Hell: The Asbestos Fire - [Mark 9:43]

Well, tonight we want to look at the topic of hell.

How many people saw the show on Friday night, the 2020 special on hell?

One whole hour on, I think it's ABC, talked about the doctrine of hell.

They had Marilyn Manson on there talking about hell, which was interesting.

He said, I don't think I want to go to heaven because none of my friends would be there.

And I thought, well, at least that is a true statement.

They had people on, like Carlton Pearson, who is a charismatic pastor in Tulsa.

He had 6 ,000 people in his congregation.

He then found out through his own thinking of scripture that the Bible really isn't inspired word for word, it's just generally

God's word, and God can never send someone to hell.

And so he announced to the church, there's no longer a real hell.

And thankfully, 5 ,700 charismatics left the church, and he's stuck with 300 who don't

believe in hell.

There were people on there who were talking about purgatory, and the one Catholic priest said, you know, purgatory is not hell,

but it's not heaven.

And it's a place that there will be suffering, and it's a place where you'll have to have your sins atoned for.

And then they did have one other man who said some right things about hell.

And so as I thought about it, I thought, we need to revisit this topic again.

What about hell?

We live in a place where the most famous sermon outside the Bible ever preached on hell was

preached just over where?

Not just in Enfield, Connecticut, but also Northampton.

We want to look at this because this is a topic that when you discuss hell, it motivates you.

It's a topic that when you discuss it biblically, you just don't kind of look as a bystander.

You don't kind of sit there and hold up a card and kind of judge the doctrine.

It moves you, it motivates you, it's emotionally stirring, it is gripping, and it makes you, like I said this morning,

want to be evangelistic.

It gives you a gratitude in your heart that you're not going.

It makes you think, you know, no matter what, I have to believe

what Scripture says, and I will put Scripture over my own emotions because I must do it because Scripture

teaches hell even though I could never believe it if it wasn't in the Bible.

And so it's a good doctrine to look at, and it's biblical.

Sadly, hardly anyone believes in hell anymore, and I found a list.

Mary Baker Eddy of Christian Science said, heaven and hell are states of thought, not places.

People experience their own heaven or hell right here on earth.

Edgar Cayce, the New Age prophet said, the destiny of the soul and all of creation is to become one

with the Creator.

Nobody ever goes to hell.

Sun Yung Moon, God will not desert any person eternally.

Joseph Smith of Mormonism, the false doctrine that the punishment to be visited upon erring souls is

endless is but a dogma of unauthorized and erring sectarians.

At once, unscriptural, unreasonable, and revolting.

Jehovah's Witnesses, Charles Taze Russell said, the teaching about a fiery hell can rightly be

designated as a teaching of demons.

I have all kinds of other people saying things, just a few others.

The Theosophical Society, we positively refuse to accept the belief in eternal

reward or eternal punishment.

Clark Pinnock cuts to the chase and says, how can Christians possibly

project the deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness, whose ways include

inflicting everlasting torture upon his creatures, however sinful they may have been?

Surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan

than like God.

He went on to say that everlasting torment is intolerable from a moral

point of view because it makes God into a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting

Auschwitz for victims whom he does not even allow to die.

And the list goes on and on and on.

So much so that we trivialize the word hell.

I can go to the grocery store, to Hannaford's grocery store, and go to the cheese section and what do you see?

You know what it's called.

George Patton's called Hell on Wheels.

When there's havoc, all hell breaks loose.

And sadly, even reported in John MacArthur's Ashamed of the Gospel book, seminary students

surveyed 46 said to preach hell to unbelievers is poor taste.

One out of 10 evangelicals say that they believe the concept of sin is outmoded and when sin gets

outmoded, so does hell become outmoded.

So why don't we take our Bibles and open to the Gospel of Mark and see what the Bible itself says about

hell.

Matter of fact, let's see what loving Jesus Christ, love incarnate as it were, says about this

doctrine.

We want to make sure that we understand what hell is based on

scripture.

I think it's fair to say that if you believe anything about hell that's not in the Bible, it's not the right view of hell, yes?

If you believe anything more or less about any doctrine in the Bible, it's not the right thing and we just want to repent

and change our minds and think about it correctly.

As you're turning to Mark 10, let me give you a true and false question.

True or false, the teaching of hell in a local church assembly is profitable for Christians.

Is it profitable?

Why is it profitable?

Anybody have a verse to back that up?

How could it be profitable to teach about hell?

2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul writes to Timothy the pastor and he says, you've got one toolkit and that toolkit's

the Bible.

