Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neibert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Neibert. I want to speak on a very solemn
subject, the reason for hell. Let me read this passage from
Mark chapter nine, verse 42. And whosoever shall offend one
of these little ones that believe on me, it is better for him that
a millstone were hanged about his neck and he were cast into
the sea. And if thy hand offend thee,
cut it off. It's better for thee to enter
into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell where
the fire shall never be quenched. where the worm dieth not and
the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offend thee,
cut it off, it's better for thee to enter into life, halt, than
having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never
shall be quenched, where the worm dieth not and the fire is
not quenched. And if thine eye offend thee,
Pluck it out, it's better for thee to enter into the kingdom
of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell
fire where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Now these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I repeat, I've entitled this
message, The Reason for Hell. If you'd ask me what is the subject
in the Bible I would least like to deal with, I would say, without
any hesitation, hell. Hell. I do not enjoy dealing
with this subject. And the reason is the weakness
of the flesh. I just cannot see things from
God's perspective. I'm very human, just like you. We're all frightened at the thought
of this thing called hell. Now, I want to give what the
Bible teaches, and I want to preach the gospel from this message. And I want God's people to be
comforted from this message. Really, every gospel message
should be a comfort to God's people. Now, let me say this
also by way of introduction. I do not like what is called
hellfire and brimstone preaching. I'm not comfortable with it,
nor do I believe it to be gospel preaching. but I do not want
to ignore what the Bible says about this literal place called
hell. In Mark 10, verse 28, the Lord
says, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to
kill the soul, but rather fear him that's able to destroy both
body and soul in hell. Now in our text, in Mark chapter
9, the Lord begins with this warning. shall offend one of these little
ones, talking about his people. Seek to cause them to stumble,
offend them. Whosoever shall offend one of
these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that
a millstone were hanged about his neck, And he was cast into
the sea. That would be far better for
him if that took place before he offended one of my little
ones. And then he gives us this warning
with regard to hell. And if thy hand offend thee,
cut it off. It's better for thee to enter
into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell. into the fire that never shall
be quenched. Where there worm dieth not, and
the fire is not quenched." And this is a quotation from a passage
in Isaiah chapter 66 verse 24 in the Old Testament. Now, when
the Lord says, if your hand offends you, cut it off, is he talking
about Self-mutilation, actually cutting parts of your body off. I've heard people say we ought
to fear sin so much that we should be willing to cut off our hands
or feet or pluck out our eye rather than let them cause us
to sin. That's how much we should fear
sin. Now, sin is a terrible thing,
but if this is teaching self-mutilation, you first. I'll wait and see
what you do, and I'll follow your example. This is not teaching
anything like that. But it is teaching us of the
fear of this place called hell. It is a real place. It's a place of pain, physical
pain, emotional pain, and it is eternal. There's no such thing
as purgatory, where you can leave after a certain amount of time.
It is eternal. It is the punishment of justice
administered. There is no annihilation. It
is eternal. and it's the punishment of justice
administered. There are two words used in reference
to hell in the Bible, Gehenna and Hades in the New Testament,
and they're both a reference to a literal place called hell,
and Christ warned us more of hell than anybody else in the
scriptures. You know, the Apostle Paul didn't
even use the word. He used the word condemnation. He used the
word damnation. He used the word destruction.
He used the word perdition. But it's almost like the word
hell was too terrible for him to even use, and he didn't use
it in any of his epistles. But the one who warns us most
about this place called hell is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, every one of us have thought
hell seems too severe. I've thought that many times.
To think of a man or a woman spending eternity suffering the
wrath of God, never ending, that seems on the surface to our fleshly
minds too severe. But let me ask you a few questions
that I think will be helpful in us considering this subject.
