“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a Shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.’ Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
As you may or may not know, I love Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoons! They almost always make me grin! In my mind it was a sad day indeed when he decided to retire a few years back and enjoy the millions of dollars he has made over the years by doing those strips. And if that weren’t bad enough, the creator of Calvin and Hobbs retired at about the same time. Sunday funnies have not been the same since!
Last Christmas they re-released those desk calendars that show one Far Side cartoon a day and Sue made sure one of those calendars was wrapped and under the tree with my name on it, so that every morning one of the first things I do is look at my daily dose of Far Side and grin-which by the way is a great facial expression with which to start the day!
If you’re a Far Side fan as well then you know that Larson has several recurring themes and as odd as it may seem, one of my favorite themes are his various depictions of Hell. Since January 1st of this year, I’ve been saving any of the daily cartoons from this theme, in the hopes that they might fit in a sermon somewhere down the road, and today is the day because our subject this morning is Hell and I want to share the ones I’ve saved with you as I begin.
But, I must say, I’m afraid to turn around so I can walk you through these cartoon strips because Hell is not a popular subject of sermons these days. It’s a “hot” topic in more than one sense of the word. If you promise to stay I’ll show you some of Larson’s grin-inducers. Can I see a show of hands? Who promises to stick around for the entire sermon? Thanks! Okay, here goes:
The caption on the first says, “Aerobics in Hell” and the demon instructor is saying, “Three more, two more, one more. Okay-five million leg lifts! Right leg first. Ready, set…”
The caption on this next one has one devil saying to another, “Look, Sid, Another snowball! I tell you this place is slipping!”
The third shows a sort of dorm room in Hell and one guy is waking up in a cold sweat as his neighbor looks at him and says,
“Go back to sleep, Chuck. You’re just having a nightmare. Of course, we ARE still in Hell.” This fourth one has a famous orchestra leader receiving his just reward by being led into a room full of nothing but banjo players and the demon says, “Your room is right in here, Maestro.”
The fifth is similar in that it depicts Hell as a place where you would be forced to listen to nothing but New Age Music’s greatest hits. Can you imagine what that would be like?
And last but not least I have one where the devil is prodding a poor man to chose between two doors. One says, “Damned if you do” and the other says, “Damned if you don’t.”
We all grin, and as we do even in retirement Gary Larson sells more cartoons, but the fact is the existence of Hell is one of those issues that all people wrestle with. If truth be told, we know that Hell is not a laughing matter. Many of us wonder, “Why would a loving God send people to a horrible place like that? Doesn’t it seem cruel and unfair that God would sentence people to an eternal damnation?”
The late Chuck Templeton, former evangelist, turned atheist once said, “I couldn’t hold someone’s hand to a fire for a moment. Not an instant! How could a loving God, just because you don’t obey Him and do what He wants, torture you forever-not allowing you to die, but forcing you to continue in that pain for eternity? There is no criminal who would do this!”
For the next three weeks we’re going to devote our sermon time to answering some of these kinds of questions that many people grapple with these days, inquiries that are often referred to as, “The God Questions.” Next week we’ll look to God’s Word for answers to our inquiries as to what happens when we die. On September 2 we’ll prepare ourselves to answer people who wonder how a suffering world can exist if our God is truly good. And today we’re looking for answers when it comes to the existence of a horrible place called Hell.
It may surprise you to know that Hell is indeed a subject that is on people’s minds. In fact, a poll conducted by U.S. News And World Report back in 2000 revealed that more Americans believe in Hell today than did in the 1950’s, and they take very seriously the implications of its existence.
I’m reminded of the story of a chaplain who reported to a new duty station. Upon arrival some of the soldiers came to see him and asked him if he believed in a literal Hell. When he said that he did not, the men asked him to resign and he asked why. They said, “If there is no Hell then we don’t need you-and if there is a Hell we don’t want you to lead us astray.”
Part of our problem when it comes to answering this God Question is that there are several misconceptions about Hell, beliefs that are not based on reality. For example, some people are like this liberal chaplain in that they deny it’s existence. They say that Hell is just a myth. Others believe Hell is real but that it won’t be that bad because it will be where all their “type” of people end up which makes them think they will actually enjoy Hell, due to the companionship and camaraderie they expect to find there. In their minds Hell is a place where they’ll lounge around and recount all their escapades on Earth. Mark Twain once expressed this view by saying, “I’ll take heaven for the climate and Hell for the society.” Ted Turner has said something similar but adds that he thinks Hell will actually be fulfilling and challenging. He said, “Heaven is going to be a mighty slender place. Most of the people I know in life aren’t going to be there. Plus-we must remember that Heaven is going to be perfect. And I don’t really want to be there. No-I’m looking forward to dying and going to Hell because it’s a mess and when we get there we’ll have a chance to make things better. Heaven is perfect. Who wants to go to a place that’s perfect? Boring. Boring.”
