The Final Destiny of the Lost

I'd like to ask you to just pray with me, please.

Let's uh before we open God's word, let's open our hearts to Him and to what He has to say to us this morning.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, lead us to the cross indeed.

Lord, we we want to we want to follow you.

We want to obey you.

We want to sit under your word.

We want to incline our ears to what you have to say.

We want to open our hearts to everything that you have to say to us.

There's something within us that rebels against that, even though that's that's a desire.

So, Father, for the minutes we have together, I pray you would help us to clear away other things.

I pray that you would help me to speak your word with simplicity and with power that comes not from me, but a power that comes from you, the reality of truth, the truth which you of your grace have given us.

That we might find our way in this dark, dangerous, and yet glorious and wonderful phase of life that we're in, and this world around us.

Oh Father, guide us.

Teach us, open our hearts to you, I pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, today we're going to conclude a whole series of messages.

I think this is the ninth and final of these messages on a topic that is somewhat disturbing, sometimes encouraging, sometimes uh strange to us as we deal with what the Bible says about life, death, and life after death.

Life, death, and life after death.

It's this matter of life after death that last time and this time we're talking about, something about which the Bible speaks very clearly.

Um we had the privilege of living for a number of years in Europe as we served there as missionaries.

And one of the things I appreciated about the small villages in Europe is that you couldn't get away from the cemeteries.

Now that may seem like a strange thing, but in most of the villages there was a church in the center of the village.

And around the church, almost invariably, there was a graveyard.

And as you walked through the town, you were confronted in a way that's a little bit different from us with the realities of life and death and life after death.

Most people would go out on a Sunday afternoon and just take a walk.

Take a walk through the woods or take a walk through the village or the town.

And so often our family, we would go for a Sunday afternoon walk, and if you walked through a village, you could not escape the graveyard.

It was just there, it was in the center of things.

And that is good, not bad.

It is good, not bad, to ponder the reality of life and death and life after death.

One of the customs in European cemeteries, around here as well, although not so much anymore, is that there would be writings or sayings engraved on tombstones, epitaphs, and they were of all different kinds.

And as you would walk along, these sayings, these writings would uh would call out to you.

And uh I came across uh uh a couple of these that kind of might help us focus.

Sometimes uh they were somewhat uh whimsical.

Tombstone epitaphs.

These are all real.

Uh one of them from a dentist said, Stranger, tread this ground with gravity.

Dentist Brown is filling his last cavity.

Honest to goodness, epitaph on a tombstone.

Dentist Brown is now filling his last cavity.

We will all one day uh fill a cavity, as it were.

Sometimes the uh the epitaphs on the tombstone probably communicate something a little bit different from what the one who gave instructions for that to be on their tombstone uh from what they had wanted it to be.

Here is, and this is an honest-to-goodness uh tombstone uh found in Burlington, Vermont, uh talking about a woman.

She lived with her husband for 50 years and died in the confident hope of a better life.

Uh honey, please don't put that on our on my tombstone, all right?

Or yours.

Don't put it on yours, rather.

Died with a confident hope of a better life than the 50 years with your spouse.

Um the last one that I uh want to uh mention to you was an epitaph in a tombstone in Waynesville, North Carolina.

Effie Jean Robinson, uh born 1897, died 1922, um, wrote a bit of verse uh that was to call out to the passers-by.

And it went like this Come, blooming youths, doesn't mean you blooming kids, it means you're the youth in your bloom.

Come, blooming youths, as you pass by, and on these lines do cast an eye.

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so you must be.

Prepare for death and follow me.

Now, if you're walking along with your kids through a tombstone, you come across something like that, which we did.

I mean, that's just there's something right about being forced to think about those things.

As you are now, so once was I, speaking from the grave, um, as I am now, so you must be.

Prepare for death and follow me.

Now, the interesting thing about this particular tombstone, um, someone came along and added some verses uh to it, um, probably appropriately.

To follow you, I am not content.

How do I know which way you went?

How do you know which way you went?

