Rick Warren - The Reality of Hell—Part Two

Are Heaven and Hell real places? And what are they like?

Today?

On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry of

Rick Warren, we continue his series called Eternal Realities, Heaven

and Hell. In these lessons, Rick shares what the Bible

says about heaven and Hell and how you can be

absolutely certain you'll go to Heaven. And Now here's part

two of a message called the reality of Hell.

Now, there's one other eternal reality we need to cover

before we can actually look at the text today, and

that is this, there's no chance, there's no second chance.

After you die. You get to choose where you're going

to spend eternity, but you have to choose now, while

you're alive, not after you're dead. In other words, I

can't walk out this door my way and then say, oh,

by the way, I don't like this. I want to

go back over here. Now, God says I gave you,

and I gave you an entire life time to make

the right decision, and you didn't take it. You kept

putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. I

gave you entire lifetime. So there is no halfway house

between heaven and Hell. There's no little intermediate state, there's

no limbo, there's no purgatory. And I know many of

you were raised Catholics, friends, Purgatory is not in the Bible.

The word is not even there. It's not a Bible idea.

It's not something Jesus or God taught. It's something that

was created eight hundred years ago in the Middle Ages.

Purgatory is not even in the Bible. In fact, Catholics

don't even believe it anymore. Pope John Paul the Second

stated in a very public way that purgatory was not

a real place. And Bishop I mean, I mean Pope

Benedict let the newest Catechism of the Catholic Church. The

word purgatory isn't even in there anymore. They've taken it out.

Why because it's not in the Bible. It's a theory

that was created during the Middle Ages. Now, Jesus when

he was dying on the cross and there was a

guy next to him who had been a criminal his

entire life. God had done only bad his entire life,

and on his last seconds he has a deathbed conversion,

and he's dying on the cross next to Jesus, and

he says to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come

into paradise. That's all he knew about salvation is Jesus

can save me. He didn't know all the doctrines, he

didn't know all the fancy words, he didn't know all

of the back behind it. He just said yes to Jesus.

And Jesus looks at him and says, well, you're gonna

have to spend about a year in purgatory. No, that's

not at all what he said. Jesus looks at the

guy next to him and he goes, today, you'll be

with me in paradise. Boom, that's it. What does it

take to get into it? You say yes to Jesus Christ,

he says today, not next week, not next month, not

in three or four years. Will people pray for you

and hope you get out of limbo? No, he says today.

The moments you die, you either go straight to Heaven

or you go straight to hell. And it's a choice

here on earth. And God has done everything to make

sure you get into heaven. And we're going to talk

about that that Jesus said. The Bible says to be

absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

The Bible says it like this here on the screen.

They will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous

will go into eternal life. The reality is there are

two places of friends. This is so important because what

we're talking about today has your eternal destiny. Now, maybe

some other time when I've been preaching, you've used it

for a good nap time, This would not be a

good week to take a nap, because your eternal destiny

depends on this one. And I want everybody to be

absolutely certain when we finish here today that when you

go out, you know, without a shadow of a doubt,

you're going to heaven. And there's every reason you can

settle that issue today. So I want you to listen

as if your life depend upon it. Now. Next week

we're going to talk about heaven. But today I want

to ask four questions. Why does hell exist? What is

it like, how do I avoid it? That's the important one,

And what do I do once I know all of this? First?

Why does hell exist? Well, there are two fundamental reasons

you might write this down. The first is because sin

and evil exist. Sin and evil exist. Now, there's some

people who want to deny the existence of evil, and

they think that actually the world is full of people

and we're basically good. That human beings are fundamentally by

nature unselfish, always kind, always good, and always thinking about others.

And I want to say to you, have you turned

on your television, have you picked up a newspaper? Do

you listen to the radio? You might want to just

travel with me on one of my world trips, because

the world is filled with broken relationships, broken promises, rape, abuse, murder,

child molestation, all kinds of evil, terrorism, people who strap

bombs onto themselves. The world is filled with evil. It's

all around you. We pick up the newspaper and we

read about young beautiful co eds, student body presidents of

their college who this week were shot randomly friends. That's evil.

We read about people, little children picked up on the

street and sold into sex trade, trafficking. That's evil. Fundamentally,

the Bible teaches that is my nature to not think

about you. It's my nature to be selfish, and it

is your nature to be selfish. You think about you

more than anybody else. You're not naturally thinking what's best

for other people, what's best for the world. What does

God want me to do. You're thinking about what do

I want to do, what's easy, what's convenient, what would

I like to do now? Maybe if you lived seventy

five years ago in little house on the prairie, on

a farm, you might think that people are basically good.

