As we enter into this season of celebration
for us as believers, we face an opportunity and a responsibility that I think is unique
to the season and that is to be ready to speak the gospel to the folks that are around us
who don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. You heard from Travis the commission of Jesus
to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them and commanding them to do all
things that I have commanded you. This is our commission, this is why we are
here in this world, to be ministers of reconciliation with a message of reconciliation to God that
sinners might be saved. We talk about that, being saved. One of the people being baptized tonight made
reference to being saved. What are we talking about? What is it we want people saved from? That is the compelling question. The answer to that question, as far as Scripture
is concerned, is a simple answer. We want to see people saved from eternal punishment,
punishment that never ends. Conscious existence, conscious life in a body
resurrected and suited for everlasting punishment. The Bible speaks of that as occurring in a
place that we know as hell. In the Old Testament, the word Sheol makes
reference to that in a general way. In the New Testament, the word Hades is sometimes
with reference to that. But always the word hell coming from the Greek
word Gehenna speaks of what the book of Revelation calls this Lake of Fire where people are punished
and tormented forever. I think we sort of comfortably distance ourselves
from that reality. Certainly in general in the church it is looked
over, passed by, ignored. There are those who claim to be preachers
who don't ever talk about hell, wouldn't talk about hell, avoid it at all costs, when the
truth of the matter is, it ought to be the first thing that we talk about when we talk
about the gospel. This is about salvation from hell. The doctrine of hell, the truth of hell, the
reality of hell has found its way into the thinking of our culture. According to the latest survey that I could
find, seventy-five percent of people living in America believe in hell. They believe there's a hell. That's the influence of Christianity, 75 percent. Of those 75 percent, four percent believe
there is any chance that they will ever go there. So we've gotten our point across. There is a hell. But we haven't gotten the point across that
you're headed there already. That's the issue. We live in a world where sin is freely exploited. Sin is so much a part of our culture that
every imaginable sin is acceptable, except pedophilia, that's the last sin left. And you watch the outrage, at least in the
athletic world, if not in the Roman Catholic Church, over the sin of pedophilia. You don't find that outrage over adultery,
you don't find that outrage over homosexuality, you don't find that outrage over lying, cheating,
stealing, etc. Murder is still unacceptable unless the person
doesn't deserve to live. The murder of a child is still an outrage. But we're very used to sinning. And we're very comfortable with sin and consequently
society has very few consequences that it places on people for sin. So when people grow up in a world where things
that once were defined as sin are no longer defined as sin, and behaviors have no consequence
in the society, where, for example, when junior comes home at the age of twelve and announces
to his mother that he's a homosexual, she becomes a homosexual advocate. Absolutely no consequences to that kind of
immoral behavior. There's a warped sense of good and evil and
distorted understanding of justice. We don't know what sin is except a sin can
never be what I do, it can be, however, if what I do harms someone else, that would be
sin. But any act that I do in and of itself I'm
free to do and there shouldn't be any consequences at all. And the truth of the matter is then if the
culture imposes no consequences and the family imposes no consequences, the society places
no stigma on people for the kind of behaviors that are sinful behaviors, people get so used
to sinning without consequences that when you introduce the idea that they will pay
in full forever for every sin, that is just alien to their thinking. People sin without immediate consequences
and to try to convince them that there are somehow down the road, decades from now if
they live, deferred consequences is a hard sell. For example, you might want to try to convince
someone of Romans 2 which says that you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of
wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. You're not getting away with anything, no
act of fornication, no act of adultery, no sin in the mind, no sin in the behavior, no
sin with the lips, no lie, no deception, no cheating, you're not going to get away with
any of it, you're just accumulating iniquities, all of which will be confronted and judged. You're storing up wrath. You're going to need to have a large storehouse
to contain all the wrath that's going to break upon your head. That is a very difficult thing to convince
people about who are so used to sinning. And at the same time, they're so used to getting
away with it. They're not only used, can I say to getting
away with it in the culture and in the world, but professing Christians are used to getting
away with it in the so-called church. Churches are...so-called churches are very,
very reluctant to confront sin, very reluctant to do the discipline that the Bible talks
about doing, to teach people the consequence of sin. Parents are very reluctant to create significant
consequences for the sins of their children, which may be the most important thing apart
from the gospel that your child ever learns. That sin has immense and painful consequences. We need to tell people that every unforgiven
sin, every sin committed by every person who rejects Jesus Christ will be justly punished
by God forever in a place called hell. This is not new. This is what the Bible has said. You can go back to Moses. You can go back to the Pentateuch, the first
section of books in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 32:22, it reads this way in
the Authorized Version, "A fire is kindled...says God...in my anger and burns to the lowest
part of hell." The 1611 King James version made it clear
