This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, June 19, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville,
New Jersey. Now before we seek the face of
God again in prayer, let us hear a very brief but awesome and
solemn and yet glorious word from the lips of our Savior,
who said in Matthew 25 and verse 46, and these shall go away into
eternal punishment. These shall go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Eternal punishment eternal life,
the realities that every person within the sound of my voice
will experience. All the horror of eternal punishment
will be your portion for all the glories of eternal life,
and there is no other alternative. Let us pray that God will help
us to hear as those who are convinced that one of these two realities
will indeed be our own personal destiny. Let us pray. Our Father, we confess with shame
that though you have stamped eternity upon our consciences,
And though there is not one in this building who can escape
the haunting awareness that the grave is not the end of it all,
how careless we are, how natively indifferent we are to the great
realities of heaven and of hell. We confess, O Lord, that it is
the fruit of our sin that we can be marked for eternity and
live so carelessly. We pray that your Holy Spirit
will so come upon us that we as an assembled people will taste
the powers of the world to come. Lord, we would not merely acknowledge
that there is a world to come, nor would we merely confess that
there is such a thing as the powers of the world to come,
we would taste them in this building tonight. Come by the Holy Spirit
and do the work which you alone can do for the sake of your dear
Son by whose righteousness we draw near to you and make our
plea. Amen. I announced to you this morning
that we would be commencing this evening a series of studies during
various Lord's Day evenings through the summer months on the biblical
doctrines or the Bible teaching on the subject of heaven and
of hell. And surely there is no doctrine
in all of the Word of God more weighty, more sobering, And we
may even use the word more horrifying than the biblical doctrine of
hell. On the other hand, there are
few doctrines, if any, in all the Word of God that are more
glorious, more exhilarating, and in many ways more amazing
than is the biblical doctrine of heaven. And as we stand on
the threshold of examining some of the major blocks of biblical
testimony with respect to the doctrines of heaven and of hell,
what I propose to do tonight is to set before you some introductory
concerns relative to the biblical doctrines or the biblical teaching
on heaven and hell. And I won't use those terms interchangeably
because in our day, alas, there is an aversion to the very word
doctrine, and the word doctrine simply means, linguistically,
in the original language, teaching. And in examining the biblical
doctrines of heaven and hell, we are simply coming into a concentrated
exposure to the teaching of the Bible on these weighty subjects. And as I lay these introductory
concerns before you, I will do so under the following categories.
Hopefully tonight, I want to set before you, first of all,
the importance of the doctrines of heaven and hell. I doubt I'll
get beyond that, but if I do, then I want to set before you
the primary focus of our studies in the doctrine of heaven and
hell, and then thirdly, the attitudes which must characterize our minds
and hearts in approaching the biblical doctrines of heaven
and hell. First of all, then, the importance
of the doctrines of heaven and of hell. Why should you sit here
for the next fifty minutes or so and concentrate your attention
upon the teaching of this book with respect to heaven and hell? Why should I urge you to come
back on subsequent Lord's Days if the Lord delays His return
and spares you and spares me? Why should you engage your mind
for a number of hours on the doctrines of Heaven and of Hell? Of what importance are these
doctrines? Well, as I seek to demonstrate
from the Scriptures the importance of the doctrines of Heaven and
Hell, I will be using terminology that I want to explain on the
very threshold. I will be using the terminology,
the orthodox doctrines of heaven and hell. And what do I mean
by that terminology? Well, I mean simply this. I mean
the doctrines of heaven and hell believed and confessed by the
true people of God in every age of their existence since God
deposited His complete revelation in their hands in the scriptures
of the Old and the New Testaments. When I use the terminology, the
Orthodox doctrines of heaven and hell, I am referring to the
doctrines of heaven and hell as embodied in the great creeds
of the Church, in the confessions of faith of the people of God,
in the hymnody and in the theological writings and, above all else,
in the ordinary day-by-day preaching of the true servants of God throughout
the ages. Whenever the Church has been
true to her identity as the pillar and ground of the truth, upholding
the truth of Holy Scripture to its own generation, the Church
has spoken with one voice on the essential lines of Biblical
revelation with regard to heaven and hell. And a distillation
