#8 - Do We Have To Talk About Hell?

Show Notes:

Should we talk about hell with an unbeliever? 

• Let’s always answer questions with the Bible as much as possible. 

– John 16:7-11 

Jesus, on the night He was betrayed told His disciples about the coming ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom He called the Helper, or some translations that Comforter. 

John 16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 

v. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 

v. 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 

v. 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 

v. 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 

–Jesus said that one of the 3 main subjects that the Holy Spirit was in the world to convince the world about was coming judgment. 

–Jesus talked about Hell far more than He talked about Heaven. 

–We only have one conclusion we can draw as to why He did that – Hell is real and Jesus didn’t want people to go there. 

• I take great comfort out of the Bible Truth that God is Holy – He only, always does the right thing. He has to, He is Holy, Perfect. He cannot do wrong.  

– While the truth that His holiness causes separation between us and God is a painful realization to most people, there is a bit of comfort found in that truth as well. 

–The distance between me and God isn’t caused by lack of desire or love on His part. It’s caused by my sin and His Holy nature. My sin separates me from Him. 

• The Bible Truth of God’s Just Nature is also eye opening for most people.  

– 1st lets define Justice – God doesn’t play favorites. Some of us think of God as a doting Grandfather. Maybe we imagine him patting us on the head and say, I know you’ve sinned, but I know you’ve done the best you can so I’m going to let you into heaven anyway. That’s not the way the Bible describes what is going to happen. 

–Justice – God must Judge everyone by the same standard. He is a perfectly just judge! 

–What is the standard He uses to deal with us – The wages of sin is death Romans 6:23 

–What does that look like, because even people going to heaven die physically. 

–We’ll look at that in just a minute, but let’s 1st take a look at a picture of God’s Judgment. Matthew 25:41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ 

I like to say this is a good news / bad news verse 

The Good News is that God doesn’t want humans to go to into this eternal fire. He prepared it for the devil and his angels. God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2Pet 3:9 

The bad news is that some people – Here it is those on His left – have to go to this place of eternal fire. I love to look at my friend and say, “Bill, if I were you, I’d want to know who those people are.” 

–In the last book of the Bible God gi