Transcript
More than 160,000 people die every day. About 5 million die each month. Around 60 million die every year. What reality do they find beyond the grave? What fate awaits them? Do they really Rest In Peace?
The Bible is the only authoritative source that tells us the truth about life, death, and eternity. The Bible has the final word on that subject, and on every subject it touches, because it is the revealed Word of God.
The Bible has come from God, from the spiritual realm, and it has the answers about where all of us will spend eternity and what awaits us one day in the spiritual realm.
We talk often in Christian circles about being saved. But what do we mean by this? Saved and salvation are words in Scripture that suggest deliverance or rescue, and the natural question is, saved from what? What are we “saved” from?
When we talk about being saved or read about it in the Bible, depending on its context, it most often means being saved from hell, from an eternity of conscious suffering and torment in the lake of fire.
God’s Word shows how deeply God desires to save you from hell. It tells us that He sent His own Son to save you from it.
And the Bible is a Book of warning about Hell. And like the Bible does, believers are called to warn others, because God uses rescued people to rescue people.
Luke 16:23-25: “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
“But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”
When an unbeliever dies in their sins, their soul immediately goes to hades. Hades is the TEMPORARY dwelling place of all unbelievers from all the ages of history.
Hades is a spiritual realm located in the center of the earth. All who go there are tormented in the same manner with no difference.
Hades is a like a jail, a temporary place of incarceration, before one is judged and then sent to prison. Hades today is the jail for the souls of all unbelievers.
The Great White Throne Judgment is when all in hades will one day be raised and judged and then sent to the lake of fire, which is the final, permanent, eternal prison for the souls of all unbelievers.
In Luke 16, we find an account of a man in hades. This is hades before the Cross. At that time, there were two parts of hades, paradise and torment.
The paradise side is where Christ went after He died on the cross, as well as the thief on the cross, to whom the Lord said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”
In Luke 16, we learn things about the unsaved dead who are in torment right now. And as God in the flesh and One who knows exactly what awaits the believer and unbeliever after death, Christ told the story of a rich man who was tormented in hades.
The Lord explained how, in life, the rich man lived in comfort and ease. He dressed well and ate better. But outside the gate of his home lived a beggar named Lazarus, who was full of sores, living in pain and poverty. As Lazarus begged, he desired only to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.
The day came that both of these men died and were buried. For both of them we learn that their spirits were separated from their bodies, yet they were very much alive and in a new place. Lazarus was in paradise and the rich man was in the torments of hades.
Even in his disembodied state, we read how the rich man lifted “up his eyes” and he could see. He is conscious. He is “in torments” in hades, and he feels the pain.
In the account, we learn how the rich man could see, hear, talk, feel, think, and reason. And in verse 25, we learn that he is tormented in a flame of fire.
Out of that flame, the rich man asks Abraham about the possibility of receiving the treasured relief that just a single drop of water would offer. The rich man doesn’t ask for a barrel of water, or a jar, a thermos, or a cup.
He just says a drop or two would be precious beyond description. This type of unrelieved anguish will go on forever and ever for the unbeliever. They will thirst forever. The rich man begs for mercy, but we see that there is no mercy in the torments of hades.
In his torment, the rich man could “remember.” Abraham told him to “remember” because he can. The rich man had his memories, and they tortured him and brought him pain as well. He remembered his 5 brothers, and his concern was that they be spared and not be cast into the horrible torment he was in.
He remembered also, as Abraham told him to, how Lazarus used to lie at his gate in pain and hunger, while he, the rich man, had wealth, a home, food, and comfort in life.
Lazarus was tormented in life and the rich man was comforted, but now in the afterlife the tables were turned: Lazarus was comforted and the rich man was tormented.
And there was nothing now that could be done. Abraham reminded the rich man of the great chasm that could not be crossed. This is a reminder that there is no reversal once you die and are in eternity. There are no second chances after you die. You go to one of 2 places: heaven or hell, eternal bliss or eternal torment forever.
Revelation 20:15 says, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
Here the Apostle John is writing about the Great White Throne Judgment. At this judgment, all the unbelieving of all history will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ.
