Transcript

Hell Is For Real-Part Three

As we come to the conclusion of this three-part series on the doctrine of hell, I want to say how thankful I am to be a part of a church that welcomes this material. None of us would say it is a pleasant topic to even think about, but I hope all of us would agree that it is an indispensable subject spoken of frequently by our Lord Jesus Christ. May we never be ashamed of our Savior's teaching, and in the words of the Apostle Paul may we never shy away "from declaring…the whole [counsel] of God" (Ac. 20:27).

Nothing should be more terrifying for an unbeliever than a proper understanding of the place spoken of repeatedly in the Bible called hell. Jesus, the Apostles and the prophets never mince their words - darkness, weeping, eternal suffering, lake of fire, punishment.

We must understand that God is a God of justice. All sin is not only a violation of His commandments, but also a violation of His character. And we are all guilty. We sin in thought, word and deed both by sins of omission (not doing what we should) and sins of commission (doing what we ought not). The consequence of sin is spiritual death. There is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to remove our violations which are all ultimately against God even if we did all the good deeds in the world. God is a God of perfect holiness and thus must treat sin with its perfect punishment. According to the Bible, an awful place named hell is the consequence.

Yet few things should be more encouraging for the believer than the teaching on hell. We know and have embraced a Savior who has rescued us from that terrifying destination. We know this was the primary purpose for Jesus' coming. We know God in His love and mercy provided a way for forgiveness through the work of His Son. We know Jesus, being God Himself, lived a perfect life and thus qualified to stand in our place as a sinless human. He took our sins upon Himself and faced the wrath of God on the cross that we deserved. He took our hell so we would not have to and gave us His life. Justice for sin was accomplished on Christ. Through His incredible love offering, those who receive Jesus Christ can be forgiven and thus saved, saved from hell and enjoy the promise of everlasting life with Him in heaven.

Listen to these verses: Isaiah 53:5, "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed." Matthew 1:21, "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Titus 2:14, "[He] gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." Revelation 1:5, "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood."

You see, society has done a tremendous job in throwing away the doctrine of hell. And the church's fear of proclaiming this issue hasn't helped. So what happens when people either minimize hell or declare there is no such place?

Well, if there is no hell, why in the world would we ever need a Savior? So if Jesus is a still a Savior as the Bible teaches, He is now relegated to being a Savior from bad health, poor self-esteem and low finances. And if we deem Him no longer a Savior, He is relegated to a moral teacher, wise philosopher or good example. And if there is no hell and thus we no longer need a Savior, what was the purpose of the cross? As John MacArthur said, "[His] death becomes the heroic death of a noble martyr, the pathetic death of a madman, or the execution of a fraud" (Acts Commentary, p. 64). So no hell, there is no need for a Savior. No need for a Savior, there is no need for Jesus. Enter the dismissal of Christianity and the entrance of pluralism that all faiths (whatever they may be) are equally valid and all people (as we learned last week) have a ticket for heaven. And that is basically where we find ourselves today. Can you see how much is at stake regarding the teaching of Jesus on hell?

I have to either laugh or cry when I hear people say they don't go to church because they believe all pastors are too much "fire and brimstone." I submit to you that you can attend the average American church and go a year without hearing any concentrated teaching on the doctrine of hell.

And the irony of all this is that most evangelicals will still admit that the greatest sermon ever preached on American soil was Jonathan Edward's classic from 1741 during the Great Awakening. In that sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," Edwards said, "Wicked men [in hell] will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they may escape the wrath of God." At the end of his sermon he even addresses his own congregation: "There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity."

Stephen Williams was minister at Longmeadow Mass. He recorded the reaction in detail later that night in his diary. "Before the sermon was done there was a great moaning and crying out throughout the whole house, 'What shall I do to be saved?!' 'Oh, I am going to Hell!' 'Oh, what shall I do for Christ?!' etc. etc. So that the minister was obliged to desist. Shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing. After some time of waiting, the congregation were still so that a prayer was made, and after that we descended from the pulpit and discoursed with the people, some in one place and some in another, and - amazing and astonishing! - the power of God was seen, and several souls were hopefully wrought upon that night, and oh, the pleasantness of their countenances that received comfort."

Yet when my daughter's high school literature class was assigned to read this sermon, their response was far from Edward's original audience. There was no fear of God or fear of hell. Rather it was mockery. It was distain that Edwards would dare present a God that did not meet with their conception of Him. They had already dismissed hell, and with hell a holy God who will punish sin. To them, the sermon was both ridiculous and offensive. Therefore, the only response left for the teens was to dismiss the possible hope of the rescue they could have had in Christ.

