Jesus Believes in Hell

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5 and hold your place at verse 29.
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Over the past few weeks and months, we have been examining the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in His most famous message called the Sermon on the Mount.
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And we have gotten through verse 32, but I actually want this morning to backtrack just a tad.
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Because I want to address a subject which Jesus has alluded to in the verses that we have read already, but yet I have been unable to cover because of a lack of time.
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I feel like it is an important subject.
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I feel like to overlook it would be a disservice to the word and it would be a disservice to the congregation.
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So we are going to look at this subject now.
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It is a subject which I readily admit is not one that is enjoyable to preach.
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It is one that the vast majority of people in the world reject, including many who would call themselves Christians.
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It is a subject which many preachers have chosen in our modern day to not even address because of the very notion that it is too difficult for people to consider.
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And the repercussions of preaching such a sermon would be too great.
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But yet we are going to deal with it this morning.
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I feel as if Satan is not happy with the message this morning.
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From the time I got here it seems like there have been things piling on to dissuade me from preaching with an encouraged heart this morning.
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But you know what? We don't care.
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We are going to preach it anyway.
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So with that being said, we are going to talk this morning about the subject of hell.
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Let's stand together and read the word of God.
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Matthew 5, verses 29 and 30.
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If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.
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For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell.
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And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.
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For it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell.
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Our Father and our God, we thank you for this opportunity to hear your word.
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Even on a subject as unpleasant as the one we are going to discuss.
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I pray oh God that you would embolden me to preach the truth.
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That you would keep me from error.
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And that you would use this message to save souls.
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For Lord, we want people to know the truth of their condition.
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We want people to know the truth of the reality of hell.
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Because it is very real.
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And we thank you for this opportunity to share with everyone in this congregation.
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The reality they are in.
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We thank you for Christ.
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We thank you for His salvation.
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And we thank you that only in Him can one know that they are saved from this eternal consequence.
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And it is in His name we pray.
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Amen.
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It is an interesting statistic.
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And an interesting reality.
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That a much higher percentage of the world believes in the existence of heaven.
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Than do believe in the existence of hell.
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Yet according to the Bible, hell is just as real.
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The Bible clearly and explicitly teaches that hell is a real place to which real people will go.
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Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul, one of my favorite pastors and theologians had this to say.
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He said hell is so unpopular with us that few would give credence to it at all.
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Except that it comes to us from the teaching of Christ Himself.
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The problem many people have about hell.
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Is not that some people go there.
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Because I think most of us can imagine some evil folks.
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Who we at least on an intellectual level could imagine deserving hell.
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Maybe Adolf Hitler for his atrocious killing of 6 million Jews and then millions of others.
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Maybe the Emperor Nero who would use people as light lanterns for his garden.
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He would literally light people on fire to keep his garden alit.
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And many others and you could name after name after name of people who just performed all kinds of atrocities.
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And you could say yeah I could see why hell would exist for a guy like that.
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What challenges many people.
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And even causes some to reject the idea of hell.
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Is the biblical proposition that the majority of the people in the world are going to spend eternity there.
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That's what causes the intellectual hurdle which many people are unwilling to leap over.
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In fact the Bible teaches a lot about hell.
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But one of the things that's most difficult about it is that relatively nice and basically moral people will be there.
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And I know many people who have rejected Christianity on that claim alone.
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That no matter what else is claimed by Christianity.
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The reality that basically moral people and relatively nice people.
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Sweet old men, sweet old ladies will be there.
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I know a man who left his upbringing.
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I would argue that the church he was brought up in was not a theologically sound church.
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But that is beside the point.
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The point is when he grew up he was so concerned about the doctrine of hell.
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He was so opposed to it that he abandoned his Christian faith.
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And instead became a Jehovah's Witness.
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Because in the Jehovah's Witness movement they have decided that hell does not exist.
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And so for him that was a pleasing alternative to the concept of what the Bible teaches about the eternal condition of the damned.
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Years ago a man named Rob Bell.
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I don't know if you're familiar with Rob Bell.
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He's one of the modern popular preachers.
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A lot of churches have had him in.