All lost souls in hades will be raised from the dead for this judgment. And the resurrected bodies given to the unsaved by God at this time will be indestructible and able to exist forever in torment in the lake of fire.
They will stand before Christ and will be judged “according to their works,” or their sinful deeds, which determines their degree of eternal punishment. Then each unbeliever, body, soul, and spirit, will be cast into the lake of fire.
The Bible calls being cast into the lake of fire, “the second death.” And the sentence of the second death will be passed on all who appear at the Great White Throne.
They are cast into the lake of fire because their names will not be found written in the book of life. They are not in the book of “life,” because they do not have life in Christ. Instead, they are spiritually dead in their sins.
The lake of fire is the final destination of the unsaved. The Apostle Paul wrote that the unbelieving will “be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord” in the lake of fire.
Hell is a place of punishment, everlasting destruction, and separation from the presence of the Lord. The horror of separation from God is seen in the life of Cain.
When Cain was punished by the Lord for murdering his brother Abel, Genesis 4:13-14 reads: “Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, Thou hast driven me out this day…and from Thy face shall I be hid.”
This is a mild version of what happens to those in the lake of fire: they are driven from the Lord, hidden from His face eternally, forsaken and separated forever from His presence.
And being separated from His blessings and goodness will cause their punishment to be greater than they can bear. We take God’s goodness for granted in life. We all do.
We continually experience God’s blessings of light, color, beauty, growth, rest, family, shelter, food, drink. But separation from God and His goodness will mean that the unsaved will never experience these blessings ever again.
Revelation 21:8 says, “ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
Being separated from God and His goodness means that the lost will spend eternity in the midst of pure evil in hell, among the wicked and basest of people.
They will spend eternity with killers and murderers, the sexually immoral, rapists, liars, sorcerers, and vile, revolting, hateful, depraved, malicious people.
And they will further live eternally among demons, Satan, the Anti-Christ, the False Prophet and all the horrors and fears that go with living in their evil presence eternally.
Unbelievers will spend eternity in the middle of undiluted evil and wickedness forever, and they will not ever again experience anything good.
The Bible presents hell as a REAL PLACE where all the unbelieving suffers the wrath of God for all eternity.
I spoke at a youth camp once, and I was speaking on apologetics, or the defense of the faith and the truth of the Bible. One way I did that was by demonstrating to them how the places and locations recorded in the Bible are REAL PLACES you can see and visit.
Places such as Athens, Mars Hill, Rome, Jerusalem, Mount Carmel, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Mount of Olives, Sea of Galilee, Jordan River, and so on.
Many other places have also been discovered and unearthed, like the Pool of Bethesda, Pool of Siloam, Megiddo, Philippi, Corinth, Caesarea, Ephesus, Capernaum, etc.
And just like all these places are REAL PLACES, the Bible also teaches of a real place called the lake of fire. It is just as real as all the other locations the Bible mentions and just as true, because EVERYTHING the Bible reveals is true.
The lake of fire is a place that never changes; it never improves. It is not a place of just temporary chastisement; it’s a place of everlasting punishment.
And there is no way out of it. Whoever goes to hell; stays in hell.
Maybe at one time you’ve been stuck somewhere in a situation beyond your control, like an airplane on the runway, an elevator, or you got locked in a room accidentally, or the door just catches for a second.
And you get nervous. Your heart starts racing and you might even start to panic. In times like those though we have a reasonable hope of rescue or escape.
Think of the mine that collapsed in Chile in 2010. Thirty-three miners were trapped thousands of feet below ground. It took sixty-nine days, but all of them were rescued from their underground tomb.
We love stories like that: against unthinkable odds, finding a surprise exit route or the execution of a successful rescue in the eleventh hour, just in the nick of time.
But that’s not possible when it comes to the lake of fire. There is no escape. No rescue is coming. God built the prison of hell, and there are no doors or windows.
There is no key. There are no escape routes, no exits exist, and no one is able to rescue anyone out of it. God righteously keeps them there for eternity and no one is more powerful than God to overthrow Him to break them out.
The time for mercy has passed at that point. Our chance to be saved from it, by God’s mercy, is only in this life.
