. Tomorrow never comes. If it is your standards vs. God’s standards, your standards will lose every time.
IV. The Detour from Hell
a. Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that hell was created for the devil and his angels. People were never meant to see hell but they will go there because they, like the devil, reject the Person of God and the authority and the Lordship of God and because they reject the only remedy for sin that God has provided. What is that remedy?
b. Romans 3:23 says that we are all sinners.
c. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
d. Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
e. John 3:16-17 says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that by Him it may be saved.
f. Matt. 7:13 says that we are to strive to enter by the strait gate that leads to life, Jesus Christ (John 14:6).
g. 1 John 5: 12-13 says He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God .
h. Romans 10:9-10 says, that if we confess with our mouths Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Conclusion: I urge you to be as much or more concerned about how and where you will spend your eternal life as you are about how and where you will spend this life. Don’t end up rejected, eternally tormented, and forever forgotten, as the rich man will be. In short, trust Jesus today and avoid a wasted existence. The fool has said in his heart there is no God and a fool has said in his heart there is no hell. If you live like there is no God, you’d better be right.
