John 10:28, Revelation 20:11-15
I felt like I went through hell this week. My mum suffered a mild stroke and was admitted at the hospital. She lives at Kasoa and I had to rush there to pick her to the hospital. Yesterday, we went to visit Kofi at school and on our way back, our car broke down. And this is about 2hours away from home. Often, when I am experiencing any problem with the car, I manage to get it close to home where my mechanic will go and attend to it. But this time, the problem was that I couldn’t move further. Those of you who know the parts of a car, my alternator was not charging and so my battery couldn’t power the car. So, we parked at a fuel station hopefully to go attend to it on Monday God willing.
Did I really go through hell? Was that Hell? Hell has become an abused word which tends to water down the seriousness and dread of the subject. Hell has become synonymous to swearing or cuss words. People express their anger, surprise or disagreement by using phrases like “What a hell”. When someone is going through a challenge or misfortune, he may say he is going through hell, like I just described my week. Hell has become more of expletives, and something use to describe pain or trouble.
The modern use of the word hell tends to water down the dread of the Biblical teaching. Some have gone to the extent of saying that, in hell, all the music stars will be there and there will be fun…a great party for that matter. But is that a perfect description of hell according to the Bible?
Having considered the subject of Heaven, I already announced last week we will be looking at Hell today. You will observe that in John 10:28, two concepts are implied. Eternal life and eternal punishment: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” Eternal life belongs to heaven while perishing belongs to hell. This morning, I will want us to consider for a title, Hell: A Place of Eternal Punishment
This sermon is meant to remind us of the dread of heaven to serve us as a motivation to bring the gospel to our families, friends, neighbours and colleagues. Friends, Jesus describes the harvest ad ready, and we must have motivation to be gospel witnesses.
Hell Is A Place
Contrary to the watered-down understanding of Hell. Hell is a real place described in Scripture. It is a place the sinner is heading towards in future if they do not repent
Hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment for the wicked [sinner, unbeliever]. Wayne Grudem
The doctrine of Hell is not a human invention. It is what the Scriptures actually teaches. The Bible points out to us that Hell is a place. And it is not a place of fun. It is a terrible place. A terrifying place. A place of endless suffering. In the book Divine Comedy, Inferno by Dante, he says that infront of the entrance to hell is written the words” Abandon every hope, you who enter hell” If anyone ever assumes hell to be a place of fun because one musician or the other will be there, there do not know what they are talking about.
No one, in their right senses, should trifle with the subject of hell because Jesus, the one who loved sinners and gave himself up for them on the cross to save and reconcile them, doesn’t trifle with the subject. Dear friends there is not hope in hell. You are in there for eternity. It has been noted that much of the teachings about hell comes from Jesus himself. Hear these words
And 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 (Matthew 10:28)
Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:40-42)
And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell,[a] to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ (Mark 9:43-48)
Hell Is A Place of Everlasting Torment
Do these words sound like fun? This is Jesus speaking and these words must cause sinners to run to the cross for salvation. Hell is a place of everlasting torment. That word torment can be described as extreme pain or suffering. There’s no pain in this world that can describe the torment of hell. The pain of childbirth? I doubt. Before I had my surgery, there are times I get these excruciating pains in my groins. There are times I have preached with such excruciating pains. But I couldn’t stop because it was in the middle of the sermon. I could describe that as hell. But friend, that pales in comparison to the picture of Hell painted in Scripture. It is a place of eternal torment.
Note that all the descriptions about Hell we have considered is from Jesus himself. Some have argued that if God is a loving God, he will send no one to hell. Dear friends, we either listen to what the Bible says or we perish—die eternally and without Jesus be cast into Hell. There was a time some people approached Jesus to ask him a question about suffering. His answer will be appalling to any modern humans who deny the existence of Hell.
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” (Matthew 13:1-5)
This thought of a loving God not sending people to Hell is a result of people holding only a view of a loving God without seeing that he is a God of Justice who will punish evil. God is a just God, and he will not let evil go unpunished. His justice demands that evil is dealt with (Genesis 18:23-25,2 Thessalonians 1:6-7).
In the Bible, Jesus says more than anyone else about Hell… He refers to it as a literal place and describes it in graphic terms-including raging fires and the worm that doesn’t die. Christ says the unsaved “will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12). In his story of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus taught that in Hell, the wicked suffer terribly, are fully conscious, retain their desires and memories and reasoning, long for relief, cannot be comforted, cannot leave their torment, and are bereft of hope (Luke16:19-31). The Savior could not have painted a more bleak or graphic picture.
See, it is all dark and gloom for the one who will reject Jesus’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. The fact remains that we are all sinners heading to Hell. But Jesus has saved a people for himself and transferred them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of life. These ones, those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus have escaped God’s wrath.
A Day of Judgement Approaches
What shall we do with this information? There is a day of judgement approaching. One day, in judgement, those who have not placed their faith in Jesus will be thrown into the lake of fire and God’s justice will prevail over sin and evil
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it (Isaiah 13:9)
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15)
Escaping Hell
Let me end with how to escape hell and this place of torment. There is not hope unless one runs to Jesus and put their trust in him. It is for the reason of saving sinners from Hell that is why Jesus came so that those who will believe in him will be saved.
For God so loved the world,[i] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:16-18)
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