The verse that I want to focus on here in chapter 23 is verse 33,
where the Bible reads,
Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
And the title of my sermon tonight is, The Damnation of Hell.
Now, if you would, flip back to Matthew chapter 5.
And I want to start out by saying that even though in tonight's sermon,
I'm going to be focusing in on the New Testament,
hell is an Old Testament doctrine also.
It's not like hell is new to the New Testament.
It's all throughout the Old Testament as well.
The Bible uses the word hell specifically 54 times,
and most of those mentions are actually in the Old Testament.
But the problem is, you have a whole bunch of modern Bible versions,
or we could say perversions of the Bible,
such as the NIV, the New Living Translation, the ESV, etc.
And these Bibles have removed hell completely in many cases from the Old Testament.
So for example, if you're reading an NIV,
you'll never even see the word hell until you get to the book of Matthew.
So you read the whole Old Testament, and there's no mention of hell
if you're reading the NIV.
Isn't that kind of a big problem?
Like, whoa, all of a sudden, here comes hell in the New Testament?
No, hell is mentioned throughout the Old Testament also, okay?
And even in the New Testament, the NIV removes half of the mentions of hell.
It makes no sense.
But you go ahead and turn to Matthew 5,
but I'm just going to read for you just a quick sampling of Old Testament hell Scriptures
before I get into the sermon tonight on the New Testament.
But for example, Deuteronomy 32 22 says,
For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell,
and shall consume the earth with her increase,
and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Psalm 9 17,
The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Psalm 55 15,
Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell,
for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them.
Psalm 86 13,
For great is thy mercy toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Proverbs 5 5,
Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell.
Proverbs 7 27,
Her house is the way to hell.
Proverbs 9 18,
But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.
I mean, the Bible talks about hell even by name,
let alone all the verses that don't use the word hell,
but talk about this place of torment that is down in the bottomless pit,
down in the heart of the earth,
a place of torment where people go after they die to be punished for their sins.
It's all throughout the Old Testament.
Proverbs 15 24,
The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.
Proverbs 23 14,
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shall deliver his soul from hell.
Proverbs 27 20,
Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
Isaiah 5 14,
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure,
and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,
and he that rejoiceth shall descend into it.
Isaiah 14 9,
Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming.
It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth.
It is raised up from their thrones, all the kings of the nations.
Verse 15,
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Now look, is it just me or does the Old Testament mention hell a lot?
And that's just part of it.
That was less than half of the mentions of hell in the Old Testament.
There's a lot of scripture on it.
And so these versions that take out hell completely from the Old Testament
are teaching a lie.
They're weakening the doctrine of hell.
And let me tell you something.
If you go to these churches that don't use the King James Bible,
they barely talk about hell.
You think that's a coincidence?
That their Bible removes hell so much.
It's not on their mind.
You know, I went to NIV preaching churches or New American Standard preaching churches
for five years when I was a teenager.
And I remember I went to one particular church,
and I'd been going there for about a year and a half, two years.
And my dad pulled out this old record of a sermon.
It was called The Halls of Hell by Glenn Schunk.
And this sermon was preached in 1969 in Canoga Park, California.
And so we actually went to the store and bought a record player
just so that we could listen to this record because we didn't even have one.
So we bought a record player, and we sat down—
my brother, myself, and my dad—
and we sat in the living room and listened to this crackling record,
The Halls of Hell by Glenn Schunk.
And I mean, this sermon was powerful.
And we just sat there in silence listening to this sermon.
We were so moved by it.
And I asked my dad, I said,
why does our pastor never preach on hell?
I said, you know, we've been at the church for almost two years.
I don't think he's ever even said the word hell, ever.
And my dad said, that's a good question.
We got to get him this sermon.
So we hooked up a cassette deck to the record player.
We dubbed the sermon onto a tape, and we brought the sermon to the pastor.
We gave him the cassette.
