Testimony Time in Hell — Carter Conlon

Praise God. Acts chapter 26, I'm going to speak a message entitled, Testimony Time in Hell. Testimony Time in Hell. Father, I pray God tonight, Lord, for the strength of the Holy Spirit, that you would help me, Lord, to be able to speak this in a manner that every man, every woman, every young person who's in the sanctuary tonight may have a clear and an intimate knowledge of who you are, why you became a man, why you died on the cross, and what kind of a life in the future you offer to those who trust in you.

Lord, we thank you for this, God, with everything in our hearts. In Jesus' mighty name. This is the Apostle Paul. I'm just going to read from verses 27 and 28. He's presenting his defense of why he's a Christian, why he's under accusation for the things that he believes, why the religious elite of his day so hate him that they want him put to death.

Paul's Defense Before King Agrippa

Paul is standing and giving defense after defense after defense to the government officials of his day, until finally one day he stands along his journey before this king called Agrippa. And he said in verse 27, King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets?

I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said to Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. Now folks, what's heaven going to be like? We sing a song about the days that we're going to get to heaven, and how wonderful, what a day of rejoicing the song says that's going to be.

The Incomprehensible Glory of Heaven

I want you to think about it just for a moment. The Bible says that heaven is a place where there's no sorrow. There's no sickness. There's no sighing. You never have to say goodbye because nobody ever dies.

There is the full presence of God and the total absence of evil. Heaven will be an explosion of knowledge. How do you describe it? Because the Bible says in the New Testament, in heaven, we will be known even as we are known.

In the very intimate measure that God created us, the very intricate details of our own physical makeup, some of which we're just beginning to discover, such things like DNA, which are really just scratching the surface of everything that God is and does and creates.

One day in heaven, there'll be just this instantaneous explosion of knowledge, and we will know as we are known. We will know things that can't be learned here in the confines of this physical body, which because of the sin of Adam has within it a deep inner core resistance to the things of God.

And limitations, of course, because mankind sinned against God. And because of it, there's a curse of sin that's at work in every heart and in every life that doesn't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

How do you describe it? I read an author one time. He said, this is the closest I can say to it. Take a person who was born blind, who cannot hear, who was born deaf, has no ability to smell, no ability to taste, has never seen anything, has never heard anything.

Put that person on top of the highest building in New York City, and in a moment of time, snap your fingers, and all of his or her senses are opened at once. It would be an absolute sensory explosion to look out from that height and see cities and hear cars and see the birds for the first time and view the sky and just see all of the things that are around us.

But yet, that's only 1 millionth of what it's going to be like. Perhaps a billionth. Perhaps 1 tenth of a billionth of what it's going to be like the day that we appear in the presence of God, the fullness of God.

The Bible calls it the fullness of joy. There are many, many mansions, Jesus said, in my Father's house. We have the ability through the limited telescopic lenses that we have created on the earth to see and understand now that there are galaxies upon galaxy upon galaxy, incredible formations of stars and planets out there.

And we're only looking. We're only seeing a portion. We see a speck of dust as it is in the desert that's out there. We don't fully understand. But one day we will be there. What a day that is going to be.

Praise be to God. Think about the testimonies that are going to be in heaven. Think about it. I don't get a chance as one of the pastors in this church to get to know all of you. I'd like to. I meet people on the street corner once in a while who've been waiting 10 years to say hi to their pastor.

And in the three minutes we have before the light changes, you try to get your whole story out. Everything that God's ever spoken to you, you try to get it out. And I appreciate it. We really do appreciate it.

We understand it. We know it. We've all done it ourselves. I did it when I attended church. And I finally got alone, even down the hallway with my pastor. And I would say everything that's on my heart and walk away feeling like a fool.

You all know the feeling. You know what that's all about. Why did I say that? Why did I do this? And you must think I'm an idiot. And you walk away, you feel completely condemned. And what we are feeling is we're just so grateful you took the time to share that little bit about your life and the things that God has been doing in you.

And so we on this side of eternity, we'll never get to know everybody. 8 ,000 people attend this church. It's impossible to get to know everybody. But in heaven, that will no longer be impossible. We will have forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

A million years will be like less than a day. Folks, our minds can't handle it. We would completely overload if we'd even have a glimpse of what it's going to be like. I will get to know you. I'll get to know every one of your stories.

