hell or the future of impenitent
sinners. One of the most neglected, maligned,
footballed doctrines in all of Scripture is the doctrine of
everlasting punishment. Cries are raised up against such
a horrible doctrine, and often those cries focus on statements
such as these. How inconsistent is such a concept
from the teaching of the meek and lowly, compassionate Jesus. And so to set before you that
the Jesus of Scripture is not a Jesus whose meekness and compassion
automatically excludes any concept of hell, we're looking at his
teaching on the subject for the most explicit terrifying teaching
in all of Scripture on the subject of hell is found in the lips
of Jesus Christ himself. So that if we believe the Gospels
to be an accurate record of his words and deeds, we are forced
to one of two alternatives. Either we embrace the Christ
of Scripture and his hell, or we reject the hell of scripture
and along with it reject the Christ of scripture and go out
and make our own Christ. The problem is if you go out
and make your own Christ, he's not the one to whom has been
given all power in heaven and in earth to save men. And so
if you're left without a hell from his lips, you're left without
saving grace from his hand. We have sought to collate the
material in the teaching of our Lord under five general headings.
I will only give them to you by way of review and, for the
sake of those of you who have not been with us, to at least
give you the thread of thought that we have been seeking to
weave in these days and then move to our study for the morning.
We have seen, first of all, that our Lord Jesus Christ teaches
that hell is a condition and a place of unspeakable misery,
torment and woe. It is Christ who uses the figures
of outer darkness and everlasting fire, both of which, Christ said,
will produce wailing and gnashing of teeth. Secondly, our Lord
teaches that hell is a place and a condition where the souls
and bodies of men shall suffer punishment for sin. For it is
Christ who said, fear not those which destroy the body, but fear
him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Thirdly, we
have seen that our Lord teaches that hell is a place and a condition
of divine retribution. That is, a place where God will
actively punish men for their sins. It is not a place of instruction,
not a place of reformation, not a place of giving grace. Hell is a place and a condition
of divine retribution. And then in the fourth place,
our Lord teaches that hell is a place and a condition where
there will be degrees of punishment for sin. He says that it will
be more tolerable for certain people in the day of judgment
than for others. And the degree of punishment
will be based upon three things. The extent to which men abandon
themselves to sin. Secondly, the extent to which
they have affected others by their sin. And thirdly, the extent
to which they have abused light and privilege. And then the last
aspect of the teaching of hell, upon which we have focused for
several weeks, is this. Our Lord teaches implicitly,
explicitly, that hell is a place and a condition of conscious,
unending punishment. We see this in the very words
that our Lord uses to describe the duration of punishment. We
see it in the figures that He uses. Their worm dieth not, and
the fire is never quenched. It is an eternal consumption.
And then in the clear statements of Scripture, the smoke of their
torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest
day nor night. And as horrible as the doctrine
may be to us, It is clearly taught in scripture, hell is a place
and condition of eternal conscious suffering, and we may say reverently,
this is the hell of hells, its eternity. Now having established
from scriptures that this is so, I indicated that there have
been in the history of the church two great avenues of thinking
which have sought to deny that the punishment of hell is eternal.
Now we're not thinking of the denials that come from rationalists.
