God's Hell

This sermon is titled "God's Hell" by John Wagner.  Within 20 years in America, this is the kind of preaching that may have men thrown in prison.  Do we, as professing evangelical Christians, really believe in the reality and horrors of an eternal hell?  John Piper said that he listens to a preacher for a couple minutes to see if that man truly believes in hell.  This is an incredibly hard sermon to hear but so very needful for both Christians and non-Christians alike.  Please take some time to listen.  Christian, if you can hear this with a dry, calloused, uncaring heart then something is seriously wrong with you. Non-Christian, the greatest love a man can show is to tell others the truth-especially if they know that truth is offensive.

Here is the link:

God's Hell by John Wagner

Brief outline/Partial manuscript(Main points & notable quotes):

KEY TEXT: Matthew 25:46a "And these will go away into everlasting punishment..."

1. HELL IS A REAL PLACE

-"Men's natural instinct is to ignore it or flat-out deny it."

-Strongest support of doctrine of hell comes from Jesus Himself. Jesus said more about hell than He did heaven. Word most used for hell in N.T. is Gehenna. Gehenna used 12 times in N.T. (Jesus used them 11 times).

-Luke 16:19-31; Matt. 13:41-42

-"Is it possible that Jesus believed that hell wasn't real? Or there would be a time when there would no longer be any wicked to punish?"

2. THE REASON FOR GOD'S HELL. WHY IS THERE A HELL?

-"Why has this glorious, merciful, compassionate, tender, Almighty God prepared a place called hell? 

It's bound up in the word "punishment. There is an absolute necessity for punishment."

-"The reason for the very existence of hell is grounded in the very nature of God."

-Habakkuk 1:13 "...of purer eyes than to behold evil"

-"[We have] no idea of the glistening purity, absolute righteousness, and glorious holiness of Jehovah."

-In every act of sin, we dethrone God and put ourselves on the throne."

-"Man in sin sets his will above the Lord's....Every time I set my will above God I'm kicking God as filth beneath my feet."

-"[God says], 'I will not bend my law. I will not tolerate sin to go unpunished. I will not wink my eye. I will not pass over transgression. Sin must be punished.'"

-"God is love...but God is holy and this God loves holiness, this God loves purity. The only two emotions proper to God are love and wrath. Because this God loves purity...He also hates iniquity and sin wherever He finds it."

-"Love demands an absolute hatred for evil."

-"If you want to see justice in its full light, lets back up to Calvary..."

WHY DO MEN DIE AND GO TO HELL?

2 Thess. 1:8-9

-The gospel says turn and live, repent and believe, come to Christ. And if you go the rest of your days disobeying that gospel command...you're going to find out the reason for hell."

-"The soul that sins shall die"

"He who is guilty in one point is guilty of all."

"It will be more tolerable for Sodom than for you (the Pharisees

3. THE REPRESENTATION OF HELL (How is hell represented in the Bible? What picture does it give?)

a. It is a place of parting

"..these shall go away..." [God will] separate the sheep from the goats.

"away from friends, loved ones, from the appeals of ministers to come to christ, away from prayers for you, away from peace, hope, purity, away from God, away from Christ."

b. It is a place of indescribable pain

-"Now you tell me, 'Pastor, you're just trying to scare me.' You're dead right.

"fear the one who can cast your body and soul into hell."

"the worm dies not and the fire's not quenched"

"a place of fire and brimstone."

"a place of weeping and wailing."

-"Can you imagine what it would be like to open the lid of hell and hear the weeping and wailing of the damned?"

-"Little do men realize the power and the depth of the wrath of God."

c. It is a place of utter darkness

-Jude "the blackness of darkness"

"In hell there is not light because the light of the world is gone...separation from Christ has to be utter darkness."

d. It is the place of the wicked

-"these shall go away."

the devil and his angels...

Revelation 22:15

-"You're going to remember all the opportunities you had...will that not be a part of hell?"

e. It is the the place of unsatisfied desires

-"You'll still have your desires in hell...but you won't be able to satisfy them in hell."

f. It is a place of perpetual damnation

-"It is that word "ever" that breaks the heart...If you could ever come to a time when after a hundred thousand years you could come to a time when you know there was a door you could leave it would make it more bearable."

-"Oh my friends, it is forever and ever and ever..."

...there is no door out of hell

-"In Greek mythology the words were 'abandon hope all ye who enter here'"

4. CONCLUSION

"You know what's good? I don't have to end there."

Matthew 25:46 "...but the righteous into eternal life."

How did they get that righteousness? 

"God is going to punish sin...either God's going to punish it in you...or God has punished it in Jesus Christ."