of the Orthodox doctrines of heaven and hell are as follows. Heaven is a place to which the
righteous will be taken and in body and soul be made perfectly
happy forever in the immediate presence and enjoyment of God. When I refer in our study tonight
to the importance of the doctrines of heaven and hell, and I make
reference to the orthodox doctrine of heaven, The orthodox doctrine
has always been that heaven is a place to which the righteous
will be taken and in body and soul be made perfectly happy
forever in the immediate presence and enjoyment of God. Now the biblical materials that
have led to that orthodox doctrine of heaven must await subsequent
studies, but that's the essence of the doctrine. Now, with reference
to the Orthodox doctrine of hell, it is this, that hell is a place
to which the wicked will be sent and in body and soul shall be
made completely miserable forever as the just punishment for their
sins. Hell is a place, not an idea. not a notion nor merely a state. Hell is a place to which the
wicked will be sent in body and soul and shall be made completely
miserable forever as the just punishment for their sins. So as we approach this matter
of the importance of the doctrines of heaven and hell, and I make
reference to the orthodox doctrines of heaven and hell, I want you
to place upon that terminology precisely the same meaning that
I am placing upon it when I use it. Now with that introductory
perspective before us, in what way is this doctrine of heaven
important? In what way is this doctrine
of hell important? Well, I want to set the importance
of these doctrines before you under three headings. And the
key words are integrity, sympathy, and honesty. I think you can
all remember those. Integrity, sympathy, and honesty. The importance of the doctrines
of heaven and hell is first of all seen in the fact that integrity
in handling the Word of God demands the orthodox doctrines of heaven
and hell. Integrity in handling the Word
of God demands the orthodox doctrines of heaven and hell. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, and I would urge you to turn to that passage with
me, The Apostle Paul describes the way in which he, as a servant
of Christ, handled the Word of God. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, beginning with verse 1. Therefore,
seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we
faint not. But we have renounced the hidden
things of shame, Not walking in craftiness, he first of all
vindicates the pattern of his life. Not walking in craftiness,
now he vindicates the pattern of his official ministry. Nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully. He starts with a negative. We
did not handle the Word of God deceitfully. It is not enough
that men dabble in religious truth with the Bible in their
hands. For the Bible can be handled
deceitfully. And Paul said, concerning his
own ministry, we did not handle the Word of God deceitfully,
but positively, notice the language, by the manifestation, and the
word there means the open display of the truth. commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. So the Apostle's
handling of the Word of God was characterized negatively, non-deception,
and full display or manifestation of the truth. In other words,
he simply let the truth shine forth in its all-native glory,
beauty, and accuracy. And I contend that the importance
of the doctrines of heaven and hell are to be seen in that any
honest handling of the Word of God, any handling of Scripture
marked by integrity, will demand these doctrines as understood,
confessed, and preached by the historic Christian Church. Now, Peter, in 2 Peter chapter
3, describes what many have in the past, and alas, many in the
present hour, attempt to do with the biblical doctrines of heaven
and of hell. In 2 Peter chapter 3, the apostle
Peter describes the manner in which some handle the message
of God. 2 Peter chapter 3. Verse 16. Perhaps we should back
up in verse 15. Peter, writing, says, and account
that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation. Even is our
beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him,
wrote unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them
of these things wherein are some things hard to be understood,
which the ignorant and the unsteadfast rest, W-R-E-S-T, it's a word
we don't often use, as they do also the other scriptures unto
their own destruction. Now the verb they rest, the scriptures,
is a verb which comes from a root which means to put on a torture
rack. Now some of you kids have seen
pictures of the Middle Ages when people were tortured for one
reason or another and they put them on racks in which they tightened
winches and stretched out their hands and their arms until they
were taken out of their sockets or their legs. And if you were
hunting for a word to describe what was happening to someone
who was receiving such cruel treatment, you would say he was
being wrested, he was being stretched and tortured out of his own natural
shape. Now that's the word Peter uses.
He speaks of ignorant and unstable people who handle the Scriptures. They come with their Bibles.