You're gonna have your moment. It'll come around every 10 million years or so. And you'll have your chance to tell your story. And you'll be perhaps the only one. We will travel through galaxies. We will perhaps just think about being somebody somewhere and we will be there.

And we will tell our story. I think that's part and parcel of what we do. I know we're going to rule and reign with Christ. And all that that entails, I can't understand. But I know that we will see him as he is.

The scripture says we will understand this incredible and infinite distance that we were from a holy God. How undeserving we were that God should become a man, walk among us and go to a cross and allow himself to be spit on and beaten and abused by mankind and cursed out by the priesthood of that day and to suffer the wrath of God for the wrong things that we have done.

If we have such a thing as a crown on our heads, no wonder we will take it and attempt to throw it at the feet of Jesus and say, it's all Jesus. It's all about Jesus. I'm not deserving, I'm not worthy to have any of these things on my head.

And I do believe it's not a physical crown. It's most likely something that just appears above our head and we'll take it and try to throw it at Jesus' feet and it'll just appear again. We'll take it and try to throw it and it will just appear.

Because when God gives, he doesn't take away. Praise be to God. What an incredible moment that will be when you and I see our infinite distance from a holy God and we finally begin to understand the love of God, something we try to scratch the surface of.

We quote it, God so loved the world, but we'll finally understand what that really meant. We will rise above the crowd as best of an ability we have and we'll shout even if we're in a sea of people. Even if we can barely see the throne, we'll shout and I believe our voice will carry and say, Jesus, son of God, thank you for saving me.

Thank you for saving me, the least deserving of all the people on the earth for how I lived and how I thought and what I did and for the incredible darkness that was in my heart. But still, Jesus, you reached out and you still surrounded me with your love and you brought me through.

I didn't find you, you were never lost. You found me, you came to me and revealed yourself to me. Oh, we will shout, we will dance, we will praise. We'll join the saints of all the ages. We'll join created beings and cherubim and seraphim.

We'll shout, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are filled with his glory. And even then, with everything that is burning in my heart, I can't even begin to describe to you what heaven is going to be like.

It's so far beyond any of our understanding. It is the total presence of God and the complete absence of evil. And folks, we don't know that. We can't fully appreciate that until we finally get there one day and we're in the presence of God.

You can't sigh there, the scripture says. I sigh all the time. You can't sigh there. You can't cry there. You don't have a memory that will sadden your heart, folks. It's amazing. There will be this incredible sense of fulfillment and completeness that can only come from the presence of God and the absence of evil.

And yet there's the other side. As much as I can't describe heaven, I can't describe hell. Hell is the absence of God and the presence of evil. You see, you don't know what it's like. You might be here tonight and you're not really a believer in Jesus Christ.

You're not walking with God. But you don't know what hell is like. As bad as your life may be, you don't know what hell is like. Because the Bible tells us that God is omnipresent. That means God is everywhere.

Wherever you are, He is. And He's constantly there reminding you that He is God. The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God. If you can rise your eyes up on Broadway a little bit above the lights, you'll see another set of lights above on a clear night.

And there's an open declaration, day in and day out, as you see the universe moving like clockwork all around you, that everything is held in the hand of a creator. God is everywhere. God is wooing the hardest of sinner, the deepest skeptic, the most avowed atheists.

Don't tell me you're an atheist, by the way, tonight or you wouldn't be here. You're the most foolish person in the whole city. If you say there's no God, what are you doing here? What are you doing in this place?

You really don't believe that. You're just holding to a position of ignorance. Forgive me if I've offended you, but that's really what it is. God is wooing you. God is around you. You walk down the street, you'll have a sudden pang of conscience.

Where do you think that comes from? God is speaking, constantly drawing, constantly trying to bring you to Himself. You are aware of the presence of God. Even the worst of sinners is aware of God's presence.

But I can't describe to you what it would be like one day when people find themselves outside of the presence of God. You are allowed by God to be created in your mother's womb. He gave you the breath of life, the ability you have to reason, even if you use it to try to reason away His existence was given to you by God.

