Let’s begin by reciting the Apostle’s Creed together. Last week we started working through the last clause of the creed – the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. I explained that the creed deals with God’s redemptive work from past, present, and future, and so we confess that God will complete our salvation by resurrecting us to new, eternal life. There is good news and bad news in this last clause. The good news is that every last human being will live forever. Regardless of what you’ve done, how you’ve lived, or where you’ve placed your faith, you will live for all of eternity. The question is, where will you live for all of eternity? You see, there are two destinations for all of humanity. For those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, their destination will be the new heavens and earth. But, for those who have sought to live by their own standards, their own will, their own way – their destination is the eternal fire of hell. This morning, I have the heavy task of warning you of this terrible, eternal judgment of Hell. It is not a task that I delight in. I would much rather extol the love of God or proclaim to you his grace or call you to wonder at his majesty. But, if God is loving, he is also just. If God is gracious, it is because we don’t deserve his good gifts. So, we must take a hard look at the hard truths because it is only when we understand them that we can understand the goodness of God. This morning, I want to consider the eternal punishment of the wicked in Hell by understanding what we don’t mean when we profess belief in Hell, and then what we do mean.
Consider two things that we don’t mean when we profess our belief in Hell. First, we reject the belief that Hell doesn’t exist, or that God could never stand to send anyone to Hell. Some say that Hell would make God unjust because he would punish people who haven’t really done anything that bad along with evil people like Hitler. Others appeal to the goodness or love of God to say that Hell is against his character. I want to answer this objection in three parts. First of all, to object that God would be unjust to send people to Hell is to grossly misunderstand the depth of our sin and rebellion. We tend to judge our standing based on how we compare to other people. So, we might say, “I don’t deserve to go to Hell because I’m far better than that criminal over there. I mean, he has raped and stolen and murdered, so sure, he probably deserves it. But, I don’t deserve it because I haven’t done what he has, and besides that, I have good intentions, even when I do wrong.” The trouble with this argument is that we are measuring by the wrong standard. A good carpenter, no matter how many years of experience he may have, does not build a house by eyeballing the squareness and plumbness of his boards. If he did, the walls of his house would lean more and more as he compared one to the next. No, a good carpenter levels each wall by the standard of a leveling tool and each cut by the standard of a square. In the same way, our sins are not judged by how we stack up to other sinful people, but the perfect standard of Jesus Christ.
But, we are not only guilty of the sins we’ve willfully committed. We are also guilty of our association as sons and daughters of Adam. All of sinful humanity is cursed by sin, and we live under the rule of Satan, with all of the influences that come with that. This world operates under sinful assumptions and practices, and everyone in some way is influenced by it and everyone in some way participates in it. I think we all have a sense of this societal guilt, especially when we see it in war. At the end of World War II, as US troops began to liberate concentration camps throughout Germany, they developed a policy where they forced civilians from towns that neighbored the camps to come clean up and process the dead bodies. When we hear that, I think we understand, in our gut, the justice of it. But imagine that a citizen of one of the towns were to object, saying, “Why are you forcing me to risk disease and give up on my own work when I didn’t have anything to do with the horrors of this camp? Sure, I knew it was there. Of course, I benefited from the free labor it provided. Oh yes, my wife and I got some nice clothes and other belongings from the prisoners who had passed. But, we didn’t have anything to do with relocating those Jews. We didn’t carry out the torture and murder ourselves.” Of course, they’d be right, on the technicality of it. And yet, we know they stand guilty because of their association with such horrible crimes. In a similar way, we are all associated with sin in ways that we can’t even begin to calculate. And so we all deserve the judgment of Hell because of that association.
A final answer to the objection of Hell is this: if we believe God to be good and loving and just, if we believe him to be all wise and all knowing, then we have to accept that he is God and we are not. That as the good, just God, he knows what the right punishment for sin is, and he has said that it is the eternal fire of Hell. Perhaps, instead of objecting to God’s judgment on the basis of his goodness, we should trust in the goodness of his judgment.
