Rod Earnshaw brings a message entitled "Can a loving God send people to hell?" as part of the 2012 sermon series entitled "The Reason for God".

Over the last few weeks we've been answering questions that keep people from considering Christianity – questions like 'can we trust the bible?' and 'has science disproved Christianity?'  Today our question is bit more emotionally loaded than most.  Today we're asking 'Can a loving God send people to hell?'

And as we start we need to admit that the issue behind this question is real.  For some of us it's raw and emotional.  For some of us it's confusing and confronting.  Either way the issue is real, in fact it's deeper and worse than we'd like to admit…

When we talk about hell we are talking about eternal, conscious torment as a punishment for sin.  Some of the wisest, kindest, most generous, loving, patient and wonderful people we know will be there.  Forever.  In agony as punishment for sin.

Think of the families who've been killed in Syria.  You might have seen awful footage of bodies being pulled from the rubble of their own houses.  As you hear about the horrors of war, of men, women and children blown up by indiscriminate bombings, or worse, raped or beaten to death do you consider that according to the doctrine of hell many of those people were heading for worse than what they have already experienced?

Put like that it simply doesn't sound fair does it?

We recoil from it, it sounds like it can never be fair.

How can that ever be right – how can people who have suffered so much in life and death be condemned to suffer more after death?

And we could multiply examples couldn't we – there are millions of people around the world suffering injustice or oppression.  Whole populations exploited by corrupt power; people groups, tribes and nations exploited and abused and suffering.  And there are millions who spend their whole lives in grinding poverty, desperate for food and water.  Millions more displaced by war, exposed to famine, suffering from debilitating injuries or illnesses, abused in the family home, caught up in addictions … the list goes on and on and on.

And the Christian doctrine of hell says that even after enduring all that, if those people didn't trust in Jesus they will go on to something worse; something that never ends; something from which there is no escape and no hope of escape.

And most horrifying of all the doctrine of hell says that God – the God who made them and loves them – deliberately inflicts this on them as punishment for their sins.

Can you see how the idea of punishment that goes on for eternity, that includes conscious torment and agony, and that comes to everyone who doesn't trust in Jesus calls into question the very goodness of God?  Plenty of people put those pieces together and come to the conclusion that a God who does those is no good God, no loving God – the expression more likely to be used is 'moral monster': 'if God can do that, he can't be good, and I don't want anything to do with him'.

This is a very serious objection to the God of the bible.  If you're here this morning and you're a Christian and you've got a glib answer, if you don't really think this is all that serious – just stop for a moment and feel the weight of this.  If you can't feel moved by that you're seriously lacking in compassion.  There's on room for glib answers in this scenario, we need to wrestle with this, we need to feel the weight of it and we need to have a solid answer.

We need to have a solid answer because of just what is being put on the line here.  Did you notice the phrase 'moral monster' earlier?  That's what people say and think about a God who casts people into hell.  God's reputation, God's very character is under attack.  The doctrine of hell on its own is enough for some people to write God off all together.  We need to be able to answer that charge – we need to be able to show that God is not a moral monster –for the sake of others; and also for our own sake; because, at some point we will feel the weight of the issues for ourselves, and if we're not sure of God's love and goodness, if we don't believe that God is justified in sending people to hell then we might just turn on him too.

So we need to work this out.  Is God a moral monster for sending people to hell?  Or are we mistaken about hell – is it somehow less than we've been made to think – not eternal perhaps? or not conscious; or perhaps it's not final and it's possible to repent and find forgiveness even from hell?  Or is there some way to square the circle – is there some way that hell can be justified and God can be vindicated? That's our task this morning.  And right up front I want to tell you that the bible leaves us no wriggle room.

The Bible is absolutely emphatic that 1) God is Good: Loving, Gracious, Kind and Compassionate; and 2) That hell is real, eternal and a place of conscious torment where all who reject God will be punished for eternity.

Our starting point is the goodness of God.  If we're going to think about hell I want us to think it in the context of God's goodness, so we're going to start with God's goodness as point one, and the reality and seriousness of hell will be point two.

So first: God is Good: God is Loving, Gracious, Kind and Compassionate.

This idea of God as a moral monster simply can't be matched up with the God we meet on page after page of the Bible.

