WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO HELL?
Text: I Thess. 5:9 “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I have been wanting to speak on this topic for many years. In fact, waaay back in the beginning of my ministry I created a sermon on this topic and then was advised against preaching it. “Accentuate the positive” I was told, “when people know the good God has for them now and eternally, they will naturally want to follow Him.” I bought that philosophy hook, line and sinker. And to a large degree, I still believe it and preach it…………… For too long, in America, God’s word was thundered from the pulpit each Lord’s Day, - long on judgment and devoid of love and grace - and, quite often, leaving people to conclude our God was implacable. Comedians, Politicians, Educators, and just everyday folks began to make light of “Bible Thumping Preachers,” and lumped every proclaimer of God’s Word under the all encompassing umbrella of those breathing “Fire and Brimstone.”
I don’t know enough about the thinking of men like Norman Vincent Peale to know whether he, and others of like mind, intended Christians should ignore completely the “severity of God,” or if they were only hoping to swing things back to a more centered view, but ……….. The pendulum never stops half way does it? For many years now, (certainly a generation or more) Christian magazines, radio and TV shows, and local pulpits have, for the most part, been silent on this part of the “whole council of God.”
So why do I broach the subject now? Well……….. I suppose that could be sermon in itself, but let me just say this much……..starting with a confession. I myself, have been guilty in the past, of making light of this message and those who preached it. Unfortunately those old tent revivalists of my youth come back to my mind as so many buffoons. Hair slicked back (or eyebrows converging above the nose, sprouting off in every direction,) white shirt stuck to their body with perspiration, huge, white handkerchiefs used to dab their face, eyes that glared fire and brimstone, before they ever opened their mouth……………
All I knew when I entered the ministry, was that I wanted to get as far away from that stereotype as I could. And I did. I laughed along with others in the movie house whenever the old western preacher was portrayed as a lecher or a drunk. I watched as over the years ministers of high (and low) profile, and noted for preaching a sterner sort of religion, were “outed” as frauds. All of this only strengthened my resolve.
I began my ministry preaching the love of God. I continue to do so. I believe it! I believe that knowing the love of God expressed to us in the living and dying of Jesus Christ is the only hope for the individual, the family, our State, the Nation, and the World. I have seen its life transforming power. I have experienced it myself. Indeed, I have “tasted of the power of the age to come.” And it tastes like Love. Pure - unadulterated - literal - palpable - eternal…………
Are you with me so far?
Even though the “agape” love of God is poles apart from the “eros” or the “phileo” kind of love most of us are talking about when we use the word “love,” there are some comparisons we can make.
The Greek word “eros” gives us our root word for physical love. When I hear folks talking about “true love” as opposed to “lust,” I know they are, usually, still talking about a physical kind of love. And I know that physical love can be good or bad. So do you. In fact what makes true love “true” is that it also contains elements of agape and phileo love. We recognize it immediately as something better than just lust. When we compare and contrast the various kinds of love we conclude that one kind is good because we have experienced what “bad” is.
(I’m in over my head on these Greek lessons. I may have been sleeping through these classes. But I’m close. Lol)
The Greek “phileo” gives us our root word for brotherly love. Thus the city of “Phila”delphia, or The City of Brotherly Love. Why do we need a distinction between “brotherly love” and any other kind of love? Because we have experienced what happens when society descends to “every man for himself.” “If you forgot let me recommend you rent “Road Warriors,” with Mel Gibson, and watch it again. - (A post apocalyptic society broken down to its lowest common denominator.)
“Agape” love, or the love of God is altruistic, or selfless, or concerned only with the other person,…..an “I want the highest good for you,” kind of love. (Ex. “In that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”)
Agape love cannot be duplicated. It cannot be faked, and only in its broad connotative sense can it apply to any human endeavor. Agape love is God’s love.
There is no good or bad agape love. You either have it or you don’t so we cannot compare good agape to bad agape, can we.
Now stay close by me here for just a minute because I don’t want to lose you. The Bible says that “God so loved the world………..” Don’t ever try and argue with that. Don’t ever forget that before God sent His Son to die on our behalf, He loved us. (I emphasize that point because it seems that in too many peoples theology God loves us only after He notes our response to His Son.) “The Bible says “God so loved the world (before) He gave His only begotten Son…………” We know then, that God loves ugly people, beautiful people, skinny people, fat people, rich people, poor people, and listen…….. God loves good sinners and bad sinners. God loves each of us as if we were His only child.
Now listen to me closely and don’t confuse this point. Just because God so loves this world……….. Does not make everyone in this world a recipient of His love. Illus. A drowning man being thrown a rope. He can grab on and be pulled to safety or he can decide to try and save himself.
Ergo - God’s love is the rope (Jesus Christ) thrown out to a lost and dying world. And only those who take hold of the rope will know God’s love expressed to them as forgiveness of sins, right standing before the Father, peace of heart and mind today, and hope for a glorious future with God, in Heaven.
Our Heavenly Father will not tie a loop in the rope and try and lasso you to save you from drowning. He will not tie the rope across the river in hope of snagging you on your way down. He will not tie a rock to the end of the rope and try and knock you unconscious so he can then pull you ashore against your will. When you reject the lifeguards rope you are in effect saying “I can save myself. I don’t need your help. I’m a good swimmer I will break out of this whirlpool eventually and swim to shore on my own power. I don’t believe I am going to drown. I can handle the rocks and undercurrent below the falls……….”
And………………….now here we go.
