The parable of the Net (Matthew 13:47-48)
The truth about Hell (Matthew 13:49-50)
- Hell is a Place.
- Matthew 5:22, 29-30
- Matthew 8:12
- Matthew 10:28
- Hell is a Place of Torment.
- Luke 16:19-31
- John 5:29
- Revelation 20:15
- Hell is a Place of Torment of varying Degrees.
- Hebrews 10:29
- Matthew 11:2
- Luke 12:47-48
- Hell is a Place of Torment of varying Degrees that lasts Forever.
- Matthew 25:46
- Hell is a Place of Torment of varying Degrees that lasts Forever which we all Deserve.
- Romans 3:23, 6:23
- Hell is a Place of Torment of varying Degrees that lasts Forever which we all Deserve, but God does not want us going there.
- 2 Peter 3:9
- 1 Timothy 2:3-4
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13.
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Today, we're going to talk about hell.
00:20-00:24
And for those of you who know me, I like to have a good time.
00:25-00:34
I like to laugh, and I like to share silly illustrations and tell jokes and obscure movie references.
00:34-00:40
And there's going to be none of that today, because this is serious, okay?
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This is as serious as it gets.
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This is no laughing matter.
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And as you're turning there, I just want to review.
00:53-01:02
We've been going through these past several weeks some stories that Jesus told, and I would encourage you, this is what I do in my Bible.
01:03-01:14
Every time you come across Jesus talking about the kingdom of heaven, I just highlight that phrase, "kingdom of heaven" or "kingdom of God" in the other Gospels He refers to it as, that's how it's recorded.
01:15-01:16
But I highlight that.
01:16-01:21
You're going to be surprised how many times Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven.
01:21-01:29
The question is, "Well, what is that?" He's always talking about the kingdom of heaven is like this, and it's like this, and it's like this, and it can be compared to this.
01:32-01:34
Well, recall what we've been studying.
01:37-01:49
In the Old Testament, the Bible says that the Messiah was going to come, and the Messiah was going to suffer, and the Messiah was going to reign over all the earth.
01:52-02:03
But there's something not in the Old Testament, and that is the period of time between the suffering of the Messiah and the reigning of the Messiah.
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That's why you see this in the Gospels.
02:07-02:10
So many times they tried to make Jesus king.
02:12-02:16
And remember the triumphal entry, they were waving the palm branches.
02:16-02:19
That's the equivalent today of waving the American flag.
02:19-02:31
They're saying, "He's going to be our king and overthrow the Romans." They were looking for a Messiah who would be the political king, because they knew in the Scriptures He was going to come and He was going to reign.
02:33-02:38
Even in Acts chapter 1, remember what the disciples asked Jesus?
02:38-02:46
"Lord, is it at this time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" They thought, "Okay, Messiah comes, Messiah suffers, Messiah reigns," just like the Old Testament.
02:47-02:50
But in Matthew 13, Jesus said, "I'm going to declare to you a mystery.
02:50-02:55
I'm going to tell you something that's never been revealed before." What's that?
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There's a period of time between the suffering of the Messiah and the reigning on the earth of the Messiah.
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There's a period of time.
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And we call that the Church Age.
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That's what Jesus referred to as the kingdom of heaven.
03:12-03:18
And the reason these parables are so important is because this stuff is in our face.
03:19-03:21
This is the day that we live in, right?
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If Jesus is describing the church age, we should sit up and say, "Well, what's it going to be like? Because those are the very days that I live in.
03:30-03:42
These are the days that my parents lived in and my children are living in." With the first parable, the parable of the sower, the question Jesus answered was, "How are people going to respond to the gospel?
03:43-03:54
The gospel message is going to go out. How are people going to respond?" And we saw that many people are going to reject the message for different reasons, and some are going to receive the message, and you're going to know it because they're going to multiply.
03:55-03:57
They're going to keep passing that message on to others.
03:57-04:03
Then with the parable of the wheat and the tares, the question that Jesus answered is, "Well, what do we do with all these unbelievers?
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Okay, you're telling me we're going to have this world full of unbelievers.
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What do we do with them? If they don't convert, we kill them?" And Jesus said, "No, no, no, no, no, no. That was the point of that parable.
04:13-04:16
That's not your job. That's God's job.