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He's what you might call an emergent preacher.
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If you've ever heard of emergent theology or emergent Christianity.
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It's a modern sort of generation.
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X, Y, or Z or whichever one we're on now.
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Stylistically charged minister.
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And he wrote a book.
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Rob Bell's book was called Love Wins.
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And he challenged the common Christian doctrine.
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Specifically the doctrine of hell.
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He argued in Love Wins that in the end everyone will be saved because of God's love.
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And while it was almost universally rejected by conservative biblical scholars.
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Including myself.
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It received rave reviews from audiences because it removed the reality that God will ultimately punish sins.
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And that's what most people want to hear.
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God's not going to punish us.
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He's going to love us to death.
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And He's going to love us in the hereafter.
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Love, love, love.
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God is love.
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That's all people want to hear.
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They don't want to hear about His wrath.
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And as a result, a book like Love Wins is a best seller.
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Oprah Winfrey read the book.
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Brought Rob Bell onto her show.
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And put him on her spiritual A-team.
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That's a list I don't think I will ever make.
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But it is obvious that many people would rather have a system of faith.
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Wherein the idea of eternal punishment is non-existent.
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It's easier for them.
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It's easier emotionally.
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It's easier intellectually.
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And it's easier in regard to discipline.
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Because what really is the concern if there's no punishment? That we be disciplined.
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For the biblical Christian, however, this is not an option.
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The Bible teaches the truth of hell.
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Jesus Christ is so convinced of its existence that He speaks of it more than any other single individual in the Bible.
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More than the Apostle Paul.
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More than Moses.
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More than any of the prophets.
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Jesus speaks of hell more than anyone.
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In fact, to deny the existence of hell is to deny the ability of Jesus Christ to properly communicate eternal truths.
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I say that again.
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To deny the existence of hell is to deny the ability of Jesus Christ to properly communicate eternal truths.
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What we're saying is Christ just didn't know how to say it.
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He didn't know how to explain it.
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He didn't know how to communicate it.
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He was wrong.
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We've already seen that He mentions hell twice in the verses we listed here.
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In fact, in verse 29 and 30, I've already explained about the cutting off of the hand and the cutting out of the eye.
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And how this is not an argument for self-mutilation.
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But rather it is an argument about we need to cut off those things in our life which would tempt us to sin.
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I've spent time in a previous sermon dealing with that.
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But I wanted to point out the fact that Jesus has here mentioned hell twice.
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And He mentioned hell one time even prior to this.
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Up in verse 22.
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He says, anyone who says you fool will be liable to hell fire.
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So here in the Sermon on the Mount, we are not even into the first chapter completely.
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And He has already mentioned hell three times.
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Hell is a biblical reality.
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But many people do not understand what the Bible teaches about it.
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They have instead allowed their understandings to be skewed.
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By books.
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By popular media.
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By television.
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Movies.
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And all kinds of other ways.
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I speak to people often.
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And their ideas of eternal punishment and eternal reward.
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Heaven and hell are so skewed.
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They have a TBN.
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Not a TBN, that's a Christian station.
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And it's wrong too.
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But they have like a TNT version of hell.
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They have a television, movie style version of hell.
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They have Dante's Inferno as their vision of hell.
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They don't have a biblical view of hell.
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So this morning, we're going to look at three questions on this subject.
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We're going to ask these three questions.
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If you're writing notes, these would be the three major headings.
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What is hell? Why does hell exist? And who are going to be in hell? What is hell? Why does it exist? And who is going there? That's our three questions.
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I think those three questions sum up.
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It gives a summation to what most people want to know when they talk about this subject.
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So let's begin with the first question.
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What is hell? Well, the word hell, or one of its derivations, is mentioned 167 times in the Bible.
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Mentioned more than heaven, coincidentally.
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Mentioned in one of its derivations more than 167 times.
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The word that we normally associate with hell in the Bible, of a burning hell, is the Greek word Gehenna.
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This is actually a place in Jerusalem.
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It's south of Jerusalem, called the Valley of Hinnom, or the Valley of Gehenna.
