Saved From What?

In the last couple of weeks we as the leadership team have had a very good question asked of us, and one we thought we should address in a sermon.

I want to thank the person who asked, as it challenged me. I knew about some things, because I had looked into them before, but there were some things I wasn’t sure about, and so I had to do some very fast reading.

The question was, if you could allow me to paraphrase it, “Is Hell Eternal?” That is to say when we die, do we suffer eternal conscious torment in hell?

To my surprise when I was doing background reading, I discovered something rather disturbing about the trends about teaching on eternal punishment. The Bible teaches, and Christ Himself affirms many times, that hell is eternal and conscious punishment, and I have never needed any more convincing that this was true, as this the plain reading of the Bible says it is so.

Hell is more than eternal fire, it is described as “outer darkness” and eternal separation from God. What is disturbing is that I found out that people were simply not teaching on eternal punishment, and warning people about the consequences of unbelief, that Christ was their only salvation. By the 1800’s we started to see a little of what we saw in the 20th Century, the doctrine of eternal punishment was being challenged seriously, and that alternative views were not just the stuff of small groups anymore, it was spreading.

Choice has become an urgency in modern

In the past, as a result of good faithful preaching, men and women of the world longed for heaven and feared hell, but as we come into the 20th century we find Christians lived with almost no fear of hell as a place of eternal punishment, and almost no teaching on eternal punishment in general. This small snippet from a sermon from Jonathan Edwards highlights that modern congregations don’t get warnings like this very often.

Hell under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment Background: Hell in Christian History

Consider that if once you get into hell, you’ll never get out. If you should unexpectedly one of these days drop in there; [there] would be no remedy. They that go there return no more. Consider how dreadful it will be to suffer such an extremity forever. It is dreadful beyond expression to suffer it half an hour. O the misery, the tribulation and anguish that is endured!

When I read this I went to talk to Bec and then she & I reflected on some of the sermons preached to us over the years, and apart from tackling the issue of eternal punishment when she was converted from Roman Catholicism, neither of us could remember hearing a good solid sermon on eternal punishment.

Some have mentioned it, but not in depth. When you look at older sermons though, you start to realise we don’t really get a lot of preaching on it. I also think I know why from personal experience now, preachers, myself included are worried about preaching on it.

In fact a major US news magazine summarized the problem neatly:

Hell under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment Background: Hell in Christian History

“By most accounts, it has all but disappeared from the pulpit rhetoric of mainline Protestantism. And it has fared only marginally better among evangelicals.”

Why should we be afraid to preach on something that Christ himself preach on so often in His earthly ministry? Considering the reality of hell, we should talk more about it, not less. People step out into eternity every day, many of them do not believe in Christ. It should motivate you, particularly towards to loved ones who aren’t believers, to preach to them the Gospel of Christ which saves.

So this is how I am going to approach it this morning: firstly I want to tell you about the two alternative viewpoints and argue why eternal punishment is the only possible interpretation of scripture.

A Fundamental Misunderstanding

The first viewpoint is that everyone goes to heaven regardless. The other is a bit more complicated. In simple terms it a belief that after we die physically, whether or not we go onto eternity is dependent on if we believe in Jesus Christ.

Those sinners who have not repented and believed on Christ, great and small, either stop existing, or are punished for a short time and then cease to exist - or are annihilated.

I can understand why people tend to believe this, and it is, generally that they find it difficult to accept eternal punishment, or that it is a way to get out of guilt for not evangelizing to the lost. Sometimes it has to do with loved ones who are not believers. It is easier to for people to believe that their loved ones will cease to exist rather than suffer in eternal torment.

In either of the views, there is no real punishment for your sin, or very little of it. Truth is interesting, because truth doesn’t care about your feelings. It doesn’t matter if you believe that the sun exists, because there is nothing except the end of the world and an eclipse that the prevent the sun from showing itself in the morning.

That is an interesting analogy, because a lot of the evidence used to support those arguments are Bible verses that are not clear, almost to the exclusion of all the abundantly clear ones. An eclipse, once you understand it makes sense. In ancient times people used to believe the sun was a god, because when you looked at it directly you became partially blind, but when the sun-god was temporarily gone in an eclipse, some pretty wacky explanations came and most were about some evil entity devouring the sun. In an eclipse, the sun is merely hidden away temporarily. Sometimes verses are there to obscure, they are there so we can look below the surface.

