IT DOESN'T HAVE TO END THAT WAY

1. A man once came to C.H. Spurgeon to ask him a question about the Bible. He said, "There now, can you tell me what that means?" With a twinkle in his eye, Spurgeon replied: "Why, of course I can tell you what it means. It means just what it says."

2. As someone has well said, "God says what He means and means what He says."

3. One of the most awful words in the Bible, as well as any language, is the word "perish." There is nothing about the word "perish" that brings any cheer or comfort to the heart. It is a disturbing word that makes us all cringe.

4. Yet, we are reminded in John 3:16, that the word means just what it says and God says what He means and means what He says.

5. The good news of the wondrous story of redemption is that it doesn't have to end this way. Notice:

A TRUTH THAT IS UNDENIABLE!

1. As I said, the word "perish" is an awful word. It is awful in what it declares and describes. The way the word is used in the Bible gives us some ideal of the awfulness of perishing.

2. When the word is used in the physical sense it has the ideal of destruction. In fact, sometimes the word is translated "destroy" in the Bible.

· In Matthew 5:29 the word is used of an eye that is plucked out.
· In Matthew 7:25 the word is used to speak of drowning.
· In Matthew 9:17 the word is used of wineskins that burst.
· In Matthew 2:13 the word is used to describe the act of murder.

3. In each case I have mentioned, the ideal is of something being destroyed; an eye, a bottle, and a life.

4. But when the word is used in the spiritual sense, such as in John 3:16, it has the ideal of a final condition or fate of the soul.

5. The perishing of the body is quite different than the perishing of he soul. When the body perishes it goes through a state of decomposing and back to the dust of the earth from whence it came. But the soul of man never dies. It lives on and on in a certain condition.

6. The condition that is inferred by the word "perish" is an eternity spent in hell.

I Think Of The Personal Denials Of The Thought Of Perishing.

1. Back in the mid 70's, Betty Eadie's book, "Embraced By The Light," was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than 40 weeks, 5 weeks as number one. In November 1973, Eadie allegedly died after undergoing a hysterectomy, and returned five hours later with the secrets of heaven revealed by Jesus. Eadie said that Jesus "never wanted to do or say anything that would offend me" while she visited heaven. The ideal of judgment and hell are nowhere to be found in her book. Jesus seemed to be relegated to the role of a happy tour guide in heaven, not the Savior of the world who died on the cross.

2. Everybody wants to talk about the light and splendor of a place called heaven. Nobody wants to talk about the darkness and a place called hell.

3. We are told that God is too kind to send someone to hell. Scoffers, liberals, and agnostics hurl their arguments against the Bible's teaching of hell.

4. Listen to what Robert Short had to say about hell: "I see the doctrine of hell as being probably the major stumbling block to the return of a de- Christianized world to Christ. The doctrine of eternal damnation, more than any other teaching of the church, produces atheism. If you examine closely all the big name atheists -- like Feuerback and Nietzsche -- it is this teaching more than any other that offended them and turned them away. Out of these famous atheists came all the movements that have caused so much hell here and now. If God is to practice what He preaches, then it makes it hard to believe in eternal damnation."

5. Others have said:
"Hell-fire is the riot of imaginative genius."
"The pulpit teaching about hell is an unauthorized accretion to the true doctrine and repugnant to reason."
"If the Bible teaches 'everlasting punishment' so much worse for the Bible, because we cannot believe it; you may quote texts and have behind the texts the very finest scholarship to justify certain interpretations, but it is no good. We are no longer slaves of a book nor the blind devotees of a creed; we believe in love and in evolution."

6. J.M. Dawson said: "The old ideal about Hell has faded out and pastors of cultured churches refuse to revive."

7. If that is true this is a church without culture for the truth about hell has not faded out with this preacher.

I Think Of The Biblical Declaration Of The Truth Of Perishing.

1. The Bible says more about hell than it does heaven. For every statement about heaven, there are at least 10 about hell.

2. Jesus said there was a hell and that settles the matter. God said in John 3:16 that there is an eternal condition called perishing and that settles the matter. The eternal damnation of the soul is a truth that is undeniable.

3. On one occasion Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, the agnostic lecturer of the last century, was announced to give an address on hell. He declared he would prove conclusively that hell was a wild dream of some scheming theologians who invented it to terrify credulous people. As he was launching into his subject, a half-drunken man arose in the audience and exclaimed, "Make it strong, Bob. There's a lot of us poor fellows depending on you. If you are wrong, we are all lost. So be sure you prove it clear and plain."

4. He was wrong. There is a hell! The Bible proves it clear and plain!

5. H.A. Ironside said: "No amount of reasoning can nullify God's sure Word. He has spoken as plainly of a hell for the finally impenitent as of a heaven for those who are saved."

A Truth That Is Undeniable!

A TORMENT THAT IS UNIMAGINABLE!

