The Doctrine of Hell

There is a forgotten doctrine in many evangelical churches today.

I won't say it's completely forgotten. It's just not talked about a lot.

And it's almost some, so even the best of places at times, if they talk about it, they talk about it apologetically.

And I'm talking about this morning the doctrine of hell. The doctrine of the eternal conscious torment of the body and soul of the unbeliever.

Now, there are many reasons that we've lost this doctrine in places. And one reason may be that we live in a world of the here and now.

So if a video used to, YouTube videos, whatever, but now if it's longer than 15 seconds, nobody's going to watch it.

Sermons are short. Attention spans are short. And we are losing the capacity, even secular scientists and such would admit this, we're losing the capacity to think and to dwell upon the eternal.

I want you to turn in your Bibles please to Revelation 20. Of course, another reason for the loss of the doctrine of hell is that too many within the evangelical camp have a low view of God.

It's interesting because the evangelical camp was birthed out of a high view of God. And now so many have a low view of God.

And they have a high view of man. And they have a low view of sin.

And they have a low view of holiness. And they have a low view of justice.

Frankly, we do not have too many churches left in the land it seems whose primary enjoyment is

God. It's games. It's gimmicks.

It's life principles. Come here and we'll teach you life principles.

It's foolishness. It's flattery. And we have forgotten God. Listen, church.

Just because maybe we have forgotten God, don't let that fool you into thinking that God has forgotten

His justice. He will not. He will not forget sinners who reject

His name. And they will suffer under His holy retribution. So, I want us to recover the doctrine of hell.

And I hope to do that at least in part in this short message. Revelation 20, verse 11.

We are given to on Sunday mornings to stand in the honor of reading God's Word. So I ask you to stand and join us.

Revelation 20, verse 11. And I'm going to read down through 21. We obviously won't be able to cover all this, but consider this.

Verse 11, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it, and his eye fled away, and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the gates were opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

And he who was seated on it, death and Hades, gave up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged by the lake of fire.

This is the second death. The Lord's name was not found. He was thrown into the lake of fire.

And he saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first time the earth had passed away, and there was no more.

And he saw him coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And a loud voice from the throne saying, the dwelling of God is with man.

He will dwell with them. He will be with them as their

God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, no more mourning, no more crying, no more suffering, no more.

For the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.

Also he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

To the one who conquers will have this heritage. And he will be my

Lord and my

God forever and ever. As for the sexually immortal, which is the second death.

Father, help us today to understand this doctrine. To understand the reality of eternal conscious torment under your divine justice.

Help us to, as much as mortal men and women and boys and girls can, to appreciate the sobering reality, truth, and that it does not cause us to apologize for you.

It causes your beautiful holiness to shine all the more brightly. That if the world were to end today, that there are those in this room that hell would open up and receive them to the shouts of praise and worship of the church.

Help us to understand what this means. And even today, encourage the church to live in light of this doctrine and draw sinners to yourself.

You have done to save men. Place. And we pray it in Christ's name, amen.

Seated. I take very seriously our gathering at 10 .30. And so I am going to keep this message compact.

And may the Lord keep me moving along at a productive pace. But I want to do this morning.

You seven truths about the doctrine of hell. And I want you to consider these things.

Again, it's not my desire. I can't. Heaven, that's not possible.

But you do. The reality of the doctrine that we're going to discuss. And the church needs to understand this doctrine for two reasons

I'll just mention at the beginning. You need to understand this doctrine because it makes

God shine all the more beautifully. We don't have to apologize. Yeah, okay, yeah, there is a hell.

We don't have to whisper about it, right? Like hell is a reality because God is holy.

Because God is good. Because God is wonderful. Because God is beautiful. Hell exists.

And another reason that you should know this is because there are people that you know and that you love, your friends and your family, that their current trajectory in life is to go to this place.

And all you want to do is talk to them about the ballgame. And you want to talk to them about, gee, the weather's cold.