We could refer to almost any part of the NT here, but we see God's character reflected in our readings this morning.  Look at Rev 21. 1-6:

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

This is a beautiful picture of what life will be like in God's new creation – in heaven.  And it will be beautiful.  So notice what we see of God and his character here.  What is God like? He is the God who wipes away the tears of his people, who gives comfort, brings peace; he is the enemy of all suffering and pain, he conquers death and suffering; he is the God who brings such good to his people that even the memory of pain is somehow made glorious so that in his presence there is only rejoicing, no mourning, not even the old echoes of pain, even the scars of past hurts are somehow healed when he makes all things news.

This is a remarkable picture of a renewed creation that is unlike anything we can even imagine – it's glorious, too wonderful for us to imagine.

And the reason that heaven is so good is that it is God's home – heaven is glorious and wonderful because everything about God is glorious and wonderful, to live in his presence is to enjoy his goodness.  There is no greater good than that.

That means that to live in God's presence is the greatest gift that could ever be given to anyone.  And it is a gift, a gift that God offers to everyone.

Look at verse 6:

To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

At the heart of this picture of heaven is the spring that overflows with life giving water.  This spring represents the life that comes from God – God's life giving spirit that makes everything grow and produce fruit in abundance.

And this life is offered to everyone who's thirsty.  Anyone who's thirsty can come to God and receive this water which represents entry into his kingdom.  And it's free, gloriously free – he gives it without cost.

It's brilliant isn't it?  But we know this fantastic free offer isn't free to God.  We know, but think about it with me – God gives access to his presence freely, at no cost to us.  And to make that possible he gives his own son for us.

Can anyone fathom the depths of love like this?  Would you give up precious possessions for your enemies?  Would you contemplate for even a second giving your children up for someone else to help them out, to meet some need?  It's unimaginable.

And keep thinking about it – Jesus came willingly – it's not like the Father gives up his baby who knows nothing about it – Father and Son both willingly sacrifice for us.  Jesus willingly dies in our place.  Again can you fathom the depths of love like that?  In times of war people make great sacrifices.  In the heat of the moment we might give ourselves for someone else. But to set our minds and hearts to give ourselves up like he did – not in heat of battle, but in cold blood – it was his pre-determined, deliberate intension to lay down his life for us.

Can we doubt that God is a good God after that?  Can we doubt that God is a loving God?

Listen 1 John 4.8 - 10:

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God is Love.  And God's love is seen most clearly in Jesus' death on the cross for us.  He didn't have to die, he chose to do it.  And he chose to do it out of love for us.

Elsewhere the apostle Paul draws out the logical conclusion in Romans 8:32

32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Because we know that he gave up his son for us we know that God will never hold anything back that is good for us, never act in ways that are not in our best interests.  We know that God is not in it for what he can get out of it, he's in it to give so that we can get out of it.

Is God a moral monster?  No, God, no, a thousand times no.  God's love is clear as day from one end of the Bible to the other.

So by the logic of our question this must mean that God doesn't send people to hell, mustn't it?  God is loving; hell can't possibly be real then, can it?

I wish it were so.  I'd love to be able to tell you that it's all a misunderstanding and hell's not real, or at least not as bad as we've been told.  I'd love to be able to say it's quite pleasant really – it's not heaven, so don't go rushing off to get there, but it's alright.

I'd love to be able to say that.

But I can't.  The Bible is simply too emphatic.

Hell is indeed real, and terrible.

So the second point I need to make this morning is that Hell is real.

2) Hell is real, eternal and a place of conscious torment where everyone who rejects God will be punished for eternity.

Look with me atRev 20: 11-15 … and 21:6-8

11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

…

6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death."

Mark this: Hell is as real as heaven.  Just as surely as Jesus has risen from the dead and now sits at God's right hand, just as surely as all those who trust in Jesus will join him and enjoy his presence forever – in just the same way, everyone who rejects God will go to hell.

