Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, October 16. Does the reality of an eternal place of torment make you uncomfortable? Is it hard to reconcile that with God's love? If you wonder about questions like these, listen closely for the unchanging truth about hell. Here are the facts about hell and the reality that God is the God of justice.
Often times, when they bring up the fact that he's a God of justice, what they do not realize is that is the one attribute of God that condemns a man because he is a God of justice. All the rationalization in the world will never be able to eliminate hell. Now second aspect of it is that sometimes people say, well all of these characteristics or all of these references rather to hell are all symbolic. Don't you not really mean hell?
Now, my friend, if a word symbolizes something or if a story symbolizes something, you're talking about a description of the real thing. Even if it is only symbolic and it is not simply symbolic, even if it were, that is an attempt to explain something that human words cannot explain the intensity of hell. Now man doesn't want to believe in hell if he's rejected Jesus Christ because he knows if he accepts the biblical fact of hell, what his future's going to hold. So the first thing a lost man wants to do is to eliminate certain passages of scripture.
And I don't blame him. I would do the same thing if I did not intend to give my heart to Christ. There's certain passages, and I could name several of them right quickly, that I would eliminate. One of them being that the only way to get to God is through Jesus Christ. I'd eliminate part of John 14. I'd eliminate Revelation 20. And I could just go through the scriptures telling you parts of the Bible that I would eliminate. The only problem is that that book from cover to cover is the unfolding revelation of the mind of God, and you don't have all of his mind if you only have half the book. So therefore, if a man wants the truth, he's got to take it from Genesis to Revelation. It's interesting in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, it took seven Hebrew words to talk about the beginning of everything.
It takes 10 Greek words in this 20th chapter to describe the end of all of the wickedness upon this earth. When he says in this 14th verse, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now, if you think for just the moment why there is a hell, the nature of sin demands that there is.
And so all the excuses and all the reasonings and all the rationalizations of man will never eliminate the fact that God is just and has decreed the punishment of wickedness and evil and sin in this life. And that men do not escape judgment, and that men cannot escape the hand of God who have rejected and resisted his spirit. And my friend, if you're a lost man, and you've wondered why is the churches spend their time the way they do, people go to church on Sunday morning, they go to church on Sunday night, they come again on Wednesday night, and they spend millions of dollars trying to evangelize the world.
What in the world are those folks up to? I'll tell you what we're up to. We're up to telling you that God loves you with all of his heart. We're up to telling you that Jesus Christ went to the cross that you might be saved. We're up to telling you that you can have a clean conscience, that you can have a transparent spirit, that your name can be written in the Lamb's book of life and that you can know tonight whatever happens to you when you die, you're going to the presence of God.
We believe that's worth spending our time, our talent, our energies, our gifts, and our millions to tell you. We don't want you to spend eternity in hell. And my friend, the reason we do that is because we care.
That's the reason. And the lost man who argues with me about putting the pressure on him about receiving Jesus Christ and wants to know why I want to spread my religion, he says to everybody, you know what I tell him? I say, listen, dear brother, I'm not trying to spread religion. I'm just following orders. He says, what do you mean following orders? I have a commission.
He says, what do you mean you have a commission? I simply say I'm under a mandate from the Lord Jesus Christ at any cost to get the gospel to you because he loves you and because I care. And I've never seen a lost man yet who deep in his heart did not have to feel something when you tell him, brother, I'm just doing this because I'm under orders and because I love you.
I want something great to happen to your life. I believe the world is waiting for people who are persuaded, people who are convinced, people who are excited, people who are enthusiastic, people in whose life the spirit of God is evident. I believe the world is waiting and looking and listening for somebody to say to them, listen, dear brother, I have what you need and God has provided everything that you need and you can have it for the believer.
