This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, August 7th, 1983, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville,
New Jersey. Now may we once again look to
God in prayer, specifically asking that by His Holy Spirit He would
attend the preaching of His own infallible Word in this hour.
Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You that
You are never weary of our coming. We have come to You with many
concerns in prayer tonight, but, O Lord, we come again. We come
at this time with the special concern of our heart, focusing
upon our own great need as we take Your Word into our hands.
O Lord, we desire that Your Word would come to us, not in word
only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. We acknowledge that only Your
Spirit, who gave this word, can so open our eyes and move our
hearts that we will give to that word the appropriate responses
of faith and obedience, which it both demands and which it
deserves. Come then by the Holy Spirit
and carry us out to your Word, and bring your Word to us with
power. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. We come this evening to our fifth
message in this present series of studies on the weighty and
yet glorious doctrines of heaven and of hell. We began this series
some weeks ago by considering the importance of the biblical
doctrines of heaven and hell in the light of biblical religion. We then sought to underscore
what would be the primary focus of our study, namely the eternal
state. Heaven and hell, not as they
pertain to the condition of those who die and their souls immediately
go to a place of conscious torment or conscious bliss, that which
theologians call the intermediate state. But since the Bible gives
the weight of its teaching to the eternal state, the condition
and state of heaven and hell after the general resurrection,
that will be the peculiar and has been special focus of our
study. And then I sought to underscore
the proper attitude that we must have in coming to such a study,
an attitude of humility, an attitude and disposition of faith, and
one of great sobriety in the light of these weighty subjects.
And then, for several Lord's Day evenings, we occupied ourselves
with seeking to derive from the scriptures an answer to the question,
What is Hell? And with our Bibles open before
us, we came to the conviction, I trust, that the Bible teaches
that hell is a place and a condition of unspeakable misery, torment,
and woe. The major imagery used to reflect
this reality is the imagery of outer darkness and the imagery
of the lake or the furnace of fire. And we saw in the second
place that hell is a place where soul and body will undergo unspeakable
misery, torment, and woe. And it is none other than our
Lord Jesus who makes this so clear that only a deliberate
attempt to pervert His words can miss the point. For it is
our Lord who said, Do not be afraid of those who kill the
body, and after this have no more than they can do. but fear
him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Then we saw in the third place
that hell is a place where there will be degrees of misery, torment,
and woe. Fourthly, we discover that hell
is a place of unending misery, torment, and woe. And finally,
that hell is a place where men receive the just punishment of
God for their sins. Hell is not a correction institution. Hell is not a sanctifying institution. Hell is a place and a condition
where God will mete out His just and holy wrath upon impenitent
sinners, and that for eternity. Now, having raised the question,
what is Hell? Having sought to answer it from
the word of God, in the time allotted tonight I want to raise
and answer from scripture a second question. And the question is
this, who will be sent to hell? Who will be sent to hell? And if ever we need to stick
to the very text of the word of God, surely It is in our attempts
to answer so vital a question as the question, who will be
sent to this awful place? In a very real sense, if you
believed what has already been established from the Word of
God, you would be found scouring the pages of your Bibles for
any indications that that awful place could even remotely, even
possibly be the place of your ultimate destiny, and that for
eternity. But as surely as the word of
God answers the question, what is hell? It does indeed furnish
us with ample materials to answer the question, who will be sent
to hell? And its answer comes in two basic
categories. First of all, a general description
of the heirs of hell. And then secondly, specific descriptions
of the heirs of hell. And that two-fold approach will
be the organizing principle of our study tonight. Who will be
sent to hell? Not according to Pastor Martin.
His opinions aren't worth a wooden nickel. Who will be sent to hell? The teaching of Trinity Baptist
Church is worth nothing if it does not speak according to the
letter and the spirit of the Word of God. And may I say, friend,
whatever you've been told throughout your entire life by whatever
source, it really matters little unless it squares with the Word
of God, because it is the God who speaks in the Bible who will
do the sending. And He has told us precisely
who He will send to hell. May we then give serious attention
to the word of God as we attempt to answer the question, who will
be sent to hell? Look first of all at three or
four of the general descriptions of those who will be sent to
hell. The first one to which I direct
your attention is 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians chapter
1. I begin reading in verse 7. And to you that are afflicted,
rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven,
with the angels of his power, inflaming fire, rendering vengeance
to them, now notice this general description, to them that know
not God. and to them that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall suffer punishment,
even eternal destruction, from the face of the Lord, and from
the glory of his might." And this text answers the question,
who will be sent to hell with this general description of the
heirs of hell as those who know not God and who obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And whatever other distinctive
sinful characteristics may mark those who are sent to hell, this
text clearly establishes that every man, every woman, every
boy, every girl within the sound of my voice, who this night does
not know God in terms of what the Bible means by that phrase,
who does not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, whoever
you may be, if you go on and live and die in that condition,
as sure as God is God, hell will be your everlasting portion.
