2024-03-24AM- Hell On Earth

The speaker is glad to be in God's house and emphasizes the importance of recognizing Jesus as the sole Savior. They mention that it is Palm Sunday and the upcoming Good Friday. They invite the congregation to participate in the Lord's Supper and foot-washing service. They also mention an upcoming revival and ask for volunteers to take care of visitors. The speaker urges everyone to clean up after themselves during services and pray for revival. They then read from Mark chapter 15, focusing on the darkness and Jesus' cry on the cross. The sermon is titled "Hell on Earth" and the speaker discusses the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. They emphasize that Jesus took our sins upon Himself and died to give us the opportunity to escape the judgment of hell. I'm so glad to be in God's house today that I have a Savior. You know what? Sometimes I will write that down. I have a Savior and I'll scratch it out and I'll say, I have the Savior, because He's not one among many. He is the sole Savior. There is none beside Him, and I am glad to be a child of the Most High. I'm going to be reading this morning from Mark chapter 15. Mark chapter 15. As I said earlier, this is Palm Sunday. We refer to this as Holy Week. We think about that last week, and a lot of Scripture, a lot of pages of Scripture are dedicated to the very last week before Jesus went to Calvary. So I want you to be mindful of that this week. We think about that, and that this Friday is Good Friday when we remember that our Lord was crucified, and of course God has given us things to help us along. One of those things we have is the Lord's Supper. So I want to say that next Sunday night we want to be partakers of the Lord's table. We're going to serve communion here at the Sunday evening service, and we will have our foot-washing service in the same evening. So please remember that. We want to do that. He said, do this in remembrance of me. So if He said that, that's something that we certainly want to do. Revival, of course, beginning Wednesday night, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday is the schedule. I do want to ask if there's anyone that's available to take care of the sulphurges either Thursday or Friday. They'll be coming in Wednesday afternoon, I'm sure just before the service. But Thursday or Friday, we will be taking care of them as much as needs to be done. But if somebody would like to feed them, take care of them, visit with them, they're just awesome, awesome people. Thursday or Friday, just let my wife know about that. We'll also, after the services, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we'll be taking them out to eat. So if you want to go for that or be prepared for that, I know it's a weekday and it gets difficult. For me, it does. I've taken time off work, so it's not going to be so difficult for me. But I do understand people working the next day and how difficult that can be. That being said, with Revival, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, as we're in service here, at the end of the services, just kind of take a look. Make sure things are cleaned up, picked up, we don't have tissues. The next night when we have visitors come, they come in and they say, not there. But we clean up around ourselves and make sure the place stays picked up. If you see something needs to be picked up, please take care of that. Let's just be in prayer for Revival. I do believe that God has good things here for, as you said, us, for this community, and for whoever we'll choose that we know, that we're familiar with, that will come and visit with us. I don't believe that any service should be a throwaway service, that it should be a, you know, well, this is, you know, we'll get through this. No, there's something and I pray that it becomes so obvious that those that are in need will find their needs met. But read with me, please, Matthew chapter 15 this morning. I want to try to take my time. Does that mean I'm going to be long? I don't know, maybe. Mark chapter 15, we're going to read two verses here, verse 33. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthanai, which is being interpreted, my God, my God. Why hast thou forsaken me? When the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And then Jesus cried with a loud voice, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Please pray with me. And Father, thank you for this portion of the service that we come to, getting into your Bible. I'm asking that you would anoint me like you anoint your ministers to preach the Word. Help me to stay within what you have said and your intentions. I pray today that you will give relief to some soul. I'm asking you tonight that you will give assurance to some soul. Right here in this place today, I'm praying that you will move among us and do what only you can do. Use this servant, I pray, and Lord, I will get out of your way that you can do the work here in this altar, in Jesus' name, amen, amen. I want to try to preach this morning this title, Hell on Earth, Hell on Earth. As I said, we recognize this week being the time that we remember that Jesus Christ was crucified, is coming up Friday night through all that he went through. And I won't be preaching this on Friday night. So I'm going to preach it this morning, the Sunday before what we commemorate as the crucifixion of our Lord, Hell on Earth. And I look at these two verses of Scripture and I think that there are things that we can pull from here and other parts of the Bible that let us know that something spectacular happened that day, something spectacular. I know that it is a fact that there are many people in this world that have come face to face with intense sufferings. Lots of people have been through a lot of things. We've heard stories from all around the world of different situations and different places that have been so horrifying that someone has said, that's hell on earth right there. We can look at the situation in Haiti right