Hell Explained: The Truth About Hell

last week I talked about Jesus descending into hell in order to pay for our sins and of course it raised some questions on Hell so this morning that's what I'm going to talk about I'm going to talk about Hell which is a pretty interesting topic in fact I think it's interesting to hear different religious views on Hell as an example did you know that Scientologists teach that heaven and hell are simply a state of mind they are not real places and that people experience their own heaven or hell on this earth and it's kind of interesting because all your Christians even say well I'm not sure I believe in Hell I believe we experience our own heaven or hell while we're here on this earth well that's what Scientology teaches Jehovah Witnesses believe that there is no hell they teach their followers that death is a state of non-existence that when you're dead you're dead therefore hell cannot be a fiery place of torment where the wicked suffer from death or suffer after they die in fact they're kind of interesting I'll tell you a little story my degree is in biblical literature and I minored in a New Testament Greek to get a minor you have to have thirty-two hours I think I had 36 or 38 hours in New Testament Greek and by the end of my final year I could read through the Greek New Testament pretty fluently I'm not saying that I didn't have to have help with some of the vocabulary words that were used once or twice in the Bible but pretty much I could reflow it well in my final year you had Jehovah Witnesses and for some reason they had really targeted our neighborhood I guess they thought that they had a good chance to get some new converts and so they were going to all the different doors and we hadn't been home for many Saturdays but finally on a Saturday that we were there they came to the door and they knocked on the door and I opened it up and there were six men so I invited them in and they started witnessing to me telling me a little bit about what they believe and they gave me some free gifts well I felt like the Holy Spirit told me just to be quiet and just listen to everything they said so they spoke for about 30 minutes in the last 15 minutes was about how the majority of Christians have been duped that in the original languages there is no place such there is no place called hell it's not in the original languages and so at the very end of their little talk to me they said do you have any I said well yes I do if you don't mind let me go back and get my Bible so when I went got my Bible I brought it out and it was a great New Testament as I turned to the book of Revelation chapter 20 and I started reading through translating it from the Greek and I get to the place where it talks about Hades and I show them I said well here's what it says in the original Greek this is Hades now the Jews refer to it in the Old Testament is a place called shadow the Greeks referred to it as Hades and so the new testament church who spoke Greek and they wrote all of this in Greek I heard to it as Hades and I explained what it meant I said well let me show you what Jesus had to say about so I went to the Gospels and I started going through the Gospels mainly in the book of Matthew and showing every place that Jesus taught on Hades or hell well I was in it about five or ten minutes and finally the person who was really in charge he just stands up he says well I can tell you aren't gonna listen to us in the first place so it grabs the free gifts and off they go and it's kind of sad because I noticed it three or four then we're really interested in this because they're sitting here thinking well he's translating this from the original we've always been taught the original Greek there's no such thing as hell well here's what I'm getting to for about three or four years they're about once every two or three months the Java hit witnesses would hit our neighborhood but they would go to every house except mine he would go to my neighbor's house am i right and then they would skip over and go to my house neighbors left and and literally I would see them coming and my brother-in-law who lived in the neighborhood he started laughing said they will not go to your house what did you do show me how to do that but anyways to explain the Mormon view the Mormons view of Hell would take more time than I really care to spin so suffice to say it's really different but just to give you an idea they believe that there are three levels to heaven hell exist but very few people will stay there forever in essence everyone gets a second chance so most eventually passed into what they refer to as the Telestial Kingdom the few who don't are called sons of perdition and they're banished to outer darkness I'll just leave it at that if you want to do your own study you can find out what they believe and then when you start talking to individuals about Hell that's what it really gets interesting because I don't care if you've never been to church in your life I guarantee you you probably have your own philosophy of life and you probably have your own theology about what heaven and hell are like most people are that way it's really interesting to me to just sit down and talk with people they find out I'm a pastor they usually have a few questions and then when I get a chance I'll ask them well what do you think about heaven or hell and they start giving me their own personal view on what heaven or hell is like it's really interesting but all in all I found that most people believe in one of five things you have those that believe that hell is just a myth it's not it's not a factual place it's a fictional place that's meant to frighten people into obedience to the church but it's not really real in fact some of you might believe that maybe you got coerced into coming here to church this morning and you're thinking oh great he's talking about Hell and you're believing that it's it's a mythical place it's a fictitious place it's not really factual I'm bringing it up in order to scare you so that when we passed the offering plates your gonna give more money in in in the offering plate you know there are those that believe that on it when I was working at Southwestern Bell I'd say 90% of the people believe that they believe that all the church existed for was to try and get your money and Hale was a place to actually or hell is something that you talked about so you could get more