Can Modern Man Believe In Hell? – Part 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. To most people, hell is just a swear word. After all, who really believes in demons, pitchforks, and hot, licking flames? Modern misconceptions of hell have made it a myth to most people. But hell is very real. Once this life is over, unbelievers will face the real terrors of death.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, the last book of the Bible paints two very dissimilar pictures, a glorious heaven and an awful lake of fire. We're finding out what happens one minute after you die. Do you believe hell is a just judgment?

Well, Dave, you know that that's a very difficult question for us as human beings to answer. But of course, I'm going to say yes, because God is just. You know, it was Jonathan Edwards who said, what if the greatness of a sin has to do with the greatness of the being against whom it has been committed? That means that even small sins are really huge sins. And of course, hell is not going to be the same for everyone. It's going to be dependent upon what you did with what you knew.

But here's the point. I've written a book entitled One Minute After You Die. You know, when I read the book of Revelation, you'd think to yourself, there's this glorious picture of heaven, but also hell. Isn't there an intermediate place?

The answer is no. I believe that this book will be a great blessing to you. It'll be a warning to many people. One Minute After You Die. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now let us listen carefully. You've seen their diversity, their common experience, their common destination. Notice what the text says in verse 15. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

That is their destination. Now let's look at verse 10, because I need to make some clarifications here, because Dante has misled us. A number of years ago, I decided to read Dante, his Inferno, discovered that along with biblical teaching, it was confused with all kinds of legends and different medieval superstitions. For example, Dante says that in hell, the demons have pitchforks, and they go around tormenting people. Well, I want you to know today that in hell, Satan will torment no one. He will be the tormented. He will not be the tormentor. If Milton was right when he said that Satan rebelled because he would rather be a king in heaven than a servant on earth, Satan was sadly mistaken because there are no kings in hell. No kings in hell. It says in the last part of verse 10 that he is thrown into the lake of fire and tormented day and night forever and ever. He will hardly be in a place to torment someone else. He who strutted about the earth trying to form his own kingdom will now discover that he is limited to the parameters of hell, the lake of fire, the place of torment. Is there literal fire in hell?

We don't know that, of course, but if it is figurative, it is something that is still distressing, something that still torments. Remember that people will still have their same desires. They will be given indestructible bodies, but they will not be righteous bodies. They will be sinful bodies.

And so here people will continue to crave that which they will never have. Remember in Hades, which is to be distinguished from hell, here it says Hades is thrown into the lake of fire. That's why in a previous message when I spoke on Hades, I think the message was titled The Descent into Gloom, I stressed the fact that no one is in hell today. Hades is to be distinct from that. But here Hades is thrown into the lake of fire when it says the sea gave up the dead which were in it. That's a reference to the bodies of people who drowned centuries ago. God is going to resurrect them and their spirits will be joined.

Those are the spirits of those who were in Hades so that they will be whole people, but the same people they were here on earth. Imagine an alcoholic craving for a drop of alcohol and it's denied him. Imagine those who have cravings and sinful desires that they so abundantly nourished here on earth and they crave these desires and there is no satisfaction.

That would be a kind of burning, would it not be a kind of burning, a kind of fire that lasts forever? As for Satan himself, I like what Milton says about him. He said, Satan speaking says, which way I fly is hell. I myself am hell. He is going to be here tormented for his own wickedness, for his own deceit, for his own rebellion and he will have in his mind the memories of when he was a cheerleader in the ages gone by, worshipping God and now as someone has said, he will never be able to sing again, he will only be able to howl. I can assure you of one thing, his judgment is going to be far greater than that of any human being, far greater because he sinned against more light, he had more opportunities and he was instigating more rebellion.

God is just, God is just. How can we speak of this place, this common destination? It is a place of torment, it is a place of torment commensurate of course with sins committed, people living with their own desires eternally unfulfilled, that in itself is hell.

Secondly, it's a place of abandonment, it's a place of abandonment. It says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9 that Jesus will come and this is now the meek and mild Jesus that nobody seems to be afraid of in our culture. He will come in flaming fire with his holy angels taking judgment on those who know not God and that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who will be punished with everlasting destruction, there is the phrase again, everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power. Another translation says away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power, a place of abandonment. Will those who are in the lake of fire communicate with one another?

We do not know but if the answer is yes, they probably will only increase their own misery. It's a place of abandonment. And then I need to stress the fact that it is a place of forever, a place of eternity. Notice it says that Satan is tormented day and night forever and ever and there's nothing in the Bible to suggest that the lake of fire ever ends. Jesus said it is a place, the fire it is not quenched, it never dies out. Now we come face to face to trying to understand eternity and how do we do it? We say the word, the concept is there but after the concept is spoken, we go on to something else and we can't grasp it, can we?

