The Truth about Hell - Part B

Hell is an eternal place, but the best news of all is the last fact. Hell is an avoidable place. You don't have to go there. I don't want you to sit here and go, man, hell. I guess that's where I'm going. You don't have to go there. Don't go there.

People say the word hell in daily conversations without any thought of the somberness of the place. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares important truths you need to know about hell. But first, if you want to stay up to date on the latest from this ministry and from Skip, we invite you to follow Skip on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

You'll find important announcements and great encouragement from Skip. That's at Skip Heitzig, at Skip, H-E-I-T-Z-I-G. Now, we're in Matthew chapter 25 as we dive into our study with Skip Heitzig. The great white throne judgment. It is the judgment by God of all unbelievers, all unbelievers. It is a courtroom scene, but it's very different than an earthly court because here in Revelation 20, there's no debate about guilt. There is a prosecution, but no defense. There will be a judge, but no jury. There will be a sentence, but no appeal. And there is a punishment, but no parole. And something you need to know, it will be fair.

It will be fair. I know it will be fair because verse 12 says books were opened. So the idea behind that is a full inventory of a person's life is kept. Books were open.

Now, I don't know exactly what's in the books. Perhaps a record of every thought, every word, every deed. Jesus did say, if you remember, that every idle word men speak, they will give an account for in the day of judgment.

Another book may be a record of all the times that person had an opportunity to give their life to Christ. Every time they heard the gospel, but refused. Remember that time your mom told you this? Remember the time you heard that in church?

Remember that opportunity? And that all is recorded, perhaps. One thing for sure, there's only one person behind the bench. This is not a committee.

He isn't voted in or out. There's only one person who is the judge, one person presiding over this judgment, and it's the only one qualified to preside over this judgment. He is qualified because he alone has certain attributes that nobody else has.

He is qualified because he has certain attributes that nobody else has. Attributes we have covered in this series on doctrine. One of the attributes is the attribute of omniscience. God knows everything. That means he knows every thought, every action, every motive of every single person. Also, he has the attribute of omnipresence.

He's everywhere present in the totality of his being, which means God alone is the best eyewitness of every single event in history. So he will be the judge. Buddha will not be the judge. Krishna will not be the judge. Muhammad will not be the judge.

God alone is the judge. So hell is an actual place. It is an intentional place.

There's a third fact, and it gets worse before it gets better. Hell is a painful place. Back to our text in Matthew 25, you'll notice in verse 31 the word fire, 41, the word fire, everlasting fire.

You'll also notice in verse 46 the word punishment. You have a couple descriptive words that talk about what that experience will be like. Fire doesn't sound fun. Punishment doesn't sound fun.

Sounds painful to me. You know that I've had people laugh at me when I bring up the idea of hell, especially in relationship to them? They go, oh, hell, I'm looking forward to hell. I've had people tell me that. I'm looking forward to hell.

Well, why is that, sir? Because all my friends are going to be in hell. Okay, you need new friends, but it's no good reason for you to go. Now you go, no, no, all my friends are going to be in hell, and we're going to party. You've ever heard that? That's where all the fun is, hell. Dumb, bad, bad idea.

Scrap that idea. Revelation 14 describes it as they will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured out full strength into the cup of His wrath. And it says they will be tormented, and there is no rest day or night. Does that sound like a party to you? Does that sound like a party you want to go to?

No. Did you know that seven times when Jesus Christ spoke of hell, He spoke of it this way, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Or sometimes there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Anybody ever hit their thumb with a hammer like I have?

Okay, so really you guys need to get hammers out and actually use them sometime then. So I've done that, and when I do that, I have a physical reaction. I usually, I don't cuss, but I will squeeze my eyes shut, and I will gnash with my teeth. My teeth will grind, because it's painful. It's my reaction to pain. Weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There's something about that gnashing of teeth. It could result in pain. It could result in pain.

It could result in pain. It could refer to a person's anger. It could even refer to the idea of gnashing of the teeth of a person with a fist up to God, still angry at him. Because in Acts chapter 7, when Stephen shared the truth of the gospel, it says, and the people that heard him were cut to the heart and at him with their teeth.

It's like they're so mad at this believer for telling them the truth of the gospel. So it could be in hell the idea of the gnashing of teeth is an anger, a hatred, a refusal to repent forever. So it's a painful place. Now I'd like you to turn. I had you mark out Luke chapter 16. I think I told you that. Did I not? Okay, good.

I get my services mixed up, to be honest with you. I don't know if I said Luke 16, this one or last one, but Luke 16. So in Luke chapter 16, Jesus tells a story of the rich man in Lazarus. It is not a parable. Some people call it the parable of the rich man in Lazarus. It's a story, not a parable. And you can usually tell a parable. Here's the telltale sign of a parable. Jesus spoke a parable unto them and said, so it introduces it by saying it's a parable. Or he will say the kingdom of heaven is like, so he's using that as an analogy. But this is no parable.

It's a story. He probably knew about this event. In verse 19, there was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.

