Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest
questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search
and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead
pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth
for the life we're searching for. Thank you so much for being here today. Please take
your Bibles and turn to Luke 16 today. Luke 16, beginning in verse 19, maybe one of the
most sobering, serious subjects I could talk to you about today is the subject of hell.
And the title of the message is, would a loving God send people to hell? We need to know about
heaven. We need to know about hell. We need to know about the afterlife. What happens
after someone dies? What if they're in Christ? What if they're not in Christ? What's the
destination like for those who die without Jesus Christ? And the question itself, would
a loving God send someone to hell is something just about everybody wonders about. We kind
of try to reconcile in our minds how those two things could be true at the same time.
How can God be good? I think that creates something that we know to be a place filled
with suffering and torment and revenge and suffering. How can those two facts be true?
And today we're going to be looking at the Bible at what it says, Luke 16, beginning
in verse 19. Please stand with me as we read God's word together. It's a long story. It's
not a parable. It's a story Jesus tells. It's not just a story. It has specific names, specific
details that leads us to believe that everything Jesus says is reality. And we'll tell you
why we believe that in just a few moments. But notice that this story is not just a little
story with a truth alongside it. It is an actual unfolding of the picture of hell. It
says in verse 19, and these are the words of Jesus. Now there was a rich man and he
habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, enjoying himself in splendor every day. And
a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed
from the scraps which fell from the rich man's table. And not only that, the dogs were also
coming and licking his sores. Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away
by the angels to Abraham's arms, and the rich man also died and was buried. And in
Hades he raised his eyes, being in torment, and he saw Abraham far away in Lazarus in
his arms, and he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus,
so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in
agony in this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that during your life you received
your good things and likewise Lazarus' bad things, but now he is being comforted here
and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been
set so that those who want to go over from here to you will not be able, nor will any
people cross over from there to us. And he said, then I request of you, Father, that
you send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers in order that he may warn
them so they will not come to this place of torment as well. But Abraham said, they have
not heard Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. But he said, no, Father Abraham,
but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said back to him,
if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone
rises from the dead. Man, what a powerful story, text that Jesus gives us today. And
what we want to do is pray that we will get a sense of exactly what it means, how it impacts
us and how it impacts the way we look at the afterlife. Father, in Jesus' name, for your
illumination of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we pray. Father, I desperately ask you today
that if there are those in this room that have never given their lives to Jesus Christ,
that they, because of this topic, will seriously consider taking that step of faith in you,
Lord Jesus, today, now. Father, I pray that no one would leave this room today without
knowing exactly where they will spend eternity. Father, I pray all of them would choose to
spend eternity with you. I ask this in Jesus' name and all God's people said amen. Please
be seated if you would. A recent article in National Geographic had the headline, hell
isn't as popular as it used to be. Not that it ever was. But the article really alludes
to the fact that less and less people believe that hell is real. And some of the stats they
gave were over the last 20 years the number of Americans who believe in the fiery down
under has dropped from 71% to 58%. Heaven fares much better and among Christians it's
almost a universally accepted concept. So most people believe in heaven, but fewer and
fewer people believe in hell. By the way, that same survey said that 91% of those surveyed
said they were going to heaven, beyond doubt. They knew they were going to heaven. And this
was not a survey of religious people or people that acknowledge Christianity or not, just
a general survey. And 91% of all those people said, pretty sure I'm going to heaven. Not
really sure that hell even exists. One of the reasons there's an eroding belief in the
subject of hell is because how we view God is different than it used to be. We really
live in an age where we want permission to do whatever we want without anybody calling
us into account. And we certainly don't want you calling me into account and we don't want
God calling me into account. We don't want anybody to look at our lives. We don't want
anybody to hold us accountable. We don't like revenge and we do not like to be punished
for things that we do wrong. In fact, we prefer to say that we don't do things wrong. We just
make mistakes. That's the world we live in. As a matter of fact, more and more people
have this view of God that God only has one side to him and it's the loving side. That's
why people say today, and many do say, my God would never send a person to hell. My
God would never do that. And the moment you make a statement like that, you say that you've
created a God that won't do what he said he will do. That's why I call this having the
wrong kind of God. You have a God of your own creation. You have a God that you made
up and not the God that scripture reveals to be who he is. Now when you walk through
the scripture, you find God revealing himself in so many different ways. And it's true that
God is a God of love. Aren't you glad for the loving kindness of God? Somebody say amen,
no mercy. I am so glad that God loves us with an everlasting love. So glad that God chases
us down until we're found. So glad for Luke chapter 15 that talks about the lost coin,
lost sheep, lost son. And in each case, the point of the parable is there's a loving father
that's going to find the lost. I love that concept of God, especially since I'm a sinner
and I need to have a loving God. But the same God the Bible said who is loving, the Bible
also says is a just judge. And that he will take revenge on wickedness and unbelief. Same
God. And since God is both loving and just, then the afterlife that God has created has
both a loving side and a just side. That's why we say there's a heaven and a hell. The
heaven is where God gathers all those that have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior to this place of eternal love and eternal glory of God. And that's
why those that have not accepted Christ are going to another place that we know as hell.
