Dr Greg Bahnsen - Sober News about Hell: The Destiny of the Damned (Revelation 20:7-21:8) (Part 1)

This morning I'm beginning a new series on the doctrine of hell. And I would ask your prayers for me as I not only prepare, but also deliver the messages to you. It's not one of those topics that you look forward to, that you enjoy going into, but I am more and more convinced, even more so than when I decided to do the series, now that I'm into my research and preparation of how dreadfully the Christian Church is in a bad state with respect to this and how much we need to hear these words, though they may be somber this morning. I'd like to speak to you on the destiny of the damned. And our scripture reading is found in Revelation, the 20th chapter, beginning at verse seven, Revelation 20 at the seventh verse. And we'll be reading into the 21st verse, verse eight. 21st chapter, verse eight. Hear now, God's word. And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to war, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. And fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet. And they shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them. And they were judged every man, according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth are passed away, and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne, saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things are passed away. And he that sitteth on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he saith, right, for these things are faithful and true. And he said unto me, they are come to pass. I am the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things. And I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But for the fearful and unbelieving and abominable, and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death thus far. The reading of God's word. At age 59, the romance novelist Barbara Cartland, who, by the way, has written over 500 books, she puts this poor theologian to shame. I don't know where she gets the time to pump out all this stuff, and I really wish she would stop it. But at age 89, she was asked whether she was afraid of dying. And she replied, and I quote, not a bit. It will either be better than this life or nothing at all. In which case there is no point in being frightened. Now I want to ask you, what is it? Dreadfully? What is it? What option, what possibility has she totally overlooked in that answer? Isn't it amazing that someone could offer that kind of public response? Are you afraid of dying? Well, of course not. It's either going to be better or it's going to be nothing. Isn't that what people would like to believe? That we're either going to have a happier life, something beyond the grave, or what we're going to face is going to be nothing at all. It's going to be annihilation, and therefore there's nothing to be frightened of whatsoever. The ancient Greek philosopher Lucretius tried to teach that very same thing. On the nature of things he taught people. On the nature of things we find that men pass away at death. And so in death there's nothing to fear. Why be afraid? Isn't it amazing? It's either there will be nothing after death to be afraid of because there's Nothing at all. Or if there is something after death yet, it's bound to be something good, something to make us happy, something enjoyable, something blessed. John Lennon, the Beatle songwriter, wrote in a song, perhaps is best known in terms of the cultural impact of its lyrics. Imagine, he wrote, Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us, only sky. What's happened to hell? Barbara Cartland doesn't even think she has to take that into account as one of the possibilities. John Lennon tells us, and generations willing to follow him in this, you shouldn't worry about heaven or hell. As a matter of fact, it's just this life. That's all there is. There ain't no more. In a British TV special entitled A Brief History of Hell, this was aired in 1991 on BBC Channel 2. For my friends from England here A Brief History of Hell the author of a book entitled Visions of Heaven and Hell, Richard Cavendish, commented, and I quote him, in our century we have created hells on earth on a bigger scale and perhaps of a more horrible kind than any previous century has done yet there has been a very general retreat from the idea of hell. And so we're doing more and more on the face of planet earth to create hell. But when it comes to our theological convictions, the idea of hell is fading very quickly. If it has not faded altogether, as some authors think. The idea of hell is rejected outright in many quarters. In some places the idea of hell is so abused, it has been so abused that it's now being avoided in the first place. It's rejected outright. Indeed, our culture shows an outright contempt for any traditional biblical talk about hell. When do you see hell brought up on prime time television? I realize every generalization has its exceptions, but as a generalization, is it not true that the doctrine of hell is brought up on tv? When people are wanting to make fun of some kind of backwoods fundamentalist preacher or that outlook, it is not something that is taken seriously. There is contempt for that idea, from the mindless self assuring cant about nobody believing such things anymore, to the arrogant ridicule that you get from academics in our universities and comedians on our stages and indeed even some religious types outright reject the doctrine of hell, the doctrine of annihilation, that when you get done living this life, there will be no more. If you're a wicked person, you'll only survive this life if you are righteous and you're going to know the blessings of God. That doctrine is taught by Christian Science. It's Taught by the Jehovah's Witnesses, taught by the Seventh Day Adventists, by the Theosophist. And the list could go on. And so on the one hand, we see the doctrine of Hell outright rejected today, but we also see the doctrine of Hell, I dare say, even in mainline evangelical folks, fundamentalist churches, being downplayed and avoided. And I think that's because in the past perhaps it is thought that it was abused. Many Christians who believe in Hell have shown a rather cavalier, dare