Here it happened to be the Old Testament and he said, everything in there is profitable to teach the people.

You will be edified and matured if you learn about hell.

I could flip it around and say, if your pastor doesn't preach on hell, he thinks it's not

profitable and therefore he stands over scripture.

J .C. Ryle said, there's no mercy in keeping back from men the subject of hell.

Fearful and tremendous as it is, it ought to be pressed on all as one of the great truths of Christianity.

If I meet you at some place at the store and say, pop quiz, how you doing at Stop and Shop?

Give me the five greatest truths of Christianity.

Would you say, hell?

Well, Mark

chapter 9 is a chapter that is in the book of Mark, the Go

Gospel, a fast action oriented gospel, a gospel that has two out of

every three verses start with the word and.

Now if I submit that book to the publishers at day one with two out of three sentences that

start with and, they're going to send it back.

But here Jesus is on the go and he has a divine mission and the whole book, as it were, is Jesus setting his face

towards Jerusalem for this great substitutionary death.

And there's all kinds of talk in John chapter 9.

If you look at even your own titles in Mark chapter 9, it begins with the transfiguration.

Jesus then talks in verse 30 about his death and resurrection as he often reiterates to

the disciples, even though they don't seem to get it, that he's going to have to die.

The son of man is delivered into the hands of men, verse 31.

He has to be killed, but he will rise, 32 says they didn't understand him.

And then we move down to verse 38 for our connecting passage for tonight.

John said to him, Mark 9 38, teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and

we tried to hinder him because he was not following us.

He's not official.

He's unauthorized.

This person is not of the group.

He's not of the 12.

He's not a part of this group.

He's not hanging around with us and he's doing this work and we're the official representatives.

He's not one of us.

He's one of them and they don't tolerate that well at all.

But Jesus said to him, that's right.

No, do not hinder him for there's no one who shall perform a miracle in my name and be

able soon after to speak evil of me for he who's not against us is for us for whoever

gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you,

he shall not lose his reward.

And then we move to verse 42 tied in directly with verse 41

and we move to this theme.

And whoever causes one of these little ones and Jesus could be referring to the future verses or he might even be

referring back to these little ones who are doing the work of the kingdom, the unauthorized ones, quote

unquote.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe we're not talking about little children or talking about

Christians to stumble.

It would be better for him with a heavy millstone to be hung around his neck and that he had been cast into the sea.

Now let's just talk about that picture before we talk in terms of hell.

Jesus is saying it's better for someone to have a millstone tied around their neck and thrown into not

just a little wading pool but the deepest sea.

Now there are all kinds of these millstones and this millstone happens to be a huge millstone that only a

donkey can turn.

Matter of fact, in the Greek, this is not called a millstone.

Here in Mark 9, it's called a what?

It's called a donkey millstone.

Now the text doesn't say that but the Greek text says it.

It's a large millstone, literally a donkey millstone.

And so you can imagine somebody to cause someone to stumble would be such a bad thing that you take the millstone

that's got a circle in the middle, it's got a hole in the middle, that you tie somebody to that and take them out in the

middle and drown them.

This is radical.

Just picture that.

Just picture this Gentile form of execution.

And Jesus goes on to talk about how obedience needs to be so drastic with this very radical kind of language

and if your hand causes you to stumble, I mean, Jesus has their attention with the millstone thing.

But even more now, cut it off.

These are all discipleship demands reinforced.

It's better for you to enter life crippled than to have your two hands and then to go into hell, into the

unquenchable fire.

Is this a literal verse?

943?

Origen thought it was.

I don't know if I'd like to be named this, but there's a Scottish preacher and his name was A .J. Gossip.

Who would ever have a last name Gossip?

And he talked about a theology student that went crazy and took a razor

and cut off his hand.

And Gossip shows up and the young man was laughing, handless,

shouting out, I did right.

I can now look Jesus in the face.

Is that what he's talking about here?

It can't be because in chapter 7 of Mark, he said, what comes out of the heart of man is what defiles,

right?

But he's saying, you radically need to deal with your sin.

You would cut off your foot if it was gangrenous,

gangrenous.

Don't treat sin casually.

Sometimes I watch kids play patty cake and they kind of do the whole clapping thing, you know, the little girl thing that they do.

Maybe some boys do it.

They shouldn't, but the girl clapping thing.

Jesus is saying, don't pamper sin.

Don't pet it.

Don't coax it.

Don't play patty cake with it.

Deal with it.

