The Problem of Hell

alright alright how y'all doing today doing good welcome to village church if you are new special welcome to you my name is mark I'm the lead pastor teacher pastor here at the church and we're bringing out a bunch of people on the stage today and basically you can come here and come this way what I wanted to do the topic was held today so I wanted to make sure we had a choir to serenade you let your guard down I'm just kidding this is a group of students at what we call the village school of ministry and what we're about as the church is really trying to pour any young leaders even the problem of God series that were in the midst of it's all about trying to get you know down into younger ages to be able to get university students and high school students who actually love Jesus and can defend their faith and so the reality is is we want to be able to pour into students and so we created this thing called the village school of ministry and it basically takes people right out of high school and from September until April they're at village church doing school and so we have our pastors teach them or directors teach them we do hermeneutics courses Old Testament New Testament theology stuff church history apologetics all kinds of stuff to actually get them to be thinking and then we give them different ministries that they all serve in and so they spend a lot of time doing ministry and then also we have 14 students that are doing that this year and then we also have three immerse students which is masters level doing their master's degree actually in our church because I went to seminary and what I found was it was kind of irrelevant you would go you do classes you get a you know a head full of knowledge but you actually didn't know how to talk to people so most of the guys I went to seminary with they don't really know what to do in ministry because they actually have to not just read footnotes they got to deal with like a real person and so what you want to do is actually train people in ministry and on the ground so they actually are interacting to understand ministry so that's what these students are doing everything from just graduated high school right up to masters level stuff and we're actually working on a college program as well and so that you'd be able to literally graduate high school and be with us all the way through to your thirty all right that's a good thing if life so uh honestly we're really excited about this Victor Maynard is the guy who runs the village school of ministry he does an amazing job with these students yeah give it up for Victor we're really excited to see the students that graduated last year that came through this some of them got jobs at village others of them went on to do other ministry stuff so we're really excited about this and this is just one thing we do as a church to actually pour into young leaders we do believe that the church kind of rides on on youth and understanding that that young spirit going out and actually changing University culture around them is actually hugely important and so we try to do everything we can to pour it into these students and and they're doing an amazing job and so this is kind of one thing that we do one kind of ministry that we do as a church that we want to let you know about so if you see them make sure you encourage them love on them and pray for them alright let's give them a hand as they get out of here thank you guys so much really excited about your year we have 14 students this year three immerse students and then we have eleven graduates from last year the other announcement is we are in I don't know if you guys were here for it we're in the midst of a campaign called village 2021 where we have to raise ten million dollars we actually started this campaign just before the problem of God series started so maybe you weren't aware of it but we're buying a piece of land and so what we want to do is come together as a church everybody together find our place hey God what are you actually calling me to sacrifice toward this campaign so if you're new with us and you're just exploring Christianity you know don't worry about it this isn't for you but if you're someone who calls village home every single one of us from the CEO to the college student is going to come together to actually raise ten million dollars to buy a piece of land and so what we've been talking about is October 15 is pledge day and so everyone is gonna have one of these make sure that you fill it out and bring it back on October 15th next Sunday a week today for most of us and uh and that you actually ask God what are you calling me to do what are you calling me to give write it down get one of these from connect card or you're holding them and make sure you bring that back or go on the website that we created called village 20:21 calm and you can pledge there because we need to know if you pledge you know collectively all you know all of us the thousands of people across all these sites Surrey Langley and Calgary if you pledge you know $100,000 we ain't gonna buy land alright so that can't happen we need to come together to actually say this is what we're willing to give this is what God's told me to do and there's all kind you got to understand when you're thinking about that don't just think about what's in your bank account and then try to figure out because that's probably not gonna be much you got to think about the whole sphere of your life you got to think about property you own early church sold property alright read Acts chapter 2 we love that passage because it gives us nice feelings and we tend to forget the part where they sold stuff right in order to help people and serve Missy RRSPs stuff that you own things that you can turn into value stocks that's a massive way people give being able to cash those in and give those to the church we can raise this money I you know with all of us together knowing the people the kind of people who are at our church and the amount of people on our church we're gonna be able to raise this 10 million dollars I am pretty sure of it and if we don't I'm gonna go up in a tower and not come down till