In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'Are You Living in the Real World?', he discusses the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16:19-31 to explore the reality of heaven and hell. Brown emphasizes that both are as real as physical locations on Earth and are crucial elements of the Christian faith. The sermon highlights the importance of understanding hell as a place of real torment, where all senses are active and where there is no escape. It aims to awaken the congregation to the seriousness of the Great Commission, urging them to live with a conscious awareness of the reality of hell and the necessity of spreading the Gospel. Brown addresses common misconceptions about hell, such as annihilationism and universalism, and argues for a biblical understanding of eternal punishment. He stresses the need for repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation, warning that the absence of belief in hell leads to a lack of urgency in evangelism. The sermon concludes by reinforcing the call to action for Christians to preach the Gospel with a renewed sense of urgency and compassion.

Luke 16, 19-31 There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lass, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.

And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then 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 tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus' evil things. But now he is comforted, and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great go fix, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor those from there pass to us." Then he said, I beg you therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house.

For I have five brothers that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them." And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. Father God, Lord, you created us in our mother's womb with an eternal soul. And because we were born into sin because of our father Adam, Lord, we are separated from you.

And every child and every boy and every man has to wrestle with the salvation. Lord this is a serious subject that we are going to hear today. May you Lord as we hear the preaching from Scott, may you help every single person here who hears this preaching to hear and to wrestle with the eternal things, with their salvation, which is certain that we will either go, Lord, to be with you or to be in this place, Lord, that is so terrible that even the words that the preacher uses to describe it would not be able to give it the full weight. Lord, I pray for Scott today that you give him an anointing to reach those and to open up the hearts today, Lord, in the ears, as we offer the only way to salvation, which is Jesus Christ, and that everyone may understand that hell is certain for those who reject Christ. I pray for this preaching today, Lord, that it may just Bring the biblical fear of God to everyone, and also the joy to those who have chosen Jesus.

Amen. We've been spending the last few weeks considering the greatness of the Great Commission. We set aside, even Wednesday night, to consider a church that was effective in dealing with the Great Commission. Our heart's desire is that we really would become a church that does so wonderfully and carefully, passionately work to fulfill the Great Commission. And of course we've had a large gathering to consider dozens of areas of the Great Commission.

And part of this desire of ours to bring us to a greater awareness of the Great Commission brings us to this subject of hell. Now, in the next three weeks, we're going to take a brief pause in our studies in the Gospel of Matthew and we're going to do three topical messages. This week on on hell, next week on heaven, and then the following week on a whole element of worship that has to do with feasting. And so these three topical messages will be together and then we'll reenter Matthew chapter 24 right after that. And we're bringing this to our congregation in order to help us sharpen our understanding of the real world, to help us see more clearly the natural world in which we live, to see the places of our existence from now and into eternity.

Have you ever met someone who you just didn't feel was really living in the real world? And that's really the question I want to ask. Are we really living in the real world? Are we conscious of the way the world really is? Or are we like John Lennon who said, you know, nothing is real.

You know, we're often like that with our thoughts and our feelings about heaven and hell. It's like we're not really living in the real world, but rather in a world of our own absorptions and perceptions and preferences. But heaven and hell are very real. And what we learn from scripture is heaven and hell, They're just as real as Wake Forest. They're just as real as Grandfather Mountain.

They're just as real as the Neuse River. They are physical Realities they're physical places that God has prepared by His creative hand. And so this is the real world that we're speaking about here. It's not some ethereal, strange place that sort of exists in people's consciousness. It's far more than that.

It's the real world. And I want to give you a number of reasons, particularly why we want to talk about hell this morning. The first is this. Because we ought to understand the universe and our place in it as best we can. Mankind is incurably fascinated with the marvels of the physical world, the wonderful features of stars and mountains and valleys and the vastness of the heavens, the subterranean world, you know, the ice caves, the lava tubes, the underground rivers and lakes.

There's a fascination that we all have with these geographical features that exist in the world and from what we can see also in the heavens. But God has prepared other places where He declares His glory. We know that the heavens declare the glory of God, but hell also does declare the glory of God. And this place called Hades or Gehenna or Tofet, that most people know as hell. Hell is one of the great wonders of the created world.