And how many people have walked this aisle in the past few years who've said, well, I heard so and so and I heard a testimony and it's been years ago or six months ago or three months ago or two weeks ago and God begins to gel in their heart the truth of the gospel. My friend, the Bible says there is a hell. And he describes in these two verses and other passages which we'll refer to what that's all about. Now, when you and I think of death, there is a physical death. That is the death that man dies physically here on earth. We think of another death and that is a man who's rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if you'll turn to Ephesians just for a moment and look in that second chapter. And you'll notice how Paul described a person living in sin, having rejected God. He says, and you, verse one, hath he quickened, hath he made alive.
Something tremendous supernatural has happened. You have he quickened, you have he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. So really there are three deaths. There is physical death, there is spiritual death, and then as the Bible calls the second and final death, that is the death that man begins to die and never ceases to die. He says it is an unceasing death. It is an everlasting death.
It is an eternal death. Man never ceases to die once he experiences the second death of Revelation chapter 20. All right, back to Luke 16, because what we're going to describe here is not some parable. This is exactly what Jesus saw and is describing to those of his day.
Now, if you'll notice several things. In verse 19 of Luke 16, he says, a certain rich man clothed in purple and fine linen fared sumptuously every day and very wealthy. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus laid at his gate full of sores, desiring to be fed from the rich man's table, just the crumbs is all he wanted.
Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores, the only friends he had. Came to pass that the beggar died, carried away by the angels in Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. He wasn't carried to Abraham's bosom, he died and was buried and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments and seeth Abraham afar off, Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. Abraham said, son, remember, now watch these key words. Remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things, likewise, Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted, thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, fixed by God, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou would send him to my father's house, send somebody to my home, for I have five brothers that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. He said, no, father Abraham. But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And notice what he says. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Do you know what he's saying?
People today who are looking for the supernatural, people who are looking today for a miracle to say, if I could see a miracle, I would believe. God says, no, you won't. If you won't believe Moses and the prophets, if you will not listen to them unfold the scrolls of the prophecies of God, if you will not hear God's men, you will not hear those even if they rose from the dead.
And he sent him not to his brother's house. I'm going to tell you something, dear brother, when you read the scriptures concerning God's judgment, how many times does he mention torment in that passage? Now here's what I want you to notice. Here is a description of what it's like to go to hell. Now listen, if you notice first of all, he says it is going to be a place of consciousness which eliminates altogether the idea of annihilation. Annihilation says, bang, that's it, it's just like a dog dying, he disintegrates and that's the end of it.
Not for a person. Consciousness, that is he is aware of what's going on. The second thing I want you to notice, it is a place of pain. How many times does he say, I'm tormented in this flame. He says, don't let my brethren come to this place of torment. Tormented, that is he's suffering pain.
A man who is unconscious feels no pain. Because he is aware of the pain of his suffering. It is a place of consciousness, it is a place of pain, it is a place of suffering. He says, remember, thou in thy lifetime had the good things and Lazarus nothing. But now he is comforted and thou art tormented.
You are punished because of your disobedience and rebellion. It is a place of remembrance. What did God say to him? He said, remember thou in thy lifetime. One of the worst things about being separated from God for eternity is for a man to have to remember every time he ever had an opportunity to give his heart to Jesus. Forever he's going to remember, time after time and prayer after prayer, invitation after invitation. He had the opportunity to change his eternal destiny and he would not. And I want to say to you, dear brother, every time we give an invitation is God's call and God's plea and God's mercy to you to make the difference in your life as one of these days you die and forever it is sealed forever you're separated from God. Because the invitation is for men to change the eternal destiny of their soul.
We're not coming to church just to play, not coming to church just to listen to sermons, but coming to church to hear God speak and move, penetrate my hard heart and crested heart and covered soul with all the fake and the counterfeit that one picks up in a week's time. We're talking about eternal things. It is a place of remembrance. And if you'll notice, it is not only that, it is a place of separation.