we do there's a guy actually did that so anyways I won't do that so anyway ten million dollars October 15 please pledge it so we know what's going on and then you have a series of months before the money has to be in the bank February 28th okay he'll good segue the topic today is hell alright now some of you here's what we gotta understand this might be might be the most touchy of subjects now here's the shift we're making starting this week in in this series the problem of God in the first three weeks we dealt with what scholars call evidential questions meaning we dealt with science in history or and we talked about the philosophical scientific historical reasons why Christianity is legit we talked about science talked about God's existed with the Christ myth in the Bible lot of history lot of kind of study around science and technic evidential questions now we make a shift to what scholars call moralistic questions meaning this is the stuff that just you don't like it goes against your gut and that's what the next five weeks is is that it repulses you to actually believe in the next week we're talking about sex and so you don't like the biblical concept of sex or how Christians talk about sex or think about sex or do sex evil and suffering the the idea of the hypocrisy of the church how we burnt witches and killed people and and then there's this one Hell which might be maybe the most relevant out of all the moralistic questions that we're gonna deal with this is the question on everyone's about if you sit down with your buddy at a pub and you go listen I'm gonna argue the Christian is legitimate he might say to you you know what okay cool I get it the science thing i man I get it even suffering okay you got a good answer for that I understand that okay I understand philosophically it makes sense the hypocrisy of the church might not have been what it and then you say okay I'm in and then you go okay one more thing though um hell that exists it's real he's going check please I'm out because I don't want to believe in this and so here's what I'm gonna ask you to do buying it because it raises all these massive questions right and these are the questions that we're gonna hit today these questions about is it just I thought God was all loving why would hell have to last forever what's the nature of hell is that actually people burning and suffering and being tortured why does God send people that all these questions we're gonna deal with but just give me time cuz this is the kind of sermon you're gonna maybe if you're new and exploring Christian is the kind of one where you gonna want to stand up and leave halfway through because it's gonna sound crazy what I'm saying just let me get to the end and then we can chat alright because what we want to do is be able to question our questions doubt our doubts and understand that there might be things in our mind that we believe about the world and about the universe and about God and about the Bible that isn't actually true and then secondly we want to be able to be self aware that you and I see here's the issue and God made Peter Kreeft said this of all the doctrines in Christian Antti hell is probably the most difficult to defend the most burdensome to believe and the first to be abandoned Charles Darwin abandoned his Christian faith he said this I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity be true for if so plain language of the text seems to show but the men who do not believe and this would include my father brother and almost all my friends will be everlastingly punished this is a damnable doctrine and so here's what you and I got to understand this isn't just some kind of hypothetical question for me this is my family I've told you I didn't grow up in the church my family doesn't even believe in Christian my grandfather was the only a Christian in my home as to what we got out in my family so you've got to understand they that um when it comes to this question this isn't hypothetical for me this is very real and so iciest lewis said and i would totally agree with him he says there's no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this if it lay in my power but and this is how we're gonna we're just we're gonna spar it has the full support of Scripture and especially of Jesus own words and it has always been held by Christendom and it has the support of reason so us we're gonna talk about now here's was my first encounter with Hell my family sent me up to get rid of me for three weeks at a Christian camp when I was nine years old my parents divorced and I was about 8 or 8 and then my grandfather sent me up to Christian summer camp so I'd never been exposed to anything Christian in my life I went up there and they ran me really tired Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and every Chapel around the campfire was really nice and calm and it was cool and it was all about the love of God and how God likes you and Jonas stories about getting spit out of whales and stuff I was like this is cool and then all of a sudden they came to Friday night which I later heard they called Turner burn night and Friday night once we're all tired we got by the fire and they said now here's what you got understand if you don't do that if you don't believe in hell if you don't believe in Jesus there's and then there's a fire and the guy like squirted gasoline on it but ball and goes that will be you is that what you want we're all like hundred percent conversion rate that night all right every kid came to Christ counselors were repenting making sure locking it in coming to Jesus all right that was the reality of it now they could have told me to believe in the marshmallow man at that point I would have because the reality is and here's what you've got to understand the misnomer is the Christianity is a batter up because it's it tries to drive hell as a fear doctrine to fear people into relationship with Jesus and what we're gonna find out is that doesn't really work it never produces actual disciples of Jesus long term long obedience in the same direction kind of disciples of Jesus if you're only motivated by hell I may want to me to buy fear and