October 20, 2002 Sermon Series on the End Times - Eternal Damnation
For years and years Art Linkletter hosted a TV show called “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” This was usually a very entertaining show because kids do have a tendency to say things that nobody else would say. Sometimes it’s pretty funny. A little boy was overheard praying: "Lord, if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time like I am." Sometimes, it’s rather embarrassing. After the church service, a little boy told the pastor, "When I grow up, I’m going to give you some money." "Well, thank you," the pastor replied, "but why?" "Because my daddy says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had." Sometimes, it’s rather straight forward. A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human, because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. The teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven, I will ask Jonah." The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied, "Then you ask him."
In the Bible, you would be surprised at how sometimes straight forward God speaks. For instance, the Song of Songs is not pornographic, but it does have sexual connotations and sometimes straight forward talk. God compares our sins to a dirty menstrual cloth. Sometimes these things make us blush. Just this past week Andy Rooney ridiculed the fact that women were on the sidelines in football games doing commentary because they “don’t know anything about football.” As ridiculous of a statement as it was, some people found it refreshing because it was straight forward. After decades of being afraid to offend anyone, are we going to be more tell it like it is people now? Maybe it would be refreshing.
Even though 71 percent of the people surveyed believe in hell, it is, as Anton said, “getting the cold shoulder.” Why? “It isn’t sexy enough anymore,” said Faris, pastor of Crown Valley Vineyard Christian Fellowship. Anton added, “The rise of psychology, the philosophy of existentialism and the consumer culture have all dumped buckets of water on hell.” “It’s just too negative,” said Bruce Shelley, a senior professor of church history at the Denver Theological Seminary. “Churches are under enormous pressure to be consumer oriented. They feel the need to be appealing rather than demanding.” So nobody talks about hell too often. They don’t even like to pronounce it as they say instead “h e double toothpicks.” Whether it makes you blush or refreshes you, today we’re going to buck the trend. Instead of ignoring the doctrine, we will try to fan the doctrine into a spiritual flame, as we -
Put Some Sticks on H E Double Toothpicks
One of the saddest pictures I have seen is a drawing by Dore, called “the End of All Flesh.” In a depiction of the flood, it pictures a tiger and several children sitting on the top of a mountain, surrounded by raging water. Clinging to the edge are several adults, trying to hold the children up on the top of the mountain so they don’t drown in the flood. It brought home the vividness of the flood to me. Millions of people and animals died at that time. It wasn’t a cute little picture of a boat floating around. It was a disaster!
As terrible as that picture of the flood was, it is nothing in comparison to God’s own descriptions of what hell are like. Scriptures certainly aren’t lacking in a description of what it is like. Jesus described it as people who are sent out from God’s presence - into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Matthew 22) Later on he called it the . . fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Mt 25:41 In Revelation John called it “the lake of fire.” In the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, Jesus said that the Rich Man called out from hell - ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ (Lk 16:24). He begged for one just drop of water on his tongue. Think about what a terrifying picture this is! Every time we get a drink from a water fountain, we are enjoying something that anyone in hell would die for! And you want to know the worst part about it? Paul says, They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 2 Th 1:9 It would be bad enough if this were a temporary punishment, but God’s Word repeatedly says that it lasts FOREVER.
There are those who make jokes out of the doctrine of hell. There are doubters. There are people who like to think God is speaking symbolically. “Fire and darkness can’t exist together,” they say. “Sheol - the Hebrew word translated hell in the New Testament - actually just means grave”, they will insist. “ It’s not really forever,” others will say. “How can a God of love have a hell?”, they will ask. Others get wrapped up in where it exists. This is like catching a child doing something wrong, and telling him he is going to get a spanking, only to have him respond, “how long will it last? What tool will you use? How can you claim to be fair?” Whether the fire will be real or is symbolic of other suffering is not relative. Where it is does not matter. As Chrysostom said, "Let us not seek to find out where it is; but how we may escape it." But many today don’t want to talk about the reality of it. They’d rather ignore the topic of hell or deny it’s existence. They would rather tell anyone who mentions it that he or she is unloving and judgmental and shouldn’t say such things.
They won’t be laughing on Judgment Day. There will be no atheists on that Day. They won’t be able to ignore it’s reality or deny it forever. Instead, they’ll be running. The book of Revelation describes how terrified many will be when Judgment Day comes on the Last Day. Finally many will stand face to face with their maker. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" Re 6:16 17 They’ll want to commit suicide, but there will be no rope. They’ll have no choice but to meet their maker.
So we need to talk about it. Listen to God’s description now of who will end up in hell. 1 Corinthians 6 declares that, Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus said that anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Mt 5:22) James warns that The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. After describing hell, Jesus went on to say that “many are called, but few are chosen.” These are the facts about hell. We’ve laid some sticks on h e double toothpicks.
I can recall my former bishop telling me a story about giving one of his members a devotion while he was in the hospital. It was based on Psalm 23, on how we must all walk through the valley of the shadow of death. As he was going along, the member interrupted him and said, “Pastor, do you know something I don’t know?” He thought that since his pastor was talking about death and dying, that he was dying. Usually you don’t discuss something unless you plan on it happening. The question you might ask is, Pastor, why are you talking about hell? Do you think we’re going there? If you look at the above words about hell – what would you say? If you’ve ever called anyone a fool, God’s Word says you’re in the danger of hell. If you are a greedy person, you will go to hell. If you’ve been sexually immoral? Hell. If you’ve ever slandered anyone? God’s Word says you won’t inherit heaven – equaling hell.