This is what the Bible teaches. They come like Mr. Armstrong. Nobody understands the Bible
but me. They come like the Russellites
and the Jehovah's Witness. No one understands the Bible
but us. They come spouting Bible like
a machine gun spouts bullets. But what are they doing with
it? Stretching it out of its plain and obvious sense. They are arresting, they are
torturing the Scripture. And there have been in the past
and are many present in this present hour who deny the orthodox
doctrines of heaven and hell, but they deny those doctrines
at the price of integrity in handling the documents of Holy
Scripture. They cannot say with Paul, not
handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by the full open display
of the truth, they cannot say that. I saw one of them on one
occasion in my presence say, well, do you know what eternal
fire is and what it means to be destroyed by the fire of hell? Let me show you. And he very
cleverly and histrionically took out a match, lit a piece of paper
and said, now watch it. And as I watched, the piece of
paper went up in smoke and was consumed and was gone. He said,
it's just that simple. That's what it means to be burned
up with fire unquenched. What was he doing? He was taking
the plain, obvious sense of Scripture and twisting it, resting it,
putting it upon a torture rack. For you see, there was no smoke
of the agony of that paper going up forever and ever. But my Bible
says, the smoke of their torment, not of their annihilation, the
smoke of their torment shall go up forever and forever, and
they have no rest day nor night. And there isn't a Russellite,
there isn't a Seventh-day Adventist, there isn't a liberal, there
isn't a man alive who can be honest with that text and deny
the orthodox doctrine of hell. And when people call heaven pie
and the sky by and by, look upon it as some fanciful notion which
gives poor weak people a crutch and some stability. What do they
do when they read the words of our Lord Jesus? Let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God? Believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a lovely idealistic notion for you. Is
that what your Bible says? I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, and He did, I will
come again. and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there you may be also." Now there is only one
way heaven can be turned into a wispy, ethereal notion, and
that is to rest the Scriptures, to handle the Word of God deceitfully. And so the importance of this
doctrine cannot be underscored too forcefully in that, first
of all, integrity in handling the Scriptures demands, demands
the orthodox doctrine of heaven and of hell. Now, this has been
so evident to some who profess no faith in the Bible as the
Word of God, or in the salvation taught in the Bible. But when
they've read the Bible, the plain, obvious sense of the Bible has
so clearly taught the biblical doctrines of heaven and hell,
the orthodox doctrines, that they have openly said, I cannot
accept the testimony of the doctrines or the teaching of the Bible
because I cannot buy its doctrine of hell or its doctrine of heaven
with a bodily resurrection." And because they knew the only
way they could come to the faith of the Bible was to embrace the
Bible's teaching on heaven and hell, they've rejected the whole
thing. They've been far more honest than those who say they
do accept the testimony of the Bible while rejecting the biblical
doctrines of heaven and hell. Hodge, in his excellent volume
entitled Popular Lectures on Theological Themes, makes a most
perceptive comment on this very point. Listen carefully as I
quote him. The question is not what can
we with skillful exegetical management, that's just a big term for playing
loose with the words of the Bible, the question is not What can
we, with skillful exegetical management, get out of the Bible
on this question by breaking up the text and bringing the
stress of our strong wills to bear against the natural sense
of each separate clause? The question is not what may
the several passages possibly mean in the way we wish, But
what, upon the whole and along the entire line of Scripture,
did God the Holy Ghost intend us to believe? What impression
did He intend to make upon us as to these stupendous subjects
by the language He has chosen, by the general method in which
He has conducted the argument? You see what he's saying? It's
not a question of what can we do in forcing the words of the
Bible to bend to our own predisposition, but what is the obvious sense
and meaning of the words of the Bible in their cumulative testimony
from Genesis to Revelation. In one case, we come to the Bible
as though it were a nose of wax to be shaped according to the
whim of our own predisposed notion. In the other, we come as humble
disciples saying, Oh God, whatever you have said, I am prepared
to believe and to live in the light of it. And it's very interesting
that in the history of the Church, more than on a few occasions,
Individuals, whole denominations, whole seminaries and schools
of higher learning have ultimately rejected every distinctive doctrine
of the Christian faith when they began to put a gray question
mark over the orthodox doctrines of heaven and the hell. Often the first thread that was
pulled that ultimately dismantled the whole fabric of evangelical
Christianity in individuals, denominations, and institutions,
the first thread pulled was the thread of the orthodox biblical
doctrines of heaven and of hell. Often while they were pulling
at that thread with the right hand, They were with the left
hand pointing to the glories of Jesus, to the wonders of His
cross, to the benefits of His salvation, and all the while
pointing with this hand. They were pulling here until
ultimately they had nothing left but religious humans. My dear
people at Trinity Church, hear me. The moment A gray question
mark begins to form in your mind about the biblical doctrines
of heaven and hell. Treat that gray question mark
as you would treat a physical, visible manifestation of the
devil before you proposing to drag you into hell with him in
the next three minutes! Reject it! Turn from it with
every fiber of your being. Send it back to the pit from
whence it came. For ultimately that gray question
