As a Christian, and particularly as a pastor, I'm careful about my words. And I'm sure you are as well. As Christians, there are certain words that we just don't say, and phrases that may be common in the culture around us that we just don't utter. What a fascinating irony that there is a Bible word that is commonly used among people who have no regard for God at all. People who don't care about God or want to be in a relationship with Him use this word all the time, and Christians rarely And I'm speaking, of course, of the word hell. And we don't say it, perhaps partly because it's considered profane. If you mention hell, it sounds like you're giving some sort of a profane, profanity expression. And yet, It ought to be the other way around. We as believers should be the ones warning and exhorting people to flee from God's wrath so that they don't go to hell. And unbelievers, who often simply sprinkle hell into their speech in unthinking ways, should be the ones who are reticent to even speak of it for what it speaks of their future. Almost certainly you've heard someone say, I went through hell in this experience. And depending on your relationship, you might say to that person, oh no, you didn't. Let me assure you, hell is far worse than whatever you have experienced. And I've mentioned that part of what got me thinking of this was reading the avalanche of political emails that I receive every week. And a candidate said, I will unleash hell on my opponent. And on the other hand, if we elect the other guys, they're going to bring hell on earth. And none of that is true, but it reveals the shallow way that people speak of hell. But we should think very seriously and carefully about hell. And so, in a sentence, what I want us to think about this morning is this truth that thinking seriously about hell gives us a sense of urgency in proclaiming the gospel and deepens our gratitude for God's grace. So if we're to think seriously, not flippantly or lightly about hell, what are we talking about You might ask, what do you mean by hell? And in fact, there's several words that are either translated hell or used as synonyms. You may be familiar with this word, Hades. It's actually a Greek word that has simply been transliterated into English. And the Greek idea was the place of the dead. And by implication, for those who are sinful, it is a place of punishment. And then there's this word Gehenna, which speaks actually of a physical location. This is a Hebrew term that was transliterated, and it refers to the Valley of Hinnom, which has a very awful history. It was in that area when idolatrous people in Israel sacrificed their children in the fire. They made their children pass through the fire. They were consumed in the fire in this terrible pagan worship practiced even in Israel. And that location later, was used as the city garbage dump, as you may be familiar. And there was a stench and a set of fires that seemed to continue burning all the time as new items were dumped into this valley of Hinnah called Gehenna. Jesus referred to both of these And the word sheol, you may be familiar with, is a Hebrew term for the realm of the dead, for the physical grave itself, as well as where do people go after they die? But in some ways, the most precise term, at least, in my usage is the lake of fire. And this is the final judgment of God. We find this described in the book of Revelation. And even that term, lake of fire, is a little hard to picture. But it's painting for us an image of a place that's so awful, so painful, that it is as though it were filled with fire the way that a lake is filled with water. So as we consider what the scripture says about hell, maybe more specifically about the lake of fire ultimately, the things that Jesus and other people said about that punishment. I think we'll understand that hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment for the wicked. Hell is a place of eternal a conscious punishment for the wicked. And as we dig into this a bit more, we see, first of all, that hell is a place. You may ask, is it a place like our town? Well, certainly not, but it is a place that God has made. And it has been prepared already but not as a final resting place for people, but prepared for the devil and fallen angels. And Jesus mentioned this as he was describing a judgment of Gentiles, of nations of people. And in Matthew 25, 41, he said, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Now, of course, the devil doesn't have angels like that are really his, but they are angels who have followed him. And this place of judgment was prepared for the devil and his angels. And we see his end in Revelation 20, verse 10. John records, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. This is a place that God has made. It's made for judgment, and it's described by fire and great suffering. And people often ask, well, is it a literal fire? And my answer is, no, no. It's way worse than that. It's worse than any fire on earth that you can imagine. Name a fire that has not eventually been put out. And here we are in the city of Chicago, known historically for its great fire, but eventually, even that great fire in the city of Chicago burned out. But God's judgment is described as a fire that never ends. In Matthew, Mark, and Paul, Luke, the same phrase, unquenchable fire. We have teams of firefighters that are ready to go in If there's a large forest fire or other fires and they're ready to use whatever materials they need to, obviously water is the most common, but they'll even bring in helicopters and dump chemicals to stop the fire. This is a fire that is unquenchable. You can leave the equipment at home because this fire cannot be put out Jesus mentioned this phrase in Mark 9, 48, their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And he's quoting there from Isaiah chapter 66, verse 24. So this idea of an unending fire comes from the Old Testament as well. And in Jude, verse seven, Sodom and Gomorrah are shown to be examples of the punishment of eternal fire. Hell is a place that God made. It is described by fire and great suffering. And it didn't occur to me until just recently that we're nearing the anniversary of the September 11th attacks World Trade Center. And one of the horrible things that happened that day was the tremendous fire that resulted. And you may be aware that