Everything declares His glory, including the fires of hell. And so with that, I just want to say this is your Father's world that we'll be describing here this morning. And this is why we ought to understand the universe and our place in it as best we can. Here's another way to think about it. My father-in-law used to say all the time, if we really believed in hell, we would live differently.

So here's another reason. Lord Jesus Christ spoke often of hell. There is more from the Lord Jesus Christ on the subject of hell than any other author. In fact, there's more in the Gospels about hell than any other part of Scripture. There's more loaded right there out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ than any other place in Scripture.

And so we know from the Lord Jesus that hell is something that should be feared. He said, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. We also recognize that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, He holds the keys to hell. In Revelation chapter 118, he says, I am he who lives and was dead, and behold, I live for evermore. Amen.

And I have the keys of Hades and of death. So we should understand this subject because the Lord Jesus Christ spoke often of it. And then thirdly, because few believe in hell anymore. We should speak of it Because it's sort of something that's been put on the bottom shelf. And you know, there are basically three views of the eternal state.

There's annihilationism, which states that your body is just destroyed. You go into an unconscious state. You don't exist anymore. The Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, the open theists embrace this whole idea. Then there's the view that we'll be dealing with today, and that is just the view of eternal, there is a place of eternal torment.

And then finally there's universalism, which says that all will be saved. You know, if you're interested in the Mormon view, you know, the Mormons have a very different view than what the Lord Jesus Christ communicates here in this text here. In the Mormon view, all return to the spirit world, a place called spirit prison. You don't go to spirit prison unless you've been baptized. You get to bypass that.

And then you're instructed, and according to Mormon doctrine, those who are instructed, most of them get a better life and they go to a better place and there are very, very few that end up in hell. And hell is very, very different than what is described here in this passage of Scripture. But we should speak of it because very few believe in hell. And there are many who really do not ever want to talk about it, particularly in their preaching of the gospel. And it's a terrible lapse that has come upon the church because the church today hates any idea of judgment.

And then the fourth reason is this, A right understanding of hell should always live in the backdrop of our conscience to give us a sense of reality so that we see people rightly. There should in our minds be a sense of how the world really is as we are looking at people. I would just suggest that a consciousness of hell is an important part of all of our thinking regarding the Great Commission. And in all of our doings in the world, every person that we see, we should somehow have a sense of the way the world is really wired. And hell is part of that.

And if we are a people who go, there must be an adequate reason to go, to go to those who are bound for hell. And I know what's true, maybe in your life is true in my life, I'm just recognizing I must have a greater consciousness of hell so that I would have a greater conscientiousness to preach the gospel and a greater care for people. You pass people, I pass people day by day who are bound for hell. Do we love them? Do we care about them?

Are we even truly believing that this is the state that they may finally fall upon if they don't repent. We often forget the hostility of God toward the wicked. In Psalm 7, 1, we read that God is angry with the wicked every day. In Nahum chapter 1, we read, God is jealous and the Lord avenges. The Lord avenges and is furious.

The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries. And he reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the dust of His feet. The rebukes of the sea, He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, And dries up all the rivers.

Bation and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts. The mountains quake before him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at his presence. Yes, the world and all who dwell in it, who can stand before his indignation, and who can endure the fierceness of his anger, his fury poured out like a fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him." And then we read this in verse 7 in Nahum chapter 1. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him. But with an ever-overflowing flood, he will make an utter end of its place, and darkness will pursue his enemies." So the Lord has enemies, those who refuse to repent and to believe in His Son.

And that's why the Apostle Paul said in Romans 5, while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Whenever you are holding out the spectacle of hell, you should also hold out the scandal of the Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ died for sinners in order to save them from wrath, the wrath of hell. God is an offended party and hell is the place where He casts all those who offend Him, who have not trusted and believed in the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and have turned from their sins, and hated their lawlessness, and have desired holiness." And so there must be a reconciliation. But the problem is that, you know, hell makes little difference in people's lives. I don't know if you've noticed that.

The biblical testimony about hell doesn't seem to affect people that much. We live in an era that's characterized by naturalism. It's characterized by the belief that the Bible is an old, confusing, impractical book of contradictory myths that have very little to do with reality. And when you couple this with the reality that we live in a world that is so pleasant And it's so beautiful that there's hardly anything in the world to tell you that there is death and destruction to come. You have people to whom hell makes very, very little difference to them at all.