mark will become a big bold red question mark. And the hook on
the bottom of that question mark will then pull in its train doubt
and unbelief regarding every basic cardinal doctrine of the
Word of God. We're not trifling in peripheral
issues. How important are the biblical doctrines of heaven
and hell? Integrity in handling the word
of God demands the orthodox doctrines of heaven and hell. But secondly,
sympathy. From the word integrity I pass
on to sympathy. Sympathy with dominant elements
of biblical religion is impossible. without the orthodox doctrine
of heaven and hell. Sympathy with dominant elements
of biblical religion is impossible without the orthodox doctrine
of heaven and of hell. Revealed religion is the religion
of special revelation, that is, the religion of the Book of God,
the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments. Now that
religion, both in its objective realities and in its subjective
experience of those realities, has what we could call dominant
major emphases and subdominant or minor emphases, if I may liken
it to a symphony. A symphony, one of those majestic
works of musical art, will have a basic theme. That theme will
be introduced early in that musical composition. It will be picked
up and developed in the various movements. It has three movements,
and it is what you would call the dominant melodic line of
that symphony. Now there are sub-dominant or
secondary musical lines. Now, my thesis is this, that
the biblical doctrines of heaven and hell constitute the very
melodic line of the symphony of revealed religion. They are
not subdominant, secondary, or tertiary elements, but they stand
to the forefront So that if I simply cannot stand the major melodic
line of a given symphony, there's no way I can listen to that symphony
and find any enjoyment. Because everywhere I turn in
my listening, that line confronts me. Developed in different ways
with different tempo and with different loudness and softness
and all the rest. But every time I hear it, it'll
grind on me. And I'll say, I don't want to
listen to that thing again. Well, it's the same way with the religion
of the Bible. If you find yourself indisposed
to embrace the biblical doctrines of heaven and hell, you cannot
experience sympathy for revealed religion. You cannot have heart
affinity for the religion of the Bible if you do not embrace
the biblical doctrines of heaven and hell. Let me give you specific
examples, and I'm only doing this in a very cursory way. This
is by no means exhaustive. Take, for example, the biblical
doctrine of hell. When we turn to the scriptures,
we see, first of all, that its awful, terrifying reality is
made a powerful motive to conversion. Why should you sitting here tonight
be concerned as to whether or not you've ever experienced repentance
and faith? whether you have, in the language
of Jesus, been converted and become as a little child and
entered the kingdom of heaven. Well, according to the Bible,
it's a matter of escaping hell. Listen to Jesus in Matthew's
Gospel, chapter 7. He has been teaching about the
nature of the kingdom He has come to establish in the hearts
of men. And He's not content simply to
teach, though He teaches with authority as we read at the end
of this Sermon on the Mount. But as he's drawing the sermon
to a close, he presses on the consciences of all his hearers
the necessity of entering the kingdom he has just described. And notice his language in Matthew
7, 13. Enter ye in by the narrow gate, for why should I be concerned
about the narrow gate of true conversion? It's a difficult
thing to own the reality of my sinnerhood. It's a humbling thing
to see myself for what I am, and to come naked and stripped
before a holy God, confessing I have nothing, can do nothing,
and am worthy of nothing but the judgment of God, and to look
away from myself to God's own gift of righteousness in His
Son. It's a humbling, flesh-withering
thing. Why should I struggle in the
language of Luke 13 to enter the narrow gate? Well, the Lord
is going to tell you if you listen to Him. Enter the narrow gate
for there is only one other alternative. Wide is the gate and broad is
the way that leads to destruction, to destruction. And many are
they that enter in thereby, for narrow is the gate, and straight
in the way that leads unto life, and few are they that find it."
When Jesus would give motives to conversion, He sets the doctrine
of hell right smack in the middle. He says, enter, be converted,
under the imagery of pressing through a narrow turnstile. And
He says, oh, enter that gate. Take seriously the call to conversion. Why? Because the only other alternative
is destruction. And when we let Jesus Himself
interpret what the word destruction means, right in this very chapter,
it means to be sent away from Him, depart from Me into everlasting
fire. It means to go, body and soul,
into Gehenna, the place where the worm dies not and the fire
is not quenched. Do you see how totally out of
step is the so-called gospel of Robert Schuller? What is the
motive for conversion? Well, you will never have proper
self-esteem until you look at the cross and there behold, not
the wrath of God against human sin, the same wrath that will
send you to hell unless you repent and own yourself to be a hopeless,
helpless, undone sinner. But the cross is God's declaration
of unconditional love to all men, regardless of what they
are. Look at the cross. Accept the
unconditional love. Then you can look in the mirror
with self-esteem. That's being converted. That's
heresy. That will send you to this place
of destruction. It's totally out of sympathy. The biblical teaching of conversion,
which escape from hell, is a dominant motive. Listen to John the Baptist
back in Matthew 3, when he calls the covenant nation to repentance.
Imagine what this meant for years, for centuries. You've been the
nation where the light of revealed truth has shone while all the
nations are in darkness. This particular crowd have come
to be regarded as the religious experts, the holy of the holy,
the sanctified of the sanctified. Pharisees, religious leaders,
Sadducees, verse 7 of Matthew 3. They come to John's baptism
and what does John say? You offspring of vipers. Doesn't
sound like Schuller, does it? You lovely people with all kinds
of worth. Say, why am I going after Schuller?
