"Things About Hell"

October 22, 2023

FBC Baxley

am service

Allison Flory, Calvin Edmund, Dixie Eason, Sign-up for Joy Group, Operation Christmas Child…__________________________________

Welcome radio and online guests…

*It’s ok if you’re broken, unfaithful, lost, we are too and we are here seeking God’s will and way and plan.

We are all prodigals here…

Some rescued….Some Not..

All Loved…

*Acts 4:12 (repeat)

*John 3:16

Sermon Title: Things About Hell

Scripture Passage: Revelation 14:9-11

Revelation 14:9-11.

“9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,

10 he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”” (Revelation 14:9-11)

PRAY

Introduction:

You may ask… Bro. Fred, Why preach on Hell?

Jesus spoke more on Hell than any other person…

I realize this morning, most lost people do not get saved by listening to a message on Hell.

*The message then is as much for the saved, so that we might share the gospel more…

2 Cor. 5:11

11 “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.”

I pray we at FBC have such a fear of the Lord… It motivates us to share the redemptive love of almighty God!

Illus.

I have read, that, some sailors on a ship, asked their chaplain this question– They asked-”Chaplain, do you believe in Hell?” He said, “I certainly do, Why do you ask?” They said, “For this reason. If there is a hell, and you do not believe in it, then we do not want you as our chaplain. But… If there is no hell, then we don’t need a chaplain.”

Good point!

Adrian Rogers said, “I know hell today is ridiculed and passed off as a false idea. He said he knows why it is…because people don’t like it and try to laugh it away.

“You can laugh your way into hell, but you cannot laugh your way out once you are there.”

Proverbs 28:5, Evil men do not understand justice,

but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.

"Gehenna."

The word most often translated “hell” in the NT is Gehenna, the Greek equivalent for “the valley of Hinnom”.

This valley is immediately southwest of Jerusalem, still visible from the Mt. of Olives.

At one time… it was there that human sacrifices were made to the pagan deity Moloch (2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; cf. Jer. 7:31-32; 19:5ff.). 10 “And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.”

Some scholars debate as to whether the Valley of Hinnom actually served as the “city dump” or “garbage heap” of Jerusalem.

The evidence is really inconclusive.

But no one denies that this area was at one time the site for pagan child sacrifice.

So it being used as a way of referring to the place of eternal torment is very understandable.

Eternal smoke and sulfur.

John goes on to describe the duration of this punishment in two statements in v. 11.

First, the “smoke” of their torment, i.e., the smoke of the fire and sulfur (v. 10) “goes up forever and ever” (see Isa. 34:9-10 for the OT background).

“9 And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch,

and her soil into sulfur;

her land shall become burning pitch.

10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;

its smoke shall go up forever.

From generation to generation it shall lie waste;

none shall pass through it forever and ever.”

There is a painted picture of a smoldering testimony to the consequences of sin and the justice of God’s wrath.

The duration of this is said to be, “unto the ages of the ages”.

This terminology occurs 13x in Revelation: 3x with reference to the duration of praise, glory, and dominion given to God (1:6; 5:13; 7:12);

5x with reference to the length of life of God or Christ (1:18; 4:9,10; 10:6; 15:7);

once referring to the length of God’s reign in Christ (11:15);

once referring to the length of the saints’ reign (22:5);

once referring to the ascension of the smoke of destroyed Babylon (19:3);

once referring to the duration of torment of the devil, beast, and false prophet (20:10);

and, of course, once here in 14:11.

Second, “they have no rest, day or night” (the latter phrase being parallel to “forever and ever”).

In Revelation 4:8 the same terminology occurs with regard to the duration of worship on the part of the four living creatures.

That from which they have “no rest” is, presumably, the torment caused by the fire and brimstone.

Satan will actually suffer eternally.

Matthew 25:46

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Revelation 20:10-15

10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

11 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.

Hell isn't about the magnitude of our sins. It's about the magnitude of God.

As John Piper has pointed out, “The essential thing is that degrees of blameworthiness come not from how long you offend dignity, but from how high the dignity is that you offend” (Let the Nations be Glad, 127).

In other words, our sin is deserving of infinite punishment because of the infinite glory of the One against whom it is perpetrated.

God's holiness and righteousness matter.

Revelation 22:11, is where the angel says to John the Apostle, “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

Conclusion:

There's just one thing that matters...

What you and I “like” absolutely irrelevant.

God doesn’t set his eternal agenda based on what we “prefer.”

What we might “hope” to be true simply doesn’t matter.

What does or does not make us “feel comfortable” has no bearing on the truth or falsity of this issue.

The fact that we have an intuitive sense for what strikes us as “fair” or “just” … plays no part whatsoever in coming to a conclusion on whether or not there is an eternal hell.

The fact that we may not enjoy the thought of eternal conscious punishment doesn’t make it go away!

The fact that you “feel” the existence of hell is inconsistent with your concept of God doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

What we “want” or “hope” or “desire” has no relevance at all.

The only important question is, “Does the Bible teach it?”

And if the Bible does teach it (and Revelation 14 together with numerous other texts would indicate it does),

…our responsibility is to believe it and fervently and faithfully proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as the only hope sinners have for now and eternity.

Story—

**Young man was sowing his wild oats… as he left his mother at home, she handed him a tract.

** where can I go where no one will hand me one of these…

** In hell no one will…

Poem:

Loved ones will weep o'er my silent face,

Dear ones will clasp me in sad embrace,

Shadows and darkness will fill the place

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Faces that sorrow, I will not see;

Voices that murmur will not reach me!

But where, oh where, will my spirit be,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Here I have feasted, worked and ranged;

Here I have flourished, and grown estranged;

There, and then, it will all be changed

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Naught to repair the good I lack;

Fixed to the goal of my chosen track;

No room to repent, no turning back,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Now I can stifle convictions stirred;

Now I can silence the Voice oft heard;

Then, fulfillment of God's sure Word,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Mated for aye with my chosen throng—

Long is ETERNITY—endlessly long!

Then, woe to me if my soul was wrong,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Oh, what a fool! what a fool! but true,

Refusing the Savior, with Hell in view!

Doing a thing I can ne'er undo

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

If I am flinging a fortune away;

If I am wasting SALVATION'S day,

"Just is my sentence," my soul shall say,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

** Submarine Story

Submarine stuck and stranded at the oceans floor…

-rescuers could hear the men inside, pounding out in morse code… “Is there any hope?”

-If you go to hell…there will be no hope!!

PRAY

Invitation

“Are you born again?”

Is your name written in the Lambs Book of Life?

“Have you surrendered/repented to Jesus?