Number one, is there such a thing as right and wrong? Is there such a thing as fair
and unfair? Why children say so early in
their lives, that's not fair with a perceived injustice done
to them. This is in our thinking intuitively. There is a right and wrong. There
is fair, there is unfair. There is sin, there is righteousness. There are moral absolutes. Now, if there's no God, who's
to say that's so? survival of the fittest, if there's
no God. This is a very lonely place,
there's not necessarily a right and wrong, a right and wrong
is some kind of man-made thing, but it's not absolute if there
is no God, but God is. Somebody made all of this and
nobody made him. He's all-powerful, he is eternal,
and he is the judge of all the earth, who rewards the righteous
and punishes the wicked. Abraham said, shall not the judge
of the earth do right? Yes, he will. God is God, he's
the judge of the earth, and he will always do right. The reason
there is a hell in the first place is because God is. He's the rewarder of the righteous
and he will punish the wicked. Now the first thing we need to
understand about hell is who made it. God made hell. The glorious, incomprehensible
God is the one who made hell. Now I'd like to read a passage
of scripture from the Old Testament, the book of Nahum. And we're
going to look at verses two through seven real briefly. Verse two,
God is jealous. Now his jealousy is not like
ours. Remember, anytime we talk about anything with regard to
God in some kind of like jealousy, for me and you to be jealous,
it's evil. It's wicked. It's so ugly. But God's jealousy
is a holy jealousy, just like all of his attributes. They're
not, don't compare anything about God to anything human because
he's not. He's God. There's none like him.
God is jealous and the Lord revengeth. He's going to revenge all iniquity.
The Lord revengeth and is furious. Now when we think of somebody
as being furious, we think of a temper tantrum and somebody
with their veins popping out and red-faced and angry. That's
not God. It's with regard to his holiness. God hates sin. He is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries. You see, all those who don't
look to Christ only are his adversaries, and he will take vengeance. He
will punish all sin. And he reserveth wrath for his
enemies. Now, you may have forgotten the
sin you've committed against him, but he doesn't, and he reserveth
wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger. This
is that same one. He's slow to anger and great
in power. His power is infinite. He's all
powerful and will not at all acquit the wicked. He will by
no means clear the guilty. If I am seen as guilty in his
sight, he won't let me go. He won't let you go either. He
will by no means clear the guilty. Now this is interesting. What
about a judge, a human judge that killed, cleared guilty people? Let's say someone murdered your
child. And they did it in cold blood.
And the judge would say to them, well, I'm a loving judge. I'm
going to forgive you for murdering that child. What would we do
with a judge like that? We'd get rid of him. That would
be an unjust judge. That would be a wrong judge.
Shall not the judge of the earth do right, he will not at all
acquit the wicked. All sin must be punished. Look what it says next. The Lord
hath his way in the whirlwind. That's talking about the tornado.
That's something that seems uncontrollable, but he controls it. He has his
way. He's absolutely sovereign in
all things. And in the storm, and the clouds
are the dust of his feet. What a glorious description of
God. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh
it dry, and dryeth up all the rivers. Bashan languisheth, and
Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake
at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence,
yea, the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before
his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by him. And then in verse seven,
it says, the Lord is good. Now, all of these things that
were said preceding this statement come from the Lord and they're
good because the Lord is good. Everything about him is good. Whether we understand it or not,
whether we see it or not, the Lord is good. good, a stronghold
in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him."
The Lord is good, and his wrath is good, and hell, because he's
the one who made it, is good because all he does is good. He's good all the time. I love what the Lord Jesus said
of him, though he slay me. And he did slay the Lord Jesus
Christ on Calvary's tree when he forsook him. But he said,
though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Now, I'd like to read a
passage of scripture from Luke 16 that tells us a lot about
this place called hell. We read beginning in verse 19,
and there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple
and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. He was living the
life. He was living the dream. He had health, he had wealth.
