Peep at the last page: Hell (sermon by Derek Hills)

The speaker discusses the concept of prosperity and happiness, as well as the final rebellion of Satan. They mention that Satan will be locked up for 1000 years before being set free and leading a final rebellion. They also discuss the purging of the world and the creation of a new heaven and earth. The unsaved will be resurrected and judged according to their works. The speaker believes in the eternity of punishment for those who reject Jesus. They address objections to the belief in hell, including sentimentality, fear, social, moral, philosophical, and theological objections. They mention alternative views, such as the idea that hell is self-imposed suffering in this life or the belief in universal salvation. Prosperity and happiness. It will conclude with a final rebellion of Satan. If you read Revelation chapter 20 and 21 you'll find that for that 1000 years Satan will be locked up in a pit. But at the end of that 1000 years for a reason which isn't disclosed he will be set free for a while and will lead a final rebellion which will be put down by the Lord Jesus Christ in a great act of judgement. Closely connected with that will be the purging of our world as we know it. We read about that in 2 Peter chapter 3. Our solar system is to be purged by fire and a new heaven and a new earth are to be created. You'll find that in 2 Peter 3 and again Revelation 20 and 21. Following the final rebellion of Satan the unsaved of all the ages will be resurrected to stand with those involved in that rebellion before God. And John portrays that again in Revelation chapter 20. There will be no pulling of rank then. All the unsaved without exception will be there. And Christians in their resurrection bodies will also be there to assist Christ in the judgement. Every unbeliever regardless of rank or education or anything else will be there. That point is clearly made. The reason for their resurrection is judgement. We read in Revelation 20 and verse 12. I saw the dead great and small. Those of high estate and those of low estate standing before the throne and books were opened. Also another book was opened which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books by what they had done. They are to be judged by their works. Absolutely essential that Christians get the place of works right in salvation history. We are not saved by our works. Read Ephesians chapter 2. We are saved by God's grace through our faith. We are saved for good works as that chapter goes on to say. But we are not saved by works. But our reward in heaven will be dependent upon our works. We'll get to heaven, all of us who trust Christ. But our reward in heaven will be dependent upon how faithful we have been in the service of Christ here below. And similarly the unbelievers will be judged according to their works. And in that eternity without God, which is what I understand hell to be, they will be judged according to their works. Now I believe that the Bible teaches that an eternity of punishment awaits all who reject the Lord Jesus Christ. I know it's not popular. I don't get any particular pleasure from preaching it. People don't like the idea of suffering. Neither do I. I'm not smiling am I? I once heard a sermon on hell from a man who was grinning from ear to ear. I thought it was most inappropriate. But there you are. I don't like to believe that anyone will go to an eternity without God any more than you do. I would love to believe that everyone is going to heaven. But the Bible doesn't teach it. And so as a preacher of the Bible I cannot share it with you as a valid Christian hope. The Bible teaches something very different I believe. And if I am to share the whole counsel of God with you, then I'm going to share this with you as well. Let's define it first. To a British workman hell is the word he uses when he misses with the hammer. To the Texan it's a small oil town that everyone likes to visit and send a postcard back to their relatives saying having a superb time in hell. In British Columbia there is a deep valley called hell and people live there. To the Anglo-Saxons 700 years ago it simply meant a hidden place. A place under the bench of a tailor where he threw the scraps of material that he didn't want. It was a hidden place. It was a hell. That was the meaning of the word in those days. It was a word used by lovers of a secret tristing place, a secret meeting place where they could kiss and cuddle unobserved. It simply meant a place you couldn't see. Today in the Western world the word has been heavily influenced by Milton's poetry, Dante's writings and of course Doré's paintings. And all sorts of weird exaggerations and embellishments have been added to what the scriptures say about this particular matter. Now the idea that after death there was a good place for the good folks and a bad place for the bad folks is much older even than the Bible. It seems to have been written into people's minds from the very beginning. Plato describes such places. He calls the good place Elysium and the bad place Tartarus, which is interesting because Peter uses exactly that word in 2 Peter chapter 2. Biblically I think hell may be described like this. It may be defined as a place of conscious torment where the wicked are punished forever. Is it possible for Christians to hold such a dreadful idea or not? Well let's look at that question intellectually, scripturally and practically. Let's look at it intellectually first of all. The majority of people in our society have rejected a belief in hell. They've come up with 6 objections and 3 alternatives. There's an old book which was published in 1913, 1913, called Is There a Hell? It was produced by 12 Protestant and Roman Catholic clergymen and only 2 of the 12 believed in hell in 1913. If it was true then you can be sure that it's very much true now. In