The “WHAT” about Hell
Luke 16:19-31
The title of my sermon is “The WHAT about Hell”. You often hear a term that sounds like this without the “the” in front and the words "in the" replacing the word about, when someone is confused about something. So this morning I want to help with some of the confusion concerning this topic of hell.
Now with all of these positive and encouraging preachers you hear now days, sermons on hell seem to be falling by the wayside. Three sermons pastors don’t like to preach on are hell, tithing, and gluttony. I Don’t think I’ve ever heard a sermon on gluttony. And the way that I use humor in my sermons; hell is not a subject that I can use any jokes on, because hell is no joking matter.
But Hell is real. It appears 57 times in the Bible. And while 80% of the people believe they are going to a place called Heaven, only 50% of people believe in a literal place called hell.
A few nights ago I was watching the TV show 20/20. The nights episode was on the subject of Hell and of course with this show they gave many views. Few that was close to the truth.
They had one opinion that Hell was some trash dump just outside of Jerusalem well they would burn trash and dead carcasses of animals. Smoke, fire, sounds like Hell, just not sure where the darkness comes in.
They had a Minister who was labeled a Heretic because he began preaching ’Nobody Goes to Hell’ and his church of 6,000 diminished to 300. He claims he heard from Gad and He told him that a loving God would not send anyone to hell; that hell is something we experience here on earth. But in order to sell this theory he had to denounce the Bible. So he teaches that the Bible was just a story written by men. This is a minister who at one time had rubbed shoulders with the best of them; Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell.
They had a convicted killer, who was serving three life terms and showed no remorse; who states that. “If he goes to hell, so be it”.
They had others who say they survived hell on earth. They had one who survived the Holocaust, another a nun who survived a kidnapping and was repeatedly raped and tortured.
The only one who came close to my view of hell was one man named Matthew Dovel who says he has had two near-death experiences, and seen visions of both heaven and hell. He almost drowns at the age of 12 and saw the light and was met by Jesus who told him he had to return. Then after a life of booze and drugs, he decided that he couldn’t take it anymore and wanted to go back to the place he had been as a boy, so he tried to commit suicide only to find his self in a very different world; A place called hell.
So do you believe in Hell? My intent this morning is to take the “what: or the question of whether hell is real or not. The first what I want to talk about is…
What is Hell?
Revelation 20:14-15 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Some say that hell is the grave. You live, you die, you go to the grave. Some, as I had stated earlier, say that hell is a state of life that you go though here on earth. You ask someone how their trip was. They reply, “It was pure hell”. But what is hell? You read about the description of heaven in the bible; Streets of gold, robes of white. Is there a description of hell? There is.
Mark 9:47-48 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire—where ’Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’
There are three things that I want to point out from this scripture that gives us a description of hell.
1.It is a place somewhere below.
All through the bible we read about being cast into hell. Now being a fisherman, I know that when I cast, my bait or lure will go down into the water.
I did hear a story about a farmer who was on his deathbed and he revealed to his wife as a deathbed request, that he had some of his most valued treasures hiden behind a brick in the fireplace. He wanted her to place them on the window ledge in the attic above their bedroom. He wanted to take them with him as he departed this earth.
So she did as he requested and placed on the ledge of the window. That night, he did pass so in the morning she went up to the attic, but knowing the farmer as she did, she was not surprised to find the contents still there. As she picked them up, she thought to herself, “I knew I should have put them in the basement”.
In our text it states that the rich man, “lifted up his eyes”. Now there are many speculations as to the physical location of hell is. Some think that it could be the center of earth. I have even heard one opinion that hell could be the sun. But where it is, is not as important as to the answer, it is a real place. Somewhere, we may not know where the physical location, but believe me. It is real.
