IF I COULD RAISE HELL?
Luke 16:19-31
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I. The Misery of the Damned Is a Reality
II. The Memory of the Past is a Certainty
...A. Will remember the tracts
...B. Will remember the tears
...C. Will remember the testimonies
III. The Movement of the Inhabitants is Impossibility
IV. The Mission of the Church is of Priority
...A. Burden for the Christless
......1. The people we are sent to
......2. The purpose we are sent for 'lest they...come to this
place of torment'
...B. Belief in Christ
......1. Jesus is the only answer for hell
......2. Jesus is the only advocate in the heavens
......3. Jesus is the only anchor that will hold
......4. Jesus is the only assurance of hope
V. The Mandate of Repentance is a Necessity
...A. What repentance is not
......1. It is not remorse.
......2. It is not regret.
......3. It is not resolve
......4. It is not reformation
...B. What repentance is
...C. Where is repentance
Conclusion
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IF I COULD RAISE HELL?
Luke 16:19-31
Jimmy Chapman
Victory Baptist Church
?/?/2001
If I were going to choose my subject this morning, I assure you that I would not have chosen this topic. When I preach on this subject, I always do so with reluctance. It is not a pleasant subject to preach to on, nor to listen to. However, it is a subject that must be preached on from time to time. This week while I was visiting, someone told me about a sign on a marquee, which implied that hell was now air-conditioned. Those words stirred my thinking about hell.
A. C. Dixon once said, "If we had more preaching of Hell in the pulpit, we might have less hell in the community." I am firmly convinced that all of us this morning would profit by a visit to Hell. Sinners and saints would be the better for it they could just visit hell for a few seconds or minutes.
What you would discover if you could "raise Hell"?
Luke 16:19-31
This is the solemn word of Christ on the subject of Hell. This is not an illustration, a parable, or a fairy tale. This is a literal fact, told in the most solemn language by the dear Saviour himself. Nobody can believe in the Bible and not believe in Hell as an actual face too terrible for words to describe.
The passage I read focuses on an anonymous rich man and beggar named Lazarus. These two men are contrasted in their life, in their death, and in their eternity.
C. S. Lewis was once told about a gravestone inscription that read; "Here lies an atheist - all dressed up and no place to go." Lewis quietly replied, "I bet the atheist wishes that were so."
Hell is in the center of the earth for the Bible states that "Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming."
If you could "raise Hell" you would discover that hell is a place where,
I. The Misery of the Damned Is a Reality
(Luke 16:23-24)
The misery of the damned is realized in its fullest extent in Hell.
"TORMENTS"
Psalm 116 talks about the sorrows of death and the pains of hell
Matthew 13 Jesus describes Hell as a place where there will wailing and gnashing of teeth due to the pain and the torments of hell.
Hell is a literal place:
where howling are unceaseable
where flames are unquenchable
where pains are unbearable
where darkness is unbelievable - "outer darkness"
where the company is unrespectable
where rest is unobtainable - "no rest day nor night"
where desires are unsatisfiable
where the end is unforeseeable
where mercy is unreachable
II. The Memory of the Past is a Certainty
- review (Luke 16:25)
"Remember" is the voice, the first voice, and the perpetual voice, which meets every man when he steps across the threshold of earth in to the portals of hell.
When men remember there, they will remember very differently from the way in which they remember here. You will be able to view cause and consequences clearly.
Memory will be so widened as to take in the whole life. Memories there will come swimming out of the depths of the waters of oblivion. One old Roman tyrant has a punishment in which he bound the dead body of the murdered to the living body of the murderer, and left them there on the scaffold. In hell, the godless, unbelieving man is bound to his murdered past, the dead past, his own life. No torment like an accusing memory. In hell forgetting is a thing impossible, The rich man did not take his money, but he took his memory. In hell, you will forever remember the chances you had and let pass by. You will remember endlessly the opportunities you had to trust Christ. You will remember the services you attended where the gospel was preached and you refused to accept it.