I was driving home this week after spending several hours just poring over, passage after passage, on hell. And I was driving home there in the evening. You know, after, in the morning, I'd seen a beautiful sunset. And I was so struck by the contrast when I was driving home after reading of these horrifying scenes of destruction. There I was driving home in the stillness of the evening, and it was just a beautiful evening.

The mild temperature, the beauty of the beauty everywhere that I looked, it was such a sharp contrast to everything that I had been reading. So people cannot believe that there is a hell when the earth is so pleasant and it's so beautiful. And there's one glory after another declared at the resting of almost every place of the human eye. But here's one thing that I think we should recognize. We live now between heaven and hell, and the closest you'll ever get to hell in this life is now.

And the closest you'll ever get to heaven is right now. Because God has placed you in a world where there are pictures of both. There are feelings of both. There are terrors of both. There are examples of both, heaven and hell, in this world.

And God has wired this world so that you live in a time sort of between heaven and hell, where you can gain a vision of each one through life on this earth. And the four tastes that we have of heaven and the four tastes that we have of hell are not heaven and they're not hell. You know, what sinners experience of the beauties of this world is the most of heaven they will ever experience. And it is true, you know, there are so many happinesses in this world. There are so many comforts, there are so many tastes and colors and experiences and feelings and satisfactions that God has loaded into the world.

These are four tapes of heaven. These are pictures to show us that there is good that God has invested into the universe, even in this world. And at the same time, there are deprivations and heartaches. There is death that are warnings to us. The hardships that come from sin, the broken relationships, the depression, the suicide, the anger, the slander, the hatred.

All of these things are just pictures of hell. But you live now between heaven and hell. And you cannot and will not feel the full fury of hell or the full goodness and beauty and happiness of heaven in this world. But you can have foretaste of it. You know, perhaps it's because of the patience of God that people are so unaware of the terrors of hell.

Ecclesiastes 8-11 says, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. In other words, because God in this world, between heaven and hell, He has patience with sinners. He lets sinners continue in their sin, and He doesn't destroy them completely. Well, He may, some. But that's not the norm, is it?

He lets sin go on, and the punishments of our sin come in the grinding of our hearts, the longings, the deprivations. These things happen to us here. But they're not the full fury and so we can live with it. Because God is merciful, He's patient, He's holding back His wrath towards sinners in this world. Even the worst of sinners, He holds back His wrath.

And so the patience of the Lord sometimes dupes people to continue in their sin. And if they're not told of what God is going to do with sin, then they just consider the patience of the Lord another day of freedom to sin." So I'm just wanting to recognize that While hell doesn't necessarily motivate the non-Christian, it should motivate the Christian to seek out the non-Christian. So we're bringing this subject before our congregation to sharpen our understanding of the times in which we live, that we live between heaven and hell, and that there is a coming day of judgment that should always be in our minds as we consider the Great Commission. And it should help us, it should motivate us, it should get us out of our seats to go and find someone who is bound for help. So that's why we're bringing that today, as we've been speaking about the Great Commission.

Now we've read Luke chapter 16. You have an outline in front of you. There are many passages in the New Testament that speak of hell, and I've been reading them and I ended up selecting this text to use as our touchstone for the torments of hell. As you can see on the outline, there are several points that are being made about the torments of hell. There are 13 points that I want to make today.

First of all, hell is a real place. This is not a parable. Parables are different than what we find in this passage of Scripture. Parables are distinct from this text because this is about real people, real historical people in a real historical place that we know about. And there are several distinctions here.

But there is a real rich man and a real poor man who go to a real place and meet with a real historical figure by the name of Abraham. And The Bible describes a real place with real people, with real angels, with real fire, with real anguish. And in this passage you get the who, what, where, when, and why in hell. A who goes there, what happens there, where it happens, and why it happens. Those elements are all in this passage of Scripture.