Men who say the idea is preposterous will throw it out simply on the
basis that whatever is incompatible with human judgment ought to
be chucked out. We're not dealing with that kind of denial, but
with the denials that have come under the canopy of the Christian
church. And all the denials can be clasped under two heads. Universalism
on the one hand and annihilationism on the other. Universalism we
looked at last week. It's the teaching which says
that ultimately hell will be emptied of all of its inhabitants
and all who were in hell will be in heaven. Universalism asserts
that sooner or later every rational being, the devil and fallen angels
included, will adorn the courts of glory as redeemed creatures. We looked at the supposed basis
of universalism. its concept of the efficacy of
the death of Christ, of the extent of the scope of redemption, and
thirdly, the function of hell. And we went to scriptures and
sought to show that universalism indeed has no fabric of scriptural
basis whatsoever, and that which has led men to espouse universalism
has not been the teaching of the word of God, but the rationalism
of their own minds, and then they've gone to scripture to
justify that rationalism. And I remind you of the quote
of the English rationalist Davidson, who said, not believing the doctrine
of hell, these are his words, if a specific sense be attached
to words, never-ending misery is enunciated in the Bible. On
the presumption that any one doctrine is taught, it is the
eternity of hell torments. Bad exegesis may attempt to banish
it from the New Testament, but it's still there, and its spositors
who wish to get rid of it, as Canon Farrar does, injure the
cause they have in view by misrepresentation. It must be allowed that the New
Testament not only makes Christ teach everlasting punishment,
but Paul and John. Then he goes on to say, but I
don't believe it, because anything that's incompatible with the
human mind we've got to throw out. But he says, if you claim
to believe the Bible, You must believe this doctrine. Now, I
want to deal this morning, this has been our review, with the
second great path of denial within the framework of the Christian
Church, that of annihilationism. Now, in brief, what is the teaching
of annihilationism? It is this, that sooner or later,
all who are impenitent will be driven back into non-being. their very existence will be
annihilated, body and soul, so that it will be just as though
they had never been brought into existence. Now there are many
brands of annihilationism, as there are many brands and stripes
of universalism, but annihilationism has this in common, all of its
brands, Not that the wicked will ultimately populate heaven, but
they won't populate any place. You see the contrast? They will
be driven back into non-being. As we saw last week, the Universalist
comes to a text like Matthew 26, 24, where Jesus says of Judas,
it were better for that man if he had never been born, and they
have to change it and say, it's good for that man that he was
born, because ultimately he'll be in the presence of God in
glory. The annihilationist must change the text to read, it will
be the same for him as though he had never been born. He will
go back into non-being. But Jesus said it were better
to have non-being than to have being and to die in penitence
for the judgment that will fall upon such a man is conscious,
eternal punishment in the lake of fire. Now following the pattern
that we did last week, let's look first of all at the supposed
scriptural foundation for annihilationism. Then we're going to look at a
scriptural refutation of annihilationism, and then if time permits, I want
you to consider with me the practical effects of denying the eternity
of the punishment of hell. What are the supposed scriptural
bases of Annihilationism. May I suggest that annihilationists
come with a fourfold argument to justify their position. First
of all, the nature of man, the meaning of certain key words,
the purpose of the punishment of hell, and the scope of Christ's
redemptive work. Annihilationists, almost without
exception, hold to a view of the nature of man that differs
from the historic Christian view. They hold what is called conditional
immortality, which basically means that man as a creature
does not possess a never-dying, indestructible soul or spirit. Man is simply a body, breath,
entity, and when man dies physically, there is nothing that goes beyond
the death of the body and lives as an entity, that which we commonly
call in scriptural terms the soul or the spirit. No, the annihilationist
says, Only God has immortality, and they quote from Timothy,
who alone has immortality, that is, endless existence, and God
gives that to men as the gift of grace through the redemption
of Christ. The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So the Annihilationist says,
no, man does not have eternal life, that is, he does not have
unending existence, except God give it to him as the gift of
grace through Jesus Christ. As one who believes that position
has stated, and I quote, we believe that immortality, or the quality
of being that makes death impossible, is something bestowed upon the
believer at the resurrection when Christ returns. The annihilationists
go on to say, and this is quite a sweeping assertion, There is
nothing in the word soul itself that even remotely implies a
conscious entity that is able to survive the death of the body. There's nothing in the Bible
use of the word that indicates that the Bible writers held any
such belief. We do not believe that the whole
man or any part of man is inherently immortal. All right? You follow
now? The position. I know this means
you have to think, but stick with me. So, those who teach
annihilation say, if man does not have a soul that lives forever,
God would have to create such in order to put him in hell forever,
and since God isn't going to do that, the result of his remaining
in a state of unbelief is, he just ceases to exist. He goes
out of existence. Alright, the second basis of
their teaching, we'll come to the refutation point by point
after, is the meaning of key words. The annihilationist picks
up his Bible and he reads words like this. the broad road which
leads to destruction. God is not willing that any should
perish, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. They
should be cast into the lake of fire which is the second death. And so the annihilationist takes
the words perish, destruction, and death, and he says, see,
it's obvious what the Bible teaches. If people don't believe, the
wages of sin is death. If you stay on the broad road,
you'll perish. And what does it mean to perish?
It means to go out of existence. What does it mean to die? It
means to cease to exist. What does it mean to be destroyed?
It means to bring something back into a state of nothingness.
And so the annihilationist teaches his doctrine on the basis of
the meaning that he puts on these key words. Now, the third basis
of the annihilationist teaching is this. The purpose of the punishment
of hell. What is the purpose of hell's
punishment? And remember, the annihilationist
believes there will be some punishment for a time. How long? They're
not prepared to say. Oh, there will be punishment
for a time, but notice, this is the purpose. Follow closely
and see if you can catch it. Here's the purpose of the punishment.