now. And Haiti's been a mess for decades. And I believe that there's good reason for that. When they sold their souls to witchcraft and into devil worship, there can't anything come out of that. And now it's just falling apart and getting worse and worse and there's things that people are going through. And somebody might pass through that place or fly over it or read stories and say, well, that's a good example of hell on earth. And no doubt there have been people that have undergone such great cruelty. There are situations that have led people into very torturous things that they've experienced. I've heard very frightening descriptions of car accidents that people have brought this description upon themselves. There have been those who have endured years upon years of abuse. Small children or even into the elderly people have obtained and gone through great abuse. And I'm not trying to take away from anything that anybody has endured. We've gone through traumatic experiences ourselves. But we should be careful about the terms that we use because hell on earth is a term that gets used sometimes just attempting to help others really understand just what we've been through. What our situation has been. I've heard it used far too lightly in somebody complaining about the job that they have. This place is hell on earth to work for. Or there might come those words from a teenager who would say, my parents are so overbearing and I can't do what I would like to do and go where I'd like to go. Being in this house is like living on hell on earth. But it's not really that way because there really was, I believe, a time that we should recognize that someone supreme truly suffered hell on earth. As Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross, He experienced a suffering that is unlike the suffering of any other human has endured on this side of eternity. Although right now there are multitudes, an untold number of souls who have plunged into the depths of hell and know exactly what hell is. And they understand what the torments of hell are right now. They understand it. But nobody on this side has faced what Christ suffered when He went to the cross. I want to be clear that when Jesus went to Calvary, when He climbed that hill and was crucified on Golgotha's hill, He did not do that just to demonstrate, watch this. I can die and I can come back. That was not to demonstrate the power of God to raise someone from the dead. But when Jesus went there, He took your sins with Him. He took my sins to that place that He might receive unto Himself the full wages of our sins. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God, eternal life, is only through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus Christ our Lord. Now if there is anyone who understands the horrors of hell and how real that it is, there is no one like Jesus that knows what hell is. Nobody could understand what it's been described because He was there when it was created. It was to be the divine punishment for the devil and his angels. The judgment and the divine wrath of Almighty God was poured into a place that we know as hell that would be suitable for the one who decided that he would defy God and His mighty throne. Hell was made for the devil, is what Jesus said. The one who had aspired to be exalted above the throne of God. The one who has spent time and place throughout the ages to separate man from his crowning glory of creation, to separate God from man who is the crowning glory of God's creation. And so God said, I will make hell for such a one as this. One who would think that he would ascend the throne and defy God's authority. Hell for the one who would seek to separate God from man. This is a place made suitable for the devil when the wrath of Almighty God and all of his anger gets funneled down to one place. It is hell. It is that judgment that is to be placed on the devil and his angels. And it was Jesus who went to Calvary's cross to give all, every individual the opportunity to escape this fate, no matter how deserving that we really are of it, by our own sins. Hell is that final judgment against rebellious mankind. It is the future for Satan and the fallen angels. It is the place that today souls fall out of this world and into. It is the place where the lost are held until where the book of Revelation says that death delivers up the dead that are in them. Hell delivers up the dead that are in them to stand before God into judgment before they are cast into the eternal lake of fire. This is that place. But this plan of salvation that is offered through the suffering, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to give opportunity to every individual to escape the punishment for our own sins. That's why Jesus went to Calvary. And it is the only means by which any of us shall escape hell. When heaven and earth are passed away, there's no more place. You can't drive off to Virginia or Washington and say, I'm just getting away. When heaven and earth are passed away, there is no place left for the sinner but to go to hell. That's it. And if you reject heaven, then you accept hell. Somebody might say, I don't make a decision. Oh, but you have. You have. But Jesus went to the cross to suffer the eternal judgment that would fall upon us. And that was very due to every one of us. Jesus went to the cross to suffer that eternal judgment that rested upon every one of us. Now if the physical suffering was all that Jesus were to go through hanging there on the cross, it could be dismissed as something that many others have endured. We know that there were two men that were crucified with Jesus on the same day that He was crucified. There are many that have experienced that horrible death of crucifixion. There were martyrs that would follow after Jesus' resurrection, and they would follow suit and they would die in the same manner. But there was so much more to this day than the nails that held His hands and His feet. There was much more going on there than a man