Hell or Salvation
Jesus spent much of His time trying to convince you, yes you, that He cherishes you and wants you to be with Him eternally. That is why He often taught about eternal hell that you might fear it. Indeed, Jesus taught about hell more than He taught about heaven describing hell in vivid detail. Some examples, in Luke 16:23, He says it is a place of torment. In Mark 9:43, He says it is an unquenchable fire; and in Mark 9:48, He says it is where the worm does not die. In Luke 16:19–31, Jesus says there is no return even to warn loved ones. In Matthew 10:28, He compares it to “Gehenna”, a trash dump outside the walls of Jerusalem where rubbish was burned continually and maggots abounded. In Matthew 25:30, He says hell is a place of “outer darkness” where people will gnash their teeth in anguish and regret. Hell certainly sounds like and is an awful place.
Some people tell me that God will not send even the unrepentant to hell for lesser sins like white lies or friendly gossip. Although He is a forgiving God, I certainly do not know the answer to that. Will God send you to hell for an uncontrolled hot temper, hatred, jealousy, quarreling, scoffing, eager pursuit of wealth or honors, greediness in eating and so on? Or, will it take such sinful deeds as those listed in the Ten Commandments like murder, adultery, robbery, bearing false witness and coveting what others have to get you sentenced to eternal hell? Are these sins really worse than white lies, friendly gossip, hot temper, hatred, jealousy, quarreling, scoffing, eager pursuit of wealth or honors, greediness in eating and so on? This list of sins that many consider lesser sins has a tendency to gnaw away at a person’s character. You may have strength enough to resist larger temptations, but little hypocrisies, the minor sins may mount up. They can wreck your life just as surely as murder, adultery, robbery, bearing false witness and coveting can. Looking at sin in this light we realize that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
We are going to look at some sinful actions and compare the results. I will begin with a sinful action that is all too common a sin in America today, that sin, misleading others.
Luke 17:1-2, speaks of that. Here “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone was hung around his neck and he was cast into the sea than he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.’” Verse 1, this scripture begins with the inevitable, the temptation to sin. The Greek word skandala is translated ‘temptation’ in English. However, Skandala is more specific than its English translation ‘temptation’. Skandala means the bait-stick of a trap. Temptations are traps that trigger trouble. Verse 2 is a strong warning against causing others to sin. Jesus used the metaphor of “a millstone” to illustrate the severity of the punishment for a person that temps, traps, others highlighting the importance of protecting and nurturing those who are vulnerable. “These little ones” means the ones who are defenseless, innocent. That could be a child, or someone who is simply not very intelligent, or a confused old person or a new believer, or anyone who was ignorant of their current situation. Any ill meaning person that traps an innocent person is guilty of a grievous sin.
A true story: A boy of 12 liked to go to the football games on Friday nights. What could happen, families from all over the county were always there? One of the young men gave a 12-year-old some beer and got him drunk. The young man and older boys thought the drunken kid was hilarious. This went on every ball game that year and the following years there were more opportunities for “fun” watching the drunken kid. For some unknown reason, the boy’s parents did not catch it. At 13 or 14, the young boy began smoking marijuana. His bad habits established, at 17 his parents unable to stop him; he moved in with an older woman, a loose woman, a drug user. Eventually they married and had two children.
The boy now a man, his parents tried to help even financing a home for him, his wife and children. The man and woman moved to another town hours away where both continued to use drugs the cost of which deprived their children of necessities such as a decent diet and adequate clothing. The woman left the man and their children. The drug addicted working man had to finish raising his children by himself. He usually arrived home late and high. The son and daughter grew-up woefully short of necessities, discipline, education and both drug users. The daughter became a whore to pay for her habit and had a number of children that she gave away. The son worked in construction and had three children out of wedlock.
Praise God, the man found Christ. Now realizing what he and his wife had done, he was terribly burdened and painfully sorry. He tried to help the children. For his early tries, they beat him, robed him taken such money as he had. He continued to try to undo the damage he had done to his children and the children they had. It was too no avail; the pain was indeed a millstone around his neck. No one knows where daughter is. His son came home from work one day, pulled out a 38-caliber pistol and committed suicide in front of his three children and their mother. I know this story to be true for it was the story of my baby brother’s slip into hell on earth. I preached his funeral some years ago.
All of this pain started because a young man unknowingly started this boy down a path of destruction, a destruction furthered by running with the wrong crowd. Our scripture is plain, that young man and the others that helped lead this boy into worse and worse things are dead now; if they had not confessed their sins and accepted Christ, are they in hell now? What about the children, Deuteronomy 5:9, “… I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me.” God is jealous of any temptation that may lead His children to sin. You see, God was correct, “the iniquity”, the wickedness of the parents descends on the children and the grandchildren and the great grand children. However, this scripture infers that these victims of the first sin, the 12-year-old boy and later his children, God will consider circumstance at time of judgment. Also, remember that the 12-year-old boy grew to be a man who accepted Christ and confessed his sins. What about the man’s daughter that became a whore and his son that committed suicide, have they not suffered greatly? Will a just God consider the circumstances? Although I do not know, I would expect so. There are thousands of other sins that people commit never thinking of the eternal consequences to themselves and others. Hell is real.
