Well now, let me continue talking about
this sombre subject, and I particularly want to begin now with this very serious
question, “How long will hell last?” You see, even some annihilationists who believe we’re
heading for oblivion if we’re sinners, some of them do believe we go to hell for a little bit
of suffering before we’re obliterated. Frankly, all this means that annihilation is good news.
Perhaps that’s why those who believe this don’t preach it, because it would have the wrong effect
on people. But actually if I’m a sinner and I’ve sinned for seventy or eighty years, and got
away with it, oblivion is great news isn’t it? Even if I’m sent to hell for a bit there’s
still the good news, there is a hope in hell: a hope of being obliterated. So in
fact it’s good news is annihilation. But let’s look at this. How long does anyone
suffer in hell? The traditional answer has always been ‘forever.’ But that answer is being
very widely questioned, I have to say, mainly by Anglican evangelicals right now. But what does
Jesus say? Now I think the whole question has been approached from the wrong angle. The angle that
most of the discussion is taking place today is, ‘How long will human beings suffer in hell?’
Whereas I believe we’ve got to approach that question from another angle. You see, hell
was never prepared for human beings. God never intended any human beings to go there. “He
prepared it,” says Jesus, “for the devil and all his angels.” He didn’t prepare it for us.
In the sheep and the goats parable - it’s not a parable really, it’s a prophecy - but in that
story Jesus says to the goats, “Depart from me you cursed into the everlasting punishment prepared
for the devil and his angels.” God prepares heaven for us but he prepared hell for the devil and his
angels, whom we call demons. And that’s about a third of the angels in existence who have sided
with Satan and rebelled against God according to Revelation chapter twelve, but you can read
the whole chapter to find out the actual verse. Now then, why did God have to prepare hell for the
devil and his angels? The answer is very simple: Jesus said, “Angels cannot die.” Now angels
are real creatures, but they are creatures; they’re part of God’s creation. They are higher in
the order of creation than us. We are not the peak of God’s creation; angels are. Evolutionists
somehow have difficulty with that conception because where did the angels come from? Monkeys
or wherever? You see, therein problems. But we believe in angels. They are more intelligent than
we are; they are stronger than we are; they are more flexible than we are; they are swifter in
travel than we can be; they are superior to us in every way. And in one particular they are very
superior: we are mortal but angels are immortal. I don’t mean by that that they always existed.
They had a beginning as we do, but they have no end. They cannot die whereas we can. And that is
why angels don’t marry or reproduce; they are a fixed number. They cannot increase or decrease.
They are there and God created them immortal. So since one third of them have rebelled against God
and are now evil angels, or “demons” we call them, and they cannot die, what does God do with them?
And the answer is he prepares a place where they can be isolated from his universe. It’s because
they cannot die that he had to prepare the place to shut them up and shut them off from influence.
Now once we start there we ask, ‘Then if they are immortal and in hell, this isolated place forever,
what is their experience in that place?’ And the answer in the Bible is crystal clear: the devil
and his angels will be tormented day and night forever and ever. There could not be a clearer
or stronger statement in the Bible than that. They are immortal; they are confined to hell and
they suffer torment. That word means ‘conscious pain.’ It can mean nothing else. Day and night,
which means ‘without any let up,’ forever and ever. And there is no stronger statement in
the Greek language than forever and ever. It can only mean forever and ever. It literally
translated says, ‘Unto the ages of the ages.’ That’s a very, very long, long, long time.