For let God be true, and every man a liar. And everyone who
does not know God, who does not obey the gospel, shall suffer
eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord and from
the glory of His might." Now, just a few moments on that general
description. Those who do not know God, what
does that mean? Well, according to the Bible,
no man by nature knows God in a saving way. One of the marks
of all men by nature is that they do not seek after God. There
is no fear of God before their eyes. We are described as the
Gentiles who know not God. And according to our Lord Jesus,
to know God is to come to a saving relationship in the reception
of the gift of eternal life. For Jesus, in his high priestly
prayer in John 17, said, This is life eternal, that they may
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. And to know God is to be brought
to the place where God, revealed in Jesus Christ, becomes to us
our God and Father. And knowing Him in that saving
way, we will love Him, we will fear Him, we will trust Him.
And loving Him, fearing Him, trusting Him, we will obey Him. We will become increasingly like
Him as the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of His Son. And
so whatever your peculiar religious experience may or may not be,
if it has not brought you to this saving knowledge of God
in Jesus Christ, so that God is more than a word to you or
an abstraction or a notion or an idea, He is to you the living
God, whom you know in faith, in love, in holy fear, whom you
know. as a father worthy to be loved
and obeyed and sought. This text says that Jesus Christ
at His return will mete out eternal destruction to all who know not
God, moral or immoral, religious or irreligious. A filthy lifestyle,
an upright lifestyle, it makes no difference. Those who know
not God shall suffer eternal destruction. Whether they've
heard the gospel or have not heard the gospel, whether they
have read the Bible or never read the Bible, those that know
not God shall suffer eternal destruction. And then the second
part of this general description is all who obey not the gospel,
and notice the language, of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is a message that
announces some marvelous facts about an amazing person. That
person is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a message about the incarnate
God, who is identified as Jesus of Nazareth, who became incarnate
that he might live the life we should have lived but did not,
and died the death we should have died. It is a message about
that One who was buried and was raised again from the dead on
the third day, and has been seated on the throne of mediatorial
power and glory at the right hand of the Father, thus constituting
Him formally and officially and visibly, God's Lord and Christ. Now the text says that message
about forgiveness of sin through the Lord Jesus, pardon of all
of our iniquities through the blood of His cross, Acceptance
with God on the basis of his righteousness. That message not
only comes with facts to be believed, but commands to be obeyed. Look
at the text. All that obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough to say, oh yes,
I believe all of those facts about Jesus, virgin conceived,
virgin born, Son of God, lived a sinless, holy life, died on
the cross for sinners, was buried, raised again the third day, ascended
to the right hand of God the Father Almighty. You can quote
the Apostles' Creed, believe every word of it. But my friend,
the question is this. As the gospel impinges upon your
will, demanding two things of you. and faith. Have you obeyed the gospel? That
gospel comes demanding that you stack arms, that you get down
off the floor of your own house and stop playing God. That you
say, Oh God, I'm prepared to go out of the God business and
let you take up that business that is rightfully yours in my
heart. Repentance is a call to turn from running your own life,
thinking your own thoughts about God, and yourself, and right,
and wrong, and life. Repentance is a change of mind
that touches the totality of your whole humanity, your thinking,
your feeling, your choosing. It's a radical 180 degree about-face. Turning away from your own thoughts
about God, and sin, and life, and death, and heaven, and hell,
and right, and wrong, and saying, Oh God, I'm prepared to have
my mind come subject to what you say. All reality will be
interpreted by what you say. That's repentance. It affects
your mind. It touches your affection. The things you've loved because
of the perversity of your heart, forbidden things, forbidden paths,
evil ways, self-centered ways. Repentance is a repudiation of
those objects of affection unworthy of a creature made in the image
of God. made to know and love the living God. It's a repudiation
of those things. Repentance touches the will.
