[0:00] So today I want to start off with a little study here. I think it'll go two weeks maybe. And then I want to follow it up with another study, which may, I don't know how long it'll go, but I want to do a little study on heaven and hell.
[0:14] And I'm going to start with hell. Let's start with the ugly first. We'll start with the negative. That's kind of the way God does things in the Word of God. The power of negative thinking, if you've ever heard of that, get that settled and then you can consider what's positive and get that foundation nailed down.
[0:28] So what I want to do is study with you on hell, that it's a Bible doctrine. It's a real place. It's a literal place. And I hope and trust that you understand and believe this, despite what any scholar is going to teach you or any Bible corrector is going to do.
[0:46] They're going to try to get rid of the Word. A lot of times in your Bible, they will get rid of the word hell and replace it with the word grave or a few other things. But that's kind of the popular one.
[0:57] And just to give you some numbers, for instance, in the King James Bible, the word hell shows up 54 times in the Old and New Testaments, 54 times. And in the, I think the New King James knocks it down to 32 times.
[1:13] And then the NIV and most other versions knock it all the way down to 13 times. And so from 54 to 13, that's something else.
[1:24] Like that's considerable. Take any Bible, any word that is a, you know, it's not just the word love or the word pass or just some random, but just take any word that has some significant doctrinal value and eliminate three quarters of its mention and how much doctrine and how much truth are you really going to get on this.
[1:46] It's going to really water it down and really cover some things up. And so we got to be careful and you need to understand why this Bible is perfect and why you don't touch it and mess with its words.
[1:58] And one of the reasons is, with the New Versions, is it just downplays some very serious things. And I don't know if there's anything more serious than hell and being aware of its existence and fearing its existence.
[2:12] And so I want to study it with you a little bit. What I have is a pretty simple outline, but before we get to just the simplicity of it, I think we'll cover a couple thoughts. Here's one argument, a very, a very, a very, somebody's quick to say this against the existence of hell is they'll say, well, that's not consistent with a loving God.
[2:34] And we know that God is a loving God, so hell and torture, that is not a loving... So right away, for many people, that's enough to just wipe it off the earth.
[2:45] There can't be a hell if there's a loving God. And if you just stay right there, if that's your scale, if God is love or God is hell, then that's pretty weak, but then you're almost forced to say, okay, then I guess I don't know if it really exists either.
[3:02] Maybe it's just made up. But here's the thought. Is a loving God, is that the greatest and strongest description of the nature and person of God, is that He is love?
[3:15] Is that the only thing He is? What you might say instead is, hell is consistent with a holy God. If you have a holy God that judges sin and unrighteousness and refuses it, if you have a holy God, then hell is consistent with that nature.
[3:34] But just to say God, paint Him as just pure smiles and love, then you're going to have trouble agreeing with the existence of hell. So it's starting kind of with the wrong foot forward or false view of God.
[3:46] Another argument people make is that hell is a doctrine or a teaching that's invented by religions to scare people. Scare them for what purpose?
[3:57] Well, to scare them into being good. To make mankind and society, to make them behave. And some will say, to make them fall in line and come to church.
[4:07] Then religion or church came up with the concept of hell and God being angry with the wicked and nations being sent to hell. And again, I just find that to be kind of a weak and foolish argument to think that way.
[4:25] Here's one, this is kind of a side way of looking at this, but here's a question. What comes first? The truth or heresy? Like a twisting of the truth.
[4:38] Which one comes first? Does the heresy show up first and then the truth is invented after that? Or is it always truth comes first and then men eliminates portions of it or twists it or rests it in some way to where it turns into something else?
[4:55] The truth comes first and then multiple branches of heresy comes out of the truth. The teaching of hell wasn't invented by any church or any man. The teaching of hell is doctrinal truth from God and man has taken a look at that and said, oh, I don't think I want that or oh, I don't like that or I think it's just this or even if it does exist, it's just a temporary thing that gets, where you just get annihilated and you don't dwell there forever and eternal hell is something that man has consistently had trouble with.
[5:26] And the reason I think is pretty simple is we're just, we're human beings. We're finite beings. Our minds are not capable of understanding eternity, much less eternity and torment and suffering.
[5:40] And so sure, the human mind in its own humanity just would resist that or would kick against the concept of eternal damnation. That's a big problem just to the human mind, but that's why we don't go off of our feelings and that's why we don't believe what we want to believe or what settles well with us.