So let me give you an illustration to see if we can get a handle on it at least a little bit. Let us suppose that you are living on this earth and every one million years, now even that's a long time, even a million years is a long time, a thousand years is a long time but now we're talking about a thousand thousand, every million years a bird visits planet earth. He doesn't show up very often, does he? But every time he comes, he takes one grain of sand and leaves to fly to another planet, one grain of sand. So there you have some sand in your hand and he comes and he takes one small grain and he flies away and there you are with the sand for another one million years. Lo and behold you look at the horizon and he's showing up again and he's coming for another grain of sand. How long do you think it would take before all the sand in your hand would finally be transported to another planet?

Hundreds of trillions of years, really. You know how fine sand is. How long would it take if the bird were to say, well now that I've taken all that is in your hand, I want to take all the sand on Oak Street Beach? That'd take a while. What about all the sand that is on North Avenue Beach and all the beaches of Chicago and then the beaches of the world and after he's finished with the beaches, he begins with the mountains.

Now the mountains do not really have sand but he rubs his beak until a little grain of sand falls off and that's what he flies away with and he doesn't return for another million years. You know that after this whole earth were transported to another planet, eternity would not have officially have begun. You mathematicians can correct me on this but I don't think it's correct to talk about the starting of eternity because if you say that eternity starts, you give the impression that there is an end and there is no end and I don't think you can begin an infinite series. Eternity would not have even gotten started. You say, well, this is more than we can take. People in the lake of fire forever and ever, how so?

Why? Well, the answer my friend is because they are eternally guilty and catch this, no human suffering will ever buy off God or appease him period and that's why there is no end to it, no end to it. All the suffering that humans can do will never change God's mind regarding their sin and that's why it's eternal. What if Jonathan Edwards is right when he said, the greatness of the sin is determined by the greatness of the being against whom it is committed. Even little sins are great offenses in the sight of God. We call them little, you know, there are those who say, well, you know, I'm a little sinner. Well, yeah, we make those distinctions and we know what we mean but what if, what if a little sin is a big sin because the being against whom it is committed is so holy and so wondrous and so true and so just and we have committed it against him because we have turned away from what we have known.

What if that were the case? You can see the size of the sin and even though it goes on forever and ever and ever, there never is payment made. If human suffering could pay for sin, there would be an end to this but there's no end to it because human suffering can't do it.

Let me give you another characteristic. It's a place of torment, of abandonment, a place of eternity. It's a place of easy access but no exit, easy access. All that you have to do is just be and not respond to God's grace and mercy in Christ. Dante was right when he said abandon all hope, all hope ye who enter here. It is a place of unanswered prayer. You remember the man who was in Hades which is going to be thrown into the lake of fire. You remember in Luke 16 he cried up and said please send Lazarus that he may dip his finger in water and put it on my tongue because I'm tormented in this flame and his prayer was unanswered. His prayer was unanswered. Jonathan Edwards who is so counterculture, he's the kind of man who would not go over well in today's society at all in our feel-good religion.

Well it doesn't matter what you believe as long as it's right for you kind of stuff. He preached a very famous message. He was an 18th century evangelist in Northampton, Massachusetts, the great fiery preacher who had a great deal to do with what is known as America's first great awakening. He preached his famous message sinners in the hands of an angry God.

I'd like to read just a few paragraphs and make a few comments but I want you to catch the flavor of what Edwards preached. It is said that when he was finished people began to cry up in the congregation for God's mercy. He said there is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell but the sheer pleasure of God. There is no lack in God's power to cast wicked men into hell at any moment.

They deserve to be cast into hell so divine justice never stands in the way. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath that is expressed in the torments of hell. And notice now how he emphasizes the fact that there are going to be degrees of punishment in hell. He says yea God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on the earth indeed possibly with some who are reading this book. He's more angry with them than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell. He assumed that the wicked were already there and I differ from that as you know because I make that distinction between Hades and hell.

But now let us continue. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight and those places are not seen. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God. There is hell's wide gaping mouth open and you have nothing to stand upon nor anything to take hold of. There is nothing between you and hell but air. It is only the power and the near pleasure of God that holds you up. His wrath burns against you like fire. He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else than to be thrown into the fire.

You hang by the slender thread with the flames of divine wrath flashing about and every moment it is ready to be singed and to be burned asunder. Wow. We don't have that kind of preaching today. It is so. Counter to our sensibilities. It's not part of our rah rah religion is it? Now I want to be very clear about something. When all this is happening the redeemed are going to be in heaven but I don't want you to think that God is judging them by a different standard.