Because eternal torment would perpetuate and immortalize sin
as suffering and woe, and contradict, we believe, divine revelation,
which envisions the time when these things shall be no more.
We reject the doctrine of endless torment because it seems to provide
a plague spot in the universe of God throughout eternity and
would seem to indicate that it was impossible for God to abolish
it. See what he's saying? They said
if hell were to exist for eternity, it would look like God was impotent
to blot out evil. Therefore, we envision hell as
not primarily an eternal monument to the justice of God, but God
by His power will absolutely blot out all the wicked. Therefore,
hell's basic purpose is not a revelation of God's justice, but it is power. And so the annihilationist has
a view of hell that looks upon it primarily as a display of
his power and of his love. In our thinking, quoting an annihilationist,
it would detract from the attribute of love, and postulates the concept
of wrath, which is never appeased. See what he says? If you have
eternal hell, then the witness of hell is eternal wrath. We
don't like that. Therefore, our view of God's
love is such that hell must be obliterated and all who are in
it. And then the fourth thing And this is closely akin to it.
The annihilationist has a concept of the scope of Christ's redemption
that says, ultimately, hell must be done away with. And I quote
an annihilationist again, the scriptures teach that the atoning
work of Christ is to put away sin, first from the individual
and ultimately from the universe. The full fruition of Christ's
sacrificial atoning work will not only be seen in a redeemed
people, but in a restored heaven and earth. And so they say, since
Christ died to have a restored universe, the wicked must be
annihilated or they would be a blot on that restoration. All right, so much then for the
fourfold basis of the annihilationist teaching. Now, will these objections
stand up to the weight of Scripture? Let's take them in that order
briefly. The nature of man. Does the Bible teach that man
has a soul, a separate entity, called a soul or a spirit, which
exists beyond physical death? The whole doctrine of the Bible,
in terms of future punishment, presupposes the survival of the
soul after the death of the body. That's why Christ could say,
in very natural terms, without a big discourse on the indestructibility
of the soul, he assumes it, when he said to his disciples, don't
fear those that kill the body, and after that have no more that
they can do, Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in
hell. You see, our Lord assumes that
his disciples also assume. that the soul was the indestructible
part that existed beyond the death of the body. Don't be afraid
of those that can butcher your body, because they can't butcher
the soul. That's the immaterial, the indestructible
part of you. But there is one who can put
both soul and body in hell. He can raise up the body in resurrection,
join it to the soul that exists, and send both soul and body into
hell. Fear him. Fear him. Then of course
the whole teaching of Luke chapter 16. Our Lord says there was a
certain rich man who died and was buried. What was that? His body. But it says, and in
hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment. If the soul does
not survive the death of the body, what was in hell in torment? Of course the soul survives the
death of the body. Our Lord assumes it in his teaching
of Luke 16. The Apostle Paul assumes that
in his teaching, when he says in 1 Corinthians 5, 5, dealing
with the discipline of a professing Christian who was living in an
incestuous relationship, he says, deliver such an one over to Satan
for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if this leads
to the dissolution of his body, What leads to true repentance
so that the spirit is saved? He said the action has been productive
of its intended end. But he assumes that the spirit,
you see, survives the body. Hebrews 12.23 speaks of Christians
who now live. and their fellowship with other
saints who no longer live here on earth. And listen to the way
the writer to the Hebrews describes it. He says ye are come unto
Mount Zion, unto the heavenly Jerusalem, unto the spirits of
just men made perfect. We as God's people are in vital
communion and union with all the redeemed of all ages. The
great body of which are not alive today, but they're there at the
right hand of the Father. And we are come unto the spirits
of just men made perfect. How can the annihilationists
dare to say, nowhere does the Bible teach that the spirit,
the soul, survives the death of the body? These statements,
taken at random, and I've not been exhaustive, set that concept
before us constantly. Our Lord, as His body is about
to die, says, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Then it says they took his body
and they put it into a tomb. Stephen, the same words, Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit. And then he falls into the posture
that the scripture calls the physical appearance of death.
He fell asleep. Thus speaking of the soul, he
says, into my hands I commend my spirit. To be absent from
the body is to be present with the Lord. No, the annihilationist
has come up with an unbiblical view of the nature of man to
try to cover up his unbiblical view of the doctrine of hell.