For all eternity everyone who rejects the son will be excluded from God's presence, shut out from his heaven and made to endure punishment in the lake of fire – the second death that is unending and agonising. And don't think John has made this up or the book of revelation is the only place we find it – Jesus himself makes a point of introducing the idea of hell on many occasions.  In fact Jesus talks more about hell than the rest of the New Testament put together – Jesus is responsible for more than 90% of all the mentions of hell in the New Testament.  And he takes it very seriously – so much so that he advises it would be better to cut off our own arm and gouge out our own eye if it meant avoiding hell. Did I say advises?  We might need to find a stronger term.  Jesus urges us to do all we can to avoid hell.  Have a read through one of the gospels – any one will do – and you'll see that Jesus often brings hell up, and he doesn't mince his words, he's graphic and frightening.  He deliberately describes it as a place of unending agony, of fire that doesn't go out, of worms that do not die – i.e. a place where the torment does not end; and as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth – i.e. a place where there is conscious enduring of suffering.  No wonder he warns us so strongly to do all we can to avoid it.

So the Bible is clear and Jesus is clear – hell is real, and it is awful and it is punishment from God for sin.

So how can an eternal hell of conscious torment be reconciled with a loving God?

We need to understand three things about hell: First:  We do actually deserve hell, so seriousness is our sin

Second: Hell is the punishment fit for the crime – not arbitrary and vindictive, but God giving us what we ask for.  And

Third: hell is a place where rebels continue to rebel against God.  There are no repentant sinners in hell, those in hell continue to rage against God. First:  We do actually deserve hell, we just don't understand the seriousness of sin

That might sound harsh to you, but we all know how good we are at justifying ourselves when we're in the wrong.  Please consider the evidence of scripture that says that self justifying is exactly what we're doing.  Remember the way God described humanity in our OT reading… Gen 6:5 says

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Now I have to admit that that sounds a little harsh on us. Can that really be intended to describe you and me?

Let's start a very basic level.

–        we all know that we're not perfect: we know how we fail to live up to our own standards, how we try and fail to be good, how we fail to be scrupulously honest, how we cut corners and let ourselves down.

–        Worse than that we hurt others – even the ones we love the most, even those who trust us and depend on us.  Often it's the closest relationships that bring the most pain – why is that? – isn't it because we always cause pain, and the closer we are to someone else, the more it hurts when they let us down, the more we depend on someone the more vulnerable we are to them?

–        Now widen that equation out and consider the vast ocean of pain that men and women have caused to one another – all the things we talked about in the intro – wars, rape and murder, theft, injustice, in humanity, exploitation.  All of it inflicted by someone.  Have we all murdered etc?  No – but we're all caught up in cycles of inflicting pain, of anger and lashing out.  Given the right circumstances we are all capable of the most shameful cruelty and malice, people like you and me do terrible things.  In all likelihood you and me have actually considered doing terrible things ourselves, fantasised about revenge, pay back or worse.  It was people like you and me who looted the stores in the riots, people like you and me who turned in the Jews in Hitler's Germany, people like you and me who reported their parents and neighbours and friends to Stalins secret police, people like you and me who massacre, torture, rape and pilage in war.  People, ordinary people like you and me do terrible things.

–        As bad as all that is, it's only scratching the surface of what Gen 6 is talking about.  Ultimately our big failing, the evil that we set our hearts on constantly is to live in God's world, accepting God's good gifts, but pretending that God doesn't exist and acting as if we were God.

That sounds like going out on a technicality, but think about it like this:

the parent with the children who reject him, and

the subverting the throne of the living God illustration.

Time and again in the NT see Jesus confront people who were sure that they were fine because they tried very hard to be good and upright – and Jesus sees right through them and puts his finger on the ways that they were not right at all – think of the self righteous Pharisees – so full of their own self importance, but Jesus sees their hypocrisy: they were all about the outward show, inside full of bitterness and anger, they were lovers of money and power and prestige, not of God.  And they were so angry that they proved his point by killing him.

And on the last day we will stand before Jesus as he judges, and he will look straight through us as he did them.  And we will be completely undone before him.  (like me with my feeble excuses when Zoe unravels them and I'm left without excuse…guilty and ashamed – so will we all be on that day).  No excuse will fool him, no amount of outward conformity will mask our rotten motives.  Our guilt will be laid bare and we will be thoroughly ashamed.

When we stand there in front of Jesus with all the angels gathered around and all creation giving him glory, every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that he is LORD, be assured that then we will be aware of the seriousness of pretending that we are the centre of the universe!

