The Reality of Hell: Choices and Eternal Consequences

There is clearly an interest and how do we figure out the thing that is mysterious? The thing that is kind of intriguing but the thing that is also can be very scary. How can we make the thing that is unseen become seen? How do we take the things that are invisible and bring clarity on what we're supposed to think about these things? [00:03:48]

You see, Thomas Jefferson was somebody who was intrigued by Jesus. He really liked the ideas of his love and he he liked the idea of of who he was and and he liked the idea of what he stood for in his teachings. But there were certain parts of the story of Jesus and there were certain parts of the Bible that he just couldn't agree with. He didn't like, he didn't believe. So, the story goes is that he literally took a razor blade and he went to the Bible and he cut out the parts that he didn't like or he cut out the parts that he didn't agree with. [00:07:14]

Some of you, maybe because you didn't grow up in church or maybe you grew up in a church and you never talked about hell. Why would you talk about hell? Like why would you talk about that? And and it was just assumed that hell, if it is a real place, definitely doesn't have people like us there. It's like the really really bad people. But you thought well God is loving and God is good so no one actually goes to hell right or maybe your just assumption is this is that essentially it's like heaven is like the top of the mountain and all of us are going to end up at the top of the mountain and some people may choose Jesus and some people may choose over here and some people may choose something else over here and it really doesn't matter what you choose because all it's going to end up at the same exact place and so if hell is real it's like empty there's like nobody there like it can't really be something that's real. [00:09:16]

Please hear me. There's no biblical basis for purgatory. And you can imagine how that's been abused and misused over the course of time. United City Church, we're Bible people. Like we believe the Bible speaks. So what we want to do is we want to let the Bible speak about a topic that you would be surprised how often it comes up in the Bible. While we may try to cut it out, if we were going to cut out the sections on hell, we'd be cutting out a lot of the New Testament and a lot of the teachings of Jesus. [00:10:34]

Did you know that Jesus himself talked about hell more than any other person? Did you know that Jesus talks about hell 13% of the time? 13% of what he says is about hell. And if you look at all the parables that Jesus taught, which were stories meant to teach a truth, over half of the parables were about eternal separation, judgment, and hell, which is what the case is today in Luke chapter 16 in the parable that we're going to see. [00:11:08]

Jesus teaches using a contrast between a rich man and a poor man. What he presents is a have and have not. What you see is the rich man is presented as very wealthy. He's very self-absorbed. Purple was the color of luxury. Only kings or royalties had purple. But it says here that he has purple, which means this, he is loaded. This guy has a lot of money. He's got some significance and some status. He ate the finest foods. He was a lover of money. The rich man dies and he was buried. Because of his money and his status, he surely had an extravagant burial and a very proper burial at that. [00:13:06]

It then mentions that there was another man named Lazarus. This isn't Lazarus, Jesus's friend, who he later rises from the dead. This is just a man that is named in the story, the only one in fact of all of Jesus's parables to get a name that he just gives the name. Lazarus, though, his name literally means God has helped, which is ironic because it doesn't look like God's helping him a whole lot in the story. I mean, in fact, what you see is a man who has dire circumstances. He's a beggar. He's nothing to eat. He's hoping to get crumbs from the rich man's table. [00:13:48]

The parable gives us some insight in that how we live on earth affects what happens to us when we die. Notice the contrast. It continues with the two men uh in verse 22. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame." [00:15:03]

Lazarus is immediately taken up to the angels by Abraham's side. For the Jewish people, Abraham is like the patriarch of the faith. This represents calm. This represents security. It's the image of intimate rest. What this means is is because we know Jesus was the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecy is that ultimately Lazarus put his faith and trust in Jesus and so therefore he is now in heaven is the image that we are seeing. The contrast is between the rich man and his destination. [00:15:41]

Verse 23 says the rich man was taken to Hades or hell. It says he was in torment. Verse 24 says we see he was in physical pain. He's asking for mercy. You see this idea repeated multiple times when hell is mentioned in God's word. It is a place of intense physical pain. Matthew 25:31 reads, "When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. [00:16:10]

Anytime you see depictions of hell, you see many times fire and images of suffering. But what I want you to see is that it's not just physical pain. It's mental anguish. The word anguish used in verse 24 actually implies not just physical but mental torment. It's a different word from torment found in verse 23 which is physical pain. This word refers to continual pain and grief especially mentally. Verse 25 explains it. It says, "But Abraham said, child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus in like manner bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in same word anguish." [00:17:35]

