Pastors note:
Prior to the sermon I had our drama team do A skit I wrote called "What are we teaching our Children" See skit under Dramas.
I ran across these notes while in college but could never find the author, I have massaged this sermon for my own style of Preaching. If you know the author I would gladly give them the credit for the context of this sermon.
This morning we will deal with a subject that the modern church has abandoned. Today I want to speak to you concerning “The Seven Wonders of Hell”.
Lets start this morning by first looking at the seven man made wonders of the ancient world.
Our modern society recognizes 7 wonders of the Ancient World.
# 1 There is the Great Pyramid built nearly 5000 years ago as the
tomb of a Pharaoh in Egypt who ruled about 2700 B.C.
This Pyramid covers an area of some 13 acres at the base.
It con¬tains some 2 million 5 hundred thousand well-cut blocks with
each block weighing about 2 and 1/2 tons.
The original peak rose some 481 feet.
This pyramid is so well constructed that a razor blade can
hardly be inserted between its close fitting stones.
The building is so precisely aligned that the errors of a modern
Magnetic compass can be checked against it.
#2.
These gardens were created some 2500 years ago by King Nebuchadnezzar II
of Babylon. Babylon lay in the flat land of Mesopotamia and had no mountains.
On the banks of the Euphrates River which flowed through the city, the King’s workmen raised an artifi¬cial hill some 350 feet high.
The mountain was terraced with a series of platforms set with trees, lawns, and flowers. Water was pumped up the hill and allowed to flow down through channels and miniature waterfalls. All this was done for the King’s young bride who came from the mountains of Persia.
#3. A third wonder of the Ancient World was the huge figure of Zeus.
Zeus was the God of Thunder, King of the Gods who stood in
The Temple of Zeus at Olympia in Greece. His statue rose to 40 ft.
It was fashioned of thin plates of gold and ivory covering a wooden frame. The eyes were made of 2 large jew¬els and precious stones adorned the golden robe he wore.
#4. The Temple of Diana was the 4th Wonder of the Ancient World.
This temple was made of many pillars of white marble en¬riched with gold and silver. Jewels were stored in the temples base.
#5. The 5th Wonder was in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) was the Mausoleum at Hal¬icarnassus.
It was a marble tomb built for King Mausolus by his devoted wife. The mausoleum was made of white marble, rising to a height of 140 feet on a mound overlooking the little port of Halicarnassus.
Its rectangular courtyard was surrounded by a wall. In the center of the court stood a high platform that was approached by a splendid flight of marble steps. Lions carved in marble guarded the approach.
#6. The Colossus of Rhodes was the sixth wonder of the Ancient World
This bronze statue of the sun god Helios towered above the harbor of Rhodes, an island in the Aegean Sea. It stood over 100 ft. High on a stone base. The Colossus was built by a Greek craftsman named Charles of Lindos in 280 B.C. It was made of metal that had been melted down from the siege en¬glnes used by Demetrius when he attacked Rhodes in 305 B.C.
After gallantly resisting and defeating this invader, the Rhodians erected the statue as a thanks offering to their god The statue depicted Helios shading his eyes and gazing out to sea. In 224 B.C. it was thrown to the ground by an earthquake
#7. The Seventh Wonder of the Ancient World was the Pharos.
The Pharos was the forerunner of all lighthouses. It was built on an island of Pharos near Alexandria, the gateway to Egypt between 285 and 247 B.C. It stood nearly 400 ft. high and was built in levels. Near the top was a broad balcony. Above that a platform supported a brass pan in which a fire burned day and night.
A huge mirror reflected the light so brightly that it could be seen far out at sea. This too was destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century.
Seven ideas produced Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
I would draw your attention now to yet another place, to another
creation by none other than our Lord God. A ¬creation of a place called HELL.
For the next few minutes I want to share with you the 7 Wonders of Hell as we will eventually hear "The Last Cry of the Lost."
1. The first wonder of Hell is the wonder of its existence.
Hell has not always existed for there has not always been sin. And even when sin became present there would still have been no need for a hell if those who rose in rebellion would have repented.
But Lucifer, in all his pride said I will be above the most high. I will operate independently of ’God. And so the Bible says that hell was prepared for the Devil and his angels.
Matt. 25: 41.
There are those today who would have you believe that hell does not exist. Some would deceive you into believing that hell is no more than a garbage dump outside the city gates as suggested by the word Gahanna. But what these people fail to tell you, either out of ignorance or pure deceit, is that the word Ghana is only the Greek representative of the He¬brew "Ge-Hinnom" or Valley of Hinnom.
The Valley of Hinnom is a deep narrow valley to the south of Jerusalem where after the introduction of the worship of the fire gods by King Ahaz, the idolatrous Jews sacrified their children to the god Molech. From the depth and narrowness and its fire and ascending smoke, with the screaming of pain of the young babies being consumed in the fire, it became a symbol of the place of the future punishment of the wicked.
2nd chronicles 28:1-3.
Christ spoke of hell as an existing place in Matthew 10:28:
"Fear Him who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell." And on another occasion he said: "And fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him, who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
Luke 12:5
Christ spoke of hell. Peter spoke of hell. In Acts 1:25 we break into the middle
of a prayer as we read: "Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place." His own place was hell. It is in this passage that we also learn of the law of moral gravitation. The law of moral gravitation pulls people into their proper place.
