The Corruption Of Hell
Sermon Audio
Sermon Notes
Today we’re starting a new series, a 2 week series called “Tough Questions: Seeking answers to complex questions.” Several weeks ago we asked our church and people on social media to submit whatever questions they had about faith or life in general, and we said we’d preach on the top 2 questions people asked. Today’s the day we’re addressing those questions, and the #1 question people asked is “What is hell, and why would God create people if He knew they’d sin, suffer, and go to hell?” I’ll address that question today. It’s what is hell, and why would God create people if He knew they’d sin, suffer, and go to hell? The 2nd most popular question is “What will heaven be like when we die?” I’ll address that question next week. It’s what will heaven be like when we die, and I know a lot of you will be traveling for thanksgiving next week, but will post the message on our website in case you miss. We have a lot to cover today, so let’s turn our bibles to Luke 16:19-31 and get into it. The title of today’s message is “The Corruption of Hell.” It’s The Corruption of Hell. Some people believe God’s corrupt for creating hell, but today I’m gonna show you that God’s not corrupt for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt...God’s not corrupt for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt...Little disclaimer before we get started. If there’s kids in here, now’s the chance to take them to children’s church. I’m talking about hell and some of this stuff might be a bit heavy for kids, so I’m giving you’re out now. If you don’t take it, you can email all complaints to my personal email Zack@cityawakening.org. That’s my personal email and I love tons of emails, so make sure you flood my inbox this week. Ha! Just playing. Zack’s in children’s church right now
Context:
Here’s your context. In Luke 16 a group of religious people called the Pharisees hear Jesus talking about how we shouldn’t make money our God, and they start ridiculing him for it because they love money. So Jesus is about to teach them that money can’t buy them heaven. It can’t buy them heaven, and he’s gonna press this point by telling them a story about a rich man who dies and goes to hell. Scholars debate over whether this story should be treated like a parable, but regardless this story teaches us 3 things Jesus believed about hell. It’s 3 things that are taught all throughout scripture. So let’s hear what Jesus says about this rich man in hell.
The Word:
Luke 16:19-31 states, “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.” So we have a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus, and Jesus tells us the rich man’s living it up in this life, but poor Lazarus is suffering. He’s suffering at the rich man’s gate, literally at the gate on the front porch of his home. Let’s see what happens to this rich man who’s living it up, and to poor Lazarus who’s suffering.
Vs. 22, “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side.” Abraham’s side was a symbol of paradise, it’s a symbol of heaven. Jesus tells us this poor man Lazarus suffered on earth, but he died and went to heaven. He’s in heaven where he’s no longer suffering anymore. But what about the rich man? What happened to him? The text tells us.
Again vs. 22, “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades...” The rich man goes to Hades. He dies and goes to Hades, meaning he goes to hell. When the bible talks about hell it uses the terms Hades, Sheol, or Gehenna, and depending on the context Hades and Sheol can mean different things. In this context Hades means hell, and the rich guy’s in hell. Now like I said last week it’s not about being rich or poor, it’s about being righteous or unrighteous. So the rich guy’s not in hell because he’s rich he’s in hell because he’s corrupt, because he’s rejected God and is living an unrighteous life especially when it comes to his wealth. He literally ignored Lazarus who was suffering on his front porch. He’s not a righteous guy, he’s a corrupt guy, and his money couldn’t buy him heaven. He’s now in hell, and this is the first of the 3 things we learn about hell in the text.
#1 Hell Is Real = This part of the text teaches us hell is real. I mean if you believe in Jesus, if you believe what he teaches is true, then you have to believe hell’s real because Jesus talks about it. In fact Jesus talked more about hell than anybody else in the bible...Jesus talked more about hell than anybody else in the bible, which should cause those of you who aren’t Christians to pause and think. I mean there’s a lot of Jesus’ teachings you already trust and believe in like ‘Love your neighbor.’ You love that one. ‘Let he who as not sinned cast the first stone.’ You love that one too. ‘Don’t judge!’ That’s one of your favorites. You use it a lot. ‘Don’t judge!’ Now if as a non-Christian you already trust and believe in those teachings, maybe you should consider trusting and believing in Jesus’ teachings about hell too. Maybe you should consider the reason he talked about it more than anybody else in the bible is because he knew people would go there, so he’s trying to warn you so you aren’t one of them. He’s trying to warn you so you don’t end up like the rich man. He teaches us hell’s real and people will go there like the corrupt rich man in text. God’s not corrupt for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt.
Again vs. 22, “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 24 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.’” Notice Jesus says the rich man’s ‘in torment,’ he’s ‘in anguish,’ and that’s the 2nd thing the text teaches us about hell. #1 is that Hell’s real.