04:18-04:24
And a day is going to come when the angels are going to come with Christ and take care of that business.
04:24-04:26
In the meantime, there's coexistence.
04:26-04:35
Good and evil is going to live on the world at the same time." And then we looked at the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, and the question is, "Well, how far can this go?
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You're telling me we're going to be living in this world with all these unbelievers.
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Well, how far can it go?
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And Jesus said, I'll tell you how far.
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It's like a mustard seed.
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The smallest herb seed becomes a tree.
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That's what the kingdom of heaven is like.
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It's going to start really, really small and it's going to grow out of control.
04:54-05:01
And we talked about the influence of Christianity all over the world, like the little bit of leaven that leavens the whole lump.
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And then last week, the question was, well, what's it worth?
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What is the kingdom of heaven worth? Can you put a price tag on it?
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Jesus said, "I'll tell you what it's worth.
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It's like somebody finding something that's so valuable that they're willing to sell everything that they own happily in order to obtain one thing." That's what we talked about last week.
05:29-05:30
Jesus Christ is the treasure.
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Jesus Christ is the pearl of great price. Jesus and everything he represents eternal life and forgiveness of sins and adoption as sons and daughters of the king.
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That's the pearl. And when you realize the value that Jesus Christ has, you will joyfully give up everything to follow him.
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Well, the question that we're going to be looking at today is this one.
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How does it end?
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Okay, Jesus, you're telling us that there's a period of time, good and evil are going to coexist, and how's this going to end?
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And that's the parable of the dragnet.
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Take the parable of the wheat and tares.
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Jesus in this parable, we're going to see he's talking about a harvest and he's talking about a separation.
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Even our name, there are a lot of churches named Harvest.
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Have you noticed?
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People come up to me all the time.
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Are you connected with the harvest in Katanning or this harvest or that harvest?
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No.
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It's a great name for a church, but understand this.
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It's a very serious name, because every time the Bible talks about harvest, it's talking about God's judgment.
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It's a serious thing, right?
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So Jesus is going to focus in this parable on what happens to the people that reject the kingdom.
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What happens to people that reject the king?
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What is ultimately going to happen to those people?
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In the end, there's going to be an eternal separation of the damned from the redeemed.
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This is a loving warning about hell.
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Believe me, I don't sit down in my office and think, "What would I like to teach on?" If that were the case, I wouldn't be teaching about hell.
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But as we go through God's Word, as it presents itself, it comes up.
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It's a loving warning from Jesus Christ.
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And my job isn't to make up the message, my job is the megaphone, I'm just to broadcast the message.
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And I want to pass on this loving warning about hell.
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Especially in our day, it's been ignored.
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You ought to understand, why is it so important?
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Well, it's been ignored.
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It's been ignored.
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Hell has been reduced to a fairy tale.
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Cartoon stuff.
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How many times have we seen in the cartoons our children watch, or in the comic strip, in the newspaper, some silly depiction of hell?
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It's just been ignored.
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That's just, that's fable stuff.
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You don't really believe that, do you?
08:38-08:39
Why is this so important?
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Another reason is hell's been diminished.
08:42-08:42
It's been diminished.
08:45-08:48
How many times have I heard people tell me this when I've shared the gospel with them?
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They've said something like, "I'm not going to mind being in hell because all my friends are going to be there.
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That's where the party's gonna be. And my response is, get a biblical clue.
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Why don't you read the Bible and see what hell actually is according to God?
09:06-09:09
And you're gonna find it's not the frat party that you think it is.
09:11-09:19
And hell's become trivialized. People use the word all the time and it trivializes it.
09:19-09:20
You know what I mean?
09:22-09:36
People say things like, "You know that Andrew McCutcheon, he's a hell of a ball player." "That was a hell of a stake that I had." And using that...
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There's even a...
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There's even a...
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Do you see that cheese?
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Hell of a good cheese?
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That stuff trivializes it.
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We make it just part of the common vernacular.
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Don't do that.
09:49-09:54
Actually, I read a poll this week, 31% of adults believe that hell is an actual location.
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Only 31% believe that hell is an actual location, quote, "a place of physical torment where people may be sent." Jesus spoke about hell more than he talked about heaven.
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Did you know that?