So there's a place of great love and also a place of great condemnation and great punishment
that is only just. God reveals himself to be both loving and just. And so the afterlife
has to be the same way. If God is God, he must be a God of love. And if God is God,
he must be a God of justice, otherwise there would be no justice on the face of the earth.
So we worship this God. Not a God of our own imagination, but a God revealed in the scripture
in this way. And so when we talk about eternal life and the afterlife, we talk about heaven
and we talk about hell. And yet the doctrine of hell is the most offensive doctrine of
Christianity. Those who do not know Christ, who have not read the Bible, hear about the
doctrine of hell and they go, oh man, whatever religion believes in hell, I don't want to
be a part of that. And some even go so far as saying, any God that were determined that
there is a hell, I don't want to worship that God. That's where people are today. So today
in our tough question series, our Dear God series, this question comes up, would a loving
God send people to hell? I want to share a couple of things out of this text that will
help us answer that question and also answer other questions about this subject. First
of all, I want to answer the question, what does God say about hell? Really in a final
analysis, it doesn't matter what I say. It doesn't matter what you say about hell. It
matters what God says about hell, right? Now there are three things this text says that
God says about hell. Three things that Jesus gives us in this text that help us understand
this. And keep in mind that hell is not some place or some figment of an imagination that
some religion has thought up. We're hearing this literally from the words of Jesus Christ.
The one we know as God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, the one who so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son, the one that we look at when we want to know how do you
love one another? We want to know how do we love each other? We want to know where is
love best exemplified? We look at the person of Jesus. That Jesus is going to tell us about
hell today. He's going to reveal things about the afterlife that we need to know. Now let
me talk about this text for just a few moments. Why do I say this text is not a parable? There
are so many parables in the Bible. Jesus used parables to teach truths. And every one of
those parables that He uses to teach truths are parables that have to do with living in
the here and now. He gives an analogy and He says, so it is that you should do this
after you've heard that, right? So we have these stories that Jesus tells us that are
parables but this is not a parable. A parable has one point and all the details are just
contributing to that one point. And many are the parables of scripture. We walk through
them often. But there are some reasons we know this text is not a parable. Number one,
it's not a parable because it doesn't say it's a parable. Usually Jesus acknowledges
the fact that He's about to tell a story, about to tell a parable that we can learn
from. Secondly, we know this is not a parable because it has an actual name in it. No other
parable has an actual name. But here we have an actual person whose name is Lazarus being
identified. We have a wrist man and we have Lazarus. Very specific. The third reason we
know this is not a parable is because there's no earthly metaphor. In other words, there's
nothing we can look at this parable that teaches us something about life and then go apply
it. It is about the afterlife, not the here and now. So Jesus is not giving us a little
story about which we might walk a little closer to Him. He's not giving us a story so we can
understand some spiritual truth a little bit better. He's telling it like it is as to what
hell is like. And it's going to affect us profoundly if we embrace what He says. So what
does that God say about hell? First of all, it says that it's one of two destinations
in the afterlife. Most of us know this. In verse 22, the story unfolds with, now it happened
that the poor man died. So death begins the afterlife. He died and was carried away by
the angels to Abraham's arms, and the rich man also died and was buried. So Jesus begins
the story pulling back the curtain of the afterlife in hell and says, so death is what
begins this journey. By the way, as Jesus tells us the story, He makes it very plain
