The Doctrine of Hell - Tim Conway

Is there anybody here

that you expect that when you die,

you will end up in hell?

Is there anybody here

that thinks that when you die

that you be cast into hell?

Nobody thinks that.

(to person in audience) You think that.

You expect to go to hell.

Do you want to go there?

But you expect to.

Is there anybody here that

has ever believed they were going to hell

even though now they
don't believe they are?

Yeah, that would be me.

Do you think that is normal?

Do you think it is normal that people

don't think they're headed there

who really are,

who then come to realize that they are,

and then they're saved and they don't?

Does that make any sense or
does that totally confuse you?

(unintelligible)

Let me ask this:

Do you think it's common

that people who are very much lost

and headed there think they're not?

(unintelligible)

Right. But give me a Scripture

that would tend to lead us to believe

that people by the multitudes

think things are okay when they're not.

Matthew 7 would definitely be one place.

But Matthew 7 is one that
we talk about a lot.

And I mean for a reason.

It has some really powerful truths.

But prove it from somewhere else.

(unintelligible)

There's a way that seems right to man

but the end is not so nice. Right?

Yeah, and that's a good text.

Was that the one you were thinking about?

No, you were thinking
about a different one.

(unintelligible)

Right, and do we not
have in Ecclesiastes,

the reality that because the punishment

for people's sins is not
carried out immediately,

men seem to think that punishment

is never going to come.

Yeah, men are naturally deceived.

Most men - in fact, all men -

you know one thing we know about all men?

All men fear death.

No one wants to die.

Who wants to be thrown
into a lake of fire?

Obviously, nobody.

And you know what the problem is?

Again, out of Ecclesiastes,

God has written eternity on men's hearts.

God has given man a conscience.

(incomplete thought)

And you know what Romans 1 says.

There is no true atheist.

Men try to suppress truth

but the problem is they have eyeballs,

or they have senses

that tell them that creation

has God's fingerprints all over it.

And they have a conscience

whereby they know right and wrong.

As shattered as that may be,

that image of God

that was first implanted upon man,

there's vestiges of it.

And men know and they can't run.

And death haunts them.

Men know they're going to die.

Now even though they may, in some ways,

act like they're going to live forever,

men have a gnawing fear inside.

And here they are in life,

and there's a way that seems right.

In other words, men have a plan.

Men think that they are
going to construct a way

that they're going to escape this.

Every single man desires to miss hell.

(incomplete thought)

Now they may try to
replace hell with annihilation,

or they stay here
with the Jehovah's Witnesses,

or there is a kingdom, or there is heaven,

they try to construct something.

Mormons have all their insanity.

You've got the paradise of Islam,

you've got basically nirvana.

I mean you just reach
a state of nothingness.

But anyways, whatever
it is, it's not hell.

Men try to construct any way they can

because everything about hell

is absolutely hellish.

Men recoil at everything that hell is.

But the thing is,

every single man

has constructed in his own mind,

or her own mind some way.

No man plans to go to hell.

I guarantee if we could randomly

take a cross-section of people -

ethnicity, color, race, economic status -

and we could resurrect
them out of hell right now,

If we could bring up a hundred

or a thousand people from hell right now,

I guarantee every one
of them would tell you,

"I never thought to go there.

I did not believe I would go there."

And you know what?

They went there.

Why? They were dead wrong.

They were dead wrong.

They were deceived.

Men are always thinking,

somehow I'm going to miss it.

How do they think to do it?

One, by constructing religion

that they think is going to get them -

whether it's some form
of Christianity by name,

or it's some other religion.

They construct religions

whereby they think to be moral and good

and basically please God
out of their own doings,

and thus miss it.

But you know the vast majority of people

that have heard of Christ,

you have to think that
the way they thought

they were going to miss it is,

"I'm going to get right tomorrow." Right?

It's procrastination. They put it off.

"I want to live it up now,

and I'll settle matters...."

Brethren, you know I'm talking

to real people here in this room.

You know this is how we thought.

I mean I thought,

with all the wickedness in my life,

I thought that I was
going to be good enough.

I thought somehow that I was
going to be good enough.

And I realize things
weren't exactly right

but I also had that other idea

that I'll get it more right tomorrow.

I mean, one of the things
that the missionaries

that work over in Turkey told me

is that you see these nominal Muslims.

Turkey is vastly populated
by nominal Muslims.

Very few of them are radical.

And what the missionaries
over there pointed out,

you know most Muslims get serious

about their religion when they're old.

Now you think about why that would be.

You know why it is?

Their conscience is telling
them something's wrong.

Now they may be deceived
about who the real God is,

and who the real Prophet is,

but the fact is they have a
conscience that's telling them,

"You are in trouble."

