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[0:00] With what we've covered the last two Sundays, a study on hell and the doctrine, the Bible doctrine of hell.! And I'm just going to conclude this week with a few things that I hope bring some thoughts together that we've already looked at.

[0:16] This was really, we started off very simplistic and just what does the Bible say about hell? And where is it located? If we could find it, it's in the Bible. It says it's down. It says it's below our feet. It says it's, well rather it says you could dig into it.

[0:31] And so then we put some scripture together and found it to say that it's in the heart of the earth. Another place describes the lower parts of the earth and hell being one of those parts at least.

[0:44] We studied the location. We studied then, last week kind of dovetailed off of, kind of backtracked a little bit when we came up to another place about the duration of hell and decided, well let's cover something else.

[0:58] Which was hopefully clarifying some confusing scriptures in the Gospels where it describes cutting your hand off or plucking your eye out. And where that's been so just confusing to many, misinterpreted by many, misleading to some.

[1:11] Or not the scripture misleading, but the interpretation misleading. The truth of it, when we study it out, we find out that those passages all threaten that your body will be cast into hell.

[1:25] A body. That's not your soul. As in today, if I die, my body drops and it stays right here on this platform. If I drop dead right here. But my soul departs the body.

[1:37] Genesis 35, when Rebecca died, her soul was in departing. And my body goes somewhere. I mean, I'm sorry, my soul goes either to heaven or to hell. And because my body stays here on the earth, then I look at that passage and realize, well then it's not talking about something that applies to me today.

[1:55] In Matthew chapter 10, and in Mark chapter 9, and Matthew chapter 5, those were, I think, the three references we looked at where somebody's body was being cast into hell.

[2:06] The only way that matches is when we compare that to Isaiah. We see that when Jesus Christ comes back to this earth, that his breath kindles a fire on the earth. And there's a location over where he's going to reside that the streams of water are turned into pitch.

[2:24] And they pool up into a burning lake of pitch. And men are cast into that lake of fire on earth. It's hell on earth. Literally hell on earth. And so that takes place not today, but that takes place in the kingdom when Jesus Christ returns and establishes his kingdom.

[2:41] And the Bible says that sinners in Zion are afraid. And they're saying to themselves, who among us shall dwell with everlasting fires and be in everlasting burnings, they say.

[2:53] And so they're afraid of getting cast into that fire. Their bodies getting cast into the fire. And so Christ warns in his kingdom doctrine, he said, if your right hand caused thee to offend, then cut it off.

[3:07] Because it's better to enter into life, being the kingdom of heaven, maimed with what's one hand than it is to get cast into the fire, your body, your whole body cast into hell.

[3:18] So that's where we have to be careful. When I talk about the location of hell, presently it's beneath our feet and it's down there in the heart of the earth. Then we need to be careful with some other scriptures, particularly in the gospels where Christ is speaking about a kingdom set up in the future.

[3:35] When somebody's body, they're right there physically, get tossed into this lake of fire that's on the earth. All right. So we covered that last week. That's at the second coming.

[3:45] That is a little bit future. Now, we also covered the duration, or I'm sorry, we covered the description of hell. And we found out that it's Bible, the Bible calls it a place of fire, a place of torment, a place of darkness.

[3:59] And then one very interesting thing that I just said, it's a place of imprisonment or confinement. And the words that we saw in the Bible was that Jesus preached to the spirits in prison when he was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

[4:15] It says in Matthew 16 that there's gates of hell. Revelation 1 described there being keys to hell. And Jude and Revelation, both of those two references describe a chain, angels being held in chains, everlasting chains under darkness.

[4:33] And Revelation describes the devil being bound with a great chain for a thousand years. And he's in the bottomless pit.

[4:44] So Jonah also used the words bars. And so putting all that scripture together, hell appears to be a place of imprisonment, a holding cell that's inescapable until God brings those souls out of hell and they stand before him in the very end, great white throne judgment.

[5:03] And then they're condemned to the lake of fire for eternity. So hell beneath us in the moment presently, hell in the kingdom, in addition to that probably, on the planet, on earth, when Christ kindles that fire.

[5:18] And Isaiah 66, you can read it again, the very end of the book, describes going by, going up to Jerusalem to worship the king and they can look upon the carcasses of those that have transgressed him where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.

[5:34] And so there's a stern warning to seeing that fire. If you could see hell today, like right now, if God gave you a glimpse of what's going on in hell, it would change your world. He gives you some glimpse through pages of scripture.

[5:46] But if you could see it with your eyes and hear it and smell it and the whole thing, it would rock you pretty hard. There's no question. And in the kingdom, when he kindles that fire in the future, I think that'll have that effect on mankind.