And the reality, of course, is that not all not all roads lead to heaven.

Not all roads lead to heaven.

And that is the reality which we need to take a look at today.

Not all roads lead to heaven.

Not everyone goes to heaven.

Um Jesus said, and you're familiar with this, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me.

I am the way.

You may like that, you may dislike it, but don't deny that's what Jesus said.

Jesus claimed to be the way to God, the only path that leads to God.

All other paths lead somewhere else.

In our age of accepting everything and political correctness, to suggest that Jesus is the only way is offensive.

My friends, if it's offensive to you, okay, but that's still what Jesus said.

And and we must we must simply listen and not stand above what Christ says and above what the Bible tells us, but under what the Bible tells us.

There is one way, all other roads lead somewhere else.

Proverbs 14, 12 says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end of that way leads to death.

We're talking about spiritual life and spiritual death.

There is a way which seems right to us.

There is a way which bombards us in our culture that seems right, seems the way to go.

And God says, My friends, my friends, there's a way that seems right, but listen, please.

Don't follow that way, it leads to death.

Not all roads lead to life, eternal life.

We find a simple thought in Isaiah, and it says very simply, it will be well with the righteous, but woe to the wicked.

It'll be well with the righteous, and woe to the wicked.

Now, I would rather not find that in Scripture.

I would like to just think that that everybody's going to go to heaven.

That all roads don't lead to Rome, all roads lead to heaven.

But the Bible portrays it quite differently.

Hell is a real place, just as real as heaven is.

Now, we've labored long and hard throughout this message to help us get a hold of the reality and the blessings and the joy and that which we have to look forward to as believers in Jesus Christ, whose sins have been covered, have been placed on the cross.

Those of us who come to Him by faith, by grace, through faith you're saved.

Not of yourself, it's a gift of God.

And those who receive that gift, we look forward to a real physical place of joy, fulfillment, satisfaction, growth, fellowship with our Savior.

The best thing about heaven is that Christ is there.

And we've talked and talked and talked about that.

The reality is that just as heaven is real, so also is there another place, a place called hell, that is a place of anguish and of torment and of being utterly separated from God.

My friends, I find this an unwelcome truth.

I just have to tell you, I wish it weren't so.

If I were writing the Bible, I would not write hell into the Bible.

Maybe I ought to go ahead and publish it.

It'd probably sell real well.

But you know, we don't have the opportunity, and it's not our role to tell God what He should do and what He should say to us.

It's our role to listen, to open ourselves to what God is saying.

Hell is the final destination of those who rebel against God.

It's just that simple.

This is a message I would rather not preach, to be very honest with you.

I buried both of my parents with absolutely no confidence whatsoever that they had taken advantage of the free gift of life given to us as a result of what Christ has done.

This is not theoretical.

This is not theoretical to me, it's not theoretical to you.

We all care and love and have deep concern for people who thumb their nose at God and just say, My way, I'm doing it my way, my way, me.

And what we have to realize, and there's something of that in all of our hearts, actually.

We're prone to wander, that's what we sang.

Lord, I feel it.

And we have to recognize that not everyone goes to heaven.

Um a hard, unwelcome truth.

Um I have struggled over this message more than most messages I give.

And it's because I don't like it.

And I don't really expect any of us to like it.

So do we only listen to happy talk?

What do we do when we read through the Psalms?

Do we just pick out the Psalms that we like?

What about those Psalms where the psalmist calls down judgment on the enemies of God?

They're called the imprecatory psalms.

We kind of, if you're doing your Bible reading then, and you've got a little chart, then okay, got that one done.

I can move on to something else.

But we can't move on to something else.

We can't avoid the reality of what God says to us.

So I'd like to just uh maybe just just, there's several verses here that make it real clear about the hard, unwelcome truths.

Turn with me to John chapter 8 for a moment.

John 8 · chapter mention

John chapter 8, Jesus speaking.

John 8 · chapter mention

Jesus.

Does Jesus deceive us?

No.

Does Jesus just tell us what we want to hear?