And so now when they get older,

they're making sure they
go to prayer all the time.

Men never think to go there.

Or men say this,

and this kind of goes along with
constructing their own religion.

But men basically say this -

how many people say,

"Oh, well the Bible says
all I have to do is believe.

I've called on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Scripture tells me I'll be saved."

And yet, they've never
repented of their sins.

They've never bowed the knee to Christ.

And they've got this idea

that they are forgiven of their sins,

they've got this idea
that they're forgiven.

One of the truths

that the writers of the New Testament

try to emphasize as
much as almost anything,

is this reality that if
you are truly forgiven,

if you are truly justified,

if you are truly a Christian,

if you truly belong to God

if you're truly heaven bound,

your life is radically different.

Doesn't Scripture literally deal
with that everywhere?

You know why it does?

Because men are masters

at wanting to think

that they get to heaven

and keep their sin on the way.

And they totally forget that
the way is very narrow.

And that there are few that are on it.

Because unless you forsake
all that you have,

Jesus keeps you at arm's length.

You can't come to His side,

you can't be His disciple,

you're no follower of His,

if you think that you're
going to get to heaven

and still enjoy all your sin on the way.

Hell. Hell is a reality.

And just like we were talking
about several weeks ago,

you know there's people
in Reformed circles today,

or at least would
identify in those circles,

that are seeking to dismiss

the idea of hell.

And I don't know how I came upon it,

but something somebody sent me,

and I think it was actually good stuff,

but has anyone ever sent you a good video,

and then you got the
thumbnails over there,

and you're like, oh,
that one interests me.

I ended up watching something by Rob Bell.

And he's just putting out a book

where he said that they had

some kind of art exhibit at their -

I don't even want to call it a church -

but within their gathering

there in Grand Rapids, Michigan,

and somebody had done

a picture of Gandhi.

And he said somebody came

and did a handwritten note

and put it on that picture and said,

"Why is everybody making a
big deal out of this picture?

Gandhi is in hell."

Well, that just stirred
Rob Bell to no end.

Rob Bell is a universalist.

He thinks everybody's on
their way to heaven.

He thinks that it's a strike

at God's character

if we would believe in a god

that puts people in hell.

And I would say Rob Bell is destroying

the true character of God,

by saying that God wouldn't.

His idea of God is not
the biblical idea of God.

But let's think about hell.

Let's think about what
Scripture says about it.

Somebody tell me somewhere in the Bible

that you can think of

where something about hell is described.

(unintelligible)

Where is it?

Matthew 25. Well, let's turn there.

I'll have you guys guide
me around the Scriptures

and we'll look at various verses

that have to do with it.

And by the way,

if Jesus is right, and He is -

few there be that find life.

Do you know the reality is?

The reality is it's very likely

that there are a number of people

in this room

that will actually end up in the place

that we're going to look at.

You don't think you are.

But see, you are crafting

your own means of escaping it.

And there's only one
way to escape this place.

You see, this place

is that which God created

to righteously deal with sin.

It's a place where people rightly suffer

what their sin deserves

for assaulting the glory of God

the way that they do.

Listen, can I tell you something

before we look at this Matthew 25 verse?

I want you to hear
something very carefully,

because you know when we talk about hell,

what happens is, a lot of times,

people begin to think God's a monster.

Rob Bell thinks the God

that will send people
to hell is a monster.

But listen, God is no monster.

The Lord says that God's kindness -

you know right there in Romans 2

where it talks about God's fury,

and God's wrath, God's judgment,

it says that God's kindness is meant

to lead people to repentance.

You need to think on that.

Listen, one of the reasons people

just have this idea that somehow

it's just going to turn
out okay in the end

is because - listen,

that text in Ecclesiastes is so real.

You know what happens?

People sin and then they eat.

Or even when they're
eating they're sinning.

God is giving them food. He's being kind.

Men and women sin,

and the sun shines on them

and it rose on them today.

(incomplete thought)

Jesus Christ by the word of His power,

He upholds this whole universe.

He is so relevant

to every single little particle of dust

and everything, every bird,

every aspect of this creation.

Christ is so real to it.

He upholds all the atomic matter

that makes up the air,

that you can wave your hand through,

He upholds it all.

He is this reality

that virtually engulfs this world,

and yet man looks around at it.

He strikes God out
of it, he suppresses it,

he suppresses what can be known,

he doesn't want to see,
he doesn't want to know.

He looks around at creation

and he invents evolution,

and he wants to just dismiss God,

and you can go through
95% of the radio stations

and God isn't there.

And you can go through 95%
of the television stations

and God isn't there.