hell and suffering and torture you're never gonna be in the long run and every kid I knew who came to Jesus based on that premise alone not because they loved God not because they treasure Jesus not because they wanted a life of joy and passion in him but just because they were afraid of this they all fell away in the end because this does not motivate people in the long term to actually believe in Jesus that's not why I'm explaining it to you I'm explaining it to you and raising this question because I know what's on our minds is something we're not gonna embrace Christianity if it's actually true and the first thing we've got to understand is that it's a Jesus thing and what I mean by that is Christian sees a lot of people who come and Christianity go I like Jesus all right Madonna likes Jesus Justin Timberlake likes Jesus they all have t-shirts Jesus is my homeboy our culture even downtown Calgary Vancouver Langley was 30 whatever you talk to regular Joe in the coffee shop they say they like Jesus they like his morals they like through his teachings I was listening to Deepak Chopra who's a new-age thinker I was watching him in a television show and he said you know all these Christians ranting on about the wrath of God and God being angry and God judging they don't understand the real summary of Jesus Christ is the Sermon on the Mount that's what Jesus is about he's not about all this other stuff he's about the Sermon on the Mount he's about and of course what's in his mind is you know love your neighbor turn the cheek golden rule and I'm like oh my interesting Deepak Chopra you've never actually read the Sermon on the Mount you because it's in the Sermon on the Mount where hell is the central idea listen to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount supposedly the central teachings where he doesn't like to talk about bad things but I say to you everyone who's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire that's Matthew chapter 5 verse 22 later on if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away for it is better than you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body gets thrown into hell this is so here's what we've got to understand first this is a teaching that's not even clear in the Bible until you get to Jesus so people who want to skeptics you want to come and say the Old Testament it's so nasty and mean and wrathful and angry give me the New Testament because it's loving and it's Jesus and it's soft you don't understand if it's true that the love and the mercy of God ratchets up in the New Testament then it's also true that the wrath of God ratchets up in the New Testament as well because you don't even get the doctrine of hell until you get to Jesus and Jesus is almost exclusively the one that actually talks about Hell and so it's a Jesus thing that's the first thing we have to understand so if you like Jesus and you don't like hell you've got to now ask yourself a question why and that's the second point we got to talk about we have to be self aware of our alternate beliefs and what I mean by that is you don't just come into this question as a blank slate of information saying I don't like hell just because hell is not a good idea and I'm right about everything the reason you don't like the idea of Hell is because you already been convinced of other ideas and values from your just let's be self aware you live in Canada you're you're you you belong to a democratic country you're probably educated you're Westerner you've sat around the dinner table you've had education you've been watching CNN and Fox News and Media and you drive by billboards there's a world view that's been constructed for you every time you watch Grey's Anatomy every time you listen to Howard Stern there is a world view being constructed for you that has a whole bunch of assumptions about the universe God yourself humankind reality and all of them make you either warm to the idea of hell or actually say you know what I don't like the idea of Hell at all and you've got to be self-aware you at least have to be self-aware to understand what are your alternate beliefs that you bring to this question this week on we did a staff retreat we're up at Rock Ridge one of the things was we got in two lines as a staff and we walked and you would get a different partner and you'd answer a two-minute question one of the questions was if you could ask God one question what would it be in a meeting without even thinking I look to my partner I said why does he'll have to be so long I don't understand why he couldn't just last for a certain amount of time and then be done with it why is he'll and this wasn't even because I was preaching on hell I didn't figure that out until the next day um I plan ahead don't worry huh and so and so the reality is it's like why why did this question bubble up in me that I would actually say I don't like there's something about this that that I don't like why let me tell you why what I have to be honest with when I come to this question and why I naturally don't want it to be true my father passed away when I was 15 years old he was 47 he died of lung cancer he didn't know Jesus my grandfather who I went flew back and did his funeral a few months ago 98 years old he died he didn't know Jesus my family member I mean we're talking about these are this is my father my biological dad my grandfather like the kind of the people who when I look in my kids eyes I can see them if the doctrine of hell is real then my father is there my grandfather is there I can't I can't there's no you thing there not if I want to take the words of Jesus as real if I want to take the Bible as an authority in my life rather than whatever worldview I can just come up with in my mind this is a very real question and and honestly it it makes me doubt and it makes me wonder and it makes me tremble and it should you too and so this is a real question for me and I and and that's why I see I have this alternate belief over here that I don't want it to be true and so I I move away from it but I gotta be honest with it I gotta be honest with why I come to the question and immediately want to get away