Others think of Hell as nothingness. They think people who reject God will just cease to exist. C. S. Lewis was once told of a gravestone in which the occupant obviously held to this belief because carved on the stone were these words: “Here lies an atheist-all dressed up and no where to go.” Lewis quietly commented, “I bet he wishes that were so.”
Enough misconceptions. What about reality? What does the Bible really teach when it comes to Hell?
(1) First and foremost we need to understand that God’s Word tells us that Hell is a REAL place.
Hell is not a myth. It’s not a place invented by film directors to spice up their horror movies-or a story created by parents to scare their children into obedience. Throughout God’s Word, we are taught that Hell does indeed exist. Psalm 9:17 says, “The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Daniel 12:2 says, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Revelation 20:15 says, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”
Another thing, many people may not realize it but the truth is, the greatest preacher on Hell fire and damnation who ever lived was not Jonathan Edwards or Billy Sunday or Billy Graham. No, it was Jesus Christ Himself. In fact, our Lord had more to say about Hell than all the other Biblical writers combined. He also had more to say about Hell than He did about Heaven. The great preacher, Vance Havner once told of a time he preached on the subject of Hell and after his sermon one of his listeners criticized his message by saying, “Rev. Havner, I don’t think you should preach any more fire and brimstone. You should preach about the meek and mild Jesus.” Havner replied, “But, He’s the one Who gave me all the information about Hell in the first place!”
And Havner is right. Most of what we know about Hell comes from the lips of our Lord. He repeatedly warned people not to go to this horrible, place where in Matthew 8:12 He says, “…there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” According to this Book of Truth, there is no doubt about it. Hell is an actual place.
Several years ago a traffic officer gave a ticket to a woman in Brooklyn. And when the officer handed it to her through the window, she snapped it out of his hands and said, “You can go straight to Hell!” So the officer took her to court. A few days later they appeared before the judge and he dismissed the officer’s complaint about the woman’s language. The judge said, and I quote, “It wasn’t a command, or a wish, but a statement of fact, for going to Hell is a possibility.”
I think this woman deserved punishment for the way she disrespected the officer but the judge was correct. Going straight to Hell is a possibility because it is a real place.
Paul Powell writes, “It is sobering to consider that every person who has ever lived, every person now living, and every person who will ever live, shall continue to live throughout all eternity either in Heaven or Hell.”
And you know, I think that deep inside most people believe that Hell is real. This is one reason Hell is such a popular curse word. Think about it. Why not say, “What the JAIL are you doing?” or “I sure as SCHOOL will!” And when you get angry at someone why not say, “Why don’t you go to SEATTLE!” We use the word, “Hell” instead, because the words, “jail,” “school,” and “Seattle,” have no real sting. When it comes right down to it, in the English language, Hell is the strongest expletive available, because inside we all know that it is a real place of ultimate deprivation, devastation, fear, torment, punishment, suffering, and loss. I mean, it’s the best word to use when wishing the worst possible fate on another person.
(2) A second thing the Bible teaches-is that Hell is an ETERNAL place.
In other words, there is no second chance once you get there. There are no exit doors in Hell. As we read in our text, “Then they [meaning those who have rejected Jesus] will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous [those who have accepted Jesus], to eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46)
As the rich man in Jesus’ story of Lazarus the beggar discovered, between heaven and Hell “…a great chasm has been fixed…” so that those who want to leave cannot do so. (Luke 16:26). The word “fixed” here, means that in Hell everything is permanent…immovable. There is no growth, no change, no repentance, and worst of all, there is no hope. As Proverbs 11:7 says, “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing.” This is because this life, the one we are living now, has an end but eternity lasts forever, which is why they call it “eternity!!” Dr. James Kennedy writes, “Every Hebrew and Greek word which is used to describe the eternality of the existence of God and the eternality of the blessedness of the redeemed in Heaven, is also used to describe the eternality of the sufferings of the lost in Hell.”
