Final Destination (Preached: Feb. 28, 2010)

(Revelation 20:11-15)

illus. The story is told of a prisoner on death row in England. A priest was called in to minister to him, and he sat reading mildly with no conviction passages from the Bible about judgment and hell. The prisoner stopped him and said: "Sir, do you believe that those things you read are true?" The priest replied that he did. To which the prisoner said, "If I were you and I really believed that what you are reading is the truth, then I would crawl on my hands and knees over burning coals the length and breadth of England to stop just one person from going there!"

It may or may not surprise you to know that the person in the Bible who spoke the most often (and in the most graphic terms) about hell, was not one of the fiery Old-Testament prophets, or John the author of Revelation, but Jesus himself. 12 times in the gospels Jesus talks in explicit terms about hell. (More than any other single Bible person) 11 of those 12 times Jesus uses the Hebrew word 'Gehenna' to refer to the place of hell. The valley of Gehenna is a valley located on southern side of the city of Jerusalem. During the reign of some of Israel’s wicked kings, an altar to the Canaanite god, Molech, was built in the valley. The people would bring theirs sons to throw into the fires there as a horrible sacrifice to Molech. Later, during the reign of the good king Josiah, the altars to Molech were destroyed, and the valley filled in with garbage and refuse and the corpses of the wicked. It became a vast burning garbage dump – perpetually smoldering.

1. The Identity of the Judge

For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. (John 5:22-23)

ILL. There is Judge Wapner, Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, Judge Hatchett, Judge James Curtis, Judge Mills Lane, and on and on the list goes. And if that is not enough, there is an entire cable network devoted to the subject -- Court TV. The Judge on this day is Jesus Christ. The Judge of all judges.

2. The Scarcity of the Advocate

And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (1 John 2:1b-2)

When we reject Christ we also reject the One who is the "Advocate." You stand alone before God and there is no defense.

ILL. (B.C. cartoons…) Two women are sitting on a small hill. One is reading the Bible and says, “Oh, my goodness…Says here…Jesus descended into hell!” The other is shocked and says, “You’re kidding!” Then the woman with the Bible says, “Oh, no…Not to stay! He just dropped in to cancel our reservations!”

3. The Certainty of the Conviction

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, 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 who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. (Revelation 20:12-13)

4. The Finality of the Verdict

These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power… (2 Thessalonians 1:9)

ILL. -- Just before the death of actor W. C. Fields, a friend visited Fields’ hospital room and was surprised to find him thumbing through a Bible. Asked what he was doing with a Bible, Fields replied, “I’m looking for loopholes.” THERE ARE NO LOOPHOLES!

5. The Severity of the Sentence

And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

A. A lake of fire (Revelation 20:15)
B. A devouring fire (Isaiah 33:14)
C. A bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1)
D. Everlasting burning (Isaiah 33:14)
E. A furnace of fire (Matthew 13:41,42)
F. A place of torment (Luke 16:23)
G. A place where there can be no second chance (Matthew 12:32)
H. A place where you don’t want loved ones to go to (Luke 16:28)

ILL. Thomas Paine thought he could live without God. When Paine came to die he said, “I wish I had never lived!”

Voltaire laughed and mocked at God and when Voltaire came to face death, he said, “Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, Jesus Christ! It is hell to be left alone!”

Thomas Hobbs wrote book after book denying the efficacy of the Gospel of Christ. As he lay on his death bed he said, “If I had the whole world to dispose of. I would give it to live one day.” And when Thomas Hobbs came to die, he said, “I am taking a fearful leap into the dark! Oh, Christ! Oh, Jesus!”

Gibbon, a historian, and skeptic said, “The present is a fleeting moment, the past is no more, and my prospect of futurity is dark and doubtful.”

Mirabeau the atheist said, “My sufferings are intolerable. Give me more opium that I may not think of eternity.”

Closing:
A man by the name of Mr. Allen stood up to testify at a Christian meeting. He was for years an officer in the United States army. That day Allen gave this testimony:

"I married the girl of my dreams. We were so in love, so happy. But she was a Christian; I was an infidel. I watched her go to church Sunday after Sunday. I looked at her life, listened to her prayers. I saw her Bible stained with tears. I was an infidel. I laughed at her as she walked off to church, made fun of her as she prayed. I thought she was foolish for reading the word of God...After awhile, God gave us a baby, a precious little girl. Oh, how we loved her! When she was an infant, her mother carried her to Sunday school every Sunday. When she was a beginner--four, five, six--every Sunday she was at church. Every Sunday night- -back to the Sunday night service. Every Wednesday night--to mid-week prayer service. She never missed...When she was six--to church with mother. Seven--to church with mother. Eight, nine, ten, eleven--to church with mother. But when she got to be about twelve, I began taking her with me to night clubs, to dance halls, to high balls. She had a good time. Finally she began to tell her mother, ’Mother, I don’t want to go to church today. I am too sleepy. Daddy and I stayed out so late last night.’ I would laugh under my breath and say, ‘She is not going to follow the old-time religion of her mother.’ I am so happy about that. Her mother would plead and beg, ’Honey, please go with mother. Please go with mother.’ But I would say, ’Honey, you stay home if you want to.’ So she would say ‘no’ to her mother. …On Sunday nights I would take her out…and we would have a big time painting the town red while mother was at the church house weeping her eyes out because her daughter had gone into sin…Finally our daughter quit going to church. She never went with her mother. She was a beautiful girl, fifteen or sixteen years of age. We loved her dearly. Her mother was a Christian; I an infidel. She was following daddy’s footsteps. But one night she was out with a gang of kids in a carriage. They had been swimming, and she caught cold. After awhile it went into pneumonia. In those days we didn’t have…all the…cures we have now. So before long she was at the point of death. ‘The doctor called me in and said, Mr. Allen, your girl is dying.’ …I went in and looked at my little girl--just a teenager. Her mother had served Jesus Christ; I was an infidel. I looked at her and my daughter said to me, ’Daddy, I am dying, am I not?’ I replied, ‘Yes, honey. You are going to die.’ Then I began to weep. Her mother was crying. But there was not a tear in our little girl’s eyes. She said, ’Daddy, I want to know one thing. All my life mother has gone one way, and you have gone the other way. Now daddy, since I am dying, I have got to know the answer. I have got to know. I love you, daddy. I love you and I trust you and believe what you say. Daddy, while I am dying, should I die mommy’s way or your way?" I began to cry. Then I threw my body on hers and said, ‘Honey, choose mother’s way! Choose mommy’s way! Quickly, honey! Choose mommy’s way!’ Before I could get it said, she had gone off to meet the Lord Jesus. I will never know until I face God whether she chose mommy’s way or daddy’s way!"