from it it's because it's my family it's because it's my dad what are the things in your life that have created alternate beliefs that shade you away from this question being true you got to dig down deep and figure out what those are here's the third thing to say that hell is not so much a doubt as much as it's a repulsion for most of us it's not like you can quantify that hell doesn't exist it's not like quantum mechanics it's not like a historical thing that you can go in and say I don't believe in hell because of this or because of this or because of this you don't believe in Hell because you're repulsed by it because it doesn't feel right but here's what's dangerous about that what feels right and good is not the best way to figure out what's true and what is right about the universe you know that just because you're repelled by an idea doesn't make it false there's a lot of things in life that don't feel good but they're the right things I don't know if you've ever fired anyone firing people is not fun the first time I fired anyone I'm a lover right I like to talk and I like to talk a lot so when you fire someone you're kind of not allowed to talk a lot because there's like legal things at stake but I'm in the room and it's like you're fired and all I want to start doing is going now let me tell you why and what are we gonna do and hey you I want to be friends let's go for coffee tonight let's chat let's chat it up that's what I want to do but all you can do is go you're fired why right and so what happens is these people what are you talking about Donna and they get angry and they get mad and they leave and all I want to do is in now it doesn't feel good to fire people but sometimes it's the right thing to do right and then what about the flip side there's some things in life that feel amazing adultery I was watching the founder of W eww adultery calm and he was talking about how adultery is is amazing it's fun it's it's a thrill ride you get all kinds of different you romantic you get connected you you and no one should put you know the restraints on themself not to sleep with with whomever they want we need to embrace this as a culture and leave all our old pass where you just marry one person and stay with them what kind of slavery do you want to live in adultery is fun and everyone should try it but no cos it feels good to commit adultery but nobody would say it's right no culture would say it's right because it feels good doesn't make it right and when something feels wrong it doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong it just means you don't like it but that's not a logical reason not to believe it so you've got to push in now and go what are the reasons that I actually have denied this in my life so first thing is it's a repulsion it's not even necessarily a doubt so question why you have the repulsion because that doesn't necessarily mean that it's not true secondly here's the objective for objections to Christian to hell that I had to work through when I became a Christian when I was 17 18 years old and the objections that are on people's minds the first one is that it's a repulsion I don't like it the second out is that hell is unjust right hell is unjust that's the that's the objection that people have on the ground it's not just for God to punish people we live a certain you know the punishment doesn't fit the crime we live a certain you know lifestyle we live it for a certain amount of time and then God punishes people here's what we've got to understand the problem with this kind of thinking is that when you get outside of the Western world people don't think like that because the rest of the world and I've said this before many times but the rest of the world deals with real life where take you see you and I sit around and we say it's not right for God to judge people in hell it's not right but that really is because you and I sit around at Starbucks and drink lattes and we're all comfortable in our air-conditioned homes and our heated homes driving our nice cars and we like to wax eloquently as we read Kierkegaard on what God is allowed to do and what is not allowed to do but you go into 90% of the world who doesn't have that luxury who the village in Africa or the Middle East or India where somebody a group of men just came in and took ten year old girls and put them into sex slavery and killed the women and then you go and ask those families oh don't worry about it here's what God's gonna do in the end universalism is true because that's more palatable to the Western mind everybody's gonna go to heaven in the end isn't that the better way to think of God ask the guy who just lost a ten-year-old daughter to sex slavery and his wife to murder and torture don't worry about it all those guys that got set free and they'll never see any kind of worldly justice don't worry we're all gonna be singing Kumbaya together in heaven holding hands you think they lose a moment of sleep over the idea that a just God will bring judgment on those men see that's how the rest of the world lives now the question the most cultures they would say I won't worship God unless there's judgment unless God is going to bring judgment down on wrongdoing on the Hitler's and the Stalin's and the Mussolini's and the rapists and the murderers you're telling me God's not gonna bring any justice to them then that God is not worth worshiping but somewhere we flip it because we live here's where Miroslav Volf said he's a philosopher lived in Croatia watched family and friends murdered and killed he said this it takes the quiet of a suburban home for the birth of the thesis of God's refusal to judge in a scorched land soaked in the blood of the innocent it will invariably die and as one watched it die one will do well to reflect about many other pleasant captivity of the liberal mind the idea that we could just sit and judge that God is going to judge that we're not gonna take that idea we're not gonna take that doctor for ourselves everyone goes to heaven in the end listen ask um ask a Muslim and a Jew how excited they are that everyone's just gonna go to heaven when they die and all the grandparents and