Death marks the final separation between time and eternity, it’s not what happens after you die but what happens before that makes all the difference. Eternal destinies cannot be changed. Once in Hell, always in Hell. Once in Heaven, always in Heaven. As M. R. DeHaan puts it, “Once we have passed through the door of death, we can’t pick up our suitcase and move out because we don’t like the accommodations.”
Some people feel that God should give the people in Hell, people who have experienced its horrors, a second chance. In his book, The Case for Faith, which by the way is one of my main sources for this message, Lee Strobel asks Dr. J. P. Moreland, professor of philosophy and ethics at the Talbot School of Theology, about this particular God Question. Moreland said that God values our free will too much to give us a second chance once we have seen Hell. He says that any decision someone in Hell would make would not be a genuinely free choice. It would be coerced. It would be like holding a paddle over one of our children and saying, “You will say you’re sorry to your sister for wearing her dress without asking.” Any apology under those circumstances would not be a real apology. It would be just avoidance.
Plus, people who would “choose” a second chance would not really be choosing God, His kingdom, or His ways. They’d be making a prudent “choice” to avoid judgment only, not a choice to follow God. As the saying goes, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” Also, people who rejected God in this life, would not be suited for life in His eternal kingdom.
In C. S. Lewis’ fictional novel, The Great Divorce, people in Hell are given a chance to come to heaven on a special bus but when they do no one wants to stay, simply because they can’t stand the beauty and goodness that is there. The grass cuts their feet. The water is painful to them. Like people coming out of a dark cave whose eyes never re-adjust to the bright sunshine, they flee back to the “comfortable” dreariness of Hell.
Perhaps this is one reason the Bible teaches that Hell is indeed a FOREVER place.
(3) So, Hell, is a REAL place…an ETERNAL place…and third, Hell is a place of SUFFERING and DESPAIR.
Let me try to describe, as painlessly as possible, the anguish that people in Hell experience.
A. First, they suffer EMOTIONALLY.
The word, “gehenna” is often used in Scripture to give us a picture of Hell and it is a word that referred to a deep valley outside the city of Jerusalem, where all the garbage was taken and burned. I remember eating at an out-door café in Jerusalem with my mom years ago on a balcony that overlooked this ancient valley. In Jesus’ day it was a garbage dump that smoldered 24 hours a day, year after year. I think one thing Jesus is telling us by using this word is that people in Hell will realize they threw their lives away. They’ll know they invested their days in garbage. As I mentioned earlier Jesus said that in Hell there will be, “…weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And Bill Hybels says that “gnashing of teeth” is much like what we do when we say, “Arrrgh!”
It’s a sound of regret, like I make when I get to the toll booth at the hospital parking lot and realize I don’t have any cash. I say, “Arrrgh! I knew I should have stopped by the ATM machine!” It’s the sound I make after giving a sermon and then think of a perfect illustration that I forgot to use, “Arrgh! I wish I could have remembered that!” In Hell people will constantly be thinking and saying, “Arrrgh! I blew it! I blew it! I messed up! How could I have been so stupid!?” And in Hell this kind of feeling will never stop. Erwin Lutzer says that, “…Hell is the place of unquenchable, raging, unmet emotional needs, without painkillers or sedation. Hell is a place of eternal regret.”
And he’s right. Hell will be, Hell is even now, a place of constant emotional agony. Do you remember how the rich man in Jesus’ parable regretted his life?
B. The Bible also tells us that Hell will be a place where people endure PHYSICAL agony.
In the story of Lazarus and the Rich man, you may remember that in Hell the rich man asked Lazarus about the possibility of receiving the treasured relief, that a single drop of water would offer. He didn’t ask for a barrel or a jar or a thermos or a cup or a gulp. He says that just a drop would be precious beyond description. And the Bible says this kind of physical anguish will go on and on and on.
Sometimes when I experience physical pain, I can discipline myself. When I run and get a pain in my side or the pain of a shin splint, I can discipline myself, such that I no longer feel the pain. I breathe differently, I change my pace, and the pain goes away. But pain doesn’t go away in Hell, ever. As Erwin Lutzer points out, “The most sobering thought that could ever cross our minds is the fact that the rich man in Hell has not yet received the drop of water for which he so desperately longed.”
I know what many of you are thinking right now, because I’m thinking the same thing. I struggle with the existence of a place of literal fire and eternal physical pain and many Christian scholars who are just as conservative as I am do as well. They say that when Jesus described Hell as a place, “…where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched…” (Mark 9:48) they say that our Lord was being symbolic. He was using metaphors. And they may be right, but understand, even if they are, they aren’t saying that Hell is not as bad as a literal lake of fire where you burn in agony for all eternity.