Second, we reject the belief that Hell is anything less than the eternal torment and anguish of those who have rebelled against God. Some believe that Hell is temporary – that God will either allow people a second chance after death, or he will simply annihilate the ungodly. Others think that Hell is a state of mind – that God doesn’t actively torment us, but we torment ourselves in Hell. Along with this, some insist that Hell is nothing more than separation from God where we suffer because of life without God’s goodness. Now, it is certainly the case that Hell is called the second death. Hell is also compared to a “casting away” or imprisonment, removed from the presence of God. But, Hell is more than mere separation or mental torment. Hell is the active punishment of God. It is not just something we choose or that we do to ourselves. God judges us and sends us there.
With those two objections considered, let’s move on to what we do mean when we profess our belief in Hell. To see that, consider Revelation 20:7-15. From this passage I want you to understand what Hell is and who goes there.
First, what exactly is Hell? From verses 10 and 14 we find four characteristics of Hell. First, verse 10 describes Hell as “the lake of fire and sulfur.” This description of Hell has geographical and descriptive meanings. Geographically, it brings to mind the Greek word that Jesus used for Hell. For example, in Matt. 10:28, Jesus says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” The Greek word translated as “hell” there is “Gehenna.” Now, Gehenna was an actual place on the landscape of Israel. It was the trash heap in the valley below Jerusalem. Because so many people brought their refuse there, the decomposition smoldered and randomly caught fire. It smelled of sulfur and death. And, it was also the place where the “unclean” were sent – lepers, cancerous, lame, and poor. Descriptively, this phrase, “lake of fire”, portrays the pain of Hell. There is no pain quite like a burn – it persists, it decays, it kills. Personally, I think that fire is meant to be symbolic of a spiritual pain that we can’t quite understand now, but whatever it is, the closest thing we have to understanding it is the pain of fire.
The second characteristic of Hell is also in verse 10. John says that Satan and his servants will be “tormented night and day.” Oh, how I wish that I could tell you that Hell is nothing more than a state of mind or a separation, but the Bible won’t let me. The consistent witness of Scripture is that the final state of the damned is one of torment.
Third, we see in that same verse that this fire and torment is “forever and ever”. Again, I wish that I could tell you that the rebellious will be destroyed by fire, or that they would experience the flames for a time, and then be given the chance to repent. But, Scripture is clear, those who are thrown into the lake of fire will face torment forever.
Lastly, in verse 14 we see that the lake of fire is called “the second death.” For those who refuse to submit to Christ as Lord, they will be raised from the grave only to face judgment, and then to die forever. They will experience an eternity without the love and goodness of God, without the warm embrace of their friends and family, without the beauties of this world.
Now that we understand what Hell is, we need to ask, who will go to Hell? Our passage tells us of two groups who are destined for Hell. First, in verse 10, we see that Satan and his minions are destined for Hell. In Matt. 25:41, Jesus says that the “eternal fire” was prepared for the devil and his angels. Satan is not the ruler of Hell; he is the chief victim of it. Hell was made to torment Satan. Understand, Satan is not an equal and opposite power to God. He is under the power and authority of God and will face God’s judgment along with the rest of creation.
We find the second group to suffer Hell in verse 15. John testifies that he saw a great judgment throne to which all of humanity were brought. Before that throne, books were opened detailing the works of every man and woman. And, second book, the book of life, was opened, too. Those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will find their names written in the book of life. Those whose names were not written there were judged by the works recorded in the other books. Those not found in the book of life were judged by their works, and every last one was thrown into the lake of fire. So, we see here, that Hell is reserved for all who do not trust and follow Jesus Christ. You may think that your good works will outweigh your bad, but you will be thrown into the lake of fire. You may think that a good God would never be so mean as to judge you, but you will be thrown into the lake of fire. You may believe that, compared to others, your works stack up pretty well, but you will be thrown into the lake of fire.
Oh, hear the warning of your preacher today! Turn from your sins and follow Jesus. There is a judgment coming that you cannot escape. There is an eternity of separation, pain, and torment that you cannot ignore. Won’t you turn in faith and trust in the good grace of God today and be saved from the wrath that is to come?
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