Stockton Baptist Church
Body
NO JOKE. It does seem rather bizarre. Sadly so. But have you ever wondered why so many people talk so much about hell? It was spring 1984 when my boss, Jim, boasted about one day playing poker and drinking beer in hell. About six months earlier, the Lord had opened my understanding to the reality of my spiritual condition. Rather than being the "good boy" that people told my parents I was, I realized, as a 23-year-old, that I was under God's judgment. It was that very night that God convicted my soul of my utter sinfulness and of the reality that hell was my eternal destination. And that very night, the Lord so convinced me of His amazing love for a sinner like me, that I confessed my sinfulness and asked Him to forgive my sin and save my wretched soul. And He did! That brings us to Daniel 5 and a man named Belshazzar. He's having a huge drunken bash with 1,000 of his officers. But he makes a fateful mistake when he commands servants to bring the gold and silver cups that his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, had brought to Babylon from God's Temple in Jerusalem. As everyone is drinking from the cups, and no doubt mocking Jehovah God whom their "gods" had supposedly defeated, Belshazzar sees the writing on the wall (5:5). Literally. His response? Daniel 5:6 indicates that his face went pale, his thoughts troubled him, his legs gave way with his hips loosened and his knees knocking, and he shrieked out to bring his wise men to decipher the message. That's the response of a man who, that very night, died and found himself in hell. Literally. No more mocking. The saddest part, though, is that Belshazzar mocked "the Most High God" even though he knew that He had humbled his grandfather years before (5:22). The truth is that hell is no joke! James 3:6 tells us the tongue "is set on fire by hell." And Jesus exhorted, "fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28). No, hell is no joke!