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Gehenna is the English transliteration of the Greek form of an Aramaic word, which is derived from the Hebrew phrase, Valley of the Sons of Hinnom.
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In one of their greatest apostasies, the Jews, under King Ahaz and Manasseh, passed their children through the fires in sacrifice to the god Molech in that valley.
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The valley was known as the place where child sacrifice was made to the false gods.
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And eventually, it became a place of refuse.
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It was ritualistically unclean, so it became the garbage dump of Jerusalem.
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They would cast the bodies of criminals there, so that they would burn up, because there was always a burning underneath, burning hot coals, because there was always more trash to put on it, and it would create more fuel for the fire, and the fire would burn and burn continuously.
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I can't imagine the stench, the odor, of what a place like Gehenna would have been like.
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The flames, the steam of death.
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It was a place where things were thrown away.
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It was a place where things were thrown to be put away, so we wouldn't think about them anymore, just throw those things away.
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It was an ancient world trash dump.
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A place of constant fire, and a miserable place.
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So when the word Gehenna is used, it's talking about a place that's real.
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It's talking about a place that people in Jesus' time could have walked out and looked at.
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They could have seen this.
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They wouldn't have had to have a mental picture.
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They could go out and have a visual.
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This is a picture of hell.
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This is what it appears to be.
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A horrific place of constant burning that Jesus used as His example of what the eternal state of the wicked would be like.
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This is what you need to look at, people.
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This is what you need to see with your eyes.
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You need to see that this place, which is a physical place, this place is likened unto that place which those who die in their sins will go.
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It is described by Christ and throughout the Bible over and over and over as a horrific place.
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Matthew 25.41 says it is an eternal fire.
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Matthew 3.12 says it is an unquenchable fire.
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Mark 9 says it is a place where the fire is not quenched.
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Luke 16 says it is a place of torment and fire.
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Revelation 14 says it is a place where the smoke of torment rises forever and ever.
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Revelation 20 says it is a lake of burning sulfur where the wicked are tormented day and night, forever and ever, no rest, forever.
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The fire is synonymous with hell.
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Some people ask, well, Pastor, is this literal or symbolic language? I like what Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul said about this, and I know I've quoted him already a few times.
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He is one of my favorite authors, and on this subject I think he has a lot to say, and he said this.
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He says, if the biblical descriptions of hell are symbols, then the reality is worse than the symbol.
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If the biblical description is simply a symbol, then the reality is worse.
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So if you're reasoning it by saying, well, it's just symbolic, in some way trying to assuage the idea that maybe it's not so bad, it's worse.
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It's worse than you can imagine.
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It's worse than anyone can imagine.
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It is a torturous and eternally conscious existence.
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And this leads me to an important point, because there is a view which people hold.
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It's held by the Jehovah Witnesses, and it is also held in some Christian denominations.
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And I want to address it, because I do believe that it is false, and that is the doctrine called annihilationism.
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Annihilationism basically is the view that when a person dies apart from Christ, when a person dies in their sin, their spirit simply ceases to exist.
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There is no eternal conscious punishment.
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The punishment they receive is being wiped away from existence.
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They simply are annihilated, and they go away.
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They are extinguished from eternity.
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And for some, that placates the concern.
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Well, it's bad, but it's not so bad.
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At least they're not suffering.
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They just go away.
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There are two popular points of view when it comes to annihilationism.
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There's immediate annihilationism, and that is when a person dies, they simply cease to be.
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From then on, no more.
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And then there's eventual annihilationism, which says this, God will rise everyone up at judgment, He will separate the wicked from the righteous, and He will take the wicked, and He will cast them into the lake of fire, and at that moment, they will be extinguished and annihilated.
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So, that's the two views.
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One is annihilation happens at death.
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Two, annihilation happens at judgment.
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But that's the two popular annihilationist views.
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That one of those things is going to happen.
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And the proponents of this view often argue that it would be unjust for God to eternally punish someone who only sinned for a limited time.
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I mean, we all have a limited time, right? Some of us live very long lives.
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Some of us live short lives.
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But it's all limited.
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I mean, the longest life, what, the guy lived 115 years, maybe 120? That's a long, long life.