Everything you have has come from God. He gave you an inner knowledge that He is real. You know He is real and you've spent your whole life trying to get back to a sense of stability and a sense of reality.

But one day, if you don't find Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will find yourself in a place where God is not. The Bible describes it as a darkness so thick it can be felt. There's an absence of comfort.

There's never a hope for tomorrow. It's described in Scripture as a place of fire and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now, I don't know if it's a literal fire. Very well might be. But I think it's perhaps in measure of type of trying to get through to our understanding of how terrible this place is.

How awful it is to be in a place where God is not. If you can think of a moment in your life when you felt despair, multiply it by 20 billion. It would be that deep. And perhaps you've not even scratched the depth of what it's like to be in a place where God is not.

There's no chance of a better future. There's not a word of encouragement. All you can do is weep and sigh and cry in that place because God is not there. And without God, there is no hope for the future.

Imagined Testimonies of Condemnation

If there were such a thing as a testimony meeting in hell, if it were possible for voices to interconnect with one another, and I'm not sure that that's possible in hell. But if it were possible, I have no doubt you'll not be able to see anybody and all that will be there is a wailing and a hopelessness, an ever deepening spiral of despair.

As much as in heaven, there's an ever increasing explosion of glory, in hell, there's an ever deepening despair. Jesus himself called it being cast into utter darkness. We're starting to see, now starting to understand that there are things in the universe called black holes.

Darkness so thick, it has the capability of swallowing entire galaxies. We're only scratching the surface of this. Jesus called it the outer darkness. Cast away as it is from the presence of God into the spiraling down darkness.

If there were such a thing as a testimony meeting, there'd be people, there'd be pitiful stories of no hope. The murderer, for example, would say, well, listen, I killed somebody. I was never remorseful for it.

I never made it right. I never went out and did time. I never repented. I never turned and I deserve to be here. I'm justly like the thief on the cross who said to the other, we are justly here being punished for our sins.

The immoral person would say, well, I'd lived in immorality. I knew there was a standard of right and wrong, but I chose to walk another way. I chose to let my life be governed by the lust of my flesh.

And now I'm paying the rightful price for the way I've lived. The thief would say, well, I stole thinking that stealing would bring into my life something that would bring me fulfillment. But what I failed to understand is that no man can steal his way into the kingdom of God.

And I'm a thief and I deserve to be where I am. The blasphemer would say, well, listen, I cursed God. I denied the existence of God. And because of my own ignorance, I'm in this place of hopelessness and darkness and despair.

And I'm rightly being punished for the position that I willfully took on the earth. The religionist will be there. We're saying, look, and I played a game with God. I went to church and I sang songs and I clapped my hands, but I never took seriously the word of God.

And I lived in manners and I did things that I knew were wrong. And I willfully did it in spite of the fact that I knew there was a day of justice coming. I played a game of Russian roulette, hoping that one day near the end I could get right with God.

But I miscalculated my gamble and I ended up gone into eternity before that day ever came to me. And these are going to be pitiful stories and pitiful testimonies that will be repeated all throughout eternity.

The Bible says about hell that the worm never dies. That means the conscience never dies. The thought that it could have been different never dies. The thought that of what life could have been, of what eternity could have been, because every sinner before being cast into hell will appear before the throne of God to be judged.

They will. Every man and woman ever born will stand and have that realization of what could have been theirs. They will see Jesus Christ in all of His glory. There will be that momentary infusion of light with a sense of what it could have been like for all of eternity.

Agrippa's Tragic Near-Conversion

And the last thing they will see forever is the glory of God before they're cast into everlasting darkness. The most pitiful testimony of all, though, is in Acts chapter 26. This man was a king. He was a man that came into the nation of Israel where Paul, a type of the church, or he was the church, part of the church of Jesus Christ, is held in captivity.

And King Agrippa agrees to hear Paul. And because Festus says, listen, he's appealed to Caesar and I don't know what to write about him. As far as I can see, he's done nothing wrong. These are just questions in matters of the law of the Jewish people.

