I hope that you aren’t here today with plans to listen to something new. My commission is not to entertain you, and I am not some sort of cult leader with new revelation from God. My job is to teach you what the Lord has already revealed in His Word, and a part of teaching is repetition. So we are returning to an old subject. But the road up to that subject will be different – perhaps you have never gone this direction before. I am going to deliberately take our Lord’s words out of their original context. I trust that it will still be perfectly in tune with the rest of the Word of God, but there will be a slight discord when played against Matthew 24.
Just to prove to you that I know what I am doing, let me remind you of the context. The disciples asked their Master about the time and circumstances of His return. To answer, Jesus begins with what will be our subject this afternoon – false Christs. “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” From there the Lord describes a rising tide – a tsunami – of physical and spiritual disasters. He mentions wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes, persecutions, heretical religions and false prophets. The wars to which Jesus referred could include the two world wars which are already past. The pestilences could involve AIDS, ebola and others much worse, yet to come. We hear of huge earthquakes almost every month – mostly on the other side of the world, but some closer to home. Persecution and genocide are things which you’d think would have evolved into oblivion – if there was such a things as evolution – but they seem to growing worse and worse.
And then Christ says, “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Some of the things I have just mentioned are filling our news-feeds even as I speak. But very soon, something which Jesus and the Bible calls “the Tribulation” will begin, and each of those items will intensify a hundred fold. Then after three and one half years of “Tribulation” the “Great Tribulation” will begin. As that adjective suggests – what was horrible will become unimaginably horrible. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
When Christ said, “All these are the beginning of sorrows,” He was speaking about the difference between the problems of today and the problems which shall arise during the Tribulation and Great Tribulation. And that is where I want to slightly diverge from the context and Jesus’ meaning.
Have you ever heard someone say that they were “going through hell”? Perhaps they were thinking of some sort of war – personal or national – and his life was filled with disaster almost beyond endurance. Maybe they were in the midst of a terrible disease, or economic problems, or his girl friend left him or his dog died. He may say that he is “going through hell,” but borrowing Jesus’ words, “These things are only the beginning of sorrows.” Sir, you ain’t seen nothing yet. And in that same light, when the world, and the Jews in particular, find themselves in “be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” in this world – even then, “All these are (only) the beginning of sorrows.” because there is an eternity and hell, into which many of these Christ-rejecting sinners shall yet be cast.
As Jesus described the upcoming Jewish Tribulation, there were many, including perhaps some of those disciples, who didn’t want to believe what they were hearing. Human nature wants to deny that God might judge sin – because everyone knows deep down in his heart that he is one of those sinners. And this is one reason why so many natural men want to deny the existence of God. Thinking about God leads to thoughts of His holiness, then sinfulness and eventually judgment. The Jews didn’t want to hear about upcoming tribulation. And in the same way our neighbors refuse to listen to the Biblical “fables” about hell and eternal punishment. And it’s not just our neighbors – we have known professing Christians and church members who have ultimately rejected this Bible doctrine. Our children and grand-children need to hear it again and again, until it is ingrained into their consciences. I make no apologies for preaching over and over about eternal punishment for sin. No matter how bad things get into this world “All these are (only) the BEGINNING of sorrows.”
Once entered, inmates of Hell and the Lake of Fire will find that it is PERMANENT.
As the Saviour suggests, the terrible things which might befall anyone on earth, are only temporary and therefore not to be compared to future judgments and punishments. Even though this chapter is primarily talking about the Tribulation notice verses 41-46: “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” The two words “everlasting” and “eternal” are translations of “aionios (ahee-o’-nee-os). That word is translated only three ways in God’s Word – “everlasting,” “eternal” and “since the world began.” In other words, it essentially means – “for ever, and ever, and ever, and ever.” For some Bible-denying sinner to say that the Lake of Fire is really only some sort of temporary purgatory gives us problems with lots of important scriptures – such as I Timothy 1:17 – “Now unto the King eternal, invisible, immortal…” When the Bible says that God is eternal, I’m foolish enough think that He will be, or live, FOREVER. But God the Father and God the Son are not the only eternal – never ending things in Jehovah’s domain. For example, because your soul is eternal, it will never die. You need to be born again … “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”
Let the truth of God sink deeply into your soul – “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever“ – Revelation 20:10. “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name” – Revelation 14:11.
The day that the fires of the Lake of Fire are doused will be the day that Heaven also ceases to exist, because it will be the day of the death of the eternal God. As God lives today and shall for ever dwell in glory for ever, YOU may dwell in judgment exactly as long. That is – should you, by your rebellion and unbelief, be cast into the Lake of Fire, you shall never escape.
It must be remembered that Hell has been designed and perfected by God Himself.
\II Thessalonians. 1:6-10 – “Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.”
How often have the saints of God rejoiced in the promises of John 14? “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. 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 unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Just think about it: The Lord Jesus has been preparing a place for us for over 2,000 earthly years. Surely it must be magnificent. We may not be able to grasp all that the Lord has done or is doing for us, but there should be no question about Who it is making those preparations.
Is there any doubt that same God Who has prepared Heaven has also prepared Hell and the Lake of Fire? Matthew. 25:41 reports that Lord shall say to wicked: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Prepared by Whom? How many people have the insane idea that Satan is the owner and chief maintenance man of Hell? How many picture the Devil stoking the fires of the Lake of Fire? Millions of people seem to think that GOD will forget our wickedness – but that SATAN won’t. Who is the actual god of these people? Heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. Hell is a prepared place for unprepared people; natural people; graceless people. “The wicked shall be cast into hell and all nations that forget God.” All our earthly sorrows are only the beginning for someone outside the grace of God.