Shadow boxing won't do, Hendrickson said.

He said, temptation should be flung aside immediately and decisively, dilly -dallying deadly.

Halfway measures work havoc.

Surgery must be radical.

Get rid of it.

Why?

What's the text say?

It's better to have your hand cut off than for you to enter life.

Let me just read the verse.

It's better for me to say that.

It's better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.

How unloving for Jesus to bring up hell.

Now, here's how the show started on Friday night.

It was very dark and the man who was doing the TV news broadcast was

standing talking about Jesus and how there was a place where the fire would

die not and the worm would always be alive.

And Jesus used a valley in Jerusalem that was a dump heap, that was a trash heap, that was on

fire a lot.

And he used that as a picture for hell.

And then the camera expands back and the lights go on and the man is standing in the valley of Hinnom

in Jerusalem and he said, well, as you see, there's no more fire and there's no more smoke

and there's no more refuse.

But what's Jesus doing?

He's using hell, Gehenna, as something

that's horrible and he gives them a picture that they would understand so they would realize the horribleness of

hell.

And so the valley of Hinnom, who could tell me what would go on in the valley of Hinnom back in the Bible days?

Anyone?

Probably some of you know.

Barry?

That's right.

That was a place that they would burn children alive.

Children who would be sacrificed to the pagan god, Molech.

What else would happen there at the trash dump?

Anything else?

I mean, that's bad enough.

That's the worst thing.

Yes, Pat?

Yes, they would burn all kinds of refuse and excrement and all kinds of animal carcasses.

When I was a kid, we used to go to the dump and that's where we practiced with the 22 shooting rats.

And I could just smell that dump.

I mean, why would your father take you to the dump to shoot?

I don't know.

All the worm infested garbage and the smell.

It is a horrible place that was a real place, but the reality was pointing to the

spiritual truth of the real place called hell.

Why don't we turn over to Matthew for a moment and I want to just give you a quick little jet tour of Jesus teaching about hell.

If you believe Jesus is God, you will believe in hell because he talked

about it out of the 12 times in the New Testament.

Go to Matthew 5.

Out of the 12 times in the New Testament, 11 times it's Jesus talking about Gehenna,

hell.

And I just want you to get an idea just as an overview of what Jesus said in this kind of rapid fire

breeze by in Matthew.

Matthew 5, verse 22.

By the way, as I read these things, if you don't want to believe in hell, that's between you and God.

But just don't call yourself, A, a Christian.

And if you go to a group and say, well, you know what?

I'm going to be in your group and we're Christians, but we don't believe in hell.

As my old pastor would say, well, if you want to be in that group, that's up to you.

But just don't call yourself a Christian.

The name's already taken.

And Christians believe what Jesus said.

And here's what Jesus said, 522.

Same thing.

You say you fool at the end shall be guilty enough to go into what?

Fiery hell.

Chapter 5, verse 29 and 30.

Look at the very end of the verses there.

Then for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew chapter 8.

Skipping down three chapters.

Matthew 8, 12.

But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.

In that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Chapter 10, verse 28.

I mean, this is just a gospel.

I've never heard it called this, but it just came to my mind.

Matthew, the gospel of hell.

That's what it could be called.

It's so often mentioned.

Matthew 10, 28.

And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul

and body, where?

In hell.

Let's just look at a couple more.

There are many, but let's look at Matthew 13, 41.

Matthew 13, 41.

The son of man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and

those who commit lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

I think it is a fair statement to say that Jesus taught hell.

Yes.

Peter taught hell.

John taught hell.

Paul taught about hell.

And if we go back to Mark chapter 9, verse 43, it's very interesting that he talked about this fire

that's in hell.

It's a fire that shall never be what?

Quenched.

The unquenchable fire.

What do they put up in old buildings to retard fire that now we have found to be carcinogenic?

Asbestos.

Who could tell me what asbestos means?

If you put an A in front of a word, it negates the word.

So if something's typical and you put an A in front, an alpha, alpha privative, it makes it no longer typical, but

atypical.

If you put an A in front of asbestos, what do you think you get?

Here's something that can be quenched, and you put an A in front of asbestos, and it becomes asbestos,

and you get something that is unquenchable.

And that's the word here, ta -asbeston.

It cannot be quenched.

So I've got a question for you.

Is hell eternal?

I mean, I'm just preaching to the choir Sunday night, and you know, we affirm that.

It is eternal.

Thomas Watson said, in hell, the wicked will always be dying, but never dead.