So what do the annihilationists do with those statements about the devil and his angels being
tormented forever and ever? The answer is they ignore them or they dismiss them, but they will
not face them. But there are some who do say, ‘All right, let’s accept that the
angels suffer in hell forever, but human beings won’t.’ But there is nothing in
the Bible whatever to suggest that there is any difference of destiny between the devil and his
angels and human beings who join them - none at all. And in fact we have clear statements that
human beings will be tormented forever and ever. For example, in that one verse where it says the
devil will be tormented day and night forever and ever it says, “He will be tormented with the
Beast and the False Prophet forever and ever.” And those two at least are human beings. All
antichrists are human beings and all false prophets are human beings. So here we have at
least two human beings of whom it is said they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Then we have another much larger group mentioned. Those people who in that final rule of that
world dictator called the “Antichrist” who submit to having his number laser beamed onto
their flesh so that they can buy and sell at the supermarket - and that is an entirely
credible scenario now since most of us are using numbers anyway on plastic, and they’re
already talking about tattooing or laser beaming numbers on your hand or your face so you can
just go to the checkout and put your hand in a machine and everything will be debited to you.
Now it says in the book of Revelation that is how buying and selling will be done in the last
days. And it will take a great deal of courage to refuse to carry that number on your flesh
because you will then not be able to buy and sell. You’ll be out of the market, not be able
to get enough food. It says of those who accept that number in order to buy food that they will
be tormented forever and ever, the same phrase, “To the ages of the ages.” When Jesus says to the
goats, “Depart from me you cursed into the eternal punishment prepared for the devil and his angels,”
The plainest simplest meaning of that language is, ‘Your destiny is the same as theirs.’ It is
for that reason that, though I hate to say it and wish I didn’t have to say it, that
I believe the traditional understanding of hell as everlasting torment is what our New
Testament teaches. That makes it very horrible but I believe it to be the truth. I can’t
get round the plain statements of scripture. Let me then go to another serious question,
and probably the biggest shock that you’ll get today - who goes to hell? What do you have to do
to qualify? Now there are two groups dealt with in scripture. One are carefree sinners, those
who just do not listen to their conscience, who simply do what they want to do. And
altogether there are 120 sins listed in the New Testament that could take a person to
hell. It’s a frightening number. They’re usually in separate lists of about anywhere between
half a dozen and ten in each list. There are two lists on the last two pages of the Bible.
And when you look at those lists and put them altogether you’ve got 120 things that carefree
sinners are doing that are on the broad road that leads to hell. As you would guess, sexual
immorality figures frequently in those lists, whether fornication - sex before marriage - or
adultery - sex after marriage with a partner other than your own. Those figure quite frequently. So
does homosexual activity. How can we be silent when we know things could take a person into the
kind of suffering that we’ve been talking about? But it’s a mistake if you think that sexual
immorality is the main thing on those lists. There are plenty of other things on the lists.
Idolatry occurs frequently. Now we may say, ‘Well that doesn’t touch me thank God. I’ve
never bowed down to a lump of wood or stone and worshipped it.’ But when you find out that
in those lists greed is classified as idolatry you have to think again. It’s interesting that the
commandment that most people have most difficulty with is the tenth, “Thou shalt not covet,”
which in simple language means, “Thou shalt not be greedy.” And again, it’s usually our
eyes that lead us into greed. The blind don’t have that same problem. But greed is one of the
things we’re being taught through our commercial advertising and in many other ways. And it says,
“Greed which is idolatry,” is listed there. Social injustices are also listed. Have you
ever heard it said that the New Testament doesn’t condemn slavery? Well actually it does.
If you look up Paul’s first letter to Timothy, in chapter one he lists the things that could take a
person to hell. He mentions the murder of parents; well now that’s pretty serious isn’t it? But then
straightaway he mentions slave traders. By the way, if you thought that slavery had disappeared
from our world, you’d better think again. It’s still very much alive. But there are much more
refined sins in that list of 120. Unbelief is classed as a sin that could take you to hell.
But one of the most surprising is in the second last list in Revelation 21. It says there, “The
cowardly” - the cowardly go to the lake of fire. Now what does cowardly mean? It means those
who for fear of people have not done or said what they knew to be right, those who have
simply been cowards in standing up for what is right. How does that grab you? Of course
there are the more subtle sins of pride and other things. It is clear that there are many,
many things that could take a person to hell. There is also the surprise that things a person
hasn’t done, that unbelievers haven’t done, could take them there. Paul says those who do not
know God, or those who do not obey the gospel. Now those are two different groups. Those who do
not know God are those who haven’t heard the gospel but do know from their conscience and
creation that there is a God to whom they are accountable. But those who do not obey the gospel
are those who have heard but who have refused it. Only God knows who is in those two groups.