But with all the media around us today, we know

that the world is filled with evil, and evil things happen,

and it happens all of the time. And what was

true in Noah's day is still true today. Notice this

verse up here on the screen in Genesis chapter eight,

five and six. It says this, the Lord observed that

the extent of people's wickedness, and he saw all their

thoughts were consistently and totally evil, and he, that's God,

was sorry that he had ever made them. He was

sorry that he made the human race, and it broke

his heart. God looked down on the world in Noah's

day and he goes, Man, what a mess they've made

of this? What they do to themselves, what they do

to each other, what they do to the planet that

I gave them. They've really made a mess of this.

They've really screwed it up. And that is the way

God feels today. And it says it broke his heart.

Did you know that God has emotions? Of course he does.

In fact, the reason you have emotions is because God

made you in his image. The reason you have the

ability to feel, the reason you have the ability for

your heart to be broken, is because God is an

emotional God, and you were made in his image. And

when God looks at all the things that are done

in the world that are wrong and bad and evil,

it breaks God's heart. And when people say to me,

where is God when people get molested and people are abused,

and people are betrayed, And where is God with the

rape and the murder, and the world of the world's

terrorism and crime and all. Where is God? I'll tell

you what he's doing. He's weeping, he's grieving, he's broken hearted.

He said, well, why doesn't he just stop it? Oh?

He could. God could eliminate all the evil in the

world just like that, just get rid of all of us.

Where do you think it comes from? It comes from

our poor choices. You're not telling me you've always made

every decision right, that's never hurt anybody else. No, we

hurt each other. Now. God gave us a free will,

and that is our greatest gift, it's also our worst

curse because we don't always make wise choices. And while

God gave us this free ability to choose right or wrong,

good or bad, evil or righteousness, and he gives us

this choice because we're created in his image. He gave

us the free will, we often choose the wrong thing,

and as a result, people get hurt, intentionally and unintentionally.

Now God could take away all the sin, all the suffering,

all the sickness, and all the evil in the world

just like that. All he has to do is take

away your free will and mine too. Now why does

God give us a free will? I'll tell you why.

Because He wanted you to choose to love him, not

be forced to love him. You see, it's not real

love if you're forced to do it. If you are

forced to love me, it's not real love. If I'm

forced to love you, it's not real love. Love is

only love if you can choose not to love, and

God gives you the free choice. You don't have to

love God. You don't have to trust God. You don't

have to obey God. You don't have to follow in

the ways. You don't have to fulfill the purpose he

created for you, You can make your life a total mess.

Why did God do that? Because he wants us to

choose to love him. He wants us to choose to

do right. And God wanted a family that would live

with him forever. And he wanted to produce a race

of tested individuals who voluntarily choose to love and do

the right thing. And that can't be possible unless we're

allowed to do the wrong thing. So it is our

greatest blessing and our greatest curse. And it still breaks

God's heart today when we hurt ourselves, when we hurt

other people, when we hurt the planet that He's put

us on. Now, you need to understand that God allows

sin on Earth simply for this choice, so you have

a choice, but He does not allow any sin in heaven.

Heaven is a perfect place. There are no imperfections in Heaven.

It is completely perfect, so there's no sin there. Now

that raises an important problem. Heaven is a perfect place,

and that means own only perfect people get to go there. Otherwise,

if God let imperfect people come in with their selfishness

and their sin and their sorrows and all of their sicknesses,

and then it'd be just like Earth. It wouldn't be

heaven anymore. I don't want to go to a heaven

where Hitler can do his thing, or pole Pot can

do his thing, or a rapist or a genocider can

do their thing. Now, I want to go to heaven

where it's perfect and we're away from all of that.

So only perfect people get to go there. Now that's

a problem because I'm not perfect, and neither are you.

Now David asks this question in the Book of Psalm

and Psal I'm fifteen one and two. David says, Lord,

who may enter your holy tent? Now, holy tent is

just a euphemism and analogy for coming into your presence.

It's heaven who may enter your holy tent? Lord who

may live on your holy mountain? And here's the condition.

