Hell is Real

[0:00] Matthew 25 verse 46 it says, And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

[0:20] ! It's got two places that are everlasting, eternal. It's the same word in the Greek. These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. The word of God talks much about hell.

[0:34] Hell is something we hear, a word of swearing, a word of cursing. In reality, hell is a fact. Hell is real.

[0:45] Hell is the future destiny of those who reject Christ in this life. It's an important truth that we need to understand. Hell, it's the penalty of sin.

[0:57] If you persist in your rejection of Jesus Christ, then hell will be your new home. You may speculate and imagine and honestly believe all kinds of things from your own viewpoint, your own opinions or imaginings, including denying the Bible truth of the reality of hell.

[1:20] Yet, what matters is, what does God say? What does God say about hell? That's what we should take notice of. Not what people think or imagine or even believe.

[1:34] Sincerely though they be. It would be easier not to believe in hell. To not believe in a hell that is forever aflame. But our beliefs must be founded upon the truth.

[1:48] Upon the truth. The solid foundation of God's word. What does God say about hell? We must go to the Bible and what it teaches about this doctrine.

[1:58] The Bible doctrine about the future destiny of the wicked. It's a shocking truth. It's shocking, isn't it? To think of a place such as that. A truth nevertheless.

[2:10] And it's something, in many circles, you don't hear a message about hell. It's not something that's popular. That people would flock to hear such a message.

[2:22] And in the streets of Adelaide, there's preachers. They're calling them hellfire preachers. Because that's what they talk about. But that's what we need to know. We need to be warned. We need to be informed and warned.

[2:36] Because it's a real place and people are destined to go there. But men would rather go on in their sin and turn a deaf ear to this doctrine, to this teaching.

[2:49] Yet warn them, warn them, we must. Everyone's a Christian here. And if you're not a Christian tonight, it's all the more needful that you hear this and listen to this.

[3:00] It's vital. It's needful. There's a man, a preacher, Vance Havner, a preacher in the US. And he just preached a sermon on hell. And people were going out of the meeting place.

[3:12] And one man said at the door, Why don't you preach to us about Jesus? Meek and mild. Rather than all this hell stuff. And Havner said, Oh, that's interesting.

[3:24] That's where I got all my information on hell from. Because in reality, the Lord Jesus spoke much about this place, this place of torment.

[3:36] The Lord Jesus spoke much about the place called hell, the lake of fire, which the New Testament calls Gehenna. The word we translate hell in many places is Gehenna 12 times in the New Testament.

[3:51] And 11 of those 12 times, it comes from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So, the Lord Jesus wants us to know about hell.

[4:02] To know about it and to be warned about it. And the Bible shows us many facts about this place. These facts of this eternal agony and despair that will await those who continue in sin, who continue to reject and refuse the Saviour and His gift.

[4:24] Anyone who will repent and trust Christ will not need to go to hell. That's the good news, isn't it? And we that have done so can rest assured in His promises.

[4:38] 2 Peter 3.9 it says, The Lord is not slack concerning His promises. Some men count slackness towards us, but is longsuffering to us with, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

[4:53] That's the good news, isn't it? That God is patient, He's persevering, He suffers long, not willing that any should perish, but that all should repent.

[5:06] All should come to repentance. And as we repent, as we turn from our own sinful, selfish, godless, hell-bound direction to God's truth and life and salvation, freely gifted to us, because of His blood shed for us at the cross, His penalty of our sin paid for for us, we can know life everlasting instead of punishment everlasting.

[5:34] And so the question is, why? Why do people go to hell? Why do they do that? Why do people go to hell? Really, it's because of unbelief. Unbelief is the reason.

[5:46] Unbelief will send you to hell. Faith in anything but Christ will send you to hell. Faith in Christ will take you to heaven. It's simple as that. Hell is real.

[5:57] Hell is real. God is saying there is a hell. It's clear in His Word. It's often recorded. We're told of it. It is certain. Hell is real.