And you can go through
99% of all that's made

to show at the movies,

and He is not there.

You can look on the
billboards and He's not there.

He is this great reality

and in the midst of all of it,

the sun and the moon and the rain,

and just the beauty we can look at,

and blue skies and to hear birds singing,

and to enjoy the things
that He allows us to enjoy,

and to actually have a night where
we can lay our heads on our pillows

and rest and rise up,

that happens repeatedly
over and over and over,

to people who are wicked.

And they sin and they think

because that's the case,

there is no God to contend with.

Certainly, He couldn't be like
what we're about to look at,

because if He was, how in the world

does He abide us when we sin like that?

And it's because God is indeed kind

and God is indeed patient,

and He's giving time for us to repent.

And the time that He gives us to repent

is never meant to make
us think everything is okay.

Oh, how many people think that?

Listen, I've had people tell me this,

you've had people
tell you this, undoubtedly,

if you've done any amount of evangelism.

But people tell me, well,

I was sick and God healed me.

I got better.

I got sick, I prayed, God made me better,

so I think everything is okay with God.

But you see God's kindness isn't meant

to lead people who are
living in their rebellion

to think that everything is okay.

God's kindness is meant to lead
them to repent and turn to Christ.

Brethren, you see, it's hard
for people to imagine.

You know, the fornicator
and the adulterer,

he goes and does his thing,

the homosexual goes
and does his thing,

and then he comes home and he eats.

And he sleeps.

And he feels health
pulsating through his veins,

and he lives like that.

He can't imagine that he just sinned

in the sight of a God who is so angry,

and whose glory has been

so assaulted and insulted,

and diminished

and stamped on

and trampled over.

He can't imagine that what he just did

deserves to be punished

forever and forever and forever
and forever and forever.

Because when he just did it,

all he got was kindness.

And that's right, he did.

But that kindness, the Scripture says,

isn't meant to convince him

that it's all okay.

It's meant to convince him

that there is a kind God

that will indeed receive him

and forgive all of his sins if he turns.

Let's look at Matthew 25.

Here's one place that
we see hell described.

Listen to what describes

people who are going there.

Verse 41.

They're on his left.

"Depart from me, you cursed,

into the eternal fire

prepared for the devil and his angels."

Eternal fire.

Brethren, being burned alive

is one of the most horrific
things we can think about.

When you see somebody
that has been burned...

I was just reading about Gehenna,

or the Valley of Hinnom.

It used to be, I understand,
a pleasant place.

In fact, it was pleasant,

had a river flowing through it.

It was a valley not far from Jerusalem,

but what happened in evil days,

is that's where they sacrificed to Molech,

and if you've read anything

or know anything about it,

is basically this god
they created - a statue -

that was part man and
part cow and had arms.

They would heat that thing
up until it glowed red hot,

and they would put their children
in the arms of that statue.

And in days of good kings

that became a repulsive place

and they would put their garbage there.

That's the picture that is created.

If Jesus could liken hell to anything,

He likened it to a place

that was absolutely abominable to the Jew,

where children had been
sacrificed to a false god.

It was a place where
fires burned all the time

to burn up the garbage
that was stacked there.

Dead bodies, and refuse,
and sewage, and all sorts...

I mean it was a place that
was absolutely defiled.

It had fire.

To a Jew, you probably couldn't imagine

any more horrible place in the world.

"Cursed people..."

Listen, when Christ says, "Depart,"

people don't understand.

Jesus upholds the universe

with the word of His power.

And in His kindness,

He gives you everything you have.

Anything that is enjoyable,

anything that is pleasurable,

anything that is peaceful,

anything that is restful,

He gives it to you.

Men don't realize it.

Because they live habitually seeking

to strike God from their minds,

suppress Him from their thoughts,

they exchange the glory
of God for everything else.

They seek to worship money,

and fun, and pleasure,

and sex, and sports, and power.

And they have so sought to "atheitize"

(if that's such a word) themselves

and to suppress God out of it,

man doesn't realize that every good thing

comes from the Lord.

And when He says, "Depart,"

He is withdrawing every good thing.

When He says to "Depart,"

that's it. Cursed.

Everything in this life
that was a blessing,

everything in this life that was
an expression of His kindness,

it's pulled.

Men don't understand

if God withdraws everything.

It's not just the church down
on the corner goes away,

every pleasure is gone forever.

Every satisfaction is gone forever.

Every joy, every smile,

every form of happiness is gone forever.

Any sense of relief - you know the relief

when you've had a bad cold,

and you start getting better?

Or you pounded your thumb with a hammer

and the pain begins to go away?

You're exhausted and weary,

and you're able to lay
your head down and rest.