even that early that the anger of God reached into hell. Our Lord's first New Testament sermon was
a sermon on hell. Jesus is a hell-fire preacher. I hear people say, "Well I don't want to talk
about hell, that's very negative." Jesus was a hell-fire preacher. Matthew 5, His first sermon as laid out in
the New Testament, verse 22 of chapter 5 of Matthew, "I say to you that everyone who is
angry with his brother will be guilty before the court and whoever says to his brother,
you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court and whoever says, You fool,
shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." Here is Jesus arriving in Jerusalem and beginning
the first part of His ministry, then going up to Galilee and finishing off His ministry
and wherever He went He was a preacher of hell. The Sermon on the Mount happens to be given
on a hillside in Galilee. He speaks of the fiery hell as if He assumed
that everybody knew about it, He doesn't have to give them a definition or a description,
it was a very well-known part of their biblical understanding. Same sermon, verse 29, if your right eye makes
you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you, it's better for you to lose one of the
parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Verse 30, "If your right hand makes you stumble,
cut it off, throw it from you. Better to lose one part of your body than
for your whole body to go into hell." In the tenth chapter of the book of Matthew,
that very familiar verse which is often quoted, and we'll come back to it in a little bit,
Matthew 10:28 where we read this, "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable
to kill the soul...our Lord says...but fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body
in hell." In chapter 11 He talks about hell. In Matthew chapter 18 He talks about hell. He talks about hell in chapter 23 several
times. He says that the Pharisees are guilty of producing
sons of hell and they're sons of hell themselves." Yes, Jesus was a hell-fire preacher. When we talk about salvation, the word has
to be used...the word has to be used because we're talking about rescue. Salvation is a word that means deliverance
or rescue and the question is...from what? Contemporary kind of corrupted Christianity
would offer many psychological and even material substitutes for hell. We would say, "Well, Jesus wants to save me
from loneliness or He wants to save you from purposelessness, or He wants to save you from
anxiety, or He wants to save you from poverty, or He wants to save you from failure, or He
wants to save you from sickness, or He wants to save you from disappointment. No, no, He desires to save you from hell,
from the fiery hell, the lake of fire that is eternal. The message of Scripture is that salvation
is a rescue, a rescue from a real place called hell. Jesus spoke more about hell than anybody else
in the Bible. In fact, He spoke more about hell than everybody
else in the Bible combined. And He defined it as conscious, eternal punishment...conscious,
eternal punishment. Our Lord Jesus believed in eternal hell. We'll talk about some of the things that He
said about it in a little bit. He continually spoke about hell and He warned
sinners to escape hell because of its horrible reality. Turn to Luke 16 for a moment. And in Luke 16 you have Jesus actually telling
a story about a man who went to hell. You will remember this. There was a rich man, Luke 16:19, he habitually
dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And there was a poor man named Lazarus who
was laid at his gate, covered with sores and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were
falling from the rich man's table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking
his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away
by the angels to Abraham's bosom. That's kind of an Old Testament reference
to a place of comfort, a place of peace where Abraham is and Abraham, of course, was a true
believer as the father of faith who received righteousness because he believed. So this would be heaven. And there went the poor man. The rich man, on the other hand, died and
was buried in Hades, which, of course, here refers to hell because of the way its described. He lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and
saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. This is a parable and there are some names
the Lord uses. He doesn't usually use names in parables,
but on this occasion He did, He used the name of Lazarus and Abraham. And this rich man who is shocked that he has
ended up in hell, cried out and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus
so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue for I am in agony
in this flame. So now Jesus tells us this is a place that
you go to after death. This is a place of torment. This is a place of thirst. This is a place of agony. This is a place of fire. All of that is in what we just read. Abraham said, "Child, remember that during
your life you received your good things and likewise Lazarus bad things. Now he's being comforted here and you are
in agony. And besides all this between us and you, there
is a great chasm fixed so that those who wished to come over from here to you will not be
able and none may cross over from there to us. Once you're there, you're there forever. No escape. This is our Lord's story describing hell. Was the Son of God wrong about that? Are the deniers of hell correct and there
are many, many of them? It has become popular these days to deny the
doctrine of hell in one of three ways, okay? I'll give you a little insight into that. Number one is the view called annihilationism...annihilationism. This says unbelievers go out of existence. When they die, they just go out of existence,
they don't exist anymore. That the Bible doesn't support since the Bible
speaks of eternal conscious punishment. The second view that is offered, and by the
way, people give very sophisticated arguments for this. I read a book, 475 pages on annihilationism
trying to make the argument from the text of Scripture called The Fire That Consumes. And there are many others...many others. Recently a book questioning the doctrine of
hell and advocating an annihilationist's view was written by a man named Rob Bell. The second possibility that is offered today