Those who are completely blameless and innocent and those who

always do what is right? Uh Oh, I don't know

about you, but I don't fit that category. I am

not blameless, I am not innocent. I do not do

what is always right. So I got a problem. There's

not a snowballs chance of hell of me getting into

heaven unless God comes up with Clan B. Because Heaven

is perfect. And I stopped batt in a thousand about

age one, and by the way, you did too. The

Bible says, we've all blown it, We've all sinned everybody.

We don't live measure up to our own standards, much

less God's. And so there has to be a place

for evil to go in eternity. If I'm made to

last forever and I'm not perfect, then where where I

gotta have another place to go to? There is sin

and there's evil in the world. Now there's a second

reason for hell, and that's because God is holy and just.

He is holy. That means he is perfect. He cannot

sin himself, and he's just. That means he he believes

in justice, He settles the score, he always does the

right thing. And the Bible says that one day God

is going to balance the books, and God is going

to bring justice to the world, and God is going

to right the wrongs, and he's going to settle the score,

and he's going to even the odds, and he's going

to balance the books. Now, I don't know if you've

noticed this or not, but have you noticed that life

is unfair? What if you'd been born in darfour. Was

it fair that you were born in America and somebody

else was born in darfour? That's not really that fair,

is it. And I don't know if you've noticed this

or not, but people get away with all kinds of

stuff on earth, bad stuff. In fact, people get away

with murder on earth. Life is not fair. I don't

know if you notices or not, but bad things often

happen to good people, and good things often happen to

bad people. And people who cheat and steal and lie

and rob their entire lives often become enormously successful, and

they get away literally with murder, while other people who

try to do the right thing and live the right

way things don't work out in their lives all the time.

Life is not fair, And David said in the Psalms,

he said, I would have despaired if I hadn't believed

in the goodness of God, in other words, looking at

the world. If if I just looked at it and go, WHOA,

this is not fair. People do bad things and get

away with it, and people do good things and don't

get rewarded for it. If I didn't believe that one

day God's gonna settle the score that God is just.

He's gonna tip the scales and he's gonna even it

all out, and there will be repayment in justice. It

just wouldn't be right. Solomon talks about this. He complains,

and he says God is holy in justine. But yeah,

he says, an ecclesiastes ate these words. He says, I

thought about the things that are done in the world,

a world where some people have power and others have

to suffer under them. Oh, man, have I seen that?

As I've traveled around the world, I've seen a lot

of places where evil people have the power and other

people suffer as a result. He says, yes, I've seen

the wicked buried and in their graves. But on the

way back from the cemetery, people praise them in the

very city where they did their evil. He says, what's

wrong with that picture? He says, it's useless. And then

he says this, Why do people commit crimes so readily?

Because crime is not punished quickly enough. In other words,

here on earth, you do something bad, you can often

get away with it. Crime is not punished quickly enough.

He said. A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and

still live. He says, that's just not right. And what

would it be like? Is Stalin and Mao and Hitler,

who gased six million Jews showed up in heaven. Maybe

something wrong with heaven? What have been laden? Showed up

in heaven after telling everybody go blow themselves up to

help kill other people? One day, God is going to

settle the score. Let me show you some verses here

on the screen. The Bible says this, for the Lord

is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the

nations fairly and with truth. And by the way, he's

the only one who can judge fairly because he's impartial.

And the Bible says this, God will do what is right.

This is the second Thessalonians, chapter one. He says, God

will do what's right. God is a righteous God. That

means he always does what is right. And he will

bring suffering on those who make you suffer. You're going yet, God,

he will bring suffering on those who hurt me, who

made me suffer, and he'll give relief to you who

suffer as well. And he will do this when the

Lord Jesus appears from heaven to punish those who reject God,

who say, I'm going to be my own God. I'm

going to run my own mind. I don't need God.

I'm going to go my way, not Jesus' way. To

punish those who reject God and who do not obey

the good news about our Lord Jesus, they will suffer

the punishment of eternal destruction separated from the presence of

the Lord. Now notice that last phrase, separated from the

presence of the Lord. That's the number one characteristic of Hell,

separated from the presence of the Lord. People don't realize

how bad that is because we have the Lord's presence here.

You see, here on earth. Even when I reject God,

he still shows me grace. I mean, I could be

going out here totally ignoring God, and I get all

kinds of gifts from God. Because everything you have in

your life is a gift from God. The air you breathe,

that's a gift from God. The water you drink, that's

a gift from God. Your heart beating, that's a gift

from God. Everything you have in your life is a

gift of God's grace. So even people who don't know

the Lord experience God's grace every single day of their life.