You see, when you pull one of the threads of God's truth, you're
not pulling thread out of cloth that is woven upon a loom, that
has its warp and its woof. You're pulling the thread of
a sweater that was knit by grandma. And pull long enough and you'll
disintegrate the whole thing and have nothing but two hands
full of yarn. And so when the annihilationist has thrown out
the biblical doctrine of the eternity of hell's punishment,
he's got to do something with the clear teaching of scripture
that man has an indestructible soul. And so then he concocts
his doctrine, which undermines the biblical teaching of the
indestructibility of the soul. All right then, what about the
meaning of the words? Perish, lost, death and life. I won't
weary you with a lot of details, but if you have a Young's Concordance,
if you don't have one, you ought to have one in the household.
If you don't have one, see Ralph and he'll get one for you by
the book table, or you may even have some in stock. You get a
Young's Concordance, and this would be a good Sunday afternoon
exercise for you and the family if they can read it all, and
you take the words perish, destroy, death and life, and Jung has
them grouped together according to their Hebrew and Greek usage. There may be three or four words
used for parish in the New Testament. Jung will take all the words,
say, Apollo mean, put them all together. Then he'll take Apolleia
and put those together. He'll put all the words together.
Now you look and see what those words mean. And they do not mean
what the Annihilationist has made them mean, again, to cover
up his false doctrine. You take the word destroy. The
Annihilationist says, see, that broad road leads to destruction.
What do you do when you destroy something? You return it to non-being. Who says so? Scripture doesn't
use the word that way. This is how the word is used.
In Matthew 9, 17, Jesus talks about the man who puts new wine
into old wine bottles, wineskins. He says, if you do that, the
wineskins will burst and will perish. They perish. What happens when a man puts
active new wine into old dry wineskins that have already been
stretched and dried out by the wine that was put in them previously?
When they burst, do they suddenly disintegrate? No, no. They are
ruined as far as the use that they were intended to have. They
are destroyed. That's the word that's used.
Jesus uses it concerning his own death, or the writers do,
in Matthew 26.8. Some sought to destroy Christ. What do they mean by destroy?
Take away his physical life, not completely obliterate him
so you couldn't find an atom of his person. This is the word
used in a different form of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Are they annihilated sheep? No,
they're lost. They have left their point of
reference and safety in the fold of God. This is the word that
Jesus uses in Matthew 10 28. Fear him who is able to destroy
body and soul in hell. John 3 16 should not perish but
have everlasting life. The meaning is to ruin, to spoil,
to waste, to be undone. It never means to annihilate
and to obliterate out of existence. Nowhere can it be shown that
the biblical idea of destruction is non-being. That's an imposition
on the words of Scripture, something that is not found there. And
for any of you who may have questions, I said I don't want to wear you
with a lot of details. You can look up the meaning of
the word in your own Bibles, and you will find that this is
true. Well, what about the word life
and death? The Bible nowhere says that eternal life is mere,
endless existence. It contrasts eternal life with
spiritual death or punishment. Whosoever believes on the Lord
Jesus should not perish, but have everlasting life. Does that
mean mere everlasting existence? No. The wicked and the saved
both have existence. Eternal life is a quality of
life. Oh yes, it has duration. But
the primary concept is a quality of life. It is life in which
a man knows God, enjoys God, and the presence of God. And
what is it to perish? It's to have existence Without
God, without the knowledge of God, without the enjoyment of
God, without the presence of God. That's why in a passage
like Matthew 25, 46, you have these two things contrasted.
The righteous shall go away into everlasting life. the enjoyment
of God, but the wicked into everlasting punishment, just the opposite
of the enjoyment of God. And so I submit that the annihilationist,
in trying to build his doctrine on the meaning of the words perish,
destroy, lost, death, has no biblical warrant for so doing. And then in the third place,
when he tries to concoct a concept of the purpose of hell that it's
primarily display of God's power, he runs contrary to the whole
teaching of scripture. The day of judgment and what
follows for the wicked is not a revelation of power primarily,
but Romans 2, 5 says the day of judgment is a revelation of
the righteous anger of God. Of the righteous judgment of
God. Of his holy wrath. And then,
fourthly, when they say, well, the scope of Christ's work is
such that it envisions a universe from which every last vestige
of sin is blotted out. I think this is an insult to
Christ. Who knew better the scope of His work than He? And whenever
He speaks of the ultimate triumph of His redemptive purposes, He
always speaks of it in terms of a final and fixed separation. When the Son of Man comes back,
not only shall the righteous shine in the glory of their kingdom,
Matthew 13, but he says, the wicked shall be severed and be
cast into everlasting fire. The Lord Jesus knew the scope
of his purpose, and those who are wiser than he border on blasphemy
when they impose their thoughts upon the thoughts of Christ.
