Has anyone here ever heard of Diego Rivera? No, not Geraldo Rivera from TV... Diego Rivera. Diego Rivera was a famous mural painter from Mexico at the beginning part of the 20th century. Rivera painted a handful of very famous murals depicting Mexico’s history. In these murals he would place important historical figures from different time periods literally side by side in one big panorama.
The book of Isaiah is like one of Diego Rivera’s murals. God, speaking through the Prophet Isaiah, gives us a panoramic view of history and the future – of time as we know it. He paints in broad strokes from the perspective of eternity. You see, God lives outside of time. For him it’s as if the future has already happened. So in the book of Isaiah, he places future events side by side. He speaks of the future as if it has already happened. For example, he describes in detail the suffering and death of Jesus 700 years before his birth and he tells it AS IF IT HAD ALREADY HAPPENED!
Well, our text for this morning is comprised of the last written words of the Prophet Isaiah. In our text we have a mural – a mural which depicts man’s journey to eternity. In this mural there are only two roads on which to travel. And this morning we’re going to take a look at those two roads: the road that leads to eternal destruction in Hell and the road which leads to eternal life in Heaven. We read from Isaiah 66:18-24...
I. The road which leads to the eternal destruction of Hell.
Heaven and Hell exist. I feel I must say that, because our post-modern society isn’t quite sure. Well, that is, at least about the Hell part. This last week, I went on the internet and checked out some surveys to see what Americans believe about Heaven and Hell. Now, I can’t say whether these surveys are completely accurate, but the results are definitely interesting.
It seems that 93% of Americans believe that heaven exists, but less than 60% believe that hell exists. Less than 10% think that they are going there. Only 27% even believe that the Devil is real – So, I guess the old saying is true: “The greatest feat the Devil ever accomplished was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.” – 45% of Americans think that it really doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe something. 44% believe that good atheists will get to go to heaven. And I guess none of this is surprising seeing that only 41%, well under half of all Americans, believe that the Bible is totally accurate. So if I don’t like to hear what the Bible says about Hell, punishment, and sin... I’ll just believe them away.
But God’s Word is totally accurate. God’s Word does speak of Hell, of eternal death, and of the punishment of sin. In fact, Isaiah paints a very vivid picture of Hell here in our text. In verses 22 and 23 he pictures heaven like the Holy City of Jerusalem and the Temple where believers will worship God forever. In verse 24, Isaiah says that outside of the temple are the dead bodies of those who rebelled against him, and that “their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”
This is word picture that the Jews of Isaiah’s day would be able to see very clearly. You see, just outside of Jerusalem a short distance from the Temple is the Hinnon Valley. The New Testament uses the Hinnon Valley as an illustration for Hell and for good reason. Since Old Testament days, the Hinnon Valley was a place of wailing and groaning. It was there that pagans slaughtered and burned their own children as sacrifices to the god Moloch. For centuries it served as the dump of Jerusalem where garbage and carcasses were burned. It was a place of filth and disgust for those who lived in Jerusalem.
And Isaiah says that that is what Hell will be, an eternal fire, worms eating away at your flesh forever. A place outside of God’s Kingdom. Thrown out of his perfect presence into eternal punishment. An eternity in the filthiest, most painful and most disgusting place imaginable. As Jesus said in our Gospel for this morning, “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And what is the road that leads to Hell? Well, basically it’s the road that we all start out on. The road that we all travel by nature. In verse 18, God says that because of man’s actions and imaginations (literally his actions and thoughts), he would come to gather them together to see his glory. Now remember, for sinful mankind to see God’s glory is not a good thing. He is talking here of his glorious and awesome judgement.
And to those who think, “Well I don’t need to be afraid of God’s judgement. I’m not such a bad person. I haven’t killed anyone. I’ve been a good husband or wife, father or mother.” Well, God says that it is not only for their actions, but also for their thoughts... their imaginations. Those of you who are studying the Sermon on the Mount with Pastor Carlos, I’m sure have seen that angry, hateful thoughts are murder in God’s eyes. Lustful thoughts are adultery. We all are murderers and adulterers. “Good atheists” are still murderers. Well-intentioned, moral people are still adulterers.
All have rebelled against God and deserve his punishment. A punishment which is real. A punishment which millions of people from every generation will suffer. Hell is very real. All people deserve to go there. We may not like to hear about it. Our world tells us to go to churches that tell us “I’m OK. You’re OK. All people are basically good. All people except the worst of the worst will go to heaven.” The Bible doesn’t say that. In fact the Bible is very clear. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And “The wages of sin is death.”
II. The road to eternal life.
The amazing thing is that God is not only a just God who must punish sin, he is also a God of love who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Isaiah here tells us in verse 19 that God will “set a sign among them”. The original Hebrew literally has the idea of doing a wondrous, amazing thing among them.
And what was that wondrous thing that God did among us? He sent his only Son as the Narrow door that leads to heaven. Jesus is the road that leads to heaven. The way, the truth and the life. We see in verse 19 that there would be survivors, those who are saved from God’s just punishment. And we know well how that came about. God punished Jesus for the sins of all mankind. There is now no punishment for those who believe in him.
And we see that out of those first “survivors”, i.e., out those first Jewish believers many would go out to the ends of the earth to bring people from every nation, tribe and tongue into God’s family. And that’s just what happened 800 years after Isaiah died. The disciples, a small number of Jewish believers, went out and spread that Gospel all over the world. We can see here in our church the fulfillment of this prophecy. People from all over the world who speak different languages have been brought into the family of God. And we now have the privilege to continue to share that Gospel. Isaiah even tells us that we the Gentiles will actually bring back some of his Jewish brothers into God’s family.
Every time we share God’s Word with someone and bring them into God’s family, to the Holy Mountain of Jerusalem (which is a figurative way of saying, “God’s Holy Church”), we are presenting to God a holy and perfect offering of thanksgiving. Just like the offerings that the Israelites used to bring to God in their ceremonially clean vessels. You see, all those who believe can present themselves to God as perfect and holy, ceremonially clean, because we have been washed in Jesus’ blood.
In fact we are now priests in service to God as verse 21 says. The Apostle Peter writes that we, even though we are not Israelites physically, through faith we have become “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.” We are God’s chosen people. We are priests. In heaven we will be in God’s holy temple. We will see him face to face. We will praise him from “New Moon to New Moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath”, that is, we will worship and thank him continually forever.
All because of Jesus. He is the narrow door. He is the road to heaven. There is no other. There’s an old saying: “All roads lead to Rome.” Well, not all roads lead to heaven. It is not enough just to believe that there is a god. Those who say that there is only one god and that the different religions of the world only worship him in different ways are wrong! If a person doesn’t believe in Jesus, he is on the road to Hell. Being a good person. Trying hard. Being spiritual. Even though they sound good, without Jesus they are all different roads leading to the same place: hell.
There is only one way to heaven: through faith in Jesus. What a wonderful and amazing thing it is that we are on that road. What a gracious God we have!
My favorite poem of all time is a well-known poem written by Robert Frost called “The Road Not Taken”. In it Frost describes how one day he was walking in the woods and came to a fork in the road. The first road was more highly traveled. It seemed like the easier way to go. The other was overgrown and narrow. Very few people had traveled down it. The poem ends in this way:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The world presents us with many roads, all of which eventually lead to Hell. God has called us and saved us through the blood of his Son Jesus Christ. He has placed us on the road less traveled. We are going through the “Narrow Door” to Heaven, who Jesus Christ. So let’s stay the path. Let’s thank God every day. For it really will make all the difference. Amen.
