“A Four-Letter Word and the Gospel” or “Hell and the Gospel”
Matt. 18:1-9, 25:29-46
Recently someone told me that I talk too much about sin. IF I am guilty of that accusation, I can justify my actions: SIN is the reason for millions of people spending their eternities in HELL.
Listen to these verses from Matthew 18:1-9: 1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven ?" 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted (change or turn around, repent from your pride) and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 "And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to STUMBLE (sin), it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (To STUMBLE is to Skandalizo: root word is “skandalon” the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick, a trap, snare, any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble, fall, OR SIN.)
7 "Woe to the world because of its STUMBLING blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes! 8 "If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. 9 "If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell (Ge-en-na.)”
“If we’re going to preach the whole counsel of God from His Word, we must preach on hell. After all, it was Jesus Christ who spoke about Hell more than any other man in the Bible. A pastor who had a small country church was approached by a farmer who didn’t like his sermons on hell. The farmer said, “Preach about the meek and lowly Jesus.” The pastor answered, “That’s where I got my information about hell.” (R. Larry Moyer, “Four Dangerous Ways to Preach About Hell”)
(Jesus Teaches Hell)
My intention for reading Matthew 18:1-9 is to make the point that since Jesus teaches and preaches the doctrine of Hell, so should we! In Matthew 25 Jesus refers to this place of Hell: 29 “For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
In verse 33 “He (Jesus when He comes the second time as Judge) will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 "Then the King (Jesus) 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. (You did NOT EARN it; God in Christ prepared it for you. The demonstration of a grateful life to me was this:) 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41 "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. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did NOT do for me.' 46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
In addition to these 3 ways, Jesus described Hell as a place of unquenchable fire (Matt 5:22; Mark 9:43-47). Jesus said that God has the authority to cast wicked men into this Hell (Matt 10:28; Luke 12:5) in whose fire he will punish both the soul and the body. Jesus taught that it is better to forfeit vital limbs or organs than to lose the whole body by being flung into Hell (Matt 5:29; Mark 9:43). Three times according to Mark, Hell is a place where the devouring worm never dies and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:47). Only the wicked will be thrown into the blazing furnace, the place of wailing and gnashing of teeth (Matt 13:50). Although it is full of fire, in Hell there is no light but only darkness (Matt 8:12).
(Suffering Beyond Any Human Experience)
How can people trivialize and minimize or even “erase” the atrocities of Hell? Throughout history, people have reinvented, not only God into THEIR IMAGE, but they have CHANGED WHAT JESUS taught about Hell. Every cult in the world has erased the notion of an eternal place of punishment, so it is no wonder that sinful human beings, sentenced to such an awful place, would be attracted to such fantasies and false teachings.
They try to downplay the reality of Hell by saying that “the descriptions are merely symbols”, but if it is true that they are symbols, then the reality will be worse than the symbols. We accept the descriptions of Heaven as symbols, saying that the reality will be far better, but when we say that the awfulness of HELL is only symbolic, we fail to see that the reality will be far worse! The suffering of Hell cannot be described in realistic terms because the SUFFERING OF HELL is beyond any experience of misery found in this world.
D.L. Moody reportedly shared Christ with a young man. The man had trouble grasping his need of Christ. At one point, he said to D.L. Moody, “If I could see heaven for five minutes, I would believe.” D.L. Moody’s response was, “If you could see hell for five seconds, you would believe.”
Hell is NOT going to be annihilation as many teach. The unsaved are not going to be “burned up” and gone; that, too, would actually be far more “pleasant” than everlasting punishment: It would be a better alternative than to have everlasting, eternal misery and regret under the raging fire of the Almighty’s wrath. But that is NOT what scripture teaches! There is going to be a day of reckoning for every unsaved, unregenerate, disobedient, sinful person in which the punishment is ETERNAL punishment, but for those who have been born again by God’s Grace, eternal life. John 3:35-36 says: "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. "He who believes in the Son has eternal life (it is your possession now and forever); but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides (stays and endures) on him."
There is nothing more valuable in this entire unsaved world than the Redeeming message of the Gospel of Grace in our Lord Jesus Christ: There is no other escape FROM the suffering of Hell than in the Lord Jesus. "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) Around 50 times in the book of Acts, the Name and Work of Jesus is proclaimed in order to be saved from this everlasting punishment.