No.

Was Jesus only telling us the truth when he told us encouraging, comforting things?

No.

He was also serving us and loving us when he tells us hard things.

John chapter 8, verse 21.

John 8:21

So Jesus, and he's speaking to the crowds here, says to them again, I'm going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sins.

Jesus.

Just being exposed to the words of Jesus, the message of Jesus, just being in the crowd who heard Jesus, maybe even enjoyed hearing him.

That's there, there were people in his day who heard what he said, and he says, Yet you will die in your sin.

Where I am going, you cannot come.

A few chapters later, speaking in the upper room to the disciples, Jesus says, I'm going away, and I'm coming back again, and I'm preparing a place for you that where I am you may be also.

But that was for his followers.

For the crowds who just listened and didn't receive the gift.

By grace we are saved, by grace through faith.

It's a gift of God.

We must receive that gift of redemption, of salvation, of forgiveness of sin.

And there are people who listen to Jesus and will die in their sin.

Verse 24, drop down to verse 24 of chapter 8.

I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

I'm sure this is all just figurative language.

He really meant something else besides what he said, right?

No.

I wish he meant something else besides what he said.

The hard, unwelcome reality is that unless we avail ourselves to what Christ has done for us on the cross, receiving the gift of grace, of salvation, of forgiveness, of redemption, then we die in our sins.

And that needs to be understood as well.

Let's uh go back to John chapter 3, just another one of these uh several verses.

John 3 · chapter mention

We love to turn to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

We think of John chapter 3, 16, and it is a phenomenal verse.

John 3 · chapter mention

For God, many of you could quote it, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Wonderful, wonderful promise.

He who believes has everlasting life.

Well, 20 verses later, in John 3, 36, he says, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

That takes us back to chapter verse 16.

But then he goes on and he gives the corollary to that.

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life.

And in John's gospel, the idea of following Christ and trusting Christ and obeying Christ are all put together.

So when he says does not obey the Son, it means doesn't follow him, doesn't trust him, doesn't live in accordance with what he says.

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life.

But instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

You see, our default destination is not heaven.

Our default destination, as we're born into a sinful world as sinful people, our default destination is not heaven.

You need to recalculate your your direction.

First time I ever used a GPS in a car was we had rented a car in Brussels, and the car had a GPS system in this wonderful soft British voice.

This woman would tell us where.

I can't do it a British accent, but it was it was just so attractive.

And then we're driving along, and there would be kind of an irritated voice that said, recalculating.

We'd gotten off track.

So we're driving along, mmm, recalculating.

The path we were on, we need to get on to another path.

Our default GPS is not set for heaven, folks.

It's set for heaven's awful alternative.

And yet there is a way to recalculate.

It's called conversion, it's called new life, it's called receiving the offer of salvation, it's called coming to the cross, to the cross, where our Savior died.

And it's not just that a noble man died an ignoble death.

That's not what the cross is all about.

A sinless man died for your sins and for mine.

Our substitute.

When he died on the cross, he who knew no sin took my sins and your sins upon him that we might receive forgiveness and new life.

But that change has to take place.

So we can't just talk about the one without the other.

We have to recalculate and turn and get back on the path.

And there's a way which seems right to us that leads to death, and Jesus is the only way to heaven.

Ultimately, hell is the final destination that people by our lives and by our actions ourselves choose.

We, uh one person put it this way, there are only two kinds of people, C.

S.

Lewis, the fourth evangelist, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and C.

S.

Lewis, kind of in my Bible.

C.

S.

Lewis.

There are only two kinds of people in the end, those who say to God, Thy will be done, or those to whom God says, Thy will be done.

Have it your way.

Yeah, do it your way.

I'll do it my way.

There's a way which seems right that leads to death.

And God says, if that's what you want, that's what you get.

I offer you something different.

I offer you life.

Receive the gift of life.

And that's a change of our destinations that we need to be very aware of.

We're talking about something that raises questions in our minds.

It raises questions in my mind.