Don't you understand?

There's no rest, night or day,

forever and ever.

There is no rest. It's cursed.

It's blackness of darkness.

It's a fiery furnace.

Listen, if you were
thrown bodily into fire,

that's the kind of reality.

When you go to take a breath,

there's no cool air,

fire goes in your lungs.

If you seek to have relief, there is none,

because every nerve is
being confronted by pain.

There's no rest in the
soul if that happens.

Listen, things go bad now,

we can find relief, typically.

There's some relief. There's some way out.

There's no way out.

"Depart from me..."

Those are the words of the cursed.

They're words that are falling

upon the ears of people who deserve it.

Nobody is going to say, "This isn't fair."

You say, "Isn't that overreaction?"

"That if I sin once,

God's going to remove every kindness?"

You haven't sinned once.

You've done nothing but sin.

That's what Scripture says.

Scripture says we're worthless.

And even our righteousness's
are filthy rags.

And here's the catcher for
everybody in this room.

You can't argue the way a cannibal can

who might live on a South Seas island

(unintelligible)

and he died before Clark

and Harris and Paton arrived.

You don't have that.

You've sinned a lot,

and you've had Christ offered.

And if anybody in this room perishes,

it will be with so much light,

there will be no excuse.

God's judgments may seem severe,

but brethren, I think if
we could have talked with Isaiah

the moment he came out of the temple

there in Isaiah 6 -

I mean he saw the Lord -

brethren, there probably was not

a more righteous man in the land.

Isaiah was "the" prophet.

I mean was God was looking

for somebody to take the message,

He chose Isaiah.

Isaiah saw the Lord and he said,

"I'm a man of unclean lips."

"I dwell in the midst a
people of unclean lips."

He said, "Woe is me."

If you would got him coming
out of the Temple and said,

"Isaiah, what do you think?

You think when we sin it's overkill

for God to send us to
hell forever and ever?"

He'd have said, "You have no idea."

The Lord is so glorious,

to sin against Him is a crime

of unimaginable heinousness,

and wickedness, and depravity.

You have no idea when you sin

the glory that you are sinning against.

He would have been speechless, I'm sure.

He probably would have looked
at you with glazed over eyes

of amazement and astonishment.

To even think that he could
have come into the presence

of the high and exalted Christ like that

and have emerged without being consumed.

And there's only one way.

It's the only way that you and I

will escape in Judgment Day

It's if our sin is forgiven.

Brethren, we're talking a place

that was made for the
devil and his angels.

There's a reason why,

if you die unrepentant,

you go to a place that was made

for the devil and his angels.

It's because you are as bad as they are.

They may have had a lot longer

to do their wickedness,

but listen, if you're being sent

to the same place they are,

it's because you are like they are.

Do you not realize that?

Men are like demons.

They're like the devil.

That's why they're sent there.

They are liars, they're murderers,

they're God-haters, they're in rebellion.

It is a place for those

who have sinned against a kind God.

Listen, if you end up there

after all the kindnesses He showed you,

and after the times you've had to repent,

and after the pleadings of God's people

to you, the brethren
even from this church,

and you were given
opportunity upon opportunity.

I mean what can you say,

if you come to Judgment Day,

and you're told to depart,
and every goodness,

every kindness

is withdrawn and taken away.

And not momentarily.

It's not like when you get sick here,

or you fall into some infirmity.

There's no relief.

And it will be just,

and you will see that it will be just.

Eternal fire prepared for
the devil and his angels.

And who goes there?

Mass murderers,

Adolf Hitler,

pedophiles,

no - yes, they do -
and some of those don't,

because they looked to Christ in faith.

But listen to the description of those

who find their place in the lake of fire.

"I was hungry and you gave Me no food."

Wait, where's the pedophiles,
where's the sodomites?

Where are the real wicked people?

I mean, I thought you had to be
like Adolf Hitler to go to hell.

This is saying somebody was
hungry and I didn't feed him.

That ought to startle us.

It's not just the Adolf Hitler's.

It's not just the people
that killed the six million Jews.

This brings it down to
where you and I live.

No, you didn't kill six million
Jews, and neither did I.

But all you have to do
to be like the devil

and end up where he is,

basically see other people in need,

and you turn your back.

You say, "Is that evil, is that wicked?"

You better believe it is.

"I was hungry, you gave Me no food.

I was thirsty, you gave Me no drink.

I was a stranger, you did not welcome Me.

Naked, you did not clothe Me."

Brethren, we jump down to verse 46:

"These will go away
into eternal punishment."

You say, "What?! Some guy needed clothes,
and I didn't give him clothes?

