Lie: Hell Won't Be So Bad

Lies to keep you lost. That is our subject. And today is the last in that series.

! And the lie that Satan uses to keep people lost! is that hell won't be so bad. Hell won't be so bad. How many jokes have been told about people in hell?

And how many times do people say that they'll be having a good time in hell because their favorite people are there? And you know that that stuff isn't true. But you secretly think that it will be okay.

And I'll manage. I'll get through it. And you push it out of your mind. Hell won't be so bad, after all. What does the Bible say?

Well, I invite you to turn in your copy of the Scriptures to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. We're going to begin reading at verse 31 and read through the end of the chapter.

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 the 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. And 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 or 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.

Look again at verse 41. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed, into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Jesus tells us four things about hell, and none of them are good. The first thing that you see about hell is that it is to be apart from Jesus.

It's to be apart. He says, depart from me. And maybe you say, well, that's no big deal. I don't really care for him right now. But you will then. You will then.

When he says, depart from me, you'll have no part in him. And he said, I am the light of the world, and whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. So what is hell?

Hell is to live without the light of life. It's to live without Jesus, and you'll be cut off from the joy of living, from any life worth living.

Christ could have filled you with joy. He could have filled you with light. But now he says, depart from me. The light flees the room. The switch is flipped, and it all becomes dark.

Nothing but dark. Nothing but endless darkness. Eternal, spiritual darkness. No light. No joy. No hope.

You'll be cut off from the light of life. Jesus, in him, is every spiritual blessing. Every spiritual blessing. Love, joy, peace, the love of God, the forgiveness of sins, the compassion of the Father, the fellowship of the Spirit.

Every spiritual blessing is in him, and he's the way to the Father. But that way will be eternally blocked up. The bridge will be drawn up, the great gulf fixed, and you will be forever separated from God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

And like a band-aid that gets torn off of a wound, every good thing in your life will be torn off, torn away. You will never love again.

And you will never be loved again. And you will never feel joy again. And there'll be not a moment of peace, and no more mercy, and no more compassion ever again.

Every spiritual blessing taken away from you. And you will see the saints in heaven. And you will see them enjoying love. And you will see them gathered to Abraham's bosom.

And you will see their lives, and you will see their light, and you will see their joy. But none of it will be for you. And you will see Christian friends.

And you will see Christian parents. Living and loving and laughing. And you will see them there. And you will have none of it.

All their wealth will only make your appalling poverty apparent. You will see their lives in the light, but it will not be any of it for you. You will be a prisoner looking out the jail.

at those who are walking free. You'll be the sick person in the bed while the healthy dance around. And all their happiness will only make you sadder.

Because it could have been yours, and it's not. Jesus says, depart from me. Time and again in this life, he says, come to me. Come to me. We're his spokesmen.

He sends us into the world to say, come to Jesus. And Jesus through us makes this appeal to be reconciled to God, to come to him. Jesus says, come to me, and I'll save you.

Bring your burdens to me, and I'll take them off. I'll be your friend. I'll be your savior. I'll be your helper. I'll do it all. Just come to me. But now he says, depart from me. He cried that Jerusalem would not hide under his wings because they were not willing.

And you are not willing. You could come. You could have Christ. You could be saved. You're not willing.

You could have forgiveness, and you could have life, and you could have love, and you could have laughter and never-ending joy, but you aren't willing. Your sin is just so great, and so good, and so wonderful, and it gives you so much, so you won't come to him.

And so at last he'll say, depart from me. And you'll never have a chance to come back. Hell won't be so bad.

Hell will tear every good thing out of your life, and leave nothing but a gaping wound. Every bit of hope, every bit of love, every bit of peace, every good thing, gone.

And you will wander in darkness forever. Secondly, you see, it's a place of a curse. You who are cursed.

He says, depart from me. You are cursed. Well, what does it mean to be cursed? Well, you could look at this earth, and the curse of God, and how it has ruined every good thing, and you could say that is what it is to be cursed.

But the best picture of a curse is, go to the middle cross, and see what it looks like to die under the curse of God. Because it said, curse it as anyone who is hanged on a tree.

And so Jesus is taken away. This is what it means to be cursed. Jesus is taken away, and he's powerless in the hands of his oppressors.

And he drags his cross down the road, and no one helps him. No one moves to save him. He's all alone. The Roman soldiers face, force Simon to pick up the cross when Jesus can't carry it anymore.