is universalism...universalism. This says that all unbelievers are in the
end saved. They don't go out of existence, they're saved. These people would say yes, there is a hell. And this is where they hedge against the first
one. There is a hell but hell was created for the
devil and his angels, and that is what it says, of course, in the book of Revelation. So they're the only ones who will go there. In the Roman Catholic University, Fordham
University in New York, there's a theological professor who said this, "It's there...hell
is...but possible that no one will go there." That's a universalist's view that in the end
God is going to save everybody. That doesn't match with Scripture because
the whole message of Scripture is that the ungodly are forever excluded from God's presence
and forever punished. If everybody is saved in the end, then everything
in the Bible that speaks of eternal punishment is unbelievable, error. So whether you have all the sinners die or
all the sinners get saved, die go out of existence, or get saved, you still don't explain what
the Bible says about everlasting punishment. There's a third view called...we'll call it
inclusivism so annihilationism, universalism, inclusivism--that would be my word for it,
some people will go to hell, but it will be the people who heard the gospel and rejected
the gospel and the people who never heard the gospel won't go to hell, they'll be saved. So it's kind of a selective inclusivism. Unbelievers who never heard the gospel will
be saved because they aren't responsible for their situation. They'll be saved. But the problem with that is you can't get
saved unless you believe in Christ. There's no salvation in any other name than
the name of Jesus Christ. Universalism has its advocates, believe me. There are many advocates of universalism but
they tend to be Bible deniers. The inclusivists who say the people who never
heard the message are the ones who will be saved and not the rest, have a same problem,
because they don't have any support for their view in the Bible at all. And they tend to be weak on the view of Scripture
and just throw away the verses that they don't like. The dominant view is that first one I gave
you called annihilationism and I want to talk about that a little bit, because you're going
to face it somewhere. It's a trendy thing. It's a popular idea. Some most remarkably useful, less effective,
capable teachers of the Bible have lapsed into annihilationism, or as it's sometimes
called "Soul Sleep." It's the popular idea because it feels comfortable
and it feels fair to the people who make a case for it. Now how to they make their case? How do you make a case for unbelievers just
being obliterated, exterminated, wiped out forever? Their first argument comes from the verse
I read you in Matthew 10 verse 28, "Fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. They tend to go there, and they like that
word "destroy." All right? They want to use that word "destroy." Stick with me cause it's going to be helpful
to you. It's a Greek word, apollumi...apollumi. That may sound a little bit familiar in your
ear because in Revelation 9:11, Satan is given the name Apollyon , the destroyer. Apollumi is the word to destroy. But it is not its only meaning. That's not the only possibility. But they say that word says that the ones
who are under the judgment of God will be destroyed both soul and body in hell, so that
they would go to hell and then be wiped out and exterminated, annihilated forever, non-existence. Is that the correct understanding of that
word? Fortunately we have that word 80 times in
the New Testament so we get a good breadth of understanding about how the verb apollumi
is used. It has very broad meaning. In Matthew 2:13 it is the word used where
it says in that verse, "Herod desired to destroy the baby." Herod wasn't thinking about soul annihilation,
he was thinking about murder. In Matthew 8:25 in the immediate danger of
the storm, the disciples are afraid and they are afraid of drowning. So in Matthew 8:25 the word apollumi has to
do with drowning. In Luke 5:37 we hear a parable from Jesus
about putting new wine in old wineskins and the wineskins crack and break and that's the
same verb apollumi , ruined wineskins. In Luke 15 it's used three times to speak
of a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. So the word can mean to kill, to drown, to
render useless such as the case of wineskins, or to be lost. John 6:27 there's a statement about food that
perishes, and that is the word apollumi , perishables, food that is corrupted and useless. In John 17:12 our Lord says, "None of those
that You have given to Me, Father, have perished but the son of perdition. Judas perished. Did he go out of existence? No. Jesus said he went not out of existence, but
he went to his own place. He went to his own place. Here's one some of you can experience this
personally, I know I can. Luke 21, it is referring to the loss of hair. Yes, Austin, you can deal with that, can't
you? Can I have a witness? In Acts 8:20 you remember the confrontation
between Peter and Simon the magician and Simon is trying to buy the Holy Spirit and Peter
says, "May your money perish with you." Romans 14:15, "Do not destroy with food the
one for whom Christ died." In Mark 14:4 it's used of perfume that is
spilled. Why has this perfume been wasted, says Judas
about pouring perfume on Jesus. So it is possible to translate the word destroy
but it is not the word for annihilation, obliteration, non-existence. Furthermore, in
Matthew chapter 3 verse 12, Scripture calls hell the unquenchable fire. So Matthew 10:38, "Fear the one who destroys
both soul and body in hell, it is an unquenchable fire." It doesn't go out and it doesn't go out because
it always has fuel. In the fourteenth chapter of the book of Revelation,
verse 9, "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead
or on his hand, he will drink of the wine of the wrath of God mixed in full strength
in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of
their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night." Eternal smoke and no rest, day and night forever. So you can't make a case out of the word apollumi
used in Matthew 10:28. So they try to go to another word. If you look at 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1