Well now, I’m sure that so far everybody here who is a Christian agrees with what I’ve said. Yes,
such things put a person in danger of hell; they are on the broad way that leads to destruction.
But now comes the shock. The Bible also talks about careless saints being in danger of hell,
and this is a real shock. You see, most of what we know about hell comes from the lips of Jesus
and within the four gospels, almost everything about hell is in the gospel of Matthew. Now this
is very, very significant. Why is there so little about hell in Luke and nothing about hell in Mark,
and next to nothing about it in John? Why is it all in Matthew from cover to cover? Well this
is where we need the Bible study that looks at books as a whole. You see there are four gospels;
two of them were written for sinners and two for saints. Two are written for unbelievers and two
for believers. Do you know which? John was not written to unbelievers; it’s the most unsuitable
to give an unbeliever. How they get past the first eighteen verses and still understand
it, I don’t know. We’re just hoping they’ll get as far as John 3:16 and that might do the
trick. But John is written for believers—mature believers. And Matthew is written for believers
but immature believers. It’s only Mark and Luke that are written for sinners. They’re the
two gospels you should use in evangelism. Matthew is a manual of discipleship. Matthew
doesn’t just tell you what Jesus did; he collects Jesus’ teaching and he puts all the
teaching together in five major blocks obviously to imply that Jesus is the new Moses, Moses having
given us five books of the Law and now we have Jesus’ five books on the kingdom if you like. The
theme is the kingdom in all five. In the first, which we call the “Sermon on the Mount,” the theme
is the lifestyle of the kingdom. Then we have the mission of the kingdom in the second—chapter
ten. Then we have the growth of the kingdom in chapter thirteen. Then we have the community of
the kingdom in chapter eighteen. Then we have the future of the kingdom in chapter twenty-four
and twenty-five. All those five blocks of teaching are addressed not to sinners but to disciples.
It’s a shock to realize that Jesus rarely if ever talked about hell to sinners. He gave
a warning twice to Pharisees about hell, but every other warning he gave was given to born
again disciples who had received him, believed in his name, and been born of God. That is the
shock, because I’m afraid this unbiblical cliché, “Once saved always saved,” is everywhere. But here
we have the solemn thought that Jesus reserved most of his warnings about hell for his own
followers, for those who were committed to him, for those who had believed in him. Now do you
appreciate the significance of that? I believe one of the main reasons why preaching hell
fell into disrepute was that it was preached by Christians who had no fear of it themselves.
Do you understand what I’m saying? It was a kind of, ‘You’re going to hell; I’m not. I’m going to
heaven.’ And that kind of preaching is arrogant and offensive in the extreme. I believe no one
is ready to preach on hell unless they fear that, having preached to others, they may be thrown
away themselves. It is believers who need to think about hell. It is the disciples of Christ who most
need this message. Now I’ve explained that in full in my book. That’s why it will be such a shock,
because this country is full of Christians who think, ‘I’m in no risk of finishing up there.’
Therefore we need to ask what kind of thing could lead a disciple of Jesus to hell? Here the
surprise is that whereas with carefree sinners the emphasis is on what they do, and a little on
what they don’t do, with disciples - careless saints - the emphasis is more on what they don’t
do. Now if you study the Sermon on the Mount, it is a teaching for Christians. It’s not for
sinners; it’s not for unbelievers. It’s almost impossible for believers, never mind unbelievers.