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And back at the time, even back to the time of the biblical times, when people lived a little longer, you know, 120 years was about the longest, unless you go pre-Noahic time, and then you have guys who are living into the hundreds of years.
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But even then, it's limited.
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It's only a limited amount of time.
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No matter how long, there's a stopping point.
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And some people say, well, it's unjust for God to punish someone eternally for something that they only did for a limited time.
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So I want to address that as an issue.
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I want to respond to that, in case that may be what you're thinking.
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The first thing we need to understand is that God is never unjust.
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Everything He does is just.
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He is the Creator of law.
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And there is no law above Him which He has to meet.
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There's no standard of goodness which God is trying to rise up to.
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God is the standard.
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Whatever He does, when He does something, law is created.
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He is not bound by our feelings of fairness.
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He is not bound by our sense of propriety.
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He is God, and there is no other.
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He is God, and there is none like and unto Him.
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Isaiah 45 says that.
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He is the Lord.
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So to say that He is unjust in anything that He does makes a mockery of our understanding of who He is and who we are.
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Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? The Apostle Paul says.
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So first of all, before we ever claim that God is unjust, we need to address first who we are.
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Who are we to say God is unjust? That's the first thing.
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But the second thing is that while our sinful lives are temporary, we sin against an eternal God.
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We sin against a God whose offense is eternal.
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He is holy.
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He is absolutely holy.
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And when we sin, we sin against the eternal, holy God of the universe.
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How can we say such a thing is not an eternal crime? Furthermore, Dr.
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James White makes this point when he was asked the question, how is it fair for God to punish someone eternally for a temporary crime? He made this point, and I thought it was a very good one.
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He says, why do you think people will stop hating God while they're in hell? Their hatred of God will continue forever, and thus their right punishment will continue forever.
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I always thought that was kind of interesting to think about.
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Their hatred will continue in the flames forever.
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Thus, too, their worthiness of punishment will continue forever.
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Probably the most convincing...
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Oh, by the way, I'm used to seeing smiles.
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None this morning, just so you know.
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I normally see a little bit of head bobbing, a little bit of smile.
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No.
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Nobody's happy today.
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That's okay.
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Probably the most convincing argument for the eternal nature of hell, in opposition to annihilationism, is on a linguistic basis.
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Purely language.
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One thing we need to understand.
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I'm teaching a Bible study right now to our children in our Wednesday afternoon class.
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I'm teaching them a series on how to study the Bible.
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And one of the things that I keep reiterating to our students is this.
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The Bible is not a magical book.
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It was written to us in a language that is meant to be understood according to the rules of grammar and logic.
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It wasn't meant to be somehow magically figured out.
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We don't need a Bible code.
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We don't need a Little Orphan Annie decoder pin that we can put here and figure out.
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We don't need to add up the number of chapters and divide it by two and then times it times three to come up with some special magic thing.
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It's grammar.
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It's syntax.
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It's language.
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We can understand what it means.
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Now, to spiritually receive it takes a work of God.
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For us to believe it and to conform to it, that takes an act of God.
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But language is language.
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It's not magic.
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So when I say the issue of hell, the eternality of hell can be argued from a purely linguistic basis, I'm telling you that if we believe what the Bible says and we trust that language works, then there's no arguing.
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The debate is over.
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And I'll tell you why.
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If we believe that hell is not eternal, then we have to believe heaven is not eternal.
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Because the exact same word to describe the eternal nature of heaven is used to describe the eternal nature of hell.
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Daniel 12, verse 2, And many who were asleep in the dust of the earth shall wake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
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The same Hebrew word is used in the same context, in the same sentence, to describe everlasting life and everlasting contempt.
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You can't say one means everlasting and the other one means...
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Well, sort of, kind of, maybe.
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Not linguistically.
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You can argue it emotionally, you can argue it maybe philosophically, but you can't argue linguistically.
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Same thing for the Greek.
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Matthew 25 and 46.
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And these, these being the wicked, will go away into eternal punishment, and the righteous into eternal life.
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The Greek word there is the same word in both.
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It's the same context in both.