It raises questions throughout the ages.

Is it fair?

Is God just to condemn sin?

People.

We don't possibly have the 23 hours it would take to give an appropriate lecture of the justice of God today.

Let me just say a couple of things.

The idea of judgment is for us offensive in our culture, in our time.

We just shy away from it.

That's just who we are.

We would much prefer to think of God as kind of a celestial and sanctified Santa Claus, a jolly old man who just kind of chuckles in his belly like a bowl full of jelly and all of that kind of stuff, who just, you know, kind of looks at us and says, Oh, that's okay.

I just love you so much that I'll just ignore all of the sins.

That is not a God of the scriptures.

That is not.

You see, justice finds its understanding in righteousness, in just judgment, justice, and the character of who God is.

There's an Old Testament character that I would encourage you just to write down the reference.

1 Samuel chapter 2, verses 12 and following, in the Old Testament.

1 Samuel 2:12

Just a story, a true story of a priest in the Old Testament, a priest of God by the name of Eli.

Eli was an elderly priest.

He was the one where Samuel, the young boy Samuel, heard God's voice and came under the influence of Eli.

Eli had at the time two adult children, and they were despicable rascals.

Now, you're not allowed to say such things in today's world.

That is the way they are portrayed in the scriptures.

They abused the offerings, the offerings which God's people brought.

They insisted that they themselves, as priests, the two sons of Eli, get the best offerings, and they took them for themselves.

They benefited themselves through the sacrifices of God's people, and they made a mockery of God and his sacrifices.

Now, how did their father Eli respond?

He responded just the way I hope God would respond to my sins.

Oh no, I've heard a bad report about you.

Read the story.

It's absolutely incredible.

What's this I hear?

I hear a bad report.

Oh no, that's not good, my sons.

Why are you doing that?

That's the extent of Eli's response.

That was not the extent of God's response to Eli's sons.

He put them to death because God is righteous, and they were abusing God and God's people.

They were miscarriage of all that they were called to do, and God did not tolerate that.

God is not like doting Eli, a Santa Claus, and oh, it's okay, don't worry about it.

This doesn't fit well into our thinking today.

I mean, how dare, how dare tell someone that they're sinners going to hell?

How, I mean.

We want everybody to win, right?

Have a junior soccer league?

All of the kids on the team get an award.

They get an award.

You just couldn't possibly say to Johnny, you know, you're a really lousy forward.

I don't think you ought to be on the team.

You you wouldn't do that.

You might you might hurt the gentle ego of a child.

So we don't say things that people don't want.

So if we if we can't even culturally bring ourselves to not give an award to everyone on a team, then how are we prepared to understand a God who loves us enough to tell us the truth?

How would you like to go to an oncologist who knew you had stage 57 cancer and didn't tell you the truth?

Do we want a God like that?

Something within me wants a God like that.

That's not who God is.

It's very interesting.

Uh when we have been offended, transgressed against, then we want justice.

If somebody's been been gossiping about me, spreading rumors about me, malicious rumors, things that are not true.

Now there's bad things about me that could be said and could be spread, but I'm talking about when I've been unjustly gossiped about.

My name, my motives, my reputation have been drawn through the mud.

What do I want?

By golly, I want justice.

I want the record set straight.

I want my name to be cleared.

Don't you?

The interesting thing is when the the tables are turned and I have inappropriately spoken or gossiped about or demeaned, uh diminished someone else, and I realize that.

What do I want?

I want some grace.

Cut me some slack, would you please?

I'm just a fallen, broken person.

How interesting.

When we're offended, we want justice.

When we're the offenders, we want mercy.

That's just the nature of our fallen humanity.

The fact of the matter is that justice and judgment are rooted in God's character, and justice and mercy, both of which are characteristics of God, and they are met in perfect unity in the cross.

Romans chapter 3, verse 22 to 26.

Romans 3:22–26

And it's in the middle of Paul's lengthy theological, wonderful description and explanation of the gospel of sin and righteousness and judgment and God's work.