It’s for those who are the sons of the kingdom. It tells us that in the kingdom there is to
be no anger, no lust, no worry. That’s why you never see a Christian worried. You must have
noticed. Now why do we laugh? Why do we treat that as a joke? You see, Jesus said, In my kingdom
the sons don’t worry because that’s a libel on their Father in heaven. It’s saying, My Father
cares more about his garden and his pets than he does about his kids. He feeds the birds of the
air, he clothes the flowers of the field, but me, I’m just his child. I have to worry. That’s
libel. When you read the Sermon on the Mount, that is a description of how Jesus expects his
disciples to live. To say yes when they mean yes, and no when they mean no, not to get divorced
and remarried, not to pay back evil for evil. And yet there are at least five warnings in the
Sermon on the Mount about hell. I’ve got a lot of books on my shelf expounding the Sermon on
the Mount. Not one of them ever mentions that a disciple is in danger of hell. Yet Jesus says,
“If you call someone a fool you’re in danger of hell fire. If you look at a woman with lust you’re
heading there.” When he finished this teaching for disciples he said, Now there are two ways you
can travel. There’s a broad way that leads to destruction and there’s a narrow way that leads
to life, and he’s speaking to his own followers. This is terribly important. And then, when you get
through to Matthew 25, which is entirely addressed to the twelve on the Sermon on the Mount, he talks
about the virgins whose lamps ran out of oil, about the man who buried his talent, and about
those who did not visit him when he was in prison, or clothe him when he was naked. All things not
done, do you notice that? All things neglected. That’s all. Not bad things. Not crimes. Not vices.
Just things not done that should have been done. Now I cannot get round this straight teaching.
You see what Jesus is saying is this, two things are needed to escape hell. One is
forgiveness and the other is holiness. One of the clearest examples of this teaching is that
in Luke’s gospel, Jesus told a story of a feast to which people were invited but they made
excuses. One said, “I’ve bought some oxen and I must try them out.” Another said, “I’ve married
a wife.” Another said, “I’ve bought a field and I must go and inspect it,” and they didn’t come.
So the host of the feast was angry and said, “Go out into the highways and byways. Tell anybody
to come. My house shall be full.” It’s a wonderful story to preach the gospel through. “Come and take
your place. There’s a place for you at the table.” And it’s in Luke’s gospel that you find that
story for sinners. When you read the same story in Matthew, there is a subtle twist.
The story ends with everybody accepting the invitation and coming to the feast, but one man
turns up without wedding clothes. He doesn’t bother to change his clothes. The end of the story
is that that man finishes in outer darkness and with weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Matthew
is addressed to believers. To unbelievers the message is, “Come there’s room for you at the
feast.” To believers the message is, “Now you come in the right clothes. Change your dirty clothes.
Put on the righteousness that’s available for you.” And those who don’t change their clothes
are at the last turned away from the feast. I remember reading Pilgrim’s Progress by John
Bunyan and being greatly struck by a sentence right at the end, where Pilgrim arrives at
the Jordan River, the black river of death, and his companion is scared of this river. He
turns away and says, “I’m going to try and find another way across,” and he walks down a
side path. And John Bunyan writes, “And so I saw in my dream that there is a road to hell
even from the gates of heaven.” Now I believe, and I say this from my heart, I believe that
the Church of today needs this message more than ever. Why should the Lord be sending such
a message of repentance to Christians today? It’s an extraordinary thing. It’s a message
that should be going to sinners. Why is it coming to the Church? I think because
we’ve forgotten that we are in danger. Let’s take the clearest warning that Jesus ever
gave. He said, “Don’t fear those who can kill your body and afterwards do nothing else to you.
Rather fear him who can ruin your body and soul in hell.” Who was he talking to? Sinners?
No. Pharisees? No. He was talking to the twelve apostles when he was sending them out to be
missionaries. He didn’t tell them to tell others about hell. He said, “Now you fear hell. As you
go out to proclaim the kingdom, to raise the dead, cleanse the leper and cast out demons, heal
the sick, and proclaim the kingdom has come, you fear hell.” I believe one of the missing
factors in much worship today is the fear of God. Have you noticed that? There’s an awful lot
of familiarity with God, not so much fear of God. I believe one of the reasons is that believers
no longer fear hell because the two are tied very closely together. Fear him who can destroy body
and soul in hell. Now that’s a sobering message, but I believe it’s a much needed one.