fact when I was in New Malden I was one of 2 clergymen in a huge fraternal who didn't believe in hell. And I tell you even those who say they do very rarely preach on this particular subject. If the ministers have stopped believing in hell you can fairly guess that the people have. So what are these objections and what are these alternatives? Let's take the objections first. Some object on sentimental grounds. They just don't like the idea. But if you're going to dismiss everything you don't like you're going to have to dismiss a great deal of the facts of life as well as what the Bible has to say. And what is more, if you're going to reject what you don't like you're going to be changing your belief constantly. Some object on sentimental grounds. Others object on psychological grounds. These folks say that it produces fear. And fear is an unhealthy motive. You shouldn't try to frighten someone into becoming a Christian. Fear is never a good thing. Well I think it is sometimes. Fear can be very healthy. A fear of fire, a fear of fast moving traffic, a fear of driving over 35 miles an hour in this kind of mist is a jolly good fear to have. There are some fears that are good. The fear that becomes a phobia and paralyses you and prevents action is wrong. But some fear can produce right action. But nevertheless there are those who object on psychological grounds. There are ministers who do not preach on their subject because they're frightened of sending their members into neurotic states instead of bringing them into the kingdom of God. Then some object on social grounds. The argument is very clever. It runs like this. We have departed in society from an idea of punishment which is merely retribution. In other words punishment for its own sake. Now in the Western world we see punishment as having two purposes. Either as a deterrent or as a reforming thing. And preferably both. Hell cannot do either of these therefore if we in the civilised West can't accept this view of punishment how can God? As though God is an extension of our ideas. There are those who object on social grounds. There are those who object on moral grounds. There are folk who say it's just not fair. You have a short life and for the sins you commit in this short life you're punished forever. It just isn't fair they say. The punishment is out of all proportion to the crime. Then there are those who object on philosophical grounds. And this one's clever too, or I think so. It says if there is a hell God has failed. And evil is eternal. And God cannot fail because God is the God of all the universe. Therefore God must deal with this. And then there's the theological objection. There had to be one didn't there? The theological objection is that since God is a God of love, God can't condemn anybody to hell eternally. For that would be a denial of love they say. And this is the most popular objection within the church. Now I find it very interesting that nearly all the cults and schisms and sects with which we are contending in the Christian church today, the vast majority of which began in the United States of America last century, as well as denying the divinity of Christ, deny this doctrine, the doctrine of hell. One of the reasons for their popularity is that they are proffering to people an easy religion. Now if you're going to deny the existence of hell you've got to put something in its place. Otherwise the universe becomes a very unjust place. And there are three alternatives that have been offered. First there's the one the man in the street holds, which is that hell is of your own making. Hell is self-imposed suffering in this life. God doesn't send anyone to hell. He ain't there. And there ain't no hell either. It's a self-imposed thing. You say about an experience, oh I've been through hell this week. It's self-imposed suffering. But it's of your own making, it's of your own unmaking. It's something that you impose upon yourself. The one big snag with this alternative is there are lots of people who you would expect to be in that kind of, quote, hell, and aren't. And there are other people who you wouldn't expect to be in that kind of hell, and they are. And I think that really knocks it on the head. But I accept the scriptures anyway. The second alternative which does not believe in life after death, says that ultimately at some point in the distant future God will save everybody. It's taught in those churches where the traditional view is rejected. It's called universalism. And I've got a relative who's a Baptist minister who's teaching exactly this. Universalism. The idea is that God will find a way, somehow, to bring every person to himself. But you know, quite apart from the fact that the scripture doesn't teach it, for me it doesn't hold water anyway. Because it's a denial of man's free will. God has made us free, free to choose. And giving us freedom, God has limited himself to that degree. To force everybody into heaven, surely, is to override man's free will, and to make him what he isn't. The third alternative, which was popular once, then faded away, and has now become popular again, because no lesser man than John Stock holds this view, is something called conditional immortality, or annihilation. Meaning that the wicked will be extinguished forever, and only the righteous will live on. After the judgement, the wicked simply cease to be, and the only ones who live on are those who have placed their faith in Christ. So the judgement is a kind of lecture from the judge, and then nothing. That's it. Some, of course, would prefer extinction to hell, and there are others who would prefer extinction to heaven. Now the Christian is primarily concerned with what the scriptures have to say. So let's look at it, secondly, scripturally. And you're in for some surprises, I expect. If this is the word of God, then God knows better than we