Hell - Audio
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In 1996 U.S. immigration law states that all those living in this country illegally, including those who came to this country on a visa, a student visa, and stayed on after the visa expired, must have returned last night to their country of origin. And if they don't return, if they did not return last night, that they forfeit their right and any hope of ever getting a resident visa and becoming a legal immigrant into this country. In effect, they must return to their own country, make application there, which may take four to 18 months to process, remain in that country until the application is either accepted or denied, and then, if it's accepted, they can move to this country. If it's rejected, then they're forced to live in their country continually and will never get back into this country. If they don't return home, when they are caught, they will be deported and essentially blackballed from ever entering this country legally, again, at least that's what the law now states. They could sneak back in, but they could never come in legally and be a resident legally. I mentioned this because this past week I visited with Yvonne Nolisti over the telephone, and Ivan's heart was near breaking over this law. As you know, he has a tourist visa that is current, and so he's in no danger, and his wife has a current visa, but his three children have visas that expired year or two ago. And if they remain and are caught, they'll be deported. If they go back, that could be a fate worse than death, and that Haiti is in tremendous upheaval at this time. And he's beside himself and wanting to know what to do, how to deal with this, and of course, if they go back, there's no guarantee they'll get a visa, a resident visa to come back in. And so they still could be confined to Haiti for the rest of their lives. He was staying here and allowing his children to stay here, hoping that perhaps they would have some kind of educational opportunity or work opportunity or whatever opportunity that they could better themselves and hopefully make application and be one to accept it as a resident of this country. Ivan has made that application for himself. We're waiting for that to return, and we have not heard anything. Now, I don't know what Ivan decided. I'll be calling him this week, but I didn't really want to know. I felt that it was his decision and prayed for him. But for a moment, I'd like to have you and I put ourselves in his place. And ask ourselves, why is his heart breaking over such a decision? Now, think about where his decision, where his kids might end up as a result of his decision. They might end up forever back in Haiti, confined, shut up in that country forever. Young people have no job opportunities there. They sit away in a little way their time, either in violence or gangs or in doing nothing. It's a place of unbelievable political and social upheaval right now. It's a place of massive violence on an unprecedented scale by our standards. Death is everywhere. It's a place of hatred and hostility. A place of oppression and class struggle that would even make a communist turn pale in unbelief. A place of darkness and uncertainty and hopelessness and anguish, where the dead and dying people are literally lining the streets. Even as hungry, worm-infested, diseased children, eat their meager meals cooked over a fire of human dung on those same streets. Now, how would you feel about taking your children away from this country? We see, of course, the flaws and the problems. But for Ivan and his family, at least on the surface, this country seems so peaceful, so beautiful, so exciting, so colorful, so happy, so free of all those things that they have known and feared over their whole life. Violence, death, war, oppression, hatred, constant turmoil and anguish. How would we feel leaving these abundant opportunities in wealth and security and hope here and perhaps making a decision that would end up with our children shut up in a life in Haiti? How would you feel? How would I feel? I know how I would feel. I would feel hopelessly doomed, shut out, barred, excluded, pushed aside, pushed outside, if you will, and confined to an existence of unbelievable misery and sorrow, forced to live on a place and a place on this earth that is incredibly, incredibly bad. In fact, for many people in Haiti, it's so bad that death is welcome relief. Friends, there is a fate worse than being confined to live out your days in a place like Haiti. And that is being confined to live out eternity in what we call hell and what the Bible calls the lake of fire that burns with brimstone. According to the Bible, this is a fate worse than death itself. In fact, the Bible calls it the second death, which is far worse than the first death we will experience. It is to be shut out, barred, excluded from that paradise of God, which we've been looking at over the last two Sundays, that beautiful place, with all of the opportunities and the glorious presence of God Himself. Shout out from all that, the brilliance of that and splendor of that city known as the heavenly Jerusalem, with all its privileges and happiness and joys and opportunities to be separated from God Himself, to always be outside heaven, the very home of God, a home full of love and peace and security, to be confined outside in a place that the Bible describes as a lake of fire, a place of unbelievable torment and suffering. Yes, that would be a fate worse than death, much worse than being sentenced to live out even your life here in a place like Haiti, or Central Africa, or India, Bangladesh.
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A message on hell from the Book of Revelation.