By believing these words are symbolic they are saying Hell is worse than that. In his book, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, R. C. Sproul writes, “If these things are indeed symbols, then we must conclude that the reality is worse than the symbol suggests. The function of symbols is to point beyond themselves to a higher or more intense state of actuality than the symbol can contain. That Jesus used the most awful symbols imaginable to describe Hell is no comfort to those who see them simply as symbols.”
And whereas I may disagree with Sproul on some things, I agree with him here. If these Biblical descriptions of Hell are metaphors, then Jesus was saying that Hell is the worst possible place we could ever imagine. And the fact is when it comes to describing eternity from our perspective, all we can do is imagine.
C. Another thing the Bible tells us is that Hell is a place of relational pain.
In spite of what Ted Turner and Mark Twain think, nothing in God’s Word says that Hell will be a place where people who reject our Lord enjoy a debauchery-filled party that never ends. There’s no fellowship in Hell, no community, no comforting sense of companionship.
Hybels writes, “Hell will be filled with people so personally demolished by emotional pain and physical agony that there will be no energy or interest in brotherhood, companionship, or fellowship. Every individual will be so completely entrenched in his own anguish that bearing one another’s burdens will be a distant memory at best.”
And I think Hybels is correct. Solitary suffering forever is the picture the Bible gives us of Hell, a kind of suffering that, as the story of the Rich Man tells us, is only interrupted by the terror that someone you love might end up there as well.
D. But the worst kind of agony in Hell will not be emotional or relational or even physical. It will be SPIRITUAL.
God won’t be there. Think of that for a moment. Right now, the most ungodly, insensitive of all sinners still benefits from living in an age where God’s grace shines on the just and the unjust. The worst sinners still look out, even through prison bars, at a blue sky and green grass. In this age that we live in, God is still restraining evil and working miracles in people’s lives. He’s still monitoring the flow of History. He’s still working out His purposes. But in Hell, God doesn’t intervene any more. He’s not there and perhaps this is why the Bible pictures Hell as a place of “…utter darkness.” Maybe this is why it’s called “a bottomless pit”, to say that every moment you fall further and further away from the only Source of goodness and help and truth and love.
The poet Catherine Dangell describes Hell like this:
“Hell! The prison house of despair. Here are some things that won’t be there; No flowers will bloom on the banks of Hell, No beauties of nature we love so well; No comforts of home, music, and song, No friendship of joy will be found in that throng; No children to brighten the long, weary night; No love, nor peace, nor one ray of light! No blood-washed soul with face beaming bright, No loving smile in that region of night; No mercy, no pity, pardon, nor grace, No water; O God, what a terrible place! The pangs of the lost no human can tell, Not one moment’s ease-there is no rest in Hell”
Mrs. Dangell’s poem is right on the money because James 1:6 tells us that God is the Author of every good and perfect gift and to be eternally separated from His presence is to be eternally separated from all things good and beautiful and comforting.
How should we respond to the Bible’s teaching about Hell? As Christians, it should give us a passion to share our faith. The reality of Hell should compel us to take every opportunity to share our experience of what God has done in our lives and what He waits to do in the lives of all who will accept Him.
General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said, “If I had my way I would not give any of my workers a three-years training in a college, but I would put each of them in Hell for twenty-four hours, the best training for earnest preaching you could have.”
He’s right! Knowing how horrible a place Hell is should make us run to the lost, sharing our faith, as a fireman races to rescue someone from a burning building. The thought that someone would spend eternity in this place should break our hearts. Robert Dale once said, “The only man I can listen to preaching on Hell is D. L. Moody, because I have never heard him talk of it without breaking down and weeping.” Have you ever wept for a family member or spouse or co-worker or friend who is rejecting God? The horrors of Hell should also motivate the non-Christians as well, it should compel them to embrace a personal faith in Christ.
Vance Havner said his father was converted by the preaching of a hair-raising sermon that scared him into the kingdom of God. He said, “Such preaching is discouraged these days but it is better to scare men into heaven than to lull them into Hell. It’s better to be shocked than stupefied.”
You’ve probably noticed that I still haven’t answered the question of the day so let’s get to it. How can a loving God send people to this horrible, eternal place known as Hell?