and verse 9, it says, "These...that is those who do not obey the gospel from verse 8, those
who reject the gospel...these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. This is not the word apollumi , this is a
different word, olethros...olethros . The penalty of eternal destruction, they suggest
that destruction, eternal destruction means you're destroyed forever, you go out of existence. That is not what this word necessarily means. First Corinthians 5:5 uses the same word and
it says, "I have decided...speaking of a sinner in the church, a professing believer sinning
in the church...I've decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his
flesh so that his spirit may be saved." Well obviously it's not the annihilation of
his flesh. He's not a disembodied spirit who then in
a disembodied state would become saved. So the destruction of the flesh means some
kind of devastation but does not necessarily mean annihilation. Furthermore, in this verse, verse 9, these
pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the
glory of His power which means that they are placed somewhere away from God. It can't mean the annihilation of a person's
physical body in 1 Corinthians 5:5 and it doesn't mean the annihilation of the person's
soul and body here, because it refers to a place where they will be away from God. So I'm just saying, they have a hard time
trying to make their case with words....with words. Perhaps a verse that will pull it all together
is 1 Timothy 6:9, the last chapter of 1 Timothy. It says, "Those that want to get rich fall
into temptation," we know this verse, "and a snare in many foolish and harmful desires
which plunge men into ruin and destruction." Do you think that means absolute annihilation,
non-existence? No. What it's saying is that if you get yourself
in a situation where you want to get rich, you're going to be trapped in temptations
and snares; they're going to lead you to foolish and harmful desires which will plunge your
life into total ruination. Not annihilation. By the way, ruin here in verse...Timothy 6:9
is olethros and destruction comes from the verb apollumi . So both the words are used here to refer to
something other than annihilation. So some of these texts, if you connect the
dots, we would conclude this. Both these words mean the ruin of someone
for useful purpose or function...the ruin of someone for a useful purpose or function,
the ruin of a wineskin, the ruin of food that perishes, the ruin of a life destroyed by
the love of money, and the temptations that come with it for any useful purpose, a soul
ruined, a soul destroyed as to its usefulness, not its existence. That's why I said, this morning, and I say
it again tonight, hell is viewed best and most clearly by the Greek word Gehenna which
is a word that comes from the valley of Hinnom. The valley of Hinnom just east of Jerusalem
and a little bit south, I've been there many times, is the place in ancient times where
the city dump was and it was a never extinguished burning fire. And it became the metaphor for the Lake of
Fire, for hell. You threw whatever was useless into the trash
into the fire. When I was a kid growing up, everybody in
my neighborhood had an incinerator...we had an incinerator before smog. There were no trash trucks. We burned everything in an incinerator in
the back of the house. Everything that was useless, everything that
was to be discarded, and it seemed like it was always burning day after day. A soul forever ruined for usefulness to God,
having a spoiled marred image, we talked about that this morning, is thrown into the everlasting
trash heap, the burning fires of Gehenna or hell. That's what those words are talking about,
not annihilation. You cannot make that case from Scripture. In Matthew chapter 26, I think it's verse
24, Jesus is talking about Judas and He says, "The Son of Man is to go just as it is written
of Him," He says this at the Upper Room communion with His disciples. "The Son of Man is to go just as it is written
of Him, but woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he
had not been born." Why would He say that? It would have been good for that man if he
had not been born. Why? Because of the consequences that are about
to come to him. It wouldn't matter if he was going to be annihilated,
if he was going to be exterminated. Hell is eternal conscious punishment. There's no way around this. Now, for a minute, I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 25, enough of trying to answer those lame arguments. I understand the emotion behind them. But I want you to look at Matthew 25:46 because
this is an inescapable parallel, or contrasting parallel. "These," our Lord says, "will go away into
eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Both words "eternal" are identical. They're the same in the original language. So if hell isn't eternal, then guess what? Neither is heaven. Those will go away into eternal punishment. The righteous will go into eternal life. If there is eternal life, then there is eternal
punishment. Get rid of hell and you have to get rid of
heaven as being forever. Was our Lord wrong about this? Are the critics right? Are the deniers of hell right and the Lord
is wrong? If the Lord was wrong, why was He wrong? Was He ignorant of the truth? If He was, then He's not the Lord of all. He's not the way, the truth and the life. Or was He...did He only appear to be wrong
because He couldn't figure out how to say it in a way that we could really get it? Was He not so much ignorant as inept? I don't think you want to go there. He wasn't wrong. He wasn't ignorant. He wasn't incapable of saying what He wanted
to say. Let me put the case where it really belongs. Did Jesus mean to teach annihilation and somehow
goof it up and teach the opposite? Is that what's going on here? He meant to teach annihilation and He just
messed it up. Nonsense. Further affirmation of the reality of hell
from some other perspectives, just talk this through with you a little bit, there's so
much that could be said about this. There is one pastor on the east coast who
preached 76 hour-long sermons on hell. That would empty a church. Whoa! Look, it comes up, when it comes up in the
Scripture, you deal with it. One is enough to make the case. But let me give you some perspectives that