Look down to verse 48 of the same chapter, we'll get there in a second, where the worm does not die.

It's unquenchable.

Revelation says it's day and night, forever and ever.

Wherever you go in scripture, you see words like this associated with hell.

Eternal, everlasting, forever, forever and ever.

If hell is eternal, so too

is heaven eternal.

That should be said the other way.

If heaven's eternal, hell must be eternal.

Salvation, Hebrews 5 says, is eternal.

John 6, life is eternal.

Hebrews 9, redemption is eternal.

The inheritance of the saints, Hebrews 9, is eternal.

And therefore, the same word we use with hell, it is eternal.

It starts making your mind be boggled, and with Spurgeon, I say, they are forever, forever, forever

lost.

On every chain in hell, there is written the word, forever.

In the fires, there blaze out the word, forever.

And I almost want to laugh, but I shouldn't laugh.

You should preach about hell with a tear in your eye.

But Richard Baxter, with no smile or Cheshire Cat grin, said of unbelievers, they

were wont to think sermons and prayers long.

How long then will they think these endless torments?

Now, we need to skip 944, because it comes later.

It's not in the best manuscripts.

945, if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, Jesus said.

It's better for you to enter life lame than having your two feet to be cast into hell.

There he says it again.

And then verse 47, if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out.

It's better for you to enter the kingdom one -eyed.

That's what the word means, one -eyed, mono opthalmon.

Wycliffe weirdly translates this googly -eyed.

It's better for you to go to heaven with one eye, googly -eyed, than having two eyes to be cast

into hell.

Matter of fact, this verse right here is what people said to Tyndale's translation.

They said, you know what, we can't have a Bible like this with Tyndale's vernacular and street language, because

people are going to be plucking out their eyes all over the king's realm.

And now we come to the verse that I want to spend some time at tonight, verse 48, where their worm does not die

and the fire is not quenched.

If you don't think this is a gross verse, then I don't know if you know gross.

We have a trash can, and it's a waste management trash can, a green can, and they come every week.

But when I first moved into the house, they didn't come every week, and they didn't come every week because I was cheap and wanted to pay for only every

two weeks to come, because we didn't have enough trash.

And I would just smash it down and compact it, and you get eight big 40 -gallon deals.

And I thought, well, why pay double if they just come every other week?

So I'd put stuff in there.

And the thing about it is, in the summertime, when the hot heat starts hitting that trash can, you kind of get a little

odor coming out.

And you know, after a while, that kind of cheap plastic top gets a little crooked,

and it's easy for things to fly in there, like flies.

And you never forget that smell and that look when you open up the trash can, and you accidentally kind of rip one of the

trash bags that's in there, and you accidentally rip it, and you see inside this big thing of

meat, and you go, I think the meat's kind of moving.

It's kind of like that white cartilage on the chicken or something, but wait a second, it's not moving.

It's full of maggots.

And you just, I don't know what's grosser than a maggot.

I'd rather have a tick on me or a leech than a bunch of maggots, you know?

Good thing we're not back in the old days, where if you have some kind of infection, what do you do?

Well, the flies land on you.

You let them lay eggs in you because you want the maggots to eat out all the horrible infection.

And once you see clear blood red, then get rid of the maggots.

And you just start going, you know, what am I going to do?

Jesus doesn't go, well, you know, what word should I pick?

Oh, I picked worm, but I probably shouldn't have because it's a little too gross.

He picked it on purpose, right out of Isaiah is where he picked it, as a matter of fact.

Here's this nine gross worm that is supposed to take people and startle them and

shake them.

Deal with sin, you don't want to go to hell.

At this point,

some people think that the fire is the external pain source and the

worm is the internal pain source in hell.

Let's turn to Acts chapter 12 and let me kind of play off this worm bit a little.

And this is one of those chapters that when you're a kid and you go to church and you go, you know, some of these sermons are kind of

boring and all that.

You young kids tonight, you're never going to forget this sermon.

You pay attention right now, you young boys and girls, you're going to read this and you're going to go, hello.

And every time you see a maggot, I want you to think of Acts chapter 12, all right?

Ready?

This is the maggot chapter.

Acts chapter 12, let's get the context.

There is a point and a tie -in to Mark 9, but Acts chapter 12,

the context is given to us by the writer Luke.

Now about that time, Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to

mistreat them.

And he had James, can you imagine, the brother of John, put to death with a sword.

When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.

Now it was during the days of unleavened bread.

So that's the timeframe.

That's what's happening.

Skip down to verse 20.