The turkeys are gobbling. And you don't want to tell them about Jesus. Consider these things as we begin.

Number one, God created hell. Number one, God created hell. In verse 15 it says, and if anyone's name was not found, 20, 15, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Now, there are several ways hell could be discussed in scripture, but when I say hell, just know in this sermon,

I'm referring to its context here as that final, eternal dwelling of the wicked, the lake that burns with fire.

And I will mention that when it comes to heaven and hell, much figurative language is used in scripture.

We don't deny that. But hear me on this. The language of heaven and hell is figurative because it lets us know two things.

One, heaven will be sweeter and better than even the language of the scriptures gives to us.

Like, it gives us this taste, this foretaste, and heaven's gonna be even better and greater and sweeter.

But hell will be even worse. So in Matthew 25, 41,

Jesus says that hell was created, prepared for the devil and his angels.

This is because the devil and his angels fell before man fell, but God made this place.

God created hell to punish Satan and his angels. By the way, just a side note,

Satan is not gonna rule hell. He's go to those hell houses or whatever they used to do and Satan was like laughing and like, ha ha, you're in my dominion.

No, he is going to burn in hell and be tormented there forever.

But along with Satan and his angels, verse 15 says, anyone's name not found written in the book of life.

And the point here is this. Hell exists because God made it, God created.

Secondly, all persons deserve hell. So in Revelation 21, verse eight, it says this, and this ought to get you thinking a little bit because I'm going to read this list and there is a sense, a definite sense in which the sins described in 21a have been in one way or another committed by every person in this room.

But as for the cowardly, right? Have you ever been cowardly when it comes to God?

The faithless, have you ever not had faith? The detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars?

Their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Why? Why will their portion be in the lake of fire?

Because it's what they deserve. It's, we say sometimes,

God doesn't owe me anything. And I have well -meaning people say that. The reality is God does owe all mankind something.

His retribution for their sins against him. For God to fail to punish sin would make him unjust.

Sin deserves punishment. Romans 131 describes sinners as foolish, faithless, disobey

God. You need to understand children, men, women in this room, can we understand this reality?

We forsake the worship of God. We neglect the word of God. We violate the commands of God.

God says things like this, do this, and we don't do it.

Don't do this, right? So do this, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We don't do it. Or don't do this. Don't murder. We do it, we're angry with our fellow man unrighteously in our hearts.

And we make excuses. God says don't do this, and we make excuses. We do it anyway. God says do this, we make excuses, and we don't do it.

In sum, we break God's holy and righteous law. And Benjamin Keech says this of those in hell.

For the wrong done to the holiness and justice of God, wrath feeds on them. Like a hungry man eats that which satisfies him not.

Because that's what they deserve. Never has a person lived besides our Lord Jesus who has not deserved hell.

And we deserve hell in such a way that for those in this room who go there, the reality is, in a room this size, if nothing were to change,

I hope everyone in this room would go to heaven, but if nothing were to change and you go to hell, well then,

William S. Abreckle writes, the godly will behold you with contempt and approve of your condemnation.

Why? Because hell is just. Thirdly, so God created hell.

All persons deserve hell. Thirdly, God cast people into hell.

So back in chapter 20, verse 14, it says then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

Just, I want you to think for a second. They were thrown into the lake of fire. So just let your mind be churning here.

Who threw them in the lake of fire? Okay, so death and Hades were thrown in the lake of fire and we're okay with that.

This is the second death, the lake of fire. If we stop there, we're like, okay, so death and stone. So God throws death into the lake of fire.

God throws Hades into the lake of fire. Okay, I'm okay with that. I can deal with that.

But verse 15 says, and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The same one throwing death and Hades into the lake of fire is the one throwing sinners into the lake of fire.

So the word thrown, it's used some 30 times in the book of Revelation.

I'll give you a couple of definitions of the Greek word here. To cause a state or condition with focus upon the suddenness or force of the action.