And what we find here is we find a rich man who prayed to the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we find a poor man who is carried into heaven, into the bosom of Abraham, which is synonymous with heaven, by the angels. And he did not fall asleep or cease to exist. He knew what had happened to him. He was carried there in the same way that angels are about, they serve as ministering spirits to those who will inherit eternal salvation. That's what Hebrews says.

And the angels here perform this function. They've been taking care of the saints on earth from time immemorial, and now the angels are carrying a man to heaven. Remember When we were going through Deuteronomy where the love of God is explained, where God says, I carried you as a father carries his son. This is what God has done with this man. And this man's life, which was hard on earth, he was so poor and so stricken by disease the dogs were licking his sores.

He was the poorest of the poor. And now, unknown in the world, he's now carried to the unknown world of heaven. And he's placed into the known world of the presence of his Father in heaven. And so, And so, this is a real place. Heaven, or hell is a real place.

It is not a parable. And It is a place that God has determined to show his wrath. You say, why? Why hell? We know.

We know why hell. We know from Romans. What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with such long suffering, the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. And here, the plan of God is revealed, and that is God desires to glorify himself through judgment, through the judgment of sinners, and that He would take some and place them in glory, and others He has created as vessels for wrath. This is a way that He is declaring His wrath.

He is displaying His wrath against sin. You might say, why hell? Why did God create hell? He did it to demonstrate His displeasure and wrath against sin. It says here, he was wanting to show his wrath against sin.

He's holding it back now. This is why so much sin is sort of gotten away with in the world. But there will be a time when he will no longer hold back his wrath. And he is wanting to show his wrath. As Paul said in Romans, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

And he speaks of mankind receiving in themselves the penalty of sin that is due. That's the temporal punishment of sin. That's the heartache, the breakdown, the psychological and emotional and physical and relational problems that come from sin. That we do receive the penalty within ourselves, which is due, but God is wanting to make His wrath known at another time in a more forceful way, because He's declaring His glory, that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for mercy and for glory. Second Thessalonians chapter 1 says that he judges in order to be admired.

He says, these shall be punished, 2 Thessalonians 1, 5-10. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe. So He is bringing about this judgment for His own admiration. God is glorifying Himself in judgment so that the admiration of those who have repented of their sins would be toward Him. And that He would shed light on all things, that He brings to light the hidden things of darkness to reveal the counsel of hearts in 1 Corinthians 4-5, because he wanted to make his wrath known.

So the first thing we learn is that hell is a real place. It's not a parable. And it is designed for a specific purpose, and that is to declare His wrath so that He might glorify Himself in mercy through salvation. That's why He created that real place. Like I said before, it's just as real as Wake Forest.

It's just as real as Grandfather Mountain. It's just as real as the crea... Of all the rest of the created world. It's not some ethereal place. And then secondly, hell is arrived at through a natural progression.

Verse 23, The rich man also died and was buried and being in the torments of Hades. You see these three stages. He dies and then he's buried And then he's in torment. This is the natural progression of the unrepentant sinner. And the sequence is in order there in verse 23.

People say, well, You create your own hell on earth. That's not true at all. This is not hell. What people say is their hell on earth is not the real hell. It's a figment of their own imagination.

It's the very small deposits of hell to drive them to repentance so that they do not experience the real hell. Number three, hell is a place where all the senses are active. Hell is a place where all the senses are active. Verse 23. Here we find that the rich man can see.

It says, he lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham from far off. So in hell, The eyes can see. The fire does not destroy your ability to see somehow. This is why that song that we sang by John Newton, Day of Judgment, Day of Wonders, it's a day of wonders. It's a day of wonders.

It's a day when supernatural forces are at work to create realities that don't really exist in the world. If you subject eyes to fire here in this world, you will not see. That's not how it is in hell. Your eyes will be preserved in order to see. Your vision is intact.

This is why it's so important to open your eyes to see wondrous things from the law of God in this life, while you can see something different than the tears of hell, Because those who do not repent have eyes that will see. Today they have such an opportunity to see beauty. Just go outside. Just look anywhere and you'll see beauty everywhere. And your eyes have been given to you for such a gift.

It's such a blessing. The feasting of the eyes. It happens to me every day when I look out into the wonders of nature. But there will be a day when your eyes will be used for a completely different purpose. Your eyes will be tools of Almighty God for your destruction, to destroy your soul, to bring a vastness of disappointment and gnashing that you've never, ever been able to know before, because your eyes will have a different purpose in hell.