gasping for air as he was breathing his final breaths. As his body agonized on that cross, there was far more. Because otherwise, those two men that were beside Him said, I'm going through the same thing here. We're all in this thing together. I know what it's like to be crucified. I know what it's like to suffer the fate that He's going through. But the truth of it is, those two men, while they were dying, they were being crucified for their own crimes. But Jesus, who hung between them, was bearing the sins of the entire world. According to 1 John 2 and verse 2, the suffering of the crucifixion, no doubt, was horrible, horrific, barbaric. Every word that you can come up with was a terrible, awful way to die. And I don't want to take away from anyone's experience that has been crucified and suffered in that way. But Jesus wasn't dying like a normal thief. Jesus wasn't even dying like a regular, innocent man that had been convicted wrongly. That's not what was happening. But His purpose was to go there and to experience what every man will experience if he leaves this world in a sinful state. That's why Jesus went to the cross, so that He would face what we deserve. And so, on Calvary's hill, Jesus, I'm convinced, endured hell right here on earth. Hell on earth. And when it was all done, when everything was done, Isaiah said that it would be said that it pleased the Lord. It satisfied the judgment. Hell, as awful as you can imagine it to be, will have been satisfied. The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for sinful man was enough to completely fulfill the wrath, the divine anger, and the judgment of Almighty God. That happened on that day. It happened on that day. And as we read there in my text, Jesus is quoting from the 22nd Psalm when He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Now Jesus wasn't using these words for dramatic effect. Okay? He was not looking, well, if I say this, then somebody's going to feel sorry for me hanging up here. Jesus knew these words. Jesus was there when David wrote these words. David no doubt was thinking about his own life situations and crying out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? But what was really happening was the Holy Ghost was moving on David to prophesy something that would happen hundreds of years later before it would be fulfilled. And as Jesus is dying, these words were chosen way ahead of time that you're going to need these words when you get there to that cross. You're going to use these words while you hang on a cross. I believe that these words were meant to convey a message of the hell that He Himself was experiencing at that point on Calvary's hill. Now you remember before Jesus went to Golgotha that He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. You remember that that's where He went and went alone to pray, left His disciples behind, and He agonized as He cried out to the Father. The Bible tells us it was there that He prayed more earnestly and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. It was in that garden, as He looked forward to what was about to happen, that He prayed three times, Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done. And His praying became so intense that the Bible says that there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven to help Him and to strengthen Him. Jesus knew what was coming. He knew it was more than He was going to have to suffer the physical death on that cross. You see, when Jesus went from the third hour to the sixth hour, man did his best. Man felt like he had got it all done. Jesus had already suffered at the hands of cruel men in a great mockery of justice. You know about the trial that He suffered through and nobody could truly find any fault in Jesus in the courtroom. No reasonable complaint was launched against Jesus to justify putting Him to death. Yet He was openly mocked. He was spit upon. He was struck. And He was scourged. He was made to carry the cross upon which He would die. And when He got there, they drove the nails in His hands. And they put the nails in His feet. They plaited a crown of thorns and they placed it upon His head. But this, brothers and sisters, believe me, was not the worst part of the events of that day. Those first three hours were man doing his best to exact a cruel punishment upon a man and take vengeance upon one that they hated. But it was the final three hours of Jesus' crucifixion when God steps up and He pours out His wrath upon one, the only begotten Son of God. Man did what he could. Man did what he could. Man tried as hard, as best as he could. But when man cannot pour it out like it needs to be, God steps on the scene and begins to pour hell on earth to the only begotten Son of God. God steps up at the sixth hour, which is about noon. The brightest part of the day, when the sun is right in the center overhead. We change our time zones to adjust for it, so that noon where we are, the sun is right overhead. And the brightest time of the day, suddenly, instead of the brightness of the noonday sun, darkness settles over that land that lasts for three solid hours. Now, this is three hours that we have no record of what happens. It's darkness. Nobody can see anything. Three hours in which God Almighty poured the wrath of eternity on Jesus Christ, as He paid in full for all the sins of all of humanity. Now, there's probably ways you've heard this described. I grew up always hearing this theory about what happened when Jesus said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? And I was always told that it was because that God could not look upon sin, and so He turned Him away. And I've struggled with that because I never really found anything in the Scriptures except anecdotal that might hint toward something like that. So I've not really embraced that. And it would be difficult for us to understand because as we think about God, we see light, right? I mean, John said God is light, right? And in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus