John 3:17-21 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

I sat in a Veterinarian’s Office waiting on the doctor to treat my dog “Scooter”. Bored, I overheard a man talking with the doctor about the problems that he had with his goats. The Vet said something I found very interesting. She said:

“The main objective of any goat is to die. They eat any number of things, regardless as to whether or not it’s good for them”.

I thought that statement was very interesting. I remember an episode of the Andy Griffith Show when a farmer named Hutch brings his pet goat into Mayberry. Men are working on an underpass for the town, and the goat gets away from his owner and eats a case of dynamite. It’s a hilarious episode that ends when Andy leads the loaded goat out of town, as Barney serenades the goat with his harmonica.

The Main Objective Of Any Goat Is To Die.

Our Lord Jesus often talked of believers in Him being “sheep”, and unbelievers were depicted as “goats”. Our Lord said, “the Son of Man {that’s Jesus}shall set the SHEEP on His RIGHT hand, but the GOATS on the left” (Matthew 25:33). Jesus said that His Sheep would be welcomed into “the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). The GOATS, however, are told:

Matthew 25:41 … Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels..

The SHEEP are those who receive the “Good Shepherd”, the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, these Sheep go into Heaven. They enter Heaven because the “good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). But to those who reject Jesus as Lord and Savior, Jesus tells these GOATS:

Matthew 25:41 … Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels..

Hell Is Real – And Necessary

Word Study: What is uniquely sad about this assignment to hell is that no human was ever meant to go to hell. Hell is a place “prepared for the devil and his angels”. The word “prepared” is the Greek ἑτοιμάζω hetoimázō, {pronounced het-oy-mad’-zo}, meaning “to make ready, to make the necessary preparations, to get everything ready”. Our Creator engineered hell as a place for demons, not for humans made in His image. Hell is a real place, but God doesn’t want anyone there. Someone wrote Billy Graham once and said,

“I can’t believe that a loving God would ever send anyone to hell when they die. Jesus is too loving to do that.”

Billy responded with, “It may surprise you to learn that no one in the Bible spoke more about the reality of hell than Jesus. He declared, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

Those are sobering words, and we need to take them seriously. Hell is real, and not one word about it in the Bible would ever make you want to go there. Those who thoughtlessly say that they look forward to going there because all their friends will be there simply haven’t realized its horror. If there is no hell, then we live in an unjust world in which tyrants and abusers and other evildoers will never pay for their evil deeds. The Bible calls it a place of “outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30, KJV).

But it’s important to realize that Jesus spoke about hell’s reality not out of hate or anger, but out of love. Yes, hell is real, but God doesn’t want you to go there! This is why He provided a way for us to be with Him in heaven forever, by sending His Son into the world to die for our sins.”

Jesus wants everyone to be “SHEEP” and not “GOATS”. Anyone can change from “SHEEP” to “GOAT” by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Jesus said:

John 3:17-18 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on {Jesus} is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

I want to talk to you tonight about the subject of Hell. I am praying that God the Holy Spirit will give you a real VISION of Hell. Many today do not believe in Hell. Many who profess to be Christians do not believe in a Biblical Hell. Some believe that – if a person were assigned to Hell by Jesus – that this soul would be annihilated, wiped out by it’s flames.

That’s just not true.

Hell is a real place, a place every person should fear to go to.

Fifteen times in the Scripture Jesus mentions
that place called “Hell”

Our Lord Jesus preached in one of His first sermons:

Matthew 5:29-30 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Jesus also preached in one of His last earthly sermons:

Matthew 18:8-9 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. 9 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

If Hell were just a place of annihilation, then why would Jesus emphasize it had EVERLASTING fire? If Hell is not a place of eternal and ongoing punishment, then why would Jesus tell you it is better to cut off a limb, or pluck out an eye, rather than go there?

Hell is an eternal place of punishment, a prison for souls that do not wish to honor God. Humans are all created in God’s Image (Genesis 1:27), and that part of our being – our human soul – is by nature eternal. Our bodies are temporal, but every soul is eternal – and belongs to God. God said through the Prophet Ezekiel, “Behold, all souls are mine – they belong to Me. The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son belongs to Me” (my paraphrase 18:4). Every soul is – because it is in God’s image – FOREVER. Every soul, upon the death of the body, leaves and enters HEAVEN (a.k.a. Eternal Life) or HELL (a.k.a. Hell).

Answering “I Don’t Believe A Loving God
Would Cast Anyone Into Hell”

This is a common statement I hear from people today. Many of the more liberal Christians love to quote “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God is, indeed, “love”. But God is not JUST “love”. The Bible says that “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

In John’s writings, He mentions God as “LIGHT” before he ever mentions God is “LOVE”.

“Light” in the Bible is a reference to RIGHTEOUSNESS or a lack of sin. In

Proverbs 4:18 (ESV) But the path of the RIGHTEOUS is LIKE THE LIGHT OF DAWN, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

In Philippians 2:15 tells us that God wants us to be “children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world”.