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If you want to argue that hell is not eternal, then you have to concede the possibility that heaven is not eternal.
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And I don't think anyone would do that.
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So, again, from a purely linguistic standpoint, if we believe in the eternality of heaven, we have to believe in the eternality of hell.
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It's what the Bible teaches.
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If you don't believe that, I'm sorry, but this morning you're in opposition to Scripture.
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That doesn't mean I don't love you.
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It doesn't mean that you're not a Christian.
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But it does mean on this issue you have not yet arrived at what the Bible teaches.
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You are still in opposition to what it teaches.
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And I understand the emotional hurdle.
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I understand the intellectual hurdle.
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Hell is scary.
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Yeah, but I can't argue with what it says.
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So what is hell? What does the Bible say hell is? Some people try to soften hell.
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Some people, I've heard this, and if you've said this, know that I'm not challenging you, and I'm not trying to step all over you and make you feel bad.
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But there are some people who say this, and I just want to encourage you to change your language this morning.
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There are people who say, hell is separation from God.
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Here's what you need to understand about that.
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Number one, that's not a big deal for people who live their whole life separated from God.
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If that's what you're trying to explain to somebody hell is, this person's already living their life separated from God.
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They're living in sin.
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They're living in the world.
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They're living according to the lust of the flesh.
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And you tell them they're going to spend eternally separated from God.
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They're going to say, so what? Who cares? I'm already separated from God.
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Why do I care? So one, it doesn't have the force that the biblical text describes to hell.
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And two, it ain't true.
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Hell is not separated from God.
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Hell is being the very object of God's wrath forever.
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Ooh, that's different.
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It's not separated from God.
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It is the object of His eternal wrath forever and ever and ever and ever.
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That's not separated.
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That's right in the center of the only attention that you will ever get at that point.
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And that is wrath.
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You will be forever separated from His grace.
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You will be forever separated from His love, His mercy, His kindness, His goodness, His desire to conform you.
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All of that will be gone, but not His presence.
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Because His presence and wrath will be there forever.
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So I encourage you to change your language.
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If that's how you try to soften hell, if that's how you try to explain hell to people, I encourage you to come to a biblical understanding so that you will have a biblical explanation, because that ain't it.
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All right.
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If I had a little dial of popularity, it would slowly be going like this.
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This is not popular stuff, but it's important.
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So we said, what is hell? Hell is a horribly torturous, eternally conscious existence.
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That's my definition.
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Horribly torturous, eternally conscious existence.
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That's the only way I know to describe it.
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I think that's the biblical description, and it's simple.
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But that's the way the Bible describes it.
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Now, the second question is this.
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Why does hell exist? Why does hell exist? Well, I think this is something that's often misunderstood.
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Many people view hell through the distorted lens of popular entertainment, as I mentioned earlier.
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And one of the most common misconceptions about hell is that hell is Satan's home.
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Hell is where Satan is the Lord.
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God is the Lord of heaven.
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Satan is the Lord of hell.
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This is Greek mythology.
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You have the God Zeus, who is the God of heaven.
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You have the God Hades, who is the God of hell.
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And that's how most people view the Christian view of heaven and hell.
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And that is wrong.
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That was how it was portrayed in the Divine Comedy, written by Dante Agliari, the epic poem of the 14th century.
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Most of us are familiar with Dante's Inferno and those things.
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It was Dante's Divine Comedy, where he talked about the seven circles of hell, and everyone gets a little worse each time, until you get finally to where Satan is, and that's where he's Lord and Master of hell.
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I used to participate with a local church in something called Judgment House.
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The Dutton's remember that.
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How was hell portrayed? Satan was in charge.
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He came in and he was ornery because he wasn't getting enough souls.
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I played Satan one year, so I know.
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I did.
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This was during a time in my life.
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I'll just share this with you.
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A couple of years later, I did it again, and I got to play another role, and I ended up changing some of the lines, because the theology was so wrong.
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I said, I'm not saying this.
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So I changed it.
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You know what I'm talking about.
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There was some stuff in there, just straight up unbiblical stuff, and one of the ones that was so bad was, Satan is not in charge of hell.