Because this man is listened to and heeded by multitudes and
there are evangelical leaders who are actually promoting his
heresy. Pastors by the thousands attend
his conferences. Swallow that heresy and send
people to hell with it. What did John say? You offspring
of snakes, who warned you to flee? from the wrath to come
in the form of the verb is, it's coming wrath. It's already on
its way. It's like a mighty tidal wave
that has already gathered momentum. It's moving towards you in a
short time. It'll break upon you. Who's warned
you to flee from it? It's coming. It's a reality,
the wrath to come. Bring forth therefore fruit worthy
of repentance Don't think to say within yourself, we've got
the right bloodlines. Abraham's our papa. I say unto
you, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Even now the axe lies at the
root of the trees. Every tree that does not bring
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wrath to come cast into the fire. The doctrine of hell was central
in the motives to conversion in the preaching of John the
Baptist. It is found again and again in the message of our Lord.
I just quote the text now quickly. Jesus said, Don't fear them which
kill the body, and after this have no more that they can do.
Fear him, who after he hath killed the body can cast both soul and
body into hell. If by hand offended cut it off,
It's better to enter life main than having two hands to be cast
into hell. And again and again, the infinite
embodiment or the embodiment of the infinite love and wisdom
of God, our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, set the doctrine of conversion
in a context in which escape from the wrath to come and the
burning anger of God in hell was a dominant mount. So you
see, you can't be in sympathy with revealed religion at this
most fundamental point of conversion unless you embrace the orthodox
doctrine of heaven and hell. Furthermore, its awful, terrifying
reality is made a powerful incentive to mortification of sin. Its
awful, terrifying reality is made a powerful incentive to
the mortification of sin. I already quoted the Matthew
5 passage five times in the Gospels. That language of cutting off
right hand, plucking out right eyes is used, but it's not peculiar
to our Lord. Paul says in Romans 8.13, If
ye by the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
But if ye live after the flesh, ye must die. Suppose I'm too lazy to mortify
the deeds of the flesh. He says, you'll die. Suppose
I'm too weary and I say I'm discouraged. I have to fight the same sins
day after day, week after week, month after month. What's the
use? I'll tell you what the use is. It's heaven or hell. If you live after the flesh,
you'll die. But if you do the spirit to mortify
the deeds of the body, you'll live. You can't afford the luxury
of quitting. It's heaven or hell. Do you believe
that? Then gird yourself for the battle
and say, by the grace of God, I'll go to my grave with my hand
cleaving to my sword, hocking and hewing. at the deeds of the
body. That's the way all of us will
go. Hacking and hewing until we cross the river and we leave
our sword. And we shall be like when we
see what this means. It's a pretty powerful motive,
isn't it? How central is mortification
of sin as a Christian duty? Well, you see, the doctrine of
hell is put right in the midst of it. Furthermore, its awful,
terrifying reality is made an integral part of the presentation
of the Gospel. The awful, terrifying reality
of hell is made an integral part of the presentation of the Gospel.
Take the best-known Gospel text. Hell is set in the midst of it.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in him should not what? Perish. Perish. Perish. Perish. What does the word perish
mean? Let the Bible interpret it. You
simply look up the verses in which perish is used and you
realize that packed into that word perish is all of the orthodox
doctrine of hell as a place of conscious torment of soul and
body away from the presence of God and the glory of his own
face in conscious eternal torment in all of its horrors. But it's
a part of the presentation of the gospel. In the book of Romans,
Paul says his great theme, Romans 1, 16 and 17, is the gospel,
which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein is revealed
a righteousness of God from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Why should I take the gospel
seriously? I mean, frankly, that doesn't turn me on. Righteousness
of God? I mean, man, talk about something
that turns me on, my friend. Listen, you better get turned
on by an announcement that there's a righteousness of God for needy
sinners. Why? Read the next verse. For,
for, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And it's not only revealed
now, But on into chapter 2, he uses this graphic language in
the Book of Romans. Listen to it. But after thy hardness,
verse 5, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure
up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God, who shall render to every
man according to his works. What a picture! What a picture!
Every day you live, in your sin and impenitence, you're putting
something in the bank of heaven. You are treasuring up more and
more capital of divine wrath. That's the language. It's commercial
language. You treasure up wrath when, against
the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of
God, That's why Paul could say, knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade. We persuade as gospel preachers
because we are convinced of the terror of the Lord. And in the
context of 2 Corinthians 5, from which I've quoted, what is the
terror of the Lord? It's the day of judgment leading
to the ultimate, consummate bliss of heaven, or the ultimate horrors
of the damned in hell. You see why I say this doctrine
is important? There is no sympathy with revealed
religion apart from it. The awful, terrifying reality
is made a powerful motive for conversion in the Scripture.
Its awful, terrifying reality is a powerful incentive for the
mortification of sin. Thirdly, its awful, powerful,
terrifying reality is made an integral part of the presentation
of the Gospel, and this may surprise you. It's awful, terrifying reality
is made a major dimension of comfort to suffering saints.