I say, a calloused indifference to the horror about which they are speaking. Maybe even a gloating disregard for its unbelievable torment, since after all, it's others who are going to undergo it and not ourselves. I can't tell you how in the preparation of this message, I continually ask God to keep me and to forgive me if I have been guilty of this myself. When we speak of Hell, we need to know how horrible what we are speaking of is. But many Christians, I think, have perhaps been cavalier about that. We just offhand speak about people are going to go to Hell. The doctrine of hell, to be sure, has been embellished in shameless ways by many well meaning preachers. You can think maybe of famous preachers and evangelists who have drawn graphic pictures of Hell and have embellished the biblical picture in a way which is embarrassing from a scholarly standpoint and shameless in terms of its emotional manipulation. It's also been an instrument of manipulation by shameless clerics and politicians. If you study the doctrine and how it's been used to keep people in line and to line the pockets of those who are supposed to be selling or providing relief from hell to others. So the doctrine of Hell has certainly been abused by Christians and that has maybe brought the pendulum to swing the other direction by way of overcompensation. And so we don't hear sermons on Hell, we don't hear series on Hell in the Christian church today, not very much anymore. Nonetheless, though it is rejected outright in our culture and by some religious groups, and though it's been abused, then maybe we're over overreacting by downplaying it. Nevertheless, it is a constant, solid and unavoidable element of what Scripture teaches us. But you see, that's what makes it so hard to teach you about Hell today or to convince people about Hell because it's so constant in the Bible. But we live in a generation of biblical illiteracy. I'm not using this expression offhand. I really never cease to be amazed at how stupid American people are about the Bible. I'm not getting at having doctrinal differences with believers on this. That and the other fine point, say, about baptism or predestination or anything like that. I'm talking about people who just have no idea of what's in the Bible and what's in Shakespeare. They can't distinguish them or are actually people who don't even know Shakespeare or the Bible, much less be able to identify who said what. We live in an abysmal age of biblical ignorance. And when that's the case, talk of hell is going to be especially difficult when there's so little awareness of even the literary content of the Bible as a book, much less its basic doctrinal contours. The Bible is not read even as literature, by people anymore. And therefore the negative responses of unbelievers are prone to be guided, I think, by misconceptions, by guesswork, by speculation. Now, I say this because I have found that even in the case of most Christians, if you were to ask them detailed and precise questions about the doctrine of hell, they would give you really fuzzy, in many cases, misleading answers. And they're supposed to know better. So how can I expect the unbelieving world to be responding to the doctrine of hell in a correct way when so few people understand even what the Bible says about it? I'm not yet at the level of saying accept what it says about it. I'm just saying know what it says about it. And our culture doesn't know anymore what the Bible says. And of course, believers, on the other hand, are going to be much more easily led astray by doctrinal compromises which aim to make the Bible's teaching more palatable to modern sensibilities. If believers are not familiar with the extensive teaching of the Bible with respect to hell. And so that's why I've chosen to preach on this series. Somebody asked how many sermons I'm going to present on it. I'm not sure just yet. But I do know that the more I get into it, the longer the series will get. I think we have to become familiar with the pervasive, and I do mean pervasive biblical presentation of the reality of hell. And modern theologians are going to be of very little help to us here. Modern theologians include those who just outright reject the biblical witness because it's unpalatable to their taste. And modern theologians include those who are now toning down the doctrine of hell to what they deem to be more manageable proportions. Because if you understand the full strength fury of the doctrine of hell as it's found in the Bible. You have to either run for your life and hope that you have an opportunity to convince everybody, you know, that there's a way of escape, or you've got to find some way to negotiate that. So there really is no middle ground. There is no kind of, well, take it or leave it attitude when it comes to hell, if you understand what the Bible says about it. But in our day and age, modern theologians are doing their best to trip up the people of God. With respect to this, Clark Pinnock, once an evangelical theologian of some stature, has written, everlasting torment is intolerable from a moral point of view because it makes God into a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz for victims whom he does not even allow to die. Intolerable from a moral point of view. This a Christian theologian dares to say in the face of the biblical testimony. John A.T. robinson, once Bishop of Woolwich, said in 1960 or the 1960s, Pardon me, and I quote him, in a universe of love, there can be no heaven which tolerates a chamber of horrors, no hell for any which does not at the the same time make it hell for God. He cannot endure it and he will not. There's a bishop in the English church who openly declares that if there were a hell, God could not endure it, and he certainly will not do so. John Hick, one of the best known philosophers of religion in our generation, writes, for a conscious creature to undergo faith physical and mental torture through unending time is horrible and disturbing beyond words. And the thought of such torment being deliberately inflicted by divine decree is totally incompatible with the idea of God as infinite love. The words of M.J. savage in his book Life After Death I think really capture. They're