Lie: A loving God won’t send people to Hell

Introduction:

Missing Announcements:

Banter:

We all love a good fairy tale… we ALL love the idea of happily ever after

We deep down think we know what is best for ourselves

Happily ever after often means - I’m going to live my life my own way, have zero punishment for it, and then when I die, I will be with God for eternity because that seems best down the line, but not really where I’m at right now

Disney has a firework show titled “Happily Ever After” - Here’s the description of it

“Go on a dazzling journey of color, light and song that captures the heart, humor and heroism of favorite Disney stories. Watch in awe as Cinderella Castle is magically transformed through amazing state-of-the art projection technology you have to see to believe.

This astounding fireworks extravaganza uses lights, lasers and special effects, plus a soaring score featuring contemporary versions of beloved Disney songs.

Discover the magic of stories—and be inspired to find your own happily ever after.”

That phrasing is very interesting… find your own happily ever after.

Implies this is a subjective view but if we are all being honest - growing up we knew the happily ever after is when the villains die and the protagonist finds peace/love/satisfaction

We all love this story

If we apply this concept to the story called life and look through the lens we find 2 key truths

There is a possibility of happy ever after

Although this looks quite different from what most people expect

And secondly we learn something major about ourselves in this train of though…We are the villains and deserve punishment

We deserve the utmost punishment because of our shameful acts committed against and perfect, sinless, spotless God who judges justly

This semester we have been discussing the “Theology of the Devil”

We have been looking at different lies that the enemy wants you to be believe as truth each week

The purpose isn’t just to understand our enemy better, but to be watchful for ways these lies might creep into our own lives slowly and catch them before they utterly destroy us

Thus this allows us to worship and follow Christ, avoiding the traps that the enemy likes to place in our life

This week the lie is this - A loving God won’t send people to hell

Pray

Body:

When we break down this lie, we have to recognize a couple things and bring clarity to this question

The first part of this is that God is a “Loving God”

We must know that God is love not just loving

1 John 4:8 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

1 John 4:16 “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

God doesn’t conform to our definition of love… in fact the way that we often view love pales in comparison to what God views as love

We say that we love pizza, we love that guy or girl, we love that sports team

And the crazy part is that we use the same word to describe the way God loves

The word “love” in both of these verses is AGAPE which means: unconditional, sacrificial love. Agape is the kind of love that is felt by a person willing to do anything for another, including sacrificing themselves, without expecting anything in return. Philosophically, agape has also been defined as the selfless love that a person feels for strangers and humanity as a whole. Agape is the love that allows heroic people to sacrifice themselves to save strangers they have never met.

So, yes God is a loving God but we must let Him define what love truly looks like - we see His definition all throughout Scripture through what He approves of, things that He disapproves of, and the way He displays love through the physical embodiment of Jesus

God is the author of Love, let Him be that for you and for us as we continue on

Secondly, We have to look at this concept of hell. Does it exist? Why or why doesn’t it exist? What is the purpose? What does this reveal about God?

Well, YES, hell does exist I’m going to ramble off some verses that reference hell for one reason or another…

Better to lose one part of body than go to hell—Matthew 5:29,30; 18:9.

Curse someone, in danger of hell—Matthew 5:22.

Eternal punishment—Matthew 25:46.

How will Jewish leaders escape?—Matthew 23:33.

Place of fire—Matthew 25:41.

Place of gloomy dungeons—2 Peter 2:4.

Place of torment—Luke 16:23.

“The lake of fire is a term used in only a few verses near the end in the book of Revelation (Revelation 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8). Jesus refers to Gehenna/hell several times (Matthew 10:28; Mark 9:43; Luke 12:5), as well as an “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13). These all seem to be different references to the same thing. Hell, the lake of fire, and outer darkness are all terms describing the final destination of those who reject Christ. This is a state of complete separation from God, never-ending and inescapable. According to the Bible, the lake of fire is the “second death.” This is the ultimate consequence of sin, which is to be totally cut off from God. The lake of fire will be a place of perpetual suffering and misery. Scripture indicates that every person whose name is not in the Book of Life will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). The lake of fire will also be the fate of the beast and false prophet from the end times (Revelation 19:20), as well as Satan himself (Revelation 20:10). The Bible indicates that both death and Hades—the temporary destination of the unsaved dead—will also be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14).”

