Jesus on Hell #2

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in the Truth Pulpit. Let's go on and see what else Jesus had to say about this. Look at Matthew chapter 12 verse 36. Matthew chapter 12 verse 36. Jesus tells us that God will judge sinners with exacting provision, with a frightening provision. Matthew chapter 12 verse 36 says this, and this is Jesus Christ speaking. He said, I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. Wow.

Wow. That stops us in our tracks, beloved. You think of the many ways that so many people and probably many of you will, and I can only quote it here to make the point, how flippantly people will say, oh my God, use it in such a casual, flippant way. The name of God being used in terms like that. It's those kinds of careless words, that kind of irreverent, flippant use of the name of God that would be included in the fact that Jesus says that every careless word is something that will be given an account to on the day of judgment. And when you think of the careless threats that we make, the flippant things that we say to people, the cutting words, the sarcastic words, the unedifying things that we say, the way that we turn away from people in anger, oh, oh, to realize that every single one of those sins is enough to send someone to hell, and then you realize that we all have an accumulated weight of guilt of that in the thousands and ten thousands and hundreds of thousands of times throughout the course of a 70-year life that we're like that. Every careless word we're going to give an account for, you start to realize that hell must be a place of such judgment to realize that what we take casually, not God, God views it with utmost seriousness and says there will be an accounting for that word if you don't repent.

And so hell is a very real place. Jesus warns us, he premises his teaching on it. And you know, without going into a lot of theological detail here right now, the fact that hell is real and that real people will really go there, that is a refutation of the doctrine of universalism that says that all people will be saved in the end.

That could not possibly be true. That cannot possibly be reconciled with what Jesus Christ said. It is a contradiction of man over the word of Christ. And the ironic thing is that contradiction is the kind of careless talking and teaching that will be given an account to on the day of judgment.

There are men who casually dismiss it. There are men who write books defending that kind of theology, and they will give an account for every page of their published work that they took royalties from as they denied the words of Christ. Hell is real, that refutes universalism. It also refutes the false doctrine of annihilationism, the idea that sinful souls will simply be punished and then cease to exist. That's not true. The Bible refutes the Catholic teaching of purgatory, you know, the idea that you suffer in a place for a few thousand years, but in the end it all comes out okay for you. That's not true.

That's not true. And we see that in our second point here that we're about to look at. Hell is real. Secondly, what we need to understand is that hell is painful.

Hell is painful. And I don't want to be overly dramatic here, I just want to let the word of God speak for itself. Jesus Christ speaks of unspeakable torment for sinners in this place of judgment that is called hell. Look at Matthew chapter 13 beginning at verse 41. Matthew chapter 13 beginning in verse 41. Jesus had just said in verse 40, the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so it shall be at the end of the age. Verse 41, the Son of Man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire.

And watch what follows. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, a picture of misery, a picture of consciously felt great pain, weeping, gnashing of teeth. This is the nature of punishment in hell and it is painful. It is an infliction of judgment from God upon sinners who have violated his eternal law.

This is serious. I don't know how else to say it. This is a matter of profound consequence and I am in no position nor would I even want to apologize for the words of Jesus here. I believe Jesus when he says this and I uphold his righteousness and the righteousness of God as he reveals his intention to judge men for their sins. If you go on in Matthew chapter 13, you see this in verse 49. He says, so it will be at the end of the age, the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the furnace of fire.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Elsewhere in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus gave a picture of what that eternal torment will be like and we see it in very graphic terms if you'll turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 16 for just a moment. Luke chapter 16 beginning in verse 23. I'm picking up in the middle of this segment about the rich man in Lazarus assuming that you're somewhat familiar with the story.

So for the sake of time, I'm not going to review it all. But Jesus had said that the rich man in this story died and he was buried and then he woke up in his place of punishment. And what does it say in verse 23 there? In Hades, he lifted up his eyes being in torment and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue for I am in agony in this flame. But Abraham said, child, remember that during your life you received your good things and likewise, Lazarus, bad things.

But now he is being comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able and that none may cross over from there to us. And so you see the words that Jesus himself used. Remember, my friends, these are the words of Jesus Christ himself. I'm not making this up.

I'm not creating this out of thin air. I am simply taking you to the words of scripture that are recorded for us of what Christ himself said. And I know that the Spirit of God is bearing witness to the truth of his word as I do so. Hell is real and hell is painful. And the words that are used, weeping, gnashing of teeth, agony, flame, they all speak to a conscious experience of torment among those that are sent there by God as punishment for their sins. Let that sink in. Let the reality of that sink in. Hell is real.

