Grace to You :: Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time

The Truth About Hell

Scripture: Selected Scriptures
Code: 80-376

As we enter into this season of celebration for us as believers, we face an opportunity and a
responsibility that I think is unique to the season and that is to be ready to speak the gospel to the
folks that are around us who dont know the Lord Jesus Christ. You heard from Travis the
commission of Jesus to go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them and commanding
them to do all things that I have commanded you. This is our commission, this is why we are here in
this world, to be ministers of reconciliation with a message of reconciliation to God that sinners might
be saved. We talk about that, being saved. One of the people being baptized tonight made reference
to being saved.
What are we talking about? What is it we want people saved from? That is the compelling question.
The answer to that question, as far as Scripture is concerned, is a simple answer. We want to see
people saved from eternal punishment, punishment that never ends. Conscious existence, conscious
life in a body resurrected and suited for everlasting punishment. The Bible speaks of that as occurring
in a place that we know as hell. In the Old Testament, the word Sheol makes reference to that in a
general way. In the New Testament, the word Hades is sometimes with reference to that. But always
the word hell coming from the Greek word Gehenna speaks of what the book of Revelation calls this
Lake of Fire where people are punished and tormented forever.
I think we sort of comfortably distance ourselves from that reality. Certainly in general in the church it
is looked over, passed by, ignored. There are those who claim to be preachers who dont ever talk
about hell, wouldnt talk about hell, avoid it at all costs, when the truth of the matter is, it ought to be
the first thing that we talk about when we talk about the gospel. This is about salvation from hell.
The doctrine of hell, the truth of hell, the reality of hell has found its way into the thinking of our
culture. According to the latest survey that I could find, seventy-five percent of people living in
America believe in hell. They believe theres a hell. Thats the influence of Christianity, 75 percent. Of
those 75 percent, four percent believe there is any chance that they will ever go there. So weve
gotten our point across. There is a hell. But we havent gotten the point across that youre headed
there already. Thats the issue.
We live in a world where sin is freely exploited. Sin is so much a part of our culture that every
imaginable sin is acceptable, except pedophilia, thats the last sin left. And you watch the outrage, at
least in the athletic world, if not in the Roman Catholic Church, over the sin of pedophilia. You dont

find that outrage over adultery, you dont find that outrage over homosexuality, you dont find that
outrage over lying, cheating, stealing, etc.
Murder is still unacceptable unless the person doesnt deserve to live. The murder of a child is still an
outrage. But were very used to sinning. And were very comfortable with sin and consequently
society has very few consequences that it places on people for sin. So when people grow up in a
world where things that once were defined as sin are no longer defined as sin, and behaviors have no
consequence in the society, where, for example, when junior comes home at the age of twelve and
announces to his mother that hes a homosexual, she becomes a homosexual advocate. Absolutely
no consequences to that kind of immoral behavior. Theres a warped sense of good and evil and
distorted understanding of justice. We dont know what sin is except a sin can never be what I do, it
can be, however, if what I do harms someone else, that would be sin. But any act that I do in and of
itself Im free to do and there shouldnt be any consequences at all.
And the truth of the matter is then if the culture imposes no consequences and the family imposes no
consequences, the society places no stigma on people for the kind of behaviors that are sinful
behaviors, people get so used to sinning without consequences that when you introduce the idea that
they will pay in full forever for every sin, that is just alien to their thinking. People sin without
immediate consequences and to try to convince them that there are somehow down the road,
decades from now if they live, deferred consequences is a hard sell.
For example, you might want to try to convince someone of Romans 2 which says that you are
storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
Youre not getting away with anything, no act of fornication, no act of adultery, no sin in the mind, no
sin in the behavior, no sin with the lips, no lie, no deception, no cheating, youre not going to get away
with any of it, youre just accumulating iniquities, all of which will be confronted and judged. Youre
storing up wrath. Youre going to need to have a large storehouse to contain all the wrath thats going
to break upon your head.
That is a very difficult thing to convince people about who are so used to sinning. And at the same
time, theyre so used to getting away with it. Theyre not only used, can I say to getting away with it in
the culture and in the world, but professing Christians are used to getting away with it in the so-called
church. Churches areso-called churches are very, very reluctant to confront sin, very reluctant to do
the discipline that the Bible talks about doing, to teach people the consequence of sin. Parents are
very reluctant to create significant consequences for the sins of their children, which may be the most
important thing apart from the gospel that your child ever learns. That sin has immense and painful
consequences. We need to tell people that every unforgiven sin, every sin committed by every person
who rejects Jesus Christ will be justly punished by God forever in a place called hell.