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Look through your Gospels.
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He talked about hell more than heaven.
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Jesus Christ preached about hell more than all the other preachers of scripture combined.
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Take every preacher in scripture and look at what they've said and stack it up with what Jesus Christ said, and that's key.
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I mean, all scripture is from God and we're not saying any part of scripture is elevated any higher than any others.
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But understand this, God incarnate himself.
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Preached on hell more than the prophets did.
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So warning. It's a loving warning.
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So let's get to the parable.
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Matthew 13, verse 47.
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Jesus said again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.
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When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers.
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But threw away the bad.
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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.
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In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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So jot these things down on your outline, the parable of the net.
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Let's talk about the parable for a few moments, then we're going to do more of a systematic study, a short, a very short systematic study on what the Bible says about hell.
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The parable of the net, notice again, Jesus used such common pictures.
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I mean, we're removed in time and in geography from when this was originally said.
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Understand Jesus was saying this in the Middle East a couple thousand years ago.
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And sometimes we have to do the homework to understand the context.
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But understand the people that Jesus was talking to, they were totally resonating with this stuff.
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When Jesus was like, you know, the King of Heaven's like a little bit of leaven that went into the whole lumpy, people were like, "Oh yeah, that's how my aunt makes bread." And they were totally getting that.
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Or mustard seed, "Oh yeah, we have those in our backyard." And this was another common picture.
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It was fishing.
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Actually, some of Jesus' disciples were fishermen.
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And in Jesus' day, as it is still done today, there were three ways to fish.
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The most common way we think of when we think of fishing, what do we typically think of?
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Like the rod and the hook, right?
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Well they did that in Jesus' day as well, Matthew 17, verse 27.
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Also casting a net, this is sort of a, you know, one or two man job.
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We're talking about the smaller net, throwing the smaller net out, depending on the size of the net.
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Matthew 4, verses 18 through 19, talks about the smaller net.
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In this passage, Jesus is talking about a drag net.
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Now this net was much larger, much larger than the other nets.
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Some of them were up to a half mile long.
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Now how did the drag net work?
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Well, one end of the drag net was actually attached to the shore, And the other end of the net was attached to the boat.
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Now the top of the net would have had something to keep the top afloat.
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Think of some kind of floaters or something on top.
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And the bottom of the net would have had weights to make it go down.
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And what the boat would do was it would make a big circle and that net would form a giant wall.
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So when that boat would make the big circle around and go back to the shore, just picture how the net as a giant wall would have gone around and captured everything within that circle and pulled in.
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So it was a common scene.
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Look again at verse 48.
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Again, this is what fishermen did.
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You can imagine using a net that size and grabbing everything.
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You're gonna need to do a little sorting when you get to shore.
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That was what the fishermen did.
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Jesus was using that to teach the application here.
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What the fishermen would do actually is they'd have vessels filled with water to keep the fish alive until they would take it back and do the processing, take it to market, whatever.
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What would they do with the bad fish?
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Well, they just tossed them.
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That's bad, that's bad.
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We're getting rid of this one.
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We're gonna keep this one.
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This is a good one.
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We're gonna keep this one.
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And then verse 49, Jesus says, "That's how it's going to be at the close of the age." You get that picture?
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Jesus said, "This is how everything is going to end up." At the close of the age.
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Here's the point. Good and evil do coexist.
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But that net represents time ticking down.
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Do you see that?
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That net is time ticking down, bringing people to the shore of eternity.
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Now imagine for a second that you're one of these fish in the net.
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I don't know how fish think, but just play along with me here.
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But imagine being one of the fish in the net.
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and that wall of net is coming, and it hits the fish on the fin, I imagine that fish doesn't think, oh, danger, my life's about over.
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I'm sure it just hits that fish and he just swims on up ahead.
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Oh, everything's okay, see?
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No net here, and then here comes the net, oh, no.
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You know, people are like that.
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People are like that.
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People go about swimming in the sea of their lives when the gospel is proclaimed, when Jesus Christ is mentioned, when the danger of hell is mentioned, and sort of the equivalent of getting hit on the rump with a net to think, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." take a couple of steps forward and out of sight, out of mind, right?
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That's how it's going to be.
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But here's the thing.
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Eventually, it's going to shore.