And basically he deals in those verses.

Romans chapter 3, verses 22 to 24, 26.

Romans 3:22–24

Says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We get that.

I think we get that.

We need to get that.

You've sinned, I've sinned, we fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3, 20.

Did I say Romans 6?

Romans 3.

And are justified by his grace.

Down to verse 26, talking about the blood of Christ on the cross, redemption.

This was to show his God's righteousness, so that he, God, might be seen to be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Now that is cast in Paul's theological terminology.

But what that means is that on the cross, God dealt rightly with the sin of those who avail themselves of Christ's death.

He doesn't just just dismiss our sins, he deals with them.

And he who knew no sin, Christ, who had no sin, was sinless, took the punishment and the penalty and the righteous wrath of God against our, against sin, and bore it himself.

He who knew no sin became our substitute, became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

So God could not not punish sin.

He's righteous, he's just, and justice and righteousness are right.

We wouldn't want an unjust, unfair God.

Our whole sense of rightness goes ultimately to the character of God.

But what God has done has found a way to be both just and to forgive those who don't deserve forgiveness, because the sins of those who don't deserve forgiveness have been placed upon Christ.

So he's just in punishing Christ, who had no sin, because he's taking our sin.

That we, by grace through faith, may receive that gift, and justice and mercy come perfectly and gloriously together on the cross.

It's really good news.

It's a glorious, glorious tale.

All right, let's move to what is known in Scriptures as the great white throne judgment.

I'd like to have you turn to Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 through 15.

Revelation 20:11–15

Let me just read it for you.

There's a whole series of future judgments.

When we started looking at the uh at resurrection, we said, you know, there's this understandable misunderstanding that there's just one resurrection, that great getting up morning where everybody's going to be raised all at the same time.

And that's just not the way the Bible portrays it.

It says, all shall rise, but each in their own order.

And in a similar way, the judgments of God, there is not just one judgment day, there are multiple judgments, future judgments of various kinds.

But this is talking about the last judgment, the great white throne judgment.

And it receives its name for what is said here.

Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 through 15.

Revelation 20:11–15

John, in the revelation that God gave him, says, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it.

From this his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for him.

So great was his majesty.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.

Now, let me say something here.

This comes after the millennium and before the new heaven and the new earth that we talked about.

That's when it happens chronologically.

It's the last event in the present phase of heaven and earth.

And you'll notice in the next chapter 21, verse 1, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

This is the last event in this phase of heaven and earth.

And in this unbelievers of all ages.

This is not a judgment to which believers are subjected.

The judgment of believers' sin was done on the cross.

Because of that, we said it two weeks ago as clearly as I know how to say it.

According to what Paul says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because Christ has borne the punishment of their sins.

There's no condemnation.

We have been freed from the law of sin and death as a result of what Christ has done, not as a result of what we have done.

This is a judgment, what we're reading here, the great white throne judgment, of non-believers of all ages, and I don't just mean minors and those who are over 21 or something, of all throughout the centuries.

The only people who appear here are those who have been raised, according to John 5, 29, to a resurrection of judgment.

And we are not raised, if you know Christ, to a resurrection of judgment.

This is talking about the people who ultimately and finally do not avail themselves of the author, of the offer of forgiveness.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and then another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, the book of works, their works, the books containing an account of all of their sin, all of their waywardness.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead who were in it, and they were judged, each of them, according to what they had done.

If we were judged according to what we had done, then we would be, we would get the just desserts, what we deserve.

By grace through faith, you don't have to get what you deserve.

This is an account of those who do get what they deserve.

We get what we don't deserve because of the blood of Christ.

Christ got what we deserve, and that was just because God could condemn sin and punish a righteous substitute, and we can be free.

Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire.

Now listen, anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

So there's a picture of a judgment.

When we put this together with the rest of Scripture, this is a bringing before the throne, a great white throne, those who have been resurrected out of the grave to a judgment of condemnation.

John 5, 29.

My friends, I would rather not talk about a resurrection to judgment.