This man knows who he is. He knows where he is. He knows where he was. And he knows those who he used to know. He knows how many brothers he has.

He knows that they are lost. You know, We're often so content to say, well, I don't know if they're lost or not. Well, this man knows that his brothers are lost. He knows. He now sees rightly.

And he's actually willing to say, they're lost. They're lost. Go bring them back. He's confident that they're lost. How about you?

Is there anyone like that? That you've been saying in your mind, well, I don't really know if they're lost. But in your heart, there's no evidence at all that they're saved at all. But there will come a time when they will all be known and you will say, No, they were lost and I didn't do anything. Where would you rather be?

Either embracing them beforehand or being in this place, where now you're confident that they're lost. This man can still feel. He can still communicate. He can still remember. He can still love.

He loves his brothers. All of the marks of the image of God in man are not wiped out in hell for some reason. You do enter into a different state, But it's not that different. It's not that different where you long for someone's soul, and you remember them, and you actually love them enough to cry out to God from hell to save them. You see, you're not all that much different in hell than you are in heaven, on earth.

The man in hell is like many who are still on the earth. They know that there's a God. They know that salvation is through Christ. They know the Bible is true. They understand that there's a heaven in hell.

But they do not have faith in Christ. Now this man is still corrupt. He still thinks that a spectacular spectacle will convert his brothers. He's the father of the televangelists who says, just give them a show. Just make a big show.

They'll come if you make a big miracle in front of them. They'll come. He's a liar, just like the devil is a liar. He's not ceased to lie and deny the truth. He's still waiting for something to grab his heart.

He's still waiting for something fanciful enough to make him really believe, because he's just as corrupt as he was on the earth. You think of the things that he's experiencing in his senses, the eyes, the ears, his memory, and then his tongue. Matthew Henry speaks of the tongue. He says, the tongue is one of the organs of speech, and by the torment of that he is put in mind of all the wicked words that he had spoken against God and man, his cursing and swearing and blasphemy, in all his hard speeches and filthy speeches. By his words he is condemned, and therefore in his tongue he is tormented.

Remember he's crying out, just a drop of water on my tongue. He's used his tongue for his own ends, and now his tongue is being tortured for God's ends. And all of the slanders and the false words that he's spoken, all of the lies will now come upon his own tongue. We so lightly take the words of our tongue and the fact that God has said that he will judge every word that we've spoken. And we take so lightly what we say.

But here, the man in hell, his very tongue, it's a root of evil and deadly poison as James says. And it is set on fire by hell. And it sets on fire hell. And now the tongue is in hell. The eyes are in hell.

The tongue is in hell. And it's being tortured. Matthew Henry says, the tongue is also one of the organs for tasting, and therefore the torments of hell will remind him of the inordinate relish of the delights of sense with which he had rolled under his tongue. The way that he worshipped the taste of his tongue. Now he'll recognize that there is a God in heaven.

Number four, hell is a place of unquenchable fire. Verse 24, Then 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 tormented in this flame. So it's a place of unquenchable fire. Remember when we were in Matthew chapter 5 in the Beatitudes. If you remember that hell is mentioned three times in the Beatitudes.

The place of Scripture that is deemed the sweetest, gentlest, most helpful, encouraging place in the Scriptures. Three times the Lord Jesus Christ brings up hell, and he brings up the members of the body in hell. He says, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than having two hands to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched, where the worm does not die. This is in Mark Chapter 9, he's quoting, he's quoting, Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

He talks about the, that your hands are in hell, your two hands are in hell. And then he says that your eyes are in hell. He says, it's better for you if you plucked out your eyes than for your eyes to be cast into hell fire. So you have your eyes, you have your hands, and he also says your feet in the Gospel of Mark. This is what Jude spoke of in Jude chapter 7.

He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day, as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and have gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So hell is a place of unquenchable fire. Now the question that people ask, it's a good question, are there degrees of punishment in hell? And the answer to that is actually yes, there are degrees of punishment in hell. In Romans 2, we see that their punishment is according to his deeds.