[6:02] We believe the word of God and if this book's not true, then we're okay and everybody's just gonna make their own way. But if this book's true and you know how I feel about it, then we need to study it and proclaim its truth.
[6:18] Now let me take you through just a quick few thoughts before we get into an outline. Find Job chapter 11. I want to give you some, just a, this is elementary, but when new versions eliminate the word hell from their Bible, they don't just eliminate the word, they change it to another word.
[6:45] For instance, in the New Testament, the word from a Greek manuscript would transliterate to H-A-D-E-S and a lot of people call it Hades, trying to give it like an English sound to it, which is not even the right pronunciation.
[7:03] But nevertheless, that's what comes out in a transliteration, like letter for letter. And so a lot of the new versions see that word in the Greek text and so instead of translating it to hell, they just transliterate it letter for letter and then it comes out Hades, as they'd say.
[7:22] And so in the Bible, there's this word Hades that nobody knows what in the world it is or where it is or it's just some mysterious thought. But as soon as you say hell, you can start putting some dots together.
[7:35] All right, now in the Old Testament, most of the time the word is translated instead of hell, it's translated grave. And I want to give you just a few verses to consider something. Look at 11 and verse number 8.
[7:49] I'll back up just to verse 7. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
[8:00] So we're talking about the person of God. His nature, his wisdom is not just a whole person being. Can you search him out? It is as high as heaven.
[8:12] What canst thou do? Deeper than hell. What canst thou know? So that you understand the extremes here as far as a measurement if you want to call it that.
[8:24] It's not really the right word there. But as high as heaven, as deep as hell is the teaching. And it's not even threatening souls going to hell here. It's just using it as a point of reference for depth.
[8:38] And using heaven as a point of reference for height. and saying how are you going to measure and understand God? Alright? That makes sense.
[8:48] And that's in the teaching. Now here's what happens when you change the word. And I'll just read it to you so you know I'm not making this up. This is the NIV here. The New International Version like most of them is going to change the word.
[9:00] We don't want hell in our Bible. So we're going to change it. And in verse number 8 they are higher than the heavens. What can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave.
[9:12] So is that the point of measurement? As high as heaven or the depths of the grave? Like is hell as we know it deeper than the grave?
[9:26] How deep is the grave? Six feet for most. And if it's your mother no I won't say that. Your mother-in-law it's 12 feet because she's a good woman deep down. Sorry about that.
[9:38] Amen. So that's pretty shallow though as far as considering this understanding God. We're on this dirt and we're going to reference the height of heaven and then the depth of you know just below our feet a few feet.
[9:56] Is that really referencing depth? Is that what Job is what's coming out of this book here? Is that for depth as the measurement the grave? That doesn't make sense at all.
[10:07] Why would you change that word to get rid of hell and then you introduce some kind of just nonsense? It doesn't strengthen it makes it very very weak. So I think you see there look at Psalm 116 I think you see there that it's just a bad idea and it's even a fallacy to mess with that word.
[10:28] In their attempt to get rid of the word they introduce something that just makes the Bible looks stupid. Psalm 116 and look at verse number 3 verse number 3 let me back up give you this context as it comes through because David's calling upon the Lord.
[11:01] Verse 1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications because he hath inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
[11:14] The sorrows of death come past me and the pains of hell get hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow then I called upon the name of the Lord.
[11:24] So he talks about sorrows of death and pains of hell. Well for the modern translator and scholar he doesn't like this at all.
[11:35] We don't like hell and we don't think David should even use the word because we think David was saved the way we're saved and on and on. And so in Psalm 116 the modern version says something like this the cords of death entangled me the anguish of the grave came upon me.
[11:52] I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. So it's all about the grave in this context and hell should just be dismissed from your Bible. Now a question that comes from my mind in not just this place but in several very very similar contexts and uses of the word is the pains of hell the pains of hell.
[12:14] When you translate it to the grave is the grave a place of pain or a place of torment in the Bible your grave is a place of rest. When you die your body is determined or called at sleep or at rest.
[12:29] When Saul through that woman with a familiar spirit brought up Samuel he said why hast thou disquieted me? I was at complete peace and rest and you brought me up here.
[12:40] It wasn't pains associated with the grave. It's pain associated with hell in your Bible. When you eliminate the word things get crossed up.
[12:54] If there's a heaven it's my contention that there is a hell and that the one demands the other and the world is fine with believing in heaven and looking towards some just perfect place of peace and oneness and unity with the creator but it has a big problem with swallowing and believing that there's a hell and that that God would send and damn people there.