money then you have those that believe like the Church of Scientology but they're not Scientologists in other words they believe that hell is a state of mind not a place hell is nothing more than the bad things that you experience while you're here on this earth then you have those that believe that hell is a place of annihilation a place where the wicked go but not for eternity they're simply destroyed and then it's over you cease to exist and I'll talk about that next week because you'd be surprised at how many Christians believe that and maybe you believe that so we're gonna see what the Scriptures have to say about that theory then you have those like Rob Bell or Carlton Pearson a group known as Universalist Universalist believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world therefore the entire world will be saved in fact no one goes to hell when they die because Hell does not exist it exists on earth it's what we put ourselves through by guilt and self condemnation if you don't mind let me read a part of their statement of faith that I found on their website if you'd like to go there you can still go there it's www.cristoeosenhor.com reconciliation restoration and reunion with the source of all being in the fullness of the ages now people that's what Rob Bell and Carlton Pearson believe and you'd be surprised the number of people who believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world and his death was efficacious efficacious means that it will produce the results that it was intended to do therefore if his death was efficacious and he died for the whole world the whole world will be saved and that's what they believe and then last but not least you have those that believe that hell is a place of torment for the souls of those who've rejected Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior now this is what the Bible teaches and it's what Jesus taught in fact Jesus talked more about Hell than he did heaven did you know that it's true Jesus mentions Hell 56 times in the Gospels in fact let me give you a little disclaimer actually he talked about a place called Hades and Gehenna which are two different places but we tend to think of it as hell and for all intents and purposes we're going to refer to it as hell but he either talked about Hell or the lake of fire 56 times in the Gospels but he only talked about heaven 24 times Wow Jesus PO spoke twice as much about Hell as he did heaven and people that should tell you something if Jesus spoke twice as much about Hell as he did heaven what does that tell you needless to say I believe what the Bible says and what Jesus taught so this is what we're going to be talking about now let me give you a fact about Hale that some of you might not know contrary to what most people think hell is not the final destination of unbelievers it's really a temporary holding place until the great white throne judgment turn with me if you would to the book of Revelation chapter 20 verses 11 through 14 and let me prove it to you in fact this is the passage of Scripture that I read to the Jehovah Witnesses that came to my house it's where I started before I got to the Gospels because I wanted them to see what was going to happen at the end this is what happens at the end of the millennium notice what it says and I saw a great white throne this is why it's called the great white throne judgment and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them in other words oh my gosh this is the holy righteous God it produces such fear but there's no place to hide from him then it goes further and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to the works so if you're not found in the book of life and you're going to stand before the great white throne judgment and when your lame is not found in this book called life than you were judged son of the things written in the books that word books is in the plural that means there's more than one everything that you've ever done everything that you've ever said everything that you've ever thought because all things are revealed and open to God have been recorded in those books and that's what you're going to be judged out of you're gonna be judged out of these books so it says and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things were written in the books according to their works and the sea gave up the Dead which were in it and death and he'll delivered up the Dead which were in it and they were judged every man according to their works and death and he'll were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death now we're going to zero in on verse number thirteen because I want to show you thing interesting the Greeks had two words for death now if you want to get technical they actually had three words for death but one is rarely used so they actually had two common words for death necross and Thanatos and I want to show you how those two words are used in verse number thirteen and the significance of it because in this one verse both of these words necross and Thanatos are used so look with me if you would back at verse number thirteen and notice what it says and the sea gave up the Dead which were in it and death Thanatos in the original Greek and he'll delivered up the dead necross which were in them and they were judged every man according to the works now the Greek word necross refers to physical death so it's referring to the physical body when you die your body will be dead you know it's kind of interesting that when we see someone lying down and it doesn't look like they're breathing the first thing we do is we go over there and we look Bree the and then maybe if you know what you're doing you're gonna place your finger there to see if there's a pulse or maybe here if there's a pulse maybe you're gonna slap the other side of half face maybe you gonna slap him on the face try to wake them up and they're not moving and you're looking they say I think they're dead you're looking at that body and that's what you think of they're no longer in that body of their dad in fact we get the word necrophilia from that we won't go into that because anyone's day is a pervert but we get it from that Greek word necross it refers to the dead physical bodies then you have the Greek word Thanatos and it refers to spiritual death so it's actually referring to the soul let me explain what this means when Adam and Eve we're in the Garden of Eden God said