Did you know the doctrine of hell is redeemed for the comfort
of saints? It is. Look at one or two specimen
passages, 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Here these young Thessalonian
believers were being greatly persecuted. They were born, as
it were, in the very cradle of intense persecution. Now Paul
writes to comfort them. Notice the doctrine he uses to
comfort suffering and afflicted saints. Verse 6, If so be, 2
Thessalonians 1, 6, If so be it is a righteous thing with
God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and
to you that are afflicted, rest with us at the revelation of
the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power. in flaming
fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to
them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus, who shall
suffer eternal punishment, suffer punishment, even eternal destruction,
from the face of the Lord in the glory of His might, when
He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and be marveled
at in all them that believe. He takes the doctrine of hell
and uses it as a powerful instrument of comfort and consolation to
persecute us. Now my friend, let me ask you,
what is the religion of the Bible without powerful motives to conversion
to get us into the way, powerful motives to mortification by which
alone from the human side we are kept in the way, What is revealed religion without
this frightening doctrine to act as we have seen as a powerful
motive in our witness to others, in our presentation of the gospel,
and in the midst of our sufferings to have comfort? Do you want
a religion that has no motives to enter the gate of conversion,
no motives to keep you at the work of mortification, no powerful
motives woven into the fabric of your soul to bring the gospel
to others, and a whole block of biblical truth for your consolation
taken away? You see, there is no symphony
with revealed religion apart from the orthodox doctrine of
hell. And what is true of the doctrine of hell is true of the
doctrine of heaven. And in closing, I'll just trace
out a couple of lines very quickly, and then I'll have to be done
and we'll save the rest for another night. This is what I like about
preaching here as opposed to conferences where I first preach
this material. You've got three nights to get
it all out and you do it and you can't go back over until
the next year if they ask you to speak again and they never
ask you to speak on the same subject. But let me very quickly now show
you so that we balance it out with the biblical doctrine of
heaven. I'm saying that sympathy with revealed religion demands
the doctrine not only of hell, but of heaven, because it too
is a dominant theme in the religion of the Bible. First of all, its
glorious realities are made another powerful incentive to conversion. In the very passage we looked
at a few moments ago, Jesus not only says, enter the narrow gate,
for there is a wide gate and a wide road that leads to destruction,
but notice how he turns the thing and says, straight is the gate,
difficult and compressed is the way, but thank God it leads to
what? To life! And bound up in that
little word, life, is the whole biblical document. That place
where in soul and body the people of God shall enjoy God in His
immediate presence without sin of any kind in the company of
all the redeemed of all ages. You remember when Jesus was dealing
with the rich young ruler in Matthew 19? What did he hold
out as a motive to conversion? Good Master, What shall I do
to inherit eternal life? And the Lord begins to probe
his heart to bring this man to some accurate self-knowledge,
not to some pseudo-self-esteem. That was the problem with this
man. He had all the self-esteem in the world. All these things
have I done from my youth. My conscience is not smitten
with you. Jesus was seeking to probe his
heart and help him to see himself for what he really is. And so
he goes after the sin of idolatry that is embedded in his soul
and he says, go, sell that you have, give to the poor, come,
follow me. And what's the capstone of our
Lord's holy increase? Go to him. Thou shalt have treasure
in heaven. Oh, people say, that's mercy.
I don't care what it is, Jesus gave it as a motive. You call
it what you want, but you better be careful not to impugn the
wisdom of the Son of God. He held it out as a motive, and
he says to this young man of whom Mark says, looking upon
him, he loved him, he said, Go, sell, come, follow, thou shalt
have treasure in heaven. You may go through the rest of
your days, the pauper shell that you have. Jesus knew his heart
and he knew for this man, apparently, there was no middle ground. He
was so wedded to his money, the only way he could be free from
it was to get rid of all of it. And that's true of some people.
In a way, some of you, the only way you can get rid of sinning
with your television, get rid of the television completely.
That's right. The only way some of you can
get rid of other sins is to completely steer away even from the legitimate
use of the thing which to you becomes sin. Like Pastor Nichols'
pretzels. Those of you who are on the inn,
you know what we're talking about. Some of us have our own pretzels.
We know what they are. For this man, it was his riches,
so the Lord Jesus said to him, he didn't say that to everyone,
Go! Sell what you have! Give to the
poor! Come! Follow Me! Treasures in
Heaven!" He holds it out as a motive, a powerful motive to conversion.
