“The Highway to Hell”
Matthew 7:13-14 NLT
AC/DC Highway to Hell (www.metrolyrics.com/highway-to-hell-lyrics-acdc.html)
Living easy, living free; Season ticket on a one-way ride; Asking nothing, leave me be; Taking everything in my stride; Don't need reason, don't need rhyme; Ain't nothing I would rather do; Going down, party time; My friends are gonna be there too; I'm on the highway to hell
No stop signs, speed limit; Nobody's gonna slow me down; Like a wheel, gonna spin it; Nobody's gonna mess me round; Hey Satan, payin' my dues
Playing in a rocking band; Hey Momma, look at me; I'm on my way to the promised land; I'm on the highway to hell (Don't stop me)
And I'm going down, all the way down
I'm on the highway to hell
Someone once said to me; “that is only a song.” Can I tell you today that the reality of this song is more real than most people would care to admit.
I remember being told more than once while witnessing to some folks that they knew they were going to hell & it was going to be alright because all their friends would be there too.
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) “Highway to Hell”. It was the last album featuring Bon Scott, who died early the following year from over-consumption of alcohol.
Can I tell you this morning that if Bon Scott could have joined us in this service this morning he would have a very serious out cry about the words that he & two others wrote.
I want to do my best this morning to make the reality of the “Highway to Hell” a reality in the minds of everyone listening today.
I. What is Hell?
By Dictionary– 1. The abode of the dead; the place of departed spirits; the grave; the infernal regions, regarded as a place of existence after death: called in Hebrew Sheol, and by the Greeks Hades.
2. The abode of devils and condemned spirits; the place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the infernal regions, regarded as a place of torment.
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The enemy of people’s soul & the world have tried to make hell out to be a joke of some kind.
The devil knows that when people come to a true revelation of the reality of a place where people will forever be separated from all love, joy, peace & any kind of fulfillment with life; they will run to Jesus!
I choose to believe the words of Jesus over anyone else in this world.
Matthew 7:13 NCV Enter through the narrow gate. The gate is wide and the road is wide that leads to hell, and many people enter through that gate.
According to Jesus, it is a place that has a road to travel to it; it has a gate to enter through it.
Mark 9:43-44 NKJV …to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where ‘Their worm does not die & the fire is not quenched’.
I cannot imagine what it has to be like for those that have already gone before us & are experiencing this right NOW!
Matthew 13:50 NLT …throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
NCV The angels will throw the evil people into the blazing furnace, where people will cry and grind their teeth with pain.
Jesus talked about this place being one where there would be great, unbearable suffering & torment.
How someone could ever come to the place that they are willing to gamble on their destiny after death I will never know?
Eagles – “Hotel California” (Listen to description here)
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’ and in the master’s chambers, They gathered for the feast; The stab it with their steely knives, But they just can’t kill the beast
Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door I had to find the passage back To the place I was before; ’relax,’ said the night man, We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you like, But you can never leave! http://www.lyrics007.com/EaglesLyrics/
Revelation 9:2 NKJV And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.
II. Who is in Danger of Hell?
Matthew 25:41 NLT Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.
God never intended for one single person to end up in Hell. It is NOT God’s will that anyone should perish in their sins and go to Hell...
2 Peter 3:9 CEV The Lord isn't slow about keeping his promises, as some people think he is. In fact, God is patient, because he wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.
It is NOT God’s fault if men and women are stubborn and unwilling to repent of their unbelief. Hell was NOT created for human beings but rather for Satan and his horde of demons.
We are ALL without excuse for the wrong decisions we make in life—we CANNOT blame God.
Perhaps other humans influenced us to make some wrong decisions but that’s not God’s fault.
Revelation 21:8 AMP But as for the cowards and the shameful and the contemptible and the cravenly lacking in courage and the cowardly submissive, and as for the unbelieving and faithless, and as for the depraved and defiled with abominations, and as for murderers and the lewd and adulterous and the practicers of magic arts and the idolaters (those who give supreme devotion to anyone or anything other than God) and all liars (those who knowingly convey untruth by word or deed)--[all of these shall have] their part in the lake that blazes with fire and brimstone. This is the second death.
Some look at this & try to qualify that their deeds don’t fit here; this was meant to help us identify the kind of character traits that will not make heaven.
Matthew 8:12 NLT But many Israelites—those for whom the Kingdom was prepared—will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Even those that God proclaimed as the apple of HIS eye… they too will be judged by HIS same words that will judge all others.
Let me finish this point with this;
2 Peter 2 NLT READ!
Do you see that our God is no respecter of people? Everyone will receive the same justice & judgment that all human beings will receive.
III. What Can I Do to Miss Hell?
That is the greatest part! Because we are together in this service today God has extended His mercy to us.
We can exit the Highway to Hell & get on to the Highway of Holiness!
Isaiah 35:8 NLT And a great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness. Evil-minded people will never travel on it. It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways; fools will never walk there.
Revelation 3:1-3 NLT I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.
Do you hear the cry from His Word this morning? He desires that no one go to this horrible place prepared for all those who choose not to follow Him.
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John 6:36-37 NLT But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.
His desire is to rescue every one that will hear His voice today!