What did he say? He said to the rich man, thou in thy lifetime, you had many things. You had all the wealth of the world and Lazarus had nothing. You were separated then by your social standing, by your status, by your influence, by your affluence. But now you are separated by something far worse. You are separated by God's fixed guff and it is an eternal fix and it'll never change. And he says, no man, once he dies, can ever go from one to the other. And my friend, that eliminates once and for all any concept of a purgatory, wherein a man can be lost, die without God and somehow work his way up into heaven. One of these days by anything that he does in torment or somebody else does up here on earth. Because you see the one fallacy of that is this, a man who goes to torment with a character that is fixed.
Listen, not only is his place fixed, but his character is fixed. This man wasn't repenting of his sins. He didn't want to see his brothers down there with him because everyone he saw whom he knew would only intensify the pain and the suffering and the knowing at his heart and also intensify the remembrance of how things could have been. Now that's torment. And he says it is a place of separation and it is a place where no man enters the door and leaves the door.
He's in, the door is locked and it's once and for all. He says, back to Revelation chapter 20 now, he says in death and hell, death, that's the end of death, Hades, torment, that's the end of that because men are judged and cast as it were in the lake of fire, this is the second death. Now if you go back to Matthew chapter 25, just stay with me, I'll teach you to find some of these right quick. Matthew 25 verse 30, he says, Jesus still speaking, cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now some people have a problem, they say, well, how in the world can you have a lake of fire and outer darkness at the same time? Well, that's no problem with God and it is exactly what it says. You mean to tell me that you believe it's going to be literal fire?
Now I can't tell you what kind of fire it's going to be, but I can tell you this. Too many times he said fire not to have meant it. Too many times he said torment not to have meant it. Too many times he said separation not to have meant it.
Too many times he talked about pain not to have meant it. He says that the lake of fire is going to be a place of separation and my friend, God makes it too clear. He makes it far too clear to question what he meant, that a man who dies without God, you know what he does? He chooses to bet his eternity on his self-righteousness, watch that. A man who dies without God, now watch this carefully, the man who dies without Jesus Christ is betting he's gambling. Is what he's saying. He says, I heard what you said preacher, know what the Bible says about that, but I'm going to gamble on the fact that what I've done in my life and as good as I've been and the evil I've avoided, I'm going to gamble my eternity on the fact that when God looks at what I've done, he's going to accept me.
And I want to tell you dear friend, that could never be. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. He says the righteousnesses of man are as filthy rags, dirty, oily, greasy, stinking, rotten, filthy rags in the sight of God and can you imagine a holy, perfect God handling filthy, dirty, nasty, stinking rags. He says that's what our righteousness is going to be like. The only way for you to get to heaven dear brother and to avoid all of that is to tell the Lord Jesus Christ tonight that you believe that he's God's son and that you believe his death on the cross was adequate and sufficient payment for you and by faith tonight you're accepting him as your savior for the forgiveness of your sin.
You're claiming tonight what he's done for you and you're asking him to come into your life and you're turning your life over to him. When a man dies without Christ, he seals himself off from God forever. When a man dies in Jesus Christ, he seals himself to Christ for eternity.
Didn't go to hell under any circumstance. Now there are some decisions you may be able to waver over, but let me ask you this. Don't you really believe that one of these days you're going to die?
It's always far off in our thinking. It's always for somebody else, but don't you really know in your heart one of these days you're going to die? I mean die. And what I want to ask you is when you do, which way are you going?
I want to tell you something else. All the preaching in the world can't preach you into heaven once you're dead. All the songs, all the praying, all the preaching, all the beautiful words, all the commendations of all the things you've ever done, once your heart beats that last time, eternity is sealed for you and no kind of preaching and praying and singing and funeral, no kind of casket, no kind of vault, no kind of elaborate expense on you can make one difference in the world. And what I'm asking you my friend tonight is this. We're talking about eternity. We're talking about everlasting life or death. And I'm asking you my dear brother, if you're not sure of that, would you not agree that the most important decision in your life right now is to seal forever the fact that you're going to spend eternity with Him? Amen.