[6:08] As we read there, that there is life everlasting. There is punishment everlasting. The same word in the Greek underlying those two words, eternal and everlasting.

[6:19] And it goes on in Matthew 25, verse 41, that the Lord says here in Matthew 25, 41, of that parable, that account.

[6:31] 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.

[6:42] Jesus, our Saviour, calls it everlasting fire. It's no picnic. It's no party. It's forever aflame. Revelation 20, 15, we're told that Peshoeve was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

[7:01] We read in Revelation, it talks of how death and hell are cast into the lake of fire. So the present hell will be cast into the lake of fire at the eternal judgment time.

[7:13] And then it'll be forever aflame, the lake of fire. In Revelation 21, 8, it says, the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the whoremongers, the murderers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

[7:34] So people tonight, I urge you, take this seriously. This is a serious message. It's a solemn message. It's a needful message that there is a place, it's a lake of fire.

[7:45] But it's not some place of partying or fun or frolicking. A sunlight picture hell, a place of drinking and partying.

[7:57] In fact, you can't even get a drink of water there, the rich man found. It's the place of the second death. It burneth with fire and brimstone. A place called hell. What is this place like?

[8:08] Catch a glimpse of it, if you could, through the descriptions the Bible gives of it. Matthew 13, 49, our Lord tells us again, so shall it be at the end of the world that when angels shall come forth and sever, cut off, in other words, the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire.

[8:29] There shall be wailing and gnashing of tea. Doesn't sound like much fun, does it? Wailing and gnashing of tea, the furnace of fire. Matthew 8, 12, it talks again of the weeping and gnashing of tea.

[8:41] One of the horrors of hell, someone has said, is truly the undying memory of a misspent life. Luke 16, the Lord Jesus told a story of the rich man and of the beggar at his gate.

[8:55] And the beggar trusted in God, but the rich man trusted in his riches, in his self, in his own vanity of life. And it came that the angel carried the beggar to glory, but the rich man ended up in torment, in these flames.

[9:13] And Abraham said to him, Son, remember. Remember what you had. Remember. And so there's such a thing as memory in hell. People remember in hell.

[9:24] They'll have remorse and regret. They'll have memories of when they could have repented and did not. Son, remember. I pray that's not true for you, that you'll hear gospel messages, you'll hear the story of the Bible, of the Saviour, of salvation, the warnings, the judgment and hell and righteousness, and still neglect salvation.

[9:46] How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Don't neglect it. There is no party in hell. It's a place of shame, of bitter regret, of conscious torment, of vile companionships.

[9:59] As we read there, of the fearful, the unbelieving. Everyone is godless and hateful of Christ and truth and righteousness will be there. They'll have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.

[10:13] That is the society of hell. Imagine that. The worst kind of neighbours. I know some people have been complaining to me lately about noisy dogs and troublesome neighbours with noisy dogs.

[10:24] Well, that won't be anything compared to who your neighbour will be in hell. Who could it be? Dreads are things. The vile companionships of those, the godless will be there. That will be the society of hell.

[10:36] And hell is a place. And someone wrote this about hell. Some ministers teach that hell is a state of mind. Some teach that it is the grave, but hell is neither. Hell, it says in the word, it has sides, it has gates, it has keys, which the Lord Jesus now holds.

[10:52] It's a furnace of fire, a lake of fire and brimstone, a place of weeping and wailing, a place of begging for mercy. And for water. A place of much praying, but it is too late to pray in hell.

[11:04] Pray now. Pray now if your soul is not right with God. Pray now. Pray now, don't leave it too late to cry out, to call out, to plead for mercy, to receive His salvation gift, to receive Christ as Saviour.

[11:20] Young and old, it doesn't matter how young you are here tonight, or how old you are, you might think, I'm past repenting, I'm past getting saved. However, whatever your age, the admission, the eligibility criteria is wide open.

