Savage Street Church of Christ

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How Beautiful Heaven Must Be; How Terrible Hell Must Be

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • February 2, In the year of our Lord, 2014

Song Leader and Song Suggestions: Larry Amberg – “How Beautiful Heaven Must Be,” “There’s a Great Day Coming,” and similar songs

How Beautiful Heaven Must Be: 

1. First After Death Experience
   
   22 “So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16.22).
2. A Footstool Versus a Throne
   
   1 Thus says the Lord:
   “Heaven is My throne,
   And earth is My footstool.
   Where is the house that you will build Me?
   And where is the place of My rest?”
   (Isa 66.1)
   1. The beauties of earth
      1. Yet, the Earth is only a footstool.
      2. We see beauty even after God cursed the Earth because of Adam’s sin.
      3. We see beauty even after the colossal catastrophe of Noah’s Flood.
   2. Heaven
      1. is not a footstool, but a throne,
      2. is not cursed, and
      3. never had a flood.
   3. How beautiful then, heaven must be!
3. Personal Encounters with the Lord 
   1. He shall serve us.
      1. He served people on the Earth.
         1. He served bread (John 6.11).
         2. He washed His disciple’s feet (John 13).
         3. He cooked breakfast (John 21.9–13).
      2. In Luke 12, He told a parable that shows what He will do in heaven,

         37 “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them” (Luke 12.37).

   2. Faithful Christians shall see Him,

      4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads (Rev 22.4).

   3. We shall serve Him personally,

      3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him (Rev 22.3).

4. Gloriously Beautiful 
   1. New

      1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea (Rev 21.1).

   2. The Presence of God

      3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev 21.3).

   3. No Sorrow

      4 “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev 21.4).

   4. Glory and Freedom

      24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25 Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it (Rev 21.24–26).

   5. No Evil There

      27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev 21.27).

   6. The Ultimate Paradise

      1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Rev 22.1–2).

   7. God Unveiled

      3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever (Rev 22.3–5).

How Terrible Hell Must Be 

1. Fire 
   1. Unquenchable

      12 “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3.12).

2. Darkness

   12 “But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 8.12).

   1. Lava bed ice caves
   2. Came to the building at night?
   3. The darkness of hell is intensified by what you can see:

      28 “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13.28).

      23 “And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16.23).

3. Pure Wrath
   
   10 he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. 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 ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name” (Rev 14.10–11).
   1. God showed David and Israel mercy after David’s numbering of Israel.
   2. The rich man’s pleas for mercy went unheeded.
4. The Second Death
   
   8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21.8).
   1. The second death is one continuous horrifying experience of death.
   2. Death is separation
      1. Of the body
         1. Jam 2.26
         2. Separated from everything on Earth
   3. Of the spirit
      1. Separated from heaven
      2. Separated from God
      3. Hence, “lost”

Exhortation: 

1. God intensifies things in heaven and hell.
   
   6 [God] “will render to each one according to his deeds”: 7 eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, 9 tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; 10 but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Rom 2.6–10).
   1. Second life in heaven is greater than life on earth.
   2. Second death in hell is greater than death on earth.
      1. There is no death after life in heaven.
      2. There is no life after death in hell.
2. Take extreme measures to avoid hell and to go to heaven,
   
   30 “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (Matt 5.30).