that death is not soul sleep. You don't just die and stay asleep as your soul until some
event later on down the road. It also does not say that death just begins a period where
you just rot, you just become annihilated. There's nothing else about you, nothing else
about your life in the future. It's not just you in a grave once you die. It also teaches
us that death is not about reincarnation. It's not this idea that when one dies and
according to how they live, they'll be reincarnated in a different kind of creature. Sometimes
those who teach reincarnation say, you'll come back as somebody else later on down the
road. And if you've lived a poor life, you're going to come back as something else down
the road. And they actually teach something like this, that if you live life like a dog,
you're coming back as a dog. Sparky, you're coming back as a dog. Now I want to think
about that for just a few moments because I can think of a lot of instances where I
didn't live the way I should have lived, but man, I don't want to come back as a dog or
anything else. That's what reincarnation teaches. But Jesus teaches us something radically
different. From the moment of death, you move into your afterlife. And the Bible teaches
that the greatest existence we will ever know in terms of time and significance is the
afterlife. In other words, a bigger part of your life will be spent in eternity than it
is on earth. And as beautiful as you have seen things on earth, as great as your life
may be on earth, it is so much more greater in the afterlife in heaven that you can't
even imagine it. And as bad of a painful existence that you may have had, as many disappointments
as you might have had, in hell there's no way to compare the worst of life on earth
with eternal suffering and eternal torment in hell. So the greatest life that you will
have or the worst and the longest life you'll have is in eternity. Now the idea that that's
going to be longer than what our life is on earth is kind of a shock for some of us because
all we know is here and now. And we say, well man, I'm right here and now and I'm not thinking
about eternity yet. Some years ago a book was written called Whatever Happened to Hell.
It was an appropriate book because it questioned why we don't teach about hell. And then not
long after that, Dave Hunt, another great Christian author wrote the book Whatever Happened
to Heaven because we don't talk much about heaven. And in his book he says the reason
we don't talk much about heaven is because we so emphasize life right in front of us
that we forget that the greatest life that we will ever have is life beyond the grave.
So let me just say something to you today. If you're a little worried about death and
what that means for you, if you are in Jesus Christ, then when death happens you are about
to embark on the greatest adventure you can imagine. You are about to get to a place that
you never could have envisioned that you'll be face to face with Jesus Christ and you'll
see the glories of a new heaven and a new earth. You'll have incredible love like you've
never experienced before. If you are closing in on death, you're closing in on the greatest
experience of your lifetime. And at the same time, let me say to those of you that do not
have Christ, if you do not have Christ and you're getting close to death, you're about
to have the worst experience imaginable apart from God forever and ever in a place called
hell. That's why I want you to hear what I say so clearly today. And I will plead with
you to believe the words of Jesus about heaven and hell. I will plead with you not to listen
to everyone that's trying to write off the afterlife, that's trying to make you believe
that you'll have some reincarnated experience, that will try to help you think that you'll
just be asleep in that casket forever and ever and ever. Let me just tell you, Jesus
knows life, Jesus knows death, and he's going to tell us about life and death today. But
first of all, this story in Jesus teaches us that hell is one of two destinations in
the afterlife. Secondly, it is a place of torment and pain. Look at verse 23 and 24.
And in Hades, he raised up his eyes being in torment and he said, have mercy on me for
I am in agony in this flame. Now let me just give you some phrases that you find in various
parts of scripture. By the way, scripture is without contradiction when it comes to hell.