Then we, you know, we followed up with him and said,
hey, did you listen to that sermon on hell?
He said, oh, yeah, I listened to it.
It was a great sermon.
And we said, why don't you ever preach on hell?
And he said, well, I know I should, but I just don't like to.
It's so unpleasant.
That's literally what he said.
He said, I know I should.
It's a great sermon, but I—
And, you know, months and months went by.
He didn't preach on hell.
He just told us, well, I should, but I'm not going to because I don't want to.
You know what?
We have to preach all the counsel of God.
And hell is an unpleasant subject.
It's not something that we necessarily would want to sit and dwell on or have sermons on.
When I'm looking to preach a sermon, it's not the first thing on my list.
Hey, let's talk about eternal torment and hell.
But it's something that needs to be addressed,
and it's something that Jesus addressed over and over again.
And if Jesus covered it over and over again,
if Jesus talked way more about hell than he did about heaven,
we need to talk about hell too.
Look at Matthew chapter 5 verse 22.
It says, but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause
shall be in danger of the judgment,
and whosoever shall say to his brother Rekha shall be in danger of the counsel,
but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire.
So here's your first New Testament mention of hell.
Notice the word right after hell.
Hell, fire.
Don't give me this garbage that hell might not be fire.
Well, it might not be a literal fire.
It's always a fire, a flaming fire, a flame of fire, a furnace of fire.
The Bible's crystal clear that hell is a place of fiery burning punishment.
It's very clear on that.
Now, what this verse is teaching in verse 22 is that any little sin will send you to hell.
Any little sin, even just saying the wrong thing,
even just being angry with your brother without a cause.
I mean, look, the Bible says there shall no wise enter into it, heaven,
anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh momination, or maketh a lie,
but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
The Bible says that one lie will keep us out of heaven.
The Bible says all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Any little sin will send you to hell.
Any little sin, a little lie, just calling someone a name because you're angry for no reason,
or just having a bad attitude, not doing something that you should do.
And that is why without Christ, everyone is doomed.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Anyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved.
All their sins are forgiven.
But without Jesus, if you don't have Jesus, if you're not saved,
any little sin will send you to hell.
Now, if you are saved, nothing can send you to hell.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, because Him that cometh to Christ,
He will in no wise cast out.
He said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Look at verse 29.
Look at the seriousness of hell.
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee,
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee,
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
What Christ is teaching here is obviously not to actually mutilate yourself,
but what He's saying here is that you would be better off
ripping out your own eyeball than to go to hell.
Going to hell is worse.
Chopping off your own hand.
I mean, can you imagine cutting off your own hand or ripping out your own eyeball?
I mean, these are some pretty extreme examples.
Did you ever hear about the hiker who got stuck
and he had to saw off his own arm with a little pocket knife?
But you know what Christ is saying here?
You'd be better off sawing off your own arm with a pocket knife
than having two hands to go into the hell fire that never shall be quenched.
It's very serious.
Look at Matthew chapter 10 verse 28.
You say, well, you know, you're just trying to scare people.
When you preach about hell, when you talk about eternal punishment in hell,
you're just trying to scare people.
You better know I'm trying to scare people.
Because it's by the fear of the Lord that men depart from evil.
It's the fear of the Lord that will cause men to depart from hell beneath.
And if I could scare someone into getting saved, some save with fear.
Pulling them out of the fire, the Bible says, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
Look at Matthew 10 28, and 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.
Look at Matthew 13 verse 40.
Matthew chapter 13 verse 40.
You don't have to get very far in the New Testament to find Jesus preaching hard on hell.
Matthew 13 40, as therefore the tares, tares are weeds.
As therefore the tares or weeds are gathered and burned in the fire,
so shall it be at the end of the world.
Son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom
all things that offend and then that do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.
There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Think about what that means, folks.
People are going to be cast into a furnace of fire,
just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got thrown into a fiery furnace.