you can eat of any tree that you want to eat you just can't eat of the tree of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil if you eat of that tree you will surely die die in fact it says in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die now if you read the story you'll find out that Adam and he did eat of it but they didn't die that so that God lied because is it in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die and then they ate of it they didn't die in fact they live for almost 900 more years so why didn't they die my God said they would well they did die like God said they weren't they just spiritually died their sin separated them from God and they became spiritually dead and because they were spiritually dead they also physically died so Adam and Eve passed these two things on to all of their children and we are all children of Adam and Eve there's no reason to be racist because we all are brothers and sisters we all come from Adam and Eve all right so we were passed on this sin nature we call it the Adamek nature but it means we're spiritually dead so when you're born you might be physically alive but you are spiritually dead and unless you are born again or regenerated then when you die you are eternally separated from God yes and that's what Thanatos means then itas means spiritually dead and it's talking about your soul so notice what verse number 13 is really saying look back in Matthew chapter 4 Revelation chapter 20 and the sea gave up the bodies which were in it and he'll delivered up the souls of the Dead which were in it and they were judged every man according the works man did you catch what this is saying it's telling us that one day the wicked will also be resurrected see we have the tendency to think that you know only those who believe in Jesus are gonna have eternal life and technically that's true because the others who don't receive Jesus Christ are going to experience what's known as eternal death but they don't just burn up they're not annihilated we were created to be immortal creatures and as a result of that our physical body might die but our soul will continue to live on so what this is telling us is that one day the wicked will also be resurrected their bodies their soul arise from Hell where it's been tormented and their body will rise from the grave and those will be reunited with their bodies and they will stand before God to be judged and then because their name is not written in the book of life they're going to be thrown into what is known as Gehenna in Greek the lake of fire to burn forever and ever verse 10 tells us that in fact even in the Old Testament it talked about a resurrection unto life in a resurrection unto death just for the dead so here's what's kind of interesting we kind of think that you know when Jesus came along he said everyone straight the old testament didn't really talk about it but people that's not true the Bible is always taught that there will be two resurrections the resurrection of the righteous unto eternal life and the resurrection of the unrighteous unto eternal death in fact Daniel talked about this missus are going to come up on the screen so turn with me if you would in your Bible to Daniel chapter 12 verse number two I just decided that I'm gonna read this even if it's not coming up on the screen notice what it says many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace now let me clarify something notice that it didn't say all of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up to some everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace it says many why doesn't it say all with some people their bodies not be resurrected no everyone's body's going to be resurrected so why does it say many instead of all it says many because there will be some who are living when Jesus returns we call it the rapture and they will never experience physical death so their body does not have to be resurrected their body is transformed Paul talked about that in the twinkling of an eye we will be changed and our mortal body will put on immortality and our terrestrial body will take on a celestial body we're gonna have a glorified body so Daniel sees this in the Old Testament he's riding around the time of about five 3540 BC before Christ and he has this vision and in Daniel chapter 12 verse number two he says many of those not all because some will be alive when Jesus returns in the rapture occurs but many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up some to everlasting life and some to shame now notice this an everlasting disgrace so let me give you an analogy to help you understand what hell is hell is like being held in jail until you're sent to prison it's a horrible place but it's gonna get worse when you reach your final destination which is the lake of fire does that make sense good now let's talk about what its gonna be like in Hell so turn with me if you would to the book of 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 7 through 9 so then God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven he will come with his mighty angels in flaming fire bringing judgment on those who don't know God and on those who refuse to obey the good news of her Lord Jesus in other words of the gospel and we know what the gospel is because Paul told us in the book of 1st Corinthians chapter 15 the first four verses what is the gospel that Jesus died he was buried on the third day he was resurrected those who don't believe that those who don't obey this gospel in other words obey that you need to make Jesus Christ Lord of your life what's gonna happen he says they will be punished with eternal destruction forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power now according to Paul hell is a place of punishment and he tells us what type of punishment is going to be administered those in Hell will be punished with eternal destruction now what does he mean by eternal destruction well I want you to underline the word destruction and let's find out destruction is translated from the Greek word Electro's which means to be destroyed or by losing everything so the implication is inhale everything that you've ever worked for strived for and lived for is gone forever your health is gone your wealth is gone your freedom is gone your loved ones are gone everything is gone even hope forever but the worst thing is you're separated from God for all eternity it's