Sermon
Whatever Happened to Hell?
September 28, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

I trust that all of you have in your hands your notes today, because I want to reference them frequently, but we'll not be able to cover all of the material. For the last couple of weeks and the next few weeks, we are discussing some of the basic doctrines of our Christian faith. We talked about the doctrine of stewardship, and we went to the doctrine of heaven, and today we are talking about eternal punishment. The Lord willing I want to talk next Sunday on the second return of Jesus Christ. The Lord willing the following Sunday we're going to talk upon a subject that's very infrequently discussed in the Evangelical pulpit and that is the doctrine of divine providence.

But today the subject that we're going to try to wrap our mind around, which we will not be able to, is the subject of eternal punishment. And I realize that when we come to these major doctrines we can only take and go so far with our finite minds and our limited capabilities. We are discussing things that are eternal. You and I did not have the capacity to even understand what eternity means. We think either in circular logic or linear logic and we think in time frames that are either linear or circular, but for us to contemplate something where there are no markings to give us any time frames -- that it's timeless -- you and I don't understand. We cannot comprehend eternity.

And so, when we approach these vast subjects we simply take God's word; ask Him by His Holy Spirit to open our hearts and our minds as best we can in terms of understanding. And I want to do that today, because it's a subject that's very, very difficult really to grapple with. We begin our lesson by a very familiar portion of Scripture.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

And then in a Hebrews passage from the amplified text we read: Since all this is true, we ought to pay much closer attention than ever to the truths that we have heard, lest in any way we drift past [them] and slip away. For if the message given through angels [the law spoken by them to Moses] was authentic and proved sure, and every violation and disobedience received an appropriate (just and adequate) penalty, How shall we escape [appropriate retribution] if we neglect and refuse to pay attention to such a great salvation [as is now offered to us, letting it drift past us forever]? For it was declared at first by the Lord [Himself] and it was confirmed to us and proved to be real and genuine by those who personally heard [Him speak]."

Now the title of our message is a question, Whatever Happened to Hell? Nothing. It's still there. The Bible is still true. The subject is an eternal subject. God has declared it and it's still there even though men seek to evade the subject. There is a final judgment.

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also, another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead in it, death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Now before approaching the subject just for a moment of time, I commenced our lesson with a proclamation of the gospel. John's deep concern in his gospel was the subject of life, and when you look in the Aramaic, life and salvation are the same word. John ends his great gospel by saying that he wrote those words so that men might believe in Christ, and that by believing they might have life through His name. And thus when we speak of life as a Christian we say that the life that is given to us is eternal, so he references it as eternal life.

I'm at the top of the page 2. Notice what it says: The word rendered "ETERNAL" (always used in this Gospel of life) basically means "pertaining to an age." The Jews divided time into the present age and the age to come, but the adjective referred to life in the coming age, not the present time. And the age to come was never thought of as coming to an end, and thus the adjective came to mean EVERLASTING, ETERNAL.

The important thing about eternal life is not its quantity, but its quality. It is not an endless duration of being in time, but being of which time is not a measure. Eternal life is life in Christ, that life which removes man from the merely earthly. So eternal is not used to add to this life the idea of perpetuity, but to express more fully the quality which belongs to life itself.

The life is the new condition--the spiritual order of being, the existence of fellowship with God into which Christ brings men; and the eternal life is the life in its quality of the divine order of life, the life which fulfills the whole idea of life, the good of life, the perfection of life, the satisfaction of life in God. And I placed those words there to draw the comparison because the Bible says that when we put our trust in Jesus Christ we become a new creation in Christ. Old things pass away, behold all things become new.

Hugo stood before us today and the life that he once lived, he's not proud of; a life filled with terror and a life filled with strife, and fear, and pain. But he came to Jesus Christ and now life is filled with God's peace. Hugo has purpose, direction. God has blessed his life with a lovely family. God has blessed him with a great ministry. The good life -- the life that brings satisfaction. So when we speak of eternal life we're not speaking always entirely of quantity. Jesus Christ -- to trust Him as Lord and Saviour is to know that peace that passeth all understanding, knowing that our hearts are right with God, and that when this life is finished we shall spend eternity in His presence. That's life.