He's saying they'll be thrown into a furnace of fire and there will be wailing,
wailing and gnashing of teeth.
People grinding their teeth in agony and pain in a furnace of fire.
This isn't just, oh, they just burn up and they're gone.
Annihilation, like the Annihilation doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventists
or Jehovah's false witnesses.
No, no, there's wailing.
There's gnashing of teeth.
The Bible says in verse 43,
then shall the righteous shine forth as the son and the kingdom of their father
who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Go to chapter 18 verse 6, Matthew chapter 18 verse 6.
But who shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me?
It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck
and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.
Woe unto the world because of offenses,
for it must needs be the defenses come.
But woe to that man by whom the offense cometh,
wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee,
cut them off and cast them from thee,
for it is better for thee to enter the life.
Halt or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet
to be cast into everlasting fire.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee.
It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye
rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Go to Matthew 25.
Hell fire, to be cast into hell fire.
It's worse than cutting off your foot.
It's worse than cutting off your hand.
It's worse than ripping out your eyeball.
It's worse than tying a rope around your own neck
and throwing yourself into the sea and drowning yourself.
Why?
Because it goes on and on and on.
And let me tell you something.
Hell is not temporary, it's permanent.
Look what the Bible says in Matthew 25, verse 41.
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.
God doesn't want you to go to hell.
God doesn't want anyone to go to hell.
He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But even though he prepared hell for the devil and his angels,
it wasn't prepared for us.
Anyone who doesn't believe on Jesus Christ is going there.
Look what it says in verse 46.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life eternal.
Here's what you need to understand about this term everlasting punishment.
That is a punishment that goes on forever.
Some people might try to wiggle around this and say,
Well, it's everlasting fire.
That means the fire is forever.
But you're gone.
You know, you get burned up.
You get extinguished.
No, it's a punishment that lasts forever.
Continual everlasting punishment, the Bible says.
Let's go to the book of Mark chapter 9.
Mark chapter 9.
That was a lot just in the book of Matthew.
Mark chapter number 9.
The Bible says in verse 43,
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off.
It's better for thee to enter into life maimed,
than having two hands to go into hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched,
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off.
It's better for thee to enter into halt into life,
than having two feet to be cast into hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched,
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out.
It's better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye,
than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire,
where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
Don't tell me that the Bible is not clear on whether hell is actual fire.
It couldn't be any clearer.
It's hell fire.
Go, if you would, to Luke chapter number 16.
Luke 16, and while you're turning there, I'll read for you from chapter 10,
where he says,
Thou Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven,
shall be thrust down to hell.
Luke 16 19,
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen,
and fared sumptuously every day.
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,
which was laid at his gate full of sores,
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores,
and it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried, 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.
In case you, well fire, I think it's figured, what about flame?
What about flaming fire?
What about flame of fire?
Furnace of fire?
I mean he says it every which way that you can imagine.
People will say, well I think Luke 16 is just a parable.
And who's ever had that objection, this is just a parable?
Okay, okay, it's a parable.
What does it represent?
Do parables have a meaning?
Don't parables represent something?
You know, if there's a parable of the sower, it's like, okay,
you know, he that sows the good seed is the son of man,
the seed is the word of God,
you know, the harvest is the end of the world,
the reapers are the angels.
You know, when Jesus tells a parable, it means something.
It represents something.
It gives an illustration of, okay, when you sow the seed of the word of God,
people are going to respond differently to it.
And it depends on the quality of the soil in their heart.
You know, some people are the good ground,
some people are the stony places, the thorny ground, whatever.
Okay, what in the world does this quote-unquote parable represent
if there's no hell?
Or if you just get to hell and you just burn up immediately,
what does this even mean?
What's the Seventh-day Adventist version of hell?
Oh, you just burn up and you're gone.
What's the Jehovah's Witness version?
Oh, you just go, you just die and you're like an animal
where you just die and you're just gone.
