Speaker 1: Are Heaven and Hell real places? And what are they like?
Speaker 2: Today?
Speaker 1: On Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, the Bible Teaching Ministry of
Speaker 1: Rick Warren, we continue his series called Eternal Realities, Heaven
Speaker 1: and Hell. In these lessons, Rick shares what the Bible
Speaker 1: says about heaven and Hell and how you can be
Speaker 1: absolutely certain you'll go to Heaven. And Now here's part
Speaker 1: two of a message called the reality of Hell.
Speaker 2: Now, there's one other eternal reality we need to cover
Speaker 2: before we can actually look at the text today, and
Speaker 2: that is this, there's no chance, there's no second chance.
Speaker 2: After you die. You get to choose where you're going
Speaker 2: to spend eternity, but you have to choose now, while
Speaker 2: you're alive, not after you're dead. In other words, I
Speaker 2: can't walk out this door my way and then say, oh,
Speaker 2: by the way, I don't like this. I want to
Speaker 2: go back over here. Now, God says I gave you,
Speaker 2: and I gave you an entire life time to make
Speaker 2: the right decision, and you didn't take it. You kept
Speaker 2: putting it off, putting it off, putting it off. I
Speaker 2: gave you entire lifetime. So there is no halfway house
Speaker 2: between heaven and Hell. There's no little intermediate state, there's
Speaker 2: no limbo, there's no purgatory. And I know many of
Speaker 2: you were raised Catholics, friends, Purgatory is not in the Bible.
Speaker 2: The word is not even there. It's not a Bible idea.
Speaker 2: It's not something Jesus or God taught. It's something that
Speaker 2: was created eight hundred years ago in the Middle Ages.
Speaker 2: Purgatory is not even in the Bible. In fact, Catholics
Speaker 2: don't even believe it anymore. Pope John Paul the Second
Speaker 2: stated in a very public way that purgatory was not
Speaker 2: a real place. And Bishop I mean, I mean Pope
Speaker 2: Benedict let the newest Catechism of the Catholic Church. The
Speaker 2: word purgatory isn't even in there anymore. They've taken it out.
Speaker 2: Why because it's not in the Bible. It's a theory
Speaker 2: that was created during the Middle Ages. Now, Jesus when
Speaker 2: he was dying on the cross and there was a
Speaker 2: guy next to him who had been a criminal his
Speaker 2: entire life. God had done only bad his entire life,
Speaker 2: and on his last seconds he has a deathbed conversion,
Speaker 2: and he's dying on the cross next to Jesus, and
Speaker 2: he says to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come
Speaker 2: into paradise. That's all he knew about salvation is Jesus
Speaker 2: can save me. He didn't know all the doctrines, he
Speaker 2: didn't know all the fancy words, he didn't know all
Speaker 2: of the back behind it. He just said yes to Jesus.
Speaker 2: And Jesus looks at him and says, well, you're gonna
Speaker 2: have to spend about a year in purgatory. No, that's
Speaker 2: not at all what he said. Jesus looks at the
Speaker 2: guy next to him and he goes, today, you'll be
Speaker 2: with me in paradise. Boom, that's it. What does it
Speaker 2: take to get into it? You say yes to Jesus Christ,
Speaker 2: he says today, not next week, not next month, not
Speaker 2: in three or four years. Will people pray for you
Speaker 2: and hope you get out of limbo? No, he says today.
Speaker 2: The moments you die, you either go straight to Heaven
Speaker 2: or you go straight to hell. And it's a choice
Speaker 2: here on earth. And God has done everything to make
Speaker 2: sure you get into heaven. And we're going to talk
Speaker 2: about that that Jesus said. The Bible says to be
Speaker 2: absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Speaker 2: The Bible says it like this here on the screen.