will help. First of all, let's take a rational perspective,
just rational. We need to use our minds, God has given us
our minds to reason rightly. Satan and the demons will be sent to the Lake
of Fire forever. Why? Because they rebelled against God. Satan and one third of the holy angels rebelled
against God. Unbelievers rebel against God. Unbelievers not only rebel against God but
we are in the family of Satan. John 8, "Satan is your father," he says. You're of your father, the devil. Unbelievers are in that family and we rebel
as the angels rebelled and we must receive the same punishment that anyone who rebels
deserves, the same kind of punishment, same nature of punishment, the same duration of
punishment because we commit the same crime. In the twentieth chapter of Revelation, the
devil, verse 10, who deceived them was thrown into the Lake of Fire and brimstone where
the beast and the false prophet are also. The beast and the false prophet are just human
beings. The final Antichrist and his cohort, the false
prophet, and they're in the Lake of Fire as well, and they will be tormented day and night
forever and ever. So that torment will be for the demons and
Satan. That torment will be for men who committed
themselves to follow Satan, namely the beast and the false prophet. And they're just two of all the humans who
will suffer the same fate as the rebellious angels because they followed the same crime. Sinners and fallen angels commit the same
crime, share the same guilt and receive the same punishment. Now somebody says, "Does the sentence really
fit the crime?" Well we're thinking rationally for a minute. Well the lawgiver determines that, doesn't
he? The law giver determines that. the law that is written determines the extent
of the crime and what is a fitting punishment for the crime and God has determined that
the crime is heinous enough that it should be judged in this way. And that is always the hurdle that people
have trouble getting over. How can a temporal sin or sins result in an
eternal punishment? It seems excessive. Let me help you with that. The amount of time that a sinner sins is irrelevant. If the sinner dies at fifteen-years-old; thirty-five
or a hundred and ten; the amount of time a sinner sins is irrelevant. Crimes against the infinitely holy and exalted
God are infinitely wicked and the punishment fits the crime. Infinite crimes against an infinite God deserve
an infinite punishment. And here's the key. Sinners who go to hell never repent. They never repent. They continue to rebel. Every description of hell indicates to us
that it is...listen carefully...it is not a remedial experience. It is not remedial justice. It is retributive justice. They remain God-haters forever so that the
punishment never catches up with the sin. Understand that? It's really important. In hell they continue to hate God. In hell they continue to curse God. In hell they continue to mock God and blaspheme
God and hate Christ. So the punishment never catches up to the
sin because the sinning never, ever, ever ceases. You understand that, that's really important. People don't go to hell and then never sin
forever and just get punished forever. They go to hell and keep on sinning forever,
so the punishment can never catch up with the wretchedness. That is why the Bible in Mark 3 describes
this as eternal sin...as eternal sin. Let me tell you something. I believe that sinners are more sinful in
hell than they were on earth because their sin on earth is mitigated to some degree,
necessarily mitigated. Everybody can't be as wicked as he would choose
to be here because there are consequences. There are restraints. There are expectations. But in hell, there are none. Everybody is as evil as he can be. In Jude 7 it says that they undergo a punishment
of eternal fire. And this judgment, according to verse 15,
is on the ungodly for all their ungodly deeds which they've done in an ungodly way and all
the harsh things the ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. The word ungodly is used repeatedly there
and when they get to hell, they're just as ungodly as they ever were, in fact more so
in that environment without constraint and continue to be punished because they continue
everlastingly their rebellion. Let me talk about it just for a moment from
a theological. That's a rational approach in understanding
what Scripture says, a theological approach. And that would be to understand the nature
of God. God's honor and God's glory is manifest in
the punishment of the wicked. God's honor and God's glory is manifest in
the punishment of the wicked. God, because He is holy and because He is
absolutely righteous and just, must punish sin. Listen to...there are a lot of portions of
Scripture we might look at but here's Isaiah 66 verse 22 to 24 where the Lord says, "Just
as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before Me, declares the
Lord, so your offspring and your name will endure." In other words, you're going to live forever
in the new heaven and the new earth. It shall be from new moon to new moon, and
Sabbath to Sabbath, and all mankind will come to bow down before Me, says the Lord. Then they will go forth and look on the corpses
of the men who have transgressed against Me. Their worm will not die, their fire will not
be quenched." That again is Isaiah 66 saying because of
what men have done to Me, they will experience an everlasting fire. Again it's the character of God that is at
stake. Daniel 12 tells us in verse 2 that many will
awake to everlasting life, in the end. Others to disgrace an everlasting content. Matthew 18 calls it an eternal fire and a
fiery hell. Matthew 25 refers to eternal fire prepared
for the devil and his angels...I think I said Revelation earlier, it's Matthew 25. We're familiar with all of this. And hell is God's hell where He punishes those
who refuse to give Him honor and glory. He acts in the world to reveal His glory and
men reject that glory and they pay for that rejection. Hell is not remedial. It has no remedial effect. They will remain forever rebellious, God-haters,
lovers of sin, blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, and rejecters of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is any satisfaction in hell, if there
