Greg, Lori, and Harvest Ministries would like to send you the movie Unsung Hero, the backstory of the music group for King & Country. It's a story of a mom and a dad and their seven kids putting their faith into action. You're going to be deeply moved by this story of the amazing small-boned family that have gone on to impact so many through their music, and we are offering this film to you for your gift of any size.
Get the DVD and digital download of Unsung Hero at Harvest.org. Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Lori podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Lori, encouraging you.
If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to Harvest.org. Good afternoon. Let's pray together. Father, we're glad to be in Your house with Your people, about to open up Your Word, because Your Word is truth, and we live in a world and in a culture that's filled with half-truth and outright lies, how we need truth and clarity so we can see this world as You see it, so we can see through a biblical lens. So we're asking You now to speak to us as we open up this scripture, and we commit this time of Bible study to You now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You can all be seated. Hello everybody.
Hello Harvest Riverside, Harvest Kumulani, all of you watching Harvest at Home, at Harvest online, our other media outlets, and I want you to grab your Bible and turn to Revelation chapter 20. We are in a new series that we are calling Hot Button Issues. So I'm sure I'm going to say something in this message that will offend someone, because these are hot button issues. The title of my message is How Could a God of Love Send Someone to Hell? So a number of years ago I was preaching, I was standing at the back door meeting people, and some guy comes up to me and shakes my hand and says, that was a hell of a message, Pastor. I'm like, uh, okay.
Is this your first time here? I was kind of hoping it would be more of a heaven of a message, but I think in his way he was trying to compliment me, but there's that word hell, you know. And sometimes people will say, I don't like these hellfire and brimstone preachers. Now if by that you mean someone standing on a street corner with a sign, with a slogan, you're going to burn in hell with flames added for effect, I would be with you. But frankly, I can't remember the last time I heard a hellfire and brimstone message. And by that I mean, I can't remember the last time I heard someone actually preach on the topic of hell.
So that's what I want to talk about. Now I'm not suggesting we're going to do this every Sunday, all hell, all the time at Harvest, right? But I'm not going to run from a subject because it's uncomfortable or because we have a misunderstanding of it. It's worth considering that Jesus Christ, who is the very personification of love, spoke more about hell than all the other preachers in the Bible put together.
Why? Because the last thing God wants is for anyone to go to this place. So I'm going to answer the question, how could a God of love send someone to hell?
And I'm also going to answer the question, how can you say as Christians that Jesus is the only way to God? How can you say that? That's so narrow-minded. That's so intolerant. That's so unloving. And all religions teach the same thing.
Okay, we'll address all of those issues together. In fact, the most loving thing I could do is talk about judgment if a person doesn't know God. Let me illustrate. Let's say I was walking down the street in your neighborhood and your house was on fire and you didn't know it.
So I called out and you came to the door and I said, nice flower bed, then I just kept walking. Now, it might be nice, it might be loving, it might be considerate, I've actually said, oh, by the way, your house is on fire, right? So this is the kind of thing we're dealing with here. We need to help people and this brings me to point number one. When we come to this topic, and really any topic, we need to look at it biblically, not emotionally. For some reason, there are some subjects that we have more of an emotional reaction to than others.
And this probably would be one of them. So we need to think biblically. A poll by the Pew Research Center revealed that people define heaven and hell as follows. Heaven is a place where people who have lived good lives are eternally rewarded and hell is a place where people who have lived bad lives will die and be eternally punished.
What's wrong? So that means the vast majority of people have a false view of heaven and hell. Heaven is not created for people who have lived good lives. Heaven is for forgiven people, not good people.
And that's good news for all of us, right? And even on our best day, we're nowhere close to being good enough for heaven. It's for forgiven people, and hell is a place where people who have lived bad lives will die. Listen, it's a place that's not even created for people. According to Jesus, hell was created for the devil and his angels.
It's not something that God wants to send any person to, and I'll explain that more in just a few moments. We've made hell a joke when it's no laughing matter. I mean, we punctuate our sentences, as I mentioned earlier, with references to hell. For instance, if something is going wrong, people will say, all hell broke loose.
If you had a great time, we had a hell of a good time, we'll say. If you're mad at someone, you can just go to hell. Then the funny thing is some of the people who tell others to go to hell don't believe hell exists. So what are you really saying? You can just go to a place that doesn't even exist.
Doesn't have quite the impact now, does it? There's actually a place in Michigan named Hell. That's the city, Hell, Michigan. And the way that came about is in 1841, George Reeves, an early settler, found this little swampy area, and he bought it, and they were going to build a town there, and they said, what do you want to name the town?