They say this man called Jesus is dead. Paul says he's alive. And Festus says, well, so they're allowed a difference of opinion. I don't see any reason to put the man to death. I don't know what to write and we can't send him to Caesar unless we have a written charge.

And he asks King Agrippa, he says, can you help me in this? Would you hear him? And so the Bible tells us that on a certain day with great pomp and circumstance, this entourage behind this King Agrippa comes in.

The noble people of the city are there. Festus is there. There's all kinds of people. They sit down in the judgment hall and Paul in change is brought in. And Paul begins to open the scriptures. He begins to tell King Agrippa about the experience he had.

He said, listen, I persecuted the way that I'm now living in. He said, I so hated it that I traveled from city to city. I took people who believed what I now believe and I put them in prison and others I caused them to blaspheme.

And I was enraged against this because it was an affront to my religion. And one day on the way to a certain city, I had an encounter with God and he spoke to me and he told me that he had sent me to proclaim the message I'm now proclaiming to you.

He said, I'm sending you to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and they may have an inheritance among them which are sanctified or set apart or cleansed by faith that is in me.

And he says, whereupon King Agrippa I was not disobedient to that heavenly vision that was given to me. Paul says, listen, he sent me to open prisons to those that are spiritually blind and that they might be turned from this incredibly horrible future that awaits them to the life that God has offered to all men through his son, Jesus Christ, that they may have their sin forgiven because sin being wrong that we commit against God separates men and women from God for all of eternity and that they might have this inheritance that we call heaven.

They might have a newness of life and they might go to heaven when they die. And Paul said, I was not disobedient to this heavenly vision. And then he says, I preach that Christ should suffer, that he should rise again from the dead and he would show light to the people and to the Gentiles.

Paul said, this is my message. Christ came, God came. God became a man. God went to a cross. God suffered and died. And he took our place that through his sacrifice on a cross we might be forgiven who have believed that Jesus died in my place.

Jesus took my place and God accepted his sacrifice on my behalf. And having believed in him, I know that I am now saved, folks. You can know it tonight. You don't have to speculate. You don't have to hope you're going to heaven.

You can know you're going to heaven tonight. You can walk out of this door and say, I am free from the penalty of sin. And then Paul says, the King knows these things. I speak freely before you. He said, I'm persuaded that none of these things are hidden from you.

This thing was not done in a corner. And then Paul says in that court, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe. I believe this is a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit himself.

He says, I know you believe. And King Agrippa says to Paul, you almost persuade me to be a Christian. Now folks, that will be the most pitiful testimony in hell. I was almost persuaded. Can you imagine Agrippa?

If he's in hell today, if his voice is allowed to be heard above the multitude of groans and wailing in that place. There are murderers, there are adulterers, there are immoral people, there are thieves and blasphemers who never turn from their sin, who will be there for all eternity.

But can you imagine this pitiful voice? And he says, no, I'm in a worse condition than all of you. I was almost persuaded. As over and over again, he relives that moment in his mind where he's sitting in the seat of judgment when he himself was under judgment.

And a man who seemed to be unchanged but was free stood before him and says, I know that you believe. And his heart trembled and burned. But how could he make the choice now? He was a king. He had all these people.

And his friend Festus, the governor, had just out loud said, Paul, you're mad. Much learning has made you mad. Paul, you're a madman, he had said. And Agrippa knew that if I agree with this man, my friend is gonna think this about me.

And how many people will go to hell because they're concerned about what their friends think about them? And not concerned about what God thinks, not concerned about what God says. How many people will miss heaven because they're afraid of a snicker in the workplace?

Or you might have to endure some religious people standing against you, even in your own home, who won't understand what it is that has happened in your heart. I'll tell you folks tonight, it's not worth missing heaven for these things.

The Fear of Man and the Call to Believe

What a fool Agrippa would say I was. I was there, I heard, I had a choice, I had a chance to surrender my heart, I had a chance to bend my knee to God, but instead I chose to yield to the praise of men.

The futility of the arguments that pressed every day against my own heart, but I knew they were wrong. I was studying the prophets and I had this inner knowledge that what Paul was speaking to me was right.

You might be a skeptic here tonight. I don't know how you're living your life, but I can tell just by the silence that's come upon you this very moment that you know that what you're hearing is right.