It's important to note, we got to stop here for a second. Abraham is not in Abraham is not saying that the rich man is in hell because he was rich. If that's the case, all of us would be in hell because categorically all of us, no matter where we are, no matter how much money you have in this room and hearing my voice, you are loaded compared to the rest of the world. It's not saying that that is the case. The context for this parable is found in a larger discussion with the Pharisees over Jesus where Jesus was trying to show them what they thought made them successful and right with God was actually untrue. [00:18:20]

What this says is that the reason the rich man was in hell was because he loved his riches and he loved his status more than he loved God. Hear this. And hell was actually his preference. [00:19:17]

What we miss in this passage and what we miss in the story found throughout God's word about hell is that hell is not a place that anybody's forced to go to. Hell instead is a place where people choose to go because they they say that they love God but but they love other things more. They may they they they say that that they don't really want to follow what God says he's supposed to do. They instead want to follow what they want to do. And as a result of following what they want to do, here's what God says. I don't like it, and I know you won't either, but I'm going to let you do what you think is what you think is best. [00:23:20]

God in no way desires that any should perish. He takes no joy and no pride in allowing people to choose the very thing he knows will lead to anguish and torment and sorrow. [00:24:11]

What I want you to see, it's so important for you to notice this, is that in hell, it's a place where people live for themselves, their pleasure, their plan, their future, and they do so as though God doesn't exist. And so what God does in his mercy and his grace is he allows them to get the full consequences of their choice. [00:25:31]

You may be thinking, "I don't understand why a good God, a good, gracious God could ever send anyone to hell." He doesn't. But he allows you to choose it because he's not going to force himself on you. He's not going to make you follow him or love him. But instead, he's going to give you the choice. If this is what you choose, here's what I want you to make sure you understand. There is no second chance. [00:26:40]

There's a permanence. There's no second chance. There's no turning back. There's no well I was going to moment. There's no I didn't have time. I was I was so busy. I was doing all this stuff. There there's none of that. There was no well if I known I had I was going to die then as early as I did I would have been more ser you you don't you don't get to say that the decision that you make in this life are going to have permanent eternal consequences in the life to come. [00:27:19]

We use the same excuses now. We just take a request. God, if you'll heal my family member, then I will believe in you. God, if you'll do this, then I will be serious about you. And we're trying to make deals with God. And here's what he's trying to say. Hebrews chapter 3 7 and 8. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. [00:28:20]

Some of you are thinking this, you know, well, that's look, I I I just got some things that I want to do or some things I need to work out or or I just want to think about it some more and consider it some more. And look, that's totally fine for you to take your questions and for you to go and consider it. But acting like you're considering it when you're not is a choice. And what God is very clear is this is that your time is going to come and you're going to stand before him and you're going to have to give an account. And please hear me. To make no choice is to make the wrong choice. [00:28:57]

The fact that you got the scriptures in front of you, the fact that you're hearing my voice, you are accountable before God. But please hear me. Don't hear that as a theme of judgment. Hear that instead as an invitation. You have an opportunity to avoid the torment and the anguish of hell, but it only comes through relationship with Jesus. [00:30:01]

So my challenge to you is to use every bit of your time and your energy and your money and your talents and your very life to ensure that the reality of hell is true for as few people as possible. You have no power in and of yourself to make a choice for somebody else, but you can absolutely let them know about their choice. And we must allow the doctrine and the reality of hell not to make us feel real good about ourselves because we're not going, but instead, let it cause us to have a burden for our neighbor across the street. [00:30:48]

May it allow us to go to places like Las Vegas and Los Angeles and Fort Worth and Colorado and Baltimore and India and Peru, the uttermost parts of the earth, making sure that as few people as possible end up in the reality of a place called hell. Folks, I pray that this doctrine in this unseen world as we begin to see the things that are mysterious. It would motivate us to action. [00:31:27]

I wish so badly that I could tell you that, hey, if you just do enough good things, you can avoid this torment. You can avoid this anguish. But it's just not it's not true. But I do want to tell you about a way that you can avoid hell. You may look at your life and you may say, "Well, man, I feel like I'm pretty successful. I don't really know if I have anything else that I need." And I would simply tell you, you know for sure that that success is only fleeting and temporary. It doesn't satisfy. There's something more. [00:32:09]

No, your debt is too great. Never be able to do enough to pay it off. But I do want you to know this. John 5:4 says, "Truly, truly, I say to you. Whoever hears my word and believes him who has sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." My desire and my goal for you is not just that you would avoid the torment and the anguish of hell, but that you instead would move from death to experience the eternal life promised in the future and the abundant life that can be available to you in the present. [00:32:59]