It is the determination that I shall no longer run my own
life, but that I shall, by the grace of God, plant my feet in
the way of God revealed in his word. That's repentance. And
the gospel comes with a command to repent. Have you obeyed the
gospel? Do not have you believe, do you
say to the facts, I tick them off, one, two, three, four, yes,
I believe them all. Have you obeyed the gospel? Are
you obeying the gospel right now? Jesus said, if any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and
follow me. Are you obeying the gospel? With
its call to repentance, and then with its flesh-withering call
to faith. We talk about simple faith, and
in a very real sense, faith is But oh, how flesh-withering it
is, because faith means that I go completely out of myself
to trust in another for the most crucial issue that a human being
can ever, ever contemplate. The issue of how shall I be prepared
to meet God when I die. And faith is a going out of myself
all trust in what I am, what I've been, what I've done, what
I've had, in the way of background, training, heritage, it's turning
my back upon everything I have, have done, everything that has
accrued to me, in the way of privilege, and saying, oh God,
I come in the nakedness, the emptiness, the barrenness of
my native sinfulness, and I rest solely upon Jesus Christ. As the ground of my acceptance
with you, O Holy God, I am prepared to say with the Apostle Paul
everything that was gained to me. I count loss for Christ that
I may be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is
of the law, but the righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. It's simple faith, but oh, how
fresh with me to go completely out of yourself, to trust solely
in another. You see, there's something in
us that's very reluctant to relinquish some claim to what we've done,
what we've accomplished, and to go out of ourselves and look
only to Christ, to rest solely upon Christ. My friend, if you
obey the gospel, the gospel comes commanding you to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. to throw the weight of your guilty
soul upon him. It's a divine command. Have you
obeyed the gospel? Sitting here tonight, as surely
as your body is resting down upon that padded chair, is the
weight of your soul resting down upon Christ crucified. Is it? If not, you're not obeying
the gospel. And if you go on in that condition
and die in that condition, listen to this word, inflaming, fire-taking
vengeance on all that obey not the gospel. This is why those
of us who believe the Bible and are called to preach it find
ourselves getting in earnest and pleading with you. We're
not playing games. We're not play-acting. We come
with a message from the living God that says, Believe and be
saved. Disbelieve and be damned. My friend, you have no option
with this message, but to embrace it and be saved, to disbelieve
it and be damned. Who will be sent to hell according
to this first general description? all who do not know God, all
who do not obey the gospel. Do you fit that description?
Then, my friend, mark it. Living and dying in that condition,
unless Almighty God would be proven a liar. And I say it with
tenderness, but I say it in truth. You, you will be sent to hell. Then there is a second general
description. Turn to it, please, in Matthew's Gospel, chapter
13. Our Lord has given the parable
of the wheat and the tares, and he is now interpreting this parable,
and as he does, we read in verse 40, of Matthew 13, the following
words, As therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with
fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man
shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of
his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity,
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire, there shall
be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." Here the Lord Jesus
gives, as a general description of those who will be sent to
hell, these words, all things that cause stumbling and them
that do iniquity. And the things in this passage
are obviously men, for if we read the parallel passage in
Luke 17 and Matthew 18, it is men who cause others to sin by
their evil example or by their unrighteous influence that are
the occasion of stumbling. And here our Lord says, everyone
who causes stumbling and himself is involved in the fruit of stumbling,
that is, in iniquity as a pattern of life, shall be cast into the
lake of fire. In other words, our Lord's general
description is this. All who make so light of sin
that it's a matter of indifference to them whether they cause others
to sin, or they themselves are hidden to a path of sin, all
such people shall be sent to hell. Do you see it in the text?
Here's a person so indifferent to whether or not he sins and
others sins that it doesn't trouble him at all that by what he does
and says, by what he promotes and encourages in his own life,
in his family, in society, in literature, in films, in art,
on music, anything, He is an occasion of provoking others
to sin. He sets before them those things
which draw out of their hearts their own inbred tendency to
sin, and He becomes an occasion of stumbling. In other words,
those who push the button on the presses that turn out our
slick, girly magazines by the millions Those who grind the
cameras in order to capture in celluloid frames filth and abomination,
and those who turn the TV camera to have the TV tape in order
to pollute minds, and they are utterly indifferent. But how
many they cause to stumble into sin and uncleanness! Unless they
repent, they will be cast into the lake of fire. The judges who sit upon the bench
of the Supreme Court and by their rulings act as though Almighty
God has put no sanction upon life and decree the slaughter
of babies, unless they repent, they shall be cast into hell.