That is not a party I want to be a part of. Among other things, this story shows us that at the moment of death, a person is conscious, is aware, awake, can feel, can somehow communicate, and in this case, have immediate torment. And the pain can't just be confined to physical pain.

It has to be also the pain of shame, the pain of failure, the pain of regret, the pain of remorse, because there's no second chance. So hell is an actual place, an intentional place. Hell is a painful place. It keeps getting worse.

It'll get better, but it gets worse. Hell is an eternal place. This is where it gets sticky with some people, and I'll share that in a minute, but look at verse 41.

It says, he will say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you curse, into the, what's the word? Everlasting fire. And what does everlasting mean? It means it lasts forever. It is everlasting. And then verse 46, and these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Everlasting means it keeps going and going and going. It's perpetual. Now this is, as I mentioned, the real sticky part about hell, because somebody will hear this, and I've heard this many times, people say, well, wait a minute, when is enough enough? When is enough punishment enough? I mean, if sins are committed in a finite realm, how can the punishment be infinite?

Keep going and going and going and going. The only reason we would ask that is because we do not understand how offensive sin is to a perfectly holy God. See, we can't figure that out.

Why is that? It's not that bad to you, but to a holy God, that is so utterly offensive. And if you want to know about what sin can do, forget judgment for a minute, forget hell for a minute, look at the cross. That's what sin did. That's what God thought about sin. It's so bad that His Son got that kind of punishment on a cross, darkness and pain and being cut off from the Father. So because it is hard to understand and come to grips with the eternality of hell, people have come up with all sorts of other beliefs to make it better.

Let me tell you about a few of them. One is called universalism. Universalism is the belief that nobody goes to hell, everybody goes to heaven. Doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what you do, doesn't matter what you believe in. Everybody will eventually go to heaven. That's called universalism. Nobody's lost, everybody's saved. I'd love to believe that.

And I would believe that if I didn't have this book that tells me otherwise. But universalism is everybody's goes to heaven, nobody goes to hell. And they base that on John chapter 12, verse 32, where Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. All men, all men, all men, all men and women, everybody. I'll draw all men to myself.

If I die on a cross, I'll draw everybody to myself. Well, I have a couple problems with that. Problem number one is named Adolf Hitler. You mean to tell me that Adolf Hitler gets to go to heaven, and I got to look at his mug in heaven, and God's sitting there going, yeah, well, you know, everybody makes mistakes, but we're all here.

I have a problem with justice not being meted out. I have a problem with Joseph Stalin being in heaven. I have a problem with Paul Pott being in heaven. Now, if they received Christ, that's a different issue. But if they received Christ, that's a different issue.

But last time I checked, that didn't happen. When Jesus said I'll draw all men to myself, he is not guaranteeing salvation. He is simply guaranteeing the availability of salvation to all.

If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But guess what? A lot of people perish, and they don't come to repentance. They don't make that choice. That's one, universalism. Here's another way that people deal with this, and that is called annihilationism. Annihilationism, also called conditional immortality, simply means that only the righteous will be resurrected. The wicked will just be annihilated. They will cease to exist. They won't have eternal consciousness.

They'll just be put out as though they never existed in the first place. Seventh-day Adventists believe in that. Jehovah Witnesses believe in that. It is a cultic belief. It is not a New Testament belief. Unfortunately, now some so-called evangelicals say they believe in that. Annihilationism. Another way of dealing with this is called purgation or purgatory. It is a Catholic doctrine that came to the Catholic Church in recent times, in the 16th century.

In terms of world history, that's still recent. It was at the Council of Trent. It does not come from the Bible. Even Catholic theologians will tell you they can't find this in our Bible.

So they resort to a book called 2 Maccabees, Chapter 12, which they have included in their canon of Scripture. There's one kind of offside reference that could mean—anyway, they get purgatory from that idea. The idea is that God will forgive confessed sins, but unconfessed sins, you've got to burn those off in purgatory. And it could take decades. It could take hundreds of years. You will suffer flame and pain, and then you get purified and you get your ticket and you go to heaven.

Okay, all that aside, let's just cut to the chase. Verse 46, notice this. And these will go away into everlasting punishment. The word everlasting is the word in Greek, eionios. Anybody who knows Greek will tell you that means forever and ever and ever, age upon age, perpetual never-stopping, eionios. These will go away into everlasting punishment.

Now, keep reading. But the righteous into what? Eternal life. Same exact word, eionios.

Eionios punishment, eionios life. What that tells us is this. If hell is not eternal, then heaven is not eternal. If heaven is eternal, then hell is also eternal, from the same verse. Now, one author I read even suggests that unbelievers in hell will perhaps go on sinning perpetually and also receiving punishment for their sin as they do that, but never repent.

And they take this from Revelation 20 to 11. Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong. Let him who is vile continue to be vile. Let him who does right continue to do right. Let him who is holy continue to be holy. I don't know, but I do know hell is an eternal place.

But, but the best news of all is the last fact. Hell is an avoidable place. You don't have to go there. I don't want you to sit here and go, man, hell. I guess that's where I'm going. You don't have to go there. Don't go there.