actually eternal destruction now next week I'm probably I'm not sure if I'm gonna do this or not but I might in Revelation chapter 14 verse number 10 it talks about people being in this eternal fire in the presence of the Lord and His angels and you look at that you think what in the world how the world could that be because if you're separated from God here it says they're being punished in the presence of the Lord how am i world can that be well you need to think of it like this God is omnipresent that means that God is everywhere at all times and God is everywhere does that mean that God is an L that's next week anyways now if that is not punishment enough to be eternally separated from the Lord I don't know what is but there's more much much more Jesus described Hale as a place of outer darkness where there will be weeping in the gnashing of teeth turn with me if you would to the book of Matthew chapter 25 verse number 30 says now throw this useless servant into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now this is interesting because we know what darkness is but what in the world is outer darkness well I want you to underline that word outer outer is translated from the Greek word EXO Duras and EXO Duras is actually derived from the root word EXO it's actually the superlative form of EXO and EXO means outside as opposed to inside so the superlative form EXO Duras means the furthest extreme side it's the furthest you can go away from God so the implication is that you're so far away from God's presence or anything else for that matter that it's pitch black its outer darkness not only that Jesus describes hell is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth now most people don't have a clue as to what that means because we don't use that figure of speech today but in Christ day that was a very common figure of speech it was used to describe intense physical pain you see when a person experiences extreme physical pain they usually contort their face and they grit their teeth how many many of you walk barefoot okay I don't ever walk barefoot my wife will tell you if you ever want to leave me stranded in the living room because we have tile take away my house shoes and it's like Lisa Lisa bring me some house shoes I got that from my mom is that not right Carol you know my mom never walked a barefoot the only time I really ever saw my mom walk barefoot is in the last few months of her life she got into the place where I don't know if she was really conscious of what she was doing but I never ever saw my mom walk barefoot you know I can remember doing as a as a child if I'm on carpet inside I will do that but if it's gonna be tiled or if it's gonna be outside I'm gonna put shoes on now as a child I can remember a few times being barefoot he was his child I didn't like it but have you ever stubbed your toe I mean you stubbed it good where you think you broke your toe and maybe you ripped your toenail up what did you do immediately when that happened well if you don't mind put that camera on my face because let me show you what you probably did you probably did this right except some of you probably didn't say day but what you did is you can people that's what it means the gnashing of teeth it's what a person does when they experience intense physical pain so he tells us that hell is a place of weeping in other words mourning why because you've lost everything it's eternal destruction everything that you've ever lived for worked for strived for is gone your health is gone your wealth is gone you're left ones are gone everything is gone so there's this place of mourning because you don't see anything that you'll ever want but it's also a place of intense physical pain but what is causing that intense physical pain well according to the book of Revelation it's fire you know we kind of think that this is a mythical place I don't really believe it it's a place of fire well I'll be honest with you I believe that the Bible says what it means and it means what it says now you can believe that like Origen did that it's all allegorical it's all symbolic and it's not really fire but I want you to know you're gonna find out one day I'm not gonna find out because I'm not going there I'm going to heaven but anyways notice what it says turn to Revelation chapter 21 verse number 8 says but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and the murders and the hormones and the Sorcerer's and the idolaters and all Liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth fire and brimstone which is the second death why second death your first death is your physical death your second death is that eternal thing when the soul is forever excommunicated from God but notice that it says they shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone now I know that this is talking about the lake of fire but Hale also has flames look at Luke chapter 16 verse number 24 we looked at this parable last week the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and I told you that these two men might be fictional because it's a fictional story but what they experience in the place they go is factual so these two men are fictional but what they experience is factual notice what it says in verse 24 and he cried and said and this of course if you read in context is the rich man and he cried and said father Abraham so he's a Jew have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame now as you can see in the parable of the rich man Lazarus the rich man went to hell and notice that he said I am tormented in this flame this tells us that hell is a place of fire and those in hell will be tormented by the flames of the fire but that doesn't mean that all suffering will be the same in hell or in the lake of fire Jesus actually taught that there are different degrees of punishment remember God is not just just that God is fair what is just me just means that God is going to do the right thing just means that God must punish sin and he must reward righteousness the only problem is no man is righteous so there is none righteous no not one but all have sinned and come short of the glory of God man's righteousness is as filthy rags and actually in the original it means well most of you know what it means I won't even mention it so what a women had a woman actually has once a month in order to catch the blood that's what it means my filthy rags that's man's righteousness and