the friends the history that they lost their lives fighting for truth and monotheism an election and the idea that this land wasn't yours and I'm gonna fight don't worry everyone we're all just gonna be in heaven don't worry about all that stuff that your parents died for it was all false anyway God's just gonna bring everybody into heaven ask people who actually live in the midst of pain and awfulness but it does take a suburban life to come up with the idea that hell would somehow be unjust and here's my point think about the presupposition that you have think about the assumption that you have that hell would be unjust and just push back against it for a second and recognize that be very careful when you read the Bible and it says something that you don't like you have to understand what the beautiful part of this is when as Christians we come under the Bible and the authority of it right last week I talked about why the Bible is legitimate why people why scholars look in at the Gospels and they go the Gospels just ring true there's nothing these skeptics come at the Gospels and they're like you know you can't take this an authority in your life because it was just made up by the early church and then you actually read the Gospels you're like if the early church made this stuff up they did an awful job because they look dumb every single time the early church of Peter made up Christianity and just wrote it down he looks like an idiot half the time Peter does and Jesus you don't write down the kinds of things that you write about the Gospels have about Jesus because you're trying to prove to everybody that he's God so one minute you're like Jesus is God Jesus God and the next minute someone walks up to me goes hey do you know when you're coming back he goes I don't have a clue and they're like but don't you know everything aren't you omniscient because oh yeah I made the world so when are you coming back I don't know the father knows don't put that in there it's gonna confuse everybody he's on the cross he says my God my God why have you forsaken me after sixteen chapters of arguing that he is God why is he talking to himself don't confuse everybody putting in that nonsense don't let women be the first ones don't put in counterproductive content don't do the things and the Gospel writers just go oh by the way that's just how it happened just what he said he walks into a town and he drowns mm Pig throw his demons into them he dream like he doesn't like drown them like this the demons go in and drowns them and don't put that in there because all the people love animals are gonna be mad at Jesus don't put that in there makes them look bad don't put them in the garden sang if you can take this cup from me I wish you would cuz I'm terrified and I'm sweating blood right now that's not how heroes die heroes are like William Wallace and they go to bat and they never blink but they put it in there and you look at them and every scholar goes this is not whitewash this does not mythology this is like this just happened like this now you take an authority like that and you go okay now I'm reading this Bible and it's informing me that hell's an idea just isn't any other wrath of gods and here's why I don't have the luxury to just turn away from it and say no it's not because here's what you should terrify you you and I are such a product of our cultural moment be very careful to not be such a product of your culture a moment that you deny something that's been an authority for 2,000 years see Christianity connects itself to this meta narrative which transcends every cultural moment so we tap into he say here's what gets to define truth here's the great thing about that here's the freeing part now you get to think not in your matrix of a 21st century Canadian educated the way you are see listen to this and I've given this illustration before my grandmother when I would go over to her house she we would all agree our grandparents say the craziest stuff right like our grandparents say stuff something you're like what are you talking about it's like yeah that's you right so I go over to my grandparents house and I'm like I'm lucky I didn't bring my friend of another race grandma jeepers what are you staying we all know our grandparents said crazy stuff believed crazy stuff cuz they were raised in a different era where people actually like Valley like today like my grandma would be like holding buttons and making sure she kept ahold of elastic something who cares let us go buy a thousand at Costco say yeah but you don't have money that's ok credit card.this it's a different game now here's the reality though if you were such a product of your culture a moment one day you and I are gonna be our grandparents and we're gonna believe stuff that our grandkids and our great care and kids are gonna look at us right now the things that you think are cutting-edge the things that you think are cool your great grandkids are gonna look at you and go they're not don't go talk to Grandpa he's gone off if he he believes xed and it's like why is he believe X man because he was watching the news in 2017 and that's what that's how they talked that's what they believed be very careful that you don't let your cultural moment overtake something that actually transcends culture and that's what as a Christian you've got to submit to you've got to go okay I have to be self-aware enough to know that the Bible actually is my authority right now and so maybe just maybe our cultural moment is not the preeminent decider on what is right and just for the cosmos now thirdly here's another objection isn't Hell overkill and what I mean by that is some people look at Hell and they say the absolute over killed a person lives and sins for 80 years and then they get punished forever but here's what you and I have to understand that a punishment is not based on how long it takes for someone to commit a crime a punishment is based on the weightiness of the crime what I mean is it could take you seven seconds to murder someone you don't go to jail for seven seconds you go to jail for life or sometimes we take your life why because you murdered a person so