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See, men are moving around.
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I have all the time in the world.
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Nobody tells me what to do.
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The whole time, God's judgment gets closer and closer and closer.
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But eventually the net catches up.
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And the question is, how close is the boat to shore now today?
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I don't know. I don't know.
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But I'll tell you this, I do know for a fact is that boat is closer to shore today than it's ever been.
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Right.
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We're heading for the shores of eternity.
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And there's going to be a separation.
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So let's talk about the truth about hell.
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I'm going to ask you to take some notes, I have a lot of scriptures on your outline, and I understand this is going to be like an eight hour sermon if we went through and studied all these scriptures.
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But the reason I put them on here, I am going to allude to some of them, talk about some of them.
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But the reason I have them on here is I want you to take this home, look them up, get in your Bible and see what does the word of God actually say about this?
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I'm not making this stuff up.
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But be a Bible student.
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OK, the Bible is not a magazine that we just flip through.
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Be a student of God's word.
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And really, today, I'm just going to give you one statement about hell, but on your outline. We're going to look at that sentence a chunk at a time, OK?
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So here's the first thing, the truth about hell.
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First of all, hell is a place.
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Hell is a place.
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Jesus talked about it as a place, Matthew, chapter five.
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Matthew, chapter eight, verse 12, Jesus talked about in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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We saw it here, Matthew, chapter 13 and verse 50 in that place, circle that word place in your Bible.
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Hell is a place. Hell is a place. Hell is not an idea.
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OK, hell is not a concept.
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Hell is not a scare tactic.
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When I was little, we went to grandma's house, grandma wouldn't want us going upstairs, obviously, you know, little kids getting in the getting in the medicine cabinet or, you know, going through the closets or whatever.
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So grandma would tell us we were little.
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She said, don't go upstairs because the boogeyman's up there.
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And I remember as a kid sitting at the bottom of grandma's steps, looking up to see if I could catch a glimpse of the boogeyman walking around.
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That's absolutely true.
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I used to sit there.
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Do I see him? Do I see him?
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And here's my point.
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Hell is not the boogeyman.
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We're not trying to scare anybody straight here.
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I'm not trying to threaten somebody to jump on Jesus team in order to avoid hell.
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Hell is a real place. It's not a scare tactic, okay?
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But here's something else.
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Not wanting to believe it doesn't make it a fairy tale.
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You know, that's how the Jehovah's Witnesses started, by the way.
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Here's a guy, Charles Taze Russell, didn't want to believe in hell.
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That was his starting point.
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I don't want to believe in the doctrine of hell, so I'm going to create a religion where hell doesn't exist.
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I wish it didn't.
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If I could wish away any doctrine of scripture, I'd wish away hell, I wouldn't even have to think about it.
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But that emotion, that sentiment.
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Doesn't make it less true.
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Hell is a place.
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It's a place.
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Secondly, hell is a place of torment.
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Jot that down.
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Hell is a place of torment.
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Scripture describes hell as being the outer darkness.
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That's what I remind the guys that say, "Well, my friends are going to be there." like we're not going to see them because it's outer darkness.
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OK, yeah, your friends might be there, but you're not going to see them.
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Described as outer darkness, it's described as a place of fire over and over and over.
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That picture is used in scripture of fire.
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It's described as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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What is gnashing of teeth?
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It's it's gritting your teeth together.
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It's an outcry of pain and emotion at the same time.
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It's just gritting your teeth like that with such anguish and I'm in such pain and I'm angry about it.
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When an unbeliever dies.
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His soul. Goes to hell.
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Understand that you go somewhere upon death, you go somewhere.
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There's no soul sleep. There's no suspended animation.
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There's no I'm kind of in this spiritual coma until Jesus comes back to take care of business.
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You go someplace when you die.
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How do I know that?
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Well, Luke, chapter 16, I encourage you to read that.
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That's a whole nother sermon.
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But Jesus gives the account of the rich man and Lazarus.
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And Jesus just said straight up death for both of these men immediately meant going somewhere.
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The rich man went to a place of torment.
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So agonizing, oh, would you dip your finger in water and touch my tongue with it?
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That's what agony I'm in.
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And Lazarus is said to be in Abraham's bosom.