You know this is not a game, this is not a show. You know that the people who have sung tonight, there really is something behind that song. It's not entertainment. You've seen people around you lift their hands and you wonder why are they doing this?

What is it that they've found? And though you don't understand all of the Bible, Agrippa didn't understand it all, you have an inner knowledge that this is right. I've stumbled into a place of truth. How tragic it would be after this night that a fraternity, this scene, replaces itself in your mind.

I was there. In New York City in 2008, it was in the month of October, I remember it, and I was in a house and I heard something that I'd never heard before and my heart burned within me and I trembled and somehow I knew this was the truth.

But I thought, what are my friends going to say? What's going to happen at work? What's my future going to hold? I've been among those that have laughed at Christian people as if they were losers. They need a crotch, I didn't need that, but suddenly I knew, I knew that I was in the presence of something that my heart bore witness was truth, almost.

I can imagine the nervous laughter that went on when King Agrippa said that, when everybody kind of nervously laughed. But he wasn't joking. His heart was stirred. He seemed to be in authority, but he saw more authority in the man with chains in front of him.

He heard something that he'd been longing for all his life. How many people will miss heaven because they couldn't just make the break from the fear of man? The fear of what will people think and they'll miss heaven.

They'll miss an eternity with the presence of God. They'll live in a place where God isn't. I've heard people say, why would a loving God send people to hell? He doesn't send people to hell. He sends them where they want to go.

He'll say, you wanted nothing to do with me and heaven. I'm just letting you go where you wanted to go. You had a choice, you made the choice. It's a free will choice where we will spend eternity, folks.

God will not impose anything on any man. It's a free will choice. You have the choice tonight. You have the choice to choose your eternity. Jesus Christ is the son of God. He is the only way to eternal life.

He himself said, no man goes to the father except through me. He is the only way to eternal life. He died on a cross and on that cross, he paid the price for your sin and for mine. He promises that if you will acknowledge, if you will admit that you are a sinner and need a savior, if you will open your heart and allow him to be not only the savior, but the Lord of your life, he says, I promise you an eternity in heaven.

And as evidence that my promise is real, I will give you a new life on this earth. You will have a life that is empowered by God. You will have a different life. You will have a new heart. You'll have a new mind and you'll have a new spirit.

God says, I'll prove it to you. I'll show you, you will know. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will raise you from spiritual death and you will be changed. You will be turned into another person.

The Speaker's Conversion and New Life in Christ

May 12th, 1978, as a young police officer, I pulled my car over on the side of the road. I'd been reading the gospel of John and I understood the things that I'm preaching to you tonight. I pulled over in the side of the road and I prayed a simple prayer.

I said, God, if this is true, if what I'm hearing, if what I'm reading, if this is true, then I want you to come into my life to be my Lord and savior. If it's true, I want it. And now that's, some would say, that's not a great prayer of faith, but it was the prayer I had and God heard it.

And I went to work. I didn't feel any different than the day before. I have to be honest with you. I went to work, I did what I normally do at work. I came home, went to bed, but as God lives and as he's my witness, I got up the next morning, I sat on the edge of my bed and I knew I was a different man.

I just knew things had changed inside. I felt like a different man. I can't explain it to you because it's not something you, it's not something you're determined to do. It's something that God does when you've given your life to Christ.

It's like putting helium instead of air inside of a balloon. One will fall, the other will rise because what's in it is different than what's around it. That's the simplest I can make it to you. When the Holy Spirit comes into your life, it was the spirit of God.

It will give you the power to change. It'll give you the power to be another person. Does it happen overnight? No, but the old things in you pass away. The Bible says, and all things become new. And you begin to change.

As you look at this word of God and as you allow Christ to be Christ within you, there's a change. It's a supernatural change. You begin to care about things you didn't care about before. You begin to hate things you used to love.

Everything is upside down. It changes because you're now the citizen as it is of another country. You're now part of heaven itself. Oh folks, if I could just take those of you who don't know God, and we could kind of fast track on the journey that I've been through.