Every reference to hell lines up with every other reference to hell in the Bible. There's
nothing controversial about what this existence will be like. No one questions that the Bible
has a message about hell and what that message is. It's very plain. And let me summarize
it for you. First of all, scripture calls hell a place of burning flames. It is a place
of darkness, Matthew 22. It's a place of great grief. It's a place of horror. It's nearly
unimaginable the degree that we will face all those things in a place called hell. It's
a place where there is no hope of ever seeing the light of God again. It's dark not just
now, but dark forever and ever and ever. It's torment not just now, but tormenting forever
and ever. It's burning not just now, but burning forever and ever and ever. Some years ago,
as you know, the World Trade Tower was under attack by religious terrorists. And as you
might remember, both those towers burned to the ground. Probably the most vivid memory
that I have of that shocking attack on US soil was seeing the individuals on the 100th
floor, 115th floor, climbing over a balcony, the flames coming at them, the pain already
happening on their bodies. And they'd leaped from all those stories up to their certain
death just to escape the flames, the pain of being burned. I mean, I can't get that
out of my mind. And when I try to put that into this story that Jesus told, I can't imagine
being in a body that is not consumed, that never escapes the torment, that can never
find a window to jump out of, a door to run away from, it can never be out of the flames
once it's in. That kind of torment is happening. It's a place of solitary suffering where God
has no part of and is not going to be in in order to rescue. It's a place of regret, having
rejected God and the open door of heaven. Now why do you think Jesus tells such a comprehensive
story with all of these details? And the only conclusion I can have is that He wants us
to know. He wants us to know. He doesn't want you to be blindsided by someone who died
to hell, even though they have no qualification, they've not been anywhere in the afterlife,
they can't come back and speak authoritatively in any way. They just fight against the idea
of hell. Jesus doesn't want us to be confused by that. He doesn't want us to be confused
by our own desires, which of course we don't really want to see anyone suffer ever, and
so He doesn't want us to be swayed by our emotions or our feelings that might be motivated
by people we know who may end up in hell, and we just can't imagine that, handle that,
don't want to talk about that. Jesus gives all these details so that we will know clearly
what He is saying about the afterlife. We read this story and you'll find there's no
water in heaven, I mean in hell, there's no water in hell. No comfort in hell. No company
in hell. No complaining in hell. No escape in hell. No silence in hell. No chance to
repent in hell. No hope in hell. No mercy in hell. No savior in hell. Jesus wants us
to walk away from this story with no question that this is a place of torment. It's not
a place where people go to party. It's not a place where people go to get their own way.
It's a place where people who have had their own way get to go to have their own way, separated
from God forever and ever and ever in this place called hell. We don't really struggle
with who is in hell in this story because when you look at the characters in this story
intuitively, we almost realize that justice and vengeance must be served in some way.
There's a rich man that's in this place called Hades or hell, ignored the poor and sick man
who longed to eat the scraps off his table. So this guy is insensitive, he's not helping
at all, he's not a good character and we don't really struggle too much with the fact that
that guy is in hell. We understand when murderous terrorists end up in hell. We understand when
the hardened rapists and murderers of our time end up in hell. We even have a way to
express this. When we see some awful thing happen, most of us have said at one point
or another in our life, there's got to be a special place in hell for something like
that. Be honest with me, how many of you ever said that? I don't think we say that out
of spite, I think we say that out of wondering what is to come of people who create these
awful things. And there's a sense of justice inside of each of us. Randy Alcorn made this
statement, he said, hell is not pleasant, appealing or encouraging, but neither is it
evil. Rather, if it is a place where evil is judged, indeed, if being sentenced to hell
is just punishment, then the absence of hell would be evil. If God had not created hell,
where would the punishment and the justice take place for those that have done the worst
of worst things and ignored God and rejected God to the nth degree, where would justice
ever have been served? Often we don't see it served in our justice system on this planet.
Often we don't see it after war, horrible crimes that take place in war. Often we don't
see it in the hidden recesses of life where someone does something almost unspeakable
and no one ever finds out about it. Where's justice? Where's justice? Well, hell is a
place of justice and that's why hell is not evil, it deals with evil. That's what Jesus
deserves. What else do those deserve who create the mass surfing on the planet due to those
incredibly wicked choices? Then we have the question of Satan and all the demons. I guess
most of us in the room know that Satan is not one of the good guys, right? We know that
he's not. And yet sometimes when an artist will depict hell, they'll have this smiling
red creature with horns and a tail perhaps and a pitchfork, you know, and he's kind of
the head of hell, right? He and his demons kind of are the doorkeepers there and you
come into hell and he talks to you and sends you to different places in hell. That's the
cartoon configuration of hell. But did you know that hell was created originally for
the sole purpose of punishing Satan himself and all of his demons? That one that rebelled
against God in heaven and came down to wreak havoc on the earth, that's the place he'll
be punished forever and ever and ever. Read the book of Revelation, it's a great read
and it reminds you that God will at one point exact vengeance on Satan himself. Though Satan
does not rule hell, he doesn't leave his demons in tormenting or in partying with the people
that are banished there. Rather the eternal fire is awaiting Satan. It was the place originally
created to punish him and his demons. Mankind only chooses to go there. The place of torment
and pain. Thirdly, Luke 16 says it's a place of no return. No return. In verse 26 we read
a great chasm has been set so that those who want to go over from here to you will not
be able nor will any people cross over from there to us. You can't go, they can't come.