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And I believe that that's a picture, you know, in Old Testament times, the tables weren't up sitting on chairs, they'd actually be sitting on the floor and reclining like Jesus and the disciples at the Last Supper.
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So when you were reclining at the table, you'd naturally be leaning on someone.
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And Lazarus was leaning on Abraham as a picture of heaven.
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Now, that place of torment is not the Lake of Fire yet.
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You know, the Bible tells us that when Jesus returns, he's coming back.
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But when he returns, after the seven year tribulation, he's going to set up a thousand year kingdom on the earth.
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And before that thousand year kingdom, believers in Christ are going to receive a glorified, resurrected body.
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You're going to have a body that's going to last for eternity, believers.
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It's going to last for eternity.
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It's you're not going to have back problems.
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You're not going to have to wrestle with headaches or.
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Injuries or disease or cancer, you're going to have an eternal body, but after the thousand years.
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At the great white throne judgment, the Bible tells that there's going to be another resurrection, everyone who has rejected Jesus Christ, they too are going to receive a glorified body. But it's not to enjoy forever. It's to be cast into the lake of fire for eternity. The unbelievers are outfitted with a body that's going to be thrown into the lake of fire. John 5 29, Jesus talks about the two resurrections. "Those who have done good, Jesus said, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Revelation chapter 20 verse 15, "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." So hell is a place of torment. As much as people want to redefine that, I don't have the ability to do the interpretive acrobatics to make the Bible say anything else about hell other than it's a place of the worst torment imaginable.
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And I get reading books and reading magazine articles I read a few years ago There's a whole branch of "evangelical Christianity" that are doing away with the doctrine of hell.
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They're just doing away with it.
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I'll be honest with you, I don't get it.
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Look up these scriptures, do your own conclusion.
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I can't see how you can look at everything the Bible says about hell being a place of torment, over and over and over and walk away from that saying, "Oh, I think hell is like..." It doesn't matter what you think.
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It matters what God thinks.
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And this is what he said.
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So hell is a place, hell is a place of torment.
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Next, hell is a place of torment of varying degrees.
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You might not know this, but I have some scriptures, you can look these up.
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But the truth is, hell is going to be worse for some people than for others.
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Don't ask me to explain that, I don't know.
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It would seem to me that any level of hell is bad, right?
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But the Bible is clear that hell is going to be worse for some people than it is for others.
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Hebrews 10, 29 says, "How much worse punishment "do you think will be deserved by the one "who has spurned the Son of God "and has profaned the blood of the covenant "by which he was sanctified "and has outraged the Spirit of grace?" Jesus in Matthew chapter 11, he said, "I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you." Jesus was saying, you know, Sodom and Gomorrah, God incarnate wasn't in their face preaching, but you, He is.
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So things are going to be easier on Sodom in that day than they're going to be for you.
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Again, Luke chapter 12, read that, "The servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, He will receive a severe beating, but the one who did not know and did but deserve the beating, he will receive a light beating.
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Look those up.
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But the point is this, you are accountable for what you know.
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You are accountable for what you know.
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And the more you know.
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And the more you reject.
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The worse hell is going to be.
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That's why with tears we passionately say, look, if you haven't received Jesus Christ, what are we constantly saying up here?
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When's the day of salvation? What are we today? Today's the day of salvation.
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Come and talk to me afterwards. My email, phone number, get on our website.
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You should be tracking one of us down here at all costs saying, look, I don't know what's in store for me for eternity.
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Can we sit down and get in the Bible together?
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Because here's the danger, if you sit in church and you hear the gospel and you reject Christ and you hear the gospel and you reject Christ and you hear the gospel, there are people that have been doing that for decades.
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Hell's going to be worse.
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Hell's going to be worse.
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You are accountable for what you know, it's so interesting.
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There have been times I've shared the gospel with a group of guys where this question comes up a lot.
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"Well, what about that guy in Africa that's never... Did you ever hear that one?
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There's some guy sitting in some tribe in Africa." Here's the answer to that. Romans chapter 1 says that no one will have an excuse.
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No one will have an excuse.
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There's not going to be anybody that stands before God and says, "God, I just had no idea that you were out there." And God's like, "Oh, you know what? You're right. You didn't." It doesn't say that. It says they are without excuse.
