Sermon #1 of many on Hell: Matthew 1-5

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By: Evan Troxel

OK, everybody. Welcome to my first ever sermon and sermon series about what Hell will be like! I always insist on capitalizing the letter “H” in the word Hell, so if I don’t capitalize it, that’s what it says in the Bible that I am using to quote Scripture, in other words, Bible verses, for those of you who don’t yet know what Scripture means! Anyway, this sermon series is to find every single verse in the Bible (and perhaps other books that are directly linked with the Bible) that talk about/mention what hell (or Hell) is like! It just saddens me that to my knowledge not a single pastor or preacher in the United States (or anywhere in the world really) has written a book exclusively about hell (or Hell)! And what I simply want to know is “Why” or “Why not” yet?

With many people all over the world committing suicide every year, you just have to wonder how many souls (people) have been permanently lost to Satan and Hell just because certain people were too afraid to really talk to their loved ones, friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers or other people in their life about hell (or Hell)! Many churches don’t really seem to be welcoming and inclusive to young people ages 14 (or younger) to 45 or 50 these days. And that really needs to start changing immediately! I mean, your church really is in trouble spiritually if less than five people in any particular age bracket are currently attending your church! Especially if it is like any age bracket under the age of like 50!

I really didn’t want to talk too much about your local church’s membership, but I don’t know how else you are supposed to get young people these days to even come to church (AT ALL) if you aren’t even going to ever try to talk in detail (like basically all the time) about what Hell (and for that matter, Heaven) are like! I mean, your church is really missing out on an opportunity to witness to young people if you aren’t EVEN TRYING TO DO this! But that’s just my opinion!

So I don’t really know what any church is really trying to do AT ALL if they aren’t even going to bother to try teaching all people about what Hell and Heaven is/are! It’s like your church has no plan (as far as I’m concerned)! And, I hate to say it, your church might as well not exist at all if it isn’t ACTUALLY TRYING to do this! I understand that there are many layers to all of these things, but you have to start somewhere!

People need to constantly know the consequences of THEIR actions! And I don’t think we as a society do a good enough job AT ALL with this anymore these days! Everything is just like whatever works (or whatever sticks) is whatever happens anymore!

Like, I feel like every week you should be talking about Hell and Heaven in church! And every week in church you should be talking about the consequences of sin and the benefits of obeying God! I feel like these things never get talked about enough at all! And many other things that are both positive and negative that are actually mentioned in the Bible need to be talked about every single week in church, but for some reason in modern day Christian churches those things gets totally overlooked!

So I have decided to start this “sermon series” (if you will) because I just feel like modern day Christian churches really needs to hear this right now!

And why? Because I just simply feel like there is zero accountability with hardly anything anymore!

This is more of a personal project than anything. I just want to know what Hell will be like (other than it is a place that is hot with fire that will never be quenched), so that I will do everything that I possibly need to do between right now and when I physically die so that I don’t actually go to Hell! So that’s really the real reason why I am doing this!

And a lot of people (who claim they are Christians, but they sure don’t act like it 51 percent of the time or more) are a lot more guilty of not leading people to Jesus Christ than they ever want to admit (AND THEY KNOW IT TOO)! And every single person on Earth knows that one person that I am talking about right now! I just have a hard time believing that so many young people under the age of 20 are as unruly as they are these days (like wanting to murder people in schools), but clearly much of the problem for that comes right down to parenting!

And many problems with kids under the age of 20 years wanting to murder people in schools could be eliminated entirely if parents don’t get divorced and also if parents would simply parent (and put in the parenting work) instead of being narcissistic and thinking about themselves all the time!

So I guess the bottom line is that if you are a Christian, you need to start stepping up to the plate, because you are up to bat and it is your time to shine! Many Christians who have a lot of influence and power could really do a lot to impact many people just by making a small effort (for starters), but they just blatantly refuse to do it! Why? I want to know why!