This is not new. This is what the Bible has said. You can go back to Moses. You can go back to the
Pentateuch, the first section of books in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 32:22, it reads this way in the
Authorized Version, A fire is kindledsays Godin my anger and burns to the lowest part of hell.
The 1611 King James version made it clear even that early that the anger of God reached into hell.
Our Lords first New Testament sermon was a sermon on hell. Jesus is a hell-fire preacher. I hear
people say, Well I dont want to talk about hell, thats very negative. Jesus was a hell-fire preacher.
Matthew 5, His first sermon as laid out in the New Testament, verse 22 of chapter 5 of Matthew, I
say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be guilty before the court and whoever
says to his brother, you good for nothing, shall be guilty before the Supreme Court and whoever says,
You fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
Here is Jesus arriving in Jerusalem and beginning the first part of His ministry, then going up to
Galilee and finishing off His ministry and wherever He went He was a preacher of hell. The Sermon
on the Mount happens to be given on a hillside in Galilee. He speaks of the fiery hell as if He
assumed that everybody knew about it, He doesnt have to give them a definition or a description, it
was a very well-known part of their biblical understanding.
Same sermon, verse 29, if your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you, its
better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Verse 30, If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off, throw it from you. Better to lose one part of
your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
In the tenth chapter of the book of Matthew, that very familiar verse which is often quoted, and well
come back to it in a little bit, Matthew 10:28 where we read this, Do not fear those who kill the body
but are unable to kill the soulour Lord saysbut fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body
in hell. In chapter 11 He talks about hell. In Matthew chapter 18 He talks about hell. He talks about
hell in chapter 23 several times. He says that the Pharisees are guilty of producing sons of hell and
theyre sons of hell themselves.
Yes, Jesus was a hell-fire preacher. When we talk about salvation, the word has to be usedthe
word has to be used because were talking about rescue. Salvation is a word that means deliverance
or rescue and the question isfrom what? Contemporary kind of corrupted Christianity would offer
many psychological and even material substitutes for hell. We would say, Well, Jesus wants to save
me from loneliness or He wants to save you from purposelessness, or He wants to save you from
anxiety, or He wants to save you from poverty, or He wants to save you from failure, or He wants to
save you from sickness, or He wants to save you from disappointment. No, no, He desires to save
you from hell, from the fiery hell, the lake of fire that is eternal. The message of Scripture is that
salvation is a rescue, a rescue from a real place called hell.

Jesus spoke more about hell than anybody else in the Bible. In fact, He spoke more about hell than
everybody else in the Bible combined. And He defined it as conscious, eternal
punishmentconscious, eternal punishment. Our Lord Jesus believed in eternal hell. Well talk about
some of the things that He said about it in a little bit. He continually spoke about hell and He warned
sinners to escape hell because of its horrible reality.
Turn to Luke 16 for a moment. And in Luke 16 you have Jesus actually telling a story about a man
who went to hell. You will remember this. There was a rich man, Luke 16:19, he habitually dressed in
purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And there was a poor man named Lazarus
who was laid at his gate, covered with sores and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling
from the rich mans table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abrahams bosom. Thats kind of an
Old Testament reference to a place of comfort, a place of peace where Abraham is and Abraham, of
course, was a true believer as the father of faith who received righteousness because he believed. So
this would be heaven. And there went the poor man.
The rich man, on the other hand, died and was buried in Hades, which, of course, here refers to hell
because of the way its described. He lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away
and Lazarus in his bosom. This is a parable and there are some names the Lord uses. He doesnt
usually use names in parables, but on this occasion He did, He used the name of Lazarus and
Abraham. And this rich man who is shocked that he has ended up in hell, cried out and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and
cool off my tongue for I am in agony in this flame.
So now Jesus tells us this is a place that you go to after death. This is a place of torment. This is a
place of thirst. This is a place of agony. This is a place of fire. All of that is in what we just read.
Abraham said, Child, remember that during your life you received your good things and likewise
Lazarus bad things. Now hes being comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this
between us and you, there is a great chasm fixed so that those who wished to come over from here
to you will not be able and none may cross over from there to us.
Once youre there, youre there forever. No escape. This is our Lords story describing hell. Was the
Son of God wrong about that? Are the deniers of hell correct and there are many, many of them? It
has become popular these days to deny the doctrine of hell in one of three ways, okay? Ill give you a
little insight into that. Number one is the view called annihilationismannihilationism. This says
unbelievers go out of existence. When they die, they just go out of existence, they dont exist
anymore. That the Bible doesnt support since the Bible speaks of eternal conscious punishment.

