Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
09/15/2019 P.M.
Our Eternal Destiny
The Biblical Truth About Hell
Matthew 10.28 2 Peter 2.4-9 2 Thessalonians 1.6-9 Revelation 20.12-15
As we approach the end of the Book of Revelation… We come face-to-face with our eternal destiny.
Intellectual honesty demands… That if we believe in and preach Heaven... We must believe in and preach Hell.
But... People are not always honest with themselves!
For instance… The Pew Research Center reports that...
• 72-84% of Americans believe in Heaven...
• While only 58% believe in Hell.
Outside our churches... Among those who claim no particular religious faith...
• 40% believe in Heaven...
• While only 30% believe in some sort of punishment in life-after-life.
Jesus believed in Hell…
In fact Jesus spoke more often about Hell than He did about Heaven.
Jesus plainly taught that He came to deliver us from sin’s punishment... Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Peter believed in Hell... Second Peter 2.4-9 reads... For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; If he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.
Here’s Paul’s statement from 2 Thessalonians chapter one... God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.
John warns us of Hell as He closes our Scriptures in Revelation chapter twenty... I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Church... If we accept this Book as the... Holy... Inerrant... Inspired...Word of God... We are forced to believe in the realties of a place called Hell.
What’s Hell all about?... What will it be like?
The Holy Spirit Expresses Hell in word pictures.
Let’s view some of these pictures painted by the Spirit...
Like Heaven... Hell is pictured... Not just a state of being... But a place.
In the Gospel narratives... When Jesus referred to Hell... He often used the word Gehenna.
The word comes from the Valley of Hinnom.... A valley to the South of Jerusalem... That in ancient times was connected to the practice of sacrificing children as burnt offerings to the pagan God Moloch.
In Jesus’ day this valley was a garbage dump... Everything from foodstuff... Dead animals... To human remains... were thrown into this pit.
The smoke from it could be seen from the city... It was always burning... A place filled with smoke... Fire... filth… Darkness... And worms.
Indeed... A place to be avoided.
In the narrative of the rich man and Lazarus... We find both men existing in a place called Abraham’s Bosom and Hell.
A gulf... A great separation... Was fixed so that movement between the two was impossible.
We hear the rich man say... I am tormented here... Don’t let my brothers come to this PLACE.
Hell is a place!
Hell is pictured as a place of fire-like suffering.
Matthew 5.22... Has Jesus saying that... Anger... Gossip... Verbal abuse... Of a brother is punishable in a fiery Hell.
In Matthew 13.42... Hell is described as a furnace of fire.
In Mark 9.44 & 45... The fire is never quenched.
In Revelation 20... Hell is a lake of fire and brimstone.
Is the fire of Hell real? Idon’t know... I can’t answer that… And neither can anyone else!
I think the Holy Spirit is simply describing An intense suffering.
Again we look at the description of Heaven... Mansions...Streets of Gold... Gates of pearl... The tree of life... The river of life...Are they real... No!... God is simply describing the grandest things the human mind can imagine.
Hell is a torment so intense that it’s compared to fire.
Church… I believe a careful reading of Scripture indicates that the saved of all ages will be given a new body at the resurrection… An Immortal Imperishable Body.
However… The souls of the lost appear to not experience a bodily resurrection… Will not be clothed with a body… However… They will have a conscientiousness that can suffer intense regret because we knew God and His will in our life... Yet refused to respond to His gift of salvation.
In fact… It appears in Scripture that evil spirits have no bodily form… Yet deeply desire such.
Hell is a place of intense darkness...
Matthew 8.12... Matthew 25.30... Jude 13... and 2 Peter 2.4... All speak of Hell’s darkness.
Church... If God is light… The Father of light... And Hell is dark... Then...
• Hell is a place where God is not.
• Hell is the absence of God.
• Hell is separation from God.
Paul tells us in Second Thessalonians 1.9... Those without a believing relationship with God will be punished with everlasting destruction… shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.
Can you imagine having no access to God’s blessings… Any of them!... None of His sustaining power?...
• No body… Just a naked soul…
• No air to breathe...
• No water to drink...
• No food to eat...
• No sunshine...
• No rest...
• No relief from emotional pain...
• No protection from wicked men and Satan.
We cannot imagine... Cannot comprehend... Life without God.
Perhaps it is best pictured as outer darkness.
Jesus pictures Hell as a place where the worm dies not.
Mark 9.48 describes Hell as a place... Where the worm doesn’t die… The fire is not quenched.
This brings two thoughts...
First… Personally…I think the worm is REGRET.
In Hell... There’ll be an eternal conscientiousness of...
• our failure to accept God’s grace gift of Jesus as the sacrifice for our sin failures...
• Our failure to be molded into the likeness of His Son.
Hell is a place where this regret is a worm that gnaws on us… CONTINUALLY!... eternally.