Speaker 2: They will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous
Speaker 2: will go into eternal life. The reality is there are
Speaker 2: two places of friends. This is so important because what
Speaker 2: we're talking about today has your eternal destiny. Now, maybe
Speaker 2: some other time when I've been preaching, you've used it
Speaker 2: for a good nap time, This would not be a
Speaker 2: good week to take a nap, because your eternal destiny
Speaker 2: depends on this one. And I want everybody to be
Speaker 2: absolutely certain when we finish here today that when you
Speaker 2: go out, you know, without a shadow of a doubt,
Speaker 2: you're going to heaven. And there's every reason you can
Speaker 2: settle that issue today. So I want you to listen
Speaker 2: as if your life depend upon it. Now. Next week
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about heaven. But today I want
Speaker 2: to ask four questions. Why does hell exist? What is
Speaker 2: it like, how do I avoid it? That's the important one,
Speaker 2: And what do I do once I know all of this? First?
Speaker 2: Why does hell exist? Well, there are two fundamental reasons
Speaker 2: you might write this down. The first is because sin
Speaker 2: and evil exist. Sin and evil exist. Now, there's some
Speaker 2: people who want to deny the existence of evil, and
Speaker 2: they think that actually the world is full of people
Speaker 2: and we're basically good. That human beings are fundamentally by
Speaker 2: nature unselfish, always kind, always good, and always thinking about others.
Speaker 2: And I want to say to you, have you turned
Speaker 2: on your television, have you picked up a newspaper? Do
Speaker 2: you listen to the radio? You might want to just
Speaker 2: travel with me on one of my world trips, because
Speaker 2: the world is filled with broken relationships, broken promises, rape, abuse, murder,
Speaker 2: child molestation, all kinds of evil, terrorism, people who strap
Speaker 2: bombs onto themselves. The world is filled with evil. It's
Speaker 2: all around you. We pick up the newspaper and we
Speaker 2: read about young beautiful co eds, student body presidents of
Speaker 2: their college who this week were shot randomly friends. That's evil.
Speaker 2: We read about people, little children picked up on the
Speaker 2: street and sold into sex trade, trafficking. That's evil. Fundamentally,
Speaker 2: the Bible teaches that is my nature to not think
Speaker 2: about you. It's my nature to be selfish, and it
Speaker 2: is your nature to be selfish. You think about you
Speaker 2: more than anybody else. You're not naturally thinking what's best
Speaker 2: for other people, what's best for the world. What does
Speaker 2: God want me to do. You're thinking about what do
Speaker 2: I want to do, what's easy, what's convenient, what would
Speaker 2: I like to do now? Maybe if you lived seventy
Speaker 2: five years ago in little house on the prairie, on
Speaker 2: a farm, you might think that people are basically good.
Speaker 2: But with all the media around us today, we know
Speaker 2: that the world is filled with evil, and evil things happen,
Speaker 2: and it happens all of the time. And what was
Speaker 2: true in Noah's day is still true today. Notice this
Speaker 2: verse up here on the screen in Genesis chapter eight,
Speaker 2: five and six. It says this, the Lord observed that
Speaker 2: the extent of people's wickedness, and he saw all their
Speaker 2: thoughts were consistently and totally evil, and he, that's God,
Speaker 2: was sorry that he had ever made them. He was
Speaker 2: sorry that he made the human race, and it broke
Speaker 2: his heart. God looked down on the world in Noah's
Speaker 2: day and he goes, Man, what a mess they've made
Speaker 2: of this? What they do to themselves, what they do
Speaker 2: to each other, what they do to the planet that
Speaker 2: I gave them. They've really made a mess of this.
Speaker 2: They've really screwed it up. And that is the way
Speaker 2: God feels today. And it says it broke his heart.
Speaker 2: Did you know that God has emotions? Of course he does.
Speaker 2: In fact, the reason you have emotions is because God
Speaker 2: made you in his image. The reason you have the
Speaker 2: ability to feel, the reason you have the ability for
Speaker 2: your heart to be broken, is because God is an
Speaker 2: emotional God, and you were made in his image. And
Speaker 2: when God looks at all the things that are done
Speaker 2: in the world that are wrong and bad and evil,
Speaker 2: it breaks God's heart. And when people say to me,
Speaker 2: where is God when people get molested and people are abused,
Speaker 2: and people are betrayed, And where is God with the
Speaker 2: rape and the murder, and the world of the world's
Speaker 2: terrorism and crime and all. Where is God? I'll tell
Speaker 2: you what he's doing. He's weeping, he's grieving, he's broken hearted.