[13:22] I believe the one demands the other not just for a philosophical concept of heaven and hell but also something stronger than that if we go to our Bible and I won't take you through the references right now and all but the Lord Jesus Christ believed in heaven and he believed in hell and he spoke and taught and preached and warned against men going to hell and being the words he used was fire a word he used was torment a word that Jesus Christ used was damnation saying how can ye escape the damnation of hell those are his words who am I to mess with the Lord Jesus Christ and what he said to men if I don't believe he's God in the flesh he said believe me for the very works sake because he was doing things that nobody else could do and he healed people and he pointed to God the father and said he's doing the works in me and the father is in me and then when he goes and teaches them about their law and tells them things they didn't even understand he shows them where they're wrong and where they should be right he takes it a step further and he tells them about hell why would that one be wrong why would we eliminate that and keep all the love your enemies stuff what is wrong with people you know what's wrong with them you know but get the idea you can't have one teaching without taking the whole if he's
[14:50] God in the flesh you better take it very very serious what he taught and what he said so let's take a little look at some Bible verses here and come to Matthew chapter 11 and I want to take you through a little just to start this off a description on the location of hell where is hell let's just see what the Bible says some of this very elementary but we're just going to let the Bible do the teaching this morning and allow the book to show us what it says so Matthew 11 and we'll start real simple and let it progress a little bit here verse 23 and thou Capernaum which art exalted unto heaven shall be brought down to hell the location of hell according to that verse is down down now if I'm standing here in Silmar
[15:51] California it's down what if I'm on the other side of the world and what if I'm in Vietnam what if I'm in Russia it's down if I pick up a Bible and I'm down in Antarctica and I read that where is down below my feet it's down now let's get to that a little bit later find oh this is a good one Amos Amos chapter 9 one of the minor prophets right after Joel Amos chapter 9 the Bible says of the angels that sinned Peter said in 2 Peter 2 that they were cast down to hell they were cast down to hell but in reference to what from heaven from the stars they were cast down where did they go so Amos chapter 9 and look at verse number 2 though they dig into hell then shall my hand take them though they climb up to heaven thence will
[17:08] I bring them down so hell can be is a place that's down it's below but it's below the earth's crust it's a place you could in the passage you could dig down into you see again the extremes of heaven and hell this is the third time it came up even just in this short time and so making it the grave again just really is foolish but okay you could dig all the way down to hell go back to your left a little further and find Proverbs and you might want to catch Isaiah 14 on the way Isaiah 14 and then I want you to go back to Proverbs 15 Isaiah 14 and we'll go to Proverbs first Proverbs 15 so hell is down in relation to what well it's some place you could dig to so in relation to where your feet touch the ground it is below you
[18:13] Proverbs 15 and verse 24 the way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from hell beneath and that's in reference to a man in this life on this planet hell is beneath us now flip to Isaiah chapter 14 and notice the similar statement in verse 9 hell from beneath hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming a little bit later in the passage verse 15 says yet thou shalt be brought down to hell down to hell so pretty clear and pretty simple but we'll get even more specific than that find Matthew chapter 12 could have gave you this one first but wanted to just set it up with the little simple statements and let it get all the way down to the bottom
[19:29] Matthew chapter 12 and let me see if I want this one hold on I'm running a reference here real quick okay so Matthew 12 and we want verse 40 verse 40 for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly so shall the son of man be three days and three nights where in the heart it doesn't say hell it says in the heart of the earth now I'm going to just you don't have to turn but in Ephesians chapter 4 it says that he that ascended referring to Jesus
[20:33] Christ what is it all but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth parts so there's the heart of the earth there's the lower parts of the earth but now find Acts chapter 2 so Jesus Christ dies his soul descends into the heart of the earth three days and three nights his body is in the tomb three days and three nights and his body did not see corruption it rested in hope but what about the soul that descended in the lower parts of the earth here's the well verse 31 this is Peter preaching about David says he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in the
[21:36] Bible doesn't say the lower parts of the earth here the Bible doesn't say his soul was not left in the heart of the earth so comparing scripture with scripture his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh that's his body on earth neither did his flesh see corruption so in three days and three nights that body did not decay and rot and his soul was not left in hell it mentions that back in verse 27 as well because that will not leave my soul in hell so the location though we started with it's down hell is down hell is below our feet!