The second view that is offered, and by the way, people give very sophisticated arguments for this. I
read a book, 475 pages on annihilationism trying to make the argument from the text of Scripture
called The Fire That Consumes. And there are many othersmany others. Recently a book
questioning the doctrine of hell and advocating an annihilationists view was written by a man named
Rob Bell. The second possibility that is offered today is universalismuniversalism. This says that all
unbelievers are in the end saved. They dont go out of existence, theyre saved. These people would
say yes, there is a hell. And this is where they hedge against the first one. There is a hell but hell was
created for the devil and his angels, and that is what it says, of course, in the book of Revelation. So
theyre the only ones who will go there.
In the Roman Catholic University, Fordham University in New York, theres a theological professor
who said this, Its therehell isbut possible that no one will go there. Thats a universalists view
that in the end God is going to save everybody. That doesnt match with Scripture because the whole
message of Scripture is that the ungodly are forever excluded from Gods presence and forever
punished. If everybody is saved in the end, then everything in the Bible that speaks of eternal
punishment is unbelievable, error. So whether you have all the sinners die or all the sinners get
saved, die go out of existence, or get saved, you still dont explain what the Bible says about
everlasting punishment.
Theres a third view calledwell call it inclusivism so annihilationism, universalism, inclusivismthat
would be my word for it, some people will go to hell, but it will be the people who heard the gospel
and rejected the gospel and the people who never heard the gospel wont go to hell, theyll be saved.
So its kind of a selective inclusivism. Unbelievers who never heard the gospel will be saved because
they arent responsible for their situation. Theyll be saved.
But the problem with that is you cant get saved unless you believe in Christ. Theres no salvation in
any other name than the name of Jesus Christ. Universalism has its advocates, believe me. There
are many advocates of universalism but they tend to be Bible deniers. The inclusivists who say the
people who never heard the message are the ones who will be saved and not the rest, have a same
problem, because they dont have any support for their view in the Bible at all. And they tend to be
weak on the view of Scripture and just throw away the verses that they dont like. The dominant view
is that first one I gave you called annihilationism and I want to talk about that a little bit, because
youre going to face it somewhere. Its a trendy thing. Its a popular idea. Some most remarkably
useful, less effective, capable teachers of the Bible have lapsed into annihilationism, or as its
sometimes called Soul Sleep. Its the popular idea because it feels comfortable and it feels fair to
the people who make a case for it.
Now how to they make their case? How do you make a case for unbelievers just being obliterated,
exterminated, wiped out forever? Their first argument comes from the verse I read you in Matthew 10
verse 28, Fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. They tend to go there, and they like

that word destroy. All right? They want to use that word destroy. Stick with me cause its going to
be helpful to you. Its a Greek word, apollumiapollumi. That may sound a little bit familiar in your ear
because in Revelation 9:11, Satan is given the name Apollyon, the destroyer. Apollumi is the word to
destroy. But it is not its only meaning. Thats not the only possibility. But they say that word says that
the ones who are under the judgment of God will be destroyed both soul and body in hell, so that they
would go to hell and then be wiped out and exterminated, annihilated forever, non-existence.
Is that the correct understanding of that word? Fortunately we have that word 80 times in the New
Testament so we get a good breadth of understanding about how the verb apollumi is used. It has
very broad meaning. In Matthew 2:13 it is the word used where it says in that verse, Herod desired to
destroy the baby. Herod wasnt thinking about soul annihilation, he was thinking about murder.
In Matthew 8:25 in the immediate danger of the storm, the disciples are afraid and they are afraid of
drowning. So in Matthew 8:25 the word apollumi has to do with drowning. In Luke 5:37 we hear a
parable from Jesus about putting new wine in old wineskins and the wineskins crack and break and
thats the same verb apollumi, ruined wineskins.
In Luke 15 its used three times to speak of a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. So the word can
mean to kill, to drown, to render useless such as the case of wineskins, or to be lost. John 6:27
theres a statement about food that perishes, and that is the word apollumi, perishables, food that is
corrupted and useless.
In John 17:12 our Lord says, None of those that You have given to Me, Father, have perished but
the son of perdition. Judas perished. Did he go out of existence? No. Jesus said he went not out of
existence, but he went to his own place. He went to his own place.
Heres one some of you can experience this personally, I know I can. Luke 21, it is referring to the
loss of hair. Yes, Austin, you can deal with that, cant you? Can I have a witness? In Acts 8:20 you
remember the confrontation between Peter and Simon the magician and Simon is trying to buy the
Holy Spirit and Peter says, May your money perish with you.
Romans 14:15, Do not destroy with food the one for whom Christ died. In Mark 14:4 its used of
perfume that is spilled. Why has this perfume been wasted, says Judas about pouring perfume on
Jesus. So it is possible to translate the word destroy but it is not the word for annihilation, obliteration,
non-existence.
Furthermore, in Matthew chapter 3 verse 12, Scripture calls hell the unquenchable fire. So Matthew
10:38, Fear the one who destroys both soul and body in hell, it is an unquenchable fire. It doesnt go
out and it doesnt go out because it always has fuel.