2. It is a place of fire.
The lake of fire, it is often referred to. The rich man in our text cried out, “I torment in this flame”. I can’t think of a more horrible death than to burn to death. I don’t know if you have ever had a bad burn, but being as accident-prone as I am, I sure have. I have burnt my leg on a muffler while turning over my motorcycle. I have been burnt while touching an iron to see if it’s hot. One time as I was lighting a grill, I had put my head down to listen to see if the gas is on. I’ve been burnt a few times in my life. But the worse thing about this fire is my final description.
3. The fire is not quenched.
The worm never dies. Now after my burns, I received medical attention, and I soon got better. But in hell, you will always be burning. We will never have any relief, which leads me to my next point.
What will Happen when you get there?
You hear the jokes about hell being some big party. Hell can also be a seductive for all those fans of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. One of them, a kid from an Ohio Christian school named Brian Warner is today better known as Marilyn Manson. For more than a decade, he has made millions with his dark music and artwork, thrilling fans and provoking conservatives.
Manson said he’s confident he’ll end up in hell when he dies. Laughing, he said in his interview with 20/20, "I am gonna say that it would probably be a more comfortable place for me, because everyone I know would be there, and I wouldn’t really be allowed to do anything in heaven that would be any fun." Now besides what he or anyone else thinks, hell will not be fun.
In our text, it states that the rich man was in torment. You will not be going around parting with your friends. I don’t believe that you will have any contact with your friends. The rich man ask for Lazarus to come and dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue for he was tormented in the flame.
Do you know what it’s like to be thirsty? Even as I was preparing this, just the thought made me reach over and take a big drink of water.
You will suffer with thirst; you will suffer with feeling like you are burning but never able to die.
You will also suffer mental anguish.
The rich man in hell was reminded of his family who were on the same path of destruction that he was. You have heard me say before, the only thing that I can think of, that would be worse than going to hell; is going to hell and taking others with you.
I can’t fathom what it would be like to be in hell and knowing that I never did my part to keep a loved one or maybe even a child from joining me there.
Not only will you suffer, but even worse, you will be separated.
Revelation 20:14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
The second death is separation from God. You often hear people call out to God in times of trouble, but when you get to hell it will be to late.
So pain, suffering, and separation, not a place I would want to go. So that leads me to my next point.
What do we do to get there?
What to we do to get there? Nothing! You can eat, drink, and be marry and you will end up in hell. So in order to get to hell, you simply don’t enter into a relationship with Christ, so by rejecting Christ you chose to do nothing with the free gift that Jesus offers to us with the redemption of our sins, paying the debt for our sins with His own life.
Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
You see we are all born with a sin nature.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
You can try to be good, live the right life, but you will always fall short. We can never be good enough to save ourselves. But God in His power knows that.
Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Some say how can a loving God send anyone to hell. He is a loving God, but He is also a just God. His desire is for everyone to have a relationship with Him.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
ALL should come to repentance. Not wanting ANY to perish. So you get to hell be rejection the free gift of Salvation, which leads me to my last point.
What can we do?
What we can do depends on two things. If you are here this morning and you have never entered into that personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You can change that today.
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
It doesn’t say that you may be saved, there are no other stipulations with this. I says you WILL be saved. Don’t delay. Don’t let Satan trick you into thinking you have more time or you need to straiten up some things before you do. You need to think about others in your life that may be following your direction. The Bible says that TODAY is the day of Salvation.
Now if you are here this morning and you have already entered into that personal relationship with Jesus Christ, then what can you do? You can do your part to prevent as many people as you can from going to hell.
You do so by living the right life, setting the example to cause others to want what you have. You do so be being bolder in your faith. Now you could be worried that if you witness to a friend or a family member it could effect your relationship them. Make it uncomfortable. I would rather make them a little bit uncomfortable here on earth, than to be eternally uncomfortable in a place called hell.
Hell is real. It is not a place where I would want to see anyone go. But if you are here this morning and you have never entered into a personal relationship with God, then you are choosing to go there. As a Christian, are you doing your part to help lead others to Christ?
Let’s pray