And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid
at his gate full of sores. And desiring to be fed with the
crumbs which fell down from the rich man's table, moreover the
dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried, and in hell he lift up
his eyes, being in torment. And seeth Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me. And said, Lazarus, that he may
dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For
I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember
that thou in thy life receivest thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and
thou art tormented. And beside all this between us
and you, there's a great gulf fixed. So that they which would
pass from thence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that
would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, that thou would send him to my father's house, Lazarus,
send him to my father's house, for I have five brethren, that
he may testify to them that they also come, lest they also come
into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, they
have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said,
nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead,
they'll repent. They can say, I've seen this
place literally, and I'm warning you of it. And he said unto him,
if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither would they
be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Let me say some
things with regard to this thing of hell. Number one, it's real. There is a place called hell. Number two, as we heard Abraham
say to the rich man, son, remember, it's a place of memory. Thirdly, there are differing
degrees of punishment in this place called hell because you're
rewarded exactly according to your works. And with God, the
punishment always fits the crime. There are people who will be
punished more severely than others in hell. The Lord said to Capernaum,
it's gonna be more tolerable for Sodom than for you. You remember
what Sodom is? It's the place where God rained
fire and brimstone down upon them because of their immorality.
The people who rejected the gospel, God says, you're gonna have it
worse in hell than those people in Sodom. Hell is eternal. It's not annihilation. It's eternal. The Lord talked about the fire
that shall never be quenched. Somebody says, why? Because sin
is an infinite evil and satisfaction cannot be made by the sinner.
That's why hell is eternal. God can never look at the death
of the sinner and say, my justice has been satisfied. You see,
what the sinner has been guilty of, what you and I have been
guilty of, is murdering his son. Somebody said, I didn't do that.
Yeah, but you would if you could. No, I wouldn't if you knew who
he is. Yeah, if you knew yourself, you'd know, yes, I would have
done it. Now, if somebody murdered your
child and then they offered you $10 million for restitution and
say, can you be satisfied now? You'd say no. Nothing like that
can satisfy me, no monetary amount. Sin is an infinite evil against
an infinite God, and therefore it is eternal. And before somebody
gets too upset about that, remember Christ bore the full equivalent
of an eternal hell on Calvary's tree. When he was forsaken by
God, he was suffering all that hell is. And he satisfied God,
something you and I couldn't do because of who he is. He made
complete satisfaction to God so that God said, I'm satisfied
with what you've done. The justice is satisfied. The
law has been honored. I can't ask for anything else.
Christ Jesus willingly bore hell. as a substitute for his people
and obedience to his father out of a love for them. So before
somebody says, oh, hell's too severe, how could God be that
way? How could God give his son to
suffer hell? That's what I'm amazed by. He
did, and he did so willingly, and he satisfied God. That's
the gospel. He made full satisfaction for
sin. Well, did he do that for me?
If you look to him only, he did. He didn't die for everybody.
If he did, everybody would be saved. Somebody says, well, how
can I know if he died for me? If you look to Christ only as
your satisfaction before God, and you know God can only be
satisfied with you because of what he did, and you're relying
on what he did, he did it for you. It's called faith. On Calvary
Street, when he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? He was suffering all that hell
is. You know, I think of when Paul
said, if any man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, this one who
loved his father so much that he would be willing to go through
hell, then let his law be unvindicated. He that loved his people so much
that he would give himself for them, If any man loved not the
Lord Jesus Christ, Paul said, let him be anathema maranatha,
let him be damned upon the return of the Lord. And anyone who does
not love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm talking about the Christ
of the Bible, the one revealed in scripture, he ought to be
damned. In Mark 16, verse 16, the Lord
said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that
believeth not shall be damned. That's the words of the Lord. If somebody doesn't believe the
gospel, they ought to be damned. Now somebody's thinking, what
about somebody who's never heard the gospel? Well, they've rejected
the light of creation. If they would have lived up to
the life they had, God would have given them more. But they've
rejected the light of creation, and they have said no to God
in their hearts, no God for me, and their damnation is just. Somebody may be thinking, are
people predestinated to hell? And that's a good question. Are
people predestinated to hell? I mean, the Bible definitely
teaches predestination. Does that mean that people are
predestinated to hell? If you go to hell, it won't be
because God predestinated you to hell. If you go to hell, it'll
be because you rejected the gospel and that you are getting the
due reward of your deeds. You're getting exactly what you
deserve. Remember, hell is according to
works. Yes, I believe in predestination
and the only people who will be saved are those God predestinated
to be saved. There's no question about that.