do, and we ought to see what he has to say. However, we must be careful that we study the Bible carefully. The fact that we've had hellfire and damnation preachers who've embellished this doctrine, and made it appear foolish and absurd to so many people, should warn us against believing what the Bible doesn't say, and make us study it to see what it does. The first thing that really surprises you is that there's hardly anything at all in the Old Testament. You can't build a doctrine of hell on the Old Testament. I find it quite surprising how many people would like to pretend that the God of the Old Testament is hard and tough and really likes to let people have it, while the God of the New Testament is the God who loves and forgives. And they would expect to find the doctrine of hell in the Old Testament, but it isn't there. There's a great deal of teaching in the Old Testament on Sheol, the place of departed spirits, but there's hardly anything about hell. Secondly, the second surprise you get is that when you turn to the New Testament, you find there's hardly anything at all about hell in the epistles, and absolutely nothing in Paul. And again there are those who would like to caricature Paul, and pretend that he took the lovely, simple, delightful religion of Jesus, and added all kinds of strict Jewish rules and regulations, that Paul was the kind of man who liked to dangle people over the pit and make it hard and tough. Well Paul doesn't say anything at all about hell. Nothing at all. I find that very surprising. So where do we get the doctrine of hell? Well here comes your biggest surprise. The answer is primarily from the lips of Jesus. And if you cut out what Jesus said, there are only eight other references to it. Two in the Acts, four in Revelation, one in Peter, and one in James, but none in Paul. Why is this? I believe God has forestalled you. If you want to object, he's gone before you, and he's said this is far too important a matter for you to receive it from the lips of Paul, so that you could then dismiss it. I want you to receive it from the lips of the one person you know to be the very embodiment of love and compassion and mercy. If you're going to receive it from anybody, you'll receive it from him, you'll receive it from my son, but it comes from Jesus. Just imagine if all the teaching on hell in the Bible was coming from the lips of Jeremiah and Paul, what people would say. But it doesn't. Primarily it comes from the lips of Jesus. Do you remember how Jesus said once, if it were not so, I would have told you. I want to ask you a question. Is he the truth, or is he not the truth? Is he Lord of your mind, or is he not Lord of your mind? If he's Lord of your mind, then you accept what he says whether you like it or not. In fact, I'll go on to say, the real test of whether he's Lord of your mind is whether you accept what he says when you don't like what he says. But if you can't accept what he says when you don't like it, then he isn't Lord of your mind, you are. And in that sense, he is not Lord of all. My own mind, and I assure you, my own temperament, find it very hard to accept this doctrine. But Jesus' mind must be more logical than mine. And he is the one I accept as Lord of my mind. Call it mental suicide if you like, I don't care. I call it submission. The submission of my mental faculties to the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe the only way to truth is to listen to the truth. And Jesus is the truth. So let's just take a, well, one or two examples of what Jesus said. Turn with me if you will, do turn if you've got your Bibles, to Matthew chapter 10 and verse 28. Matthew chapter 10 and verse 28. I've already read one passage from Matthew but we turn to another one now. Matthew chapter 10 and verse 28. Jesus is speaking and he says, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. And if you look down the bottom you've probably got Greek Gehenna. Gehenna. Let's take it backwards. Just look at that verse. Take it backwards. Jesus uses the word Gehenna. If you've been to Israel you'll have seen this place. The valley of Gehenna, or Hinnom, is a deep dark valley that runs around two sides of Jerusalem. And there are parts of that valley that the sun never reaches. It's an interesting place. It started off as the summer residence of the kings of Israel because it was cool. The sun didn't get there. Then it became a place of culture and music. Then it became a place of pagan worship and occult practices. So finally it became such a depraved place that people were killing and burning their children to these pagan gods in sight of the city of God. Josiah the reforming king of the Old Testament put a stop to all that. He cursed the place. And it became Jerusalem's garbage dump. Whatever wasn't wanted was tossed over the city wall into the valley of Hinnom. Where two things happened. One, worms and maggots ate up everything that was edible. And two, bonfires were kept burning to destroy the rest. By the time of Jesus' day, when a criminal was executed, his body was taken down from the cross and tossed in that valley. And if Joseph of Arimathea hadn't interfered, Jesus' body would have been tossed in that valley. It was there that Judas Iscariot hanged himself. It was a place of burning. A place associated with worms and sin and crime and darkness and occult and the devil. Gehenna. Jesus talks about both soul and body. See that? He is speaking about after the resurrection, when body and soul are reunited. He's saying there's something worse than having someone kill your body here on earth. And that's ultimately when body and soul are reunited, there's a person who can destroy both. You must fear him. Notice the word destroy. It's an interesting word. It doesn't mean to make extinct. It doesn't mean that. It means something that's ruined or wasted or perished. Something that