In order to receive this eternal everlasting life, one must believe in God's only begotten Son. It is important, however, to take note of the fact that Jesus mentions the necessity of regeneration before He speaks about faith. And that is said there, that one of the amazing things to me is to watch God at work in the heart of an individual who is dealing with the possibility of changing and putting their trust in Jesus Christ. And God in His infinite mercy allows certain things to happen, certain acquaintances to be made, maybe the opportunity to hear a message, but somehow God moves us in a position and then places that faith for us to respond to His gospel.

God gave us His son. He gives us the faith to embrace the Son and He gives us everlasting life as the reward of exercising this faith and trusting in His Son. So, everlasting life is the life lived in the presence of Jesus, both now and eternally...forever and ever.

Paul writes: "But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation...For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

So when we come to Christ we need not fear the subject of eternal punishment, because Christ took our punishment for our sin on the cross. He paid its ultimate payment, and He gives us the free gift of eternal life. But the subject does affect those who do not believe, the unbeliever; the subject of judgment, eternal punishment, and hell. Now it's not a popular subject, to say the least, but if we are to preach the whole gospel then the theme of these subjects must be discussed.

Deep below the surface of things, a proliferating erosion concerning the seriousness of hell, brought on by a complex web of modern ideas about hell, has stripped this weighty word of most of its awesomely solemn content. Frivolous modern notions about hell have arisen to compete with what the people of God have for centuries understood and believed about the unending punishment of the wicked. The threat of having multitudes of people deceived into taking hell lightly is greater now, I believe, than it has even been in human history.

Consider the notion--hell is here on earth. The "Hell-on-earthers" agree that there must be some form of negative consequences for wrongdoing because justice demands retribution for evil. So they conclude that thus our pain and our suffering, our tragedies and our disappointments...this is our hell. Then there is another notion--It can't be all that bad. Those with this view see the difference between heaven and hell as one of degrees, of something basically good.

Our generation has a powerful propensity to believe that what anyone in the past believed to be true is now probably all wrong. The fallacious line of reasoning often goes like this, "In the older days folks couldn't figure out a way to keep bad people and little children in line. So they conjured up the idea of a grotesque place of gloomy darkness and torments. And armed with the threat of consignment to such a terrible place, they scarred the stubborn and the young into submission to their cultural patterns." They say: "Hell is a concept invented by the ancients that fits nicely into the ignorant life schemes of antiquity and medieval times."

So they say we have moved to an enlightened time where what they believed long ago doesn't affect us. In other words, the ancients were all wrong and we're all right. It's sad. But I suggest to you that one of the greatest problems that is facing evangelical Christians today is the teaching against the concept of hell being eternal in duration and having accepted the idea of annihilation. And I put this in here because I've always deeply appreciated Dr. Stott's theology books, but in recent years he's changed his theology. And he advances four arguments-related in turn to scriptural language, scriptural imagery, scriptural divine justice, and scriptural universalism-to make the case for believing in annihilation, thus he has discontinued believing in hell.

But the next line comes from a teacher in an evangelical school, and it made my blood run cold when I read it and when I wrote it. But I say this folks, as your pastor, I stay very, very close to the writings that are current and I'm terribly disturbed by the trend in evangelical theology.

David Wells, a professor in Trinity, has recently written a book, Whatever Happened to Truth?' And He deals with the ways that evangelical theology is shifting away from our ancient foundings.

Dr. Noll wrote a book entitled, 'The Scandal of The Evangelical Mind'. It won first-place award in 1995. These men think, these men love God deeply, and they love His word, but they are deeply concerned with the trends. Ladies and gentlemen, if it continues it will be hard to find an evangelical church in 20 years because of the shifting that is going on in theology.

Clark H. Pinnock wrote this. He's a professor in an evangelical school. Look at what he said; I can't believe it -- "I consider the concept of hell as endless torment in body and mind an outrageous doctrine, a theological and moral enormity, a bad doctrine of the tradition which needs to be changed. How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture upon His creatures, however sinful they may have been? Surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God, at least by any ordinary moral standards, and by the gospel itself...Surely the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is no fiend; torturing people without end is not what our God does."

My response: If anyone is going to describe sending persons to an endless punishment as "cruelty and vindictiveness," and a God who would do so as "more nearly like Satan than God," and "a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz," he had better be very certain he is correct. For if he is wrong, he is guilty of blasphemy. A wiser course of action would be restraint in one's statements, just in case he might be wrong.