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And you're like, well, how does that work? You know what? That's not on me.
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That's on the integrity of God's word.
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I trust them. If God says no one has an excuse, do you know what I say?
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No one has an excuse.
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That's on God, that's why missionaries get sent out, that's why Harvest Bible Chapel, that's why we're planning churches all over the world.
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Why? To get the gospel out, to tell people the good news of Jesus Christ.
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But hell's a place of torment of varying degrees.
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Next on your outline. Hell is a place of torment, of varying degrees that last forever.
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And again, I know we've given the objections much more time than they deserve, but we just hear them so often.
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I really feel that I have to address them, but there are some people that say, "Well, yeah, I believe hell is real, but I also believe hell is temporary.
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You go there for a while and then like you just cease to exist." Or some people say, "You go there for a while and then you go to heaven." And there's one statement of Jesus Christ that clears that up.
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And it's, I have it on your outline, Matthew, chapter 25 and verse 46.
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Jesus talked about the sheep and the goats.
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Again, it's another story of separation, just like this one we're looking at today.
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Jesus said these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
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Now, here's the thing.
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In the Greek.
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In which the Bible was written, the New Testament was written.
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The word eternal, where it says eternal punishment, that word eternal is the same Greek word where it says eternal life.
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Now, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but here's what Jesus was saying.
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Hell lasts as long as heaven, right?
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It's the same word. It's the exact same word.
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So for the people that say, well, hell's just temporary, hell's just temporary.
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Jesus said it lasts as long as heaven.
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And here's the thing. I've been in ministry for about 15 years now.
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I have not ever one time met anybody that said heaven is temporary.
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I've never met that guy.
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Like, yeah, I believe we go to heaven, but I believe we're only there for a while, and then on to something. I've never met that guy.
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It's almost universally accepted that heaven is eternal, and it is.
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And Jesus said hell is just as eternal as heaven is.
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Same Greek word.
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Hell is endless.
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The worm does not die. The fire does not go out.
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Relief is never attained. The end never comes.
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How many times have we been sick or we've been injured that we think, "Well, once I, you know, get on this medicine, and once I get to the doctor and I'll get feeling better." That doesn't happen in hell. There's no relief.
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There's no tomorrow, "This is going to be better." There's no, "Just stick it out a little bit more." Jesus said it lasts as long as heaven.
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It's eternal.
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Hell is a place, next one, "Hell is a place of torment of varying degrees, that lasts forever, which we all deserve.
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Here's something else about hell.
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By nature, I deserve to go to hell.
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If God was just concerned about justice, and just concerned about judgment, the first time I sinned, He would send me to hell.
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You have spit in the face of your Creator.
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You have rejected the Sovereign Holy of the Universe.
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Not just me, though. You.
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You deserve, by nature, you deserve to go to hell just as much as I do.
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Every one of us are born with a sin nature, a self-centered, self-exalting nature.
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The Bible says actually we're dead in our sins.
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We're not just bad people, we're dead people.
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We're alienated from the life of God by nature.
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That's the condition that we're in.
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Separated now deserve to be separated for eternity.
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That's justice. The people that struggle with the whole doctrine of hell, think about this. If there was rampant, unchecked sin happening in your neighborhood, how fired up would you be if the police did nothing about it? How fired up would you be if every day, rampant, unchecked rebellion, sin, destruction, it was happening right outside your front door and nobody did a thing about it? Would that upset you? That would upset me. Somehow there's something thing in us that we expect justice to be meted out on that level.
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Doesn't it seem logical that the God of the universe would mete out justice and judgment on a global scale?
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Somehow we rail against that, like that's so offensive.
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We all deserve it.
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We all deserve it.
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Romans 3.23 says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." How many? All. Can you put that into a percentage for me?
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100%, right?
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We've all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death.
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We've all sinned, we've all earned death.
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We've all earned separation, now and for eternity.
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We all deserve it.
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But I'll tell you what, I didn't get into ministry to tell you that.
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I was called into ministry to tell you this next thing.
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Hell is a place of torment, of varying degrees, that lasts forever, which we all deserve.
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But did you know God does not want us to go there?
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does not want anybody to go there.
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Actually, hell was never meant for people initially, the Lake of Fire.
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The Bible says it was prepared for the devil and his angels.