So we have spent the last two weeks looking in detail at the teachings of Jesus on this subject. We have learned most of what the Bible has to say about hell going from Genesis to Revelation. We even discussed and rebutted with Scripture six of the false views today regarding hell and the afterlife. So with remaining time I have this morning, I would like to attempt to answer four of your specific questions regarding hell that you have brought to my attention.

Question number 1: Do people spend an eternity in hell? According to the Bible, I strongly believe the answer is "yes."

Let me share some Bible with you on that issue. All the way back in the Old Testament, Daniel 12:2, "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt." Matthew 25:46 "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." In this verses , the word translated "eternal" is the same one used for both heaven and hell. Heaven and hell parallel each other for eternity. They both stand or fall together. Jesus in Matthew 18:8 calls hell and "eternal fire." Three times, Mark says of those in hell, "Their worm will not die" (Mk. 9:44, 46, 48; cf. Isa. 66:24). When Jude speaks of false teachers in hell he says "for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever" (Jude 13). 2 Thessalonians 1:9, "These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power."

I believe we'd all agree that the eternal reality of hell is the most frightening aspect of hell. I'm sure we've all experienced considerable pain, but the good thing was the hope that soon we would be well, and if not in this life, in the next. Dante in his classic word rightly used this line to describe the imaginary inscription over hell's entrance: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

The great Puritan, Thomas Watson, lamented, "O eternity! If all the body of the earth and sea were turned to sand, and all the air up to the starry heaven were nothing but sand, and a little bird should come every thousand years, and fetch away in her bill but the tenth part of a grain of all that heap of sand, what numberless years would be spent before that vast heap of sand would be fetched away! Yet, if at the end of all that time, the sinner might come out of hell, there would be some hope; but that word 'Forever' breaks the heart. 'The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.' What a terror is this to the wicked, enough to put them into a cold sweat, to think, as long as God is eternal, He lives forever to be avenged upon them" (Body of Divinity, p. 63).

If hell were designed to be a refinement for temporary sins, there would logically have to come a time that one's experience in hell would terminate. But that is not the purpose of hell. Hell exists not to refine, but to punish. And if our sins were temporary, I believe we could reason that hell should be temporary. However every sin we commit is eternal because it violates the will of an eternal God and thus deserves an eternal punishment. Unless forgiven in Christ, each of our sins eternally remains. When considering hell, we must not impose our notions of human wisdom and human justice and human concepts of love on the character of God.

A second question: What is hell really like? Some of the early church preachers would give graphic and detailed descriptions of hell - blasphemers hanging by their tongues, adulterous women dangling over boiling mire and murderers hurled into pits filled with venomous snakes (Mark Minnick, The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment, p. 27). These concepts may scare, but they are not biblical.

Yet perhaps we could argue that the biblical portraits are more frightening: A "lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14-15), "eternal fire (Mt. 18:8; 25:41; Jude 7), "unquenchable fire" (Mk. 9:43), "furnace of fire" (Mt. 13:50), "outer darkness" (Mt. 8:12) and a "prison" (1 Pet. 3:19). Those in hell are spoken of as responding with "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Mt. 8:12; 13:42; 13:50; 22:13; 25:51; 25:30; Lk . 13:28), "torment" (Lk. 16:23) and "agony" (Lk. 16:24).

Many argue that these are only symbols or figurative warnings. Yet on what authority can we arrive at that conclusion? Is there anything in the context of these descriptions where Jesus or the biblical authors gave even a hint that we should take them in any way other than literally? Moreover, even if we go this route of symbols, we must remember that things the Bible symbolizes are generally greater than their symbols.

William Evans in his book, "Great Doctrines of the Bible" said, "Is the fire spoken of literal fire? It is an accepted law of language that a figure of speech is less intense than the reality. If 'fire' is merely a figurative expression, it must stand for some great reality, and if the reality is more intense than the figure, what an awful thing the punishment symbolized by fire must be."

Listen to the famous preacher, C.H. Spurgeon in his typical wit, "Now, do not begin telling me that that is metaphorical fire: who cares for that? If a man were to threaten to give me a metaphorical blow on the head, I should care very little about it; he would be welcome to give me as many as he pleased. And what say the wicked? 'We do not care about metaphorical fires.' But they are real, sir - yes, as real as yourself. There is a real fire in hell, as truly as you have now a real body" (The New Park Street Pulpit, Baker, 2:104).