here's the scale because there is a scale of essence and what you and I as a culture do is we punish people based on the sin against some kind of value integrity personage and essence of the person being sinned against now here's what I mean if I'm driving in my car and I hit a cat on the way home today alright praise God so let's say I in a cat and a neighbor walks out and we see a dead cat on the ground what is that neighbor gonna say they're gonna go oh man you kill the cat I'm like yeah kind of tried to cuz they're demons alright if you've been around village me and cats don't work out very well so so demon cat got hit by my car I didn't mean to kill the demon cat but it's dead is that guy gonna call the cops yes or no no it's a dead cat sorry shoot can I bear in your backyard done now tomorrow I'm driving and I hit a person 20 years old BAM on the ground dead neighbor comes out what are we gonna do she's gonna call the cops probably probably knock just gonna let me go ain't let's not talk about this just put him in your backyard right not gonna happen not gonna happen I hit I Drive over a spider that guy's not even coming out cuz it don't matter because every creature has the value and they're all on a scale and what we got to understand is when you say to yourself but I sinned for 80 years ergo I shouldn't go to hell forever you're missing the point that the person you're sinning against see here's the thing my kids they sin all the time and the reality is my my six year old recently was sitting at the table I'm like eat carrots and she's like I'm not eating carrots dad I eat what I want I'm like ah alright I'm like okay you're going up to your bedroom and my wife says it's gonna be the same amount of minutes that they're all as old there as they are so I don't know in my world I'm like you know forty minutes she's like she's six he gets six minutes so boom put her on her little Barbie chair shut the door click six minutes I wait she cried now why because she offended me I'm her father right they only call me father right none of this daddy nonsense you call me father all right around the dinner table yes Father all right now you offended father you get six minutes if you did something to your sister I'd probably say knock it off why because she offended an authority that has an S and a value and relationship to her that is different and the weightiness of the crime is based on that see here's the issue first you offend an infinite eternal person like God who is the weightiest the punishment actually for it to be just has to be measured out based on that scale ergo it's forever but secondly here's the assumption the assumption when you say someone sin for 80 years and then they go on and thinks is that their stops ending when they go to hell but the reality is is over and over again the stories that Jesus tells us about how Luke 16 he tells the story for about a guy who goes to heaven the guy goes to hell and the one in heaven can't get over to hell and the one in hell can't get over to heaven and the reality is is the fascinating part the scholars point out is the guy who lives in Hell never asks to get out of hell and go over to heaven he's sinning and he continues to sin in hell and he continues to do the one thing that would keep him there forever which is not believe in Jesus as Lord Savior and treasure of his life there's no indicator that he stopped sinning this sin continues and so you and I have to understand that it's an ongoing thing that we dead based on our freewill and it's not a freewill decision that happened once it's not like you get a test and you say heaven or hell see if that was the case that's like kids around the campfire having a hell who's gonna go I want help nobody they're gonna say okay if this is an option heaven but the reality is doesn't work like that it's actually way more gracious than that it's that every day you get up you get that choice every decision you make in life is that choice every decision you make when you stand up from these seats and leaves easier to get to you on a trajectory toward heaven or a trajectory where you're actually denying Jesus and when you deny Jesus enough in life hell is simply that the eternal echo of that decision that you made a million times in your life it's not just once it's not just you came to church one time you got something and you denied it or you took it it's not that you went to camp and you heard it and you denied it or you took it it's when you wake up tomorrow morning when God by His grace lets the Sun come up on you that's another day for you to make a decision toward Jesus and not away from him if you continue to make the decision away from him hell is where you end up da Carson puts it this way hell is not a place for people are consigned because they were pretty good people who didn't believe the right stuff for their 80 years 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've already repented only God isn't gentle enough or good enough to let them out it's filled with people who for eternity still want to be the center of the universe what is God to do if he says it doesn't matter to him then God is no longer a God to be admired for him to act in any way in the face of such plate any other way in the face of such blatant defiance would be to reduce God himself this is what he does he allows it's the great GK Chesterton said hell is the great monument to human freedom where soonerlater God just says okay I'll let you do what you want to do you don't want me part of your life then I'm not gonna be part of your life here's the fourth question before we wrap up and I'll pray for us the fourth question is isn't Hell a torture chamber lots of people come at Hell and they say I can't believe in hell because it's torture it's fire its Jesus of course you use the image of fire weeping and gnashing of teeth utter darkness here's what you and I have to understand when Jesus when the Bible talks like that it's apocalyptic language it's metaphorical language all right the Bible has this genre called apocalyptic which is basically you'd go to Ezekiel you go to Isaiah you go to all the Old Testament prophets they talked