I'm going to hell forever?
Eternal punishment?

Isn't that a bit overkill?"

But you see, this is an
expression of what's in men:

rebellious, lawless,

all they think about is themselves.

Brethren, the idea here isn't

that if you go feed somebody,

you're going to earn your way to heaven.

The idea here is look,

if you turn from your sin, you repent,

you bow the knee and surrender to Christ,

and you trust Him,

what Jesus does in your life,

is He gives you a heart to love people.

If you don't have a heart to love people,

you can't say you're one of Christ's.

And you have no claim on heaven.

And listen, if you'll flee to Christ,

He'll make you into a person

who will be concerned to feed others.

If you look and you say,
"All I've had is hatred,

all I've had is selfishness,

all I've had is self-centeredness,

that's all I have.

I don't really care about others.

If I ever do anything for others,

it's just what I can
do to be seen by others.

Just so I get a good reputation.

If that's all it is, and you
know in the secret places,

you don't really care about other people,

you just care about how you're perceived,

you care about your reputation,

but you don't really care about others,

turn from it.

That doesn't mean you have to fix it.

It just means run to Him who can.

Confess it all to Him.

Ask Him to make you like He is.

Ask Him to begin to
make you into His image.

That's what He does. Trust Him.

Turn from this. Turn
from the selfish life.

The righteous -- they
go into eternal life.

Eternal punishment.

The fires there don't burn out.

There's no end.

Eternity.

I mean, think about eternity.

Listen, we can sit here now

and we feel comfortable we're not there.

We can breathe.

You know, men comfort themselves:

well, I'm not there right now.

I've got time.

Well, listen, what time do you have?

Your life is but a vapor.

You don't know if you have tomorrow.

There's no guarantee of it.

People get cut off.

What you have time for
is right now to repent.

Listen, God has been kind

to bring all of us to this hour.

This is a real place.

I can just move through some other verses.

Just right here in Matthew.

Matthew, by itself,

just gives us material
for an outstanding study.

Let's all turn over to Matthew 13,

a tremendous study on hell.

It shows up again and again.

Matthew 13:24: "He put another
parable before them, saying,

'The kingdom of heaven may be compared

to a man who sowed good seed in his field,

but while his men were sleeping,

his enemy came and sowed weeds
among the wheat and went away.

So when the plants came up and bore grain,

then the weeds appeared also.

And the servants of the master
of the house came and said to him,

"Master, did you not sow
good seed in your field?

How then does it have weeds?"

He said to them, "An enemy has done this."

So the servants said to him,

"Then do you want us
to go and gather them?"

But he said, "No, lest
in gathering the weeds

you root up the wheat along with them.

Let them grow together until the harvest,

and at harvest time
I will tell the reapers,

gather the weeds first

and bind them in bundles to be burned,

but gather the wheat into my barn."

And then He goes on to
explain it, down in verse 36.

But we'll just jump to verse 39:

"The enemy who sowed them is the devil.

These are the sons of the evil one

who find their way into the kingdom.

The harvest is the close of the age.

The reapers are the angels.

And as the weeds are gathered
and burned with fire,

so will it be at the close of the age.

The Son of Man will send His angels

and they will gather out of His kingdom

all causes of sin and all law-breakers."

If that's your life,
if you're a lawbreaker,

and you're a cause of sin,

here's your lot at the end of this age:

"And throw them into the fiery furnace.

It that place, there will be weeping

and gnashing of teeth.

Then the righteous will
shine like the sun

in the kingdom of their Father.

He who has ears, let him hear."

You get the same thing, look at verse 47:

“Again, the kingdom
of heaven is like a net

that was thrown into the sea

and gathered fish of every kind.

When it was full,

men drew it ashore and sat down

and sorted the good into containers

but threw away the bad.

So it will be at the close of the age.

The angels will come out and separate
the evil from the righteous

and throw them into the fiery furnace.

In that place there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Listen, if you have a red-letter Bible,

you'll notice, that's in red letters,

which means Jesus Himself, the Christ,

He came and He looked
men square in the face,

and He said, "There is
a hell to be avoided."

It is a place of outer darkness,

it is a place of weeping,

it is a place of the gnashing of teeth,

it is a place that He
likens to fiery furnace.

Now look, you say,

"Well, it's called the lake of fire;

it's called the fiery furnace,

how can it be fire if it's outer darkness?

Isn't that maybe just symbolic?"

Okay, maybe it is. But I'll tell you what.

If the closest thing Jesus
has to describing it is fire,

if that's all there is in this world

that He can come up with,

that even approximates
what it is, I would say,

even if it's spiritualization,

even if it's symbolic,

that certainly would not be
anything to find comfort in,

because it's not going
to be better than fire.