is no longer of any use for the purpose for which it was created. The word is used of the withered wineskin into which fresh wine is poured. And the wineskin is perished and it can't stand the force of the new wine. It's perished. The word is used in John 3.16 where Jesus said God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, should not be rendered useless for the purpose for which it was made. That's what the word means here. It's the word perish. So Jesus who has the power to mend broken lives, talks about lives that are perishing. And next I ask you to notice the word him. Do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. He's not talking about the devil. The devil is one of those who is going to be destroyed. He's talking about God. Fear God. Notice the word fear. If fear is always psychologically bad for you, why are you told to fear? The reason is that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And if you do not fear God then I for one do not believe that you really understand what it is to love God. Until you recognise that God has every right to banish you to an eternity without his presence, you will never really love him for what he has done to invite you into his presence. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Well we might like to look up Mark 9, 47, 48, Matthew 25, not now. The parable of the sheep and goats. Luke 13 verse 28. Cross reference you'll find so many places where Jesus talks about this subject. Listen, even though Jesus knew the love of God better than any and exercised that love in his own life and died to bring that love to men, he still too taught this truth as being compatible with the holy love of God. I don't like it, but I've surrendered my reason to Jesus Christ and he's Lord, or I want him to be Lord of that area of my life as well as every other. In conclusion, what about this matter practically? Practically. Does it make any difference anyway? Is it all academic? Is this just a lecture? Does it make much difference? Can't you just go on living your life and Derek you believe in this and I'll believe in something different? Listen, it makes a tremendous amount of difference. If you're a believer it makes a difference. If you're a believer and you accept what scripture says, what Jesus says about this, then you have a clear responsibility to share the message of Christ with those who are lost in order that the opportunity to be found of the Lord Jesus may be granted to them. And if you are an unbeliever, it makes an enormous difference too. If you're an unbeliever, I beg you to come to Christ. I don't care whether you're 70 or 17, I beg you to come to Christ, not simply because Jesus Christ gave his body and his blood for you to die in your place. And that's the primary thing, but also my secondary motive for begging you to come to Christ is that I don't like the idea of you going to an eternity without Christ, which is what hell really is. What takes a man to hell? The way people talk, you think the only people to be found there will be Adolf Hitler and one or two others. You walk around the cemetery and you say with one little boy, where are all the bad people buried? Because everybody seems to be wonderful. How does a man get to hell? What takes him there? According to the proverb, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I'll become a Christian when I've had my fill. Dr A.T. Pearson, Minister in the United States, tells that in his congregation he had a famous judge who wasn't a Christian, but his wife was. He was in church with her one night and he came under conviction and was seriously thinking about becoming a Christian. He was responsible for putting a bill through the legislature, which he knew he couldn't vote for if he became a Christian. So it was either the bill and his career, or become a Christian. And this is what he said, I took it down, where is it? He said, I'll become a Christian after the bill's gone through. But he never did. He lived another 20 years and died no nearer to Christ. The opportunity came and he passed it by. That's how a man goes to hell. It's paved with good intentions. How does a man escape hell? Well, you come to the place where hell becomes most real. Where does hell become most real? You come to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there you receive Christ as your Saviour. What terrible thing was it that made it necessary for the blood of the Son of God to be shed for us? What terrible thing was it that made Jesus cry out in agony and anguish, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? If you want to know what hell's like, you listen to Jesus. His Father turns his face away and Jesus endures what it means to be without the presence of God. He endured hell itself. The cross is the greatest proof of God's love of the sinner and God's hatred of sin. If you don't believe in hell, then answer me a question sometime, will you? And it's this, why did Jesus have to go through all that for you and for me? I'd love to know. There's an old destiny and there's a new destiny. Jesus, for Christians, for me, has dealt with the old destiny. And I now have a new destiny. I'm bound for heaven, which is our final study in this series and comes up next Sunday evening. Let's pray together. Father, I simply ask that you will help each one of us here to meditate upon your words. I pray that the words of the preacher, which are simply of the preacher, may be forgotten. And what is of you and is a true reflection of the word of life which you've given to us, may be imprinted upon our minds and may bear fruit in our lives to your glory. Particularly, I pray that you will motivate each and every one of us to have compression on those who are lost, that we may have a heart to introduce them to Christ, that they may be found. Hear our prayer, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.