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Satan is not the ruler of hell.
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He is not even in hell yet.
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But one day he will be its prisoner.
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The Bible says Satan's in this world.
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He's part of the world system.
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He's part of what people always ask me, if I believe in conspiracy theories.
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Yeah, I do.
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I believe there's one great conspirator, and he is the devil.
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And he is always conspiring against the righteous.
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That's his role in this world.
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And one day, he will be sent to the eternal flames of hell.
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That's why I don't think he wants to hear a message like this.
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This reminds him of where he's going.
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Matthew 25, verse 41, Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
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That's what hell exists for.
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Exists as a place of punishment for those who would rebel against God.
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The original rebel was Satan himself.
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But he was not alone.
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He captivated the minds of a third of the angelic beings, and he is responsible for tempting the fall of the human race as well.
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Hell does not exist as a place for Satan to rule.
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Hell exists as a place for Satan and his followers, whether they be active followers or passive followers, to be punished.
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That's why it exists.
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And this is what it says in the book of Revelation.
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Chapter 20, verse 10, And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire in Sulphur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
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There's another passage which can't simply be argued with linguistically as far as eternality.
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Forever and ever is forever.
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Also in chapter 20, verse 11, it says, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it.
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This is Christ sitting on the great white throne.
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And from His presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
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And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened.
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Then another book was opened, which was the book of life.
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And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.
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And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.
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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.
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Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
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This is the second death, the lake of fire.
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And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
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Three times in a row, the term lake of fire is used.
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Lake of fire, lake of fire, lake of fire.
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This is the same place that in verse 10 it says that Satan is thrown and will be there and torment forever and ever.
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So what is hell? Hell is an eternally conscious, torturous existence.
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And why does hell exist? It exists for Satan and those who follow in his rebellion.
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That's why it exists.
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God is a holy God, and He will not allow His holiness to be trampled upon without retribution.
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That is the truth.
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That is what the Bible teaches.
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So the last question, and I would argue probably the one that is the most powerful question that anyone can ask.
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Well, who's going? Who's going to be there? And this is the most sobering question of all.
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As I noted earlier, there are a lot of people who we would probably all gather together and be somewhat pleased to see get their just rewards.
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Nero and Hitler and all kinds of other evil people.
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But it gets a little bit more difficult when we start to realize that of the 7 billion people in the world right now, that's where we're at.
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We're tipping the scales over 7 billion.
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That the vast majority of them are lost.
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Dead in trespasses and sins and worthy of hell.
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How can you say they're worthy of hell, Pastor? The Bible says that God has written His law on our heart.
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The Bible also says that we by nature rebel against that law.
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That we by nature reject His commandments.
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That we reject what He has called us to be and to do.
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And yet, His holiness, His love, and His mercy sent a Savior and people spit in His face.
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People reject the Savior.
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By nature, everyone rejects Him.
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If you don't think that's true, go share with someone about sin and the need for a Savior and see how quickly people have a tendency to simply reject wholeheartedly.
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Number one, that their sinner is worthy of hell.
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They don't want to hear that.
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And number two, that Christ is the Savior.
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The vast majority of the people in this world, shop owners, school teachers, bus drivers, businessmen, politicians, politicians, preachers, all! There's worthiness.
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We are not worthy to be objects of God's grace.
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If we were, it wouldn't be grace.
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We are only worthy of being objects of His wrath because we have sinned.
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We have done what is offensive in His sight.
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He is God and we are not.
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And yet, we spit in His face as if to say we should be in your place.
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Hell will respect no earthly accolade.
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Hell will respect no earthly position.
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There is no award.
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There is no certificate.
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There is no position, no matter how great, that will save a person from the fires of hell.
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And I believe it's really not the existence of hell that bothers most people, but it's the amount of people that are going to fill it up that bothers most people.
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Jesus said these words in Matthew 7.
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I'll be preaching on these in the months to come.
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Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.
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And those who enter by it are many, for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life.
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And those who find it are few.
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Beloved, the picture is so mind-boggling.
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There's a painting I've seen.
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I don't know who painted it or where it came from, but there's a painting of this massive overpass.