dozens of people facing those flames leaped out of the building because they couldn't stand the idea of burning. And hell is a place with an unquenchable fire and there's no escape. There is no way out. Hell is described by fire and great suffering. And sometimes people conceive of hell as this place where God is not. And they'll even describe it, well that's where God isn't. But God is omnipresent. And even though, for example, in 2 Thessalonians 1 that we read a few moments ago, it says they will be away from the presence of the Lord and his glory. They're not totally away from the Lord, they're away from his mercy. They're away from His grace. The Lord is present there only in His judgment and in His justice. God is everywhere present. He rules everywhere. And in Revelation 14, it mentions those who are judged for their loyalty to the beast. And it says, they will drink the wine of the wrath of God. which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger and be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the lamb. Jesus will be there supervising the punishment in hell. Some people have said, well, hell is a place where Satan is in charge. And the Bible tells us, no. Satan is cast into the lake of fire. He's not in charge there. God is in charge there. And it's not a party of all the people who didn't want to go to church. It's a place of suffering and torment, and of course, It's a burdensome thing to even consider. Hell is a place that God has made for judgment. It is a place of eternal punishment. It goes on forever. In Matthew 25, Jesus said, these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. You see, the parallelism there, if we're trusting in Christ, we're promised eternal life, which goes on forever. And those who perish are suffering eternal punishment. Again, in Revelation 14, the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night. It is a place prepared by God for judgment. It is a place of eternal punishment. It's a place of eternal conscious punishment. It's not as though people will simply lose their sensation of judgment. And Jesus paints a picture in Luke 16. I'm sure you're familiar with the rich man and Lazarus. They're both in this place of the dead with this gap, this gulf between them. And the rich man is described as being in torment. And he says, I am in anguish. And he's concerned for his brothers. He retained his identity and his memory. I'm concerned about my brothers, lest they also come to this place of torment." Hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment, and there are degrees We don't understand fully how this works, but how fascinating that the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 11, 24, nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. So he was speaking to a city that was rejecting him, rejecting his claims, rejecting him as the Messiah. And he said, it'll be better, easier on Sodom than on you. They had more knowledge, they had more revelation, they are more accountable. And Jesus explained, the slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will will receive many lashes, but the one who did not do it, know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging will receive but few. There's some matching of the degree of suffering with the quantity and quality of sin. Hell is a place that God has designed for punishment, eternal conscious punishment for the wicked. And some might say, oh, well, that's good news because I'm not wicked. I've never murdered anyone. We've all heard that. I'm not as bad as, well, you know, that guy. And even that prayer of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee said, I thank God I'm not like other men, like that tax collector over there. And we like to think of ourselves as better than we are. But the scriptures warn us it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. Hebrews 9. 27, we all face the judgment day before the Lamb. And when people were wondering, speaking to Jesus, like bad things sometimes happen, and when we see something happen, like that tower fell over, or people were murdered in the middle of their worship, was that because they were more wicked? Is that the way it works? And Jesus said, don't try to make yourselves better. Think of yourselves as more holy. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. He repeats that, Luke 13, verses 3 and 5. Because the truth is, as Romans 3, 23 and 24, familiar, Romans wrote, verses tell us, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. You can earn your way into hell, but you can't earn your way out of hell. Redemption is a gift. It's by his grace. The wages of sin is death. And Paul tells us the sting of death is sin. There's something that follows you. It's judgment. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And in Revelation 20, in this section of the lake of fire, It says, and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. And so we should ask, well, is my name written in that book? I want my name in that book so that I won't be cast into the lake of fire. How can you know? Do you have to wait until that last judgment? The one way you can know for certain that your name is in the Lamb's book of life is if you have come to faith in Christ. And understand, it was he that drew me to faith. I'm not the initiator, I'm the one receiving and responding to God's grace. Hell is this place of eternal conscious punishment. For the wicked, we must never speak of hell lightly. And we must clarify to others what the Bible says about it. And it's interesting, one of the observations that I read this week is that denial of eternal conscious punishment is the first step away from orthodoxy and confidence in the scriptures. Now this is an anecdotal argument, a historic argument, but what they're saying is That in the history of Christianity, as liberalism has crept in, what was the first place where people deviated from the scriptures? They found the doctrine of hell so difficult, so painful, if you will, that they couldn't take it. And they tried to figure out, there must be some way we can erase hell from the Bible, from our doctrine, and that was their first step. So, in our day, are there people who are attempting that? Well, in fact, there's a system of thought with this rather intimidating name, annihilationism. I don't even know how many syllables there are