So what does that have to do with begging for a drop of water?
What does this represent?
See, this parable, I've never had a Seventh-day Adventist or Jehovah's Witness
be able to tell me what this parable means
and explain to me what's being symbolized here.
A guy dies and he's in torment and he's begging for help.
He's begging for relief.
He's begging for a drop of water.
He's begging that someone will go back and tell his family
that they'd not come to this place.
Oh, it's just a parable.
Oh, well, let's just move on then.
Well, if it's a parable, what can we learn from it?
That there's torment for the unsaved after they die.
But guess what?
It's not a parable because parables don't use people's name.
This says the beggar's name was Lazarus.
God doesn't give people names in a parable.
They're just generic.
This is actually a story of something that happened.
But even if it were a parable, what does it mean?
If somebody's being tortured after they die, that's what I see.
And I've never been able to get an answer from them on that.
He says here, I'm tormented in this flame.
Verse 25, but Abraham said, son.
And the reason he's calling him son is because this guy is Jewish.
So, you know, he's a son of Abraham after the flesh.
So this is Abraham's distant relative or descendant.
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things.
And likewise, Lazarus evil things.
But now he's comforted and thou art tormented.
And beside all this, between us and you, there's a great goal fixed.
So that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.
Neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.
Notice there's no way to get from hell to heaven or from heaven to hell.
If you're in heaven, you can't help the people that are in hell.
There's nothing you can do for them.
You say, all right, here, let me bring you this water.
You can't get to them.
And they would love to come to where you are.
They can't get there.
There's no shuttle between the two.
There's no way to get back and forth.
You know, the opportunity to help get people out of hell is now.
Once you get to heaven, it's too late to help anybody get out of hell.
You got to do that now.
You got to get to people before it's too late.
And of course, this is the conclusion that the rich man comes to as well.
So he says, okay, well, let's get my brethren saved.
They're still alive.
There's still hope for them.
He said, okay, you know, if there's no transfer, look at verse 27.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou would have sent him to my father's
house, for I have five brethren that he hath given me.
Five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come to this place of torment.
Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
And he said, no, father Abraham.
But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded
the one rose from the dead.
You know what?
If the word of God doesn't get people saved, nothing will.
It's the same today.
If the Romans wrote, if the Gospel of John, if other scriptures in the word of God being
preached aren't enough to get someone to heaven, to get them saved, they just won't be saved then.
Don't come at me with some evangelism method that doesn't involve the word of God.
Let them hear Moses, let them hear the prophets, let them hear Christ and the apostles.
It's the word of God.
The word of God.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
No, send someone, please.
Warn them.
You say, I want to go to hell because that's where all my friends are.
And you know, I've heard that probably over a hundred times out soul winning.
Over the last 20 some years of soul winning.
Well, I want to go to hell because that's where you don't have any friends in hell.
Did this guy want his friends?
Hey, I can't wait till my brothers get here.
We can party down here.
I hope they serve beer in hell.
You fool!
There's no friendship in hell.
There's only pain and misery and suffering and loneliness and torment.
It's a horrible place.
You have to be a fool to go to hell.
When Christ already died on the cross for you and paid for everything and rose from the dead.
He did everything.
He made it so easy.
Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
If you go to hell, it's because you're a fool.
Rejected the free gift of salvation.
Go if you would to 2 Peter.
Actually, go straight to Revelation chapter 1.
Revelation chapter 1.
While you're turning there, the Bible says in 2 Peter 2-4,
If God spared not the angels that sin but cast them down to hell
and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.
Chains of darkness in hell.
It's a place of bondage, chains, worms, fire, darkness, torment, misery, suffering, loneliness.
It's a horror.
You say, why would God create such a place?
You know what?
Everybody who goes there deserves to go there.
And God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God doesn't want you to go to hell.
God doesn't want anybody to go to hell.
He made it available for us to be saved.