Every writer of the New Testament has a warning about the danger of losing what you’ve
found in Christ. I take those warnings desperately seriously. When Jesus said, “Abide in me. I am
the true vine; you are the branches.” He said, “Branches that do not abide in me, that do not
stay in me, are cut out and are burned.” I take that quite literally. Paul said, “You too will be
cut off like the Jews, you too will be cut off, if you do not continue in God’s kindness.” This
is not salvation by works; it’s salvation by continued faith because forgiveness comes by faith
and holiness comes by faith, but they both need to be appropriated. And God is offering everything
we need to be ready for heaven. But there are too many who have accepted the invitation to the
feast who are not changing their clothes. That’s the message I bring to you from Matthew’s gospel.
Well, now for some good news. No reason whatever why any, any of us should finish
up in hell. Do you know why? First, we have the affection of the Father on our side.
God loves us. He doesn’t want anyone to finish up useless rubbish in his universe. He has done
everything he possibly could to save us from that. What more could he have done? And he never
prepared hell for us. He prepared hell for those angels not us. God has no pleasure in throwing
anybody away. He has pain when he has to do it. A picture of a revengeful God getting his own back
on sinners by throwing them into the lake of fire, that’s a libel on God. He has no pleasure
in the death of the wicked, none at all. It must cause him immense grief that anyone made
in his image should have to be thrown away. We have the atonement of Jesus with us too.
Do you know that Jesus descended into hell, not after he died but before? He descended into
hell for three hours, from noon until three o’ clock. On that cross Jesus was in hell. How do I
know? Well, very simply. There was total darkness, no natural light at all—couldn’t see a thing. It
was then that he cried out, “I thirst. I thirst.” And above all, it was then that he cried out,
“Elohim, Elohim, lama sabachthani. My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?” That’s hell.
Jesus went through hell so that you need never go there. He did that to save you from it.
And the third thing that is on your side is the assistance of the Holy Spirit. You say, “Well
I can never be holy. I can never be good enough for heaven.” Yes you can - because God gave
you supernatural power. If there’s one thing a Christian ought never to say is, “I can’t
help it.” There’s a little word in Titus that says this - “He has given us the grace to say no,”
very simple verse. Look God loves you; Jesus died for you; the Spirit is available to you. You can
not only be forgiven, you can be made ready for heaven. It was Charles Wesley who wrote a famous
hymn that has one verse in it, “A charge to keep I have, a God to glorify, a never-dying soul to
save, and fit it for the sky.” That last line is just as important as the other three. You see
we’re called not to get people to make decisions; we’re called to make disciples and to teach them
how to live the way that Jesus taught. It’s a long job. It can’t be done in five minutes at the
end of a meeting. It’s a lifetime’s job. But that is what Jesus is saying in Matthew’s gospel.
You look up all his teaching on hell and you’ll find that almost every bit of it was not given
to sinners but given to those who had left all and followed him, and who were committed to him.
Now I hope that sobers you up. I know it’s raised a lot of questions; I can see it in your faces. Go
and search the scriptures. Don’t accept anything I say unless you can find it there. But look
up every warning he gave and ask, ‘Who was he talking to at the time? Who was he warning?’ But
then, also don’t let yourself get into that panic, or that depression, that wakes up every morning
and says, ‘Am I saved or am I not?’ You can have an assurance that you’re on the way to heaven.
But that assurance does not come from a decision you made twenty years ago, it comes from a
personal relationship you have now. It says, “The Spirit himself goes on witnessing with your
spirit.” You can be sure when you wake up in the morning that you’re on the way. If you’re walking
with the Lord and in the Spirit, you will have an assurance in your heart you’re heading for
heaven. It’s not a guarantee that you’ll arrive, it’s an assurance you’re on the way.