Did God give him that strength to endure? Did God get him through? He died under the curse of God. He was cut off from God. He was afflicted, and God would not help him.

God will not help you endure hell. And you will cry, but Christ cried, and no one heard. And God didn't listen. Christ moaned, and no angels rescued him because he was cursed.

So what is hell? It's there on the middle cross. It's saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

There's no help. But it's more than that. It's positive punishment. Darkness fell on the land. It was like the plague of Egypt came to Palestine.

It was like the outer darkness came to that cross. And God faced his son and burned with anger against the sin that was on him.

And he afflicted his son with the fury of his anger. We say in one sense he turned his face away. He turned his face away from the moaning and the groaning and the mercy that he could have given his son.

But he did not turn his face away from the fury and the wrath that he was pouring out on his son. Hell is living face to face with an angry God forever and ever.

It was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, that's what it means to be cursed. Your life is turned into the guilt offering.

So you are torn into pieces and you are put on the altar and you are burned for sin. That's what happened to Christ and that's what will happen in hell.

You did not hide in the guilt offering that God provided. You did not hide in Jesus Christ. You did not put your hand on Christ's head and said, this is my savior, this is my representative, I take him and his offering as my substitute.

And so now your life becomes the offering. Hell becomes your altar and you become the victim. Every inch of Christ knew that God was angry at him.

That God stood against him and there was no place to escape. There was no daydream to hide in. We think that's what it's going to be like. It's a bad class that I'll just daydream away.

There's no daydreaming in hell. Every dream is turned into a nightmare and every thought is filled with God's anger. That's what it, that's how bad hell is.

It means to be cursed, opposed, hated, oppressed by God. Jesus says thirdly, into the eternal fire.

Into the eternal fire, hell won't be so bad. Put your hand into the stove flames when you get home and tell me it won't be so bad. I'll make it.

I'll hold up. Eternal fire, a lake of fire. The lake is dammed up now. But the dam will come, undone, and the fury of God will break and be unleashed.

Fire is only a symbol, some say. Fire is a symbol, then, for pain. A symbol is never less than the thing that it's symbolizing.

Fire is a symbol of pain, bodily pain. You should have offered your bodies as living sacrifices to God, but you ignored him and you rebelled and now there is nothing but bodily pain.

Fire is the symbol for spiritual pain, for regret, for guilt, for shame. think of the last time you did something really wrong and you kept it from everyone and you walked around and you felt that guilt and that embarrassment and that hiding.

they walked around happy, but you felt nothing but misery and shame and it sucked the joy out of everything. That's what the eternal fire is.

Just have a worm, the worm of conscience saying you're guilty. You're guilty. Eating and eating and eating and eating destroying you from the inside out and the shame will be too much.

The righteous will see your fall and rejoice. They'll rejoice at your downfall and you could say, how can anyone ever rejoice in a sinner suffering in hell?

But those are the questions of people that think they're innocent and you act like all of your sins and all of your crimes are nothing against God, but the righteous have taken God's side.

They've taken God's side even against themselves. That's what repentance is, is to say, I am guilty and I am not doing that. It's to take God's side.

So they'll see you and they'll rejoice in your downfall and you will know that it is right. See, those arguments only work now, but when your eyes are opened and you see your sin, then all those arguments will be nothing but gravel in your mouth and you will have nothing to say.

Every tongue will be silenced. That means there will be no arguments. There'll be no justifications. There will be no answers.

There'll be no responses. You'll have nothing to say because you know you are the man. And the eyes of God will see right through you.

and the eyes of angels will see right through you and the eyes of righteous men will see right through you and you will be naked and exposed and all will know what you are.

That's the fire. It's pain. It's spiritual pain. It's spiritual shame. It's spiritual agony. And it's all enhanced. Made worse by the fact that you know this is what you deserve.

This is what you deserve. And hell and it will all be made worse by the fact that it could have been different. The worst thing about hell has to be the regret.

The regret of hearing a sermon and not responding. And now here it comes again. And I remember I didn't respond and nothing but regret. Could have been different.

But I had to have my own way. And now look at where I am. And Jesus says it's eternal. Forever.

One second followed by another second. One minute followed by another minute. One day followed by another forever and ever until numbers don't mean anything anymore.

In calculus they have a symbol for infinity. It's a sideways eight. It's this loop that just goes around and around never beginning and never ending always going.