However, the whole message of Christianity is that God has removed the threat of hell. Remember that the Bible declares that when he sends people to hell he will say to them, “Depart from me!” Hell is the complete opposite of Eden – where God withdraws His loving presence from your life eternally. One of the most vivid descriptions of hell, is actually found in what happened to Christ on the cross. As he hung on the cross he cried out to God the Father, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” As Jesus hung there, a bloody and beaten mess, instead of coming to his rescue, God the Father completely withdrew his loving presence from Jesus’ – disowning His only Son. Why would God do that to his own Son whom he had just said he was “well pleased with” at the Mount of Transfiguration? Because Jesus was going there for US. Now, God promises us that “God made Him who had no sin to be sin FOR US.” He also says, “the punishment that BROUGHT US PEACE was UPON HIM.” These are promises from God’s holy Word that Jesus went through hell in our place. He promises us that this salvation is given to us through faith. (Ephesians 2:8) With the WATER of baptism, he has thrown out the FIRE of hell. That is our TOTAL comfort as Christians. We truly believe that we are not going to hell, because we already went to hell when Jesus died in our place.
“When you have a group of people who are born again, you’re not going to hell,” said Bob Anderson, 51, a lawyer who attends an evangelical church in Fullerton, Calif. “So why talk about it?” Why am I talking about hell if I don’t plan on having any of you end up in hell. Isn’t it a waste of time talking about this ugly subject?
There’s a song that I like to listen to – it’s a depressing song by Alabama, called “In Pictures.” In it he sadly sings about how he wished he could turn back time, because now – after a divorce – he had to watch his baby grow up “in pictures.” This song helps to remind me about how sad life is for some – and how blessed I really am. It makes me thankful for what I have. Every night I can kiss my children good night. I can experience their first steps. I appreciate that more. Honestly, we shouldn’t have to talk about hell. However, like ungrateful children, we have to be reminded of how bad we could have it and should have it. When we talk about hell, it first of all makes us thankful to remember what we have! We are saved from this terrible fate through the blood of Jesus Christ. We know that God loves us and forgives us. We know that God has saved us from what we deserve.
We also need to be real. As long as we are alive, we could still end up in hell if we aren’t careful. In the parable of the plant getting choked by the weeds the message is clear – or the parable of the seed being planted in shallow soil, the message is clear - “if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.” Anyone that preaches otherwise is lying. It is my whole duty, as a called Pastor of sheep, to do my best to make sure that doesn’t happen. So the best thing to do is to keep warning you about it. It’s like a parent with a teenager. You can preach and preach to them to “be careful” when they go somewhere. They know what you’re going to say before you say it. But you say it anyway. Why? So they don’t forget, and they remember the danger of an accident is still real. Even with the warnings, how many still end up being careless and getting in an accident? Judas probably thought there was no way he would ever fall from faith. He was taught daily by Christ. He was one of the 12 chosen disciples! How could he? The devil found his weakness, exploited it, and exposed it. That’s how crafty he is! If he could get Satan to fall, he could get you to do fall as well. Even as a Christian, you still have a sinful nature that likes being apart from God. It likes being in darkness. It feels comfortable in sin. Don’t kid yourself into thinking it couldn’t happen to you. Hell is somewhere you COULD end up. And God’s Word says if you fall after having known the truth it will be WORSE for you - Luke 12:47,48: "That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows.
Will you end up there? Or in heaven? I can’t read the future, and neither can you. But think about the story of the Rich man and Lazarus. The Rich Man thought that Lazarus should raise from the dead to warn his brothers. But what did Abraham tell him. They have Moses and the Prophets, let them listen to them! The word of God would be powerful enough to convert them. The good news for us then is that WE HAVE that word of God. We know right now that we will go to heaven if we die today, because Jesus died for us and we were baptized. We have the same word that makes us strong for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. We have Christian fellowship – the support of fellow Christians looking out for us and praying for us. We have the Lord’s Supper to keep us strong. So God promises us that as long as we stay in his word that NOTHING can snatch us out of His hand. Imagine it this way – it’s just like the story of the three little pigs. Like the third pig, is as if we are sitting in an impenetrable fortress. We have the power to walk out, but nobody has the power to come in. The devil is knocking on our door, threatening to huff and puff and blow our house in. Don’t listen to him. Don’t panic! Don’t leave the house! Stay in the Word. Keep coming to worship. Then when he tries to come down your chimney, you can smoke him out with the Word of God. It’s scary to think about being eaten by the devil. Yet it’s comforting to know he can never come in without our letting him.
In every day conversation, sometimes people have encouraged others to “give em’ hell.” I would assume that this would mean to really go after someone – usually someone who has wronged you - in a hard nosed fashion – no mercy. It’s probably not a very proper thing to do or say. Today, I have put some sticks on he double toothpicks – torqued the fire – and shown you the most blunt picture of hell as I could through God’s word. I have literally given you hell. But what was my purpose? It was not because I was angry with you. It was not to get revenge, or because I thought you were going to hell. It was not to make you run from God. It was for another purpose – to have you sprint to the cross and hide yourself in the cross of Christ! It was to have you cling all the more tenaciously to God’s Word and the fellowship of the saints! I hope and pray it worked. Amen.