This reveals itself quite clearly. To not understand hell as eternal conscious punishment is to misunderstand the nature of sin and who it is commited against and who God it, or the nature of God.

The Nature of Sin

The nature of sin is a wrong relationship with God, disobedience toward God, and sin is always comitted against God first and foremost. Remember the parable of the prodigal son? The one son wanted his inheritance now, but then squandered his wealth on wasteful living, and he decides to come back home. Lets pick it up from Luke 15:18

Luke 15:18 NKJV

18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you,

Jesus is stating that sin is always against God. King David also recognized this. Psalm 51 was written after David had killed Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba who he had lusted over when he should have been at the front lines.

He saw her bathing from the balcony of his palace and was lost in his lust. Nathan then confronted David about his sin, and afterwards was convicted of it. He then penned these words into a Psalm

Psalm 51:4 NKJV

4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.

In our post-modern world we tend to want to minimize sin, we think it is against others, that is, it is horizontal. Sin is primarily vertical - that is against God, and this is where the bigger problems lie with the other views. Sin is comitted against an eternal God, it only follows that there is nothing short of everlasting punishment that would be an appropriate and sufficient punishment for sin comitted against a just, holy and eternal God.

The Nature of God

Because sin is vertical, it is against God. God is the uncreated being who has always and will always exist. God is eternally just, He is the embodiment of Justice

Deuteronomy 32:4 NKJV

4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.

2 Timothy 2:13 NKJV

13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

God cannot deny himself, and the nature of God is that he is eternal, and eternally just.

He cannot deny who He is.

God cannot lie,

He cannot sin,

God cannot change,

He cannot stop “being”,

God cannot get tired,

He cannot give glory to another,

and He cannot justify those who are not covered by the Blood of Christ.

To deny eternal conscious punishment is to misunderstand both the nature of God and the nature of Sin. One of the main arguments is that hell is not eternal is that the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime. Stated another way, the sin we commit is temporal, or earthly, so an infinte punishment for something finite doesn’t fit.

But there is something missing here, and that is the eternal creator God against which your sin is committed. The punishment has to be eternal by the nature of the One against whom it is committed.

I Want You to Think About Jesus

Jesus Christ, who is He? He is God incarnate, fully God and Fully man. Sin was man’s, so the payment for the sin had to be by a man.

If Jesus took the punishment that we deserved, eternal damnation, the only way a man could be our representative would be if He were God also, infinite and without sin. He is the eternal payment for man’s sin, only a perfect eternal Man who was God incarnate, the only Man who could have ever done this and took the punishment we deserve.

Romans 5:17–19 NKJV

17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

You see God created us in His own image, as it says in Genesis 1. We were created in the image of God, and he breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. We were created with eternity in mind, and the consequences of our earthly life carry through to eternity My main point here is that to think that out lives on earth don’t impact on eternity is to deny eternal punishment is inconsistent with ones insistence you can have eternal life, but only conditional eternity if you happen to go to hell. It denies the essence and purpose behind God’s creation, in fact would make a lot of what the Bible says make no sense as I will show shortly.

Galatians 6:7–8 NKJV

7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

What Does thew Bible Say?

There are many verses that talk about hell, but I can’t think of one more appropriate than Matthew 25:46. If I had to pick one verse for you to focus on, this would be it.

Matthew 25:46 NKJV

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

This is a quote from a Dr Francis Pieper, “Holy Scripture teaches the truth of an eternal damnation so clearly and emphatically that one cannot deny it without, at the same time, rejecting the authority of scripture. Scripture parallels the eternal salvation w of the believers and the eternal damnation of the unbelievers. Whoever denies the one, must, to be consistent, deny the other…But all objections are based on the false principle that it is proper and reasonable to make our human sentiments and judgement the measure of God’s essence and activity…Against such views we must maintain the general principle that God’s essence, attributes and actions exceed our comprehension.”

Can you see how firstly we have “everlasting punishment” and “eternal life” in this verse? The everlasting and eternal is the same Greek word. I don’t want to confuse you but I want to show you beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is in fact true.