is any fulfillment of anything in hell, is that they can be as wicked as they want to
be without restraint because no influence of God is there. So the theological issue is an important one. Hell is for those who hate God. They act against His mercy. They act against His grace. They act against His holiness. They act against the sovereignty. They act against His glory. And they will continue to do so forever. Then thirdly we could look at it biblically. First of all, we can look at it rationally,
and theologically. These overlap a little bit, but the final
one is biblical. What does the Bible say? Well we've quoted all kinds of Scriptures. I think one of the most interesting things
about hell, at least to me, is Ecclesiastes 9:10, it says this, "Whatever your hand finds
to do, do it with all your might for there's no activity or planning or knowledge, or wisdom
in Sheol." Whoa! That sounds like eternal boredom...no activity,
no planning, no learning, no nothing. No advance at all. Job 10 verses 21 and 22 describes hell as
everlasting darkness. So does Matthew 8:12 and Matthew 22:13, a
place of eternal darkness. Again Matthew 8:12 and Matthew 22:13 describe
it as a place of everlasting pain...everlasting pain. There's a passage of Scripture outside of
the New Testament that I think is probably one that gets overlooked too much. And it's a passage in Ezekiel, very interesting,
verse 17, "In the twelfth year, the fifteenth of the month, the Word of the Lord came to
me saying, "Son of Man, wail for the hordes of Egypt and bring it down. Her and the daughters of the powerful nations
to the Netherworld with those who go down to the pit. These nations are going down to hell. Go down and make your bed with the uncircumcised,
the nations, the Gentiles. They shall fall in the midst of those who
are slain by the sword. She's given over to the sword," talking about
Egypt here specifically, "They have drawn her and all her hoards away. The strong among the mighty one shall speak
of him and his helpers from the midst of Sheol." Here are the hordes and the forces of pagan
Egypt ending up in hell. They've gone down. They lie still, the uncircumcised slain by
the sword. And guess what? Assyria is there and all her company, her
graves are round about her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword. His graves are set in the remotest part of
the pit. Elam is there, verse 24, and all her hoards. Twenty-six, "Meshech, all her hoards are there. Their graves surround them. All of them slain by the sword uncircumcised,
nor do they lie beside the fallen heroes of the uncircumcised who went down to Sheol with
their weapons of war and whose swords were said unto their heads. But the punishment for their iniquity rested
on their bones. In other words, Jew, Gentile, they're all
there. Edom is there. The chiefs of the north, verse 30, are there. The Sidonians are there. They're all going to be there and when Egypt
arrives, verse 31, they're going to see they're all there. They're all there. Though I instilled a terror of him in the
land of the living, yet he will be made to lie down among the uncircumcised, along with
those slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his hoards, declares the Lord God. They're all going to end up in hell. What a dramatic picture. And they will be there with an identity that
is recognizable. They'll see Pharaoh arrive. The Bible speaks of hell in very specific
words...agony, banishment, brimstone, curse, darkness, deprivation, destruction, distress,
fire, teeth-grinding, guilt, hopelessness, loneliness, pain, suffering, pressure, prison,
punishment, ruin, separation, shame, contempt, smokes, sulfur, torment, trouble, trash heap,
weeping, all forever. There are many roads to hell...many roads
to hell. In one sense, every sinner goes there on the
road of his own sinful choices, many roads to hell, any sin, every sin creates a road
that arrives at hell. You can go on the road of pride, or you can
go as a pedophile. You can go as a self-righteous religious leader,
or you can go as an aide to Adolph Hitler. Many, many roads to hell. On the other hand, there's only one way to
escape hell, right? Only one way. "For God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life." First Thessalonians 1:10 says, "Jesus rescues
us from the wrath to come...from the wrath to come." I want to close by going back to the story
that Jesus told in Luke 16, just briefly. We stopped the story at verse 26, but I want
us to finish it. Pick it up in verse 27. The last word in verse 26 was, "When you're
there, you can't leave. Nobody can come from there to heaven and nobody
from heaven will ever show up there. But in the story, the parable that Jesus invented,
the rich man who is being tormented in hell is pleading with Abraham and he says, "I beg
you, father...father Abraham...verse 27...send him to my father's house," send Lazarus back,
I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them so they will not also come to this
place of torment. And Abraham said, "They have Moses and the
prophets, let them hear them." That's a reference to the Scripture. But he said, "No, Father Abraham, but if someone
goes to them from the dead, they will repent." But he said to them, "If they do not listen
to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone arises from the
dead." How do you evangelize people? You lead them to the holy Scripture. Even a person back from the dead wouldn't
persuade them if they're unwilling to listen to Scripture. Foolish people think they can persuade people
on the way to hell to change the style of their wardrobe, the style of their music,
or the kind of environment they create. How foolish. If they don't listen to Scripture, they will
not be persuaded. Scripture is the only persuasive means that
the Holy Spirit uses to regenerate and rescue souls from hell. So, knowing the gospel, knowing the biblical
gospel, that's what we must use. That's the Scripture. So next Sunday night, we're going to move
from "Saved from what?" to "Saved by what? Talk about the importance and essential character
of the gospel. Father, it's been a wonderful day for us and
in some ways it's a sad reality that we've talked about tonight at such a happy season,
but this is necessary. We have to see people...as the Apostle Paul