Now he was very angry with the people of Tyre, Acts 12 .20 and Sidon.

And with one accord, they came to him and having won over Blastus, the king's chamberlain,

they were asking for peace and maybe they're doing it with money because their country was fed by the king's

country.

On the appointed day, Herod having put on his royal apparel, took his seat on the rostrum and

began delivering an address to them.

And the people kept crying out, the voice of a God and not a man.

The voice of a God and not a man.

The voice of a God and not a man.

And boy, it was just this great thing.

And what happened simultaneously?

It says, and immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God and he was

eaten by worms and died.

P .S.

The word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.

Can you imagine what was going on here?

What does the text say there?

He was eaten by what?

There you go.

You see, you are not going to forget it.

Now, Josephus, the Jewish historian at the time, gives some really good insight.

It's not Bible, but it's good insight historically.

He said this feast was occasioned by Herod's patron

saint, Roman Emperor Claudius.

And so they went to the amphitheater built by Agrippa's father.

And Josephus says this, quote, Herod put on a garment made wholly of silver.

Can you imagine?

A whole garment made of silver and of a contexture truly wonderful.

And came into the theater early in the morning, at which time the silver of his garment, being illuminated

by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone out after a surprising

manner.

Here comes Herod.

Here comes the light.

Here comes the voice of a God and not a man.

Just the brilliant, effulgent glory of Herod.

Josephus said, Herod did neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery.

You know, sometimes the angels in Revelation, hey, get up, buddy.

I'm just a created being.

Don't worship me.

And God said, you're not giving me the glory.

You're taking it.

And he kills him by worms.

Now, let's go back to Mark chapter 9 to talk about these same kind of worms.

What kind of worms were these?

Now, the Greek doesn't say maggots.

The Greek says it's a skolax.

It's a special kind of worms.

What are your favorite worms?

Do you have any favorite worms?

I have very gross stories about tapeworms and dogs, but I will not repeat them from this pulpit.

But I will say that this skolax worm is a tapeworm.

According to Dr. Jean Sloat Morton, in the Science in the

Bible book published by Moody in 1978, it says

regarding acts with Herod and then directly implied into Mark, the

phrase eaten of worms in Greek is skola kobratas.

The root word skolax means a specific head structure of a tapeworm.

Since the word skolax, plural skolases, is applied to the head of tapeworms,

Herod's death was almost certainly due to the rupture of a cyst formed by a tapeworm.

So the tapeworm is eating Herod on the inside and it becomes a big cyst.

It ruptures.

There are several kinds of tapeworms, but the one that's most common found in sheep growing countries

is the dog tape, echinococcus

granulosis.

Have that with milk in the morning.

The heaviest infection, doctor says, come from areas where sheep and cattle are raised.

Sheep and cattle serve as intermediate hosts for the parasite.

The dog eats the infected meat, then the man gets the eggs from the dog, usually by fecal contamination of

hair.

The disease is characterized by the formation of cysts generally on the right lobe of the liver.

They may extend down into the abdominal cavity.

The rupture of such a cyst may release as many as two million skolases.

Boys and girls, two million tapeworms in your gullet.

The developing worms inside the cyst are called skolases because the anterior region constitutes the

major part of the development of the stage.

When the cyst ruptures, the entrance of cellular debris along with the skolases cause sudden death.

The use of the word skolex is not limited in this reference about Herod.

The term also appears in Mark 9 .44 where the literal

translation of the phrase would read where there skoleth, dieth not.

The usage is very interesting because the tapeworm keeps propagating itself.

Each section of the worm is a self -contained unit which has both male and female parts.

The posterior part matures and forms hundreds of worm eggs.

The word skolex in this text portrays a biological description of the permanence which the text

demands for comparison.

The worm never dies because the worm is male and female and it just keeps reproducing and reproducing

and reproducing.

Josephus said of Herod, he lingered on for five days in terrible pain.

Then John MacArthur said, Herod's crime for which he was executed was

that he did not give God the glory, the very crime for which all the unregenerate

who reject God will be condemned.

Now when I hear about that worm thing, I think to myself, that is gross.

That is horrible.

It's supposed to be.

Calvin said, for there can be no doubt but that by modes of expression, the Holy Spirit intended to

confound all our faculties with horror.

When you read about hell, you should be horrified.

One man said, it's revolting.

It's supposed to be.

The Bible also describes hell as punishment, Hebrews 10, torment, Revelation 14,

lake of fire, Revelation, destruction, Matthew chapter 7,

second death, Revelation 20, outer darkness, Matthew 8, weeping and gnashing of

teeth, Matthew 13 that we saw, true or

false congregation.