If anything, it's going to
be worse than fire.

And if it is the same as fire,

being thrown into a lake of fire forever,

brethren, do you recognize,

when it happens, you're there.

When you wake up, you're there.

And it's all over.

Eternity is written over everything.

There is no escape.

There is no second chance.

There is no time to repent now.

And for all you would kick
yourself, and feel foolish,

and hate God for putting you there,

and hating everybody else

that encouraged you in your sin,

and realizing how many times

you despised the preaching of the Word,

how you'd want to pull your own hair out,

gnash your teeth,

whether in hatred to God

or in absolute devastation

because of your own foolishness.

Brethren, this is real

and Christ says, "Wake up."

Christ says in another
place, Matthew 18:8:

"If your hand or your foot causes
you to sin (or to stumble),

cut it off and throw it away.

It is better for you to
enter life crippled or lame

than with two hands or two feet

to be thrown into the eternal fire.

If your eye causes you to sin,

tear it out and throw it away.

It is better for you to
enter life with one eye

than with two eyes to be
thrown into the hell of fire."

Listen, Jesus knows what hell is.

And He is not only the Truth,
and the Way, and the Life,

He came to bear truth and to speak truth

and He looked at men,

and He said, "I know what you don't know.

I know how bad, how hellish,

how fiery it is.

I know the punishment
that takes place there."

Listen, Jesus Christ is the One

who tramples out the
fury of God the Almighty.

It is the wrath of the
Lamb you have to fear.

He knows His own wrath.

He could look at everything in this world,

everything that is to be prized,

everything that is to be cherished,

everything that is to be yearned for

and longed after by man,

and He could look at hell,

and He could say to men,

"I know.

I know what the real value
of things in this world are,

and I know the real
terror of what hell is.

And I'll tell you this:

whatever it takes for you
to cut off or tear out

the things of this world
that hold you back

and keep you from following Me,

every idol, every lust,

every sin, every thing,

that you would have over Me,

that would have follow
after to disobey Me,

that you think you need in your life,

at the expense of Me,

and surrendering to Me,

and trusting Me,

believing in Me,

coming to Me,

calling upon Me,

putting all your trust,

I know it is not worth holding on

to all the money that Gates has.

It is not worth all the money

that is to be had in this world,

all the treasure, all the pleasures,

even if you could live
as long as Methuselah

and enjoy everything to the full

and live life to the
complete in this life,

to have it all,

to have all that men aspire after,

all the fame, and all the money,

and all the houses,

and all the beauty,

all the health, to have it all.

All that men think they
want and think they need,

He knows, if you had it all,

and you could live as long
as the oldest man ever lived,

if you could have it all
for a thousand years,

He looks at it and He says,

there's no comparison.

Whatever it takes to
cut it off and tear it out,

you better do it.

It is better for you to do that
than to end up in this place.

It's insanity to go after
anything in this world

that's going to be gone soon.

And the truth is

you're not going to live
as long as Methuselah.

The truth is, if you
live 80 years, it's long.

And the truth is, you're not going to get

all the money in the world,

and the truth is that whatever you do get

in this world is not going to satisfy you.

It's going to leave you empty,

because it's a lie.

(incomplete thought)

Brethren, Jesus is
offering men eternal life.

He's offering men forgiveness.

He's offering men the opportunity

of seeing God face to face.

He's offering men the opportunity

of having every tear wiped away.

All sorrows and pain and death.

He's offering you

the treasures of Christ,

an eternal inheritance.

He's offering you riches

and He's calling you

to flee from the wrath to come.

Folks, this is what it means to be saved.

To be spared from the wrath of God.

Jesus said many are going to come

from the east and the west,

and from the north and the south,

and they're going to sit
down in that kingdom.

They're going to sit down with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob

while many of the sons of the kingdom

are going to be cast into outer darkness.

Brethren, let me hit you
with another verse.

One of the pictures that we see

comes at us in 2 Thessalonians.

"When Jesus comes..."

it says mid-way through
2 Thessalonians 1:7:

"...when the Lord Jesus
is revealed from heaven."

Here's His coming.

"...With his mighty angels..."

That's what we saw in the parables.

He's coming and He's going to

send His angels out to gather in

the wheat and the chaff,

the good and the bad.

Here He comes,

"...in flaming fire,

inflicting vengeance on those

who do not know God

and on those who do not obey

the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

They will suffer the punishment
of eternal destruction

away from the presence of the Lord

and from the glory of His might,

when He comes on that day

to be glorified in His saints,

and to be marveled at

among all who have believed,

because our testimony
to you was believed."