Judas had to go to his own place. There was demand upon his soul. I ask you, does hell demand your soul? Are you an alien from God? If you were to die would the law of moral gravitation pull your soul into the heart of hell?
Hell is real. Oh the wonder of its existence. In Luke 16:23 we read that the rich man died: "and in Hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments..."is no parable.
This is no little sermonet This is a this historical account of a rich man who died and went to Hell. Now the man was not in hell because he was rich. Lazarus did not go to heaven because he was poor.
Each went to their own place. There was a moral demand for their souls.
The second wonder of hell is the Wonder of its Severe Charac¬ter.
The author of Hebrews declared: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb 10:31) Often people try to play the God of the O.T. against the God of the N.T. They say that the God of the Old Testament is a cruel and mean personage; eager to kill. In contrast is the God of the New Testament, who so loved that he gave his only son.
But the Bible declared that God is immutable (Heb 6:18). Mankind has yet to see the anger of God unleashed on sin. And when judgment comes we will be able to find many descriptive adjec¬tives to paint the picture.
The judgment on the unbeliever will be a part in the lake of fire where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched( MK 9:44). What awaits the man or women who never accepts Christ as Sav¬ior or comes to knowledge for God, is an eternal existence A loss of light and hope and love. A loss of purpose,¬ of loss. and joy, and peace, and beauty.
"Thinkest thou that I who saw the face of God And tasted the eternal joys of heaven Am not tormented with 10 thousand hells In being deprived of everlasting bless?(From Johann Von Gothe’s Mephistophilis in the nineteenth-century poem "Faust".)
Cal Linton has written:
"No more screamingly irrational an ideal has ever been forced onto a gullible public by the father of lies than the view that hell will be a place where the rousting of good fellows will raise the roof with gaiety and cheer. Fellowship is exactly what cannot exist there. Eternal dark communion with a contemptible and a corrupt self is not con¬ducive to gay companionship.” People do either of two things with what they know little about.
One is to laugh the matter off, the second is to simply ignore the problem. Because of hells severe character, we dare do neither.
3. The third wonder of Hell is the wonder of no escape.
A criminal stands before a judge and hears that fateful verdict Sentenced for the remainder of your life to prison. His fate is sealed. The gavel slams the top of the desk and the prisoner is removed to begin a sentence that offers only death
No hope of pardon.
No hope of parole.
And so eternity and a Christless hell awaits the unbeliever with. No hope of escape
4. The fourth wonder of Hell is that there is no end.
How long is eternity?
If a little sparrow were to pick up just a grain of sand from earth and carry it to the farthest galaxy millions of light years away, deposit that grain of sand, return to earth for yet another grain and do the same until the earth has been transported one grain of sand at a time-- ETERNITY WILL HAVE JUST BEGUN!
5. The fifth wonder of hell is its inhabitants.
Revelation 21: gives us hells society list.
Here the unbelievers are des¬cribed as fearful - but not of God; unbelieving - but not of hell; abominable, murders, and fornicators, and sorcerers and all liars...
There are to be other people in hell.Those who come to Christ_and say "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name cast out demons? And in thy name done many won¬derful works"(Matt 21:24)
And Christ shall say to them, "depart from me ye that worketh iniquity, I NEVER knew you." (In the Greek it is rendered (“I never approved of what you were doing”) they were good people who came to Christ...religious people. Christ said to them I NEVER knew you.
6. The sixth wonder of hell is that so many are going there.
Christ has put up road blocks to Hell.
In order to go to hell, they will climb over:
The church, the gospel, their conscience, their better judgment, God’s love, The Cross, and the appeal of the Holy Spirit.
7. The seventh and last wonder of Hell is the wonder of the prayers.
The rich man:
"I pray thee therefore Father, that thou wouldest send him (Lazarus) to my father’s house"(Luke 16:27)
If God the Father would open our ears this morning so we could hear the conversation of the people in hell we would hear pleas for evangelist.
We would hear the cries of the damned warning people to stay away.
We would hear the souls in the flame testify that hell is real, that the punishment is severe, that there is no escape nor end, nor fellowship.
We would hear the Last Cry of the Lost split the silence of this audience this morning as they cry for mercy, not justice, but mercy.
The last cry of the lost is a perpetual plea for the salvation of those here on earth.
Can you hear that cry this Morning?
If you can’t and you die without Christ and without hope, then you too will join those who are even at this very moment screaming in hell.
Life is short, death is certain, and eternity is real.
Conclusion:
There are two ways; Accept Christ and receive eternal Life,
Reject Christ and the message of the Cross, and receive eternal damnation
Is your name written in the lamb’s book of Life today?
Altar call.
Recently in our quiet devotional time with God, I saw in my spirit a vision.
I saw Jesus walk into a huge banquet hall. I knew in my spirit it was where the wedding supper of the lamb will take place. The ones working there turned to Jesus and said Lord; “all is made ready”.
I saw Jesus turn and I saw tears streaming down his face, as he walked out of the room he said “But so many of my people are not ready for my coming”.