In hell there will be common grace.

What is common grace?

Well, I can describe it with Jesus' word.

God causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

And so God gives benefit to people that aren't his children, yes?

Rain and pleasure and food and mercy and goodness and patience.

None of that in hell.

Here's another question we could talk about hell.

In hell is God's presence there.

It's God's presence in hell.

I thought hell was being away from the presence of God.

Let's turn to Revelation chapter 14 because I believe what Jonathan Edwards teaches about

Revelation 14 would be true, that God will be the hell of the one and the heaven of the other.

What makes hell hell?

God is there, certainly not with his mercy and kindness and grace and long suffering,

but with his naked righteousness.

Revelation chapter 14, without looking at context, I'll just read the verse.

He will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, and certainly this could be in a different time, but still would

apply, 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 land.

I believe hell is hell because God is there.

God is omnipresent.

It's not as if God is everywhere in the entire universe and beyond, except somehow in hell.

That is why Bernard Russell, in his ridiculous book, Why I'm Not a Christian, said, I do not

feel that any person who is really profoundly human can believe in everlasting punishment.

I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hellfire is a punishment for sin, is really

a doctrine of cruelty.

I have another question for you about hell.

Are there degrees of punishment in hell?

Anyone?

Are there degrees of punishment in hell?

Well, it all depends on what your view of the atonement is, because if you believe that Jesus died for each and every person,

if Jesus died for Judas and Hitler and all the others, I don't know who

do we know that's in hell for sure.

I would say Judas, we think, is in hell for sure, yes.

Who else would we know is in hell for sure?

Pardon me?

Saddam Hussein?

Yeah, maybe at the very end, though, something happened, we're not sure.

Maybe a Jeffrey Dahmer -like epiphany.

I would, pardon me?

Pharaoh?

Yeah, it seems like he would be.

It seems like Herod would be in hell, yes, with all the worm business.

It seems like Goliath would probably think he'd be in hell.

I think Goliath would probably be a good choice, if you had to guess.

Jezebel, maybe?

Call me strange, but I think Jezebel probably would be there.

But at least we know Judas for sure is there, and Goliath.

And so if you believe Jesus died for each and every person who was ever born, including Judas, for what sin does

God judge Judas?

And the answer for those kind of folks that would believe that, is they would say for the sin of

unbelief.

No other sin, but just the sin of unbelief, and that would be one sin.

And so everybody who's in this hell, Jesus died for all their sins, but he didn't die for the sin of unbelief.

And so if you believe that Jesus died for each and every person, you've kind of got a problem because you would not believe there'd be degrees

in hell.

You might say, I believe there's degrees in hell, but logically you can't get there.

But if you believe differently, I think you'll find, why don't we

turn to Hebrews 10, verse 29.

The Bible does, not with many verses, but a few, give us an inkling that there are degrees of

punishment.

Not only does the Bible, but also our own biblical logic we could use as well.

But let's just look up Hebrews 10, just for a moment, and we will see that there's not just punishment, but there can be

more severe punishment.

And Hebrews chapter 10, verse 29, gives us an idea where the writer,

maybe Paul, says how much severe punishment do you think he will deserve, who has trampled

under the foot the son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant, by which he was

sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?

Vengeance is mine, I will repay, the Lord will judge his people.

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of living God.

So there's punishment, but is there a worse punishment?

Yes, severe punishment.

I could read to you Matthew chapter 11, verse 24, and hearken the words of Jesus that would give us

more insight into this very idea of increased punishment for sin.

And that would be, let's see, Matthew 11, verse 24.

Nevertheless, I say to you that it would be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.

So we would believe, and we would teach at the church, that there are degrees of punishment.

Would you agree with this statement?

We're really going to have to push it here.

I don't mean time, I mean our thinking.

Would you agree with this statement from Jonathan Edwards?

The longer sinners live, the more wrath they accumulate.

The longer sinners live, the more wrath they accumulate.

Every sin that is sinned against a holy God will be punished, yes?

I could push it this way if you want to be provocative in preaching.

True or false, God never forgives sin.

Well, you're like, well of course, so why would you say that?

In one way, God never forgives sin, He always punishes sin.

He does forgive sinners though, doesn't He?

He always judges sin, either on His Son or on people in hell.

But you say, but pastor, sometimes it says Jesus forgives sin, so I have to confess, that's true.

But as people earn more sin, they deserve more punishment.

