Sermon Tone Analysis

Do you believe in Heaven?

Many people do.

Many people believe in a wonderful place where humans go after they die—a place that is perfect…a place of rest.

What about Hell: do you believe in that place?

Fewer folks believe in Hell, but if Heaven exists, then Hell must also exist.

There can be no place of eternal reward if there is no place of eternal punishment.

The existence of one logically demands the existence of the other.

And we know that both places exist, because the Bible says they do.

What is Heaven like?

What kind of place is Hell?

Today, we are going to look at a particular passage of Scripture that contains a first-hand account of what it is like to be in Hell.

I hope you’ll stay with me, because even though the horrors of Hell are terrible to consider, we will also see how to avoid going there.

Stay tuned!

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Good morning, and welcome to Truth for Today, a weekly radio ministry of Bible Baptist Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

My name is Ethan Custer, and I serve as the assistant under Pastor Mike Custer, the regular host of this broadcast.

We at Bible Baptist Church desire to be a spiritual blessing to you in any way that we can.

We are located west of I-29 at 6367 Gateway Drive in Grand Forks.

We meet several times each week to worship God, and our purpose in life is to obey and please the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do.

Our source of truth and guide for living is the Authorized King James Bible, the Word of God in the English language.

In it He offers solutions for every one of life’s problems!

If we can help you in any way, please let us know.

We hope to have that opportunity.

I’ll be giving our contact information at the end of the broadcast, so please stick around.

A moment ago, I mentioned that we will be reading a first-hand account of the horrors of Hell.

As I said, this is a terrible and sobering topic.

I don’t bring it up to frighten anyone or cause you to have nightmares.

However, we know that the truths we’ll be studying today are important, because God put them in His Word.

Not only that, but the Lord Jesus Christ personally told His listeners about them!

God’s top concern for sinners is their spiritual condition, and He is aware that sinners aren’t driven to Christ in salvation simply because they were scared while imagining the horrors of Hell.

Fear is not the same as conviction over one’s sin, repentance of that sin, and faith in Christ and the Gospel.

Why, then, did God include in Scripture such details about Hell as we’ll read this morning?

He did it because we need to know the truth; we are not helped when the truth is hidden from us.

When He reveals the truth about Hell to us, He expects us to believe it, and to allow that sobering truth to change our perspective about mortal life and about eternity, which will then in turn help us to be more receptive to the truth of Jesus Christ.

It is Christ alone that will change our lives and our eternal destination!

As we see what the Bible says about Hell this morning, I hope you will allow God to make you more serious about truth in general, and about Jesus Christ in particular.

Next month, on September 4th, Lord willing, we will study what the Bible says about Heaven.

That is a more pleasant study to be sure, but it also must serve to direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God! HE is our source of eternal life and hope for deliverance from destruction.

We’ll talk more about that in a few minutes.

For our text this morning, we’ll be reading in the book of Luke, chapter 16.

During His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ told many parables.

Parables have been defined as “an earthly story illustrating a heavenly truth.”

These stories are fictional, but the truths they illustrate are not.

The four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—usually signal a parable with the words, “Jesus spoke a parable to them...” or something to that effect.

There are other features of parables as well.

For instance, generic details are used; no proper names, specific dates, or locations are mentioned.

In Luke 16, we read an account that some may consider to be a parable, but all the features of parables that I just mentioned are not present.

The Biblical record does not tell us it is a parable.

Christ does not liken His account to “the kingdom of Heaven” like He does with parables, and He includes details like proper names and specific locations.

All these things indicate to us that this is not a parable, but a true account.

This really happened.

And so we ought to take it very seriously.

First of all, I want us to notice that, as we noted in the beginning of the broadcast, there are two possible places that you and I may end up after our mortal life is over.

We see these two places mentioned in verses 22 and 23.

First, we read of a place called “Abraham’s bosom.”

Christ called this place “Paradise” in Luke 23:43.

As we just read, this is where the beggar named Lazarus went after he died.

This is the place of eternal reward for those who have been forgiven of their sins.

We will talk more about this place in the broadcast next month.

The other possible eternal destination for sinners after this mortal life is Hell.

This is where the rich man ended up after he died.

We are going to see some specific things that he was suffering after he arrived here.

And if these things were true of him, then they are true of anyone who goes there.

I don’t want that to happen to you!

And it doesn’t have to, as we’ll see at the end of the broadcast.

First, I want us to see that no matter how successful you are in this life, that doesn’t mean you will be rewarded in eternity.

Listen to these verses again.

Luke 16:19, 22–23 (KJV 1900)

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

This rich man had everything!

He had great wealth, which brought him much property, much comfort, and much luxury.

Today in our country we are seeing prices of everything going up.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be entirely unaffected by that?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have so much money that we could purchase whatever we wanted, no matter the cost?

That would be very comfortable and convenient, and that’s how this rich man lived.

If you had that kind of money, you would probably feel very successful.

But let me point out that as the rich man discovered, success in this mortal life does not mean you will have success in eternity.

This rich man went from enjoying everything that money could buy, to being plunged into terrible suffering in the flames of Hell.

His money couldn’t help him there.

Don’t trust your earthly success to bring you eternal reward!

Money, power and fame can never keep you out of Hell.

Next, I want to point out that Hell is a place of torment.

Many folks would already agree with this, but notice these particulars.

First, Hell is a fiery place.

All burns, even sunburns, are painful.

Perhaps some of you have sustained 2nd or 3rd degree burns over a large part of your body.

Perhaps you have needed skin grafts and long-term treatment for burn wounds.

You can attest to the pain involved with such burns!

However, none of that can compare with the flames of Hell.

Next, the torment was so great, the man could think of nothing else.

He speaks three times in this passage of Scripture, and every time, he is either talking about his great torment, or he is talking about others avoiding it.

Have you ever suffered a terrible migraine, or perhaps a major injury, or even an extreme mental or emotional form of pain?

When that happens, you cannot think of anything else!

It means that you are essentially trapped in your suffering, both feeling it and thinking about it.

This rich man was in great torment.

This torment might also be described as torture.

Have you ever been tortured?

We tend to use that word casually in the common vernacular, but I think about actual torture methods, especially those used in bygone centuries.

Cruel individuals have found many ways to cause human pain and suffering!