But many people like the rich man, they just seek after the pleasures of this life.
They don't care about God.
They don't care about the Creator.
They don't care about what He has designed and what His Word says.
I mean, look, God created this world.
It's His rules.
He created everything for His pleasure.
He didn't create us to just go off and do our own thing and defile His creation and
defile ourselves and defile everyone around us.
No, we are supposed to be obeying Him.
And you know, we've already broken His laws.
But in His mercy, He's provided a means of salvation for anyone to be saved.
All we have to do is believe on Him.
It's so easy to be saved.
But if you go through your whole life and just reject and reject and reject and reject
the gospel, reject the truth, reject Christ, don't care, don't care, you will go to hell.
Say, well, I just don't think a loving God would send people to hell.
Well, you know what?
There is only one God.
So there's no a God, a loving God, the God I believe in.
There's only one.
There's only one God.
And that one God has revealed Himself through His Word, through His unparalleled Word
that no other book can even hold a candle to, that no other book can even come close to.
He's revealed Himself in His Word.
It's on every continent.
It's in every country.
It's found in every part of the world.
Red man, yellow man, black man, everybody has access to the Word of God.
The name of Jesus Christ has gone around the globe again and again and again and again,
generation after generation after generation after generation.
And let me tell you something, you are without excuse.
Everyone is without excuse.
He has commanded all men everywhere to repent.
And He says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
This is His commandment, that we believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ
and love one another as He gave us commandment.
Revelation chapter 1 verse 16, and He had in His right hand, this is Jesus,
seven stars and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and His countenance
was as the sun shineth in His strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.
That's the only God that there is.
This is the only God that there is, folks.
And when you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
you will fall on your face before Him like you just died.
You will just collapse as if you died.
Isn't that what the Bible said here?
John, this is one of the most holy men of the New Testament.
I mean, this is pretty much your most godly example.
I mean, this is the disciple whom Jesus loved.
This is the disciple who was so close to Jesus
that he literally leaned on Jesus breast at the last supper.
I mean, you want to talk about somebody who's close to God,
who loves God, who is beloved of God,
who is an extremely godly, righteous person.
It's the apostle John.
And yet this godly, righteous man, when he's confronted with the glorified Jesus Christ,
falls down before him like he's dead.
I mean, what do you think you're going to do when you face Christ?
You think you'll just be like,
what's up?
You think you're just going to be all cool like,
oh man, I've been wanting to meet you.
Folks, you're not going to show up and be wearing a t-shirt that says,
Jesus is my homeboy.
I don't care how tough you are.
I don't care how cool you are.
When you are confronted with what John was confronted with here,
you will fall on your face like you're dead.
Just, you will just crash.
You will just collapse.
You know, if we were right now in the presence of God,
we would literally die.
If we were the presence of God the Father,
I mean, look, Jesus Christ is the only way that we could even see God.
You know, the Bible says no man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
He had declared Him.
You know, He had to basically become human being flesh
that we could actually look upon.
Because if we were to see God in all of His glory,
we would just be killed.
If we were right now to, like, remember when Moses wanted to see God,
and he said no.
He told him, you know, I'm going to put you in the cliff to the rock.
I'm going to cover you there with my hand.
I'm going to pass by and then I'm going to remove my hand.
And basically Moses was just able to just see just the very back,
just the very edge of God's glory there.
And his face shone.
He came down from the mountain and his face shone.
His face was glowing.
They had to put a veil over his face because the children of Israel
was hurting their eyes just to even look at the guy who had looked at
a little bit of God's glory.
Folks, God would just... He's a consuming fire.
If you looked at Him, you would just die.
Even just seeing Jesus glorified, He falls down as if He were dead.
Okay?
Well, I just don't think a loving God would send anybody to hell.
Folks, how does the Bible describe God as a big Santa Claus that just,
you know, He kind of knows if you've been naughty or nice,
but He's going to give you a present anyway.
Folks, God is a consuming fire.
