Psalms 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
(Have we ever been asked, “Why would a loving God send anyone to hell?”Or, how about that secretly, nagging question, way back in our minds, that we dare not ask out loud, “Is there really a hell?”)
(There is a real possibility that some of us may not truly believe that there is a hell.Gino, how in the world could you think such a thing, let alone ask something like that?Dude! don’t you realize that most everyone that reads at FiveDoves is saved, goes to church, and reads their Bible?)
(Hypothetically, if we were walking past a house, and there was a party on the first floor, and everyone was having a good time.However, the second floor was on fire, really blazing, but the people in the party have no idea about the fire heading their way.Would we ignore it? We could never do that!Would we hope that someone else would warn those people? We certainly would not risk those people perishing.No, we’d run up to them and begin warning them about the fire about to consume them.What if they began to laugh at us, or ignore us, or to tell us that we’re nuts, everything is fine?That wouldn’t stop us, we probably would begin shouting our warnings, and compelling people to flee the fire to come.Would anyone of us, honestly, simply walk on by, and let all those people burn up? Is anyone of us even like that?)
(The sad truth is that many of us could be guilty of exactly that.We all know the following:)
Psalms 112:10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.
(Perish? What is that talking about?)
Matthew 5:30 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.
(Better to let things perish, here in this world, which draw us away into wickedness, than to eternally perish in hell.)
Luke 13:3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
(Repent or perish)
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
(Believe in Jesus or perish)
Luke 12:4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
(Why would Jesus say that, if it were not true? So, why do some of us maybe not really believe this?If we really believed this, we would warn everyone we could, that fire is coming.We all know plenty of people that are probably not saved, and the scriptures say that they will perish, burning forever in hell.If we really believed that, most likely we would never stop trying to warn them, no matter what.They could ignore us, laugh at us, call the cops, or beat us up, but we wouldn’t stop - they’re going to burn, we have to warn them!The sad reality is, in our deepest, secret, heart of hearts, maybe we simply do not believe that Jesus really means what he says.Gino, how dare you say something so terrible as that?We need to stop kidding ourselves. Maybe we don’t believe that there really is a hell.Otherwise we would never shut up, we would always be giving the gospel, but maybe that is not what we do.)