Here's another one. The powerful movement of throwing or propelling. So the idea here is death and Hades, earlier we didn't read it, but Satan and the beast and the false prophet.

And then people will be thrown violently, suddenly, forcefully, powerfully cast off into the lake of fire.

You sit in here this morning and people outside in the world today can sit out there and they can laugh now.

You can ignore now, you can pretend now, you can convince yourself. A lot of people in our area, because we live in the

Bible Belt, they believe in hell, but no one's going there. When's the last time you ever went to a funeral and people's like, yeah, he's in hell.

And no one goes to hell. Maybe Saddam Hussein, maybe Adolf Hitler. The hell's gonna have like seven people in it.

That's all that people think. They convince themselves they're not going. But on that day, there'll be no laughing.

You'll not be ready. You will not stand at the precipice of the abyss.

So, well, I'll just jump in. No, you will be thrown there.

And who will throw you there? God. Well, God doesn't send anybody to hell.

That's not in the Bible. God throws people in hell, according to our text, because it is just.

Because God is holy. You have been to funerals where the preacher has said that your friends and your loved ones, they are in heaven.

And we talk about, oh, they're in a better place. But the truth is, you will actually see some of these people thrown by God into hell because they deserve it.

There is no rest in peace for them. They're not in a better place. And should you die in the same condition, you too will be in that predicament.

And people, your friends and your family will say they're in a better place when you're only in torment.

Should you die in a state of unbelief, God will have no mercy on you.

The redeemed will not pity you. God will cast you into hell and the people of God will respond in worship.

Fourthly, God created hell, all persons deserve hell. God casts people into hell.

Fourthly, all persons in hell will be conscious. A couple of texts to mention,

Mark 9, 48. Jesus says hell is the place where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

In Luke 13, 28, he says that hell is the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is a lot, I understand, in a Sunday school hour that you need to process, but we've gotta process it.

I've had to process it as I'm just working through this message. This is a doctrine we must recover because it's in the

Bible. So if you go to hell, you will be conscious there.

There is no escape. The Puritans called your condition remedy -ly, remedy -ly -ness, without remedy, okay?

There is no remedy. You will be in eternal conscious torment, body and soul. Listen to what

John Bunyan says. What would a damned soul give that there might be, though after thousands and hundreds of thousands of millions of years, an end put to this eternal judgment?

But their misery is they have sinned against a God that is eternal.

They have offended that justice that will never be satisfied. And therefore, they must abide the fire that never will be quenched.

Here is judgment, just and sad. Those in hell will be conscious.

Your resurrected body will be tormented day and night in all five senses.

What you see, outer darkness. What you hear, screaming and rage and cursing and hatred.

What you smell, sulfur and burning flesh. What you taste, perhaps the blood of your own tongue as you're just so furious and gnawing and gnawing and gnawing and gnawing.

What you feel, bodily agony. But it's not just bodily torment in hell.

That would be hard enough. But there's also righteous torment of the soul.

What you need to understand is, I'll just mention them, four things, how the soul will be tormented in hell.

First, it'll be alone. Yes, hell will be full of people, but not in the sense that company helps you.

You will feel alone. Your darkness and anguish will be suffered alone.

There's no one that will reach over and grab your hand and say, we can just grit our teeth and endure this together.

We can do it. Let's huddle up together in our rage against God and we can just suffer this together.

You will be alone. You'll be angry.

Don't think that if you go to hell that you'll look at God and say, please have mercy on me. You'll look at God in rage.

That's why Jesus says there'll be gnashing of teeth. Your soul will be full of bitterness and hatred to God and his people and you'll even be angry at the other people around you in hell.

You'll be afraid, alone, angry, afraid. Have you ever been, I admit, for me, one of the darkest places sometimes can be a church sanctuary.

You turn out the lights, you're like, well, this feels alone and dark. Or you're out in the woods somewhere and it's dark.