Listen, who are these people

who are going to face this punishment?

They're the people who are going
to be condemned when He comes.

Can I show you a picture of these people?

It says here that they will suffer

this punishment who did what?

They didn't obey the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They didn't know God.

But jump over to 2 Thessalonians 2:12:

"...in order that all may be condemned

(here's our group who's being condemned)

who did not believe the truth

but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

You say, who are the people

who are going to go into the hell-fire?

What describes them?

They just simply live lives

where they had pleasure
in unrighteousness.

You say, what? It's not the
Adolf Hitler's? Yes, it's them.

But listen, who has pleasure
in unrighteousness?

People who can sit down and
watch things on the computer,

on the television that's unrighteous,

and just delight in those things.

They can here a filthy joke at work

and laugh with the other guys,

then go to church on Sunday.

Listen, one of the things
about the parables,

those parables by and large

are not talking about the whole world.

When it says the net gathers in

the good and the bad;

when it says that the
angels are going to go out

and they're going to
gather some into the barn

and the others they're going to burn,

folks, this is a picture of the kingdom.

This is the idea of who looks
like they're in the church;

who looks like they're on the way.

When Jesus talks there in Matthew 7

about the broad way,

wide is the gate, broad is the way,

brethren, that leads to destruction.

He's not talking there about

just anybody and everybody.

He's talking about the crowd
that's down in verses 21, 22, 23,

who are saying, "Lord, Lord...

we did many mighty
works, we were there..."

He says, "Depart from me."

Why? Because you're lawless.

You are people that
took delight in lawlessness.

You loved unrighteousness.

That's it.

And now they've lost it all.

Listen, that's what repentance is,

it's turning away from
the unrighteousness.

It's not making yourself righteous.

It's not making yourself clean.

It's fleeing to Christ
in your filthiness,

to Him to clean you,

to Him to save you,

to Him to help you and forgive you,

and wash you in His blood,

confessing your sin to Him.

That's the picture.

He says this is to be
escaped at all costs.

And He bids men, "Come."

The Scripture says, whoever comes
to Him, He'll never cast out.

You come to Him, He'll never let
you fall into a place like that.

But listen, if you think
you're coming to Him

to get your sin forgiven,

but you're going to go on

loving your unrighteousness --
no, no, no, no.

You're not coming to Him in reality.

Nobody comes to Christ in reality

who just wants to get delivered from hell.

That's not it.

We come to Him to be saved
from the wrath of God.

The wrath of God is for our sin.

It's to take care of all of
the problems of our sin.

The guilt of the sin,
the power of the sin,

the presence of the sin,

my inclination to sin,

my love of it.

Brethren, folks, friends,

I'll just look at one last verse,

I know there's a whole lot more

and I was going to have you
guys throw them at me,

but I guess the one you threw at me

was almost good enough
for an entire message.

But just think of Revelation 19.

You have them singing there.

The marriage supper of the Lamb,

they're singing, "Hallelujah!"

Great things.

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our
God the Almighty reigns. (v. 6)

Let us rejoice and exult
and give Him the glory,

for the marriage of the Lamb has come,

and His bride has made herself ready."

Oh, you want to be there at all costs.

"It was granted her to clothe herself

with fine linen, bright and pure -

for the fine linen is the
righteous deeds of the saints."

You see that?

Jesus changes His people

into righteous-deed doing people.

"Blessed are those who are invited

to the marriage supper of the Lamb."

But this Christ,

who is marrying His people,

down in verse 15:

"From His mouth comes a sharp sword

with which to strike down the nations,

and He will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury

of the wrath of God the Almighty."

Do you realize this?

When Jesus comes, Scripture says this,

earlier in the Book of Revelation 1:7.

Behold, He is coming with the clouds,

and every eye will see Him,

even those who pierced Him."
And listen to this.

"All tribes of the earth will wail

on account of Him.

Even so. Amen."

That verse strikes me.

You say, wait, over in 2 Thessalonians 1,

it says that there are going to be those

who are awaiting His return.

They're going to rejoice when He comes.

They're going to be amazed, that's true.

But, brethren, can I tell you something?

Scripture speaks about a remnant,

and it speaks about
few there be that find it.

And it says many are on the way

that leads to destruction.

There are so many on
the way to destruction

that when Jesus comes,

it says not some tribes
wail, some tribes rejoice.

In John's mind, he sees a picture

of the coming of Christ,

where all the tribes wail.

Why?

Because there's so few in light of

the vast multitudes of humanity

that John can speak that way

and be biblically accurate
and biblically true,

even though he does not mention

the saints being there.

Why do I stress that?

I stress it for this reason.