Through these verses we see that hell does exist and it exists for those who reject Christ, for Satan himself, and for the beast and false prophet of the end times

I want us to zoom in on the fact though that the same place for the DEVIL is the same realm that humans who reject God will dwell…

In fact, the worst aspect of hell is an eternity of conscious, guilty, shameful separation from God and all forms of goodness. In that sense, hell is far worse than a literal inferno; a purely physical hell is actually not as terrible as what the Bible describes.

The Bible tells us only what being in hell is “like”; it does not explicitly say what hell is or how exactly it functions. What the Bible does make clear is that hell is real, eternal, and to be avoided at all costs (Matthew 5:29–30).

Here is the reality, hell exists and sinners/those who go against God/those in rebellion to God deserve to go there for eternity

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

None of us can truly escape our eternal destiny by our own power… our happily ever after isn’t possible by our own merit or effort

We are all destined to an eternity apart from God in this place we call hell

If anything we send ourselves to hell, and our loving and gracious God has provided us a way to be sent to an eternity with Him

Is this God’s heart? Is this His deepest desire??, to make humanity in His image but allow them to chase rebellion and spend eternity in hell?

Absolutely not, as we mentioned earlier we have a God of love who delights to show mercy to men and women created in His image

If anything this shows that we have a God who is a righteous judge, and doesn’t delight in evil.

A correct viewpoint of hell should deepen your understanding of God’s love

Here is 1 Cor 13:6 and 7

The New International Version Chapter 13

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

This chapter is a huge description of what love is

We see that love doesn’t delight in evil, but rejoices in truth. ~ He’s not going to let unrighteousnes go unpunished…

So we have this tension, we are sinners against a holy God.

Our final destiny is DOOMED towards hell

What did God do about this?

Share Gospel

When you begin to understand hell more rightly and you understand the cost of your sin, the cross elevates more powerfully

Like here’s the reality, without hell there is no need for the cross

So if you are going to believe in the cross of Christ, you have to also believe in the reality of hell and the gruesome picture that is painted about it all throughout Scripture

Yes; Hell exists but God has more power over it because He created it

He made a place for unrepentant sinners to dwell when they pass away from this life

But also he made a dwelling for those who respond to the Gospel positively…

Revelation 21:1–8 ESV

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

This is a beautiful picture of ultimate reality, what the other side of eternity looks like

2 majorly contrasting realities of what the rest of life might look like

A beautiful, picture perfect, happily ever after reality

Or a dreadful never-ending death apart from the creator

The last major portion of this that I want to address is God’s want will vs. His will will

God’s want will : 2 Peter 3:9 “9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

God wishes that all should reach repentance and live with Him for eternity, but this is of course is not our reality so this verse is not a part of His will will or the things that actually happen and come to pass

Even with where I stand theologically, there is some aspect of freedom in this for us as humans

I would argue with this verse that God wishes all would dwell with Him forever, but there are people in hell because heaven is going to be full of people who worship God, not people who just wanted to get out of hell.

Your happily ever after must coincide with you living your life with Jesus right now

Closing:

God’s justice is GOOD

It is an expression of HIs love

Even at our worst, when we could’ve just been sent to our eternal destination of hell the bible says this

Romans 5:8 “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Not only did He die for us, He resurrected in victory defeating death

I want us to briefly again return to our original lie:

A loving God won’t send people to hell…

Courtroom analogy ~ guilty party has done injustice towards the right standing law

The judge ends up sending him to prison, but his own actions got him there.

In the same way our actions lead us as the guilty party to God where we will either claim Christ as Savior or have the Righteous judge send us to hell.

So yes, God sends people to hell, but wrapped up in this idea that our own actions send us there to begin with.

Jesus is GOOD, He is love, He is merciful and here’s the reality of hell as Peter Kreeft puts it

The national anthem of hell is, “I Did It My Way.”

Peter Kreeft

Questions:

What are your thoughts about the statement: A Loving God won’t send people to hell?

How does the reality of hell help paint an even more beautiful picture of God’s love?