Your flashlight goes out and you're like, I wanna get out of here. Okay, you'll have a terror that you can't escape from.

And then affliction. Daniel 12 too says, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

So in hell, the shame and the guilt of your soul will be felt forever without reprieve.

So today, people try to escape this. And they do, they drowned it with alcohol or they take drugs or they just live, you know, they just keep heart in their heart.

They just live in sexual morality and every time they feel a tinge of shame, they just turn up the music louder, you know, they just ignore and they're able to suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

But in hell, all of that shame and all of that guilt, it comes to the top and you can't ever get rid of it.

It's there forever. I don't want to belittle or lessen at all the lake of fire, but I'll give you an analogy because analogies help us.

So I imagine a Civil War battlefield and the medical tent in the midst of a raging battle in the

Civil War that's going on. You remember the technology and medical technology was really not good during that time.

And so you're in this battlefield and you're in this medical tent and the smoke and the smell, it just makes you want to vomit.

There's blood everywhere, guts everywhere. There's screaming everywhere. There's those who have been gut shot.

These grown men, men so tough, just moments before, tough and angry and battle -hardened.

And now they're screaming like a little girl because they need water because it hurts so much. This is all happening around you and there's people shrieking because their legs are being amputated and there are people, they just want to die rather than to endure the pain and the sights and the smells.

And hell is worse than that. It's worse.

The physical and spiritual agony of hell is worse. God created hell, all persons deserve hell.

God cast people into hell. All persons in hell will be conscious. Fifthly, go back to Revelation 14 for a second.

I'm gonna tell you something. I've had people get very angry at me about this before. So let's set this up.

I'm not even gonna tell you the point. I'm gonna read the text first. Revelation 14.

And then I'll tell you the point. And another angel, so I'm Revelation 14 verse nine.

And another angel, a third, followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the

Lamb. So here's the point. God's presence will be in hell.

And so you say, I'll go to hell and at least I'll get God off my back.

I'll go to hell and at least I'll get away from God. I pretended to love the church, but I couldn't stand those people.

At least in hell I'll get away from that God that they love so much.

No, you won't. Our God is a consuming fire. He's omnipresent.

That just means he's everywhere. You can't go to hell and escape him. All you will find in hell is the absence of his favor.

But you will endure the presence of his holy hatred against sin and sinners forever.

Sixthly, this is an obvious point. God created hell. All persons deserve hell.

God cast people into hell. All persons in hell will be conscious. God's presence will be in hell.

Sixthly, just a reminder, all persons will die. Every person in this room will die.

Revelation 20 says it this way. Just look at this. So in verse 12, and I saw the dead.

I'm back in Revelation 20. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

And then, of course, we remember places like Hebrews 9 .27 is appointed unto man to die once.

And after this, the judgment. But I just bring up this point as a reminder.

Your death is coming. So brother, I just wanna be encouraged. I just came here, I came early.

I came early to church today. I was excited about the revival services. I was excited about the preaching. I came here, and this is not very encouraging.

But I'm telling you, friend, you need this reminder because you cannot escape it. It's quite strange how little we contemplate our death.

You know, they say old is always 10 years older than you. So people are always, you know,

I meet people like, you know, they get up later in their years, and they're like, yeah, but I'm not old yet, right?

It's like, those people 10 years older than me, they're the old ones. And we have this idea in our mind, and my wife and I have been talking about this recently because we've been married almost 20 years.

And it's like, how did that happen, right? Like, what? Our kids, I have a, my oldest son is driving.

How did that happen? You just turn around, and all that happens. But you begin to live life in such a way that you just, you know, you never think that you're actually gonna die.

Yeah, people around you die. People your age, your own age die. People younger than you die.

Children die. But for some reason, you got it in your mind, yeah, maybe I'm gonna die. But you don't live that way.