That's an unwelcome reality.

But it's true.

But those whose names were written in the book of life, the Lamb's Book of Life, are the ones whose sins have been forgiven as they have received the benefit of Christ's work on the cross by grace through faith.

Let me just suggest what's going on here.

Books, the book of works are opened, and the unbelieving dead are judged on the basis of their own works.

Believers will not experience that judgment.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

For that which the flesh could not do, God has done through the cross.

Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Here's some of the things that are described in other texts that describe what this kind of condemnation looks like.

The adjectives that are used of what the final destination of those who are lost, what the experience is, is trouble.

Oh, we got trouble.

Right here in River City.

We got trouble.

Distress?

You think you've been under distress?

Not even close.

Not even close.

Anger, wrath, eternal fire, punishment, destruction, shut out from God's presence, a fire that does not go out, a worm that consumes but does not die.

Darkness, gnashing of teeth.

Write these verses down.

Study them this afternoon instead of watching the Vikings game.

Or record the Vikings game and watch it later.

We don't have time to turn to all of it.

This is the way it is described of what the ultimate destination is of those who are without Christ.

What I would like to do is to help you envision what in the world does this look like?

What in the world does this look like?

Can you imagine what that must be like?

Well, not completely, not perfectly.

You know, it was interesting.

C.S.

Lewis, uh one of my favorite dead guys, um, in much of his writings used used fiction to help us understand something about Aslan's country and and and all helping us get in touch with some things about which the Bible speaks.

And this is kind of, here's what it might look like in a fictional sense.

We need to allow our imaginations to take what we know from Scripture and make it real for us.

And what I would like to do is to read a section of a book written by Randy Elcorn.

He's the one who wrote that big thick book on heaven that I've recommended many times.

In addition to all of those citations of biblical truth and explanations, worth every moment you would spend in it.

Randy Elkorn has also done what C.S.

Lewis did, and that's write some fiction.

And what I'm going to read to you is just fiction.

It is not the gospel truth.

But it is Randy Elkhorn's best understanding of what this might be like.

And it probably will not be exactly like this, but try to imagine.

Because this ought to break our hearts.

So I'm going to read from his book, Deadline, and we'll basically conclude with this.

It's an account, a fictional account of one of the main characters in this book.

He was a physician.

He had spent his entire life belittling believers and their futile bumbling attempts to share the gospel with them.

Anyone ever have bumbling attempts to share the gospel?

And people look down on you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Had made it sure that when he died he would not have to deal with those obnoxious, narrow-minded believers.

And now, 6.06 a.m.

on October 28th, Doc, he's a physician, exited his temporary residence, his body.

He was out of his body, which meant he was dead.

He realized in a flash, a flash of insight, that he had been wrong all of these years in thinking that life ended with death.

It does not, my friends.

He said there was no soul, but a soul was exactly what he was and had been all along.

He had not ceased to exist.

This new world, if indeed he had arrived there, and he was desperately hopeful that he had not, this new world did not seem unreal, but more real than the old world.

A sickening feeling of foreboding gripped him.

He was unprepared for this realm, and it was too late to prepare.

Doc looked around uneasily, trying to get his bearings.

Where were the others?

He could see or hear no one.

A flood of proud and confident words from the past rushed over him.

The party where he had said, I'd rather be in hell with intelligent people than in heaven with a bunch of Christians.

The times he'd quoted Mark Twain, quote, It's heaven for atmosphere, but hell for company.

His retort to his friend Finney, I'd rather be anywhere with anyone than to be with a herd of narrow-minded fundamentalists and their narrow-minded God.

Where was everybody?

Where was everybody?

Doc had never felt so utterly alone.

He was waiting for someone to come, a citizen of this realm, to orient him, to explain the ground rules, the boundaries, and the opportunities of this world.

There was an invisible fence.

He could sense it.

A limiting wall that could not be penetrated, an iron curtain locking him in, preventing any escape.

This was confinement, much worse.

It was solitary confinement, and he hoped it would only be temporary.