about fire because fire in the Bible is an image of God's judgment it's not necessarily a literal image it's a metaphorical image of a meaning of a purpose it's a pointer toward the kind of psychological emotional spiritual darkness and judgment that is going to fall on a person NT right puts it this way he says the different layers of meaning and vision literature of this type demand to be heard in their fullness not flattened out into a single level of meaning if this had been noted a century ago biblical scholarship could have been spared many falls trails apocalyptic language uses complex and highly colored metaphors in order to describe one event in terms of another indeed it is not easy to see what better language system could have been chosen the metaphorical language of apocalyptic invest history with theological meaning here's the difference you read junior Tolkien differently you read the newspaper if I sit down I'm reading my daughter right now my 11 year old daughter Lord of the Rings sorry so we're going through that things and there's orcs alright these like right with their teeth and they kill people there's the nazgûl or were these Dark Riders who ride the horses and fire out of their face all right now if I'm sitting there reading it she's like dad are these things real I mean like yeah totally they're real she ain't gonna sleep the nazgûl can come in and catch you at night honey now if I can make the switch in my brain to go unreadiness see literature right now and when I read fantasy literature it's not like I'm reading the newspaper so what does it mean then see every single symbol every idea is actually pointing toward a reality and here's the difference this is what that Tim Keller says he says all descriptions and depictions of Heaven and Hell in the Bible are symbolic and metaphorical each metaphor suggests one aspect of the experience of Hell for example fire tells us of the disintegration well darkness tells us of the isolation having said that does not an awl imply that heaven or hell themselves or metaphors and that's a key distinction they're very much realities but all language about them is elusive metaphorical and partial steep the minute if I'm talking to my buddy in the coffee shop and he says so his fire literal or people gonna actually burn I sometimes say well based on the genre probably not of a literature probably not in the same way the Hebrews says a gaul god is an all-consuming fire he's not literally a fireball in the same way where Jesus in Revelation 19 comes down and he has a sword coming out of his mouth he probably doesn't actually have like a shore between his teeth like hey Arielle and how are you doing I'm glad to be back that's not how it works in the same way that Jesus in Revelation 4 and 5 is a lamb you're not gonna get to heaven in Jesus I was four feet and hooves and a woolly coat all of these are pictures and images so then people go Oh whew good there's no fire and it's like whoa hold on a second that's not what I'm saying because the symbol is pointing to something that might be worse see here's the reality symbols are very powerful things if I have a if I if I if you're walking along a mall and you see a little yellow stand and it has a guy flipping right and you know okay I can't go near that you might look at that picture and go well that looks brutal that looks difficult that looks like it wouldn't hurt that man mid sled but then you actually come by five minutes later and slip on it and crack your head what's worse the reality is worse than the picture when when we think of I used to growing up in Ontario there's those green boxes and there was that guy getting electrocuted on them like kick it kick it kick it and I used to stay away from the green box because while the picture was bad the reality was way worse these symbols in the Bible are pointing you towards something that's far worse see fire is all we could come up with because we think of gods don't listen if I just said to you here's a wedding ring it's just a symbol don't worry about it and yeah it's just a wedding so ok who cares it's just a symbol I'm walking around a hot girl comes up to me in the mall oh this no don't worry about it it's just a symbol that's not the way it works is my marriage more or less than my ring is it more or less than my ring it's more it's deeper it's more profound the ring is just a pointer it can't really capture it and so here's the essence of what I want to say to you whether there's actual fire in hell or not listen the point of it is Jesus is saying weeping and gnashing of teeth fire worm never dies listen to me it's the worst it's the worst you would not want your worst enemy to go there it's it's it's isolation and separation and Jesus gives this image in in Luke 16 where he's telling the story of the guy who separate from heaven and the guys cries out and he says so you see here's the question why why is hell the way it is why the why the agony why the suffering why the pain that's the question that can why did God make it like this right there there's an assumption he didn't make it like that it's naturally like that and here's what I mean in Matthew 25 Jesus says when he's giving the sheep in the goats he says goats you will go to a depart from me I never knew you and then he says he will go to fire and so on and then he says the place that was prepared for the devil and his angels here's what you and I have to understand hell was never made for people to go there it was made for the devil and his angels to be judged there so what is it then it's here's what naturally hell is you remove the one person in the universe who gives you see every good thing that you have in life comes from God he's the source of it sex art water music air once every good gift comes from God to you so then Jesus tells the story of a guy and he says can you send someone to just drop water just give me a just a drop of water and they say story can't why because you've removed the one person in the universe who would give you water or joy or sex or art or music and so here's the reality of what hell is you take away the one who provides the common graces of your life of