Message for THE LORD'S DAY EVENING, August 9, 2015 Christian Hope church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister Message 5 in Hot Summer Nights Sermon Series The Place of Eternal Hot Nights (What Does The Bible Teach About Hell?) (miscellaneous scriptures) Invariably, this time of year someone will walk up to me on a scorching hot summer day or evening and say, Boy, this would be a great time to preach a sermon on hell. I have also gotten that request a lot over the years when the Church air-conditioner wasn't working properly. There is just something about the blazing heat of summer that naturally makes us think of the blazing heat of hell. And so tonight, as we continue with our Hot Summer Nights series, I would like for us to spend some time reflecting on what the Bible teaches us about this awful place called hell. I have entitled tonight's message: The Place of Eternal Hot Nights. ***************************************************** Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter twenty five. And let's read verses 41-46. MATTHEW 25:41-46 (NKJV) 41 Then He will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.
44 Then they also will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You? 45 Then He will answer them, saying, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. P R A Y E R ******************** I N T R O D U C T I O N ILLUSTRATION: Rob Bell was once the poster boy for the modern day evangelical Church. Dressed in his thick-rimmed glasses and skinny blue jeans, Bell's messages resonated with the 7,000 plus who attended Sunday services at the Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 2006, the Chicago Sun-Times did a feature article on Rob Bell, touting him as the next Billy Graham. But after the release of his 2011 New York Times best seller, LOVE WINS Rob Bell set off a firestorm of controversy that resulted in him leaving the ministry and ultimately quitting the Church altogether. At the very epicenter of the controversy surrounding Bell's book was what he said about HELL. Bell said, (and I quote) Hell is just one last pit stop a person makes before Heaven. After a long life of rebellion against GOD...if hell is too hot, don't worry! You can accept GOD'S love and you will be whisked away to the streets of gold. According to Bell, If you go to hell and change your mind and want to go to heaven, all you have to do is find the exit door.
Bell goes on to say...god's love will eventually melt the hardest of hearts in hell and bring them into heaven. Men like Josef Stalin, Adolph Hitler, and even Judas Iscariot, will one day walk the streets of gold. ***************** In our generation, preaching on Hell and God's eternal judgment has all but disappeared from many American pulpits. And the scary thing about that is that hardly anyone has even noticed. Personally, I believe there is a direct connection between the decline in preaching on Hell and the moral decline of America in this generation. According to the Barna Research Group only 32% of Americans believe in an actual place called hell, and of those surveyed, only one-half of 1% expect to go to hell. When it comes to a subject as vitally important as hell, people's opinions don't matter. What matters is what does the Bible say? That is what we want to consider in tonight's message. First of all, let's consider... I. Is Hell A REAL PLACE? 1. Anyone who believes the Bible is the inerrant word of GOD believes if God's word says there is a real place called hell, then Hell is a real place.
2. The word hell appears 54 times in the King James Version and 32 times in the New King James Version. 3. Of the 1,870 verses recording the words of Jesus, 13% of those verses make reference to Hell and God's judgment. 4. Out of the 50 parables Jesus taught in the Gospels, over half refer to God's eternal judgment in hell. 5. Make no mistake, JESUS speaks about hell as being a very real place. MATTHEW 10:28 (NKJV) And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. MATTHEW 5:29,30 (NKJV) If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And listen to what Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees in MATTHEW 23:33 (NKJV) Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
6. One reason why so many struggle to believe in hell is because its not a place you can locate on a map or find on your GPS. But actually the scriptures give us more clues to its location than one might think. 7. You remember when we were little kids how we would say, Heaven is up there and hell is down there? Well as it turns out, that's closer to reality than we realize! PSALM 55:15 (NKJV) tells us the direction of hell is DOWN. Let death seize them; let them go down alive into hell... In Luke 10:15 (KJV) Jesus also refers to hell as being DOWN. He said: And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. PROVERBS 15:24 (NKJV) tells us hell is BENEATH us. The way of life winds upward for the wise, that he may turn away from hell below. And perhaps one of the clearest scriptures as to where Hell may be located is found in EPHESIANS 4:9 (NKJV) Now this, He ascended ----what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 8. Some interpret these references to mean that hell could actually be located in the core of the earth. While we cannot say that with any degree of certainty, one truth remains: HELL IS A REAL PLACE.
Secondly, let's consider... II. What Is Hell Really Like? 1. One of the most graphic images of hell in the New Testament is that of a garbage dump. This image is portrayed in a Greek term used by Jesus several times in the Gospels, and that is the word Gehenna. 2. The word Gehenna refers to the small valley just south of Jerusalem. It was an abomination to the Jewish people because it had been used for child sacrifice and idol worship in the days of King Ahaz and King Manasseh. God placed a curse on the valley of Hinnom and it became the public garbage dump. All of the filth, all the trash, and all the refuse was dumped in the valley of Hinnom. Later, the bodies of animals and even the corpses of executed criminals were thrown into the garbage heap in Gehenna. When the winds blew a certain direction the nauseating smell of decomposing flesh permeated the air in Jerusalem. In an attempt to remedy this nauseous odor, the garbage heap was set on fire, and the fires burned and smoldered day and night without end.