[11:36] Whosoever will, whosoever will, come. Come, He says to Him. Hell is a place where there are souls, souls, and these souls have some kind of body.

[11:50] We know that there is a sense of a new body, and it's understood that the souls of unbelievers likewise will have a body because it talks of how they see, how they hear, how they talk, how they remember their loved ones, how they feel, how they get thirsty, how they beg someone to give them one drop of water.

[12:12] They have ears, eyes, hands, and feet. So, there's a sense where there's a reality there. It's tangible, it's real. And hell is forever. It's described as everlasting and eternal.

[12:24] A horrifying, terrifying prospect. How long is forever? How long is everlasting? How long is eternal? We can't fathom it, can we? We can't really translate that into terms that we can understand.

[12:39] Everything's so finite and temporary, there's always an end to it, but there's no end to hell. It's a horrifying, terrifying prospect. And when the thought of hell repulses you, when it, when it, grips you, the thought of this place, the appalling nature of this place, think further.

[12:57] How much more appalling is the nature of your sin, of my sin? That should appall us. That should cause us to dread. That should cause us to tremble. That man would trample underfoot God's mercy towards sinners.

[13:12] How much more awesome and awful that is. That Christ would be rejected. That son would say no to the saviour. If you don't say yes to him, in effect, you're closing the door in his face.

[13:25] And that's what many do, as we know the majority do. And how appalling, the appalling nature of sin. That man would reject God's glorious son.

[13:36] That man would reject his love, so freely extended and provided this saviour. Consider your sin, the awesomeness, the wretchedness of it, the enormity of it.

[13:47] And it's true that, as the Bible says, the Lord Jesus, he's a saviour. He's a saviour from hell. He's a saviour from hell. But much more, he's a saviour from your sin.

[13:58] He will save you from your sin. It says in the word that he is the saviour. He will save the world. He will save us from our sins, the Bible says.

[14:08] And Spurgeon wrote this, he says, he's writing, he's pleading to sinners, he says this, As the Lord liveth, sinner, thou standest on a single plank over the mouth of hell, and that plank is rotten.

[14:25] Thou pangest over the pit by a solitary rope, and the strands of that rope are breaking. It's like Sir Jonathan Edwards as he preached of sinners in the hands of an angry God.

[14:37] You know, God is angry at our sin. He's rightfully angry. He's got a reason to be angry. He's got a right to be angry. And we've got every right to repent. That's all that we can plead.

[14:49] That's the only rights we really have is hell or repentance. And friends, tonight, unless you repent and trust in hell will be the place you'll end up forever.

[15:00] And so, people tonight, this is an urgency of a message. Consider the holiness of God. His perfection He can't let you into heaven. It says that we all come short of the glory of God.

[15:13] As you see it pictured in illustrations sometimes of like a chasm that people try to bridge by various efforts of their own, by various planks that they would try to bridge this chasm between them and God of good works, of religion, of morality, of trying, of effort, of legalism, of strength, of their own philosophies or thinking of man.

[15:37] But none of those planks will bridge that chasm. Only the cross of Christ can take you from death unto life, only trusting in Him. And the glory of Christ should make us want to repent.

[15:52] The Bible talks about the goodness and the severity of God. There's a balance there. There's a twofold aspect there.

[16:04] The goodness of God leads us to repentance. The severity of God means that His judgment awaits if we don't receive His goodness. And there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun.

[16:15] Those who sin are responsible for their own judgment. And how close is hell? How close is it? Maybe it's just a hairbread for you. Maybe for you that are lost here tonight.

[16:29] You that are hearing this. Maybe for you hell is this close. It tells us in 1 Samuel 23 there is but a step between me and death.

[16:43] David said that. No doctor can guarantee you even one more minute of life. There's no guarantee of time of place of health to come.

[16:54] There's no guarantee you'll see another Sunday or hear another sermon. Maybe this could be your last opportunity to trust in. I urge you get serious with God. There's no time for playing games.