[22:17] crust you could dig into hell conceptually though thou dig into hell it's all the way down to what the Bible calls the heart of the earth so that being as to connect back to what I said earlier if you're in China it's down if you're in South America it's down if you're in Europe or anywhere on the continent of Africa it's down to the heart of the earth anywhere you are on this sphere hell is inside and it's below your feet and you can dig down to it so the location of hell according to the word of God is in the heart the innermost core of this planet you pick up any science book in class and you're not going to see hell written down at the core and you're going to see guesstimates of measurements of basing it off of it all but I don't believe for a moment that they have any instruments on this top mantle that could measure the degree of temperature in the core of the earth yet they'll give you a measurement they'll give you a number it's this hot there really they'll tell you what the heat is on the surface of the sun too and
[23:29] I'm kind of skeptical about how they but let's not get into that so your science book will not show you a graph showing you that hell is in the heart of the earth but they do tell you that it is super hot and they can't get very far down at all off of this mantle of this crust of the earth into the mantle They can't even get down through the crust much to be to!
[24:10] There's a system of caves that goes in these mountains and it goes down to where this area was filled with water and because it was filled with water and there was something there that created these gigantic crystal structures they're just enormous like one side of the other these huge things you could walk on it looks like trees fell down but they're these huge crystals!
[24:40] exposed what was under the water these formulated crystals have formed over billions of years or something so these guys get down into this and it's not that deep it's like a mile in I'm sure it's not straight down but it's a mile drive into this cave network of caves and diggings and way into this thing they can go in there for about five to seven minutes or something and they got to get out because it is so hot it is steaming hot the humidity is sky high and they put on these suits they made up these suits that were filled with ice packets special design suits to keep their body core temperature down to allow them to be there for up to 20 minutes and the point is they're like a mile in and it's!
[25:26] so hot the human body can't stand it where is all that heat being generated from well the inner core of the earth we believe well the Bible says that hell is in the very heart of the earth and so we'll believe the Bible all right let's take something else go to Mark chapter 9 so first the location of hell according to the Bible is in the heart of the earth and we have been given this earth to have dominion over it but down inside of it is a place oh I forgot about something I wanted to do this earlier find keep your place there in Mark and flip over to Matthew 25 here's a question that I've always had for a long time and I don't have an answer and one time
[26:29] I was in Smyrna Delaware I want to say back in 2006 or 7 and Dr.
[26:41] Peter Ruckman was flown up there it might have been a little later than that he was getting pretty old he wasn't really taking meetings anymore and they had a guy fly him up like a and all the hard questions he usually had something to tell you and so we're at this meeting and I had a question and I said to him I raised my hand and I got called on and instantly I'm like nervous I said I said in Matthew 25 Jesus Christ said that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels look at verse 41 verse 41 it says
[27:54] Jesus talking to his disciples he's speaking then shall he say then shall he this is the king when he returns 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 now we all understand that the Lord Jesus Christ or that hell was prepared for the devil and don't go there it's not prepared for you it's prepared for him and for his angels that rebelled and that's fine so my question was if hell was prepared by God for Satan for his angels my question was is there any biblical evidence of when the timing when was it prepared in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and an understanding of where that placed and where
[28:55] Satan was in that case did God prepare hell in the heart of the earth when he originally created the earth when he gave it to Lucifer when he had dominion when he wanted to ascend above the clouds and his pride got involved and so I couldn't find in my mind the placement of when God prepared hell and so I asked that question and Dr.
[29:18] Ruckman said oh the Germans would say and then he says his whatever it was I know not it's there's no biblical reference that says this is when God prepared it there is a verse we ran to in Isaiah that seems to be more connected to the second coming of Christ and the kingdom and Tophet is ordained of old and uses the word prepared and the breath of the Lord kindling a fire but it didn't seem to be what we call hell exactly so anyway that was just a curiosity on my end of so when was it prepared if it wasn't prepared in the very beginning was it somewhere along the lines was it after destruction I don't know but it was a curiosity I have so you can keep your place in Matthew there but look at Mark 9 we'll come right back to Matthew and let's look now at a description of hell
[30:22] Bible description of hell Mark 9 in verse 43 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 that shows up at the end of verse 45 it shows up as hell fire in verse well it shows up at the end of verse 46 let's back up 43 fire that shall never be quenched 44 fire is not quenched 45 fire that never shall be quenched 46 fire is not quenched 47 hell fire 48 fire is not quenched boom boom boom boom boom boom six verses in a row the Lord Jesus Christ describes that it's a place of fire fire man and religion did not make that up to scare everybody to be good boys and girls and come to church and give your tithes the
[31:30] Bible says Jesus Christ calls it a place of fire now look at Matthew 25 you were just there and let's go to Luke chapter 16 take a second to find that Luke 16 and I'm going to be in Matthew 25 first and if we rewind it a little bit from when he taught about these individuals being cast into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels if we backed it up a little bit there's a story about an unprofitable servant that did not do anything for his lord and in verse 30 his punishment is being cast it doesn't say fire it says something different here verse 30 it says cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth so
[32:37] I'm focusing on the last part here where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth it's a place of torment look at chapter Luke 16 now and this is where the rich man dies and where Lazarus is carried by angels to Abraham's bosom and the rich man died in verse 22 and was buried and in verse 23 his body is buried up here on earth but his soul descends his living soul with eyes with sight with hearing with a tongue with speech with memory with complete faculties in verse 23 and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torment and he crawls for father Abraham he wants father Abraham verse 24 to have mercy on him he says send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his!
