Isaiah chapter 45 and look there at verse 21.
The Bible reads, tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time?
Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else beside me,
a just God and a savior.
There is none beside me.
Look unto me and be ye saved.
All the ends of the earth, for I am God,
and there is none else.
And I'm gonna be preaching
on a pretty simple subject this morning.
The main title of my sermon is, "Yes, We Do Deserve Hell."
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this great day, God.
I just pray that you'd help me to convey the truth
from your word, something that we need to help people
to understand when we're out soul winning.
And I just pray that you just help us
to learn something this morning.
In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
So we saw there in that verse,
the Bible said that there is no God else beside me,
a just God and a savior.
So that tells me that everything God does is just.
Everything in his word is just.
Everything that he, every decision he makes is just.
God never makes any mistakes.
So I'll read for you Revelation chapter 15, verse four.
The Bible reads, "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord,
"and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy.
"For all nations shall come worship before thee,
"for thy judgments are made manifest."
So God is holy, and all of his judgments are right.
That includes the judgment of hell.
But it's not the judgment of hell
that people like to try to teach today,
the judgment that it's just separation from God,
or that it's just some sort of soul sleep
or some sort of dark place.
The judgment of hell that God is just and giving
is the real judgment of hell,
which is what the Bible teaches.
Like in Mark 9.43, the Bible teaches
that hell is a place of fire that shall never be quenched.
It's never-ending fire.
In Revelation 14.11, the Bible talks about
people being tormented in flames day and night forever.
So people like to water down hell, like cool down hell,
but hell is a place of fire.
It's a place of literal fire that lasts forever and ever.
And people think in their heads, "Well, that's a cruel God."
And even Christians are ashamed of what the Bible
really teaches about hell, but God is just in sending people
to that literal place of hell.
And that is the judgment for the unsaved today.
That is their penalty.
It is hell.
So out of soul winning, you have to convince people
that they deserve to go to hell.
And that's kind of a tough thing to do,
because obviously hell is a horrible place.
But if they don't have a realization
that they have a need of salvation,
that they're needing to be saved from something,
then they're never gonna get saved.
So this is something that we do have to know.
So number one, we do deserve hell.
Go ahead and turn to Matthew chapter seven.
I'll be reading out of Revelation.
But since we know God is just,
we know he would never give someone a punishment
that they did not deserve.
So we have to think about why God would send someone to hell.
So you're turning to Matthew chapter seven.
The Bible reads in Revelation 21a, we all know it.
But the fearful and unbelieving
and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers
and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars
shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death.
And the first reason that we deserve to go to hell
this morning is obviously because we're all sinners
and because God is perfect.
See, because God is perfect,
he can't have fellowship with the things in that list.
God can't have eternal fellowship with unbelief.
God can't have fellowship with abomination
and with murder and with whoredom and with sorcery
and with idolatry and with lies.
God can't have fellowship with these things
because we're sinners, we do deserve to go to hell.
It's not like God's doing something wrong
by sending us there.
That is where we deserve to go
and that is where someone will go
unless they have those sins forgiven
by salvation through Jesus Christ.
I had you turn to Matthew chapter seven.
Look there at verse 21, the Bible reads,
not everyone that saith unto me,
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my father,
which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name,
and in thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works,
and then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
So, you know, Jesus says there
that how you get into the kingdom of heaven
is by doing the will of the father.
And the second reason why I think people deserve
to go to hell is because God made salvation so easy to us.
And when we reject that, that is where we deserve to go.
What is the will of the father?
Let's turn to, let's see, where did I put it?
I thought it was in John.
John, sorry guys, John chapter six.
Turn to John chapter six, please.
John chapter six, verse 40.
So Jesus said, "He that doeth the will of my father
"is who gets to heaven."
You think, well, that sounds pretty hard,
doing the will of God.
That sounds pretty hard.
Let's look at what the Bible says, John chapter six,
verse 40, "And this is the will of him that sent me,
"that everyone which seeth the son and believeth on him
"may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
"at the last day."
You know, look and live, my brother, live.
It's that easy.
See the son and believe on him, and you have eternal life.
So when Jesus Christ goes through everything
that he went through, when he was born on this earth,
and he was beaten, and he was spit upon,
and he had a crown of thorns put on his head,
he was whipped, he was mocked, he was made fun of,
he was stabbed on the cross, he died on the cross,
he spent three days in eternal hell,
or three days in literal fire,
burning and suffering for our sins.
When he did all that for us and tells us,
hey, all you have to do to get to heaven
is just believe that I did it for you.
And you say, no, Jesus, that's not enough.
That makes God mad.
And that makes people deserve to go to hell
because Jesus Christ did it so much for us.
All we have to do to get there is believe.
And we say, no, you didn't do enough.
It's not enough to get there.
That makes God mad.
God did make salvation easy this morning.
You know, Acts 16, 30 and 31,
and brought them out and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
It's really easy.
Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast.
You know, Romans 4, 5, but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
Romans 6, 23, you know, for the weight is of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He made it so easy, and the Bible tells us that
over and over and over again,
but people today, they just want to reject that.