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And it's got what looks like millions of people.
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Obviously, it's not.
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It's a painting.
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But you can just see the people just piling onto this overpass.
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Just pulling over each other to get onto this overpass.
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And at the end of the overpass, you can just see it in the painting, it drops off into the lake of fire.
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And there's one little road with a cross.
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And there's one or two people on the path.
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If this doesn't frighten us, then we don't believe it.
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If it doesn't frighten us, then we don't believe it.
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I'm not afraid of UFOs.
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I'm not afraid of Loch Ness Monster.
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I'm not afraid of Bigfoot or the Boogeyman because I don't believe any of those exist.
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But I tell you what, I'm scared to death of hell because I believe it exists.
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Some would say that the only reason the Bible addresses hell and the only reason I would preach a sermon like this is because I'm trying to scare people into belief.
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Let me respond to that with the words of Jonathan Edwards.
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Jonathan Edwards, by the way, preached a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
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And if you've never heard that sermon, I have it on audio.
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I would love for you to hear it.
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I actually preached it from this pulpit once.
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I just read straight through it because it is such a massively powerful message.
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And this is what he said about that.
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He said, Some talk of it as an unreasonable thing to fright persons to heaven, but I think it is a reasonable thing to endeavor to fright persons away from hell.
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They stand upon its brink and are just ready to fall into it and are senseless of its danger.
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Is it not a reasonable thing to fright a person out of a house which is on fire? If any of you were in a house this morning and the house was on fire, and I came to you and I said, Get out of the house! Would you challenge me and say, You're just trying to scare me? You're just out there trying to be all emotional.
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No, you would appreciate the warning.
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But yet, the world does not appreciate the warning.
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They mock the warning.
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They challenge the warning.
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They repudiate the warning because they don't smell the burning coals.
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The most important question we can ask is not who are going to hell, rather the most important question we can ask is this, Why? Why do people go to hell? And I want to say something this morning which I expect you might not be able to grasp right away, but I hope that you will listen to me because the next few minutes are very important.
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Why do people go to hell? I have heard people say that the reason people go to hell is because they reject Jesus Christ as their Savior.
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Listen to me, because if you misunderstand what I'm going to say, you will misunderstand everything.
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Let me say this again.
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I have heard people say that the reason people go to hell is because they reject Jesus Christ as their Savior.
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That is not the case.
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People go to hell because they are sinners.
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People go to hell because they have offended a holy God and they deserve punishment.
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That is why people go to hell.
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How do I know that? Because there are people who have never heard of Jesus Christ who will still go to hell.
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They are not going to hell because they have rejected Jesus.
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They are going to hell because they are sinners.
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Even if they have never read the Bible.
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Even if they have never heard of Jesus.
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Scripture tells us that they have enough light in and of themselves.
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They have enough light within them to know that God exists.
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The heavens declare the glory of God.
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They have enough in them to know that they have offended the holy God.
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They have enough in them to know that they have rejected His call on their life, His requirements on their life, and their punishment is just.
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The apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 1, no one will be able to say on that day that their punishment is unjust.
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The reason people go to hell is because the judge of the universe has judged them guilty of breaking His law.
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Now, the only way a person can be saved is through Christ.
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This is why people get confused over the logic.
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They say, well, people go to hell because they reject Jesus.
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No, people go to hell because they are sinners.
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The only way to be saved from that sin is through Christ.
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Some people believe that, well, if you never hear about Jesus, then God will give you another way of salvation.
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If that's true, why do we send missionaries? If God's going to give another way to people who don't hear Jesus, why do we want to tell people about Jesus? Seriously.
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Why would we bring the missionaries home if ignorance will save them? Don't tell them.
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Right? If ignorance is all you need, don't share the...
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Just keep it right here.
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It will be between us.
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That's ignorant.
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That's wrong.
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There is no salvation outside of Christ.
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That is biblical Christianity.
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I am the way and the truth and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.
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It is biblical Christianity.
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It is not popular.
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It will not make Oprah's Top Ten.
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It will not make the Spiritual 18.
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It will not make it into the pulpit of Joel Osteen.