The people who control this world would really have a lot less power and influence immediately if everyone (or nearly everyone on Earth) stopped watching television, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper or even looking at social media constantly or even at all (and instead read the Bible)! Can you imagine if no one consumed “news” for three or even six months? What would your life look like if you just read the Bible and totally ignored the “news”? And what does it say about you and your life if the only thing you are doing in your free time is consuming “news” on the television, radio, in a newspaper or on social media when you are not working at your job for eight hours every weekday? Do you really just let the “news” cycle control and manipulate your life 24/7 when you aren’t eating or you aren’t sleeping or you aren’t even at work?

So I guess I wrote a lot there and I hope certain ideas and themes shine through (and become a lot more clear to many pastors/preachers) over the next several days, weeks, and months of this “sermon series” because I feel like many pastors/preachers are totally failing their churches all over the world!

So without further adieu, let’s mention some verses about Hell from the first five chapters in the book of Matthew, the first book in the New Testament of the Bible:

The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. –Matthew 3:10

This is the first verse in the New Testament that clearly talks about Hell. It basically is saying that God has already found you (every person on Earth) guilty of sins. If you do not try to faithfully live a pure and holy life of following and telling others about Jesus Christ from this moment forward, you will be spending eternity in fire after you die (or when Jesus comes back to Earth for the final time, whichever comes first). Living faithfully means that you don’t have to be perfect, but you need to consistently be doing the good, moral, ethical and right things according to what God wants you to do and you always need to be striving to be perfect as often as possible! The most important point is believing that Jesus Christ is Lord and that you will be saved from going to Hell as a result! The truth is that you really only have to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord to inherit eternal life and go to Heaven someday! But that doesn’t mean you can just do whatever you want for the rest of your life once you just believe once (and only once) that Jesus Christ is the Lord (the owner) of your life and your soul! I cannot emphasize this point in the previous sentence enough, because something like 70 percent of all of you will never get it no matter how many times I try to get my point across to you! You have to put in the effort to live a life obedient and pleasing to God, because almost nothing ever in this physical life on Earth is really given away totally for free. You can’t earn Heaven by anything you will ever do on the Earth because it has been freely bought and paid for by the precious blood of Jesus Christ!

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. –Matthew 3:12

The fire of Hell in Matthew 3:12 is unquenchable. I guess it really is totally impossible to understand fire not being put out ever again! Just like it is impossible to understand here on Earth what everyone smiling (or always being happy) at the same time would probably look like! The chaff clearly symbolizes people who disobey God’s commands and the wheat symbolizes the faithful followers of Jesus Christ!

In Matthew 4:4, Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” So, in other words, man (people) must depend on God for guidance in their life!

In Matthew 4:7, Jesus said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” In other words, don’t try to test God to see if you can get away with doing something. No person will ever get away with anything without consequences from God…ever!

In Matthew 4:10, Jesus said, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” The only thing people ultimately are supposed to serve and worship is God! God is simply glorified when his followers do anything that ultimately leads people to Him! This verse is simply a command!

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” –Matthew 5:13

So I guess maybe everyone in Hell will be trampled by other people? The point is that if you aren’t always trying to be productive as a Christian and telling people about Jesus Christ, well then you aren’t a follower of Christ AT ALL and you certainly aren’t obeying God and you certainly will be sending yourself to Hell as a result!

Matthew 5:19 is a confusing verse, so I won’t even pretend to act like I know what it means. But again, if you are following God’s commands, you will go to Heaven and if you aren’t well you aren’t going to Heaven. What I guess is confusing to me is that this verse seems to imply that no one is going to Hell when it says that certain people will be “least in the kingdom of heaven”! Or maybe it is simply implying that every person breaks God’s commands and the people who break God’s commands more frequently won’t be rewarded as much in Heaven as someone who was an extremely faithful follower of God’s commands.

Matthew 5:20 is pretty straightforward. If you are honest, don’t act like a hypocrite and are not a fault finder like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were in Jesus’ day, you have a better chance to go to Heaven than the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, but you definitely won’t be going to Heaven if you act like the Pharisees and the teachers of the law (or worse)!