According to Jesus, one sin is a surefire way to go to hell. Mark 3:28-29, “Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” This is the most solemn proclamation in the entire Bible. There is forgiveness for every sin and blasphemy except this one: The conscious rejection of the Holy Spirit is blasphemy, it is a perversion of the sinner’s mind where God and Satan are willfully confused, mixed-up, reversed.
This scripture says that it is possible for you to not only reject what the Holy Spirit teaches you, but also to say in the willfulness of your depraved nature that what the Holy Spirit says is truth is untruth, and what the Holy Spirit says is light is darkness. If a person brings himself or herself into a constant state of corruption and it ultimately becomes a state in which that person cannot fulfill the conditions of pardon, then God will not pardon that person. It is not that God is unwilling to pardon that person; it is not that God’s merciful grace is incapable of bringing him or her forgiveness; it is that person has brought his or her own soul into such a state that it is impossible for the person to repent his or her sin and ask God for forgiveness.
I remember knowing such a person. He was from a prominent family; you would think that he had everything a man could want. He was well educated, personable, successful financially and a member of the board of directors of the company where I worked. In the chitchat just before one of our company’s meetings started, I joyfully shared with him a Sunday School play at our church that past Sunday and how visible God’s love was. He quickly let me know that he did not care for God. I knew him well enough to ask why. He told me that some years before a deadly illness had struck his young son. The man prayed to God to save his son. His son died. The man renounced God saying that God could have saved his son but did not. He literally saw God as the devil and consciously rejected the Holy Spirit of God. Eternal hell is a long time to be mad with God.
From white lies and friendly gossip to blaspheming the Holy Spirit, sin is sin. It has consequences both in life and in death. Take some time to think about some sinful acts that you have witnessed or experienced. Have you thought of the consequences of that sin on the victims, on you? Your experience could be like my first illustration where some one young man does something to a boy not ever thinking of what the consequences might be. Sin can and will compound itself many times over. Or, you may know someone that simply does want anything to do with God. Salvation requires the sinner’s participation.
Even the least of sins can have horrible consequences. The victims of sin hurt and often terribly for many years. Our loving Father gave you many laws to guide you away from the pain of sin. Jesus states the purpose in Matthew 5:17-20: “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” If all people did as Christ requested and obeyed the God’s laws, what a different world we would have. Thank the LORD that for our shortcomings God gave us grace. God hates sin for it destroys you, His child.
God loves you. He has from the start. After God had created the heavens, the earth, and every living thing, God created one last very special being: Genesis 1:27, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” You, sitting here today, are God’s crowning creation.
In Psalm 139, David adds this, “For it was you [God] who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you [Oh God], for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” God intentionally and lovingly knit each of you together in your mother’s womb; that is the reason God knows you so well. How well? In Luke, Jesus said, “… even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
There is even more, David wrote of humankind in the Eighth Psalm, “O LORD ... Thou hast made him [he is speaking of humankind] but a little lower than angels, and hast crowned him [you included] with glory and honor.” How are you a little lower than angels: God made angels of immortal material while you were made of the dust of the earth, yet your spirit, like that of the angels, is immortal.
Yes, God made you in His image; He formed you and made you but a little lower than angels. God loves you. He deeply hopes that you will come to live eternally with Him. Do not let sin spoil that.
Life is a tablet for us to write upon what we wish. You may use your life to be person of character, a person who does his or her duty to their fellow beings by doing good things. On the other hand, you can give into moments of rage, anger, selfishness and egocentricity. You are fallible creatures, a mix of both good behavior toward others and sometimes, unintentionally and intentionally, you do mean sinful things to others and stupid things to yourself.
Yet, Christ brings you to salvation only by One Power, the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God must teach your conscience, the Holy Spirit of God must gain control over your will; and only through the teaching of the Holy Spirit that you willing acknowledge your sin, repent of your sin, and believe in your Savior.
Devote Christians realize that circumstances “that cause people to stumble are bound to come.” God wants you to grow moving through your stumbles on toward perfection. Listen again to David in Psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” God knows everything about you, every mistake that you have ever made, and every sin that you have ever committed even your worst sins. Yet, God loves you and sees you as being of infinite worth. He wants to teach you, to develop you, and ultimately to sanctify you. If you sin, and we all do, God still wants you as His; that is what grace is about. If you have any doubt about your relationship with Christ, come to alter now!