The second thought on the worm is that of MORAL FILTH.
In the valley of Hinnom... Worms… Maggots… were constantly eating the flesh of animals and human remains.
Revelation tells us that Hell is filled with moral filth...
• The cowardly...
• The unbelieving...
• The vile...
• Murderers...
• The sexually immoral...
• Those who practice magical arts...
• The idolaters...
• And all liars....
In Hell... There will be... no goodness... No DECENCY... No righteousness.
Hell seems to be a place where The pain of moral wickedness continues.
Hell is a place of eternal pain.
As Jesus ended His dissertation on the great sheep and goat judgment of Matthew chapter 25...
• He pictures the righteous going away into eternal life...
• The wicked into… eternal punishment... Eternal torment.
It’s interesting to note that the same Greek and English words are used to describe the duration of both Heaven and Hell.
It may be Scripturally and intellectually dishonest to make Heaven forever and Hell something shorter.
Some today contend that Hell is not forever... Good men... Smart men... Even some in our brotherhood contend that Hell is not eternal... They’re called annihilationistS.
• They believe that the unbeliever and the wicked will cease to exist… Eternal death.
• They believe that theSecond Death is just that... Death… a sin annihilation.
While the reward of Heaven is ETERNAL LIFE.
F. LaGard Smith published a book in 2003 titled “AfterLife – A Glimpse of Eternity Beyond Death’s Door”... In which he outlined his thoughts on Hell not being ETERNAL but annihilation.
His statement on page 174 sums up his thoughts... “Eternal fire bespeaks of the nature of hell’s fire... Not its duration... So when we hear Jesus speaking about eternal fire... There is no reason to think in terms of clocks and calendars. Time is not the issue... Effect is the issue.”
Other annihilationists argue their case by making a distinction between the spirit and soul of man... Saying one will die... The other will return to God who gave it… As stated in Ecclesiastes 12.7… The dust returns to the ground it came from… and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
But... When you look at the Hebrew and Greek words for Spirit and Soul... Sometimes they are used interchangeably.
Most Bible scholars lean toward Hell being a place where we forever deal with our failure to accept Jesus… A place where God and His blessings are eternally absent.
Listen… Whatever our belief on this point... No sane person would choose…
• Hell over Heaven...
• Eternal death over Eternal life...
• Or time limited punishment over eternal reward.
Our eternal salvation is not dependent upon our getting this doctrine right… But rather is dependent upon our acceptance of Jesus as Savior…Making Him… Lord… King… Of our life.
This brings us to the point that... Hell is a place of no hope.
I take you to Luke chapter 16... And the rich man and Lazarus.
There Jesus has Abraham telling the rich man that there was no hope of escape... And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.
Imagine... Hell is an... Eternal… Unfulfilled... REGRET… A search for relief that never comes.
I want to say a little about degrees of punishment.
It’s ironic that we never mention degrees of Heaven...
We’re just happy to be there... Just inside the gate!
But when studying Hell...
We want to know are there degrees of Punishment?...
Yes… I believe there are!
I’m not going to preach these points... But just read the Scriptures...
Matthew 11.21-24... Here Jesus is found saying to three cities... It will be better in the Day of Judgment for Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon, than for those of Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida.
The punishment will be more severe for them than for those of... Sodom... Tyre... and Sidon.
This statement from Jesus suggest degrees.
Luke 12:47-48... The servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what he asks will be beaten with many stripes. But the one who does not know and yet does things deserving of punishment will be beaten with few stripes.
Again Jesus alludes to degrees of punishment.
Hebrews 10.29-39... This Hebrews’ Letter was written to Christians who once stood for Christ and now were... Shrinking back... Backsliding...
• They had stopped assembling for worship...
• They deliberately kept on sinning after receiving the truth...
• And were about to throw away their confidence... Their salvation.
Listen as I read verses 29... 35... And 39... How much more severely do you suppose a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and has treated as unholy the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and has trampled underfoot the spirit of Grace... So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.... For we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
The Hebrews’ Writer is saying that Hell will be more severE for those who once knew Jesus intimately... And give up on their faith and salvation.
2 Peter 20-21... Forif after we have escaped the sins of this world through Jesus Christ... We are again overcome by them... The latter end is worse than our beginning. For it had been better for us not to have known the way of right than after we have known it to turn from the commandment delivered to us.
Again… Think regret… We were once saved…But gave up that salvation in favor of a life of sin… What an ugly state!
Tonight our invitation is to allow God’s love displayed in the death of Jesus on the cross to… Move us… Nudge us… Compel us… to become His child by... Faith... Repentance... And the new birth of water baptism.
Our challenge is to allow the JOY of Heaven and the FEAR of Hell to keep us WALKING IN THE LIGHT.
If there’s any doubt… Make sure of your Eternal Destiny… As we sing this song together.