In that beautiful passage describing Moses, notice how this motive
entered his mind as he is weighing the whole issue of what he will
do with his life. Hebrews chapter 11. Look at it
for a moment with me. Hebrews chapter 11. Verses 24-26,
By faith Moses when he was grown up, when his mind and when his
soul had developed to the place where as a mature man he could
make responsible, intelligent, individual decision with respect
to the great issues of his soul and of his future. When he was
grown up, that's the time, what happened? He refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Bound up in that was a refusal
of all the wealth and the position and the pleasure and everything
associated with Pharaoh's court, choosing rather to share ill
treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season. Now, what in the world makes
a man do that? Give up! security, wealth, position,
influence, pleasure. He turns his back upon it and
he takes in its place reproach with a bunch of slaves. What
operated in his mind? Well, if you read the record,
you're not told in Genesis. I'm sorry, in Exodus. But here
we are told by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. You know
what was going on in his mind? Look. Verse 26. accounting the
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,
for he looked unto the recompense of reward." Mercenary. Call it what you want. It worked
with Moses. He looked to recompense of reward
if I choose Jehovah God and His people. Reproach? Yes. Non-security? Right! Possible death! Yes! The recompense
of the reward will be to be glorified with Christ, for if we suffer
with Him, we shall reign with Him. You see how the motive of
heaven entered? It was a powerful motive in the mind and in the
spirit. So you see the doctrine of heaven
and its glorious realities are made an incentive to conversion
in the general preaching of our Lord, in the specific personal
work of our Lord with the rich young ruler, in the example of
Moses. Furthermore, the glorious realities
of heaven are made a consolation in the midst of opposition, bereavement,
and sorrow. Remember what Jesus said in the
Sermon on the Mount? Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad
because you are so consumed with the desire for the glory of God.
That's all that matters. That isn't what he said. If you're
not aware of it, I won't quote him accurately. He said rejoice
and be exceedingly glad for what? Great is Your reward in me." That's what Jesus said. Your
consolation when men revile you and persecute you is this, I
have a reward in heaven. By faith, I look upon it and
I see myself with my Savior. and all the reproaches passed,
and all the vilification, and all the maligning of my name,
my character, my motives, my integrity will be displayed before
the moral universe, and above all, I'll hear my Savior say,
well done. I tell you, it can take a lot
when you've got that in your eye. That's what Jesus said, get it
in your eye and keep it there. The realities, the glories of
heaven, are made a powerful consolation. Again, Paul could say in 2 Corinthians
4, 16 and 17, words that never cease to amaze me. Here's a man
that's treated like a common criminal, thrown into jail, beaten, accused of everything under the
sun. What does he say about these things? 2 Corinthians 4, verse
16, Wherefore we faint not, Though our outward man is decaying,
yet our inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction."
Think of it. Our light affliction. Everything
he's born, he calls it light affliction, which is for the
moment. Here he's been paring it for
years. He calls it for the moment. Works for us more and more exceedingly
an eternal weight of glory. Mercenary language again. My
affliction is working. It's in the bank gaining interest.
It's accumulating interest. Go ahead, do what you want. All
you're doing is putting more capital in the bank, more interest. working for us more exceedingly
an eternal weight of glory while we look not in the things which
are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal. The things that are not seen
are eternal. Paul saw by the eye of faith
the things of the eternal inheritance. And he says, while I gaze upon
those things, any thing you do to me, put it all together, it
is light affliction. It is light affliction. As we
said this morning, what in the world can you do with a character
like that? The world doesn't know how to handle it. The world doesn't know how to
handle it. Take away the doctrine of heaven from the suffering
saints of God and you leave them an impoverished people. How does Paul tell the saints
to minister to one another when they stand in mingled tears at
a grave site? And as we have had the painful
experience in past months We've seen God take dear ones from
our midst. And when we've stood at a graveside
and seen the coughing Lord, and we've wept together, what words
have we used to comfort one another? We've used the very words God
says we are to use. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. What words? The Lord himself
shall descend from heaven to the shallows. the voice of the
archangel, of the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise
first, then we who are alive and remain unto the coming of
the Lord shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the
Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. words that reflect the reality
of our entrance into the consummate bliss of heaven at the return
of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. That's the word
that we are to pump into one another's ears until our souls
lay hold of it. We can see in the midst of the
burning tears that coursed down our cheeks, we can see by faith
that that grave now opened and into which the coffin is lowered
shall give up that dead one. We can stand and say to that
grave, if not audibly, inwardly, and I have stood and said it
as I've looked into the reality and the horror and the ugliness
of death. Grave, you will give up that
precious brother. And my Lord comes and speaks. And then finally, the glorious
reality of heaven is made the basis of maintaining proper material
priorities, and oh how we as Americans need that. If you don't
have an adequate doctrine of heaven, I doubt you are properly
handling your money. So where do you get that in the
Bible? From the words of Jesus and the words of Paul. Matthew
6, 19-21, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, Where moth
and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal, but
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Where neither moth
nor rust corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal,
for where your treasure is there will your heart be also." What
is Jesus saying? An adequate, pressing doctrine
of heaven is essential to a proper perspective on material things.