said, in a couple places, I am the light of the world. Revelation chapter 21 says that the glory of God is sufficient to light all of heaven, and that Jesus Christ is the light of all of heaven, to provide all of the light. So we have become accustomed to light symbolizing the presence of Almighty God in leading somebody. Remember, it was a pillar of fire by night that the Lord led the children of Israel. We have been known to characterize God's light in saving somebody. We characterize God's light as that which delivers somebody. When the Apostle Paul was Saul and on the road to Damascus, it was light that he came in contact, that delivered him from his sins. And we love all of these descriptions. And it would be easy for us to say, well, if there was no light, then God must not have been anywhere to be found. And therefore, he said, why hast thou forsaken me? But there are places in the Bible where darkness is associated with the presence of God. And it is always when hither's wrath is on display. Remember the book of Exodus chapter 10? Just before the final plague, where the firstborn throughout all the land dies, darkness was cast over the earth. A darkness that the Bible says which may be felt. That's some darkness. That's more than somebody turning out the lights. That's more than the clouds covering the moon and the stars. This is a darkness which could be felt. The Bible says that this darkness was so thick that no one could even see one another for three solid days. Darkness. Jesus spoke on several occasions, I'm sure that you will remember, that He would tell that when the rebellious were cast out, that it would be cast out into outer darkness. It was associated with the wrath and the judgment of God. Joel prophesied of the day of judgment. He called it the day of the Lord. He said that it would be a day in which the sun and the moon would be dark and the stars shall withdraw their shining. That's what Joel said the coming judgment is going to be. Amos said that the day of the Lord would be darkness and not light, even very dark and no brightness in it. So may I present the answer. That in the three hours of darkness on the day of Christ's crucifixion, it was God's full judgment upon sin being fully carried on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. The blood had been shed that was necessary for the remission of sins. The wounds had been delivered for the healing of the people. And now God was pouring out His undiluted wrath upon the Son of God. Hell on earth. The book of Revelation describes a time that is to come of judgment in which there are those who will be on the wrong side of judgment and shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture. See, the sufferings that Jesus went through were not merely by the hands of men. That was not the whole means by which we are saved. But it was the wrath of Almighty God poured out upon Jesus. That's why Jesus said, Father, if Thou be willing, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done. After three hours of darkness, we read it there in the text, it was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, and at the ninth hour is when Jesus cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Jesus was feeling the abandonment of God that every sinner who dies lost is going to feel. That when a soul gets to hell, there is the abandonment, the stepping back of God. Now, we read in the Psalms, David said, If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. We understand the presence of God to be omnipresent. He's everywhere at all times. So to think that He'll not be there, well, He's pouring out wrath in that place. But there will be an abandonment. There will be no mercy. There will be no grace. This was the very thing that David was afraid of in Psalm 51 when he said, cast me not away from Thy presence. He had found himself in sin, and he's repenting of his sin in Psalm 51. He gets to verse 11 and he says, If you do anything, cast me not away from Thy presence. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. And this is what was happening to Jesus, was the withdrawing of the presence of Almighty God. There was no comfort. There was no calling any soul that is in hell. There is no opportunity for another service to pray. There's never an opportunity, when I get home, I'll talk it over with Him. No, when you get to hell, there is the abandonment of God the Father. And that is what Jesus was experiencing on His cross when He cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? I believe that the cry that He made isn't all that different from the cry that He described that others would make when He said, When once the Master of the house is risen up, and ye began to stand without, and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. That's what I feel like He's saying. My God! My God! Jesus, like them, when they pled, Lord, Lord, oh, there's the panic that sets in. They have just lost all hope and all contact with God. But just as they would receive no positive response, heaven was silent for our Savior. Why hast Thou forsaken Me? This is the hell that Christ experienced while He was on earth. Never, ever in all eternity had the Son ever been separated from the Father. Now, just so the price for your sins and my sins, just so that price could be paid, Jesus suffered that abandonment. Isaiah 59 and 2 describes iniquities that separate between God and men. And Jesus had all of those iniquities upon Himself. And it caused a separation. Jesus, listen, Jesus endured that abandonment. Jesus accepted that He didn't say in the garden, Father, I'm not doing it. He said, if there's another way, I'll take it. Nevertheless, He knew what was coming. He knew that Psalm 22 and 1 was written for Him. He knew that that would just come from Him. Why hast Thou forsaken Me? The outpouring of God's judgment upon Jesus Christ had become so great, so great, that it made a complete atonement for all of mankind in a six-hour period when man did what he could. And