the reason the the Bible uses that pictures to let you know no person is righteous you can think of the most righteous person you can think of on this earth and for me it would have been my mother yesterday would have been her birthday but I know as much as I think my mom is righteous she wasn't and therefore God being just couldn't let her come into heaven based on her righteousness but the reason my mom is in heaven not because she was a good person she was in heaven because she put her faith in Jesus Christ so what God does because he's just as he must punish sin the only difference is for us Christians is our punishment was placed on Jesus so he paid for our sins the punishment we deserved so it's not by anything that I've done it's simply because of what Jesus has done so he must punish sin but he must also reward righteous the problem is I'm not righteous so how can God reward me well when I covenant with Jesus not only does he pay for my sin but when all of my sin is paid for God sees us so that's never sinned and the scripture says in Leviticus 18 find that the man which doeth these things talking about the law will live by them in other words that's the reward for righteousness living that's why God raised Jesus from the dead but because I'm in covenant with him and he paid for my sins I'm also resurrected with him and his righteousness becomes mine but the Bible also says that God is fair fair means he's not going to punish everyone the same and Jesus told us that there are different degrees of punishment turn with me if you would to the book of Luke chapter 12 we're going to read verses 42 through 48 notice what it says and the Lord replied a faithful sensible servant as one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his own his other household servants and feeding them god I hope I'm a faithful sensible servant if the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job there will be a reward I tell you the truth the master will put that servant in charge of all that he owns well what if the servant thinks my master won't be back for a while and he begins beating the other servants partying and getting drunk the master will return unannounced and unexpected as a thief in the night and he will cut the servant in pieces and banish him with the unfaithful and a servant who knows what the master wants but isn't prepared and doesn't carry out those instructions will be severely punished so those who know master's will they know what they should do but they don't do it they will be severely punished but someone who does not know and then does something wrong will be punished only lightly one's gonna be severely punished one's gonna be punished lightly if you read the King James it says one will be beaten with many stripes one will be beaten with few stripes means the same thing someone's going to get more punishment than the other because this one knew and didn't do the wheel this one didn't know then it goes further when someone has been given much much will be required in return and when someone has been entrusted with much even more will be required the bottom line is that all unbelievers will be punished because the book of Romans tells us well we're without excuse we can just look at this nature we can look at we can look at this world and we can realize there had to be an intelligent designer when we look at everything that takes place we go wait a minute and there's something inside of us the Bible says that God's placed in turn eternity inside of us so there's something inside of us that knows that we were meant for more than just this world there's got to be something more than just living 70 or 80 years on this earth and so it's our job to begin to look for this creator it's our job to begin to come in and say God we need you and to seek out his will and what we find and there's only one place where God has given revelation that gives us eternal life which is Jesus Christ so the bottom line is that all unbelievers will be punished but some will be more severely punished than others so there are different degrees of punishment and Jesus taught that remember when we were reading in the book of Revelation chapter 20 I told you it's a great white throne judgment there's going to be a book it's called the book of life and then there's going to be books if your name is not written in the book of life then you were judged out of those things written in the books plural everything that you've ever done you're gonna be judged for it and your punishment will be based on those things did you know that it was wrong to line you lied hmm thing did you know it was wrong to take sexual uh sexually a sexual advantage over someone else and you still did it you thing did you know what was wrong to steal but you did it don't all of these things you're gonna be judged and the more that you knew and you still did you will be punished more severely that's what the Bible says now what about me am I gonna be judged all those things were in the book no because I'm told that the handwriting of Ordinances that was against me those things written in my books it's given account it says those have been blotted out in other words paid in full Jesus paid the penalty so everything that I've done wrong and will do in the future as I repent of those things Jesus paid the price so I won't be judged out of those books because I'm in the book of life that says Jesus paid for my sin yeah that's a good teaching pastor Alan now let me make something very clear God never intended for any one of us to go to hell let me say that again because some of you were raised in churches that were Calvinistic in theology so you were taught whether you realize they're not that everything that happens is God's will oh yeah everything that happens is God's will the Bible doesn't teach that at all in fact some of you are out of the will of God and the cabinet's world war that's just what God wanted he wanted you to be wicked no the Bible doesn't teach that at all that but that's just wacko wacko now let me just say this God does not predestined anyone to hell you see Calvinists teach that God predestined some people to have any predestined others to hell but the Bible doesn't teach that in fact I had a person asked me about Calvinism the other day when we were out in the lobby Adam Hughes Adam you can actually get my teachings on Calvinism I think they're on the website but if they're not you