In the fourteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, verse 9, If anyone worships the beast and his
image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will drink of the wine of the wrath of
God mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of their torment goes up
forever and ever. They have no rest day and night. Eternal smoke and no rest, day and night forever.
So you cant make a case out of the word apollumi used in Matthew 10:28. So they try to go to
another word. If you look at 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1 and verse 9, it says, Thesethat is those
who do not obey the gospel from verse 8, those who reject the gospelthese will pay the penalty of
eternal destruction. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. This is not the word apollumi,
this is a different word, olethrosolethros. The penalty of eternal destruction, they suggest that
destruction, eternal destruction means youre destroyed forever, you go out of existence. That is not
what this word necessarily means.
First Corinthians 5:5 uses the same word and it says, I have decidedspeaking of a sinner in the
church, a professing believer sinning in the churchIve decided to deliver such a one to Satan for
the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved.
Well obviously its not the annihilation of his flesh. Hes not a disembodied spirit who then in a
disembodied state would become saved.
So the destruction of the flesh means some kind of devastation but does not necessarily mean
annihilation. Furthermore, in this verse, verse 9, these pay the penalty of eternal destruction away
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power which means that they are placed
somewhere away from God. It cant mean the annihilation of a persons physical body in 1
Corinthians 5:5 and it doesnt mean the annihilation of the persons soul and body here, because it
refers to a place where they will be away from God. So Im just saying, they have a hard time trying to
make their case with words.with words.
Perhaps a verse that will pull it all together is 1 Timothy 6:9, the last chapter of 1 Timothy. It says,
Those that want to get rich fall into temptation, we know this verse, and a snare in many foolish and
harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.
Do you think that means absolute annihilation, non-existence? No. What its saying is that if you get
yourself in a situation where you want to get rich, youre going to be trapped in temptations and
snares; theyre going to lead you to foolish and harmful desires which will plunge your life into total
ruination. Not annihilation. By the way, ruin here in verseTimothy 6:9 is olethros and destruction
comes from the verb apollumi. So both the words are used here to refer to something other than
annihilation.

So some of these texts, if you connect the dots, we would conclude this. Both these words mean the
ruin of someone for useful purpose or functionthe ruin of someone for a useful purpose or function,
the ruin of a wineskin, the ruin of food that perishes, the ruin of a life destroyed by the love of money,
and the temptations that come with it for any useful purpose, a soul ruined, a soul destroyed as to its
usefulness, not its existence. Thats why I said, this morning, and I say it again tonight, hell is viewed
best and most clearly by the Greek word Gehenna which is a word that comes from the valley of
Hinnom. The valley of Hinnom just east of Jerusalem and a little bit south, Ive been there many
times, is the place in ancient times where the city dump was and it was a never extinguished burning
fire. And it became the metaphor for the Lake of Fire, for hell. You threw whatever was useless into
the trash into the fire.
When I was a kid growing up, everybody in my neighborhood had an incineratorwe had an
incinerator before smog. There were no trash trucks. We burned everything in an incinerator in the
back of the house. Everything that was useless, everything that was to be discarded, and it seemed
like it was always burning day after day. A soul forever ruined for usefulness to God, having a spoiled
marred image, we talked about that this morning, is thrown into the everlasting trash heap, the
burning fires of Gehenna or hell. Thats what those words are talking about, not annihilation. You
cannot make that case from Scripture.
In Matthew chapter 26, I think its verse 24, Jesus is talking about Judas and He says, The Son of
Man is to go just as it is written of Him, He says this at the Upper Room communion with His
disciples. The Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him, but woe to the man by whom the Son of
Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.
Why would He say that? It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. Why?
Because of the consequences that are about to come to him. It wouldnt matter if he was going to be
annihilated, if he was going to be exterminated.
Hell is eternal conscious punishment. Theres no way around this. Now, for a minute, I want you to
turn to Matthew chapter 25, enough of trying to answer those lame arguments. I understand the
emotion behind them. But I want you to look at Matthew 25:46 because this is an inescapable
parallel, or contrasting parallel. These, our Lord says, will go away into eternal punishment, but the
righteous into eternal life. Both words eternal are identical. Theyre the same in the original
language. So if hell isnt eternal, then guess what? Neither is heaven. Those will go away into eternal
punishment. The righteous will go into eternal life. If there is eternal life, then there is eternal
punishment. Get rid of hell and you have to get rid of heaven as being forever. Was our Lord wrong
about this? Are the critics right? Are the deniers of hell right and the Lord is wrong? If the Lord was
wrong, why was He wrong? Was He ignorant of the truth? If He was, then Hes not the Lord of all.
Hes not the way, the truth and the life. Or was Hedid He only appear to be wrong because He