#2 Hell’s full of conscious torment and anguish = The text says he’s in torment, he’s in anguish, and he’s consciously aware of it. In fact he’s in so much pain that he’s pleading for at least some sort of relief, some sort of anesthesia, even if it’s only a drop of water on his tongue. Jesus is teaching us that hell’s painful, people are conscious of the pain, and there’s no relief, no anesthesia for the pain. Hell is pain without anesthesia...Hell is pain without anesthesia...It’s a place where you’re completely separated from God and His grace, completely separated from His anesthesia that you’re experiencing right now to help numb the painful effects sin has caused our world. See right now God’s giving both Christians and non-Christians anesthesia for the pain, it’s called common grace. Common grace is where God’s extending His grace, His love to both Christians and non-Christians allowing our lungs to breathe, our hearts to beat, our very own lives to exist, and even giving us moments of joy to help relieve some of the painful effects of sin. Your life and the moments of joy in your life are all the result of God’s common grace. But eventually God’s common grace will be removed and the pitbulls of hell will be unleashed, meaning all sin, suffering, and evil won’t be held back anymore. The pitbulls of hell will be unleashed and when that happens, it’ll be conscious torment and anguish, without anesthesia. It’ll be hell...It’ll be hell...What makes hell so bad is you’re completely separated from God and His grace. The rich man wants some anesthesia, but he won’t get any, because he’s in hell.
Now in a more descriptive sense Jesus often uses a place called Gehenna to describe hell, which was a place where the Jews would throw their trash, human feces, dead animals, even dead bodies of criminals. It was a nasty, smelly place that had fires continually burning to reduce waste, maggots eating rotting flesh, and dogs gnashing their teeth at each over food. It’s why you’ll often hear Jesus talk about hell being a place where ‘the fire continually burns,’ ‘the worm never dies,’ and ‘there will be gnashing of the teeth.’ It’s all references to Gehenna. The Jews considered it the worst place on earth, which is exactly why Jesus uses it to describe hell. He’s basically saying hell’s gonna be like that, it’s gonna be like the worse place you could ever possibly think of, it’s gonna be like Chuckie Cheeses!..For them it was Gehenna, but for me the worse place is Chuckie Cheeses. It’s full of noisy games, screaming kids, mechanical bears singing the same tune over and over again, and a guy who wants to hug you in a mouse suit that smells like sweat and urine. It’s the worse place on earth. It’s hell...It’s like hell, and that’s what Jesus is doing when he uses Gehenna to describe hell. He’s taking the worse place the Jews could think of and he’s saying hell’s gonna be like that, except worse. It’ll be worse because it’s gonna be a place without God and His grace. It’s gonna be a place of conscious, tormenting, anguish without anesthesia, and you don’t want to go there like the rich man in the text. The rich man’s corrupt, he’s paying for his sins, and he wants some relief, but no relief will be given. God’s not corrupt for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt.
Vs. 25, “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 anguish. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’” Jesus is teaching us a 3rd thing about hell. He’s taught us #1 that hell’s real, #2 that hell’s a place of conscious torment and anguish, and now he’s teaching us a 3rd thing about hell.
#3 Hell is eternal = He’s teaching us that hell is eternal. He says there’s a ‘great chasm’ separating heaven and hell. It’s a chasm that ‘none may cross’ meaning it’s an eternal separation. There’s an eternal separation between those in heaven and those in hell. He’s saying hell and the suffering in hell is eternal. He even states this in other places like in Matthew 25:46 where he says it’ll be ‘eternal punishment.’ He’s saying hell’s eternal, which means we don’t get second chances after we die. This goes against beliefs like purgatory, annihilationism, universalism, and reincarnation because according to Jesus we won’t be purged of our sins, annihilated for our sins, or get second chances to repent of our sins after we die. It’s because hell’s eternal and our second chance isn’t later it’s now. It’s now because after we die our fates will be sealed, we won’t be able to cross the chasm, and we’ll either be living in the joys of heaven like Lazarus, or in the, conscious, tormenting, anguish of hell like the rich man. The rich man can’t cross the chasm because hell’s eternal. God’s not corrupt for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt.
