OPEN: A detective was investigating a burglary at a church building. He questioned one suspect - who he was pretty sure committed the crime – but he couldn’t prove it. Finally, the preacher of the church stepped up and asked if he could talk to the suspect alone. Within minutes, the preacher came back to detective with information about the pawnshop where the thief had pawned the stolen items. The detective was amazed. “How did you do that?” he asked. The preacher replied: “I told him you could send him to jail… but I could send him to hell.” (Reader’s Digest 4/99 p. 118 by Lisa Hensley)
The past couple of weeks we’ve been focusing on a monologue by one of my favorite YouTube speakers – named Joe Scott. And we’ve been trying to answer his very sincere questions that explained why he struggled with his faith in God. One of those questions was: “If God is all love then why would He send me to hell for eternity because I didn’t honor my father and mother correctly? For that matter, why did He make hell in the first place?” (See Footnote)
So the TOPIC for this Sunday is Hell. And Joe Scott has actually asked 2 questions: 1) Why did God make Hell? And 2) Why would God send ME to hell?
But before we try to answer Joe’s questions we need to understand a couple things
ILLUS: A preacher named Vance Havner told about a church member who didn’t like the sermons he preached about hell. The member told him: “Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus.” Havner replied: “That’s where I got my information about Hell.” And he was right. Most of what we know about hell was taught to us by Jesus. That's the first thing we need to realize.
Secondly, we need to realize that hell is NOT a popular place for most people. A survey by Gallup in 2009 found that 86% of Americans believed in Heaven, and most thought they were going to go there. But in that same poll only 69% of those interviewed believed in Hell. And just one-half of 1% of Americans expected to go to Hell upon their death.
Only ½ of 1%??? Why would people be so unenthusiastic about going to hell? Well, because Jesus painted us a really horrifying and dreadful picture of the place. Jesus described hell as a furnace of ?re (Matt. 13:41, 42). A place of torment (Luke 16:23) and everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:46). A place of weeping (Matt. 8:12) and wailing (Matt. 13:42) and cries for mercy (Luke 16:24).
There’s an old church camp song called “Heaven Is A Wonderful Place (sing it with me): “Heaven is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace, I want to see my Saviour’s face, Heaven is a wonderful place. (I want to go there).
“HELL is a horrible place, filled with sin and disgrace. Don’t wanna see that devil’s face, cause hell is a horrible place (Don’t wanna go there)."
IT’S A HORRIBLE PLACE! You don’t want to go there! And, of course, that’s the whole reason Jesus described Hell in such stark terms. You DON’T want to go there!!!!
Now, what’s interesting is that Jesus didn’t talk about hell with just anybody. For example, He didn’t talk about hell with people we’d call “sinners.”
He didn’t mention hell to the woman at the well. She was a woman who had had 5 husbands and she was now living with a man who wasn’t even her husband. You’d have thought He’d have talked to HER about hell!
And Jesus didn’t mention hell to Zacchaeus - the wee little man who everyone hated because he was a tax collector in the employ of Rome… and who had probably cheated people by skimming extra taxes off top (which Rome allowed). Certainly, Zacchaeus would be an ideal candidate to be told about hell.
And Jesus didn’t mention hell to the Centurion who had asked to have his servant healed. That centurion was a Roman who had probably worshipped pagan gods. That guy was definitely going to hell.
Those were the people you’d expect Jesus to mention hell to. You’d think Jesus would confront sinners with Hell to scare them into changing… but He didn’t!
No, instead Jesus seems to have focused his talks about hell on the religiously comfortable. Folks like the Pharisees: In Matthew 23:33 Jesus condemned the Pharisees by telling them: "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?”
And, of course, he talked about hell to people who came to hear Him preach and who probably believed they were OK because they were good Jews. At the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned of hell those JEWS in His audience: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.” Matthew 5:29-30
But why would Jesus focus on the “religiously comfortable” folks? Well, because these were the people that needed to hear it most. I’ve been in churches where “righteous” people were the meanest people you’ll ever find. Joe Scott had seen people like that in the church he used to attend. He described them as the type of people who are wearing “a cross necklace and then judging other people, and being rude.”