Matthew 5:21 talks about murdering people.

Matthew 5:22 is about getting angry with your brother. As a result of getting angry, you will be bringing judgment on yourself. I cannot tell you what this verse means without looking at many different versions of the Bible first.

Matthew 5:29 and 5:30 talk about gouging out your right eye and cutting off your right hand. These actions are not to be taken literally in modern times. These actions are symbols of what you need to do to sacrifice certain luxuries you have in the modern world so that you can live the Christian life fully and abundantly! If you feel temptation to sexual sin, maybe you don’t walk by the magazine rack or even go to that store where they sell provocative magazines or books (or whatever it is) ever again! Maybe you have someone else buy your groceries for you! Maybe you shouldn’t shop at stores where people dress inappropriately or too sexually/provocatively. Maybe you need to have your private room door open at all times or to have the shades and the curtains for your window open at all times so people know what you are actually doing during that time! (And maybe you need to take it a step further and actually open your window so that people can hear you at all times)! Your wife, husband or friend might need to have the computer password or Internet password, so that you aren’t looking at the Internet or things on the computer “whenever you want to”. Maybe you should only drive your vehicle without any money with you so that you aren’t tempted to spend money on the things that you don’t really need! The point is to get creative with whatever you are struggling with and have someone make it harder for you to do the things that don’t help you to fully live the Christian life! The point of these verses is to be accountable to other people if you struggle and most people could probably be more accountable in some way! If you don’t have any money with you, you cannot buy cigarettes or beer or alcohol or drugs to smoke or drink!

Anyway, I didn’t quote every Bible verse that talks about Hell, so you can (and should) look them up in your own physical copy of the Bible (or many different versions of the Bible) and you could also read many different versions of the Bible online (on the Internet) somewhere, so you REALLY SHOULD take advantage of that luxury. Remember, it’s your life, it’s your soul that is going to Hell and Gehenna if you blatantly refuse to obey God’s commands, so it is extremely important that you make all the efforts necessary to do what you need to do to not go to Hell and Gehenna! (And for those of you who don’t know what “Gehenna” is, from what little I understand about it at this point, it is basically where you go after you go to Hell, (because everyone will leave Hell to go to Gehenna), and Gehenna is basically exactly like Hell except it is totally permanent and your final non-resting place!)

So this concludes sermon number one about Hell and I plan to NOT PROVIDE so much of my own opinions about random topics/things/ideas like I did with this very first sermon. I am not going to waste my time elaborating about things that are obvious to most people about Hell (like it being about fire), but I still plan to provide plenty of totally necessary commentary (that is extremely important) about the Bible verses that do talk about and mention Hell! So I hope all of you understood this sermon, and I really cannot believe how much effort it took just to write this sermon alone!

Those are all of my thoughts for right now! Be sure to come back to this website for all of my future sermons about Hell from the Bible! I plan to post one sermon every single day for every five chapters of the Bible until I read the entire Bible! So that is 238 different sermons as there are 1,189 chapters in the 66 Books of the Bible. I also may/probably will study, write and publish content about Hell from other books that are directly linked to the Bible but ARE NOT one of the totally recognized 66 books of the Bible.

Be sure to follow me on my various social media which you can find on this page for right now. I encourage every single genuine Christian on Earth to create an account and follow me on Gab.com as Facebook and Twitter probably won't be respecting your right to free speech or even to talk about the Bible sometime in the very near future in the United States of America on social media.

Evan Troxel is a writer and a researcher (and many other things) and is currently NOT an ordained pastor or a preacher anywhere on Earth at the time of this writing (nor does Evan ever wish to be an ordained pastor or preacher anytime soon)! Evan simply just wants to preach the word of God as it is mentioned in 2nd Timothy 2:4 to as many people on Earth as possible! Evan appreciates all of your thoughts, comments and suggestions to make this Sermon Series even better than it already is in person or on social media!