He says, I don't care. Call it Hell if you want, and they did. Hell Michigan. So if you want to go to hell, I guess you could go there. But hell's real, as is heaven. And there is an afterlife.
G.I. Packer, a theologian, said, quote, an endless hell can no more be removed from the New Testament than an endless heaven can. Yes, there is an afterlife, and we need to think about it carefully, because we're all going to enter it maybe sooner than we thought.
And we decide in this life where we will spend the afterlife. Keanu Reeves, very successful actor, the Matrix series, John Wick series, did an interview recently and he made an interesting statement. He said, I'm 59, so I'm thinking about death all of the time. I think thinking about death is good. Hopefully it's not crippling, but hopefully it sensitized us to an appreciation of the breath we have and the relationships we have the potential to have, end quote. Very true.
He's on the right track. Every thinking person should be thinking about the afterlife. In ancient times, there was a phrase, we still see it today, memento mori, which means think of death. They would put it on tombstones. They would sometimes write it over a financial document. So you'd be saying, look how much money I have, but then written over your document was memento mori, which means you're gonna leave this money.
This money's gonna leave you. So think of death not in a morbid way, but in a way that will bring perspective to your life because only those who are prepared to die are really prepared to live. So Keanu's thinking about it.
Everyone should think about it. Now there's a lot of misinformation about hell, ranging from hell being a big party being ruled over by a cartoon caricature called Satan. Let me tell you a few things about the devil. He doesn't have red skin. He doesn't have pointed ears. He doesn't have a tail.
He doesn't have a pitchfork, and he doesn't have hooves. That's the caricature of Satan. Here's another thing, maybe, I don't know if you knew this or not, the devil does not live in hell.
Hell is created for the devil. Ultimately, Satan is going to be sent to hell, but he doesn't rule from hell from some fiery throne. The Bible calls him the prince of the power of the air. He's just kinda moving around, as Peter describes him like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. In the book of Job, the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan was among them, and the Lord said to Lucifer, what have you been doing?
He said, just walking around, roaming around, watching everything that's going on. In the book of Revelation, we're told he knows his time is short. That's why it seems like the devil is working overtime right now. The Bible says in the last days there'll be satanically energized times, and we can all see it before our very eyes, can't we? So he doesn't rule from hell.
He's going to be sent to hell. Now we hear of demons, where do demons come from? Well, demons are fallen angels.
Satan, the devil, Lucifer, was once a high-ranking angelic being, but he rebelled against God, and he took one third of the angels with him, who now are fallen angels, also known as demons. These are the principalities and powers that the Bible tells us about. So the devil has limitations. He can only be in one place at one time, in contrast to God, who's omnipresent, who can be everywhere all at once. The devil is not all-powerful. He has certain power, considerable power, but it's limited.
God is omnipotent, which means he has unlimited power. The devil has certain knowledge, though he doesn't know everything, he knows some things. God is omniscient, meaning he knows all things, and hell is not a party. It's a place of utter darkness. It's a place of isolation.
It's a place that nobody wants to end up in. You know, more than half of the 40 parables that Jesus told deal with eternal judgment and hell, so it's something we should pay attention to. Now I know years ago, John Lennon famously saying, imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try. No hell below you, above you only sky. Well, you can imagine all you want, hell is real, and now let's see what the Bible says about it. Revelation 20, let's look at it together. Some of you are thinking, I should have skipped church today. Well, you're here.
I think it's gonna be okay, you'll see. So this is a description of the final judgment for all mankind. I would add only non-believers will be present at the judgment we're gonna read about here. Revelation 20, verse 11, John writes, then I saw a great white throne in him that sat on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were open.
You might underline the word books, plural, more than one, and another book was open, you might underline that, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death in Hades delivered up the dead that were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death in Hades were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death. Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So we start with a great white throne.
It's great because of its awesome power and ultimate purpose, and the purpose of that great white throne is judgment, and here we stand before God. Now what happens to a non-believer when they die? A non-believer goes to Hades, and over in Luke chapter 16, Jesus told an interesting story. It could be perceived as a parable, a parable is an illustration, not necessarily a true story, but just an illustration built on things people were familiar with. Parables were like earthly stories with heavenly meanings, but in this particular account, he uses a name in his story. He talks about Lazarus and a rich man, therefore we don't think it's a parable.
In other words, this is a behind-the-scenes peek at what happens on the other side. We have two men dying on the same day. One man is Lazarus, he's impoverished.
He's living off the table scraps of the rich man who is selfish and self-absorbed and is living an evil life. So they both die. So we have the picture of a believer and a non-believer dying, and everyone dies.