A. Will remember the tracts
B. Will remember the tears
C. Will remember the testimonies
III. The Movement of the Inhabitants is Impossibility
- restricted (Luke 16:26)
There is no escape from charred walls of the damn after death. Once there, you are there forever. The most daring sinner cannot force his way out of the prison of hell. No amount of sorrow, no tears, nor bitter heart-felt repentance can succeed in opening the door of hell.
There are no exit signs in hell.
Hell is a place without God, and therefore without hope!
Hell is a place of everlasting punishment. Hell is a place beyond Christ forever, beyond the Spirit forever, beyond the Gospel forever, and beyond the power of the blood forever.
The rich man is still in hell today. "Eternal damnation."
Open your eyes and look before you enter a place from which no man has ever returned.
In the last century a great scholar named Dr. James Morrison stated, "I am going to find out. I am going to take my Greek New Testament, and I am going to look at it carefully. I am going to find out if there is any hope for a soul who goes to Hell." After making a through study from Matthew to Revelation, he closed his Bible and said, "There is no hope given in this Book for a soul that goes to Hell." Hell offers no hope.
Hell is a sealed doom to that man that goes there.
IV. The Mission of the Church is of Priority
(Luke 16:27-28)
Suddenly the rich man awakens to the mission of the church. Matthew 28:20-21
A. Burden for the Christless
Did not want any company. Crying for the perishing. People in hospitals like visitors, and people in the jail like visitors. BUT this rich man did not want any company.
Oh, for a compassion for the lost.
1. The people we are sent to
2. The purpose we are sent for "lest they...come to this place of torment"
B. Belief in Christ
One message the church is to go to the world with is the same message that the Rich man wants his brothers to hear and believe.
Acts 4:12 "NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER: FOR THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN........"
1. Jesus is the only answer for hell
2. Jesus is the only advocate in the heavens
3. Jesus is the only anchor that will hold
4. Jesus is the only assurance of hope
V. The Mandate of Repentance is a Necessity
(Luke 16:30-31)
It is time we take seriously the mandate to repent. Those in hell take repentance seriously. However, repentance is a forgotten word in the preaching of today. John the Baptist preached it; Paul preached it; John the beloved apostle proclaimed its necessity; the Lord Himself emphasized its importance in Luke 13:3 "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Jesus commenced, continued, and concluded his ministry preaching repentance.
A. What repentance is not
1. It is not remorse.
Remorse is simply being sorry for one's sin. Remorse may lead to repentance, but it is not repentance. The rich your ruler went away from Jesus sorrowful after being told the cost of following Jesus. He was remorseful but did not repent.
2. It is not regret.
Merely wishing that the deed had not happened. There are many people who regret their sin yet have never repented.
3. It is not resolve
Many make resolutions, but this is not repentance.
4. It is not reformation
Turning over a new leaf is a feeble effort on the part of an individual to establish his own righteousness
B. What repentance is
It is a change of mind- to think differently about that leads to a change of action. See Matthew 21:28-29. Repentance is the message of the Bible and those in hell know it fully well.
C. Where is repentance
In its relation to salvation ....does repentance precede faith or does faith precede repentance?
The truth of the Scripture is that repentance and faith are different sides of the same coin. C. H. Spurgeon said, "Repentance and faith are born at the same time; they are Siamese twins. If one is sick the other cannot be well, for they live but one life."
Repentance itself will not save you, yet you cannot be saved without it.
You cannot get the salvation of God unless there is repentance, but you do not get the salvation of God because of your repentance.
"Repentance is just as necessary as salvation is, and the faith that has not repentance going with it have to be repented of."
See Acts 20:21 - joined together indicating they are inseparable.
Conclusion:
No one in their right mind wants to go to hell. Why refuse the gospel message and spend eternity there?
Come to Jesus today and be saved.
Jimmy Chapman