[5:59] And it'll have such a strong effect. The world's going to be ruled and judged in righteousness. And Christ, I mean, the curse is lifted off of this earth and the crops begin to just explode again.

[6:12] And reading through Isaiah, you see all this blessing of the kingdom, how the wilderness is turned into what would be like the Garden of Eden and just a total change and transformation of the planet.

[6:23] But part of that is going to be knocking sin way, way down. And so that fire is going to be pretty instrumental in doing that. Okay, so that's kind of the review here of the location of hell, present, future, and an eternity.

[6:40] Then the description of hell with the imprisonment, the darkness, the torment, the fire. And the duration of hell was the last thing we looked at last Sunday morning where we saw that it's eternal and it's eternal damnation.

[6:56] Some of the scriptures say everlasting punishment. Death and hell were cast in a lake of fire. This is a second death. It's a death on your soul, an eternal death.

[7:08] So today I want to do just two little things here, I think, that'll just kind of add to it. There's more in the Bible about hell. And I'm not going to cover every verse and I'm not going to cover everything that is maybe something I can't teach for certainty.

[7:24] But I will point out, here's a thought that I think you may enjoy hearing. And I'll just give you the scriptures, we'll read them, and then I'll let you kind of make up your mind if what I'm thinking is right.

[7:36] So look at Deuteronomy chapter 32. When I read the verses that describe hell as being a place of imprisonment, in our prison system, there's certain, there's worse degrees of being in prison than others.

[7:59] There's some where you're locked up in a cell and you don't get out. There's some where you're put into, depending on the place, you've heard of the hole, or some places where there's no light. And you get out of the United States and you can find yourself in far worse conditions where I've read some stories from World War II from prisoners of war, and it is filthy, disgusting, and torment, and terrible stuff these men went through being imprisoned.

[8:24] Now, what I want to suggest and show is that even in our society, there are various degrees of punishment or of imprisonment. Sometimes you can be, you know, get out and work a job.

[8:36] Sometimes you can, and then come back to the county jail. Sometimes you can work within the prison and have a place where you can kind of get around. But sometimes you're completely confined. Sometimes you're so far in the depths of the prison, you don't ever see the light of day, and so forth.

[8:50] So, let's consider something about what I'll call the degrees of hell. Not like temperature degrees, although it may correlate, but I mean like from, I hate to say best, but from best to worst of what this place seems to be.

[9:07] Now, maybe you've never even considered this as a thought. Maybe you always thought, well, hell is just hell, it's fire, and you're in the fire. But let's just put a few Bible verses on it and see what the Bible might say about something to suggest degrees of hell.

[9:20] Look at Deuteronomy 32 and verse 22. 22. The Bible says, For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell.

[9:39] So, lowest is a descriptive word of hell. I don't believe it's suggesting more than one hell and one's lower than the other, but rather that within hell, every other place, hell is singular always.

[9:51] But within that place, there seems to be compartments or parts, one being perhaps, as the Scripture suggests, lower than the other.

[10:05] So, let's just consider that and turn to Proverbs 9. Proverbs chapter 9.

[10:18] So, just going to put two verses from the Old Testament on this thought, and then we'll carry it forward and see if it makes some good sense of a few things in the New Testament that Jesus Christ said in the book of Matthew.

[10:39] So, Proverbs 9, the very last verse, verse 18, the Bible says, But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

[10:51] Now, it could be that that's, I'm reading into that, maybe it's just because hell is down, it's deep, it's below our feet, but it does say depths. If it said singular in the depth of hell, you might, it's describing deep.

[11:06] But depths, plural, it seems that there are more than one depth to hell. That's just, I'm just putting it forth. You read it, you consider it, and see if you agree.

[11:19] Now, let's see if we can make some sense of a few other verses. Look at Matthew chapter 10 and Matthew chapter 11 together. We're going to be right back to back here in these two chapters, Matthew 10 and 11.

[11:37] I believe that the Bible is teaching and suggesting that there are varying degrees of punishment in hell. Matthew 10, and see if you haven't read this before.

[11:50] And I'll start in verse 14. 10, 14, and 15. Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

[12:03] Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Somebody's getting it worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.

[12:17] And maybe that's a reference to something that's happening on earth. Maybe that's what that is. Look at chapter 11. I'm not going to try to twist it so hard to make it fit what I want it to say.

[12:28] I'm just going to put it out there and let you decide. 11, verse 20. Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not.

[12:39] Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.

[12:55] And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. So it seems like he's talking about where they get judged in hell. Where they get condemned and damned to because of their rejection of him.