said...he saw no one after the flesh. Once he came to Christ, he didn't see anybody
after the flesh. In other words, he didn't take people at their
physical face. He didn't see them as physical beings. It wasn't about their wardrobe or their life
style or their possessions. He saw no man after the flesh. Help us to see them all as perishing, eternal
souls, headed for the horrors of the Lake of Fire. And elevate our passion, our compassion, our
zeal to plead with them to escape the fire. May we do what Jude says, may we grab people
and snatch brans from the burning. Give us that opportunity, even these days
as we go through the Christmas season. Help us to understand the horrors of what
awaits those who know not the Savior and give us a fresh and a new zeal for their souls. May we be instruments that you can use to
bring many to the Savior, even this season. We thank You for this privilege in the power
of the Spirit in the truth of the Word that enables us to be used in this way, in the
name of Christ. Amen. END SUNDAY MESSAGE: SEE ADDITIONAL FOOTNOTE
BELOW STUDIO FOOTNOTE ADDITION: I know the message is completed, but I wanted
to add a portion to the sermon that you heard on this particular occasion. In discussing the doctrine of eternal hell,
eternal punishment, I tried to cover as much as I could in one hour. But it was impossible. Time constraints in the service of the church
at the time limited me to that amount of time. But there's another aspect of the doctrine
of eternal punishment that I wanted to add to the message that I think is very important
for us to have a complete understanding. We talked about the fact that people go to
hell because they reject the gospel. They go to hell because they are born in sin
and they live lives of sin and rebellion against God. And I said that it's not a matter of how many
sins, or now many years of sin, or the grossness of sin, it's the same hell for everyone. But I wanted to add a footnote that I think
is very important to recognize because the justice of God is very specific...the justice
of God is very individual. Sometimes in medieval art you see depictions
of hell and there's some kind of a great funnel in which everybody is just poured and they
all go flowing through this funnel into kind of the same environment of fiery existence. But hell is much more individual that that. And the Scripture indicates to us that not
everyone suffers in hell to the same degree. We know the Bible teaches there are degrees
of reward in heaven that not every believer will receive the same reward when we go to
heaven. We'll receive the same eternal life, the same
perfection, the same eternal righteousness, the same opportunity to live in heaven and
be in the Father's house and all of that. But there will be degrees of reward in heaven. At the same time, there will be degrees of
punishment in hell. And the Scripture indicates this very clearly. Let me read to you Luke chapter 12, starting
at verse 41. "Peter said, 'Lord, are You addressing this
parable to us? Or to everyone else as well?'" And this was a parable about the Lord's coming
and being ready for His return. "And the Lord answered Peter saying this,
'Who then is the faithful and sensible steward whom his master will put in charge of his
servants to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds
so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in
charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart my master
will be a long time in coming,' and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and
to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does
not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and assign
him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his mater's will and
did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes. But the one who didn't know it and committed
deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much
will be required. And to whom they entrusted much, of him they
will ask all the more.'" In that parable that our Lord tells, you have
the picture of the believer who is the faithful, dutiful servant, who does what his master
wills and is ready to meet his master when he comes. That's a picture of a believer ready to meet
the Lord when He returns. But on the other hand, in verses 45 and 46,
you have a very different scene. Here is a slave who says in his heart, "My
master will be a long time in coming," and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women,
to eat and drink and get drunk. Well the master of that slave will come on
a day when he doesn't expect him and at an hour he doesn't know and will cut him in pieces
and assign him a place with the unbelievers. That's a picture of the unbeliever, the one
who is not ready for the return of Christ, the one who has nothing but disdain for the
Lord and Master, and he will be set for a horrific judgment. The servants in this story picture every person
in the world. Every person in the world is responsible for
how that person handles the good gifts of God revealed to him. In other words, an opportunity to know the
truth. The Law of God written in the heart of every
man, a conscience. The truth about God manifests from creation,
the light that shines in every heart. What a person does with the opportunity to
know the truth and the opportunity to hear the gospel, determines that person's destiny. The ones who believe the truth, who accept
the truth of God, who embrace the gospel, they're the ones who will be rewarded by receiving
all that the master possesses. On the other hand, the others who waste their
exposure to the truth, waste their exposure to divine revelation and reject the gospel
when they've heard it, will receive the severest judgment. So you have one group in the story faithful
to make the most of that gospel stewardship, and they receive the privilege of being in
the Kingdom, going to heaven. You have another group unfaithful to make
the use of gospel opportunity, gospel stewardship and they're punished with a fierce judgment
that describes in the words of Jesus as cutting them in pieces, and then there comes the warning
that he gives at the end, that slave who knew his master's will and didn't get ready or
act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes. But the one who didn't know it will receive
