The Furnace of Fire B

Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Maybe you've wondered how a loving God could send anyone to hell. You might have even met people who say they can't embrace Christianity specifically because they find the thought of God sending people to hell repulsive. So how direct should Christians be when talking about this doctrine? What does the Bible actually say about hell?

And most important, how do you escape from going there? John MacArthur digs into these often neglected issues as he focuses your attention on the seriousness of eternity and the gospel God calls you to preach. It's part of his look at the parables of the kingdom.

And now here's John. Take your Bible and turn with me to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13 verses 47 through 52. We come to the last of seven parables given by our Lord Jesus Christ in this 13th chapter.

And this one is the climax. This particular parable is a parable about judgment. It is a parable about hell. And the keynote of the parable is found in verse 50, the furnace of fire where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Now this same truth was taught in this parable of the wheat and the tares. As you can go back to verse 41 and see, the Son of Man shall send His angels and they'll gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them who do iniquity and they shall be cast into a furnace of fire where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Look at verse 49. So shall it be at the end of the age. When man's day is over and Jesus returns to set up His glorious kingdom, then comes the judgment.

Now this is not a technical, chronological, eschatological layout. This is not trying to pinpoint every element of judgment every time and place and are we talking about the great white throne or the sheep and the goats or the bemasy judgment or whatever. This is just a general statement that all in the world are caught ultimately in the net of judgment to be separated in the end. And you notice again, would you please, in verse 49 that the angels are the executioners? The angels are the separators, just as we saw in verse 41. Just as we see in Matthew 24, the angels come with the Lord to act out judgment.

Just as we see in Matthew 25, just as we see repeatedly in Revelation, particularly chapter 14, the angels are the agents of God's judgment. So while the kingdom may for a while tolerate good and evil growing together, the separation is moving closer and closer all the time. Jesus spoke of this same thing in Matthew chapter 25 when He said in verse 31, the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him. Then shall He sit on the throne of His glory. And what will He do when He comes? It says, and before Him shall He gather all the nations and He shall separate one from another.

Separation. And He'll say to them on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And He'll say to them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Now what is this furnace of fire? What is hell? Let me give you four truths about hell that I think will answer that question. Number one, hell is a place of unrelieved torment. It is a place of unrelieved torment. It is a place of a horrible misery.

A horrible misery. And the Bible defines it as darkness, outer darkness. That is deep pit darkness. Darkness that's way out from the light. Impenetrable darkness. Darkness that closes in. And it is darkness without the hope of light forever. Have you ever been in the darkness and longed for the daylight?

Have you ever been in the darkness and longed for someone to turn a light on? To be in that encroaching, encompassing, moving kind of darkness and know that for all the eons of eternity you will never see light is how our Lord describes hell. Unrelieved darkness forever with no hope of the light, no hope of the dawn. And the Bible also says it is a fire. Now it is not a fire that we would know as fire to burn something in this world. But fire is God's way of describing it because it is a tortuous, unrelieved kind of fire.

More terrible than any fire that we would ever know. But fire describes the torment of the damned. Blackness describes the torment of the damned.

No light, no light ever, ever. No relief from the suffering, the agony and the pain forever. And there's only two times in all of Scripture that we have any insight into how people respond to hell.

The one is the Lord's parable in Luke 16 where He says the man cried out in torment and said, Cool my tongue for I'm tormented in this flame. And the other is that constant statement of our Lord there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The response to hell is not fun. It is weeping, that's crying, wailing, screaming and grinding of teeth in pain.

That's what the Bible says. That's hell. It is a place of unrelieved torment. Secondly, it is a place of unrelieved torment for both body and soul.

For both body and soul. Soul being the inner part. When a person dies, their soul goes out of the presence of God into the torment of hell. It may not be the full final lake of fire that comes after the judgment and the great white throne for that needs a transcendent body to endure it.

But it is a torment just as well as illustrated by the rich man who in hell was tormented. When a person dies now, their soul descends into that torment. In the future, there will be a resurrection of the bodies of the damned. They will be given a transcendent body that will then go into a lake of fire. It will be a body not like the body we have now.

It will be a very different one. They will be resurrected just like we will as Christians. We will be resurrected because this body could never live eternally in heaven, right? We have to have a transcendent body, a glorified body, a different body and so to the damned. And they will be raised, John 5, they will be raised in new bodies for the single purpose of being punished forever in those bodies. That's what the Bible says.

