Sermons
Roadblocks to Hell
Roadblocks to Hell
Introduction: To talk about hell is not a very popular thing to talk about today. A lot of people are willing to talk about heaven, but they don’t want to talk about hell. But the fact is Jesus talked a lot about hell. One of those places is Mark 9:43. Jesus said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched.” Jesus here is talking about a place that is so horrible that a person should take drastic measures in this life to keep from going there. Jesus in essence is saying whatever it takes to keep from going to hell, do it. If Jesus is truly Lord, then hell is a real place, a place where we do not want to go.
And yes, it is easy to go to hell. Matthew 7:13-14: “13 Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (NKJV) Notice, the way to destruction (or hell) is broad. It’s not that restrictive. You can live the way you want to live. Do whatever you want to do. As a matter of fact, Jesus says that most of the people are going down that way. Yes there is a sense in which it is easy to go to hell.
But I want to suggest to you also that in some ways it is hard to go to hell. There are some obstacles in your way to hell. These are obstacles that God has put in your way to keep you from going there. God has placed roadblocks along the way because He does not want you to go to hell. Let us look at some of these roadblocks.
I. God’s Love
A. God desires that all men and women be saved and go to heaven. 1 Tim. 2:4
“[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
1. No man who has been created by God has been designed by God to go to hell. Man has been
designed by God to go to heaven.
B. The reason man goes to hell is because of sin.
1. Man is a free moral agent. When man chooses to commit sin, that sin separates him from God.
Isa. 59: 2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden
His face from you, So that He will not hear.”
2. Rom. 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…”
Wages is what we earn. We earn death, eternal separation from God in hell, because of our
sins.
3. When we commit sin justice demands that we be punished for our sins.
C. But God loves sinful man, wants to have fellowship with man, and does not want him to go to hell.
So there is a problem. God does not want us in hell, yet when we sin justice demands that we go
there. How can God be just and forgive us of our sins?
1. Because God loves us, He provided a way whereby we can be forgiven of our sins and have fellowship with God.
2. Because of God’s love for us, expressed in the death of His Son, we now can be saved from sin
and be able to go to heaven and live with a holy God. Rom. 5:8-9 “But God demonstrates
His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
a. Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the tree (the cross). 1 Peter 2:24; Isa. 53:4-6
3. In Jesus’ death on the cross, He paid the price for our sins, thus satisfying the demands of
justice and making it possible for God to forgive us.
D. Because God desires that none of us go to hell, what He has done is that He has blocked the path
with the cross of Christ. He has blocked the path with His love.
E. It seems the view that some people have of God is that he is in heaven looking down on man
just waiting for them to mess up so he can bring his wrath down upon them.
1. That is not the God of the Bible. In scripture we see God agonizing over the thought of man
being punished for his sins. Read Ezekiel 18:31-32
“31 ‘Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves
a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no
pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord GOD. ‘Therefore turn and live!’”
2. Titus 2:11 “…the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world…”
3. So here is a roadblock to hell – God’s love and grace.
F. But there are some people who ignore God’s love for them. They walk around it, they don’t want
to think about it, and so they continue in their path toward destruction.
1. They are ones like Paul described in Romans 2:4, “Or do you despise the riches of His
goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to
repentance?”
2. Those who go to hell have to ignore and refuse the love and goodness of God.
II. God’s Word, the Bible
A. Jesus promised the apostles that the Holy Spirit, also called the Helper, would come and convict
the world of sin. John 16:7-8
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away,
the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come,
He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”
1. How does the Holy Spirit convict the world of sin?
2. He convicts the world of sin through the word He has revealed.
The Bible is that word. The Bible was written by men who were guided by the Holy Spirit.
Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:13, “These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom
teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
The words of the Bible are the words the Holy Spirit gave.
3. The words of the Bible are here to convict us of sin, to instruct us in righteousness, and to motivate us to turn from our sins and obey God so we don’t go to hell. 2 Tim. 3:16
a. Notice, the Scriptures “reprove,” bring to light, our sins, and instructs us in righteousness.
4. The Bible has been given by God as a roadblock in our way to hell.
5. Rom. 1:16 The gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
6. The Bible is given as a roadblock to hell.
B. But some people will hear the word, be convicted by it, but will thrust its light from them, because
they don’t want it.
1. Acts 24:25 Felix heard Paul reason about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to
come. He heard the word of God, and the text says, “Felix was afraid.” The word of God
touched his heart.
a. But the text goes on to say that he “answered, ‘God away for now; when I have a
convenient time I will call for you.” The word of God was working on Felix’s heart, but
Felix pushed it aside and refused to obey. There is no indication that he ever did obey the
Lord.
C. Let the word of God work in your heart. Don’t push this roadblock to hell aside.
D. Those who go to hell have to push aside God’s convicting word.
III. Christians around you who are trying to bring you to Christ
A. God designed that Christians preach the gospel to others so they can be saved.
Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 8:4
1. That’s what Christians do. They preach the word so that lost souls will hear it and be saved.
They share the gospel with those who need it.
2. In our listening audience today, many of you became Christians because some other Christian
shared the gospel with you. They helped lead you to Christ.
3. This is a provision that God has made to keep us from going to hell.
B. But many people today will avoid Christians who are trying to share the gospel with them.
1. They see the Christian coming with their Bible and they run the other way.
2. They view these Christians as thorns in their sides, but they are really God’s attempt to keep
them from going to hell.
3. James 1:19-20 “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns
him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul
from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
4. The best friend you can have is one who will tell you the truth about the condition of your soul.
5. Don’t refuse him.
Psalm 141:5 “Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It
shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it.”
C. When someone rebukes you, trying to get you on the path to heaven, he is being kind to you. He is
your friend. Don’t turn him away. Let God use him to lead you to heaven.
IV. Your Conscience
A. What is your conscience?
1. Your conscience takes what you have been taught, and when you act contrary to what you have
been taught, it will sound an alarm. It will tell you that you are doing something that you know is wrong, and you better quit. That is a good thing.
2. The conscience is not an infallible guide. But when we are taught the truth from God’s word,
our conscience will help us to live according to the truth we have been taught.
B. When our conscience sounds the alarm we can do one of two things.
1. We can let our conscience help us straighten our lives up. OR
2. We can ignore our conscience.
C. If we continue to ignore our conscience, it will become callous, and when we do wrong there will
be no alarm sounding to warn us.
1 Timothy 4:2 Paul says of certain ones, “speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own
conscience seared with a hot iron.”
1. To have your conscience seared is to be able to commit sin without any feeling of guilt.
Paul talks about those who are “past feeling” in Eph. 4:19.
2. This person is in the fast lane to hell. He got there by continuing to refuse to listen to his
conscience.
D. Your conscience is a roadblock God has place within you to keep you from going to hell. If it has
been properly taught, listen to your conscience.
V. This Very Moment
A. If you are not saved, God is using this very moment, as you hear these words, to be roadblock to hell.
1. He is saying to you, “stop, don’t go any further on this road, turn around and come to Me.”
B. The Bible teaches that one reason the Lord has not come as yet is He is patient, giving sinners time
to repent. 2 Peter 3:4, 9
1. In 2 Peter 3 Peter mentions that there were scoffers who were saying, “Where is the promise of
His coming?” (v. 4) They were saying something like, “He said He is coming, but there is no
evidence He is coming.”
2. Peter says in verse 9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness,
but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