And that's what Paul was doing in front of Agrippa. Paul was saying, everything I had, I counted it lost. When I found Christ, Paul was saying, I'd rather be in chains than be the fine-dressed Pharisee I used to be, filled with rage, wanting to kill everybody that disagreed with me.

Agrippa knew it. He saw it. This is not a fraud. This is for real. And what you're hearing tonight is not a fraud. It's for real. What the songs you're hearing are for real. The clapping is for real. This is now about heaven.

This is about eternity. I don't know if you'll ever hear it more simply than you're hearing it now. Christ died for you to forgive your sin and to promise you heaven and to give you a new life here on this earth.

On your part, you have to want him as Savior and be willing to walk in the newness of life. That means putting the old things away to defend God and reaching out and embracing what brings honor and glory to God.

You will never regret it. You'll bless the day you got out of your seat and came to an altar in this house. You'll bless the day forever. You'll bless the day in heaven. You'll be back in row 750 ,000, but you'll stand up and say, it was October.

It was in New York City. I heard a message that stirred my heart. Thank God I had the courage to get out of my seat. Thank God I had the courage to come forward and give my life to Christ. Praise be to God.

I did it willfully. I did it publicly. Would to God Agrippa had gotten up and joined Paul, he'd be in heaven today. It's always my prayer when I stand in this pulpit, I say, God, don't let anybody who hears the sound of my voice go to hell tonight.

Don't let anybody be lost in their sin. Let them know, let them know this is you. What do I do? You say, admit you're a sinner. Admit that the way you live has offended God. And because of it, you don't deserve to live in the presence of God forever.

Admit that God became a man and took your place on a cross, paid the price for your sin. Admit that you need a savior. You need Jesus Christ to go to heaven to live with God for eternity and turn from an old way of living and turn to the living God and let him be God to you.

And he says, I'll prove myself to you. Praise be to God. For those who are here tonight who could say, pastor, you've just preached my life. My heart is burning and I want to give my life to Christ and I don't care who's sitting around me.

I don't care what I have to face when I get home. I don't care about the workplace. Assuming there even is one tomorrow, I really don't care. I'm giving my life to Jesus Christ. Would you just raise your hand if that's you?

Unashamedly, all of you. Just go ahead, raise it up high, all over. Balcony. The choir is going to sing and the orchestra is going to come and while they do, we're going to stand and those who raised their hand, I'm going to ask you to take a public stand for Jesus Christ.

You've already done it, but I'm going to ask you to get out of your seat, make your way to an altar. Jesus died publicly for you. And the beginning of this walk is that you give yourself publicly to him.

You make a declaration. Now you're doing it among friends here tonight, so there's nothing to fear. But you get out of your seat, make your way to this altar. We're going to pray a simple prayer. And if you mean this in your heart, you can know that when you leave here tonight, that you're going to heaven when you die.

You can know it. Praise be to God. Let's stand together. Annex, we'll wait for you as well. Those who raised their hand, please come. Join me here at this altar. As quickly as you can. In the balcony, slip out to either exit.

Make your way down. Don't be ashamed. Slip out. Praise God. Join these that are coming. Thank you, Jesus. Lord, we bless your holy name. God, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. You're about to pray a prayer with me.

And it's not a formula, it's just to help you to understand what this is about. Jesus said, whoever comes to me, I will not cast you out. The Bible says that everybody has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

God doesn't look down and see big sinners and little sinners, just people who sin and fell short of what you were designed, destined by God to be. Tonight, as you open your heart, Jesus says, I will forgive you.

I will receive you. That's why I died for you. Did you know tonight that, do you know that he passionately loves you? That's why he died for you. He wanted you back. He wanted you back. That's why he came.

That's why he went to a cross. And he says, I'll forgive you and I'll give you the power to be a new person. I'll prove to you that I am God. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Pray this simple prayer with me and pray it with a heart, believing that God is receiving you at this moment.

It's amazing, isn't it? It's amazing. Amazing. It will be like you never sinned. You never told a lie. It'll be like you've, you never, you never cursed. You never stole. You never, you never did any of these things.

God says, I will take your sin and I will wipe it away. That's what we sing about his blood. That's what the shedding of, that's what the shedding of his blood was about. It covers your sin. The devil had a list.