He said He fell at His feet as dead.
And He laid His right hand upon me, saying to me,
Fear not, I'm the first and the last.
I'm He that liveth and was dead.
And behold, I'm alive forevermore. Amen.
And have the keys of hell and of death.
Jesus has the key of hell.
He decides who goes to hell.
He controls that door right there.
And He has the keys of hell and of death.
Go to chapter 14.
And by the way, talking about John, the apostle John,
the author of the Gospel of John, the author of the book of Revelation,
the author of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.
This is not a man who lacked boldness.
This is a man who lacks bold in the book of Acts.
And people marveled at the boldness of John.
This was not a timid man.
This man, John, was a powerful preacher.
He was godly.
He was holy.
He was righteous.
He was knowledgeable.
He's one of the greatest characters of the New Testament.
Folks, even just the angel of God who shows him things later in the book,
He falls down and starts worshiping Him.
Folks, He's trembling.
The glory of God is beyond anything we can even imagine.
We need to humble ourselves before Him and realize He makes the rules.
Well, I mean, if that's how, you know.
Well, who's that purple dress wearing queer bait in South Africa?
Bishop Tutu?
Is that his name, right?
Who knows what?
No, I'm not making that up.
That's his name.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Bishop Tutu.
That's really his name, folks.
That's not me giving him a fun nickname.
He doesn't even need a fun nickname.
He gave it to himself.
Bishop Tutu.
This purple dress wearing queer bait, Bishop Tutu,
here's what he said.
Well, if God's not going to let gay people into heaven,
then I think I'll just go to hell.
Yep, exactly.
I mean, you think that.
I mean, look, think about the contrast.
Think about the contrast.
Here we have a man of God in the Bible.
He gets to see into heaven.
He sees the angel of God.
He sees the Lord Jesus Christ.
He falls on his face as dead.
Bishop Tutu is just like,
well, I don't even know if I want to go.
Yeah, are fags going to be there?
Look at Revelation 14 9.
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice,
if any man worship the beast in his image
and receive his mark and his forehead or in his hand,
the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.
And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.
And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast in his image
and whosoever receive at the mark of his name.
Oh, it's just a parable.
It's just symbolic.
Symbolic of what?
The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever.
And they have no rest day or night.
They're tormented with fire and brimstone.
No rest day or night forever and ever.
Symbolic of what?
Folks, it's not symbolic.
He's warning people about a punishment that's coming in hell.
Look at chapter 20, verse 10.
This is the first Bible verse that I ever memorized.
On my own as a child, as a little child,
the first Bible verse that I memorized was Revelation chapter 20, verse 10.
My parents had a Bible.
Each of them had a Scofield reference Bible, okay?
And in the back of their Bible, they had put different topics.
And by each topic, they put a few verses
so that if they were ever confronted or they wanted to witness to someone
or they needed to reference something in the Bible,
they could look up these references in the back.
And they were both identical.
You know, one of them had copied it into the other's Bible.
So both my mom's Bible and my dad's Bible had this same list.
So I decided I'm gonna copy that same list in the back of my Bible too,
you know, so that if I have to deal with these things.
And the first thing on the list was hell.
The top left, I can picture it on the page right now.
Hell, Revelation 20, 10.
That's what it said.
And I decided to memorize the verse.
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 forever and ever.
I memorized that verse as a little child.
And basically the idea behind this verse was learn this verse.
If anybody ever questions whether or not hell is eternal, is hell eternal?
Well, he said they have no rest day and night forever and ever.
He said it's everlasting punishment, everlasting fire.
Their worm dieth not, the fire is not quenched.
But he said here, they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Who?
He said it's the devil that deceived them and the beast and the false prophet.
Well, here's, I've got an history.
The beast and the false prophet are human beings.
You know, the Antichrist called the man of sin.
And then the false prophet is probably the pope or some famous preacher or somebody
who's going to point people to the Antichrist and tell everybody, hey, worship him.