Now may I say in summary, with the annihilationist position,
I'm convinced that this is the more subtle of the two errors.
The universalist has so little grounds to stand upon, and the
fact that he says all men will ultimately be saved, I think
there are ten-year-olds here this morning who could refute
a universalist. But you know what's so subtle
about the annihilationist? He tries to preserve all the
biblical doctrines of the wrath of God, hell, punishment, retribution,
and you will find annihilationists using those terms. So they try
to preserve all of the biblical doctrine of hell, and at the
same time preserve all of the sentimental human rationalistist
thinking that would obliterate hell. You see, the universalist,
his error is worn more on the end of his nose. The annihilationist
wears his in his hip pocket. And don't be deceived. I've met
annihilationists who talk about being destroyed in hell, who
talk about hellfire, but they don't mean what the Bible means.
They're thinking of that which will lead into non-being. And
I shall never forget sitting at the table last Lord's Day
morning, having breakfast, and my son asked me, Daddy, what
are you preaching about today? And I said, Well, I'm going to preach
about more on hell, and I'm going to show The two great errors. Then I mentioned universalism
and gave a brief definition. Then I mentioned annihilationism
and gave a brief definition. And you know what his reflex
action was? He said, well, daddy, that's not punishment. To go back into
nothing is better off than what some people have right here!
And that's the core of the issue, isn't it? When God threatens
a terrible judgment upon the impenitent, He's not playing
with words. When physical pain is in its intensest form, men
long for release from the life which is the channel of that
pain, right? When people are suffering physically,
they even cry out for death. And death is a release from the
awful pain physically. If men were in hell today, body
and soul under the judgments of God, they'd be crying out
to go back into non-being. And that would be an act of grace
for God to hear their cry and obliterate their very being and
send them back into non-being. But there's no revelation in
scripture that such grace is exercised in hell. Now in closing,
I want you to consider with me briefly, what are the results
of denying the eternity of hell's torments? And I can only give
you the headings in general. This problem of the clock is
always with us. First of all, there are several very serious
theological results. As I indicated earlier, all of
God's truth is tied together. And if you unravel one part and
pull long enough, you'll disintegrate the whole fabric. May I suggest
three things that a denial of this doctrine does theologically?
It lowers our estimation of the wrath of God. Moses in the 90th
Psalm said, Who knoweth the power of thine anger and thy wrath
according to the fear that is due unto thee? He says, O God,
who can contemplate the magnitude of your wrath? Who fears you
as he ought to in the light of your burning anger? Listen, my
friend, every attribute of God is an attribute stretched out
to infinity. It is infinite love with which
God loves. It is infinite mercy that he
shows. And it's infinite wrath and judgment
that he pours upon the head of the wicked. And as his mercy
and grace are unfathomable, so is his wrath and his anger. No
one ever holds to the errors of universalism and annihilationism
and trembles at the wrath of God. No one. It's psychologically
impossible. Second thing it does theologically
is it lowers our appreciation of the salvation of God. No little
part of our salvation is deliverance from the wrath to come. Salvation
is deliverance by grace from sin and its consequences. And
so Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1.10, speaking of Christ who
delivereth us from the wrath to come. Well, if that wrath
to come is just non-being, or if it's nothing at all and we'd
ultimately be saved anyway, what appreciation shall I have for
that salvation? And I tell you, my friend, there
are times when my heart is in its coldest periods that nothing
brings the little fires of warmth back. Like serious contemplation
on this biblical doctrine, I just sit sometimes and I think, where
would I be but for the grace of God? And I try to picture
myself in hell, whatever it'll be like. And the torment of conscience
and the anguish of the wrath of God righteously poured out
upon me. And I find the little embers
of love and appreciation begin to be stirred, and the breath
of God comes upon them, and there's a little bit of the warmth of
genuine love to Christ kindled in my breast again. And when
you deny this biblical doctrine, you not only lower the estimation
of the wrath of God, but you lower our appreciation of the
salvation of God, and worst of all, it lowers our appreciation
of the death of Christ. If eternal damnation was the
just penalty hanging over the head of God's people, and Jesus
Christ was a true substitute who swallowed up every last drop
of the wrath that should be in their cup, then I can say in
a very real sense, He bore my hell in those hours of agony
upon the cross. And oh, how the heart will burn
with love to a Savior who bore the brunt of God's wrath. Generally
speaking, biblical views of grace and salvation centered in the
work of Christ do not long live in any other soil but the soil
of this doctrine of eternal punishment. And if you check the history
of the Church, when this doctrine has been relinquished, the tree
of grace and divine salvation before long begins to wither
and die. Those are the theological implications.