Second: Hell is worse than we think, but it is fit to the crime

The idea here is that God's punishment for our sin is to give us over to what we want – see Romans 1:18-32.  In giving us over to what we want God is actively judging us – giving us over is an expression of his right anger at our rebellion against him.   Hell is deliberate, active punishment for sin – not just God handing us over to the natural consequences of our actions… and yet we need to lose the idea that God is like a vindictive school master who loves rules and hates people – God is not just waiting for us to fail so he can punish us, God doesn't take sadistic delight in punishing us.

See justice is to give someone what they deserve – if they've done well, to give them the reward their efforts deserve, if they've worked, to pay them their wages, or if they've committed criminal acts, to mete out their punishment to them.  So true justice is fitting for what has been done.

So God's judgement is just – the punishment exactly mirrors the crime.  At heart, ( as we've said ) the crime of sin is to reject God – we love the things that he gives us, but we don't love him; we spend our lives disinterested in God and trying to keep as far away from him as we can.  And God's punishment for trying to exclude him from our lives is to exclude us from his.  That's it, that's the punishment of hell, exclusion from heaven.  And we need to understand that that is terrible – because God is the source of every good thing – God is love, God is true, God is just, gracious, forgiving, generous, kind, compassionate, caring…. every good thing comes from God, all of the things that make life wonderful and exciting and fulfilling and joyful come from God.  So to be shut out from him is to be cut off from the source of all good things.  Excluded from God's presence there is no joy, no love, no peace, no kindness, no goodness, no self control, no patience, no give and take, no forgiveness, no grace, no friendships, just cold, self centred, self pitying, self regarding loneliness and pain and regret.  Yes is will be every bit as terrible as Jesus describes it.

But it is not a result of a vindictive God cruelly torturing undeserved victims; it is God giving us exactly what we ask for – we want to live without him, and he allows us to do so – and that is his punishment for rejecting him, he gives us what we want, what we deserve.

Thirdly it's not the case that God is ready and willing to forgive right up to death and then suddenly switches to a cold hard 'no' once we die.  There is no indication in the Bible that people in hell will repent and turn from sin. Quite the opposite – all who sin are slaves to sin.  In hell, without all the restraints that come from God in this world sinners will be fully given over to sin.  Everyone in hell continues to rebel and rail against God; continues to do the very thing that landed them in hell in the first place, only more so.  Just as it would be wrong for God to let them into heaven when they reject him in life, so it continues in death, they remain defiant and rebellious, for all eternity. God gives them over to ever increasing rebellion and wickedness, and that includes the self deception that we all know that tries to justify myself and blame others.  Even hell can't lead sinners to repentance.

So the sad reality is that hell is real.  And hell is conscious, awful torment.  But that doesn't make it unjust, or make God a monster for sending people there.  Sadly hell is nothing less than what we deserve for the shameful way we've treated God.  Hell is God's yes to our desire to live forever without him – it turns out that living forever without him is torment and suffering, but it is exactly what we ask for by rebelling against God.  And it turns out that those sufferers continue in the same foolish sin that put them into hell in the first place.

So that answers the question – a loving God can send people to hell if they deserve it, if they ask for it and keep on insisting on it right into eternity.  And sadly for us that is what we all do by nature.

We started by saying that we need to vindicate God.  But where is the compassion I talked about? There needs to be more than that answer doesn't there, otherwise we'd all be in hell.  And the remarkable thing about the gospel is that God demonstrates his love even to rebels who demand hell by offering us heaven.

That is what the gospel is – the free offer of a new eternal destination; the free offer given to rebels who deserve hell, indeed want hell.  The free offer that costs God everything.

The reality of hell is clear.  But hell doesn't have to be anyone's final destination. To avoid it all you need to do is to stop rebelling against God, accept that he is God and he does have a claim over you and give you life to him.

That's a total no-brainer.  So I want to urge you if you've never done that to do, to turn to Jesus and accept his free offer of eternal life with him in heaven.

And for the most of us here today who've already put our trust in Jesus I want to turn that question back to you.  The God of love doesn't sit idly by while rebels march off to hell – how can we?  God shows his love by sending his son into the world, he gave up everything for us.  Can we say that we love God and fail to do the same to help the people God has made, the people all around us who are heading to hell?  The doctrine of hell doesn't just call God's justice and compassion into question – if we truly believe this and do nothing to help others it calls our compassion into question too.  So can I urge you to pray, to speak and to share the good news where ever and when ever you can.

Let's pray.