Vs. 27, “And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house 28 for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” Moses and the Prophets is a reference to the bible, and someone rising from the dead is a reference to Jesus. The rich man wants Lazarus to go back and warn his family about hell, but Jesus is saying his family has all the evidence they need in the bible, but they won’t listen to the bible and they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead. No matter what kind of evidence we give, there’s always gonna be people who won’t believe in the bible or in Jesus. They’re like the rich man in the text refusing to believe the warnings about hell while they’re alive, and according to Jesus a time will come when they’ll wake up to the reality of hell and wish they had listened, but it’ll be too late. It’ll be too late, because there’s no second chances in hell. This is what Jesus teaches us. He teaches us that the rich man couldn’t buy or earn his way to heaven, and he teaches us 3 things about hell. He teaches us hell’s real, it’s full of conscious torment and anguish, and it’s eternal. But we don’t like that, we have issues with God creating hell. So let me address at least 3 of those issues, then I’ll close.
#1 God’s Harsh For Creating Hell = Some people think God’s harsh for creating hell. But what else would you have God do, overlook sin and give everybody an acquittal? Now that’s harsh. It’d be harsh for God to overlook sin and give everybody an acquittal. It’d be harsh for God to overlook the sins of Hitler, ISIS, the Sandy Hook shooter who shot up all those children in Connecticut, the Pulse shooter, the recent Vegas shooter. It’d be harsh for God to simply overlook those sins, allow those sins to go unpunished, and to give all them acquittals. You wouldn’t want our local authorities to govern like that, so you shouldn’t expect God to govern like that either. You believe sin shouldn’t be overlooked, so does God. You believe there needs to be some sort of justice, so does God. Hell’s God’s way of not overlooking sin, it’s God’s justice. God’s not corrupt or harsh for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt and the harsh.
#2 The Punishment Doesn’t Seem To Fit The Crime = Some people are like, “Yeah but the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime. I mean if somebody sins they have to go to hell for all of eternity? How’s that fair? The punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime.” But the punishment does fit the crime if we understand the magnitude of who it is we’re sinning against. For example, you’re not gonna get arrested for lying to a friend. You might get into an argument, possibly even lose the friendship, but you’re not gonna get arrested for lying to a friend. But if you lie to a judge in court, you’ll face up to 5 years in prison. Both sins are the same, both are lies, but who those sins are against is what makes the extent of the punishment different. God’s a much greater judge than a judge in court, so to lie or sin against Him, deserves a much greater punishment than 5 years in prison. The reason we think the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, the reason we think the punishment of an eternal hell is too big, is because we think our God’s too small. Because if we truly understood the magnitude of just how infinitely big God really is, then we’d see that an infinite punishment actually does fit the crime. If we truly understood the magnitude of just how infinitely HOLY God is, we’d see that an infinite punishment does fit the crime because we’re not deserving to stand in His infinitely Holy presence with our sin.
#3 Then Why Would God Create Us? = Why would God create us, why would He create people if He knew they’d sin, suffer, and go to hell? First God created us to glorify Him period!.. God created us to glorify Him, and second He created us to be a reflection of His glory, to be a reflection of Him in the world. It’s like when the sun shines and radiates beams of light. Those beams of light are small reflections of the sun, they’re not the sun, they’re just small reflections of the sun. In a similar way God created us to glorify Him, to be a walking reflection of His glory, to radiate beams of His glory in the world, and even those who go to hell are a reflection of His glory. They’re reflecting God’s holy and righteous character, they’re reflecting His justice which is something you already agree with. You agree sin shouldn’t be overlooked and that there should be justice. Hell and those who go to hell are a reflection of God’s justice, His glory.
Now just to be clear, God didn’t need to create us to bring Him glory. He’s not a narcissist who was lacking praise in heaven and needed to create people to fill His ego. He was perfectly fine without us, but He chose to create us because it was a delight for Him to share with us the joys and beauties of His creation. Did He know some people wouldn’t thank or praise Him for sharing the joys and beauties of His creation? Did He know some people would reject, rebel, sin against Him, even choose to worship and love His creation over Him? Did He know people would sin, suffer, and go to hell because of their sins? Yes He did. He knew all that would happen, but apparently He thought sharing the joys and beauties of His creation was worth it. Apparently He thought sharing the joys of having a relationship with Him and spending eternity with Him was worth it. It’s like humanity still choosing to pro-create. I mean it’s not like babies come from storks, it’s not like we don’t know how to use our tools to pro-create. So why are we still pro-creating if we know our kids and future generations are gonna experience sin, suffering, and evil? Why are we still pro-creating despite the evil we see on tv? It’s because like God we believe the joys of life are worth it. If we didn’t believe that nobody would have kids. But we believe the joys of life are worth it so we keep having kids, and God created you, me, humanity because apparently He thought the joys of knowing Him and His creation were worth it.