After all, if someone kills one person or 500, are they going to be accountable for more?

Yes.

That is why Jonathan Edwards said, sinners in hell would give anything to turn the clock back and have

committed even one less sin.

So here's my question.

If people live longer and longer and longer and heap up more and

more sin, shouldn't that give us some gravity in our souls to say

those sweet little old ladies who are kind but who are not born again will suffer

much more than those who died at 21 years old and we better plead with them

and beg them to believe the gospel?

John Blanchard said in a book that you should all get called Whatever Happened to Hell, you need to read this book.

He said, if a sinner is to remain unconverted, the sooner he dies, the better.

Otherwise, every further sin he commits will make things that much worse for him in eternity.

It's frightening to think of.

Now, we don't kill sinners.

You know, if you don't believe by 20, we're going to kill you.

Well, that would be stupid because they could end up believing, yes?

Is hell good news at all?

What's the good news?

Could there be good news about hell?

Could anybody think here, is there anything that's good news about hell?

Anyone?

Is there any good news about hell?

I mean, everything in the Bible could be considered good news, I guess.

Yes, Scott?

Okay, great.

Yes?

Is there another hand back here?

God never compromises with sin, does he?

Hell is a stark reality of that very fact.

Now, what about people here?

I wonder if somebody here is not born again.

Could it be we'd have people that come on a Sunday night service that would not be born again?

You know what Spurgeon would say to you?

He would say that you are hanging over the mouth of hell by a solitary plank,

and that plank is rotten.

And Jonathan Edwards would say to you that every natural man that hears of hell flatters himself

that he shall escape it.

Everybody's got some kind of way out.

But I want to tell you that if you're not born again, unless you believe, you are going, because I want to be a faithful preacher.

Seth Reese said, I wouldn't pay a nickel to a preacher who did not preach on hell enough to keep my children afraid of going there.

We played sinners in the hands of an angry God through the speakers on Edwards' anniversary death or whatever, and

there was a kid in my study afterwards bawling his eyes out saying, I'm going to go to hell.

And I said, you need to cry out and ask God to save you and deliver you.

One person told me, you know, my kid acts up, but every time you talk about hell from the pulpit, they're good for the next few weeks.

Friends, hell is true.

Don't believe this second -chance view that, you know, there's a second chance for me later.

That's a lie.

Do not believe in universalism.

Everybody gets there.

Do not believe in annihilationism.

That you just kind of cease to exist like some animal.

The wicked wish that that were the case.

Do not believe in stupid objections like, a loving God would not send people to a

horrible hell.

If someone ever says that to you, what would you say?

A loving God would never send anybody to hell.

What would you say?

We don't?

That's right.

My response is, you're exactly right.

A loving God would never send anyone to hell.

But the God of the Bible is not just full of love.

He has righteousness and goodness and holiness.

And your God of love is a God of your own imagination because He doesn't exist.

God's wrath, D .A. Carson said, is not some kind of game we play

with.

What if somebody said this to you?

Hell is too severe of a punishment for man's sin.

I mean, after all, it's committed temporally, and now God, with some kind of

ogre -like revenge fashion, has to punish eternally for a sin committed in time.

How could that be right?

What would you say?

Gladman?

Good.

It's a sin that has infinite proportion because it's against an infinite God.

That's exactly right.

Friends, I want to make sure everyone here is afraid enough of hell to flee to the cross.

How foolish would it be to be like British actor Robert Morley, who when he died, he said, I want you to give me

some credit cards to be buried with me.

I could buy things later.

Or it just even gets more nonsensical when M .L. Evans of Chester said, you know, bury me with a

fire extinguisher in case there's fire in hell.

Or the man, Sir David Wilcox of Cambridge, he said, I want to be buried with a pair of earplugs because I can't stand

heavenly singing if they're going to be out of tune.

At least if they could say something like Maurice Godbold said, bury me with a

crowbar in case the affair proved premature.

That's a little bit better.

We at this church believe in hell.

And we believe in hell because for only one reason.

I could never believe it unless it was clearly taught in Scripture.

And it is.

And God says our souls are eternal.

We will never die.

And our souls are either going to be perfected by the righteousness of Christ and we

will spend eternity in heaven with God or our souls will not be perfected but

they will be sinful and God will be too pure to look upon any evil.

My challenge to you this week is pick three people that you know.

You might be married to them, you might have them as children or parents.

Three people that you know and I want you to pray that God would save them, comma,

and that God would give you enough boldness that you would be the instrument of proclaiming the

truth that would save them.