[13:10] Not just how severe his second coming judgment is on the earth. They're going to be brought down to hell for if the mighty works which were done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day.

[13:21] But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. So judge you what the scripture is teaching there. But it's threatening hell.

[13:33] That they're going to be brought down to hell. And it's going to be more tolerable for somebody as filthy wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah than it is for these that have rejected what they saw.

[13:45] The works of Jesus Christ. The works of God. Okay, now look at chapter 23. One more verse on this thought of varying degrees of punishment in hell.

[13:59] And look who Jesus Christ threatens worst damnation to. 23 and I'll start in 13.

[14:12] Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites. So he's condemning the elite religious men that wore their robes and that taught the people the word of God.

[14:26] they thought they were so high and above everybody else. But woe a curse upon you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men for ye neither go in yourselves neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

[14:44] Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayer. Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.

[15:00] Mm-mm-mm. Your King James Bible says damnation. I don't know if there's another Bible on the earth that says damnation. Everybody changes it to condemnation.

[15:13] Meaning you'll get the worst like you'll be judged or scolded the worst. But your Bible says damnation which is the execution of the judgment they deserve.

[15:26] And they're going to receive it not just get told that. Look at verse 15. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites ye can pass sea and land to make one proselyte and when he's made ye make him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves.

[15:41] The child of hell receiving damnation. Verse 33 puts damnation and hell in the same phrase if you need to see it. How can ye escape the damnation of hell?

[15:55] So putting the thoughts together here I'm suggesting that I believe the Bible teaches this is my opinion I'm leaving it up to you to consider it to weigh it to judge it to pray about it to consider it and say I think the Bible teaches there are degrees of hell degrees of damnation in hell and it doesn't surprise me to look at our judicial system and our oh I don't know the right word they used today but it's some dumb one some politically correct term for jail but yeah the correctional system it's really the punishment system that we have set up it's got varying degrees to it and it's not to say that that's proof of anything but it's something that we already use and understand and I think the Bible teaches the same thing about hell somebody's receiving the greater damnation and somebody's going to have more tolerance when they're judged than somebody else and so it appears to me that somebody's going to have it hotter or

[16:55] I don't know how else to understand what the punishment is like in hell besides the torment that's mentioned so there's another thought from the Bible that's we're studying the doctrine of hell here and when I mentioned to you I have this with me I'll just mention it to you I mentioned from the very beginning how the new versions of the Bible they just hide references to hell they eliminate them and say the word grave instead of hell or they change it in the New Testament to some other form what they may say is what they call Hades or Gehenna and they take instead of translating it to hell like it's supposed to be and giving you a fair and firm warning of what hell is and not to go there they change it to some other thing that just nobody even knows what that is and so then off comes this traditional teaching from the rabbis or from some theologian or from some church father and now it just gets all muddied into what this really means and if your Bible says hell then you can compare the words through your Bible every time it says hell and put the teaching together and build a doctrine and teach it and preach it instead of having just hacked away from what the new versions have done they get rid of almost 54 times the word hell showed up most of the new Bibles knock that down to about 13 or 14 mentions and so you lose a whole lot of insight and understanding and cross references and comparisons to teach this doctrine now I wanted to mention also the word damnation it shows up in your King James Bible 11 times and it's all in the New Testament and I don't know of a version on the earth that keeps that word in its Bible there may be one or two but for all the mainstream the new King James version the NIV the ESV the New Living all of them get rid of damnation and change it most of them to condemnation or to judgment but so that's a word that just we can't have in our Bible according to these guys well there's other words the word devils that is 55 times in your King James Bible and it is in the New King James zero in the ESV the RSV the New American Standard zero they get rid of devils you know what they change it to change it to demons they change it to demons and what was I reading the other day

[19:33] I think that was was that you I was reading something something came up and it said oh no it was Robert there was a little teaching of this this this and the verse said something in the devils and the devils also believe and tremble in James chapter 2 and then somebody comments on this and says the Bible says the demons blah blah blah blah why would you change the word when right there it says devils why are we so afraid of the word devils well the truth is they're trying to they don't believe something about what the Bible will teach about that and therefore they change it to make it something else anyway long story there the word's missing the word devil where it's found 61 times in your King James Bible about half of those are in the modern versions the word serpent and dragon again gets knocked down to about half or less than half and in some of the modern versions you won't find them at all so all of that put together it's not a coincidence that serpent dragon devil devils hell damnation all of these

