The reality of Hell
Luke 16:19-31
In a national poll conducted several years ago by USA Today “67% of American adults said they believe in a hell. But less than 25% believed that they would go there, while 25% believe their friends will be there
In one article for Newsweek Kenneth Woodward wrote, "Churchgoers take comfort: hell has all but disappeared from modern Christian theology.
Last month there was a book published by Rob Bell,, who is the pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville Michigan. The title of the book is Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.
In this book Rob Bell questions whether or not God sends anyone to hell. His logic is that is God is love and God wants everyone to be saved that ultimately. God will win over evil hence the title Love wins. Yet, Bell stops short in calling himself a universalist, which is someone who believes that everyone goes to heaven. The book really ask a lot questions but gives no answers and is written in a way that brings doubt to fundamental Christian beliefs.
Bible teacher John Macarthur says that Bell disavows the hard truths and ridicules the the most important features of the gospel and he also says that he is a wolf in sheep clothing that is to be avoided. Because what he has written is nothing like New Testament Christianity. It is a man-centered religion totally devoid of both clarity and biblical authority.
Theologian John Piper upon hearing of Rob Bells book simply posted one sentence on his Internet blog- “Farewell Rob Bell.”
This morning I don’t want to spend our time together critiquing Bell or his position on hell, because in the end it doesn’t matter what Rob Bell says, or John Macarthur, or John Piper. In the end it only matters what the Bible has to say about heaven and hell and eternity. Our opinions of God, our opinions of heaven and hell do not have the power to change reality
I do want to say that there is some good that has come out of Bell’s book and that good is that there are churches all throughout the world that are preaching on this topic this month in response to this book being published.
It should also be noted that Christian book publisher Zondervan who publishes the NIV Bible refused to publish the book love wins because they said it did not align with their mission statement which is to publish material that glorifies Jesus Christ.
-To understand this passage here this morning you have to back up a few verses to 13 &14
Luk 16:13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."
Luk 16:14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.
The Pharisees had ridiculed Jesus for his teaching, so in response he gives them the story of these two men- the rich man and Lazarus the beggar and he pulls the curtain back and he lets us see the other side of the grave in the most vivid of ways.
-One thing to point out if you are using a KJV of the bible it gets a little confusing at times because when the KJV was translated the word “Hell” was used as a generic word to mean the unseen place of the dead. So in the KJV the word “Hell” may mean the grave, the bottomless pit, or Gehenna which is the place of eternal torment. That’s why if you have a newer translation this word in verse 23 is translated as Hades the unseen place of death.
In this passage today we have a story that Jesus told, some people debate whether or not it’s a parable or an actual account of something that happened, but that’s irrelevant to the discussion
You have a rich religious man who in this life seems to have it all and you have a beggar who in this life is suffering. Then they both die and there is a great reversal of circumstances that take place.
The rich man is tormented, and the beggar is living in pleasure.
The Bible makes it very clear that those who reject Christ and live for themselves in this world will one day be judged and will be tormented in a place called hell or often referred to as a lake of fire. One day there will be a resurrection of both the saved and the unsaved. The saved will be spend eternity in Heaven with our Lord in a perfect, holy place and the unsaved will be cast away from God and his presence.
Act 24:15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
Matthew 25:32-41
There is no escaping the reality that one day we will all stand before God saved and unsaved alike and he will part the sheep from the goats, the saved from the lost. And the saved will be taken to heaven and the unsaved will be cast away into hell.
There is no middle of the fence. With God there is no box to check if you are undecided we are either for him or against him
Mat 12:30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Hbr 6:2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
Hell is a place of eternal torment
C. S. Lewis was told about a gravestone inscription that read; “Here lies an atheist – all dressed up and no where to go.” Lewis quietly replied, “I bet he wishes that were so.
In this passage this morning after the rich man dies Jesus said he is in torment and he cries out to Lazarus for a dip of water to cool his tongue because he says, “I am in anguish in this flame.”
When we think of hell the image that immediately comes to our mind is a place of fire and that is exactly how the bible describes it. When you read through the gospels Jesus talked more about Hell than he did heaven because he knows how bad of place it is and he doesn’t want any of us to go there.
We warn our kids about the evils of drugs and alcohol and STDS because we have witnessed people destroy their lives by following the lust of their own desires. That’s why Jesus warned us so much about hell. Reading the gospels is like driving down the highway and seeing those signs that say right lane ends in 5 miles, right land ends in 4 miles, 3 miles
I never have understood why there is always one guy who ignores all the warnings and gets all the way right up to the last sign before he tries to yield into traffic.
Over and over Jesus tells us that hell is a place of eternal fire, not a place of temporal torment but a torment that last for eternity.
Mat 5:22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ’You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.
Mat 18:8 And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.
John sums it up simply in the book of Revelation.
Rev 20:15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
The entire decision on whether or not a person spends eternity in Hell hinges on that one important question that Jesus asked to Peter. “What think ye of Christ?” The only reason a person is cast away from God into the lake of fire is if their name is not found written in the lambs book of life.
While in the flames of hell the rich man suddenly comes to his senses and starts to care about someone other than himself, he wants someone to go back and warn his 5 brothers so that they will know about hell.
I have always said that I would love to live until I’m a hundred as long as I still have my mind, but in hell having ones mind makes the torment that much worse, because there is the constant remembrance of every opportunity you had to receive Christ, but there is no reversal of God’s judgment or decision. There is no appeals court higher than the court of heaven.