Once death happens to a non-believing person there's no recourse. Once the person dies,
they have lived out their opportunity to choose Christ or not and they are immediately sent
to eternity and once in hell they are banished to that place of no hope, no return, no turning
back eternally, forever and ever and ever and ever. There's no turning back, there's
no rescue, there's no hope of future change, no group's going to get together and bust
into hell to get you out. It's forever. So God says hell is those things. God does speak
about hell and tells us about hell. But I want to get to another question today that
I think is one of the most encouraging questions I could possibly bring today and that is what
does hell say about God? What does hell say about God? Now we know that hell is not actively
speaking but the fact that there is a hell says something to us about God that we need
to know. Now those that don't know God, that don't know the scripture and that don't know
hell will often say, well hell only says bad things about God because I mean if God is
good why would he create something that's so bad and so awful and so painful? But hell
says some amazing things about God that you need to know today. First of all it says that
God is a generous God who allows us to choose our destination. Does you know that not one
person in this room will go to hell unless they have exercised a choice to not go with
Jesus? It's an amazing thing that we have a God who says I'm going to create an afterlife
but I'm going to tell everybody what it's like and I'm going to give everyone that wants
eternal life with me in heaven an opportunity to come to faith in me and they will live
forever and ever in heaven with me. God is a generous God who allows us to choose our
destination. Now I know it's a big leap to talk about hell and the generosity of God
at the same time in one sentence but it's true. Now we may be troubled by the fact that
there will be some good people who simply do not believe in Jesus Christ who will be
in hell and we're not as troubled by the fact that hardened criminals will be there but
we're bothered sometimes by wondering how can God allow someone to go to this place
who simply doesn't believe and the answer to how God could do that is in one word choice.
They choose to accept Christ or not. Now think with me through that. The pursuit of all humanity
today is choice. I want to choose what I get to do. I want to choose how I get to live.
I want to choose who I'm going to believe in. I'm going to choose what to do with my
body. I'm going to choose what to do with my sexual desires. I'm going to choose what
you call me. I'm going to choose my future. And the interesting thing is God allows us
to make those choices in life but one of those choices we make in life is the choice of whether
to go to heaven or go to hell based on either choosing to follow Jesus or choosing to go
our own way. The generosity of God is that you have a choice about how you're going to
spend your life. We cannot say that God sends people to hell. He gives people the choice
to be saved or not saved. He's generous with his freedom. You say, well, can you prove
that? And I can prove it from Genesis to Revelation. You remember in the Garden of Eden where Adam
and Eve were given a choice about the one tree of the garden they were not supposed
to eat of and they chose sin. In the middle of the Old Testament the people of God led
by Joshua were given a choice. Even though they were the people of God, Joshua said,
choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And it's served at a key moment in Israel's history. You choose who you're going to follow.
You get to choose who you'll follow. You just can't choose the consequences. What about
all the others who've made choices to follow Jesus or not? Jesus made it abundantly clear
that whoever chooses to believe in him will escape perishing in hell. John 3.16, for God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him, that word
needs to be underscored. Whoever believes in him should not perish, that is not face
torment in hell, but have eternal life. That is eternal life with God in heaven. The choice,
the choice that we have in our lives is one way or the other. Jesus constantly offered
an open door to heaven. And a choice means you're at a fork in the road. You're going
to go one way or the other. You get to choose heaven or hell, Jesus or not, but you can't
choose the destination after that choice. It goes to where it goes without Christ. We
either make the choice to follow Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life, or we
argue that he has the wrong idea about eternity and therefore we want nothing to do with him.