[33:38] finger in water and cool my tongue and here's his confession I am tormented in this flame in verse 25 Abraham acknowledges thou art tormented in verse 28 the end of the verse says lest they also come into this place of torment so the location of hell is down it's below the earth's crust it's in the heart of the earth all the way down a description of hell from the bible is it's a place of fire it's a place of torment the flames he's in the flames it says so we're not making this stuff up when we talk about hell we warn about hell it's taking the bible literally taking the verses of scripture as they say believing them and understanding when a man dies hell and he's tormented in flames so we already read about the outer darkness look at
[34:44] Jude find the book of Jude all the way to the back before revelation we read about the unprofitable servant being cast into outer darkness remembering that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels find Jude and I want you to find verse number six Jude six and the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness darkness under the judgment of the great day look a little bit further into verse 13 raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever forever so there's a little indication of what's next is the duration of hell but for now it's a place of darkness and that's three times here darkness darkness and outer darkness and it appears to be the same concept and space so somebody says well how can you have a flame and have darkness flame omits light flame is energy being expended and
[36:25] I'm not a scientist on this and I'm not even sure I care too much to believe the scientific explanation but what's often taught is that the darker the flame the hotter it is the hottest flame is invisible it's so hot it's not shedding light it's not putting off the light the brighter the flame the less the heat and that we're talking about obviously some extremely hot stuff either way but look that up if you want even if it's true or not true that's not my belief system for why it says darkness and flame I believe it because the bible says it whether I can teach it with a scientific experiment or not means nothing to me because I can't teach from a scientific vantage point how my soul is going to depart my body and go either up or down that one I can't take science into the lab and prove to you I believe it from the bible so I believe hell is darkness and I believe it's flame from the word of God whether I can prove that in an experiment or not doesn't mean anything to me alright you're in
[37:28] Jude come back to 1st Peter oh stay in Jude stay in Jude I'll put I'll get this verse while we're there so the next thing about hell a description of hell fire torment darkness and this next one's pretty interesting oh man we're out of time to really get it so we'll at least catch verse 6 again notice what it said here the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains they're in chains why do they have to be chained up that reminds me of flip the Revelation 20 look at Revelation 20 and here's the devil being bound for a thousand years Revelation 20 and verse 1 and we'll stop with this here
[38:32] Revelation 20 verse 1 I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key interesting there's a key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold on the dragon that old serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit I think that's what's prepared for the devil and his angels cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should not deceive the nations no more until the thousand years are fulfilled and then he's loosed it says for a season so he's bound with a great chain this is not a literal chain like of steel I don't see that being the case you remember the guy in Mark chapter 5 that was possessed with the legion of devils and they bound him with chains and he just broke them because man made natural things just the spiritual world has strength and power over that and so this is not a metal chain or an aluminum chain or a titanium chain or some strong that's not the case it's something that operates in a spiritual realm beyond this human thing for the devil to be bound with a chain and it described those everlasting chains there's a spiritual note there a concept of eternity attached to this thing it's not just something physical that moth and rust doth corrupt and can break down so it's not a physical thing but in hell it's a place of imprisonment and what
[40:26] I'll do next week we come back here and we'll finish the references because there's a chain of references that indicate this with more than just the word chain and so when you put it all together it becomes obvious that hell is like a holding cell it's locking them down and we'll get to that next week so so far just kind of an introduction of these descriptions the location and what the place is just studying from the Bible what it says and putting maybe not all but putting a lot of the information together in one study in place so that you can get it and say well that's what the Bible says that's why we believe this stuff because I hope you take notes on that and get it down alright let's take a break we'll come back at the top of the hour