rather insulting, but they really capture the spirit of modern theology. He wrote, if the doctrine of eternal punishment was clearly and unmistakably taught in every leaf of the Bible and on every leaf of all the Bibles of all the world, I could not believe a word of it. In other words, it makes no difference what the Bible says. Though you could prove it to me from a literary standpoint that this is what God has said and this is what the word of God intends to communicate to us, I could not, I will not believe it. And so what we have in our day and age are the wimpish Mickey Mouse theologians who come along now wanting to reinterpret the the word of God for us. If ever there was intellectual disdain called for, it's for those who do this with the Bible. And a good example by parallel, it seems to me, is those who want to make the Bible out favorable to homosexuality. There are people who just can't endure the idea that the Bible might teach that homosexuals are under the wrath and curse of God or that that's an abomination. And so you read, they write long books, doing their best to go through amazing gymnastics with the biblical text to make it end up not say what it says. And the same sort of thing you find in the case of these wimpish theologians who are trying to tell us that what the Bible tells us about hell is not to be taken in anything close to a literal fashion. And so the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Hobgood, in 1991, said, now, this is classic. He said, hell is an internal experience caused by people's unwillingness to open themselves up to love. That's what hell's all about. So if the Bible speaks of hell, it can't possibly be an actual place of eschatological damnation that people will objectively go through for all eternity. It has to be some kind of internal state of our own making and is simply a failure to enjoy and to open yourself up to love. Isn't that Hell? Well, you know, the amazing thing is, though, modern theologians have turned away from the doctrine of hell as it's taught in the Bible, and have compromised the doctrine as it's taught in the Bible and our culture. I dare say if you study our language, we know very well how to talk about hell. We know what hell is. Now, I don't endorse the widespread abuse and crude use of the word hell, but I do think if you study it, which is something of my specialty in philosophy, linguistic analysis, you do learn some amazing things about our culture, cultural concept of hell, and of the Eagles recently got back together. Some of you are very happy about that. Some of you don't even know what I'm talking about. So this group, the Eagles, gets back together, and their reunion album is entitled Hell Freezes Over. Okay? And that's because they. They were a group like so many secular groups that can't stand one another that when they finally went their separate ways, one of them was asked, would they ever get back together? And he said, yeah, when Hell Freezes Over. Well, now they have gotten back together so cutely, they've named their album Hell Freezes Over. Well, why Hell Freezes Over? Well, because hell is supposed to be a place with such intense heat that the idea of it freezing over is impossible. Right. That will never happen. That's what that expression is all about. Our crude and our irreligious vocabulary certainly overuses the term hell in ways which show, I think, frightening insensitivity and a lack of requisite solemnity. But we do understand what hell is. Modern theologians may not. They may think it's an internal condition where we don't open ourselves up to love. But our language tells us we understand what hell is. And I want to suggest to you there are three elements that you can see in even our colloquial use of the expression hell. Hell is one, a harsh and dangerous place of two, intense or emphatic, three, suffering in pain. Three elements here, harsh and dangerous. Secondly, intense or emphatic and thirdly, suffering and pain. Hell is a harsh and dangerous place of intense or emphatic suffering and pain. Now, notice how those three elements come to expression in the way in which we speak in our day. First of all, hell is something that is harsh or dangerous. We say of a wretched automobile. It's a car from L, right? This is a dangerous or a harsh experience. They have to drive this car. Anybody ever known an overactive child to be spoken of as a kid? Who's hell on wheels? Hell on wheels? Or in a war zone, you'll hear a commentator say, all hell. Hell has broken loose here. It's become such a dangerous and a harsh place. At catastrophes, expressions alluding to hell are used, such as, we got to get through a mile of hell to reach the survivors. We think of a tough medical procedure, and sometimes we'll say, it's a hell of an operation. It means a real tough, dangerous one to go through. And of angry and drunk sports fans that sometimes said, you know, they went over there to raise hell. And so we're not using the term with the kind of solemnity that we should. But in our culture, when we speak this way, we indicate that we know that hell is, if nothing else, something that's harsh, dangerous. And of course, hell is a place of suffering and pain. Our expressions are real, obvious, indicating that when we say things like the pain that you go through after surgery, it hurts like hell. I mean, not that I use that kind of language, but I can tell you that from my going to the hospital, this work, it hurt like hell. Now people know what I'm talking about. Hell. Hell is being used as a metaphor of something that means intense pain, intense suffering. Sometimes you'll hear drug users say, a recovered cocaine addict say, I just went through hell to break free of that what's it like to live in prison? It's sheer hell. My parents now live in Phoenix. If you've ever been there in August, you understand the expression, it's as hot as hell. In Phoenix, we see a poster about homelessness saying, homelessness is hell. Now, in all of those kinds of expressions, once again, we see that we understand that hell is a place of suffering and pain. It's a harsh, dangerous place of suffering and pain. But then the second element that I gave you in my little analysis of how we use the