And that's what's happening in our culture today. C.S. Lewis, writing decades ago, argued
that hell is for those who have said to God, I don't want you in my life. I just don't
want you here. I don't want you telling me how to live. I don't want your rules. I don't
want anything you say for me to do. I want to live life my way. And he goes on and says
this, he says, what are you asking God to do? Leave you alone? Alas, I'm afraid that's
exactly what he does. Hell is the place where you've been left alone by God forever and
ever and ever. That's why it's dark. There's no light. There's no way to get out. And God
does not predetermine your response. You have not been predestined to hell from the moment
you've been born. That's why we preach the gospel so that everybody in every part of
the planet can hear that Jesus Christ offers them life. G.K. Chesterton, a great guy to
quote, said God's great compliment to the reality of human freedom and dignity of human
choice is hell. He's generous to your last choice. Look at me today. The choice you make
will determine heaven or hell for you. The choice you make. Not the choice your parents
make for you. Not the choice your friends make for you. Not the choice somebody down
the road makes for you. Nobody makes this choice for you but you. The choice you make
determines your future. God is a generous God. God is also a patient God who allows
us an entire lifetime to decide. Now think about this with me. He's so patient. He doesn't
put a deadline on it before death. As long as you're alive you have an opportunity to
turn to Christ. And he reserves final judgment to the very end. Only after a lifetime of
living and a lifetime of opportunity to become aware that God brings judgment at some point,
do you die and do you face the consequences? He's patient. All the way through the Bible
you read this and you hear about this. Remember Noah and the ark. Noah's built in the ark
for 120 years. The Bible says he preached righteousness the whole time. Preaching that
God's judgment would come at some point and not one person listened to him except the
ones that went with Noah in the ark. Peter writing about this years later said these
words when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. The implication was that
God was just waiting for someone to make the choice of turning to him, of repenting from
sin and they didn't. The thieves on the cross, remember those thieves on those two crosses
who were crucified next to Jesus? They're a great illustration of coming to the end
of their life. They knew they were dying. They knew they were not long going to be dead
in a tomb somewhere and yet one of them chose to mock Jesus on the cross. The other one
said Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember what Jesus said to him,
today you shall be with me in paradise. You made the choice to trust me and I'm going
to take you to paradise with me. If you're talking about the end times, in second Peter
referring to the coming of the Lord said the Lord is not slow about his promise, as some
counts lowness, but is patient towards you, there's that word again. Not wishing for any
to perish but for all to come to repentance. If you have not put your faith in God yet,
if you've not trusted Christ for salvation yet, let me tell you the patience of God allows
you to be here today alive and breathing and understanding these words and knowing that
you have a choice in front of you to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Finally,
God is a merciful God who allows us to warn others. That's what hell says about God. He's
a merciful God. He is all those things we've said, he is a generous God. He's a patient
God. He's a merciful God who allows us to warn others. Interestingly, Jesus allows the
rich man in hell to talk, to converse and here's what he says. It's intriguing to watch as
you read this story and look at this conversation. The rich man doesn't say let me out of here
with his few words. He doesn't say why am I here? He seems to grasp the reason that
he is in hell. He's aware of where he is, why he's there. He's aware that it's irreversible.
Instead, he says that please warn others. Warn my brothers. What an interesting line.
Verse 28, then I request that you send him to my father's house for I have five brothers
in order that they may warn them that they will not come to this place of torment as
well. In other words, there's a way out of this hell and I didn't take it and I want
you to tell my five brothers there is a way out. They don't have to come here. Now what
does this story say about the mercy of God? Keep in mind Luke 16 comes after Luke 15.
You remember what's in Luke 15? The parable of the lost coin, the parable of the lost
sheep, the parable of the lost son. And every one of those parables depicts this loving
merciful God who's doing everything necessary to find the lost. That is the sole point of
those three parables. So on that foundation, looking at the subject of hell, this idea
of being able to warn other people is an indicator of this merciful God. Jesus is giving us a
great and merciful opportunities to help others avoid this place called hell. The story is
included in scripture that remind us of the reality of hell and the opportunity to avoid
it. The doctrine of hell should motivate us the way it did this rich man. Somebody warn
those I love. Somebody warn those people. And maybe it should say, I should warn those
people. Warning people of the existence is not enough of course. You must also tell them
the way of escape. I mean I'm stunned by the fact that today the enemy has had such a field
day and creating so much confusion about how to get to heaven. Today many people think
there are many paths to heaven. Right? That's what our culture would say. That's what world
religions would say. Everything except Christianity says there are many, many ways to God until
you just go any way you want. The scripture points very plainly there's one way. You notice
the very last line of this story, verse 31. But he said to him in response to that request
to warn his brothers, if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets they will not be
persuaded even if someone rises from the dead. Moses pointed to Jesus through the law, through
the Passover, through the tabernacle sacrifices, looking ahead to a perfect sacrifice. The
prophets prophesied of Jesus he would come to be born of a virgin, laid in a manger.