That would be tempting to do wouldn't it? There'd be injustice with God if he were to judge us by a different standard. You mean to tell me that he has one standard for one class of people and then another standard for another? Unthinkable but here's what happened. You see when Jesus Christ died on the cross he absorbed as an infinite person what finite people cannot do. His suffering accomplished in a few hours which eternal human suffering cannot do. And that is his death on the cross absorbed the wrath of God.

He took the hit. You see the scripture says here that they are judged according to their deeds. We are judged also according to our deeds which fall short but Jesus Christ's deeds met the will and the purpose of the father and because he absorbed all that we should have received we then are acquitted. But we are acquitted justly because God has been appeased for the sins of those who believe in Christ. That's why we escaped the wrath of God. It's not because we're better or because we somehow think that God has a different standard for us. No no no no he is holy as the choir sang today and he is holy for all men and there is no respecter of persons. Death and the curse were in our cup. Oh Christ was full for thee but thou has drained the last dark drop.

Tis empty now for me. That's why we can say there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And young people while I'm on the topic do you see now the unutterable foolishness of accepting what our culture says namely well Jesus is one option among many.

There are other religions too you know and they're all kind of right. People who believe that will be here the great white throne judgment. There's only one person who died who absorbed God's wrath who took the hit for humanity and therefore says to you and me if you believe in me you can be set free you can be cleansed and you can be forgiven and you can go directly to heaven at death and be clothed in my righteousness and be accepted by God as one of his children forever. There's only one savior you know all kinds of gurus but only one savior one savior there are no other options out there the presence of here Krishna and all the other Zoroaster Baha'u'llah Buddha they'll topple they'll topple in the presence of Christ. I like to tell that story I used it in a message about 10 years ago and somebody came up later and said you know I didn't understand what you're getting at so I'll try to be very clear but it is that story of the prairie fire you know where story is and there are different versions of the story but the truth still is there that they were walking along and they saw that in the distance there was a forest fire and they began a fire right where they were and they began to burn patches of ground and then when the big fire came they were able to stand where the fire had already been and they averted certain death. You see what happens is when we stand at the cross when we stand at the cross we stand where the fire of almighty God's judgment has already come we stand there and the fire burns around us and it cannot touch us because we have come under the banner of his protection his forgiveness and his righteousness there is there is no other way to be saved and listen while I'm on the topic there are some of you here who may even think that you were saved because you're religious and you love Jesus all kinds of people who love Jesus are going to be here at this great white throne judgment because you think that you believed you were brought up you were baptized you were told that you were saved but the Spirit of God has not confirmed that in your heart I want you to know today that unless you believe and be saved judgment judgment awaits you judgment awaits you as many as received him to them he gives the power to be called the sons of God even to those who believe on his name today is the day of salvation harden not your heart but respond to the God who can save you while the door of opportunity is open and if you will let us pray so what do you have to tell God today some of you here have hard hearts you've listened to me preach for years and you're not saved so what are you going to tell God at the judgment what excuse do you think you're going to have some of you are trusting in your rituals you think that you're saved but you do not have the confirmation of the spirit that you have believed in Christ alone so what do you think you're going to say what's the big discussion father we ask that by the blessed Holy Spirit you will do in the lives of all who have heard this message those who are present here those who listen by radio we pray father that your blessed Holy Spirit will grant conviction and faith and a willingness to do anything to be sure that one has believed in Christ Oh father we have done now what we could and unless you do what you can no miracles will happen so we leave it all in your hand and now before I close this prayer would you pray would you say God forgive me I'm a sinner save me save me by your grace would you do that right now there's a song that goes just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee O Lamb of God I come I come just as I am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot O Lamb of God I come I come you know my friend I've often thought of the words of Dante regarding hell abandon all hope ye who enter here that's chilling in my book one minute after you die I discuss not only the horrors of hell but of course the glories of heaven and one of the chapters is entitled welcome you have arrived what can you expect one minute after you die we're making this book available for a gift of any amount and I want to emphasize that this is one of the last days that this book is being made available I believe that it will be as I've already mentioned an encouragement to you but a warning it'll be a means of witnessing to your own faith and the glories that await those who trust Christ here's what you do go to RTW offer.com that's RTW offer.com of course RTW offer is all one word RTW offer.com or pick up the phone even right now and call us at 1-888-218-9337 the name of the book one minute after you die. You can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 Running to win comes to you from the Moody Church in Chicago next time losing the fear of death by leaving its timing in God's hands don't miss when God opens the curtain for you thanks for listening for Pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church.