God poured out His wrath in that short amount of time. That's how great Jesus Christ is. That for all of the sins of every soul that would ever live and have to suffer eternal punishment, He could funnel it all into Himself within six hours, pay the complete price, and all men have the opportunity to be free. And everyone who receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior can be delivered and have all those sins delivered. Because Isaiah said that when God saw the travail of His soul, He was satisfied. And if everybody at that point would have decided, we'll all receive this sacrifice, He could have closed down a part of hell. I don't need it this big. Because everybody's believing. Because the judgment for all sin had been delivered on that day. The wrath of Almighty God was fulfilled. Jesus did indeed truly pay for every bit of it. The wages of sin is death. Jesus received those wages. And so that price is paid in full today. Isaiah also said, He shall bear their iniquities. Praise God. We may be able through history to go back and decide or discover who it was that came up with crucifixion as a means of execution. But really the truth of it is that this was a divine plan. It was designed by God to pay the cost of all of mankind's sins. The Bible says in Hebrews 2, that Jesus went to Calvary that He might taste death for us all. You know that He's the only one who could have received such divine wrath and be revived again. Everybody else who's received the wrath of God, that's it. They didn't come back. There were no other opportunities. He's the only one who could have suffered all of this judgment and make it matter so much to so many people. But I want you to understand too, that my God, why hast Thou forsaken me, were not the final words of Jesus on the cross. He would eventually say, it is finished. He had received it all. He had experienced hell, your hell, my hell, all in Himself in just a few hours' time. And He said, it is finished. But before He gave up the ghost, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit. The darkness had lifted. The price had been paid. And having said thus, He gave up the ghost. Brother Austin, would you come? Get us a song please. Hell is still the eternal dwelling place for those who leave this world lost. It still is. That's not changed. But Jesus experienced hell right here on earth so that you wouldn't have to go there. So that I wouldn't have to go there. So our children would not have to go there. So that our families would not have to go there. Would you stand with me? The Scriptures still say, and I believe it is said emphatically, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not just because there were nails in His hands and feet. Not just because He died on the cross. But because God poured out His wrath on Him. Because it had to be paid for. It had to be paid for. It all would come to that. And Jesus paid that awful cost. So I ask you this morning, is there somebody who needs to be washed in Jesus' blood? Is there somebody who needs a reassurance? Yes. What He did was enough. I don't have to go home and wonder, what else do I have to do? It was enough. When Jesus said, It is finished, that was not a lie. It was finished. He had paid the awful cost so that you and I could be saved. And it's all in Him. Father, thank You, Lord, for our opportunity today. Thank You for our opportunity, Lord, to remember what You've done for us. Thank You for receiving unto Yourself our punishment. Thank You for taking the Father's wrath upon Yourself so that I didn't have to experience it. And I pray over our congregation this morning, asking You, Lord, to move on everyone, any unforgiven sin, any wandering soul, any confused individual that is concerned about how things are. I pray that it would be remedied today all in Jesus. Amen. The altar is open for anyone and everyone. Does somebody need some blessed assurance? Has there come some doubt your way and you've maybe wondered, maybe somebody told you, well, yes, Jesus died, but here's what else you need. Don't believe it. It's enough. Are you confused about your experience? Jesus paid it all. And I want to encourage everyone in this place to find rest in that fact that Jesus gave it all so that we could live. Would there be somebody who could step out and say, I'm ready to settle it all right here. I'm ready for my part to be received for what He paid for on that day. I'm ready. Hallelujah. God have Your way. Alright, let's all come in. But don't hesitate. Don't hesitate to get right. Jesus has done all that it takes to deliver every soul from eternal damnation. Now I am His. He is mine. I know He suffered it all because He loved me. Because He loved me, my Savior died. On that cross was crucified. No greater love by mortal man has ever been known. Oh, praise His dear name. He loved me so. Now I am His. He is mine. I know He suffered it all because He loved me. Oh, because He loved me, my Savior died. On the cross He was crucified. No greater love by mortal man has ever been known. Oh, praise His dear name. He loved me so. Now I am His. He is mine. I know He suffered it all because He loved me. Because He loved me, my Savior died. On that cross was crucified. No greater love by mortal man has ever been known. Oh, praise His dear name. Now I am His. He is mine. I know He suffered it all because He loved me. He suffered it all. All of it. He suffered it all. He came so you could live forever. Jesus, my Lord, suffered for me, carried the cross all the way. My sins to atone. Then they nailed Him to the cross. Great was the pain and the loss. He suffered it all because He loved me. Because He loved me, my Savior died. On the cross was crucified. No greater love by mortal man has ever been known. Praise His dear name. He loved me so. I am now His. He is mine. I know He suffered it all because He loved me. On a hill called Calvary, Jesus, my Lord, suffered for me, carried the cross all the way. My sins to atone. Then they nailed Him to the cross.