Tormented forever. They have to have a body to fit that eternal torment. And that's why Jesus in Matthew 10 28 said, Fear not them that can destroy the body, but fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. You see, hell is soul and body. Some people think it's just bad memories.

No, it isn't just bad memories. It isn't just the inner thinking processes. It is that body as well. Transcendent, eternal bodies greater than anything we have on this earth are going to be given to the damned so that they can suffer in those bodies forever. And that's the only reason that they'll have those bodies. With the present body, man couldn't endure hell.

The body that we have now would be consumed in a moment. So as God fits the redeemed with new bodies for heaven, He fits the damned with new bodies for hell. We know a little about them. From two things the Lord said. He said, first of all, the worm dieth not.

Now what did He mean by that? When a body goes into the grave and to decay, worms descend into that body and they begin to consume that body and the worms will die when the food is gone. So once the body is consumed, the worms die. But in hell the worms never die because the body though it is continually being consumed is never consumed.

So the worm never dies. In other words, the Lord was saying the unrelieved torment of body goes on and on. And it says also the fire is not quenched. Now a fire always goes out when the fuel is gone. But the fuel will never be gone.

Though the burning goes on, the fuel is never consumed. And so you have unrelieved torment of body and soul. And that brings me to the third thought. You have in hell a place of unrelieved torment of body and soul in varying degrees.

In varying degrees. In other words, for some people hell will be worse than others. For all who are there it will be horrible. It will be ultimate suffering.

There will be no relief for that. But there will be even more severe degrees of suffering for some. It says in Hebrews 10 of how much more severe punishment shall they be thought worthy who have trodden underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing. People who have stepped on Jesus Christ, who have rejected His cross will know a greater hell than those who have not. There will be degrees, just as there will be degrees of reward in heaven. We saw that also I think in Matthew chapter 11 when it said it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for you. In other words, that's only relative. It isn't going to be tolerable for anyone, but it will appear to be more tolerable for them than for you because of what you've experienced. You had Jesus Christ in your city.

They didn't. You rejected Him with more light. Therefore, hell will be more severe for you. And then you have, of course, that incredible parable in Luke 12 where the Lord says to the servant who knew and didn't do right many stripes, to the servant who didn't know and didn't do right a few stripes. So hell will be unrelieved torment of body and soul in varying degrees. But John Gerstner says hell will have such severe degrees that a sinner were he able would give the whole world if his sins could be one less.

And fourthly, hell is a place of unrelieved torment for body and soul in varying degrees endlessly. Endlessly. The worm never dies. The fire never goes out.

The light never breaks. The sweet relief of death never comes. Endlessly. The only reason or the only way in which we in this life can even make it through trials and pain and suffering and disease is because we believe there'll be an end to it.

But they won't have that. You can imagine the resultant insanity that will come. And you say, are you sure it's everlasting? It's just as everlasting as heaven is because in the same verse the Lord used the same terms. Matthew 25, 46, these shall go away into everlasting punishment, the righteous into everlasting life.

Whatever everlasting life is in terms of its length, so is everlasting punishment. That's hell. God never prepared it for people. He prepared it for the devil and his angels. But people choose to go there.

Inconceivable misery. Some people have been in this kind of torment in their souls waiting for that body for thousands of years and they're no closer to the end than they were when they began. No wonder Jesus had to teach this doctrine. You say, well, how do you avoid hell? You avoid hell only by the receiving of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

If you don't appropriate the kingdom, you see, if you don't take the treasure, if you don't purchase the pearl of great price, there's no way out. John Bunyan, that great saint of God, wrote this, in hell thou shalt have none but a company of damned souls with an innumerable company of devils to keep company with thee. While thou art in this world, the very thought of the devils appearing to thee makes thy flesh to tremble and thine hair ready to stand upright on thy head. But oh, what wilt thou do when not only the supposition of the devils appearing, but the real society of all the devils of hell will be with thee howling, roaring, and screeching in such a hideous manner that thou wilt be even at thy wit's end and ready to run stark mad again for anguish and torment.

If after ten thousand years an end should come, there would be comfort. But here is thy misery, here thou must be forever. When thou seest what an innumerable company of howling devils thou art amongst, thou shalt think this again, this is my portion forever. When thou hast been in hell so many thousand years as there are stars in the firmament or drops in the sea or sands on the seashore, yet thou hast to lie there forever. Oh, this one word ever, how will it torment thy soul?