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But those who have rejected Christ are going there.
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But I want you to understand this.
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God does not want anybody there.
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Somehow people have this view of God as he's this as if he's this indifferent.
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Sitting up in heaven saying, you know what, turn or burn, I don't care.
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You want to come to heaven? Great.
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If not, whatever.
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That is not God.
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The heart of God the Father is saying, yes, there is a price of judgment to be paid for sin.
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But, but I don't want anybody going there.
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God takes no pleasure in seeing the wicked die.
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Sometimes God help us, sometimes we do.
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Sometimes we say things like, you know, I hope Bin Laden is burning in hell.
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Did you really ever think that through?
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I hope Saddam Hussein is burning in hell.
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Really? That's not God's heart.
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Second, Peter three, nine says the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some counsel on us, but is patient towards you.
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Listen to this. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
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Father in heaven, who do you want to be saved?
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What's his answer?
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Everybody, Father in heaven, who do you want to go to hell?
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What's his answer? I don't want any of them to.
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It is my will, God is saying, it is my will that none of them go.
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I want every one of them to come to repentance.
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First, Timothy two, verses three through four says, this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior.
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Who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth?
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God's desire is that everyone comes to the knowledge of the truth of his son, Jesus Christ.
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That's the heart of God.
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Is that going to happen?
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No. Because he's given us a choice.
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He's given us free will.
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You can walk out of here today.
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Receiving Christ.
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Or rejecting Christ.
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But I want you to know it's the heart of God that every single person receive Jesus Christ and receive the eternal life that only He can give.
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The biggest objection to hell, the biggest objection to hell, you've heard it, How could a loving God, how could a loving God send anyone to hell?
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You're going to hear that, and here's what you're going to tell people when they say that to you.
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God's love is not on trial here, okay?
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God's love is not in question.
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Because the Bible says that while we were yet sinners, Romans 5, God demonstrated His love.
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How did He do it?
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By taking on flesh and blood.
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By becoming a human being.
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to be publicly humiliated and beaten within a centimeter of his life and nailed to a cross.
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And don't think for a second Jesus Christ could have just said, you know what?
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They're not worth it.
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I'm out of here.
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He willingly.
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Willingly endured all of that.
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As a demonstration of God's love, so don't you dare say, how could a loving God do this?
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His love is not in question.
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His love was demonstrated as he was hanging on the cross.
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God doesn't want anyone going to hell.
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And there is not a greater way that he could have demonstrated that there's not a greater act of love that he could have poured out than the one that he did.
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Can you think of anything more radical that the God of the universe could have done than what he did. Can you think of anything? I can't. To come to his own creation, to be rejected and killed by his own creation. But not killed. Laying down his life. As the Lamb of God, as the perfect sacrifice. So that our sins could be forgiven. So as As we close, Sam and Laura, if you want to make your way up, this is what Jesus is teaching with this parable.
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And this is what I want you to leave with today.
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Things are not going to remain as they are forever.
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They're not.
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The parable of the dragnet teaches that time is closing in that we are heading somewhere.
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As time runs out, we are heading towards something.
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And right now, understand this, right now, you are preparing yourself for eternity.
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Do you know that?
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You are preparing yourself for eternity right now.
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What do I mean by that?
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If you're a person who loves God, loves God's people, loves God's Word, loves worshipping God, you know what Heaven is?
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God's presence, God's people, God's truth, worship of God for eternity.
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That's why the born again believer, that's why we're looking forward to heaven.
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Because heaven is the endless cycle of everything we love the most.
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Because it's all God, right?
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But if you're a person that says, "You know what?
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I don't really care for worship.
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I'm not really into God's truth.
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And quite frankly, I don't really care for God's people." Well, I've got news for you.
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You're going to be miserable in heaven.
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So God in His grace will give you what you want.
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God in His grace will say, "You don't want my presence, you don't want my love, you don't want my truth, you don't want to be around my people, you don't want to worship." There's a place for that, where you don't have to deal with that.
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And that's the reality of hell.
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Because of Jesus Christ, it's obvious what choice God wants you to make.
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Whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
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The question is, what choice have you made?
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If you're not sure, a long time friend of mine always had this little saying, "Hell's too long to be wrong."
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 13:46-52
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.