Introduction:

Good day to you ladies and gentlemen. Tonight is the third of the ten questions that we are studying at Church. I have been taking notes and I am going to try and portray what I heard at Church onto here. The third question of the ten questions is this: Would a loving God send people to hell?
Many have pondered this question. This is hardly ever talked about or debated about in normal conversations and is usually only ever brought up in topic at funerals and such. Anyway lets get down to business.

Do you want justice?

Now the first place we'll start is the character of God. More importantly a loving God. That is a good place to start as God is love.

1 John 4:16 NIV
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

However God is also just as it says in Thessalonians.

2 Thessalonians 1:6

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.

So we now know that God is not only love but he is also just. The definition of just is this: "Honourable and fair in one's dealings and actions: a just ruler."

Now lets take that question that we're discussing here and flip it around. Would a loving God accept everyone into Heaven? People like Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Lade, Martin Bryant, Adam Sandler, Dennis Fergusen etc.

When murderers like that are put on trial, many crowds have gathered for justice to condemn those people. Crowds demand Justice. It is sometimes like they feel the Supreme Court is not enough. Now what if there is a court above the Supreme Court? The court before God.
Now everybody has standards. It is also true that everyone can point to someone who is considered lower than them and therefore they think that they're okay. This guy is a murderer, I'm not a murderer so therefore I am good. The thing is though, even some murderers can point to somebody else in jail and say the exact same thing about themselves.
We all fall into the trap of justifying ourselves. I spoke about people having standards, some people claim they will never break the law or they'll treat their partners with the utmost respect and never cheat on them. Maybe they'll set a standard of keeping their family integrity. The point is we can set standards for ourselves. However many people have failed at even their own standards. They then go on to justify themselves as to how and why they failed their own standards they made to themselves.

It is time to examine yourself, this is called self justification. If we set standards for ourselves and we fail at even that, what about God's standards? Do you think that God's standards would be lower than your standards or higher than your standards? If you failed your own standards you can get angry at yourself. If you are angry with yourself because you failed at your own standards then God is definitely angry with you also. Now crowds demand justice when a murderer is put on trial and everybody wants them to get what they got coming to them. Now that is things like paedophiles, murders, mass murders etc. Now that is society's standard but what if there is a court above the Supreme Court that has an ever higher standard than that? Things like drug addicts, drink drivers, speeders, stealer's, cheaters, liars, swearers, bullies, name callers etc. In God's court you would be done for and you wouldn't stand a chance. You would be convicted for every single wrong doing you have ever committed in your entire life.

God is angry at everyone. This is because everyone has chosen to reject God and wanted to live a godlessness life. Here in Earth we have a taste of what it is like. In the end God will give us what we asked for, an eternal life without God. This is known as Hell.
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Do you want mercy?

So if you know that you're done for in the highest court there is, wouldn't you want mercy? How would you go about receiving mercy? This is where Jesus comes into the picture.
Jesus shows us what we should have been like. Now we know we all failed at this and we do not deserve to see the holiness of God. Simon Peter knows this.

Luke 5:8 NIV
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

Jesus does talk about Hell, as a matter of fact he talks about Hell more than anybody else does in The Bible. He tells us not to fear the ones on Earth who can only destroy the body but to fear the one who can cast both mind and spirit to Hell.

Luke 12:4-5 NIV
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him."

Who is Jesus talking to, Murderers? Paedophiles? No! He is talking to his friends, which is all of us! This message is directed to everybody.

Luke 18:32-33 NIV
"He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; 33 they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

Jesus was mocked, beaten and insulted. He was killed. Jesus went through all of that for everybody. Jesus suffered the FULL wrath of God, all sins of the past, present and future were all poured down onto him.
He went through all of that because everybody has fallen short of the Glory of God.

Romans 3:23-25
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[a] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

All have fallen short of God's standards. We are all guilty before the court of God. Yet we are justified freely by his grace. The grace that came through the blood of Jesus Christ. We have an offer to be not guilty, that is not by our own strength but because Jesus stepped in for you.
Let me ask you this, if we all die and just go to Heaven why did Jesus die on the cross and go through the hell that he did?

Have you ever heard of a bushfire survival manual? We have all heard about bushfires from time to time. Sometimes some bushfires are massive and they reach homes and disintegrate those homes entirely. The bushfire survival manual says that the safest place to be during a bushfire is an area that has already been burnt by the fire as the fire can't burn in the same place twice. Run to a place where fire has already been burnt.

"If your house catches on fire and the conditions inside become unbearable, you need to get out and go to an area that has already been burnt."

The only safe place to be while the judgement of God rains down upon us all is at the cross of Jesus. So in a nutshell God will send people to hell but he would rather show mercy. You can ask for mercy through his son and you'll receive it. It doesn't matter what you've done in the past. You can have that one sin that you will think to yourself "Will God forgive even that sin?" The answer is yes because the blood of Jesus is more powerful than that sin. However some people may not ask for mercy because they think that they are too good. They are good people who don't need mercy or forgiveness from God or so they think. The truth is EVERYBODY needs God's mercy. The Pope, Sporting idols, Ministers, Australian of The Year, men, women, children, you and me etc.

So do you want to receive mercy? If so then pray to The LORD and all will be forgiven. There is a judgement day coming in the days ahead of us but there is also a judgement day that has already been. There is a fire that is heading towards us but there is also a place that, that fire has already been. The only safe place to be is where the fire has already been burnt - at the cross of Jesus.