couldnt figure out how to say it in a way that we could really get it? Was He not so much ignorant as
inept? I dont think you want to go there.
He wasnt wrong. He wasnt ignorant. He wasnt incapable of saying what He wanted to say. Let me
put the case where it really belongs. Did Jesus mean to teach annihilation and somehow goof it up
and teach the opposite? Is that whats going on here? He meant to teach annihilation and He just
messed it up. Nonsense.
Further affirmation of the reality of hell from some other perspectives, just talk this through with you a
little bit, theres so much that could be said about this. There is one pastor on the east coast who
preached 76 hour-long sermons on hell. That would empty a church. Whoa! Look, it comes up, when
it comes up in the Scripture, you deal with it. One is enough to make the case. But let me give you
some perspectives that will help. First of all, lets take a rational perspective, just rational. We need to
use our minds, God has given us our minds to reason rightly. Satan and the demons will be sent to
the Lake of Fire forever. Why? Because they rebelled against God. Satan and one third of the holy
angels rebelled against God. Unbelievers rebel against God. Unbelievers not only rebel against God
but we are in the family of Satan. John 8, Satan is your father, he says. Youre of your father, the
devil.
Unbelievers are in that family and we rebel as the angels rebelled and we must receive the same
punishment that anyone who rebels deserves, the same kind of punishment, same nature of
punishment, the same duration of punishment because we commit the same crime.
In the twentieth chapter of Revelation, the devil, verse 10, who deceived them was thrown into the
Lake of Fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are also. The beast and the false
prophet are just human beings. The final Antichrist and his cohort, the false prophet, and theyre in
the Lake of Fire as well, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. So that torment
will be for the demons and Satan. That torment will be for men who committed themselves to follow
Satan, namely the beast and the false prophet. And theyre just two of all the humans who will suffer
the same fate as the rebellious angels because they followed the same crime. Sinners and fallen
angels commit the same crime, share the same guilt and receive the same punishment.
Now somebody says, Does the sentence really fit the crime? Well were thinking rationally for a
minute. Well the lawgiver determines that, doesnt he? The law giver determines that. the law that is
written determines the extent of the crime and what is a fitting punishment for the crime and God has
determined that the crime is heinous enough that it should be judged in this way. And that is always
the hurdle that people have trouble getting over. How can a temporal sin or sins result in an eternal
punishment? It seems excessive.

Let me help you with that. The amount of time that a sinner sins is irrelevant. If the sinner dies at
fifteen-years-old; thirty-five or a hundred and ten; the amount of time a sinner sins is irrelevant.
Crimes against the infinitely holy and exalted God are infinitely wicked and the punishment fits the
crime. Infinite crimes against an infinite God deserve an infinite punishment. And heres the key.
Sinners who go to hell never repent. They never repent. They continue to rebel. Every description of
hell indicates to us that it islisten carefullyit is not a remedial experience. It is not remedial justice.
It is retributive justice. They remain God-haters forever so that the punishment never catches up with
the sin. Understand that? Its really important.
In hell they continue to hate God. In hell they continue to curse God. In hell they continue to mock
God and blaspheme God and hate Christ. So the punishment never catches up to the sin because
the sinning never, ever, ever ceases. You understand that, thats really important. People dont go to
hell and then never sin forever and just get punished forever. They go to hell and keep on sinning
forever, so the punishment can never catch up with the wretchedness. That is why the Bible in Mark 3
describes this as eternal sinas eternal sin.
Let me tell you something. I believe that sinners are more sinful in hell than they were on earth
because their sin on earth is mitigated to some degree, necessarily mitigated. Everybody cant be as
wicked as he would choose to be here because there are consequences. There are restraints. There
are expectations. But in hell, there are none. Everybody is as evil as he can be.
In Jude 7 it says that they undergo a punishment of eternal fire. And this judgment, according to verse
15, is on the ungodly for all their ungodly deeds which theyve done in an ungodly way and all the
harsh things the ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. The word ungodly is used repeatedly
there and when they get to hell, theyre just as ungodly as they ever were, in fact more so in that
environment without constraint and continue to be punished because they continue everlastingly their
rebellion.
Let me talk about it just for a moment from a theological. Thats a rational approach in understanding
what Scripture says, a theological approach. And that would be to understand the nature of God.
Gods honor and Gods glory is manifest in the punishment of the wicked. Gods honor and Gods
glory is manifest in the punishment of the wicked. God, because He is holy and because He is
absolutely righteous and just, must punish sin.
Listen tothere are a lot of portions of Scripture we might look at but heres Isaiah 66 verse 22 to 24
where the Lord says, Just as the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before
Me, declares the Lord, so your offspring and your name will endure. In other words, youre going to
live forever in the new heaven and the new earth. It shall be from new moon to new moon, and
Sabbath to Sabbath, and all mankind will come to bow down before Me, says the Lord. Then they will
go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. Their worm will not

die, their fire will not be quenched.