The aloneness became stifling.

He could hear nothing, feel nothing, see nothing, sense nothing.

He only had himself.

He considered the unthinkable that this was not a phase, a transition, but was a final destination.

This was hell, or at least the beginning of hell.

He felt a burning, a fury welling up inside him, anger and bitterness, unfocused hostility, frustration leading him to lash out.

There was no one to lash out to.

No incompetent nurses, no demented patients, no Christian.

Bigots, no wife, no children.

There was no audience to convince that he was being treated unfairly, no one to cower in fear of the power of his great athletic ability, the scholar, his renowned skill as a doctor.

No one.

The pain began to sink in deeper, creating a desperate desire for relief.

It was a pain far worse than anything he had ever felt before.

Doc thought about all the times he had loosely used the word hell.

I had a hell of a day in surgery.

Jake and I raised hell that weekend in Miami.

No, this was hell.

All else paled in comparison.

And this was only the first hour of hell, and there was no calendar to check off the days until the sentence was finished.

How could he endure even one day, much less an eternal light?

Night, how long would tomorrow be?

He could not bear to think of it.

Already his last shred of hope was fleeting from him.

He panicked.

He had lived by goals and aspirations and hopes, but there was no room for any of these here.

He had lived by a pursuit of excellence.

There was no excellence to pursue.

Here there was nothing.

Where were the great people?

There were no great people.

Here no people at all.

All the company of the damned with whom to commiserate and strategize as an escape, like in all of those prison movies.

Commiseration is one of the desirable elements of suffering, and he had nothing desirable here, no camaraderie.

Alone.

Suddenly he heard a sound, a terrible sound, so awful it proved him wrong when he'd thought that any sound would be welcome here.

It was an almost human sound, but more like an animal writhing in agony, the sound of moaning, building to a horrible scream.

It went on and on, torturing him in its only consolation the fact that someone or someone else must be here with him.

Suddenly he realized the terrible truth.

That scream was his.

He was alone, and there would be no more comfort in the city of Scream.

The animal nature of it shocked him.

In his mind's eye, from what source he did not know, he could now see a coming day.

He saw a great kingdom, a thousand-year reign of unparalleled peace on earth.

And at the end of that thousand years, he could see a parade.

No, not a parade, a march.

A march of criminals, prisoners of an oppressive government, champions of freedom, unjustly accused, going one by one in front of a great white throne.

He could see himself marching along with the many others, each to stand before a terrible judge, a tyrant, a despot.

Doc saw many ordinary people.

No one seemed to recognize him.

He didn't stand out from the crowd.

He was just another person.

No one cared.

Every mind was driven inward and its own plan to deny or escape or accuse or blame someone else for its choices, but no denial would work.

For Doc could see great books being opened, books that had accurately logged every thought, every word, every deed.

The books were what would determine his future, and he realized they contained adulteries, lies, betrayals of his wife and children, neglect and failure to guide them into truth, into integrity.

But he had given them plenty of material things that should more than compensate, he was sure, if the judge was fair.

Doc would defend himself before the court of heaven.

He would appeal to the jury or the jury of his peers, if only, and they would be won over by his eloquence.

They would let him off.

But as he looked around, he couldn't locate a jury anywhere, only a judge.

There was one book besides these other books.

It was written in a strange language.

Somehow he could read it, the Lamb's Book of Life.

It contained the names of people who were as guilty as all of the others, but would be pardoned because they had bowed their knee to the one who had been slain for their crimes.

Doc could see many names in that book, names of people from every nation, a few people names he recognized.

Why were those names there, and others not?

That was intolerable discrimination.

The most frightening thing in the scene that ran through his mind was people bowing their knees before the one who sat on the throne.

The sheer power and magnitude of the judge seemed to fall upon him.

Every knee bowed, not out of repentance or loving submission, but out of the inability to bear the weight of judgment laid upon them.

Doc shuddered at the thought of his knee touching the ground before such a tyrant.

No, he would not allow it.

And yet many mighty men further in the line were falling on their knees.