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But it is the truth! And thus it must be taught.
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People are condemned by their sin.
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Now, don't misunderstand me.
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Rejecting Christ is sin.
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If a person hears about Christ and rejects the Gospel, rejects the message, they reject the only way of salvation, then yes, that's a sin.
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But it's just piling on to all of their sin.
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And it's compounding the problem which already exists.
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It would be like a person drowning in the ocean and seeing a life ring within reach, and yet turning from the life ring and sinking into the water and drowning.
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You would say, well, it was the rejection of the life ring that killed them.
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No, it was the water that killed them.
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They rejected the only thing that could have saved them.
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Somebody asked this question, and it may be on your heart, so I'll finish with this question.
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Somebody says, well, wait a minute, Pastor.
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How can you say people go to hell because of their sin? Didn't Jesus die on the cross for everybody's sin? Didn't Jesus already pay for everybody's sin? This is a clear miscommunication of what the Bible teaches, and it is a modern misrepresentation of the Word of God.
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And let me clear up something very important for you.
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The work of Jesus Christ on the cross was not done indiscriminately.
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The work of Jesus Christ on the cross was for a very specific people known as His church.
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He said, I am the Good Shepherd.
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I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep.
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I lay down My life for the sheep.
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Christ's atonement applies to His followers.
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Those who go to hell experience not the atonement of Christ.
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Christ's sheep are the recipients of His saving work.
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Those outside of Christ are like those who are outside of the ark.
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Those who are in Christ are those who are in the ark with Noah.
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Outside the wrath of God is crushing everything, but inside the ark is safety.
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So too, those who are outside of Christ will be crushed by the weight of the wrath of God, and those who are in Christ will be saved by His work on the cross.
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And this leads to a powerful and final question for you to consider, every one of you, every one of us has to consider this question.
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How do I know if I am a recipient of that atonement? How do I know that I am an object of God's affection rather than an object of His wrath? The answer is incredibly simple.
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Sola Fide.
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By faith alone.
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We cannot work for, neither can we earn the atonement of Christ.
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All we can do is recognize our sin, repent and trust in the Savior by faith.
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Christ stands ready to save from hell anyone who will trust in Him.
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That is not something that should be hard for even Reformed theology people to say.
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Christ will save all who trust in Him.
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The natural heart rejects Christ.
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That is why God has to convert the heart.
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But Christ will save all who believe.
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Instead of rejecting Him, run to Him.
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Romans 10, verse 9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
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For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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Beloved, that is a truth of truths.
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God loved the world so much that He gave a Savior.
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And everyone who believes in that Savior will receive no condemnation from God.
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If I could summarize today's message, I would do so like this.
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Hell is real.
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Hell is terrible.
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And hell is certain for those who are outside of Christ.
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And I challenge you, I challenge every one of you, every one of you, to ask yourself, am I today outside of Christ? Let us pray.
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Our Father and our God, we come to You in Jesus' name.
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Father, we are moved emotionally by the reality of hell.
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If we are not, we don't believe it.
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And Father, I pray.
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I pray for every person in this room.
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I pray that there would not be a single person in this room that would be comforted by their own flesh today.
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I pray that the only comfort that anyone would find in this room from the reality of hell is the comfort of knowing Christ.
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For to be outside of Christ is to be outside of any saving grace.
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And Lord, no one here would ever have an excuse that they have not heard the Gospel.
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No one here would ever have an excuse that they have not heard the truth.
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We will all face You one day, O Lord.
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Your Word tells us that it is appointed to man once to die and then comes judgment.
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Father, we are all going to have to face You one day.
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We will either face You in our sin and be recipients of Your wrath, or we will face You in Christ and experience Your love and mercy.
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That is the demarcation point for all of existence in Christ or not.
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I pray for every person in the sound of my voice who are hearing this message now and those who will hear it in the future, Lord God, that You would convert and convict hearts today.
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Use this time as a time to teach all of us more about Your nature and Your commands.
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In Christ's name we pray and for His sake, Amen.
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Beloved, we come now to our time for our last song.
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If you have a need for prayer, I encourage you to come as we stand and sing.