That again is Isaiah 66 saying because of what men have done to Me, they will experience an
everlasting fire. Again its the character of God that is at stake. Daniel 12 tells us in verse 2 that many
will awake to everlasting life, in the end. Others to disgrace an everlasting content.
Matthew 18 calls it an eternal fire and a fiery hell. Matthew 25 refers to eternal fire prepared for the
devil and his angelsI think I said Revelation earlier, its Matthew 25. Were familiar with all of this.
And hell is Gods hell where He punishes those who refuse to give Him honor and glory. He acts in
the world to reveal His glory and men reject that glory and they pay for that rejection.
Hell is not remedial. It has no remedial effect. They will remain forever rebellious, God-haters, lovers
of sin, blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, and rejecters of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is any
satisfaction in hell, if there is any fulfillment of anything in hell, is that they can be as wicked as they
want to be without restraint because no influence of God is there.
So the theological issue is an important one. Hell is for those who hate God. They act against His
mercy. They act against His grace. They act against His holiness. They act against the sovereignty.
They act against His glory. And they will continue to do so forever.
Then thirdly we could look at it biblically. First of all, we can look at it rationally, and theologically.
These overlap a little bit, but the final one is biblical. What does the Bible say? Well weve quoted all
kinds of Scriptures. I think one of the most interesting things about hell, at least to me, is Ecclesiastes
9:10, it says this, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might for theres no activity or
planning or knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol. Whoa! That sounds like eternal boredomno activity,
no planning, no learning, no nothing. No advance at all.
Job 10 verses 21 and 22 describes hell as everlasting darkness. So does Matthew 8:12 and Matthew
22:13, a place of eternal darkness. Again Matthew 8:12 and Matthew 22:13 describe it as a place of
everlasting paineverlasting pain. Theres a passage of Scripture outside of the New Testament that
I think is probably one that gets overlooked too much. And its a passage in Ezekiel, very interesting,
verse 17, In the twelfth year, the fifteenth of the month, the Word of the Lord came to me saying,
Son of Man, wail for the hordes of Egypt and bring it down. Her and the daughters of the powerful
nations to the Netherworld with those who go down to the pit. These nations are going down to hell.
Go down and make your bed with the uncircumcised, the nations, the Gentiles. They shall fall in the
midst of those who are slain by the sword. Shes given over to the sword, talking about Egypt here
specifically, They have drawn her and all her hoards away. The strong among the mighty one shall
speak of him and his helpers from the midst of Sheol.

Here are the hordes and the forces of pagan Egypt ending up in hell. Theyve gone down. They lie
still, the uncircumcised slain by the sword. And guess what? Assyria is there and all her company, her
graves are round about her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword. His graves are set in the
remotest part of the pit. Elam is there, verse 24, and all her hoards. Twenty-six, Meshech, all her
hoards are there. Their graves surround them. All of them slain by the sword uncircumcised, nor do
they lie beside the fallen heroes of the uncircumcised who went down to Sheol with their weapons of
war and whose swords were said unto their heads. But the punishment for their iniquity rested on
their bones. In other words, Jew, Gentile, theyre all there. Edom is there. The chiefs of the north,
verse 30, are there. The Sidonians are there. Theyre all going to be there and when Egypt arrives,
verse 31, theyre going to see theyre all there. Theyre all there.
Though I instilled a terror of him in the land of the living, yet he will be made to lie down among the
uncircumcised, along with those slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his hoards, declares the
Lord God. Theyre all going to end up in hell. What a dramatic picture. And they will be there with an
identity that is recognizable. Theyll see Pharaoh arrive. The Bible speaks of hell in very specific
wordsagony, banishment, brimstone, curse, darkness, deprivation, destruction, distress, fire, teethgrinding, guilt, hopelessness, loneliness, pain, suffering, pressure, prison, punishment, ruin,
separation, shame, contempt, smokes, sulfur, torment, trouble, trash heap, weeping, all forever.
There are many roads to hellmany roads to hell. In one sense, every sinner goes there on the road
of his own sinful choices, many roads to hell, any sin, every sin creates a road that arrives at hell. You
can go on the road of pride, or you can go as a pedophile. You can go as a self-righteous religious
leader, or you can go as an aide to Adolph Hitler. Many, many roads to hell.
On the other hand, theres only one way to escape hell, right? Only one way. For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life. First Thessalonians 1:10 says, Jesus rescues us from the wrath to comefrom the
wrath to come.
I want to close by going back to the story that Jesus told in Luke 16, just briefly. We stopped the story
at verse 26, but I want us to finish it. Pick it up in verse 27. The last word in verse 26 was, When
youre there, you cant leave. Nobody can come from there to heaven and nobody from heaven will
ever show up there.
But in the story, the parable that Jesus invented, the rich man who is being tormented in hell is
pleading with Abraham and he says, I beg you, fatherfather Abrahamverse 27send him to my
fathers house, send Lazarus back, I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them so they will
not also come to this place of torment. And Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let
them hear them.