God is Light, and His Children are to reflect His Light to a dark and desperate world. Jesus tells the Christ follower to “let your LIGHT shine before others, that they may see your GOOD DEEDS” (Matthew 5:16). Our God is HOLY, and we who follow Him are to be HOLY. When John looked into Heaven, he saw four angels about the Throne of God crying out,

Revelation 4:8 Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come …

Our God is Holy. The Creator Who made all things is LIGHT, without sin, without darkness. Our God is also eternal. The angels cried out that God, “was, and is, and is to come”. You can offend me, and in time I will forget all about it. Time washes away the memory of the offense. But to God, God is ETERNAL, without change. An offense against God is never forgotten. When Isaiah was allowed to look into Heaven, and to see God on His Throne, Isaiah cried out:

Isaiah 6:5 Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts …

Illustrate: Seeing God in his holiness, in His perfect righteousness, in His light, Isaiah was frightened, for compared to God he needed to be cleansed. How can a sinful man hope to stand in the Presence of this Perfect, Holy, Eternal Being we know as God? It is like looking into the Sun. You can do it a moment, but your eyes tear up, and will burn out of your head if you keep looking. Isaiah’s lips were unclean! So God sent an angel to Isaiah with a live coal from that altar of God. Touching that light – that burning coal – to Isaiah’s lips, his sin was covered. The angel said,

Isaiah 6:7 … Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Just as the angel purged Isaiah’s sin with the burning coal, Jesus purges our sin by applying the work of the Cross to our lives when we receive Him.

John 3:17 … God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him MIGHT be saved.

God wants all to be saved, to leave this life and enter eternal life (Heaven) as opposed to eternal death (hell). To be in a right place with the Eternal God Who made all, you must believe on Jesus.

John 3:18 He that believeth on {Jesus} is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

If you have believed on Jesus, the Biblical Jesus, then you are NOT in a state of condemnation. If you have believed on Jesus, you, made in the image of God, are now a Child of God. The “child of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26) is NOT condemned. But the unbeliever in Christ is “condemned already”. The word translated “condemned” is the Greek κρινω, krinom {pronounced kree’-no}, which means “judged in the past so that the judgment stands”. God came into this world, became flesh as Jesus Christ, specifically to save us all from eternal death. The unbeliever in Christ rejects Jesus as Lord and Savior because:

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

The lost, the goats of this life, have chosen to reject Christ so they can continue in evil. When a person submits to Christ as Lord and Savior, they follow HIM, not the world. The lost follow the lost world. They will not come to Jesus because they prefer darkness, prefer sinning, prefer wallowing in the mire of this life.

John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

Jesus says to the unbeliever,

Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Jesus came for every person. But some refuse to come to Him. Jesus told the self righteous Pharisees:

John 5:24, 39-40 … He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. … 39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

How sad that is! The reason people go to hell is because they will not come to Jesus. People do not go to hell because of sin. People go to hell because they pursue sin rather than Christ. It is a terrible thing to go through this life without Jesus! I have seen cartoons where the character drawn would have a dark cloud over their head. In truth, those who have rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have a dark cloud called CONDEMNATION hanging over their head. We are told:

John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The “wrath of God abideth” on the unbeliever. It is now, and will continue while the unbeliever is in a state of unbelief. The Apostle said:

1 John 5:10-11 HCS … The one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son.) {11} And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

The sinner without Christ is given a day of life to receive Christ. It is the common Grace of God that allows the lost another day to live. But that person is already marked with condemnation, just as Cain was marked for killing his brother. If that person dies without Christ, the Bible says:

Revelation 14:10-11 … The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…

Hell is not a place where you go to cease being. Hell is an eternal prison, a place of flames and smoke and torment and grief. It is a place where the wrath of God is poured out. Jesus said of the lost who rejected Him as Lord and Savior:

Mark 9:44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched…

Repent While There Is Time, And Come
To The Light Of Christ

John 3:21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

This morning I spoke on the need for “Repentance”. To “Repent” is to stop following the gods of self and sin, and to turn and run into the open arms of Jesus. Jesus rejects no one. Jesus loves to save souls – thank God for that!

People think, “Well, I’m not ready to receive Jesus just yet. I want to sow my wild oats. I want to “have fun”, and live a little. I’ll receive Jesus LATER ON IN LIFE so that I won’t go to hell”. Dear one, this is a bad idea. The Bible says:

James 4:13-14 (ESV) Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

The point of our focal text we read today is that the unbeliever is in a state of condemnation RIGHT NOW. We do not know when our last day on earth will be. We do not know when the grim reaper will come. “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). It is foolish to assume that you always have tomorrow. As my mama used to say, “Tomorrow never comes”. In Luke chapter 16 our Lord Jesus told a story about two men, one rich and one a beggar. The rich man probably thought he would live forever, for he lived in the lap of luxury. Jesus preached:

Luke 16:22-24 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

The rich man – forever nameless because he refused to repent and hide under the name of Jesus – died and immediately was in hell. In hell, he was in “torment”. In hell, he was lonely. In hell, he was thirsty. Hell is hell. That rich man died unexpectedly, and “in hell he lifted up his eyes”. But there’s something else about this rich man you may not have noticed.

The lost rich man – this goat – refused to repent while on the earth, and refuses to repent even in hell. “Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue”.

The longer a person goes without Christ, the more hardened that person becomes to the call of God. What a sad truth this is! Jesus Christ allowed Himself to die on Calvary, forsaken of God, so that we who are believers in Him will never be forsaken (Matthew 27:45-54). As Christ purchased our salvation with His Blood, He cried out “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” How terrible that He would make such a payment, and people would yet reject Him.

Christ took your place on the Cross so that you could enter His place in Heaven. Yet if you will not come, if you will not repent, then you stand already marked for judgment. Your destination is set to a terrible place. Will you not come while there is time? If you do not know Him as Lord and Savior, call upon Jesus this very day, and He will save you. The Bible says:

Romans 9:33 … whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Romans 10:11 … Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

If you have received Jesus Christ as Savior, tell others about Him. Hell is real. Hell is eternal. Hell is torment. Oh, that God the Holy Spirit and this Word of truth would give us all a vision of hell. Amen and amen!