In Galatians 6, as a man sows, so shall he reap. In John chapter 19 verse 11 we learn that some sins are worse than others. Paul says that sexual sins are sins against the body. While every sin deserves eternal punishment in hell, we recognize that there are degrees that the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah is different than even the punishment of the generation that Jesus Christ was speaking to. So there are degrees of hell.

Perhaps it has to do with how many times you heard the Gospel, how much you really knew about God. Some hear the Gospel many times. They grow up in church. These people are more accountable than the person who never hears or rarely hears. And they're considered Judas, who walked with the Lord Jesus Christ, who saw it all, who heard it all, And the judgment against him was enormous.

Number five, hell is a place where a sense of morality is not lost. Hell is a place where a sense of morality is not lost. He's crying out for mercy in verse 24. Father Abraham, have mercy on me. He calls him Father.

He's recognizing that there's goodness in the universe. He's recognizing that there's a category of mercy. This beautiful moral category of mercy is such a blessed thing, and he cries out for it. His sense of morality is not lost in hell. And he has memory of it.

And at the same time, sin continues in hell. There's no repentance for it, but there's a recognition of what is moral and right and good and beautiful in hell. And perhaps that's why it's so terrifying, because you see the difference. You see the poor man in the bosom of Abraham being carried by the angels into the place of protective care and final restoration and healing. A world of love, a place where every tear is dried, a place where every beautiful thing from the Kingdom of Heaven is expressed in all of its glory.

And you see the contrast, you see the moral contrast, but you're still depraved in hell, even though you see that there is a difference in that other place. And then number six, hell is a place of torment, verse 25, because he is being tormented. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus' evil things, but now He is comforted and you are tormented." And this brings us to the reality that hell is an eternity with the devil and the angels. But let's be very careful to recognize, it's not the devil and the angels who are doing the punishing. They are the ones being punished.

You know, the Roman Catholic idea, you know, that the devil is there with a pitchfork poking people and stoking the fires, that is not the right picture of hell. The devil is not there happily relishing those who are entering into hell. He is being tormented and he will be thrown into a lake of fire. He will be thrown in. He is not throwing people in.

And the language of this torment of unquenchable fire, outer darkness, the furnace of fire, fire and brimstone, the smoke of their torment, the lake of fire, the wailing and gnashing of teeth. This is the language of this torment. It defines the kind of torment that is spoken of here. And so one of the purposes of hell is to punish the wicked. It's a prison, but it's not a prison that's like a holding tank for reform.

It's called a prison, but it's not like your modern prison. You know, in modern prisons, they send you there and they hope that you'll change and that their recidivism rates will drop, and that you won't come back, that you'll be reformed. It starts out with sending your child to reform school, and then you send them to prison, and you hope that they will be reformed there. That's not this kind of prison. This is a prison where there's eternal punishment going on that never stops.

It's a place of retaliation and punishment. And in the Old Testament, we learn about punishment. Remember the biblical law of retaliation in the Old Testament? Jesus speaks of it in the Sermon on the Mount. He talks about the law of retaliation.

And the law of retaliation is that the punishment must fit the crime. And here we learn that the punishment of hell fits the crime. You say, how can that fit the crime? Well, it's because of the nature of the one offended. It's because the one that has been rebelled against is Almighty God.

He's perfectly holy. You know, there are a lot of different ways you can explain this. I mean, here's one way. If you... If someone comes up here in this service and tries to punch me, well, there will be a few people who will come up here and take you away.

But if you go and try to punch the President of the United States when he stands at his podium, you will receive an entirely different experience because of the nature of the office. And because God is who He is, because He is holy, revels against his name receive a vanquishing punishment because of his holiness, because of his purity, because of his goodness. The punishment against those who rebel against Him are different. Number seven, hell has no doors of escape. Verse 26, hell has no doors of escape.

Remember again, hell is just as real as Grandfather Mountain and Wake Forest. Hell is just as real as the Neuse River. It's a place. It's a real place that God created. And here we learn that hell has no doors of escape.

Verse 26, And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us." So once a person is cast into hell, it is inescapable. We should talk about what this means and what it doesn't mean. First of all, it means that you can't get out. It means that there is a kind of separation from God. But it's not a complete separation from God.