Death is no respecter of persons. Believers as well as non-believers get cancer. They have auto accidents. They have heart attacks. They die.
We all die. But Lazarus, the believer, goes straight into the presence of God at death in this story Jesus told. Luke 16, 22, so the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.
The rich man died and was buried. So when a believer dies in contrast to a non-believer, you are ushered into the presence of God by an angel. I find that comforting, don't you? You wonder what happened to my level when the angel escorted them to heaven.
That is an awesome escort. Sixteen years ago my son left this life and went into the afterlife after an automobile accident and I believe that he was escorted by an angel. You know angels are very involved in your life.
Every single day, but you are probably not even aware of what they are doing. Sometimes people ask do we have guardian angels. I don't know with certainty, but I think maybe we do. But if we don't have a guardian angel, maybe we have worn out a few of them, I don't know. But if we don't have a guardian angel, we have angels actively involved.
The Bible says the angel of the Lord surrounds those that fear Him. Sometimes they guide us. Sometimes they stop us. They protect us. They are involved. They are sort of like Navy Seals.
You don't know what they did, but they just get the job done, right? That is angels. They are sort of like God's secret agents. So they are guiding us through life.
They are protecting us. And then one day they fulfill their final task, which is escorting us into God's presence. And so Lazarus dies and goes into the presence of the Lord, but now the non-believer dies on the same day. He also goes to this place called Hades. Okay so Hades, this is all prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus, was where all people went and it had a comfort section and a torment section.
Or another way to put it, smoking and non-smoking, right? So if you were a believer, you went into the comfort section of Hades into Abraham's bosom and the care of Abraham. And if you were a non-believer, you went into the torment section and in this vivid account that Jesus gave in Luke 16, we see the man in the torment section saying, I want to cross over.
Send me some water to cool my tongue. It's a really scary scenario laid before us. So once Christ died on the cross, he went to heaven and now that's where every Christian goes. Remember when Jesus was crucified and the criminal next to him said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus said, truly, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. So what happens to a Christian when they die? Now we go straight to heaven.
We don't go to the comfort section of Hades. We go straight to heaven into the presence of God as the apostle Paul says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So the moment you take your last breath on earth, you take your first breath in heaven. You close your eyes on earth. You open them in heaven and it's just like that.
Just like a flash. And Paul writes also, I wanted to part and be with Christ, which is far better. Far better. Heaven's way better than earth. And the words that he uses can be translated far, far better. Or as they would say in Hawaii, mobeta bra, right?
It's mobeta. Way better. Think of the purest joy on earth. Try it a thousand times and you get a fleeting glimpse of heaven's euphoria.
Of heaven the Bible says, in his presence there is fullness of joy and in his right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Point number five, only nonbelievers will stand at the great white throne judgment. So death and Hades deliver up the dead that were in them. So the nonbeliever goes to this place of Hades, this difficult section, torment section if you will. Now they come to the great white throne judgment. And you're judged from the books, plural. What are these books? No one knows. So I'll just make a bunch of stuff up.
No not really. This is based on other scriptures. Maybe one of those books is a book of God's law. You know the commandments of God that we've broken. Imagine if every time you broke a commandment it was recorded in a book.
That'd be a big book, right? And the Bible says God gave us the law that every mouth would be stopped and all the world would be guilty before God. Maybe one of those books is a record of every time you heard the gospel and rejected it. Because some people would probably say hold on now I never heard this. I never heard someone say I needed to believe in Jesus. Well actually you did.
And here's a record of all those times you heard it throughout your childhood and you rejected it. I don't know with any certainty. But then if you're not found written in the book of life you're cast into the lake of fire. If you're a Christian your name is written in the book of life.
That's the good news, right? But what about these people that don't have their name written in the book of life? They are sent to ultimate judgment. How could a God of love send someone to hell?
Simple answer. God doesn't send anyone to hell. God wants you in heaven but he's not going to force you against your will. He's not going to say get up to heaven right now young man. I don't care if you like it you're going to heaven now. You don't want to go to heaven you don't have to go to heaven. And there are many that don't want to.
G.I. Packer a great theologian said scripture sees hell as self chosen. Hell appears as God's gesture of respect for human choice. All will receive what they actually choose. To be with God forever worshiping him or without God forever worshiping themselves end quote.
C.S. Lewis put it this way and I quote there are only two kinds of people in the end those who say to God thy will be done and those to whom God says in the end thy will be done. All are in hell because they choose it. Without that self choice there could be no hell end quote. It's your choice. So don't say God sends people there.