You know, this is the Messiah.
This is the second coming.
But this is not just a place for three individuals to go.
You know, the devil and the Antichrist and the false prophet.
Let's keep going.
Verse 11 says, I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose faith
the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were open.
And another book was open, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books
according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.
And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
Watch verse 15.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
So what's verse 10 say?
And the devil that deceived them was cast into where?
The lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are
and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Verse 15.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Tormented day and night forever and ever is what Revelation 20 10 says.
Now look, is this a pleasant doctrine?
No, it's not a pleasant doctrine.
But does that mean that we should shy away from it?
Jesus didn't shy away from it.
This is something that needs to be preached.
You know, if this were not important, God would not repeat it over and over again.
If you say, well, you know, this is too fearful, it's too fearsome,
it's too dreadful, terrible.
Well, you know what?
It's intended to be.
Because just imagine if there were no hell.
Human nature is sinful.
And if there were no hell, you know what people would do?
Whatever they want.
It'd be like if you took a bunch of foolish school children, right?
Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child.
What if you put them in a school and you have a bunch of rules,
but there's never any consequence for breaking the rules?
I mean, can you imagine that?
Think about this.
I mean, what if you have all these traffic laws,
but there's no enforcement ever by anyone?
Is anyone going to obey those laws?
I mean, think about it.
I could make all the rules I want in my house,
but if there's no punishment, if there's no consequence,
then the rules become meaningless.
I mean, what if we had a law against murder in the United States,
but if you murder someone, there's no punishment.
You rob a bank, no punishment.
Is that law going to mean anything?
Look, God, because of the wickedness of man,
has had to create hell as a punishment and demand obedience.
But here's the thing.
Because of our sinful condition, we cannot obey as we should.
Right?
I mean, even if we do a good job, we all come short.
There's not a just man upon the earth that do with good instead of not.
So our good job in the eyes of God is not good enough.
But because God loves us in spite of our sinful condition,
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God commandeth His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
There is no pass for people who don't believe in Christ,
where He's just going to let them go or spare them this punishment.
You know what the Bible says in Romans 8?
I was just reading it this morning.
He spared not His own Son.
So if God spared not His own Son,
you think He's going to spare you or anyone else who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ?
No way.
If there was ever a time that God the Father would have turned a blind eye on sin,
or gone soft on sin, or backed off on His justice,
it would have been when Jesus was on the cross.
But what did Jesus say on the cross?
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
God's not going to turn a blind eye to sin.
God is not a paper tiger.
God's laws mean something.
They have consequence.
There's a punishment.
And the only way to escape that punishment—
I started out the sermon with this verse from Matthew 23.
How can you escape the damnation of hell?
That's a great question, isn't it?
How can you escape the damnation of hell?
There's only one way.
Jesus.
The only way is Jesus.
There is no other way.
And by the way, it's not, well, it's Jesus,
but it's because I follow Him and obey Him and go to church and got baptized and live a good—
No, no, no.
It's what He did.
It's Jesus, not you.
Not your good works, not your good deeds.
It's Jesus.
It's His death, burial, and resurrection.
It's faith that will save you, and nothing not works, lest any man should boast.
So what's a practical application of this sermon?
You know, why preach on hell?
Well, number one, we have to preach on hell because it's in the Bible.
And we got to preach the whole Bible.
That's enough of a reason right there.
But it's good to have a practical application for preaching, isn't it?
Let me give you a practical application, okay?
Practical application number one.
If you're not saved, get saved, or you will split hell wide open.
And you know what?
You will remember this sermon the whole time you're burning in hell.
You're going to be thinking about this sermon,
and you're going to say what an idiot I was.
Why didn't I just ask someone after the sermon?
Why didn't I ask Brother Anderson?
Why didn't I ask Pastor Thompson?
Why didn't I get saved?
What was I thinking?
Why would I put something off that's so important?