You've heard people say, you know, hell is separation from God. Well, that's only partly true. Hell is a certain kind of separation from God. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9, we learn that the penalty of eternal destruction is away from the presence of the Lord, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." And I take that to mean the glory of the power of His mercy.

It is true in Matthew chapter 25, the Lord says, depart from me, depart from me. But it's only a certain kind of departing. It's not a complete and total departing. In Psalm 139, we learn that the separation is not complete separation because of God's omnipresence. We read, If I make my bed in hell, you are there.

So there's a sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in hell. In Revelation chapter 14, verses 10 and 11, you learn that the torment is happening in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. Yes, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the holy angels are the ones who are doing the punishing in hell. They are doing it personally. It's not the devil.

They are being punished by the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah chapter 66 verses 23 and 24 we learn that those in heaven will worship God and somehow while they are worshiping they will be able to observe the sufferings of hell. Here's Isaiah 66, 24. And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against me, for their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." Jesus quotes this three times in Mark chapter 9 about this whole thing about the worm that shall not die.

But what you have, imagine this picture. Again, this is God's created world. This is the world as it really is. That in the real world, somehow the saints will be able to see the corpses of those who are being tormented day and night, whose worm does not die. And while the eyes of those who are on hell are in burning, gnashing darkness and horrific torment, the eyes of the saints see beauty and love, and at the same time they see the torments of hell.

They see actually the corpses, the bodies, because your body goes to hell. Your eyes, your hands, your feet, every part of you. Number eight, hell contains people who are alive. Verse 27, hell contains people who are alive. You see how real this is?

This is not some ethereal fantasy picture here. This is about real people, real bodies in a real place that has been prepared before the foundation of the world. He says, I beg you therefore that you would send me him to my father's house, for I have five brothers that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment." This is a person speaking who is alive. He is in hell, but he is fully conscious, and he is alive, just as you are alive today. Jonathan Edwards explained it like this, imagine yourself to be cast into a fiery oven or a great furnace where your pain would be much greater than that occasioned by accidentally touching a coal of fire, as the heat is greater.

Imagine also that your body was to lie there for a quarter of an hour, full of fire, and all the while full of quick sense. What horror would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace? And how long would that quarter of an hour seem to you? And after you had endured it for one minute. How overbearing it would be to you to think that you had to endure it another 14 minutes.

But what would be the effect on your soul if you knew you must lie there enduring that torment to the full for 24 hours? And how much greater would the effect be if you knew that you must endure it for a whole year? And how vastly greater still if you knew you must endure it for a thousand years? Oh, then how your hearts would sink if you knew that you must bear it forever and ever, and there would be no end, that after millions of ages your torment would be no nearer to an end, and that you never, never should be delivered. But your torment in hell will be immensely greater than this illustration represents.

Jonathan Edwards is trying to communicate that this The people are alive in hell. Number nine, hell is filled with people, hardened people, who have heard Moses and the prophets, 29 through 31. And Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham, if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead." Hell is filled with people who have heard sermons, who've listened to radio programs and television, who've had people witness to them.

People say, I never heard the gospel. I hardly ever believe that when people say that. They heard the gospel, but they did not hear it with an open heart. And their hearts were hard. They did hear Moses and the prophets.

And hell is filled with hardened people who heard Moses and the prophets and have rejected them. Number 10. Hell is a place of anguish, begging. Verse 27. And then he said, I beg you, therefore.

This is an, this is anguish. This is a prayer of anguish. The begging, I'm assuming, does not end. That the feeling of desire to be relieved from this never stops. That the consciousness of the pain and the deprivation, The loss of what could have been will linger forever, and the begging will continue forever.

Imagine that for a moment. This is your Father's world. This is how God has created the world. This world is just as real as Grandfather Mountain and Wake Forest. And the people who walk there will go to a place just as real as this.

And as we consider what it means to be a Great Commission church, when we consider what it means to preach the gospel, do we have a true vision of this world? Do we really understand this world that we're living in? That we're living between heaven and hell, that we're living in a place where there are vestiges of both to teach us to love one and hate the other, and to turn from our sins. Number 11, hell is a place of memory of family. Verse 27.