For they cause multitudes to stumble, and poor, confused, burnt-out
teenagers will get themselves involved in illicit sex and unwanted
pregnancies instead of sitting down and being counseled about
the sanctity of life, even life begun in such a sordid context. The way is clear for them to
go and add to their sin of adultery the sin of murder. Who causes
this stumbling? The 1973 Supreme Court decision
said that when I write to the college hospital in Newark to
protest, The practice of abortion, I get a letter back last week
saying, we must uphold the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme
Court decision of 1973. Look at the word of God. He shall
gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling. If you could sit in my pastor's
study and talk with grown men Many of the married men can see
them weep and sob as they confess how they've become hooked on
pornography and filthy movies because it's so available, thrust
before them continually. Hugh Hefner and all of his ilk,
causing multitudes to stumble. seen is so light a thing that
it doesn't trouble them that they leave multitudes in its
train. They shall be cast into the furnace of fire. But notice
also those who do iniquity. The man who picks up what comes
off the presses is not compelled to pick it up. He picks it up
because he wants to. And though the pressure comes
upon that teenager from all the media to think that she doesn't
know what life is about until she's bedded down with a man,
she still willfully and deliberately beds down with him. And so it's
not only all things that cause stumbling, but notice what the
text says, all that do iniquity, all who give themselves willfully
and deliberately as a pattern of life to a sinful lifestyle. Jesus said they should be cast
into the furnace of fire and frankly I don't know how professing
Christians can have as their role models such filthy rotten
people and voluntarily choose to sit
and watch them on television when you know they live like
animals in heat Tozer said, women with the faces
of angels and the morals of alley cats, encourage your daughters
to set their standards from them. You better take this verse seriously,
parent. All things that cause stumbling and those that do iniquity. Who will be sent to hell? I didn't
say it. Jesus Christ, God's incarnate
Son said it. all who know not God obey not
the gospel, all things that cause stumbling, and all who do iniquity. Let me turn to a further general
description. This one is in Matthew 13, 49
and 50. So shall it be at the end of
the world, the angel shall come forth and sever the wicked from
among the righteous, and shall cast them, that is, the wicked,
into the furnace of fire. There shall be the weeping and
the gnashing of teeth." Here the general description is the
wicked. The wicked. Who are the wicked?
Look in the context. Everyone who does not deserve
the title the righteous. Do you see it in the passage?
He shall sever the wicked from among the righteous." So when
the wicked are taken out, who's left? Only the righteous. Only
two classes. And God have mercy on the Bible
teachers that have been telling two generations there's three.
Wicked, righteous, and carnal Christians in the middle. The
Bible knows no third class. Any one of you sitting here tonight
who does not deserve the descriptive name a righteous man, a righteous
woman, as that name is defined by the Bible, God puts you in
the category of the wicked. And God says, the wicked, the
wicked of all kinds and stripes, the wicked shall be cast into
the furnace of fire. Now, who gets the term the righteous? But if we bring together the
total witness of the Bible, the answer is clear. It is those
who like the wicked have no righteousness of their own to begin with. The
righteous and the wicked all come from one common stock, the
stock of Adam's fallen race. And the righteous were once like
the wicked in that they were in Adam. They had depraved hearts. They had defiled, darkened minds. They had perverse wills. They
had no love for God nor for His Son. But they came to see that
God was righteous. He was upright. All of His standards
were just and all of His laws were right and straight and just. They came to understand that
God had a right to require of them that they live according
to his straight, right, just, level ways. And they came to
the painful discovery that they had not lived according to his
just, straight, upright ways, that they were unrighteous. And
as unrighteous men and women, boys and girls, they deserve
divine wrath. But the gospel came to them.
And that gospel held forth a righteousness, an alien righteousness, a righteousness
not their own, but the righteousness of another that could be theirs
if they would embrace the person in whom it was offered to them.
