A Man's Journey Into Hell

Two of the most famous characters in the Bible are Moses and Pharaoh. Theirs was the penultimate conflict between a man of God and a man of the world. One man on a journey to God’s promises, and the other man on a journey to Hell.

This conflict is one that has played out many time throughout the history of humanity. The ultimate conflict between God and man was settled when Jesus Christ died on Calvary’s Cruel Cross, but many reject that narrow way and choose the broad path to destruction. Pharaoh was such a man that took the wrong path. To the Egyptians and to himself, Pharaoh was a god, but boy, were the Egyptians and Pharaoh badly mistaken.

One of the most famous sermons ever preached was titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Jonathan Edwards preached it somewhere around 1740. The sermon was so powerful that it led to the First Great Awakening of spiritual revival in the American colonies, and the sermon itself was one of the early sparks that ignited the flames of American independence. Edwards had a line in the sermon that Pharaoh definitely needed to hear:

“All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater.”

These words sound exactly like words that Moses might have spoken to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh, the greatest king on Earth, was told that if he did not release the Jewish people, God would declare war on him and his gods and would not stop attacking until the people of Israel were set free.

This is similar to the Holy Spirit convicting a person of sin and calling that person to salvation. God’s mercy provides every man, woman, or child the opportunity to do as God asks, but like Pharaoh, the majority has said no.

Pharaoh was such a man that needed to hear Edwards’ sermon. His story serves as a warning for today’s lost person concerning rejecting God’s call to repentance, so with that being said, let’s look at Pharaoh and his journey to Hell.

1. PHARAOH REJECTED GOD’S WORD

Exodus 5 : 1 – 3 Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ” 2 And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” 3 So they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

Moses made a simple request. He wanted permission to take the Jewish people on a three-day journey into the desert to a place where they could worship the Lord. Now, Moses did not say how long they would be gone except to say it would take three days for them to get where they were going. Maybe omitting the information about how long they would be gone made Pharaoh suspicious. He probably thought they were trying to escape, and he uttered one his most infamous questions:

“Why should I obey the Lord?”

In his mind, this was a reasonable question because the Egyptians considered him to be a god, and he himself considered himself to be one too. He is just like a lost person that wonders why he or she should obey the Lord in accepting Christ.

When a person refuses to accept Christ, that person is like Pharaoh. He or she, in effect, is asking why I should obey the Lord. Pharaoh did not recognize the God of Creation and neither did his people. Can you not hear Pharaoh?

“Why should I obey the Lord? Moses, I cannot imagine your God calling these people His people. Moses, they belong to me. They are my slaves.”

If Pharaoh had obeyed God, he would have been acknowledging a deity greater than himself, and he was not going to do that. Dear friend, is that not what we do when we accept Christ? We are admitting that we cannot save ourselves, and we are admitting there is a God in Heaven who is able to save us. The Lord commanded Pharaoh to let My people go.

In his pride and false sense of security, Pharaoh rejected God’s Word, and that is the starting point on every journey to Hell.

The same thing happens to a lost person today. The Bible says this:

John 3 : 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

A lost person is convicted by the Holy Spirit that they need to accept Jesus, but many times that lost person cannot come to the point that he or she needs to trust in someone other than himself or herself. That person ignores that God says you must believe on Jesus for everlasting life. The lost person doomed for eternity is just like Pharaoh.

Once a person starts rejecting God’s Word, that person starts hardening his or her heart toward God, and that rejection starts that person on their journey to Hell.

2. PHARAOH HARDENED HIS HEART AGAINST GOD’S GRACE

Exodus 7 : 3, 13

3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

13 And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said.

Pharaoh began to harden his heart when Moses performed miraculous signs before him, He hardened his heart even more when his magicians counterfeited the miracles, and even when they could not, he hardened his heart.

Exodus 8 : 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said.

Pharaoh’s heart continued to harden throughout the series of plagues, and the same thing happens to you if you are lost on your journey to Hell.

Each time you reject God, your heart, like Pharaoh’s, gets a little harder to the truth. So, just exactly, what does it mean to harden your heart?

What does it mean to harden your heart?

It means to see clear evidence of the hand of God at work and still refuse to accept His Word and submit to His Will. It means to resist Him. It means being disobedient not having any fear of the Lord or of His judgement.

If you are lost, you are saying as Pharaoh said:

“Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” Pharaoh, like many today, was a proud, unrepentant sinner who refused to hear God’s Word, do God’s Will, or even keep his own promises.

3. PHARAOH HARDENED HIS HEART AGAINST GOD’S MERCY

Exodus 8 : 8 – 15 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “Entreat the Lord that He may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to the Lord.”

9 And Moses said to Pharaoh, “Accept the honor of saying when I shall intercede for you, for your servants, and for your people, to destroy the frogs from you and your houses, that they may remain in the river only.” 10 So he said, “Tomorrow.” And he said, “Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God. 11 And the frogs shall depart from you, from your houses, from your servants, and from your people. They shall remain in the river only.”

12 Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses cried out to the Lord concerning the frogs which He had brought against Pharaoh. 13 So the Lord did according to the word of Moses. And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields. 14 They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said.