A third question: Is God in hell? I believe the answer is yes.

One response is to simply point you to the fact that God is omnipresent. The Scripture declares that He created hell (Mt. 25:41). And there is no portion of His creation that is outside of His sphere of authority. Satan does not rule hell. Satan will be tormented in hell. The omnipresent sovereign God rules hell. Jeremiah 23:24, "'Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him?' declares the LORD. 'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD." God is infinite and cannot and will not ever be bound by time or space. He is infinitely near and infinitely far.

Yet just because God is present in hell, we must remember that He manifests His presence differently in different places. There is a uniqueness of His presence in heaven similar to the way He uniquely presented Himself to Moses where the ground in that particular location was deemed "holy." We know God has a unique presence with us when we gather as His church (Mt. 18:20; 1 Cor. 3:16) as compared to His presence when unbelievers get together.

God is present in hell (Psalm 139:8 would make that definitive if we interpret "Sheol" as hell), but there is no indication those in hell have any relationship with Him. They do not experience His mercy and grace. Rather they are recipients not of Satan's wrath as he torments people with pitchforks, but God's wrath. Hell was ultimately "prepared" for Satan (Mt. 25:41) and Satan is there to be "tormented" forever (Rev. 20:10). Hell is the fury of God's wrath against sin.

People will argue this is not the case because of the verses that describe hell as being "away from the presence of the Lord" (2 Thes . 1:9; cf. Mt. 7:23). However, a careful study of this verse shows the word translated "presence" is the Greek word "prosopon ," used commonly to refer to a person's face or outward appearance. So I believe these verses are teaching that one is cast away from God's face - His smile, His benevolence, His love. It's similar to Numbers 6:25, "The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you." Hell is not departing from God altogether. Those in hell would love nothing more than this.

Think of it this way. When Jesus was bearing the wrath of God on the cross for our sins, we know He was in a sense experiencing Hell. There was darkness. There was the removal of the Father's favor when He cried, "My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?" (Mk. 15:34). Yet God was still there was He not?

Furthermore, Revelation 14:10 says those in hell will "drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb." So here we see those in hell are tormented by God in the presence of the Lamb , Jesus Christ. Interestingly, in this case we have a different Greek word for "presence," the word "enopios ." This is a special word denoting proximity. As John Piper said of this verse, "The focus in Revelation 14:10 is not that those in hell have the privilege of seeing what they enjoy, but that they have the remorse of seeing what they rejected."

Here is Piper again, "God's power is present in hell as the One who sustains our being and the One who enforces justice and the One who maintains suffering. He is present in all the ways men do not want Him to be present and none of the ways that believers enjoy His presence" (Is God Everywhere and Absent from Hell? May 16, 2014)

R.C. Sproul summarizes for us, "A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, 'Hell is a symbol for separation from God.' To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the impenitent person. The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated from God. Their problem in hell will not be separation from God, it will be the presence of God that will torment them. In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath. He will be there to exercise His just punishment of the damned. They will know Him as an all-consuming fire" (Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, p. 286)

And to the fourth and final question: Doesn't the teaching on hell show that God is cruel? Such a conclusion misses everything the Bible teaches.

Cruelty implies a sense of injustice, a desire to inflict punishment more severe or harsh than the crime. Not only is it impossible for God to be cruel, but all those in hell will fully realize that the punishment they are receiving is perfectly just (cf. Gen. 18:25). Consider what we read earlier regarding the "rich man and Lazarus." The "rich man" called to have his pain relieved and asked that his family members be warned, but he never claimed that God was a God of injustice. No innocent person will ever suffer at His hand. And those guilty in hell will not claim the punishment is unfair.

It's tragic that it takes one's eternal consignment to hell to then and only then realize that God is holy and their sins, according to His holy justice must be punished. Unfortunately by then it will be too late. Since they refused to receive Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for sin, they will now be forced to pay their own penalty.

Hell is real, but God has provided salvation from Hell through Christ. God in His love warned us about hell and did so in the most serious of words. God is not cruel , He is love . If anything we are cruel when we believe this and fail to tell others about the hope they can have in Jesus. Therefore the Christian gospel maintains that today "the day of salvation" is now (2 Cor. 6:2) during this lifetime. Embrace Jesus as your Lord and Savior from hell, because once you die, the grace of God is no longer extended, only God's justice against your unforgiven sin. And God's justice will come with holy and righteous severity.