You don't contemplate the reality that your death is coming. But I'm telling you this morning that death is a reality, and all persons will die.

And Matthew 25 says that all will stand before the throne. William S. Breckel says when death comes, your courage will depart readily.

So your faculties today, they're intact. You suppress the truth now.

You're courageous now. You feign courage now. You can deceive yourself now.

You're fine now. But when death comes, fear comes. I'm not talking about before you die.

You probably will be afraid. But once death happens, then fear and judgment looms.

And according to our text, it doesn't matter how you die. It doesn't matter where you die. It doesn't matter when you die because after death comes judgment.

Doesn't matter if you drowned in the sea. Doesn't matter if you shoot off into space and you just die out there and your body floats away.

It doesn't matter where it is that you die. No matter where you die, then judgment comes.

And then this happens. Every thought you've had, the books are open. Every thought you've had, every motivation you've had, every deed you've had.

People around our area walk around and they say this like it's good news. God knows my heart. Don't preach to me.

God knows my heart. That's why I'm preaching to you. God does know your heart.

And he knows everything about it. He knows every white lie.

Every time you've done something that you really had had the wrong motivation. Every secret lust.

Every private complaint. Every grudge that you've held. Every curse in your heart.

And each one of these things, along with all the outward things that you've done, are paraded before you and you'll be declared guilty and condemned forever.

All persons will die. That includes us. That includes me,

Pastor Jacob, Pastor Randall, Pastor Jonathan, every person in this room. Men, women, boys, girls will die.

Do we understand this reality? God created hell. All persons deserve hell.

God cast people into hell. All persons in hell will be conscious. God's presence will be in hell.

All persons will die. Finally, God will rescue you from this place.

God will rescue you from hell. But listen to me. Only on his terms.

So if you look at verse 15 of chapter 20, it says that if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

We're going to consider this book of life and we're going to get from there to the gospel. But there is a book of life.

It is written in time immortal. Names of specific persons that God chose in Christ by his own grace, his own absolute sovereign will, his own plan from eternity past, written down in this unchangeable book.

And some of you would listen to this this morning and say, I don't like that. I don't like that.

Okay, I'm going to be pastoral here, I think, but I'm just telling you this morning, it doesn't matter what you like.

It doesn't matter your preferences. I'm going to tell you this morning that this is God's way.

And God's way is good and God's way is just. And the judge of all the earth shall do right. Now, G .K.

Beal helps us to think about this book of life. Listen to what he says. The fuller title of the book of life is the book of life of the lamb who has been slain.

The life granted them in association with the book comes from their identification with the lamb's righteous deeds and especially with his death, which implies likewise that they are identified with his resurrection life.

They do not suffer judgment for their evil deeds because the lamb has already suffered it for them.

He was slain on their behalf. The lamb acknowledges before God all who are written in the book and who are identified with his righteousness and with his death.

So, you want to escape the lake of fire. There is only one way.

It's not your way. It's not my way. It's not the way of your parents or your grandparents. It's not the way of what the people around town might say when you're out there preaching and things are thrown out there.

Like, you're harassing. Go, go, go. God loves everybody or whatever. Just continue.

It doesn't matter what anyone thinks. Here's God's way. Christ. Christ alone.

The son of God took on human flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary.

Truly God, truly man. He lived a obedient life before God on behalf of his people.

Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And then he endured hell for sinners. No, no, no.

He didn't go to the place that we're talking about hell. He endured hell for sinners on the cross.

The wrath of God unleashed itself, as we heard the other night, upon Christ.

The wrath of God that we deserve with every breath fell upon the son as a substitute for sinners and he bore hell in our place.

This is why it matters that Jesus is God. Don't play around with the divinity of Jesus.

Only a perfect and infinite God could bear the sins, infinite sins of the people of God.

And then the lamb who was slain rose again from the dead and by his resurrection we may be justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, by and in and for Christ we may be spared the wrath to come.