1. Cable television's Ted Turner, who has condemned abortion foes as "bozos" who "look like idiots," recently lashed out at Christianity. "Christianity is a religion of losers," Turner told the Dallas Morning News. Referring to Christ's death on the cross, Turner said, "I don't' want anybody to die for me. I've had a few drinks and a few girlfriends, and if that's gonna put me in hell, then so be it."

2. If Ted Turner had any ideal of what hell was like he would never think of making such a statement.

It Is An Indescribable State.

1. There are no words to describe the awfulness of perishing. It is well beyond my ability to describe how terrible hell really is.

2. The Bible descriptions of hell give us some ideal:

(Rev.20:15) Lake of fire
(Isa.33:14) A devouring fire
(Rev.20:1) A bottomless pit
(Matt.13:41-42) A furnace of fire
(Luke 16:23) A place of torments
(Rev.22:10-11) A place of filthiness
(Rev.14:11) A place where they have no rest
(Matt.25:46) A place of everlasting punishment
(Jude 13) A place of eternal darkness and blackness
(Rev.16:10) A place where they gnaw their tongues
(Rev.19:20) A place where people are cast alive
(Rev.14:11) A place from the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and forever
(Rev.14:10) A place where they drink the wine of the wrath of God
(Rev.21:8) A place where there are murderers, liars, fearful and abominable

3. Someone has written:

Hell! The prison house of despair,
Here are some things that won't be there:
No flowers will bloom on the banks of Hell,
No beauties of nature we love so well;
No comforts of home, music and song,
No friendship of joy will be found in the throng;
No children to brighten the long, weary night;
No love or peace, nor ray of light;
No blood-washed soul with face beaming bright,
No loving smile in that region of night;
No mercy, no pity, pardon nor grace,
No water; O God, what a terrible place!
The pangs of the lost no human can tell,
Not one moment's ease, there is no rest in Hell!
Hell! The prison house of despair,
Here are some things that will be there:
Fire and brimstone are there, we know,
For God in His word hath told us so;
Memory, remorse, suffering and pain,
Weeping and wailing, but all in vain;
Blasphemers, swearers, haters of God,
Christ-rejecters while here on earth trod;
Murderers, gamblers, drunkards and liars
Will all have their place in the lake of fire;
The filthy, the vile, the cruel and mean,
What a horrible mob in Hell will be seen!
Yes, more than humans on earth can tell,
Are torments and woes of eternal hell.4

It Is An Irrevocable State.

1. There are no exits in Hell. There is no way of escape.

2. I think of Alcatraz, the most famous prison in the world. It was known as the "The Rock," "Uncle Sam's Devils Island," and "Hellcatraz." For almost 30 years (134-1963), this federal prison housed some of America's worst criminals. It was surrounded by towers and walls and the cold waters and strong currents of the San Francisco Bay made it virtually impossible to escape. Of the 1535 prisoners, 36 tried to escape: 7 were shot, 2 drowned, 5 were lost, and the rest captured except for John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris, who were never heard of again.

3. But we are not talking about Hellcatraz. We are talking about the Hell of the Bible. It is a place where it is totally impossible to escape. The Anglin brothers and Frank Morris may have escaped Hellcatraz, but if they died and went to Hell, they found a place that not even they could escape from.

4. Hell is for eternity.

1) A Truth That Is Undeniable!

2) A Torment That Is Unimaginable!

A TRAGEDY THAT IS UNNECESSARY!

1. One day, when Vice President Calvin Coolidge was presiding over the Senate, one Senator angrily told another to go "straight to hell". The offended Senator complained to Coolidge as presiding officer, and Coolidge looked up from the book he had been leafing through while listening to the debate. "I've been looking through the rule book," he said. "you don't have to go."4

2. Here is the good news of the wondrous story as told by John 3:16, YOU DON'T HAVE TO PERISH!

3. The great tragedy of hell is not one person in hell had to go. God loved every person that is in hell. God gave His Son for every person that is in hell. God offered salvation to every person in hell. All that had to do was come to Him and trust Him as Saviour.

Salvation Is Determined By Ones Reception Of Christ.

1. John 3:16 makes it clear how one can keep from perishing. It is "whosoever believeth in Him."

2. Walter Wilson wrote: "Millions are spent on paint to keep wood from perishing. Millions are spent on medicine to keep the body from perishing. Millions are spent on sprays and chemicals to keep the plants from perishing. Millions are spent on locks to keep our valuables from perishing. Millions are spent on life insurance to keep families from perishing. Millions are spent on monuments to prevent the memory from perishing. Millions are spent on dams, revetments and sea walls to prevent the land from perishing. Millions are spent on caskets and containers to prevent the corpses from perishing. Millions are spent on life boats and life preservers to keep the passengers from perishing. Millions are spent on weather proofing to prevent the merchandise from perishing. But God gave His Son to keep you from perishing."

Damnation Is Determined By One's Rejection Of Christ.

1. The one thing that will keep you from heaven and send you to hell is rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Thousands go to hell every day. The tragedy is they didn't have to go. You don't have to die without Christ and spend eternity in hell. IT DON'T HAVE TO END THAT WAY!