I mean the message of Moses, the message of the prophets was that there was one way for
a person to be saved and that's through the blood of Jesus Christ. And then think about
the words of Jesus himself. Think about all Jesus said and did about heaven and hell.
Look at me. You cannot possibly with a logical mind read all the words of Jesus in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John and think that there's any other way to heaven except through Jesus.
So when someone says to me, oh I think there are many ways to God and I'm not sure Jesus
is the only way, I say have you ever read the Bible? Have you ever read the Gospels?
Have you ever read even just one of them? What makes you qualified to say that there
are many ways to God? So there is one way. His name is Jesus and he offers eternal life.
There's a stone that has John 14, 6 engraved on it as you walk in our front door. It's
there for a reason, it's there for all of us. But it's there so that every person that
walks to that front door, should they pause and should they look, read these words. Jesus
said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me. No one except through me. I love the mercy of Jesus Christ. I love the mercy
of God in giving us this witness. And that's what it said to this man in Hades. They have
the witnesses they need. It's important for us to sound the warning to those we know.
Now this is where I began to close the message down to complete it and this is where I began
to plead and beg you, don't leave this room today without Christ. This is when in the
message, I hope, your mind is not wandering, you're not sleeping, you're not thinking
about what's for lunch, you're not worried about who you're going to talk to before
you get out of here. This is the point in the message where I hope and I pray and have
prayed that he would say, I need to do business with God. I need to make sure that my salvation
is secured through Jesus Christ because that other direction is not what I want to go in.
I want to be with Jesus for all time and all eternity. I don't want to be in hell separate
from him for all time and all eternity. I want to make the simple decision of trusting
him to forgive me of my sins and give me the gift of eternal life. I want to, when I come
to that fork in the road, to choose the Jesus side of that fork and not the self side of
that fork or any other religion side of that fork. I want to know there's no question that
I have Christ in my life and I can sleep at night and I can face any trouble or turmoil
or anything unexpected in my life knowing that if I died I would spend eternity with
Jesus in heaven. I want to know that for sure and I want you to know that for sure.
Hell and the doctrine of hell and the story Jesus told about hell is there to help you
take a step away from hell and towards heaven through the one who is away, the truth, and
the life knowing that no man comes to the Father except through him. Choose Christ on
this day. I'm going to close this message with a prayer and then I'm going to dismiss
us. The decision stations are at our back of a room and I want you to stop if you pray
this prayer that I'm going to lead you to pray. It's really amazing how simple it is
to trust Christ for salvation. I know sometimes we build it up in our minds. Don't I have
to change something or don't I have to do something to deserve this and the answer is
no, he did all that was necessary to provide you with this gift of eternal life but you
do have to choose if you're going to follow him. You have to be willing to turn away from
your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. It's that simple.
It can happen in a moment. It can happen right here in this room today. It can happen in
this prayer that I'm about to lead you in and then as you walk out I invite you to stop
and talk to someone behind that decision station. Tell them today I chose the fork in the road
where Jesus was. I chose him. I also invite you to come to guest reception today. I would
love to talk to you about our church and our message. I also want to invite you to invite
others to come back next week. We're dealing with tough, tough questions that God answers
in the Bible. But in this important moment is the prayer I want to focus on. Would you
bow with me? And today if you've never accepted Christ, you've never made that decision in
your life and you're at that fork in the road, I want you to take a step towards Jesus and
I want you to pray with me inviting him to be the Lord and Savior of your life. I'm going
to pray a phrase at a time and I want you just to simply call out to him. It doesn't
have to be out loud. You can whisper to him. You can just acknowledge this prayer in your
heart. But it's so important that you tell somebody that you've done that and we can
help you with next steps. Here's the prayer and you can say it with me. Just repeat this
to him. Dear Heavenly Father, today I know that Jesus is the only way. And today I make
this choice to trust Jesus for my eternity. Today forgive me of all my sins. Today give
me the gift of eternal life. Today I choose to follow you and believe you. And today I
ask you to lead me to a different life. Thank you so much for the promise you make in Scripture.
I now turn from the old way of life I was living and I choose to follow you. Thank you
for the promise of eternal life. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.