in that word, but The idea behind annihilationism is, well, surely, wishful thinking, people at some point will just go out of existence. Maybe they burn up or something. Their punishment doesn't go on forever, surely. Others have said, well, no, The idea of immortality, that people will live forever, is conditional. Not everybody has it. Believers in Christ have immortality, but others don't. Now, of course, it's hard to support that from the scriptures, because the picture we get from the Bible is that everyone will live forever one place or another. You've probably heard me say that whenever I go to Wayside Cross, I stand before that group of men, and I acknowledge I'm standing before men who will live forever, either in paradise, in bliss with the Lord, or in the lake of fire in torment forever. And I try to press that upon them. But if we just even consider for a moment, what if we're wrong and people only suffer for 10,000 years or so? Does that help? Do we want to tell people, oh, listen, you know, if you don't come to Christ, then somewhere between 10,000, 100,000, maybe a million years of punishment, and then you're done. And you'll just kind of, boop, go out of existence. Well, no, who would want that? There's no mercy in that. And so we're left with what the Bible tells us, that hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment for the wicked, which would be every one of us, were it not for the grace, for the kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what difference does it make? I mean, this is so heavy, it seems inappropriate to say, so what? But what difference does it make especially if I'm not going there? Well, let us consider that thinking seriously about hell gives us a sense of urgency in proclaiming the gospel. This is heavy, I acknowledge. It was difficult to study, it's difficult to speak of. I feel like it's landing on you with an appropriate weight. There's a burden. That burden is evident in God Himself. In Ezekiel 18 verse 23, God says, do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, rather than that he should turn from his ways and live. Very similar thought later in chapter 33, verse 11. God is not excited, relishing, looking forward to punishing people in hell forever. He puts forth in his self-description to Moses His mercy and His kindness. And we have been given a gospel with a genuine universal offer. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And some of these things are hard to fully reconcile, But it is not God's heart, not his will in one sense that anyone perish. He has decreed that certain ones will be saved. And I describe it as being asymmetrical. He has not chosen the wicked to the same extent that he has chosen those whom he adopts into his family. God has reached to us with mercy, with kindness. This burden of eternal conscious punishment is evident in God, it's evident in Paul. You can almost hear it in his voice. Romans 9 verse 2, I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. He was speaking of his fellow Jews that had not come to Christ. It's evident in God, it is evident in Paul, is it evident in us? One of the other books that I read this week, I just resonated with the emotion that the author wrote. He said, what causes my heart to ache right now as I'm writing this is that my life shows little evidence that I actually believe this, the truth. of hell. Every time my thoughts wander to the future of unbelievers, I quickly brush them aside so they don't ruin my day. But there is a reality here that I can't ignore. Even as the conversations of people around me fill my ears, the truth of scripture penetrates my heart with sobering statements about their destinies. We can talk about the fate of some hypothetical person, he writes, but as I look up and see their smiles, I have to ask myself if I really believe what I have written in this book. Hell is for real, am I? That burden should be evident in our lives. We must also be burdened for those without Christ, praying for them and urging them to repent. It's the first part of the so what, thinking seriously about hell gives us a sense of urgency in proclaiming the gospel. The clock is ticking, if you will. Time will run out for every person. We should have a sense of urgency. But thinking seriously about hell also deepens our gratitude. for God's grace. And in the picture of heaven that we get in Revelation chapter five, the saints and the angels are singing, worshiping the Lord and saying, worthy are you to take the book and break its seals for you were slain. and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon the earth. We'll forever rejoice in what God has delivered us from. And I've adopted just a bit from Dr. Schreiner's work in this statement. God's mercy shines forth in all its splendor when we recognize that we deserve judgment. We deserve the judgment of hell. And God himself met the requirements of his justice in the death of his son. who suffered in our place for us. God has only revealed what we can bear. We will understand more fully in heaven the extent of grace we have received. And the picture in Revelation is that the saints will rejoice in God's judgment. as well as in his mercy. Thinking seriously about hell gives us a sense of urgency in proclaiming the gospel and deepens our gratitude for God's grace. Please pray with me. Father, we thank you for your endless mercy to sinners. And we thank you for revealing the truth about eternal judgment. Even though we shudder to think of it, we want to turn away, and yet we understand that because your righteousness is so perfect, Your justice and your punishment must be eternal and perfect. And we entrust all of those decisions to you in your perfect will. All but do your work within us. to cause us to be burdened for the loss, to have a sense of urgency, begging them, as Paul says, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Oh, that they would not go into the lake of fire to be punished forever, to suffer unceasingly. Do the work that only you can do through your spirit. Help us to be faithful in proclaiming the truth and proclaiming the gospel in your words and through your Holy Spirit. Draw men to yourself. Help them to understand sin and righteousness and judgment. Convict the world. Be glorified, Lord Jesus, in us and through us, both now and forever. In your name we pray, amen.