And so, according to 1 Corinthians 1 30, Christ is made unto them
righteousness. The righteous are those who have
turned away from all hope that they could fix themselves up
and have, in true faith, laid hold of Christ and His righteousness. But that's only part of it. The
Holy Spirit who showed them the glory of Christ and the wretchedness
of their own hearts, the guilt of their own standing, also worked
in them and gave them what the Bible calls a new heart. And
into that new heart God placed his spirit, and upon that heart
he wrote his law, so that they have an inward desire to keep
the righteous, upright, straight ways of God. And though they
still have sin within them, sin is their greatest burden, sin
is their greatest shame. Being holy is their greatest
longing in life, not being influential, powerful, famous, wealthy, or
anything else. Their passion is, I want to be
like the God who has freely given me righteousness in his Son,
who has broken the chains of my sin, and who one day, when
he is done with me, perfect me so that I reflect perfectly the
moral image of his beloved Son. The righteous, you see, not only
have an imputed righteousness, but they have an imparted righteousness. They are not only righteous by
imputation and the alien righteousness put to their account in Christ,
but they are righteous because they have a new heart that has
an affinity for holiness and uprightness that is grieved in
the presence of sin. Now, my friend, is that a description
of you? However weak and feeble your pantings and whole after
holiness may be at times, no matter how obscured Your longings
to be like Christ at times may be as they become buried under
some besetting sin. Nonetheless, because life is
there, it's like the blade of grass that sticks up to the concrete
in the middle of a concrete jungle in a ghetto. The life will find
its way out. Are you such a person? Are you
that righteous person? If not, listen to Jesus. God
will sever the righteous from among the wicked. and shall cast
them into the lake of fire, into the furnace of fire. We've only
looked at three general passages and our time has gone. But I
want to close on a note that I trust will turn our minds to
the blessed privilege that will be ours as the people of God
in a few moments. And surely you see the connection.
If this is a description of those who will be sent to hell, And
all of us by nature deserve to be sent to hell. What has brought
us to the place where this night we say, God, I do not fit that
description. I do know you. I do obey the
gospel of your son. I do not willingly and knowingly
and as a course of life cause stumbling or do iniquity. I am
not a wicked man, a wicked woman. I am a righteous man. I am a
righteous woman. You can say that. If you can,
let me ask the question. What made the difference? Who
made the difference? And if you know anything of the
Bible and of your own heart, you say it is God. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Ghost who's made the difference. You
acknowledge that there was nothing in you that would have ever moved
you to turn from your sin and to go through the flesh-withering
travail of looking completely away from yourself to Christ
alone as he's offered in the gospel. And you know that God
did the work that opened your eyes to see your true state,
to turn from what you were unto him and to take what he offered
freely in the Lord Jesus. And that's what this table is
all about. We come to a table in which we take bread and we
break it. We take the fruit of the vine in a cup and we drink
it. And what are we doing? We are remembering the Lord Jesus
in His dying love to us. It's because the Father bruised
His well-beloved Son that we do not fear the bruising of God
in hell. He took our hell when He died
in our place. We will never have to cry, my
God, my God, why have I been abandoned? Because He cried,
my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? And
surely it should be our great delight to come to his table
and to remember him whose dying love is the ground upon which
a holy God can forgive such vile and guilty sinners. It is in
his livingness that Jesus now keeps us by his perpetual intercession
so that by the Spirit he himself comes to suck, to eat, to drink
with us this night as we gather to his table. Oh, my friend,
if you're not one of us, we hope you'll be made jealous. You can
become one of us. I'm not talking about joining
the church. I mean one of us who can say by grace that we
have been made righteous men and women, righteous in the righteousness
of Christ, righteous by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, and
the two are never separated. My friend, come by the same door
that we've That door is Christ, and the hinges on which it turns
are the hinges of repentance and faith. Come to the Savior. Embrace His offered mercy. Become
one of those who, by grace, will never know experientially what
outer darkness and the lake of fire will mean, because they
have come to know God. They have obeyed the gospel.
They have become righteous men and women, boys and girls. by
the grace of a saving God. Let us pray. Our Father, we are sobered when
we turn to your word and read these simple, unmistakably clear
statements concerning who will be sent to Lord, we cannot say
we rejoice in what we've read tonight. Our hearts are pained
because we think of the multitudes all around us, some sitting in
this very building who, if they live and die as they now stand
before you, must surely hear the words, Depart from me, he
cursed. Oh, God. Oh, God. Will you not make your word effectual
to turn them from their sin, turn them into the way of repentance
and faith, and make them righteous men and women? Father, we thank
you for your mercy to those of us who have been transformed
by your grace. We worship you and praise you
for that grace and ask that we may manifest in our whole life
and existence that we love you and long to serve and please
you because you first loved us. We ask these mercies in Jesus'
name. Amen.