[20:39] Bible words that all kind of cluster around one thought or one thing just kind of missing an awful lot of that material just kind of disappears from the text and so what do you think a Bible like that that is so watered down is going to produce or reveal just a whole softer brighter lighter vibe of love of we don't have much to say about damning you know hellfire and damnation because it's really not in there so it turns into just do right do good be righteous and and God you'll inherit the kingdom and so all that's a fallacy from the pit of hell and so thank God for a clean and pure Bible all right let's look at one more thing here and just one more thought that is worthy of considering look at Luke chapter 16 we've already seen a description of hell in the word torment and fire and judgment associated with it damnation but now let's look at a very particular and specific passage of an account of a man in hell and his reaction his words his thoughts about where he is and so let's look at what the Bible teaches about a soul in hell this is the

[22:09] Lord Jesus Christ speaking now because it's so powerful and so pointed the scholars say oh he's just giving a parable it's just a parable but the Bible doesn't say anything about a parable then spake he a parable unto them it doesn't say that when it starts in verse 19 it says there was a certain rich man and in verse 20 there was a certain beggar named Lazarus sounds like a person a real person find a parable where there's an actual proper name given to a man there isn't one they're all generic terms for fowls and a sower went forth to sow and a treasure in a field it's all kind of angels it's all typology and things that you can connect to the teaching this is talking about a person a rich man he's not named but the Lazarus man is named and another person's named

[23:09] Abraham and so let's look at this briefly and here's an example in our Bible of two different men that have two eternal souls and they end up in two different places when they die after death and what we want to notice is the place of hell and the we've already seen from this passage it's a place of torment it shows up I think three different times in the passage but this time I want to show you the faculties the senses that this man has in hell the Jehovah's witnesses the seventh day adventists for two popular cults and there's probably some others in some I don't know of finer degrees of whatever religions are out there these two for instance they teach that hell is a complete annihilation as in you go and you suffer you're done you just cease to exist forever because you were damned you were burned up you just like your soul burns up what they don't ever study or try to teach is how can a soul a spiritual being burn or be consumed in a fire how is that possible a body of flesh can certainly be consumed in a fire but how can a soul be burned in a fire show me a bible verse that teaches that how long you want to wait because there is none they can't dig their doctrine out of the bible but they do take little passages little things put them together twist them and say see this is what we believe we got time let me show you one verse if you haven't seen this already go back to

[24:57] Malachi the very last book of your old testament Malachi chapter four right before the book of Matthew I want to show you what what they say happens to the soul and this is coming straight from their literature that they hand out to people Malachi chapter four verse one for behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble the day that cometh shall burn them up see that people are going to be burned up and turned to stubble and so verse number three says ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this so from that text as far as one in particular these cults teach that

[25:58] God's judgment in hell is going to annihilate you for eternity you'll just be dust and ashes and stubble and so my question then is okay if that what's that passage teaching then in verse three what are the righteous doing down in hell trampling out the wicked ye shall tread down the wicked they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet if that's hell as they teach then why are we or somebody that's righteous what are we doing down there trampling on what a stupid thought worse than that or even clearer than that this is a second coming of Christ and he's burning them up it's their bodies that are being burned on earth when he comes to the planet and that fire is kindled in his wrath it has nothing to do with hell their soul departs that body that burns up and is charred and their soul descends into hell that passage doesn't touch the eternal state of man in hell so back to

[26:59] Luke 16 and let's take a look at the faculties of a man and what he possesses when in hell and let's read the passage quickly and then we'll come back through it and highlight these six things I want to point out verse 1 says there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day good life 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 not such a good life and it came to pass that the beggar died now let me pause here and just backtrack just a thought if this is about a if this is a parable then what is Jesus Christ actually teaching us if you're rich you go to hell and suffer if you're poor you go to heaven is that the teaching this is dumb this is this doesn't if it's a parable what's he telling us a parable has an meaning to it a teaching there's no parable this is a story of something that happened just relating history what happened was in verse 23 in verse 22 it came to pass the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom the rich man also died and was buried there goes his body verse 23 and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments that's not the grave and that's not his body and seeth

[28:35] Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom so there's separate compartments there's hell and there's a place called Abraham's bosom which until Jesus Christ dies until he goes descends and then ascends that thing is two separate compartments according to the bible and that's a place that Abraham's bosom is a place that the Jews when it says he was gathered unto his people when he died that's what it's talking about you can read that in Genesis chapter I'm not sure I think it's 50 Joseph dies in 49 and if you read 49 into 50 you got Joseph dying and then him being gathered unto his people he gave up the ghost the spirit left his body his soul was gathered unto his people in Abraham's bosom and yet then in chapter 50 verse 1 it says that it was Jacob dying Joseph fell on his neck and wept and so when Jacob dies that's what happens his soul is gathered unto his people but his body is right there on the bed where it was the whole time ok so you'll see that more and more as you read your bible alright so verse he's in