And many are in the net, moving to that inevitable furnace of fire. Now that leads us to the fourth and final point, the proclamation. We saw the picture, the principle, the peril.

The proclamation is in verse 51. Look at it. Jesus said to them, have you understood all these things? Literally the verb understood is put it together. Have you put all this together? Have you got this all put together in your minds? That this form of the kingdom has good and evil going together? That the good is going to continue to permeate, continue to grow, continue to influence? That in order to be a part of the kingdom you have to purchase by giving all you have for all Christ is? Have you put it all together and do you see that it's going to go along like this with good and evil until the end and then comes a final separation?

Do you have it? And they said unto Him, Yes, Lord. Do you understand it? Do you understand it?

And I believe He accepted the correctness of their affirmative answer. Otherwise He couldn't have said what He did in verse 52. He's saying to them, Do you understand this? Why does He say that to them?

Listen to Me. Because back in 938 He saw the world as a harvest moving to judgment. He saw that God would come and put that sickle in the harvest. And He said, Pray with Me that the Father would send forth laborers, send forth people into His harvest to warn men. And so in chapter 10 He called the disciples, didn't He? And in chapters 11 and 12 He trained and prepared the disciples. And in chapter 13 He taught the disciples. And now He says, Are you ready to go out and be those warners in the harvest? Are you ready to go out with the message? And they say, We've got it.

We understand it. And so this is what He says, Then here's what you're like, verse 52. Every grammatus, that's the word that we translate scribe, but it means a learner, a teacher, an interpreter of the law, the Old Testament. Every trained teacher is instructed, and that's from the verb mathetuo, is discipled, concerning the kingdom of heaven.

Now He's discipled them concerning the kingdom, so He's talking about them. Every one of you prepared, trained learners have been discipled in the things of the kingdom of heaven. You're trained now. You're prepared now.

You're prepared now. That's what He's saying. In fact, you could translate it. You are now discipled biblical scholars and teachers. That's what a scribe was, really. He was a student, an interpreter, a transmitter of Scripture. He was known as a theologian, a lawyer, and a teacher and preacher. They were members of the Sanhedrin. They were acknowledged authorities on the Old Testament and tradition. They were called rabbi.

They were influential. And He's saying, I've done the same to you, just like the Jews do with their scribes. I've discipled you. I've made you into discipled biblical scholars and teachers. And now here's what you're like, verse 52. You're like a man who is the head of a house who brings out of his storehouse things new and old.

What does that mean? The Lord says, now I've discipled you. I've trained you.

I've prepared you. I've nurtured you so that you could be the laborers to go into the harvest and warn men. And now you are like a man who is the head of his house. And the man who was the head of his house had a storehouse. And out of that storehouse, he dispensed to people their needs. They needed a certain kind of food. They needed a certain kind of clothing. They needed a certain kind of care. Whatever it was they needed, he dispensed. And he was wise enough to dispense the new and the old, so he didn't always give out the new so that the old ultimately became useless. It's kind of like the leftovers, you know.

Once a week you're going to get them because if you don't get them, they're going to get thrown away ultimately. And the wise head of a household dispenses the old with the new in balance being a steward of everything that he possesses. And the Lord says, this is what you're like. Now you have a storehouse and that storehouse is full with old and new.

What do you mean? They knew the Old Testament and now they had heard the mysteries of the kingdom. They knew the old covenant truth and the dawn of the new covenant was coming upon them. They could not only tell them about the Old Testament and Jewish tradition, but they could dispense the new mysteries of the kingdom, right? They were one up on the scribes.

All the scribes had was the old stuff, the old stuff, the old stuff. But he says, you're the householder who has the old and the new and in perfect balance. God called you and trained you and prepared you to spread it out. It's an interesting verb that's used there. It says that the man who's the head of a house brings forth...it literally means to fling out or to scatter abroad. In other words, you've got all this treasure now, fling it out.

It talks about liberality and richness. There's a lot there now that you've been discipled and now that you are trained biblical scholars and teachers. Fling it out. Give them the old and the new in perfect balance. That which God said in the past and that which is new in the form of the kingdom. Now you see what He's saying to them? This all comes out of chapter 9, verse 38. Men are on their way to hell. Now, I want you to see how the kingdom is going to be, good and evil, but ultimately it's going to end in a separation.

And now you know this. Now dispense it. Proclaim it. Beloved, I submit to you that our message based on this is hell.