but a few. That's talking about eternal punishment. Both are punished, one with few lashes and
one with many lashes. And what makes the difference? Not the volume of sin, not the nature of sin,
not the intensity of sin, not the number of years one lived to accumulate far more sin
than someone who lived far less years, but what a person does with the gospel...with
divine truth. That is what determines the severity of hell. The more of the truth of the gospel you know,
and reject, the severer the punishment will be. In that sense, the gospel is eternally dangerous
if rejected. There will be degrees of punishment then on
unbelievers in hell, not based on categories of sin, not based on amounts of sin, but based
on the level of truth they rejected. That is why Hebrews 10:29 says this, "How
much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son
of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the Covenant, the New Covenant, by which
he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of Grace?" Boy, that's a strong verse. "How much severer punishment will come on
the person who knows about the Son of God, knows about the shedding of His blood to provide
salvation through the New Covenant, regards that as an unclean thing and thereby insults
the Spirit of Grace? The very Spirit who was the power behind Jesus
offering Himself up. He offered Himself up by the Holy Spirit. You insult Christ when you reject with the
full knowledge of the gospel and you insult the Holy Spirit. By the way, Hebrews 10:29 says that and then
it says in the next verse, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord." And in the next verse, "It is a terrifying
thing to fall into the hands of the living God." So judgment is predicated on one's knowledge
of the gospel. It's a far severer hell awaiting those who
knew the truth, the gospel, and rejected it. There's another account in Matthew chapter
11, verses 22 through 24, that I want you to listen to. Verse 22 begins, "Nevertheless, I say to you,
it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to
heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades, or hell, for if
the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I say to you it will be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." What that says is that people living in the
village of Capernaum at the north end of the Sea of Galilee who were exposed extensively
to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ will be more severely punished in hell than the
horrific sins that marked the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, sins of gross immorality and
homosexuality, so vile that God buried those cities with fire and brimstone. What that means is the people who suffer in
hell today from Sodom and Gomorrah don't suffer to the same degree as those in Capernaum who
rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. There is one other passage that informs us
on the degrees of punishment and it is from 2 Peter chapter 2. Listen to what Peter writes. Speaking of false teachers, "They are springs
without water, mists driven by a storm for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity,
they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality those who barely escape from the ones who
live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption." Now that's a description of false teachers. Very graphic, springs without waters, mists
without a storm, black darkness reserved for them, they are arrogant, they speak words
of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality and they're enticing these people
who are just barely escaping. In other words, they're just sort of moralizing,
they're just sort of escaping the severest kinds of corruption. It's not a true salvation. It's just a bare escape. And then the next verse says, "Promising them
freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption." And then it says about them, For if after
they have escaped the defilements of the world." What does that mean? Salvation? No, not at all. What it means is they become moral. They put on religion. They may be legalistic, they may live outwardly,
visibly moral lives. They have separated themselves from the defilement
of the world and they now say they are religious and they're ministers and theologians and
purveyors of religion. They have only superficially escaped. But it says, "They are again entangled and
are overcome and the last state has become worse for them than the first." In the end, they can't keep up the hypocrisy. In the end they can't keep up the moral deception
and calamity strikes. You know, time and truth go hand in hand. False teachers eventually will show themselves
to be what they really are. And commenting on these false teachers, Peter
says this, "It would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than
having known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. False teachers will have the severest punishment
in hell because they not only knew the way of righteousness through Christ, it even says
that they came to the knowledge of the Lord. They moralized themselves. They pretended to be Christians. They even identified, it says, with their
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ superficially, but only superficially. And in the end, they turned away. It would have been better for them if they
had never known the gospel than to have known it and turned from it. And that is saying the very same thing. They would have less severe punishment in
hell if they had never known the truth. It is not again the kind of sin that one commits,
it is not again the amount of sin that determines the degree of punishment, but it is the truth
rejected that determines the severest punishment. And the most severe of all for those false
teachers who knew the truth, who even proclaimed the truth, who identified with the truth,
identified with Christ, moralized their lives on the outside, but were never truly saved
because bottom line...they rejected the gospel they pretended to affirm. There will be very specific degrees of punishment
in hell for every sinner based upon the knowledge rejected, the truth resisted.
http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/80-376
For those of you who would rather read than watch.