You send your self there. The gates of hell are locked from the inside. If you want to go to heaven then you choose to follow Jesus Christ.
And he shows you how to do it. So I have to tell you what the Bible says. Because to promise heaven and not warn of hell is not giving the whole gospel. You say well what if I want to spend eternity in heaven. Well then go the way God tells you to go. Let's say that you said hey Greg I want to go visit Harvest Riverside.
Ok great. How do I get there? Alright well you get on the 55. You get on the 91. And then you go up to Riverside and there is a little off ramp called Adams. You pull off in Adams and you will wait there for maybe 10 minutes. Because I don't know why it's a really long light.
And then it goes green and it's red again. So then you keep going up and it intersects with Arlington. Adams and Arlington. That's where our church is.
You can't miss it. Yeah you know I don't really agree with that. What do you mean? I don't agree. I think all roads lead to harvest.
What are you insane? I just told you how to get there. No I think it's in San Diego.
Actually it isn't. Well we are going to go to San Diego and look for it. Have fun there.
You are not going to find what you are looking for. Or it would be like buying an electric car. And so you pull into the gas station. And people have done this. I have seen videos of people trying to put gas in Teslas. I am not making this up. And so you are looking for a place to put the gas. There is nowhere to put it. First of all that is dangerous because I could be on fire.
How do I say it? So well I don't agree with that. I don't think that this should run on electricity or a battery. I think it should run. Think whatever you want.
It was designed to be plugged in and charged and run on a battery. And this is the way you do it. But then we will come to God and we will say well I don't believe that Jesus is the only way to God. Why do you Christians say Jesus is the only way to God? Well technically it was Jesus that said it.
So we are simply repeating what He said. And Jesus said, I think all of us know this verse, John 14 says, we could say it together I am sure. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father but by me or through me. You have probably noticed in our Harvest Crusades we have that scripture on the front of the platform and we have been doing that for years because my feeling was when someone comes to the Crusade it is like a statement. This is what this is all about.
This is what we are going to talk to you about. So Jesus said that to all of us. The Bible says there is one God, one mediator between God and man and it is a man Christ Jesus. Peter preached and said there is salvation found in no other name under heaven by which a man can be saved.
So there it is. Why do we say it? Because Jesus said it. Seventy percent of Americans believe many religions can lead to eternal life and strangely and wrongly 56 percent of so-called evangelical Christians say there are many paths to God apart from Jesus Christ.
Okay. They are wrong. A biblical Christian who understands what scripture says would go with what Jesus said. Well that is so intolerant. That is so narrow-minded.
I believe all roads lead to God. I believe all religions teach the same thing. If someone says that to you that is their way of saying, hi, I am completely ignorant. Because any look even a casual glance at the religions of the world would clearly show they don't all teach the same thing at all. As an example Christians believe in a personal God. Buddhists are pantheistic denying the existence of a personal God. So the views just are different in every one. So don't say all religions teach the same thing.
And then there is this one. We are all children of God. No you aren't. You are not all children. I know. I am going to offend someone. I told you.
Right? Didn't I say that? You are not all children of God.
How dare you say that Greg. Well where in the Bible does it say we are all children of God? Here is what the Bible says. For as many as received Him to them He gave the power to become sons of God. I am a child of God because I believed in Jesus and I was adopted into His family. I am adopted right? I was adopted by a man named Oscar Lorry. He made me his son legally. So that is a privilege. I now can take his last name though I didn't like it as a child quite frankly. But I am fine with it now.
But you know it is a girl's name after all isn't it? So but I am adopted and the same is true when you become a believer. Now I think we could say we are all created by God. We are all made in the image of God. We are all loved by God. But we are not all children of God.
You become a child of God by believing in the Son of God who died on the cross for your sin and rose from the dead. Well I just think all roads lead to God. Really? Ok let's play that out in the real world. Let's say you boarded a flight at LAX the worst airport in America.
It actually is. It is always under construction. Never seems to improve. Traffic is always backed up forever. The worst.
Anyway I digress. Ok so you go down to LAX and you board your flight and you are taxiing down the runway and the voice of the captain comes over the intercom system. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to flight 231 with direct service to Honolulu, Hawaii. By the way folks I am not going to be using my navigational equipment today. Nor am I going to consult a map because folks I believe that all roads lead to Hawaii. Hawaii is like a speck in the middle of the ocean.
So mahalo and aloha. Get me off this plane. You are a crazy man.
What would you think of a doctor? You are going for surgery. He says I haven't read your charts. I don't know what you are dealing with. I have a little time. I have got a scalpel.