expression is that it's a dangerous place of intense or emphatic suffering and pain. And so much do we know that. That hell has come to be, in our language, amazingly an expression for emphasis, not necessarily emphasis on suffering or on danger, but just emphasis itself. And so you'll hear, say, a retired. You'll hear somebody speak of a retired teammate, the star of the team, and they'll say, we miss him like hell. Now, when you think about, if hell is a suffering place, how could you miss him like hell? No one's going to miss hell. But what that means is, because hell is a place of intense suffering, we miss him intensely. We miss him like hell is intense. We miss him intensely as well. Or think of that towering home run of which somebody says, he just smacked the hell out of that ball. He smacked the hell out of the ball. What does that mean? He knocked the torment out of the ball. He smacked the hell out of it. No, it means he hit it with intense power. Right? And so hell is an intense place, an emphatic place of suffering. At the funeral of Malcolm Forbes, the American millionaire, his son is said to have addressed him or addressed the corpse by saying, it's been a hell of a party. Thanks for the trip. A hell of a party. What could that expression mean? Well, think about it. It certainly doesn't mean that something enjoyable a party is like hell. Hell's not going to be a party, is it? But a party that is extremely fun is a hell of a party because hell is extreme. So the party, if it's extremely fun, is a hell of a party. You see what I'm getting at, how our language is reflecting what really is an old traditional understanding about hell, even though the expression seems so strange. Someone who's interviewed after winning a championship, sometimes they'll be asked, well, what's it feel like to win? And you'll hear this expression from intelligent athletes who say, well, it just beats the hell out of losing. Beats the hell out out of losing. What could that Expression mean. Does that mean that losing loses its torment? It beats the hell out of the losing experience, the torment out of the losing experience. No, what it means is it beats it intensely, emphatically. It beats the hell, the intensity out. And then you hear people say, I hope to hell that da da da da da da da. I hope to hell. What does it mean to hope to hell? Usually hope on God or pray to God you don't hope to hell. Well, I hope to hell means I really hope. I emphatically hope. Am I right? And so in our language, interestingly enough, though it is crude to be sure, and though it is not solemn and it is not serious enough, when we hear all these expressions and we hear it far too much, we indicate that in our culture we do, down deep, know what hell is. Hell is a harsh and dangerous place of intense or emphatic suffering and pain. I want to ask this morning in our opening of this series on the doctrine of. Of hell, just very simply, what does the text in Revelation 20:and 21 teach us about hell? What is hell? If we just pay attention to this text at the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation, chapter 20 and 21. We began our reading this morning at the seventh verse. And I have to be careful because I would gladly get off into expounding the book of Revelation and its, its contours and chronology and so forth for you. But needless to say, the end of the book of Revelation is dealing with the end of history, okay? And at the end of history, we hear that Satan is going to be loosed from a kind of restraint that's been on him for a long period of time, for a thousand years. When that thousand years is finished, Satan will be loosed out of his prison and he's going to go forth and gather the nations together in rebellion against God. And so the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, will be gathered to war against the saints of God and over the entire earth. This rebellion will capture the minds and the souls of men, and they will oppose the people of God and will oppress the church. And then we read that God puts an end to the rebellion and of course, an end to human history as we now know it, by sending fire from heaven and devouring them. This fire from heaven is allusion to the Lord Jesus Christ returning in fiery flame, even as Paul tells us in the Thessalonian epistles. And now verse 10, we begin to focus on our specific topic for this morning. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire. Fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet. And they shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever. We're told that the beast and the false prophet, those who had in John's day, misled the entire world and oppressed the entire world, have been judged by God by being sent into something called the Lake of Fire. And now Satan at the end of history, encouraging the entire world to rebel against God and to oppress his people again. Satan will now meet up with the beast and the false prophet in this place called the Lake of Fire. Now, I had to read that so that you would understand where the figure of speech, the lake of fire, comes from. And now, specifically, with respect to those people who are going to be judged at the end of history, we read, and I saw a great white throne and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them. That verse alone would call for a sermon. Now, I want you to hear me seriously. The day is coming when God is going to appear. And on that day, the Bible tells us that people will be so frightened out of their minds by facing a holy God that they will look for anywhere to flee and there will be no place found. God is coming. I once debated a man at the University of California, Davis, who was very flippant about the doctrine of hell and very flippant about God. And he said, if God exists, I dare him to come into the auditorium tonight. Atheists through the ages have done that sort of thing. I responded to him. There are many ways in which you can respond to that. But I chose to respond to him by saying, you should be very glad that God does not take you up on that challenge. Because when God arrives, it's not going to be fun for anybody. The day comes when God will show himself. And the Bible says everyone will flee from