The scripture teaches that. But if you go to hell, the only
reason you go to hell is for your works. You can't blame God.
You're not a victim. It's all your fault. Now, if
you're saved, it's all God's fault. But if you're lost, it's
all your fault. Now, somebody may ask, what about
infants? Are infants going to hell? Little babies, six months old,
stillborn, whatever, are they going to hell? Well, the Bible
gives us some hope. And a good hope, I think, that
perhaps all infants are saved. Because David talks about after
his child with Bathsheba died, he said, he can't come back to
me, but I'll go to him. And you can imply by that that
perhaps they are saved. And I personally believe they
are, but I'm not going to make a dogmatic statement about it.
Because I don't want to sound as if God doesn't save all infants.
That means God's a monster and God's unjust and all of a sudden
I become God's judge. Anytime we sit in judgment on
God, it's wrong. And I see such wisdom in the
Lord in not making a real definitive statement about that because
if the Bible said all infants are saved, some nut would kill
some infants in order to make sure they're saved. And if the
Lord said infants are not saved, then think of the despair that
would create with somebody who lost their child. So you see
the Lord's wisdom in this. But does the Bible teach that
infants go to hell? I don't think so. I don't think
so. There are scriptures that seem
to imply they don't, but I'm not going to make this real dogmatic
statement about it because the Bible doesn't. I think the Lord
says things exactly as they ought to be said. Now, What do I learn about this thing
of hell? Well, it lets me know that God
is glorious. Where do you get that? That's
my response. God is so glorious. He hates sin so much. He is altogether glorious. He's
good. He's perfect. He's right. Whatever
He does is right. And when I think of hell, while
it fills me with fear, and I don't want to go there, I don't want
you to go there. But it lets me know how glorious the living
God is. Secondly, it shows me the evil
of sin. How evil sin must be that a good
God has made hell for sinners to be punished eternally in. How evil sin must be. And thirdly, how just is God's
law. How holy and just and glorious
is God's law that pronounces the curse upon the one who does
not keep it. And how terrible is the punishment. But how amazing God's grace is. Jesus Christ willingly took all
that hell is in the room and place of his people. God delights
in mercy. He says judgment is my strange
word, but He delights in mercy. And He was willing to deliver
up His Son who actually bore all the full equivalent of an
eternal hell on Calvary's tree. And the scripture says it pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. That doesn't mean he got some
kind of sadistic pleasure out of inflicting his son with pain. This is talking about the full
satisfaction of God. God is satisfied with what he
did, and that is how he is satisfied with everyone that he died for.
He's satisfied. When God looks at me, He doesn't
look at me in dissatisfaction. He looks at me as being satisfied
with me. There's no sin. Christ put it
away. There's no condemnation or hell
because Christ put it away. There's perfect obedience because
Christ's righteousness is mine and He is satisfied with me. Now, if you come to Christ, If
you cry out for mercy, if you ask God to save you from yourself,
to save you from His wrath, to save you from your sins, He'll
do it. There's never been anyone who
sought mercy from Him that He turned away. Him that cometh
to me, the Lord said, I will in no wise cast out. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call on
His name. understand the reality of hell
and know Christ bore it in its full fury and all who are in
him, all who come to him, all who believe on him, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Now we have this message on DVD and CD. If you call the church
writer, email, we'll send you a copy. To receive a copy of
the sermon you have just heard, send a request to todd.nyvern
at gmail.com, or you may write or call the church at the information
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