When you reject God’s lifeline you are in effect saying, “I can handle life. I don’t need anyone to save me. Anyone who needs help is a coward and a sissy. I’m not really in that much danger. I will handle the after-life on my own.” Well……..you fill in the blanks.
There is good physical love and there is bad physical love.
There is a good kind of love between humankind and there is a bad (phony) kind of love between humans.
We all know or are learning the difference.
BUT we are either a recipient of God’s kind of love or we are not. The choice is ours.
Now if we know the difference between the kinds of loves we experience while here on earth, doesn’t it seem reasonable to assume that with all else God has revealed He would also show us what life lived outside the love of God is like? Well He did. The Bible calls it Hell. And there is good reason to bring up this subject every now and then.
We humans seem to have great capacity for ignoring impending trouble. We are going to get that knocking sound in our engine checked out one of these days. We are aware that our bank statement doesn’t match the numbers we have in our checkbook, and we are going to look into it. That lost filling still hasn’t been replaced six months later. I visited with a couple one time, and during the course of our conversation we began to discuss term life insurance to cover the mortgage on our houses and where we might get it, how much it would cost, etc. Three months later the husband died from a heart attack and the wife lost her house because they put off getting mortgage insurance. I had a professor in seminary who was asked the question, in class, “when do married couples who are having trouble usually look for outside counseling?” He replied, “About a year too late.”
You see, in all of these things and more, we behave as if the problems are really no big deal because we have downplayed the outcome or the results in our mind.
Nowhere and on no subject do we play this “let’s pretend” game more than we do with our eternal soul.
In a nutshell the bible teaches that if you step out of this life into eternity and you are not covered with the blood of Jesus Christ, - if you are not clothed with the Righteousness of Christ……………, you are going to a place so horrible, so frightening, so filled with anguish and pain, so “hellish,” that it almost defies description.
Mt. 25:41 - “Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels….”
Jude 5 “Though you already know all this I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the Angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home - these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for the judgment on the great Day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
Rev. 20:10f “And the devil, who deceived (the people) was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Will Hell really be a place where those outside of Christ are salted with burning sulfur and tormented in a lake of fire forever? Or is all of that just symbolism?
Does it matter? Either way, does it sound like some place you would like to spend eternity?
As a matter of fact, when I think of Hell I think of the antithesis of Heaven.
In Heaven we will have communion with God and others. Hell is a place of eternal separation……from God and loved ones.
In Heaven, all tears will be washed away, there will be no more reason to grieve or know pain. Hell is a place of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
When we first fall in love - when we hold our new born babies - When somehow or other God turns a misfortune into a success - When we stand in awe of the sun setting over the mountains - When our hearts warm in the presence of family and friends……we call these times “A little bit of Heaven on Earth…… A “foretaste of glory divine.”
How can it be anything less that a foretaste of Hell when we loose a young son, or friend, or brother to the ravages of war?
When a baby is born hopelessly deformed and his parents are forced to watch him die a slow, painful death.
When you walk your daughter down the aisle and place her hand into the hand of the man who will murder her in the coming months?
When the ravages of drugs and alcohol and sexually transmitted diseases are laying our young people low in ever increasing numbers.
When national leaders are responsible for the death of tens of thousands and even millions of their own people.
If you had been forced to stand helplessly by when the Nazis dragged your children away screaming and crying…….would you have thought you were in the ante-chamber of Hell?
If you had been there when the Plague killed 1/3 of the population of Europe would you have had visions portending eternal suffering?
When you spend 18 years carrying your child around to doctors, and ball games, and dance recitals…………..when you have watched with joy filling your heart as your child tore into birthday and Christmas presents, when you have stayed up nights with them when they were sick…………and you have counseled them through loves lost…….tell me it isn’t just a bit hellish when the police come to the door and inform you that your cherished child has been snatched from your arms in a tragic accident.
In 2 Thess. 2:7 The Apostle Paul writes “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.” Could we say then, that as bad as life can get - It would be even worse if God’s Spirit wasn’t even now holding evil in check?
Over and over again I hear people inform me that “a loving God would never send someone to a place like that.” Over and over again I reply “You are right. God doesn’t send us to a place like that. Just as in life we all have the choice of who we will marry - what kind of work we will enter into - how many children will we have - where will we live - what shall we eat today? Where we will spend eternity is a decision that is all ours.
C.S. Lewis writes somewhere that while we are on earth we pray to God “not my will but thine be done.” On that day we stand before God we will hear him say to us “not my will but thine be done.”
Heaven? Or Hell? The choice is ours.
Stand fast, my Christian brothers and sisters…………. For upon the authority of God’s Holy Word, life on planet earth is as close to Hell as we will come.
Beat your breast……wail and tremble, those of you who reject Christ. For upon the authority of God’s Holy Word, life on planet earth is as close to Heaven as you will come.
Our total lack of discussion on this vital doctrine may simply be an over reaction to the Hell Fire and Damnation sermons we heard as a child. Or, it may be our 21st century intellectual snobbery. We have relegated it to the Dark Ages.
It may be in our attempt to present the Love of God, we have totally ignored the Justice of God.
It may be our failure to accept personal responsibility. We live in a day and age when someone other than us always has to be at fault. And it’s usually a large corporation with “deep pockets.”
I pray for all of us today, that we will have done with misinterpretations or any youthful revulsion we may have against the way this doctrine was presented. Hell is very real my friends. The bible teaches it and experience has shown us its reality.
But the beauty of the Gospel message is………..we don’t have to go there.
How can I be so sure of that?
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish (shall not perish,) but have everlasting life.”
