SERIES: “ANSWERS FOR SOME OF LIFE’S DIFFICULT QUESTIONS”
TEXT: REVELATION 20:
TITLE: “WOULD A LOVING GOD SEND ANYONE TO HELL?”
INTRODUCTION: A. A five-year-old boy was visiting his grandmother. She allowed him to go out to
the backyard to play by himself. Every so often, she’d open the back door and check
on him.
One of those times, she heard him talking to himself. She listened in and heard
him use the word “hell.” She was kind of taken back and called to her grandson.
When he came into the house, grandmother was angry and scolded him, “Matthew, we
don’t use that word. Who did you hear say that?”
The little boy replied, “Preacher Rick.” That was her preacher’s name but she
couldn’t remember him preaching on hell anytime she’d taken her grandson to church
with her. So she asked, “When did he say that?” Matthew said, “At the wedding
yesterday. He said, ‘In sickness and in hell…’”
1. I hope that doesn’t describe your marriage this morning
2. Hell really isn’t humorous
--People make a lot of jokes about it but I think that’s because it’s such a serious
subject.
3. Most of you have probably seen the famous sculpture called “The Thinker” by
Auguste Rodin. It depicts a man sitting in serious contemplation.
a. What you probably don’t know is that the statue was originally created in 1880 as
part of a larger work by the artist called “The Gates of Hell”
--an ornamental door for a proposed Palace of Decorative Arts
b. What is “The Thinker” thinking about?
--According to the artist, “The Thinker” is sitting in mute amazement as he
contemplates lost people in hell
c. I think it would do us some good to talk about the subject of hell this morning
B. Several weeks ago, we looked at the question, “Is Jesus the Only Way to God?”
1. In that message we talked about the concept of “fighting words”
--That some subjects are so inflammatory that they produce a gut reaction to fight
over
2. Like the subject of Jesus being the only way to God, the subject of hell tends to be
“fighting words” in our culture
3. About three years ago, there was an incident in Texas.
-- It seems that an argument over who was going to heaven and who was going to
hell ended with one man shooting another to death. Johnny Joslin, age 20, was
allegedly shot by Clayton Frank Stoker, 21.
The two had spent Saturday night with two other men bar-hopping in Fort
Worth. The four men were sitting at a table outside a trailer park after their night
on the town and started arguing about religion. The talk became heated when the
subject turned to who would go to heaven and who would go to hell.
Stoker said he would settle the argument and went into a house and returned
with a shotgun, which he loaded and placed in his mouth. Joslin then took the gun
out of Stokers mouth, saying, “If you have to shoot somebody, shoot me.”’ The
shotgun went off, hitting Joslin in the chest and killing him.
4. A fairly recent Harris poll found that while 89% of Americans believe in heaven,
only 73% believe in hell.
--However, that figure is misleading, since people differ in how they define “hell.”
a. When defined as an actual location—a place of actual torment where people will
be sent—only three in ten adults (31%) believe in hell.
b. Most Americans believe that Satan is merely a symbol for evil.
--Only 27% strongly believe that Satan is real.
C. Rev. 20:10-15 – “And the devil, who deceived them, 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.”
--The issue of hell certain produces strong sentiments
1. However, liking or disliking the concept of hell is not the real issue
2. The real issue is what the Bible teaches concerning this place termed “hell”
3. This morning I’d like us to look at three issues: God’s Character, Hell’s
Characteristics, and Peoples’ Choices
I. GOD’S CHARACTER
A. God is most certainly a loving God
1. 1 Jn. 4:16 – “God is love”
2. I’ll have to admit that as a preacher I like to declare God’s love, grace, and mercy
--There’s ample evidence of those character traits of God manifested in the Bible and also in my own
life
B. However, it’s important for us to understand that God is perfectly balanced in his character and
personality
1. As human beings, our character and personalities are widely divergent, consistently inconsistent, and
definitely weighted to one side or another
2. On the other hand, God is perfectly balanced between his love, mercy and grace and his holiness and
justice
3. His love for us and his mercy and grace toward us is tempered with his holiness and his justice
--He requires that all these things in himself meet in harmony
4. J.P. Moreland, “People today tend to care only for the softer virtues like lover and tenderness, while
they’ve forgotten the hard virtues of holiness, righteousness, and justice.”
II. HELL’S CHARACTERISTICS
A. Misconceptions about hell:
1. Hell is an eternal party
--Mark Twain said that he wanted heaven for the climate and hell for the company.
2. Annihilation – non-existence after death
3. Universalism – that eventually everyone will be saved
4. Worst misconception of all: hell simply doesn’t exist
a. The first lie is recorded in the Bible. The devil said to Adam and Eve, “You will not surely die.”
b. There’s an old story that about an army chaplain who reported to a new duty station. Upon arrival
some of the men came to see him and asked him this question; “Do you believe in a literal hell?”
When he replied that he did not, he men asked him to resign
He asked them why. Their response to him was, “If there is no Hell then we don’t need you
and if there is a Hell we don’t want you to lead us astray.”