Speaker 2: He said, well, why doesn't he just stop it? Oh?
Speaker 2: He could. God could eliminate all the evil in the
Speaker 2: world just like that, just get rid of all of us.
Speaker 2: Where do you think it comes from? It comes from
Speaker 2: our poor choices. You're not telling me you've always made
Speaker 2: every decision right, that's never hurt anybody else. No, we
Speaker 2: hurt each other. Now. God gave us a free will,
Speaker 2: and that is our greatest gift, it's also our worst
Speaker 2: curse because we don't always make wise choices. And while
Speaker 2: God gave us this free ability to choose right or wrong,
Speaker 2: good or bad, evil or righteousness, and he gives us
Speaker 2: this choice because we're created in his image. He gave
Speaker 2: us the free will, we often choose the wrong thing,
Speaker 2: and as a result, people get hurt, intentionally and unintentionally.
Speaker 2: Now God could take away all the sin, all the suffering,
Speaker 2: all the sickness, and all the evil in the world
Speaker 2: just like that. All he has to do is take
Speaker 2: away your free will and mine too. Now why does
Speaker 2: God give us a free will? I'll tell you why.
Speaker 2: Because He wanted you to choose to love him, not
Speaker 2: be forced to love him. You see, it's not real
Speaker 2: love if you're forced to do it. If you are
Speaker 2: forced to love me, it's not real love. If I'm
Speaker 2: forced to love you, it's not real love. Love is
Speaker 2: only love if you can choose not to love, and
Speaker 2: God gives you the free choice. You don't have to
Speaker 2: love God. You don't have to trust God. You don't
Speaker 2: have to obey God. You don't have to follow in
Speaker 2: the ways. You don't have to fulfill the purpose he
Speaker 2: created for you, You can make your life a total mess.
Speaker 2: Why did God do that? Because he wants us to
Speaker 2: choose to love him. He wants us to choose to
Speaker 2: do right. And God wanted a family that would live
Speaker 2: with him forever. And he wanted to produce a race
Speaker 2: of tested individuals who voluntarily choose to love and do
Speaker 2: the right thing. And that can't be possible unless we're
Speaker 2: allowed to do the wrong thing. So it is our
Speaker 2: greatest blessing and our greatest curse. And it still breaks
Speaker 2: God's heart today when we hurt ourselves, when we hurt
Speaker 2: other people, when we hurt the planet that He's put
Speaker 2: us on. Now, you need to understand that God allows
Speaker 2: sin on Earth simply for this choice, so you have
Speaker 2: a choice, but He does not allow any sin in heaven.
Speaker 2: Heaven is a perfect place. There are no imperfections in Heaven.
Speaker 2: It is completely perfect, so there's no sin there. Now
Speaker 2: that raises an important problem. Heaven is a perfect place,
Speaker 2: and that means own only perfect people get to go there. Otherwise,
Speaker 2: if God let imperfect people come in with their selfishness
Speaker 2: and their sin and their sorrows and all of their sicknesses,
Speaker 2: and then it'd be just like Earth. It wouldn't be
Speaker 2: heaven anymore. I don't want to go to a heaven
Speaker 2: where Hitler can do his thing, or pole Pot can
Speaker 2: do his thing, or a rapist or a genocider can
Speaker 2: do their thing. Now, I want to go to heaven
Speaker 2: where it's perfect and we're away from all of that.
Speaker 2: So only perfect people get to go there. Now that's
Speaker 2: a problem because I'm not perfect, and neither are you.
Speaker 2: Now David asks this question in the Book of Psalm
Speaker 2: and Psal I'm fifteen one and two. David says, Lord,
Speaker 2: who may enter your holy tent? Now, holy tent is
Speaker 2: just a euphemism and analogy for coming into your presence.
Speaker 2: It's heaven who may enter your holy tent? Lord who
Speaker 2: may live on your holy mountain? And here's the condition.