But if they do reject that, that does make them deserve hell.
It's not like God's doing something wrong.
But why don't people today think they deserve to go to hell?
Because I don't know about you guys.
I notice that this is becoming a harder and harder thing
every week to convince people of
that they deserve to go to hell.
People's brains can't understand it.
But the reason why is because we lived
in such a spoiled generation
that's told that everything they do is right.
All manner of opinions, all manner of how churches are run,
all manner of lifestyles is right.
Everybody gets a prize.
Everybody gets a trophy.
Nothing can ever be wrong.
And that's damning people to hell this morning
because they think that what they do is right before God
because churches aren't preaching hard anymore.
That's why it's getting so hard.
You know, you think about how this world just does
all things according to how they want to.
Turn to Judges chapter 21.
All manner of stupid opinions are accepted today, you know?
You live with your girlfriend before marriage, that's fine.
That's just, I mean, it's love.
It's just what you want to do.
You know, you drink alcohol.
As long as you don't get drunk, that's not a sin, right?
That's what people are taught today.
Homosexuality, they're born that way.
It's normal.
It's good, right?
Judges chapter 21 and verse 25, the Bible reads, "In those days there was no king in
Israel.
Every man did that which was right in his own eyes."
And because this book is no longer king in the United States of America, the United States
of America does whatever's right in their own eyes.
They do everything against what this book says because this book is not king anymore
in this nation.
But this book needs to be king in this church and in our homes, you know, because we're
going to be destroyed if we don't make this the king.
But people today, they do everything against this book because it's not king anymore.
And those ways that they're doing will take them to hell and they will deserve to go there.
So where does that lead you?
Go to Proverbs chapter 14.
Where does that lead you when you reject the king, Jesus Christ, and you reject his words?
Proverbs chapter 14 verse 12, the Bible reads, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
And the world may not like it today, but their ways will lead them to death, and their ways
will lead them to that eternal hell that the Bible talks about.
And obviously, that's not something we rejoice over, you know, we want people to get to heaven,
that's why we go out and preach the gospel to them, but we have to make them see that.
And you know, a lot of people don't realize that hard preaching is a salvation issue.
People think that it's just edifying the church, which obviously it is, but it is also a salvation
issue. Because if people walk around with this snowflake mentality and they're not used to
being told that what they do is wrong, and they can't ever be rebuked or corrected, then
it's going to prevent them from thinking that they deserve to go to hell. And if they don't
think they deserve to go to hell, they have no need of salvation, and they'll never look
to Jesus Christ. But not only do we deserve to go to hell, but we don't deserve the abundant
mercy and grace that God gives us in our life after we're saved. Turn to Ezra chapter 9.
We need to stop having this snowflake mentality, where everything we have, we just deserve
all the goodness and grace in this life. We deserve so much good in this life, because
we're Americans. So all that we have, you know, belongs to us. Ezra chapter 9 verse
13, "And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great trespass,
seeing that thou our God has punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and has given
us such deliverance as this." And especially if you were not raised in a Christian home,
you think about your past life and all the wicked, sinful things and all the times that
you greatly trespassed against God and that I greatly trespassed against God, and how
much He's punished us less than our iniquities deserve. Do you appreciate that this morning?
Do you ever really, like, count your blessings this morning. Do you have a place to live?
God didn't promise you that. You know, God didn't promise you that. Do you have a spouse
that loves you, children that love you? Not only has God forgiven you so much, but you
have people in this earth that forgive you for things that you do not deserve to be forgiven
for. You know what I'm saying? You have family that love you, and even if you have none of
those things, do you have a church family that loves you? I know every single person
here has a church family that loves them. This is a close church. You know, be thankful
to God for that. Do you have a good job today? Do you have your freedom today? God doesn't
– we don't deserve any of those things. If God did nothing but save us, we would be
beyond blessed, but God does more for us than that. And we got to be thankful for that today.
Psalm 136 says, "Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth
forever." And obviously we just had thanksgiving, but we need to keep that spirit of thanksgiving
to God throughout the whole year, because he has given us so much more than we deserve.
You know, turn to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11 verse 20. The
Bible reads, "Well, because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith,
be not high-minded but fear." We've got to realize that it's an amazing thing. You know,
we're believers in Jesus Christ. We're God's chosen people. You know, we've been saved
from hell. We have eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ. And on top of that, He does
so much more for us in our lives. We need to be thankful for that, but we need to not
be high-minded. We need to fear. And you know, why preach a sermon? Because we have to help
people see the fear of the Lord and then the love of the Lord so that they can be saved.
Because like I said, if they don't think they need to be saved from hell, then they won't
ever look to Jesus Christ.
We need to show them the fear of the Lord, like I said.
We need to make sure that we're not high-minded in our life, but thank God for everything at
all times.
Give God thanks in all things.
So let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day, God, and help us to just always be thankful
for you, for saving us from hell, God, and for all that you do above that.
Help us just to be loving to people at the door, but to be able to show them that they
do deserve to go to hell so that we can show them how they can go to heaven.
In Jesus' name, amen.