I hope most of you aren't saying that. It's an avoidable place. The context of chapter 25 is about choices that people make. Here you have a shepherd who's separating sheep from goats based upon choices that the sheep and goats have made. The sheep have chosen to do certain things.

The goats have chosen not to do certain things. When it says, I was in prison, I was hungry, and he lists all of these good deeds. Don't get confused. The good works mentioned here don't save anybody. They just provide evidence that a person has been saved. This is a separation.

This is a courtroom. The good works are the proof that salvation has occurred. I want you to really get that drilled down. Look at verse 34. The king will say to those on his right hand, come you blessed of my father.

And then what's the next word? Inherit. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you. Did you know inherit is a family term? An inheritance is a gift.

You don't earn it. It's given to you. Your dad or your grandparents give you an inheritance. They pass it on.

They've worked for money or land, but they give it to you free to the next generation. So that's how salvation works. You don't earn eternal life. You inherit eternal life. As a family member, you say, well, how do I get into the family?

Well, that's the catch. To get into this family, you have to be born into it. Jesus said, unless a man is born again, he will never see the kingdom of heaven. He spoke about a second birth.

You were born once, but when you believe in Christ, when you commit your life to him, when you let him take your sin for you and you believe in that as an efficacious event once and for all, you're born again and born into the family of God. Listen, there's only one person that wants you in hell. It's not Jesus. It is Satan. And he's been wanting, it's been his lifelong goal to put you in hell. I think you know that, right? That's his goal for every person that's ever lived is to fill up hell as much as possible. It's called collateral damage in a battle to get as many people to, misery loves company, get as many people as he possibly can with him.

Jesus said, the thief does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. I want to conclude with a little excerpt. There's a great book that came out some years ago called Beyond Death's Door, written by a cardiologist. Dr. Morris Rawlings was professor of medicine at University of Tennessee, cardiologist, heart surgeon, and an atheist, but he had several encounters with patients who died. He resuscitated them and some told about heaven, some told about hell. Now you've heard about people who have had near death experiences and they've seen the bright light and angels and Jesus, right? You've heard that. Nobody writes about hell.

Well, who would buy it? Those books don't sell, but do you know that those experiences actually exist? So Morris Rawlings, after looking at 300 patients who had these experience, said in his book, I am thoroughly convinced there is life after death and there are at least as many people going to hell as going to heaven.

I'm convinced there's a hell and that we must conduct ourselves in such a way as to avoid being sent there at all costs. Duh. Well, here's the turning point for him. He said he was resuscitating a 48-year-old patient in his office who just dropped dead. Cardiac arrest.

He was a mail carrier. And he said when he came back to life, his patient had the worst expression on his face he had ever seen, ever. And the patient said, I am in hell, he cried out.

I am in hell. Here's what this good doctor wrote. Of course, that alone didn't change my thinking, but the fact that this 48-year-old was screaming, I am in hell, keep me out of hell, each time he responded to resuscitation efforts did cause me some concern.

That's called understatement. And so he said, the patient who was being resuscitated asked the doctor, he said, pray for me. Now, here's what Dr. Rawlings said. He goes, not only am I an atheist, that guy was an atheist. And he said, pray for me. So he said, he prayed some fake prayer as an atheist to a God he didn't believe existed. But he said, after this was all over, I realized what really happened.

It was a double conversion. Not only had this make-believe prayer converted this atheist mailman, it also converted this atheist doctor that was working on him. Dr. Rawlings became a believer. His son serves as an elder in a church today in Tennessee. You know, there is a formula I have shared with you over the years.

It's good to bring it up right now as we close. Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once.

That's the formula. If you're born once, you will die twice. If you're born twice, you'll only die once. If you're born once physically, you'll die physically and spiritually. But if you're born physically and born spiritually, born again, you'll only die once. And if the Lord comes back, you won't die at all. But even if you die, like Jesus said, whoever believes in me will live, will live. I am the resurrection and the life. Great promise.

That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series 2020. Right now, we want to share about a resource that will help you cultivate an enduring faith through every season of life. Women play a huge role in the biblical narrative. From Eve to Esther to Bathsheba to Priscilla, we find stories of faith and failings. Lenya Heitzig explores four queens of the Bible in her new teaching series. Here's where we see Bernice sitting right by his side. Unfortunately, Bernice is going to go with the flow, succumb to peer pressure, and remain silent. Hear more from Lenya as she explores four different queens in scripture.

And when you give $35 or more today, we'll send you the Queens of the Bible collection of teachings as our way of saying thank you. Peer pressure is a powerful thing. The crowd was watching. Bernice was watching.

Agrippa was watching. And you know you do stupid things in peer pressure. You'll say you don't like a movie you really like because everybody else says they don't like it. Whatever it is, you'll succumb to the peer pressure. Get your copy of these special teachings.

Visit connectwithskip.com slash offer to give online securely today or call 800-922-1888. Tune in tomorrow as Skip Heitzig shares the life transforming hope you can experience by understanding the full weight of the gospel. We are given a righteousness by our faith. The great summary statement for the entire book can be found in chapter 1 verse 16 and 17 where he says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.