And that's exactly the perspective Paul gives in 1 Timothy 6, 17-19.
I won't take time to read it. I must close. Let me try to bring
the strands together that we've opened up tonight. I have asserted
as we stand on the threshold of this study, on the biblical
doctrines of heaven and hell, that this is a vital and an important
subject that will come before us. And I've sought to demonstrate
that the doctrine of heaven and hell, or the doctrines of heaven
and hell, are important, first of all, because any real integrity
in handling the word of God demands the orthodox doctrines of heaven
and hell. Secondly, sympathy with the major
strands of biblical religion demands that the doctrines of
heaven and hell hold a prominent place in our thinking. God willing,
next week we'll pick up the third line of thought, that honesty,
honesty in dealing with the souls of men demands that we give proportionate
and balanced teaching on the doctrines of heaven and hell. But I close for now leaving these
many witnesses of the word of God with you, and to them I want
to add this very personal and pointed question. Do you listen
to me carefully? What place, what practical working
place do the doctrines of heaven and hell have in your life? Do
you want me to help you to answer?
Think back over the past week, yesterday the Sabbath. I got
up a little later, slept in a bit, washed the car, this, this, this.
I went off Friday, that was the last day of the working week,
alright? Thursday, Wednesday. Big clap over the past week.
At what places did the doctrines of heaven and hell break in upon
you and practically influence your thought, your perspective,
your actions, your speech? searching questions, but I dare
to assert that if you are living in a healthy, biblically disciplined
spiritual state, you won't have to look too far back into the
week to see that somewhere, heaven and hell, made their impression upon your
lifestyle. If not, my friend, why not? Could
it be that the God of this world is so blinded you that you're
heading at breakneck speed right into hell and don't even know
it? May God help you in the language of John to flee from the coming
wrath. For if you've never entered the
narrow gate of true conversion, never owned your sinfulness and
repented and fled in faith to Jesus Christ, Upon the testimony
of the Word of God, the Scripture says, you are on your way to
that awful place that the Bible describes as hell. Nothing but
a sound and thorough conversion can change your present course.
Could it be that you are a child of God, that you've allowed the
eroding influence of the world? You've become so taken up with
things temporal that rather than allowing them and making them,
as Paul did, every pressure upon his temple existence that caused
any kind of discomfort was a pointer to the world to come, the things
that are not so. Maybe you need, as a Christian,
to learn what it is to begin to discipline the whole process
of thought, so that when you feel a pinch upon your person,
a pinch upon your body, and a pinch upon your circumstances, instead
of sitting, as it were, in the corner of the room with your
face down and holding your private pity party, you look up and say,
Lord Jesus, thank you. It won't always be this way.
And when you get weary hacking and hewing your right arms and
plucking out right eyes, instead of wallowing in your self-pity
and say, oh, I'm making no progress. I'm tired. I'm going to quit.
No, no. Catch in your eye that world
to come in which you will join the spirits of just men made
perfect, and there'll be no remaining sin. And all of its subtle manifestations
to mortify, but you'll be like him. and with your eye gleaming
with that hope, pick up your sword and axe and hue and pluck
and cut off, and continue in the path of mortification, knowing
it's the path of life. My friend, this isn't a religion
of some abstract pie in the sky, by and by. But if you don't have
what awaits you in the sky, by and by, firmly fixed in your
eye now, you won't be able to live as God says you should live
in this world. The genius of biblical Christianity
is that it is essentially otherworldly, and no one lives as well in this
life as does the man or woman whose heart and affections are
most fixed on the life to come. May God make us a band of such
healthy Christians for His glory. and for the good of our poor,
needy world. Let us pray. O God, our Heavenly Father, we
confess in your presence that we are so earthbound, so chained
to the world of time and of sense and sight, But we thank you that
your word sets before us the great realities of the age to
come. And as we prayed at the beginning
of this hour that you would make us taste of the powers of the
world to come, we now again plead that that may be so. That leaving
this building, those who are in their sins and unconverted
may not be able to shake off the haunting remembrance of what
they've heard tonight. but may it graciously and powerfully
track them down until they turn to you and to the salvation that
is held forth in your beloved Son. We pray for us who are your
people. Lord, with shame we confess our
worldliness. O God, forgive us. Forgive us. Make us a people whose eyes are
fixed upon the great realities of heaven and of hell. Seal your
word to our hearts. May the blessings of your grace
rest upon us. May we know your help in the
week to come, to live to your praise, to warn men to flee from
the wrath to come, to seek to entice them by the glories of
heaven, to flee from their sins and embrace your Son. Hear us
and answer us for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose
name we draw near to you. Amen.