SOMETHING WORSE THAN GOING TO HELL
This message is based in part on a sermon I heard several years ago. The preachers name has long since slipped my mind, but the echo of the living coal I was touched with through that message continues to resonate in my soul.
This message is about something worse than going to hell, something better than going to heaven. For now we will just discuss something worse than going to hell.
I know what you are thinking. Preacher, you have lost your mind, how could anything be worse than going to hell? If you will give me just a few minutes of your time, before you write me off as a heretic, when I’m done I’m sure you will be able to say that the preacher was right, there is something worse than going to hell, and something better than going to heaven.
Text: Jeremiah 8:20-22 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead; [is there] no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
In context this passage is about the judgement of God that would result in no harvest for the Jews. But for the purpose of this message we will take it to be the cry of lost souls in hell.
This crying over a lack of harvest is something more and more farmers are saying because of changes in the weather. Imagine working a whole year, and in the end having nothing to show for it because your crops could not stand the test of frost, or the test of rain, or the test of drought. Similarily because peoples lives won’t measure up, the text in Jeremiah 8:20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved," is one that will undoubtedly be repeated many times in hell by those who will weep and wail that they squandered their opportunity to get saved, and get right with God, but did not.
SUMMER IS COME, HARVEST IS PAST,AND STILL WE ARE NOT SAVED! Isn’t that the cry of the rich man in Luke 16? Now think about this:
The rich man in Luke 16 was crying 2,000 years ago to have a finger dipped in water to touch his tongue. He is still crying 2,000 years later! He will still be crying 2,000 years from now, and so on, and yet you ask, "Pastor, how can you say there is something worse than going to hell?"
Well, I guess I have made you sit on the edge of your seat long enough, the one thing that is worse than going to hell is.... GOING TO HELL AND TAKING SOMEONE WITH YOU.
I had to talk to a friend recently, who just moved out of the inner city because his 15 year old son has been staying out all night, and is seemingly out of control. This friend is a former pastor who is backslid, and only going to church once or twice a year. When I told him there was one thing worse than going to hell,and what it was, there was almost an audible groan you could hear on the other end of the phone.
How could you do such a thing, to a friend you might ask? I don’t want this dad in hell with his son. Its bad enough if he goes there, but his sorrow will be doubled to hear his son cry and say, "Daddy why didn’t you warn me about this place?! Daddy, why didn’t set a better example before me?! Daddy, why did you stop bringing me and Momma to church?!
If you don’t know Jesus as a your personal Lord and Savior journey with me 1,000 years into the future, and this is you speaking. "Summer is come, harvest is past, and I am doomed." It is doubly maddening because you will cry out and say, "that preacher told me, ’O why, O why didn’t I listen to him when it could have made a difference.’" I pray to God you don’t go there, and if you do go there despite my prayers, I pray you go alone. I am afraid though, that hell is going to be full of children cussing their parents, and brothers crying to their brothers, and cousins crying to their cousins, and classmates crying to their classmates for their poor example and bad influence. I don’t think anybody goes to hell alone, I think the power of influence is much stronger than we would like to imagine. Perhaps the rich man in Luke 16 was so concerned for his 5 brothers because he knew he had set a bad example for them, and as bad as hell was it horrified him that his brothers would wind up there also. You see there is one thing worse than going to hell, and that is taking someone with you.
And if you haven’t figured it out already, the one thing that is better than going to heaven is taking someone with you.
Let me now address this text to believer this morning. Listen up!
Put your ear to the ground there is a thundering sound, Niagara Falls is ahead and the world is headed downstream in a straw basket. Hear their cry 10,000 years from now it will still be the same. Work while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work.
v. 22 is God’s indictment of the believing church? Jeremiah 8:21-22 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me [Is there] no balm in Gilead; [is there] no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
We read astonishment hath taken hold on God. What astonished Him? That there was balm available and yet it was not applied. This thought reminds me of another verse:
Isaiah 59:16 And he saw that [there was] no man, and wondered that [there was] no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
What made God wonder?
1. God knew prayer was effective, and He wondered why people weren’t praying.
2. He knew His people were aware of those rowing on the Niagara and He wondered why they weren’t interceding and pleading, but were busy enjoying picnic lunches and a glorious sunset.
Church take your eyes off the sunset for a moment and look downstream!
Sometimes we need a wake up call:
Illus: A Pastor I know was weeping his 10 year old arrested for shoplifting.
The Police officer said, "the only way to get out of this now is to go to court and prove you didn’t do it.
For those in Hell the only way for them to get out is to go to court and prove they didn’t do it, and that is impossible. Now is the day of salvation, there is no opportunity after this life. God knows we know the condition of the world and wonders why we aren’t doing more.
3. 1. He knew prayer was effective.
2. He knows we are aware of the danger.
3. He knows that those who are aware of the danger are also those who know that prayer works! But instead of praying about those in mortal danger our prayers often concern triffiling matters of creature comforts. If your prayers was scientifically studied how would they be categorized.
90% for self needs.
9% for other friends needs.
1% for lost souls?
If that describes you then it is no wonder God wonders. As if that weren’t enough the 4th reason that God wonders is that He knows that we know there is something better than going to heaven, and that is taking someone with you. It has to amaze Him when He sees the unconcern in His people.
Closing thought: I wonder how many here were responsible that someone else started doing drugs, or drinking, or got them involved in sexual immorality. That is, you are the one that introduced them to these things, and today you are on your way to heaven and they are on their way elsewhere. The bible says there will be no tears in heaven, and part of the reason we won’t groan for them there is because it wouldn’t do them any good. If you are going to weep for souls you have to do it now while it can do some good, lest your former friends come to that unhappy day where they say, "the harvest is past, the summer is ended and still we are not saved."