Hell is absolutely perfect for what it was designed to do.
God has never yet made a mistake. He has never started any project and left it incomplete. When creating the earth, prior to sin’s intervention, He looked and said, “It is good.” Jehovah’s only standard is perfection – “Be ye holy for I am holy.” He has called His saints to wear the image of the perfect and righteous Son of God.
And Heaven will be the very paragon of perfection – in design, atmosphere, and glory. It will be a masterpiece of magnificence, and the quintessence of quality. It is beyond the imagination of our depraved, and yet sometimes, saved minds. And only a fool would deliberately choose to miss it. Those are not my words, but the Lord’s. Christ Jesus calls the man “a fool” who by mere neglect misses Heaven. Luke 12:16-21 – “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
On the other side of that coin, the Lake of Fire is also the very best of its class. Unlike modern prisons, Hell is the ultimate in punishment facilities. There will be the solitude of darkness so thick that it will be impenetrable. The fires will be so hot that one drop of water would greatly relieve the sufferer – if it was given. The flames will be so intense that they will consume their own light. The nerves and minds of the sufferers will be so acute that their sin will never be forgotten. The conscience will be active, the mind active, the heart active, and every pain sensor will be active. Perhaps even lust, hunger and emotional thirst will be a part of that place and punishment.
Both Heaven and Hell will be places of total consciousness. There will be no long winter’s naps, no black outs, no memory laps, and no drugs to deaden the senses. Smitty’s bar wont be there to help folk drown their sorrows. It will be the ultimate place of punishment and pain. The Lake of Fire will be Hell to its fullest, and nothing on earth has yet to come close. “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” Deny it if you dare; but deny it to the eternal peril of your soul.
Those who enter the Hell, and eventually the Lake of Fire, will find it INESCAPABLE.
Isn’t it a joy to know that the Christian is “kept by the power of God unto salvation?” Salvation is perfect in every way, and totally inescapable. John 10:27-29 – “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall NEVER perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” Notice that verse 28 says “never” – not ever – the Greek word is “aion” – it is related to the word “eternal.” Salvation is eternal and the mortgage on the saint’s home in Heaven has been fully paid for eternity by the Lord Himself.
There is a sense in which Heaven is inescapable – but that is even more true of the Lake of Fire. No one will want to “escape” Heaven, but every inmate of Hell will yearn for “escape.” Revelation 14:11 – “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” If you are rejecting Christ’s sacrifice and seeking another means of salvation, you will enter Hell, and then you can kiss all hope of escape good-bye.
Hell is absolutely CONSISTENT with the NATURE OF GOD.
How often do we hear that God is too loving – too kind – to send anyone, but the very worst people, to Hell? It is shouted from the rafters in thousands of liberal churches around the world. But it’s a lie of Satan, and people believe it only because it tickles their ears.
God indeed is loving and merciful – so merciful that He designed a way to escape the judgment that sin deserves. But above His love stands God’s infinite holiness. Just as you can’t stop the heart beating in your chest – God can not deny His Holy nature. The Lord has made a promise to all who, under the Holy Spirit, repent and turn to Him through Christ. Among other things there is His promise of eternal glory in Heaven. It includes forgiveness of all sin, a cleansed record, imputed righteousness and life eternal. But those promises can be kept only because Christ bore every aspect of the judgment that our sins deserve. And for the sinner who spurns the message of His grace, God must pronounce judgment. “The wages of sin is death” – eternally – and God is a debtor to no man. “Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Hell is as consistent with the nature God as Heaven is. If there were no such judgment, we couldn’t count on the Lord for anything – including Heaven. It would mean that sin is, at the very least, tolerable to the Lord. But it isn’t. Heaven is a part of God’s justice, and so is the Lake of Fire.
And finally, there is a sense in which both Heaven and Hell can be MISSED OR AVOIDED.
As Jesus was talking to these disciples, describing the inevitable judgment which was to fall on Israel, those men might have walked away in fear for their lives. But as saints of God living prior to the Tribulation, they didn’t have to fear the full effect of God’s wrath. Oh, the precursors might fall on them, and in some sense they did. And similarly some of the precursors of the Tribulation might fall on us. But neither those men, nor the saints of God today, have to fear either the Tribulation or Hell.
When the man described as “rich” of Luke 16 died and lifted up his eyes in hell, he couldn’t get to Paradise. He knew it instantly, and didn’t even ask for it. There will be no passports and no shuttles between the Lake of Fire and Heaven. There will be no paroles, pardons or transfers. And a simple desire to go to Heaven – a will – or even an hope for Heaven, will not guarantee that place for sinful souls. Only by the free grace of God is there an avoidance – (not an escape) – from eternal judgment.
You may miss Heaven by your intellect, or by your neglect, or by your willful reject. Someone has said that it’s possible miss Heaven by 18 inches, the distance between the head and the heart. But the only way to miss Hell is by turning toward Jesus Christ and His infinite grace. You must – and I stress MUST – you must turn from your pride and self-confidence. You must acknowledge that you deserve Hell – because you are a sinner. You must turn from yourself and your sin into the arms of Saviour. And you must put all your dependence for the future of your soul on the finished work Christ.
How can a person escape the eternal condemnation of Hell? The Lord Jesus put it this way: “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” Is YOUR faith in Christ Jesus this morning?