course that's gonna be the reality of it so CS Lewis puts it this way there is no other way to the happiness for which we were made good things as well as bad are caught by a kind of infection if you want to get warm you must stand near the fire if you want to be wet you must get into the water if you want joy power peace eternal life you must get close to or even into the thing that has them they're not as sort of prized which God just hands out to anyone they are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality if you're close to it the spray will wet you if you're not you will remain dry once a man is united to God how could he not live forever once the man is separated from God what can he do but wither and die see here's the reality if you choose a million times in your life to say I don't want anything to do with God this is where it goes hell is the place where that goes that isolation that separation that's suffering that anxiety but it's you it's not him it's the ultimate reality of thy will be done right there's there's only two things that are gonna happen you're gonna say to God thy will be done or God's gonna say to you your will be done that's it that's the see hell is the place where the lie in the garden that we can live without God is shown to be false you can't live with that you can't it turns out you can't because every good and beautiful thing came from him but hell is the place where God goes like we're parents so when my kids are small III forced my will upon them don't I like literally my kid goes to touch something on my don't like why cuz you're gonna die it's like kids when they're young are just constructed to try to kill themselves at all times right there just grab knives and be like hey can I use this it's like no my kids would have if I just let them do whatever they want I mean yesterday my kids like can I have ice cream I'm like it's 8:00 in the morning yeah but I know we can have ice cream we can have candy we can have Sarah cos if I just let them go they'd be have diabetes and be dead by 30 but it's our job at that point to say no I'm gonna protect you I'm gonna protect you but when my kids are 25 what do I got to do at that point I got to say you're free man it's your well it's not mine that's what good parenting is God at some point looks at all of us and goes what do you want you want to get away from me fine this is the great monument to that but here's the reality no one is a disciple of Jesus long term in a loving amazing way by running away from Hell here's what you got to do the beauty of understanding hell is that it shows you what God it what it cost God to actually buy you and purchase you the value that you have see if you eliminate hell from your doctrine what you don't understand is what Jesus went through for you on the cross when he said my God my God why have you forsaken me he's getting cut off and separated from God in that moment he's going through hell so that you don't have to he took it on himself that's how valuable you are to him and you take that away you don't understand your value you don't understand your intrinsic worth you don't understand the depth of suffering that God himself actually went through to purchase you back you get a sentimental God he just does some stuff he likes everybody he's like some old uncle he just likes to play checkers and play in the garden he's not mad at anybody he doesn't have any anger at all but he does have anger but Jesus took it on for you that's what the cross is he took on the hell that you and I deserve so that not one person listening to this right now not one person who just heard everything I just said or half of what I just said actually has to go there you put your faith in Jesus who went there for you took the wrath on himself for you and then rose again to give you life here's my fear that the reason you won't believe in this is because you're stuck in your alternate beliefs and you think that's really freedom and you say I don't want to look old-fashioned I don't want to actually accept a doctrine that makes me look that's your slavery you're you're just reading the teleprompter of a culture that's telling you what you're supposed to believe and not believe and what what is acceptable and not acceptable this thing has to shake us I was I spoke at a funeral yesterday right at the end and after the whole thing was over it was for a 24 year old kid I looked at this packed room of a thousand people and I just said listen his life needs to scandalize you if you're sitting here and you don't know anything about Jesus everything about this kid's life then he trusted Christ with his life not because it was sentimentally true but because it actually made sense it was rational his reason was logical and he gave his life to Jesus and live for him and if you're sitting here and you just think it's good to come to a funeral and cry a little bit and go home and forget about it you've got to let his life disrupt you let it keep you awake tonight and ask the question if he really believed this stuff why don't I if he really lived this stuff why don't and don't just get up and leave and forget about go that's something I'm never gonna believe because it sounds crazy the authority of Jesus actually compels us to get scandalized by it confront your own doubts be skeptical of your own skepticism open yourself up to actually God might be speaking to you through the even this weird odd repulsive doctrine of your own value and worth in the eyes of God this is what he did for you let me pray for us father it's not easy to understand all the time why you do certain things the way you do them but as system's talked about it is it makes it it has the support of Scripture it has the support of Jesus history and even logic and reason I pray you would move and do your work among us and let us listen and have the courage to respond and believe and trust in Jesus and all you've done for us in your good name we pray amen you

Channel: Village Church

Views: 6,628

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Id: ZQ7u5mODYOM

Length: 48min 58sec (2938 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 08 2017