The Egyptians were vain people, and their lives were miserable because of the invasion of frogs. Looking at the wording in verse 8, one can easily see that Pharaoh is acknowledging the frogs were sent by the Lord.

Pharaoh was so anxious to get rid of the frogs that he offered to let the Jewish people go on their worship trip if Moses complied with his request to remove the frogs.

Moses kept his promise and so did the Lord, but Pharaoh refused to keep his word and did not let the Israelites go. He is like many others who harden their hearts toward God’s mercy.

Many sinners are not interested in repenting and receiving God’s grace; they want only to be delivered from God’s judgement.

Well, I have some bad news. If you reject God’s Word, if you harden your heart toward God’s grace, and if you harden your heart toward God’s mercy, you are going to experience God’s judgement. You might be like Pharaoh and receive a temporary reprieve, but like Pharaoh, you will have worse judgement coming, and I just cannot get Romans 2 : 5 out of my head. When you harden your heart toward God’s grace and mercy and reject His Word, you are storing up wrath against the day of wrath, and that is exactly what Pharaoh was doing.

People make promises to the Lord promising what they will do if the Lord helps them, but they are no different from Pharaoh. Like Pharaoh, all they really want is for the frogs to be removed.

4. PHARAOH HARDENED HIS HEART TO GOD’S POWER

Exodus 8 : 16 – 19 So the Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’ ” 17 And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

18 Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So, there were lice on man and beast. 19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had said.

At this point, even though he had rejected God’s Word and hardened his heart toward God’s grace and mercy, Pharaoh was still given opportunities to respond to God.

After the frogs, instead of recognizing God’s mercy, Pharaoh hardened his heart even more, and the Lord, as a result, sent the plague of the lice. Even Pharaoh’s magicians recognized God’s fingers at work. Up to this point, Pharaoh’s magicians had been able to duplicate the signs, but they could not duplicate this one, but even in the face of this evidence, Pharaoh refused to submit to the Lord and hardened his heart even more.

Now, Pharaoh was at a critical point.

· He had rejected God’s Word

· He had hardened his heart toward God’s grace

· He had hardened his heart toward God’s mercy

Faced with a display of God’s incredible power, Pharaoh now hardened his heart to that power. He refused to repent and obey.

We see the same thing today. People pray to God for health and wealth but deny the power of the Cross and the Resurrection.

I believe someone has called it the prosperity gospel. The last stop on Pharaoh’s journey to Hell was out of his control because God, at this point, hardens Pharaoh’s heart.

5. GOD HARDENED PHARAOH’S HEART

Exodus 9 : 12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

It is now Turn Out The Lights The Party Is Over time for Pharaoh. He had been given opportunity after opportunity to respond to God, but each time, he hardened his heart and rejected God’s Word, and now, God had stopped giving him those opportunities by hardening his heart.

Pharaoh was still alive, but he would never again be asked to repent.

God could have with one snap of His fingers destroyed Pharaoh and wiped Egypt off the face of the map, but, instead, God chose to give Ramses and Egypt opportunities to repent, and I, for one, am eternally grateful for the opportunity to repent.

2 Peter 3 : 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Pharaoh, even though God would have preferred that he repent and obey, rejected those opportunities until God hardened his heart. You might be sitting here or watching and wanting to ask me this:

“Jimmy, do you really believe there is a time that God will stop calling a person?”

Yes! I do. Listen. I do not know God’s plans for each individual, but I do believe that every lost soul can get to the point where God hardens his or heart. It could be when he or she is 15, 85, or at the grave.

I do not know that, but yes, I do believe in every lost person’s life that eventually their rejection of God’s attempt through the Holy Spirit to reach them will make God say, “Okay, if that is what you want, I will not bother you anymore.”

That is why the Bible says that today is the day of salvation.

2 Corinthians 6 : 2 For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. ”Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

You do not know how long your journey to Hell will be and God could harden your heart at any time on that road. Dear friend, if you are not saved, you are on the same journey Pharaoh took.

If you are lost, you have:

( A ) Rejected God’s Word

John 14 : 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

( B ) Rejected God’s Grace

Colossians 2 : 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

( C ) Rejected God’s Mercy

Romans 8 : 31 – 34 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

( D ) Rejected God’s Power

1 Peter 1 : 3 – 5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Those are the things you have done if you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, and you are putting yourself at risk for God to harden your heart as He did the powerful Pharaoh. If God hardens your heart, you will join the ranks of people who God called time and time again to repentance but refused. Each time you reject Him, God’s Word says you are storing up wrath against the day of wrath. If you are lost, I hope you realize the journey you are taking. Will you turn around while you still can?

Will you ask Jesus into your heart? He will forgive your sins if you only ask and then repent of those sins. Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and died on Calvary’s Cruel Cross for you, and all you have to do is have the faith to realize He did it all for you. God was satisfied with what Jesus did to pay for your sins, and as a sign of that approval, God raised Jesus from the dead. There is no doubt you are a sinner, and if you will place your faith in Jesus as the One who took care of it all and believe that God raised Him from the dead, He will save you.

If you do that, God says that you must confess that before man, and I, personally, believe that means confessing your faith in Jesus to a local church and becoming an active, serving member of that church.

God loves you so much that He spared not His own Son on the Cross. Will you turn to Jesus? I would hate to see your life end like Pharaoh’s did.