Real people that you and I know and interact with on a day-to-day basis are going there. And it's going to be a place of conscious pain and torment for them. It's almost too awful to contemplate, except for the fact that scripture teaches this repeatedly and obviously intends us to understand and to heed it and to take it to heart. I quote again from Bishop Ryle. He said this, Let the ungodly man tremble when he reads the parable. Let him see in its fearful language his own certain doom, unless he repents and is converted. Let him know that he is sowing misery for himself if he goes on still in his neglect of God. Let him reflect that his end will be to be gathered among the bundles of tares and be burned. Such a prospect ought to make a man think. We must not misinterpret God's patience with the ungodly.

End quote. God allows men a period of time. He gives us a period of life on earth of a few decades. And during that time, we enjoy the benefits of his common grace. We enjoy a good meal. We enjoy a friendship.

We enjoy a beautiful sunset. And in the midst of these kind blessings from God upon undeserving people, people are lulled into a false sense of security thinking that there will never be an accounting for their rejection of a holy God and never an accounting for their refusal to heed the gospel of Jesus Christ. What scripture is showing us is there is a time of accounting that is coming, however, and it may come upon many in a sudden way without further warning, without further opportunity to repent and receive Christ. And so we must understand that though there is a relative calm in life at the moment, scripture is teaching us and warning us that there is a future judgment coming upon many unsuspecting people. And what we have in this this time of national distress that we are going through, God has added a providential circumstantial warning designed to wake people up, to make them think outside the bounds of normal life and to contemplate where things are going in their lives and what the outcome of their sinful course would be. And that's why we said on Sunday that it is a gracious act of God to stir things up in such a way so that people would would contemplate spiritual realities, come humbly to his word and learn these things and repent while there is time lest they enter into that future judgment. Far better for us to have several months of national disruption and to see a great harvest of souls brought to saving faith in Christ than for us to continue unmolested in our material prosperity and to just find out that in the end it was just a it was just the Niagara River carrying great masses of people to the falls and over they go to certain destruction. God's diverted the river for a short time, diverted it away from the falls for a moment that people might be able to step out as it were of sin to repent and to come to Christ in faith for salvation and deliverance from that certain judgment that is about to come.

But friends, eventually the river is going to carry its current toward that certain fall of destruction. And we're talking about these things, beloved, because Christ is offering you mercy in the midst of it that you might be delivered while there's still time for you. And it's my privilege to be able to say these things and with far lesser and with greatly flawed but mercy all the same, reflecting the mercy of Christ, that's why we're talking about these things is that Christ is offering mercy to you through his word to wake you up and to stimulate you to flee to him and to cry out to him for grace and kindness and love and mercy on your undeserving soul.

Because hell is real and hell is painful and it is your certain destination to go there unless you find your refuge in Christ alone. And so my friend heed the words, don't dismiss this, Christ has said so much about it that we cannot avoid it, we cannot deny it, nor should we. He's spoken these words to us in grace for us to hear and he's spoken them in grace, seeking your blessing and seeking your eternal well-being as he does. Now we've talked a lot about repentance in the midst of this, to repent of sin and to come to faith in Christ. Well just for a moment let's answer that question, well what is repentance? What is repentance? Well to paraphrase the shorter catechism, the Westminster shorter catechism, repentance means that a sinner feels a grief and a hatred over his sin. He turns from his sin as he trusts in the mercy of God offered to him in Christ and he turns with the full purpose to pursue new obedience to Christ as his Lord. You see as we've considered these things about sin, about our careless words, our sinful thoughts, our sinful anger, our sinful lust, our sinful conduct and we see something of the nature of the eternal consequences that God will bring upon those who are guilty of those things, which is all of us for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. My friend what I want you to see is that repentance recognizes these realities and there is an inner working in your heart that says I hate that, I hate the sin that offends God, I hate the sin that threatens my soul, I hate it for its inherent guiltiness, I hate it for its inherent blackness that it is against God.

I hate it not only for its consequences but for what it is and that it has dominated me and that I have loved and sought it and pursued it in my life. Repentance looks at sin in that way and says I reject that, I turn from that, I know that that's what my life loved but no longer, that's no longer what I want, I turn from that in order to embrace Christ as he has offered to me in the gospel. That's repentance.

Now there's a couple of aspects about that that I should mention just briefly. The Holy Spirit is the one who must produce that in your heart. You cannot make yourself repent. You need the help of the Holy Spirit and he needs to do a work in your heart even to enable you to repent like that. 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 25 speaks that perhaps God will grant repentance to them in the context of which he is speaking there in that text. Perhaps God will grant repentance to them. God must grant repentance to a person in order for them to repent. And just to stretch this out and to tease out that thought just a little bit, you must understand that you do not have the intrinsic power in your heart to repent on your own any more than you could just by the sheer power of your human will cause yourself to grow another six inches right on the spot.