[17:06] This is life and death. It's heaven and hell. And this is serious. You know some play church. They play church. They play games.

[17:17] You know we've had some young people children young people older people have come and gone. They just play games. They come and hear and sing and listen and go their merry way and still they haven't received the salvation gift.

[17:34] They've rejected it. They've neglected it. And what a sad sad loss for them. There's but a step between me and death. Maybe death is closer than any of us can reckon on.

[17:45] And are we ready? Is Christ our Saviour? Or are we doomed forever? We cannot fool God. You might fool men. You might fool preachers and Christians that you're a Christian here tonight.

[17:57] But if you're lost get right with God. Don't play. Don't pretend. Get right. Get your soul right with God tonight. God is not mocked. Be not deceived. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap.

[18:10] There's a sowing time. There's a harvest time. There's a reaping time. There's a time to come. God does not wish that any should perish. It says in Ezekiel 33 11 God does not take delight in the death of the wicked.

[18:26] He says As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye turn ye from your evil ways.

[18:37] Why will you die O house of Israel? The prophet pled with the people turn ye turn ye from your wicked ways. You know it's my sad duty often to preside at funerals to preside at a funeral to preside at a place of death of farewell of bidding goodbye and there's times when I don't know where that person's gone.

[19:05] I don't know that they've truly gone to heaven. I don't know that they've gone to that place of everlasting glory and the presence of God maybe they've gone to that other place forever that place forever without God without life without hope without a second chance.

[19:23] You know there's some religions that say there's a second chance you know God will give you another go God will give you another chance at becoming a Christian go to purgatory or a limbo or some in between state and then you come back as maybe another creature or another human and get another go at it you know as if God should give us another chance but the Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment there's only one chance you only get one crack at it you only get one chance at life only one opportunity to receive his gift and your sins separate between you and God as an eternal death and you deserve it I deserve it without his pleading without the blood shared without his payment on your part and the wicked shall be turned into hell Psalm 917 the word of God warns us friends tonight be urged be challenged be stirred and if you're a believer here tonight it's all the more near for that you get a sense of hell for your loved ones for your friends for your family they know not Christ they're going there they're going there and the word of God warns us the Lord Jesus says except you repent you shall likewise perish unless you repent what does that mean it's really so simple and so basic and yet people miss it because of that it really means letting go of everything of yourself and sin of your own way of living and saying

[21:03] Lord I'm going to hand it over into your hands I want you to be my master my saviour forever I want to receive that gift that payment that forgiveness offered because of your love because of your blood shared at Calvary's sacrifice friends tonight I urge you friends one and all trust him you might think I'm afraid to become a Christian what is my family going to think what's my mum my dad my brothers my sisters my schoolmates my workmates what are they going to say when I say I'm a Christian the Lord Jesus says fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell fear him fear God tonight you know really I'm not meaning to scare people into becoming a Christian because really the scariest thing is our sin it's our sin unforgiven it's our sin not paid for it's our sin that we're guilty before the judge of all the earth it's our sin that condemns us and yet by faith he freely extends his nail scarred hand beckoning to you come unto me whosoever will whoever you are wherever you are come he says come to him fear him tonight he's got the power to save you at the present he's got the power to save you he's able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him one mediator between God and man the man

[22:42] Christ Jesus he is able to save tonight he's able to keep tonight but you've got to come you've got to take that step of trusting him and he is able he's got the power to destroy destroy and one day he will in hell where is hell someone said hell is at the end of a Christless life that is where hell is is your life Christless tonight that is where the end of it will be it will be hell but there's opportunity even now in simple faith in heartfelt trust in letting go of your own direction which is hellward and hellbound and sinful hand it over hand it over to him tonight as that song said take my life and let it be let it be yours Lord let it be yours Lord let him have you let him have your heart tonight let it be yours let it be yours let it be yours let it be yours let it be yours let it be yours let it be yours let it be yours let it be yours