B. Let’s look at Jesus’ words in Mt. 25:31-46 – “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the
angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before
him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave
me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I
was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will
answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to
drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did
we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever
you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ 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.
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was
a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in
prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ’Lord, when did we see you hungry or
thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ’I tell
you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they
will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
--Jesus’ words dispel all the misconceptions about hell
1. Proves its existence
2. It will not be a place of celebration
3. Not every one will be in heaven
4. Everyone will live forever
--It just depends on which neighborhood you get to live
C. Listen closely to how the Bible describes hell:
1. A lake of fire (Revelation 20:15)
2. A devouring fire (Isaiah 33:14)
3. A bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1)
4. Everlasting burning (Isaiah 33:14)
5. A furnace of fire (Matthew 13:41,42)
6. A place of torment (Luke 16:23)
7. A place where there can be no second chance (Matthew 12:32)
9. A place where you don’t want loved ones to go to (Luke 16:28)
D. It may or may not surprise you to know that the person in the bible who spoke the most often (and in the
most graphic terms) about hell, was not one of the fiery Old-Testament prophets, or John the author of
Revelation, but Jesus himself.
--12 times in the gospels Jesus talks in explicit terms about hell. (More than any other single Bible
person)
1. 11 of those 12 times Jesus uses the Hebrew word ’Gehenna’ to refer to the place of hell.
a. The valley of Gehenna is a valley located on southern side of the city of Jerusalem.
b. During the reign of some of Israel’s wicked kings, an altar to the Canaanite god, Molech, was built
in the valley.
c. The people would bring theirs sons to throw into the fires there as a horrible sacrifice to Molech.
2. Later, during the reign of the good king Josiah, the altars to Molech were destroyed, and the valley
filled in with garbage and refuse and the corpses of the wicked.
--It became a vast burning garbage dump – perpetually smoldering.
III. PEOPLES’ CHOICES
A. It’s not God’s choice to send people to hell
1. It’s a choice made by every individual person
2. C.S. Lewis put it this way: Sin is man saying to God throughout his life, “Go away and leave me
alone.” Hell is simply God saying to man, “You may have your wish…”
B. In fact, God has done everything he could possibly do to keep people from making the wrong choice
1. 2 Pet. 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.”
2. Mt. 23:37-38 - Jesus wept over the choices of the people of Israel as he said, “O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather
your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look,
your house is left to you desolate”
3. Jn. 3:16-17 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
C. D.A. Carson: Hell is not a place where people are consigned because they were pretty good blokes,
but they just didn’t believe the right stuff. They’re consigned there, first and foremost, because they
defy their maker and want to be at the center of the universe. Hell is not filled with people who have
already repented, only with people who, for all eternity, still want to be the center of the universe and
who persist in their God-defying rebellion.
What is God to do? If he says it doesn’t matter to him, then God is no longer a God to be admired.
He’s either amoral or positively creepy. For him to act in any other way in the face of such blatant
defiance would be to reduce God himself.”
1. Hell is an eternal reminder that God respects human choices
2. It’s a quarantine twhere God says two important things:
a. “I respect freedom of choice enough to where I won’t coerce people”
b. And “I value my image bearers so much that I will not annihilate them.”
CONCLUSION: A. When England closed it’s Libyan Embassy Muammar Qaddafi became so angry that he
ordered England to be removed from all maps in Libya. If you buy a map in that country
today, that area will be represented by a new arm of the North Sea bordered by Scotland
and Wales. Simply removing England from all maps in Libya does not mean it doesn’t
exist. Just because we’ve never been to Hell or the world makes light of it, or says it’s a
fairy tale doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Hell is very real.
B. Here’s what we can say about hell for sure:
1: When you die, it’s not the end. Whether you are Christian or not, the death of this
body is not the end.
2. All of us will stand before the judgement seat of God. Rev. 20.12 – “I saw the dead,
both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened,
including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to the things written
in the books, according to what they had done."
3. The verdict you hear on that day will not be based on how good you were, or how
religious you were, or how spiritual you were. It will be based on what you did with
Jesus. God is not impressed with our goodness, or our religion, or our spirituality.
He wants us to embrace his Son.
4. There will be no second chance. What you do with Jesus in this world will determine
what God does with you in the next. There will be no do-overs after judgment.
5. No matter what hell is, no one who has turned their back on Jesus will walk away
from the judgement seat smug, or arrogant. There is nothing on this earth worth
losing God’s favor on that day.
6. Justice and mercy will be done. I don’t know how, but I trust God - I trust his love, I
trust his wisdom, I trust his justice. No one will walk away from the judgement seat
grumbling that God was not fair, or merciful, or loving.
7. Until that day, it is my job to do everything I can to help people embrace the love of
God. God did everything he could do, he does everything he can do, to keep us from
hell. If my love is the faintest shadow of his love, then I won’t stop talking about
grace.