Look you need to know this, you need to know that God doesn’t take delight in people going to hell. He doesn’t. God doesn’t take delight in people going to hell. God even says this in Ezekiel 33:11 when He says , “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die?” I mean God’s practically pleading for us to turn from our sins, and if He took delight in people going to hell he wouldn’t do that. God doesn’t take delight in people going to hell, just like we don’t take delight in talking about hell. If you’re not a Christian you might think we’re being a bunch of haters for talking about hell, but the reality is we don’t like talking about it either. I mean do you really think Christians enjoy talking about hell? Do you really think we wake up in the morning saying, “Oh I can’t wait to talk about hell, can’t wait to tell my friends about hell, can’t wait to go to church because pastor’s talking about hell today. It’s gonna be one hell of day!” Man we don’t do that, we don’t get excited to talk about hell...The only reason we talk about it is because we love you. It’s all because we love you and want to warn you of the dangers of hell that are ahead. You’d do the same if you were in our shoes. If the people you love were heading for danger, you’d do everything you could to try and warn them of that danger. You’d do the exact same thing if you were in our shoes. So don’t view us as haters, view us as friends who love you enough to want to warn you about the dangers ahead. Jesus is your friend... Jesus is your friend, and as a friend he loves you enough to warn you about the dangers of hell, because he doesn’t want you to go there. He doesn’t take delight in anybody going to hell, instead he loves us and warns us so we don’t have to go there like the man in the text.
The Big Idea:
Let’s get to the big idea of the message. Here’s the big idea. God’s not corrupt for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt...God’s not corrupt for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt...The rich man in the text didn’t go to hell because he was rich, he went to hell because he was corrupt, because he rejected God and lived an unrighteous life. So God gave him what he wanted, He gave him a life separated from Him and His grace, He gave him hell. God’s not corrupt for sending him to hell, God sent him to hell because the guy was corrupt. “Yeah but God should’ve done something! God should’ve done something to change the guy’s heart, to change our hearts so we wouldn’t sin, suffer, and go to hell!” God did, and we nailed Him to a cross...God did do something, and we nailed him to a cross...Jesus didn’t just come to warn us about hell, he came to save us from hell, and we nailed him to a cross...See when Jesus came he didn’t just come to warn us about hell, he also came to bring us good news, he came to bring us something called the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus is God who put on flesh, and he came to live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of our sins. He came to live the perfect life we couldn’t live, and die the death we deserved to die because of sin. He came to suffer in our place, to suffer for our sins in this life, so we don’t have to suffer for our sins in the life that’s yet to come. He came to give us a way out of hell...Jesus came to warn us about hell, but he also came to give us a way out of hell, and if we reject his way out, that’s not on God, it’s on us. If we reject God’s way out of hell that’s not on God, it’s on us, and He’d be perfectly just in sending us to hell. In fact He’d be perfectly just in sending everybody to hell because He shouldn’t save anybody. All of us have sinned and don’t deserve to be in His infinitely holy presence, so He really shouldn’t save anybody, but because He loves us He gives us a way out through the cross. It’s not on God, it’s on us if we don’t take that way out. C.S. Lewis put it like this, “To those who object to the doctrine of hell, what are you asking God to do? To wipe out their past sins and at all costs give them a fresh start? He did that, when Jesus died on the cross...You want God to forgive them? But they don’t ask for forgiveness...You want God to leave them alone? That’s what hell is!..Look there’s only two kinds of people in the end. Those who say to God ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says in the end ‘Thy will be done.’”
Look God’s 100% just for creating hell, and He’s 100% loving for giving us a way out of hell. If we don’t take his way out, that’s not on God, it’s on us, and for those of you who aren’t Christians the question is will you take His way out?..Will you take His way out?..Jesus loved you enough to warn you and give you a way out, so take his way out. Take his way out today... Repent of your sins, believe Jesus died for your sins, and you’ll get to enjoy an eternal friendship with Jesus and all the joys of his grace in heaven, rather than an eternal separation from Jesus and the painful absence of his grace in hell. He loved you enough to give you a way out, so take his way out. For those of you who are Christians, the doctrine of hell should lead you to a greater appreciation of the doctrine of grace. After knowing what Jesus saved you from: hell, Gehenna, conscious, tormenting, anguish for all eternity, and what He saved you to: everlasting love, grace, peace, joy, Himself...Knowing all that should cause you to want to thank Him, praise Him, glorify Him, and tell others about Him. It should cause you to want to do what you were created to do, which is to give Him glory, and to be a walking reflection of His glory. So let’s do that, let’s do what we were created to do. Let’s stand and give Him glory for creating us and saving. He’s not corrupt for creating hell, He created hell for the corrupt, and He was gracious enough to give us a way out of hell. Let’s stand and glorify Him for it, let’s do what we were created to do.