Let's do this. Wait. No no. No no no.
I want you to give attention to detail. And yet we come to God who tells us how to come into a relationship with Him and with the audacity to say I don't agree with you. Who are you to have an opinion on this topic? Who are you to argue with the Son of God? You see Jesus is the only way to God because there has never been anyone like Jesus before. He wasn't a prophet. He wasn't a guru. He was fully God and fully man. And He walked among us and He lived a perfect life.
And He died a perfect death. And with one hand He took hold of sinful humanity. And with the other hand He took hold of a holy God. And nails were pounded into those ends and He died for our sin. That is why Christ and Christ alone is the only one who can connect us to the Father in heaven. That is God's way. This is God's lifeline. Back to Keanu Reeves, a message with two quotes from Keanu Reeves.
How about that? He was asked in an earlier interview with the Associated Press, what are your notions of heaven and hell? Eternal damnation versus eternal bliss. Reeves said in response, well I hope I get the bliss. And I know I am going to have to work for it.
Good news for Keanu Reeves and everybody else. You don't have to work for it. It is a gift from God for everyone. The work has been done. You need to take God's offer of forgiveness and enter into a relationship with Him. Let's summarize. How could a God of love send somebody out?
He doesn't. Hell was not created for people. It was created for the devil and his angels.
You have a choice in the matter. If you reject God's provision and offer of forgiveness and end up in hell, you have no one to blame but yourself. The gates of hell are locked from the inside. Issue number two, how can you say Jesus Christ is the only way to God? To be technical, it was Jesus who said it. He is the only one uniquely qualified to bridge the gap between a holy God and sinful humanity. He died for our sins. He atoned for our sins.
He rose again from the dead and He Himself said He was the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by Him. So now we shift gears and we come to the communion part of our service. We're going to have communion together. You remember prior to His death, Jesus was in the upper room with His disciples and He took the bread and He broke it and He distributed the cup. He said this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
Now they had broken bread many times together but He had never said anything like this. This was to be what we call the Last Supper and He took that cup which is a symbol of His blood that was shed and He said this do in remembrance of me. So this was something He's asked us to do to remember His sacrifice for us on the cross.
It's really something for Christians only. So if you're a visitor today first of all welcome. Thanks for coming. Please come back.
You're more than welcome here. But if you're not a Christian yet I would suggest you not receive communion. You say but Greg why? Because it's really for believers only you see. It's only for the follower of Jesus and in fact the Bible says if you eat of this bread and drink of this cup in an unworthy manner you actually eat and drink judgment to yourself. So in a way receiving communion without believing in the one that these elements represent is an insult to God. Now we don't believe in transubstantiation meaning we don't believe that bread turns into the flesh and body of Christ nor do we believe that the grape juice is what we use here that turns into the blood of Christ. But we do believe that they represent something that is sacred the body and blood of our Lord.
So we come with an attitude of reverence and thanksgiving and even celebration for all the things that He's done for us. So here's what the apostle Paul says about receiving communion. First Corinthians 11 27 anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup in an unworthy manner is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That's why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. Examine yourself.
By the way in the original language this word examine is forcible. Like examine yourself. Take a hard look at your life and ask yourself the question am I right with God? Is there sin I am harboring? Are there things that I am doing that I should not be doing as a follower of Jesus Christ? So do an honest self-examination. Because it does not say examine other people or why are they receiving communion?
That's not your concern. You examine yourself and ask yourself am I ready to meet God? If this were my last communion service if this were my last day on earth and I were to be called home would I would I go to heaven into the presence of God or would I be eternally separated from him in hell?
You don't want to end up there. As I said earlier you decide in this life where you will spend the afterlife. So before we receive communion let me give you an opportunity to believe in Jesus. So instead of saying don't receive communion if you're not a Christian I have a better idea. Become a Christian and receive communion.
How's that sound right? How do you even do that? It's so simple. You put your faith in Christ and I'm going to lead you in a simple prayer that you can pray based on scriptural principles where you're saying Jesus I want you in my life. So listen if you're not sure that your sin is forgiven if you don't know with confidence you'll go to heaven when you die and you want Christ to come into your life I want you to pray this prayer with me. Let's all bow our heads and pray.
In fact let's just all pray it together to encourage those that might be praying it for the first time. Just pray these words Lord Jesus I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I'm sorry for my sin. I repent of my sin. I choose to follow Jesus from this moment forward as my Savior and my Lord as my God and my friend in Jesus name I pray amen. God bless you that prayed that for the first time. Hey everybody thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries follow this show and consider supporting it just go to harvest.org and to find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God.