Your health is a gift from God. Your brain is

a gift from God. The weather is a gift from God.

Life is a gift from God. Everything you have on

this planet is because of God's grace. So we don't

know what it means to live without God's grace. We

don't really know that because everything God does in your

life he does because He loves you, and he's showing

you grace at that moment. Now he says, one day

I'm going to settle the score. And you may be thinking, hey,

that's great. You know, all the people who hurt me,

go get them. Lord. There's only one problem I'm involved too, know.

That's the next verse Here on the screen. Tewod Corindians

five ten says we will all stand before Christ to

be judged. In other words, not just my enemies, uh oh,

we will each receive whatever we deserve for the good

or the evil that we have done in our bodies.

Why does hell exist? Because sin and evil exist, and

because God is holy? In just now, what is hell like? Well,

it's really hard to explain, because it's hard to explain

because we don't have the human experience to explain it.

It's kind of like trying to explain the Internet to

an ant if you had never eaten or seen a

piece of pizza, how would you explain it? And so

it's really kind of hard. Now. Jesus actually talked more

about Hell than he did about heaven. But what is

hell like? You know, sometimes you hear these guys preaching

on Hell on television. I call him the hell Fire

and Brimstone, and they're yelling and they're sweating, and you know,

when you listen to them, you kind of think, like

they want people to go there. Go what's with that?

I don't want anybody to go to hell, and God

certainly doesn't want anybody to go to hell. Jesus doesn't

want anybody to go to Hell. That's why he died

on the cross. That's how much he considered it important.

So this is not something that you're happy about. You

certainly don't have to yell about it. But what is

hell like? Well, the Bible describes it as a place

of torment. In fact, here on the screen, Matthew eight,

you've heard about this. In darkness, they will cry out

and grip their teeth and pain, and of course your

image of hell and the Bible talks about this. It

says fire and things like this. But you know what

the worst part is you write this down. Hell is

total separation from God. That's the worst thing about it.

It means I'm totally apart from God's love, totally apart

from God's grace, total separation from God. One Corinth in

sixteen twenty two says this, if anyone does not love

the Lord, let him be separated from God, lost forever.

In other words, here it is. If I go through

my entire life saying I don't want God in my

life on earth. If I don't want God in my

life on earth, why in the world would I want

to spend eternity with him? I mean, why would I

change my mind? Why would I say I want to

live without God on earth but I want to live

with God in heaven. That doesn't make sense. God says,

you get the Jews. You want to live with me

or live without me.

That was such an encouraging message from pastor Rick. And

now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter

from one of our listeners.

I want to say thanks to all of you who

are supporting Daily Hope Ministry with your financial gifts. And

with your prayers. I know you appreciate these notes that

I get from people around the world as much as

I do. Let me just share one with you from

a woman named Anna who is an elementary school principal,

and she just wrote this your pastor, Rick. I became

a principal in an elementary school at the age of

twenty five. I'm now forty two. Now. We've had Rick

Warren Bible series and studies at our church during the summers,

and I always enjoyed them so much, and I've invited

many friends and relatives to visit our church. A couple

years ago, I began to share your devotion Daily Hope

with all of my staff members each morning. See she's

a principal, she's sharing this with her staff. She said,

I've seen their growth in God. I've seen the transformation

in their lives and characters over these past years, and

I'm amazed at the Lord's love and mercy. That doesn't

mean that we haven't struggled with issues such as death

and and disappointments and illness things like that. However, we

have had our eyes on God during all of the

things that have come against us, and this has made

a difference. I pray with them during our staff meetings

to give thanks. So Pastor Rick, I just want to

thank you for following God's calling. Even though you go

through struggles and life problem just like we all do.

God is with you. May the Lord continue to bless

you and your beautiful family. May continue to bless you

with wisdom and discernment so that you're able to share

your gift with all of us. Blessings, Anna, Well, Anna,

God bless you. Thanks for writing. I love getting these

letters and you actually encouraged me. And I love the

fact that as a principle, you're sharing the broadcast and

you're sharing the devotionals with your staff. This makes you

a partner in this ministry and I thank you for

doing that. And I want to encourage everybody else's listening.

Find somebody that you could share the good news with,

tell them about Daily Hope. God bless you.

Please join us next time as we look into God's

word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by

Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.