Thats a reference to the Scripture. But he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them
from the dead, they will repent. But he said to them, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets,
they will not be persuaded even if someone arises from the dead.
How do you evangelize people? You lead them to the holy Scripture. Even a person back from the
dead wouldnt persuade them if theyre unwilling to listen to Scripture. Foolish people think they can
persuade people on the way to hell to change the style of their wardrobe, the style of their music, or
the kind of environment they create. How foolish. If they dont listen to Scripture, they will not be
persuaded. Scripture is the only persuasive means that the Holy Spirit uses to regenerate and rescue
souls from hell.
So, knowing the gospel, knowing the biblical gospel, thats what we must use. Thats the Scripture.
So next Sunday night, were going to move from Saved from what? to Saved by what? Talk about
the importance and essential character of the gospel.
Father, its been a wonderful day for us and in some ways its a sad reality that weve talked about
tonight at such a happy season, but this is necessary. We have to see peopleas the Apostle Paul
saidhe saw no one after the flesh. Once he came to Christ, he didnt see anybody after the flesh. In
other words, he didnt take people at their physical face. He didnt see them as physical beings. It
wasnt about their wardrobe or their life style or their possessions. He saw no man after the flesh.
Help us to see them all as perishing, eternal souls, headed for the horrors of the Lake of Fire. And
elevate our passion, our compassion, our zeal to plead with them to escape the fire. May we do what
Jude says, may we grab people and snatch brans from the burning. Give us that opportunity, even
these days as we go through the Christmas season. Help us to understand the horrors of what awaits
those who know not the Savior and give us a fresh and a new zeal for their souls. May we be
instruments that you can use to bring many to the Savior, even this season. We thank You for this
privilege in the power of the Spirit in the truth of the Word that enables us to be used in this way, in
the name of Christ. Amen.
END SUNDAY MESSAGE: SEE ADDITIONAL FOOTNOTE BELOW
STUDIO FOOTNOTE ADDITION:
I know the message is completed, but I wanted to add a portion to the sermon that you heard on this
particular occasion.
In discussing the doctrine of eternal hell, eternal punishment, I tried to cover as much as I could in
one hour. But it was impossible. Time constraints in the service of the church at the time limited me to
that amount of time.

But theres another aspect of the doctrine of eternal punishment that I wanted to add to the message
that I think is very important for us to have a complete understanding. We talked about the fact that
people go to hell because they reject the gospel. They go to hell because they are born in sin and
they live lives of sin and rebellion against God. And I said that its not a matter of how many sins, or
now many years of sin, or the grossness of sin, its the same hell for everyone. But I wanted to add a
footnote that I think is very important to recognize because the justice of God is very specificthe
justice of God is very individual. Sometimes in medieval art you see depictions of hell and theres
some kind of a great funnel in which everybody is just poured and they all go flowing through this
funnel into kind of the same environment of fiery existence.
But hell is much more individual that that. And the Scripture indicates to us that not everyone suffers
in hell to the same degree. We know the Bible teaches there are degrees of reward in heaven that not
every believer will receive the same reward when we go to heaven. Well receive the same eternal
life, the same perfection, the same eternal righteousness, the same opportunity to live in heaven and
be in the Fathers house and all of that. But there will be degrees of reward in heaven.
At the same time, there will be degrees of punishment in hell. And the Scripture indicates this very
clearly. Let me read to you Luke chapter 12, starting at verse 41. Peter said, Lord, are You
addressing this parable to us? Or to everyone else as well? And this was a parable about the Lords
coming and being ready for His return.
And the Lord answered Peter saying this, Who then is the faithful and sensible steward whom his
master will put in charge of his servants to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that
slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in
charge of all his possessions. But if that slave says in his heart my master will be a long time in
coming, and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the
master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not
know and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew
his maters will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes. But the
one who didnt know it and committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but few. From everyone
who has been given much, much will be required. And to whom they entrusted much, of him they will
ask all the more.
In that parable that our Lord tells, you have the picture of the believer who is the faithful, dutiful
servant, who does what his master wills and is ready to meet his master when he comes. Thats a
picture of a believer ready to meet the Lord when He returns.
But on the other hand, in verses 45 and 46, you have a very different scene. Here is a slave who says
in his heart, My master will be a long time in coming, and begins to beat the slaves, both men and