When someone asks that God Question they are starting out with the wrong assumption. Hell is not a place that God created out of anger or frustration with man. It is not a place where a sadistic tyrant takes out his frustration on helpless creatures. Hell is a place where people are allowed to live with the consequences of their own choices, dire as they may be.
You see the most important thing for people to understand in dealing with this particular GOD QUESTION…
(4)….is that the Bible teaches that Hell, is a place where people go as a result of THEIR willful CHOICE…not God’s.
This week I read of a time when Vice President Calvin Coolidge was presiding over the Senate and one Senator angrily told another to go, “…straight to Hell.” The offended Senator complained to Coolidge as presiding officer and the Vice President looked up from the book he had been leafing through while listening to the debate and wittily replied, “I’ve been looking through the rule Book and it says you don’t have to go there.” Coolidge is right. No one has to go to Hell. It is their choice. As Isaiah 59:2 says, “It is our sin…not God…that separates us from Him.” God doesn’t send anyone to Hell. He hates that place, and the only thing He hates more is for people to choose to go there.
2nd Peter 3:9 says that God “…is not willing that any should perish.” The very purpose in sending His Son to die on Calvary’s cross was so that we might be saved from Hell. God has done all that He can do to save us, so any person who goes to Hell goes there against the will of God.
C. S. Lewis has said that in the end there are just two kinds of people, those who say to God, “Thy will be done.” and enter into the joy of the Lord, and those to whom God says with tears, “Thy will be done,” and lets them walk into the dark.
Lewis is right because the decision to enter Heaven or Hell is ours to make. That is how seriously God takes our personal freedom. That’s how much He loves us. Ours is a world in which sin is allowed and salvation is not coerced. Precisely because God is love, not in spite of it, Hell is possible. Those in Hell are there because they refused or ignored God’s love; they are solely responsible for their condition.
God does not send man to Hell. Sin does. And man sends himself in choosing sin. As Lewis also said, “If the doors of Hell are locked, they are locked from the inside.” Hell is more than a punishment. It is the end of a path that we choose to take when we reject the salvation and forgiveness that Jesus offers us and, in that choice, continue to live our lives apart from God. This means that non-Christian people are headed for Hell even while living because they are already experiencing separation from God.
I’m reminded of the story I read once about a man who fell down the elevator shaft of a very tall building. About half way down a friend shouted, “How’s it going?” And as he fell past him the man replied, “So far so good!”
People are so busy with life in this fallen world of ours that they don’t realize that even now they are falling. It’s just that they haven’t hit bottom yet. We are all born in sin. We are born damned, on our way down to death and destruction. God is not cruel. He is merciful and we know this because He offers us a most amazing merciful deal while we are still alive and falling. Those who face Hell do so because they reject this deal. They say “No thanks” to the salvation offered through Jesus Christ.
The answer is no. God does not send people to Hell. Men and women send themselves there. Hell is a place for people who would not want to go to heaven-people who, in their decision to reject Christ, say they would prefer to spend eternity away from God.
Renowned theologian D. A. Carson says, “Hell is not a place where people are consigned because they were pretty good blokes, but they just didn’t believe the right stuff. They’re consigned there, first and foremost, because they defy their Maker and want to be at the center of the universe. Hell is not filled with people who have already repented, only God isn’t gentle enough or good enough to let them out. It’s filled with people who for all eternity, still want to be the center of the universe and who persist in their God-defying rebellion.”
What about you? Where are you headed at this moment? Are you still falling further and further from God? If so, then listen. At this very moment Jesus is reaching out to save you, to forgive you of your sin and bring you into close relationship with God. God will forgive any sin that we ask Him to…but He will not forgive our sinful choice to reject His Son, the Christ.
And please understand, this is not a choice you can avoid. Refusing to choose is the same thing as choosing to say “NO” to God. Don’t put this off. Decide now to reach out to Jesus. Ask Him to come into your heart and life as Lord and Savior and in that decision to stop falling and begin even now to experience a taste of Heaven. And then, if you are a Christian here this morning, you may see your need to go to a friend or family member, someone who is not a Christian, and is headed for this horrible place. You may want to come forward and ask me to pray with you for this person.
If you are looking for a church home, a place where you can deepen your closeness to God, and if you feel so led, come and join us. However God leads, won’t you come as we stand and sing?
BENEDICTION
Let the PEACE OF CHRIST rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. Let the WORD OF CHRIST dwell in you richly and whatever you do…in word or in deed Do it all in the NAME OF CHRIST giving thanks to God the Father through Him.