Three people.

I've been invited across the street tomorrow night by our neighbors

and they said, oh, you know what, you're in town by yourself and why don't you come over for dinner?

We'd love to have you come over for dinner.

I said I'd love to come and have dinner.

I hope I wasn't lying when I said I'd love to.

But the two lesbian ladies across the street have invited me over for dinner.

Here comes the pastor.

Now I don't want to walk in and go, have you ever heard of a Skolex?

I mean, but I want to tell them the truth.

She said, oh, I've driven by church before and seen a bunch of people and I didn't want to come in because you might convert me and I've already been a Catholic for many years.

And I looked at her and I said, Catholics aren't Christians.

She looked at me like, what?

Some Catholics can be Christians but not because of what the Pope teaches because the Pope teaches a false gospel.

And if you don't believe me, then you should listen to what the Pope said this week as he damned you all and said if you believe in

something besides the Roman Catholic Church, you're not going to heaven from the Pope's mouth this week.

So pick three people that you know and would you pray for their souls?

God saves people through prayer and through preaching but then have enough boldness to say I don't have the

heart, I don't want to offend, I'm a people pleaser, my neighbors are going to be mad at me and God just give

me the courage to speak for you.

I want to be bold.

I want to be courageous.

Jonathan Edwards said, imagine yourself to be cast into a fiery oven or into a great furnace where your pain

would be as much greater than that occasion by accidentally touching a coal of fire

as heat is greater.

Imagine also that your body were to lie there for a quarter of an hour all the while full of quicksands.

What a horror would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace.

After how long would that quarter of an hour seem to you?

And after you had endured it for one minute, how overbearing would it be to you to think that you had to endure it for another

14 minutes?

But what would be the effect on your soul if you knew that you must lie there enduring the torment to the full

of 24 hours?

How much vastly greater still if you knew you had to endure it for a thousand years?

Oh then, would your heart sink if you thought, if you knew that you must bear it forever and ever

that there would be no end?

That after millions of millions of ages your torment would be no nearer to an end than it ever

was and that you never, never would be delivered?

If you were not a true Christian, your torment in hell will be immensely greater than this illustration represents.

How then will the heart of a poor creature sink under it?

How utterly inexpressible and inconceivable must the sinking of the soul be in such a case?

Whoever you are, whether young or old, little or great, if you are in a Christless, unconverted state,

there is the wrath to which you are condemned waiting for you.

This is the wrath that abides on you.

This is the hell over which you hang and into which you are ready to drop every day and every night.

You may effectually escape these dreadful and awful torments, be entreated to flee and embrace Him who came into the world

for the very end of saving sinners from those torments.

And who has paid the whole debt due.

You are exposed to eternal punishment.

But there is a Savior provided who is able and who freely offers to save you from that punishment.

Justice is fully satisfied in Christ.

All who believe are accepted and justified in Him.

Therefore believe in Him.

Come to Him.

Commit your souls to Him to be saved by Him.

In Him you will be safe from the eternal torments of hell.

Nor is all that.

But through Him you shall inherit inconceivable blessedness and glory which will

be of eternal duration with the torments of hell.

For as at the last day the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, so shall the

righteous, or those who trust in Christ, go into eternal life.

Bow with me please.

Lord, I rejoice in the fact that you have saved this group of people tonight for the most part.

And as horrible as hell must be, so on the converse the beauties of heaven must be wonderful.

If the utter agony of hell is true, and it must be because your Son has talked about it, so too the

eternal bliss of heaven is wonderful.

And we anticipate that.

Lord, I pray for my conversation tonight with the ladies, that you would give me an opportunity to be bold and not a man

or woman pleaser.

That you would help me proclaim the riches of Christ Jesus, your Son, and how He forgives all kinds of sinners.

And Lord, I pray for each of these congregational members, that A, that they would be born again, and that you would not let one go

tonight without that eternal conviction in their soul, that they must be right with you, and that they would call upon the

name of the Lord and be saved.

Trust in Christ's life and death and resurrection as their only hope.

And Lord, for the family members of each of these, I know some have husbands and wives and children and

parents, and maybe ex -spouses who all need to know the Lord.

And I pray that tonight would be the night that you would give us a renewed zeal to pray for them, and to

evangelize them, and to just tell them the riches found in Christ Jesus.

Lord, we look back and we admire people like Jonathan Edwards.

And Father, I pray that that admiration would turn into imitation, and that we might be bold

ministers for the gospel.

In Jesus' name.