can go to the bookstore and get it but here's a wonderful book if you ever want to just talk about the other side of Calvinism that's the title of it the other side of Calvinism Lawrence Vance I'm joking of course it's a short book of 786 pages but it's a book that I just love I've read it several times I read it about every three or four years great book it's telling you how Calvinism is wrong but there are those who believe but unless you've been predestined to go to heaven that means God predestined you to go to hell so there's some of you to go going to hell and you really don't have any choice about it people that's not true at all I want you to understand something God never intended for any of us to go to hell what God intended was for man to inherit the kingdom of heaven look with me if you would in Matthew chapter 25 verse 34 notice what it says then the king will say to those on his right this is the goat and the Sheep separates him cheaper on the right yeah goats are on the left how do you know the difference between sheets sheep and goat from a distance when you look in the distance you go to the Middle East and you see a shepherd there how do you know whether he had goats or sheep anyone now because you can't tell from a distance sheep follow goats don't follow oh yeah you just watch the shepherd hear a whistle he'll make a little sound and he'll take off and all the sheep look up there's the master and they just follow along not the goats okay then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world notice this it says inherit the kingdom oh yeah so according to Jesus the kingdom of heaven has been prepared for us people not hell hell was prepared for the devil and his demons in Matthew chapter 25 if you look down a few verses in verse 41 notice what he says then the king will turn to those on the left the goats the ones who refuse to follow Jesus you know they're going off on their own doing whatever they want it's my life I can do what I want yes you can until you die and then you can't do what you want you'll be trapped in hell until your body is resurrected reunited with your soul at the end of the millennium and you stand before God at the great white throne judgment and because your name is not written in the book of life you just said the things has written the books you're thrown into this place called Gehenna the lake of fire for eternal destruction everything you've ever had is taken away from you and it's a place of weeping mourning and intense physical pain for all eternity but notice what it says then the king will turn to those on the left and say away with you you cursed ones in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons so according to Jesus hell was prepared for the devil and his demons so only the devil and his demons were supposed to go to hell not man as I said man was supposed to inherit the kingdom of heaven but if that's the case why do some men go to hell well it's not because it's God's will it's because they reject God's method of salvation in other words they've refused to accept the fact that Jesus is the only way to heaven turned it with me if you would to John chapter 14 verse number 6 Jesus is talking about himself in fact I love this passage of Scripture because most people don't understand the book of Acts and I explain what I mean by this when I read it Jesus told him I am the way do you realize that early on in Christianity they referred to Christianity as the way yeah they were referred to as followers of the way why because of what Jesus said jesus said I'm the way and he means the way to heaven the way to God the way to restoration the way to reconciliation the way to salvation jesus said I am the way the truth you want to know what truth is I am truth and the life John wrote in his epistles not the gospel he that hath the son hath life he that hath not the son hath not life the truth is do you have eternal life I don't know do you have Jesus if you don't have Jesus you don't have life he that hath the son hath life he that hath not the son hath not life so Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no one can come to the Father except through me so people if you end up in hell it's not God's fault it's your own fault it's because you rejected God's free gift of salvation and what is that free gift of salvation that free gift of salvation is Jesus I'm going to tell you as I was studying on this the first thing I thought is Oh God don't let anyone in my family not receive Jesus and then I start looking at my life and think it might do what God's called me to do which is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ because the truth is I don't want anyone to go to hell anyone because it doesn't end it's for all eternity and I'll never forget this when I was at John Brown University one of my professors was trying to explain what eternity would be like and he's a imagine if you would the Rocky Mountains and the Rocky Mountains has actually made a little grains of sand and you got one bird and every thousand years just one bird goes to the rocky mountains and he takes one grain of sand and he flies off to the ocean he drops it in the ocean said eternity is like this after all of those grains of sand have been taken from what is the Rocky Mountains and dropped into the ocean you're still starting and just the beginning of eternity and the thing that those who have received not Jesus or haven't received Jesus and I going to heaven they're going to the place that was never prepared for them it was prepared for the devil and his angels it makes me realize what an awesome responsibility I had to tell people about Jesus and if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus let me just say this he that hath the son Jesus has life he that hath not the son Jesus hath not life please receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

Views: 17,081

Rating: 4.9178643 out of 5

Keywords: hell, hell explained, hell explained part 1, hell sermon, bible study hell, doctrine of hell, Hell Explained Part 1, allen nolan revelation, allen nolan revelation explained, hell pastor allen nolan, hell explained pastor allen, hell explained allen nolan, bosom of abraham, what does the bible say about hell, straight to hell, does hell exist, truth about hell, is hell real, highway to hell

Id: kU7adZ2VOV0

Length: 42min 7sec (2527 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 03 2018