I knew I was going to die.
Get saved before it's eternally too late.
That's application number one.
Number two, say, well, I'm already saved.
And the vast majority here are already saved.
So what's the application for you?
Get other people saved.
Hey, if you love people, if you care about people,
if you at least love people as much as the rich man did,
you don't want them to come to that place of torment.
Get them the gospel.
Love the lost.
And you know what?
Even the rich man is going to be saved.
And you know what?
Even love strangers.
Love the people in your town.
God so loved the world.
Love your street.
Love your town.
Love your county.
Love your area.
Love your state.
Get them the gospel before it's too late for them.
But there's a third important application besides
get saved, number one.
Get other people saved, which is number two.
There's a third application of this.
Understand God's character.
How do we know God?
How do we know what his character is?
What is his personality?
What are his attributes?
You know, what we do is we look at his word,
and we see his actions.
I mean, how do you know my attributes?
How do you know Pastor Thompson's attributes?
How do you know your wife's attributes,
your husband's attributes, your parents, your children?
If you want to learn about someone's attributes,
you can look at what they say,
and you can look at what they do.
And when you see what someone does,
that tells you a lot about that person, doesn't it?
Now, sometimes what people say and what people do
don't match, do they?
What God says and what he does, they always match.
But we can look at what people say,
we can look at what people do,
and we get a feel for that person.
You say, you know, I know him.
I know her.
I know what he's like.
I know what she's like.
I know what they're like, right?
How do we know what God's like?
By what he says and by what he does.
And you know what?
The fact that God created hell and sends people there every day,
I mean, that tells us something about God.
It tells me that God isn't playing.
It tells me that God is no joke.
It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
God is a consuming fire.
The Bible says that God is dreadful.
God is terrible.
God is holy.
God is the Lord.
He is the creator of this universe.
And he is angry with the wicked every day.
He's not one to be toyed with.
And we think we're so cool.
We think we're so great.
We're so puffed up in America.
And we laugh and joke and scoff.
And, you know, I heard, I mean, somebody walked up to me and said,
yeah, I started reading the book of Genesis and it sucked.
You know what?
That person's going to split hell wide open.
Fool!
The book of Genesis is the greatest book that's ever been written by anyone at any time.
It's only tied with 65 other books.
But the point is, the book of Genesis is greater than anything that any author's ever written.
You know, who are the great authors of this world?
Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo,
Ernest Hemingway.
They're nothing.
They're a joke.
They are nothing compared to just the book of Genesis alone is better than anything that
any of those people have ever written ever.
Let alone the book of Matthew.
Let alone Mark, Luke, and John, the greatest story ever told.
You better fall on your face and realize who you are dealing with.
You know, the only reason why God is even relatable to you at all is because of Jesus.
You know, humbling himself and taking upon himself the form of a servant.
That's the only way that that gap between man and God could have been bridged.
Is by Jesus Christ.
But look, Jesus Christ isn't playing games either.
Jesus Christ is also the express image of God the Father's person.
And you know what, that's why he's ripping some face in Matthew 23.
That scripture that we read before the sermon was every bit as hard as the sermon itself.
And so we need to understand God's character.
Number one, get saved.
Number two, get other people saved.
But number three, understand God's character.
If we have too many just sweetness and light sermons,
we might start to get a wrong view of God's character and forget about the holiness,
justice, fiery, wrath, vindication, and vengeance of God.
Vengeance belongeth unto me, sayeth the Lord.
I will repay.
We need to understand the character of God tonight.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
And we thank you so much for salvation.
And Lord, we would be right now just on a bobsled to hell
if it were not for the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior.
And so we're thankful for your unspeakable gift.
Lord, if there's anybody here tonight that's not saved,
I pray that they would get saved before it's eternally too late.
And Lord God, those that are saved,
I pray that they would get zealous about getting other people saved
and that they would have a reality check about who you are and what your character is.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.