Dante’s imaginary inscription over hell’s entrance, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,” rightly pictured hell as a place where mercy and hope are left at the door.
There is no salvation in hell. All the ways to hell are one-way streets. There is no hope of return. It is truly a “Dead End.” Once you’re there, you’re there forever.
Satan through his deception, false teachings, doctrines of demons about hell, attacks and challenges its existence, nature, and eternality.
It’s been said well that “Satan’s efforts revolve around making sin less offensive, heaven less appealing, hell less horrific, and the gospel less urgent.”
But the Word of God leaves no doubt about the existence, nature, eternality, and horror of the lake of fire. With clarity and authority, God has told us the truth about hell, and He has told us how to avoid it today, by trusting that Christ died for our sins and rose again.
Revelation 14:10-11 describes hell this way: “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture…and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone…and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night.”
This passage tells us that the wrath of God is poured out without mixture on the lost in hell. Thomas Hooker said this of God’s wrath:
“Conceive this much, if all the diseases in the world did seize on one man, and if all the torment that all the tyrants of the world could devise, were cast against him; and if all the creatures in heaven and earth did conspire the destruction of this man; and if all the devils in hell did labor to inflict punishment upon him, you would think this man to be in a miserable condition.
“And yet all this is but a small beam of God’s indignation. If the small beams of God’s indignation be so hot, what is the full sum of His wrath when it shall seize upon the soul of a sinful creature in full measure?”
The full measure of God’s almighty wrath, fury, and indignation will be “poured out without mixture” on each sinner in hell, Revelation 14:10 says.
It will be such an awful place to be that Christ said in Matthew 18:8-9 that it would be better to inflict the excruciating pain of cutting off your hand or foot or gouging out your eye rather than to go there.
Revelation 14:10 says the unbeliever will be “tormented with fire and brimstone.” Hell is described as a lake made up of fire “burning with brimstone” Revelation 19:20 says.
When you put a log in a fireplace, if you don’t do it quickly, you feel the sharpness of the heat and it hurts. When you touch a hot pan, the burn is painful and lasting.
Now think of what those in a burning lake of fire and brimstone will experience. They will stand in a constant, scorching fire, in horrific torment, experiencing unrelenting pain.
Mark 9:43-45 says that this fire will never be quenched. It is an unquenchable fire that cannot and will not be put out. It burns forever. And it is described as a “furnace of fire” in Matthew 13:42,50, a furnace that causes relentless, suffocating, tormenting heat.
Christ warned, “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).
Hell is a place of spiritual and bodily destruction. And unlike the lies, boasting, and jokes about it, there is no fellowship in hell. No parties, no games, no drinking, no laughing in hell. No community, no companionship, and no relationships.
Hell will be filled with people personally demolished and destroyed by emotional and spiritual pain, and physical agony.
Every individual will be completely enveloped in his or her own anguish, enduring their own solitary, personal suffering forever.
Hell is ETERNAL judgment. The “smoke of their torment” lasts “forever and ever.”
And in that torment, the unbeliever will not rest in peace, but instead they will remain restless forever, without any “rest day nor night,” with no respite, no breaks.
Having no rest forever is a fearsome thought. You can never sit or lay down again. There is no place to sit and rest. You stand forever.
You never sleep again. The horror of that place will not allow it, with its terrifying sounds and presence of evil. And the restlessness of the spirit will also not allow it.
Matthew 22:13: “Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
In God’s Word, Christ spoke the most about hell. When Christ talked about it, His purpose was always to warn. And that warning was based in love.
John 1:3 says that “All things were made by Him [Christ], and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Christ made the lake of fire. He knows how horrific it is. This is why He warned those in Israel over and over about it.
In Matthew 25:41, Christ said that the “everlasting fire” of the lake of fire was originally “prepared for the devil and his angels.” The lake of fire was originally created for the devil and his angels and to send them there, not unbelieving people.
God desires all people to be saved, and He sent His own Son to die on the Cross to take away our sins to save us from hell.
Christ willingly shed His own blood and faced God’s wrath against all our sins on the Cross to keep us out of hell. God has done all He can.
