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159. You Mean There Really Is A Hell?


Matthew 18:6-9, Mark 9:42-50
Key Verse: "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through who they come!"   
Matthew 18:7

Jesus is issuing stern warnings here as He takes this opportunity to talk about hell. Interestingly, Jesus talks about hell a lot! His words seem so extreme to our modern, politically correct ears. If you lead a child astray, it would be better to have a mill stone hung around your neck so that you drown? If your eye or hand or foot causes you to sin, cut them off? How could a loving Jesus be so drastic? And, if you aren't that radical you'll end up in hell? Can that be right?

Leave it to sinners to not grasp how serious our sin is. We've come to minimize our sins with phrases like, "little white lie," or, "mistake," but God can't be so nonchalant. When we excuse ourselves this way we show that we don't understand what holy means and we demonstrate that we don't really appreciate just how Holy God is. When we do this, we also minimize just how much Christ did for us when He died on the cross to pay for those sins.

Very early on in Israel's history God told His people, "You are to be holy to Me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own." (Leviticus 20:26) A definition of holy is, "set apart." If we become holy by resisting the temptation of impurity through sin, we become more like Him.

We only have two choices: become like Him through accepting Him as Lord of our lives, or hell. It's as simple as that. God can't have our impurity in His heaven no matter how cute and cuddly we think we are. Cute and cuddly doesn't cut it, only being covered with the blood of Jesus does.

The one who corrupts a child is guilty and deserves the torment of hell. The one who steals, lusts, lies, hates, deceives, murders, or walks the opposite of how God says we are to walk, deserves to die and suffer the consequences of torment in hell. Jesus knows this! That's why He came, to make a way so that, if you follow Him and place your trust in Him, you can escape hell and be with Him.

Remember, the physical doesn't matter as much as the spiritual. We've talked about this before. If you can't help but give in to the temptations brought on by your physical self, make the physical suffer to spare the spiritual. It's better to enter heaven physically damaged and spiritually whole than go to hell with your physical self intact.

Paul encourages us this way: "I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (1 Cor. 9:27) We all could stand to allow ourselves to suffer a bit more for the sake of Christ and for the sake of our becoming more like Him.

Hymn: "Am I A Soldier Of The Cross?"

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