You know, and you just say, I'm going to commit my will to it and I'm going to grow six inches. Doesn't work like that. You don't have the power to do that. In the same way, the dead sinful heart of man does not have the power to produce his own repentance. He needs the help of the Holy Spirit to do even that. And yet at the same time, God commands us to do this. God commands us to repent. We saw in Acts chapter 17, God's commanding men everywhere to repent. Jesus said in Luke 13, unless you repent, you will likewise perish. And so you realize that God is giving you a command to repent, and yet you find within yourself that you don't have, and by the testimony of God's word, you don't have the power to do it.

You're dead in your trespasses and sins. And you start to realize how desperate it is. You say, well, what can I do then? Well, you go to Christ and you cry out for mercy.

You realize how desperate your situation is. And you ask Christ to save you and you seek him. And you ask him to give you a mercy that you do not deserve and a repentance that you cannot produce in your own power. That's why it's so foolish for people to say, well, I'm going to live a life of sin and then I'll repent on my deathbed. They assume that they can just turn repentance on and off at the beckoning of their own will.

It doesn't work like that. And that's why you have to see Christ while he may be found. Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait. Don't hesitate. Seek him. Christ said, come to me. It's a command. It's an imperative.

Come to me and I will give you rest. You have to go to Christ and not rely on the power of your own heart to produce this saving response that would deliver you from a hell that is real and a hell that is painful. Well, there's one more point that we want to see from the words of Jesus tonight, and it's this. It's that hell is eternal. Hell is eternal. It never ends.

It never stops. The pain of hell that's described as a gnashing of teeth, of weeping, of agony, that is the lot and condition of those who are there forever without end. And Christ taught this clearly. Jesus makes clear that hell is eternal.

It never, never ends. Look at Matthew chapter 25 with me. Matthew chapter 25. Matthew 25, beginning in verse 41, Jesus speaking about that final day, and he says in verse 41, says, he will also say to those on his left, depart from me.

There are those dreadful words again. He said it in Matthew 7. He's saying it again in Matthew 25, functioning almost like bookends to his public teaching before the account of his trial and execution is recorded. He says, many will be told, depart from me. Here in verse 41, he says to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

And look at verse 46. He says these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Believers have eternal life and they will be with God forever. The parallelism of the passage shows us that in like manner of the eternal nature of the consequence, the wicked go into a punishment that is eternal as well. The righteous, those saved by Christ, they will live in heaven forever. The wicked, those who die without Christ, they will live in hell forever.

It's eternal. I quote once more, this time I just want to call attention to the language of our confession of faith here at Truth Community Church. We use the London Baptist Confession of 1689. And in chapter 32, the second paragraph of the confession says this, answering the question, what happens to those who are sent away? The wicked who know not God and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be cast into everlasting torments and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. They will be cast into everlasting torments and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. This is echoing the language of the inspired word of God in 2 Thessalonians chapter one. From the words of Jesus' apostle Paul, his representative, the apostle Paul said this in 2 Thessalonians chapter one, beginning in verse six, he says, after all, it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when, watch this, 2 Thessalonians chapter one, verse seven, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day. Eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.

I quote again from J.C. Ryle one last time for this evening anyway. He said this, and I quote, he said, who shall describe the misery of eternal punishment? It is something utterly inconceivable, the eternal pain of body, the eternal sting of an accusing conscience, the eternal companionship of none but the wicked, the devil and his angels, the eternal remembrance of opportunities neglected and Christ despised, the eternal prospect of a weary, hopeless future. All this is misery indeed.

It is enough to make our ears tingle and our blood run cold. And yet this picture is nothing compared to the reality. End quote. It's all sobering, isn't it? Hell is real, hell is painful, hell is eternal, all certified to us by the words of Jesus himself and affirmed elsewhere by other pages of Scripture and other passages of the inspired Word of God. This is Jesus teaching us on hell. Now, let me just say this as we kind of wrap things up here this evening anticipating another time in God's Word tomorrow on Good Friday is to understand this, that no one should hear a message like this and ignore it for one thing. And secondly, it's important for you to vindicate in your own mind the righteousness and the goodness of Jesus Christ. I realize, of course, that the consequences of what Jesus teaches on this are just, they take your breath away. We realize how serious and how sobering this is.

We realize how vast the consequences of it all are. But my friend, you must understand that no one should step up and make accusation against God or against his Son for unkindness or unfairness or anything of the sort, especially those of you that have heard these things here tonight, because what has God done for you? God did not simply at your first sin, so to speak, snap his fingers and immediately cast you into this place of punishment. Instead, what God has done for you even this evening is that God has brought you a warning in the context of a greater warning, of a broader warning, I should say, a greater warning in the context of a smaller warning would be the way to put it. The smaller warning is the circumstances in which we find our lives in this time that make us sensitive to spiritual realities.