And one of the torments of hell is that we are consciously aware of what has happened and that it is a result of our own actions on the earth..
One thing we must remember is that God is a just God, there is not one ounce of injustice in his character which is why the Bible teaches that there are degrees of eternal torment. Men will be judged according to what they have done in the flesh.
2Cr 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
Luk 12:47 And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating.
Luk 12:48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
2Pe 2:21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.
Hell was created for Satan & his Angels
God knows how horrible a place hell is which is why he never indented for man to go there. God’s ultimate plan in His creation was top create the perfect earth. Remember after the creation God said it is good. To create man and woman and have them live for ever in the garden of Eden. God also created the angels and they were to worship Him and be the ministering spirits to help man on the earth.
Yet God is not an overpowering parent. God gives us a free will, and he also gave the angels a free will. See God did not want us or even the angels worshiping him unless they wanted to. This is one thing as parents of teens that I struggle with sometimes. As our kids get older they need more freedom to make decisions. We don’t want them doing things just because we tell them to, we want them to grown their own personalities and convictions and sometimes even make their own mistakes.
Well God allowed the angels to have a free will, and as we learned Wednesday night in Bible study Satan decided that instead of worshiping God he wanted to be worshiped like God. He was lifted up with pride and he deceived 1/3 of the angels. Now listen to what Jesus said about hell.
Mat 25:41 "Then he will say to those on his left, ’Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Peter expounds on this a bit more
2Pe 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
so in order to judge Satan and his angels who used their free will to SIN God created a place of torment for them to go, the place we call hell.
It was not Gods plan to create this place for man, but Satan also deceived Eve in the garden who deceived Adam and on down the line it went. And since that time the prophet Isaiah said,
Isa 5:14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
Some people argue and say, yes but if He’s God why doesn’t he just save everyone and then no one would have to go to Hell. If that is your thought this morning you are on to something.
This book we hold in our hands describes in detail the breadth and length that God went through in preserving the nation of Israel and sending Jesus all the way through the lineage to die on the cross taking our sin and rising from the dead for our salvation in order to save all who will believe on Him.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
See Rob Bell is right that God does not want anyone to go to hell
God wants us all to change our minds about sin and eternity that’s what the word repent means and then when we change our minds we come to him in faith.
Trusting in the Lord is the only way that a person can reverse the curse of sin, the curse of death and a destiny in hell that has been passed down from Adam. Not by being good, or by keeping the law but by putting our faith in the finished work of the cross. Which means you believe that Jesus died and when he died the price for your sin was paid in full and there is nothing more that needs to be paid on the debt. you believe that he was resurrected and that he ascended into heaven, declaring that he was indeed God in Flesh.
Rom 3:27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Rom 3:28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
God does not send us to Hell
How many of you here this morning have every wondered or had someone ask the question: If God is full of lover, mercy and grace how could he ever send someone to a place as terrible as hell?
The answer is simple. God doesn’t send anyone to Hell. The only way to get there is to trample over the cross of Christ to get there, which we do every time we reject the gospel message of salvation.
The cross is a roadblock on the way to hell. The cross says you don’t have to go there.
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live
In our text this morning the rich man made a choice to live for himself. He chose to love this life and the pleasures of this world more than God. And folks it is happening all around us every day.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
One time Bill Hybels, who is the pastor of Willow Creek Church in Chicago, a church of about 20,000 members. Was sitting in a restaurant reading his Bible preparing for his Sunday message
He says
and a gal looked over from her table and saw me reading my Bible. She said, ‘Why do you study that stuff?’ And I thought, just to stimulate a little discussion, I’d try to knock her off balance. So I said, ‘Because I don’t feel like going to hell when I die.’
“I was going to be really blunt, but I took the edge off it a little bit. And she said, ‘There is no such thing as heaven or hell.’ I thought, Well, I got something going now.
“So I turned in my chair and I said, ‘Why do you say that?’ She said, ‘Everybody knows that when you die your candle goes out — poof ’ I said, ‘You mean to tell me there’s no afterlife?’ ‘No.’ ‘So that means you must be able to just live as you please?’ ‘That’s right.’ ‘Like, there’s no Judgment Day or anything?’ ‘No.’
“I said, ‘Well, that’s fascinating to me. Where did you hear that?’ She said, ‘I read it somewhere.’‘Can you give me the name of the book?’ ‘I don’t recall.’ ‘Can you give me the name of the author of the book?’ ‘I forget his name.’ ‘Did that author write any other books?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Is it possible that your author changed his mind two years after he wrote this particular book and then wrote another one that said there is a heaven and a hell? Is that possible?’ ‘It’s possible but not likely.’
“‘All right,’ I said. ‘Let me get this straight. You are rolling the dice on your eternity predicated on what someone you don’t even know wrote in a book you can’t even recall the title of. Have I got that straight?’
This morning don’t base your eternity on any other book than the one we are holding today whose author is God.
Closing-
Hell is a real place, just like heaven. It is as real as this room we are sitting in right now. It is a place of eternal torment where those who reject the gospel will spend eternity, but only after God has done everything on His end to save them.
Hell was originally created for Satan and his angels, mankind has sent themselves there by the same sin of Satan, pride.
The great news today though is that you don’t have to go there. God has made a way for everyone to go to heaven
Mat 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
Mat 7:14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
There are many people on the road that leads to hell, But God is calling through his word, through his spirit and through his church for people to get off the wide road that leads to destruction and take the narrow path that leads to everlasting life
Rev 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