The thought of suicide came to him.

I'll end this.

I'll just cheat death and hell.

He had no tool with which to harm himself, nor did his body, though seeming, though capable of great suffering, seem capable of being harmed.

Thirst without water to quench it, hunger without food to satisfy it, loneliness without company to assuage it.

There is no God here.

He had gotten his wish.

I find that deeply disturbing.

And it's just fiction.

But it's an effort of someone who knows the scriptures better than I do to say, I wonder what it would be like.

A couple of thoughts by way of conclusion.

The reality of hell should break our hearts.

The reality of hell should take us to our knees.

The reality of hell should take us to the doors of those without Christ.

This is real, my friends.

This is real.

This need not be your destination.

I have no idea.

I have no idea where everybody's at in this congregation this morning.

I only see on the outside.

I only see what you let me see.

And even if I could see your heart, I couldn't judge it properly.

It's just not up to me to do.

But what I want to say is if you take this seriously, there's a couple of possible responses.

One is to bow down in praise and adoration and shout hallelujah and be a bit of a fanatic and say, Thank God for Jesus Christ.

He died for me.

My sin is placed on him.

I receive the gift of salvation.

He has given that to me.

It's all his doing.

It's not mine.

It's not because my good deeds outweighed my bad deeds.

It's all because of God's grace.

Grace, God's riches at Christ's expense.

G-R-A-C-E, God's riches at Christ's expense that we get the benefit of.

And if you know Christ, well, this ought to drive us to our knees.

It ought to drive us to our knees both in prayer for those on the outside and in praise for a God who saves anyone.

The question is not, how could a just God send anyone to hell?

The question is, how could a just God send anyone to heaven?

Because all are lost in sinners.

All are lost in sinners.

This need not be your final destination.

God has done everything for us.

We do nothing for him in regards to this matter of salvation and our sins.

He has done everything for us.

If you do not, honestly, in the quietness of your own heart, if you do not, and you know you don't, if you've not really trusted Christ, I'm not saying if you're not a perfect the question is not, are you a perfect person?

No, you're a sinner.

But if you have not availed yourself of the gift of grace and you know it, I would just beg you as your pastor, as a friend, I would just beg you to respond, not to me, but to Christ, to the offer of salvation that he gives.

You see, we'll get what we want.

And if you want salvation, if you want salvation, it's there.

And I would encourage you and urge you and plead with you to respond.

Can we pray together?

Heavenly Father, I do not know where people are at.

I don't pretend to.

But I know what you have said.

And we want to stand under the truth of what you have said.

You've given us a way out.

You've given us life.

You've offered that to us.

It's a gift.

The wages of sin, what we deserve, the wages, is death.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.

Father, if there is anyone here this morning who needs to do business with you, not with me, but needs to just say, oh God, I am so messed up.

I'm going my own way.

I'm going in a path of destruction, it seems right, but the end, oh Lord, you've had mercy on me.

I pray, Father, that if anyone here needs to receive that gift, that free gift, that they would do that.

I'm just going to give a simple prayer, and if this expresses the desire and the intention and the thoughts of your heart, then silently pray it along with me.

Oh, Father, I'm a mess.

I am in such a desperate shape.

I can't do it.

I am messing up my life.

I am hurting those around me that I love.

I'm hurting you because you've done everything for me.

Lord Jesus, I trust you.

I trust you.

Lord Jesus, I receive the gift.

I reach out and embrace it.

That's what I want.

And I do that now.

There's so much I don't understand, but I understand that I'm in desperate need.

And I understand that you're a savior.

You seek and save messed up people like me.

Oh Lord, by your grace, I receive that gift right now.

By grace through faith.

Let me ask you to rise and receive the benediction.

Go into the world in peace.

I beg you, go into the world in peace.

Have courage.

Hold on to that which is good and honor all men.

Strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the suffering, restore the wandering, comfort the grieving, and share the gospel.

And may the love and grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us.

Amen.

And God bless.

You dismiss.