Speaker 2: Those who are completely blameless and innocent and those who
Speaker 2: always do what is right? Uh Oh, I don't know
Speaker 2: about you, but I don't fit that category. I am
Speaker 2: not blameless, I am not innocent. I do not do
Speaker 2: what is always right. So I got a problem. There's
Speaker 2: not a snowballs chance of hell of me getting into
Speaker 2: heaven unless God comes up with Clan B. Because Heaven
Speaker 2: is perfect. And I stopped batt in a thousand about
Speaker 2: age one, and by the way, you did too. The
Speaker 2: Bible says, we've all blown it, We've all sinned everybody.
Speaker 2: We don't live measure up to our own standards, much
Speaker 2: less God's. And so there has to be a place
Speaker 2: for evil to go in eternity. If I'm made to
Speaker 2: last forever and I'm not perfect, then where where I
Speaker 2: gotta have another place to go to? There is sin
Speaker 2: and there's evil in the world. Now there's a second
Speaker 2: reason for hell, and that's because God is holy and just.
Speaker 2: He is holy. That means he is perfect. He cannot
Speaker 2: sin himself, and he's just. That means he he believes
Speaker 2: in justice, He settles the score, he always does the
Speaker 2: right thing. And the Bible says that one day God
Speaker 2: is going to balance the books, and God is going
Speaker 2: to bring justice to the world, and God is going
Speaker 2: to right the wrongs, and he's going to settle the score,
Speaker 2: and he's going to even the odds, and he's going
Speaker 2: to balance the books. Now, I don't know if you've
Speaker 2: noticed this or not, but have you noticed that life
Speaker 2: is unfair? What if you'd been born in darfour. Was
Speaker 2: it fair that you were born in America and somebody
Speaker 2: else was born in darfour? That's not really that fair,
Speaker 2: is it. And I don't know if you've noticed this
Speaker 2: or not, but people get away with all kinds of
Speaker 2: stuff on earth, bad stuff. In fact, people get away
Speaker 2: with murder on earth. Life is not fair. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you notices or not, but bad things often
Speaker 2: happen to good people, and good things often happen to
Speaker 2: bad people. And people who cheat and steal and lie
Speaker 2: and rob their entire lives often become enormously successful, and
Speaker 2: they get away literally with murder, while other people who
Speaker 2: try to do the right thing and live the right
Speaker 2: way things don't work out in their lives all the time.
Speaker 2: Life is not fair, And David said in the Psalms,
Speaker 2: he said, I would have despaired if I hadn't believed
Speaker 2: in the goodness of God, in other words, looking at
Speaker 2: the world. If if I just looked at it and go, WHOA,
Speaker 2: this is not fair. People do bad things and get
Speaker 2: away with it, and people do good things and don't
Speaker 2: get rewarded for it. If I didn't believe that one
Speaker 2: day God's gonna settle the score that God is just.
Speaker 2: He's gonna tip the scales and he's gonna even it
Speaker 2: all out, and there will be repayment in justice. It
Speaker 2: just wouldn't be right. Solomon talks about this. He complains,
Speaker 2: and he says God is holy in justine. But yeah,
Speaker 2: he says, an ecclesiastes ate these words. He says, I
Speaker 2: thought about the things that are done in the world,
Speaker 2: a world where some people have power and others have
Speaker 2: to suffer under them. Oh, man, have I seen that?
Speaker 2: As I've traveled around the world, I've seen a lot
Speaker 2: of places where evil people have the power and other
Speaker 2: people suffer as a result. He says, yes, I've seen
Speaker 2: the wicked buried and in their graves. But on the
Speaker 2: way back from the cemetery, people praise them in the
Speaker 2: very city where they did their evil. He says, what's
Speaker 2: wrong with that picture? He says, it's useless. And then
Speaker 2: he says this, Why do people commit crimes so readily?
Speaker 2: Because crime is not punished quickly enough. In other words,
Speaker 2: here on earth, you do something bad, you can often
Speaker 2: get away with it. Crime is not punished quickly enough.