What are the personal results of denying this doctrine? First
of all, it removes a powerful spiritual motive as found in
the Word of God. Saints and sinners need more
than mere motivation, granted. There needs to be the impartation
of power and ability. But as God, through grace, gives
to saints and sinners power and ability, He uses the matter of
motivation. And so I suggest that when this
doctrine is denied or neglected, there is a removal of a powerful
spiritual motivation found in scripture, both to the lost and
to the saved. Why must I call upon you present
this morning to repent and believe the gospel? Is it because I have
some peculiar authority? Because I got a reverend in front
of my name? No. Absolutely not. No, no, that's
not the issue. I call upon you to repent and
to believe the gospel because Jesus Christ said, except you
repent, you'll perish. And perish means to go to that
awful place of eternal punishment. And so as John the Baptist says,
so I say, who warned you to flee the wrath to come? One of the
great motives in true biblical evangelism is to urge men to
flee the wrath to come. And then it's a great restraint
in the hearts of lost men. Another man who was no friend
to Christianity said, he's an infidel, Lord Bolingbroke, the
doctrine of rewards and punishment in a future state has so great
a tendency to enforce civil laws and to restrain the vices of
men that while I cannot decide for it on principles of theology,
I would not decide against it on principles of good policy.
You hear what an infidel is saying? He could see that wherever this
doctrine is relinquished, sin becomes rampant. Shedd, the great
theologian of the past generation said, as he saw the affluence
of western civilization and at that time of Germany, he said
the doctrine that Germany, Britain and the United States needs more
than anything else is this doctrine of eternal punishment and if
it is relinquished, here's a man writing in the late 1800s, he
said these societies will become like Solomon Gomorrah and wallow
in sensual vice and debauchery. He was a prophet. He was a prophet. The less hell there is in the
hearts of men and in the minds of men, the more hell there will
be in their lives and in their society. God has placed this
as a restraint. And when that doctrine is relinquished,
restraint is gone. Then, it's a great motivation
to the saved. I'm going to have a whole message
on this, so I won't go into it this morning in detail. But I'm
amazed at how the Lord Jesus used the doctrine of eternal
punishment as a motivating factor to Christians! In the face of
persecution, he said, don't be afraid of those that will kill
your body. You're going to have it rough. But fear those that
can destroy the soul. You deny me? Under the press
and pinch of persecution? I'll deny you. They came to the
martyr the morning of his execution, trying to entice him away from
his commitment to Christ and to induce him to recant. They
said to him, ah, sir, isn't life sweet and death bitter? The martyr said, yes. Yes, it's true. Life is sweet.
Death is bitter. But eternal death is more bitter.
And eternal life is more sweet. Take me to the stake. What held
him? This doctrine, among other things.
Great motivation to the believer. Giving him stability in the face
of opposition. Gratitude. We'll go into those
in detail. I'll just mention it now. And
then the second thing it does in terms of personal results.
It causes men to hold this doctrine of annihilationism and universalism
to imbibe bad mental habits with handling the Word of God. When
you can come across statements like our Lord which say everlasting
fire, where there worm dieth not and the fire is never quenched.
When you can read statements such as these, weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth, in hell he lifted up his eyes being in
torments, be not afraid of them that kill the body. When you
can read all those statements of Christ and play mental tricks
So if those words mean anything less than this vigorous, awesome
teaching of conscious, eternal punishment, you've done something
to your mind that you can play tricks with any other clearly
taught doctrine in Holy Scripture. If you can get around those passages,
you can get around any passage. You can have every witness to
the deity of Christ and to his substitutionary atonement, and
you'll just work all around them. That's what makes it so difficult
when you're trying to witness to that Jehovah's Witness, friend.