I am about to put up a slide of a snippet from a Greek Interlinear Bible that basically shows the Greek first and the the English translation. Have a look at the red boxes and you will see it is exactly the same word.

Why do I bring this up? Because there have been attempts still in the present and in the past that try to say that when the Bible says eternal in reference to hell all it means is that the wicked and unrighteous are simple “gone forever”. In that they are forever gone, don’t exist or annihilated. This makes a mockery of the Word.

Two Bible Verses For Reassureance

Revelation 14:10–11 NKJV

10 he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

I want to show you something here. This is the same cup Jesus was talking about in Gethsemane. Jesus drank the cup of indignation, in full strength as Revelation reveals - with God all things are possible.

Matthew 26:39 NKJV

39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

The word translated here as “forever and ever” in the Revelation verse is also from the same root word as we found in Matthew 25:46. It means:

Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 67.95 εἰς τὸ διηνεκές; or εἰς αἰῶνα; or εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα; or εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας; or εἰς �

unlimited duration of time, with particular focus upon the future—‘always, forever, forever and ever, eternally.’

I want to give an Old Testament references, and there are a few, but the one that I think shows the point clearly is Daniel 12:2

Daniel 12:2 NKJV

2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt.

You see the balance there again, everlasting life, and everlasting contempt. The Aramaic word used in both of these lines is the same.

It is used in Exodus 15:18 where it says “The Lord shall reign forever and ever” It is used in Exodus 3:15 when God said in reference to His name, and that it would be His name forever.

To try and change the meaning of the words makes an absolute hash of the rest of the Bible and makes it make little sense when you read these scriptures.

Saved from What?

Now we come to why I titled this sermon like this. If hell were not eternal, what are saved from? A rejection of eternal punishment is a downplay of sin, particularly of our own sin. We don’t see sin as badly as God sees it, we take God out of the picture, and when we do all we see is a lifetime of sin compared to eternal torture.

Sin is view so excruciatingly bad by God, that is pleased Him to crush His only Son on the Cross to satisfy His Justice. That is the wrath of God, but God is also Love. He love us so much he was willing to do that, not only that, but to provide salvation through Christ’s suffering on the Cross.

Remember to take into account the eternal nature of both God the Father and God the Son - the exist outside of time so our understanding of what transpired on the cross is limited, and we are sure to plumb the depths of that in eternity with Him.

So saved from what? We are saved, gloriously, finally and spectacularly from eternal torment. I have a brother who absolutely hates God and isn’t shy about it either. If I were to preach the idea to him that he would cease to exist either at the point of death or a short time afterwards when he is cast in the lake of fire, and shortly thereafter not exist, his response to me would be, “Good, it’s a small price to pay not to have to spend eternity with you and anyone like you.”

Its also a motivation for us preach the Gospel to the lost, that we might as Jude said in verse 23

Jude 23 NKJV

23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

Eternal punishment is truly something to fear, and truly something to fear. Either view point that everyone goes to heaven, or that eternity is conditional on your acceptance of salvation robs the Gospel of power and authority, but also cause a lot of problems than if you just read the scriptures plainly.

Bec struggled with this when she was a new convert. She had to face that her Pop, her beloved grandfather may have to suffer eternal conscious torment for his unbelief. No, its not nice or pleasant to talk about, but isn’t is good motivation to go out there and fulfill the Great Commission and preach the salvation that Christ got for us?

PRAYER

Lord, I know that I am not the world’s greatest evangelist. I have family that are not saved. I have preached to them your words but the continually reject them. Sometimes I fear pushing them further away, but Lord something inside me says I should never stop. Lord I pray that you will give my family and other people I come across hearts of flesh, not hearts of stone. In Ezekiel you say that you will remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Help us Lord as your embassadors to this world, with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit seek to soften the hearts of stone that never yield to anything to heart of flesh that will respond to life, the everlasting life you have given us through Jesus Christ. I pray Lord for opportunities to minister to friends and family, and others that are lost.

You are the way the truth and the life Lord, help us lead the lost to the foot of the cross where salvation can be found from such a terrible fate, even a more terrible fate of eternal fire is eternal separation from You. Lord forgive us of our unbelief and spur us to new heights and challenges, that we might bring your word to this World.