Speaker 2: He said. A sinner may commit a hundred crimes and
Speaker 2: still live. He says, that's just not right. And what
Speaker 2: would it be like? Is Stalin and Mao and Hitler,
Speaker 2: who gased six million Jews showed up in heaven. Maybe
Speaker 2: something wrong with heaven? What have been laden? Showed up
Speaker 2: in heaven after telling everybody go blow themselves up to
Speaker 2: help kill other people? One day, God is going to
Speaker 2: settle the score. Let me show you some verses here
Speaker 2: on the screen. The Bible says this, for the Lord
Speaker 2: is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the
Speaker 2: nations fairly and with truth. And by the way, he's
Speaker 2: the only one who can judge fairly because he's impartial.
Speaker 2: And the Bible says this, God will do what is right.
Speaker 2: This is the second Thessalonians, chapter one. He says, God
Speaker 2: will do what's right. God is a righteous God. That
Speaker 2: means he always does what is right. And he will
Speaker 2: bring suffering on those who make you suffer. You're going yet, God,
Speaker 2: he will bring suffering on those who hurt me, who
Speaker 2: made me suffer, and he'll give relief to you who
Speaker 2: suffer as well. And he will do this when the
Speaker 2: Lord Jesus appears from heaven to punish those who reject God,
Speaker 2: who say, I'm going to be my own God. I'm
Speaker 2: going to run my own mind. I don't need God.
Speaker 2: I'm going to go my way, not Jesus' way. To
Speaker 2: punish those who reject God and who do not obey
Speaker 2: the good news about our Lord Jesus, they will suffer
Speaker 2: the punishment of eternal destruction separated from the presence of
Speaker 2: the Lord. Now notice that last phrase, separated from the
Speaker 2: presence of the Lord. That's the number one characteristic of Hell,
Speaker 2: separated from the presence of the Lord. People don't realize
Speaker 2: how bad that is because we have the Lord's presence here.
Speaker 2: You see, here on earth. Even when I reject God,
Speaker 2: he still shows me grace. I mean, I could be
Speaker 2: going out here totally ignoring God, and I get all
Speaker 2: kinds of gifts from God. Because everything you have in
Speaker 2: your life is a gift from God. The air you breathe,
Speaker 2: that's a gift from God. The water you drink, that's
Speaker 2: a gift from God. Your heart beating, that's a gift
Speaker 2: from God. Everything you have in your life is a
Speaker 2: gift of God's grace. So even people who don't know
Speaker 2: the Lord experience God's grace every single day of their life.
Speaker 2: Your health is a gift from God. Your brain is
Speaker 2: a gift from God. The weather is a gift from God.
Speaker 2: Life is a gift from God. Everything you have on
Speaker 2: this planet is because of God's grace. So we don't
Speaker 2: know what it means to live without God's grace. We
Speaker 2: don't really know that because everything God does in your
Speaker 2: life he does because He loves you, and he's showing
Speaker 2: you grace at that moment. Now he says, one day
Speaker 2: I'm going to settle the score. And you may be thinking, hey,
Speaker 2: that's great. You know, all the people who hurt me,
Speaker 2: go get them. Lord. There's only one problem I'm involved too, know.
Speaker 2: That's the next verse Here on the screen. Tewod Corindians
Speaker 2: five ten says we will all stand before Christ to
Speaker 2: be judged. In other words, not just my enemies, uh oh,
Speaker 2: we will each receive whatever we deserve for the good
Speaker 2: or the evil that we have done in our bodies.
Speaker 2: Why does hell exist? Because sin and evil exist, and
Speaker 2: because God is holy? In just now, what is hell like? Well,
Speaker 2: it's really hard to explain, because it's hard to explain
Speaker 2: because we don't have the human experience to explain it.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like trying to explain the Internet to
Speaker 2: an ant if you had never eaten or seen a
Speaker 2: piece of pizza, how would you explain it? And so
Speaker 2: it's really kind of hard. Now. Jesus actually talked more
Speaker 2: about Hell than he did about heaven. But what is
Speaker 2: hell like? You know, sometimes you hear these guys preaching
Speaker 2: on Hell on television. I call him the hell Fire
Speaker 2: and Brimstone, and they're yelling and they're sweating, and you know,
Speaker 2: when you listen to them, you kind of think, like
Speaker 2: they want people to go there. Go what's with that?