[29:44] Abraham's bosom verse 24 and he cried and said father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame but Abraham said son remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented and beside all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed this doesn't make any sense if this is a parable all these points and statements mean nothing except it's a literal truth of a place so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from hence then he said I pray thee therefore father that thou would send him to my father's house for I have five brethren that's up on earth that they may testify unto them lest they also come to this place of torment Abraham said unto him they have Moses and the prophets let them hear them and he said nay father

[30:46] Abraham but if one would one of them from the dead they will repent and he said to him if they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead and there's more strength of showing you that the word of God is the only thing God is going to use and expects men to believe it if they now I want to show you these things these senses or these faculties we saw in verse 23 and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments and seeth he can see in hell there is sight he can see now he's seeing a cross remember some of the scriptures describe darkness in this case he's seeing Abraham's bosom and he's seeing Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom he sees there's sight there's something else in verse 24 and he cried and said and he's speaking so there's speech the man has speech in hell he can speak and

[31:58] I don't know that we'd want to hear the speech that's going on in hell in verse 24 he says Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame and the third thing is he has desire or a will he is desirous of something to take place he wants he wants some relief he wants specifically he thought this up have Lazarus send him and so he's got faculties he has his senses he has his mind and his wits about him he has a desire and then we could even add to that at the end of the verse for I am tormented in this flame verse 23 being in torment so it's a place that he can feel he has feeling as far as your senses go he can feel he can speak he can see there's something else verse 25 but Abraham said son remember that thou!

[32:58] so he can hear because now returning conversation to him he has hearing in hell and notice that word he said remember that thou in thy lifetime he has his memory so much so that in verse 28 he says I have five brethren send him up to them he remembers what's going on he remembers his life the memory is there the mind is sharp so sight speech!

[33:32] present it is not the annihilation of a soul that is not hell so in conclusion to this little study of these last three weeks is hell a real place well according to the Bible it is so is hell a real place don't ask me what I think just according to this book and this is all I going to point at this is all I have to tell you about it a you can make up your own mind I'll make up mine but where does that get us how can we establish truth by just arguing and saying what you think so hell is a real place according to that Bible if the Bible is wrong go your way just live your life if the Bible is right we better watch what it says if it is in fact the word of our creator warning and teaching and exposing and revealing not only himself but his actions and his judgments so is hell real according to the

[34:36] Bible it is where is hell according to the Bible we studied where it's at it's below our feet in the heart of the earth currently and then like I said earlier with the repeat of the future what is it like gave you a pretty good description of what it's like according to the Bible you know why everybody hears about hell and fire well that's because I showed you where it's at in the Bible what the Bible is how long is it again Bible described it as eternity as forever even if hell is a temporary holding cell it's going to be transferred upstate and they're going to get dumped into that lake of fire so they don't escape hell once they're in there I heard a preacher say this he had a thought about Christ preaching to the spirits in prison and he felt like I think he's preaching the gospel to them and so if he is then and he tried to twist it to say so maybe there's a chance for them that's not Bible you're just making some thought up no don't do that definitely don't teach that to anybody please don't teach that to anybody there's

[35:42] Bible doesn't give anybody a way out of hell unless you take the Lord Jesus Christ while you're alive the escaping hell is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ today while it is today okay so we believe in hell here at Bible Baptist Church we preach on hell we describe it we're not afraid to use the word hell God teaches it that's the bottom line and that's the truth it doesn't matter what any religion or any pope or any priest or anybody that's anybody anywhere on the planet believes or writes or teaches what does the scripture say I gave you three weeks worth of it I don't think I'm trying to convince anybody here that it exists but at least strengthening your understanding of it and your stand on Bible truth and Bible doctrine knowing that you only go to this book to receive truth and understanding outside of this book maybe it's true maybe it's not but within the covers of this book it is absolute truth and people go there every day every day so we went out yesterday some of us went out and tried to get some tracks and some door hangers and invitations to church out around this area and we even went to some street corners around here and spent some time just trying to keep people out of hell and trying to show them that

[37:13]  Jesus Christ died for their sins and trying to give them an opportunity to escape the judgment of God against their sins and we believe it's real and so let's continue to believe that and then let's put some feet to our beliefs and try late for us to do anything right so alright we're going to take a break there you've got about 15 minutes until the next hour and so enjoy some time together grab a cup of coffee and fellowship a little bit