And your life will be stretched out over infinity and you'll be pulled forever into pieces down, down through the endless ages.

And suns will come and go and moons will grow old and be put away again and again and again one after another but your nightmare will just keep going on.

And all of this that you suffered will be the very same suffering as the devil and his angels. that's the fourth thing. It was prepared for the devil and his angels and if you think about this this has to be the scariest thing of all.

Because this tells me that this hell that Jesus is talking about is something greater than human words or mind can conceive. Hell was originally the destination of the devil and his angels.

It was the punishment of spiritual beings who are flames of fire. So what kind of fire can torture fire? How great will it be?

And you'll be thrust into their torment. And if it's a misery for an angel what will it be like for you? if angels suffer and scream and wither in the misery of it all what will it be like for you?

Before soldiers are accepted into the Navy SEALs they go through what they call Hell Week. It's five and a half days of grueling terrible operational training on a total of four hours of sleep.

four hours of sleep for the whole week and it is a physical and mental nightmare and most of the most fit prepared ready fired up men the strongest the best of the best only a quarter of them finish.

Not weak men the strongest of men don't finish. So hour after hour of swimming hour after hour of in freezing cold water push-ups flutter kicks the whole time gunfire is going off above your head and rockets are going off above your head and if it is terrible for them what would it be like for you?

and pretty soon a guy gets up and he gives up and he leaves his buddies in the water and he goes up to a post with a bell on it and he rings it three times and he walks off the beach and the others go on until more and more and more get up ring the bell three times and leave the navy does it because it does something to you to go through it it weeds out all those who don't want who really don't want it it does something to you though to go through it because when you are in combat you can look back and say I survived that and if I could survive that that was terrible that was horrifying I've never been in such pain and agony and misery in my life if I made it through that I don't have to give up here see it changes you hell won't be like that there's no bell to ring there's no walking off the beach and going home there are no fond memories those navy seals can look back and tell stories about how it was so hard with some fondness there's no fond memories there's no greater good it won't make you better and it's not even supposed to make you better it's not to give you a chance to repent it's not to give you a chance to change to grow all of it is to show by your suffering that God really is infinitely precious and I was infinitely wicked to ignore him and I didn't treat him as infinitely precious and I didn't believe him and I didn't obey him and I didn't trust him to save me and now

I am getting my due I'm getting my justice but it doesn't have to be that way it doesn't have to be that way no one here has to go to hell all the fire and all the wrath and all the justice Jesus took in the place of any and all who would come to him and so if you believe in Jesus if you come to him and throw yourself on him and you repent and you turn away from your sin if you leave the wickedness that is in your hand and you turn and say I am following you I am putting my life into your hands I will do whatever you say save me and if you cry out to Jesus he will save you your sins will drag you to hell but Jesus is the only one who can save you and he will save you see that's what the cross was he took all of that condensed into those short hours and experienced it for all of his people so that now

God in his justice say there's nothing more to say there's no more claims to be had he satisfied the demands of hell he satisfied the demands of justice see he gathered all the spears of God's anger he gathered them all into his chest and he took the blow to rescue sinners he loved them and so he brought it all unto himself and Jesus hung on a tree like a lightning rod and gathered all of God's fierce lightning into himself to save his people in him there is safety outside of him there is no safety at all and so I plead with you run to him and be saved run to him and be saved let me just press it home one more way it was

July 8th I believe 1741 Jonathan Edwards was preaching a sermon the most famous of all of his sermons it was sinners in the hands of an angry God and if you've ever read it or heard about it you know what a powerful sermon it was and his conclusion it was a very long sermon had to be a couple hours at least but at the conclusion he said that if you do not turn to Jesus you will wish in hell that you would have died and gone to hell immediately before you even heard this sermon let's pray

God you know the agony that we are in to see the lost saved you know the agony that we are in for our children for those who are lost among us and you know that we would die a thousand deaths to see them saved from such an appalling future and yet we can't do anything and so we ask that you would save thank you that you sent Jesus to save us from your own wrath so great was your love you knew the danger you know the terror of what we were facing so you sent a savior to rescue us help us to then throw ourselves on your grace and rejoice in it that hell does not have to be the end but we can have heaven and

Christ and salvation and he is there for the taking please move hearts save revive and resurrect dead souls Jesus name Amen Amen