the face, the one with whom they have to do. But in that day, there won't even be the bushes of the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve can flee to, to run away from God. No exit, no escape. Now all of mankind will face its maker. Verse 12 says, I saw the dead, the great and the small. Small. None were excluded. No one drops through the cracks. God doesn't need a computer system to keep track of the population like the government does or the irs. God knows everyone intimately, and no one is going to escape this day of reckoning. I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And books were Opened. Well, we have learned one thing already, very important about the doctrine of hell. The first element that I want you to see here is that the book of Revelation teaches that there is going to be a final day of universal judgment before God. A final day of universal judgment before God. All mankind stands before him. Books are opened and verse 12 says, the dead were judged. They were judged out of the things that were written in the books according to their works. At the end of verse 13, we read and they were judged, every man, according to their works. It is a persistent element of biblical teaching that a day is coming, a final day is coming when God will judge all mankind. We're going to be really racing through some text of scripture for the next few minutes. So please have your Bibles open and try to follow along with me. Second Timothy 4, verse 1. I charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead by his appearing in his kingdom. He will judge the living and the dead. None will be excluded, and Christ will be the one who does the judging. Acts 17:31. In Athens, Paul preaches to the philosophers of the ancient world. And he says, inasmuch as he hath appointed appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he raised him from the dead, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's public assurance that this man will judge everyone on the final day. There is a day coming of judgment that will terminate earthly history. Jude, verse 6. And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation. He hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. Those are awesome words, aren't they? The great day. Jude doesn't even have to explain. Everybody knows what what the great day is. The judgment of the great day in the Old Testament. Look at Daniel 12, 2. Daniel, the 12th chapter and the second verse. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Jesus himself alludes to that teaching in Daniel. In the fifth chapter of John's gospel. John 5, 28, 29. Jesus says, Marvel not at this, for the hour comes in which all the that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment. Notice Paul's words in Romans 14:10. 12 Paul says in Romans 14:10 but thou why dost thou judge thy brother? Or thou again, why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. Verse 12 so then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. Each one of us will stand before God on the great day when the dead and the living will both appear before him. And there we shall give an account. Matthew 25:31, Matthew 25:31 but when the son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory. And before him shall shall be gathered all the nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. This is a pervasive element of biblical teaching. There is a great and final day of reckoning coming. All the nations, all mankind, the great and the small, the living and the dead, all will appear before him. And on that day, Jesus Christ, the one who has been despised by many and believed on by the saints, Jesus Christ will be the appointed judge. We've already seen that indicated in Acts 17:31, where God has assured us by the resurrection that Jesus will be the one who does the judging. But notice Matthew, Matthew 16:27, 28 for the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds. Jesus will be the judge on that day. Acts 10:42. And he charged us to preach unto the people and to testify that this is he who is ordained of God to be the judge of the living and the dead. Now, I have not exhausted the biblical testimony, and I'm not going to exhaust you by trying to do so. But I wonder if at this point, if you've been going back and forth in your Bible with me, are you not surprised at how often this is taught over and over and over again? There will be a day of judgment. Jesus will be the judge. All men will appear before him, the living and the dead. 2nd Corinthians 5:10. For we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in his body according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad. Every single one of us is going to one day be manifest. Right now you are secret citizens. You are hidden away. Some people know you, but no one knows you perfectly. No one knows every one of your thoughts, every one of your secrets. Every one of you to a certain degree, has a secret life. The day is coming when you will be made manifest, when every single thing that is part of your life is going to be laid out for dissection on the table of God's judgment. And we will all be made manifest, and God will judge whether we have done good or evil. The book of Revelation tells us that there is going to be a final day of reckoning. We call it the Great White Throne Judgment. Secondly, the book of Revelation tells us that on that day books which have recorded everything will be opened. Let's turn back to Revelation to see that in chapter 20, verse 12, and I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and there's another book called the Book of Life. But the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books according to their works. Verse 13 says, and they were judged every man, according according to their works. The only sad thing, misleading thing maybe, about saying that we will be judged according to our works, or that the dead who are going to be sent into hell will be judged according to their works, is that that may give the appearance that the works are outward deeds, conduct that is visible. But the whole idea of the books being opened is that every single thing about your life is recorded therein. By the way, the notion of