But we must be born again. We must be born again by sovereign grace.

As it's been said, born once, die twice. Born twice, die once.

This is the way that God affects our regeneration. The heralding of the gospel.

So listen to me today. So I don't know, man, this is kind of alarming me and I think

I'm unconverted. I think I need to call upon the name of the Lord. What should I do? You should, you should repent.

You should come out, right, from Babylon. Come out from idolatry and cowardice and debauchery and murder and lying and complaining and begrudging and complacency and drunkenness and drugs and pornography and thievery and covetousness and Sabbath -breaking and selfishness and stupidity and foolishness.

Come out from it and repent and turn away from those things and turn to Christ. That's what you must do.

Don't play Christianity because hell is not a blight to God.

Hell is not, it's not a blight on his character. It's not, he isn't like apologetically, man,

I hate this. No, he displays his beautiful holiness and he does not play games.

So I say to the people in this room this morning, look to the son and live.

Don't complain about these doctrines in the Bible. Election, regeneration, sovereignty.

You just get mad, people get mad about these things. I don't wanna be known by a label in this place.

I wanna be known for Christ. But listen to me, these are the realities. I will not back down from what the

Bible says. And what you need to understand is just what the Bible proclaims to us.

So don't complain that God made one way. Rejoice that be astounded that God made a way at all for undeserving sinners.

And believe that this is the way. It is Christ, it is Christ, it is

Christ. Marvel, don't complain about sovereign grace. Marvel at it and go to Christ.

And God will not save you on any other terms. None. There is no negotiation.

Only by his gospel. He will not excuse your sin. He will execute your sin and you along with it for an eternity in hell if the blood does not intervene.

Will you be washed by the blood? Listen, how many in our day and even some in this room treat these matters so carelessly?

But there is nothing more precious in your life than your immortal soul.

Let me mention something. Revelation 21, eight says as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Here's what I wanna make a comment. These sins do not have to define you. They don't have to be who you are.

These sins can be who you were. Do you understand?

These can be who you used to be. These can be who you were in the past until you met

God in his grace and you were washed and you were clothed and you were sanctified in the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ. This can be, they can be no longer who you are. They can be who you were and who you are now is born again in Christ.

Now, an exhortation to the godly. Let me just say these two things. Godly people in this room, live in grace.

Live as one who has actually been snatched from the flames of fire. You've been snatched from that dark and terrible place that you deserve.

The world and the whoring of Babylon will be cast into this place, so stop playing with those things.

Live apart from those things. Those things are perishing, but the kingdom is unshakable, as you heard last night, and it is enduring.

Live for Christ and give it all to the church for the glory of his name. And secondly, let me just say this.

Plead with sinners. Why is so much of our time spent on frivolousness?

Warn sinners. You can't change their hearts, but you can warn them, you can plow, you can plant, you can keep knocking on doors, and you say, yeah,

I've talked to that person 10 ,185 times, and they just refuse.

Okay, what about 10 ,186? And God saves them. So keep going.

And I close with this, just a final appeal. And I think it's a helpful quote from John Bunyan.

He wrote this in his autobiography. Grace abounding to the chief of sinners. I'm gonna say this quote,

I'm gonna pray and we'll be done, and we'll take about a 10, 12 minute break.

And if you wanna talk to me or Pastor Jacob or one of the pastors in this room, do so. If you need

Christ, call upon him. So here's the quote. Will thou leave thy sins and go to heaven?

Or have thy sins and go to hell?

That's the choice I lay before you. Father, I thank you for your word, and we deal with a serious and sobering doctrine.

And I pray that you would use this to edify the church, shake us out of complacency.

I pray today that for a lost man or woman or boy or girl would contemplate the reality of such an awful and terrible judgment, but also see that the way of salvation today is upon them.

If they would just look to Christ, repent and believe the gospel, you are mighty to save them.

And so I pray even today that your Holy Spirit would work for the glory of God.