women, to eat and drink and get drunk. Well the master of that slave will come on a day when he
doesnt expect him and at an hour he doesnt know and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place
with the unbelievers. Thats a picture of the unbeliever, the one who is not ready for the return of
Christ, the one who has nothing but disdain for the Lord and Master, and he will be set for a horrific
judgment.
The servants in this story picture every person in the world. Every person in the world is responsible
for how that person handles the good gifts of God revealed to him. In other words, an opportunity to
know the truth. The Law of God written in the heart of every man, a conscience. The truth about God
manifests from creation, the light that shines in every heart. What a person does with the opportunity
to know the truth and the opportunity to hear the gospel, determines that persons destiny. The ones
who believe the truth, who accept the truth of God, who embrace the gospel, theyre the ones who will
be rewarded by receiving all that the master possesses.
On the other hand, the others who waste their exposure to the truth, waste their exposure to divine
revelation and reject the gospel when theyve heard it, will receive the severest judgment. So you
have one group in the story faithful to make the most of that gospel stewardship, and they receive the
privilege of being in the Kingdom, going to heaven. You have another group unfaithful to make the
use of gospel opportunity, gospel stewardship and theyre punished with a fierce judgment that
describes in the words of Jesus as cutting them in pieces, and then there comes the warning that he
gives at the end, that slave who knew his masters will and didnt get ready or act in accord with his
will, will receive many lashes. But the one who didnt know it will receive but a few. Thats talking
about eternal punishment. Both are punished, one with few lashes and one with many lashes. And
what makes the difference? Not the volume of sin, not the nature of sin, not the intensity of sin, not
the number of years one lived to accumulate far more sin than someone who lived far less years, but
what a person does with the gospelwith divine truth. That is what determines the severity of hell.
The more of the truth of the gospel you know, and reject, the severer the punishment will be. In that
sense, the gospel is eternally dangerous if rejected.
There will be degrees of punishment then on unbelievers in hell, not based on categories of sin, not
based on amounts of sin, but based on the level of truth they rejected. That is why Hebrews 10:29
says this, How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot
the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the Covenant, the New Covenant, by which
he was sanctified and has insulted the Spirit of Grace?
Boy, thats a strong verse. How much severer punishment will come on the person who knows about
the Son of God, knows about the shedding of His blood to provide salvation through the New
Covenant, regards that as an unclean thing and thereby insults the Spirit of Grace? The very Spirit
who was the power behind Jesus offering Himself up. He offered Himself up by the Holy Spirit. You
insult Christ when you reject with the full knowledge of the gospel and you insult the Holy Spirit.

By the way, Hebrews 10:29 says that and then it says in the next verse, Vengeance is Mine, I will
repay, says the Lord. And in the next verse, It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. So judgment is predicated on ones knowledge of the gospel. Its a far severer hell awaiting
those who knew the truth, the gospel, and rejected it.
Theres another account in Matthew chapter 11, verses 22 through 24, that I want you to listen to.
Verse 22 begins, Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of
judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will
descend to Hades, or hell, for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would
have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I say to you it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in
the day of judgment than for you. What that says is that people living in the village of Capernaum at
the north end of the Sea of Galilee who were exposed extensively to the life and ministry of Jesus
Christ will be more severely punished in hell than the horrific sins that marked the people of Sodom
and Gomorrah, sins of gross immorality and homosexuality, so vile that God buried those cities with
fire and brimstone. What that means is the people who suffer in hell today from Sodom and
Gomorrah dont suffer to the same degree as those in Capernaum who rejected the Lord Jesus
Christ.
There is one other passage that informs us on the degrees of punishment and it is from 2 Peter
chapter 2. Listen to what Peter writes. Speaking of false teachers, They are springs without water,
mists driven by a storm for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant
words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality those who barely escape from the ones
who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. Now thats
a description of false teachers. Very graphic, springs without waters, mists without a storm, black
darkness reserved for them, they are arrogant, they speak words of vanity, they entice by fleshly
desires, by sensuality and theyre enticing these people who are just barely escaping. In other words,
theyre just sort of moralizing, theyre just sort of escaping the severest kinds of corruption. Its not a
true salvation. Its just a bare escape.
And then the next verse says, Promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of
corruption. And then it says about them, For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world.
What does that mean? Salvation? No, not at all. What it means is they become moral. They put on
religion. They may be legalistic, they may live outwardly, visibly moral lives. They have separated
themselves from the defilement of the world and they now say they are religious and theyre ministers
and theologians and purveyors of religion. They have only superficially escaped.
But it says, They are again entangled and are overcome and the last state has become worse for
them than the first. In the end, they cant keep up the hypocrisy. In the end they cant keep up the
moral deception and calamity strikes. You know, time and truth go hand in hand. False teachers

eventually will show themselves to be what they really are. And commenting on these false teachers,
Peter says this, It would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having
known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them.
False teachers will have the severest punishment in hell because they not only knew the way of
righteousness through Christ, it even says that they came to the knowledge of the Lord. They
moralized themselves. They pretended to be Christians. They even identified, it says, with their Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ superficially, but only superficially. And in the end, they turned away. It would
have been better for them if they had never known the gospel than to have known it and turned from
it. And that is saying the very same thing. They would have less severe punishment in hell if they had
never known the truth.
It is not again the kind of sin that one commits, it is not again the amount of sin that determines the
degree of punishment, but it is the truth rejected that determines the severest punishment. And the
most severe of all for those false teachers who knew the truth, who even proclaimed the truth, who
identified with the truth, identified with Christ, moralized their lives on the outside, but were never truly
saved because bottom linethey rejected the gospel they pretended to affirm.
There will be very specific degrees of punishment in hell for every sinner based upon the knowledge
rejected, the truth resisted.

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