God wants no one to go to hell, but in His righteousness and justice, He must judge sin. Sin has the consequence of death. And those who do not believe and who die are still in their sins, and thus they must be judged by God, and it leaves God no other choice than to rightly sentence them to the second death and eternal punishment in the lake of fire.
In that punishment, Christ teaches that hell is a place of “outer darkness.” Jude 1:13 describes it as “the blackness of darkness forever.”
Hell will be a place of utter darkness, blackness of darkness, fearsome darkness.
The morning never comes in hell, and it will never come. The light never goes on. The sun never comes up. There’s never a breakthrough. There will be only infinite ages of endless hopelessness, darkness, and despair in a state totally separated from God.
Matthew 22:13 also teaches that “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Crying, weeping, wailing, shrieking will be heard among those in hell.
The condemned will intensely moan, cry and sob inconsolably. They will cry and wail for help, but no help will ever come.
They will gnash and grind their teeth out of their intense pain. This gnashing of teeth also speaks of their regret. Out of their emotional anguish, they will eternally, continually gnash their teeth because of their deep remorse.
You burn dinner, you forget your anniversary, you have a bad work day, or you get a bad haircut, and so you gnash your teeth and it bothers you, but you get another chance. You know there’s usually a next time to do better and do it differently.
For those in hell, though, they’ll remember how they had the opportunity to be saved, but that they rejected Christ instead. They will know there is no next time. There is no hope nor anticipation of doing it differently next time around. This eternal regret will cause them deep pain, and their gnashing of teeth will never, ever stop.
Leviticus 9:24-10:2: “And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.
“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.”
As the ministry of the priesthood and the tabernacle began under the law, after Aaron offered the proper offerings and sacrifices, there “came a fire out from before the Lord” and it consumed the altar and the burnt offering.
God accepted the sacrifice that was given in accordance with His instructions and will, and He showed His acceptance by devouring that offering with fire.
In the next chapter, we read about Aaron’s sons bringing an UNACCEPTABLE offering of strange fire before the Lord, not in accordance with His commands, and “fire” “went out from the Lord” and devoured THEM.
The burnt offering was a substitute for the people of Israel and for their sins. And you see fire falling on the ACCEPTABLE SUBSTITUTE and consuming it. But then you see an unacceptable offering brought and that the fire fell on and consumed Nadab and Abihu.
And the same is true of salvation: fire either falling on the Substitute and consuming Him or fire falling on you and consuming you.
Someone has to pay for your sins. It is either Christ or it’s you. Christ took the punishment we deserved.
When Christ paid the penalty for our sins on the Cross, He faced the fire of God’s almighty wrath and judgment against our sins, and He paid our sin debt in full as our Substitute.
And there’s no judgment or wrath left for us once we trust what He did for us, because all our sins are paid for, forgiven, and gone in God’s sight.
Jesus Christ took the judgment we deserved, and the fire of God’s wrath fully fell on Him and God was well pleased with His perfect offering and sacrifice for our sins.
But if you try to do things your way, the fire will fall on you. You try to bring an offering to God of a good, religious life, a life full of good works, being a good person, that you belonged to a certain denomination, and you trust that to save you, and God will not be pleased,
And His fire will devour you in hell for eternity, and you will pay for your sins for eternity. You must come to God in God’s way as revealed in His Word. And His Word tells us that God’s way is ONLY through His Son.
There are many roads to hell. But there is only ONE WAY to escape it. And it’s through “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” the Lord Jesus Christ.
East or west, north or south, rich or poor, ancient or modern, the problem is the same, and the solution is the same. The problem is sin. The Solution is Jesus Christ. Romans 5:9 tells us that we are “saved from wrath through Him.”
We are dead in our sins. We are heading for hell. But there is a Savior, a Rescuer, a Deliverer, Who died on the Cross to save us from eternal separation from God in the lake of fire.
Just trusting that Christ died for your sins and rose again saves you from hell. By grace through faith, as a free gift, He gives us eternal life and a home in heaven forever.
Where is your soul going when you die? Are you prepared? Have you trusted Christ? If you haven’t, don’t delay. Do this right now.