(Critical Need for Reconciliation)
In Hell, there is no hope of the punishment of God’s wrath ever ceasing. The teaching of Hell, taught primarily by Jesus Himself, displays the critical need for reconciliation through Christ alone. “Jonathan Edwards, in preaching on Revelation 6:said, “Wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they may escape the wrath of God.” (John H. Gerstner, Jonathan Edwards on Heaven and Hell [Orlando: Ligonier Ministries, 1991], 75.) Revelation 6:15 says: Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
“Hell is more than bad; it’s horrible. But hell being so horrible is one thing that makes heaven so bright. Jesus does not want anyone to go to hell. So what did He do? He died as a substitute for everyone. Because a perfect man took our punishment and rose victoriously on the third day, what does God ask us to do? Come as a sinner, recognize Christ died for us and rose again, and place our trust in Christ alone to save us. Imagine that: We’re not saved by trusting Christ plus our church attendance, or Christ plus our good life, or Christ plus our baptism, or Christ plus the sacraments. We’re saved by trusting Christ alone to save us! The moment we trust Christ, God gives heaven to us completely free.” Jesus’ promise is this: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). (from Four Dangerous Ways to Preach About Hell, R. Larry Moyer)
We live in a world where the majesty and might of the Holy God has been trivialized as well as the deplorable condition of unrepentant sinners who will be condemned to Hell without the reconciliation of God in Christ: They do not realize the severity of the charges and will not accept the truth of the sentence. In Luke 23, when the perfect Son of God was suspended on the cross between His Heaven and the sinful earth, we read in verse 39: “One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, "Are You not the Christ ? Save Yourself and us!" 40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "DO YOU NOT EVEN FEAR God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 "And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." Remember, THIS thief repents and is promised by Jesus that: “Today you shall be in Paradise.” He FEARED God and received forgiveness through Jesus. We can only assume that other did NOT repent and received the eternal reward for His sin.
(The Fear of God)
Jesus’ life and death, His teachings concerning Hell display our crucial need to FEAR God NOW. Jesus preached in Luke 12:4-5: "I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. 5 "But I will warn you whom to FEAR: FEAR the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into Hell; yes, I tell you, FEAR Him!” God is the only one who has this power. He is the one whom you should FEAR NOW. We have looked at the word FEAR many times: It means “to be afraid of one, i.e, to hesitate, to do something for fear of harm, to reverence, to treat with reverential obedience”. REVERENTIAL OBEDIENCE! Turn to Him in repentance, know His Will for you NOW, be saved, be filled with the Spirit, be submissive, be obedient.
REVERENTIAL OBEDIENCE is what God deserves because HE IS God and Savior, He is Judge, He is Holy. He certainly deserves this FOREVER from His REDEEMED PEOPLE, the people for whom He died, but also from those who haven’t been saved!!!! He is the everlasting God who never changes and even in Heaven, the redeemed will continue to FEAR HIM! Rev. 19: 5: “Then a voice came from the throne, saying: "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who FEAR him, both small and great!"
(The Critical Need)
5. Hell displays the critical need to witness with the saving Gospel of the LORD JESUS Christ: It’s a message of urgency and immediacy. It doesn’t mean that we try and intimidate or scare people, but Hell is the only alternative to refusing God’s Grace in Christ. God’s Saving Grace in Christ’s LIFE and DEATH is the root of the Gospel which ALONE CAN and WILL save from the eternal punishment of Hell and produce the fruit of Peace with God. Because we KNOW the TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL, we are obedient to our Holy God in witnessing to others. 2 Cor. 5:1 says: “Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.”
It is not our task to “save” people, but by sharing the TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL, we are being obedient to our saving Supreme God, and by doing so, we “Try to persuade men.” Think about how many people you know and meet who DO NOT KNOW THE SAVIOR and His SAVING Work of the Gospel. Have you in genuine love and concern SHARED the WHOLE truth of the Gospel with them, that in believing in the Grace of God in Christ, they will not only have eternal life, but they will escape the eternal judgment that they deserve because they have sinned…even once?
Col. 1:27-28 says: “To whom (the Saints, you and I) God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.” Jesus never spoke of HELL with satisfaction, and neither should we. We speak of Hell with the greatest remorse and sorrow because we know that Christ has not rejected sinners, but came to DIE for sinners. Hell is the last place that God desires to send sinners, but they will spend eternity there because THEY HAVE REJECTED HIM and the gift of Himself. That is the message that we should share with the grace, love and compassion that we have found IN CHRIST!
OUTLINE
1. Jesus taught the doctrine of Hell.
(Matt 5:22, 8:11-12, 10:28, 25:29-46, Mark 9:42-48, Luke 12:5,)
2. The suffering of Hell is beyond any experience of misery found in this world.
(Jn. 3:35-36, Act 4:12)
3. Hell displays the critical need for reconciliation through Christ alone. (Rev. 6:15 John 14:2-3, Luke 23:39-41)
4. Hell displays our crucial need to FEAR God NOW. (Rev. 19:5, Luke 12:4-5)
5. Hell displays the critical need to witness with the Gospel of Christ. (2 Cor. 5:11, Col. 1:27-28)
The leaders of the church had placed John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress”, in prison for preaching the Gospel; They told him, “You can’t go on telling people that Christ’s righteousness has been credited to them in full. If they believe that, they’ll feel like they can do whatever they want!” Bunyan replied, “If people really see that Christ’s righteousness has been GIVEN to them entirely as a GIFT, they’ll do WHATEVER HE wants.” (P.100 “Gospel” by JD Greear)