They have had a mental cast. There's been a bent given to
the mind that words, by the time they come out of the page and
register there, have completely changed their meaning. Oh, dear
friend, don't you play with the words of Scripture. God speaks
of those who twist them to their own destruction. And then last
of all, there are not only theological and practical or personal results,
but there are ministerial results if this doctrine is denied or
ignored by silence. And what is that result? James
says, Be not many of you teachers, knowing that we shall receive
the heavier judgment. It's an awful thing to stand
before God as an individual and give account of the deeds done
in the body. But oh, what a thing to stand before him as one who
is responsible for the souls of others. Why do I preach this
doctrine? Is it because I've got some psychological
quirks that I've got to somehow satisfy? No. Oh, I'm sure I've
got some quirks, but that has nothing to do with this. Why
do I preach this doctrine? Why have I held it before you
in its sobering awesomeness week after week? I'll tell you why.
Because when I stand before God, the issue with which God will
deal with me is this. Did you preach my whole counsel?
Did you declare everything I put within my book? And it will not
do for me to say, well, God, I knew the doctrine of everlasting
hell was there, but God, you know how that'll just turn off
my generation. How can I get a hearing? If I
try to preach to 20th century men and women and fellows and
girls, they'll think I'm some kind of relic out of some puritanic
glade. They'll never listen to me. God
say, whoever told you it was your business to shape and mold
my truth to get a hearing? I told you, preach the word.
Yes, but Lord, I knew the doctrine was there, but Lord, it just
seemed to me to be inconsistent with your laws. And God would
say, who are you to tell me what's consistent in my character? Since
when did I make you a judge over me to tell me what is just and
right for me? I tell you the thought of standing
before God as one who was unfaithful to deliver this doctrine is enough
to make me preach it if I have to, to empty pews. Because the Apostle Paul said
in Acts 20.26, I am free from the blood of all men for I have
not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. And I say to you young men aspiring
to the ministry, don't you be cajoled. into down-peddling a
doctrine that stood central and basic in the teaching of Jesus
Christ. Central and basic in the teaching
of the Apostle Paul. Don't you be bullied into saying,
well, that doctrine, you know, just doesn't settle well with
modern man. I've read theologians I claim
to believe the Bible had made me shudder when they said, well,
don't ever teach that God is positively inflicting wrath upon
men in hell. Just teach that men are left
to the results of their own sin. That's not the teaching of Scripture.
The teaching of Scripture is that God is active in the punishment
of the wicked and will be for all eternity. Though I cannot
understand or conceive of what that will mean, it's revealed
in the Word and I must declare it. And so I say in the third
place, the ministerial implication of this is powerful and searching. Be silent on this truth or deny
it, and you'll go to the judgment red with the blood of the souls
of men. May God help us to believe it,
and then to teach it tearfully, carefully, tenderly, and in the
power of the Holy Spirit. And I close this morning the
way I've closed week after week. My motive in declaring it is
not only that I might discharge my responsibility to God, but
having declared the awfulness of hell, I've done so that you
might not go there. I hope all you ever know of hell
is what you've heard from the Bible this side of eternity. I hope that's all you'll ever
know of hell. And if you repent and flee to Christ and cast yourself
upon Jesus Christ and say, Oh Christ, you who died and bled
and rose, that sinners might be forgiven. My only hope is
in you. By your grace, I'll give myself
to you. I'll be what you want me to be.
I'll trust only in who you are and what you've done. We have
His promise that coming unto Him, He'll never cast us out
in time or in eternity. May God grant that the awesome
teaching of this doctrine may lead us to flee the wrath to
come and find refuge in Christ crucified. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
your holy word that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto
our pathway and we ask that the Holy Spirit may be pleased to
seal to our hearts that portion that we've studied this morning
We pray for those who are held in the error that we've dealt
with this morning, that you will bring them out of that terrible
delusion. We think of the many who are
delaying repentance, who are living in carelessness because
they're not afraid to go back into non-being just so long as
they can bleed some more sweetness out of sensuous delight now while
they have being. Lord, what a rude awakening will
be theirs. in mercy, awaken them and arrest
them now. We pray that you will help us
as your people who profess to believe this doctrine, to evidence
by our tender and persistent and careful dealings with men,
by our earnest and fervent prayers to you on their behalf, that
we do indeed believe the doctrine. May it have its full motivating
power in our lives that knowing the terror of the Lord, we might
persuade men. Seal the word to our hearts and
bless us through the remainder of this day. We ask through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen. I'm. I'm