Speaker 2: I don't want anybody to go to hell, and God
Speaker 2: certainly doesn't want anybody to go to hell. Jesus doesn't
Speaker 2: want anybody to go to Hell. That's why he died
Speaker 2: on the cross. That's how much he considered it important.
Speaker 2: So this is not something that you're happy about. You
Speaker 2: certainly don't have to yell about it. But what is
Speaker 2: hell like? Well, the Bible describes it as a place
Speaker 2: of torment. In fact, here on the screen, Matthew eight,
Speaker 2: you've heard about this. In darkness, they will cry out
Speaker 2: and grip their teeth and pain, and of course your
Speaker 2: image of hell and the Bible talks about this. It
Speaker 2: says fire and things like this. But you know what
Speaker 2: the worst part is you write this down. Hell is
Speaker 2: total separation from God. That's the worst thing about it.
Speaker 2: It means I'm totally apart from God's love, totally apart
Speaker 2: from God's grace, total separation from God. One Corinth in
Speaker 2: sixteen twenty two says this, if anyone does not love
Speaker 2: the Lord, let him be separated from God, lost forever.
Speaker 2: In other words, here it is. If I go through
Speaker 2: my entire life saying I don't want God in my
Speaker 2: life on earth. If I don't want God in my
Speaker 2: life on earth, why in the world would I want
Speaker 2: to spend eternity with him? I mean, why would I
Speaker 2: change my mind? Why would I say I want to
Speaker 2: live without God on earth but I want to live
Speaker 2: with God in heaven. That doesn't make sense. God says,
Speaker 2: you get the Jews. You want to live with me
Speaker 2: or live without me.
Speaker 1: That was such an encouraging message from pastor Rick. And
Speaker 1: now to encourage us more, here's Rick with a letter
Speaker 1: from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: I want to say thanks to all of you who
Speaker 2: are supporting Daily Hope Ministry with your financial gifts. And
Speaker 2: with your prayers. I know you appreciate these notes that
Speaker 2: I get from people around the world as much as
Speaker 2: I do. Let me just share one with you from
Speaker 2: a woman named Anna who is an elementary school principal,
Speaker 2: and she just wrote this your pastor, Rick. I became
Speaker 2: a principal in an elementary school at the age of
Speaker 2: twenty five. I'm now forty two. Now. We've had Rick
Speaker 2: Warren Bible series and studies at our church during the summers,
Speaker 2: and I always enjoyed them so much, and I've invited
Speaker 2: many friends and relatives to visit our church. A couple
Speaker 2: years ago, I began to share your devotion Daily Hope
Speaker 2: with all of my staff members each morning. See she's
Speaker 2: a principal, she's sharing this with her staff. She said,
Speaker 2: I've seen their growth in God. I've seen the transformation
Speaker 2: in their lives and characters over these past years, and
Speaker 2: I'm amazed at the Lord's love and mercy. That doesn't
Speaker 2: mean that we haven't struggled with issues such as death
Speaker 2: and and disappointments and illness things like that. However, we
Speaker 2: have had our eyes on God during all of the
Speaker 2: things that have come against us, and this has made
Speaker 2: a difference. I pray with them during our staff meetings
Speaker 2: to give thanks. So Pastor Rick, I just want to
Speaker 2: thank you for following God's calling. Even though you go
Speaker 2: through struggles and life problem just like we all do.
Speaker 2: God is with you. May the Lord continue to bless
Speaker 2: you and your beautiful family. May continue to bless you
Speaker 2: with wisdom and discernment so that you're able to share
Speaker 2: your gift with all of us. Blessings, Anna, Well, Anna,
Speaker 2: God bless you. Thanks for writing. I love getting these
Speaker 2: letters and you actually encouraged me. And I love the
Speaker 2: fact that as a principle, you're sharing the broadcast and
Speaker 2: you're sharing the devotionals with your staff. This makes you
Speaker 2: a partner in this ministry and I thank you for
Speaker 2: doing that. And I want to encourage everybody else's listening.
Speaker 2: Find somebody that you could share the good news with,
Speaker 2: tell them about Daily Hope. God bless you.
Speaker 1: Please join us next time as we look into God's
Speaker 1: word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by
Speaker 1: Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and your generous financial support.