And there had been folks like that back in the days of the early church. Paul writes to the CHRISTIANS in Galatia, and says: “The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I WARN YOU, AS I WARNED YOU BEFORE, that those who do such things WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.” Galatians 5:19-21
Now, I want you to notice, Paul warned these Christians that if they lived like that they would NOT inherit the Kingdom of God. In other words… they would go to hell. And some of them WERE living like that because Paul had warned them before about this.
Why? Why would Christians live like that? Because they’d become religiously comfortable. They felt they had ARRIVED in their faith, that they didn’t have to worry about anything because they’d punched their ticket, and that they were shoe-ins for heaven. And because they believed that, now they felt they could behave however they pleased and God would look the other way.
So God said: DON’T PUSH IT!
ILLUS: Years ago, my dad had gotten upset with me. I’d said something that made him angry and he looked at me and he said “You know, if you weren’t my son, I’d have nothing to do with you.” What was Dad saying: “DON’T PUSH IT! You’re right on the edge and if you push me much harder I’ll have nothing to do with you.”
Now, I did NOT live in constant fear that dad would do that, but I took his warning to heart... and I changed my behavior. I'd become "too comfortable" in my status with my dad and took some things for granted. And that’s why Jesus warned His followers about Hell. They (and we) needed to realize what is at stake. They needed to realize they must never take their relationship with God for granted and think we can live however we please once we’re saved. Because it doesn’t work like that.
Now, that brings us back to Joe Scott’s original questions: 1st - Why did God make Hell?
Well… he didn’t make it for us, and a lot of people are surprised to hear that! In Matthew 25:41 Jesus was very clear about this: “the eternal fire (was) prepared for the devil and his angels.” NOT FOR US!! FOR THEM!!! Hell was specifically designed to hold the devil and his demons.
But now, if that’s true, why does the Bible say that some people will be cast into hell. Well, some people WILL be cast into hell because that’s what you’d expect from righteous God. In fact, there are a lot of folks that we’d WANT to have sent to hell. Hitler and Stalin and other tyrants come to mind. Then there’s Murderers, and rapists, and child molesters, etc. I mean, if you take vote, and I’m pretty sure you’d have consensus there’s certain people who DESERVE to go to hell. And that’s what you’d expect from RIGHTEOUS God. You’d expect Him to send certain people to hell, because if God didn’t send evil people to hell you would NOT think that He was righteous.
ILLUS: Let’s say a man has been convicted of rape and murder. He’s a cold-blooded killer, an evil man who took pleasure in the pain he inflicted. Now this evil man stands before the judge, and the judge has the ability to lock this animal up for all eternity. But he doesn’t do that. Instead, he fines the man and sets him free! And you’d say: THAT’S NOT RIGHT! THAT’S NOT JUSTICE! And you’d be right. After all, how could a RIGHTEOUS judge do something like that?
But the Bible tells us that God is a righteous judge. Psalm 7:11 declares “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.” And in Romans 12:19 we God declares, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”
That’s why a major focus of Revelation is on the judgment seat. John wrote: “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 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.” Revelation 20:11-12
So, we should understand why God would send some folks to hell - they deserve to go there!
But that leads us to Joe Scott’s other question: “Why would God send ME to hell?” Implied in Joe’s question is “I don’t deserve to go to hell. I’m not a bad person!”
ILLUS: The mayor of NYC, Michael Bloomberg thinks like that. He once told a reporter: “I am telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.” (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/04/michael-bloomberg-i-have-earned-my-place-in-heaven/437457/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share&fbclid=IwAR0HxuonfPAuO2vHR9RSK2Rkg34u1fLmmJtIOLmESoFVkP4mMAHYzW2cETw)
Did you catch that? He thinks he’s EARNED his place in heaven. He thinks he’s done enough good stuff in his life to outweigh the bad stuff. The problem of course is, that’s not how it works.