One of the first things that happens to you when you sin is that you lose your assurance,
right? When you get out the way, when you get out of relationship. Stay in that relationship
and you can walk in that daily assurance, ‘I’m on my way.’ You see salvation in Scripture
is a way. It’s not an instantaneous thing. Anybody who repents has put a foot on the way and is
walking on the way, and we’re on the way to glory. The Spirit wants to give us that assurance
of God’s love, that he wants us to make it, that he’s on our side. There’s nothing else
that can separate you from his love—nothing, only you. But if you continue in his love, as Paul
says, you will not be cut off. The fact that two and a half million left Egypt and only two arrived
in Canaan is used by three different writers of the New Testament as a warning for believers.
He doesn’t want to save us from only; he wants to save us to. He wants to get us to heaven and
he wants to get us ready for heaven so that when we arrive, it’s the saints who go marching in.
Well, that’s probably the most serious thing and I think probably a surprise to many of you.
You didn’t expect to hear that. You thought I was going to tell you that all those sinners out
there are heading to hell and in great danger. They are - and it’s a motivation to us to go and
rescue them while we can. But having said that, keep the fear of it in your own heart lest, having
preached to them, you be cast away yourself. So hell is a serious topic and it has a profound
effect on Christians. It affects our worship. I believe it will affect our worship in two ways.
First, it will bring us to a profounder gratitude to God for what he’s done for us. When you take
bread and wine at communion you’ll be so thankful. You’ll want to say, “Thank you, thank you, thank
you.” In Greek you would say, “Eucharisteo, Eucharisteo, Eucharisteo.” That’s what “eucharist”
means; it means—it’s a thank you that he would go through hell so that I need not go there. It will
produce a gratitude but it will also produce a reverence, and a fear of God will be restored to
the Church. That will not just show in worship, it’ll show in holiness too. Because when you’re
not afraid that sin will cause you to lose what you’ve got, you won’t take it so seriously.
It would be totally unfair of God to send an unbeliever to hell for adultery but shut
his eyes when a believer persists in it, wouldn’t it? Yet many are saying, ‘I’m all right.’
They’re saying, ‘Well she may be a prostitute, she may be on drugs, but praise the Lord
when she was nine years old she made the great decision.’ That kind of talk is crazy talk.
The New Testament says, “Follow after holiness without which no man will see the Lord.”
It will have an affect on our evangelism. We’re not just trying to bring people a little
happiness; we’re not just trying to give them a solution to their daily problems. We’re rescuing
them from hell. That’s what evangelism is: from a useless, godless eternity. That’s what
we’re after. We’re not just trying to do them a good turn, or add a little nice dimension to
their life. ‘You should come to church. We’re very warm there, it’s very friendly, you’d enjoy
it.’ That’s not what we’re after. We’re not after getting people into a religious club. We’re
snatching people form the fire. That’s always been a major motivation in missionary
work. It’ll affect us in so many ways. And finally, those who fear hell find it much
easier to face martyrdom. When Jesus said, “Don’t fear those who can kill your body, rather
fear him who can destroy body and soul in hell,” he was saying the cure for fear of man is fear
of God. The cure for little fears is the big fear. That’s true. You lose your little fears
when you’ve got a big fear. And the big fear is the fear of finishing up there. When you’re
more afraid of that than anything, you can face anything or anyone. Those who fear God fear no
one and nothing else. I think of one of the early martyrs, Polycarp was his name, of Smyrna. They
threatened to burn him alive on a red-hot sheet of iron. Polycarp said, ‘You threaten me with
the fire that kills the body; I fear the fire that destroys me forever.’ He went to his death.
It puts courage into Christians. If you fear God, it cures your other fears. You don’t need
therapy for all the other ones then. You can fear the Lord. There’s as much about
the fear of God in the New Testament as in the Old. It’s part of Christian living. For
our God is a consuming fire. Therefore let us approach him with reverence and awe as we
worship him. Well, that’s enough about hell; I want to get you to heaven. So in the next
talk we’re going to go for glory. Amen.