books being opened is found in Daniel the seventh chapter, verses nine and ten. So turn back quickly to the Old Testament to Daniel again, and now chapter seven, verses nine and ten. I beheld till thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days did sit. His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him. Thousands of thousands ministered unto him, and 10,000 thousand times 10,000 stood before him. The judgment was set, and the books were opened. What will be in these books? Nothing. Nothing will be missed that is part of a person's Life. In Hebrews 4:13, the author of Hebrews tells us that God is that kind of being, and there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight. But all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God sees everything. It makes no difference how many layers of clothes you wear. It makes no difference where you try to hide. God sees you, and he sees everything about you. Matthew 12:36 37 Matthew 12:36 37 and I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words, words Thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. The day is coming when every word that has ever been spoken will be rehearsed. No wonder the Bible says there will be for 10 years being reviewed. I mean, it would just take, we would say forever. It doesn't literally. But you know what I'm getting at? What a huge but we're talking about every word of every human being who's ever lived. Every single word. And Jesus makes the point by saying every idle word. Because I'm an author, I know what it is to want to be on record and off record. Some of you who hang out with me sometimes know that I'll say things that in an offhand way that I wouldn't mean for anyone to read in print. Not that I'm ashamed of what I'm saying. I mean, well, I have that too to worry about. But what I'm talking about here is sometimes we're just not being serious, right? But Jesus says every idle word that we speak, God is going to review as well. Not just the ones that we say, oh, this is on the record. That's what politicians like to do, right? You know, news reporter comes and says, well, this is off the record. Record. This is on the record. Well, with God, everything is on the record. There are things that you have spoken that you don't even remember saying that God has on the record. You're beginning to get the picture. A final day of dreadful reckoning. The books will be opened and every man will be judged out of the those books. Unless your name happens to be in the other book. The book of life. Romans 2:16. In the day when God shall judge the sin secrets of men according to my gospel by Jesus Christ. There's a day coming, not simply when every word that you have spoken will be reviewed, but every thought you have ever had. If this does not unnerve you. You are not listening to me or you don't believe me. The Bible says, says every secret you have, and you know, every one of us in this room has things that we would never once utter publicly. Secrets about ourselves or our thoughts or our desires, whatever it may be. And God knows them, every single one. And they are already recorded in his book. First Corinthians 4, 5. Wherefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the motives of the hearts. And then shall each man have his praise from God. It's not just what we have said. It's not just what we have thought, but all of our motives are going to be judged by God as well. Galatians 6:7 will then be understood very clearly on that day. Don't be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows that shall he reap, the day is coming of reaping when God will open up and make manifest and light up everybody's life to be seen in his holy presence. And this is the one. Remember that Revelation tells us that just his appearance will make men run from Him. And now they have no place to hide. And they appear before him in all of his holy splendor and all of his righteousness. And he opens the books and he says, this is what you are, every deed, every word, every idle word, every secret thought, every motive of your heart recorded. Thirdly, the Book of Revelation teaches us not only that there will be a final day of reckoning before which every man will appear in God's presence, and secondly, that books will be opened and nothing will be missed by God. The Book of Revelation teaches us those who are displeasing in his sight, who have been up to this point in Hades, will now be delivered to the lake of fire. Now this is a point that most Christians, I think, are, are not well familiar with. This is something that has confused many believers even. And so it takes a moment for us to put it in perspective. Revelation 20, verse 14 and death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. Now what can that mean, friends, that Hades is cast into the lake of fire? If Hades is your concern of the ultimate judgment, how could the ultimate judgment or place of ultimate judgment be cast into the lake of fire? And so we need to do a little more refined biblical thinking here. Hades is not the ultimate hell that we think of that follows the Day of Judgment. For those who are in Hades are going to be dumped into the lake of fire. That's what Revelation 20 is teaching us. And so to understand what Hades is, let's look at a couple of texts in the New Testament. Basically, Hades is the opposite of the place of blessing after death, the opposite of heaven, if I can put it that way. But it is an intermediate holding area of punishment until the day of final judgment. Let me say that again, an intermediate holding area of punishment, punishment until the day of judgment. And on the day of Judgment, those who have been in that intermediate holding area of punishment, suffering in soul, will now be united with their bodies, Death, the grave, and Hades, the souls of the damned will be united and now dumped into the lake of fire. Where in body and soul they will now suffer for all eternity. To understand Hades, first look at Matthew, the 11th chapter, verses 23 and 24. Matthew 11:23. And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be exalted unto heaven, thou shalt go down unto Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom, which. Which were done in thee, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. In this expression, you notice how Jesus talks about ascending up into heaven. He goes, no, you will not. You will rather descend into Hades. So Hades is the opposite of the place of blessedness, being in the presence of God in heaven after one dies. And then Luke, the 16th chapter. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we get an even clearer picture of what hades is. Luke 16. And I'll read verses 22 and 23. And it came to pass that the beggar, this is Lazarus, died. And that he was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Abraham's bosom was a metaphor familiar to the Jews for the place of blessedness after death, that they would be joined up with Abraham, the father of the faithful. And so the beggar goes to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And so Hades is the intermediate place after death, before the resurrection, the intermediate place of suffering, where the soul of those who are not right with God will be in torment until the day of judgment. And here in Luke 16, we do see that Hades is characterized by torment and anguish. Verse 23. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things. And Lazarus in like manner, evil things. But now here he is comforted, and thou art in anguish. We are told that the rich man was in torment. Twice it is said he was in anguish. And if you want an illustration of how bad the anguish is when he asked for mercy to be shown him. It would be a grand, magnanimous sign of mercy if Lazarus could have but the tip of his finger dipped in Water and put on the man's tongue. That would be mercy in Hades. Such is the torment of soul. Those who are dead before the resurrection will go to Hades if they are not right with God. And there in anguish would like one drop of water to be placed on their tongues as a sign of mercy. And from Hades there is no hope of crossing over. Verse 26 says, and besides all this between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able and that none may cross over from thence to us. After death, when men are separated into Abraham's bosom, or paradise, or heaven, whichever you want to call it, or on the other hand, into Hades, there will be no crossing of the barrier again. And so you need to have this background so you can understand Revelation 20:21, which is our reading for this morning. Morning where we read Revelation 20:14, and death and Hades, the grave and the place of the departed souls of the damned. Death and Hades themselves now are cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death on the final day, on the final day of judgment, when the books are open. The Bible tells us that those who have suffered such miserable anguish, torment in Hades will now be turned over in resurrected bodies to be judged by God and cast into hell. And we haven't gotten to hell yet. We've only talked about judgment in books in Hades. What is hell? According to the Bible, very simply, it is the lake of fire. The wicked are set. Ultimately, their destiny is set to be the lake of fire. Revelation 20:14, 15. We've just looked at it, but now hear it again. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 21:8. But for the fearful and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and fornicators and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second, the final, the terminal death. What is the altar destiny of the damned? It's hell. The Bible says very simply, fire, a lake of fire. And this too is such a persistent testimony in the Bible that I think maybe you will be surprised. I will not take you through all the texts, but you must be familiar, because our culture is not at how often God says, ultimately fire will be the destiny of the wicked. Psalm 11:6, The eleventh Psalm at the sixth verse, The psalmist says, upon the wicked he will rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. The prophet Isaiah in chapter 33, verse 14 Isaiah 33 at the 14th verse the sinners in Zion are afraid trembling hath seized the godless ones. Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burning? Isaiah 66:24. They shall go forth and look upon the dead bodies of the men that have transgressed against me for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. Malachi4 1. For behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace, and all the proud, and all that work wickedness shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts that shall leave them neither root nor branch. The Old Testament teaches that God has a day of burning that he has set for all the wicked of the earth. Matthew 3:12 how does Jesus speak of hell? Well, here it's John the Baptist before we get to Jesus testimony, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into his garner but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. Matthew 5:5 22 But I say unto you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment. Whosoever shall say to his brother Raca shall be in danger of the council. Whosoever shall say, thou fool shall be in danger of the hell of fire, the hell of fire, the gehenna, which we'll be talking about at a future point in this series. But the point is, it will be fire that will be the ultimate destiny of those who are judged unfavorably by God. Matthew 13:40 42. And therefore the tares are gathered up and burned with fire. So shall it be at 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 weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 18 verses 8 and 9. And if thy hand or thy foot causeth thee to stumble, cut it off and cast it from thee. It is good for thee to enter into life maimed, or halt, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into eternal fire. And if thine eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from thee. It is good for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into the gehenna, the hell of fire. Matthew 25:41 Then shall he say unto them, on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Hebrews 10:27. Hebrews 10:27. There remains no sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. Jude the seventh verse. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the silver cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication, and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. Revelation 14:10. He also shall drink of the wine of the the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. You see, the Bible is consistent in its testimony from COVID to cover, and the image is persistent in the biblical literature that the day is coming when God will rain fire upon the wicked. And so, as Revelation 20:21 teaches us, the day is coming when all men will have their reckoning before God. In that day, books will be opened, and every single thing about us, every single thing about those who come under the dreadful judgment of God, will be revealed. And in that day, those who have been in Hades in torment and anguish of soul, will now be united in their bodies to be cast into the lake of fire, which the Bible has repeatedly spoken of as the ultimate judgmental destiny of the damned. Before I conclude this morning, I want to say one more thing about this fire. Because in our day and age, this is what theologians, even those who wish to be quasi evangelical, are compromising. The Bible teaches us that the torment of this fire never ever ends. Revelation 20:10 and the devil that deceived them was cast into to the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet. Now listen. And they shall be tormented day and night without relief, not a moment's relief, day and night, forever and ever. You might want to compare those words to what Jesus says in Mark 9 verse, verse 43. Mark 9:43. And if thy hand cause thee to stumble, cut it off. It is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands to go into hell. Now listen into the unquenchable fire. The fire that never dies. Thomas Brooks once wrote, could every damned sinner weep a whole ocean? Yet all those oceans together would never extinguish one spark of the eternal fire. We're talking about very sober, solemn, dreadful things here. For any theologian to dare suggest that hell is nothing more but the inner creation of an attitude that's unloving. Such a theologian will face the dreadful fury of God for not warning people about this place of anguish that shall never, ever be extinguished, and the torment shall never, ever be relieved. In this one important respect, C.S. lewis, I think, was gravely mistaken when he said the doors of hell are locked on the inside. That image has a place. There is a sense in which people will, when they go to hell, be given what they have been asking for. But the point of the biblical account is that once they are given it, they will not want to be there. One drop of water on the tongue would be mercy for them. They would leave in a moment if they could, once they realize what their sin will be. And. And the doors of hell will not then be locked on the inside. They will be locked on the outside. And no one will leave. You will want to know, so I will tell you now. Is the fire literal? No, because it's much worse. The Bible speaks to us. God condescends to give us some picture that we might understand. You want to know how terrible it will be to be under his wrath? Imagine burning in a furnace forever. You know, there isn't any. Of all the kinds of pains there are, there's no one that doesn't respond to fire in that way. Can you imagine a lake of fire consuming you and there's nothing you can do about it? That is a picture. It is a figure of speech. Somebody says, oh, you. You're not a literalist. Then I say, no, it's much worse than that. That's just the way of God getting the point across. When Jesus speaks of the worm that never dies, we aren't to think of a literal worm. When he speaks of the wine of God's fury, we aren't to think of some intoxicating beverage as a literal thing, nor are we to think of literal fire. When the lake of fire as a metaphor is used, what will hell be? It will be severe. It will be conscious. It will be suffering that will never, ever end. As I put it in the title of the message this morning, it is very simply, the destiny of the damned. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. Would you like some relief from this turn with me? As we close to Revelation 1:18 for words that are so soothing, so gloriously comforting in the face of this dreadful message of unending torment from the wicked. And Jesus said, fear not. I am the first and the last and the living one. And I was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. My friends, the day is coming when death and Hades will have nowhere to flee and will be cast into the lake of fire. If you would not undergo that day and that dreadful judgment, turn to Jesus, because he has the keys that can set you free. He was the one who died and now lives forevermore. He is the one who cried out, my, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that you would not have to cry that yourself. He has died and now lives again. He's been raised from the dead to show that he has conquered death. He has paid the price of sin. And if you would not face the dreadful destiny of the damned, then you need to turn to the one who alone has the keys to set you free from it. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, save us. Save us from our ignorance of your word. Save us from our mindless indifference to this dreadful message which is found so pervasively in your word, that a day of reckoning is coming when the books will be opened and those who are not right with you will suffer in body and soul torment and anguish that shall never be relieved forever. Oh, Jesus, save us. You are our only, our one and only hope in life and death. Open the doors of Hades and set us free. We ask that you would accept somehow, by your grace and mercy, accept that our sins would be laid upon you because you have undergone hell for us already. And, Lord Jesus, do impute to us and credit to our account your righteousness, so that when that final and dreadful day of judgment comes and we stand before the Great White Throne, we will know the relief that our names are written in the book of life, that our names have been written before the foundation of the world in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb that was slain so that we would not undergo that final judgment. Jesus, set us free from hell, for we pray in your blessed name. Amen.