Throughout all of history,

most men do not hear

a clear presentation of the gospel.

In all of history, most men miss heaven.

You know it's true.

There are people in this room
that are going to perish.

You know it's true.

I'm saying this because, look,

if God has not only shown you
all the kindnesses of creation,

but in addition, He's
shown you the kindness

to allow you to hear the Gospel
and hear the truth

and know that Jesus
Christ died on that cross

to save sinners just like you and me;

to save even the chief of sinners.

I mean, why would God want us to know

that God has saved the chief of sinners?

Why would God want us to know

that He saved the thief on the cross?

Why would God want
us to specifically know

that Mary Magdalene had 7 demons?

Ever think about why these things

have been specifically told to us?

They're told to us
so that you might see

how bad the people are that God saves.

And if you've had this kindness,

that God has not only given
you all this light of creation,

all the light of His kindness,

but in light of all that,

in addition to all that, on top of it,

you've been allowed to hear the truth,

come, flee to Him at once.

Listen, I remember my step-dad.

My step-dad came down to Texas,

and I wanted him to hear the truth.

And he sat under Pat Horner
out at Community Baptist Church.

I was out there then.

He came and he heard me preach -

at a nursing home I know
he heard me preach -

(incomplete thought)

but he was able to sit under
the preaching several times.

I had evangelized my dad,

I had spoken to my dad,

but I think that was the most truth

he ever got in his life,

I know that was the
first time he ever sat under

a good and solid sermon

that had truth in it
that was actually preached

by one of God's messengers.

He refused it,

even when I was speaking
at the nursing home,

he was rebelling against it,

he was rejecting it,

and he no more than
went back to Michigan,

he had a massive heart
attack -- it was amazing --

he had a massive heart attack,
then he had a stroke,

then he got cancer, then he died.

Brethren, folks, when you hear the truth,

there's a real hell out there.

And Jesus, by way of His
ambassadors, is telling you,

escape that place at all costs.

What will you give in
exchange for your soul?

You'll give everything.

(incomplete thought)

Look, don't wait until the flames
overflow you to realize,

"Okay, okay, now I'll give
everything in exchange for it!"

Don't wait till then. It's too late.

He speaks to you now while you have life.

Do not leave this place
tonight if you are lost

and run back your sin.

It is suicidal. Don't do it.

You've heard the truth.

Oftentimes, when people hear the truth

and they harden themselves,

God will see to it that they get hardened.

And many times when you harden
yourself against the truth, it's all over.

You won't get to hear it again.

You'll be like my step-dad.

The next thing you'll be in the grave.

I don't remember who it was,

they told the story about the 2 young men

that had girlfriends that went to church.

Their girlfriends' parents
made them go to church.

The two guys showed up to get the girls

and the preacher saw them come in.

They stood there in the back

waiting for the service to get over

and he make a beeline to them,

and went back and began to talk to them.

And they rejected and they refused,

and one of those young men
died right away after that.

We sought to proclaim truth

to a prostitute who
came and lived with us.

And she rejected it and died after that.

There was a man that joined our church.

He was a heroin addict,

and he went back to his heroin

after he'd heard the truth,

and God took his life.

There was a young man.

He joined this church.

Exposed to a lot of truth,

he went back to his coke,
God took his life.

There's a prostitute by
the name of Zebedee,

she was exposed to the truth
in this church in our early days.

God took her life.

There was a man from
one of the local churches

that had us come preach,

and he tried to pull a scam on us,

but we preached truth to him.

He rejected it and God took his life.

He was young.

Brethren, folks, do not
go out the door tonight

and go back to your sin.

This could very well be from God,

that it's your last time.

It's it. It's over. It's done.

And what's been described,

you may in unbelief go
back to your sin right now,

but you will believe it one day.

And the sad things is, it's going to take

you being plunged into it

to realize how valuable your soul was.

How bad your sin was.

How foolish you are to reject --

do you realize that place was made

for the devil and his angels

and they don't get any chance.

They don't get the opportunity to repent.

Can you imagine those demons in hell,

screaming at you?

"You had the truth set before you.

You had the opportunity we never had.

You had the opportunity to be in heaven,

and to have Christ,

and to walk with God and to live forever,

and you chose drugs, alcohol,

sex, partying, money, greed, sports, fame,

and just wanting to do life your own way."

"I don't want to feed any hungry people,

I want to live for me."

Just do it your way.

What a fool if that's what you would do.

Listen, there are people
in here that love their sin.

I'm telling you, do not go out the door

without crying out to the Lord,

confessing your sin,

calling on Him to save you from it.

Don't go!

There's a good possibility you
will never come back again.

Some of you.

Amen. We're dismissed.