3. When Jesus used the term Gehenna to describe the conditions of hell, the people would have immediately been repulsed. 4. Unlike Rob Bell's notion that if one doesn't like hell he can find the exit door and leave, the scriptures paint a very different picture. (A) Hell is a place of ETERNAL FIRE. MARK 9:43,45 (NKJV) If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched When we think of HELL, usually the very first thing we think of is FIRE. Just like the fires burned day and night in that filthy, worm infested garbage dump of Gehenna outside the city of Jerusalem, so shall the fires of hell burn day and night forever and ever.
(B) Hell is a place of ETERNAL WEEPING.. (Matthew 13:49, 50) MATTHEW 13:49,50 (NKJV) So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. In hell there will never be the sweet sounds of music, or the singing of birds, or the sounds of falling rain. The only sounds that will be heard will be the bloodcurdling screams and weeping of people begging for mercy for all eternity. (C) Hell is a place of ETERNAL SUFFERING. Jude verse 7 JUDE verse 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Hell will be a place of the most intense sorrow, the most intense loneliness, the most intense fear, the most intense hopelessness,and the most intense agony anyone can possibly experience. And the suffering will never end. It will go on forever and ever.
(D) Hell is a place of ETERNAL DARKNESS.. Jude verse 13 JUDE verse 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Now you may have wondered, if hell is a place of eternal fire, how can it at the same time be a place of eternal darkness? I read an interesting analogy that might help us understand. Imagine living on the sun, completely engulfed in a lake of fire, and looking upward from the sun's surface all you see is the blackness of outer space without a single star or ray of light anywhere. That is what hell will be like. (E) Hell is a place of ETERNAL SEPARATION.. (Revelation 21:27) REVELATION 21:27 (NKJV) But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb s Book of Life. Every soul in hell will be separated from GOD...separated from JESUS CHRIST...separated from HEAVEN...separated from LOVED ONES and FRIENDS who were Christians... separated from everything GOOD, and DECENT, and HOLY forever and ever. Illustration---Over the doors of an ancient prison were these words: Abandon hope all ye that enter herein. Those who enter hell will have no hope of ever leaving.
Finally, let's consider... III. Who Will Be In Hell? 1. The scriptures are quite clear as to who will be in hell. (A) Those who do not OBEY God. (II Thessalonians 1:8) II THESSALONIANS 1:8 (NKJV) in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the millions upon millions of people who heard the gospel and had the opportunity to accept God's gift of eternal life through Christ, but rejected it. They will regret that decision for all eternity. (B) Those who practiced LAWLESSNESS.. (Matthew 13:41) MATTHEW 13:41 (NKJV) The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, Those who practice lawlessness are those who deliberately disregard the laws of God and the laws of man. They live life by their own rules and the rules and and laws of God and man don't apply to them. The term lawless is used quite frequently to describe our current president and those in key positions within his administration. Those who practice lawlessness will spend eternity in hell.
(C) The blatantly sinful and vile. (II Corinthians 6:9,10; and Revelation 21:8) Remember when you were little and someone told you Hell is where bad people go. Well it is true... I CORINTHIANS 6:9,10 (NKJV) Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. REVELATION 21:8 (NKJV) But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. (D) The religious who trusted in their own good WORKS. (Matthew 7:21,22) Just as we were told when we were children that Bad people go to hell, we were also told Good people go to heaven. Well the truth is, GOOD people don't go to heaven, SAVED people do. There will be many in hell who trusted in their own GOODNESS instead of trusting in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. MATTHEW 7:21-23 (NKJV) Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!
CONCLUSION Several years ago, Randy Alcorn wrote a wonderful book simply entitled: HEAVEN. In that book he says something I had never thought about before. He said, The best of life on earth is a glimpse of heaven; and the worst of life on earth is a glimpse of hell. For Christians, this present life is the closest they will ever come to hell. But for unbelievers, this life is the closest they will ever come to heaven. Many argue that a loving GOD would never send anyone to such an awful place as hell for all eternity. The truth is, our loving GOD has done everything possible to keep people from going to hell. He has placed His Church in the world to proclaim the Good News of salvation. He has given us warning after warning in His word about Hell. He has sent His Holy Spirit to convict man of his sins. And ultimately, He allowed His only begotten Son to die on the cross of Calvary to save man from his sins. As the Hebrew writer says, How can a man escape the horrors of hell if he neglects so great a salvation? The answer is, he can't! This is why we must pray without ceasing for our lost loved ones and friends. We must love them enough to tell them about Jesus and warn them about The Place of Eternal Hot Nights. And that is the message to each of us on this Hot Summer Night.