That's our message. The world is going to hell. In the parable of Matthew 22, the Lord gives a very similar illustration. In the parable of Matthew 22, the Lord gives a very similar illustration. There's a wedding. Lots of people show up at the wedding, but then the king comes in. And the wedding has gathered everybody, but the king comes in and he sees this guy who doesn't have a wedding garment. He says, what are you doing here? You don't have a wedding garment.

In other words, you got caught in the net of the kingdom, but you're not really one of the real ones. You don't have a wedding garment. And it says the man was speechless. He had nothing to say.

He had no claim to make. And the Lord said, tie him up and throw him into outer darkness. For many are called, few are chosen. Same principle. The kingdom net catches a lot of people, but not all that are caught are going to be part of the kingdom. We have a tremendous responsibility. It's given unto us to know the mysteries of the kingdom, isn't it? But unto them, it isn't given.

We have what they need. And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. If you can't get your heart exercised about the fact that people are dying and going to hell every second you breathe, then there's something wrong, isn't there?

That's the epitome of selfishness. Our Christianity today has lost this somehow. You must tell people the truth.

Well, let's pray. Now we know, Father. Now we know. Have You understood these things? Yes, we understand. Then we are trained biblical scholars and teachers who are to be like the head of a house, flinging out this treasure of both old truth and new, that men might be warned of the harvest, the separation, the net. Father, help us to be faithful, to set aside the frivolity and foolishness of life for what really matters, men's eternal souls. Father, I pray that You'll bring those who need so much to come.

May no one in this place think they can escape the net. May no one think it isn't true. May Your Spirit drive them to embrace Christ, that they may know the joy and bliss of eternal life here and now, and forever in Your presence. You've been listening to John MacArthur here on Grace to You. John is a pastor, author, and it's truth that should motivate all of us to evangelize, to share the good news of salvation with a lost and dying world. The message you just heard is part of John's series of lessons from Matthew 13 titled, The Parables of the Kingdom. John, I can imagine listeners hearing this and wondering how to apply this teaching on the parables of the kingdom to their lives.

So talk about that. What do you hope people will take away from this study? John MacArthur Well, the parables always illustrate some aspect of salvation, and so they are relevant to any believer. Any person who is a believer needs to understand the wide range of spiritual truth coming out of the parables that relate to salvation.

We are redeemed people. They apply to us primarily in helping us understand the world in which we live, helping us to understand, for example, the sower and the soils, the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, the dragnet. These all relate to the issue of evangelism and how we're dealing with hearts, and they describe for us the condition of fallen people and how the Word of God works. They describe for us the church being both wheat and tares and what that means and how it's going to be resolved in the end. So they're more about understanding the nature of the kingdom than they are sort of a practical living.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, I think there are parables that Jesus gives about talents and how you use your talents, but even those are related to salvation. It is how we understand the kingdom. You can't really understand the current form of the kingdom of heaven unless you understand the parables because they describe it and they define it. I would say, just from a personal standpoint, when I came to understand the meaning of the parables, it completely redefined my expectations for ministry.

And that's why I think the Lord gave them. You have to understand what you're going to see happen, and he defines it all in the parables. The Parables of the Kingdom comes in eight CDs or MP3 downloads. The downloads, of course, are free of charge at gty.org. You can order the CDs, get a copy of the book called Parables. You can order all of this today from Grace to You.

Free shipping on U.S. orders. And keep in mind, friend, with the CDs you get more teaching than we have time to air on the radio. Pick up the book titled, Parables, or the audio series, The Parables of the Kingdom, when you contact us today. For the eight CD album, call toll-free 800-55-GRACE or order at our website, gty.org. Our order number again, 800-55-GRACE, and our web address, gty.org.

And if you'd like to download the eight MP3s to your smartphone, they're available free of charge at gty.org. Also, as John mentioned, you can order his book simply titled, Parables. It shows you what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God and your salvation in parables like The Pearl of Great Price, The Four Soils, The Persistent Widow, and many others. The book costs $14.75 and shipping is free. To enrich your understanding of these stories with purpose, pick up a copy of John's book titled, Parables, when you call 800-55-GRACE or you can go to our website, gty.org. That's gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, reminding you to watch Grace to You television this Sunday and then be here next week when John looks at how to sacrifice and give to the Lord with a joyful heart as John launches his study titled, God's Plan for Giving. Don't miss the next 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.