Now, it’s not like God doesn’t appreciate it when folks do good stuff, it’s just that good stuff doesn’t BUY a place in heaven. And that’s because (as someone once said) “salvation is a gift… not a paycheck.”
Romans 3:23 tells us that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” None of us deserve to go to heaven. I don’t, you don’t, Bloomberg doesn’t. We have ALL fallen short of the glory of God. We don’t measure up.
And the Bible teaches us that God isn’t comfortable with that. In 2 Peter 3:9 we read that “The Lord is … patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
You see, the key to pleasing God is NOT for us to focus on our own SELF-righteousness, but instead, to focus on our sin… and repent of that. God wants us to recognize we DON’T DESERVE heaven. That we need His help. We have sin in our lives that needs washing away.
As Acts 3:19 tells us “REPENT, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” And that’s why Jesus came to die on the cross - so that His blood could cleanse us of ALL of our sins. As John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, so that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.”
Martin Luther noted: “Jesus Christ never died for our good works. They were not worth dying for. But he gave himself for our sins, according to the Scriptures.”
That’s why Christians should NEVER be rude and judgmental. None of us deserves the right to behave that way. We’ve All Sinned.
CLOSE: The point is, if heaven depended on SELF-righteousness, none of us would get into heaven. And some of the worst of us would have absolutely NO chance at all.
There was once a man named John, who was as nasty as they came. He got drunk, got in fights, went to the red-light districts. And he cursed like a sailor… in fact, he was a sailor. And he was a slaver - he kidnapped and sold human flesh for price. Years before, he’d turned his back on God… but a vicious storm at sea changed his mind.
Someone described the fearfulness of that storm: "Waves crashed over the boat, ripping away whole timbers.
Clothes and bedding were stuffed into holes and boards nailed over them. John joined those who worked at pumping water out of the ship, and eventually (when he was too weary to pump any longer) he was lashed to the wheel to try and steer it thru the storm."
One writer noted that “In his heart John believed Christianity to be true. But this brought him no consolation because (as he later wrote) 'I concluded my sins were too great to be forgiven. I waited with fear and impatience to receive my doom.'”
But as soon he heard the glad news that the ship was freed of water, "I began to pray... to think of that Jesus that I had so often derided; I recollected his death: a death for sins not his own, but, as I remembered, for the sake of those who should put their trust in him."
Did you catch that? He had stayed away from Christ because he had concluded his sins were too great to be forgiven. He didn’t think God could love him as he was. But that storm brought him face to face with judgment and death and forced him to turn his eyes upon Jesus. And that changed his life forever.
Do you know who that man was? His name was John Newton… who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace.” That’s why the words of that hymn are so powerful “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a WRETCH like me.”
INVITATION
Footnote: A short transcript of Joe Scott's monologue: "IS THERE A SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION FOR GOD?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3_0O-gpeYo
(Joe grew up in a very religious family and it never occurred to him that there wasn’t a God who loved him and cared what happened to him).
"The older I got, the more complex the issue of religion became to me. I saw people from church acting very unChristian. You know, wearing a cross necklace and then judging other people, and being rude. I worked in a restaurants where I saw first-hand that the church crowd are the worst tippers in the whole world.
And a lot of the just little idiosyncrasies of the dogma, just didn’t add up for me anymore. Like, if God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then why does He need my help? And my money? Why did God have to kill His Son in order to forgive my sins? Why couldn’t He just forgive me? For that matter, why did He make sin in the first place?
If God is all love then why would He send me to hell for eternity because I didn’t honor my father and mother correctly? For that matter, why did He make hell in the first place?
It just became harder and harder for me to just believe… I mean, couldn’t it be possible that all religion is just a way for us to deal with the fact that we are mortal – that we have an end date? Is it just our way of dealing with the seemingly pointless nature of it all? I didn’t want that to be true. (He views himself as a seeker… constantly seeking for an answer)."