And then I quote there for you one of Dr. Stott's positions, but he has moved away from our old basic belief in an eternal heaven and an eternal hell, and he has moved to universalism. Now universalism simply teaches that everybody in the end will be saved, and everybody will end up in heaven. That's universalism.

What I'm saying is when we have students who are being trained in seminaries where these kinds of things are being taught, the subject will be a forgotten subject in 20 years. Now what does the Bible...I'm not interest in what theologians have to say...but what does the Bible say?

I'm down at the middle of page 4. What does the Bible teach concerning hell? Hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment for the wicked. Scripture teaches in several passages that there is such a place. At the end of the parable of the talents, Jesus says, "Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth." Again, when He's telling the story of the rich man who went hell he was heard saying: Then he cried and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame."

And in Matthew 25:41 at the judgment, the king will say, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." And Jesus says that those thus condemned will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

I'd like for you to turn to page 6. Let's just simply let Jesus say what He wants to say on the subject. I think that's crucial. The main issue about what we believe is, what does Jesus say? And if He says it, we believe it.

Some years ago the great old preacher C. H. Spurgeon was approached by one of his more cantankerous members who wanted to take a difficult Scripture verse. He kind of took his Bible and stuck in the pastor's nose and said, what does it say? What does it mean? And old Dr. Spurgeon just twinked his eye a little bit and said, it means exactly what it says.

And I want to take the words of Jesus, and I take that position, He means exactly what He said. What did He say? I'm at the bottom of page 6. Matthew 25: But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left...Then He will also say 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 these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Mark 9, again, the words of Jesus -- And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, it is better for you to enter life crippled, than having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than having two feet, to be cast into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes, to be cast into hell where their worm does not die, and fire is not quenched.

Matthew 10:28 -- And do not fear those who kill the body, but are able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Matthew 13 -- 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 cast them into the furnace of fire, in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 7:22 -- Many will say to Me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me you who practice lawlessness.

Matthew 23:33 -- You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?

Matthew 13:49 -- So it will be at the end of the age; the angels shall come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

John 5:28 -- Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds, to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Jesus had more to say about eternal punishment and hell than any other speaker or writer in the bible, and if He was mistaken in what He said, then the Almighty, Eternal, Everlasting God was mistaken also. There is no other Christianity than that which Jesus Christ established. And His Christianity clearly, distinctly, emphatically and even threateningly speaks of a very real hell of conscious punishment eternally.

I'm on the last page down a few lines; the story that Jesus told of the rich man. Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. And 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 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, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us."

Now these are not the words of some ill-informed, unlearned child of time. These came from One who is fully God and fully man, and Jesus gave us here a cutaway view of what exists beyond the grave. I'm not going to try to explain what Jesus said. I want Him by His spirit to explain that to you. But that's what He said. He is very clear. The Bible teaches us that those who put their trust in Christ will spend eternity with Christ in heaven; that those who reject the gospel will spend an eternity forever in a place I'm sure even much more harsh than defined in Scripture.

You know, ladies and gentlemen, I think the reality of eternity is possibly something we don't take very serious. There is an eternity that's ahead of us and we're going to spend that eternity in either one of two places. We're either going to spend in heaven or we're going to spend it in hell. And the wonderful thing about God's grace, He gives us the opportunity to make the choice of spending eternity with Him by putting our trust in Christ who died on the cross that paid the penalty for all of our sins. It's very simple, and yet very wonderful.

You say, how does a subject like this effect you pastor? What it does to me is it makes me realize that as I stand on the street corner or go shopping in the mall or go to the grocery store, as I pause just for a second to watch the multitudes go by, I'm going to see them as people heading somewhere. I'm going to see them either as people who have a faith deep in God or totally lost, and as a Christian I'm going to do my best to make sure that if in any way I can touch their lives with the truth of Jesus Christ, who I know, I'm going to do my best to help them make heaven their home.

Again I say it's a subject...to wrap our little minds around is immense, because we don't understand eternity. But the Bible is very clear -- there is a heaven to gain, and there is a hell to shun. And by His grace He offers to all of us heaven by trusting in Jesus. Amen? It's that simple. Let's pray.

Father, we agree we don't understand the subject. All we can do is read the Scripture verses and let Your Holy Spirit reveal the truth to us. But there's one thing for sure -- we want to spend eternity with You, dear Christ. So may every person here place their trust in You, dear Christ, as Savior and Lord of their life. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you folks.