Hell is a place of memory of family. He speaks of, in verse 27, his father's house. He has a memory of father and mother. He recalls the tender care of a mother and a father in a house and brothers that are there. He remembers the beauty of family life and all the blessings that were there.

Yes, there are always disappointments in family life, but who can deny the many blessings that are there to remember? And everyone can remember at least some blessed thing from their family life, Some less than others. But if you're here today, at least you know that you were fed when you were a baby. Somebody was kind enough to give you food and you're alive today. Every single person has been blessed by some element of family life.

And he remembers this family life here. He remembers his family. He says, I have five brothers. I have five of them. Number 12, Hell is a place where opportunities to repent are remembered.

Remembering the sweet sounds of the reading of the scriptures, the preaching of the Word of God, the earnest appeals to love Jesus Christ, those who desire to explain how good God is, how wonderful a kingdom, what a good shepherd He is, what a kind Master He is, what a good Father He is, and yet Only remembering those things, because now it's too late. And then 13, hell is avoidable. Hell is avoidable. Listen to the prophets. Listen to Moses.

Listen to Jesus Christ. Hell is avoidable. Repent so that times of refreshing would come in. Believe in the Gospel and you will be saved. Trust in the shed blood of Christ.

As Paul said, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, He made Him who knew to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. God has made it so that His Son would become sin for us. He would receive the punishments of our sin so that we, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. The Torments of Hell.

Number one, hell is a real place. Number two, hell is arrived at through a natural progression. Number three, hell is a place where all the senses are active. Number four, hell is a place of unquenchable fire. Number five, hell is a place where a sense of morality is not lost.

Number six, hell is a place of torment. Number seven, hell has no doors of escape. Number eight, hell contains people who are alive. Number nine, hell is filled with hardened people who have heard Moses and the prophets. Number ten, hell is a place of anguished begging.

Number eleven, hell is a place of memory of family. Number 12, hell is a place where opportunities to repent are remembered. Number 13, hell is avoidable through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. To recognize that God has brought you to a place where you hate sin, where you desire to follow Him, where you, in your heart, you do desire to love His Son, who gave His life Son, who gave His life as a ransom for many, to follow Him, to become His disciple. So I just want to close with this.

Are you interpreting this world correctly? This is your Father's world. It's a physical world which He has created. And The Bible says that He created the world and it also says that He went and prepared a place in heaven. He prepared a place.

He also prepared a fire. He's prepared these various places in his created world, because this is your Father's world. And it's a world where no one can escape. Are you interpreting this world properly? The sorrows, the pains that you experience today?

Are you properly realizing that that is the most of hell you'll ever experience in this world, but it's designed to teach you of something greater? Or the pleasures, the beauties, the astonishing array of taste and color and texture and love and relationship and all these things. Are you interpreting that right? Are you just soaking it in and not thinking at all that it's a foretaste of something so much greater? I want to close by reading the confession of faith that we subscribe to in our church.

I realize it's probably anticlimactic to do this, but this is the doctrine that we've tried to communicate here. This is the 31st chapter of the Baptist Confession. The first paragraph speaks of the eternal nature of the soul. The bodies of Men after death return to dust and see corruption, but their souls, which neither dine nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them. The souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.

And the souls of the wicked are cast into hell where they remain in torment and utter darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Besides these two places, four souls, separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledges none." Paragraph 2. What happens to believers? At the last day, such of the saints are found alive, shall not sleep, but shall be changed, and all the dead shall be raised up with the self-same bodies, and none other, although with different qualities, which shall be united again to their souls forever." And then the third paragraph, what happens to the bodies of unbelievers? The bodies of the unjust shall, by the power of Christ, be raised to dishonor.

The bodies of the just, by His Spirit, unto honor, and be made comfortable to his own glorious body." my question for us who desire to fulfill the Great Commission as best we can, if we really believed that, how would we live differently today and tomorrow and for the rest of our lives. Will you pray with me? Oh Father, you've shown us such a terrifying and horrible picture of the destruction that awaits those who do not repent. Oh Lord, that you would burn it into our hearts. We know that the many do not care who hate you about hell, but let us care.

Let it live in our minds. Let it Let it send us out. Let it launch us into places where we ought to go. Amen.