God graciously sent that to get the attention of some sinners just like you. And then he brings this greater warning from his Word, warning you about the consequences of eternal wrath. And the only thing that keeps you from salvation in Christ would be your own rejection of these words. Christ graciously offers you mercy. He says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. There is no greater agitation than the one who understands the fearful prospect that he deserves eternal hell and that it's a real place and a painful place and an eternal place. And he goes to Christ and flees for salvation and says, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner, like the publican in Luke 18. Christ graciously receives every sinner who comes to him. He says, the one who comes to me, I'll certainly not cast out. And so for you here this evening listening tonight, Christ has sent you a warning from his Word to recognize the reality of hell and a simultaneous invitation to flee to him for salvation and he promises that he'll never turn you away.

What complaint then do you have? What complaint would you possibly have if you reject that offer of salvation and you turn away in stubborn rebellion and you find yourself in that coming future day, you find yourself sent away and you find yourself in this miserable place of punishment, a real hell that is painful and eternal. Part of the agony at that time for those who would reject Christ in response to a message like this is the realization that God came right to them and spoke words of hope, spoke words of salvation directly into their ears and warned them of the consequences and yet they hardened their heart and turned away. Everyone should understand that God's justice will be vindicated and there will be no accusation of unfairness, unkindness or unrighteousness that would be upheld against a holy God in light of the fact that he has warned us in multiple ways about what is to come.

And so my friend, I plead with you to take these words to heart. Those of you that are outside of Christ, I offer to you the words of Christ in John chapter five verse 24 where he said this. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment but is passed out of death into life.

You see, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a promise of a better life now. It is promise of deliverance from a future judgment that you deserved, a judgment that Christ paid the price to be able to offer you freely and without cost. The judgment that he suffered on behalf of sinners at the cross, which we will remember tomorrow evening, is the basis upon which he can offer this.

The price of sin has been paid in full for those who believe in Christ. Christ bore eternal wrath from his Father on behalf of sinners just like you who would come to him in humble, repentant faith pleading for mercy, and he delights to give mercy to those who come to him just like that. And so there is mercy in every word that we have seen in scripture tonight because God has warned us about the consequences of our sin. Mercy, mercy, mercy shown to us. But my friend, you must understand that there is a time where mercy will be withdrawn and judgment will come. And while you hear these words of mercy and while hope is offered to you now, you must understand the urgency of it that we saw on Sunday from Luke chapter 13 where Jesus Christ spoke.

He is warning you that time is brief and that you are not in control. He warns you that unless you repent, you will also perish. And so, my friend, the question comes down to you in the solitude of your own heart vertically before a holy God. You have to decide tonight, are you going to be the wise man who builds your life on the word of Christ and receives him for salvation from this hell of which he speaks?

Or are you going to be the fool who turns away and ultimately faces the destruction of your life falling down upon you and casting you into this place called hell, which is real, painful, and eternal? My friend, I beg you, I exhort you, I encourage you, I call upon you, answer well, because this is the great question upon which your eternal destiny hangs. Let's pray together. Our Father, the gospel alone is good news. It far transcends the current problems of our nation. We thank you for warning us in your word about the reality of hell, and we know that the time is brief.

We are not in control of our own lives as circumstances have shown us so clearly. Father, I pray for each one under the sound of your word that you might use it, and in the power of your Holy Spirit, in the hands of your Holy Spirit, that you would work saving faith into the hearts and a saving repentance in the hearts of those who have been deceived until now. Oh, Lord, have mercy on them. For those of us that are in Christ and your spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, oh, Lord, we're reminded of how great a peril that you have delivered us from, how lovingly and how graciously and how kindly you worked to save us when we deserved that destination ourselves. And so we honor you and we thank you. We thank you not only for the initial salvation, but for the faithful way that you keep us and that you will certainly deliver us, having pardoned us from sin and giving us a peace that endures. Father, we are safe in the hands of Christ, not by what we have done with the works of our hands, but by the work that he did with his hands when they were nailed to the cross and he bore our sin on our behalf. Father, we commit the outcome of all these things to you, praying that you would bless your word to everyone who hears it.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, my friend, thank you for joining us for yet another podcast from The Truth Pulpit. And we wanted to let you know that in addition to these audio resources that you are enjoying, that there are also written resources from my ministry. The Lord has given us opportunity to put some of the things that I've taught over the years in print. And I have one book in particular that I would want to call your attention to. It's the most popular book that I've published so far called Trusting God in Trying Times. It's a book born out of deep personal sorrow and is brought into context, you might say, through the word of God. How to trust God when you are going through the deepest valleys and the most sorrowful things in life, how do you trust God through those times when you can't see your way forward?

I've been there, my friend. And the book Trusting God in Trying Times speaks to that spiritual experience in the life of the believer. You can find all of my books at thetruthpulpit.com. That's thetruthpulpit.com. Just click on the link there.

You'll find links to different books and you will find that they take you to an easy place to purchase them for your reading enjoyment. So thank you once again for joining us on The Truth Pulpit. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.